Locke’s Diagnosis of Akrasia

I argue for a new interpretation of Locke’s account of akrasia. On this interpretation, akrasia occurs on Locke’s account because certain cognitive biases endemic to the human mind dispose us to privilege present over future happiness. As a result, we end up irrationally pursuing present pleasure and the removal of present pain even as we simultaneously judge that doing so runs contrary to our own greater good. In this sense, I argue that Locke seeks to diagnose akrasia by identifying its underlying psychological causes

Recommending Datasets for Scientific Problem Descriptions

The steadily rising number of datasets is making it increasingly difficult for researchers and practitioners to be aware of all datasets, particularly of the most relevant datasets for a given research problem. To this end, dataset search engines have been proposed. However, they are based on user\u27s keywords and, thus, have difficulty determining precisely fitting datasets for complex research problems. In this paper, we propose a system that recommends suitable datasets based on a given research problem description. The recommendation task is designed as a domain-specific text classification task. As shown in a comprehensive offline evaluation using various state-of-the-art models, as well as 88,000 paper abstracts and 265,000 citation contexts as research problem descriptions, we obtain an F1-score of 0.75. In an additional user study, we show that users in real-world settings are 88% satisfied in all test cases. We therefore see promising future directions for dataset recommendation

Non-Coordinative Binding of O2 at the Active Center of a Copper-Dependent Enzyme

Molecular oxygen (O 2 ) is a sustainable oxidation reagent. O 2 is strongly oxidizing but kinetically stable and its final reaction product is water. For these reasons learning how to activate O 2 and how to steer its reactivity along desired reaction pathways is a longstanding challenge in chemical research. [1] Activation of ground-state diradical O 2 can occur either via conversion to singlet oxygen or by one-electron reduction to superoxide. Many enzymes facilitate activation of O 2 by direct fomation of a metal-oxygen coordination complex concomitant with inner sphere electron transfer. The formylglycine generating enzyme (FGE) is an unusual mononuclear copper enzyme that appears to follow a different strategy. Atomic-resolution crystal structures of the precatalytic complex of FGE demonstrate that this enzyme binds O 2 juxtaposed, but not coordinated to the catalytic Cu I . Isostructural complexes that contain Ag I instead of Cu I or nitric oxide instead of O 2 confirm that formation of the initial oxygenated complex of FGE does not depend on redox activity. A stepwise mechanism that decouples binding and activation of O 2 is unprecedented for metal-dependent oxidases, but is reminiscent of flavin-dependent enzymes

Cudworthian Consciousness

Ralph Cudworth’s The True Intellectual System of the Universe (1678) is credited with the first instance of the English word “consciousness” used in a distinctively philosophical sense. While Cudworth says little in the System about the nature of consciousness, he has more to say in his (largely unpublished) freewill manuscripts. I argue that, in these manuscripts, Cudworth distinguishes two kinds of consciousness, which I call “bare consciousness” and “reflective consciousness”. What both have in common is that each is a kind of reflection or reflexive perception that therefore involves a “duplication” of the soul as both subject and object. While it is less clear how Cudworth takes these two kinds of consciousness to differ, I argue that the central difference for Cudworth is that, whereas bare consciousness is always directed towards individual cogitations, reflective consciousness is the kind of consciousness that the soul achieves through reflection upon itself as a whole. As a result, reflective consciousness introduces a unity into our experience that is not present at the level of bare consciousness

Structure of formylglycine-generating enzyme in complex with copper and a substrate reveals an acidic pocket for binding and activation of molecular oxygen

The formylglycine generating enzyme (FGE) catalyzes oxidative conversion of specific peptidyl-cysteine residues to formylglycine. FGE mediates O; 2; -activation and hydrogen-atom abstraction in an active site that contains Cu(i) coordinated to two cysteine residues. Similar coordination geometries are common among copper-sensing transcription factors and copper-chaperone but are unprecedented among copper-dependent oxidases. To examine the mechanism of this unusual catalyst we determined the 1.04 Å structure of FGE from; Thermomonospora curvata; in complex with copper and a cysteine-containing peptide substrate. This structure unveils a network of four crystallographic waters and two active site residues that form a highly acidic O; 2; -binding pocket juxtaposed to the trigonal planar tris-cysteine coordinated Cu(i) center. Comparison with structures of FGE in complex with Ag(i) and Cd(ii) combined with evidence from NMR spectroscopy and kinetic observations highlight several structural changes that are induced by substrate binding and prime the enzyme for O; 2; -binding and subsequent activation

How social enterprises can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – A conceptual framework

In the recent 2015 report by Social Enterprise UK - Think Global Trade Social - it is argued that social enterprises have an important role to play in the achievement of the UN’s new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, with 17 SDGs and no less than 169 associated targets, understanding how social enterprises can contribute to the achievement of these goals remains challenging. Particularly given the diversity of social enterprise models that exist globally. This chapter contributes towards addressing this problem by introducing a framework for conceptualising how social enterprises can contribute to the SDGs, illustrated with global examples. The chapter begins by reviewing what has been written about social enterprises and the SDGs. This is followed by the development and presentation of the conceptual framework. Finally, conclusions and areas for future research on social enterprises and the SDGs are identified