109 research outputs found
The ontological argument
The thesis of this essay is that the pursuit of a reality in general or appearance in general is barren. The
only reality there can be, it is held, is the reality of this
or that appearance. There is no reality in general because
there is no appearance in general. Any reality is real only
in its relation to a given appearance. Apart from that
appearance, it may and will be equally well regarded as the
appearance of another reality. Hence any attempt to establish
an absolute reality, that is, such a reality as is the reality
of all appearance and the appearance of no reality, ends in
self- contradiction.The absolute reality, during the greater part of the
development of European philosophy, has been envisaged as God.
Even when this has not been so, still the arguments by which it
has been upheld have been borrowed from Christian theology.
Thus, for example,even when Hegelian absolutism has diverged
from Christianity, its basis has always been the Christian
arguments for the existence of God. And the same may be said
of Spinoza, who, although certainly not a Christian, is yet a
Scholastic. Thus any examination of the tenability of the
concept of an absolute reality must centre round the Christian
proofs of the existence of God. And since, as it will be
argued, the final form of these proofs is the Ontological
argument, it is through a detailed consideration of the thought
of Anselm - the first and greatest of the exponents of that
argument - that the thesis of this essay is to be made out
Recent turbidite deposition in the eastern Atlantic: Early diagenesis and biotic recovery
An interface core taken in Capbreton canyon shows a succession of sedimentary facies interpreted as classical Bouma turbiditic sequences. Activities of 234Th and 210Pb suggest that the deposition of the most recent turbidite was triggered by the violent storm that affected the Atlantic coast of southern France on the 27th of December 1999, about four months before the sampling of the core. This turbidite allows us to study the ongoing diagenesis of the new sediment layer and of the previous sediment-water interface, which has been buried and only slightly eroded. A study of benthic foraminiferal populations informs us about the rate of benthic ecosystem recovery after such a major ecosystem disturbance event. The composition of the benthic foraminiferal fauna suggests that the benthic ecosystem in Capbreton canyon remains in an early stage of colonization. The rare agglutinant taxon Technitella melo appears to be the first colonizing species. It is suggested that Technitella melo is advantaged by the food-impoverished conditions in the days following turbidite deposition. Almost all of the turbidite layer and the previous oxic sediment-water interface contain reduced dissolved metal species and were anoxic. The buried interface contains Fe- and Mn-oxides inherited from its recent oxic past. The reduction of manganese oxides was in progress at the time of core collection. The reduced Mn remained trapped in the sediment as Mn-containing carbonates. Iron-oxides did not undergo significant reductive dissolution. The top of the newly deposited turbidite formed an oxic layer, which was rapidly enriched in metal-oxides. The enrichment of manganese oxides was mostly due to the oxidation of dissolved Mn2+, which diffused from below. The enrichment of iron oxides is explained both by the oxidation of the upward flux of dissolved Fe2+, and by the input of detrital iron oxide after, or as a result of the turbidite deposition
New Insights into the mineralogy of the Atlantis II deep metalliferous sediments, Red Sea
The Atlantis II Deep of the Red Sea hosts the largest known hydrothermal ore deposit on the ocean floor and the only modern analog of brine pool-type metal deposition. The deposit consists mainly of chemical-clastic sediments with input from basin-scale hydrothermal and detrital sources. A characteristic feature is the millimeter-scale layering of the sediments, which bears a strong resemblance to banded iron formation (BIF). Quantitative assessment of the mineralogy based on relogging of archived cores, detailed petrography, and sequential leaching experiments shows that Fe-(oxy)hydroxides, hydrothermal carbonates, sulfides, and authigenic clays are the main âoreâ minerals. Mn-oxides were mainly deposited when the brine pool was more oxidized than it is today, but detailed logging shows that Fe-deposition and Mn-deposition also alternated at the scale of individual laminae, reflecting short-term fluctuations in the Lower Brine. Previous studies underestimated the importance of nonsulfide metal-bearing components, which formed by metal adsorption onto poorly crystalline Si-Fe-OOH particles. During diagenesis, the crystallinity of all phases increased, and the fine layering of the sediment was enhanced. Within a few meters of burial (corresponding to a few thousand years of deposition), biogenic (Ca)-carbonate was dissolved, manganosiderite formed, and metals originally in poorly crystalline phases or in pore water were incorporated into diagenetic sulfides, clays, and Fe-oxides. Permeable layers with abundant radiolarian tests were the focus for late-stage hydrothermal alteration and replacement, including deposition of amorphous silica and enrichment in elements such as Ba and Au
Cytotoxic and apoptotic evaluations of marine bacteria isolated from brine-seawater interface of the Red Sea.
BACKGROUND: High salinity and temperature combined with presence of heavy metals and low oxygen renders deep-sea anoxic brines of the Red Sea as one of the most extreme environments on Earth. The ability to adapt and survive in these extreme environments makes inhabiting bacteria interesting candidates for the search of novel bioactive molecules. METHODS: Total 20 i.e. lipophilic (chloroform) and hydrophilic (70% ethanol) extracts of marine bacteria isolated from brine-seawater interface of the Red Sea were tested for cytotoxic and apoptotic activity against three human cancer cell lines, i.e. HeLa (cervical carcinoma), MCF-7 (Breast Adenocarcinoma) and DU145 (Prostate carcinoma). RESULTS: Among these, twelve extracts were found to be very active after 24 hours of treatment, which were further evaluated for their cytotoxic and apoptotic effects at 48 hr. The extracts from the isolates P1-37B and P3-37A (Halomonas) and P1-17B (Sulfitobacter) have been found to be the most potent against tested cancer cell lines. CONCLUSION: Overall, bacterial isolates from the Red Sea displayed promising results and can be explored further to find novel drug-like molecules. The cell line specific activity of the extracts may be attributed to the presence of different polarity compounds or the cancer type i.e. biological differences in cell lines and different mechanisms of action of programmed cell death prevalent in different cancer cell lines
Bacterial Niche-Specific Genome Expansion Is Coupled with Highly Frequent Gene Disruptions in Deep-Sea Sediments
The complexity and dynamics of microbial metagenomes may be evaluated by genome size, gene duplication and the disruption rate between lineages. In this study, we pyrosequenced the metagenomes of microbes obtained from the brine and sediment of a deep-sea brine pool in the Red Sea to explore the possible genomic adaptations of the microbes in response to environmental changes. The microbes from the brine and sediments (both surface and deep layers) of the Atlantis II Deep brine pool had similar communities whereas the effective genome size varied from 7.4 Mb in the brine to more than 9 Mb in the sediment. This genome expansion in the sediment samples was due to gene duplication as evidenced by enrichment of the homologs. The duplicated genes were highly disrupted, on average by 47.6% and 70% for the surface and deep layers of the Atlantis II Deep sediment samples, respectively. The disruptive effects appeared to be mainly due to point mutations and frameshifts. In contrast, the homologs from the Atlantis II Deep brine sample were highly conserved and they maintained relatively small copy numbers. Likely, the adaptation of the microbes in the sediments was coupled with pseudogenizations and possibly functional diversifications of the paralogs in the expanded genomes. The maintenance of the pseudogenes in the large genomes is discussed
John Stuart Mill and Fourierism: âassociationâ, âfriendly rivalryâ and distributive justice
John Stuart Millâs self-description as âunder the general designation of Socialistâ has been under-explored. It is an important feature of something else often overlooked: the importance of the French context of Millâs thought. This article focuses on the role of Fourierism in the development of Millâs ideas, exploring the links to Fourierism in Millâs writing on profit-sharing; his use of the words âassociationâ and âfriendly rivalryâ; and his views concerning distributive justice. It then reconsiders his assessment of Fourierism as a desirable, workable and immediately implementable form of social reform, ultimately arguing it was Millâs most-preferred form of âutopianâ socialism
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