39 research outputs found
Eudaimonistic Argumentation
Virtue theories have lately enjoyed a modest vogue in the study of argumentation, echoing the success of more far-reaching programmes in ethics and epistemology. Virtue theories of argumentation (VTA) comprise several conceptually distinct projects, including the provision of normative foundations for argument evaluation and a renewed focus on the character of good arguers. Perhaps the boldest of these is the pursuit of the fully satisfying argument, the argument that contributes to human flourishing. This project has an independently developed epistemic analogue: eudaimonistic virtue epistemology. Both projects stress the importance of widening the range of cognitive goals beyond, respectively, cogency and knowledge; both projects emphasize social factors, the right sort of community being indispensable for the cultivation of the intellectual virtues necessary to each project. This paper proposes a unification of the two projects by arguing that the intellectual good life sought by eudaimonistic virtue epistemologists is best realized through the articulation of an account of argumentation that contributes to human flourishing
See-saw neutrino masses and large mixing angles in the vortex background on a sphere
In the vortex background on a sphere, a single 6-dimensional fermion family
gives rise to 3 zero-modes in the 4-dimensional point of view, which may
explain the replication of families in the Standard Model. Previously, it had
been shown that realistic hierarchical mass and mixing patterns can be
reproduced for the quarks and the charged leptons. Here, we show that the
addition of a single heavy 6-dimensional field that is gauge singlet, unbound
to the vortex, and embedded with a bulk Majorana mass enables to generate 4D
Majorana masses for the light neutrinos through the see-saw mechanism. The
scheme is very predictive. The hierarchical structure of the fermion zero-modes
leads automatically to an inverted pseudo-Dirac mass pattern, and always
predicts one maximal angle in the neutrino see-saw matrix. It is possible to
obtain a second large mixing angle from either the charged lepton or the
neutrino sector, and we demonstrate that this model can fit all observed data
in neutrino oscillations experiments. Also, U_{e3} is found to be of the order
~0.1.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figur
Teaching Robust Argumentation Informed by the Nature of Science to Support Social Justice. Experiences from Two Projects in Lower Secondary Schools in Norway
Under embargo until: 2022-09-09This chapter suggests a set of design principles for science curricula that will enable students to produce evidence-based arguments expressing views related to their own interests. It is based on the assumption that the ability to construct evidence-based arguments strengthens studentsâ ability to promote their own views in the interest of social justice. This is of special importance for students not enculturated into such argumentation through their upbringing. To promote oneâs own views in a debate means to critique othersâ arguments, and especially to ensure oneâs own arguments are resistent to criticism. Insight into the nature of science includes insights in how to construct sound arguments based on facts and research results. The discussion of design principles is based on an analysis of two science projects in two lower secondary schools in Norway (Grade 8). In the first project, students produced scientific claims based on evidence from their own practical experiments. In the second project, the students developed and applied a method for estimating energy use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The students used their findings to construct arguments related to local transport plans. The analysis focuses on challenges and successes in scaffolding students at different competence levels to successfully produce evidence-based arguments.acceptedVersio
The Readability of Information and Consent Forms in Clinical Research in France
BACKGROUND: Quantitative tools have been developed to evaluate the readability of written documents and have been used in several studies to evaluate information and consent forms. These studies all showed that such documents had a low level of readability. Our objective is to evaluate the readability of Information and Consent Forms (ICFs) used in clinical research. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Clinical research protocols were collected from four public clinical research centers in France. Readability was evaluated based on three criteria: the presence of an illustration, the length of the text and its Flesch score. Potential effects of protocol characteristics on the length and readability of the ICFs were determined. Medical and statutory parts of the ICF form were analyzed separately. The readability of these documents was compared with that of everyday contracts, press articles, literary extracts and political speeches. We included 209 protocols and the corresponding 275 ICFs. The median length was 1304 words. Their Flesch readability scores were low (median: 24), and only about half that of selected press articles. ICF s for industrially sponsored and randomized protocols were the longest and had the highest readability scores. More than half (52%) of the text in ICFs concerned medical information, and this information was statistically (p<0.05) more readable (Flesch: 28) than statutory information (Flesch: 21). CONCLUSION: Regardless of the field of research, the ICFs for protocols included had poor readability scores. However, a prospective analysis of this test in French should be carried out before it is put into general use
Visualization of elusive structures using intracardiac echocardiography: Insights from electrophysiology
Electrophysiological mapping and ablation techniques are increasingly used to diagnose and treat many types of supraventricular and ventricular tachycardias. These procedures require an intimate knowledge of intracardiac anatomy and their use has led to a renewed interest in visualization of specific structures. This has required collaborative efforts from imaging as well as electrophysiology experts. Classical imaging techniques may be unable to visualize structures involved in arrhythmia mechanisms and therapy. Novel methods, such as intracardiac echocardiography and three-dimensional echocardiography, have been refined and these technological improvements have opened new perspectives for more effective and accurate imaging during electrophysiology procedures. Concurrently, visualization of these structures noticeably improved our ability to identify intracardiac structures. The aim of this review is to provide electrophysiologists with an overview of recent insights into the structure of the heart obtained with intracardiac echocardiography and to indicate to the echo-specialist which structures are potentially important for the electrophysiologist
QCD and strongly coupled gauge theories : challenges and perspectives
We highlight the progress, current status, and open challenges of QCD-driven physics, in theory and in experiment. We discuss how the strong interaction is intimately connected to a broad sweep of physical problems, in settings ranging from astrophysics and cosmology to strongly coupled, complex systems in particle and condensed-matter physics, as well as to searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. We also discuss how success in describing the strong interaction impacts other fields, and, in turn, how such subjects can impact studies of the strong interaction. In the course of the work we offer a perspective on the many research streams which flow into and out of QCD, as well as a vision for future developments.Peer reviewe
Long-range and short-range dihadron angular correlations in central PbPb collisions at âsNN=2.76 TeV
This is the pre-print version of the Published Article, which can be accessed from the link below.First measurements of dihadron correlations for charged particles are presented
for central PbPb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 2.76TeV over a broad range in relative pseudorapidity ( ) and the full range of relative azimuthal angle ( ). The data were collected with the CMS detector, at the LHC. A broadening of the away-side ( ) azimuthal correlation is observed at all , as compared to the measurements in pp collisions. Furthermore, long-range dihadron correlations in are observed for particles with similar values. This phenomenon, also known as the \ridge",
persists up to at least j j = 4. For particles with transverse momenta (pT) of 2-4 GeV/c, the ridge is found to be most prominent when these particles are correlated with particles of pT = 2-6 GeV/c, and to be much reduced when paired with particles of pT = 10-12 GeV/c
Search for a pps = 7$ TeV
A new heavy gauge boson, Wâ˛, decaying to a muon and a neutrino, is searched for in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The data, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 36 pbâ1. No significant excess of events above the standard model expectation is found in the transverse mass distribution of the muonâneutrino system. Masses below 1.40 TeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level for a sequential standard-model-like Wâ˛. The WⲠmass lower limit increases to 1.58 TeV when the present analysis is combined with the CMS result for the electron channe