Nagel, Physicalism and Subjectivity

Thomas Nagel offers one of the most compelling skeptical stances on physicalism. But question: Does intraspecies or interspecies subjectivity really pose an intractable problem for a modern physicalist worldview? The author of this paper does not think so and proceeds to reconcile the prima facie disconnect that Nagel does not get beyond. In general, the author provides a defense of scientific insight as well as accurate interpretations of the task of physics. To begin an answer to Nagel, we can critique his theories about the future of science. We can explain away the concern about accounting for the so-called richness of experience. Also, it is important to keep in mind the uneven level of human sense modalities, which, when taken into consideration, transforms Nagel’s concern into a mere vocabulary problem. Finally, the only difficulty Nagel’s famous thesis concerning what-it-is-like to be a bat poses is: a human cannot be a bat. But since it is physical (structural) explanation that best gets-at why humans lack that capacity for knowledge, even this problem works against Nagel’s intuition

Uncertainty Before and After Faith: The Dynamics of Belief in Theology and Literature

Although there has been much interdisciplinary scholarship surrounding the influence of various novelists\u27 Catholic beliefs upon their work, there has been relatively little discussion about the nature of faith that emerges in their novels. For instance, is faith portrayed primarily as assent to conceptual statements of belief? This dissertation will argue that faith, as portrayed by various Catholic novelists, is fundamentally a person\u27s imaginative orientation to trust and hope in the presence of God\u27s grace in creation and human life. I will approach this issue through the category of uncertainty, specifically uncertainty\u27s relationship to faith, as this relationship emerges in novels by François Mauriac, Graham Greene, Flannery O\u27Connor, Muriel Spark, Mary Gordon, and Shusaku Endo. I will examine their novels through the lens of two paradigms: The experience of uncertainty as a catalyst for Christian faith and the experience of uncertainty as a challenge and possible critique of a prior Christian faith. My discussion will build upon the thought of Martha Nussbaum, David Tracy, Karl Rahner, and Charles Taylor to consider the kind of thinking and imagining about faith presented by through the genre of the novel. What will emerge in this investigation is the necessity of uncertainty as a means to prompt conversion, both before and after the conscious acceptance of religious belief. Further, this experience of uncertainty is manifested in the novels through literature\u27s affective appeal which reveals both the ambiguity of emotions as well as the ambiguity of faith itself. That is, faith will be seen as existing in a dynamic, existential relationship to uncertainty such that faith should be understood not as primarily propositional, intellectual assent, but as a surrender of the all-too human desire for certainty in the face of life\u27s struggles, tragedies, and fickleness, a surrender that orients the believer towards an imaginative vision of ultimate reality lived with hope and trust in Divine Mystery

Genetic Analysis of Development and Behavior in Hypoxia and Cellular Characterization of Anoxia Induced Meiotic Prophase Arrest in Caenorhabditis Elegans

It was hypothesized that chronic hypoxia will affect various biological processes including developmental trajectory and behavior. To test this hypothesis, embryos were raised to adulthood in severe hypoxic environments (0.5% O2 or 1% O2, 22°C) and analyzed for survival rate, developmental progression, and altered behaviors. Wildtype hermaphrodites survive chronic hypoxia yet developmental trajectory is slowed. The hermaphrodites raised in chronic hypoxia had different phenotypes in comparison to the normoxic controls. First, hermaphrodites exposed to chronic hypoxia produced a significantly lower number of embryos and had a slight increase in male progeny. This suggests that chronic hypoxia exposure during development affects the germline. Second, animals raised in chronic hypoxia from embryos to young adults have a slight increase in lifespan when re-exposed to a normoxic environment, indicating that chronic hypoxia does not negatively decrease lifespan. Finally, hermaphrodites that were raised in hypoxia will lay the majority of their eggs on the area of the agar plate where the bacterial lawn is not present. This is in contrast to animals in normoxia, which lay the majority of their eggs on the bacterial lawn. One hypothesis for this hypoxia-induced egg-laying behavior is that the animal can sense microenvironments in hypoxia. To examine if various pathways are involved with chronic-hypoxia responses RNAi and assayed genetic mutants were used. Specifically, genetic mutations affecting oxygen sensing (egl-9), aerotaxis (npr-1), TFG-ß signaling (dbl-1, daf-7) and predicted oxygen-binding proteins (globin-like genes) were phenotypically analyzed. Results indicate that mutations in several of these genes (npr-1, dbl-1) resulted in a decrease in hypoxia survival rate. A mutation in egl-9 also had a detrimental affect on the viability of an animal raised in chronic hypoxia. However, a similar phenotype was not observed in the vhl-1 mutation indicating that the phenotype may not be due to a mere increase in HIF-1 levels, per se. A mutation in the globin-like gene (glb-13(tm2825)) suppressed the hypoxia-induced egg-laying phenotype. That is, the glb-13(tm2825) animal raised in chronic hypoxia laid eggs on the bacterial lawn at a significantly higher rate in comparison to wildtype controls, thus suggesting that globin-like molecules may be involved with the sensing of microenvironments. Together, this research lays the foundation for understanding the implications of chronic hypoxia in developing organisms

Emerging applications of integrated optical microcombs for analogue RF and microwave photonic signal processing

We review new applications of integrated microcombs in RF and microwave photonic systems. We demonstrate a wide range of powerful functions including a photonic intensity high order and fractional differentiators, optical true time delays, advanced filters, RF channelizer and other functions, based on a Kerr optical comb generated by a compact integrated microring resonator, or microcomb. The microcomb is CMOS compatible and contains a large number of comb lines, which can serve as a high performance multiwavelength source for the transversal filter, thus greatly reduce the cost, size, and complexity of the system. The operation principle of these functions is theoretically analyzed, and experimental demonstrations are presented.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, 136 References. Photonics West 2018 invited paper, expanded version. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1710.00678, arXiv:1710.0861

An external evaluation of Phat Pak process and structure: Volume 2: Appendices

An evaluation was conducted by the 510 Evaluation Research Group 2007 after receiving a request from the Phat Pak Governance Group (PPGG). The evaluation focused on four areas identified in the Phat Pak service specification plan attached to it’s Ministry of Health contract (Youth participation, Communication Strategies, Decision making Processes and Skills Development)

An external evaluation of Phat Pak process and structure: Volume 1: Evaluation report

An evaluation was conducted by the 510 Evaluation Research Group 2007 after receiving a request from the Phat Pak Governance Group (PPGG). The evaluation focused on four areas identified in the Phat Pak service specification plan attached to it’s Ministry of Health contract (Youth participation, Communication Strategies, Decision making Processes and Skills Development). Our intention of evaluating the Phat Pak Programme has been to, through feedback from a range of participants, gauge the extent that the programme objectives (such as those highlighted in the contract are being met. More specifically, the function of the evaluation has been to help identify specific areas that are working well and those areas that need further development. It is our intention that the evaluation will provide both short and long-term direction with added insight towards increasing participation and enhancing health outcomes for youth and the wider community of the Waikato region