The Democracy of Objects

xii, 349 p. Libro ElectrónicoEl efecto del método empírico en la metafísica es grave y persistente para el tratamiento de las mentes finitas como uno de las muchas formas de la existencia finita, que no tienen privilegio por encima ellos, excepto tal como se deriva de su mayor perfección y el desarrollo. En caso de probar que la investigación cognitiva relación es única, por improbable tal resultado podría parecer, tendría que ser aceptado fielmente y armonizado con el resto del sistema. Pero a primera vista existe hay justificación para el supuesto, aún menos para el dogma que, como toda experiencia implica una mente, aquello que se experimenta debe su ser y sus cualidades para la mente. Las mentes son sino los miembros más talentosos conocido por nosotros en una democracia de las cosas. Con respecto a ser o realidad todo existencias se encuentran en pie de igualdad. Varían en eminencia; como en una democracia, donde el talento tiene una carrera abierta, más lugar dotado a la influencia y autoridad

O Princípio Ôntico: Esboço de uma Ontologia Orientada a Objetos

There can be no doubt that the work of theory and philosophy requires all sorts of simplifications, reductions, and processes of abstraction so that problems and questions might be properly posed. This is a work of translation that cannot be dispensed with. However, insoluble problems begin to emerge wherever we forget that these reductions and simplifications are selections, are the work of reduction, treating the real itself as being composed of simply these differences and no others. Such a forgetting or putting into abyss of the excess of objects that perpetually withdraw from their relations leads us to ask the wrong sorts of questions or to fall into fruitless lines of inquiry that emerge as a result of forgetting the role played by other differences. Throughout the foregoing I have attempted to form an ontology that does justice to the plural swarm of differences and their interactions, avoiding this sort of hegemony of a pet difference that we isolate for the sake of directed inquiry, yet forgetting the other differences.[Capítulo publicado originalmente sem resumo]. Texto original: BRYANT, Levi R. The Ontic Principle: Outline of an Object-Oriented Ontology in. BRYANT, Levi; SRNICEK, Nick & HARMAN, Graham (eds.). The Speculative Turn: Continental Materialism and Realism. Melbourne: re.press, 2011. Tradução para fins exclusivamente acadêmicos do capítulo 17 da citada obra, que é em Creative Commons e Open Access. As notas de tradução aparecem com a notação “N.T.” – do contrário, pertencem ao próprio autor

Optical Metrics and Projective Equivalence

Trajectories of light rays in a static spacetime are described by unparametrised geodesics of the Riemannian optical metric associated with the Lorentzian spacetime metric. We investigate the uniqueness of this structure and demonstrate that two different observers, moving relative to one another, who both see the universe as static may determine the geometry of the light rays differently. More specifically, we classify Lorentzian metrics admitting more than one hyper--surface orthogonal time--like Killing vector and analyze the projective equivalence of the resulting optical metrics. These metrics are shown to be projectively equivalent up to diffeomorphism if the static Killing vectors generate a group $SL(2, \R)$, but not projectively equivalent in general. We also consider the cosmological $C$--metrics in Einstein--Maxwell theory and demonstrate that optical metrics corresponding to different values of the cosmological constant are projectively equivalent.Comment: 18 pages, two figures, final version, to appear in Physical Review

Intrauterine Device Placement During Cesarean Delivery and Continued Use 6 Months Postpartum: A Randomized Controlled Trial

To compare intrauterine device (IUD) use at 6 months postpartum among women who underwent intracesarean delivery (during cesarean delivery) IUD placement versus women who planned for interval IUD placement 6 or more weeks postpartum

Regional effects of streptozotocin-induced diabetes on shortening and calcium transport in epicardial and endocardial myocytes from rat left ventricle

In the heart, the left ventricle pumps blood at higher pressure than the right ventricle. Within the left ventricle, the electromechanical properties of ventricular cardiac myocytes vary transmurally and this may be related to the gradients of stress and strain experienced in vivo across the ventricular wall. Diabetes is also associated with alterations in hemodynamic function. The aim of this study was to investigate shortening and Ca2+ transport in epicardial (EPI) and endocardial (ENDO) left ventricular myocytes in the streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rat. Shortening, intracellular Ca2+ and L-type Ca2+ current (ICa,L) were measured by video detection, fura-2 microfluorimetry, and whole-cell patch clamp techniques, respectively. Time to peak (TPK) shortening was prolonged to similar extents in ENDO and EPI myocytes from STZ-treated rats compared to ENDO and EPI myocytes from controls. Time to half (THALF) relaxation of shortening was prolonged in ENDO myocytes from STZ-treated rats compared to ENDO controls. TPK Ca2+ transient was prolonged in ENDO myocytes from STZ-treated rats compared to ENDO controls. THALF decay of the Ca2+ transient was prolonged in ENDO myocytes from STZ-treated rats compared to ENDO controls. Sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) fractional release of Ca2+ was reduced in EPI myocytes from STZtreated rats compared to EPI controls. ICa,L activation, inactivation, and recovery from inactivation were not significantly altered in EPI and ENDO myocytes from STZ-treated rats or controls. Regional differences in Ca2+ transport may partly underlie differences in ventricular myocyte shortening across the wall of the healthy and the STZ-treated rat left ventricle

Potential mechanisms underlying the acute lung dysfunction and bacterial extrapulmonary dissemination during Burkholderia cenocepacia respiratory infection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Burkholderia cenocepacia</it>, an opportunistic pathogen that causes lung infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, is associated with rapid and usually fatal lung deterioration due to necrotizing pneumonia and sepsis, a condition known as cepacia syndrome. The key bacterial determinants associated with this poor clinical outcome in CF patients are not clear. In this study, the cytotoxicity and procoagulant activity of <it>B. cenocepacia </it>from the ET-12 lineage, that has been linked to the cepacia syndrome, and four clinical isolates recovered from CF patients with mild clinical courses were analysed in both <it>in vitro </it>and <it>in vivo </it>assays.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p><it>B. cenocepacia-</it>infected BEAS-2B epithelial respiratory cells were used to investigate the bacterial cytotoxicity assessed by the flow cytometric detection of cell staining with propidium iodide. Bacteria-induced procoagulant activity in cell cultures was assessed by a colorimetric assay and by the flow cytometric detection of tissue factor (TF)-bearing microparticles in cell culture supernatants. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluids (BALF) from intratracheally infected mice were assessed for bacterial proinflammatory and procoagulant activities as well as for bacterial cytotoxicity, by the detection of released lactate dehydrogenase.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>ET-12 was significantly more cytotoxic to cell cultures but clinical isolates Cl-2, Cl-3 and Cl-4 exhibited also a cytotoxic profile. ET-12 and CI-2 were similarly able to generate a TF-dependent procoagulant environment in cell culture supernatant and to enhance the release of TF-bearing microparticles from infected cells. In the <it>in vivo </it>assay, all bacterial isolates disseminated from the mice lungs, but Cl-2 and Cl-4 exhibited the highest rates of recovery from mice livers. Interestingly, Cl-2 and Cl-4, together with ET-12, exhibited the highest cytotoxicity. All bacteria were similarly capable of generating a procoagulant and inflammatory environment in animal lungs.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>B. cenocepacia </it>were shown to exhibit cytotoxic and procoagulant activities potentially implicated in bacterial dissemination into the circulation and acute pulmonary decline detected in susceptible CF patients. Improved understanding of the mechanisms accounting for <it>B. cenocepacia</it>-induced clinical decline has the potential to indicate novel therapeutic strategies to be included in the care <it>B. cenocepacia</it>-infected patients.</p

The IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY in 2018: updates and expansion to encompass the new guide to IMMUNOPHARMACOLOGY.

The IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY (GtoPdb, www.guidetopharmacology.org) and its precursor IUPHAR-DB, have captured expert-curated interactions between targets and ligands from selected papers in pharmacology and drug discovery since 2003. This resource continues to be developed in conjunction with the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) and the British Pharmacological Society (BPS). As previously described, our unique model of content selection and quality control is based on 96 target-class subcommittees comprising 512 scientists collaborating with in-house curators. This update describes content expansion, new features and interoperability improvements introduced in the 10 releases since August 2015. Our relationship matrix now describes ∼9000 ligands, ∼15 000 binding constants, ∼6000 papers and ∼1700 human proteins. As an important addition, we also introduce our newly funded project for the Guide to IMMUNOPHARMACOLOGY (GtoImmuPdb, www.guidetoimmunopharmacology.org). This has been 'forked' from the well-established GtoPdb data model and expanded into new types of data related to the immune system and inflammatory processes. This includes new ligands, targets, pathways, cell types and diseases for which we are recruiting new IUPHAR expert committees. Designed as an immunopharmacological gateway, it also has an emphasis on potential therapeutic interventions

What is Community Operational Research?

Community Operational Research (Community OR) has been an explicit sub-domain of OR for more than 30 years. In this paper, we tackle the controversial issue of how it can be differentiated from other forms of OR. While it has been persuasively argued that Community OR cannot be defined by its clients, practitioners or methods, we argue that the common concern of all Community OR practice is the meaningful engagement of communities, whatever form that may take – and the legitimacy of different forms of engagement may be open to debate. We then move on to discuss four other controversies that have implications for the future development of Community OR and its relationship with its parent discipline: the desire for Community OR to be more explicitly political; claims that it should be grounded in the theory, methodology and practice of systems thinking; the similarities and differences between the UK and US traditions; and the extent to which Community OR offers an enhanced understanding of practice that could be useful to OR more generally. Our positions on these controversies all follow from our identification of ‘meaningful engagement’ as a central feature of Community OR

FGFR1 cleavage and nuclear translocation regulates breast cancer cell behavior

This work was supported by funding from Breast Cancer Campaign and the Wellcome Trust