The prescriptivity of conscious belief

In my dissertation I explain and defend the claim that conscious beliefs are essentially prescriptive. I argue that norms of conscious belief are explained by the fact that consciously believing p involves a commitment to the truth of p, a commitment analogous to the one involved in the act of accepting an assertion in public linguistic practice. Having a conscious belief implies being vulnerable to certain questions and criticisms from other agents. For instance, when asked for reasons for her belief, a person should provide a justification which demonstrates her entitlement to accepting the given proposition as true. Moreover, if a certain belief logically follows from the agent’s beliefs then she should either accept it as a conclusion or revise her initial beliefs. I argue that both deliberative and non-inferential conscious beliefs can be construed as acceptances of assertions and that they carry the same normative import as public acts of accepting claims put forward by others. The intrinsic relation between conscious belief and language-use shows that conscious belief is irreducible to unconscious or lower-level belief, the type of belief which we attribute to non-human animals or small children. Rather than trying to reduce conscious belief to lower-level belief, I suggest that we should offer an account of the emergence of the linguistic practice of assertion in terms of animal belief and then explain the normative features of conscious belief by reference to the norms implicit in assertional practice. In addition, my work proposes a way of formulating the norms of conscious belief which is consistent with the fact that actual human beings do not have perfect logical abilities; that they can only dedicate a limited amount of time and cognitive resources to the task of reasoning

A Derivative Spectrometric Method for Hydroquinone Determination in the Presence of Kojic Acid, Glycolic Acid, and Ascorbic Acid

A new, simple, and sensitive spectrometric method was developed for hydroquinone (HQ) determination in the presence of other depigmenting agents (kojic acid (KA), glycolic acid (GA), and ascorbic acid (AA)), commonly introduced in skin lightening products. The method is based on the oxidation of the depigmenting agents by potassium dichromate in sulfuric acid medium and subsequent measurement of the amplitude of the first-order derivative absorption spectrum at 268 nm. By applying the zero-crossing method, at this wavelength, the oxidation products of KA, AA, and GA do not interfere in the indirect determination of HQ. Beer’s law was obeyed in the range of 0.22–22 μg·mL−1 HQ, with a detection limit of 0.07 μg·mL−1. The developed method was applied with good results for the first time to the rapid determination of HQ in binary, ternary, and quaternary mixtures, thus proving that it could represent an effective tool for various skin lightening products analyses

Mathematical model of drying process velocity factor

One of the basic factors influencing drying process is the velocity of the drying agent. It’s well known is one of the controlled characteristics of the drying process. We made a tentative to calculate the mathematical model for the controllable velocity factor, as result one could control the velocity of the drying agent, thereby optimizing energy costs for the drying process

Internal heat source pulsed supply for oil crops drying

The paper considers the possibility of vegetable oil crops’ drying with the use of internal heat source in a pulsed mode. There was obtained the mathematical dependence of the duration of heating and duration of relaxation from the operational parameters of the drying process. It also shows the possibility of vegetable oil crops’ drying with the use of internal heat source in a pulsed mode. There was obtained the mathematical dependence of the duration of heating and duration of the relaxation from the operational parameters of the drying process

A Review on Direct Electrochemistry of Catalase for Electrochemical Sensors

Catalase (CAT) is a heme enzyme with a Fe(III/II) prosthetic group at its redox centre. CAT is present in almost all aerobic living organisms, where it catalyzes the disproportionation of H2O2 into oxygen and water without forming free radicals. In order to study this catalytic mechanism in detail, the direct electrochemistry of CAT has been investigated at various modified electrode surfaces with and without nanomaterials. The results show that CAT immobilized on nanomaterial modified electrodes shows excellent catalytic activity, high sensitivity and the lowest detection limit for H2O2 determination. In the presence of nanomaterials, the direct electron transfer between the heme group of the enzyme and the electrode surface improved significantly. Moreover, the immobilized CAT is highly biocompatible and remains extremely stable within the nanomaterial matrices. This review discusses about the versatile approaches carried out in CAT immobilization for direct electrochemistry and electrochemical sensor development aimed as efficient H2O2 determination. The benefits of immobilizing CAT in nanomaterial matrices have also been highlighted

The later Wittgenstein on understanding and thinking

Bibliography: p. 100-10