Transformation and Individuation in Giordano Bruno's Monadology

The essay explores the systematic relationship in the work of Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) between his monadology, his metaphysics as presented in works such as De la causa, principio et uno, the mythopoeic cosmology of Lo spaccio de la bestia trionfante, and practical works like De vinculis in genere. Bruno subverts the conceptual regime of the Aristotelian substantial forms and its accompanying cosmology with a metaphysics of individuality that privileges individual unity (singularity) over formal unity and particulars over substantial forms without sacrificing a metaphysical perspective on the cosmos. The particular is individuated as a unique site of desire, continually transforming but able to entrain itself and others through phantasmatic ‘bonding’, the new source of regularity in Bruno’s polycentric universe. Bruno thus tries to do justice to the demands of intelligibility as well as transformative eros. The essay concludes with a note on Bruno’s geometry as it relates to his general conception of form

Polytheism and the Euthyphro

In this reading of the Euthyphro, Socrates and Euthyphro are seen less in a primordial conflict between reason and devotion, than as sincere Hellenic polytheists engaged in an inquiry based upon a common intuition that, in addition to the irreducible agency of the Gods, there is also some irreducible intelligible content to holiness. This reading is supported by the fact that Euthyphro does not claim the authority of revelation for his decision to prosecute his father, but rather submits it to elenchus, and that Euthyphro does not embrace the ‘solution’ of theological voluntarism when Socrates explicitly offers it. Since the goal of this inquiry is neither to eliminate the noetic content of the holy, nor to eliminate the Gods’ agency, the purpose of the elenchus becomes the effort to articulate the results of this productive tension between the Gods and the intelligible on the several planes of Being implied by each conception of the holy which is successively taken up and dialectically overturned to yield the conception appropriate to the next higher plane, a style of interpretation characteristic of the ancient Neoplatonists

Plotinian Henadology

Plotinus’ famous treatise against the Gnostics (33), together with contemporary and thematically related treatises on Intelligible Beauty (31), on Number (34), and on Free Will and the Will of the One (39), can be seen as providing the essential components of a Plotinian defense of polytheism against conceptual moves that, while associated for him primarily with Gnostic sectarians overlapping with Platonic philosophical circles, will become typical of monotheism in its era of hegemony. When Plotinus’ Gnostics ‘contract’ divinity into a single God, they not only devalue the cosmos for its multiplicity and diversity, but also multiply intelligible principles unreasonably. This is because they have foreclosed the distinction, which is to become increasingly explicit in the later antique Platonists, between the intelligible and that which is given existentially, the domain belonging to Plotinus’ indeterminate multiplicity of ‘intelligible Gods’, as opposed to the dialectically determinate number of intelligible principles. Plotinus is prescient in recognizing that incipient monotheism threatens to erase the distinction between philosophy and theology, and between both of these and psychology, the final outcome of which can only be solipsism or nihilism. The defense of polytheism is seen in this fashion to be essential to the preservation of the space for philosophical discourse

Tropospheric ozone and aerosols measured by airborne lidar during the 1988 Arctic boundary layer experiment

Ozone (O3) and aerosol distributions were measured from an aircraft using a differential absorption lidar (DIAL) system as part of the 1988 NASA Global Tropospheric Experiment - Arctic Boundary Layer Experiment (ABLE-3A) to study the sources and sinks of gases and aerosols over the tundra regions of Alaska during the summer. The tropospheric O3 budget over the Arctic was found to be strongly influenced by stratospheric intrusions. Regions of low aerosol scattering and enhanced O3 mixing ratios were usually correlated with descending air from the upper troposphere or lower stratosphere. Several cases of continental polar air masses were examined during the experiment. The aerosol scattering associated with these air masses was very low, and the atmospheric distribution of aerosols was quite homogeneous for those air masses that had been transported over the ice for greater than or = 3 days. The transition in O3 and aerosol distributions from tundra to marine conditions was examined several times. The aerosol data clearly show an abrupt change in aerosol scattering properties within the mixed layer from lower values over the tundra to generally higher values over the water. The distinct differences in the heights of the mixed layers in the two regions was also readily apparent. Several cases of enhanced O3 were observed during ABLE-3 in conjunction with enhanced aerosol scattering in layers in the free atmosphere. Examples are presented of the large scale variations of O3 and aerosols observed with the airborne lidar system from near the surface to above the tropopause over the Arctic during ABLE-3

Agricultural and Finance Intervention Increased Dietary Intake and Weight of Children Living in HIV-Affected Households in Western Kenya.

We tested whether a multisectoral household agricultural and finance intervention increased the dietary intake and improved the nutritional status of HIV-affected children. Two hospitals in rural Kenya were randomly assigned to be either the intervention or the control arm. The intervention comprised a human-powered water pump, microfinance loan for farm commodities, and training in sustainable farming practices and financial management. In each arm, 100 children (0-59 mo of age) were enrolled from households with HIV-infected adults 18-49 y old. Children were assessed beginning in April 2012 and every 3 mo for 1 y for dietary intake and anthropometry. Children in the intervention arm had a larger increase in weight (β: 0.025 kg/mo, P = 0.030), overall frequency of food consumption (β: 0.610 times · wk-1 · mo-1, P = 0.048), and intakes of staples (β: 0.222, P = 0.024), fruits and vegetables (β: 0.425, P = 0.005), meat (β: 0.074, P < 0.001), and fat (β: 0.057, P = 0.041). Livelihood interventions have potential to improve the nutrition of HIV-affected children. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01548599

A novel procedure for integrating three objectively measured dimensions of free-living sedentary time

Introduction The widely accepted definition of sedentary behaviour (SB) refers to any waking behaviour characterized by an energy expenditure ≤1.5 metabolic equivalents (METs) while in a sitting or reclining posture. At present, there is no single field-based device which accurately measures sleep, activity intensity and posture. The aim of this study was to develop a novel integrative procedure to combine sleep, activity intensity and posture information from two validated activity monitors to quantify free-living sedentary time. Methods Sixty-three female participants aged 37.1 (±13.6) years with a BMI of 29.6 (±4.7) kg/m2 were continuously monitored for 5-7days to track free-living SB with the SenseWear Armband (for sleep and activity intensity) and the activPAL (for posture). A set of data merging operations controlled via a simple graphical user interface were developed. After accounting for sleep time, differences in sedentary time according to sitting/reclining (SEDAP), activity intensity ≤1.5 METs (SEDSWA) and the integration of these dimensions (SEDINT) were compared. Results The three SB measures were positively inter-correlated with the weakest relationship between SEDSWA and SEDAP, followed by SEDSWA and SEDINT, and the strongest relationship was between SEDAP and SEDINT. There was a significant difference between the three measures of sedentary time. Post-hoc tests revealed all three methods differed significantly from each other. SEDSWA resulted in the most sedentary time (11.74±1.60hours/day), followed by SEDAP (10.16±1.75hours/day), and SEDINT (9.10±1.67hours/day). Sedentary time accumulated on weekdays compared with weekend days did not differ for any of the measurement methods. More sedentary time was accumulated in the longest bout category (>40minutes) when measured with SEDSWA. Conclusion It is possible to combine information from two validated activity monitors to obtain a measure of free-living SB based on posture and activity intensity during waking hours. The positive correlation suggests that both activity intensity and posture are related aspects of the same phenomenon (sedentary behaviour). However, sedentary time according to posture and sedentary time according to activity intensity are conceptually different. The implications of this methodological distinction for understanding the impact of SB on markers of health and obesity are yet to be determined

Estimating Lorenz’s Reference State in an Ocean with a Nonlinear Equation of State for Seawater

The study of the mechanical energy budget of the oceans using the Lorenz available potential energy (APE) theory is based on knowledge of the adiabatically rearranged Lorenz reference state of minimum potential energy. The compressible and nonlinear character of the equation of state for seawater has been thought to cause the reference state to be ill defined, casting doubt on the usefulness of APE theory for investigating ocean energetics under realistic conditions. Using a method based on the volume frequency distribution of parcels as a function of temperature and salinity in the context of the seawater Boussinesq approximation, which is illustrated using climatological data, the authors show that compressibility effects are in fact minor. The reference state can be regarded as a well-defined one-dimensional function of depth, which forms a surface in temperature, salinity, and density space between the surface and the bottom of the ocean. For a very small proportion of water masses, this surface can be multivalued and water parcels can have up to two statically stable levels in the reference density profile, of which the shallowest is energetically more accessible. Classifying parcels from the surface to the bottom gives a different reference density profile than classifying in the opposite direction. However, this difference is negligible. This study shows that the reference state obtained by standard sorting methods is equivalent to, though computationally more expensive than, the volume frequency distribution approach. The approach that is presented can be applied systematically and in a computationally efficient manner to investigate the APE budget of the ocean circulation using models or climatological data

A novel integrative procedure for identifying and integrating three-dimensions of objectively measured free-living sedentary behaviour

The widely accepted definition of sedentary behaviour [SB] refers to any waking behaviour characterized by an energy expenditure ≤1.5 metabolic equivalents [METs] while in a sitting or reclining posture. At present, there is no single field-based device which objectively measures sleep, posture and activity intensity simultaneously. The aim of this study was to develop a novel integrative procedure [INT] to combine information from two validated activity monitors on sleep, activity intensity and posture, the three key dimensions of SB