Casting Light Upon The Great Endarkenment

While the Enlightenment promoted thinking for oneself independent of religious authority, the ‘Endarkenment’ (Millgram 2015) concerns deference to a new authority: the specialist, a hyperspecializer. Non-specialists need to defer to such authorities as they are unable to understand their reasoning. Millgram describes how humans are capable of being serial hyperspecializers, able to move from one specialism to another. We support the basic thrust of Millgram’s position, and seek to articulate how the core idea is deployed in very different ways in relation to extremely different philosophical areas. We attend to the issue of the degree of isolation of different specialists and we urge greater emphasis on parallel hyperspecialization, which describes how different specialisms can be embodied in one person at one time

Standard versus prosocial online support groups for distressed breast cancer survivors: a randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Internet can increase access to psychosocial care for breast cancer survivors through online support groups. This study will test a novel prosocial online group that emphasizes both opportunities for getting and giving help. Based on the helper therapy principle, it is hypothesized that the addition of structured helping opportunities and coaching on how to help others online will increase the psychological benefits of a standard online group.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>A two-armed randomized controlled trial with pretest and posttest. Non-metastatic breast cancer survivors with elevated psychological distress will be randomized to either a standard facilitated online group or to a prosocial facilitated online group, which combines online exchanges of support with structured helping opportunities (blogging, breast cancer outreach) and coaching on how best to give support to others. Validated and reliable measures will be administered to women approximately one month before and after the interventions. Self-esteem, positive affect, and sense of belonging will be tested as potential mediators of the primary outcomes of depressive/anxious symptoms and sense of purpose in life.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This study will test an innovative approach to maximizing the psychological benefits of cancer online support groups. The theory-based prosocial online support group intervention model is sustainable, because it can be implemented by private non-profit or other organizations, such as cancer centers, which mostly offer face-to-face support groups with limited patient reach.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01396174">NCT01396174</a></p

Neutron Capture on the s-Process Branching Point 171^{171}Tm via Time-of-Flight and Activation

The neutron capture cross sections of several unstable nuclides acting as branching points in the s process are crucial for stellar nucleosynthesis studies. The unstable $^{171}$Tm(t$_{1/2}$=1.92 yr) is part of the branching around mass A∼170 but its neutron capture cross section as a function of the neutron energy is not known to date. In this work, following the production for the first time of more than 5 mg of $^{171}$Tm at the high-flux reactor Institut Laue-Langevin in France, a sample was produced at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. Two complementary experiments were carried out at the neutron time-of-flight facility (n_TOF) at CERN in Switzerland and at the SARAF liquid lithium target facility at Soreq Nuclear Research Center in Israel by time of flight and activation, respectively. The result of the time-of-flight experiment consists of the first ever set of resonance parameters and the corresponding average resonance parameters, allowing us to make an estimation of the Maxwellian-averaged cross sections (MACS) by extrapolation. The activation measurement provides a direct and more precise measurement of the MACS at 30 keV: 384(40) mb, with which the estimation from the n_TOF data agree at the limit of 1 standard deviation. This value is 2.6 times lower than the JEFF-3.3 and ENDF/B-VIII evaluations, 25% lower than that of the Bao et al. compilation, and 1.6 times larger than the value recommended in the KADoNiS (v1) database, based on the only previous experiment. Our result affects the nucleosynthesis at the A∼170 branching, namely, the $^{171}$Yb abundance increases in the material lost by asymptotic giant branch stars, providing a better match to the available pre-solar SiC grain measurements compared to the calculations based on the current JEFF-3.3 model-based evaluation

Mobilise-D insights to estimate real-world walking speed in multiple conditions with a wearable device

This study aimed to validate a wearable device’s walking speed estimation pipeline, considering complexity, speed, and walking bout duration. The goal was to provide recommendations on the use of wearable devices for real-world mobility analysis. Participants with Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Proximal Femoral Fracture, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Congestive Heart Failure, and healthy older adults (n = 97) were monitored in the laboratory and the real-world (2.5 h), using a lower back wearable device. Two walking speed estimation pipelines were validated across 4408/1298 (2.5 h/laboratory) detected walking bouts, compared to 4620/1365 bouts detected by a multi-sensor reference system. In the laboratory, the mean absolute error (MAE) and mean relative error (MRE) for walking speed estimation ranged from 0.06 to 0.12 m/s and − 2.1 to 14.4%, with ICCs (Intraclass correlation coefficients) between good (0.79) and excellent (0.91). Real-world MAE ranged from 0.09 to 0.13, MARE from 1.3 to 22.7%, with ICCs indicating moderate (0.57) to good (0.88) agreement. Lower errors were observed for cohorts without major gait impairments, less complex tasks, and longer walking bouts. The analytical pipelines demonstrated moderate to good accuracy in estimating walking speed. Accuracy depended on confounding factors, emphasizing the need for robust technical validation before clinical application. Trial registration: ISRCTN – 12246987

Sobre la imposibilidad de la función de producción agregada: un enfoque alternativo

En un artículo publicado recientemente en esta revista, A. Monza resume los argumentos que llevan a concluir acerca del carácter ilusorio de la noción de función de producción agregada. Este artificio teórico neoclásico sirve para la fundamentación de una cierta apologética en el campo de la teoría de la distribución del ingreso, en la que los "factores" son retribuidos de acuerdo a su "productividad marginal". Esta última sólo depende de la forma de la función de producción, que a su vez depende del "estado de la técnica". En esta nota, pretendemos dar una versión más sencilla -y tal vez más directa- del mismo argumento: la función f aparece indeterminada en tanto no se precisa la distribución del ingreso; o, de otra manera, existen tantas f como tasas de salario real o de beneficio sean concebibles. Intentaremos demostrar esta proposición en el marco de un modelo lineal a dos sectores, extraído de la teoría de la reproducción y de los precios de producción de Marx, en las interpretaciones de Lange y Malinvaud. (Párrafo extraído del texto a modo de resumen)Instituto de Investigaciones Económica

Sobre la imposibilidad de la función de producción agregada: un enfoque alternativo

En un artículo publicado recientemente en esta revista, A. Monza resume los argumentos que llevan a concluir acerca del carácter ilusorio de la noción de función de producción agregada. Este artificio teórico neoclásico sirve para la fundamentación de una cierta apologética en el campo de la teoría de la distribución del ingreso, en la que los "factores" son retribuidos de acuerdo a su "productividad marginal". Esta última sólo depende de la forma de la función de producción, que a su vez depende del "estado de la técnica". En esta nota, pretendemos dar una versión más sencilla -y tal vez más directa- del mismo argumento: la función f aparece indeterminada en tanto no se precisa la distribución del ingreso; o, de otra manera, existen tantas f como tasas de salario real o de beneficio sean concebibles. Intentaremos demostrar esta proposición en el marco de un modelo lineal a dos sectores, extraído de la teoría de la reproducción y de los precios de producción de Marx, en las interpretaciones de Lange y Malinvaud. (Párrafo extraído del texto a modo de resumen

Sobre la imposibilidad de la función de producción agregada: un enfoque alternativo

En un artículo publicado recientemente en esta revista, A. Monza resume los argumentos que llevan a concluir acerca del carácter ilusorio de la noción de función de producción agregada. Este artificio teórico neoclásico sirve para la fundamentación de una cierta apologética en el campo de la teoría de la distribución del ingreso, en la que los "factores" son retribuidos de acuerdo a su "productividad marginal". Esta última sólo depende de la forma de la función de producción, que a su vez depende del "estado de la técnica". En esta nota, pretendemos dar una versión más sencilla -y tal vez más directa- del mismo argumento: la función f aparece indeterminada en tanto no se precisa la distribución del ingreso; o, de otra manera, existen tantas f como tasas de salario real o de beneficio sean concebibles. Intentaremos demostrar esta proposición en el marco de un modelo lineal a dos sectores, extraído de la teoría de la reproducción y de los precios de producción de Marx, en las interpretaciones de Lange y Malinvaud. (Párrafo extraído del texto a modo de resumen)Instituto de Investigaciones Económica