Hick and Radhakrishnan on Religious Diversity: Back to the Kantian Noumenon

We shall examine some conceptual tensions in Hick’s ‘pluralism’ in the light of S. Radhakrishnan’s reformulation of classical Advaita. Hick himself often quoted Radhakrishnan’s translations from the Hindu scriptures in support of his own claims about divine ineffability, transformative experience and religious pluralism. However, while Hick developed these themes partly through an adaptation of Kantian epistemology, Radhakrishnan derived them ultimately from Śaṁkara (c.800 CE), and these two distinctive points of origin lead to somewhat different types of reconstruction of the diversity of world religions. Our argument will highlight the point that Radhakrishnan is not a ‘pluralist’ in terms of Hick’s understanding of the Real. The Advaitin ultimate, while it too like Hick’s Real cannot be encapsulated by human categories, is, however, not strongly ineffable, because some substantive descriptions, according to the Advaitic tradition, are more accurate than others. Our comparative analysis will reveal that they differ because they are located in two somewhat divergent metaphysical schemes. In turn, we will be able to revisit, through this dialogue between Hick and Radhakrishnan, the intensely vexed question of whether Hick’s version of pluralism is in fact a form of covert exclusivism.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11841-015-0459-

A Search for Early Optical Emission at Gamma-Ray Burst Locations by the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI)

The Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) views nearly every point on the sky once every 102 minutes and can detect point sources as faint as R~10th magnitude. Therefore, SMEI can detect or provide upper limits for the optical afterglow from gamma-ray bursts in the tens of minutes after the burst when different shocked regions may emit optically. Here we provide upper limits for 58 bursts between 2003 February and 2005 April.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ, 17 pages, 8 figure

Evaluación continua y su importancia en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de Climatología en la carrera de Agronomía

La evaluación tradicionalmente se ha centrado en la etapa final del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje llevando en muchos casos a que los alumnos se enfoquen más en aprobar la asignatura que en lograr un aprendizaje significativo. Sin embargo, el docente no debe sólo evaluar al final del curso, sino que debe hacerlo en cada uno de los bloques de conocimiento para facilitar el aprovechamiento y el aprendizaje progresivo de los contenidos de la asignatura. Al aplicar la evaluación continua, el profesor puede detectar los problemas de aprendizaje del estudiante y realizar una valoración integral del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje. El objetivo del trabajo fue evaluar la identificar los temas que presentan más dificultades en el proceso de enseñanza – aprendizaje mediante la evaluación continua. Se implementó un proceso de evaluación continua con la finalidad de facilitar la asimilación y el desarrollo progresivos de los contenidos de la asignatura Climatología correspondiente al primer cuatrimestre del segundo año de la carrera de Ingeniería Agronómica. Se utilizó como fuente de datos un cuestionario estructurado, al inicio de la clase práctica, se evalúan los fundamentos teóricos a emplearse en el práctico. Éstas evaluaciones constituyen el 30% de la nota del parcial correspondiente.En el presente trabajo se presentan los resultados observados a lo largo de 7 ciclos lectivos (2012 a 2018). Las unidades que presentaron menor porcentaje de acierto fueron Bio y Agrometeorología, Radiación y Balance Hidrológico (con 42, 47 y 47%, respectivamente) y aquellas de mejor desempeño fueron Introducción, Vientos y Heladas (con 59; 60 y 64%, respectivamente). Los temas con menores porcentajes de aciertos pueden ser debidos a dificultad y el tiempo de aprendizaje. La evaluación continua le permite al estudiante recibir información sobre su ritmo de aprendizaje, y puede de esta manera reorientar su aprendizaje. A los docentes, les permite identificar las fortalezas y las dificultades, del tema desarrollado

Theodicy and End-of-Life Care

Acknowledgments The section on Islamic perspective is contributed by information provided by Imranali Panjwani, Tutor in Theology & Religious Studies, King's College London.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Health care system planning for and response to a nuclear detonation

The hallmark of a successful response to a nuclear detonation will be the resilience of the community, region, and nation. An incident of this magnitude will rapidly become a national incident; however, the initial critical steps to reduce lives lost, save the lives that can be saved with the resources available, and understand and apply resources available to a complex and dynamic situation will be the responsibility of the local and regional responders and planners. Expectations of the public health and health care systems will be met to the extent possible by coordination, cooperation, and an effort to produce as consistent a response as possible for the victims. Responders will face extraordinarily stressful situations, and their own physical and psychological health is of great importance to optimizing the response. This article illustrates through vignettes and supporting text how the incident may unfold for the various components of the health and medical systems and provides additional context for the discipline-related actions outlined in the state and local planners’ playbook

Understanding Metro Station Usage using Closed Circuit Television Cameras Analysis

In this paper, we propose to show how video data available in standard CCTV transportation systems can represent a useful source of information for transportation infrastructure management, optimization and planning if adequately analyzed (e.g. to facilitate equipment usage understanding, to ease diagnostic and planning for system managers). More precisely, we present two algorithms allowing to estimate the number of people in a camera view and to measure the platform time-occupancy by trains. A statistical analysis of the results of each algorithm provide interesting insights regarding station usage. It is also shown that combining information from the algorithms in different views provide a finer understanding of the station usage. An end-user point of view confirms the interest of the proposed analysis

Associated reading skills in children with a history of Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

A large cohort of 200 eleven-year-old children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) were assessed on basic reading accuracy and on reading comprehension as well as language tasks. Reading skills were examined descriptively and in relation to early language and literacy factors. Using stepwise regression analyses in which age and nonverbal IQ were controlled for, it was found that a single word reading measure taken at 7 years was unsurprisingly a strong predictor of the two different types of reading ability. However, even with this measure included, a receptive syntax task (TROG) entered when reading accuracy score was the DV. Furthermore, a test of expressive syntax/narrative and a receptive syntax task completed at 7 years entered into the model for word reading accuracy. When early reading accuracy was excluded from the analyses, early phonological skills also entered as a predictor of both reading accuracy and comprehension at 11 years. The group of children with a history of SLI were then divided into those with no literacy difficulties at 11 and those with some persisting literacy impairment. Using stepwise logistic regression, and again controlling for IQ and age, 7 years receptive syntax score (but not tests of phonology, expressive vocabulary or expressive syntax/narrative) entered as a positive predictor of membership of the ‘no literacy problems’ group regardless of whether early reading accuracy was controlled for in step one. The findings are discussed in relation to the overlap of SLI and dyslexia and the long term sequelae of language impairment

Radiation Injury After a Nuclear Detonation: Medical Consequences and the Need for Scarce Resources Allocation

A 10-kiloton (kT) nuclear detonation within a US city could expose hundreds of thousands of people to radiation. The Scarce Resources for a Nuclear Detonation Project was undertaken to guide community planning and response in the aftermath of a nuclear detonation, when demand will greatly exceed available resources. This article reviews the pertinent literature on radiation injuries from human exposures and animal models to provide a foundation for the triage and management approaches outlined in this special issue. Whole-body doses \u3e2 Gy can produce clinically significant acute radiation syndrome (ARS), which classically involves the hematologic, gastrointestinal, cutaneous, and cardiovascular/central nervous systems. The severity and presentation of ARS are affected by several factors, including radiation dose and dose rate, interindividual variability in radiation response, type of radiation (eg, gamma alone, gamma plus neutrons), partial-body shielding, and possibly age, sex, and certain preexisting medical conditions. The combination of radiation with trauma, burns, or both (ie, combined injury) confers a worse prognosis than the same dose of radiation alone. Supportive care measures, including fluid support, antibiotics, and possibly myeloid cytokines (eg, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor), can improve the prognosis for some irradiated casualties. Finally, expert guidance and surge capacity for casualties with ARS are available from the Radiation Emergency Medical Management Web site and the Radiation Injury Treatment Network

Nova light curves from the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) - II. The extended catalogue

We present the results from observing nine Galactic novae in eruption with the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) between 2004 and 2009. While many of these novae reached peak magnitudes that were either at or approaching the detection limits of SMEI, we were still able to produce light curves that in many cases contained more data at and around the initial rise, peak, and decline than those found in other variable star catalogs. For each nova, we obtained a peak time, maximum magnitude, and for several an estimate of the decline time (t2). Interestingly, although of lower quality than those found in Hounsell et al. (2010a), two of the light curves may indicate the presence of a pre-maximum halt. In addition the high cadence of the SMEI instrument has allowed the detection of low amplitude variations in at least one of the nova light curves

Generation and characterisation of Friedreich ataxia YG8R mouse fibroblast and neural stem cell models

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Background: Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) is an autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disease caused by GAA repeat expansion in the first intron of the FXN gene, which encodes frataxin, an essential mitochondrial protein. To further characterise the molecular abnormalities associated with FRDA pathogenesis and to hasten drug screening, the development and use of animal and cellular models is considered essential. Studies of lower organisms have already contributed to understanding FRDA disease pathology, but mammalian cells are more related to FRDA patient cells in physiological terms. Methodology/Principal Findings: We have generated fibroblast cells and neural stem cells (NSCs) from control Y47R mice (9 GAA repeats) and GAA repeat expansion YG8R mice (190+120 GAA repeats). We then differentiated the NSCs in to neurons, oligodendrocytes and astrocytes as confirmed by immunocytochemical analysis of cell specific markers. The three YG8R mouse cell types (fibroblasts, NSCs and differentiated NSCs) exhibit GAA repeat stability, together with reduced expression of frataxin and reduced aconitase activity compared to control Y47R cells. Furthermore, YG8R cells also show increased sensitivity to oxidative stress and downregulation of Pgc-1α and antioxidant gene expression levels, especially Sod2. We also analysed various DNA mismatch repair (MMR) gene expression levels and found that YG8R cells displayed significant reduction in expression of several MMR genes, which may contribute to the GAA repeat stability. Conclusions/Significance: We describe the first fibroblast and NSC models from YG8R FRDA mice and we confirm that the NSCs can be differentiated into neurons and glia. These novel FRDA mouse cell models, which exhibit a FRDA-like cellular and molecular phenotype, will be valuable resources to further study FRDA molecular pathogenesis. They will also provide very useful tools for preclinical testing of frataxin-increasing compounds for FRDA drug therapy, for gene therapy, and as a source of cells for cell therapy testing in FRDA mice. © 2014 Sandi et al