Was Aristotle the founder of chemistry?

Aristotle has recently been construed as the founder of chemistry. Aristotle does give a detailed account of combination in Generation and Corruption that can be read as conforming to the kind of combination characteristic of modern chemistry. Nevertheless, to interpret Aristotle’s discussion as constituting the beginnings of, or opening the way to, chemistry is to misunderstand both Aristotle and chemistry

Aristotle: Critic or Pioneer of Atomism?

Aristotle is typically construed as a critic of atomism. He was indeed a critic of atomism of the extreme kind formulated by Democritus, according to which bulk matter is made of nothing other than unchangeable pieces of universal matter possessing shape and size and capable of motion in the void. However, there is a weaker kind of atomism involving the assumption that macroscopic substances have least parts which have properties sufficient to account for the properties of the bulk substances that they are least parts of. Insofar as atomism has been vindicated by modern science, it is the weaker version of atomism that has proved to be profitable. The beginnings of the weaker version of atomism are to be found in Aristotle. Far from being an opponent of atomism, there is a sense in which Aristotle was one of its pioneers

Aristotle on Atomism

Two kinds of atomism emerged in the philosophy off the Presocratics. One kind was devised as a response to Parmenides and involved indivisible physical atoms. The other kind emerged in response to Zeno’s paradoxes and involved indivisible magnitudes that served as a barrier to the infinite division that led to those paradoxes. I argue, contrary to a range of positions to be found in the literature that Aristotle was aware of the distinction between the two kinds of atomism, did not attribute an atomism involving indivisible magnitudes to Democritus, and countered the two kinds of atomism with distinct kinds of arguments

Aristotle on Homoeomerous Substances

Aristotle’s characterisation of homoeomerous substances in Generation and Corruption is typically interpreted as involving the idea that such substances retain their identity as such however far they are divided. Yet, in Meteorology 4 Aristotle attributes properties of homoeomerous substances to a structure of corpuscles separated by pores. I suggest the clash between these two views is removed once it is appreciated that the position in Generation and Corruption does not involve indefinite division, as is typically supposed. Aristotle’s construal of homoeomerous substances, on my interpretation, is an important part of his attempt to make conceptual sense of the notion that all terrestrial substances are combinations of air, earth, fire and water

Visuohaptic augmented feedback for enhancing motor skills acquisition

Serious games are accepted as an effective approach to deliver augmented feedback in motor (re-) learning processes. The multi-modal nature of the conventional computer games (e.g. audiovisual representation) plus the ability to interact via haptic-enabled inputs provides a more immersive experience. Thus, particular disciplines such as medical education in which frequent hands on rehearsals play a key role in learning core motor skills (e.g. physical palpations) may benefit from this technique. Challenges such as the impracticality of verbalising palpation experience by tutors and ethical considerations may prevent the medical students from correctly learning core palpation skills. This work presents a new data glove, built from off-the-shelf components which captures pressure sensitivity designed to provide feedback for palpation tasks. In this work the data glove is used to control a serious game adapted from the infinite runner genre to improve motor skill acquisition. A comparative evaluation on usability and effectiveness of the method using multimodal visualisations, as part of a larger study to enhance pressure sensitivity, is presented. Thirty participants divided into a game-playing group (n = 15) and a control group (n = 15) were invited to perform a simple palpation task. The game-playing group significantly outperformed the control group in which abstract visualisation of force was provided to the users in a blind-folded transfer test. The game-based training approach was positively described by the game-playing group as enjoyable and engaging

Drug-Induced Exposure of Schistosoma mansoni Antigens SmCD59a and SmKK7

BACKGROUND: Schistosomiasis is a serious health problem especially in developing countries and affects more than 243 million people. Only few anthelmintic drugs are available up to now. A major obstacle for drug treatment is the different developmental stages and the varying host compartments during worm development. Anthelmintic drugs have been tested mainly on adult schistosomes or freshly transformed cercariae. Knowledge concerning the larval stages is lacking. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this study, we used in vitro-grown schistosomula (aged between 2 to 14 days) to investigate drug effects of the three anthelmintics praziquantel, artemether, and oxamniquine. Further, we analyzed the antibody accessibility of two exemplary schistosome antigens SmCD59a and SmKK7, before and after drug treatment. Our results demonstrated that praziquantel applied at a concentration of 1 μM inhibited development of all life stages. Application of 10 μM praziquantel led to dramatic morphological changes of all schistosomula. Artemether at 1 and 10 μM had differential effects depending on whether it was applied to 2-day as compared to 7- and 14-day schistosomula. While 2-day schistosomula were not killed but inhibited from further development, severe morphological damage was seen in 7- and 14-day schistosomula. Oxamniquine (1 and 10 μM) led to severe morphological impairment in all life stages. Analyzing the accessibility of the antigens SmCD59a and SmKK7 before drug treatment showed no antibody binding on living intact schistosomula. However, when schistosomula were treated with anthelmintics, both antigens became exposed on the larvae. Oxamniquine turned out to be most effective in promoting antibody binding to all schistosomula stages. CONCLUSION: This study has revealed marked differences in anthelmintic drug effects against larvae. Drug treatment increases surface antigen presentation and renders larvae accessible to antibody attack

Repeatable texture sampling with interchangeable patches

Rendering textures in real-time environments is a key task in computer graphics. This paper presents a new parallel patch-based method which allows repeatable sampling without cache, and does not create visual repetitions. Interchangeable patches of arbitrary shape are prepared in a preprocessing step, such that patches may lie over the boundary of other patches in a repeating tile. This compresses the example texture into an infinite texture map with small memory requirements, suitable for GPU and ray-tracing applications. The quality of textures rendered with this method can be tuned in the offline preprocessing step, and they can then be rendered in times comparable to Wang tiles. Experimental results demonstrate combined benefits in speed, memory requirements, and quality of randomisation when compared to previous methods

Maximizing Adherence and Gaining New Information For Your Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (MAGNIFY COPD):Study Protocol for the Pragmatic, Cluster Randomized Trial Evaluating the Impact of Dual Bronchodilator with Add-On Sensor and Electronic Monitoring on Clinical Outcomes

Background: Poor treatment adherence in COPD patients is associated with poor clinical outcomes and increased healthcare burden. Personalized approaches for adherence management, supported with technology-based interventions, may offer benefits to patients and providers but are currently unproven in terms of clinical outcomes as opposed to adherence outcomes. Methods: Maximizing Adherence and Gaining New Information For Your COPD (MAGNIFY COPD study), a pragmatic cluster randomized trial, aims to evaluate the impact of an adherence technology package (interventional package), comprising an adherence review, ongoing provision of a dual bronchodilator but with an add-on inhaler sensor device and a connected mobile application. This will compare time to treatment failure and other clinical outcomes in patients identified at high risk of exacerbations with historic poor treatment adherence as measured by prescription collection to mono/dual therapy over one year (1312 patients) versus usual care. Treatment failure is defined as the first occurrence of one of the following: (1) moderate/severe COPD exacerbation, (2) prescription of triple therapy (inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting β2-agonist/long-acting muscarinic antagonist [ICS/LABA/LAMA]), (3) prescription of additional chronic therapy for COPD, or (4) respiratory-related death. Adherence, moderate/severe exacerbations, respiratory-related healthcare resource utilization and costs, and intervention package acceptance rate will also be assessed. Eligible primary care practices (N=176) participating in the Optimum Patient Care Quality Improvement Program will be randomized (1:1) to either adherence support cluster arm (suitable patients already receiving or initiated Ultibro® Breezhaler® [indacaterol/glycopyrronium] will be offered interventional package) or the control cluster arm (suitable patients continue to receive usual clinical care). Patients will be identified and outcomes collected from anonymized electronic medical records within the Optimum Patient Care Research Database. On study completion, electronic medical record data will be re-extracted to analyze outcomes in both study groups. Registration Number: ISRCTN10567920. Conclusion: MAGNIFY will explore patient benefits of technology-based interventions for electronic adherence monitoring