A case for epistemological realism.

A Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of ArtsThe Epistemological Realist (ER)project, recently initiated by John McDowell in Mind and World and Hilary Putnam in his 1994 series of Dewey Lectures, is an extremely promising one. This project aims to show how a 'commonsense realism' about the world and our relationship to it can be made tenable in a philosophical climate increasingly dominated by various forms of anti-realism. At least part of the reason for the prevalence of anti-realism is the unsatisfactory way in which realism has traditionally been developed. Epistemological Realism departs from Traditional Realism in at least three key areas: (a) its account of how perception enables empirical knowledge, (b) its account of perception itself and (c) its account of how our empirical knowledge claims bear on reality. The ability of the ER theorist to give perfectly satisfactory accounts of (a)-(c) does much to reinstate 'commonsense realism' as a philosophically respectable position. Epistemological Realism 'commonsense realism' Traditional Realism antirealism perception empirical knowledge reality John McDowell Mind and World Hilary PutnamAC201

Diffusion through the ex vivo vitreal body - bovine, porcine, and ovine models are poor surrogates for the human vitreous

© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.The human vitreous humour is a complex gel structure whose composition and physical properties can vary considerably from person to person and also change with age. To date, the viscoelastic properties of the human vitreous gel has not been thoroughly investigated and despite many years of intensive research, an ideal vitreous substitute remains a challenge. Understanding the physical structure and properties of the vitreous is of fundamental and therapeutic interest, providing a clear insight into diffusion and transport of administered ophthalmic drug molecules into the vitreous. A number of mammalian surrogates, mainly bovine, porcine and ovine vitreous humours have been greatly used in the literature as a means of studying ophthalmic drug transport and diffusion. In this study, the mechanical, physical and rheological properties of ovine, porcine, and bovine surrogates were investigated and compared to human vitreous. In addition, a bespoke Franz cell construct was used to compare the diffusion of a model drug (i.e. fluorescein) through vitreous samples. Despite the similarity in rheological properties between bovine, porcine and human vitreous samples (p > 0.05), diffusion of fluorescein through the different vitreous samples revealed great differences in values of steady-state flux and diffusion coefficient. In addition, a first-generation vitreous mimic, composed of 4.5 mg/mL hyaluronic acid with complex viscosity of 0.3 ± 0.01 Pa has been evaluated and was demonstrated to be a better mimic of the human vitreous than the mammalian samples investigated.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Lean object-oriented software development

Software failures can be dramatic, exp3ensive and catastrophic. The London Stock Exchange was developed eleven years late and 13,200% over budget (Corr 2002). A catastro0phic software failure in February 1998 interrupted the New York Mercantile Exchange and phone service in several East Coast cities (NIST 2002). All industries need software development process improvement. Of 800 business technology managers responding to an InformationWeek survey, 97% reported problems with software bugs in the past year and nine out of 10 reported higher costs, lost revenue, or both as a result (Hayes 2002, p. 40

An investigation into the role of pregnancy in the development of stress incontinence of urine

Methods: For the prospective observational study, 250 women were recruited from the antenatal clinics of University College London Hospital and The Whittington Hospital at their booking appointment. All women were less than 20 weeks pregnant at booking. The patients were interviewed with a standard questionnaire at booking, 28 weeks, 34 - 36 weeks of pregnancy and at 6 and 12 weeks postpartum. At the first interview patients were asked about incontinence prior to the pregnancy. The patients then completed a frequency volume voiding chart for each visit except the first. They were asked to attend the clinic with a full bladder and performed a standing stress test at the 28 and 34 - 36 week visit. The delivery details were collected at the first postpartum interview. For the retrospective study 300 primiparous patients who had delivered at The Whittington hospital were sent a questionnaire three months after delivery. Results: 181 women completed the prospective study. The reported frequency of micturition increased during pregnancy and declined after delivery. The frequency of micturition recorded on the charts showed a similar pattern. The total volume voided per day increased during pregnancy and declined after delivery whereas the mean volume voided at each micturition decreased in pregnancy compared to postpartum. There was no difference in the mean volume voided in the women who reported incontinence compared to those women who were dry. The numbers of women reporting incontinence increased in pregnancy to 44.8% at 28 weeks and then declined after delivery to 12.2% at 12 weeks postpartum. 58.1% of the retrospective questionnaires were returned. 32.9% had some form of incontinence at the time of completing the questionnaire whereas 31.8% had incontinence in pregnancy

From the Postcolonial to the Transnational: Issues of Identity in Michael Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost

Anil’s Ghost, by Michael Ondaatje, is set in present day Sri Lanka against the background of civil war. This dissertation addresses some of the issues of identity that are raised in the narrative of Anil's Ghost through a close analysis of the text, paying particular attention to the way in which Ondaatje examines identity as both a "construct" and a "process". The approach used is one that draws on postcolonial theory and takes a "transnational" perspective. The central argument asserts that Ondaatje's text moves beyond the concept of a postcolonial literature of "resistance", into an area that requires a theory of "process" rather than "product". Transnationalism is shown here to be just such a theory - in that it captures something of this fluidity - and therefore to be very suitable for the analysis of Ondaatje's discourse. The main focus of this research, then, is to demonstrate a transnational conceptual matrix as being an appropriate framework for the examination of identity in Anil's Ghost - in so doing it puts forward transnationalism as a positive means for the articulation of difference and fragmentation in the construction of an holistic, multi-cultural identity. Three main themes are addressed in the course of this argument, with regard to the way in which they impact on issues of identification: naming, and its association with mapping; the relationship between language and identity; the interaction between memory and dislocation. These themes are examined in the light of Ondaatje's paradigm of "the returning stranger" (Powells 2) and underpinned by the application of transnational theory, as put forward by critics such as Paul Giles. This dissertation explores issues of identity in Anil’s Ghost, which traverse cultural and national boundaries and encompass both central and marginal positions, through the application of a transnational methodology

Transnational Space and the Discourse of Multiculturalism: Contemporary Canadian Fiction

This thesis engages in a study of the construction of identity as “process” in four contemporary English-Canadian novels. The novels under discussion are: Cereus Blooms at Night, by Shani Mootoo; Life of Pi, by Yann Martell; Fugitive Pieces, by Anne Michaels; and Childhood, by Andre Alexis. It offers a transnational model of analysis in relation to each of the novels, which enables the investigation of the “multiple” and “fluid” cultural identities in the four examples of contemporary Canadian fiction under scrutiny

Optimising poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) microparticle fabrication using a Taguchi orthogonal array design-of-experiment approach

© 2019 Mensah et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.The objective of this study was to identify, understand and generate a Taguchi orthogonal array model for the formation of 10–50 μm microparticles with applications in topical/ocular controlled drug delivery. Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microparticles were fabricated by the single emulsion oil-in-water method and the particle size was characterized using laser diffraction and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). Sequential Taguchi L 12 and L 18 orthogonal array (OA) designs were employed to study the influence of ten and eight parameters, respectively, on microparticle size (response). The first optimization step using the L 12 design showed that all parameters significantly influenced the particle size of the prepared PLGA microparticles with exception of the concentration of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) in the hardening bath. The smallest mean particle size obtained from the L 12 design was 54.39 μm. A subsequent L 18 design showed that the molecular weight of PLGA does not significantly affect the particle size. An experimental run comprising of defined parameters including molecular weight of PLGA (89 kDa), concentration of PLGA (20% w/v), concentration of PVA in the emulsion (0.8% w/v), solvent type (ethyl acetate), organic/aqeuous phase ratio (1:1 v/v), vortexing speed (9), vortexing duration (60 seconds), concentration of PVA in hardening bath (0.8% w/v), stirring speed of hardening bath (1200 rpm) and solvent evaporation duration (24 hours) resulted in the lowest mean particle size of 23.51 μm which was predicted and confirmed by the L 18 array. A comparable size was demonstrated during the fabrication of BSA-incorporated microparticles. Taguchi OA design proved to be a valuable tool in determining the combination of process parameters that can provide the optimal condition for microparticle formulation. Taguchi OA design can be used to correctly predict the size of microparticles fabricated by the single emulsion process and can therefore, ultimately, save time and costs during the manufacturing process of drug delivery formulations by minimising experimental runs.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Reconceptualizing Cultural Literacy as a Dialogic Practice

Culture and heritage are plural and fluid, continually co-created through interaction between people. However, traditional monologic models of cultural literacy reflect a one-way transmission of static cultural knowledge. Using the context of a large European project and augmenting the work of Buber with models of literacy as social practice, in this paper we reconceptualize cultural literacy as fundamentally dialogic. We argue that cultural literacy empowers intercultural dialogue, opening a dialogic space with inherent democratic potential. Considering implications for the classroom, we outline how a dialogic pedagogy can provide a suitable context for the development of young people’s cultural literacy.European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No 77004

El gatito solo

Victoria Rodrigo, PhD- Serie Leamos’ EditorProfessor of Spanish World Languages and Cultures DepartmentGeorgia State Universityhttps://scholarworks.gsu.edu/wcl_leamos/1003/thumbnail.jp