Commentary on: Victor Ferry\u27s The virtues of dissoi logoi

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Commentary on: Yun Xie, Shuying Shi, Sarah Evans, and Dale Hample\u27s Exploring the meaning of argument in China

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Chronic Allergic Inflammation Causes Vascular Remodeling and Pulmonary Hypertension in Bmpr2 Hypomorph and Wild-Type Mice

Loss-of-function mutations in the bone morphogenetic protein receptor type 2 (BMPR2) gene have been identified in patients with heritable pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH); however, disease penetrance is low, suggesting additional factors play a role. Inflammation is associated with PAH and vascular remodeling, but whether allergic inflammation triggers vascular remodeling in individuals with BMPR2 mutations is unknown. Our goal was to determine if chronic allergic inflammation would induce more severe vascular remodeling and PAH in mice with reduced BMPR-II signaling. Groups of Bmpr2 hypomorph and wild-type (WT) Balb/c/Byj mice were exposed to house dust mite (HDM) allergen, intranasally for 7 or 20 weeks to generate a model of chronic inflammation. HDM exposure induced similar inflammatory cell counts in all groups compared to controls. Muscularization of pulmonary arterioles and arterial wall thickness were increased after 7 weeks HDM, more severe at 20 weeks, but similar in both groups. Right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP) was measured by direct cardiac catheterization to assess PAH. RVSP was similarly increased in both HDM exposed groups after 20 weeks compared to controls, but not after 7 weeks. Airway hyperreactivity (AHR) to methacholine was also assessed and interestingly, at 20 weeks, was more severe in HDM exposed Bmpr2 hypomorph mice versus WT. We conclude that chronic allergic inflammation caused PAH and while the severity was mild and similar between WT and Bmpr2 hypomorph mice, AHR was enhanced with reduced BMPR-II signaling. These data suggest that vascular remodeling and PAH resulting from chronic allergic inflammation occurs independently of BMPR-II pathway alterations

Nature and Reason: Inertia and Argumentation

Presumption and Burden of Proof issues play a unique role in argumentation studies. Particular argumentative methods and techniques may advance or deter a line of reasoning, but burden and presumption issues decide when a line of reasoning is needed at all. There is little doubt that burden and presumption issues are hugely influential in determining the outcome of conflicts. In law, most burden and presumption issues are typically decided well before trials proceed and in fact must be decided in order for trials to go forward. Once the burden and presumption issues are decided, some cases resolve themselves. And so being able to shift the burden of proof or change presumption is a power that seems to be qualitatively different from the power of ordinary argumentative techniques. For it is a power that shapes the rules whereby arguments proceed and the standards by which they are evaluated. Other kinds of arguments take place within the framework established by burden and presumption. Burden and presumption govern argumentation, make it possible, limit and define its outcome

Con Amore: Henry Johnstone, Jr.'s Philosophy of Argumentation

Henry Johnstone's philosophical development was guided by a persistent need to reform the concept of validity -either by reinterpreting it or by finding a substitute for it. This project lead Johnstone into interesting confrontations with the concept of rhetoric and especiaUy with the work of Chaim Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca. The project culminated in a failed attempt to develop a formal ethics of rhetoric and argumentation, but this attempt was itself not consistent with some of Johnstone's other characterizations ofan ethics of argument ation. A virtue ethics would be truer to the Johnstonian philosophical project than a formal ethics of argument. Resum

Projecting Land Use Changes Associated with Small Watershed Development

This study determines if projected land use changes and their benefit estimates are biased in favor of project development. Both the base period land use estimates and the projected land use changes in a sample of 40 projects in two contrasting geographical regions were found to be reliable. The differences between projected and observed land use changes, when observed land use changes are measured from aerial photographs, were not statistically significant. Four alternative land use projection techniques examined in the study did not improve upon the reliability of SCS land use projections. The SCS land use projection procedures for Small watershed areas provide reliable measures of land use trends for estimating land use benefits due to project measures

Water Quality Monitoring and Modeling Workshop: Proceedings

Water quality monitoring and evaluation is a major feature of the Rural Clean Water Program and will likely be included in related programs in the future. The Proceedings examine the state-of-the-arts in water quality monitoring and modeling, the needs of user groups and the relationship between modeling and monitoring. The linkage between economic and water quality monitoring, modeling and evaluation is explored. A systems approach, utilizing models and monitoring, is presented as a useful tool in designing water quality control projects, determining pollution abatement effects, quantifying the impacts of alternative strategies and management systems and evaluating the effectiveness of pollution control measures