Teleological Essentialism: Generalized

Natural/social kind essentialism is the view that natural kind categories, both living and non-living natural kinds, as well as social kinds (e.g., race, gender), are essentialized. On this view, artifactual kinds are not essentialized. Our view—teleological essentialism—is that a broad range of categories are essentialized in terms of teleology, including artifacts. Utilizing the same kinds of experiments typically used to provide evidence of essentialist thinking—involving superficial change (study 1), transformation of insides (study 2) and inferences about offspring (study 3)—we find support for the view that a broad range of categories—living natural kinds, non-living natural kinds and artifactual kinds—are essentialized in terms of teleology. Study 4 tests a unique prediction of teleological essentialism and also provides evidence that people make inferences about purposes which in turn guide categorization judgments

The mental health strategy for Europe: Why service user leadership in research is indispensable

Recent European mental health strategies and programmes declare service user involvement to be essential in the development and evaluation of policy and services. In light of the announcement in March 2011 by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe of a forthcoming new mental health strategy for Europe, we propose that service user leadership in research is the most effective way of enhancing such involvement and consider what is required to broaden initiatives across Europe

Teleological Essentialism

Placeholder essentialism is the view that there is a causal essence that holds category members together, though we may not know what the essence is. Sometimes the placeholder can be filled in by scientific essences, such as when we acquire scientific knowledge that the atomic weight of gold is 79. We challenge the view that placeholders are elaborated by scientific essences. On our view, if placeholders are elaborated, they are elaborated Aristotelian essences, a telos. Utilizing the same kinds of experiments used by traditional essentialists—involving superficial change (study 1), transformation of insides (study 2), acquired traits (study 3) and inferences about offspring (study 4)—we find support for the view that essences are elaborated by a telos. And we find evidence (study 5) that teleological essences may generate category judgments

Observations of the J = 2→1 transitions of ¹²C¹⁶O and ¹²C¹⁸O towards galactic H II regions

Observations are reported of the J = 2→1 transitions of CO and 12C18O at 230 and 219 GHz respectively from a number of galactic sources. A map of the central 1/2° × 1/2° of the Orion A molecular cloud is presented. The spectra are interpreted to derive molecular densities and abundance ratios in the molecular clouds observed

Adiabatic Magnetization of Superconductors as a High-Performance Cooling Mechanism

The adiabatic magnetization of a superconductor is a cooling principle proposed in the 30s, which has never been exploited up to now. Here we present a detailed dynamic description of the effect, computing the achievable final temperatures as well as the process timescales for different superconductors in various regimes. We show that, although in the experimental conditions explored so far the method is in fact inefficient, a suitable choice of initial temperatures and metals can lead to unexpectedly large cooling effect, even in the presence of dissipative phenomena. Our results suggest that this principle can be re-envisaged today as a performing refrigeration method to access the microK regime in nanodevices.Comment: 4 pages, 3 color figure

A simple description of the states 0+0^+ and 2+2^+ in 168Er^{168}Er

A sixth-order quadrupole boson Hamiltonian is used to describe 26 states $0^+$ and 67 states $2^+$ which have been recently identified in $^{168}Er$. Two closed expressions are alternatively used for energy levels. One corresponds to a semi-classical approach while the other one represents the exact eigenvalue of the model Hamiltonian. The semi-classical expression involves four parameters, while the exact eigenvalue is determined by five parameters. In each of the two descriptions a least square fit procedure is adopted. Both expressions provide a surprisingly good agreement with the experimental data.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Mild acetabular dysplasia and risk of osteoarthritis of the hip : a case-control study

Objective To determine whether mild variation in acetabular depth (AD) and shape is a risk factor for osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip. Methods The unaffected contralateral hip of patients with unilateral hip OA was compared with hips of asymptomatic controls without hip OA, derived from the Nottingham Genetics Osteoarthritis and Lifestyle case–control study. Standardised anteroposterior x-rays of the pelvis were used to measure centre edge (CE) angle and AD. Cut-off points for narrow CE angle and shallow AD were calculated from the control group (mean −1.96×SD). The relative risk of hip OA associated with each feature was estimated using OR and 95% CI and adjusted risks were calculated by logistic regression. Results In controls, both the CE angle and the AD were lower in the left hip than in the right hip. The CE angle related to age in both hips, and AD of the right hip was lower in men than in women. The contralateral unaffected hip in patients with unilateral hip OA had a decreased CE angle and AD compared with controls, irrespective of side. The lowest tertile of the CE angle in contralateral hips was associated with an eightfold risk of OA (aOR 8.06, 95% CI 4.87 to 13.35) and the lowest tertile of AD was associated with a 2.5-fold risk of OA (aOR 2.53, 95% CI 1.28 to 5.00). Significant increases in the risk of OA were also found as the CE angle and AD decreased

Reexamining Black-Body Shifts for Hydrogenlike Ions

We investigate black-body induced energy shifts for low-lying levels of atomic systems, with a special emphasis on transitions used in current and planned high-precision experiments on atomic hydrogen and ionized helium. Fine-structure and Lamb-shift induced black-body shifts are found to increase with the square of the nuclear charge number, whereas black-body shifts due to virtual transitions decrease with increasing nuclear charge as the fourth power of the nuclear charge. We also investigate the decay width acquired by the ground state of atomic hydrogen, due to interaction with black-body photons. The corresponding width is due to an instability against excitation to higher excited atomic levels, and due to black-body induced ionization. These effects limit the lifetime of even the most fundamental, a priori absolutely stable, "asymptotic" state of atomic theory, namely the ground state of atomic hydrogen.Comment: 11 pages; LaTe