5,812 research outputs found
The art of being human : a project for general philosophy of science
Throughout the medieval and modern periods, in various sacred and secular guises, the unification of all forms of knowledge under the rubric of ‘science’ has been taken as the prerogative of humanity as a species. However, as our sense of species privilege has been called increasingly into question, so too has the very salience of ‘humanity’ and ‘science’ as general categories, let alone ones that might bear some essential relationship to each other. After showing how the ascendant Stanford School in the philosophy of science has contributed to this joint demystification of ‘humanity’ and ‘science’, I proceed on a more positive note to a conceptual framework for making sense of science as the art of being human. My understanding of ‘science’ is indebted to the red thread that runs from Christian theology through the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment to the Humboldtian revival of the university as the site for the synthesis of knowledge as the culmination of self-development. Especially salient to this idea is science‘s epistemic capacity to manage modality (i.e. to determine the conditions under which possibilities can be actualised) and its political capacity to organize humanity into projects of universal concern. However, the challenge facing such an ideal in the twentyfirst century is that the predicate ‘human’ may be projected in three quite distinct ways, governed by what I call ‘ecological’, ‘biomedical’ and ‘cybernetic’ interests. Which one of these future humanities would claim today’s humans as proper ancestors and could these futures co-habit the same world thus become two important questions that general philosophy of science will need to address in the coming years
The effect of a high-egg diet on cardiovascular risk factors in people with type 2 diabetes: the Diabetes and Egg (DIABEGG) study-a 3-mo randomized controlled trial
BACKGROUND: Previously published research that examined the effects of high egg consumption in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) produced conflicting results leading to recommendations to limit egg intake. However, people with T2D may benefit from egg consumption because eggs are a nutritious and convenient way of improving protein and micronutrient contents of the diet, which have importance for satiety and weight management. OBJECTIVE: In this randomized controlled study, we aimed to determine whether a high-egg diet (2 eggs/d for 6 d/wk) compared with a low-egg diet (<2 eggs/wk) affected circulating lipid profiles, in particular high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, in overweight or obese people with prediabetes or T2D. DESIGN: A total of 140 participants were randomly assigned to one of the 2 diets as part of a 3-mo weight maintenance study. Participants attended the clinic monthly and were instructed on the specific types of foods and quantities to be consumed. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the change in HDL cholesterol from screening to 3 mo between groups; the mean difference (95% CI) between high- and low-egg groups was +0.02 mmol/L (-0.03, 0.08 mmol/L; P = 0.38). No between-group differences were shown for total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, or glycemic control. Both groups were matched for protein intake, but the high-egg group reported less hunger and greater satiety postbreakfast. Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) and monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) intakes significantly increased from baseline in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: High egg consumption did not have an adverse effect on the lipid profile of people with T2D in the context of increased MUFA and PUFA consumption. This study suggests that a high-egg diet can be included safely as part of the dietary management of T2D, and it may provide greater satiety. This trial was registered at the Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (http://www.anzctr.org.au/) as ACTRN12612001266853
Domestication as innovation : the entanglement of techniques, technology and chance in the domestication of cereal crops
The origins of agriculture involved pathways of domestication in which human behaviours and plant genetic adaptations were entangled. These changes resulted in consequences that were unintended at the start of the process. This paper highlights some of the key innovations in human behaviours, such as soil preparation, harvesting and threshing, and how these were coupled with genetic ‘innovations’ within plant populations. We identify a number of ‘traps’ for early cultivators, including the needs for extra labour expenditure on crop-processing and soil fertility maintenance, but also linked gains in terms of potential crop yields. Compilations of quantitative data across a few different crops for the traits of nonshattering and seed size are discussed in terms of the apparently slow process of domestication, and parallels and differences between different regional pathways are identified. We highlight the need to bridge the gap between a Neolithic archaeobotanical focus on domestication and a focus of later periods on crop-processing activities and labour organization. In addition, archaeobotanical data provide a basis for rethinking previous assumptions about how plant genetic data should be related to the origins of agriculture and we contrast two alternative hypotheses: gradual evolution with low selection pressure versus metastable equilibrium that prolonged the persistence of ‘semi-domesticated’ populations. Our revised understanding of the innovations involved in plant domestication highlight the need for new approaches to collecting, modelling and integrating genetic data and archaeobotanical evidence
On the nature of surface roughness with application to contact mechanics, sealing, rubber friction and adhesion
Surface roughness has a huge impact on many important phenomena. The most
important property of rough surfaces is the surface roughness power spectrum
C(q). We present surface roughness power spectra of many surfaces of practical
importance, obtained from the surface height profile measured using optical
methods and the Atomic Force Microscope. We show how the power spectrum
determines the contact area between two solids. We also present applications to
sealing, rubber friction and adhesion for rough surfaces, where the power
spectrum enters as an important input.Comment: Topical review; 82 pages, 61 figures; Format: Latex (iopart). Some
figures are in Postscript Level
Gamow-Teller strength distributions for nuclei in pre-supernova stellar cores
Electron-capture and -decay of nuclei in the core of massive stars
play an important role in the stages leading to a type II supernova explosion.
Nuclei in the f-p shell are particularly important for these reactions in the
post Silicon-burning stage of a presupernova star. In this paper, we
characterise the energy distribution of the Gamow-Teller Giant Resonance (GTGR)
for mid-fp-shell nuclei in terms of a few shape parameters, using data obtained
from high energy, forward scattering (p,n) and (n,p) reactions. The energy of
the GTGR centroid is further generalised as function of nuclear
properties like mass number, isospin and other shell model properties of the
nucleus. Since a large fraction of the GT strength lies in the GTGR region, and
the GTGR is accessible for weak transitions taking place at energies relevant
to the cores of presupernova and collapsing stars, our results are relevant to
the study of important -capture and -decay rates of arbitrary,
neutron-rich, f-p shell nuclei in stellar cores. Using the observed GTGR and
Isobaric Analog States (IAS) energy systematics we compare the coupling
coefficients in the Bohr-Mottelson two particle interaction Hamiltonian for
different regions of the Isotope Table.Comment: Revtex, 28 pages +7 figures (PostScript Figures, uuencoded, filename:
Sutfigs.uu). If you have difficulty printing the figures, please contact
[email protected]. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C, Nov 01,
199
Determination of Inter-Phase Line Tension in Langmuir Films
A Langmuir film is a molecularly thin film on the surface of a fluid; we
study the evolution of a Langmuir film with two co-existing fluid phases driven
by an inter-phase line tension and damped by the viscous drag of the underlying
subfluid. Experimentally, we study an 8CB Langmuir film via digitally-imaged
Brewster Angle Microscopy (BAM) in a four-roll mill setup which applies a
transient strain and images the response. When a compact domain is stretched by
the imposed strain, it first assumes a bola shape with two tear-drop shaped
reservoirs connected by a thin tether which then slowly relaxes to a circular
domain which minimizes the interfacial energy of the system. We process the
digital images of the experiment to extract the domain shapes. We then use one
of these shapes as an initial condition for the numerical solution of a
boundary-integral model of the underlying hydrodynamics and compare the
subsequent images of the experiment to the numerical simulation. The numerical
evolutions first verify that our hydrodynamical model can reproduce the
observed dynamics. They also allow us to deduce the magnitude of the line
tension in the system, often to within 1%. We find line tensions in the range
of 200-600 pN; we hypothesize that this variation is due to differences in the
layer depths of the 8CB fluid phases.Comment: See (http://www.math.hmc.edu/~ajb/bola/) for related movie
Electron capture on iron group nuclei
We present Gamow-Teller strength distributions from shell model Monte Carlo
studies of fp-shell nuclei that may play an important role in the pre-collapse
evolution of supernovae. We then use these strength distributions to calculate
the electron-capture cross sections and rates in the zero-momentum transfer
limit. We also discuss the thermal behavior of the cross sections. We find
large differences in these cross sections and rates when compared to the naive
single-particle estimates. These differences need to be taken into account for
improved modeling of the early stages of type II supernova evolution
Supernova Neutrino-Nucleus Astrophysics
In this brief review we explore the role of neutrino-nucleus interactions in
core-collapse supernovae and discuss open questions. In addition implications
of neutrino mass and mixings in such environments are summarized.Comment: Revtex 4 figure
New Supernova Constraints on Sterile Neutrino Production
We consider the possibility that a light sterile-neutrino species can
be produced by scattering during the cooling of a proto-neutron star.
If we parameterize the sterile neutrino production cross-section by a parameter
as , where is an electron, neutron or proton, we show that is
constrained by limits to the conversion of to in the region
between the sterile-neutrino trapping region and the electron-neutrino trapping
region. This consideration excludes values of in the range between 10^{-4}
\la A \la 10^{-1}.Comment: 12 pages; Late
Neutrinos from Stellar Collapse: Effects of flavour mixing
We study the effect of non-vanishing masses and mixings among neutrino
flavours on the detection of neutrinos from stellar collapse by a water
Cerenkov detector. We consider a realistic framework in which there are three
neutrino flavours whose mass squared differences and mixings are constrained by
the present understanding of solar and atmospheric neutrinos. We also include
the effects of high dense matter within the supernova core. We find that the
number of events due to the dominant process involving electron-antineutrinos
may change dramatically for some allowed mixing parameters. Furthermore,
contributions from charged-current scattering off oxygen atoms in the detector
can be considerably enhanced due to flavour mixing; such events have a distinct
experimental signature since they are backward-peaked. Hence, mixing has a
non-trivial effect on the signature of neutrinos (and antineutrinos) from
stellar collapse.Comment: 22 pages Latex file, with 6 postscript figures, minor changes made in
tex
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