Hubert Dreyfus on Practical and Embodied Intelligence

This chapter treats Hubert Dreyfus’ account of skilled coping as part of his wider project of demonstrating the sovereignty of practical intelligence over all other forms of intelligence. In contrast to the standard picture of human beings as essentially rational, individual agents, Dreyfus argued powerfully on phenomenological and empirical grounds that humans are fundamentally embedded, absorbed, and embodied. These commitments are present throughout Dreyfus’ philosophical writings, from his critique of Artificial Intelligence research in the 1970s and 1980s to his rejection of John McDowell’s conceptualism in his 2005 APA Presidential Address. The present chapter articulates Dreyfus’ proposal for a contentless, non-mentalistic form of intentionality by contrasting his position with that of his U.C. Berkeley colleague John Searle and defending it as a plausible alternative to the so-called “Standard Story” of intentional action as the effect of an agent’s mental states

Qualitative Exploration of the Perceptions of Nursing Undergraduates Regarding Family Care at End-of-Life

Background/Purpose: Family care at end-of-life is delivered by nurses and includes communication and explanations, providing emotional support for the family, creating an environment in which death occurs with dignity, providing privacy, facilitating visitation, and honoring and meeting cultural and personal family values (Beckstrand et al., 2011; Bloomer et al., 2013; Cronin et al., 2015; Heidari & Norouzadeh, 2014). There appears to be a gap in the empirical evidence and literature on this topic. Regarding the knowledge and comfort of student nurses, and subsequently nurses, in family care at the end-of-life, there is disparity. To determine what must be taught to nursing students, there must first be a needs assessment. The purpose of this study is to investigate what nursing students perceive their needs, challenges, and facilitators to providing competent family care at end-of-life. Theoretical framework: Mezirow’s transformative learning theory was the framework for this study (Kitchenham, 2008). The theory is used as a method for behavior change. Results provided information needed to explore new content and options for nursing education regarding care of families of dying patients. Method: This study used a qualitative descriptive design. Focus groups were used to interview 19 junior and senior nursing students who were currently in acute care clinical courses. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Four themes emerged from the data: feeling unprepared, importance of communication, experience increases comfort and confidence, and families’ emotional responses can be challenging. Conclusions: This study supports previous findings that students do not feel prepared to provide family care at end-of-life. All nurses need to know the basics of providing family care at end-of-life. This study supported that students prefer experiential learning methods, such as simulation and role playing. This study also demonstrates that nursing faculty should also be knowledgeable and comfortable with family care at end-of-life

Recycled Dark Matter

We outline a new production mechanism for dark matter that we dub "recycling": dark sector particles are kinematically trapped in the false vacuum during a dark phase transition; the false pockets collapse into primordial black holes (PBHs), which ultimately evaporate before Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) to reproduce the dark sector particles. The requirement that all PBHs evaporate prior to BBN necessitates high scale phase transitions and hence high scale masses for the dark sector particles in the true vacuum. Our mechanism is therefore particularly suited for the production of ultra heavy dark matter (UHDM) with masses above $\sim 10^{12}\,{\rm GeV}$. The correct relic density of UHDM is obtained because of the exponential suppression of the false pocket number density. Recycled UHDM has several novel features: the dark sector today consists of multiple decoupled species that were once in thermal equilibrium and the PBH formation stage has extended mass functions whose shape can be controlled by IR operators coupling the dark and visible sectors.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures; v2: Lifetime of scalar updated. Conclusions unchange

Comparative effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Insomnia is common in primary care, can persist after co-morbid conditions are treated, and may require long-term medication treatment. A potential alternative to medications is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). METHODS: In accordance with PRISMA guidelines, we systematically reviewed MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register, and PsycINFO for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing CBT-I to any prescription or non-prescription medication in patients with primary or comorbid insomnia. Trials had to report quantitative sleep outcomes (e.g. sleep latency) in order to be included in the analysis. Extracted results included quantitative sleep outcomes, as well as psychological outcomes and adverse effects when available. Evidence base quality was assessed using GRADE. RESULTS: Five studies met criteria for analysis. Low to moderate grade evidence suggests CBT-I has superior effectiveness to benzodiazepine and non-benzodiazepine drugs in the long term, while very low grade evidence suggests benzodiazepines are more effective in the short term. Very low grade evidence supports use of CBT-I to improve psychological outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: CBT-I is effective for treating insomnia when compared with medications, and its effects may be more durable than medications. Primary care providers should consider CBT-I as a first-line treatment option for insomnia

The Primordial Black Holes that Disappeared: Connections to Dark Matter and MHz-GHz Gravitational Waves

In the post-LIGO era, there has been a lot of focus on primordial black holes (PBHs) heavier than $\sim 10^{15}$g as potential dark matter (DM) candidates. We point out that the branch of the PBH family that disappeared - PBHs lighter than $\sim 10^9$g that ostensibly Hawking evaporated away in the early Universe - also constitute an interesting frontier for DM physics. Hawking evaporation itself serves as a portal through which such PBHs can illuminate new physics, for example by emitting dark sector particles. Taking a simple DM scalar singlet model as a template, we compute the abundance and mass of PBHs that could have provided, by Hawking evaporation, the correct DM relic density. We consider two classes of such PBHs: those originating from curvature perturbations generated by inflation, and those originating from false vacuum collapse during a first-order phase transition. For PBHs of both origins we compute the gravitational wave (GW) signals emanating from their formation stage: from second-order effects in the case of curvature perturbations, and from sound waves in the case of phase transitions. The GW signals have peak frequencies in the MHz-GHz range typical of such light PBHs. We compute the strength of such GWs compatible with the observed DM relic density, and find that the GW signal morphology can in principle allow one to distinguish between the two PBH formation histories.Comment: 23 pages + references, 8 figure

The Pre-Roche Lobe Overflow Evolution of Massive Close Binary Stars: A Study of Rotation, Wind Enhanced Mass-Loss, and the Bi-Stability Jump

Massive stars have the ability to enrich their environment with heavy elements and influence star formation in galaxies. Some massive stars exist in binary systems with short orbital periods. These are called massive close binaries. It is important to understand the evolution of massive close binary systems to gain insight about galaxy evolution. Massive stars above 20 solar masses experience a bi-stability jump where there is a sudden increase in mass-loss rate in their winds. There is ongoing research in this field, but the study of the bi-stability jump and its effects on massive close binary star properties has not been done before. A related question is whether binarity can produce a slow rotating, nitrogen-rich massive star such as those found in the Large Magellanic Cloud (Hunter et al. 2008). To accomplish this, two single-star models from Higgins & Vink (2019) and Brott et al. (2011) were used to model a close binary system with the 1-dimensional hydrodynamic stellar evolution code MESA. A grid of models using Higgins & Vink (2019) stellar parameters was created by varying 5 parameters: the convective step overshoot, the tidally enhanced wind coefficient, the wind enhancement factor, the initial rotation, and the initial masses of both stars. Two models were created to compare the approaches of Higgins & Vink (2019) and Brott et al. (2011). Results show that early on in the evolution of the rotating models, the primary star has a more nitrogen-rich photosphere and rotates slower than the secondary star. Tidally enhanced winds are strong enough to strip off the surface layers of the primary. This exposed the nitrogen-rich envelope that is enhanced due to mixing. Tidal forces and tidally enhanced winds slow the rotation rate of the primary star. The existence of the bi-stability jump in massive close binary stars does have an effect on binary properties and could prevent a Roche lobe overflow event. From the numerical data from the models, predictions for characteristics of a wind-blown bubble provide possible future observational properties that are testable with current X-ray observatories

Baryogenesis, Primordial Black Holes and MHz-GHz Gravitational Waves

Gravitational waves (GWs) in the MHz - GHz frequency range are motivated by a host of early Universe phenomena such as oscillons, preheating, and cosmic strings. We point out that baryogenesis too serves as a motivation to probe GWs in this frequency range. The connection is through primordial black holes (PBHs): on the one hand, PBHs induce baryogenesis by Hawking evaporating into a species that has baryon number and $CP$ violating decays; on the other, PBHs induce GWs through second order effects when the scalar fluctuations responsible for their formation re-enter the horizon. We describe the interplay of the parameters responsible for successful baryogenesis on the plane of the strain and frequency of the induced GWs, being careful to delineate regimes where PBH domination or washout effects occur. We provide semi-analytic scalings of the GW strain with the baryon number to entropy ratio and other parameters important for baryogenesis. Along the way, we sketch a solution to the dark matter-baryogenesis coincidence problem with two populations of PBHs, which leads to a double-peaked GW signal. Our results underscore the importance of probing the ultra high frequency GW frontier.Comment: 35 pages, 9 figures. v2: added references, corrected a typo in Eq. (3.12), version published in JCA

Nursing Student Perceptions Regarding Simulation Experience Sequencing

BACKGROUND: The use of simulated learning experiences (SLEs) have increased within nursing curricula with positive learning outcomes for nursing students. The purpose of this study is to explore nursing students\u27 perceptions of their clinical decision making (CDM) related to the block sequencing of different patient care experiences, SLEs versus hospital-based learning experiences (HLEs). METHOD: A qualitative descriptive design used open-ended survey questions to generate information about the block sequencing of SLEs and its impact on nursing students\u27 perceived CDM. RESULTS: Three themes emerged from the data: Preexperience Anxiety, Real-Time Decision Making, and Increased Patient Care Experiences. CONCLUSION: Nursing students identified that having SLEs prior to HLEs provided several benefits. Even when students preferred SLEs prior to HLEs, the sequence did not impact their CDM. This suggests that alternating block sequencing can be used without impacting the students\u27 perceptions of their ability to make decisions