Rationality as the Therapy of Self-Liberation in Spinoza's Ethics

A given statement may be plausible, well founded or true. An individual action may be judged courageous, useful or good. Human beings are judged as well, for statements or actions that invite such evaluations, though the terms used may be different: a person may be described as truthful and virtuous, clever and happy. Epistemology and ethics - the theories that justify theoretical and practical judgements - may address not only the criteria used to assess states of belief, assertions, knowledge and the like, actions, omissions and feelings, but also the people that give rise to them. Nowadays, the issue of when and how a human being becomes clever, truthful, good or happy is less a matter of philosophy and more a question for religion, psychology and pedagogy. This has not always been the case. There has been a perceptible shift in moral philosophy: in antiquity, inquiries as to when a life is to be classified as good or happy were prevalent; in the modern era, the focus is primarily on when an individual action is to be regarded as right or good, wrong or ba

Partisan der Aufklärung: Rezension zu "Who Needs a World View?" von Raymond Geuss

Raymond Geuss: Who Needs a World View? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 2020. 978067424593

Replik: Kultur- und Bildungskritik und die Suche nach einer neuen Lebensform

Yvonne Hütter-Almerigi und Dirk Jörke haben wichtige Einwände zu meinem Essay über eine mögliche Dritte Aufklärung vorgetragen. Ich danke ihnen sehr für die Aufmerksamkeit, die sie meinem Text haben zukommen lassen und für die Mühe, die sie sich mit der Entwicklung ihrer wertvollen Kritik gemacht haben. Ich weiss nicht, ob ich auf ihre Kritiken angemessen regieren kann, weil mir Kompetenzen in den Bereichen der empirischen Sozialforschung und der Ökonomie fehlen, die für die Beantwortung manc..

Efficacy assessment of SNP sets for genome-wide disease association studies

The power of a genome-wide disease association study depends critically upon the properties of the marker set used, particularly the number and physical spacing of markers, and the level of inter-marker association due to linkage disequilibrium. Extending our previously devised theoretical framework for the entropy-based selection of genetic markers, we have developed a local measure of the efficacy of a marker set, relative to including a maximally polymorphic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at the map position of interest. Using this quantitative criterion, we evaluated five currently available SNP sets, namely Affymetrix 100K and 500K, and Illumina 100K, 300K and 550K in the CEU, YRI and JPT + CHB HapMap populations. At 50% relative efficacy, the commercial marker sets cover between 19 and 68% of the human genome, depending upon the population under study. An optimal technology-independent 500K marker set constructed from HapMap for Caucasians, in contrast, would achieve 73% coverage at the same relative efficacy

Fetal Brain-Derived Exosomal miRNAs from Maternal Blood: Potential Diagnostic Biomarkers for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs)

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are leading causes of neurodevelopmental disability but cannot be diagnosed early in utero. Because several microRNAs (miRNAs) are implicated in other neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders, the effects of EtOH exposure on the expression of these miRNAs and their target genes and pathways were assessed. In women who drank alcohol (EtOH) during pregnancy and non-drinking controls, matched individually for fetal sex and gestational age, the levels of miRNAs in fetal brain-derived exosomes (FB-Es) isolated from the mothers’ serum correlated well with the contents of the corresponding fetal brain tissues obtained after voluntary pregnancy termination. In six EtOH-exposed cases and six matched controls, the levels of fetal brain and maternal serum miRNAs were quantified on the array by qRT-PCR. In FB-Es from 10 EtOH-exposed cases and 10 controls, selected miRNAs were quantified by ddPCR. Protein levels were quantified by ELISA. There were significant EtOH-associated reductions in the expression of several miRNAs, including miR-9 and its downstream neuronal targets BDNF, REST, Synapsin, and Sonic hedgehog. In 20 paired cases, reductions in FB-E miR-9 levels correlated strongly with reductions in fetal eye diameter, a prominent feature of FASDs. Thus, FB-E miR-9 levels might serve as a biomarker to predict FASDs in at-risk fetuses

Arbeitslosigkeit ohne Ende? Die Arbeitsmarkt- und Beschäftigungspolitik der neuen Bundesregierung in der Kontroverse

Am 24. und 25. März 2006 fand an der Akademie für Politische Bildung Tutzing unter der Leitung von Dr. Wolfgang Quaisser und Karl-Heinz Willenborg die Tagung "Arbeitslosigkeit ohne Ende? Die Arbeitsmarkt- und Beschäftigungspolitik der neuen Bundesregierung in der Kontroverse" statt. Im Zentrum der Tagung standen die im Koalitionsvertrag vorgeschlagenen arbeitsmarktpolitischen Maßnahmen. Als Mitglied der Bundesregierung erläutert Franz Müntefering, Bundesminister für Arbeit und Soziales, die Arbeitsmarkt- und Beschäftigungspolitik der Bundesregierung. Hermann Otto Solms, FDP-Bundestagsfraktion, Heike Maria Kunstmann, Gesamtmetall, und Wilhelm Adamy, DGB, nehmen als Vertreter der Opposition, der Arbeitgeber und der Arbeitnehmer Stellung dazu. Joachim Möller, Universität Regensburg, legt seine Bewertung aus wissenschaftlicher Sicht dar. Im Anschluss daran prüfen Peter Hampe, TU Dresden, und Ulrich Walwei, Michael Feil und Lisa Tillmann, IAB, Nürnberg, ob aus der deutschen Wirtschafts- und Arbeitsmarktpolitik seit der Wiedervereinigung Lehren für Deutschland im Kampf gegen die Arbeitslosigkeit gezogen werden können. Zum Abschluss berichten Michael Knogler, Osteuropa-Institut München, und Wolfgang Quaisser, Politische Akademie Tutzing, Wolfgang Ochel, ifo Institut, und Henry Werner, dänische Botschaft, Berlin, über die Arbeitsmarktpolitik der neuen EU-Mitgliedstaaten, der USA sowie Dänemarks

TassDB2 - A comprehensive database of subtle alternative splicing events

Background: Subtle alternative splicing events involving tandem splice sites separated by a short (2-12 nucleotides) distance are frequent and evolutionarily widespread in eukaryotes, and a major contributor to the complexity of transcriptomes and proteomes. However, these events have been either omitted altogether in databases on alternative splicing, or only the cases of experimentally confirmed alternative splicing have been reported. Thus, a database which covers all confirmed cases of subtle alternative splicing as well as the numerous putative tandem splice sites (which might be confirmed once more transcript data becomes available), and allows to search for tandem splice sites with specific features and download the results, is a valuable resource for targeted experimental studies and large-scale bioinformatics analyses of tandem splice sites. Towards this goal we recently set up TassDB (Tandem Splice Site DataBase, version 1), which stores data about alternative splicing events at tandem splice sites separated by 3 nt in eight species. \ud Description: We have substantially revised and extended TassDB. The currently available version 2 contains extensive information about tandem splice sites separated by 2-12 nt for the human and mouse transcriptomes including data on the conservation of the tandem motifs in five vertebrates. TassDB2 offers a user-friendly interface to search for specific genes or for genes containing tandem splice sites with specific features as well as the possibility to download result datasets. For example, users can search for cases of alternative splicing where the proportion of EST/mRNA evidence supporting the minor isoform exceeds a specific threshold, or where the difference in splice site scores is specified by the user. The predicted impact of each event on the protein is also reported, along with information about being a putative target for the nonsense-mediated decay \ud (NMD) pathway. Links are provided to the UCSC genome browser and other external resources.\ud Conclusion: TassDB2, available via http://www.tassdb.info, provides comprehensive resources for researchers interested in both targeted experimental studies and large-scale bioinformatics analyses of short distance tandem splice sites.\ud \ud doi: 10.1186/1471-2105-11-216\u

Arbeitslosigkeit ohne Ende? Die Arbeitsmarkt- und Beschäftigungspolitik der neuen Bundesregierung in der Kontroverse

Am 24. und 25. März 2006 fand an der Akademie für Politische Bildung Tutzing unter der Leitung von Dr. Wolfgang Quaisser und Karl-Heinz Willenborg die Tagung "Arbeitslosigkeit ohne Ende? Die Arbeitsmarkt- und Beschäftigungspolitik der neuen Bundesregierung in der Kontroverse" statt. Im Zentrum der Tagung standen die im Koalitionsvertrag vorgeschlagenen arbeitsmarktpolitischen Maßnahmen. Als Mitglied der Bundesregierung erläutert Franz Müntefering, Bundesminister für Arbeit und Soziales, die Arbeitsmarkt- und Beschäftigungspolitik der Bundesregierung. Hermann Otto Solms, FDP-Bundestagsfraktion, Heike Maria Kunstmann, Gesamtmetall, und Wilhelm Adamy, DGB, nehmen als Vertreter der Opposition, der Arbeitgeber und der Arbeitnehmer Stellung dazu. Joachim Möller, Universität Regensburg, legt seine Bewertung aus wissenschaftlicher Sicht dar. Im Anschluss daran prüfen Peter Hampe, TU Dresden, und Ulrich Walwei, Michael Feil und Lisa Tillmann, IAB, Nürnberg, ob aus der deutschen Wirtschafts- und Arbeitsmarktpolitik seit der Wiedervereinigung Lehren für Deutschland im Kampf gegen die Arbeitslosigkeit gezogen werden können. Zum Abschluss berichten Michael Knogler, Osteuropa-Institut München, und Wolfgang Quaisser, Politische Akademie Tutzing, Wolfgang Ochel, ifo Institut, und Henry Werner, dänische Botschaft, Berlin, über die Arbeitsmarktpolitik der neuen EU-Mitgliedstaaten, der USA sowie Dänemarks.Arbeitslosigkeit, Arbeitsmarktpolitik, Beschäftigungspolitik, Regierung, Deutschland

Development of Type 1 Diabetes in Wild Bank Voles Associated With Islet Autoantibodies and the Novel Ljungan Virus

Wild bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus) may develop diabetes in laboratory captivity. The aim of this study was to test whether bank voles develop type 1 diabetes in association with Ljungan virus. Two groups of bank voles were analyzed for diabetes, pancreas histology, autoantibodies to glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65), IA-2, and insulin by standardized radioligand-binding assays as well as antibodies to in vitro transcribed and translated Ljungan virus antigens. Group A represented 101 trapped bank voles, which were screened for diabetes when euthanized within 24 hours of capture. Group B represented 67 bank voles, which were trapped and kept in the laboratory for 1 month before being euthanized. Group A bank voles did not have diabetes. Bank voles in group B (22/67; 33%) developed diabetes due to specific lysis of pancreatic islet beta cells. Compared to nondiabetic group B bank voles, diabetic animals had increased levels of GAD65 (P < .0001), IA-2 (P < .0001), and insulin (P = .03) autoantibodies. Affected islets stained positive for Ljungan virus, a novel picorna virus isolated from bank voles. Ljungan virus inoculation of nondiabetic wild bank voles induced beta-cell lysis. Compared to group A bank voles, Ljungan virus antibodies were increased in both nondiabetic (P < .0001) and diabetic (P = .0015) group B bank voles. Levels of Ljungan virus antibodies were also increased in young age at onset of newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes in children (P < .01). These findings support the hypothesis that the development of type 1 diabetes in captured wild bank voles is associated with Ljungan virus. It is speculated that bank voles may have a possible zoonotic role as a reservoir and vector for virus that may contribute to the incidence of type 1 diabetes in humans