Getting Acquainted with Kant

My question here concerns whether Kant claims that experience has nonconceptual content, or whether, on his view, experience is essentially conceptual. However there is a sense in which this debate concerning the content of intuition is ill-conceived. Part of this has to do with the terms in which the debate is set, and part to do with confusion over the connection between Kant’s own views and contemporary concerns in epistemology and the philosophy of mind. However, I think much of the substance of the debate concerning Kant’s views on the content of experience can be salvaged by reframing it in terms of a debate about the dependence relations, if any, that exist between different cognitive capacities. Below, in Section 2, I clarify the notion of ‘content’ I take to be at stake in the interpretive debate. Section 3 presents reasons for thinking that intuition cannot have content in the relevant sense. I then argue, in Section 4, that the debate be reframed in terms of dependence. We should distinguish between Intellectualism, according to which all objective representation (understood in a particular way) depends on acts of synthesis by the intellect, and Sensibilism, according to which at least some forms of objective representation are independent of any such acts (or the capacity for such acts). Finally, in Section 5, I further elucidate the cognitive role of intuition. I articulate a challenge which Kant understands alethic modal considerations to present for achieving cognition, and argue that a version of Sensibilism that construes intuition as a form of acquaintance is better positioned to answer this challenge than Intellectualism

European and multi-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of atopic dermatitis highlights importance of systemic immune regulation

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common inflammatory skin condition and prior genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 71 associated loci. In the current study we conducted the largest AD GWAS to date (discovery N = 1,086,394, replication N = 3,604,027), combining previously reported cohorts with additional available data. We identified 81 loci (29 novel) in the European-only analysis (which all replicated in a separate European analysis) and 10 additional loci in the multi-ancestry analysis (3 novel). Eight variants from the multi-ancestry analysis replicated in at least one of the populations tested (European, Latino or African), while two may be specific to individuals of Japanese ancestry. AD loci showed enrichment for DNAse I hypersensitivity and eQTL associations in blood. At each locus we prioritised candidate genes by integrating multi-omic data. The implicated genes are predominantly in immune pathways of relevance to atopic inflammation and some offer drug repurposing opportunities.</p

Infrared Luminescence in Er and Er+O Implanted 6H SiC

Photoluminescence in the neighbourhood of 1.54 μm due to the $\text{}^{4}$I$\text{}_{13}\text{}_{/}\text{}_{2}$ -$\text{}^{4}$I$\text{}_{15}\text{}_{/}\text{}_{2}$ intra-4f-shell transitions of Er$\text{}^{3+}$ ions in 6H SiC is studied. Effects of oxygen coimplantation is also investigated. No difference in the photoluminescence spectra of Er only and Er+O implanted SiC was found. It is concluded that the emission around 1.54 μm in SiC:Er originates from erbium-oxygen complexes, which are formed as a result of thermal annealing

Infrared Luminescence in Er and Er+O Implanted 6H SiC

Photoluminescence in the neighbourhood of 1.54 μm due to the $\text{}^{4}$I$\text{}_{13}\text{}_{/}\text{}_{2}$ -$\text{}^{4}$I$\text{}_{15}\text{}_{/}\text{}_{2}$ intra-4f-shell transitions of Er$\text{}^{3+}$ ions in 6H SiC is studied. Effects of oxygen coimplantation is also investigated. No difference in the photoluminescence spectra of Er only and Er+O implanted SiC was found. It is concluded that the emission around 1.54 μm in SiC:Er originates from erbium-oxygen complexes, which are formed as a result of thermal annealing

Impact of obstructive sleep apnea severity on cardiac events in patients with normal or prolonged ventricular repolarization

BACKGROUND: Prolonged cardiac repolarization is associated with increased risk of ventricular arrhythmias which are aggravated by several triggering factors including excess catecholamine state and electrolyte abnormalities. We studied the impact of severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on ventricular tachyarrhythmias and mortality in patients with normal or prolonged ventricular repolarization as this is not well defined. METHODS: 338 patients [59% male, mean age: 61 ± 13] undergoing polysomnography between January 2012 to June 2015 who also had a 12-lead ECG were divided into 4 groups: Group 1-no evidence of OSA, Group 2-mild, Group 3-moderate, Group 4-severe, based on apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) none\u3c5, mild 5-14, moderate 15-29, severe \u3e29 respectively. The differences in prevalence of non-sustained ventricular tachycardia between the 4 groups and incidence of ventricular fibrillation (VF) and overall mortality were determined using Cochran-Armitage Trend and Chi-Square. In addition, differences in VT and VF and overall mortality were determined between the 4 groups and compared to those with normal or prolonged repolarization (defined as JTc interval [JTc=QTc -QRS] \u3e380ms for female and \u3e360ms for male). RESULTS: Out of 338 patients, [51% with preexisting heart failure] the prevalence of VT increased with OSA severity from 44% in Group 1 to 46%, 50%, 67% in Group 2 to 4 [p=0.004] respectively. In patients with normal repolarization, prevalence of VT increased with OSA severity from 33% in Group 1 to 50%, 60% and 84% in Group 2 to 4 [p=0.001]. However, in patients with prolonged repolarization, there was no additional impact of OSA severity on VT in Group 1 to 4: 50%, 45%, 45%, 60% [p=0.094]. The risk of VF or death increased with worsening OSA severity from Groups 1 -4: 2.7%, 5.4%, 5.8%, 9.8%, however this was not significantly significant [p=0.53]. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with underlying cardiac disease, the prevalence of VT increases with OSA severity mainly in patients with normal repolarization but have minimum effect on patients with prolonged repolarization. There is a trend toward higher risk of VF or death with worsening sleep apnea that needs to be confirmed in a larger population

The risk of adverse coronary events is higher in patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea following percutaneous coronary intervention

BACKGROUND: Limited data is available on the impact of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) or continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy on coronary events or mortality in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). METHODS: From a multispecialty community sleep center, patients undergoing polysomnography (PSG) from 2011 to 2014 were identified. Of these, those who had PCI performed after PSG were included in this analysis. Coronary events (myocardial infarction or redo PCI), mortality or composite endpoint (MI, redo PCI and death) after PCI was compared between those with severe OSA (apnea-hypopnea index [AHI] 330) or non-severe OSA (AHI\u3c30) using Wilcoxon, Chi square test, and Kaplan-Meier analysis. Predictors of composite and individual end points were determined using proportional hazard cox model. RESULTS: The cohort consisted of 222 patients (mean age 63.2±11.3 years, 70% male) of whom 39% had severe OSA, 24% moderate OSA, 28 mild OSA and 9% had no OSA. The composite endpoint after PCI was significantly higher in those with severe OSA, compared to those with non-severe OSA (36% vs 24%, hazard ratio: 1.8, 95% CI: 1.1-2.9; p-value: 0.02, Fig). Multivariate analysis showed severity of OSA, MI and age\u3e65 as independent predictors for composite endpoints. (Fig) CONCLUSIONS: Severe OSA has a negative impact on coronary event rate after PCI. Whether treating OSA with CPAP therapy helps reduce these events needs to be further investigated