Communal and Institutional Trust: Authority in Religion and Politics

Linda Zagzebski’s book on epistemic authority is an impressive and stimulating treatment of an important topic. 1 I admire the way she manages to combine imagination, originality and argumentative control. Her work has the further considerable merit of bringing analytic thinking and abstract theory to bear upon areas of concrete human concern, such as the attitudes one should have towards moral and religious authority. The book is stimulating in a way good philosophy should be -- provoking both disagreement and emulation. I agree with much of what she says, and have been instructed by it, but it will be of more interest and relevance here if I concentrate upon areas of disagreement. Perhaps they are better seen as areas, at least some of them, where her emphases suggest a position that seems to me untenable, but that she may not really intend. In that event, I will be happy to have provoked a clarification or the dispelling of my misunderstanding. My focus will be upon problems in her account of communal authority and autonomy, especially with respect to religious and political authority. Here my worry is that she places too much trust in trust and not enough in what I call selective mistrust

A study of the reading references in five senior high school American history textbooks

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

Progress Toward Durable Icephobic Materials

Ice accumulation is a major engineering challenge in many fields including aerospace, power generation, transportation, and infrastructure. A variety of solutions are being researched to address this challenge. Perhaps the most promising method of combating ice accumulation is by applying coatings with low values of interfacial ice adhesion strength, τice. Icephobic materials are those with ice adhesion below 100 kPa, and it has been shown that passive delamination can occur on surfaces with τice below 20 kPa. While various low adhesion surfaces have been prepared, durability concerns pervade applications where surfaces experience repeated icing or freeze-thaw cycles, mechanical abrasion, and particulate erosion. The present thesis explores methods of improving the durability of state-of-the-art icephobic materials in order to make them more suitable solutions to ‘the icing problem.’ Ice adhesion was measured using in-house load cell and centrifugation methods, allowing for the direct comparison of τice values between the materials developed. Various ways of improving the durability of icephobic surfaces were identified, including the stabilization of slippery lubricant-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) via polymer cross-linking at the interface, copolymerization of commercial poly(dimethylsiloxane) resins with acrylate / styrene monomers yielding highly cross-linked network copolymer coatings, and lowering ice adhesion on commercially available adhesive films by introducing areas of substrate-film detachment. A collaborative study of femtosecond laser micromachining done with McGill University is also included which showed the cross-link density dependence of threshold fluence, and the varied surface morphologies that could be accessed by these means. These studies show effective methods of influencing icephobic material durability using straightforward methodologies and will inspire new investigations toward creating more durable icephobic materials that can alleviate concerns with ice accumulation for people that live in cold climates. Our investigations and proposed work show that cutting-edge research in this field can be done at Western, making Canada a viable leader of global anti-icing research

Activation of an ATP-dependent K+ conductance in Xenopus oocytes by expression of adenylate kinase cloned from renal proximal tubules

AbstractIn rabbit proximal convoluted tubules, an ATP-sensitive K+ (KATP) channel has been shown to be involved in membrane cross-talk, i.e. the coupling (most likely mediated through intracellular ATP) between transepithelial Na+ transport and basolateral K+ conductance. This K+ conductance is inhibited by taurine. We sought to isolate this K+ channel by expression cloning in Xenopus oocytes. Injection of renal cortex mRNA into oocytes induced a K+ conductance, largely inhibited by extracellular Ba2+ and intracellular taurine. Using this functional test, we isolated from our proximal tubule cDNA library a unique clone, which induced a large K+ current which was Ba2+-, taurine- and glibenclamide-sensitive. Surprisingly, this clone is not a K+ channel but an adenylate kinase protein (AK3), known to convert NTP+AMP into NDP+ADP (N could be G, I or A). AK3 expression resulted in a large ATP decrease and activation of the whole-cell currents including a previously unknown, endogenous K+ current. To verify whether ATP decrease was responsible for the current activation, we demonstrated that inhibition of glycolysis greatly reduces oocyte ATP levels and increases an inwardly rectifying K+ current. The possible involvement of AK in the KATP channel’s regulation provides a means of explaining their observed activity in cytosolic environments characterized by high ATP concentrations

Electrogenic amino acid exchange via the rBAT transporter

AbstractA cDNA clone was isolated from rabbit renal cortex using DNA-mediated expression cloning, which caused alanine-dependent outward currents when expressed in Xenopus oocytes. The cDNA encodes rBAT, a Na-independent amino acid transporter previously cloned elsewhere. Exposure of cDNA-injected oocytes to neutral amino acids led to voltage-dependent outward currents, but inward currents were seen upon exposure to basic amino acids. Assuming one charge/alanine, the outward current represented 38% of the rate of uptake of radiolabelled alanine, and was significantly reduced by prolonged preincubation of oocytes in 5 mM alanine. The currents were shown to be due to countertransport of basic amino acids for external amino acids using the cut-open oocyte system. This transport represents a major mode of action of this protein, and may help in defining a physiological role for rBAT in the apical membrane of renal and intestinal cells

Sub 20 nm Silicon Patterning and Metal Lift-Off Using Thermal Scanning Probe Lithography

The most direct definition of a patterning process' resolution is the smallest half-pitch feature it is capable of transferring onto the substrate. Here we demonstrate that thermal Scanning Probe Lithography (t-SPL) is capable of fabricating dense line patterns in silicon and metal lift-off features at sub 20 nm feature size. The dense silicon lines were written at a half pitch of 18.3 nm to a depth of 5 nm into a 9 nm polyphthalaldehyde thermal imaging layer by t-SPL. For processing we used a three-layer stack comprising an evaporated SiO2 hardmask which is just 2-3 nm thick. The hardmask is used to amplify the pattern into a 50 nm thick polymeric transfer layer. The transfer layer subsequently serves as an etch mask for transfer into silicon to a nominal depth of 60 nm. The line edge roughness (3 sigma) was evaluated to be less than 3 nm both in the transfer layer and in silicon. We also demonstrate that a similar three-layer stack can be used for metal lift-off of high resolution patterns. A device application is demonstrated by fabricating 50 nm half pitch dense nickel contacts to an InAs nanowire.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, to be published in JVST

The moral obligations of trust

Moral obligation, Darwall argues, is irreducibly second personal. So too, McMyler argues, is the reason for belief supplied by testimony and which supports trust. In this paper, I follow Darwall in arguing that the testimony is not second personal ‘all the way down’. However, I go on to argue, this shows that trust is not fully second personal, which in turn shows that moral obligation is equally not second personal ‘all the way down’

The Social Construction of Conspiracy Beliefs: A Q-Methodology Study of How Ordinary People DefineThem and Judge Their Plausibility

Little is known about ordinary people’s understandings of conspiracy beliefs and how these understandings relate to the perspectives of researchers and scholars. Working within a social constructionist epistemological framework, we conducted a Q-methodology study aiming to identify a range of lay perspectives on two key topics: the defining features of conspiracy beliefs; and aspects considered important in judging their plausibility. Fifty-six people (32 men and 24 women), recruited via regional UK Facebook groups, sorted their agreement with a set of statements on each of the two topics. A principal component analysis, followed by varimax rotation, was performed on each data set. Five accounts about the defining features of conspiracy beliefs were identified: that they are false, illogical and harmful; that they are forms of political critique; that there are varied types; that they are entertaining but ineffectual; and that they are held by a self-reinforcing minority. Four accounts about their evaluation were identified: conventional realist criteria; the importance of personal judgement; skeptical realism; and the assessment of critical thinking. The findings are discussed in the context of the literature and limitations of the study are considered. Implications for research and educational and policy interventions are outlined

The effect of exenatide on cardiovascular risk markers in women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is associated with an adverse cardiovascular risk profile including a prothrombotic state. Exenatide has been shown to be effective at improving insulin sensitivity and weight loss in PCOS; therefore this study was undertaken to assess its effects on weight, endothelial function, inflammatory markers, and fibrin structure/function in overweight/obese women with PCOS.Methods: Thirty overweight/obese anovulatory women with all 3 Rotterdam criteria received exenatide 5 mcg bd for 4 weeks then 10 mcg bd for 12 weeks. The primary outcome was change in weight; secondary outcomes were changes in endothelial function [Reactive Hyperemia-Peripheral Arterial Tonometry (RH-PAT)], serum endothelial markers (ICAM-1, VCAM-1, E-selectin, and P-selectin), change in inflammation (hsCRP), and alteration in clot structure and function [maximum absorbance (MA), and time from full clot formation to 50% lysis (LT)].Results: Twenty patients completed the study. Exenatide reduced weight 111.8 ± 4.8 to 108.6 ± 4.6 kg p = 0.003. Serum endothelial markers changed with a reduction in ICAM-1 (247.2 ± 12.9 to 231.3 ± 11.5 ng/ml p = 0.02), p-selectin (101.1 ± 8.2 to 87.4 ± 6.6 ng/ml p = 0.01), and e-selectin (38.5 ± 3.3 to 33.6 ± 2.6 ng/ml p = 0.03), without an overt change in endothelial function. Inflammation improved (CRP; 8.5 ± 1.4 to 5.6 ± 0.8 mmol/L p = 0.001), there was a reduction in clot function (LT; 2,987 ± 494 to 1,926 ± 321 s p = 0.02) but not clot structure.Conclusion: Exenatide caused a 3% reduction in weight, improved serum markers of endothelial function, inflammation, and clot function reflecting an improvement in cardiovascular risk indices in these women with PCOS. This suggests exenatide could be an effective treatment for obese women with PCOS

Lexicality and frequency in specific language impairment: accuracy and error data from two nonword repetition tests

Purpose: Deficits in phonological working memory and deficits in phonological processing have both been considered potential explanatory factors in Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Manipulations of the lexicality and phonotactic frequency of nonwords enable contrasting predictions to be derived from these hypotheses. Method: 18 typically developing (TD) children and 18 children with SLI completed an assessment battery that included tests of language ability, non-verbal intelligence, and two nonword repetition tests that varied in lexicality and frequency. Results: Repetition accuracy showed that children with SLI were unimpaired for short and simple high lexicality nonwords, whereas clear impairments were shown for all low lexicality nonwords. For low lexicality nonwords, greater repetition accuracy was seen for nonwords constructed from high over low frequency phoneme sequences. Children with SLI made the same proportion of errors that substituted a nonsense syllable for a lexical item as TD children, and this was stable across nonword length. Conclusions: The data show support for a phonological processing deficit in children with SLI, where long-term lexical and sub-lexical phonological knowledge mediate the interpretation of nonwords. However, the data also suggest that while phonological processing may provide a key explanation of SLI, a full account is likely to be multi-faceted