Communicative Action and Mass Communication via Internet Technologies

The purpose of this study was to analyze the work of German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, focusing on his theory of communicative action. In his work, Habermas specifically probes the epistemological question; how human beings can know anything at all? Through an interconnected scheme of: survival challenges, knowledge and action; there is found grounding for the physical sciences, the social sciences and philosophy itself. Communicative action becomes the “glue” that holds society together in reference to those sciences, for Habermas, communicative action is how shared meaning about the world is established and it is through communicative action and based on communicative action that humanity can be gauged on a progressive path to freedom from social domination. Habermas used his theory to critique mass communication such as news and entertainment within that framework. This paper expands that critique asking the pros and cons of the use of social media for mass communication; suggesting that in many aspects it is a positive force for the furthering of knowledge through communication, however there may be limits and distortions to communication that inhibit the growth of further knowledge due to the use of technology that leads to a lack of face to face connection

TrauMAP - Integrating Anatomical and Physiological Simulation (Dissertation Proposal)

In trauma, many injuries impact anatomical structures, which may in turn affect physiological processes - not only those processes within the structure, but also ones occurring in physical proximity to them. Our goal with this research is to model mechanical interactions of different body systems and their impingement on underlying physiological processes. We are particularly concerned with pathological situations in which body system functions that normally do not interact become dependent as a result of mechanical behavior. Towards that end, the proposed TRAUMAP system (Trauma Modeling of Anatomy and Physiology) consists of three modules: (1) a hypothesis generator for suggesting possible structural changes that result from the direct injuries sustained; (2) an information source for responding to operator querying about anatomical structures, physiological processes, and pathophysiological processes; and (3) a continuous system simulator for simulating and illustrating anatomical and physiological changes in three dimensions. Models that can capture such changes may serve as an infrastructure for more detailed modeling and benefit surgical planning, surgical training, and general medical education, enabling students to visualize better, in an interactive environment, certain basic anatomical and physiological dependencies

TOX defines a conserved subfamily of HMG-box proteins

BACKGROUND: HMG-box proteins are a large and diverse superfamily of architectural factors that share one or more copies of a sequence- and structurally-related DNA binding domain. These proteins can modify chromatin structure by bending and unwinding DNA. HMG-box proteins can be divided into two subfamilies based on whether they recognize DNA in a sequence-dependent or sequence-independent manner. We recently identified an HMG-box protein involved in T cell development, designated TOX, which is highly conserved in humans and mice. RESULTS: We show here that based on sequence alignment, TOX best fits into the sequence-independent HMG-box family. Three other human and murine predicted proteins are identified that share a common HMG-box domain with TOX, as well as other features. The gene encoding one of these additional family members has a distinct but overlapping pattern of tissue expression when compared to TOX. In addition, we identify genes encoding predicted TOX HMG-box subfamily members in pufferfish and mosquito. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified a novel subfamily of HMG-box proteins that is related to the recently described TOX protein. The highly conserved nature of the TOX family of proteins in humans and mice and differences in the pattern of expression between family members suggest non-overlapping functions of individual proteins. In addition, our data suggest that the TOX subtype of HMG-box domain first appeared in invertebrates, was duplicated in early vertebrates and likely took on new functions in mammalian species