Hume's Perceptual Relationism

My topic in this paper will be Hume’s claim that we have no idea of a vacuum. I offer a novel interpretation of Hume’s account of our ideas of extension that makes it clear why those ideas cannot include any ideas of vacuums, and I distinguish my interpretation from prominent readings offered by other Hume scholars. An upshot of Hume’s account, I will argue, is his commitment to a remarkable and distinctly Humean view I call “perceptual relationism.” Perceptual relationism is a fundamental characteristic of Hume’s “universe of the imagination,” and a manifestation of just how “loose and separate” the constituents of that inner universe are. Once we understand perceptual relationism and its entailments, we are in a better position to understand the rest of Hume’s sometimes puzzling remarks on space and the vacuum

Gothic Girlhood and Resistance: Confronting Ireland’s Neoliberal Containment Culture in Tana French’s The Secret Place

The Secret Place (2014) exposes a persistent Western cultural impulse to contain the emotions of teenage girls when they demonstrate control over their lives. In the Irish context, the dismissal of teenage girls is resonant of a containment culture in which controlling women’s bodies and minds has been essential to upholding heteropatriarchal ideals. Resistance to the novel’s unresolved supernatural elements by readers and critics and the lack of sustained academic scholarship also point to an unsettling complacency with the neoliberal impulse to contain female emotion and lived experience in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland

Hume against the Geometers

In the Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume mounts a spirited assault on the doctrine of the infinite divisibility of extension, and he defends in its place the contrary claim that extension is everywhere only finitely divisible. Despite this major departure from the more conventional conceptions of space embodied in traditional geometry, Hume does not endorse any radical reform of geometry. Instead Hume espouses a more conservative approach, claiming that geometry fails only “in this single point” – in its purported proofs of infinite divisibility – while “all of its other arguments” remain intact. In this paper, after laying out the prima facie case for Hume’s radical challenge to traditional geometry, I consider five strategies for blocking the arguments for infinite divisibility while conserving most of geometry. I show that each of these interpretive strategies suffers from serious substantive problems, and so none of them delivers an interpretation of Hume’s account that provides him with a way of blocking the geometric arguments for infinite divisibility while sustaining his geometric conservatism

Examining the Perspectives of Elementary Education Teachers Prepared Through Traditional and Dual License Programs

Preparing classroom teachers to work with students with diverse learning needs is a challenge that has been well documented by the literature. Earning a dual license in general and special education has been posited as one possible solution to this challenge. This paper reports on a qualitative study that examined the differences between dually licensed and traditionally prepared educators with regards to their self-efficacy and ideas about inclusion. Findings suggest that teachers who earn a dual license in general education and special education may have a stronger sense of self-efficacy as well as a stronger skill set for working with students with disabilities and other types of difference

Enhancement of Aluminum Alloy Forgings through Rapid Billet Heating

Forging is a manufacturing process in which metal is pressed, pounded or squeezed under great pressure and, often, under high strain rates into high-strength parts known as forgings. The process is typically performed hot by preheating the metal to a desired temperature before it is worked. The forging process can create parts that are stronger than those manufactured by any other metal working process. Forgings are almost always used where reliability and human safety are critical. Forgings are normally component parts contained inside assembled items such airplanes, automobiles, tractors, ships, oil drilling equipment, engines missiles, and all kinds of capital equipment Forgings are stronger than castings and surpass them in predictable strength properties, producing superior strength that is assured, part to part

Bacillus cereus efflux protein BC3310 – a multidrug transporter of the unknown major facilitator family, UMF-2

Phylogenetic classification divides the major facilitator superfamily (MFS) into 82 families, including 25 families that are comprised of transporters with no characterized functions. This study describes functional data for BC3310 from Bacillus cereus ATCC 14579, a member of the “unknown major facilitator family-2” (UMF-2). BC3310 was shown to be a multidrug efflux pump conferring resistance to ethidium bromide, SDS and silver nitrate when heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli DH5α acrAB. A conserved aspartate residue (D105) in putative transmembrane helix 4 was identified, which was essential for the energy dependent ethidium bromide efflux by BC3310. Transport proteins of the MFS comprise specific sequence motifs. Sequence analysis of UMF- 2 proteins revealed that they carry a variant of the MFS motif A, which may be used as a marker to distinguish easily between this family and other MFS proteins. Genes orthologous to bc3310 are highly conserved within the B. cereus group of organisms and thus belong to the core genome, suggesting an important conserved functional role in the normal physiology of these bacteria

An evaluation of smartphone driver support systems for young drivers - acceptance, efficacy, and driver distraction

Background: Smartphone Driver Support Systems (SDSSs) are novel smartphone applications designed to monitor, give feedback on, and improve driving behaviours. Young drivers (aged 18-24) are a priority market for SDSS providers as they are disproportionately represented in the Road Traffic Collision (RTC) fatality and injury statistics. Although studies examining the use of conceptually similar In-Vehicle Data Recorders (IVDRs) would support the assertion that SDSSs will have a similar road safety value, no empirical research has tested this to date. Aims: The primary aims of the current programme of research were to: a) investigate young driver acceptance of these new systems; b) determine if they can be effective in improving young driver behaviour; and, c) explore whether or not they may distract young drivers and present a RTC risk. Methodology: These aims were addressed over a series of studies that converge around three research themes: ‘technology acceptance’, ‘efficacy in improving driver behaviour’, and ‘potential for distraction’. Acceptance studies consisted of a systematic review of research examining the acceptability of in-vehicle monitoring for young drivers (Study 1, k = 6), and the testing of a novel model to elucidate the factors influencing young driver acceptance of SDSS technology (Study 2, n = 333). The efficacy studies commenced with a systematic review of research that tested the impact of monitoring on the driving performance of young people (Study 3, k = 8). As the experimental studies in this programme of research utilised a novel driving simulator, a simulator adaptation (Study 4a, n = 30) and validation study (Study 4b, n = 30) were also conducted at this stage. These were followed by an examination of the impact of driving with a monitoring SDSS on young driver speed (Study 5, n = 42). The effects of engaging with a SDSS that provides real-time feedback, a monitoring SDSS and financial incentive, and a SDSS providing combined real-time feedback and a financial incentive for use were then examined (Study 6, n = 56). Last, the potential for SDSSs to distract drivers was assessed by a study which measured performance on a Peripheral Detection Task (PDT) while driving with a SDSS providing real-time, visual feedback alerts (Study 7, n = 51). Findings: Overall, results indicated that young drivers rate SDSSs as acceptable for use, and that this acceptance is primarily influenced by perceptions of gains and social influence factors. In terms of efficacy, findings pointed to three conditions in particular under which driving performance improved: 1) when the SDSS provided monitoring alone; 2) when monitoring was offered in conjunction with a financial incentive, or; 3) when monitoring was combined with real-time feedback and a financial incentive. During the final study, which addressed distraction however, slower reaction times and missed stimuli on a PDT emerged under SDSS real-time feedback conditions. Conclusions: These findings suggest that SDSSs have potential value in mitigating young driver risk. However, any value offered by SDSSs in terms of reducing speeding and other forms of rule violations must be considered against the potential for systems that offer real-time feedback to lead to driver distraction. Implications: The findings of these studies have implications for SDSS design and functionality, promotional campaigns, and future research needs, such as longitudinal distraction Field Operational Tests (FOTs)

An evaluation of smartphone driver support systems for young drivers - acceptance, efficacy, and driver distraction

Background: Smartphone Driver Support Systems (SDSSs) are novel smartphone applications designed to monitor, give feedback on, and improve driving behaviours. Young drivers (aged 18-24) are a priority market for SDSS providers as they are disproportionately represented in the Road Traffic Collision (RTC) fatality and injury statistics. Although studies examining the use of conceptually similar In-Vehicle Data Recorders (IVDRs) would support the assertion that SDSSs will have a similar road safety value, no empirical research has tested this to date. Aims: The primary aims of the current programme of research were to: a) investigate young driver acceptance of these new systems; b) determine if they can be effective in improving young driver behaviour; and, c) explore whether or not they may distract young drivers and present a RTC risk. Methodology: These aims were addressed over a series of studies that converge around three research themes: ‘technology acceptance’, ‘efficacy in improving driver behaviour’, and ‘potential for distraction’. Acceptance studies consisted of a systematic review of research examining the acceptability of in-vehicle monitoring for young drivers (Study 1, k = 6), and the testing of a novel model to elucidate the factors influencing young driver acceptance of SDSS technology (Study 2, n = 333). The efficacy studies commenced with a systematic review of research that tested the impact of monitoring on the driving performance of young people (Study 3, k = 8). As the experimental studies in this programme of research utilised a novel driving simulator, a simulator adaptation (Study 4a, n = 30) and validation study (Study 4b, n = 30) were also conducted at this stage. These were followed by an examination of the impact of driving with a monitoring SDSS on young driver speed (Study 5, n = 42). The effects of engaging with a SDSS that provides real-time feedback, a monitoring SDSS and financial incentive, and a SDSS providing combined real-time feedback and a financial incentive for use were then examined (Study 6, n = 56). Last, the potential for SDSSs to distract drivers was assessed by a study which measured performance on a Peripheral Detection Task (PDT) while driving with a SDSS providing real-time, visual feedback alerts (Study 7, n = 51). Findings: Overall, results indicated that young drivers rate SDSSs as acceptable for use, and that this acceptance is primarily influenced by perceptions of gains and social influence factors. In terms of efficacy, findings pointed to three conditions in particular under which driving performance improved: 1) when the SDSS provided monitoring alone; 2) when monitoring was offered in conjunction with a financial incentive, or; 3) when monitoring was combined with real-time feedback and a financial incentive. During the final study, which addressed distraction however, slower reaction times and missed stimuli on a PDT emerged under SDSS real-time feedback conditions. Conclusions: These findings suggest that SDSSs have potential value in mitigating young driver risk. However, any value offered by SDSSs in terms of reducing speeding and other forms of rule violations must be considered against the potential for systems that offer real-time feedback to lead to driver distraction. Implications: The findings of these studies have implications for SDSS design and functionality, promotional campaigns, and future research needs, such as longitudinal distraction Field Operational Tests (FOTs)