The Phenomenology of Decision Making

It is becoming apparent in modern cognitive science that the lack of knowledge about human experiential landscape implies the loss of a very important element, perhaps the very essence. Consequently, a rather new area of research has emerged recently: an attempt at a systematic observation and study of experience. This is the so-called phenomenologically inspired research (or just phenomenological research). Part of this article aims to present this new area of research - it describes the common fundaments of the field and some of its characteristic methodological derivates, relating them to the possibility of studying decision making from the first-person point-of-view, i.e. decision making as an experiential phenomenon (and not as a neurological or behavioural process). The article also presents some of the findings phenomenological studies have led to and some theoretical reflexions encouraged by these insights.experience, experiencing, phenomenology, phenomenological research, reason, first-person

Investigation into the use of bait stations for the control of the European wild rabbit (Oryctolagus Cuniculus) in the urban bushland reserve of Bold Park, Perth, Western Australia

European rabbits in Australia have a significant impact on the environment and the economy. It is therefore necessary to implement control programs. In rural areas a number of methods including warren ripping and poisoning are frequently used. In urban areas though, rabbit control is not as easily accomplished because the use of many control methods is not appropriate. For example, the poison 1080 often cannot be used due to public health concerns and warren ripping cannot be used in conservation areas. Poisoning with pindone, an anticoagulant, is therefore one of few options available to the managers of urban reserves. However, the use of pindone is not without risks to wildlife and domestic animals. This study was conducted in Bold Park, Perth, Western Australia, as tt was recognised that rabbits have a tremendous impact on the bushland. The study investigated the use of bait stations during a bailing program and was designed to: assess the bait uptake from two different bait station designs; identify animals visiting the bait stations; and determine whether these animals showed a preference for one of the bait station designs. Prior to the field trials, oat seed viability studies were carried out to ensure that the oat seeds used as bait would not germinate in the field. To identify animals visiting the bait stations (through tracks and scats), bait stations were placed onto existing sand plots. The study showed that rabbits accepted bait stations and fed from both bait station types. Although they preferred the slab design the difference in visitation was not significant. Bird visitation to the drum design was significantly lower than to the slab design and rodents visited the drum more often than the slab design. From these results it was concluded that bait stations similar to the drum design should be used whenever bird poisoning is a concern. When small native mammals are present in the area, additional precautions should be taken to protect these animals from being poisoned. Also discussed are potential problems associated with the use of bait stations

The Effect of Music Syntax Therapy on Speech Production in People with Aphasia

Music is often thought to have medicinal or therapeutic properties across a wide variety of disciplines. The purpose of this study was to determine whether pairing linguistic phrases with the same structure, or syntax, of music affects the speech production of individuals with non-fluent aphasia. Prior to any intervention, four individuals with non-fluent aphasia were assessed to determine mean length of utterance and syntactic complexity in everyday (formulaic) phrases and less-frequently used (non-formulaic) phrases. They were also given a pre-test designed to measure their understanding of music syntax. They then received three one-hour sessions of linguistic syntax therapy and three one-hour sessions of linguistic syntax therapy paired with a music component to match the syntax. Both forms of therapy (linguistic syntax or linguistic + music syntax) consisted of the formulaic and non-formulaic phrases. The phrases were divided into varying levels of syntactic complexity. For the linguistic + music syntax condition, the phrases were all set to music with a chord progression that matched the linguistic syntax complexity of the phrase. All participants received both levels of treatment and were assessed after each to determine MLU and parts of speech. Order of treatment was counterbalanced. We found that MLU increased after both linguistic and music syntax training, but that music syntax training provided a larger benefit. The number of nouns and verbs increased across training as well, but neither linguistic nor syntactic training provided a larger benefit. These results indicate that music syntax therapy enhances MLU but does not target any specific parts of speech

Diagnostic and predictive factors in pancreatic cancer : clinical and translational studies

Aims: The aim of Study I was to assess the effectiveness of chemotherapy for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer in a real-world setting. Study II aimed to evaluate the utility of a clinical decision support system to identify precision oncology opportunities for pancreatic cancer. The aim of Study III was to identify the blood component most enriched with pancreatic cancer-derived circulating DNA; that of Study IV was to characterize long and short tumor-derived circulating DNA fragments. Methods: Study I is a single-institution retrospective cohort study of prospectively generated clinical data. We included a total of 595 patients and used univariate and multivariate models, including flexible parametric models to analyze overall survival and time to treatment failure according to different first-line chemotherapy regimens. Exploratory analyses included the adherence to different protocols, adverse events, and second-line chemotherapy. Study II is a prospective observational study of 39 patients with pancreatic cancer who were enrolled in the PePaCaKa-01 study. Archival tumor tissue was sequenced, and data was processed with the proprietary clinical decision support system MH Guide and results were evaluated by a study-specific molecular tumor board. Endpoints of the study were the frequency of successful generation of support system reports, the frequency of actionable molecular targets, and their evaluation by the tumor board. We performed a post-hoc analysis to determine the proportion of patients who received molecular informed therapies. Studies III– IV analyzed blood samples from a prospective cohort of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. We systematically separated whole blood into red and white blood cells, platelets, apoptotic bodies, large and small extracellular vesicles, and soluble protein using differential centrifugation. We confirmed efficient separation with protein assays (Western blotting and multiplex bead-based extracellular vesicle flow cytometry), nanoparticle tracking analysis and transmission electron microscopy, and extracted DNA from all components. We used digital PCR to quantify the abundance of KRASmut DNA, a hallmark of pancreatic cancerderived DNA. In Study IV we additionally used automated electrophoresis to quantify the lengths of circulating DNA fragments and ligation-based sequencing library preparation and tagmentation to selectively target short and long DNA fragments, respectively. Results: In Study I, we observed similar overall survival for gemcitabine/capecitabine, gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel, and FOLFIRINOX (including modified regimens) compared to gemcitabine. Combinations of 5-fluorouracil/oxaliplatin and best supportive care were associated with poorer outcomes. Models adjusting for other demographic and clinical variables showed a survival benefit for gemcitabine-combinations and FOLFIRINOX. Exploratory analyses revealed differences in protocol adherence across different treatments, a relatively low frequency of AEs, and a difference between different sequences of first- and second-line therapy. In Study II, a CDSS report was generated for 31/39 patients, 28/31 reports were evaluated at the study-specific molecular tumor board The clinical decision support system made 80 individual recommendations to use molecularly informed therapies based on 61 genomic variants. In 21/28 cases, the tumor board classified at least one molecularly informed therapy as a potential clinical option. The post-hoc analysis revealed that six patients received molecularly informed treatment in routine care. In Study III, KRASmut DNA had the highest concentrations in the soluble protein and small vesicles blood fractions at late stages of PDAC. At early stages, it was highest in large and small extracellular vesicles. Small extracellular vesicles also contained the highest ratio of the concentrations of mutant : wild type KRAS DNA at this stage. In Study IV, blood from PDAC patients had significantly higher concentrations of short cell-free DNA in the soluble protein fraction than that of healthy individuals. The mutant allele frequency of KRASmut was highest in this blood component. Long genomic DNA fragments were most reliably measured in association with apoptotic bodies but KRASmut genomic DNA occurred in all assessed blood fractions. Conclusions: Chemotherapy in clinical routine use can result in outcomes that reflect relevant randomized controlled trials and gemcitabine-based regimens are highly effective this setting. Differences between different treatments might be related to how they are applied (Study I). The clinical decision support system MH Guide could identify clinically relevant opportunities for molecularly informed treatments of advanced pancreatic cancer (Study II). At early stages of pancreatic cancer, tumor-derived DNA is mostly associated with small extracellular vesicles; in more advanced disease it is mainly a feature of the soluble protein fraction (Study III). Short DNA fragments in this fraction are a more robust source of tumorderived DNA than longer genomic DNA fragments (Study IV)

The arts of care in an asylum and community 1925-2004: Kenmore Hospital, New South Wales and Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory

This thesis examines the arts of care in an asylum in New South Wales (NSW) and a mental health community in the Australian Capital Territory in twentieth-century Australia, and describes and compares a range of governmental responses for responding to persons deemed to be in need of care. The thesis explores similarities between twentieth-century Australian care techniques and the key principles underpinning a ‘care system’ that was developed over 200 years ago. It proposes three twentieth-century care regimes, each one characteristic of a certain period: Herd Care, set in an asylum era that emphasised custodialism and confinement (1925-1958); Therapeutic Community, a period during which the asylum was reconfigured into a facilitative community (1959-1983); and Community Care, beginning around 1983, when NSW asylums were ‘rationalised’, their care techniques fragmented and outsourced in diverse settings generally referred to collectively as the mental health community. Some of the dynamics, continuities and ruptures in twentieth-century care regimes are analysed. Chapters describe the landscapes of care. They explore how environmental settings have been designed to reinforce the care regimes in which they are mobilised and how they ‘make up’ the possibilities for action of the subject of care. The dynamics of care between care providers and their recipients are examined. Some of the continuities and discontinuities of meanings associated with ‘family’ and ‘community’ in each of the care regimes are observed. Fieldwork findings are combined with the cultural narrative of psychiatric primitivism to consider why subjects have been deemed in need of care, at times in need of protection and training and at other times in need of discipline and restraint. The new possibilities for action that have emerged in Australian twentieth-century mental health governance are considered, when subjects of care have been encouraged to learn how to be fre

Advanced Gas Turbine (AGT) powertrain system

A 74.5 kW(100 hp) advanced automotive gas turbine engine is described. A design iteration to improve the weight and production cost associated with the original concept is discussed. Major rig tests included 15 hours of compressor testing to 80% design speed and the results are presented. Approximately 150 hours of cold flow testing showed duct loss to be less than the design goal. Combustor test results are presented for initial checkout tests. Turbine design and rig fabrication is discussed. From a materials study of six methods to fabricate rotors, two have been selected for further effort. A discussion of all six methods is given

LANDING LOADS AND DYNAMICS OF THE X-15 AIRPLANE

Measurements of loads, accelerations, and displacements of x-15 aircraft and landing gear during landing impac

Flight investigation of XB-70 structural response to oscillatory aerodynamic shaker excitation and correlation with analytical results

The low frequency symmetric structural response and damping characteristics of the XB-70 airplane were measured at four flight conditions: heavyweight at a Mach number of 0.87 at an altitude of 7620 meters (25,000 feet); lightweight at a Mach number of 0.86 at an altitude of 7620 meters (25,000 feet); a Mach number of 1.59 at an altitude of 11,918 meters (39.100 feet); and a Mach number of 2.38 and an altitude of 18,898 meters (62,000 feet). The flight data are compared with the response calculated by using early XB-70 design data and with the response calculated with mass, structural, and aerodynamic data updated to reflect as closely as possible the airplane characteristics at three of the flight conditions actually flown