Minnesota Philosophical Society Fall 2014 Conference (2014-10-04)

Whether you're an expert or simply an enthusiast, you are welcome to attend the following Minnesota Philosophical Society events, including a talk by Dr. William Lycan, noted philosopher. William Lycan teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor. He is the author of eight books and over 150 articles.Keynote Speech:"The Intentionality of Smell" Argues against opponents that smell does represent. Then defends my 1996 view of what smell represents, viz., miasmas in the air, against more recent competitors put forward by Clare Batty and Ben Young. Concludes by considering a "layering" thesis: that smell represents commonsensical distal objects and kinds by representing miasmas.UMD Philosophy Department, The CLA Dean’s Excellence Fund, and the Minnesota Philosophical Societ

SuperB: A High-Luminosity Asymmetric e+ e- Super Flavor Factory. Conceptual Design Report.

The physics objectives of SuperB, an asymmetric electron-positron collider with a luminosity above 10^36/cm^2/s are described, together with the conceptual design of a novel low emittance design that achieves this performance with wallplug power comparable to that of the current B Factories, and an upgraded detector capable of doing the physics in the SuperB environment

Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development

Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6. Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was <1.1 kg m–2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified