How to trust the experts without being one of them?

The question of trust is not only epistemological. It is also social, institutional. Trusting science entails not only, or not specifically, an understanding of the epistemological and methodological protocols followed by science in producing its results. It also requires awareness of the contexts where these protocols are used, including their purposes, functions and agents involved – all of which goes well beyond what happens within the closed doors of a research laboratory. This form of disjunction on matters of trust brings to the fore an essential issue: If the trustworthiness of bodies of knowledge is most naturally within the remit of those categories of people who are in control of the conditions and protocols for producing this knowledge (e.g. the community of scientists), how can people who do not belong to the same community achieve at least an acceptable degree of trust towards that very knowledge? In other words, how can we trust the experts when we are not experts ourselves? What are the conditions and constraints that play a part in building this type of trust? And what is the institutional framework that makes this type of trust possible, and even desirable, in view of achieving the type of social cohesion and participation which makes the very activity of science thrive, possibly for the right reasons? In view of addressing these questions, I will proceed as follows: First, I will explore what brings us to trust (or not trust) the experts without being one of them. Secondly, I will comment on what it takes to trust the institutions that call on scientific advice. Finally, I will bring in some reflections on the role of scientific literacy in the debate on trust and expertise

Los valores y la ética en la ciencia económica

In spite of its origins as a branch of moral philosophy there was and there is an uneasy alliance between the economic science and ethics. The mainstream economics, mostly inspired by Milton Friedman advocates uphold a value free positive science. But others prestigious economists hold another viewpoint and support a necessary and more fruitful relationship between ethics and economics. And moral questions arise continuously and it is far-fetched to portrays the economic science as value neutral. Besides it is relevant to inquire if the market economy needs ethical behavior to be sustainable. The concept of rationality relevant for the economics science must depart from the so-called classical model of rationality and adopt a more integrative concept of rationality that entails means and ends. A pesar de sus orígenes como parte de la filosofía moral hubo y hay una difícil relación entre la ciencia económica y la ética. La corriente predominante del pensamiento económico, inspirada sobre todo por la obra de Milton Friedman, sostiene que debe existir una economía positiva libre de juicios de valor. Pero otros prestigiosos economistas presentan un punto de vista opuesto al sostener la necesidad de una más fructífera relación entre ambas disciplinas. Las cuestiones morales se presentan con frecuencia en el análisis económico y no parece razonable la pretensión de presentar a la ciencia económica como neutral en cuestiones valorativas. Además, cabe preguntarse si la economía de mercado necesita de un comportamiento ético para ser sostenible. El concepto de racionalidad pertinente para la disciplina no puede ser el llamado modelo clásico de racionalidad y debería adoptarse un concepto más integrador que vincule fines y medios

Not for profit, but for use: is philosophy good for practice?

In what contexts, and under what circumstances, applying philosophical insight is both useful and commendable? In this paper I will first identify a framework of practice where philosophical investigation can prove its worth. I will then analyse some of the epistemic conditions that allow philosophy to take up challenges originating from practice, and how philosophical inquiry is to respond to those challenges. I will make use of two illustrations from the specific field of the philosophy of science to demonstrate how philosophy and practice can interact, and with what consequences for both fields. In so doing a more general idea of applied philosophy will emerge, able not only to address but (in a sense that will be qualified) to ‘engage with’ practice

Two techniques to enhance particle reconstruction in JUNO: Liquid Scintillator purification and Waveform analysis

This thesis describes two techniques to enhance the particle reconstruction in large antineutrino experiments where large target masses are pivotal to compensate for neutrinos’ extremely elusive nature. The main obstacle for the correct characterization of the antineutrino crossing the experiment is the radioactive background. In the first section of this thesis, It is described the design, construction principles and operations of a distillation and a stripping plant for the purification of Liquid Scintillator. The main goal of these plants is to remove radio impurities from the liquid scintillator while increasing its optical attenuation length. Such a combined system will aim at obtaining a total attenuation length greater than 20 m @430 nm, and a bulk radiopurity for 238U and 232Th in the 10−15 ÷ 10−17 g/g range. In order to better understand the purification capability of these techniques two pilot plant were built and operated at the Daya Bay laboratories. Depending on the detector light yield, several scintillation photons stemming from the same neutrino interaction are likely to hit a single Photo Multiplier Tube in a few tens/hundreds of nanoseconds, resulting in several photoelectrons (pes) to pile-up at the anode. In such scenario, the signal generated by each pe is entangled to the others, and an accurate charge reconstruction becomes challenging. Thus, leads to a degradation of the resolution of the antineutrino energy spectrum. In the second part of this manuscript, it is described an experimental method able to address the charge reconstruction in the case of large pe pile-up, providing an unbiased charge estimator at the permille level up to 15 detected pes. The method is based on a signal filtering technique (Wiener filter) which suppresses the noise due to both pmt and readout electronics, and on a Fourier-based deconvolution able to minimize the influence of signal distortions — such as an overshoot.Questa tesi descrive due tecniche che possono essere utilizzate per migliorare la ricostruzione delle caratteristiche delle particelle interagenti all’interno di esperimenti per la rivelazione di antineutrini, in cui le grandi masse bersaglio sono fondamentali per compensare la natura estremamente sfuggente di queste particelle. L'ostacolo principale per la corretta caratterizzazione dell'antineutrino è il fondo radioattivo. Nella prima sezione di questa tesi, viene descritto la progettazione, i principi costruttivi e le operazioni di un impianto di distillazione e strippaggio per la purificazione si Scintillatore Liquido. L'obiettivo principale di questi impianti è rimuovere le radio-impurità dallo scintillatore liquido aumentandone contemporaneamente la lunghezza di attenuazione ottica. Tale sistema combinato mirerà ad ottenere una lunghezza di attenuazione totale maggiore di 20 m @430 nm, e una radiopurezza, espressa in concentrazione massica, per 238U e 232Th nell'intervallo 10−15 ÷ 10−17 g/g. Per comprendere meglio la capacità di purificazione di queste tecniche sono stati costruiti e messi in funzione due impianti pilota presso i laboratori di Daya Bay. A seconda della resa luminosa del rivelatore, è probabile che diversi fotoni di scintillazione derivanti dalla stessa interazione di neutrini colpiscano un singolo tubo fotomoltiplicatore in poche decine/centinaia di nanosecondi, con il risultato che diversi fotoelettroni (pes) si accumulino all'anodo. In tale scenario, il segnale generato da ciascun pe è sovrapposto agli altri, e una ricostruzione accurata della carica diventa impegnativa, comportando quindi un degrado della risoluzione dello spettro energetico dell'antineutrino. Nella seconda parte di questo manoscritto, viene descritto un metodo sperimentale in grado ricostruire la carica generata da multipli foto-elettroni incidenti sul PMT nel caso di pile-up, fornendo uno stimatore della carica con una precisione a livello del permille. Il metodo si basa su una tecnica di filtraggio del segnale (filtro Wiener) che sopprime il rumore dovuto sia al PMT che all'elettronica di lettura del segnale, e su una deconvoluzione basata sull’analisi di Fourier in grado di minimizzare l'influenza delle distorsioni del segnale

Finding a Context for Objectivity

Several and repeated attempts have been made to say what objectivity consists of and why it should be pursued in research. In the first part of this paper two main strategies are singled out, sharing the assumption that there is a way (or different ways) objectivity can be thought of in the abstract (which does not mean without content), and that it can be instantiated in context – and in enough contexts to justify the abstract case. But not only is this assumption open to the objection that objectivity so conceived does not admit of one clear definition (even a disjunctive one) that is appropriate in many or most contexts where we intend the term to do its work. It also does not seem to pay specific attention to what actually constitutes a context of practice, when we think of objectivity in some relation to such context. The aim of this paper is to question how context works both as a mechanism of meaning formation for the concept of objectivity, and as a practical framework for pursuing research objectively. To articulate a suitable notion of context some insight from recent literature in the philosophy of science is first introduced and then adapted to show how research practices successfully achieve objectivity as one of their aims. It will be argued that an idea of context that includes activities which (in a way to be qualified) are relevant and reliable towards a settled aim is the model of practice that makes objectivity a pursuable task in research. This contextual picture of objectivity, it will be suggested, might better serve the purpose of scientific research (including social research) than either of the two descriptive strategies outlined at the beginning of this paper can do

Pharmacotherapy of Patients with Mild Persistent Asthma: Strategies and Unresolved Issues

In studies comparing regular versus on-demand treatment for patients with mild persistent asthma, on-demand treatment seems to have a similar efficacy on clinical and functional outcomes, but it does not suppress chronic airway inflammation or airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR) associated with asthma. Data on the efficacy of a continuous treatment with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in preventing the progression of asthma are conflicting. There is the possibility that patients without a regular treatment with ICS may develop a more severe asthma associated with airway structural changes (remodeling) and a progressive loss of lung function. However, the possible clinical and functional consequences of persistent, not controlled, airway inflammation in patients with asthma have to be established. Assessment of asthma control should include inflammatory outcomes, such as fraction of exhaled nitric oxide and sputum eosinophil counts. Until the relationships between symptoms, lung function tests, AHR, airway inflammation, exacerbations, and airway remodeling are clarified, regular treatment seems to be generally more appropriate than on-demand treatment to warrant a greater control of asthma. Select subgroups of patients with mild asthma who are well controlled by regular treatment might adopt the on-demand treatment plan as an intermediate step toward the suspension of controller medication. The increasing evidence for heterogeneity of asthma, the growing emphasis on asthma subphenotypes, including molecular phenotypes identified by omics technologies, and their possible implications for different asthma severity and progression and therapeutic response, are changing the paradigm of treating patients with asthma only based on classification of their disease severity to a pharmacological strategy more focused on the individual asthmatic patient. Pharmacological treatment of asthma is going toward a personalized approach