Judgement and Certainty

Judgement is the interiorisation of assertion: the inner\ud notion of judgement is to be explained in terms of the outer\ud notion of assertion. When someone asserts "Snow is\ud white", an interlocutor is entitled to ask "How do you know?"\ud If the asserter is not able to give grounds for his assertion,\ud it has to be withdrawn. In an assertion an illocutionary\ud claim that one has grounds is present; an assertion is thus\ud a claim to knowledge. Not all occurrences of declarative\ud sentences are asserted. In such cases the context should\ud make it clear that the declarative is, for example, used to\ud express mere opinion or conjecture. Whereas an assertion\ud made is correct or incorrect, other uses of the declarative\ud do not allow for this distinction. Just as for assertion, implicit\ud in every judgement is a claim to knowledge; judgement\ud is an epistemic notion

Farmed salmon show no pathological alterations when exposed to acoustic treatment for sea lice infestation

The use of bioacoustic methods to address sea lice infestation in salmonid farming is a promising innovative method but implies an exposure to sound that could affect the fish. An assessment of the effects of these techniques related to the salmon's welfare is presented here. The fish were repeatedly exposed to 350 Hz and 500 Hz tones in three-to four-hour exposure sessions, reaching received sound pressure levels of 140 to 150 dB re 1 µPa, with the goal of reaching total sound exposure levels above 190 dB re 1 µPa s. Gross pathology and histopathological analysis performed on exposed salmons' organs did not reveal any lesions that could be associated to sound exposure. The analysis of their otoliths through electron microscopy imaging confirmed that the sound dose that was used to impair the lice had no effects on the fish auditory organs

Best practices in management, assessment and control of underwater noise pollution

The origin of this work can be found in the project ‘Effects and Control of Anthropogenic Noise in Marine Ecosystems’ in the part relative to legal initiatives. In the first phase of the Report on this Project (December 2008) it was concluded that the level of complexity of marine issues, united by the fact that wide scientific gaps and difficulties still need to be covered and resolved, counseled against the immediate drawing up of legal projects concerning underwater acoustic pollution. Nevertheless, it was suggested that a document of ‘Best Practices’ be elaborated to focus on the ‘state of the art’ of this issue, and that it be used by public administrations and promoters of projects that will cause acoustic pollution, as much within the framework of environmental impact assessments as in management development plans in protected marine areas. It is of vital importance that activities, which generate acoustic pollution in the oceans, be monitored. Accordingly, this document could derive, in the short term, a Protocol of Applications which will in its own time open the way for the preparation of, if necessary, legislative initiatives within their own right.Preprin

Sex Differences in Heart Failure Following Acute Coronary Syndromes

Background: There have been conflicting reports regarding outcomes in women presenting with an acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Objectives: The objective of the study was to examine sex-specific differences in 30-day mortality in patients with ACS and acute heart failure (HF) at the time of presentation. Methods: This was a retrospective study of patients included in the International Survey of Acute Coronary Syndromes-ARCHIVES (ISACS-ARCHIVES; NCT04008173). Acute HF was defined as Killip classes ≥2. Participants were stratified according to ACS presentation: ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-ST-segment elevation ACS (NSTE-ACS). Differences in 30-day mortality and acute HF presentation at admission between sexes were examined using inverse propensity weighting based on the propensity score. Estimates were compared by test of interaction on the log scale. Results: A total of 87,812 patients were included, of whom 30,922 (35.2%) were women. Mortality was higher in women compared with men in those presenting with STEMI (risk ratio [RR]: 1.65; 95% CI: 1.56-1.73) and NSTE-ACS (RR: 1.18; 95% CI: 1.09-1.28; Pinteraction <0.001). Acute HF was more common in women when compared to men with STEMI (RR: 1.24; 95% CI: 1.20-1.29) but not in those with NSTE-ACS (RR: 1.02; 95% CI: 0.97-1.08) (Pinteraction <0.001). The presence of acute HF increased the risk of mortality for both sexes (odds ratio: 6.60; 95% CI: 6.25-6.98)

Statins for primary prevention among elderly men and women.

We undertook a propensity match-weighted cohort study to investigate whether statin treatment recommendations for statins translate into improved cardiovascular (CV) outcomes in the current routine clinical care of the elderly. We included in our analysis (ISACS Archives -NCT04008173) a total of 5619 Caucasian patients with no known prior history of CV disease who presented to hospital with a first manifestation of CV disease with age of 65 years or older. The risk of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) was much lower in statin users than in non-users in both patients aged 65-75 years [14.7% absolute risk reduction; relative risk (RR): 0.55, 95% CI 0.45-0.66] and those aged 76 years and older (13.3% absolute risk reduction; RR: 0.58, 95% CI 0.46-0.72). Estimates were similar in patients with and without history of hypercholesterolaemia (interaction test; P-values = 0.24 and 0.35). Proportional reductions in STEMI diminished with female sex in the old (P for interaction = 0.002), but not in the very old age (P for interaction = 0.26). We also observed a remarkable reduction in the risk of 30 day mortality from STEMI with statin therapy in both age groups (10.2% absolute risk reduction; RR: 0.39; 95% CI 0.23-0.68 for patients aged 76 or over and 3.8% absolute risk reduction; RR 0.37; 95% CI 0.17-0.82 for patients aged 65-75 years old; interaction test, P-value = 0.46). Preventive statin therapy in the elderly reduces the risk of STEMI with benefits in mortality from STEMI, irrespective of the presence of a history of hypercholesterolaemia. This effect persists after the age of 76 years. Benefits are less pronounced in women. Randomized clinical trials may contribute to more definitively determine the role of statin therapy in the elderly.EMMACE was funded by the National Institute for Health Research and the British Heart Foundation.S

Low-Frequency sounds induce acoustic trauma in cephalopods

There is currently relatively little information on how marine organisms process and analyze sound, making assessments about the impacts of artificial sound sources in the marine environment difficult. However, such assessments have become a priority because noise is now considered as a source of pollution that increasingly affects the natural balance of marine ecosystems. We present the first morphological and ultrastructural evidence of massive acoustic trauma, not compatible with life, in four cephalopod species subjected to low‐frequency controlled‐exposure experiments. Exposure to low‐frequency sounds resulted in permanent and substantial alterations of the sensory hair cells of the statocysts, the structures responsible for the animals' sense of balance and position. These results indicate a need for further environmental regulation of human activities that introduce high‐intensity, low‐frequency sounds in the world's oceans