Bunge’s Mathematical Structuralism Is Not a Fiction

In this paper, I explore Bunge’s fictionism in philosophy of mathematics. After an overview of Bunge’s views, in particular his mathematical structuralism, I argue that the comparison between mathematical objects and fictions ultimately fails. I then sketch a different ontology for mathematics, based on Thomasson’s metaphysical work. I conclude that mathematics deserves its own ontology, and that, in the end, much work remains to be done to clarify the various forms of dependence that are involved in mathematical knowledge, in particular its dependence on mental/brain states and material objects

Polyhydroxybutyrate accumulation by a Serratia sp

A strain of Serratia sp. showed intracellular electron-transparent inclusion bodies when incubated in the presence of citrate and glycerol 2-phosphate without nitrogen source following pregrowth under carbon-limitation in continuous culture. About 1.3 mmol citrate were consumed per 450 mg\ud biomass, giving a calculated yield of maximally 55% of stored material per g of biomass dry wt. The inclusion bodies were stained with Sudan Black and Nile Red (NR), suggesting a lipid material, which was confirmed as polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) by analysis of molecular fragments by GC and by FTIR spectroscopy of isolated bio-PHB in comparison with reference material. Multi-parameter flow cytometry in conjunction with NR fluorescence, and electron microscopy, showed that not all cells contained heavy PHB bodies, suggesting the potential for increasing\ud the overall yield. The economic attractiveness is\ud enhanced by the co-production of nanoscale hydroxyapatite\ud (HA), a possible high-value precursor for bone replacement materials

A bacterial chloroform reductive dehalogenase: purification and biochemical characterization

© 2017 The Authors. Microbial Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for Applied Microbiology. We report herein the purification of a chloroform (CF)-reducing enzyme, TmrA, from the membrane fraction of a strict anaerobe Dehalobacter sp. strain UNSWDHB to apparent homogeneity with an approximate 23-fold increase in relative purity compared to crude lysate. The membrane fraction obtained by ultracentrifugation was solubilized in Triton X-100 in the presence of glycerol, followed by purification by anion exchange chromatography. The molecular mass of the purified TmrA was determined to be 44.5 kDa by SDS-PAGE and MALDI-TOF/TOF. The purified dehalogenase reductively dechlorinated CF to dichloromethane in vitro with reduced methyl viologen as the electron donor at a specific activity of (1.27 ± 0.04) × 103units mg protein−1. The optimum temperature and pH for the activity were 45°C and 7.2, respectively. The UV-visible spectrometric analysis indicated the presence of a corrinoid and two [4Fe-4S] clusters, predicted from the amino acid sequence. This is the first report of the production, purification and biochemical characterization of a CF reductive dehalogenase

Reasons, Coherence, and Group Rationality

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, EarlyView

A qualitative study of Parent to Parent support for parents of children with special needs. Consortium to evaluate Parent to Parent.

OBJECTIVE: To examine qualitatively the experiences of parents participating in Parent to Parent programs. METHOD: Twenty-four parents of children with special needs, a subset of subjects in a larger quantitative study, participated in a semi-structured telephone interview to explore the impact and meaning of being matched with a trained supporting parent. RESULTS: Qualitative analysis reveals a successful match is contingent upon creation of a reliable ally in the supporting parent, comprised of four main components: (1) perceived sameness, (2) situational comparisons that enable learning and growth, (3) round-the-clock availability of support, and (4) mutuality of support. CONCLUSIONS: Parent to Parent support creates a community of similar others trained to listen and be supportive and provides an opportunity for matched parents to experience equality and mutuality in their relationship. Findings also identify the need for quality control in Parent to Parent programs and the importance of such programs as an adjunct to traditional professional services

3D printing exposure and perception in radiology residency: Survey results of radiology chief residents

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to summarize a survey of radiology chief residents focused on 3D printing in radiology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An online survey was distributed to chief residents in North American radiology residencies by subgroups of the Association of University Radiologists. The survey included a subset of questions focused on the clinical use of 3D printing and perceptions of the role of 3D printing and radiology. Respondents were asked to define the role of 3D printing at their institution and asked about the potential role of clinical 3D printing in radiology and radiology residencies. RESULTS: 152 individual responses from 90 programs were provided, with a 46% overall program response rate (n = 90/194 radiology residencies). Most programs had 3D printing at their institution (60%; n = 54/90 programs). Among the institutions that perform 3D printing, 33% (n = 18/54) have structured opportunities for resident contribution. Most residents (60%; n = 91/152 respondents) feel they would benefit from 3D printing exposure or educational material. 56% of residents (n = 84/151) believed clinical 3D printing should be centered in radiology departments. 22% of residents (n = 34/151) believed it would increase communication and improve relationships between radiology and surgery colleagues. A minority (5%; 7/151) believe 3D printing is too costly, time-consuming, or outside a radiologist\u27s scope of practice. CONCLUSIONS: A majority of surveyed chief residents in accredited radiology residencies believe they would benefit from exposure to 3D printing in residency. 3D printing education and integration would be a valuable addition to current radiology residency program curricula

Fetal pH and postnatal adaptation in preterm vaginal deliveries

Peer Reviewe

A Generic Framework for Implicate Generation Modulo Theories

International audienceThe clausal logical consequences of a formula are called its implicates. The generation of these implicates has several applications, such as the identification of missing hypotheses in a logical specification. We present a procedure that generates the implicates of a quantifier-free formula modulo a theory. No assumption is made on the considered theory, other than the existence of a decision procedure. The algorithm has been implemented (using the solvers MiniSAT, CVC4 and Z3) and experimental results show evidence of the practical relevance of the proposed approach

Propositional update operators based on formula/literal dependence

International audienceWe present and study a general family of belief update operators in a propositional setting. Its operators are based on formula/literal dependence, which is more fine-grained than the notion of formula/variable dependence that was proposed in the literature: formula/variable dependence is a particular case of formula/literal dependence. Our update operators are defined according to the "forget-then-conjoin" scheme: updating a belief base by an input formula consists in first forgetting in the base every literal on which the input formula has a negative influence, and then conjoining the resulting base with the input formula. The operators of our family differ by the underlying notion of formula/literal dependence, which may be defined syntactically or semantically, and which may or may not exploit further information like known persistent literals and pre-set dependencies. We argue that this allows to handle the frame problem and the ramification problem in a more appropriate way. We evaluate the update operators of our family w.r.t. two important dimensions: the logical dimension, by checking the status of the Katsuno-Mendelzon postulates for update, and the computational dimension, by identifying the complexity of a number of decision problems (including model checking, consistency and inference), both in the general case and in some restricted cases, as well as by studying compactability issues. It follows that several operators of our family are interesting alternatives to previous belief update operators