The Four Phases of Philosophy

Introduction and translation of “The Four Phases of Philosophy” by Franz Brentano

Interaction of Liposomal Drug Delivery Systems with Cells and Tissues: Microscopic Studies

Liposomes , as drug carriers, can be administered into the body by several routes e.g. intravenously, intraperitoneally, intramuscularly, intratracheally and topically among others. Radiolabelled markers are suitable to monitor the distribution and elimination of liposomes, but the tissue deposition of intact liposomes, the mode and sites of drug release from the liposomes and liposome-cell interactions cannot be investigated morphologically. Microscopic techniques could provide information regarding the intact state of liposomes and possibly the dynamics of liposomes in tissues provided that they can be identified with certainty in vivo. This is a formidable problem and in spite of several attempts, there is still a lot of work and new ideas needed to overcome this problem. This paper gives a detailed review of liposome markers used in light and electron microscopy. The use of markers or the technique involved in the identification of liposomes in cells or t issues is discussed. The feasibility of using colloidal iron, a new electron dense marker, as a marker for intravenously injected liposomes was investigated in mice. Intact multilamellar vesicles containing colloidal iron were identified in the liver, spleen and lung of mice injected with liposomes. The liver and the spleen are organs for the storage of iron containing proteins (ferritin, hemosiderin), therefore studying the disposition of colloidal iron from the liposomes was not possible. However, in organs not containing iron, e.g. lung, the presence of colloidal iron can easily be recognized. The colloidal iron marker may be suitable to label liposomes targeted to the brain , heart or certain tumors

Demythologizing Christian Philosophy: An Outline

In this paper I investigate the tradition of “philosophy” and “philosopher” with respect to their importance in Christianity. I argue that the meaning of the traditional notion of philosophy as an abstract science has importantly changed. The reason for this is that the “cosmo-theological” character of traditional philosophy proved to be untenable. If this pattern is not valid in our days, then the question arises if the role of philosophy, as conceived during the Christian centuries, can be continued in and beyond our age. My answer has two aspects: on the one hand, the cosmo-theological character of philosophy needs to be explored or “demythologized;” on the other hand, Christian thought still has the potential to open itself to a future renewal. Thinking philosophically is a fundamental human feature, and I suggest that “trying to become wise,” the striving for the discovery and realization of the meaningfulness of reality is still the main concern of human beings reflecting on their historical existence today. In this sense, the encyclical letter of Fides et ratio by John Paul II offers guidance, inasmuch as its author calls for “courage” in thinking. Following this call, the present paper contends that the three mains tasks of a Christian philosophy today are as follows: 1. A sufficient understanding of the tradition determined by cosmo-theology; 2. A sufficient understanding of the importance of the trauma of totalitarianism of the twentieth century as the dividing line between tradition and contemporary reflections; and 3. A sufficient understanding of human beings striving to grasp the meaning of personhood in an open universe on the basis of the meaningfulness of reality.In this paper I investigate the tradition of “philosophy” and “philosopher” with respect to their importance in Christianity. I argue that the meaning of the traditional notion of philosophy as an abstract science has importantly changed. The reason for this is that the “cosmo-theological” character of traditional philosophy proved to be untenable. If this pattern is not valid in our days, then the question arises if the role of philosophy, as conceived during the Christian centuries, can be continued in and beyond our age. My answer has two aspects: on the one hand, the cosmo-theological character of philosophy needs to be explored or “demythologized;” on the other hand, Christian thought still has the potential to open itself to a future renewal. Thinking philosophically is a fundamental human feature, and I suggest that “trying to become wise,” the striving for the discovery and realization of the meaningfulness of reality is still the main concern of human beings reflecting on their historical existence today. In this sense, the encyclical letter of Fides et ratio by John Paul II offers guidance, inasmuch as its author calls for “courage” in thinking. Following this call, the present paper contends that the three mains tasks of a Christian philosophy today are as follows: 1. A sufficient understanding of the tradition determined by cosmo-theology; 2. A sufficient understanding of the importance of the trauma of totalitarianism of the twentieth century as the dividing line between tradition and contemporary reflections; and 3. A sufficient understanding of human beings striving to grasp the meaning of personhood in an open universe on the basis of the meaningfulness of reality

Realist Phenomenology and Philosophy of Religion. A Critical Reflection

The aim of the present paper is to show that Catholicism is not a closed segment of contemporary philosophy but rather a rich source of traditions and developments which are alive even today and can help to understand our philosophical situation and contribute to a renaissance of influential philosophy in our culture. In more detail, I shall focus on the importance of Catholic philosophy in its history and present day situation as part and parcel of our general philosophical traditions. I offer a list of models describing the possible relationships between Catholicism and philosophy. I identify the unity model as a model connected to phenomenological realism; and I will detail the important contribution of Josef Seifert to such a phenomenological realism. Phenomenological realism as an expression is offered here as a modification of realist phenomenology, a modification based on the recognition of what I term the entangled nature of reality

Monopole operators from the 4−ϵ4-\epsilon expansion

Three-dimensional quantum electrodynamics with $N$ charged fermions contains monopole operators that have been studied perturbatively at large $N$. Here, we initiate the study of these monopole operators in the $4-\epsilon$ expansion by generalizing them to codimension-3 defect operators in $d = 4-\epsilon$ spacetime dimensions. Assuming the infrared dynamics is described by an interacting CFT, we define the "conformal weight" of these operators in terms of the free energy density on $S^2 \times \mathbb{H}^{2-\epsilon}$ in the presence of magnetic flux through the $S^2$, and calculate this quantity to next-to-leading order in $\epsilon$. Extrapolating the conformal weight to $\epsilon = 1$ gives an estimate of the scaling dimension of the monopole operators in $d=3$ that does not rely on the $1/N$ expansion. We also perform the computation of the conformal weight in the large $N$ expansion for any $d$ and find agreement between the large $N$ and the small $\epsilon$ expansions in their overlapping regime of validity.Comment: 45 pages, 3 figures, version accepted by journa

Optimization of the Ballistic Guide Design for the SNS FNPB 8.9 A Neutron Line

The optimization of the ballistic guide design for the SNS Fundamental Neutron Physics Beamline 8.9 A line is described. With a careful tuning of the shape of the curve for the tapered section and the width of the straight section, this optimization resulted in more than 75% increase in the neutron flux exiting the 33 m long guide over a straight m=3.5 guide with the same length.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures; added a paragraph on existing ballistic guides to respond to referee comments; accepted for publication in Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research,

Monopole Operators in U(1)U(1) Chern-Simons-Matter Theories

We study monopole operators at the infrared fixed points of $U(1)$ Chern-Simons-matter theories (QED$_3$, scalar QED$_3$, ${\cal N} =1$ SQED$_3$, and ${\cal N} = 2$ SQED$_3$) with $N$ matter flavors and Chern-Simons level $k$. We work in the limit where both $N$ and $k$ are taken to be large with $\kappa = k/N$ fixed. In this limit, we extract information about the low-lying spectrum of monopole operators from evaluating the $S^2 \times S^1$ partition function in the sector where the $S^2$ is threaded by magnetic flux $4 \pi q$. At leading order in $N$, we find a large number of monopole operators with equal scaling dimensions and a wide range of spins and flavor symmetry irreducible representations. In two simple cases, we deduce how the degeneracy in the scaling dimensions is broken by the $1/N$ corrections. For QED$_3$ at $\kappa=0$, we provide conformal bootstrap evidence that this near-degeneracy is in fact maintained to small values of $N$. For ${\cal N} = 2$ SQED$_3$, we find that the lowest dimension monopole operator is generically non-BPS.Comment: 52 pages plus appendices, 9 figures, v2: minor correction

Race/ethnicity and the risk of childhood leukaemia: a case-control study in California.

BackgroundWe conducted a large registry-based study in California to investigate the association between race/ethnicity and childhood leukaemia focusing on two subtypes: acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).MethodsWe obtained information on 5788 cases and 5788 controls by linking California cancer and birth registries. We evaluated relative risk of childhood leukaemia by race and ethnicity of the child and their parents using conditional logistic regression, with adjustment for potential confounders.ResultsCompared with Whites, Black children had lower risk of ALL (OR=0.54, 95% CI 0.45 to 0.66) as well as children of Black/Asian parents (OR=0.31, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.94). Asian race was associated with increased risk of AML with OR=1.643, 95% CI 1.10 to 2.46 for Asian vs Whites; and OR=1.67, 95% CI 1.04 to 2.70 for Asian/Asian vs White/White. Hispanic ethnicity was associated with increased risk of ALL (OR=1.37, 95% CI 1.22 to 1.52). A gradient in risk of ALL was observed while comparing Hispanic children with both parents Hispanic, one parent Hispanic and non-Hispanic children (p Value for trend <0.0001). The highest risk of ALL was observed for children with a combination of Hispanic ethnicity and White race compared with non-Hispanic whites (OR=1.27, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.44). The lowest risk was observed for non-Hispanic blacks (OR=0.46, 95% CI 0.36 to 0.60). Associations for total childhood leukaemia were similar to ALL.ConclusionsOur results confirm that there are ethnic and racial differences in the incidence of childhood leukaemia. These differences indicate that some genetic and/or environmental/cultural factors are involved in aetiology of childhood leukaemia

Mass loss and longevity of gravitationally bound oscillating scalar lumps (oscillatons) in D-dimensions

Spherically symmetric oscillatons (also referred to as oscillating soliton stars) i.e. gravitationally bound oscillating scalar lumps are considered in theories containing a massive self-interacting real scalar field coupled to Einstein's gravity in 1+D dimensional spacetimes. Oscillations are known to decay by emitting scalar radiation with a characteristic time scale which is, however, extremely long, it can be comparable even to the lifetime of our universe. In the limit when the central density (or amplitude) of the oscillaton tends to zero (small-amplitude limit) a method is introduced to compute the transcendentally small amplitude of the outgoing waves. The results are illustrated in detail on the simplest case, a single massive free scalar field coupled to gravity.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures, references on oscillons added, version to appear in Phys. Rev.