Kant, race, and natural history

This article presents a new argument concerning the relation between Kant’s theory of race and aspects of the critical philosophy. It argues that Kant’s treatment of the problem of the systematic unity of nature and knowledge in the Critique of Pure Reason and the Critique of the Power of Judgment can be traced back a methodological problem in the natural history of the period – that of the possibility of a natural system of nature. Kant’s transformation of the methodological problem from natural history into a set of philosophical (and specifically epistemological) problems proceeds by way of the working out of his own problem in natural history – the problem of the natural history of the human races – and specifically the problem of the unity in diversity of the human species, in response to which he develops a theory of race. This theory of race is, further, the first developed model of the use of teleological judgment in Kant’s work. The article thus argues that Kant’s philosophical position on the systematic unity of nature and of knowledge in the first and third Critiques, and his account and defense of teleological judgment, are developed out of problems first articulated in his solution to the problem of the unity in diversity of the human species – that is, in his theory of race. The article does not seek to establish that these aspects of the critical philosophy are therefore racialised. But it does demonstrate, against those who deny its salience to his philosophy, how the problem of the unity in diversity of the human species and Kant’s theory of race is significant for the development of aspects of the critical philosophy and thus contributes to their philosophical problematics

High-Load Reovirus Infections Do Not Imply Physiological Impairment in Salmon

The recent ubiquitous detection of PRV among salmonids has sparked international concern about the cardiorespiratory performance of infected wild and farmed salmon. Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV) has been shown to create substantial viremia in salmon by targeting erythrocytes for principle replication. In some instances, infections develop into heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI) or other pathological conditions affecting the respiratory system. Critical to assessing the seriousness of PRV infections are controlled infection studies that measure physiological impairment to critical life support systems. Respiratory performance is such a system and here multiple indices were measured to test the hypothesis that a low-virulence strain of PRV from Pacific Canada compromises the cardiorespiratory capabilities of Atlantic salmon. Contrary to this hypothesis, the oxygen affinity and carrying capacity of erythrocytes were unaffected by PRV despite the presence of severe viremia, minor heart pathology and transient cellular activation of antiviral response pathways. Similarly, PRV-infected fish had neither sustained nor appreciable differences in respiratory capabilities compared with control fish. The lack of functional harm to salmon infected with PRV in this instance highlights that, in an era of unprecedented virus discovery, detection of viral infection does not necessarily imply bodily harm and that viral load is not always a suitable predictor of disease within a host organism

Identification of upper thermal thresholds during development in the endangered Nechako white sturgeon with management implications for a regulated river

Climate change-induced warming effects are already evident in river ecosystems, and projected increases in temperature will continue to amplify stress on fish communities. In addition, many rivers globally are impacted by dams, which have many negative effects on fishes by altering flow, blocking fish passage, and changing sediment composition. However, in some systems, dams present an opportunity to manage river temperature through regulated releases of cooler water. For example, there is a government mandate for Kenney dam operators in the Nechako river, British Columbia, Canada, to maintain river temperature <20°C in July and August to protect migrating sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka). However, there is another endangered fish species inhabiting the same river, Nechako white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus), and it is unclear if these current temperature regulations, or timing of the regulations, are suitable for spawning and developing sturgeon. In this study, we aimed to identify upper thermal thresholds in white sturgeon embryos and larvae to investigate if exposure to current river temperatures are playing a role in recruitment failure. We incubated embryos and yolk-sac larvae in three environmentally relevant temperatures (14, 18 and 21°C) throughout development to identify thermal thresholds across different levels of biological organization. Our results demonstrate upper thermal thresholds at 21°C across physiological measurements in embryo and yolk-sac larvae white sturgeon. Before hatch, both embryo survival and metabolic rate were reduced at 21°C. After hatch, sublethal consequences continued at 21°C because larval sturgeon had decreased thermal plasticity and a dampened transcriptional response during development. In recent years, the Nechako river has reached 21°C by the end of June, and at this temperature, a decrease in sturgeon performance is evident in most of the traits measured. As such, the thermal thresholds identified here suggest current temperature regulations may not be suitable for developing white sturgeon and future recruitment

1965: Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures - Full Text

LIFT UP YOUR EYES” Being the Abilene Christian College Annual Bible Lectures 1965 Price: $3.95 Published by ABILENE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE STUDENTS EXCHANGE ACC Station Abilene. Texa

Masses, radii, and orbits of small Kepler planets : The transition from gaseous to rocky planets

We report on the masses, sizes, and orbits of the planets orbiting 22 Kepler stars. There are 49 planet candidates around these stars, including 42 detected through transits and 7 revealed by precise Doppler measurements of the host stars. Based on an analysis of the Kepler brightness measurements, along with high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy, Doppler spectroscopy, and (for 11 stars) asteroseismology, we establish low false-positive probabilities (FPPs) for all of the transiting planets (41 of 42 have an FPP under 1%), and we constrain their sizes and masses. Most of the transiting planets are smaller than three times the size of Earth. For 16 planets, the Doppler signal was securely detected, providing a direct measurement of the planet's mass. For the other 26 planets we provide either marginal mass measurements or upper limits to their masses and densities; in many cases we can rule out a rocky composition. We identify six planets with densities above 5 g cm-3, suggesting a mostly rocky interior for them. Indeed, the only planets that are compatible with a purely rocky composition are smaller than 2 R ⊕. Larger planets evidently contain a larger fraction of low-density material (H, He, and H2O).Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

Spectacular nucleosynthesis from early massive stars

Stars formed with initial mass over 50 Msun are very rare today, but they are thought to be more common in the early universe. The fates of those early, metal-poor, massive stars are highly uncertain. Most are expected to directly collapse to black holes, while some may explode as a result of rotationally powered engines or the pair-creation instability. We present the chemical abundances of J0931+0038, a nearby low-mass star identified in early followup of SDSS-V Milky Way Mapper, which preserves the signature of unusual nucleosynthesis from a massive star in the early universe. J0931+0038 has relatively high metallicity ([Fe/H] = -1.76 +/- 0.13) but an extreme odd-even abundance pattern, with some of the lowest known abundance ratios of [N/Fe], [Na/Fe], [K/Fe], [Sc/Fe], and [Ba/Fe]. The implication is that a majority of its metals originated in a single extremely metal-poor nucleosynthetic source. An extensive search through nucleosynthesis predictions finds a clear preference for progenitors with initial mass > 50 Msun, making J0931+0038 one of the first observational constraints on nucleosynthesis in this mass range. However the full abundance pattern is not matched by any models in the literature. J0931+0038 thus presents a challenge for the next generation of nucleosynthesis models and motivates study of high-mass progenitor stars impacted by convection, rotation, jets, and/or binary companions. Though rare, more examples of unusual early nucleosynthesis in metal-poor stars should be found in upcoming large spectroscopic surveys.Comment: 11 pages + 22 page appendix, accepted to ApJ

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts

Spatial Organization and Molecular Correlation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Using Deep Learning on Pathology Images

Beyond sample curation and basic pathologic characterization, the digitized H&E-stained images of TCGA samples remain underutilized. To highlight this resource, we present mappings of tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) based on H&E images from 13 TCGA tumor types. These TIL maps are derived through computational staining using a convolutional neural network trained to classify patches of images. Affinity propagation revealed local spatial structure in TIL patterns and correlation with overall survival. TIL map structural patterns were grouped using standard histopathological parameters. These patterns are enriched in particular T cell subpopulations derived from molecular measures. TIL densities and spatial structure were differentially enriched among tumor types, immune subtypes, and tumor molecular subtypes, implying that spatial infiltrate state could reflect particular tumor cell aberration states. Obtaining spatial lymphocytic patterns linked to the rich genomic characterization of TCGA samples demonstrates one use for the TCGA image archives with insights into the tumor-immune microenvironment