Falling a House of Cards: Rediscovering a Humanist Language in an Age of Neuroreduction

Through Falling a house of cards: Rediscovering a humanist language in an age of neuroreduction, I argue that the language games specific to both neuroscience research and psychological treatment have becoming nonsensically intertwined, leading to commodification of treatment and patient abuse. I first examine the historical perspective of reductionism in science that enabled this linguistic blending, starting with Descartes and tracing its lineage to the modern times. I then expound on the nonsensical nature of modern neuroscience through a Wittgensteinian lens, and finally conclude with an examination of the social consequences produced by this linguistic confusion. The primary critique leveled is an argument coming from the field of mereology and entitled the mereological fallacy, where concepts of the whole creature are inappropriately and nonsensically attributed to specific parts of that creature. Ultimately, my thesis stands as an argument against the translational use of reductionism from research paradigms to treatment protocols

Producing a Past: Cyrus Mccormick\u27s Reaper from Heritage to History

Producing a Past explores how the false fact of Cyrus McCormick\u27s 1831 invention of the reaper came to be incorporated into the American historical cannon. From 1884 to 1932, the McCormick Harvester family and their various affiliated businesses created a useable past about their departed patriarch, Cyrus McCormick, and his role in producing civilization through advertising and the emerging historical profession. The McCormick narrative of the past which was peddled in advertising and supported in scholarship justified the family\u27s elite position in American society and its monopolistic control of the harvester industry in the face of political and popular antagonism. As a parallel story to the McCormick\u27s hegemonic use of history, this dissertation also focuses on the professionalizing historical discipline during the Progressive Era. These early historians were anxious to demonstrate their concrete value in the corporate economy as objective guardians of the past. While ethics might have prevented them from being historians for hire, their own positions as middle-class workers pre-disposed them to be receptive to both the McCormick\u27s financial influence and their historical messages

The associations of palliative care experts regarding food refusal : a cross-sectional study with an open question evaluated by triangulation analysis

Introduction: Health professionals in oncologic and palliative care settings are often faced with the problem that patients stop eating and drinking. While the causes of food refusal are very different, the result is often malnutrition, which is linked to health comorbidities and a high mortality rate. However, the professionals lack the time and knowledge to clarify the cause for each patient. What associations do health professionals have when faced with food refusal? Objective: To investigate the associations that health professionals in oncological and palliative settings have about denied eating behavior. Methods: A cross-sectional study, starting with an open question focusing professionals’ associations regarding food refusal. The results were inductively analyzed, whereby generic categories were developed. Subsequently, the categories were transformed into quantitative data to calculate the relationships between the categories. Results: A total of 350 out of 2000 participants completed the survey, resulting in a response rate of 17.5%. Food refusal is primarily associated with physical and ethical aspects and with endof-life. Half of the participants frequently find that patients refuse to eat. The attitudes show that the autonomy of the patient is the highest good and is to be respected. Even in the case of patients with limited decision-making capacity, the refusal to eat is acceptable. Conclusion: Clarifying the cause of food refusal requires a great deal of knowledge and is strongly influenced by the associations of health professionals. While the associations have very negative connotations, information and training is needed to make professionals aware of this and to change their associations. With this knowledge and in an interprofessional cooperation, mis-labelling of patient settings can be avoided and fears can be reduce

Inhibition causes ceaseless dynamics in networks of excitable nodes

The collective dynamics of a network of excitable nodes changes dramatically when inhibitory nodes are introduced. We consider inhibitory nodes which may be activated just like excitatory nodes but, upon activating, decrease the probability of activation of network neighbors. We show that, although the direct effect of inhibitory nodes is to decrease activity, the collective dynamics becomes self-sustaining. We explain this counterintuitive result by defining and analyzing a "branching function" which may be thought of as an activity-dependent branching ratio. The shape of the branching function implies that for a range of global coupling parameters dynamics are self-sustaining. Within the self-sustaining region of parameter space lies a critical line along which dynamics take the form of avalanches with universal scaling of size and duration, embedded in ceaseless timeseries of activity. Our analyses, confirmed by numerical simulation, suggest that inhibition may play a counterintuitive role in excitable networks.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

Haptic feedback in mixed-reality environment

The training process in industries is assisted with computer solutions to reduce costs. Normally, computer systems created to simulate assembly or machine manipulation are implemented with traditional Human-Computer interfaces (keyboard, mouse, etc). But, this usually leads to systems that are far from the real procedures, and thus not efficient in term of training. Two techniques could improve this procedure: mixed-reality and haptic feedback. We propose in this paper to investigate the integration of both of them inside a single framework. We present the hardware used to design our training system. A feasibility study allows one to establish testing protocol. The results of these tests convince us that such system should not try to simulate realistically the interaction between real and virtual objects as if it was only real object

The acute phase protein, haptoglobin : a potential parameter in welfare assessment?

Physiological parameters are important measures in animal welfare assessment. To assess the amount of stress an animal experiences, stress hormones like cortisol are frequently used. However, measuring cortisol has major disadvantages due to its rapid reactivity and decline and many influencing factors. Other potential alternative markers are acute phase proteins, since stress is known to affect the immune system. A pilot study was conducted to investigate the response of the acute phase protein, plasma haptoglobine (HP), in pigs subjected to a stressor (food deprivation) and to examine the correlation between HP levels and average daily growth (ADG). Forty grower pigs (25.1 ± 4.4 kg, mean ± SD) (sex and former pen mates balanced), were allocated to 4 conventional pens, 2 treatment (T) and 2 control (C) groups (10 pigs per pen). After 10 days of adaptation the experiment started and ran for 3 weeks. In the 2nd week, T groups were repeatedly subjected to an 8-hour food deprivation (day 1, 3, 5 and 7 of week 2), C groups had normal, unrestricted, access to food. Pigs were weighed twice a week and blood was collected once a week (every 5th day). Mean levels of plasma HP of C and T groups showed large variation between individuals (C groups, week 2: 1.84 ± 3.11 mg/ml; T groups, week 2: 1.40 ± 1.16 mg/ml). No significant differences (Kruskal-Wallis test) in HP levels or growth were found between the C and T groups or between the different weeks within the T groups. Significant negative weak to moderate correlations were found between ADG and HP levels (HP week 1 and ADG week 1: rs = -0.47, p=0.005; HP week 2 and ADG total; rs= -0.60, p=0.015; HP week 3 and ADG total: rs = -0.43, p=0.025; average HP total and ADG total: rs= -0.41, p=0.017). Large variations in HP levels between individuals were shown and no effect of treatment on HP levels or growth was found. Possibly, food deprivation had no apparent stress eliciting effect. Despite these results, interesting correlations between the level of HP and ADG were found, corroborating the inverse relationship between the acute phase response and growth. To further investigate the relation of the acute phase response and stress a successive experiment will be conducted in which we apply a stronger stressor (mixing pigs) and combine the physiological data with behavior

Excavation Paperwork of Unit A Levels 8-9 From Penny (8BR158)

This document contains the field notes taken during excavation of test unit A, levels 8-9. It is a scan of original paper documents generated in the field

Anderson Localization Triggered by Spin Disorder—With an Application to Eu x Ca1− x B6

The phenomenon of Anderson localization is studied for a class of one-particle Schrödinger operators with random Zeeman interactions. These operators arise as follows: Static spins are placed randomly on the sites of a simple cubic lattice according to a site percolation process with density x and coupled to one another ferromagnetically. Scattering of an electron in a conduction band at these spins is described by a random Zeeman interaction term that originates from indirect exchange. It is shown rigorously that, for positive values of x below the percolation threshold, the spectrum of the one-electron Schrödinger operator near the band edges is dense pure-point, and the corresponding eigenfunctions are exponentially localized. Localization near the band edges persists in a weak external magnetic field, H, but disappears gradually, as H is increased. Our results lead us to predict the phenomenon of colossal (negative) magnetoresistance and the existence of a Mott transition, as H and/or x are increased. Our analysis is motivated directly by experimental results concerning the magnetic alloy Eu x Ca1−x B