763 research outputs found
Tracking Eudaimonia
A basic challenge to naturalistic moral realism is that, even if moral properties existed, there would be no way to naturalistically represent or track them. Here, the basic structure for a tracking account of moral epistemology is given in empirically respectable terms, based on a eudaimonist conception of morality. The goal is to show how this form of moral realism can be seen as consistent with the details of evolutionary biology as well as being amenable to the most current understanding of representationalist or correspondence theories of truth
The 3D coarse-graining formulation of interacting elastohydrodynamic filaments and multi-body microhydrodynamics
Elastic filaments are vital to biological, physical and engineering systems,
from cilia driving fluid in the lungs to artificial swimmers and
micro-robotics. Simulating slender structures requires intricate balance of
elastic, body, active, and hydrodynamic moments, all in three-dimensions. Here,
we present a generalised 3D coarse-graining formulation that is efficient,
simple-to-implement, readily extendable and usable for a wide array of
applications. Our method allows for simulation of collections of 3D elastic
filaments, capable of full flexural and torsional deformations, coupled
non-locally via hydrodynamic interactions, and including multi-body
microhydrodynamics of structures with arbitrary geometry. The method exploits
the exponential mapping of quaternions for tracking three-dimensional rotations
of each interacting element in the system, allowing for computation times up to
150 times faster than a direct quaternion implementation. Spheres are used as a
`building block' of both filaments and solid micro-structures for
straightforward and intuitive construction of arbitrary three-dimensional
geometries present in the environment. We highlight the strengths of the method
in a series of non-trivial applications including bi-flagellated swimming,
sperm-egg scattering, and particle transport by cilia arrays. Applications to
lab-on-a-chip devices, multi-filaments, mono-to-multi flagellated
microorganisms, Brownian polymers, and micro-robotics are straightforward. A
Matlab code is provided for further customization and generalizations.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure
Validating performance of automotive materials at high strain rate for improved crash design
This paper investigates sources of performance variability in high velocity testing of automotive crash structures. Sources of variability, or so called noise factors, present in a testing environment, arise from uncertainty in structural properties, joints, boundary conditions and measurement system. A box structure, which is representative of a crash component, is designed and fabricated from a high strength Dual Phase sheet steel. Crush tests are conducted at low and high speed. Such tests intend to validate a component model and material strain rate sensitivity data determined from high speed tensile testing. To support experimental investigations, stochastic modeling is used to investigate the effect of noise factors on crash structure performance variability, and to identify suitable performance measures to validate a component model and material strain rate sensitivity data. The results of the project will enable the measurement of more reliable strain rate sensitivity data for improved crashworthiness predictions of automotive structures
Virtue Epistemology and the Epistemology of Virtue
The ancient Greeks almost universally accepted the thesis that virtues are skills. Skills have an underlying intellectual structure (logos), and having a particular skill entails understanding the relevant logos. possessing a general ability to diagnose and solve problems (phronesis). as well as having appropriate experience. Two implications of accepting this thesis for moral epistemology and epistemology in general are considered. Thinking of virtues as skills yields a viable virtue epistemology in which moral knowledge is a species of a general kind of knowledge that is not philosophically suspect. Also, the debate between internalists and externalists in epistemology is subversively resolved as moot by adopting this strategy: the locus of justification for a belief is in the nature of skill. Thus, the contingent fact that some skills allow Homo Sapiens an âinternal accessâ. while others do not, is theoretically neutral when considering the nature of justification per se
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