Toward a Multi-Scale Computational Model of Arterial Adaptation in Hypertension: Verification of a Multi-Cell Agent Based Model

Agent-based models (ABMs) represent a novel approach to study and simulate complex mechano chemo-biological responses at the cellular level. Such models have been used to simulate a variety of emergent responses in the vasculature, including angiogenesis and vasculogenesis. Although not used previously to study large vessel adaptations, we submit that ABMs will prove equally useful in such studies when combined with well-established continuum models to form multi-scale models of tissue-level phenomena. In order to couple agent-based and continuum models, however, there is a need to ensure that each model faithfully represents the best data available at the relevant scale and that there is consistency between models under baseline conditions. Toward this end, we describe the development and verification of an ABM of endothelial and smooth muscle cell responses to mechanical stimuli in a large artery. A refined rule-set is proposed based on a broad literature search, a new scoring system for assigning confidence in the rules, and a parameter sensitivity study. To illustrate the utility of these new methods for rule selection, as well as the consistency achieved with continuum-level models, we simulate the behavior of a mouse aorta during homeostasis and in response to both transient and sustained increases in pressure. The simulated responses depend on the altered cellular production of seven key mitogenic, synthetic, and proteolytic biomolecules, which in turn control the turnover of intramural cells and extracellular matrix. These events are responsible for gross changes in vessel wall morphology. This new ABM is shown to be appropriately stable under homeostatic conditions, insensitive to transient elevations in blood pressure, and responsive to increased intramural wall stress in hypertension

Seismicity trends and detachment fault structure at 13°N, Mid-Atlantic Ridge

At slow-spreading ridges, plate separation is commonly partly accommodated by slip on long-lived detachment faults, exposing upper mantle and lower crustal rocks on the seafloor. However, the mechanics of this process, the subsurface structure, and the interaction of these faults remain largely unknown. We report the results of a network of 56 ocean-bottom seismographs (OBSs), deployed in 2016 at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near 13°N, that provided dense spatial coverage of two adjacent detachment faults and the intervening ridge axis. Although both detachments exhibited high levels of seismicity, they are separated by an ∼8-km-wide aseismic zone, indicating that they are mechanically decoupled. A linear band of seismic activity, possibly indicating magmatism, crosscuts the 13°30′N domed detachment surface, confirming previous evidence for fault abandonment. Farther south, where the 2016 OBS network spatially overlapped with a similar survey done in 2014, significant changes in the patterns of seismicity between these surveys are observed. These changes suggest that oceanic detachments undergo previously unobserved cycles of stress accumulation and release as plate spreading is accommodated.</p

The transformative potential of reflective diaries for elite English cricketers

The sport of cricket has a history of its players suffering from mental health issues. The psychological study of cricket and, in particular, the attendant demands of participating at an elite level has not previously received rigorous academic attention. This study explored ten elite male cricketers’ experiences of keeping a daily reflective diary for one month during the competitive season. The aim was to assess how valuable qualitative diaries are in this field. Participants were interviewed regarding their appraisal of the methodology as a self‐help tool that could assist coping with performance pressures and wider life challenges. Three outcomes were revealed: first, that diary keeping was an effective opportunity to reflect upon the past and enhance one’s self (both as an individual and a performer); second, that diary keeping acted as a form of release that allowed participants to progress; and third, that diary keeping allowed participants to discover personal patterns of success that increased the likeliness of optimum performance

Explaining Evidence Denial as Motivated Pragmatically Rational Epistemic Irrationality

This paper introduces a model for evidence denial that explains this behavior as a manifestation of rationality and it is based on the contention that social values (measurable as utilities) often underwrite these sorts of responses. Moreover, it is contended that the value associated with group membership in particular can override epistemic reason when the expected utility of a belief or belief system is great. However, it is also true that it appears to be the case that it is still possible for such unreasonable believers to reverse this sort of dogmatism and to change their beliefs in a way that is epistemically rational. The conjecture made here is that we should expect this to happen only when the expected utility of the beliefs in question dips below a threshold where the utility value of continued dogmatism and the associated group membership is no longer sufficient to motivate defusing the counter-evidence that tells against such epistemically irrational beliefs

Art and the Approval of Nature: Philosophical Reflections on Tom Roberts, Holiday Sketch at Coogee (1888)

This paper, based on a talk given at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, is presented as an example of philosophy done in an art gallery. Its subject is Tom Roberts’ painting Holiday Sketch at Coogee (1888), and as well as responding directly to the painting in the environment of the gallery, it draws on the author's memories of seeing that painting in other times and places. It draws on these personal experiences to relate Roberts’ painting to a controversial idea laid out by art historian Heinrich Wölfflin, and to more recent conventionalist and resemblance theories of pictorial representation. It finishes by affirming one of Roberts’ important achievements: his discarding of inherited European ways of picture‐making, and his place among the first generation of non‐indigenous artists to represent the real colours of the Australian landscape

A Cauchy-Dirac delta function

The Dirac delta function has solid roots in 19th century work in Fourier analysis and singular integrals by Cauchy and others, anticipating Dirac's discovery by over a century, and illuminating the nature of Cauchy's infinitesimals and his infinitesimal definition of delta.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures; Foundations of Science, 201