Can Anosognosia Vindicate Traditionalism about Self-Deception?

The traditional conception of self-deception takes it for an intrapersonal form of interpersonal deception. However, since the same subject is at the same time deceiver and deceived, this means attributing the agent a pair of contradictory beliefs. In the course of defending a deflationary conception of self-deception, Mele [1997] has challenged traditionalists to present convincing evidence that there are cases of self-deception in which what he calls the dual belief-requirement is satisfied. Levy [2009] has responded to this challenge affirming that there is at least one real cases of self-deception that meets this requirement, namely, that of anosognosia. In this family of conditions, the patient apparently believes that there is nothing wrong with her while, at the same time, providing behavioral cues that indicate that the patient is somehow aware of his disease. If Levy is right, then traditionalism about self-deception could be vindicated, after having been widely abandoned due to its need to postulate exotic mental processes in order to make sense of the attribution of contradictory beliefs. In this paper, I assess whether Levy’s response to Mele’s challenge is successful by analyzing his interpretation of the empirical evidence to which he appeals. Finally, I attack the cogency of the underlying commitments about the nature of folk psychology to which one is required to defer in order to draw from conflicting evidence the attribution of contradictory beliefs

Can Dispositionalism About Belief Vindicate Doxasticism About Delusion?

Clinical delusions have traditionally been characterized as beliefs in psychiatry. However, philosophers have recently engaged with the empirical literature and produced a number of objections to the so-called doxastic status of delusion, stemming mainly from the mismatch between the functional role of delusions and that expected of beliefs. In response to this, an appeal to dispositionalism about the nature of belief has been proposed to vindicate the doxastic status of delusion. In this paper, I first present the objections to attributing beliefs to delusional patients and the application of dispositionalism in the attempt to vindicate doxasticism. I then assess this application and some responses to the objections to the doxastic characterization. Finally, I offer some conclusions about the limits of folk-psychological concepts in the characterization and explanation of complex psychological phenomena such as delusions

The Classification, Definition, and Ontology of Delusion

Although delusion is one of the central concepts of psychopathology, it stills eludes precise conceptualization. In this paper, I present certain basic issues concerning the classification and definition of delusion, as well as its ontological status. By examining these issues, I aim to shed light on the ambiguity of the clinical term ‘delusion’ and its extension, as well as provide clues as to why philosophers are increasingly joining the ranks of psychiatrists, psychologists, and neuroscientists in the effort to come to a comprehensive understanding of delusion

Purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of a fusion of the LIM domains of LMO2 and the LID domain of Ldb1

LMO2 (LIM domain only 2), also known as rhombotin-2, is a transcriptional regulator that is essential for normal haematopoietic development. In malignant haematopoiesis, its ectopic expression in T cells is involved in the pathogenesis of leukaemia. LMO2 contains four zinc-finger domains and binds to the ubiquitous nuclear adaptor protein Ldb1 via the LIM-interaction domain (LID). Together, they act as scaffolding proteins and bridge important haematopoietic transcription factors such as SCL/Tal1, E2A and GATA-1. Solving the structure of the LMO2:Ldb1-LID complex would therefore be a first step towards understanding how haematopoietic specific protein complexes form and would also provide an attractive target for drug development in anticancer therapy, especially for T-cell leukaemia. Here, the expression, purification, crystallization and data collection of a fusion protein consisting of the two LIM domains of LMO2 linked to the LID domain of Ldb1 via a flexible linker is reported. The crystals belonged to space group C2, with unit-cell parameters a = 179.9, b = 51.5, c = 114.7 Å, β = 90.1°, and contained five molecules in the asymmetric unit. Multiple-wavelength anomalous dispersion (MAD) data have been collected at the zinc X-ray absorption edge to a resolution of 2.8 Å and the data were used to solve the structure of the LMO2:Ldb1-LID complex. Refinement and analysis of the electron-density map is in progress

Culturally Targeted Decision Aid Use in Intention to Complete Colorectal Cancer Screening among African American Women

Title: Culturally Targeted Decision Aid Use in Intention to Complete Colorectal Cancer Screening among African American Women Purpose: African American (AA) women experienced approximately 41% more deaths related to Colorectal Cancer (CRC) than White women in 2016. Provider recommendation has been a positive predictor of screening behavior. Along with provider recommendation, decision aids (DAs) can be useful tools to decrease health disparities and increase screening rates in racial, sex, and gender minorities. The purpose of the project is to determine if the use of DAs along with provider recommendation improve intention to complete CRC screening. Method: 21 AA women ages 45-75 years where recruited from a primary care office and asked to complete a 5 question survey gauging intention to complete CRC screening. They then viewed a culturally targeted DA regarding CRC screening. After viewing the DA, they completed the same 5-question survey regarding intention to complete CRC screening. Results: Twenty-one AA women aged 47-69 years completed the project. A Wilcoxon Signed rank test was conducted to evaluate the changes in intentions following of the culturally targeted DA intervention on AA women’s intention to complete CRC screening. Level of intention to complete screening did not differ significantly from the pre (M rank=8.44) to the post intervention group (M rank=9.50) where the sum of the ranks was 67.50 and 85.50 respectively and z=.666. Conclusion: Though the study did not show statistical significance in intention to complete screening, it did seem to increase knowledge of CRC screening. Addressing social issues and bringing awareness to the AA community about CRC screening is imperative to reduce morbidity and mortality related to CRC. More research is needed on the use of decision aids specifically targeting high-risk populations such as African American women

Does Contracting for the Provision of Public Services Decrease Prices? Evidence from French Water Public Services

This article looks at the reasons for and results of contracting out in local public services, with specific regards to its possible effects on price and other performance determinants. It uses a rich city-level dataset of water public services in France between 1998 and 2008. We find evidence, using alternative econometric methods, that contracting out to private operators is associated with higher prices on average ceteris paribus. This pattern is consistent with the study of units switching from an organizational form to another. We finally discuss several reasons for the existing price gap between direct management (public management) and contracting out (private management) using the expense-preferences of managers

IN VITRO STUDY OF FLUID DIODES IN THE PULMONARY VALVE POSITION

Every year many people suffer from severe chronic pulmonary insufficiency. Problems that can be incurred include the valve becoming stenotic, where it inhibits antegrade flow, and incompetent, allowing retrograde flow. When either of these conditions occurs with great severity, it is often necessary for the native valve to be replaced. There are no acceptable, permanent solutions currently available for a pulmonary valve replacement. Previous research, based on regurgitant fraction and transvalvular gradient, has indicated that a fluid diode could possibly serve as a permanent valve replacement solution. This study investigated the effectiveness of a diode to reduce the workload of a right ventricle while maintaining a tolerable regurgitant fraction and transvalvular pressure gradient. Three different diode geometries were compared to each other and also to a comparable stenosis and a blank annulus. The valve prototypes were tested in two positions in the mock pulmonary circulatory system (MPCS), immediately in the right ventricle outflow tract (RVOT) and also 3 cm downstream, in the pulmonary artery test section. The results of this study indicate that while all three of the diode designs performed very similarly to each other in each set of tests, the performance of the diodes varied greatly between the two positions in which they were tested. The diodes tested in the RVOT significantly reduced regurgitant fraction (RF), transvalvular gradient (TVG), and ventricular work as compared to the stenosis. However, the diodes demonstrated no significant reduction in TVG or ventricular work as compared to the stenosis or the blank annulus when placed within the pulmonary artery

I Don’t Have the Answers, Sway! Teaching Secondary Literacy Methods Course Using an Inquiry Model of Instruction

In the era of high stakes testing, students have become conditioned to find the “right answer”and earn an “A” as opposed to engaging in critical thinking and productive struggle. In an effort to break this cycle, I restructured the literacy methods course to an inquiry model; Launch-Explore-Discuss

Hedging strategies in energy markets: the case of electricity retailers

As market intermediaries, electricity retailers buy electricity from the wholesale market or self-generate for re(sale) on the retail market. Electricity retailers are uncertain about how much electricity their residential customers will use at any time of the day until they actually turn switches on. While demand uncertainty is a common feature of all commodity markets, retailers generally rely on storage to manage demand uncertainty. On electricity markets, retailers are exposed to joint quantity and price risk on an hourly basis given the physical singularity of electricity as a commodity. In the literature on electricity markets, few articles deal on intra-day hedging portfolios to manage joint price and quantity risk whereas electricity markets are hourly markets. The contributions of the article are twofold. First, we define through a VaR and CVaR model optimal portfolios for specific hours (3 am, 6 am,. . . ,12 pm) based on electricity market data from 2001 to 2011 for the French market. We prove that the optimal hedging strategy differs depending on the cluster hour. Secondly, we demonstrate the significantly superior efficiency of intra-day hedging portfolios over daily (therefore weekly and yearly) portfolios. Over a decade (2001–2011), our results clearly show that the losses of an optimal daily portfolio are at least nine times higher than the losses of optimal intra-day portfolios

The perfecting of the octopus

Cephalopods split away from the phylogenetic tree about half a billion years ago, and octopus evolution has been accelerated by an extremely low survival rate. This helps explain why this unusual animal presents qualities found in no other. It has a radially organized nervous system with a processing centre for each of its eight tentacles. Yet, although this might suggest that each tentacle has its own centre of consciousness, it remains just one animal, with one mouth to feed, and one life to lose, and it behaves as if it is centrally controlled. Its capacity for a range of intelligent and often cognitive behaviour suggests that it must have its own version of sentience