Whither Evidentialist Reliabilism?

Evidentialism and Reliabilism are two of the main contemporary theories of epistemic justification. Some authors have thought that the theories are not incompatible with each other, and that a hybrid theory which incorporates elements of both should be taken into account. More recently, other authors have argued that the resulting theory is well- placed to deal with fine-grained doxastic attitudes (credences). In this paper I review the reasons for adopting this kind of hybrid theory, paying attention to the case of credences and the notion of probability involved in their treatment. I argue that the notion of probability in question can only be an epistemic (or evidential) kind of probability. I conclude that the resulting theory will be incompatible with Reliabilism in one important respect: it cannot deliver on the reductivist promise of Reliabilism. I also argue that attention to the justification of basic beliefs reveals limitations in the Evidentialist framework as well. The theory that results from the right combination of Evidentialism and Reliabilism, therefore, is neither Evidentialist nor Reliabilist

Feasibility Study on Laser Cutting of Phenolic Resin Boards

AbstractLaser cutting is the most widely implemented application of lasers in industry. The many advantages of this process stimulate users in industry to cut many different materials, such as wood and wood composites –particleboard, plywood, etc.–, which are being cut with excellent results and productivity. Phenolic resins boards are a new substitute of wood in highly aggressive environments. In the present work we study the feasibility of CO2 lasers to cut phenolic resin boards and assess the potential health hazards of the vapours and residues produced, since its thermal degradation may produce toxic organic vapors

An optimisation approach for the e-grocery order picking and delivery problem

[EN] Traditional supermarket chains that are adopting an omni-channel approach must now carry out the order picking and delivery processes to serve online orders, previously done by the customer. The complexity of the logistics processes has increased, therefore modelling and optimising e-grocery operations becomes definitely important. Since there are few studies modelling order picking and delivery processes, we propose an approach that simultaneously optimises the decision variables of different functions which have traditionally been treated separately. In this study, we present a linear programming model for store-based e-fulfilment strategies with multiple picking locations. The proposed model optimises the allocation of online orders to stores, based on the e-fulfilment costs. As well as minimising the picking and delivery costs, the proposed approach consolidates workloads in order to avoid idle times and reduce the amount of resources required. A weighted sum method is applied to compute the solution, integrating parameters that represent different store features such as the product range, sales mode and physical store activities. The proposed model has been tested on one of the largest grocery sellers, showing that substantial savings can be achieved by reallocating orders to different stores, time windows and delivery vehicles. By focusing on optimising e-fulfilment resources, this approach serves as a guide for traditional grocery sellers to redesign their supply chains and to facilitate decision-making at a managerial level.Funding was provided by Universidade de Vigo.Vazquez-Noguerol, M.; Comesaña-Benavides, J.; Poler, R.; Prado-Prado, JC. (2022). An optimisation approach for the e-grocery order picking and delivery problem. Central European Journal of Operations Research. 30(3):961-990. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10100-020-00710-9S96199030

The interplay of phonology and orthography in visual cognate word recognition: an ERP study

This study examined the role of phonological and orthographic overlap in the recognition of cognate words by recording electrophysiological and behavioral data. One hundred and ninety-two words were selected: 96 cognate words listed according to their phonological and orthographic overlap vs. 96 noncognate words. Twenty-four proficient European Portuguese-English bilinguals performed a silent reading task with a masked priming paradigm. The results showed that phonology interacts with semantic activation at N400 modulations. Phonological priming effects were dependent on the orthographic overlap of cognate words. Thus, the distinctive processing of cognate words seems to be due to their cross-linguistic similarity, which is consistent with a localist connectionist account on cognate representation and processing.The research reported in this paper wasfunded by FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology), by NSRF (National Strategic Reference Framework), by COMPETE (Operational Agenda for Competitiveness Factors), a program created by the EU as part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), (PTDC/PSI-PCO/104671/2008) and by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (PSI2009–12616) and Plan E

Development of marine-based nanocomposite scaffolds for biomedical applications

Despite the increasing attention that marine organisms are receiving, many of those are not efficiently exploited and subproducts with valuable compounds are being discarded. Two examples of those subproducts are the endoskeleton of squid, from which β-­‐chitin and consecutively chitosan can be obtained; and fish-­‐bones, as a source for the production of nano-­‐ hydroxyapatite. In this work, inspired in the nanocomposite structure of human bone, marine-­‐ based nanocomposite scaffolds composed by chitosan and nano-­‐hydroxyapatite (nHA) were developed using particle aggregation methodology. Chitosan was obtained from endoskeleton of giant squid Dosidicus Gigas while fish hydroxyapatite nanoparticles were synthesized from fish-­‐bones by pulsed laser in deionized water. An innovative methodology was used based on the agglomeration of prefabricated microspheres of chitosan/nHA, generally based on the random packing of microspheres with further aggregation by physical or thermal means to create a marine nanocomposite (CHA) .The morphological analysis of the developed nanocomposites revealed a low porosity structure, but with high interconnectivity, for all produced scaffolds. Furthermore, the nanocomposite scaffolds were characterized in terms of their mechanical properties, bioactivity, crystallinity and biological behavior. The obtained results highlight that the chitosan/nHA-­‐based marine nanocomposite can be a good candidate for biomedical applications, namely on bone regeneration

Semiconductor gellan gum based composite hydrogels for tissue engineering applications

Publicado em "Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine", vol. 7, supp. 1 (2013)Semiconductor hydrogels can be developed by combining the intrinsic electrical properties of semiconductors with the specific characteristics of hydrogels. These hydrogels have recently attracted much attention for applications in tissue engineering, especially formulations incorporating pyrrole and excellent biocompatibility. Several studies have reported that electrical stimulation influences the migration, proliferation and differentiation of stem cells and other cell lines [1]. The goal of this work is to use in situ chemical polymerization of polypyrrole (PPy) with gellan gum (GG) in order to obtain a new generation of semiconductor composite hydrogels. For the synthesis of GG/PPy composites, GG at 1.25% (w/v) final concentration was prepared in distilled water at room temperature. The solution was then heated under stirring at 90°C for 20 min. Temperature was decreased to 65°C and Py was added under vigorous agitation. The crosslinker solution (CaCl2, 0.18%) was added at 50°C. After 2 h, GG/Py composite hydrogels were obtained. In a further step, GG/Py samples were immersed in a solution of oxidizing agent in PBS and the reaction was carried out for 18 h under agitation at room temperature. Finally, the samples were frozen at -80°C for 48 h and lyophilized. The characterization of GG, GG/PPy and PPy samples was performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The incorporation of PPy in the gellan gum was confirmed by SEM analysis. The coating with PPy increases the thickness of each sheet in 3 fold when compared with GG samples. Conductivity tests were also performed. For cytotoxicity assay, the samples were rehydrated with complete culture medium. MTS and DNA quantification assays were performed to evaluate the metabolic activity and proliferation of L929 fibroblast cells after 1, 3 and 7 days in culture with GG, GG/PPy and PPy samples. MTS assays clearly indicate a proportional relation between the cell viability and the PPy concentration: higher concentrations of PPy resulted in lower cell viability. These results show that lower concentration of PPy incorporated in the GG hydrogels can provide an adequate electrical stimulus to improve cell behavior. In conclusion, semiconductor hydrogels can be an excellent platform for tissue engineering and electrochemical therapy application

Metacognition as Evidence for Evidentialism

Metacognition is the monitoring and controlling of cognitive processes. I examine the role of metacognition in ‘ordinary retrieval cases’, cases in which it is intuitive that via recollection the subject has a justified belief. Drawing on psychological research on metacognition, I argue that evidentialism has a unique, accurate prediction in each ordinary retrieval case: the subject has evidence for the proposition she justifiedly believes. But, I argue, process reliabilism has no unique, accurate predictions in these cases. I conclude that ordinary retrieval cases better support evidentialism than process reliabilism. This conclusion challenges several common assumptions. One is that non-evidentialism alone allows for a naturalized epistemology, i.e., an epistemology that is fully in accordance with scientific research and methodology. Another is that process reliabilism fares much better than evidentialism in the epistemology of memory

Is there an orthographic boost for ambiguous words during their processing?

The present study explores the issue of why ambiguous words are recognized faster than unambiguous ones during word recognition. To this end we contrasted two different hypotheses: the semantic feedback hypothesis (Hino and Lupker in J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 22:1331-1356, 1996. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.22.6.1331 ), and the hypothesis proposed by Borowsky and Masson (J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cognit 22:63-85, 1996. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.22.1.63 ). Although both hypotheses agree that ambiguous words benefit during recognition in that they engage more semantic activation, they disagree as to whether or not this greater semantic activation feeds back to the orthographic level, hence speeding up the orthographic coding of ambiguous words. Participants were presented with ambiguous and unambiguous words in two tasks, a lexical decision task (LDT) and a two-alternative forced-choice task (2AFC). We found differences between ambiguous and unambiguous words in both the LDT and the 2AFC tasks. These results suggest that the orthographic coding of ambiguous words is boosted during word processing. This finding lends support to the semantic feedback hypothesis.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (PSI2015-63525-P) and by the Research Promotion Program of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (2016PFR-URV-B2-37). This has also been partially supported by the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) through the state budget with Reference IF/00784/2013/CP1158/CT0013. The first author also holds a grant from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (2015PMF-PIPF-16)

The Gender Congruency Effect across languages in bilinguals: A meta-analysis

In the study of gender representation and processing in bilinguals, two contrasting perspectives exist: integrated vs. the autonomous (Costa, Kovacic, Fedorenko, & Caramazza, 2003). In the former, cross-linguistic interactions during the selection of grammatical gender values are expected; in the latter, they are not. To address this issue, authors have typically explored the cross-linguistic Gender Congruency Effect (GCE: a facilitation on the naming or translation of second language [L2] nouns when their first language [L1] translations are of the same gender, in comparison to those of a different gender). However, the literature suggests that this effect is sometimes difficult to observe and might vary as a function of variables such as the syntactic structure produced to translate or name the target (bare nouns vs. noun phrases), the phonological gender transparency of both languages (whether or not they have phonological gender cues associated with the ending letter [e.g., “–a” for feminine words and “–o” for masculine words in Romance languages]), the degree of L2 proficiency, and task requirements (naming vs. translation). The aim of the present quantitative meta-analysis is to examine the robustness of the cross-linguistic GCE obtained during language production. It involves 25 experiments from 11 studies. The results support a bilingual gender-integrated view, in that they show a small but significant GC effect regardless of the variables mentioned above.This paper was funded through the state budget with reference IF / 00784/2013 / CP1158 / CT0013. The study has also been partially supported by the FCT and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653). Government of Spain—Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports—through the Training program for Academic Staff (Ayudas para la Formación del Profesorado Universitario, FPU grant BOE-B-2017-2646), the research project (reference PSI2015-65116-P) granted by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and the grant for research groups (reference ED431B 2019/2020) from the Galician Government, as well as by the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal) through the state budget (reference IF / 00784/2013 / CP1158 / CT0013). Finally, the study has also been partially supported by the FCT and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653