Do Safety Failures Preclude Knowledge?

The safety condition on knowledge, in the spirit of anti-luck epistemology, has become one of the most popular approaches to the Gettier problem. In the first part of this essay, I intend to show one of the reasons the anti-luck epistemologist presents for thinking that the safety theory, and not the sensitivity theory, offers the proper anti-luck condition on knowledge. In the second part of this essay, I intend to show that the anti-luck epistemologist does not succeed, because the safety theory fails to capture a necessary requirement for the possession of knowledge. I will attack safety on two fronts. First, I will raise doubts about whether there is any principled safety condition capable of handling a kind of case, involving inductive knowledge, that it was designed to handle. Second, I will consider two cases in which the safety condition is not met but the protagonist seems to have knowledge nonetheless, and I will vindicate my intuitions for thinking that those are in fact cases of knowledge by contrasting them with traditional, well-known Gettier cases. I want to conclude, finally, that safety failures do not necessarily prevent one from acquiring knowledge

Women’s perspectives on smartphone apps for fertility tracking and predicting conception : a mixed methods study

Acknowledgement We would like to thank all our survey respondents and interview participants, without whom this research would not have been possible. Additionally, we would like to thank the Clearblue team at SPD Development Company Ltd., for their assistance and support with volunteer recruitment and assistance with implementation of the research. Funding This work was conducted as an MPH research project at the University of Aberdeen. SPD Development Company Ltd. (Clearblue) provided pregnancy and ovulation tests as rewards for participants who completed interviews.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Mel silvestre: qualidade para a valorização e competitividade da apicultura no Pantanal.

O presente trabalho teve-se o objetivo de avaliar, por meio de análises físico-químicas e sensoriais, a qualidade de 17 amostras de méis silvestres multiflorais de abelhas africanizadas (Apis mellifera L.), produzidos em escala experimental entre 2006 e 2007 na fazenda Nhumirim, Unidade Experimental da Embrapa Pantanal, localizada na sub-região da Nhecolândia do Pantanal, Corumbá-MSbitstream/item/161779/1/BP98.pd

Progress in strength, toughness and lifetime methods for ceramics

Fortschritte auf dem Gebiet der Festigkeit, Risszähigkeit und Lebensdauer von Keramik Zur Charakterisierung des Versagensverhaltens keramischer Werkstoffe sind Festigkeits- und Risszähigkeitsmessungen erforderlich. Weist eine Keramik noch den Effekt des unterkritischen Risswachstums auf, sind auch Lebensdauermessungen unter statischer Belastung von großer Wichtigkeit. Neuere Beiträge der Autoren zur Untersuchungs-Methodik sind in diesem Bericht zusammengefasst. Teil A befasst sich mit der Berechnung der maximalen Spannungen in runden Scheiben unter Kugelbelastung. Hierbei werden der “ball-on-ring test”, der “ball-on-3-balls test” und der kürzlich von den Verfassern entwickelte „3-balls-on-3-balls test“ betrachtet. Als praktische Anwendung der ermittelten Spannungen im “ball-on-3-balls test” wird das bei grobkörnigem Aluminiumoxid gefundene stabile Bruchverhalten als Effekt einer stark ansteigenden Risswiderstandskurve diskutiert. In Teil B wird auf eine von den Verfassern entwickelte Methode eingegangen, die es gestattet, sehr kurze Kerben mit extrem kleinen Kerbradien zu erzeugen. Bei einer ZrO2-Keramik konnten Kerbradien von unter 0.1 μm bei einer Kerbtiefe von nur 40μm erzeugt werden. Derartig kurze und scharfe Kerben sollten geeignet sein, das Verhalten natürlicher Risse in Keramiken anzunähern. Schließlich wird in Teil C über eine Prozedur berichtet, die sich dafür eignet, eine vorhandene Anzahl an Lebensdauer-Versuchsproben optimal auszunutzen. Hierbei kann aus der erneuten Verwendung von auf niederem Lastniveau angefallenen „Durchläufern“ zusätzliche Information über das Risswachstumsgesetz gewonnen werden. Die Methode wird an Lebensdauermessungen von SIALON in destilliertem Wasser von 20°C demonstriert

Maser threshold characterization by resonator Q-factor tuning

Whereas the laser is nowadays an ubiquitous technology, applications for its microwave analog, the maser, remain highly specialized, despite the excellent low-noise microwave amplification properties. The widespread application of masers is typically limited by the need of cryogenic temperatures. The recent realization of a continuous-wave room-temperature maser, using NV− centers in diamond, is a first step towards establishing the maser as a potential platform for microwave research and development, yet its design is far from optimal. Here, we design and construct an optimized setup able to characterize the operating space of a maser using NV− centers. We focus on the interplay of two key parameters for emission of microwave photons: the quality factor of the microwave resonator and the degree of spin level-inversion. We characterize the performance of the maser as a function of these two parameters, identifying the parameter space of operation and highlighting the requirements for maximal continuous microwave emission

Girls-boys: an investigation of gender differences in the behavioral and neural mechanisms of trust and reciprocity in adolescence

Background: Trust and reciprocity toward others have often been found to increase from childhood to adulthood. Gender differences in these social behaviors have been reported in adults. While adolescence is a key-period of change in social behavior, gender differences in trust and reciprocity during this developmental stage have rarely been investigated. Methods: Here we investigate age-related gender differences in trust and reciprocity (n = 100, 51 female) and associated neural mechanisms (n = 44, 20 female) in adolescents between 13 and 19 years of age. Participants played two multi-round trust games with a pre-programmed cooperative and an unfair partner. Forty-four of 100 participants completed the trust game while undergoing functional brain imaging. Results: Participants’ investments were greater toward a cooperative than unfair game partner (p < 0.01), showing sensitivity to the degree of trustworthiness. There were no gender or age or related differences in baseline trust. In repeated cooperative interactions no gender differences were found, but younger adolescents showed slightly steeper increase of investments than older adolescents. In unfair interactions, younger males reacted with stronger decrease of investments than older males. Region of interest analysis of brain areas associated with in mentalizing, reward learning, conflict processing, and cognitive control revealed gender-by-age interactions on trusting behavior in the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) and the caudate, showing stronger influence of age in males than in females during cooperation, and the reverse in unfair interactions. Additionally, main effects of gender were found in the TPJ, with higher activation in males, and in the caudate, with females showing greater activation. Conclusion: In first interactions and during repeated cooperative interactions, adolescent males and females showed similar trusting behavior. Younger males showed stronger responses to unfairness by others. Gender-by-age interactions in specific ROIs suggest differential development in mentalizing and reward related cognitive processes. In conjunction with previous research, our findings suggest the presence of subtle gender and age-related changes in trust and cooperation that are only detectable using larger age windows

Girls-Boys: An Investigation of Gender Differences in the Behavioral and Neural Mechanisms of Trust and Reciprocity in Adolescence

Background: Trust and reciprocity toward others have often been found to increase from childhood to adulthood. Gender differences in these social behaviors have been reported in adults. While adolescence is a key-period of change in social behavior, gender differences in trust and reciprocity during this developmental stage have rarely been investigated. Methods: Here we investigate age-related gender differences in trust and reciprocity (n = 100, 51 female) and associated neural mechanisms (n = 44, 20 female) in adolescents between 13 and 19 years of age. Participants played two multi-round trust games with a pre-programmed cooperative and an unfair partner. Forty-four of 100 participants completed the trust game while undergoing functional brain imaging. Results: Participants’ investments were greater toward a cooperative than unfair game partner (p < 0.01), showing sensitivity to the degree of trustworthiness. There were no gender or age or related differences in baseline trust. In repeated cooperative interactions no gender differences were found, but younger adolescents showed slightly steeper increase of investments than older adolescents. In unfair interactions, younger males reacted with stronger decrease of investments than older males. Region of interest analysis of brain areas associated with in mentalizing, reward learning, conflict processing, and cognitive control revealed gender-by-age interactions on trusting behavior in the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) and the caudate, showing stronger influence of age in males than in females during cooperation, and the reverse in unfair interactions. Additionally, main effects of gender were found in the TPJ, with higher activation in males, and in the caudate, with females showing greater activation. Conclusion: In first interactions and during repeated cooperative interactions, adolescent males and females showed similar trusting behavior. Younger males showed stronger responses to unfairness by others. Gender-by-age interactions in specific ROIs suggest differential development in mentalizing and reward related cognitive processes. In conjunction with previous research, our findings suggest the presence of subtle gender and age-related changes in trust and cooperation that are only detectable using larger age windows

The 20-year longitudinal trajectories of social functioning in individuals with psychotic disorders

Objective: Social impairment is a long-recognized core feature of schizophrenia and is common in other psychotic disorders. Still, to date the long-term trajectories of social impairment in psychotic disorders have rarely been studied systematically. Methods: Data came from the Suffolk County Mental Health Project, a 20-year prospective study of first-admission patients with psychotic disorders. A never-psychotic comparison group was also assessed. Latent class growth analysis was applied to longitudinal data on social functioning from 485 respondents with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and psychotic mood disorders, and associations of the empirically derived trajectories with premorbid social adjustment, diagnosis, and 20-year outcomes were examined. Results: Four mostly stable trajectories of preserved (N=82; 59th percentile of comparison group sample distribution), moderately impaired (N=148; 17th percentile), severely impaired (N=181; 3rd percentile), and profoundly impaired (N=74; 1st percentile) functioning best described the 20-year course of social functioning across diagnoses. The outcome in the group with preserved functioning did not differ from that of never-psychotic individuals at 20 years, but the other groups functioned significantly worse. Differences among trajectories were already evident in childhood. The two most impaired trajectories started to diverge in early adolescence. Poorer social functioning trajectories were strongly associated with other real-world outcomes at 20 years. Multiple trajectories were represented within each disorder. However, more participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorders had impaired trajectories, and more with mood disorders had better functioning trajectories. Conclusions: The results highlight substantial variability of social outcomes within diagnoses—albeit overall worse social outcomes in schizophrenia spectrum disorders—and show remarkably stable long-term impairments in social functioning after illness onset across all diagnoses