Epistemic Abstainers, Epistemic Martyrs, and Epistemic Converts

An intuitive view regarding the epistemic significance of disagreement says that when epistemic peers disagree, they should suspend judgment. This abstemious view seems to embody a kind of detachment appropriate for rational beings; moreover, it seems to promote a kind of conciliatory inclination that makes for irenic and cooperative further discussion. Like many strategies for cooperation, however, the abstemious view creates opportunities for free-riding. In this essay, the authors argue that the believer who suspends judgment in the face of peer disagreement is vulnerable to a kind of manipulation on the part of more tenacious peers. The result is that the abstemious view can have the effect of encouraging dogmatism

Man and machine thinking about the smooth 4-dimensional Poincar\'e conjecture

While topologists have had possession of possible counterexamples to the smooth 4-dimensional Poincar\'{e} conjecture (SPC4) for over 30 years, until recently no invariant has existed which could potentially distinguish these examples from the standard 4-sphere. Rasmussen's s-invariant, a slice obstruction within the general framework of Khovanov homology, changes this state of affairs. We studied a class of knots K for which nonzero s(K) would yield a counterexample to SPC4. Computations are extremely costly and we had only completed two tests for those K, with the computations showing that s was 0, when a landmark posting of Akbulut (arXiv:0907.0136) altered the terrain. His posting, appearing only six days after our initial posting, proved that the family of ``Cappell--Shaneson'' homotopy spheres that we had geared up to study were in fact all standard. The method we describe remains viable but will have to be applied to other examples. Akbulut's work makes SPC4 seem more plausible, and in another section of this paper we explain that SPC4 is equivalent to an appropriate generalization of Property R (``in S^3, only an unknot can yield S^1 x S^2 under surgery''). We hope that this observation, and the rich relations between Property R and ideas such as taut foliations, contact geometry, and Heegaard Floer homology, will encourage 3-manifold topologists to look at SPC4.Comment: 37 pages; changes reflecting that the integer family of Cappell-Shaneson spheres are now known to be standard (arXiv:0907.0136

Syntactic combinations of verbs in Lakota Sioux (Teton Dakota)

The purpose of this thesis is to explain the differences among syntactic combinations of verbs in Lakota Sioux (Teton Dakota). The thesis at first examines the literature on combinations of verbs in Lakota. Thereafter criteria for distinguishing morphological combinations of verbs (compounds) and syntactic combinations of verbs are set forth. The criteria are: potential for replacement, regularity of meaning, and potential for variation in inflection. The emphasis of the thesis is on the classification of syntactic combinations of verbs which it proposes. The classification contains six classes, two of which are subdivided. The classification is based on the interaction of several criteria, viz. meaning, the identity of the verbs of the combination, inflection for subject and plural (-pi), and certain morphophonemic changes (the drop of final a or the change of final a or ą to e in the verb in first position). Differences in stress patterns and the occurrence of prefixes are noted. Examples of occurrences of combinations of verbs were filed on cards, which numbered approximately 1150. These cards were filed by types of combinations of verbs

An Acyl-Linked Dimer of Daptomycin Is Strongly Inhibited by the Bacterial Cell Wall

This document is the unedited Author’s version of a Submitted Work that was subsequently accepted for publi-cation in ACS Infectious Diseases,© American Chemical Society after peer review. To access the final edited and published work see http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsinfecdis.7b00019.The lipopeptide antibiotic daptomycin is active against Gram-positive pathogens. It permeabilizes bacterial cell membranes, which involves the formation of membrane-associated oligomers. We here studied a dimer of daptomycin whose two subunits were linked through a bivalent aliphatic acyl chain. Unexpectedly, the dimer had very low activity on vegetative Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis cells. However, activity resembled that of monomeric daptomycin on liposomes and on B. subtilis L-forms. These findings underscore the importance of the bacterial cell wall in daptomycin resistance.NSERC operating grants to M.P. (250265-2013) and S.T. (155283-2012)

HBsAg-vectored DNA vaccines elicit concomitant protective responses to multiple CTL epitopes relevant in human disease.

Vaccines capable of controlling neoplastic and infectious diseases which depend on the cellular immune response for their resolution, have proven difficult to develop. We, and others, have previously demonstrated that the potent immunogenicity of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), the already- licensed human vaccine for hepatitis B infection, may be exploited to deliver foreign antigens for cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) induction. In this study we demonstrate that recombinant (r) HBsAg DNA delivering a CTL polyepitope appended at the C' terminus elicits concomitant responses to multiple epitopes restricted through a diversity of MHC class I haplotypes, which are relevant in a number of human diseases. We show that the rHBsAg DNA vaccine elicits concomitant protection against neoplastic and infectious disease. These studies vindicate the use of HBsAg as a powerful vector to deliver CTL responses to foreign antigens, and have implications for a multi-disease vaccine applicable to the HLA-polymorphic human population

Job Creation, Job Destruction, and International Competition

The authors present a picture of how the effects of international trade on employment in U.S. manufacturing industries vary widely. They explore the labor-market dynamics and adjustment costs associated with international factors, particularly the way fluctuations in exchange rates, overseas economic activity, and the altering of trade restrictions contribute to churning-the simultaneous job creation among some firms and job destruction among others.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1049/thumbnail.jp