795 research outputs found
Site Authorization Service (SAZ)
In this paper we present a methodology to provide an additional level of
centralized control for the grid resources. This centralized control is applied
to site-wide distribution of various grids and thus providing an upper hand in
the maintenance.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics
(CHEP03), La Jolla, CA, USA, March 2003, 3 pages, PSN TUBT00
The association between Parkinson's disease and anti-epilepsy drug carbamazepine: a case-control study using the UK General Practice Research Database.
AIMS: To investigate whether the use of carbamazepine is associated with reduced risk of Parkinson's disease. METHODS: We conducted a population-based, matched case-control study of patients randomly selected from the UK General Research Practice Database. We identified 8549 patients with Parkinson's disease using diagnosis criteria with a positive predictive value of 90%. These patients were compared with 42, 160 control subjects matched for age, sex and general practice. RESULTS: Overall, 3.0% of cases (257 of 8549) had at least one recorded prescription for carbamazepine compared with 2.5% (1050 of 42, 160) of controls. The crude odds ratio for the association between Parkinson's disease and carbamazepine was 1.22 (95% confidence interval 1.06-1.40), but this reduced to 0.93 (95% confidence interval 0.81-1.08, P = 0.34) after adjusting for annual consultation rate. Further adjustment for body mass index, smoking status, alcohol consumption or use of calcium channel blockers did not affect results. There was no evidence that risk decreased with higher doses or longer duration of carbamazepine use. CONCLUSIONS: There was little to no evidence that use of carbamazepine is associated with reduced risk of Parkinson's disease. Although the study was underpowered, it does indicate that any effect of carbamazepine is likely to be small
Relativity and the Moving Spotlight
The moving spotlight theory of time is usually introduced as follows. The theory combines eternalismâthe doctrine that past, present, and future times all existâ with âobjective becoming.â The claim that there is objective becoming has two parts. First, facts about which time is present are non-relative. That is, even if in some sense each time is present relative to itself, only one time is absolutely present. That time, and only that time, glows with a special metaphysical status. And second, which instant is absolutely present keeps changing. The NOW moves along the series of times from earlier times to later times
A Solution to the Problem of Indeterminate Desert
A desert-sensitive moral theory says that whether people get what they deserve, whether they are treated as they deserve to be treated, plays a role in determining what we ought to do. Some popular forms of consequentialism are desert-sensitive. But where do facts about what people deserve come from? If someone deserves a raise, or a kiss, in virtue of what does he deserve those things? One plausible answer is that what someone deserves depends, at least in part, on how well he meets his moral requirements. The wicked deserve to suffer and the decent do not. Shelly Kagan (2006) has argued that this plausible answer is wrong. But his argument for that conclusion does not succeed. I will show how to formulate a desert-sensitive moral theory (and also a desert-sensitive version of consequentialism) on which this answer is correct
Some thoughts on Experiencing Timeâ
This paper examples several arguments from Simon Prosser's book Experiencing Time. His argument against the doctrine of the specious present is applauded. His argument that even if time passes, nothing can detect the passage of time, is questioned. Also challenged are his claims that our experience represents things as enduring, rather than perduring, and represents things as having contradictory properties
More on Haecceitism and Possible Worlds
Anti-haecceitism is the thesis that the universe could not be nonqualitatively
different without being qualitatively different. Haecceitism is the denial of
anti-haecceitism.1 In âHaecceitism, Anti-Haecceitism, and Possible Worldsâ
(Skow 2008), I argued that there are no nontendentious definitions of âhaecceitismâ
and âanti-haecceitismâ using possible-worlds talk. For any candidate
definition of âanti-haecceitismâ that uses possible-worlds talk, there is some
theory of possible worlds relative to which that definition is not equivalent to
anti-haecceitism
Levels of Reasons and Causal Explanation
I defend the theory that the reasons why some event occurred are its causes. Many âcounterexamplesâ to this theory turn on confusing two levels of reasons. We should distinguish the reasons why an event occurred (âfirst-level reasonsâ) from the reasons why those reasons are reasons (âsecond-level reasonsâ). An example that treats a secondlevel reason as a first-level reason will look like a counterexample if that second-level reason is not a cause. But second-level reasons need not be first-level reasons
Some Questions about The Moving Spotlight
I donât like sports, but it is a sports metaphor that comes to mind: if my team were out of the playoffs, Iâd be rooting for Cameron. Unlike Cameron, I think that The Block Universe Theory of Time is true, but like Cameron Iâve argued that the best alternative, the theory it should be squaring off against in the World Series of The Philosophy of Time, is The Moving Spotlight Theory. I came to Cameronâs book, therefore, curious about how his argument for this claim was going to go
Are There Non-Causal Explanations (of Particular Events)?
Philosophers have proposed many alleged examples of non-causal explanations
of particular events. I discuss several well-known examples and argue
that they fail to be non-causal.
1. Questions
2. Preliminaries
3. Explanations that Cite Causally Inert Entities
4. Explanations that Merely Cite Laws, I
5. Stellar Collapse
6. Explanations that Merely Cite Laws, II
7. A Final Example
8. Conclusio
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