Kant’s Neglected Objection to the Ontological Argument

This paper argues that Kant’s most famous objection to the ontological argument -- that existence is not a real predicate -- is not, in fact, his most effective objection, and that his ”neglected objection’ to the argument deserves to be better known. It shows that Kant clearly anticipates William Rowe’s later objection that the argument begs the question, and discusses why Kant himself seems to have overlooked the force of this criticism in his attempt to demolish the traditional proofs for God’s existence

Static Force and Moment Coefficients of a Propeller Stabilized and a Finned Torpedo Shape

Static force and moment coefficients were measured in the High Speed Water Tunnel on nonpowered models of a propeller-stabilized and controlled torpedo. The tests were made on three propeller configurations and four body-fin combinations. Representative tests were conducted over a range of tunnel velocities. Data are presented as functions of body angle of attack and propeller shaft deflection. A comparison is presented of the experimental data and the theoretical analysis of T. Lang of the Naval Ordnance Test Station, Pasadena

Coaches’ dehumanisation in sport: exploring antecedents and relationships with wellbeing.

Overview: Dehumanisation is the denial of humanness, in which humanness is considered as attributes that characterise what it means to be human. To the author’s knowledge, this study was the first to specifically explore dehumanisation in a sporting context. The context used was team-selection decisions, widely conceptualised as a stressor for coaches. This study sought to explore whether dehumanisation was employed by coaches when making team selection decisions, what personal or contextual factors may predict this, and to examine whether dehumanisation may be protective for mental well-being. Methodology: A combination of sampling methods were used alongside gatekeepers to recruit participants. Coaches completed a two part questionnaire, one before (n=193) and one after a team selection decision (n=104). Questionnaires contained demographic information, and measures of dehumanisation, Personal Sense of Power (PSP), Emotional Intelligence (EI), Resilience, Relatedness and Mental well-being. Results: Coaches’ change in use of dehumanisation from pre to post selection was found to be negligible. This indicated that personal factors instead of contextual factors were of greater prominence when predicting coaches’ engagement with dehumanisation. Specifically, coaches’ levels of PSP, EI Relatedness and Resilience negatively predicted use of all three forms of dehumanisation. Moreover, it was found that all three forms of dehumanisation were negatively related to mental well-being, suggesting that engagement with dehumanisation is unlikely to be functional for coaches in relieving stress. Conclusion: Findings suggest that dehumanisation does not significantly change following a team selection decision, yet personal factors do influence coaches’ engagement with dehumanisation. Thus, the key implication of this study is that coach education programmes seek to integrate training of EI, Resilience and Relatedness, due to the negatively correlations with dehumanisation, and dehumanisation’s negatively relationship with mental well-being. It is recommended future research focuses on practical manifestations of, and sport-specific measures for, dehumanisation

A combinatorial formula for homogeneous moments

We establish a combinatorial formula for homogeneous moments and give some examples where it can be put to use. An application to the statistical mechanics of interacting gauged vortices is discussed.Comment: 8 pages, LaTe

Structure and Response in the World Trade Network

We examine how the structure of the world trade network has been shaped by globalization and recessions over the last 40 years. We show that by treating the world trade network as an evolving system, theory predicts the trade network is more sensitive to evolutionary shocks and recovers more slowly from them now than it did 40 years ago, due to structural changes in the world trade network induced by globalization. We also show that recession-induced change to the world trade network leads to an \emph{increased} hierarchical structure of the global trade network for a few years after the recession.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

A New Comparison Of Active Learning Strategies To Traditional Lectures For Teaching College Astronomy

Although traditional lectures are still the dominant form of undergraduate instruction, there have been relatively few studies comparing various learner-centered and active learning teaching strategies to one another in order to guide professors in making informed instructional decisions. To study the impact of different active learning approaches, pre-test to posttest learning gains for students receiving instruction on introductory astronomy solar system topics through a combination of collaborative learning activities and formative assessment-driven activities were compared to the gains of students being taught the same topics by traditional lectures only. After traditional lectures, students improved from a pre-test score of 42% (n=144) to 49% (n=49). After lecture tutorials and classroom voting response systems improvement was to 73% (n=72) Using a multiple-group comparison approach, similar earning gains were also observed when using visual-assessment and tutorial activities. Moreover, data from a Likert-style attitude survey of 264 undergraduates showed that, although they did not report a clear preference for one instructional mode over the other, the majority of students believed that the active and collaborative nature of the activities helped them learn.  The results of this study add weight to the notion that most modern pedagogies are superior to traditional lecture, and that although the relative impacts of particular pedagogies are mostly indistinguishable from one another, they are all are better than traditional lecture alone

Rapid, multiplexed microfluidic phage display

The development of a method for high-throughput, automated proteomic screening could impact areas ranging from fundamental molecular interactions to the discovery of novel disease markers and therapeutic targets. Surface display techniques allow for efficient handling of large molecular libraries in small volumes. In particular, phage display has emerged as a powerful technology for selecting peptides and proteins with enhanced, target-specific binding affinities. Yet, the process becomes cumbersome and time-consuming when multiple targets are involved.Here we demonstrate for the first time a microfluidic chip capable of identifying high affinity phage displayed peptides for multiple targets in just a single round and without the need for bacterial infection. The chip is shown to be able to yield well-established control consensus sequences while simultaneously identifying new sequences for clinically important targets. Indeed, the confined parameters of the device allow not only for highly controlled assay conditions but also introduce a significant time-reduction to the phage display process. We anticipate that this easily-fabricated, disposable device has the potential to impact areas ranging from fundamental studies of protein, peptide, and molecular interactions, to applications such as fully automated proteomic screening