A modern nihilism

Presents the author's evolving views of the best current positions on certain core philosophical and psychological problems as they developed over time. These positions together suggest a skeptical or nihilist perspective modified by evolutionary psychology and contemporary philosophy that embraces our desire to live as best we can and the relative and psychological reality of values, free will and other phenomena while recognizing limitations on their foundations and our understanding. The below makes no claims to originality for most of the ideas expressed, drawing on a range of mostly unreferenced texts that will be familiar to philosophers and psychologists working in this area

Comparison of model simulations with experimental data for 3-PBA (volunteers dermally exposed).

<p>Comparison of model simulations (lines) with experimental data of Woollen et al. (1992) (symbols) on the average time courses of 3-PBA excretion rate (A) and cumulative excretion (B) (% of applied dose) in volunteers dermally exposed to 31 mg of cypermethrin. Symbols represent average experimental values and vertical bars the experimental standard deviation (n = 6).</p

Comparison of model simulations with experimental data for DCCA (scabies patients dermally exposed).

<p>Comparison of model simulations (lines) with experimental data of Tomalik-Scharte et al. (2005) (symbols) on the average time courses of DCCA excretion rate (A) and cumulative excretion (B) (% of applied dose) in scabies patients following a whole-body dermal application of a cream containing 3 g of permethrin. Diamond symbols represent average experimental values and vertical bars the experimental standard deviation (n = 6).</p

Model conceptual representation.

<p>Model conceptual representation of the kinetics of <i>cis</i>- and <i>trans</i>-permethrin and cypermethrin and their <i>trans</i>-DCCA, <i>cis</i>-DCCA and 3-PBA metabolites. Symbols are described in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0088517#pone-0088517-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>.</p

Model simulations of cypermethrin and DCCA in blood, storage tissues and urine following repeated oral exposure.

<p>Model simulations (lines) of the time courses of cypermethrin in blood (B(t)) (A) and storage tissues (S(t)) (B) as well as <i>trans</i>- and <i>cis</i>-DCCA in urine (U(t); solid and dotted lines, respectively) (C) following a repeated oral exposure, 3 times per day (at 7:30 am, 12: 30 am and 6:30 pm), during 10 consecutive days to a dose corresponding to 1/10 of the dose administered by Woollen et al. (1992) (0.33 mg/day).</p

Algorithm.

<p>Algorithm for the determination of parameters values of the model with experimental data of urine excretion profile.</p

Parameter values of the model based on fits to the data of Woollen et al. (1992) on both average and individual urinary excretion time courses of <i>trans</i>-DCCA, <i>cis</i>-DCCA and 3-PBA following an oral and dermal exposure in volunteers.

a<p>The reported mean parameter values are the values giving the best fit (÷²) to average experimental time course data of Woollen et al. (1992) (n = 6).</p>b<p>The range of parameter values reported correspond to the minimum and the maximum parameter values giving the best fit (χ²) to average and individual experimental data of Woollen et al. (1992) from 4 volunteers. Individual parameter values for two volunteers were not selected because of the presence of incomplete voids.</p