92 research outputs found
Which Firms Want PhDs? The Effect of the University-Industry Relationship on the PhD Labour Market
The neural basis of perceived intensity in natural and artificial touch
Electrical stimulation of sensory nerves is a powerful tool for studying neural coding because it can activate neural populations in ways that natural stimulation cannot. Electrical stimulation of the nerve has also been used to restore sensation to patients who have suffered the loss of a limb. We have used long-term implanted electrical interfaces to elucidate the neural basis of perceived intensity in the sense of touch. To this end, we assessed the sensory correlates of neural firing rate and neuronal population recruitment independently by varying two parameters of nerve stimulation: pulse frequency and pulse width. Specifically, two amputees, chronically implanted with peripheral nerve electrodes, performed each of three psychophysical tasks-intensity discrimination, magnitude scaling, and intensity matching-in response to electrical stimulation of their somatosensory nerves. We found that stimulation pulse width and pulse frequency had systematic, cooperative effects on perceived tactile intensity and that the artificial tactile sensations could be reliably matched to skin indentations on the intact limb. We identified a quantity we termed the activation charge rate (ACR), derived from stimulation parameters, that predicted the magnitude of artificial tactile percepts across all testing conditions. On the basis of principles of nerve fiber recruitment, the ACR represents the total population spike count in the activated neural population. Our findings support the hypothesis that population spike count drives the magnitude of tactile percepts and indicate that sensory magnitude can be manipulated systematically by varying a single stimulation quantity
Frequency fluctuations in silicon nanoresonators
Frequency stability is key to performance of nanoresonators. This stability
is thought to reach a limit with the resonator's ability to resolve
thermally-induced vibrations. Although measurements and predictions of
resonator stability usually disregard fluctuations in the mechanical frequency
response, these fluctuations have recently attracted considerable theoretical
interest. However, their existence is very difficult to demonstrate
experimentally. Here, through a literature review, we show that all studies of
frequency stability report values several orders of magnitude larger than the
limit imposed by thermomechanical noise. We studied a monocrystalline silicon
nanoresonator at room temperature, and found a similar discrepancy. We propose
a new method to show this was due to the presence of frequency fluctuations, of
unexpected level. The fluctuations were not due to the instrumentation system,
or to any other of the known sources investigated. These results challenge our
current understanding of frequency fluctuations and call for a change in
practices
Traditional eye medicine use by newly presenting ophthalmic patients to a teaching hospital in south-eastern Nigeria: socio-demographic and clinical correlates
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study set out to determine the incidence, socio-demographic, and clinical correlates of Traditional Eye Medicine (TEM) use in a population of newly presenting ophthalmic outpatients attending a tertiary eye care centre in south-eastern Nigeria.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In a comparative cross-sectional survey at the eye clinic of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, between August 2004 - July 2006, all newly presenting ophthalmic outpatients were recruited. Participants' socio-demographic and clinical data and profile of TEM use were obtained from history and examination of each participant and entered into a pretested questionnaire and proforma. Participants were subsequently categorized into TEM- users and non-users; intra-group analysis yielded proportions, frequencies, and percentages while chi-square test was used for inter-group comparisons at P = 0.01, df = 1.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of the 2,542 (males, 48.1%; females, 51.9%) participants, 149 (5.9%) (males, 45%; females, 55%) used TEM for their current eye disease. The TEMs used were chemical substances (57.7%), plant products (37.7%), and animal products (4.7%). They were more often prescribed by non-traditional (66.4%) than traditional (36.9%) medicine practitioners. TEMs were used on account of vision loss (58.5%), ocular itching (25.4%) and eye discharge (3.8%). Reported efficacy from previous users (67.1%) and belief in potency (28.2%) were the main reasons for using TEM. Civil servants (20.1%), farmers (17.7%), and traders (14.1%) were the leading users of TEM. TEM use was significantly associated with younger age (p < 0.01), being married (p < 0.01), rural residence (p < 0.01), ocular anterior segment disease (p < 0.01), delayed presentation (p < 0.01), low presenting visual acuity (p < 0.01), and co-morbid chronic medical disease (p < 0.01), but not with gender (p = 0.157), and educational status (p = 0.115).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The incidence of TEM use among new ophthalmic outpatients at UNTH is low. The reasons for TEM use are amenable to positive change through enhanced delivery of promotive, preventive, and curative public eye care services. This has implications for eye care planners and implementers. To reverse the trend, we suggest strengthening of eye care programmes, even distribution of eye care resources, active collaboration with orthodox eye care providers and traditional medical practitioners, and intensification of research efforts into the pharmacology of TEMs.</p
Aristotelian Essentialism: Essence in the Age of Evolution
The advent of contemporary evolutionary theory ushered in the eventual decline of Aristotelian Essentialism (Æ) – for it is widely assumed that essence does not, and cannot have any proper place in the age of evolution. This paper argues that this assumption is a mistake: if Æ can be suitably evolved, it need not face extinction. In it, I claim that if that theory’s fundamental ontology consists of dispositional properties, and if its characteristic metaphysical machinery is interpreted within the framework of contemporary evolutionary developmental biology, an evolved essentialism is available. The reformulated theory of Æ offered in this paper not only fails to fall prey to the typical collection of criticisms, but is also independently both theoretically and empirically plausible. The paper contends that, properly understood, essence belongs in the age of evolution
Comparing inequalities in the labour market from a segmentation perspective
Production of INCASI Project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 GA 691004The purpose of this chapter is to carry out a comparative analysis of labour markets in Europe and Latin America from the perspective of segmentation in order to explain the processes of social inequality that arise in the workplace, in light of recent trends in global socio-economic changes. The chapter proposes two main objectives. The first is to perform a comparative descriptive analysis of the main features of labour markets among 60 European and Latin American countries. The second objective is to propose a model of comparative analysis of labour inequality from the theoretical perspective of the segmentation of the labour market and structural heterogeneity. We will focus our analysis by selecting two countries, Spain and Argentina, which both underwent a late development of capitalism. The following general hypothesis is formulated: Spain and Argentina, having clearly differentiated features in economic structure, level of development, institutional frameworks and socio-historical processes, show common dynamics in the structuring of the capitalist labour market between a primary and secondary segment. Using equivalent databases on the workforce a typology of segmentation of employment is constructed that show, in addition to the specificities of each country, the similarities in the structuring of the labour market
Gene switching rate determines response to extrinsic perturbations in the self-activation transcriptional network motif
International audienc
The ontology of organisms: Mechanistic modules or patterned processes?
Though the realm of biology has long been under the philosophical rule of the mechanistic magisterium, recent years have seen a surprisingly steady rise in the usurping prowess of process ontology. According to its proponents, theoretical advances in the contemporary science of evo-devo have afforded that ontology a particularly powerful claim to the throne: in that increasingly empirically confirmed discipline, emergently autonomous, higher-order entities are the reigning explanantia. If we are to accept the election of evo-devo as our best conceptualisation of the biological realm with metaphysical rigour, must we depose our mechanistic ontology for failing to properly “carve at the joints” of organisms? In this paper, I challenge the legitimacy of that claim: not only can the theoretical benefits offered by a process ontology be had without it, they cannot be sufficiently grounded without the metaphysical underpinning of the very mechanisms which processes purport to replace. The biological realm, I argue, remains one best understood as under the governance of mechanistic principles
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