Beyond ‘crude pragmatism’ in sports coaching:Insights from C.S. Peirce, William James and John Dewey: a commentary

We agree that there is a lack of clarity in the sports coaching literature about philosophical pragmatism, but this is inevitable when there is a lack of consensus in the literature of philosophical pragmatism itself. In the writing of classical pragmatists there are a “plurality of conflicting narratives” (Bernstein, 1995 p.55). For instance, Charles Sanders Peirce acknowledged notable theoretical divergence between his pragmatism and that of William James (Hookway, 2012). In fact, Peirce viewed the availability of nuanced approaches as a mark of the vitality of this school of thought. After all, pragmatists value diversity, they accept that current thinking, hypotheses and practices may require revision – they are flexibly minded. Such revision, however, must be built upon well-reasoned doubt (Hookway, 2012). In other words, a clear argument is necessary if an alternative proposition is to be considered. In this vein, though we have sympathy for the thrust of his argument, and support calls for more “legitimate philosophical thinking” and “empirical philosophical enquiry” (Cushion & Partington, 2016 p.863), our aim in this commentary is to address a lack of clarity and utility in some of Jenkins’ propositions about philosophical pragmatism and sports coaching

Is cannabis use a contributory cause of psychosis?

Objective: To assess whether cannabis use in adolescence and young adulthood is a contributory cause of schizophreniform psychosis in that it may precipitate psychosis in vulnerable individuals. Method: We reviewed longitudinal studies of adolescents and young adults that examined the relations between self-reported cannabis use and the risk of diagnosis with a psychosis or of reporting psychotic symptoms. We also reviewed studies that controlled for potential confounders, such as other forms of drug use and personal characteristics that predict an increased risk of psychosis. We assessed evidence for the biological plausibility of a contributory causal relation. Results: Evidence from 6 longitudinal studies in 5 countries shows that regular cannabis use predicts an increased risk of a schizophrenia diagnosis or of reporting symptoms of psychosis. These relations persisted after controlling for confounding variables, such as personal characteristics and other drug use. The relation did not seem to be a result of cannabis use to self-medicate symptoms of psychosis. A contributory causal relation is biologically plausible because psychotic disorders involve disturbances in the dopamine neurotransmitter systems with which the cannabinoid system interacts, as demonstrated by animal studies and one human provocation study. Conclusion: It is most plausible that cannabis use precipitates schizophrenia in individuals who are vulnerable because of a personal or family history of schizophrenia

The over-reset phenomenon in Ta2O5 RRAM device investigated by the RTN-based defect probing technique

IEEE Despite the tremendous efforts in the past decade devoted to the development of filamentary resistive-switching devices (RRAM), there is still a lack of in-depth understanding of its over-reset phenomenon. At higher reset stop voltages that exceed a certain threshold, the resistance at high resistance state reduces, leading to an irrecoverable window reduction. The over-reset phenomenon limits the maximum resistance window that can be achieved by using a higher Vreset, which also degrades its potential in applications such as multi-level memory and neuromorphic synapses. In this work, the over-reset is investigated by cyclic reset operations with incremental stop voltages, and is explained by defect generation in the filament constriction region of Ta2O5 RRAM devices. This is supported by the statistical spatial defects profile obtained from the random telegraph noise based defect probing technique. The impact of forming compliance current on the over-reset is also evaluated

Enhanced switching stability in Ta 2 O 5 resistive RAM by fluorine doping

The effect of fluorine doping on the switching stability of Ta2O5 resistive random access memory devices is investigated. It shows that the dopant serves to increase the memory window and improve the stability of the resistive states due to the neutralization of oxygen vacancies. The ability to alter the current in the low resistance state with set current compliance coupled with large memory window makes multilevel cell switching more favorable. The devices have set and reset voltages of <1V with improved stability due to the fluorine doping. Density functional modelling shows that the incorporation of fluorine dopant atoms at the two-fold O vacancy site in the oxide network removes the defect state in the mid bandgap, lowering the overall density of defects capable of forming conductive filaments. This reduces the probability of forming alternative conducting paths and hence improves the current stability in the low resistance states. The doped devices exhibit more stable resistive states in both dc and pulsed set and reset cycles. The retention failure time is estimated to be a minimum of 2 years for F-doped devices measured by temperature accelerated and stress voltage accelerated retention failure methods

Energy Distribution of Positive Charges in Al2O3/GeO2/Ge pMOSFETs

The high hole mobility of Ge makes it a strong candidate for end of roadmap pMOSFETs and low interface states have been achieved for the Al2O3-GeO2-Ge gate-stack. This structure, however, suffers from significant negative bias temperature instability (NBTI), dominated by positive charge (PC) in Al2O3/GeO2. An in-depth understanding of the PCs will assist in the minimization of NBTI and the defect energy distribution will provide valuable information. The energy distribution also provides the effective charge density at a given surface potential, a key parameter required for simulating the impact of NBTI on device and circuit performance. For the first time, this letter reports the energy distribution of the PC in Al2O3/GeO2 on Ge. It is found that the energy density of the PC has a clear peak near Ge Ec at the interface and a relatively low level between Ec and Ev. Below Ev at the interface, it increases rapidly and screens 20% of the Vg rise

Characterization of Negative-Bias Temperature Instability of Ge MOSFETs With GeO2/Al2O3 Stack

Ge is a candidate for replacing Si, especially for pMOSFETs, because of its high hole mobility. For Si pMOSFETs, negative-bias temperature instabilities (NBTI) limit their lifetime. There is little information available for the NBTI of Ge-pMOSFETs with Ge/GeO2/Al2O3 stack. The objective of this paper is to provide this information and compare the NBTI of Ge- and Si-pMOSFETs. New findings include: 1) the timeexponent varies with stress biases/field when measured by either the conventional slow dc or pulse I–V technique, making the conventional Vg-accelerated method for predicting the lifetime of Si pMOSFETs inapplicable to Ge-pMOSFETs used in this paper; 2) the NBTI is dominated by positive charges (PCs) in dielectric, rather than generated interface states; 3) the PC in Ge/GeO2/Al2O3 can be fully annealed at 150 °C; and 4) the defect losses reported for Si sample were not observed. For the first time, we report that the PCs in oxides on Ge and Si behave differently, and to explain the difference, an energy-switching model is proposed for hole traps in Ge-MOSEFTs: their energy levels have a spread below the edge of valence band, i.e., Ev, when neutral, lift well above Ev after charging, and return below Ev following neutralization

Aquatic community response to volcanic eruptions on the Ecuadorian Andean flank: evidence from the palaeoecological record

Aquatic ecosystems in the tropical Andes are under increasing pressure from human modification of the landscape (deforestation and dams) and climatic change (increase of extreme events and 1.5 °C on average temperatures are projected for AD 2100). However, the resilience of these ecosystems to perturbations is poorly understood. Here we use a multi-proxy palaeoecological approach to assess the response of aquatic ecosystems to a major mechanism for natural disturbance, volcanic ash deposition. Specifically, we present data from two Neotropical lakes located on the eastern Andean flank of Ecuador. Laguna Pindo (1°27.132′S–78°04.847′W) is a tectonically formed closed basin surrounded by a dense mid-elevation forest, whereas Laguna Baños (0°19.328′S–78°09.175′W) is a glacially formed lake with an inflow and outflow in high Andean Páramo grasslands. In each lake we examined the dynamics of chironomids and other aquatic and semi-aquatic organisms to explore the effect of thick (> 5 cm) volcanic deposits on the aquatic communities in these two systems with different catchment features. In both lakes past volcanic ash deposition was evident from four large tephras dated to c.850 cal year BP (Pindo), and 4600, 3600 and 1500 cal year BP (Baños). Examination of the chironomid and aquatic assemblages before and after the ash depositions revealed no shift in composition at Pindo, but a major change at Baños occurred after the last event around 1500 cal year BP. Chironomids at Baños changed from an assemblage dominated by Pseudochironomus and Polypedilum nubifer-type to Cricotopus/Paratrichocladius type-II, and such a dominance lasted for approximately 380 years. We suggest that, despite potential changes in the water chemistry, the major effect on the chironomid community resulted from the thickness of the tephra being deposited, which acted to shallow the water body beyond a depth threshold. Changes in the aquatic flora and fauna at the base of the trophic chain can promote cascade effects that may deteriorate the ecosystem, especially when already influenced by human activities, such as deforestation and dams, which is frequent in the high Andes

Flavor Phenomenology in General 5D Warped Spaces

We have considered a general 5D warped model with SM fields propagating in the bulk and computed explicit expressions for oblique and non-oblique electroweak observables as well as for flavor and CP violating effective four-fermion operators. We have compared the resulting lower bounds on the Kaluza-Klein (KK) scale in the RS model and a recently proposed model with a metric modified towards the IR brane, which is consistent with oblique parameters without the need for a custodial symmetry. We have randomly generated 40,000 sets of O(1) 5D Yukawa couplings and made a fit of the quark masses and CKM matrix elements in both models. This method allows to identify the percentage of points consistent with a given KK mass, which in turn provides us with a measure for the required fine-tuning. Comparison with current experimental data on Rb, FCNC and CP violating operators exhibits an improved behavior of our model with respect to the RS model. In particular, allowing 10% fine-tuning the combined results point towards upper bounds on the KK gauge boson masses around 3.3 TeV in our model as compared with 13 TeV in the RS model. One reason for this improvement is that fermions in our model are shifted, with respect to fermions in the RS model, towards the UV brane thus decreasing the strength of the modifications of electroweak observables.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures, 4 table

Anti-Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia activity of dicationic 2,4-diarylpyrimidines

— A synthesis of 2,4-bis-(4-amidinophenyl)pyrimidine 6, 2,4-bis-[(4-imidazolin-2-yl)phenyl)]pyrimidine 7, 2,4-bis[(4-tetrahydropyrimidinyl-2-yl)phenyl]pyrimidine 8, 2,4-bis[(4-N-n-propylamidino)phenyl]pyrimidine 9, 2,4-bis[(4-N-isopropylamidino)-phenyl]pyrimidine 10 and 2,4-bis[(4-N-isobutylamidino)phenyl]pyrimidine 11 starting from 4-bromobenzamidine and 4-bromoaceto-phenone is reported. A synthesis of 2-(4-amidinophenyl)-4-(2-methoxy-4-amidinophenyl)pyrimidine 20, 2-[4-(imidazolin2-yl)-phenyl]-4-[2-methoxy-4-(imidazolin-2-yl)phenyl]pyrimidine 21, and 2-[4-(N-iso-propylamidino)phenyl]-4-[2-methoxy-4-(N-isopropylamidino)phenyl]pyrimidine 22 beginning with 4-bromobenzamidine and 2-methoxy-4-bromoacetophenone is described. Compounds 6–11 and 20–22 all bind strongly to DNA. Compounds 6, 9–11, and 20 given at 5 mg/kg are more active and less toxic than pentamidine at its effective dose when evaluated against Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) in the immunosuppressed rat model. Several compounds in this series are being evaluated further as potential new anti-PCP agents

Assessing the impact of prescribed medicines on health outcomes

This paper reviews methods that can be used to assess the impact of medicine use on population health outcomes. In the absence of a gold standard, we argue that a convergence of evidence from different types of studies using multiple methods of independent imperfection provides the best bases for attributing improvements in health outcomes to the use of medicines. The major requirements are: good evidence that a safe and effective medicine is being appropriately prescribed; covariation between medicine use and improved health outcomes; and being able to discount alternative explanations of the covariation (via covariate adjustment, propensity analyses and sensitivity analyses), so that medicine use is the most plausible explanation of the improved health outcomes. The strongest possible evidence would be provided by the coherence of the following types of evidence: (1) individual linked data showing that patients are prescribed the medicine, there are reasonable levels of patient compliance, and there is a relationship between medicine use and health improvements that is not explained by other factors; (2) ecological evidence of improvements in these health outcomes in the population in which the medicine is used. Confidence in these inferences would be increased by: the replication of these results in comparable countries and consistent trends in population vital statistics in countries that have introduced the medicine; and epidemiological modelling indicating that changes observed in population health outcomes are plausible given the epidemiology of the condition being treated