A holistic approach to reduce negative impacts of hydropeaking

Hydropeaking is a common phenomenon of water courses that are affected by peak energy production of hydro power plants. It may cause severe impacts on the biodiversity of a stream. In fact, due to hydropeaking fishes, macroinvertebrates and aquatic plants undergo a major stress and frequently they are not able to survive these frequent water level fluctuations. In this paper a case study is presented where several mitigation measures for an affected river are evaluated. Abiotic indicators representing the hydropeaking phenomenon and responsible for an impaired biodiversity are calculated and compared. Furthermore a cost-benefit analysis of the mitigation measures is carried out allowing to define the measures to be realized. Facing the challenge of a holistic approach the study is embedded in a project with public participation of all concerned stakeholders addressing also the need of flood protection and ecologically sound river restoration

The narrative self, distributed memory, and evocative objects

In this article, I outline various ways in which artifacts are interwoven with autobiographical memory systems and conceptualize what this implies for the self. I first sketch the narrative approach to the self, arguing that who we are as persons is essentially our (unfolding) life story, which, in turn, determines our present beliefs and desires, but also directs our future goals and actions. I then argue that our autobiographical memory is partly anchored in our embodied interactions with an ecology of artifacts in our environment. Lifelogs, photos, videos, journals, diaries, souvenirs, jewelry, books, works of art, and many other meaningful objects trigger and sometimes constitute emotionally-laden autobiographical memories. Autobiographical memory is thus distributed across embodied agents and various environmental structures. To defend this claim, I draw on and integrate distributed cognition theory and empirical research in human-technology interaction. Based on this, I conclude that the self is neither defined by psychological states realized by the brain nor by biological states realized by the organism, but should be seen as a distributed and relational construct

Extended Knowledge-How

According to reductive intellectualists about knowledge-how :147–190, 2008; Philos Phenomenol Res 78:439–467, 2009) knowledge-how is a kind of knowledge-that. To the extent that this is right, then insofar as we might conceive of ways knowledge could be extended with reference to active externalist :7–19, 1998; Clark in Supersizing the mind: embodiment, action, and cognitive extension: embodiment, action, and cognitive extension. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008) approaches in the philosophy of mind, we should expect no interesting difference between the two. However, insofar as anti-intellectualist approaches to knowledge-how are a viable option, there is an overlooked issue of how knowledge-how might be extended, via active externalism, in ways very differently from knowledge-that. This paper explores this overlooked space, and in doing so, illustrates how a novel form of extended knowledge-how emerges from a pairing of active externalism in the philosophy of mind with anti-intellectualism in the theory of knowledge. Crucial to our argument will be a new way of thinking about the extended mind thesis, as it pertains to the kinds of state one is in when one knows how to do something, and how this state connects with non-accidentally successful performanc

The Cognitive Ecology of the Internet

In this chapter, we analyze the relationships between the Internet and its users in terms of situated cognition theory. We first argue that the Internet is a new kind of cognitive ecology, providing almost constant access to a vast amount of digital information that is increasingly more integrated into our cognitive routines. We then briefly introduce situated cognition theory and its species of embedded, embodied, extended, distributed and collective cognition. Having thus set the stage, we begin by taking an embedded cognition view and analyze how the Internet aids certain cognitive tasks. After that, we conceptualize how the Internet enables new kinds of embodied interaction, extends certain aspects of our embodiment, and examine how wearable technologies that monitor physiological, behavioral and contextual states transform the embodied self. On the basis of the degree of cognitive integration between a user and Internet resource, we then look at how and when the Internet extends our cognitive processes. We end this chapter with a discussion of distributed and collective cognition as facilitated by the Internet

Polymorphisms in Toll-Like Receptors 2, 4, and 9 Are Highly Associated with Hearing Loss in Survivors of Bacterial Meningitis

Genetic variation in innate immune response genes contributes to inter-individual differences in disease manifestation and degree of complications upon infection. We recently described an association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in TLR9 with susceptibility to meningococcal meningitis (MM). In this study, we investigate the association of SNPs in multiple pathogen recognition and immune response genes with clinical features that determine severity and outcome (especially hearing loss) of childhood MM and pneumococcal meningitis (PM). Eleven SNPs in seven genes (TLR2, TLR4, TLR9, NOD1, NOD2, CASP1, and TRAIL) were genotyped in 393 survivors of childhood bacterial meningitis (BM) (327 MM patients and 66 PM patients). Genotype distributions of single SNPs and combination of SNPs were compared between thirteen clinical characteristics associated with severity of BM. After correction for multiple testing, TLR4+896 mutant alleles were highly associated with post-meningitis hearing loss, especially MM (p  = 0.001, OR 4.0 for BM, p  = 0.0004, OR 6.2 for MM). In a multigene analysis, combined carriership of the TLR2+2477 wild type (WT) with TLR4+896 mutant alleles increases the risk of hearing loss (p<0.0001, OR 5.7 in BM and p  = 0.0001, OR 7.6 in MM). Carriage of one or both mutant alleles in TLR4+896 and TLR9 -1237 increases the risk for hearing loss (p  = 0.0006, OR 4.1 in BM). SNPs in immune response genes contribute to differences in clinical severity and outcome of BM. The TLR system seems to play an important role in the immune response to BM and subsequent neuronal damage as well as in cochlear inflammation. Genetic markers may be used for identification of high-risk patients by creating prediction rules for post-meningitis hearing loss and other sequelae, and provide more insight in the complex immune response in the CNS possibly resulting in new therapeutic interventions

5-Hydroxytryptamine Modulates Migration, Cytokine and Chemokine Release and T-Cell Priming Capacity of Dendritic Cells In Vitro and In Vivo

Beside its well described role in the central and peripheral nervous system 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), commonly known as serotonin, is also a potent immuno-modulator. Serotoninergic receptors (5-HTR) are expressed by a broad range of inflammatory cell types, including dendritic cells (DCs). In this study, we aimed to further characterize the immuno-biological properties of serotoninergic receptors on human monocyte-derived DCs. 5-HT was able to induce oriented migration in immature but not in LPS-matured DCs via activation of 5-HTR1 and 5-HTR2 receptor subtypes. Accordingly, 5-HT also increased migration of pulmonary DCs to draining lymph nodes in vivo. By binding to 5-HTR3, 5-HTR4 and 5-HTR7 receptors, 5-HT up-regulated production of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6. Additionally, 5-HT influenced chemokine release by human monocyte-derived DCs: production of the potent Th1 chemoattractant IP-10/CXCL10 was inhibited in mature DCs, whereas CCL22/MDC secretion was up-regulated in both immature and mature DCs. Furthermore, DCs matured in the presence of 5-HT switched to a high IL-10 and low IL-12p70 secreting phenotype. Consistently, 5-HT favoured the outcome of a Th2 immune response both in vitro and in vivo. In summary, our study shows that 5-HT is a potent regulator of human dendritic cell function, and that targeting serotoninergic receptors might be a promising approach for the treatment of inflammatory disorders

Social machines:A philosophical engineering

In Weaving the Web (2000), Berners-Lee defines Social Machines as biotechnologically hybrid Web-processes on the basis of which, “high-level activities, which have occurred just within one human’s brain, will occur among even larger more interconnected groups of people acting as if the shared a larger intuitive brain” (201–202). The analysis and design of Social Machines has already started attracting considerable attention both within the industry and academia. Web science, however, is still missing a clear definition of what a Social Machine is, which has in turn resulted in several calls for a “philosophical engineering” (Halpin 2013; Hendler & Berners-Lee 2010); Halpin et al. 2010). This paper is a first attempt to respond to this call, by combining contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive science with epistemology. The idea of philosophical engineering implies that a sufficiently good conception of Social Machines should be of both theoretical and practical advantage. To demonstrate how the present approach can satisfy both objectives it will be used in order to address one of Wikipedia’s (the most famous Social Machine to date) most worrying concerns—i.e., the current and ongoing decline in the number of its active contributors (Halfacker et al. 2012)