‘Pushing Through’ in Plato’s Sophist: A New Reading of the Parity Assumption

At a crucial juncture in Plato’s Sophist, when the interlocutors have reached their deepest confusion about being and not-being, the Eleatic Visitor proclaims that there is yet hope. Insofar as they clarify one, he maintains, they will equally clarify the other. But what justifies the Visitor’s seemingly oracular prediction? A new interpretation explains how the Visitor’s hope is in fact warranted by the peculiar aporia they find themselves in. The passage describes a broader pattern of ‘exploring both sides’ that lends insight into Plato’s aporetic method

Aristotle's Platonic Response to the Problem of First Principles

how does one inquire into the truth of first principles? Where does one begin when deciding where to begin? Aristotle recognizes a series of difficulties when it comes to understanding the starting points of a scientific or philosophical system, and contemporary scholars have encountered their own difficulties in understanding his response. I will argue that Aristotle was aware of a Platonic solution that can help us uncover his own attitude toward the problem.Aristotle's central problem with first principles arises from the fact that they cannot be demonstrated in the same way as other propositions. Since demonstrations proceed from prior and better-known principles, if the principles themselves were in need of..

Untying the gorgianic ‘not’: Argumentative structure in on not-being

Gorgias’ On Not-Being survives only in two divergent summaries. Diels–Kranz's classic edition prints the better-preserved version that appears in Sextus’ Aduersus Mathematicos. Yet, in recent years there has been rising interest in a second summary that survives as part of the anonymous De Melisso, Xenophane, Gorgia. The text of MXG is more difficult; it contains substantial lacunae that often make it much harder to make grammatical let alone philosophical sense of. As Alexander Mourelatos reports, one manuscript has a scribal note that reads: ‘The original contains many errors; no one should blame me; I just copy what I see.’2 The treatise's state of preservation has aptly prompted Michael Gagarin to liken it to a black hole: ‘something we cannot see directly but know must exist because of certain effects it has on other objects.’3

More than a Reductio: Plato's Method in the Parmenides and Lysis

Plato’s Parmenides and Lysis have a surprising amount in common from a methodological standpoint. Both systematically employ a method that I call ‘exploring both sides’, a philosophical method for encouraging further inquiry and comprehensively understanding the truth. Both have also been held in suspicion by interpreters for containing what looks uncomfortably similar to sophistic methodology. I argue that the methodological connections across these and other dialogues relieve those suspicions and push back against a standard developmentalist story about Plato’s method. This allows for a better understanding of why exploring both sides is explicitly recommended in the Parmenides and its role within Plato’s broader methodological repertoire

Co-Operating Systems: A Technical Overview of Multiple Onboard Operating Systems

The Multiview Onboard Computational Imager (MOCI) built by the University of Georgia’s Small Satellite Research Lab (SSRL) will be one of the first small satellites to include a small form factor graphics processing unit (GPU), the NVIDIA TX2i, in its design and therefore includes three onboard computers that will need to coordinate and interchange data to successfully complete the mission. The Onboard Computer (OBC), standard for most satellite systems, will coordinate most system controls. The GPU serves as the onboard payload manager and bulk data processor and coordinates with the attitude determination and control system (ADCS) to collect all necessary data for processing. These computers will communicate through hardware lines using two different serial protocols. In this paper, we propose a control system which synchronizes system clocks and transfers data efficiently through the differing serial protocols in order to process data without any bottlenecks in the data transfer or a decrease in accuracy between the data and its matching telemetry. The success of all these components working together will serve as a proof of concept for GPUs, like the TX2i, onboard small satellites and giving birth to future onboard computational imagers like MOCI

Hounslow School Emergency Plans

The Contingency Planning Unit (CPU) of the London Borough of Hounslow (LBH) distributes emergency plan templates and guidance to schools in the borough. After conducting a literature and best practice review, our group of students updated the emergency plan template and guidance documents for the CPU. We systemically analyzed plans and guidance from other schools, both in London and worldwide, we synthesized the updated template and guidance from the best practices. We considered Hounslow’s largest risks (i.e. flooding, flu, and utility failure), schools’ emergency plans, and the relationship of emergency planners and school staff while writing our plans. Our team recommends incentivizing the updating of emergency plans, and emphasizes the importance of drilling and practice

Citizen science as a new tool in dog cognition research

The work of Á.M. was supported by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA 01 031).Family dogs and dog owners offer a potentially powerful way to conduct citizen science to answer questions about animal behavior that are difficult to answer with more conventional approaches. Here we evaluate the quality of the first data on dog cognition collected by citizen scientists using the Dognition. com website. We conducted analyses to understand if data generated by over 500 citizen scientists replicates internally and in comparison to previously published findings. Half of participants participated for free while the other half paid for access. The website provided each participant a temperament questionnaire and instructions on how to conduct a series of ten cognitive tests. Participation required internet access, a dog and some common household items. Participants could record their responses on any PC, tablet or smartphone from anywhere in the world and data were retained on servers. Results from citizen scientists and their dogs replicated a number of previously described phenomena from conventional lab-based research. There was little evidence that citizen scientists manipulated their results. To illustrate the potential uses of relatively large samples of citizen science data, we then used factor analysis to examine individual differences across the cognitive tasks. The data were best explained by multiple factors in support of the hypothesis that nonhumans, including dogs, can evolve multiple cognitive domains that vary independently. This analysis suggests that in the future, citizen scientists will generate useful datasets that test hypotheses and answer questions as a complement to conventional laboratory techniques used to study dog psychology.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Workflow at NSF

This project focuses on improving workflow at the National Science Foundation. The process used to review submitted proposals currently has multiple opportunities for enhancement. Through the methods of interviewing and observation we identified tasks in the process that could be more easily done. We worked to automate these tasks through the use of Microsoft software, specifically Microsoft SharePoint and InfoPath 2007. These products allowed us to make improvements in the review process, specifically the part that deals with the set up of panels. We were able to automate certain tasks and centralize most essential data in one repository. At the end of this project we presented the National Science Foundation with a working system that made the management of panels easier