Language as Encoding Thought vs. Language as Medium of Thought: On the Question of J. G. Fichte’s Influence on Wilhelm von Humboldt

In this paper I take up the question of the possible influence of J. G. Fichte on Wilhelm von Humboldt’s theory of language. I first argue that the historical record is unclear, but show that there is a deep philosophical difference between the two views and, as a result of this difference, we should conclude that the influence was small. Drawing on a distinction made by Michael Dummett, I show that Fichte understands language as encoding thought while Humboldt understands language as a medium of thought. The consequences of this difference affect a wide range of issues from their views on the nature of personal pronouns, to their theories of communicative understanding, to their theories of the proper nature of inquiry into language

Linking Theory and Practice: Performing a Reality Check on a Model of IS Success

The issue of ‘rigour vs. relevance’ in IS research has generated an intense, heated debate for over a decade. It is possible to identify, however, only a limited number of contributions on how to increase the relevance of IS research without compromising its rigour. Based on a lifecycle view of IS research, we propose the notion of ‘reality checks’ in order to review IS research outcomes in the light of actual industry demands. We assume that five barriers impact the efficient transfer of IS research outcomes; they are lack of awareness, lack of understandability, lack of relevance, lack of timeliness, and lack of applicability. In seeking to understand the effect of these barriers on the transfer of mature IS research into practice, we used focus groups. We chose DeLone and McLean’s IS success model as our stimulus because it is one of the more widely researched areas of IS

Expertise in Debugging Computer Programs: Situation-Based versus Model-Based Problem Solving

This paper reports the results of an exploratory study that investigated expert and novice debugging processes with the aim of assessing the relevance of situation-dependent problem solving to debugging expertise. The method used was verbal protocol analysis. Data was collected from sixteen subjects employed by the same organization. The study first controlled for the variability in individual problem solving by incorporating certain aspects of programmers\u27 debugging processes into the debugging model. The criterion of expertise was the subjects\u27 ability to effectively chunk the program they were required to debug. This method proved effective in explaining much of the variability in debugging performance and provided the basis for the expert-novice classification used in subsequent analysis of the protocol data. Further analysis focused on situational factors in debugging. lt took two forms: (1) a static or content analysis of subjects\u27 problem solving behavior that aggregated data across a protocol: and (2) a dynamic or process analysis of subjects\u27 debugging processes that examined data as closely as possible to its natural state. The results support the notion that experts respond to the data in the task while novices are constrained by preconceived ideas or early hypotheses about the source of error

An inter-comparison of Arctic synoptic scale storms between four global reanalysis datasets

The Arctic is becoming more accessible as sea ice extent continues to decline, resulting in higher human exposure to Arctic storms. This study compares Arctic storm characteristics between the ECMWF-Interim Reanalysis, 55-year Japanese Reanalysis, NASA-Modern Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 and National Centre for Environmental Prediction-Climate Forecast System Reanalysis datasets between 1980 and 2017, in winter (DJF) and summer (JJA). It is shown that Arctic storm characteristics are sensitive to the variable used for storm tracking. Arctic storm frequency is found to be similar in summer and winter when using sea level pressure minima to track Arctic storms, whereas, the storm frequency is found to be higher in winter than summer when using 850 hPa relative vorticity to track storms, based on using the same storm tracking algorithm. It is also found that there are no significant trends in Arctic storm characteristics between 1980 and 2017. Given the sparsity of observations in the Arctic, it might be expected that there are large differences in Arctic storm characteristics between the reanalysis datasets. Though, some similar Arctic storm characteristics are found between the reanalysis datasets, it is found that the differences in Arctic storm characteristics between the reanalysis datasets are generally higher in winter than in summer. Overall, the results show that there are differences in Arctic storm characteristics between reanalysis datasets, but even larger differences can arise between using 850 hPa relative vorticity or mean sea level pressure as the storm tracking variable, which adds to the uncertainty associated with current Arctic storm characteristics

Genetic predisposition to genomic instability in cancer.

Ataxia telangiectasia and Bloom's syndrome are cancer prone genomic instability disorders for which the causative genes ATM and BLM have only recently been identified. The cellular localisation and biochemical roles of these proteins are currently being defined. ATM shares sequence homology with several lipid and protein kinases but at the outset of this work a kinase function for ATM itself was not established and the extent to which the kinase domain contributed to the cellular phenotype of A-T was unknown. In addition the role of ATM heterozygosity and genomic instability in breast cancer had been suggested but not elucidated. During the course of this work, the anti-ATM antibody (CN-12) and anti-BLM antibody (IHIC-27), were developed and affinity purified. Antibody CN-12 successfully demonstrated the presence of the 350 kDa ATM protein by immunoblotting and immunoprecipitation in HeLa cells. The protein was largely nuclear in localisation with a minor microsomal fraction but was found to be absent in AT2RO cells which contain a homozygous truncating mutation of ATM. Tumour cell lines provided by the NCI showed varying expression of ATM except for the promyelocytic leukaemia cell line HL60 in which no ATM was detected. Antibody IHIC-27 demonstrated the presence of a 180 kDa protein in HeLa cells which was absent in the Bloom's cell line GM8505. Studies using antibodies directed to the C and N-termini showed BLM instability and cell fractionation studies demonstrated that the protein was nuclear in localisation. Anti-BLM monoclonal antibodies 185a and 32e were able to identify the fusion protein to which they were raised and BLM immunoprecipitated by IHIC-27 but could not identify BLM in whole cell lysates. Neither ATM nor BLM antibodies were useful for immunohistochemical studies with the protocols tested despite successful immunostaining of the positive control. Studies of immunoprecipitated ATM using a variety of assay conditions with p53 peptides and PHAS-I as substrates did not reveal any serine/threonine protein kinase activity, although low levels of autophosphorylation were identified. H1299 cells transfected with a mutant ATM kinase domain did not exhibit a dominant negative phenotype, which curtailed further studies of the cellular function of the domain. DNA repair in peripheral blood lymphocytes from breast cancer patients and controls was assessed by the comet assay. Although the patients generally showed less DNA repair than the controls at 30 min and 120 min, the difference was not found to be statistically significant

Thrombotic variables and risk of idiopathic venous thromboembolism in women aged 45-64 years - Relationships to hormone replacement therapy

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been shown to increase the relative risk of idiopathic venous thromboembolism (VTE) about threefold in several observational studies and one randomised controlled trial. Whether or not this relative risk is higher in women with underlying thrombophilia phenotypes, such as activated protein C (APC) resistance, is unknown. We therefore restudied the participants in a case-control study of the relationship between the use of HRT and the occurrence of idiopathic VTE in women aged 45-64 years. After protocol exclusions, 66 of the cases in the original study and 163 of the controls were studied. Twenty haematological variables relevant to risk of VTE were analysed, including thrombotic states defined from the literature. The relative risk of VTE showed significant associations with APC resistance (OR 4.06; 95% CI 1.62, 10.21); low antithrombin (3.33; 1.15, 9.65) or protein C (2.93; 1.06, 8.14); and high coagulation factor IX (2.34: 1.26, 1.35), or fibrin D-dimer (3.84; 1.99, 7.32). HRT use increased the risk of VTE in women without any of these thrombotic static; (OR 4.09; 95% CI 1.26, 13.30). A similar effect of HRT use on the relative risk of VTE was also found in women with prothrombotic states. Thus for example, the combination of HRT use and APC resistance increased the risk of VTE about 13-fold compared with women of similar age without either APC resistance or HRT use (OR 13.27; 95%, CI 4.30, 40.97). We conclude that the combination of HRT use and thrombophilias (especially if multiple) increases the relative risk of VTE substantially; hence women known to have thrombophilias (especially if multiple) should be counselled about this increased risk prior to prescription of HRT. However. HRT increases the risk of VTE about fourfold even in women without any thrombotic abnormalities: possible causes are discussed

Oral contraception and eye disease: findings in two large cohort studies

AIM : To investigate the relation between oral contraceptive use and certain eye diseases. \ud \ud METHODS : Abstraction of the relevant data from the two large British cohort studies of the effects of oral contraception, the Royal College of General Practitioners' (RCGP) Oral Contraception Study and the Oxford-Family Planning Association (Oxford-FPA) Contraceptive Study. Both cohort studies commenced in 1968 and were organised on a national basis. Between them they have accumulated over 850 000 person years of observation involving 63 000 women. \ud \ud RESULTS : The conditions considered in the analysis were conjunctivitis, keratitis, iritis, lacrimal disease, strabismus, cataract, glaucoma, retinal detachment, and retinal vascular lesions. With the exception of retinal vascular lesions, there was no consistent evidence of important increases in risk of eye diseases in users of oral contraception. There was about a twofold increase in the risk of retinal vascular lesions in recent pill users in both studies (statistically significant only in the RCGP study). The increase was not limited to any specific type of lesion and may well reflect diagnostic bias. \ud \ud CONCLUSION : Oral contraceptive use does not appear to increase the risk of eye disease, with the possible exception of retinal vascular lesions. \ud \ud Keywords: oral contraception; eye disease; cohort studie