501 research outputs found
Free will beliefs are better predicted by dualism than determinism beliefs across different cultures
Most people believe in free will. Whether this belief is warranted or not, free will beliefs
(FWB) are foundational for many legal systems and reducing FWB has effects on behavior
from the motor to the social level. This raises the important question as to which specific
FWB people hold. There are many different ways to conceptualize free will, and some might
see physical determinism as a threat that might reduce FWB, while others might not. Here,
we investigate lay FWB in a large, representative, replicated online survey study in the US
and Singapore (n = 1800), assessing differences in FWB with unprecedented depth within
and between cultures. Specifically, we assess the relation of FWB, as measured using the
Free Will Inventory, to determinism, dualism and related concepts like libertarianism and
compatibilism. We find that libertarian, compatibilist, and dualist, intuitions were related to
FWB, but that these intuitions were often logically inconsistent. Importantly, direct comparisons
suggest that dualism was more predictive of FWB than other intuitions. Thus, believing
in free will goes hand-in-hand with a belief in a non-physical mind. Highlighting the importance
of dualism for FWB impacts academic debates on free will, which currently largely
focus on its relation to determinism. Our findings also shed light on how recent (neuro)scientific
findings might impact FWB. Demonstrating physical determinism in the brain need not
have a strong impact on FWB, due to a wide-spread belief in dualism
Recherches sur l’essor du culte des reliques en Orient et en Occident
Les quatre conférences données dans le cadre du séminaire « Christianisme byzantin », à l’invitation de M. Bernard Flusin, ont été consacrées à quelques questions essentielles portant sur le début du culte des reliques, notamment : pourquoi dans la deuxième moitié du ive siècle l’attitude envers ceux qui sont morts pour la foi a changé d’une façon soudaine, menant à l’émergence de la vénération de leurs corps ? Pourquoi les gens de l’Antiquité tardive avaient-ils besoin de reliques ? Quelles ..
Mechanical Faraday effect for orbital angular momentum-carrying beams
When linearly polarised light is transmitted through a spinning window, the plane of polarisation is rotated. This rotation arises through a phase change that is applied to the circularly polarised states corresponding to the spin angular momentum (SAM). Here we show an analogous effect for the orbital angular momentum (OAM), where a differential phase between the positive and negative modes (±ℓ) is observed as a rotation of the transmitted image. For normal materials, this rotation is on the order of a micro radian, but by using a slow-light medium, we show a rotation of a few degrees. We also note that, within the bounds of our experimental parameters, this rotation angle does not exceed the scale of the spatial features in the beam profile
AlGaInN laser diode technology for GHz high-speed visible light communication through plastic optical fiber and water
AlGaInN ridge waveguide laser diodes are fabricated to achieve single-mode operation with optical powers up to 100 mW at ∼420  nm∼420  nm for visible free-space, underwater, and plastic optical fiber communication. We report high-frequency operation of AlGaInN laser diodes with data transmission up to 2.5 GHz for free-space and underwater communication and up to 1.38 GHz through 10 m of plastic optical fiber
CHARIS Science: Performance Simulations for the Subaru Telescope's Third-Generation of Exoplanet Imaging Instrumentation
We describe the expected scientific capabilities of CHARIS, a high-contrast
integral-field spectrograph (IFS) currently under construction for the Subaru
telescope. CHARIS is part of a new generation of instruments, enabled by
extreme adaptive optics (AO) systems (including SCExAO at Subaru), that promise
greatly improved contrasts at small angular separation thanks to their ability
to use spectral information to distinguish planets from quasistatic speckles in
the stellar point-spread function (PSF). CHARIS is similar in concept to GPI
and SPHERE, on Gemini South and the Very Large Telescope, respectively, but
will be unique in its ability to simultaneously cover the entire near-infrared
, , and bands with a low-resolution mode. This extraordinarily broad
wavelength coverage will enable spectral differential imaging down to angular
separations of a few , corresponding to 0.\!\!''1. SCExAO
will also offer contrast approaching at similar separations,
0.\!\!''1--0.\!\!''2. The discovery yield of a CHARIS survey will
depend on the exoplanet distribution function at around 10 AU. If the
distribution of planets discovered by radial velocity surveys extends unchanged
to 20 AU, observations of 200 mostly young, nearby stars targeted
by existing high-contrast instruments might find 1--3 planets. Carefully
optimizing the target sample could improve this yield by a factor of a few,
while an upturn in frequency at a few AU could also increase the number of
detections. CHARIS, with a higher spectral resolution mode of , will
also be among the best instruments to characterize planets and brown dwarfs
like HR 8799 cde and And b.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, proceedings from SPIE Montrea
Relation of Income and Education Level with Cardiorespiratory Fitness
International Journal of Exercise Science 8(3): 265-276, 2015. While there is strong evidence measuring the association between leisure time physical activity (LTPA) and socioeconomic status (SES) there are limited data on the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and SES. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine differences in CRF and LTPA between household income and individual education in young adults. A sample of 171 (males n=98, female n=73) young adults participated in the University of Pittsburgh-Physical Activity Study. Participants completed CRF testing. Demographic characteristics were assessed via interviewer administered standardized survey and LTPA was assessed using the interviewer administered Modifiable Activity Questionnaire. Participants were grouped by income and education level. Analysis of variance and general linear modeling was used to compare LTPA and CRF between groups. There were no differences in CRF between income levels (p=0.126) or education levels (p=0.990) for the total sample. There were no differences in LTPA between income levels (p=0.936) or education level (p=0.182) for the total sample. Results suggest that neither income nor education levels are indicators of CRF in this sample of young adults. Other environmental, sociological, or familial health mediators may have a strong effect on CRF in young adult males and females
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