Neither ātman Nor anattā: Tapering Our Conception of Selfhood

I provide critical discussion of conception of and talk of psychic integration which I take to be both excessive and deficient; these viciously extreme positions are championed by the Apostle Paul and St. Augustine (and both their religious and their secular cultural descendants in the West), and by Jacques Lacan and María Lugones (and their contemporaries), respectively. I suggest that we must negotiate a Buddhist-inspired understanding located between these extremes in endorsing any acceptable conception of the self, generally speaking—a conception which, contra the strong antirealist about selves, allows for the continued use of selfhood in everyday discourse, but which, contra the strong realist about selves, does not fall into an unhealthy idealization of anything approximating perfect psychic wholeness

The Greening of Heart and Mind: A Love Story

Some environmentalists have argued that an effective ecological conscience may be rooted in a perspective that is either anthropocentric or sentiocentric. But, neither seems to have had any substantial effect on the ways in which our species treats nature. In looking to successfully awaken the ecological conscience, the focus should be on extending moral consideration to the land (wherein doing so includes all of the soils, waters, plants, animals, and the collectivity of which these things comprise) by means of coming to love the land. Coming to love the land involves coming to view the land’s interests as our own—and, conferring upon the land a kind of moral patient-hood. In order to perceive the land’s “subjectivity,” and so, to come to love the land, we must relearn the way to look at the land by viewing its personality through the lens of he or she who can already do so, i.e., the nature write

Impartialist Ethics and Psychic Disintegration: A Talking Cure

This dissertation deals with integrity understood as a state of the psyche. Its primary interlocutor is Professor Bernard Williams, and its point of departure is my interpretation of his Objection from Integrity to impartialist moral theories. Against Williams, I hope to show that the active adherent of impartialist ethical systems (e.g., act utilitarianism) may retain both moral integrity and integrity. In demonstrating this, I make use of a variant of Roy Schafer’s action language approach to psychoanalysis, and what I call practical aestheticism

Novel risk stratification algorithm for estimating the risk of death in patients with relapsed multiple myeloma: external validation in a retrospective chart review.

OBJECTIVES AND DESIGN: A novel risk stratification algorithm estimating risk of death in patients with relapsed multiple myeloma starting second-line treatment was recently developed using multivariable Cox regression of data from a Czech registry. It uses 16 parameters routinely collected in medical practice to stratify patients into four distinct risk groups in terms of survival expectation. To provide insight into generalisability of the risk stratification algorithm, the study aimed to validate the risk stratification algorithm using real-world data from specifically designed retrospective chart audits from three European countries. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Physicians collected data from 998 patients (France, 386; Germany, 344; UK, 268) and applied the risk stratification algorithm. METHODS: The performance of the Cox regression model for predicting risk of death was assessed by Nagelkerke's R2, goodness of fit and the C-index. The risk stratification algorithm's ability to discriminate overall survival across four risk groups was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier curves and HRs. RESULTS: Consistent with the Czech registry, the stratification performance of the risk stratification algorithm demonstrated clear differentiation in risk of death between the four groups. As risk groups increased, risk of death doubled. The C-index was 0.715 (95% CI 0.690 to 0.734). CONCLUSIONS: Validation of the novel risk stratification algorithm in an independent 'real-world' dataset demonstrated that it stratifies patients in four subgroups according to survival expectation

Efficacy of sub-Tenon's block using an equal volume of local anaesthetic administered either as a single or as divided doses. A randomised clinical trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sub-Tenon's anaesthetic is effective and reliable in producing both akinesia and anaesthesia for cataract surgery. Our clinical experience indicates that it is sometimes necessary when absolute akinesia is required during surgery to augment the block with 1–2 ml of local anaesthetic. Hypothesis was that after first injection some of the volume injected may spill out and before second injection the effect of hyaluronidase has taken place and second volume injectate will have desired effect.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A prospective, randomised, control trial in which patients were randomly allocated to one of two groups. In group 1, single injection of 5 ml of local anaesthetic was injected. In group 2, 3 ml of the same anaesthetic solution was injected followed by application of gentle orbital pressure for 2 minutes. A further 2 ml of the same anaesthetic solution was injected through the same conjunctival incision. Measurement of movement in four quadrants of eye was done by the surgeon at 3 and 6 minutes. Intraocular pressure, chemosis, and subconjuctival haemorrhage were also measured.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Significant differences at 3 minutes between groups for overall movement, medial, superior, and lateral quadrants occurred. At 6 minutes no significant group differences emerged for the overall movement or for any of four quadrants.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Single injection of local anaesthesia for sub-Tenon's block with mixture of lignocaine with adrenaline, bupivacaine and hyaluronidase was found to be superior to provide akinesia of ocular muscles compared to divided dose given by two injections. No difference in groups in terms of haemorrhage, chemosis, patient's satisfaction and intraocular pressure was found.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Trial registration no-ISRCTN73431052</p

Galaxy Clustering in Early SDSS Redshift Data

We present the first measurements of clustering in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) galaxy redshift survey. Our sample consists of 29,300 galaxies with redshifts 5,700 km/s < cz < 39,000 km/s, distributed in several long but narrow (2.5-5 degree) segments, covering 690 square degrees. For the full, flux-limited sample, the redshift-space correlation length is approximately 8 Mpc/h. The two-dimensional correlation function \xi(r_p,\pi) shows clear signatures of both the small-scale, ``fingers-of-God'' distortion caused by velocity dispersions in collapsed objects and the large-scale compression caused by coherent flows, though the latter cannot be measured with high precision in the present sample. The inferred real-space correlation function is well described by a power law, \xi(r)=(r/6.1+/-0.2 Mpc/h)^{-1.75+/-0.03}, for 0.1 Mpc/h < r < 16 Mpc/h. The galaxy pairwise velocity dispersion is \sigma_{12} ~ 600+/-100 km/s for projected separations 0.15 Mpc/h < r_p < 5 Mpc/h. When we divide the sample by color, the red galaxies exhibit a stronger and steeper real-space correlation function and a higher pairwise velocity dispersion than do the blue galaxies. The relative behavior of subsamples defined by high/low profile concentration or high/low surface brightness is qualitatively similar to that of the red/blue subsamples. Our most striking result is a clear measurement of scale-independent luminosity bias at r < 10 Mpc/h: subsamples with absolute magnitude ranges centered on M_*-1.5, M_*, and M_*+1.5 have real-space correlation functions that are parallel power laws of slope ~ -1.8 with correlation lengths of approximately 7.4 Mpc/h, 6.3 Mpc/h, and 4.7 Mpc/h, respectively.Comment: 51 pages, 18 figures. Replaced to match accepted ApJ versio

The study of reproductive outcome and the health of offspring of UK veterans of the Gulf war: methods and description of the study population

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to determine whether Gulf war veterans and their partners are at increased risk of adverse reproductive events and whether their children have increased risk of serious health problems. Methods and response to the study are reported here. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of reproduction among UK Gulf war veterans, with a comparison cohort of Armed Service personnel who were not deployed to the Gulf. Reproductive history and details of children's health was collected by means of a validated postal questionnaire. A separate study of non-responders was conducted. RESULTS: Questionnaires were returned by a total of 25,084 Gulf war veterans (24,379 men) and 19,003 (18,439 men) subjects in the comparison group. After adjusting for undelivered mail the response rate was 53% for Gulf war veterans and 42% for non-Gulf veterans among men, 72% and 60% among women. Data from the non-responder study suggests that failure to respond to the main survey was largely unrelated to reproduction. 11,155 (46%) male Gulf war veterans and 7,769 (42%) male non-Gulf war veterans had conceived, or attempted to conceive, since the Gulf war. They reported 16442 and 11517 pregnancies respectively in that period. For women, 313 (44%) Gulf veterans and 235 (42%) non-Gulf veterans reported 484 and 377 pregnancies respectively conceived since the Gulf war. CONCLUSIONS: This survey enabled collection of information on a range of reproductive outcomes from veterans of the Gulf war and a suitably matched comparison cohort. Although the response rate for men was disappointing, selection bias related to reproduction does not appear to be strong in these data

OOI Biogeochemical Sensor Data: Best Practices and User Guide. Version 1.0.0.

The OOI Biogeochemical Sensor Data Best Practices and User Guide is intended to provide current and prospective users of data generated by biogeochemical sensors deployed on the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) arrays with the information and guidance needed for them to ensure that the data is science-ready. This guide is aimed at researchers with an interest or some experience in ocean biogeochemical processes. We expect that users of this guide will have some background in oceanography, however we do not assume any prior experience working with biogeochemical sensors or their data. While initially envisioned as a “cookbook” for end users seeking to work with OOI biogeochemical (BGC) sensor data, our Working Group and Beta Testers realized that the processing required to meet the specific needs of all end users across a wide range of potential scientific applications and combinations of OOI BGC data from different sensors and platforms couldn’t be synthesized into a single “recipe”. We therefore provide here the background information and principles needed for the end user to successfully identify and understand all the available “ingredients” (data), the types of “cooking” (end user processing) that are recommended to prepare them, and a few sample “recipes” (worked examples) to support end users in developing their own “recipes” consistent with the best practices presented here. This is not intended to be an exhaustive guide to each of these sensors, but rather a synthesis of the key information to support OOI BGC sensor data users in preparing science-ready data products. In instances when more in-depth information might be helpful, references and links have been provided both within each chapter and in the Appendix