The Resilience of Computationalism

Computationalism—the view that cognition is computation—has always been controversial. It faces two types of objection. According to insufficiency objections, computation is insufficient for some cognitive phenomenon X. According to objections from neural realization, cognitive processes are realized by neural processes, but neural processes have feature Y and having Y is incompatible with being (or realizing) computations. In this paper, I explain why computationalism has survived these objections. Insufficiency objections are at best partial: for all they establish, computation may be sufficient for cognitive phenomena other than X, may be part of the explanation for X, or both. Objections from neural realization are based either on a false contrast between feature Y and computation or on an account of computation that is too vague to yield the desired conclusion. To adjudicate the dispute between computationalism and its foes, I will conclude that we need a better account of computation

Two Kinds of Concept: Implicit and Explicit

In his refreshing and thought-provoking book, Edouard Machery (2009) argues that people possess different kinds of concept. This is probably true and important. Before I get to that, I will briefly disagree on two other points

Scientific Methods Must Be Public, and Descriptive Experience Sampling Qualifies

Hurlburt and Schwitzgebel’s groundbreaking book, Describing Inner Experience: Proponent Meets Skeptic, examines a research method called Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES). DES, which was developed by Hurlburt and collaborators, works roughly as follows. An investigator gives a subject a random beeper. During the day, as the subject hears a beep, she writes a description of her conscious experience just before the beep. The next day, the investigator interviews the subject, asks for more details, corrects any apparent mistakes made by the subject, and draws conclusions about the subject’s mind. Throughout the book, Schwitzgebel challenges some of Hurlburt’s specific conclusions. Yet both agree – and so do I – that DES is a worthy method

Theoretical developments on Quartic Gauge Boson Couplings at LEP

The search for quartic anomalous gauge couplings (QAGC) at LEP requires appropriate predictions for the radiative processes e+ e- \to \nu\bar\nu \gamma\gamma, e+ e- \to q\bar{q}\gamma\gamma and e+ e- \to 4 fermions+\gamma. The current knowledge on dimension-six operators giving rise to QAGC is briefly reviewed, together with their implementation in event generators. The accuracy of calculations based on real approximations (used up to now for the LEP experimental analysis) is examined by comparing them with the available exact matrix element calculations.Comment: LaTeX, JHEP style, 5 pag. Talk presented at EPS HEP2001, Budapest, Hungary, 12 - 18 July, 200

Computation vs. Information Processing: Why Their Difference Matters to Cognitive Science

Since the cognitive revolution, it’s become commonplace that cognition involves both computation and information processing. Is this one claim or two? Is computation the same as information processing? The two terms are often used interchangeably, but this usage masks important differences. In this paper, we distinguish information processing from computation and examine some of their mutual relations, shedding light on the role each can play in a theory of cognition. We recommend that theorists of cognition be explicit and careful in choosing\ud notions of computation and information and connecting them together. Much confusion can be avoided by doing so

Ceramic materials lead to underestimated DNA quantifications : a method for reliable measurements

In the context of investigating cell-material interactions or of material-guided generation of tissues, DNA quantification represents an elective method to precisely assess the number of cells attached or embedded within different substrates. Nonetheless, nucleic acids are known to electrostatically bind to ceramics, a class of materials commonly employed in orthopaedic implants and bone tissue engineering scaffolds. This phenomenon is expected to lead to a relevant underestimation of the DNA amount, resulting in erroneous experimental readouts. The present work aims at *lpar;i) investigating the effects of DNA-ceramic bond occurrence on DNA quantification, and (ii) developing a method to reliably extract and accurately quantify DNA in ceramic-containing specimens. A cell-free model was adopted to study DNA-ceramic binding, highlighting an evident DNA loss (up to 90%) over a wide range of DNA/ceramic ratios (w/w). A phosphate buffer-based (800 mM) enzymatic extraction protocol was developed and its efficacy in terms of reliable DNA extraction and measurement was confirmed with commonly used fluorometric assays, for various ceramic substrates. The proposed buffered DNA extraction technique was validated in a cell-based experiment showing 95% DNA retrieval in a cell seeding experiment, demonstrating a 3.5-fold increase in measured DNA amount as compared to a conventional enzymatic extraction protocol. In conclusion, the proposed phosphate buffer method consistently improves the DNA extraction process assuring unbiased analysis of samples and allowing accurate and sensitive cell number quantification on ceramic containing substrates

MCSTHAR++, a Monte Carlo code for the microcanonical hadronization

MCSTHAR++ is a new Monte Carlo code implementing the Statistical Hadronization Model. This model assumes that hadronization proceeds through the microcanonical decay of massive extended clusters. Unlike other hadronization models, in this approach very few free parameters are needed, as has been demonstrated in previous studies. The tuning of the model and the comparison with the data is ongoing.Comment: 3 pages; To appear in the proceedings of the conference IFAE 2010, Roma, Italy, 7-9 April 201

Compact Model for Multiple Independent Gates Ambipolar Devices

The model presented is a charge-based model that assures the continuity of the current and the analytical derivability of charges to obtain the parasitic capacitances. It has been conceived to support the multiple independent gates, typical of nano-array structures, where each gate controls the charge in the channel. Charge conservation implies constant current in the different section of the multiple gate nanowire FET, making possible the development of a compact model for an arbitrary number of gates. The model has been used to describe different structures (i.e. number of gates, dimension of the single transistor and ranges of applied voltages) under static conditions and the results have been verified on Silvaco TCAD simulations. The modeling approach and the attained results for some cases of study will be presented and discusse