We consider the simple case of a nonrelativistic charged harmonic oscillator in one dimension, to investigate how to take into account the radiation reaction and vacuum fluctuation forces within the Schrödinger equation. The effects of both zero-point and thermal classical electromagnetic vacuum fields, characteristic of stochastic electrodynamics, are separately considered. Our study confirms that the zero-point electromagnetic fluctuations are dynamically related to the momentum operator p=−i ℏ ∂/∂ x used in the Schrödinger equation.

We make a brief review of the Kramers escape rate theory for the probabilistic motion of a particle in a potential well U(x), and under the influence of classical fluctuation forces. The Kramers theory is extended in order to take into account the action of the thermal and zero-point random electromagnetic fields on a charged particle. The result is physically relevant because we get a non-null escape rate over the potential barrier at low temperatures (T → 0). It is found (...) that, even if the mean energy is much smaller than the barrier height, the classical particle can escape from the potential well due to the action of the zero-point fluctuating fields. These stochastic effects can be used to give a classical interpretation to some quantum tunneling phenomena. Relevant experimental data are used to illustrate the theoretical results. (shrink)

This study suggests a new approach to EEG data classification by exploring the idea of using evolutionary computation to both select useful discriminative EEG features and optimise the topology of Artificial Neural Networks. An evolutionary algorithm is applied to select the most informative features from an initial set of 2550 EEG statistical features. Optimisation of a Multilayer Perceptron is performed with an evolutionary approach before classification to estimate the best hyperparameters of the network. Deep learning and tuning with Long Short-Term (...) Memory are also explored, and Adaptive Boosting of the two types of models is tested for each problem. Three experiments are provided for comparison using different classifiers: one for attention state classification, one for emotional sentiment classification, and a third experiment in which the goal is to guess the number a subject is thinking of. The obtained results show that an Adaptive Boosted LSTM can achieve an accuracy of 84.44%, 97.06%, and 9.94% on the attentional, emotional, and number datasets, respectively. An evolutionary-optimised MLP achieves results close to the Adaptive Boosted LSTM for the two first experiments and significantly higher for the number-guessing experiment with an Adaptive Boosted DEvo MLP reaching 31.35%, while being significantly quicker to train and classify. In particular, the accuracy of the nonboosted DEvo MLP was of 79.81%, 96.11%, and 27.07% in the same benchmarks. Two datasets for the experiments were gathered using a Muse EEG headband with four electrodes corresponding to TP9, AF7, AF8, and TP10 locations of the international EEG placement standard. The EEG MindBigData digits dataset was gathered from the TP9, FP1, FP2, and TP10 locations. (shrink)

To formally understand cyclicity in innovation and to tie to Schumpeter’s idea about waves of creative destruction, we elaborate upon Thomas Kuhn’s (1962) hypothesis that science evolves through a succession of paradigm life cycles by noting that entrepreneurs recognize the profitability of new scientific theories through a delay. The delay from innovation to entrepreneurship may be due to technological inertia, the time taken in recognizing the applications of basic research, or related to how quickly technological change evolves over time and (...) its returns are realized. In our model, a profit-maximizing entrepreneur uses the latest scientific knowledge to create innovative technologies, which generates cycles between science and innovation. The necessary conditions for the existence of cycles are that human capital employed in science creation and high valued innovations is high, and the interest rate is low. The findings also tie to the notion about the variability of innovation over the business cycle and can provide useful inputs into the formulation of more effective technology policies. (shrink)

The religiosity of academics has been studied for over a decade. With few exceptions, this research has been conducted on American “elite” scientists, and data from non-Western countries is lacking. Drawing from psychological and sociological literature, the present exploratory study investigates the religiosity of Turkish academics and their perceptions on the relationship between religion and science, and associated variables such as interpretation of the Quran, and belief in evolution and creationism. Moreover, we address criticism directed at previous research by probing (...) for different God concepts among believing academics. Although cultural differences can be identified, the results generally support the idea that academics are less religious with 54% identifying as “less religious” or “not religious,” compared to 24.2% self-identifying as “religious” or “extremely religious.”. (shrink)

The Weatherall Report claims that research on non-human primates is permitted and morally required. The argument rests on the following thought experiment: > The hospital fire : A hospital is on fire. Some of the residents are humans and others are non-human animals. You can only save one group. What do you do? Some people have the intuition that we should rescue the humans. According to the report, if we accept that human lives have priority over non-human lives in this (...) case, consistency requires us to support the use of non-human animals in research. This is because both cases are about saving human lives at the expense of the lives of non-human animals. Two critical replies appeared in the literature, by E J Moore1 and Muireann Quigley.2 In a recent paper3 Gardar Arnason claims that such objections fail. I will argue, however, that his assessment is unconvincing. The first objection pressed by Moore is that there are fundamental disanalogies between The hospital fire and biomedical research. In that scenario we face a life-or-death emergency situation whereas in biomedical research we do not. In such situations it may be justified to prioritise those closest to us (eg, species …. (shrink)

Based on the hypothesis that modified human beings will have successful life projects, the biopolitical presuppositions of genetic manipulation in modern society are reflected. Considering the theories presented by Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas, Michael J. Sandel, Hans Jonas and Achille Mbembe, a genetic Africanization of the economically disadvantaged population is identified. In this scenario, concepts of class and race are confused and social prejudice increases. Faced with the new technologies of genetic engineering, gene manipulation presents itself as a new face (...) of biopower, since science now has the power to give life from the selection of characteristics considered superior. It is argued that the criticism surrounding the process of genetic manipulation is necessary as it opens the possibility of debating mutual recognition as a condition of life, above the identification of race or class, geographic location or other characteristics of the individuals that make up society. (shrink)

RESUMEN Se discuten las nociones de filosofía y espiritualidad, tratadas por M. Foucault en La hermenéutica del sujeto, que relacionan el sujeto con la verdad. Si la filosofía del conócete a ti mismo trata la relación cognoscitiva del sujeto con la verdad a la que tiene derecho, entonces la espiritualidad del cuidado de sí trata de la transformación experiencial que requiere la verdad para que el sujeto acceda a ella. Este es el contexto en el que M. Foucault se refiere (...) a M. Heidegger y J. Lacan como los autores que pensaron la relación entre el sujeto y la verdad. Se discute en ambos casos la distinción entre la filosofía y la espiritualidad: en Lacan, porque la experiencia psicoanalítica aparece como vivencia espiritual del cuidado de sí; en Heidegger, porque el Dasein y la verdad como desocultamiento muestran la filosofía como actividad espiritual por excelencia. ABSTRACT The article discusses the notions of philosophy and spirituality relating the subject to truth, as dealt with by M. Foucault in The Hermeneutics of the Subject. While the philosophy of “know thyself” deals with the cognitive relation of subjects to the truth they have a right to, the spirituality of the care of the self has to do with the experiential transformation necessary for subjects to have access to truth. It is in this context that M. Foucault refers to M. Heidegger and J. Lacan as authors who thought the relation between subject and truth. In both cases, the distinction between philosophy and spirituality is discussed: in the case of Lacan, because the psychoanalytical experience appears as a spiritual experience of the care of the self, and in that of Heidegger, because Dasein and truth as unveiling reveal philosophy to be a spiritual experience par excellence. (shrink)

La parole est l'entre-deux qui sépare et unit moi et le monde, moi et toi, moi et moi-même. On se demande quelle est la relation entre moi et ma parole, si la parole découle de l'essence même de mon être. Une analyse phénoménologique, qui partirait du dialogue comme d'un donné indubitable, ne suffit pas tout à fait, puisqu'il il s'agit d'un sens éventuel du dialogue pour le tout de mon être. Il faut donc aborder la question d'un point de vue (...) d'où le dialogue lui-même est mis en suspens. Commençons par l'indubitable absolu : l'être. Il y a quelque chose, quoi que ce soit, il y a au moins la question même de l'être. Mais cette question qui se met elle-même en question, se sait être. Et qu'est cela sinon moi-même, pas encore opposé, il est vrai, à toi, à lui, à nous ? Pourtant je ne suis pas l'être ; il y a en moi une dualité entre essence et être, et une dualité entre être et penser. Je sais que je suis, je cherche encore qui je suis. Eh bien, je suis « ici et maintenant » , c. à. d. je suis dans un ordre spatio-temporel, par mon corps, qui est donc ce qui m'exprime à moi-même, ma parole. Mais mon corps est originellement en commerce avec les êtres du monde, et j'ai le sentiment de cette situation par la perception et le comportement. En révélant le sens des êtres du monde, en leur donnant des noms de mon point de vue, je me nomme moi-même. En revenant sur la voie parcourue jusqu'ici, l'article démontre que ce n'est pas seulement mon monde que je nomme. Le « moi » de la certitude absolue est un « nous » pas encore détaillé. Et à l'intérieur de ce « nous » jaillit, par ta foi en moi, l'opposition communicative entre moi et toi, que j'expérimente surtout dans la corrélation de la voix et de l'ouïe. La parole fonde la communauté, puisqu'en exprimant mon être elle s'adresse à vous, et manifeste ainsi mon être comme « être-avec » . L'être même est infini, et donc communicabilité pure, et donc parole. Mais notre parole humaine n'est que participation déficiente de la communication immédiate qui serait l'identité de l'être, le connaître et l'aimer. Elle reste moyen, et donc succédané de l'immédiat, et donc ambigue. Notre dialogue doit se transcender dans l'inexprimable, dans le silence. La parole essentielle, la parole de l'amour, est pour les hommes la parole la plus dangereuse et la plus incertaine. Elle ne se prouve que par la fidélité. Mais tout ce que nous disons et faisons est destiné à devenir l'incarnation de cette parole. (shrink)

Rationale, aims and objectives To compare the pharmacotherapeutic approaches to diabetic hypertension of family physicians (FPs) and general practitioners (GPs). Methods A retrospective prescription-based study was conducted in 15 out of a total of 20 health centres, involving 115 primary care physicians – 77 FPs and 38 GPs, representing 74% of the primary care physicians of Bahrain. Prescriptions were collected during May and June 2000 to comprise a study population of 1266 diabetic-hypertensive patients. Results As monotherapy, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (...) (37.9%) and β-blockers (38.3%) were the most commonly prescribed classes of antihypertensives by FPs and GPs, respectively. Calcium channel blockers (CCBs) were ranked third by both categories of physicians. For two-drug combinations, a β-blocker and an ACE inhibitor was the combination of choice for both physician categories. Patients managed by the FPs were more likely to receive a β-blocker–CCB combination (17.4 vs. 14.9%) or a diuretic–ACE inhibitor combination (16.7 vs. 11.4%) and less likely to receive a β-blocker–diuretic combination (11.8 vs. 16.7%) than those managed by the GPs. The proportion of patients receiving antihypertensive combinations was 40.6 and 38.5% for FPs and GPs, respectively. While the GPs prescribed CCB as a monotherapy to the elderly most often, the FPs choice was a β-blocker. Diuretics were less preferred by both FPs and GPs. β-Blocker–ACE inhibitor was again the most preferred combination of both FPs and GPs. FPs prescribed CCB–β-blocker combinations more often than GPs (P = 0.01), whereas CCB–ACE inhibitor combinations were less preferred (P = 0.09). A trend towards excessive use of short-acting nifedipine as monotherapy for elderly patients, both by FPs and by GPs, was noticed. Glibenclamide, alone or in combination with metformin, was the foremost antidiabetic drug prescribed by FPs and GPs. Middle-aged (45–64 years) patients seen by GPs were more likely to receive glibenclamide than those treated by FPs (P = 0.001) and less likely to receive gliclazide (P = 0.01). Combinations of a β-blocker with either glibenclamide or insulin were prescribed considerably more often by GPs.Conclusions Within the same practice setting, a substantial difference was observed between FPs and GPs in terms of preference for different classes of drugs in the management of diabetic hypertension. The compliance of both FPs and GPs was suboptimal; overall, the compliance of the FPs was closer to the recommended guidelines, however. Educational programmes should specifically address these inadequacies in order to improve the quality of health care. (shrink)

This paper reports the introduction of electronic handsets, like those used on the television show 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' into the teaching of philosophical logic. Logic lectures can provide quite a formidable challenge for many students, occasionally to the point of making them ill. Our rationale for introducing handsets was threefold: to get the students thinking and talking about the subject in a public environment; to make them feel secure enough to answer questions in the lectures because the (...) system enabled them to do this anonymously; and to build their confidence about their learning by their being able to see how they were progressing in relation to the rest of the students in the class. We have achieved all of these and more. Our experience has revealed that the use of handsets encourages a more dynamic form of student interaction in an environment - the lecture - that can, in the wrong hands, be utterly enervating, but they also provide an opportunity for the lecturer to respond to students' difficulties at the time when they really matter. In this paper, we discuss our case of rapid adoption, our grounds for judging it a success, and what that success seems to have depended on. (shrink)

This is the first full discussion of Philoponus' account of matter.

Was die Frage nach der Funktion der Sprache im Erkenntnisprozeß betrifft, haben wir zuerst die verschiedenen Theorien dargestellt. Nach einer Reihe alleinstehender Personen wie Derbolav, Bühler, Jost, Glinz behandeln wir die Strömungen der symbolischen Logik und der linguistic analysis. Die symbolische Logik will das Denken in einer logischen Modellsprache analysieren. Die linguistic Analysis betrachtet die gewöhnliche Umgangssprache als Trägerin des Denkens und will, daß alle Philosophen und Wissenschaftler sich in dieser gewöhnlichen Umgangssprache ausdrücken, die bei guter Analyse für jeden intelligenten (...) Menschen verständlich ist. Die Strömungen der Phänomenologie und des Existentialismus äußern die Erfahrung, daß der Mensch seine Existenz ganz in einer sprechenden Welt erfährt und daß sich seine Existenz in der Sprache vollzieht : die Sprache ist das Haus seines Daseins. Keine Sache kann in unserem Bewußtsein zur Existenz gelangen, wenn wir sie nicht zu Wort bringen können. Die Ethnolinguisten und Psycholinguisten sind zu dem Ergebnis gekommen, daß die Formen, in denen ein Mensch jeweils denkt, von den unerbittlichen und unentrinnbaren Strukturen der Wörter mit ihren Bedeutungen und den Strukturen der Wortkombinationen kontrolliert werden. Diese Strukturen sind die Strukturen der jeweiligen Muttersprache. Das Denken eines Menschen vollzieht sich in seiner Sprache. Die Strukturen der Sprache liefern die Modelle für das Denken, für die Analyse der Eindrücke. Unser ganzes Denken bewegt sich in einer denkerisch-sprachigen Welt. Jedes Denken muß sich in Sprachstrukturen kanalisieren lassen. Die Sprache ist das formgebende Organ des Denkens. Die Denkanalyse vollzieht sich in Sprache. In einem bestimmten Augenblick der Entwicklung des Kindes begegnen sich Sprache und Denken ; dann wird das Denken „sprachig” und das Sprechen „denkerisch”. Von nun an werden die meisten Reize der physischen Welt durch ein sprachiges zweites Reizsystem gefiltert ; die Reize werden „in Sprache übersetzt”. Dieser Sprachfilter ist auch in der Analyse nach der dynamischen Erfassung der Reize vorhanden. Diese Daten aus den Theorien der Linguistic Analysis, der Phänomenologie, des Existentialismus, der Ethnolinguistik und Psycholinguistik kann man in direkte Verbindung bringen mit der neoklassischien Theorie, die über ein Erfassen von Erkenntnis-Daten in einer Intuition spricht, die implizit die Möglichkeit zu einem Explizitieren und Analysieren enthält. Somit kommen wir zu folgendem Schema : Reize, sprachiger Empfangsapparat ↓ Erfassung der Reize, Konzeption, Sicht ↓ Denk-Sprachanalyse ↓ Die phonische Äußerung der Denk-Sprachanalyse. Zum Schluß geben wir noch ein Beispiel für eine Kons ta tierungs-Sicht, Ihre Denk-Sprachanalyse und die phonische Äußerung ihrer Denk-Sparchanalyse. (shrink)

Visual cultures are being increasingly discussed in the history of science literature, although relatively very little of that work concerns the nuclear age. In addition, within the discrete yet bourgeoning literature on global nuclear art and culture, Oceania is often overlooked despite its central role in the development of the American, British, and French nuclear weapon capabilities, as well as their associated colonial legacies. This article serves to redress both concerns by examining the visual politics of Maralinga in relation to (...) settler-colonial and Aboriginal experiences, vulnerabilities and presentations. I do so by surveying artworks with a connection to the Australian experience of nuclear colonialism and find that the figure of biological life has been conspicuously left absent from contemporary non-Indigenous Australian depictions of British nuclear testing in Australia. (shrink)

There has been no major critical edition of Velleius with commentary since that of Kritz in 1840. Kritz, who took into account Sauppe's long essay on Velleius of three years earlier, was preceded by Ruhnken, whose commentary appeared in 1779. During the century which followed Kritz's work several valuable editions without commentary were produced, the last of which, by Stegmann de Pritzwald , almost coincided with the essay and bibliography devoted to Velleius in Schanz-Hosius . These two contributions of the (...) thirties remain standard to the present day. (shrink)

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We prove linear and polynomial growth properties of sets and functions that are existentially definable in the ordered group of integers with divisibility. We determine the laws of addition with order and divisibility.