Relations occur on all levels of systems. Following a major assumption of generalized quantum theory, namely that the principles of quantum mechanics will occur on higher system levels as well, it was investigated in an a posteriori analysis of pre-existing data whether relational patterns found for two-photon experiments are similarly performed by two cell-populations. In particular, the typical pattern in outcomes of two-photon entanglement experiments was extrapolated to discover similar patterns of relationships in the cellular biological system of the Ciliate (...) Paramecium caudatum. In the former case we find one photon assuming a particular state when being measured and the other assuming a correlated state with regard to the first particle. From a perspective of degrees of freedom (df) the author interprets this outcome as follows: Each particle has only one df for assuming a particular state (e.g. its spin). When measured this is leading to a pattern: They use their two degrees of freedom for establishing a relation among them (particle-to-particle) and for a relation with the environment (particle-to-measurement). If this pattern is unique then we should find it also in cell-to-cell relationships. It was suggested to consider causations in cell-to-cell relations as the analogue to the relationship between the quantum particles (see above) and the dependence of repeating the experiments as the analogue to the measurement event in the quantum experiment. It was hypothesized that in a relational system of two cell populations only one should be sensitive to the repetition of the experiment. The other population, however, should establish a relation with the first one. Since the author had successfully performed experiments with pairs of cell populations that were separated with glass barriers from each other but having effects on each other (Fels in PLoS One 4:e5086, 2009), the system was perfectly well suited for testing the hypothesis. The assessed cell variable was cell division. An a posteriori analysis of three similar experiments confirmed that when populations were in a relation with each other, only one of them stood in relation with the repetition of the experiment. (shrink)

The human masticatory system is a complex functional unit characterized by a multitude of skeletal components, muscles, soft tissues, and teeth. Muscle activation dynamics cannot be directly measured on live human subjects due to ethical, safety, and accessibility limitations. Therefore, estimation of muscle activations and their resultant forces is a longstanding and active area of research. Reinforcement learning (RL) is an adaptive learning strategy which is inspired by the behavioral psychology and enables an agent to learn the dynamics of an (...) unknown system via policy-driven explorations. The RL framework is a well-formulated closed-loop system where high capacity neural networks are trained with the feedback mechanism of rewards to learn relatively complex actuation patterns. In this work, we are building on a deep RL algorithm, known as the Soft Actor-Critic, to learn the inverse dynamics of a simulated masticatory system, i.e., learn the activation patterns that drive the jaw to its desired location. The outcome of the proposed training procedure is a parametric neural model which acts as the brain of the biomechanical system. We demonstrate the model’s ability to navigate the feasible three-dimensional (3D) envelope of motion with sub-millimeter accuracies. We also introduce a performance analysis platform consisting of a set of quantitative metrics to assess the functionalities of a given simulated masticatory system. This platform assesses the range of motion, metabolic efficiency, the agility of motion, the symmetry of activations, and the accuracy of reaching the desired target positions. We demonstrate how the model learns more metabolically efficient policies by integrating a force regularization term in the RL reward. We also demonstrate the inverse correlation between the metabolic efficiency of the models and their agility and range of motion. The presented masticatory model and the proposed RL training mechanism are valuable tools for the analysis of mastication and other biomechanical systems. We see this framework’s potential in facilitating the functional analyses aspects of surgical treatment planning and predicting the rehabilitation performance in post-operative subjects. (shrink)

The career of the American photographer Carleton E. Watkins spanned more than fifty years. It is his giant photographs of Yosemite, from the "best general view," that most effectively articulate his artistic vision. The J. Paul Getty Museum holds more than fourteen hundred pictures by Watkins, making him the best-represented nineteenth-century photographer in the collection. In Focus: Carleton Watkins features approximately fifty of these works, including mammoth plates, stereographs, albumen prints, and cabinet and boudoir cards. The plates are accompanied by (...) commentaries written by Peter E. Palmquist, an independent scholar of the history of photography. Mr. Palmquist, along with David Featherstone, Tom Fels, Weston Naef, David Robertson, and Amy Rule, were participants in a 1996 colloquium on Watkins and his career. An edited transcript of their discussion and a chronological overview of Watkins's life and art follow the plate section. (shrink)

Az etika és esztétika tükrében tűnnek fel a korunkra jellemző társadalmi és kulturális jelenségek, hálózatok és diskurzusok, olvasva Márfai Molnár László - ahogy ő nevezi - alkalmazott filozófiai írásait. Az összeállításban összesen tizenegy esszé kapott helyet. Az első (Kockázati tőke és kreativitás) azt az ellentmondást elemzi, amely a tudás vélt időtlensége, stabilitása és a valóság múlékonysága között feszül. A folytatásban a szerző kísérletet tesz az elmúlt időszak új kommunikációs modelljének a továbbgondolására; vizsgálja a virtuális hálózatok társadalomra, lokális tudásra és "offline" (...) intézményekre gyakorolt hatását; kifejti meglátásait azokról az új antropológiai modellekről, amelyek hatási kimutatható a kortárs pedagógiában; illetve a korunkban radikálisan megváltozott fogyasztásfogalom lehetséges következményeit, ennek etikai vonatkozásait gondolja át. A kötet második felében olyanokról esik szó, mint az internethasználó és hálózati közösségek etikájának eredete, önálló értékrendjének kialakulása; az internetes bolhapiac sajátosságai, jellemzői; Marcel Duchamp tevékenységének újraértelmezése néhány kortársi elmélet segítségével; a "gender studies" világszerte érvényesülő tényezővé válásának a következményei; Simone Weil filozófiáján belül a modernség demokráciaelméletének és személyiségfogalmának "misztikus-anarchista" kritikája; valamint a túlélés és megértés antropológiai összefüggései. A kiadvány felsőoktatási és szakgyűjtemények anyaga. (shrink)

A fura cím (Művészet mindenek dacára) a tanulmánykötet utolsó írásának címe, egyetlen írásjelnyi (?) különbséggel. A szerző, Gálosi Adrienne esztéta ez utóbbit írta meg először. Közreadott esszéi, tanulmányai a művészet egyre nehezebben tisztázható fogalma köré szerveződnek, vizsgálva a hol fogalmi, hol intézményes kilépés eseteit a hagyományos keretekből. Könyvében általában ilyen határhelyzeteket boncolgat, megállapítva, hogy éppen a határok kitolódása, az új formák megjelenése demonstrálja a művészet szakadatlan mozgását. „Amióta a szépség csak lehetősége, de egyáltalán nem feltétele a műalkotásnak, mióta az esztétikai (...) funkciókat nagyon sikeresen veszik át az élet más területei, mióta inkább illik a műalkotásokat összetett, érdekes tárgyaknak és nem emancipáló gépezeteknek tekinteni, azóta nem szívesen teszi fel nyíltan az ember a kérdést, hogy mire is való a műalkotás, azon túl, hogy ül a fenekén a múzeumban - ahogy Claes Oldenburg mondta... Azt remélem, hogy az e könyvben burkoltan megjelenők között is talál olyat az olvasó, amely a művészet felé vonzza - mindenek dacára” - írja előszavában a pécsi egyetem tanára. A művészet határaira vonatkozó kérdés mellett tehát egy rejtettebb problémát is felvet a szerző a művészet funkciójáról. A szakkönyvtárakba ajánlható kötetet bőséges jegyzetanyag és bibliográfia kíséri. "www.kello.hu © minden jog fenntartva". (shrink)

Contents Include: The Early Life of Socrates - The Later Life of Socrates: His Trial and Death - The Thought of Socrates.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Ideas 62.3 (2001) 505-522 [Access article in PDF] Mary Astell's Ironic Assault on John Locke's Theory of Thinking Matter E. Derek Taylor Mary Astell (1666-1731), most famous today for her call for the establishment of Protestant nunneries in Serious Proposal to the Ladies, Part I (1694) and for her acute Reflections Upon Marriage (1700), has lurked for years at the edges of that infinitely (...) contentious category "feminism," but she is only now beginning to receive her rightful inheritance as a theological and philosophical thinker, probably the title she would most have preferred. 1 This is not to say that Astell's Christian-Platonism has been ignored. In her 1986 biography Ruth Perry gave cogent expression to the centrality of Astell's idealist Christianity to all aspects of her thought 2 and in the same year, Bridget Hill thoughtfully warned her readers against attempting to force Astell, a religious conservative, "into some preconceived idea of what late seventeenth and early eighteenth century feminism ought to have been." 3 More recently, Patricia Springborg has written two significant essays that rely in part on Astell's more neglected theological-philosophical works, Letters concerning the Love of God (1695), a collection of Astell's correspondence with John Norris of Bemerton (1657-1711), and The Christian Religion, As Professed by a Daughter of the Church of England (1705; 3d edition 1730), far and away her most developed theological-philosophical [End Page 505] statement. 4 Despite these important forays, however, both Letters and Christian Religion continue to be largely ignored, as is suggested by the relative dearth of scholarly work on either text and the short shrift each receives in anthologies of Astell's works. 5 Despite the great popularity of Letters throughout the eighteenth century and despite the fact that, as Springborg points out, Astell considered Christian Religion "her magnum opus," neither text has found new life in a modern edition. 6This omission creates a rather vexing problem for would-be scholars of Astell's philosophical and theological ideas. The major primary texts themselves not being available, we have little choice but to rely on the limited accounts of other scholars for our information. Over a decade ago, for instance, The Journal of the History of Philosophy published a long note by Kathleen M. Squadrito on "Mary Astell's Critique of John Locke's View of Thinking Matter," and hers has since been the standard (if not quite only) account of this historically fascinating and important philosophical comment in Christian Religion.7 Squadrito wants, she writes, to "present a short account of [Astell's] work and her criticism of Locke's view of thinking matter." 8 Unfortunately, Squadrito's account of Astell's "work" is significantly flawed, which leads her to serious mischaracterizations of Astell's "criticism" of Locke's hypothesis. Briefly put, Astell's "own philosophy" in Christian Religion does not, as Squadrito claims, emerge "as an attempted reconciliation of the views of Norris and Locke" 9 ; because she supposes it does, however, Squadrito is able to present Astell's critique of Locke's theory [End Page 506] of thinking matter as a respectful, even-handed philosophical analysis, a theoretical bridge, as it were, between the Platonism of Norris and the Empiricism of Locke. As we shall see, Astell's critique of Locke's hypothesis actually amounts to a bitterly ironic assault, wherein Astell does not so much build bridges as burn them. Just why Astell in Christian Religion decided not to strike a middling position between Locke and Norris, and how this decision invigorated her attack on Locke's materialist hypothesis, are the primary questions this essay seeks to answer. In order to arrive at such answers, however, it is necessary first to examine the text in which Astell does attempt to carve out a position between Locke and Norris, namely Astell and Norris's Letters.The basic history of Letters is well enough understood. Mary Astell, a well-read young woman of significant perspicacity, first wrote in... (shrink)

Vom urmări o rețea de texte de toate felurile... care ilustrează cultura autenticității răspândită în rândul 'tinerelor generații' din Europa, în primele decenii ale secolului trecut. Locul lor geometric e obsesia redefinirii sinelui, iar discursurile autorilor români (printre care Eliade, Cioran, Holban, Eugen Ionescu, Nae Ionescu, Camil Petrescu, Sebastian, Vulcănescu) nu fac excepție. Atunci când vorbesc despre autenticitate, ei au în vedere identitatea, din perspectivă narativă, psihologică, etnică sau politică, la fel ca scriitoriii occidentali de la care au importat setul (...) de ideologeme"--Ștefan Firică, back cover flap. (shrink)

Decisions related to animal welfare standards depend on farmer’s multiple goals and values and are constrained by a wide range of external and internal forces. The aim of this paper is twofold, i.e., to develop a theoretical framework for farmers’ AW decisions that incorporates farmers’ goals, use and non-use values and to present an approach to empirically implement the theoretical framework. The farmer as a head of the farm household makes choices regarding production to maximize the utility of the household. (...) The overall utility of the farmer is determined by his multiple objectives. For the analysis of multi-objective problems, the multiple criteria decision - making paradigm provides an appropriate theoretical framework. However, theories from the field of social-psychology are needed to facilitate the identification of all relevant aspects in the decision making. The practical use of the conceptual framework is demonstrated using a simple numerical application of a multi-objective programming model. Two workshops were devoted to examining the scientific consistency and the practical usefulness of the approach. Implementing this approach will increase knowledge of the main factors and barriers that determine farmers’ decisions with regard to AW standards. This knowledge is relevant during the development of new AW concepts that aims to supply products that comply with above-legal AW standards for middle-market segments. (shrink)