Just do it? When to do what you judge you ought to do

While it is generally believed that justification is a fallible guide to the truth, there might be interesting exceptions to this general rule. In recent work on bridge-principles, an increasing number of authors have argued that truths about what a subject ought to do are truths we stand in some privileged epistemic relation to and that our justified normative beliefs are beliefs that will not lead us astray. If these bridge-principles hold, it suggests that justification might play an interesting role in our normative theories. In turn, this might help us understand the value of justification, a value that's notoriously difficult to understand if we think of justification as but a fallible means to a desired end. We will argue that these bridge-principles will be incredibly difficult to defend. While we do not think that normative facts necessarily stand in any interesting relationship to our justified beliefs about them, there might well be a way of defending the idea that our justified beliefs about what to do won't lead us astray. In turn, this might help us understand the value of justification, but this way of thinking about justification and its value comes with costs few would be willing to pay

Flow-Based Network Analysis of the Caenorhabditis elegans Connectome

We exploit flow propagation on the directed neuronal network of the nematode C. elegans to reveal dynamically relevant features of its connectome. We find flow-based groupings of neurons at different levels of granularity, which we relate to functional and anatomical constituents of its nervous system. A systematic in silico evaluation of the full set of single and double neuron ablations is used to identify deletions that induce the most severe disruptions of the multi-resolution flow structure. Such ablations are linked to functionally relevant neurons, and suggest potential candidates for further in vivo investigation. In addition, we use the directional patterns of incoming and outgoing network flows at all scales to identify flow profiles for the neurons in the connectome, without pre-imposing a priori categories. The four flow roles identified are linked to signal propagation motivated by biological input-response scenarios

Lane nucleation in complex active flows

Experimental data from human crowd experiments on lane nucleation, including processed videos, extracted trajectories, as well as data processing code. Code and high-level processed results of agent-based simulations of active binary flows, including hard sphere model, and data-driven model.All methodology information can be found in the main article, and accompanying Supplemental Materials

Incorporating Green Chemistry Principles in Heterogeneous Catalysis Operations

Many commercial processes for the production of chemicals involve harsh organic solvents as well as numerous by-products that are detrimental to the environment. For many years it was common practice to implement a process in manufacturing, without consideration of the environmental impact, simply because the process worked. The twelve principles of green chemistry, which are widely accepted by the scientific community, present an ideology for addressing these environmental concerns. The twelve principles include several important topics such as the incorporation of benign solvents, solvent-free processes, highly selective catalysts, waste reduction and prevention, and the design of less energy-intensive chemical processes. The focus of this dissertation involved the substitution of harsh organic solvents with more environmentally benign solvents, the development and use of more selective catalysts for an environmental application, the development of a more atom-efficient synthetic approach for the production of commodity chemicals, and the synthesis of petrochemicals from a renewable feedstock

Lane nucleation in complex active flows

Laning is a paradigmatic example of spontaneous organization in active two-component flows that has been observed in diverse contexts, including pedestrian traffic, driven colloids, complex plasmas, and molecular transport. We introduce a kinetic theory that elucidates the physical origins of laning and quantifies the propensity for lane nucleation in a given physical system. Our theory is valid in the low-density regime, and it makes different predictions about situations in which lanes may form that are not parallel with the direction of flow. We report on experiments with human crowds that verify two notable consequences of this phenomenon: tilting lanes under broken chiral symmetry and lane nucleation along elliptic, parabolic, and hyperbolic curves in the presence of sources or sinks.</p

CLASSIC Clinical Trial: A Methods Study in Unexplained Back Pain

Axial spondyloarthritis (AxSpA) is a type of inflammatory arthritis that primarily affects the spine including the sacroiliac (SI) joint located at the base of the spine. Over a lifetime, the AxSpA can lead to the fusion of the vertebrae and crippling effects on quality of life. This condition is subdivided into two forms: ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and non- radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA). While AS is usually diagnosed using X-ray images that show irreversible bone damage, nr- AxSpA is more difficult to diagnose. In both cases, early detection of disease will best prevent disease progression and preserve quality of life. An additional form of imaging, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), has been valuable in developing more effective AxSpA classification criteria by allowing earlier identification of inflammation within the spine. However, the classification criteria remain under scrutiny due to the lack of specificity in biological markers and physical examinations. The Classification of Axial Spondyloarthritis Inception Cohort (CLASSIC) study aims to validate the performance of the current classification criteria in a prospective cohort of patients presenting to rheumatologists with low back pain. The study achieves these goals by assessing individual subjects in a step-wise manner that blinds the site primary investigator (PI) to the subject’s information.https://collected.jcu.edu/celebration_2022/1009/thumbnail.jp

If Consent is Bought, It Is Not Freely Chosen : Compromised Consent in Prostituted Sex in Ireland

This article offers feminist arguments for the reconsideration of consent as a legal concept, informed by insights gained through the work of the #MeToo movement and other feminist campaigns. It suggests that consent may be seen as legally compromised in certain contexts of structured gender inequality, such as domestic violence, workplace sexual harassment, and prostitution. The legal understanding of consent in such contexts is antithetical to the conception of consent as “freely and voluntarily” given within a mutual sexual relationship. This understanding of consent underpins the recent introduction of the Nordic model approach into Irish law through the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, which criminalizes the purchase of sexual services; an approach which has been subject to criticism from those who assert that laws criminalizing sex purchase offend against personal autonomy. It is argued here that a reappraisal of consent as capable of being legally compromised in certain contexts can justify the introduction of laws like the 2017 Irish reform from a feminist perspective

Investigating differing degrees of FoxO3a expression in adult neural stem cells between age groups in zebrafish

One factor influencing organismal longevity is the activity of transcription factors of the “fork head domain” family, otherwise known as “Forkhead box” (Fox) proteins. Studies of the four isoforms of the “O” subclass of Fox proteins found in human genes have revealed a direct relationship between FoxO3a-dependent gene expression and the conservation of neural stem cell (NSC) in the adult brain, specifically in the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus in the hippocampus and the subventricular zone of the cortex. This transcription factor has also been shown to regulate apoptosis in nervous tissue during embryonic development in zebrafish. The current study aimed to investigate the differences in FoxO3a expression in adult zebrafish across two different age groups. The primary hypothesis of this study was that a significant positive correlation would be found between expression of FoxO3a in the medial pallium of the brain and progressive organismal aging. Tissue samples from the MP of one- and two-year-old zebrafish were dissected and cDNA was isolated for analyses via qPCR and Western Blot. The resulting data showed no significant difference in FoxO3a expression between younger and older fish

Blowin’ in the Wind Same as Flowing in H ₂ O

A new model unifies the descriptions of sand transport by wind and water, a result that could lead to a better understanding of the movements of sediments on the surfaces of planets