Variedades do naturalismo moral

The present text aims to make an examination of the varieties of moral naturalism, and for this it will examine some anti-naturalist and anti-realist arguments. It will also argue that existent theories can be considered on two dimensions, the metaphysical and epistemological dimension, and the dimension of motivation and normativity. In the first dimension, there is non-reductive naturalism and reductive naturalism of the non-analytic variety. Turning to the second dimension, the dimension of normativity and moral motivation, we find internalist naturalism, simple externalist naturalism and externalist naturalism with the standard-based account of normativity. At the end, the text will say something in favor of moral realism and to a kind of naturalism in specific. Key words: moral naturalism, normativity, moral realism, moral non-realism.O presente texto pretende fazer um exame das variedades de naturalismo moral, e para isso examinará alguns argumentos anti-naturalistas e anti-realistas. Irá também arguir que teorias existentes podem ser consideradas em duas dimensões, a dimensão metafísica e epistemológica e a dimensão da motivação e da normatividade. Na primeira dimensão está o naturalismo não redutivo e naturalismo redutivo da variedade não analítica. Quanto à segunda dimensão, a dimensão da normatividade e da motivação moral, encontramos o naturalismo internalista, o naturalismo externalista simples e naturalismo externalista com o tratamento padrão da normatividade. Ao final, o texto dirá algumas palavras em favor do realismo moral e de um tipo de naturalismo em específico. Palavras-chave: naturalismo moral, normatividade, realismo moral, antirealismo moral

Simultaneous Nonlinear Model Predictive Control and State Estimation: Theory and Applications

As computational power increases, online optimization is becoming a ubiquitous approach for solving control and estimation problems in both academia and industry. This widespread popularity of online optimization techniques is largely due to their abilities to solve complex problems in real time and to explicitly accommodate hard constraints. In this dissertation, we discuss an especially popular online optimization control technique called model predictive control (MPC). Specifically, we present a novel output-feedback approach to nonlinear MPC, which combines the problems of state estimation and control into a single min-max optimization. In this way, the control and estimation problems are solved simultaneously providing an output-feedback controller that is robust to worst-case system disturbances and noise. This min-max optimization is subject to the nonlinear system dynamics as well as constraints that come from practical considerations such as actuator limits. Furthermore, we introduce a novel primal-dual interior-point method that can be used to efficiently solve the min-max optimization problem numerically and present several examples showing that the method succeeds even for severely nonlinear and non-convex problems. Unlike other output-feedback nonlinear optimal control approaches that solve the estimation and control problems separately, this combined estimation and control approach facilitates straightforward analysis of the resulting constrained, nonlinear, closed-loop system and yields improved performance over other standard approaches. Under appropriate assumptions that encode controllability and observability of the nonlinear process to be controlled, we show that this approach ensures that the state of the closed-loop system remains bounded. Finally, we investigate the use of this approach in several applications including the coordination of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles for vision-based target tracking of a moving ground vehicle and feedback control of an artificial pancreas system for the treatment of Type 1 Diabetes. We discuss why this novel combined control and estimation approach is especially beneficial for these applications and show promising simulation results for the eventual implementation of this approach in real-life scenarios

The effects of dietary fish oil on exercising skeletal muscle vascular and metabolic control in chronic heart failure rats

The ATP-sensitive K+ (KATP) channel is a class of inward rectifier K+ channels that can link cellular metabolic status to vasomotor tone across the metabolic transients seen with exercise. This investigation tested the hypothesis that if KATP channels are crucial to exercise hyperaemia then blockade via glibenclamide (GLI) would lower hindlimb skeletal muscle blood flow (BF) and vascular conductance (VC) during treadmill exercise. In 14 adult male Sprague Dawley rats mean arterial pressure (MAP), blood [lactate], and hindlimb muscle BF (radiolabelled microspheres) were determined at rest (n = 6) or during exercise (n = 8; 20 m min⁻¹, 5% incline) under control (CON) and GLI conditions (5 mg kg⁻¹, i.a). At rest and during exercise, MAP was higher (Rest, CON: 130 ± 6, GLI: 152 ± 8; Exercise, CON: 140 ± 4, GLI: 147 ± 4 mmHg, P < 0.05) and heart rate (HR) was lower (Rest, CON: 440 ± 16, GLI: 410 ± 18; Exercise, CON: 560 ± 4, GLI: 540 ± 10 beats min⁻¹, P < 0.05) with GLI. Hindlimb muscle BF (CON: 144 ± 10, GLI: 120 ± 9 ml min⁻¹ (100 g)⁻¹, P < 0.05) and VC were lower with GLI during exercise but not at rest. Specifically, GLI decreased BF in 12, and VC in 16, of the 28 individual hindlimb muscles and muscle parts sampled during exercise with a greater fractional reduction present in muscles comprised predominantly of type I and type IIa fibres (P < 0.05). Additionally, blood [lactate] (CON: 2.0 ± 0.3; GLI: 4.1 ± 0.9 mmol L⁻¹, P < 0.05) was higher during exercise with GLI. That KATP channel blockade reduces hindlimb muscle BF during exercise in rats supports the obligatory contribution of KATP channels in large muscle mass exercise-induced hyperaemia

A Review of the Tools Used for Marine Monitoring in the UK: Combining Historic and Contemporary Methods with Modeling and Socioeconomics to Fulfill Legislative Needs and Scientific Ambitions

Marine environmental monitoring is undertaken to provide evidence that environmental management targets are being met. Moreover, monitoring also provides context to marine science and over the last century has allowed development of a critical scientific understanding of the marine environment and the impacts that humans are having on it. The seas around the UK are currently monitored by targeted, impact-driven, programmes (e.g., fishery or pollution based monitoring) often using traditional techniques, many of which have not changed significantly since the early 1900s. The advent of a new wave of automated technology, in combination with changing political and economic circumstances, means that there is currently a strong drive to move toward a more refined, efficient, and effective way of monitoring. We describe the policy and scientific rationale for monitoring our seas, alongside a comprehensive description of the types of equipment and methodology currently used and the technologies that are likely to be used in the future. We contextualize the way new technologies and methodologies may impact monitoring and discuss how whole ecosystems models can give an integrated, comprehensive approach to impact assessment. Furthermore, we discuss how an understanding of the value of each data point is crucial to assess the true costs and benefits to society of a marine monitoring programme