Meta-Illusionism and Qualia Quietism

Many so-called problems in contemporary philosophy of mind depend for their expression on a collection of inter-defined technical terms, a few of which are qualia, phenomenal property, and what-it’s-like-ness. I express my scepticism about Keith Frankish’s illusionism, the view that people are generally subject to a systematic illusion that any properties are phenomenal, and scout the relative merits of two alternatives to Frankish’s illusionism. The first is phenomenal meta-illusionism, the view that illusionists such as Frankish, in holding their view, are themselves thereby under an illusion. The second is qualia quietism, the view that nothing worth saying is said by employing any of the aforementioned inter-defined technical terms

Cognitive Approaches to Phenomenal Consciousness

The most promising approaches to understanding phenomenal consciousness are what I’ll call cognitive approaches, the most notable exemplars of which are the theories of consciousness articulated by David Rosenthal and Daniel Dennett. The aim of the present contribution is to review the core similarities and differences of these exemplars, as well as to outline the main strengths and remaining challenges to this general sort of approach

Color-Consciousness Conceptualism

The goal of the present paper is to defend against a certain line of attack the view that conscious experience of color is no more fine-grained that the repertoire of non- demonstrative concepts that a perceiver is able to bring to bear in perception. The line of attack in question is an alleged empirical argument - the Diachronic Indistinguishability Argument - based on pairs of colors so similar that they can be discriminated when simultaneously presented but not when presented across a memory delay. My aim here is to show that this argument fail

The Philosophy and Neuroscience Movement

A movement dedicated to applying neuroscience to traditional philosophical problems and using philosophical methods to illuminate issues in neuroscience began about twenty-five years ago. Results in neuroscience have affected how we see traditional areas of philosophical concern such as perception, belief-formation, and consciousness. There is an interesting interaction between some of the distinctive features of neuroscience and important general issues in the philosophy of science. And recent neuroscience has thrown up a few conceptual issues that philosophers are perhaps best trained to deal with. After sketching the history of the movement, we explore the relationships between neuroscience and philosophy and introduce some of the specific issues that have arise

Massive thymic deletion results in systemic autoimmunity through elimination of CD4+ CD25+ T regulatory cells

Incomplete deletion of KRN T cells that recognize the ubiquitously expressed self-antigen glucose-6-phosphate-isomerase (GPI) initiates an anti-GPI autoimmune cascade in K/BxN mice resulting in a humorally mediated arthritis. Transgenic (Tg) expression of a KRN T cell receptor (TCR) agonist under the major histocompatibility complex class II promoter resulted in thymic deletion with loss of anti-GPI T and B cell responses and attenuated arthritis course. However, double Tg mice succumbed to systemic autoimmunity with multiorgan inflammation and autoantibody production. Extensive thymic deletion resulted in lymphopenia and elimination of CD4(+) CD25(+) regulatory T cells (Tregs), but spared some CD4(+) T cells expressing endogenous TCR, which oligoclonally expanded in the periphery. Disease was transferred by these T cells and prevented by cotransfer of CD4(+) CD25(+) Tregs. Moreover, we extended our findings to another TCR system (anti–hen egg lysozyme [HEL] TCR/HEL mice) where similarly extensive thymic deletion also resulted in disease. Thus, our studies demonstrated that central tolerance can paradoxically result in systemic autoimmunity through differential susceptibility of Tregs and autoreactive T cells to thymic deletion. Therefore, too little or too much negative selection to a self-antigen can result in systemic autoimmunity and disease

1-Methyl-tryptophan synergizes with methotrexate to alleviate arthritis in a mouse model of arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory autoimmune disease with no known cure. Current strategies to treat RA, including methotrexate (MTX), target the later inflammatory stage of disease. Recently, we showed that inhibiting indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) with 1-methyl-tryptophan (1MT) targets autoantibodies and cytokines that drive the initiation of the autoimmune response. Therefore, we hypothesized that combining 1MT with MTX would target both the initiation and chronic inflammatory phases of the autoimmune response and be an effective co-therapeutic strategy for arthritis. To test this, we used K/BxN mice, a pre-clinical model of arthritis that develops joint-specific inflammation with many characteristics of human RA. Mice were treated with 1MT, MTX, alone or in combination, and followed for arthritis, autoantibodies, and inflammatory cytokines. Both 1MT and MTX were able to partially inhibit arthritis when used individually; however, combining MTX + 1MT was significantly more effective than either treatment alone at delaying the onset and alleviating the severity of joint inflammation. We went on to show that combination of MTX + 1MT did not lower inflammatory cytokine or autoantibody levels, nor could the synergistic co-therapeutic effect be reversed by the adenosine receptor antagonist theophylline or be mimicked by inhibition of polyamine synthesis. However, supplementation with folinic acid did reverse the synergistic co-therapeutic effect, demonstrating that, in the K/BxN model, MTX synergizes with 1MT by blocking folate metabolism. These data suggest that pharmacological inhibition of IDO with 1MT is a potential candidate for use in combination with MTX to increase its efficacy in the treatment of RA

Studi Produksi Enzim Lipase Toleran Kadar Garam Staphylococcus sp. TL9

Telah dilakukan penelitian optimasi untuk menentukan beberapa parameter optimum yang berperan dalam produksi lipase oleh Staphylococcus sp. TL9, strain yang diisolasi dari terasi udang fermentasi terasi. Strain ini dipilih karena memiliki aktivitas lipase yang tinggi serta sifat-sifat teknologi yang lebih baik dibandingkan dengan empat bakteri penghasil lipase lain yang telah diisolasi sebelumnya. Metode one-factor-at-time (OFAT) telah dilakukan untuk memilih parameter yang tepat yang memengaruhi produksi lipasenya. Suhu dan pH awal optimum untuk produksi lipase adalah 37 oC dan 7,0. Selain itu, konsentrasi inokulum 2,0% (b/v) minyak zaitun, 10% (b/v) NaCl, dan 1,5% (v/v) semuanya memberikan produksi lipase tertinggi serta kecepatan agitasi pada 150 rpm. Sementara itu, percobaan time course menggunakan kondisi optimum terpilih menunjukkan bahwa pada waktu inkubasi 48 jam produksi lipase paling tinggi (2,27 U/mL) yang mengindikasikan 3,34 kali lipat dari produksi awal (0,67 U/mL). Lebih jauh, lipase ini juga menunjukkan halotoleran karena aktivitas lipase stabil pada rentang konsentrasi NaCl yang lebih luas (0–20%, b/v).   Kata kunci: Kapi, lipase, Staphylococcus sp. TL9, optimasi

IDO2 in Immunomodulation and Autoimmune Disease.

IDO2 is a relative of IDO1 implicated in tryptophan catabolism and immune modulation but its specific contributions to normal physiology and pathophysiology are not known. Evolutionary genetic studies suggest that IDO2 has a unique function ancestral to IDO1. In mice, IDO2 gene deletion does not appreciably affect embryonic development or hematopoiesis, but it leads to defects in allergic or autoimmune responses and in the ability of IDO1 to influence the generation of T regulatory cells. Gene expression studies indicate that IDO2 is a basally and more narrowly expressed gene than IDO1 and that IDO2 is uniquely regulated by AhR, which serves as a physiological receptor for the tryptophan catabolite kynurenine. In the established KRN transgenic mouse model of rheumatoid arthritis, where IDO1 gene deletion has no effect, IDO2 deletion selectively blunts responses to autoantigen but has no effect on responses to neoantigen challenge. In human populations, natural variations in IDO2 gene sequence that attenuate enzymatic activity have been reported to influence brain cancer control and adaptive immune responses to the IDO2 protein itself, consistent with the concept that IDO2 is involved in shaping immune tolerance in human beings. Biochemical and pharmacological studies provide further evidence of differences in IDO2 enzymology and function relative to IDO1. We suggest that IDO2 may act in a distinct manner from IDO1 as a set-point for tolerance to altered-self antigens along the self-non-self continuum where immune challenges from cancer and autoimmunity may arise

Meningkatan Hasil Belajar Matematika Materi Volume Bangun Ruang Sisi Lengkung Dengan Model {Pembelajaran Discovery Learning Siswa Kelas IX B SMP Don Bosco Kota Sorong

Tujuan dalam penelitian ini yaitu untuk mengetahui peningkatan hasil belajar matematika materi  Volume Bangun Ruang Sisi Lengkung Siswa Kelas IX B SMP Don Bosco Kota Sorong melalui model pembelajaran Discovery Learning. Jenis penelitian ini adalah penelitian tindakan kelas (Classroom Action Research) yang dilakukan secara kolaboratif antara peneliti dengan guru. Penelitian dilaksanakan dalam dua siklus, masing-masing siklus terdiri dari empat komponen yaitu perencanaan, tindakan, pengamatan dan refleksi. Teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah wawancara, observasi, dokumentasi dan tes. Analisis yang data dilakukan dalam 3 tahap yaitu reduksi, penyajian data serta menarik kesimpulan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa: (a) penggunaan pendekatan saintifik dapat meningkatkan partisipasi belajar siswa. (b) Pemanfaatan model pembelajaran Discovery Learning dapat meningkatkan prestasi belajar siswa. Rata-rata hasil belajar siswa pada siklus I sebesar 69,06  meningkat menjadi 79,06  pada siklus II