What if I cannot make a difference (and know it)

When several agents together produce suboptimal outcomes, yet no individual could have made a difference for the better, act consequentialism counterintuitively judges that all involved agents act rightly. I address this problem by supplementing act consequentialism with a requirement of modal robustness: Agents not only ought to produce best consequences in the actual world, but they also ought to be such that they would act optimally in certain counterfactual scenarios. I interpret this modally robust act consequentialism as cct consequentialism plus a requirement of moral virtue, namely, to reliably act rightly and to act rightly for the right reasons

What we together can (be required to) do

In moral and political philosophy, collective obligations are promising “gap-stoppers” when we find that we need to assert some obligation, but can not plausibly ascribe this obligation to individual agents. Most notably, Bill Wringe and Jesse Tomalty discuss whether the obligations that correspond to socio-economic human rights are held by states or even by humankind at large. The present paper aims to provide a missing piece for these discussions, namely an account of the conditions under which obligations can apply to loose collections of agents that do not qualify as collective agents in their own right. I first explain the notion of joint obligations of loose collections of agents (henceforth “collections”) as opposed to collective obligations of collections of agents that are collective agents in their own right (section 1), and argue that the conditions under which agents can jointly have obligations are the conditions under which they are jointly able to do what is required (section 2). I then build on Virginia Held’s seminal work on the (backward-looking) moral responsibility of “random collections” to develop such conditions for joint ability (sections 3 to 7). My discussion shows that collections of individuals can more easily be subject to moral obligations than previously assumed. It also shows that putative joint obligations need to be carefully time-indexed, and that it is largely an empirical question whether a given collection can be subject to a moral obligation to perform a given joint action at a particular time (section 8)

Differenz und Identität, Krieger und Sänger : zur Rheinsymbolik bei Heine und in der deutschen Lyrik des 19. Jahrhunderts

Die Rheinthematik und -symbolik als ein Aspekt des "Kollektivbewußtseins" hat in Deutschland wie in Frankreich die Diskurse geprägt - z.T. in sehr gegensätzlicher Weise. Da die Symbolik im Rahmen des jeweiligen "Kollektivbewußtseins" dazu verwendet wurde, die nationale Differenz im Verhältnis zum Nachbarn jenseits des Rheins und zugleich auch die eigene nationale Identität zu unterstreichen, gehört zu dem "Vielen", was im 19. Jh. "zusammenkam", leider auch, daß Deutsche und Franzosen nicht "zusammenkamen", und daß sie am Rhein (und weitgehend auch in der politischen Rheinlyrik) nicht aufeinander zu, sondern aufeinander los gingen

Measurement of optical to electrical and electrical to optical delays with ps-level uncertainty

We present a new measurement principle to determine the absolute time delay of a waveform from an optical reference plane to an electrical reference plane and vice versa. We demonstrate a method based on this principle with 2 ps uncertainty. This method can be used to perform accurate time delay determinations of optical transceivers used in fibre-optic time-dissemination equipment. As a result the time scales in optical and electrical domain can be related to each other with the same uncertainty. We expect this method to break new grounds in high-accuracy time transfer and absolute calibration of time-transfer equipment

XUV frequency comb metrology on the ground state of helium

The operation of a frequency comb at extreme ultraviolet (XUV) wavelengths based on pair-wise amplification and nonlinear upconversion to the 15th harmonic of pulses from a frequency comb laser in the near-infrared range is reported. Following a first account of the experiment [Kandula et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 063001 (2010)], an extensive review is given of the demonstration that the resulting spectrum at 51 nm is fully phase coherent and can be applied to precision metrology. The pulses are used in a scheme of direct-frequency-comb excitation of helium atoms from the ground state to the 1s4p and 1s5p 1P_1 states. Laser ionization by auxiliary 1064 nm pulses is used to detect the excited state population, resulting in a cosine-like signal as a function of the repetition rate of the frequency comb with a modulation contrast of up to 55%. Analysis of the visibility of this comb structure yields an estimated timing jitter between the two upconverted comb laser pulses of 50 attoseconds, whch indicates that extension to even shorter wavelengths should be feasible. The helium metrology investigation results in transition frequencies of 5740806993(10) MHz and 5814248672(6) MHz for excitation of the 1s4p and 1s5p 1P_1 states, respectively. This constitutes the first absolute frequency measurement in the XUV, attaining unprecedented accuracy in this windowless part of the electromagnetic spectrum. From the measured transition frequencies an eight-fold improved 4He ionization energy of 5945204212(6) MHz is derived. Also a new value for the 4He ground state Lamb shift is found of 41247(6) MHz. This experimental value is in agreement with recent theoretical calculations up to order m\alpha^6 and m^2/(M\alpha^5), but with a six times higher precision, therewith providing a stringent test of quantum electrodynamics in bound two-electron systems.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figure

Frequency comb generation by CW laser injection into a quantum-dot mode-locked laser

100 GHz) RF generation and telecommunication applications. (C) 2012 Optical Society of Americ

Klotho pathways, myelination disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and epigenetic drugs

In this review we outline a rationale for identifying neuroprotectants aimed at inducing endogenous Klotho activity and expression, which is epigenetic action, by definition. Such an approach should promote remyelination and/or stimulate myelin repair by acting on mitochondrial function, thereby heralding a life-saving path forward for patients suffering from neuroinflammatory diseases. Disorders of myelin in the nervous system damage the transmission of signals, resulting in loss of vision, motion, sensation, and other functions depending on the affected nerves, currently with no effective treatment. Klotho genes and their single-pass transmembrane Klotho proteins are powerful governors of the threads of life and death, true to the origin of their name, Fates, in Greek mythology. Among its many important functions, Klotho is an obligatory co-receptor that binds, activates, and/or potentiates critical fibroblast growth factor activity. Since the discovery of Klotho a little over two decades ago, it has become ever more apparent that when Klotho pathways go awry, oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction take over, and age-related chronic disorders are likely to follow. The physiological consequences can be wide ranging, potentially wreaking havoc on the brain, eye, kidney, muscle, and more. Central nervous system disorders, neurodegenerative in nature, and especially those affecting the myelin sheath, represent worthy targets for advancing therapies that act upon Klotho pathways. Current drugs for these diseases, even therapeutics that are disease modifying rather than treating only the symptoms, leave much room for improvement. It is thus no wonder that this topic has caught the attention of biomedical researchers around the world.https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/biores.2020.0004Published versio

After the flood

PodcastAnna Pinkert is The Missouri Review 2011 Audio Contest winner in the professionally-recorded documentary category