Most conceptual models of the organization of the cardiovascular system begin with the premise that the nervous system regulates the metabolic and nonmetabolic reflex adjustments of the circulation. These models assume that all the neurally mediated responses of the circulation are reactive, i.e., reflexes elicited by adequate stimuli. This target article suggests that the responses of the circulation are conditional in three senses. First, as Sherrington argued, reflexes are conditional in that they never operate in a vacuum but in a (...) context together with other reflexes. Guided by functional utility, they interact rather than add. Second, as Pavlov argued, stimuli acquire meanings as a result of experience. This notion of stimulus effect plus the Sherringtonian notion of conditionality suggest that association is one of the ways stimuli eliciting cardiovascular reflexes acquire their meanings and thus their relative strengths. Finally, as Skinner and others have argued, operants are responses that act upon the environment to obtain consequences – that is, stimuli. As operants, cardiovascular responses fulfill a major biological need, functioning proactively. The cardiovascular response is an integral component of the animal's behavior regardless of whether it is an elicited reflex or the eliciting stimulus acquired its properties as a result of the genetic inheritance of the animal or through experience, or the cardiovascular response is emitted in anticipation of an environmental consequence. The main theses of this essay are: (1) behavior is an integrated set of responses and the circulation is one of the response systems comprising behavior; (2) behavior is, in part, determined by its functional significance within a context; (3) the contextual factors operative at the time of the behavior have a major role in determining which of the set of possible responses will determine the final act, that is, which behavior will be the effective response and which other behaviors will be concomitants. (shrink)

Clinical trials for acute conditions such as myocardial infarction and stroke pose challenges related to informed consent due to time limitations, stress, and severe illness. Consent processes shou...

The rediscovery of biblical and Talmudic notion of responsibility is an alternative in the context of theological reflection, in relation the shortcomings ethics of the philosophical project of modernity. In this context, the rescue of the uniqueness of this responsibility reveals a fruitful relationship between Jewish thought and moral theology. This article, in order to demonstrate this fecundity, evidences the force of ethical wisdom of Old Testament, from the perspective of the jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.

Late lung development comprises the formation of the terminal sac followed by the subdivision of the terminal sac by septa into alveoli and results in the formation of the gas‐exchange surface of the lung. This developmentally regulated process involves a complex epithelium–mesenchyme interaction via evolutionarily conserved molecular signaling pathways. In addition, there is a continuous process of vascular growth and development. Currently there are large gaps in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the formation of the gas‐exchange surface. (...) In this review, we attempt to integrate and reconcile the morphologic features in late lung development with what is known about the molecular basis for these processes. We describe the formation of the terminal sac and the subsequent formation of the septa, which divide the terminal sac into alveoli, in terms of the classically described developmental stages of induction, morphogenesis and differentiation. We believe that evolutionarily conserved pathways regulate this process and that morphogen gradients are likely to be a central mechanism. In addition, we highlight the importance of the molecular mechanisms involved in the simultaneous development of the vascular bed and its importance in the late development of the lungs. BioEssays 24:1052–1059, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

This book is a tribute to Kevin Kelly, who has been one of the most influential British theologians for a number of decades. On its own merits, however, it is groundbreaking collection of essays on key themes, issues and concepts in contemporary moral theology and Christian ethics. The focus is on perspectives to inform moral debate and discernment in the future. The main themes covered are shown in the list of contents below. Several of the of the contributors are from (...) the United States, three others live and work in Continental Europe and the rest are from various parts of the British Isles. Many of the authors are among the best known in their fields on both sides of the Atlantic. (shrink)

Volume 20, Issue 8, August 2020, Page W12-W13.

We appreciate the opportunity to respond to Schneiderman and colleagues’ opinions on the recent Multiorganization Policy Statement, “An Official ATS/AACN/ACCP/ESICM/SCCM Policy Statement: Responding to Requests for Potentially Inappropriate Treatments in Intensive Care Units”. We will first point out three areas in which Schneiderman and colleagues seem to perceive a disagreement where there is none, then we will respond to their main criticisms of the Multiorganization Policy Statement. In doing so, we will point out areas in which we believe Schneiderman and (...) colleagues have either misunderstood or misrepresented the statement. First, we agree with Schneiderman and... (shrink)

This article encourages a rethinking of how rats are regarded within the laboratory research environment. The rat’s remarkable intellect and cognitive capacities are well known yet conveniently ignored. An understanding of the five domains of animal welfare and the telos of the rat necessitate that the rat’s circumstances, namely habitat accommodations, in the research arena be reassessed. The rat-ness of being a rat must be considered, celebrated, and elevated to significantly higher standards. We advocate for a new research paradigm if (...) one continues to “use” the extraordinary Rattus species. (shrink)

Le commun imagine mal que les philosophes, gens. austères et graves, puissent s abandonner au rire, ou même qu'ils daignent, s'interroger sur la signification et la désirabilité de ce comportement frivole.t pourtant si, comme l'observa le premier Aristote, " rire est le propre de l'homme ", il faut bien que les philosophes sachent rire, comme tout à chacun, et même qu'ils s'inquiètent des raisons d'être du rire, de sa finalité, d'autant plus que leur propre démarche et leurs ambitions ont depuis (...) toujours prêté à rire aux profanes. Rire est-il pour l'homme un privilège ou une tare? Si les dieux d'Homère s'esclaffent dans l'Olympe, Jésus lui n'aurait jamais ri. Repoussant les réserves de Descartes, Spinoza a pris résolument le parti du rire. Et si Nietzsche nous demande de rire à la vie, c'est par contre au nom de la vie que Bergson intente un procès au rire. Tout se passe comme si ces appréciations contradictoires du rire, loin d'être dune importance secondaire, traçaient une nette ligne de partage entre les philosophes, révélant peut-être des divergences décisives entre leurs options fondamentales. (shrink)

t. 1. Le chaos, le temps, le principe anthropique -- t. 2. Les interprétations de la physique quantique -- t. 3. Complexité, vie, conscience.

Exceptionally preserved fossils are the product of complex interplays of biological and geological processes including burial, autolysis and microbial decay, authigenic mineralization, diagenesis, metamorphism, and finally weathering and exhumation. Determining which tissues are preserved and how biases affect their preservation pathways is important for interpreting fossils in phylogenetic, ecological, and evolutionary frameworks. Although laboratory decay experiments reveal important aspects of fossilization, applying the results directly to the interpretation of exceptionally preserved fossils may overlook the impact of other key processes that (...) remove or preserve morphological information. Investigations of fossils preserving non-biomineralized tissues suggest that certain structures that are decay resistant are rarely preserved, and decay-prone structures can fossilize, albeit rarely. As we review here, decay resistance is an imperfect indicator of fossilization potential, and a suite of biological and geological processes account for the features preserved in exceptional fossils. Organisms decayed experimentally in seawater have been used as direct analogs for soft-bodied fossil taxa, with fossils representing a snapshot of a particular stage of decay. We argue that numerous geological and biological processes account for fossilization and that all of these should be considered when reconstructing extinct organisms. (shrink)

Exceptionally preserved fossils are the product of complex interplays of biological and geological processes including burial, autolysis and microbial decay, authigenic mineralization, diagenesis, metamorphism, and finally weathering and exhumation. Determining which tissues are preserved and how biases affect their preservation pathways is important for interpreting fossils in phylogenetic, ecological, and evolutionary frameworks. Although laboratory decay experiments reveal important aspects of fossilization, applying the results directly to the interpretation of exceptionally preserved fossils may overlook the impact of other key processes that (...) remove or preserve morphological information. Investigations of fossils preserving non-biomineralized tissues suggest that certain structures that are decay resistant are rarely preserved, and decay-prone structures can fossilize, albeit rarely. As we review here, decay resistance is an imperfect indicator of fossilization potential, and a suite of biological and geological processes account for the features preserved in exceptional fossils. Organisms decayed experimentally in seawater have been used as direct analogs for soft-bodied fossil taxa, with fossils representing a snapshot of a particular stage of decay. We argue that numerous geological and biological processes account for fossilization and that all of these should be considered when reconstructing extinct organisms. (shrink)

Biological evolution provides a creative fount of complex and subtle adaptations, often surprising the scientists who discover them. However, because evolution is an algorithmic process that transcends the substrate in which it occurs, evolution’s creativity is not limited to nature. Indeed, many researchers in the field of digital evolution have observed their evolving algorithms and organisms subverting their intentions, exposing unrecognized bugs in their code, producing unexpected adaptations, or exhibiting outcomes uncannily convergent with ones in nature. Such stories routinely reveal (...) creativity by evolution in these digital worlds, but they rarely fit into the standard scientific narrative. Instead they are often treated as mere obstacles to be overcome, rather than results that warrant study in their own right. The stories themselves are traded among researchers through oral tradition, but that mode of information transmission is inefficient and prone to error and outright loss. Moreover, the fact that these stories tend to be shared only among practitioners means that many natural scientists do not realize how interesting and lifelike digital organisms are and how natural their evolution can be. To our knowledge, no collection of such anecdotes has been published before. This paper is the crowd-sourced product of researchers in the fields of artificial life and evolutionary computation who have provided first-hand accounts of such cases. It thus serves as a written, fact-checked collection of scientifically important and even entertaining stories. In doing so we also present here substantial evidence that the existence and importance of evolutionary surprises extends beyond the natural world, and may indeed be a universal property of all complex evolving systems. (shrink)

Zen is not just about what we do in the meditation hall, but what we do in the home, the workplace, and the community. That's the premise of this book: how to cook what Zen Buddhists call "the supreme meal"—life. It has to be nourishing, and it has to be shared. And we can use only the ingredients at hand. Inspired by the thirteenth-century manual of the same name by Dogen, the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen tradition, this book (...) teaches us how we can "enlarge the family we're feeding" if we just use some imagination. Bernie Glassman founded Greyston Bakery in Yonkers, New York, in 1982 to employ those whom other companies deem unemployable—the homeless, ex-cons, recovering addicts, low-skill individuals—with the belief that investing in people, and not just products, does pay. He was right. Greyston has evolved into an $8 million-a-year business with clients all over New York City. It is the sole supplier of brownies to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, and has even sold cakes to the White House. But financial profit is only one of two bottom lines that Greyston is committed to. The other one is social impact, and this goal is certainly being met. The bakery enterprise has led to the creation of the Greyston Foundation, an integrated network of organizations that provide affordable housing, child care, counseling services, and health care to families in the community. Using entrepreneurship to solve the problems of the inner city, Greyston has become a national model for comprehensive community development. Its giving back is more than just sloughing off a percentage of its profits and donating it to charity; it's about working with the community's needs right from the beginning—bringing them from the margins to the core. As its company motto goes, "We don't hire people to bake brownies. We bake brownies to hire people." This book is as much a self-manual as a business manual, addressing such concepts as • Beginner's mind • The Middle Way of Sustainability • The "hungry ghosts" of Buddhism as a picture of all humanity • Working with our faults • Indra's Net and the interconnectedness of life • Leaving no trace. (shrink)

A lot of research has been done on the detection of mental workload using various bio-signals. Recently, deep learning has allowed for novel methods and results. A plethora of measurement modalities have proven to be valuable in this task, yet studies currently often only use a single modality to classify MWL. The goal of this research was to classify perceived mental workload using a deep neural network that flexibly makes use of multiple modalities, in order to allow for feature sharing (...) between modalities. To achieve this goal, an experiment was conducted in which MWL was simulated with the help of verbal logic puzzles. The puzzles came in five levels of difficulty and were presented in a random order. Participants had 1 h to solve as many puzzles as they could. Between puzzles, they gave a difficulty rating between 1 and 7, seven being the highest difficulty. Galvanic skin response, photoplethysmograms, functional near-infrared spectrograms and eye movements were collected simultaneously using LabStreamingLayer. Marker information from the puzzles was also streamed on LSL. We designed and evaluated a novel intermediate fusion multimodal DNN for the classification of PMWL using the aforementioned four modalities. Two main criteria that guided the design and implementation of our DNN are modularity and generalisability. We were able to classify PMWL within-level accurate on a seven-level workload scale using the aforementioned modalities. The model architecture allows for easy addition and removal of modalities without major structural implications because of the modular nature of the design. Furthermore, we showed that our neural network performed better when using multiple modalities, as opposed to a single modality. The dataset and code used in this paper are openly available. (shrink)

En 1657, Nicolas Poussin peint une Fuite en Égypte au voyageur couché. La toile disparaît ensuite pendant plusieurs siècles. Dans les années 1980, plusieurs versions du tableau réapparaissent, de grands experts mondiaux s'opposent, des laboratoires d'analyse et des tribunaux s'en mêlent et nombreux sont ceux - galeristes, experts, directeurs de musée, conservateurs, etc. - à vouloir authentifier et s'approprier le chef-d'oeuvre. L'une des versions sera finalement acquise pour 17 millions d'euros par le musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. De quoi nous (...) parle cette histoire aux allures d'intrigue policière? Pourquoi une telle débauche d'énergie, de controverses et d'argent pendant autant d'années? Qu'est-ce qui fait la valeur - économique, esthétique - d'une oeuvre d'art? Et d'où vient cette aura attachée aux créateurs et aux oeuvres? (shrink)