BackgroundWhile genomic data sharing can facilitate important health research and discovery benefits, these must be balanced against potential privacy risks and harms to individuals. Understanding public attitudes and perspectives on data sharing is important given these potential risks and to inform genomic research and policy that aligns with public preferences and needs.MethodsA cross sectional online survey measured attitudes towards genomic data sharing among members of the general public in an Eastern Canadian province.ResultsResults showed a moderate comfort level with sharing genomic (...) data, usually into restricted scientific databases with controlled access. Much lower comfort levels were observed for sharing data into open or publicly accessible databases. While respondents largely approved of sharing genomic data for health research permitted by a research ethics board, many general public members were concerned with who would have access to their data, with higher rates of approval for access from clinical or academic actors, but much more limited approval of access from commercial entities or governments. Prior knowledge about sequencing and about research ethics boards were both related to data sharing attitudes.ConclusionsWith evolving regulations and guidelines for genomics research and data sharing, it is important to consider the perspectives of participants most impacted by these changes. Participant information materials and informed consent documents must be explicit about the safeguards in place to protect genomic data and the policies governing the sharing of data. Increased public awareness of the role of research ethics boards and of the need for genomic data sharing more broadly is also needed. (shrink)

This is a short overview of Plato’s “greatest thing to be learned” or the “greatest lesson” (megiston mathêma) – the Idea of the Good.

Plato’s Lysis shows Socrates in conversation with two boys he has met at a wrestling school, Lysis and Menexenus. Their debate revolves around the notion of philia, seeking to pin down the nature of this relation, who or what takes part in it, and what causes it. The word philiahas usually been translated as “friendship” but has a wider application in this dialogue, as it encompasses a variety of friendly and loving attitudes toward both people and things. The kinds of (...) interpersonal philia evoked include erotic attachments, kinship relations, utility-based relations, and playful companionship. Roughly two-thirds into the dialogue, the focus turns to a more general theory of desiderative attachments and the question of their ultimate telos and cause. The conversation ends, at least on the face of it, in an impasse, an aporia, when the interlocutors find themselves thrown back to the point from where they started, and no attempt to answer the question of what philia is or what motivates it has stuck. The Lysis nevertheless offers many incentives for further discussion and has elicited radically different responses from its interpreters as to what its real message is. For instance, does it promote a form of utilitarian egoism according to which human attachment can never, or should never, be altruistically motivated? Or does it hint at a very different concept of interpersonal love based on the idea that friendship, as it were, completes us since it connects us with those that share the same values? Does this dialogue stay within the familiar ambit of Socratic ethics, centered around the question of what it takes to achieve happiness (eudaimonia) in a human life, without a concern for metaphysical questions? Or, quite the contrary, does its discussion of the highest object of love (to proton philon) point forward to the metaphysical program of Plato’s so-called middle-period dialogues and especially to the notions of the form of the good or the form of the beautiful, notions which are at the center of the Republic and the Symposium? These questions and others will continue to be debated about this puzzling dialogue. The essays assembled in the present volume address many of these topics. (shrink)

The volume contains a selection of essays on Plato from his Socratic beginnings to his aftermath in the works of Donald Davidson and Hans-Georg Gadamer. Particular attention is paid to the Idea of the Good and the question of its transcendence and immanence.

Every year our sun should be losing about 10 20 protons (about a milligram's worth) in this way. This is not much of a loss, but it is irreversible, and it adds up. In 10..

Préface.--De la nécessité historique du judéo-alexandrinisme.--Le juéo-alexandrinisme avant Philon.--Vie de Philon le Juif.--Classement de ses traités. Premier aspect de son œuvre.--Exposition de la philosophie de Philon.--Examen de la philosophie de Philon.

Excerpt from Philon L'existence de Philon se passa presque tout entière à étudier et à écrire. Nous savons par lui-mème qu'il se rendit à Jérusalem, et qu'il fit un séjour à Asca lonî. Nous savons aussi, et toujours par lui - mème, qu'il s'occupa des affaires publiques? Il partit pour Rome, en l'an 40, comme chef de l'ambassade envoyée par les Juifs à Caïus3. C'est le dernier détail qui nous soit bien connu. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes (...) hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

It is proposed in this paper that enzymes, by virtue of a number of correctly positioned sites of interaction with substrates, can force the compression of hydrogen bonds, increasing the probability of proton transfer by quantum mechanical tunneling. By such a catalytic mechanism a rate enhancement of many orders of magnitude may be obtained with a very low energy input requirement. The mechanism would, however, require a highly structured catalyst.Pertinent aspects of hydrogen bond theory and of tunneling theory are briefly (...) reviewed. (shrink)

The paper is concerned with a similar entry of the lexica of Thomas Magister and Ps-Ammonius concerning the semantic difference between συγγρα- φεῖς and ἱστορικοί. The entry is proven to be ultimately descended from the lost lexicon Περὶ τῶν διαφόρως σημαινομένων of Herennius Philon (2nd cent. AD); this lexicon in its lost unabridged form seems to have influenced the distinction συγγραφεῖς / ἱστορικοί in the preface of the historical work of Eustathius on the sack of Thessalonica by the Normans. (...) The paper investigates the possibility of a Hellenistic grammatical substratum in Philon’s distinction; based on the evidence of literary texts and inscriptions, the paper asserts that the distinction (probably received by Philon from a Hellenistic-era grammatical source) was already vanishing in Philon’s days. (shrink)

Leon Roth’s famous question “Is there a Jewish philosophy?” has been the subject of an ongoing controversial debate. This paper argues that the concept of a Jewish philosophy—in the sense of an allegedly continuous philosophical tradition stretching from antiquity to early modernity—was created by German Enlightenment historians of philosophy. Under competing models of historiography, Enlightenment philosophy construed a continuous tradition of Jewish thought, a philosophia haebraeorum perennis, establishing a controversially discussed order of discourse and a specific politics of historiography. Within (...) this historiography, historical and systematical paradigms, values, and patterns kept shifting continuously, opening up perspectives for different, even contradictory accounts of what Jewish philosophy was . With Hegel and his successors, this specific discourse came to a close. Hegel attacks “Jewish thought” as a form of metaphysics of substance—a critique countered by several thinkers who can be referred to as “Jewish Hegelians” . The Jewish Hegelians fully accepted, however, Hegel’s account of the “Philonic distinction”: the difference between substance and subject within the conception of the One. This calls attention to the idea that not only the role of the “Mosaic distinction” , the distinction between true and false in religion, should be examined more closely, but also the consequences of the “Philonic distinction” between identity and difference in monotheistic concepts of deity. (shrink)

La floraison d’études sur le scepticisme antique de ces dernières décennies a fait au moins une victime, à savoir Philon d’Alexandrie, auquel elles ont accordé une part de plus en plus restreinte, alors même que Philon est incontestablement celle de nos sources la plus proche d’Énésidème qui refonda le pyrrhonisme au ier siècle avant J.-C. Il importe donc d’établir quelle confiance on peut accorder à ce que Philon nous dit, en plusieurs endroits de son œuvre, du courant (...) sceptique. On propose donc un bref status quaestionis, avant d’analyser la question des tropes. On soulève enfin le problème plus général de la technicisation croissante de la philosophie ancienne et de la place quasi hégémonique qu’occupe ac­tuellement la méthode analytique. Un auteur comme Philon est difficile à décomposer en propositions, dont on chercherait à définir les relations, et il n’a pas écrit – si l’on excepte le De aeternitate mundi, dont l’authenticité est discutée, le Probus, le De prouidentia et l’Alexander – une œuvre qui se présente comme explicitement philosophique. Il incarne donc un problème qui le dépasse : que peut faire la recherche lorsqu’elle est confrontée à tous ces textes dans lesquels la philosophie se trouve mêlée à ce qui n’est pas elle-même, qu’il s’agisse de littérature ou de religion? (shrink)

The initial relationships between organisms leading to endosymbiosis and the first eukaryote are currently a topic of hot debate. Here, I present a theory that offers a gradual scenario in which the origins of phagocytosis and mitochondria are intertwined in such a way that the evolution of one would not be possible without the other. In this scenario, the premitochondrial bacterial symbiont became initially associated with a protophagocytic host on the basis of cooperation to kill prey with symbiont‐produced toxins and (...) reactive oxygen species (ROS). Subsequently, the cooperation was focused on the digestion stage, through the acidification of the protophagocytic cavities via exportation of protons produced by the aerobic respiration of the symbiont. The host gained an improved phagocytic capacity and the symbiont received organic compounds from prey. As the host gradually lost its membrane energetics to develop lysosomal digestion, respiration was centralized in the premitochondrial symbiont for energy production for the consortium. (shrink)

L’article tente de saisir le rapport entre exégèse, rhétorique et philosophie dans les textes de Philon à partir d’un angle particulier : l’usage philonien croisé des images bibliques et du rôle spécifique assigné à l’image dans la pensée hellénique. S’il y a chez l’Alexandrin une réflexion sur les vertus du langage déployée entre l’exégèse des textes bibliques et le recours constant aux modèles théoriques de la philosophie, cette réflexion vise explicitement à établir une science, la théologie rationnelle, légitimée par (...) sa fondation sur la lettre biblique et validée en même temps par une démarche et un lexique spécifiquement philosophiques. Or la pratique des images s’inscrit dans cette tentative philonienne de fonder la réflexion théologique sur les rapports de la langue avec les facultés sensibles et intellectives, depuis les figures et les concepts avec lesquels travaille le langage philosophique jusqu’à l’établissement d’un savoir à partir du paradigme des vertus épiphaniques dont la lettre biblique est pourvue. (shrink)

Ductin is the highest conserved membrane protein yet found in eukaryotes. It is multifunctional, being the subunit c or proteolipid component of the vacuolar H+‐ATPase and at the same time the protein component of a form of gap junction in metazoan animals. Analysis of its structure shows it to be a tandem repeat of two 8‐kDa domains derived from the subunit c of the F0 proton pore from the F1F0 ATPase. Each domain contains two transmembrane α‐helices, which together may form (...) a four‐helix bundle. In both the V‐ATPase and gap junction channel, ductin is probably arranged as a hexamer of subunits forming a central channel of gap junction‐like proportions. The two functions appear to be seggregated by ductin having two orientations in the bilayer. Ductin is also the major component of the mediatophore, a protein complex which may aid in the release of neurotransmitters across the pre‐synaptic membrane. It is also a target for a class of poorly understood viral polypeptides. These polypeptides are small and highly hydrophobic and some have oncogenic activity. Ductin thus appears to be at the crossroads of a number of biological processes. (shrink)

Philons Biographie Abrahams ist eine Werbeschrift fur das Judentum. Sie entstand vermutlich als literarisches Begleitprojekt zu Philons politischer Mission in Rom: In Alexandria waren Ausschreitungen gegen die judische Bevolkerung erfolgt, die Philon bei Kaiser Caligula zur Sprache bringen sollte. Der vorliegende Band fuhrt in diesen zeitgeschichtlichen Kontext ein und bietet den mit Anmerkungen versehenen Text der Schrift samt einer Neuubersetzung. Erlauternde Essays aus unterschiedlichen Fachperspektiven wurdigen Philon als Biograph und als Philosoph, ergrunden sein Tugendverstandnis und sein Frauenbild und (...) beleuchten sein Schriftverstandnis aus der Perspektive des antiken Orakelwesens. Abgerundet wird der Band durch einen Ausblick auf die Rezeption Abrahams im Islam, bei der sich bemerkenswerte Parallelen zu Philons allegorischen Auslegungen wiederfinden lassen. (shrink)

Comme un arbre refleurit, tout renouveau intellectuel ou spirituel puise sa sève dans les racines de son passé. C'est ce dont témoigne cet essai publié en 1957, à la veille du concile Vatican II. Philon est, en effet, un juif imprégné de philosophie grecque, bon représentant du milieu culturel si riche de la ville d'Alexandrie, au tournant de notre ère. Contemporain du Christ sans l'avoir connu, il appartient à un judaïsme très ouvert qui a déjà traduit la Bible en (...) grec deux siècles auparavant. Il a profondément influencé la littérature chrétienne des premiers siècles et reste un exemple et un espoir de rencontre entre ces deux cultures et ces deux religions. Nul plus que Jean Daniélou, lui-même si cultivé et si ouvert, ne pouvait mieux faire revivre cette personnalité attachante et exceptionnelle. (shrink)

A novel photon-based proton model is developed. A proton’s ground state is assumed to be coherent to the degree that all of its mass-energy precipitates into a single uncharged spherical structure. A quantum vortex, initiated by the strong force, but sustained in the proton’s ground state by the circular Unruh effect and a spherical Rindler horizon, is proposed to confine the proton’s mass-energy in its ground state. A direct connection between the circular Unruh effect, the zitterbewegung effect, spin, and general (...) relativity is proposed. Such a structure acts as an uncharged zitterbewegung fermion, and may explain neutrino mass. A ground-state proton’s central zitterbewegung fermion is assumed to be surrounded by a halo of charge shells of both signs. Virtual photon standing waves are assumed to synchronize the inner shell with the central zitterbewegung fermion. The charge shells are proposed to be associated with isospin and proton g-factor. There are only two model inputs—proton mass and quantized electronic charge—and just one adjustable parameter. The adjustable parameter, reduced only by about 0.4% from an initial estimate, provides the proton’s experimentally determined magnetic moment to arbitrary precision. The resulting modeled proton charge radius agrees very well with the 2018 CODATA value. Magnetic moment and charge radius are calculated algebraically in a manner easily understood by undergraduate physics students. This proposed ground-state proton model could be considered a low-energy approximation to a full quantum chromodynamical proton model. (shrink)

Philon d'Alexandrie, un philosophe juif contemporain de Jésus et de saint Paul et le principal témoin de la théologie de la Diaspora, éclaire les multiples visages de sa foi religieuse à l'aide de la philosophie grecque, au cours de ses abondants commentaires sur la Loi de Moïse. Il est très proche du monde de pensée de saint Paul, de l'Épître aux Hébreux et de saint Jean, c'est-à-dire du milieu où s'est développé le christianisme. L'auteur, Jean Laporte, élève de l'Institut (...) catholique de Paris et professeur à l'université Notre-Dame d'Indiana (USA), s'est fixé pour but d'étudier la doctrine eucharistique de Philon sous ses différents aspects : les termes et images qui l'expriment, son lien intime avec le culte du temple, les problèmes cosmologiques, anthropologiques et spirituels liés à l'œuvre de la création et de la restauration de l'homme. Le travail révèle la richesse de l'Eucharistie philonienne et contribue indirectement à éclairer les bases de l'Eucharistie chrétienne. (shrink)

A novel class of proton‐ATPase has been identified in the vacuolar system of eukaryotic cells. The properties of these enzymes and their relation to other proton‐ATPases is discussed.

Religion et rationalité. Philon d'Alexandrie et sa postérité propose un nouveau regard sur les travaux de Philon d'Alexandrie : prenant appui sur les mots de Moïse aussi bien que sur des concepts philosophiques, il les associe dans son commentaire de l'Écriture pour créer une nouvelle manière de penser. Les dix études rassemblées dans ce volume apportent un nouvel éclairage sur cette méthode et son originalité. Elles mettent également en évidence la pérennité de cette démarche aussi bien dans le (...) néo-platonisme que chez les Pères de l'Église et dans l'exégèse médiévale. (shrink)