100 research outputs found
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Is There an Independent Principle of Causality in Physics? A Comment on Matthias Frisch, “Causal Reasoning in Physics.”
No full textMatthias Frisch has argued that the requirement that electromagnetic dispersion processes are causal adds empirical content not found in electrodynamic theory. I urge that this attempt to reconstitute a local principle of causality in physics fails. An independent principle is not needed to recover the results of dispersion theory. The use of “causality conditions” prove to be either an exercise in relabeling an already presumed fact; or, if one seeks a broader, independently formulated grounding for the conditions, that grounding either fails or dissolves into vagueness and ambiguity, as has traditionally been the fate of candidate principles of causality
Putting Academic Fair Use to the Test
No full textThe Fair Use Doctrine is one of the most important, complex and misunderstood elements of copyright law. It was born out of the principle that copyright law needs to balance the rights of authors and creators to reap a benefit from their creations with the public’s right to continue to develop new knowledge on the foundation of these creations. It is intended to function by allowing the use of existing creative works without the need to obtain permission or pay royalties, but only for certain purposes that have been identified as serving the public good. The complexity of the Fair Use Doctrine is that it is both very broad and quite narrow. The doctrine itself can be found at Title 17, Section 107 of the United States Code. The parties involved in a fair use case will measure and weigh many elements. However, if these parties can’t agree as to whether a use is fair, lawsuits may be filed and it becomes up to the court to decide. While no one wants to be sued, there is some benefit in that the court decisions which the four factors help to further narrow the scope of the fair use test and help subsequent users determine if fair use may apply to their proposed use
Pandemic Preparedness: Is There a Role for Telerehabilitation?
No full textOver the past decade, humans have endured both age old and new disruptions. Indeed, 20 years ago, devastating computer viruses, Category 5 hurricanes followed by destructive flooding, and terrorist-planned events were remote, if unimagined worries. Concern is now heightening that an avian flu outbreak among humans would exceed the 1918 flu pandemic mortality. Experts warn that a new global pandemic is inevitable, could cycle over many months, and might result in high absenteeism and quarantine. The World Health Organization (2005) advises: “preparing for the next influenza pandemic will provide benefits now, as improvements in infrastructure can have immediate and long-lasting effects, and can also mitigate the effects of other epidemics or infectious disease threats.” Non-critical rehabilitation services, for conditions that that do not adversely affect quality of life, might be delayed or suspended during a pandemic. However, many rehabilitation services (both flu and non-flu related) would be critical to maintain (or initiate), even if travel becomes undesirable for both clients and clinicians. This poster will present examples of rehabilitation scenarios for which telerehabilitation-based delivery services could benefit consumers; current barriers; and the breadth of planning needs. Vigorous pandemic planning should commence by experts in rehabilitation and telerehabilitation, in concert with consumers
Why constructive relativity fails
No full textConstructivists, such as Harvey Brown, urge that the geometries of Newtonian and special relativistic spacetimes result from the properties of matter. Whatever this may mean, it commits constructivists to the claim that these spacetime geometries can be inferred from the properties of matter without recourse to spatiotemporal presumptions or with few of them. I argue that the construction project only succeeds if constructivists antecedently presume the essential commitments of a realist conception of spacetime. These commitments can be avoided only by adopting an extreme form of operationalism
The dome: An unexpectedly simple failure of determinism
No full textNewton's equations of motion tell us that a mass at rest at the apex of a dome with the shape specified here can spontaneously move. It has been suggested that this indeterminism should be discounted since it draws on an incomplete rendering of Newtonian physics, or it is "unphysical," or it employs illicit idealizations. I analyze and reject each of these reasons. Copyright 2008 by the Philosophy of Science Association. All rights reserved
Carotid Intima-Media Thickness (CIMT): A Reproducibility Study
No full textCarotid Intima-Media Thickness (CIMT): A Reproducibility Study Mindy Columbus, Brian Wagner, Emma Barinas-Mitchell Implementation of newer ultrasound technology for measuring subclinical atherosclerosis may increase the validity of measurement of carotid artery intima-media thickness (CIMT) cross-sectionally, but may prove to be a challenge for obtaining valid and reproducible progression data in existing follow-up studies. In the Department of Epidemiology Ultrasound Research Lab (URL), participants of the ERA JUMP study are returning for a five year follow-up visit for CIMT measurements to determine progression rates of subclinical atherosclerosis. A Toshiba 140A scanner was used for the baseline measurements and the maintenance service will end soon. There is a newer scanner available for use in the laboratory, and the question is whether the follow-up images that will be taken on this scanner, a Siemens Sonoline® Antares scanner, will provide comparable results to the baseline measurements in order to predict valid progression and not introduce error due to differences in machines. A reproducibility study was conducted to determine whether a Siemens Sonoline® Antares Doppler ultrasound scanner could be used in place of a Toshiba 140A Doppler ultrasound scanner to conduct follow-up visit measurements in the ERA JUMP study. A five year progression rate of ~0.04 mm (0.043) was estimated based on the literature. An average difference of 0.03 mm in CIMT between machines was determined a priori as an acceptable difference as we wanted to detect a difference between machines that was less than the estimated progression rate in order to assess reliability. The study recruited and evaluated 20 volunteers (85% women, age range: 24-77 years) who were scanned on each machine during the same visit by the same technician for between machine reliability. The mean CIMT values for this study population ranged from 0.488 to 1.039 mm. Reproducibility was evaluated on mean CIMT with Spearman and intraclass correlations and by the absolute value of the difference between replicate values. The mean difference in mean CIMT between the machines was -0.045 and the mean absolute difference was 0.052 mm. The mean difference in CIMT values between machines ranged from 0.077 to -0.256 mm, with 95% (19/20) of the differences being negative. This demonstrates systematic bias as the images read on the Toshiba machine were thicker (higher) than the Antares machine. This is likely due to the fact that the Antares scanner produces a crisper and clearer image than the Toshiba scanner demonstrating the advancement of digital technology with the newer scanner. Although the correlation for the mean CIMT between machines was high and agreed well, according to the Spearman correlation (r=0.93,
Personal Archives and a New Archival Calling: Readings, Reflections and Ruminations
No full textThe book argues that personal archives might be assuming a new importance in society. As the technical means for creating, maintaining, and using documents are improving and becoming more cost-effective, individuals and families are seeking to preserve their old documents, especially traditional paper forms, as a connection to a past that may seem to be in risk of being of being swallowed up in the immense digital gadgetry in our Internet Age. There is a reversal to other technologies as well, such as leather bound journals and fountain pens, by some individuals resisting or protesting the increasingly digital world they reside in. Behind these very different approaches are similar impulses, and, these divergent paths raise identical questions about the role and purpose of traditional archives dating back two centuries and more. Personal recordkeeping raises an array of issues and concerns about records and their preservation, public or collective memory, the mission of professional records managers and archivists, the nature of the role of the institutional archives, and the function of the individual citizen as their own archivist. Archivists need to develop a new partnership with the public, and the public needs to learn from the archivists the essentials of preserving documentary materials. We are on the cusp of seeing a new kind of archival future, and whether this is good or bad depends on how well archivists equip citizen archivists
The Academic Archives of the Future
No full textConsideration of how well universities and colleges are dealing with their digital recordkeeping systems and just what might constitute academic archives in the future
Copyright Back on Congressional Agenda
No full textWhen the 110th Congress began in January there seemed to be little interest in copyright legislation. The newly elected Democratic majority was focused on reviewing Bush Administration policies on terrorism and privacy. There was continuing interest in patent reform, but a flurry of copyright bills that had been proposed at the end of the 109th Congress-including orphan works proposals, digital fair use reform, and copyright modernization–failed to emerge in 2007. A couple of proposals were offered to harmonize copyright licensing and to clarify the DMCA’s fair use provisions, but there was no “buzz” about copyright. Until recently, that is. Quietly, in November, then with a bit of a bigger splash in December, bills providing for enhanced copyright enforcement provisions were introduced in the Senate and House respectively. Neither bill deals with digital fair use or orphan works, but hearings on the House bill raised the glimmer of broader copyright reform being in Congress’s future
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal (1964-1989)Electronic Archive
No full textCurrent research and clinical practice in cleft palate and craniofacial disorders “stands on the shoulders of giants” who came before us. To enable thirty years of seminal research articles to become digitally available to a worldwide community of students, scholars, and clinicians, a collaboration was forged in 2004 between University of Pittsburgh’s Digital Research Library (DRL) and ACPA, (with the agreement of Allen Press), to create an electronic archive of the first thirty years of the Cleft Palate Craniofacial Journal . The work was performed pro bono, by all parties