26 research outputs found
Philosophizing War: Arguments in the War on Iraq
No full textI set out to analyze four main philosophical arguments which have dominated the Iraq war debate. Each of these arguments has been used by philosophers to varying degrees to assess the circumstances surrounding the war. The discussions customarily focused on four key issues: just war theory, humanitarian intervention, democratization, and preventive war. In each case, I examine the argument's methods, shortcomings, and implications, to conclude that each fails to satisfactorily address, explain, or elucidate the highly controversial war. I argue that we simply cannot rely on a meager set of arguments to provide us with greater insight or genuine understanding of this war, as well as new or postmodern wars more generally. First, arguments that focus on the just war tradition overlook key events and underemphasize developments that have effectively eroded the tradition's defining concepts, such as the distinctions between combatant/noncombatant, states/non-states, victories/defeats, armies/non-state or non-nation actors. Second, theoretical analyses are routinely misappropriated or misapplied; this is especially evident in calls for humanitarian intervention, implemented for past harms committed, using backward-causing logic intended to make up for past inaction, rather than halting ongoing or imminent harm. Third, the focus on forcible democratization overlooks the high probability for failure in such pursuits and readily dismisses moral, legal, economic, educational, and cultural obstacles to democratic national building. Fourth, arguments which focus on preventive war suffer from similar problems encountered with the previous three, especially since it is unclear that the event could be characterized as a case of preventive war. The relationship between belligerent state and target state was not one in which the target state posed a future or distant threat to the belligerent state. Collectively, the arguments err in their uncritical acceptance of methodological analyses that have no genuine application to the matter at issue; that is, each misunderstands the nature of new or postmodern wars and clings to concepts relevant to modern wars, which do not factor in developments such as non-state actors, the spread of global capitalism, economic and cultural globalization, strategic objectives or military preeminence, imperialist aims or empire-building.Philosoph
MULTIPARTICLE IDENTIFICATION WITH ISIS: TESTS WITH THE FULL APERTURE ISIS-1
No full textResults are reported of a successful test of ISIS 1 in a particle beam. ISIS 1 is a full aperture (4 m*2 m) prototype of the particle identifier ISIS (Identification of Secondaries by Ionisation Sampling) , proposed for the European Hybrid Spectrometer (EHS) at the SPS at CERN. Using the 'relativistic rise' of the ionisation loss, electrons and pions at 500 MeV/c were identified with better than 99% confidence, the data containing typically 5-10 tracks per 'picture' drifted by up to 2 m. The ionisation resolution was 12-14% fwhm on 1 m of track and the two track resolution was 2 cm. These results, which agree with our predictions, indicate that ISIS 2 with 5 m of useful track length will be able to distinguish uniquely kaons and protons from pions of known momentum in high multiplicity interactions up to 50 and 100 GeV/c respectively. (14 refs)
Evaluating the provision of service for percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) within the United Kingdom (UK): results of a national survey
No full textWire guided endoscopy with a finite element analysis of planar electrodes.
No full textAs an alternative to conventional colonoscopy, which is time-consuming, requires considerable operator skill, and is often painful and hazardous to the patient, this thesis proposes a new method of examining the colon. It involves using a guide wire, which helps the endoscopist advance the colonoscope with a reduced risk of loop formation. It does this by ensuring that it follows a path along the lumen of the colon and by acting as an anchor against which a motor attached to the tip of the colonoscope pulls the colonoscope forward. Clinical measurements show that use of a conventional colonoscope exceeds the human pain threshold 17% of the time, whilst use of the guide wire assisted colonoscope exceeds the human pain threshold only 4% of the time. It is concluded that guide wire assisted colonoscopy is likely to reduce pain and make the procedure easier for both the patient and the endoscopist. In addition to the guide wire assisted colonoscope, the thesis proposes and assesses the 'planar electrode', an instrument designed to treat colorectal cancer in a more precise and controlled manner than conventional, endoscopic, electrosurgical methods. The planar electrode is assessed using tissue studies and a finite element model. When optimally configured, the planar electrode is shown to coagulate only the tissue between the electrode pair, thereby allowing the endoscopist to oversee the coagulation process as it happens. The finite element model is shown to predict the depth of tissue coagulation within 15% of the depth of coagulation measured in the tissue studies. It is concluded that the planar electrode coagulates tissue in a predictable and controlled manner, and the finite element model is likely to be a useful tool when designing planar electrode configurations for specific tasks
A Posthumanist Pragmatism: Rereading Tomboys
No full textGender has often dictated the roles and responsibilities that individuals are expected to fulfill. Societies in general still adhere to a strict gender binary system, and have largely been either intolerant of or, at minimum, uncomfortable with those who break from such a system. The tomboy figure has been the recipient of societal judgement for what has been interpreted to be a subversion of and deviance from traditional gender norms, and this has played out in a variety of ways. For instance, literary depictions of the tomboy—as the manifestations of the dominant cultural attitude—have captured both the aversion to as well as an evolving disposition toward non-feminine female characters. To trace and evaluate this trajectory, we utilize a framework provided by posthumanist theory, in conjunction with the pragmatic method. Important strains contained within posthumanism and pragmatism reject philosophical assumptions that there exists a single, true ontology, while promoting this-worldly notions concerning inclusion and diversity. By demonstrating how the tomboy has challenged presumptive ways of thinking, and continues to dispel preconceived notions and cultural expectations, we seek to show that the tomboy identity and disposition are to be celebrated for their authenticity and nonconformance, particularly as border-blurring and boundary-reducing, rather than deviating from or, for that matter, mirroring some purported true humanity. To accept such—that is, to hold any figure, tomboy or otherwise, as paradigmatic—would amount to a metaphysical endorsement for the knowability of a one and accurate experience, human or, even, otherwise. Alternatively, for us, the tomboy can serve as a valid model for how to undermine and help dismantle patriarchal and other prejudicial ideologies. Last, we attempt to show the increasing obsolescence of foundationalism as well as to ultimately offer the tomboy figure as a champion for continual self-enlargement, within a larger, posthumanist pragmatic process of self-creation
The experience of mathematical beauty and its neural correlates.
No full textMany have written of the experience of mathematical beauty as being comparable to that derived from the greatest art. This makes it interesting to learn whether the experience of beauty derived from such a highly intellectual and abstract source as mathematics correlates with activity in the same part of the emotional brain as that derived from more sensory, perceptually based, sources. To determine this, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to image the activity in the brains of 15 mathematicians when they viewed mathematical formulae which they had individually rated as beautiful, indifferent or ugly. Results showed that the experience of mathematical beauty correlates parametrically with activity in the same part of the emotional brain, namely field A1 of the medial orbito-frontal cortex (mOFC), as the experience of beauty derived from other sources
MEASUREMENT OF THE MASS AND WIDTH OF THE Z0 PARTICLE FROM MULTI - HADRONIC FINAL STATES PRODUCED IN e+ e- ANNIHILATIONS
No full textFirst measurements of the mass and width of the Z0 performed at the newly commissioned LEP Collider by the DELPHI Collaboration are presented. The measuements are derived from the study of multihadronic final states produced in e+e- annihilations at several energies around the Z0 mass. The values found for the mass and width are M(Z0)=91.06±0.09 (stat) ±0.045 (syst.) GeV and Γ(Z0)=2.42±0.21 (stat.) GeV respectively, froma three-parameter fit to the line shape. A two-parameter fit in the framework of the standard model yields for the number of light neutrino species Nν=2.4±0.4 (stat.) ±0.5 (syst.)0SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
Endoscopy : an evolving speciality
No full textThe practice of endoscopy has been rapidly changing due to new emerging technologies and novel techniques. There has been more focus on colonoscopy training with the development of structured programmes including simulators. Chromoendoscopy and magnification endoscopy have enabled improved diagnosis of small neoplastic lesions and will be important for the success of colorectal cancer screening programmes. The small bowel is now accessible to diagnostic modalities like capsule endoscopy and to therapeutic tools through the double balloon enteroscope. Endoscopic therapy has also become more sophisticated with endoscopic therapy of reflux disease now possible. Excision of large colorectal adenomatous polyps by endoscopic mucosal resection and dissection of submucosal tumours may reduce the need for surgical intervention. The practice of endoscopy has rapidly changed over the past few years. What was once a simple diagnostic procedure made possible by the development of fibre optics has become a speciality in its own right. This article will highlight some aspects of endoscopic practice that have undergone major changes over the past few years and that will shape endoscopy practice in the future.peer-reviewe
The DELPHI detector at LEP
No full textDELPHI is a 4π detector with emphasis on particle identification, three-dimensional information, high granularity and precise vertex determination. The design criteria, the construction of the detector and the performance during the first year of operation at the large electron positron collider (LEP) at CERN are described.0info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
First reports of computed tomographic colonography for the screening of colorectal polyps in acromegalic patients
No full text*Aim:* To analyze the CTC performance for the screening of colorectal polyps in acromegalic patients. 

*Materials and Methods:* A prospective study of 21 acromegalic patients, 12 male and 9 female, average age 49, who underwent CTC and CC. CTC was performed with a GE Helical Multislice Computed Tomography Apparatus. The colonoscopy was performed, in the same day, without previous knowledge of the CTC diagnostics. The study evaluated the capacity of CTC to detect patients with colorectal polyps and identify each colorectal lesion described by CC. 

*Results:* In two patients (2/21), CC was incomplete. However, in all patients CTC was complete. In Phase I (“Per Patient”), CTC diagnosed 8 of the 9 patients with colorectal polyps and showed 88% sensitivity, 75% specificity and 81% accuracy. In Phase II (“Per Polyp”), out of the 21 acromegalic patients included in this study, 12 presented normal findings at CC. A total of 19 polyps were identified in 9 patients. 10 of the 19 polyps were smaller than 10 mm, and 9 were equal to or larger than 10. CTC identified 7 of the 9 polyps ≥ 10 mm described by CC and only 6 of the 10 small polyps identified at CC were detected by CTC. The histological analysis of resected lesions revealed 12 tubular adenomas, 6 hyperplastic polyps and 1 colonic tubulo-villous adenoma with an adenocarcinoma focus. 

*Conclusion:* In this study, CTC was performed without complications and a complete and safe colorectal evaluation was possible in all acromegalic patients. Moreover, CTC showed good sensitivity to identify acromegalic patients with colorectal polyps
