12,441 research outputs found
Topographic relations between ocular dominance and orientation columns in the cat striate cortex
No full textLöwel S, Bischof H-J, Leutenecker B, Singer W. Topographic relations between ocular dominance and orientation columns in the cat striate cortex. Experimental Brain Research. 1988;71(1):33-46.In the visual cortex of four adult cats ocular dominance and orientation columns were visualized with (3H)proline and (14C)deoxyglucose autoradiography. The two columnar systems were reconstructed from serial horizontal sections or from flat-mount preparations and graphically superimposed. They share a number of characteristic features: In both systems the columns have a tendency to form regularly spaced parallel bands whose main trajectory is perpendicular to the border between areas 17 and 18. These bands frequently bifurcate or terminate in blind endings. The resulting irregularities are much more pronounced in the ocular dominance than in the orientation system. The periodicity of the columnar patterns was assessed along trajectories perpendicular to the main orientation of the bands and differed in the two columnar systems. The spacing of the ocular dominance stripes was significantly narrower than the spacing of orientation bands. The mean periodicity of a particular columnar system was virtually identical in the two hemispheres of the same animal but it differed substantially in different animals. However, the spacing of orientation columns covaried with that of the ocular dominance columns, the ratios of the mean spacings of the two columnar systems being similar in the four cats. The superposition of the two columnar systems revealed no obvious topographic relation between any of the organizational details such as the location of bifurcations, blind endings and intersections. We suggest the following conclusions: 1. The developmental processes generating the two columnar systems seem to obey the same algorithms but they act independently of each other. 2. The space constants of the two systems are rigorously specified and appear to depend on a common variable. 3. The main orientation of the bands in both columnar systems is related to a) the representation of the vertical meridian, b) the anisotropy of the cortical magnification factor, and c) the tangential spread of intracortical connections
The Singer or the Song? Developments in Performers' Rights from the Perspective of a Cultural Economist
No full textOver the last century, performers gradually acquired statutory protection of their economic and moral
rights. These rights are not copyright in the legal sense but neighboring rights and until recently, they
were mainly remuneration rights that are collectively administered. With the WPPT (WIPO
Performers and Phonograms Treaty), performers now have individual exclusive rights for digital
performances; this leads to the question: what has motivated this change – is it a change in the
perception of the value of performer or a change brought about by the changing technology of copying or,
indeed, a change that reflects different economic costs and benefits? The paper discusses the role of
copyright law as an incentive to performers and asks if the economic role of the performer is so different
from that of the author. The conclusion is that a complex interaction of the legal regulations, economic
conditions and institutional arrangements for administering these new rights will determine the outcome
Singer
No full textMedium: Lithograph.Print Image Size: 14 1/2 x 11 inches.Print Edition: 20 (with 1 artist's proof).Alternate Medium: Lithograph.Ink(s): black.Support: wove paper.Bust-length portrait of the author Isaac Bashevis Singer, with only an outline of a collared shirt. The lithograph was printed by Will Peterson at Plucked Chicken Press in Morgantown, West Virginia. One impression is inscribed to the artist's son, Dan Chafetz
Sentience and Beyond - A Representative Interview With Peter Singer AI
No full textPublisher Copyright: © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press.This interview with Peter Singer AI serves a dual purpose. It is an exploration of certain - utilitarian and related - views on sentience and its ethical implications. It is also an exercise in the emerging interaction between natural and artificial intelligence, presented not as just ethics of AI but perhaps more importantly, as ethics with AI. The one asking the questions - Matti Häyry - is a person, in the contemporary sense of the word, sentient and self-aware, whereas Peter Singer AI is an artificial intelligence persona, created by Sankalpa Ghose, a person, through dialogue with Peter Singer, a person, to programmatically model and incorporate the latter's writings, presentations, recipes, and character qualities as a renowned philosopher. The interview indicates some subtle differences between natural perspectives and artificial representation, suggesting directions for further development. PSai, as the project is also known, is available to anyone to chat with, anywhere in the world, on almost any topic, in almost any language, at www.petersinger.ai.Peer reviewe
Singer
No full textSINGER
Map of portions of Chinese Turkistan and Kansu (-)
Singer (Sheet No. 55) ( -
A importância moral da dor e do sofrimento animal na ética de Peter Singer
No full textDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências Humanas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Filosofia, Florianópolis, 2012.O objetivo desta dissertação é defender a importância moral da consideração da dor e do sofrimento de animais não-humanos. Isso se dá através do principio da igual consideração de interesses desenvolvido por Peter Singer. A senciência possibilita os animais a terem interesses, no mínimo, o interesse evitar a dor e o sofrimento. É por essa razão que devem ser incluídos nas decisões morais. São reconstruídas e analisadas as objeções de Peter Harrison, Carl Cohen, R.G. Frey e Lawrence C. Becker direcionadas ao princípio de Singer, e que criticam os pressupostos básicos, quais sejam, a capacidade de sentirem dor/sofrimento e de terem interesses, sobre os quais se fundamenta a inclusão dos animais nas considerações morais. Cada uma dessas objeções é analisada e criticada de modo a demonstrar suas limitações e inconsistências, juntamente com as implicações morais geradas para seres humanos. Na análise dessas críticas, reforça-se a importância e a consideração moral que deve ser conferida à dor e ao sofrimento dos animais. Após essa discussão teórica, é analisado um caso de âmbito prático: a pesquisa científica sobre o câncer humano através do modelo animal. Verifica-se, a partir do princípio de Singer, a imoralidade de tal procedimento realizado em animais sencientes devido à violação de seus interesses. Com isso, a dissertação enfatiza a exigência ética de abolir o uso de animais nessa prática em razão da incapacidade preditiva dos animais, mas principalmente devido à dor e ao sofrimento causado neles e também aos seres humanos, que ficam sujeitos aos erros, prejuízos e sofrimentos originados pelo intenso uso animal nas pesquisas. Nessa conclusão, se constata que a insistência no uso de animais nos experimentos compromete o cientista a preferir usar seres humanos, uma vez que isso gera mais benefícios e resultados mais seguros. A recusa moral ao uso de humanos em pesquisas implica, por outro lado, na recusa moral do uso de animais, ou seja, sua abolição.Abstract : The aim of this dissertation is to defend the moral importance of considering pain and suffering of nonhuman animals. This is achieved through The Principle of Equal Consideration of Interests developed by Peter Singer. The sentience enables nonhuman animals to have interests, at least the interest of avoiding pain and suffering. That is why it should be included in moral decisions. The objections of Peter Harrison, Carl Cohen, RG Frey and Lawrence C. Becker directed to the principle of Singer are reconstructed and analyzed, as they are criticizing the basic assumptions, i.e., the ability to feel pain/suffering and have interests, upon which is based the inclusion of animals in moral considerations. Each of these objections is analyzed and criticized in order to demonstrate their limitations and inconsistencies, simultaneously with its moral implications for humans. In the analysis of these criticisms, it reinforces the moral importance and considerations that should be given to pain and suffering of animals. After this theoretical discussion, a case study of practical scope is analyzed: animal testing for scientific research on human cancer. It is verified from the Singer's principle that such procedures performed on sentient animals are a violation of their interests and, therefore, immoral. Thus, the dissertation emphasizes the ethical demand to abolish the use of nonhuman animals in this practice due to their predictive inability, but mainly due to the pain and suffering caused to them and also to humans, who are subject to errors, injuries and suffering originated by the intense use of nonhuman animals on research. The conclusion verifies that the insistence on the use of nonhuman animals in experiments moves the scientist to prefer using humans in experiments since it generates greater benefit and more reliable results. The moral refusal to using humans in research implies the moral rejection of the use of animals in experiments and consequently, its abolition
Arid climate 2.5 Ma in the Plio-Pleistocene Valdarno Basin (Northern Apennines, Italy)
No full textDistinctive, eolian-dominated sandy deposits 35 m thick exposed in the SW margin of the Plio-Pleistocene Valdarno Basin in the Northern Apennines, Italy, reflect an unusually arid period in the region. Paleomagnetic investigation and 40Ar/39Ar dating of a tephra layer, 10 m above the eolian sand, suggest that the sand was deposited between about 2.7 to 2.4 Ma. This age is comparable to the global climatic deterioration that occurred at the Middle-Upper Pliocene transition. Eolian sediments are represented by cross-bedded sand, rippled sand and horizontal-bedded sand. The alluvial deposits, associated with the eolian sediment, consist of sheet-like beds of coarse sand and erosively based pebbly sand bodies. Eolian sand, together with fluvial sandy deposits, were formed in the medial-distal portion of an alluvial system, and represent the Rena Bianca Sand Unit. The eolian and alluvial deposits are arranged into sedimentary cycles (2-6 m thick), displaying wetting-drying-wetting upward trend recording second-order climatic oscillations of ca 40 ka. Each cycle is included between major bounding surfaces, defined by iron mineral encrustations. These bounding surfaces represent periods of reduced eolian sand accumulation caused by a rising water table. During the 2.5 Ma global cooling the Valdarno Basin experienced a period of arid conditions owing to the influence of cold and dry eastern and northeaster trade wind. In contrast, during the Pleistocene, the uplift of the Pratomagno Ridge protected the Valdarno Basin from eastern and north-eastern trade winds, giving rise to relatively warm and wet conditions, and mitigating the regional and global climatic changes
Complexin 3 Increases the Fidelity of Signaling in a Retinal Circuit by Regulating Exocytosis at Ribbon Synapses
No full textSummaryComplexin (Cplx) proteins modulate the core SNARE complex to regulate exocytosis. To understand the contributions of Cplx to signaling in a well-characterized neural circuit, we investigated how Cplx3, a retina-specific paralog, shapes transmission at rod bipolar (RB)→AII amacrine cell synapses in the mouse retina. Knockout of Cplx3 strongly attenuated fast, phasic Ca2+-dependent transmission, dependent on local [Ca2+] nanodomains, but enhanced slower Ca2+-dependent transmission, dependent on global intraterminal [Ca2+] ([Ca2+]I). Surprisingly, coordinated multivesicular release persisted at Cplx3−/− synapses, although its onset was slowed. Light-dependent signaling at Cplx3−/− RB→AII synapses was sluggish, owing largely to increased asynchronous release at light offset. Consequently, propagation of RB output to retinal ganglion cells was suppressed dramatically. Our study links Cplx3 expression with synapse and circuit function in a specific retinal pathway and reveals a role for asynchronous release in circuit gain control
Development assistance gone wrong : why support services have failed to expand exports
No full textThis study shows that in developing countries with no more than partly favorable policies toward manufactured exports, outside assistance to services that promote and support manufactured exports has had little discernible impact on exports and has rarely been effective in expanding them. The principal reasons for this lack of impact appear to be the after effects of inward-looking development policies, neglect of assistance to enterprises in the production and supply aspects of exporting, insufficient donor concern about the direct impact of their assistance on exports, and reliance on an inappropriate delivery mechanism. Recommendations which suggest new guidelines for donor assistance, project components and new country policies are explained in a companion paper, WPS 544.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance,ICT Policy and Strategies,Poverty Assessment
Efficacy of alemtuzumab over 6 years in relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis patients who relapsed between courses 1 and 2: Post hoc analysis of the CARE-MS studies
No full textBackground:Alemtuzumab is administered as two annual courses for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). Patients may relapse before completing the two-course regimen. Objective: The objective was to evaluate 6-year outcomes in patients who relapsed between alemtuzumab Courses 1 and 2 (early relapsers). Methods:Post hoc analysis of patients from the Comparison of Alemtuzumab and Rebif (R) Efficacy in Multiple Sclerosis (CARE-MS) studies who enrolled in the extension. Results:Early relapsers (CARE-MS I: 15%; CARE-MS II: 24%) had more relapses in 1-2 years pre-alemtuzumab and higher mean baseline Expanded Disability Status Scale score than patients without relapse. Their annualized relapse rate declined from Year 1 (CARE-MS I: 1.3; CARE-MS II: 1.2) to Year 2 following Course 2 (0.3; 0.5) and remained low thereafter. Over 6 years, 60% remained free of 6-month confirmed disability worsening; 24% (CARE-MS I) and 34% (CARE-MS II) achieved 6-month confirmed disability improvement. During Year 6, 69% (CARE-MS I) and 68% (CARE-MS II) were free of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) disease activity. Median percent yearly brain volume loss (Year 1: -0.67% (CARE-MS I); -0.47% (CARE-MS II)) declined after Course 2 (Year 6: -0.24%; -0.13%). Conclusion: Early relapsers' outcomes improved after completing the second alemtuzumab course. These findings support administering the approved two-course regimen to maximize clinical benefit. ClinicalTrials.gov registration numbers:CARE-MS I, II, extension: NCT00530348, NCT00548405, NCT00930553.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The CARE-MS I, CARE-MS II, and CAMMS03409 studies were funded by Sanofi and Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals. Only Sanofi contributed to the conduct of the studies; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; review of the manuscript. Apart from the Sanofi employees listed as authors, the funders had no role in preparation, approval, and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.Van Wijmeersch, B (reprint author), Hasselt Univ, Fac Med & Life Sci, Campus Hasselt,Martelarenlaan 42, B-3500 Hasselt, Belgium.
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