1,157 research outputs found
The concept of remembrance in Walter Benjamin
No full textThis thesis argues that the role played by the concept of remembrance (Eingedenken)
in Walter Benjamin's 'theory of the knowledge of history' and in his engagement with
Enlightenment universal history, is a crucial one. The implications of Benjamin's
contention that history's 'original vocation' is 'remembrance' have hitherto gone
largely unnoticed. The following thesis explores the meaning of the concept of
remembrance and assesses the significance of this proposed link between history and
memory, looking at both the mnemonic aspect of history and the historical facets of
memory. It argues that by mobilising the simultaneously destructive and constructive
capacities of remembrance, Benjamin sought to develop a critical historiography
which would enable a radical encounter with a previously suppressed past. In so doing
he takes up a stance (explicit and implicit) towards existing philosophical conceptions
of history, in particular the idea of universal history found in German Idealism.
Benjamin reveals an intention to retain the epistemological aspirations of universal
history whilst ridding that approach of its apologetic moment. He criticises existing
conceptions of history on the basis that each assumes homogeneous time to be the
framework in which historical events occur. Insight into the distinctive temporality of
remembrance proves to be the touchstone for this critique, and provides a paradigm
for a very different conception of time. The thesis goes on to determine what is valid
and what is problematic both in this concept of remembrance and in the theory of
historical knowledge which it informs, by subjecting both to the most cogent
criticisms which can be levelled at them. What emerges is not only the importance of
this concept for an understanding of Benjamin's philosophy but the pertinence of this
concept for any philosophical account of memory
Homotopy classification of 4-manifolds whose fundamental group is dihedral
No full textWe show that the homotopy type of a finite oriented Poincar\'{e} 4-complex is
determined by its quadratic 2-type provided its fundamental group is finite and
has a dihedral Sylow 2-subgroup. By combining with results of Hambleton-Kreck
and Bauer, this applies in the case of smooth oriented 4-manifolds whose
fundamental group is a finite subgroup of SO(3). An important class of examples
are elliptic surfaces with finite fundamental group.Comment: 23 pages. Final version, to appear in Algebraic & Geometric Topolog
A manifesto for a processual philosophy of biology
No full textThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Oxford University Press via the URL in this record.This chapter argues that scientific and philosophical progress in our understanding of the living world requires that we abandon a metaphysics of things in favour of one centred on processes. We identify three main empirical motivations for adopting a process ontology in biology: metabolic turnover, life cycles, and ecological interdependence. We show how taking a processual stance in the philosophy of biology enables us to ground existing critiques of essentialism, reductionism, and mechanicism, all of which have traditionally been associated with substance ontology. We illustrate the consequences of embracing an ontology of processes in biology by considering some of its implications for physiology, genetics, evolution, and medicine. And we attempt to locate the subsequent chapters of the book in relation to the position we defend
In broad daylight: Innovation and transparency in peer review
No full textIndependent peer review is one of the foundations of scholarship and a practice that has been in place in the academy for centuries. This panel will address innovations that promote transparency and accelerate the pace of research, such as post-publication review, open peer review, and research evaluation ethics, exploring questions such as: • Who qualifies as a peer reviewer? • What kinds of content should be reviewed? Datasets? Editorials? • What are the strengths and weaknesses of pre-publication vs. post-publication peer review? • Is open peer review integrated with the formal publication process? Does it need to be? • What concerns are there with making peer review open? Are there benefits to anonymity, for example? • How do we ensure productive and civil discourse in a public review process? • How do these innovations change the relationship between the reviewer and the author? • Is it important to address the novelty and significance of the research in the review, or should it be only about content and soundness? • What is the anticipated trajectory of these changes in peer review and how might they affect research 25 years from now? This presentation was given during Open Access Week 2015, jointly sponsored by the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries and the University Library System, University of Pittsburgh on Monday, October 19, from 4:30 - 6:00pm at the University Club, University of Pittsburgh. The panel discussion was preceded by a poster session featuring research support services offered by the University Library System. ABOUT THE PANELISTS: Jackie Smith (Moderator) is Professor of Sociology and editor, Journal of World-Systems Research. Larry Kane is Associate Professor in the Dept. of Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh. As a member of the Faculty of 1000, Dr. Kane is avid contributor to F1000Prime and F1000Research, and is an advocate for innovation in the peer review process to accelerate the dissemination of research. F1000Research (f1000research.com) is an Open Science publishing platform offering immediate publication of posters, slides and articles with no editorial bias. All articles benefit from transparent peer review and the inclusion of all source data. Josh Nicholson is the founder of The Winnower, an open scholarly publishing platform launched in 2014. The Winnower acts as a publisher and archiver for a variety of content (research,reddit AMAs, student essays, journal club proceedings, peer reviews, open letters, grants, etc.) and to-date has published over 600 articles. Nicholson received his PhD in cell biology in 2015 from Virginia Tech. He has authored numerous articles on scientific funding and publishing in addition to his research on cancer, some of which have been discussed in The Economist, The Boston Globe and other major news outlets. Brandon Stell is a neuroscientist and team leader at the French national science organization CNRS in Paris and is the President of the PubPeer Foundation. PubPeer (pubpeer.com) is an anonymous online forum for post-publication peer review where scholars can comment on any article published with a DOI. The authors of the paper are invited to engage with the commenters. Lenny Teytelman is a geneticist and computational biologist. Since 2012, he has devoted himself to creating protocols.io: a free and up-to-date central repository of life science methods. As cofounder of protocols.io Lenny brings a strong passion for sharing science and improving research efficiency through technology
The role of educative thought in the life and work of Antonio Gramsci
No full textMany philosophers have propounded a vision of an improved society, what distinguishes Antonio Gramsci is his continuous effort to make it happen by understanding the process in order to put into practice. Gramsci's conviction about the importance of educative development came from both theory and experience. While there has been considerable examination of Gramsci's work in relation to the Prison Notebooks, this study will seek to address a lacuna in Gramsci scholarship. Using Gramsci's philological method, I analyse Gramsci's pre-prison activity; his pre-prison articles and letters, which, together with his letters from prison, formed part of his educative mission. This educative process was necessary, in order to construct a new party which would develop a collective will, collaboratively, with the masses.In this study therefore, I explore the contexts and formative experiences of the first part of his life together with the intellectual sources from which Gramsci developed his later theories, making central hitherto underemphasised connections between them which informed his writing and ideas. I intend to illustrate that Gramsci's underlying purpose in his writing, and political activity, was not only practical, on how to create a new socialist ruling class, but also educative in forming the mindset and values of his comrades. So that in addition to outlining his vision of a new order, he implicitly guided or explicitly explained the processes by which the necessary changes in social relations and moral climate could be made in order to achieve it. Each person had to engage with the values of the new order so that each could contribute to the construction of a new robust state. It was essential to build a hegemony at the most profound level, one which was dependent on collective understandings and a collective will
PUBLICATION TYPE: Journal DATE: 2003 FINAL CITATION: “Digital Reference Triage: An Investigation using the Delphi Method into the Factors Influencing Question Routing and Assignment. ” Pomerantz, J.,
No full textPomerantz, J., Nicholson, S., & Lankes, R. D. Digital reference triage: An in... Delphi method into the factors influencing question routing and assignment
Two tales of a city: Salford in regional filmmaking, 1957-1973
No full textThis discussion considers the role of moving image in constructing aspects of regional identity, with particular reference to footage produced by two very different filmmakers who filmed in Ordsall, Salford during the 1960s. Their respective footage covers a period of profound social and physical change associated with housing clearance and urban renewal schemes. This article, which is based upon archival film footage in the North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University, seeks to convey the richness and multi-facetted nature of this footage and to highlight its value in the historical exploration of identity formation. The piece begins with a brief consideration of archival film as a source of historical evidence and associated issues of interpretation. This is followed by an introduction to the locality that features in the two filmmakers’ work and brief reference to how it has been represented in the past. Attention then turns to each of the filmmakers: first, John Michael Goodger, former lecturer at the University of Salford, who made a trilogy of films to chart the changing character of Ordsall in the late 1960s; second, Ralph Brookes, an amateur home movie maker who also documented the transformation of the terraced streets around where he lived. These contrasting versions of Ordsall highlight some of the challenges offered by using film in a study of regional identities. They also illustrate the enormous potential of such material in helping to elucidate the shifting and multiple nature of place meanings
Postanarchism and space: Revolutionary fantasies and autonomous zones
No full textIn this paper, I call for a re-consideration of anarchism and its alternative ways of conceptualising
spaces for radical politics. Here I apply a Lacanian analysis of the social imaginary to explore the utopian fantasies and desires that underpin social spaces, discourses and practices – including planning, and revolutionary politics. I will go on to develop – via Castoriadis and others – a distinctly post-anarchist conception of political space based around the project of autonomy and the re-situation of the political space outside the state. This will have direct consequences for an alternative conception of planning practice and theory
Metabolic profiling and population screening of analgesic usage in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy-based large-scale epidemiologic studies
No full textThe application of a 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy-based screening method for determining the use of two widely available analgesics (acetaminophen and ibuprofen) in epidemiologic studies has been investigated. We used samples and data from the cross-sectional INTERMAP Study involving participants from Japan (n = 1145), China (n = 839), U.K. (n = 501), and the U.S. (n = 2195). An orthogonal projection to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) algorithm with an incorporated Monte Carlo resampling function was applied to the NMR data set to determine which spectra contained analgesic metabolites. OPLS-DA preprocessing parameters (normalization, bin width, scaling, and input parameters) were assessed systematically to identify an optimal acetaminophen prediction model. Subsets of INTERMAP spectra were examined to verify and validate the presence/absence of acetaminophen/ibuprofen based on known chemical shift and coupling patterns. The optimized and validated acetaminophen model correctly predicted 98.2%, and the ibuprofen model correctly predicted 99.0% of the urine specimens containing these drug metabolites. The acetaminophen and ibuprofen models were subsequently used to predict the presence/absence of these drug metabolites for the remaining INTERMAP specimens. The acetaminophen model identified 415 out of 8436 spectra as containing acetaminophen metabolite signals while the ibuprofen model identified 245 out of 8604 spectra as containing ibuprofen metabolite signals from the global data set after excluding samples used to construct the prediction models. The NMR-based metabolic screening strategy provides a new objective approach for evaluation of self-reported medication data and is extendable to other aspects of population xenometabolome profiling
Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and cognitive decline in the very old: The Newcastle 85+ study
No full textBackground and purpose:
Studies investigating the association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and cognition in the very old (85+) are lacking.
Methods:
Cross-sectional (baseline) and prospective data (up to 3 years follow-up) from 775 participants in the Newcastle 85+ Study were analysed for global (measured by the Standardized Mini-Mental State Examination) and attention-specific (measured by the attention battery of the Cognitive Drug Research test) cognitive performance in relation to season-specific 25(OH)D quartiles.
Results:
Those in the lowest and highest season-specific 25(OH)D quartiles had an increased risk of impaired prevalent (1.66, 95% confidence interval 1.06–2.60, P = 0.03; 1.62, 95% confidence interval 1.02–2.59, P = 0.04, respectively) but not incident global cognitive functioning or decline in functioning compared with those in the middle quartiles adjusted for sociodemographic, health and lifestyle confounders. Random effects models showed that participants belonging to the lowest and highest 25(OH)D quartiles, compared with those in the middle quartiles, had overall slower (log-transformed) attention reaction times for Choice Reaction Time (lowest, b = 0.023, P = 0.01; highest, b = 0.021, P = 0.02), Digit Vigilance Task (lowest, b = 0.009, P = 0.05; highest,b = 0.01, P = 0.02) and Power of Attention (lowest, b = 0.017, P = 0.02;highest, b = 0.022, P = 0.002) and greater Reaction Time Variability (lowest,b = 0.021, P = 0.02; highest, b = 0.02, P = 0.03). The increased risk of worse global cognition and attention amongst those in the highest quartile was not observed in non-users of vitamin D supplements/medication.
Conclusion:
Low and high season-specific 25(OH)D quartiles were associated with prevalent cognitive impairment and poorer overall performance in attention-specific tasks over 3 years in the very old, but not with global cognitive decline or incident impairment
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