81,670 research outputs found
A importância moral da dor e do sofrimento animal na ética de Peter Singer
Dissertação (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
Powerful Trend Function Tests That are Robust to Strong Serial Correlation with an Application to the Prebisch Singer Hypothesis
In this paper we propose tests for hypothesis regarding the parameters of a the deterministic trend function of a univariate time series. The tests do not require knowledge of the form of serial correlation in the data and they are robust to strong serial correlation. The data can contain a unit root and the tests still have the correct size asymptotically. The tests we analyze are standard heteroskedasticity autocorrelation (HAC) robust tests based on nonparametric kernel variance estimators. We analyze these tests using the small-b asymptotic framework recently proposed by Kiefer and Vogelsang (2002). This analysis allows us to analyze the power properties of the tests with regards to bandwidth and kernel choices. Our analysis shows that among popular kernels, there are specific kernel and bandwidth choices that deliver tests with maximal power within a specific class of tests. We apply the recommended tests to the logarithm of a net barter terms of trade series and we find that this series has a statistically significant negative slope. This finding is consistent with the well known Prebisch-Singer hypothesis. Because our tests are robust to strong serial correlation or a unit root in the data, our results in support of the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis are relatively strong.Estimator, Fixed-b Asymptotics, Power Envelope, Unit Root, Nearly Integrated, Partial Sum, Deterministic Trend, Linear Trend.
O consequencialismo e a deontologia na ética animal: uma análise crítica comparativa das perspectivas de Peter Singer, Steve Sapontzis, Tom Regan e Gary Francione
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Filosofia, Florianópolis, 201
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Memorandum from A. E. Demaray to E. C. Finney
Four letters of correspondence about the purchase of Bright Angel Trail between A. E. Demaray, Acting Director of the Grand Canyon National Park; E. C. Finney, Department of the Interior First Assistant Secretary; Carl T. Hayden, Representative (AZ); and Stephen T. Mather, Director of the National Park Service
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Reconciling astrochronological and 40Ar/39Ar ages for the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary and late Matuyama Chron
When five Matuyama-Brunhes (M-B) boundary records from the North Atlantic are placed on isotope age models, produced by correlation of the ?18O record directly or indirectly to an ice volume model, the M-B boundary lies consistently at the young end of marine isotope stage 19 with a mean age for the midpoint of the reversal of 773.1 ka (standard deviation = 0.4 kyr), ?7 kyr younger than the presently accepted astrochronological age for this polarity reversal (780–781 ka). Two recently proposed revisions of the age of the 40Ar/39Ar Fish Canyon sanidine (FCs) standard to 28.201 ± 0.046 Ma and 28.305 ± 0.036 Ma would adjust 40Ar/39Ar ages applicable to the M-B boundary (and other reversals and excursions back to 1.2 Ma) to ages older than the new astrochronological ages by 8–24 kyr. The variables used to construct the ice volume models cannot account for the discrepancy. The FCs standard age that best fits the astrochronological ages is 27.93 Ma, which is within the uncertainty associated with the commonly used value of 28.02 (±0.16) Ma but younger than the recently proposed FCs ages. The EDC2 and EDC3 age models in the Dome C (Antarctic) ice core yield ages of 771.7 ka and 766.4 ka, respectively, for the 10Be flux peak that denotes the paleointensity minimum at the reversal boundary, implying that the EDC2 (rather than EDC3) age model is consistent with the observations from marine sediments, at least close to the M-B boundary
Distributed processing and temporal codes in neuronal networks
The cerebral cortex presents itself as a distributed dynamical system with the characteristics of a small world network. The neuronal correlates of cognitive and executive processes often appear to consist of the coordinated activity of large assemblies of widely distributed neurons. These features require mechanisms for the selective routing of signals across densely interconnected networks, the flexible and context dependent binding of neuronal groups into functionally coherent assemblies and the task and attention dependent integration of subsystems. In order to implement these mechanisms, it is proposed that neuronal responses should convey two orthogonal messages in parallel. They should indicate (1) the presence of the feature to which they are tuned and (2) with which other neurons (specific target cells or members of a coherent assembly) they are communicating. The first message is encoded in the discharge frequency of the neurons (rate code) and it is proposed that the second message is contained in the precise timing relationships between individual spikes of distributed neurons (temporal code). It is further proposed that these precise timing relations are established either by the timing of external events (stimulus locking) or by internal timing mechanisms. The latter are assumed to consist of an oscillatory modulation of neuronal responses in different frequency bands that cover a broad frequency range from 40 Hz (gamma) and ripples. These oscillations limit the communication of cells to short temporal windows whereby the duration of these windows decreases with oscillation frequency. Thus, by varying the phase relationship between oscillating groups, networks of functionally cooperating neurons can be flexibly configurated within hard wired networks. Moreover, by synchronizing the spikes emitted by neuronal populations, the saliency of their responses can be enhanced due to the coincidence sensitivity of receiving neurons in very much the same way as can be achieved by increasing the discharge rate. Experimental evidence will be reviewed in support of the coexistence of rate and temporal codes. Evidence will also be provided that disturbances of temporal coding mechanisms are likely to be one of the pathophysiological mechanisms in schizophrenia
The Legacy of Israel, Essays by Sir G. A. Smith, E. Bevan, F. C. Burkitt, R. I. Hertford, A. Guillaume, C. and D. Singer, Rev. Canon Box, W. B. Selbie, N. Isaaks, L. Roth, A. Meillet, L. Magnus, C. G. Montefiore, ed. by E. Bevan and C. Singer, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1927
Koyré Alexandre. The Legacy of Israel, Essays by Sir G. A. Smith, E. Bevan, F. C. Burkitt, R. I. Hertford, A. Guillaume, C. and D. Singer, Rev. Canon Box, W. B. Selbie, N. Isaaks, L. Roth, A. Meillet, L. Magnus, C. G. Montefiore, ed. by E. Bevan and C. Singer, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1927. In: Revue d'histoire et de philosophie religieuses, 8e année n°4, Juillet-août 1928. pp. 367-370
The Legacy of Israel, Essays by Sir G. A. Smith, E. Bevan, F. C. Burkitt, R. I. Hertford, A. Guillaume, C. and D. Singer, Rev. Canon Box, W. B. Selbie, N. Isaaks, L. Roth, A. Meillet, L. Magnus, C. G. Montefiore, ed. by E. Bevan and C. Singer, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1927
Koyré Alexandre. The Legacy of Israel, Essays by Sir G. A. Smith, E. Bevan, F. C. Burkitt, R. I. Hertford, A. Guillaume, C. and D. Singer, Rev. Canon Box, W. B. Selbie, N. Isaaks, L. Roth, A. Meillet, L. Magnus, C. G. Montefiore, ed. by E. Bevan and C. Singer, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1927. In: Revue d'histoire et de philosophie religieuses, 8e année n°4, Juillet-août 1928. pp. 367-370
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