Efficient, Formal, Material, and Final Causes in Biology and Technology.

Providence and Science in a World of Contingency: Thomas Aquinas’ Metaphysics of Divine Action

Time isotropy, Lorentz transformation and inertial frames

Excitability and contractility in arterioles and venules from the urinary bladder.

Most chemistry teaching operates at the macro (or laboratory) level and the symbolic level, but we know that many misconceptions in chemistry stem from an inability to visualise structures and processes at the sub-micro (or molecular) level. However, one cannot change a student's mental model of this level by simply showing them a different, albeit better, model in an animation. Molecular-level animations can be compelling and effective learning resources, but they must be designed and presented with great care to encourage students to focus on the intended 'key features', and to avoid generating or reinforcing misconceptions. One misconception often generated is the perception of 'directed intent' in processes at the molecular level, resulting from the technical imperative to minimise file size for web delivery of animations. An audiovisual information-processing model – based on a combination of evidence-based models developed by Johnstone and Mayer, cognitive load theory, and dual-coding theory – has been used to inform teaching practice with animations, and seed questions for research on student attributes affecting development of mental models using animations. Based on this model, the constructivist VisChem Learning Design probes students' mental models of a substance or reaction at the molecular level before showing animations portraying the phenomenon. Opportunities to apply their refined models to new situations are critical. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2006, 7 (2), 141-159]

TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION II. HEARING BOARD BASICS A. The Members B. Getting Through to the Members III. VARIANCES A. Variance Applications B. The Questions to be Answered C. Orders 1. Explaining the Findings 2. Duration 3. Conditions D. Interim Variances E. Emergency Variances F. Variance Variations 1. Product Variances 2. Links to Federal Law G. General Observations IV. ABATEMENT ORDERS A. Burdens and Penalties B. A Variance by Any Other Name C. Proof D. Terms and Conditions E. Approaches to Abatement Proceedings V. PERMIT DISPUTES A. Varieties of Permit Disputes B. Standard of Review C. To CEQA or Not to CEQA D. Approaches to Permit Cases VI. CHANGES, CONTROVERSIES, AND CONFUSIONS A. Changes B. Controversies C. Confusions VII. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION Air pollution law is complicated. The statutes and regulations are based on technical knowledge, and educated guesswork, drawn from various fields of environmental and health science and engineering. The complexity and frequent uncertainty of that information contribute to legal mandates which are laden with technical jargon and are often reevaluated and changed. (1) The complexity of these laws is compounded in California by this state's unique, multilayered division of governmental authority over pollution. Another complicating factor is the unrelenting political sensitivity of the topic. The political stakes are high for many reasons, with the economic implications of pollution control topping the list. Despite this complexity, or perhaps because of it, there is no doubt that a lot has been accomplished to improve quality in California, both before and since the federal government assumed its heavy role in pollution regulation. There also is no doubt that much more needs to be done. There is recurrent doubt, however, about whether California's regulatory system is fair, especially in its treatment of pollution sources and the specific communities they affect. This article examines California's pollution hearing boards, an important regulatory forum with direct bearing on this question. These boards are unique in many respects, for they are not quite the same as anything else in California environmental and land use regulation. One of their most striking characteristics is that the hearing boards are predominantly composed of individuals who are not pollution experts, even though the decisions they make usually involve technical questions, often of an extraordinarily sophisticated nature. Most significantly, the hearing boards are a key feature--indeed the key feature--of California's attempt to ensure that fairness is a consistent component of government efforts to clean and protect the air. Regulation of pollution from stationary sources in California is primarily the responsibility of local and regional pollution control (APCDs). (2) In contrast, state government, principally through the California Air Resources Board (ARB), regulates pollution from most types of motor vehicles. (3) The ARB also plays an important oversight role in stationary source control, but major responsibility there still rests with the APCDs. (4) There are thirty five APCDs in the state, now called either air quality management districts (AQMDs)or air pollution control districts. Most of the published literature on their functions emphasizes their rulemaking or enforcement powers or unusual policy initiatives. (5) This article instead examines their adjudicatory authority, for most of the major conflicts between regulatory authorities and stationary sources in California are brought into the administrative adjudication process, that is, to the APCD hearing boards. Although the hearing boards are little known to the public, they have tremendous importance for quality throughout the state. …

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Feature selection for driving style and skill clustering using naturalistic driving data and driving behavior questionnaire

With the wide clinical application of 3D ultrasound (US) imaging, automatic location of fetal facial features from US volumes for navigating fetoscopic tracheal occlusion (FETO) surgeries becomes possible, which plays an important role in reducing surgical risk. In this paper, we propose a feature-based method to automatically detect 3D fetal face and accurately locate key facial features without any priori knowledge or training data. The candidates of the key facial features, such as the nose, eyes, nose upper bridge and upper lip are detected by analyzing the mean and Gaussian curvatures of the facial surface. Each feature is gradually identified from the candidates by a boosting traversal scheme based on the spatial relations between each feature. In experiments, all key feature points are detected for each case, and thus a detection success rate of 100% is achieved by using 72 3D US images from a test database of 6 fetal faces in the frontal view and any pose within 15° from the frontal view, and the location error 3. 18 ± 0.91 mm of the detected upper lip for all test data is obtained, which can be tolerated by the FETO surgery. Moreover, this system has a high efficiency and can detect all key facial features in about 625 ms on a quad-core 2.60 GHz computer.

The most important role in the recognition and categorization of predators (as well as other animals) is usually attributed to so-called key features. Under laboratory conditions, we tested the role of yellow eyes (specific for the genus Accipiter in European raptors) and hooked beak (common for all European birds of prey) in the recognition of the sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) by untrained great tits (Parus major) caught in the wild. Using wooden dummies, we interchanged either one of these potential key features or the body of the sparrowhawk (predator) and domestic pigeon (harmless bird). The tested tits showed three types of behaviour in the presence of the dummies: fear, interest without fear, and lack of interest. Eye interchange lowered fear of the sparrowhawk, but did not cause fear of the pigeon. Beak interchange did not lower fear of the sparrowhawk. Eye interchange caused increased interest in both species. Thus, a specific sparrowhawk feature is necessary for correct sparrowhawk dummy recognition but a general raptor feature is not. On the other hand, a specific sparrowhawk feature on a pigeon dummy is not enough to prompt sparrowhawk recognition. Thus, key features play an important, but not exclusive, role in predator recognition. An increased interest in some of the modified dummies implies that the tits have a general concept of a sparrowhawk. The individual variability in behaviour of tits is discussed.

Biological and artificial intelligence (BI and AI) share the fundamental principles of space-time information processing based on symmetry transformation. Therefore, cognitive-science-inspired AI represents a promising area of exploration. A convincing example are the fractal structure of human languages and protein assembly. Biological processes’ temporal and spatial plasticity links them to basic laws of physics. Continuous advances in fundamental physical theories allow understanding of all aspects of space-time symmetry (STS) natively intertwined with the principle of relativity and causality. Spatial aspects of symmetry represented by three sub-domains such as chirality, fractality, and topology, are widely studied in biology. The role of chirality in biology has been analyzed in several recent reviews. However, the fractals and topological states of biological structures is a relatively new and fast-developing branch of science. Here, we trace publications exploring the role of fractal symmetry in all hierarchical states of biological organization, including at the molecular, cellular, morphological, physiological, perceptual, cognitive, and psychological levels. The coverage of the above-listed areas in current studies is sharply unequal and unsystematic. A broad view of biological fractality opens a unique opportunity to discriminate between a healthy state and a wide range of disease conditions. Psychiatric, neurological, and immune disorders are associated with aberrant molecular assembly and morphological changes in neural circuits, suggesting that the chain of chirality/fractality transfer through all levels of physiological organization deserves persistent attention.

Molecular and Physiological Insights into Plant Stress Tolerance and Applications in Agriculture Part 2 is an edited volume that presents research on plant stress responses at both molecular and physiological levels. This volume builds on the previous volume to provide additional knowledge in studies on the subject. Key Features - Explains aspects of plant genetics central to research such as the role of cytosine methylation and demethylation in plant stress responses, and the importance of epigenetic genetics in regulating plant stress responses. - Explores how Late Embryogenesis Abundant proteins affect plant cellular stress tolerance with an emphasis on their molecular mechanisms and potential implications. - Focuses on beneficial microorganisms including rhizobacteria, endophytes, and mycorrhizal fungi, which are expected to be alternative fertilizers with the advantages of being cost-effective, toxin-free, and eco-friendly. - Highlights the potential use of endophytic bacteria for protecting crops against pathogens - Presents an in-depth analysis of the molecular level to understand the impact of ATP-binding cassette transporters on plant defense mechanisms with a discussion of the potential anti-pathogenic agents based on terpenes and terpenoids. The content of the book is aimed at addressing UN SDG goals 2, 12, and 15 to achieve zero hunger and responsible consumption and production, and to sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, respectively. This comprehensive resource is suitable for researchers, students, teachers, agriculturists, and readers in plant science, and allied disciplines.

The formalism of Holographic Space-time (HST) is a translation of the principles of Lorentzian geometry into the language of quantum information. Intervals along time-like trajectories, and their associated causal diamonds, completely characterize a Lorentzian geometry. The Bekenstein-Hawking-'t Hooft-Jacobson-Fischler-Susskind-Bousso Covariant Entropy Principle, equates the logarithm of the dimension of the Hilbert space associated with a diamond to one quarter of the area of the diamond's holographic screen, measured in Planck units. The most convincing argument for this principle is Jacobson's derivation of Einstein's equations as the hydrodynamic expression of this entropy law. In that context, the null energy condition (NEC) is seen to be the analog of the local law of entropy increase. The quantum version of Einstein's relativity principle is a set of constraints on the mutual quantum information shared by causal diamonds along different time-like trajectories. The implementation of this constraint for trajectories in relative motion is the greatest unsolved problem in HST. The other key feature of HST is its claim that, the degrees of freedom localized in the bulk of a diamond are constrained states of variables defined on the holographic screen. This principle gives a simple explanation of otherwise puzzling features of BH entropy formulae, and resolves the firewall problem for black holes in Minkowski space. It motivates a covariant version of the CKN\cite{ckn} bound on the regime of validity of quantum field theory (QFT) and a detailed picture of the way in which QFT emerges as an approximation to the exact theory.

The analysis of Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals plays a very important role in the biomedical domain and has many applications. It is extensively used in the Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) system and can be used for disease diagnosis, disease treatment, etc. The two main technologies of EEG signal analysis is feature extraction and pattern recognition. The key features of EEG signals can be obtained through time-domain and frequency-domain analysis. The wavelet analysis is one kind of time-frequency analysis and has been considered very promising for data compression. The conventional method find wavelet synopsis to minimize the total mean squared error (L2). It cannot control the approximation error of each single data element in the data vector. Usually, the nonlinear classification algorithms perform better than the linears, also more time-consuming in the meantime. In this paper, one method is provided to realize the feature extraction and pattern recognition of EEG signals. The data compression algorithm Fixed-value Shift (F-Shift) proposed by Pang et al. takes a novel method to construct unrestricted Haar wavelet synopsis under uniform norm (L∞) error bound. In their algorithm, the maximum approximation error of each individual element can be bounded by an given error bound. We apply this method to EEG signal compression, thus the key features are obtained. Then a fast nonlinear classification algorithm, one Randomize Neural Network (RNN), is provided to identify different patterns of EEG signals. The experiments indicate that (1) the F-Shift algorithm can compress EEG signals effectively and obtain the key features at the same time and (2) the RNN can discriminate different patterns of EEG signals based on the extracted features.

The twin paradox has played an important role in the history of special relativity (SR). A precise calculation would require the application of the general theory of relativity (GR) but, neglecting the acceleration phases of the traveling twin, even in SR it is possible to find the correct solution without logical contradictions. Nowadays it is well known that the twin thought experiment seems a paradox as a consequence of a naive application of time dilation and the principle of relativity. The twin who goes on space travel is the one who, returning to the twin at rest, finds the aged brother. Continuing in this pedagogical tradition, we want to add a further consideration. In fact, the experiment has always been explained by considering the two twins immersed in Minkowski’s spacetime. It could be interesting, from a didactic point of view, to analyze the same thought experiment without neglecting the Earth’s gravitational field. Indeed, under certain conditions, it may happen that the traveling brother can grow older than his brother at rest.

The development of Lorentz' theory of electrons is reviewed insofar as it relates to the problem of the electrodynamics of moving bodies. It is shown that the principle of relativity did not play an important role in the Lorentz theory, and that though Lorentz eventually realized the distinctions between his own work and that of Einstein, he was unwilling to completely embrace the Einstein formulation and thereby reject the ether.