Physical Necessity Research Articles

WE‐A‐211‐02: Establishing a Modern Radiation Oncology Infrastructure in West Africa Through the Systematic Resolution of the Fundamental Problems Associated with Medicine in the Region

Purpose: To bring together a large number of organizations, companies, foundations, government bodies, and institutions together in the common goal of overcoming the fundamental problems associated with medicine in West Africa and hence creating efficient, safe, and sustainable modern radiation therapy throughout the region. Methods: Radiating Hope‘s project for modernizing radiation therapy across West Africa can be broken down into two major components: supplying the physical necessities of a modern radiation oncology center; and secondly supplying the long‐term support network of knowledge and expertise for the employees of each new center. In order to enable modern radiation treatments in West Africa, the first issue to be resolved is the fundamental issue of creating the necessary modern infrastructure to support the technical demands of modern radiation oncology equipment. The second aspect of establishing a modern workspace is to create (or renovate) the building and supply the necessary modern equipment. Radiating Hope has taken the standpoint that creating a system of radiation oncology centers with similar facilities and equipment will simplify the process of maintenance and support: a single maintenance body can oversee the entire network; the system of facilities will be able to assist each other over time; and any West African facility can receive assistance from any associated non‐African teaching hospital within the network of Radiating Hope. Creating a uniform environment in terms of equipment, facilities, as well as education is the first step in creating sustainable and autonomous radiation oncology centers throughout West Africa. In order to create the necessary support network of knowledge and expertise in all aspects of radiation oncology, Radiating Hope has broken this down into four subcategories: first is the initial support for the implementation of equipment; second is the short‐term and semi‐permanent placement of American and European experts at various facilities; third is the implementation of paid residency positions for non‐Africans as well as West Africans in a number of the fields of radiation oncology; and lastly is the formation of long‐lasting partnerships between the new facilities in West Africa and teaching hospitals in the USA and Europe. Results: Radiating Hope has formed a strong network of 16 partnerships, with two more in the workings. Radiating Hope is in the process of writing grants. Conclusions: In order to most effectively conquer the overwhelming epidemic of cancer throughout West Africa, Radiating Hope has taken the standpoint that uniting the efforts of many organizations, foundations, companies, and institutions in a common goal will transform each party‘s initiative into a single component of a more powerful force.Learning Objectives:1. Understand the fundamental problems associated with a West African radiation oncology environment.2. Understand how to make a significant and sustainable impact on radiation oncology in West Africa.3. Understand the steps in combating the difficulties of radiation oncology in West Africa, as exemplified by the Radiating Hope Organization.

Physical Necessity is Not Necessity Tout Court

The very last of words of Naming and Necessity are ‘The third lecture suggests that a good deal of what contemporary philosophy regards as mere physical necessity is actually necessary tout court. The question how far this can be pushed is one I leave for further work.’ Kripke (1980). To my knowledge he never conducted that further work; moreover, no one following him has wished to take up the baton either. Herein, I argue that in general, physical necessity is neither reducible to, nor implies, tout court necessity. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that even if Kripke’s speculations are restricted to a subset of the physical necessities where it might be granted that all such are necessary tout court, physical necessity is still not reducible to tout court necessity.

Biological education causing science and mathematics teachers-in-training to realize the necessity of mathematics and physics

Biological education causing science and mathematics teachers-in-training to realize the necessity of mathematics and physics

The education of healthcare management: a view from the graduates - Grounded Theory

Aim : To understand the views of nursing students about the education of healthcare management in terms of their academic background. Method: this is a qualitative study developing theory based on a data approach. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 18 students of two different Brazilian universities. To analyze the information, we used open, axial and selective codification. Results: the identification of defined categories: recognizing the interconnections among the subjects helped the client as a whole; associating healthcare management to the understanding of the real physical and mental necessities of the client; understanding healthcare management as a wide and complex activity related to the direct and indirect healthcare of the client, and; related to the fact there is a higher emphasis on the theoretical content compared with the practical, especially regarding healthcare management, which empowers the client with a more humanized and more complete healthcare service. Conclusion: the students understand that management, in the face of institutional demands, is a strategy to develop better healthcare

The new SI based on fundamental constants

The papers in this Discussion Meeting Issue of Philosophical Transactions A are based on the presentations given at a Discussion Meeting held at the Royal Society in London on 24 and 25 January 2011 entitled ‘The new SI: units of measurement based on fundamental constants’. The meeting was

Perspectives on Self-Management in Multiple Sclerosis

The aim of this study was to elucidate the experience of self-management among people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and gather their input to inform a self-management intervention. Twelve people with MS participated in focus groups in which they were asked open-ended questions about MS symptoms, challenges, overcoming challenges, symptom management, and treatment preferences. The results suggest four major themes: 1) "The Everyday Experience of MS," including comments about symptoms and their impact on functioning; 2) "Motivation for Self-Management," including descriptions of motivation originating from physical necessity, success with other management techniques, and external sources; 3) "Coping Strategies and Skills," including descriptions of changing behaviors, expanding social support networks, finding resources, utilizing medical treatment, and monitoring symptoms; and 4) "Vision for a Self-Management Intervention," including suggestions that an intervention be individualized, be motivating, and provide resources. The results of this study can inform the design and implementation of self-management interventions. Experiences described by participants are consistent with other qualitative reports suggesting the active role people with MS play in managing their condition. Intervention approaches must consider the complex constellation of symptoms associated with MS and provide individualized treatments that enhance the person's ability to manage their symptoms, barriers presented by such symptoms, and their health care.

A Spatial Analysis of Population Distribution and Housing Patterns: A Case Study of Abraka in Delta State of Nigeria

The paper examined the spatial patterns of population distribution andhousing in Abraka in Delta State of Nigeria. Population is a vital componentof development in any country including Nigeria. Housing is a physical andsocial necessity of life which holds a place of strategic importance indevelopment. However, the high rate of population growth in Nigeria (3.2%)and associated rural-urban migration contribute largely to housing needs ofthe country. Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. Atotal of 200 questionnaires were administered using the stratified randomsampling technique. The study area was divided into three major zones based on existing quarters in Abraka. The Pearson product moment correlation was used to measure the strength of the relationship between the spatial patterns of population and housing in Abraka. Solutions to identified problems were proffered.

Physical Necessity of a Law of Nature -problems in Armstrong’s system of theories

Physical Necessity of a Law of Nature -problems in Armstrong’s system of theories

The Religion and Science Debate: Why Does It Continue? Edited by Harold W. Attridge and Beyond Kuhn: Scientific Explanation, Theory Structure, Incommensurability, and Physical Necessity. By Edwin H-C. Hung

The Religion and Science Debate: Why Does It Continue? Edited by Harold W. Attridge and Beyond Kuhn: Scientific Explanation, Theory Structure, Incommensurability, and Physical Necessity. By Edwin H-C. Hung

Aging Is Not a Process of Wear and Tear

The idea that bodies wear out with age is so ancient, so pervasive, and so deeply rooted that it affects our thought in unconscious ways. Undeniably, many aspects of aging, e.g., oxidative damage, somatic mutations, and protein cross-linkage are characterized by increased entropy in biomolecules. However, it has been a scientific consensus for more than a century that there is no physical necessity for such damage. Living systems are defined by their capacity to gather order from their environment, concentrate it, and shed entropy with their waste. Organisms in their growth phase become stronger and more robust; no physical law prohibits this progress from continuing indefinitely. Indeed, some animals and many plants are known to grow indefinitely larger and more fertile through their lives. The same conclusion is underscored by experimental findings that various insults and challenges that directly damage the body or increase the rate of wear and tear have the paradoxical effect of extending life span. Hyperactive mice live longer than controls, and worms with their antioxidant systems impaired live longer than wild type. A fundamental understanding of aging must proceed not from physics but from an evolutionary perspective: The body is being permitted to decay because systems of repair and regeneration that are perfectly adequate to build and rebuild a body of ever-increasing resilience are being held back. Regardless of the reason for this retreat, it should be more fruitful to focus on signaling to effect the ongoing activity of systems of repair and regeneration than to attempt repair of the manifold damage left in the wake of their failure.

Ferro-Orbital Order and Strong Magnetic Anisotropy in the Parent Compounds of Iron-Pnictide Superconductors

The puzzling nature of magnetic and lattice phase transitions of iron pnictides is investigated via a first-principles Wannier function analysis of representative parent compound LaOFeAs. A rare ferro-orbital ordering is found to give rise to the recently observed highly anisotropic magnetic coupling, and drive both phase transitions--without resorting to widely employed frustration or nesting picture. The revealed necessity of the additional orbital physics leads to a correlated electronic structure fundamentally distinct from that of the cuprates. In particular, the strong coupling to the magnons advocates active roles of light orbitons in spin dynamics and electron pairing in iron pnictides.

John Maynard Smith’s typology of animal signals: A view from semiotics

Approaches to animal communication have for the most part been quite different in semiotics and evolutionary biology. In this context the writings of a leading evolutionary biologist who has also been attracted to semiotics — John Maynard Smith — are an interesting exception and object of study. The present article focuses on the use and adaptation of semiotic terminology in Maynard Smith’s works with reference to general theoretical premises both in semiotics and evolutionary biology. In developing a typology of animal signals, Maynard Smith employs the concepts of icon, index and symbol to denote distinct signal classes. He uses “indices” or “indexes” to express a signal type where the relation between signal properties and meaning is restricted because of physical characteristics. Such approach also points out the issue of the motivatedness of signs, which has had a long history in semiotics. In the final part of the article the usage and content of the concepts of signal form and meaning in Maynard Smith’s writings are analysed. It appears that in evolutionary biology, the “signal” is a vagueconcept that may denote a variety of things from an animal’s specific physiological status to artificial theoretical constructs. It also becomes evident that in actual usage the concept of signal often includes references to the receiver’s activity and interpretation, which belong rather to the characteristics of sign process. The positive influence of Maynard Smith’s works on semiotics could lie in paying attention to the role of physical necessities in animal communication. Physical constraints and relations also seem to have a significant role in semiotic processes although this is not always sufficiently studied or understood in semiotics.

The Structure of Material Hardship in U.S. Households: An Examination of the Coherence behind Common Measures of Well-Being

Motivated by the growing interest in and the usage of measures of material hardship, together with the lack of a comprehensive theoretical understanding of the how indicators of material hardship relate to one another, we develop and test five conceptual models of the structural coherence of material hardship. While many previous analyses have relied on a unidimensional model of hardship, we argue that this is not conceptually and empirically sufficient. Instead, we compare the standard unidimensional account of hardship to a model that contrasts hardship related to physical necessities and hardship in less critical areas, two models contrasting hardships due to short-term constraints and those with longer time horizons, and finally, a model that posits each nominal type of hardship is best represented by its own latent construct. Using nationally representative data from the 2001 and 2004 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) (U.S. Census Bureau 2001, 2004), we estimate confirmatory factor analyses, which suggest that a model of hardship that separates different dimensions—health, food, bill paying, and housing hardship—fits this data better than any of the other conceptual models tested. This finding suggests strongly that the four aspects of material hardship modeled here, though obviously associated, are best understood as arising from processes and structures that are not identical. We discuss implications of our findings for both the research community and policy makers in the conclusion.

The fabrication of man

is a work that deserves the widest audience. I will begin by summarizingits argument; proceed to build on its insights; and then offer some criticalremarks.FULLER’S ARGUMENTArising early in the 19th century, sociology secularized two key features ofreligious monotheism. The first was the belief that human beings, created inthe likeness of God, occupy a special place in the order of things. The secondwas the notion that God’s dispensation touches all human beings equally,irrespective of social rank or physical status. To these core beliefs, Fullercontinues, the early sociologists affirmed that humanity is more than a meredatum, a creature of fate or physical necessity. It is an active project committedto increasing the sum of human welfare and to asserting greater control overthe arbitrary use of power. Sociology’s role was to record that human projectand guide it. A similar ambition characterized socialism with which sociol-ogy ‘was born joined at the hip’. Common to both normative science andpolitical movement was the belief that humans distinguish themselves fromother animals by their ability to create public institutions (guilds, sects,

Psychological effects of physical deficiencies in the residences on elderly persons: A case study in Trabzon Old Person's Home in Turkey

In this study, elderly persons' physical and spiritual necessities and their satisfaction in their residences are investigated by applying a comprehensive questionnaire on the residents of Trabzon Old Person's Home. By grouping the residents of the home according to their age, gender, marital status, occupation, health conditions, cultural status, and economic conditions, their expectations are determined. Physical conditions of the home are also examined in order to determine whether the necessities of the residents are met or not. The questionnaire consisting of 75 questions is applied to 60 people, and 4500 data points are analyzed by using SPSS software. In the results of this study, physical deficiencies that require elderly persons want to be in Trabzon Old Person's Home are determined. It is also determined that 86.7% of the residents are pleased with living in the old persons' home and they could get used to living in the old persons' home but 73.3% of the residents do not want to send someone in their family to the old person's home. These contradictory results show that residents do not want to live in old person's home but they adapt in there because of compulsoriness. This situation affects the residents' psychological well-being in a negative way.

Of Liberty and Necessity: The Free Will Debate in Eighteenth-Century British Philosophy (review)

Reviewed by: Of Liberty and Necessity: The Free Will Debate in Eighteenth-Century British Philosophy Benjamin Hill James A. Harris. Of Liberty and Necessity: The Free Will Debate in Eighteenth-Century British Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005. Pp. xi + 264. Cloth, $99.00. Early modern historians and philosophers interested in human freedom can profitably read this book, which provides a synoptic view of the eighteenth-century British free will debate from Locke through Dugald Stewart. Scholars have not ignored the debate, but as they have tended to focus on canonical figures (Locke, Hume, and Reid), the author’s inclusion of lesser-known yet significant thinkers such as Lord Kames, Jonathan Edwards, and James Beattie is especially welcome. The main thesis of James Harris’s book is that the eighteenth-century British debate was animated by a general commitment to “experimentalism,” i.e., the view that we should be faithful to the data of our experiences of willing. Locke initiated the turn to experimentalism, but in Harris’s judgment it was Hume who first fully adopted it. Of course, Hume’s deflationary moves did nothing to slow the debate, let alone settle it, and necessitarians (Kames, Edwards, Joseph Priestley, and Alexander Crombie) continued to battle libertarians (Beattie, Reid, James Gregory, and Stewart). An equally important theme in the book is the changing fortunes of the contrary notions of moral and physical necessity. In the beginning, only libertarians (Bramhall and Clarke) ascribed moral necessity to the motives underlying human behavior, over the objections of necessitarians (Hobbes and Collins) that physical necessity is the only sort of necessity. Later, however, necessitarians such as Edwards began utilizing the distinction between moral and physical necessity. The book seems to imply a connection between these two themes and the idea that somehow the commitment to experimentalism, which is lacking in the Hobbes-Bramhall and Collins-Clarke debates, pushed necessitarians toward the distinction between moral and physical necessity, but the nature of that connection remains obscure. In any case, the story is fundamentally one of philosophical failure because the commitment to experimentalism provided these thinkers with no leverage against questions about [End Page 646] our freedom. Despite their new orientation, the debate remained stalled because, Harris suggests, there was “profound disagreement about what exactly it meant . . . ‘to introduce the experimental method of reasoning into moral subjects’.” What makes this a good book are its interesting and provocative discussions of Hume and Reid. Harris sees Hume’s treatment as more revolutionary than most, arguing that it rests on a “contentious” understanding of the copy principle that all simple ideas are copies of impressions—it does not follow from my being unable to identify an idea’s aboriginal impression that the resulting idea is incoherent. And regarding Reid, Harris finds parallels between his common-sense commitments to libertarianism and the possibility of knowledge that suggest his critique of the way of ideas is inadequate without a full defense of libertarianism. To have made this a great book, however, Harris should have engaged the secondary literature more and shown why his interpretations are preferable to the alternatives. He clearly knows the literature and has something to say about it, but his comments are buried in footnotes and tend to be passing notices of differences rather efforts to engage the contrary arguments. The biggest flaw, however, is the book’s failure to demonstrate the impact of the rise of experimentalism, a thesis that looks strained when applied to thinkers after Reid. James Gregory, for example, rejects the experimentalist’s “direct appeals to [our] consciousness” of willing for deciding the issue in favor of a priori arguments, and against the necessitarian’s conception of human agency and causation as constant conjunction. So too, Alexander Crombie defends necessitarianism by postulating that many of our motives are unconscious, contrary to Reid’s experimentalist appeals to motiveless activity. Moreover, there are several thinkers, often though not always necessaritarian (e.g., Richard Price and James Oswald in their arguments from moral responsibility), who utilize speculative theses in their analyses of the experience of willing, which makes one wonder about their commitment to experimentalism. Part of the problem is the way Harris focuses on simply laying out...

Can the Hagedorn phase transition be explained from matrix model for strings?

The partition function of BFSS matrix model is studied for two different classical backgrounds up to 1-loop level. One of the backgrounds correspond to a membrane wrapped around a compact direction and another to a localised cluster of D0-branes. It is shown that, there exist phase transitions between these two configurations - but only in presence of an IR cut-off. The low temperature phase corresponds to a string (wrapped membrane) phase and so we call this the Hagedorn phase transition. While the presence of an IR cut-off seemingly is only required for perturbative analysis to be valid, the physical necessity of such a cut-off can be seen in the dual super-gravity side. It has been argued from entropy considerations that a finite size horizon must develop even in an extremal configuration of D0-branes, from higher derivative O(gs) corrections to super-gravity. It can then be shown that the Hagedorn like transition exists in super-gravity also. Interestingly the perturbative analysis also shows a second phase transition back to a string phase. This is reminiscent of the Gregory-Laflamme instability.

Energy and Symmetry in Language and Yoga

The structures of syllables and of yoga poses are compared. Syllables are tripartite, with sound segments rising in sonority (acoustic energy) to a peak, then falling. Likewise, asanas are tripartite, with symmetrical movements flanking the sustaining, vital energy peak. In both entities, then, symmetric structure flanks energy peaks. This organization is not a physical necessity, but a cognitive preference.

Simulation and experimental investigations for the patch near-field acoustical holography

In order to reconstruct the sound field, the fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based near-field acoustical holography (NAH) demands that the measurement surface must extend to a region where the sound pressure decreases to a low level. This method is unfit for reconstructing the partial sound field in which the measurement aperture size is limited either by physical necessity or as a way of reducing the measurement cost. Statistically optimal NAH (SONAH) performs plane-to-plane calculations directly in the spatial domain, avoids all errors occurred in the FFT-based NAH and significantly increases the accuracy of the reconstruction of the partial sound field. In the present work, combined with the different regularization methods, SONAH is performed for reconstructing the partial sound field. The errors over the central and the peripheral sections of the reconstruction area are researched separately. Simulations and experiments show that SONAH is successful in reconstructing the partial sound field and the errors over the central sections are smaller than that over the peripheral sections. Experiments demonstrate that Tikhonov regularization in conjunction with Engl's criterion is suitable for the reconstruction of the practical sound field.

Time and Bodily Changes in Advanced Prostate Cancer: Talk About Time As Death Approaches

The disease trajectory of living with incurable cancer is characterized by increasing bodily deterioration and problems. In this paper, we have focused on the change in temporal awareness as manifested in the narrations of two men with hormone refractory prostate cancer and skeletal metastases as they approach death. The two men participated in in-depth research interviews during the last part of their lives, sharing a similar disease trajectory with increasing bodily change and decreasing physical function. Both died a lingering, cancer-related death. The first and last research interviews were analyzed using a discourse analytic method. Findings show that the temporal awareness in the interviews changes as the illness progresses and death approaches. In the last interviews, the present is flooded with bodily problems; the past and the future are hardly present except for the future beyond the men's own deaths. Pain, fatigue, nausea, and other symptoms figure largely in this change, and there is no time for much more than attending to bodily needs in a present that is dominated by problems. Here, the importance of alleviating bodily problems once again becomes paramount, and two questions are raised: Is the often reported withdrawal from life, when death is imminent, a physical necessity rather than a psychological one, and is it possible to free time from the time-consuming problems of the present by means of a more concentrated attempt to alleviate these problems?