Primary Axioms Research Articles

The Deterioration of the Human Genome Through Mutation Accumulation

Mutations are held inside the human genome, which serves as an instruction manual for our body. The genome contains our total genetic parts, including our nucleotides, chromosomes, genes, DNA, and RNA. With the human mutation rate displaying a directly proportional relationship to each generation, concern has arisen amongst biologists. When looking at the continued accumulation of mutations, one could expect progressive decay within every function of humanity. However, the Primary Axiom would not be able to arise from this perspective. The Primary Axiom is an idea shaped by Neo-Darwinism, which states that the human race was born from one initial genome after a series of mutations and natural selection. In this paper we will review the deleterious nature of mutations and the continued deterioration of the human genome since its inception. I will start by explaining the effects of the continued accumulation of various mutations, and go on to address the process of natural selection.

Rationing rules for risky claims

We study rationing rules in a scenario where individuals have state-contingent claims over a resource. The rules must allocate shares before the resolution of uncertainty. We begin by characterizing ex-ante rules based on how they handle the inherent uncertainty in individual claims. The key axiom is “No Penalty for Risk”, which states that the rule should not penalize an individual if a situation differs from another only in terms of the presence of risk in the former situation compared to the latter situation’s riskless claim. Regarding ex-post characterizations, our primary axiom is “Indifference to Independent Combination of Gambles”. If an individual has risk-neutral expected utility preferences, any rule that makes them indifferent between a given rationing problem and a corresponding independent combination of gambles between a degenerate gamble and a zero game (any rationing problem with a zero endowment) must be in the ex-post form. Lastly, we provide a partial comparative static result that supports the claim that individuals generally prefer ex-ante rules to ex-post rules when the resource level is low enough.

On the quest for defining organisational plasticity: a community modelling experiment

PurposeThis viewpoint article is concerned with an attempt to advance organisational plasticity (OP) modelling concepts by using a novel community modelling framework (PhiloLab) from the social simulation community to drive the process of idea generation. In addition, the authors want to feed back their experience with PhiloLab as they believe that this way of idea generation could also be of interest to the wider evidence-based human resource management (EBHRM) community.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used some workshop sessions to brainstorm new conceptual ideas in a structured and efficient way with a multidisciplinary group of 14 (mainly academic) participants using PhiloLab. This is a tool from the social simulation community, which stimulates and formally supports discussions about philosophical questions of future societal models by means of developing conceptual agent-based simulation models. This was followed by an analysis of the qualitative data gathered during the PhiloLab sessions, feeding into the definition of a set of primary axioms of a plastic organisation.FindingsThe PhiloLab experiment helped with defining a set of primary axioms of a plastic organisation, which are presented in this viewpoint article. The results indicated that the problem was rather complex, but it also showed good potential for an agent-based simulation model to tackle some of the key issues related to OP. The experiment also showed that PhiloLab was very useful in terms of knowledge and idea gathering.Originality/valueThrough information gathering and open debates on how to create an agent-based simulation model of a plastic organisation, the authors could identify some of the characteristics of OP and start structuring some of the parameters for a computational simulation. With the outcome of the PhiloLab experiment, the authors are paving the way towards future exploratory computational simulation studies of OP.

Axioms of Morality


 
 
 Foundationalism states that philosophy must begin from basic building blocks and construct arguments based on these. The axioms of existence, consciousness, and identity are three primary axioms which cannot be denied without being self-defeating. These axioms are also common to all human life. This paper explores ways to construct moral principles and virtues from these foundational cornerstones.
 
 

Common Adverse Effects and Complications of Long-Term Opioid Therapy.

This Supplement to Pain Medicine emerges from the editors' and authors' longstanding commitment to the primary axiom of Medicine: first do no harm (nonmaleficence). There is no question that opioids can and do have serious adverse effects, even when used correctly and for justifiable reasons. For that purpose alone, it is important to review the exigent literature on the effects of long-term opioid use and critically analyze outcomes in order to provide clarity and guidance for practitioners who care for patients with debilitating pain conditions. The burgeoning rate of prescription opioid misuse, …

Elimination of the Incompleteness of Classical Dynamics

We have deductively and rigorously confirmed the Poincare recurrence theorem also for bifurcating and branching solutions of differential equations. We have shown that the standard Newton mechanics (SNM) is incompatible with the Boltzmann H-theorem (BHT), thus being incomplete. Metamathematics demands that the primary axioms of SNM should be changed. It appears that BHT is compatible with the realistic mechanics, in which the standard Liouville equation (SLE) is replaced by the complete Liouville equation reducible to the SLE only for stable motions. a a a b b b a a a b b b b ab ab a b a b a b a b a b b a b

Ethics and Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs

Socratic ethics is a useful heuristic model for understanding the ethical presuppositions behind the variegated advice and observations in the book of Proverbs. The ethics of both rest on three principles: (1) virtue is knowledge; (2) no one does wrong willingly; and (3) all virtues are one. Socrates states these principles; Proverbs assumes them. Underlying these principles is the primary axiom of sapiential ethics, namely that the exercise of the human mind is the necessary and sufficient condition of right and successful behavior.

Can We Assume Research Participants are Utility Maximisers?

Rational: Preference elicitation techniques are extensively used in economic evaluations to evaluate, guide service provision and budget allocation of finite resources. These preference elicitation techniques are based upon the implicit assumption of utility theory and its primary axiom of utility maximisation. Objectives: Experimentally test by means of an information manipulation if utility maximisation is being used in relation to the hypothetical decision of participating in cancer genetic testing and counselling. Methods: A repeated measures information manipulation experiment was conducted with a sample of 158 (142 after exclusions) first year undergraduate students. Participants were randomised into positive, negative and control groups. The positive group were given information on detection and prevention of genetic breast cancer, the two negative groups received the same information in addition to information on the limitations of these methods (2 groups were used to prevent a primacy effect), and the control group were given information relating to the common cold. Results: Statistical analysis using repeated measures GLM and examination of descriptive statistics revealed that the information manipulation did not induce the hypothesised changes in, the perceived benefits and barriers respondents associated with genetic testing and counselling for breast cancer, or respondents likelihood of opting to have testing and counselling. Correlation revealed a small to moderate relationship between the ratio of benefits and barriers associated with testing and counselling and the likelihood of opting to have testing and counselling at baseline (r=0.191, p<0.05) and follow-up (r=0.404, p<0.001). Discussion & Conclusions: There was no evidence of utility maximisation, the key tenet of utility theory, being used. The results of the current experiment cast further doubt upon the merits of utility theory as a descriptive model. There is a need to conduct further research into utility theory in its various forms as soon as possible, as until the uncertainty relating to its descriptive validity are resolved, all analytical techniques based upon it are potentially invalid.

The More We Know, the More We See

The role of visual perception in media literacy is paramount in understanding the shift from a linear perceptual process (literacy) to a holistic perceptual process (visuality) by which almost all information is now transmitted through the visual forms of mass media: television, film, and the Internet. The media-literate individual must be educated in the processes of visual perception and how the media use the visual channels to transmit, and often distort, information. The media-literate person understands the meaning of the primary axiom of visual communication—The more we know the more we see—as well as the next most important axiom: What is not seen is as important as what is seen.

Monotonicity with volume of entropy and of mean entropy for translationally invariant systems as consequences of strong subadditivity

We consider some questions concerning the monotonicity properties of entropy and mean entropy of states on translationally invariant systems (classical lattice, quantum lattice and quantum continuous). By taking the property of strong subadditivity, which for quantum systems was proven rather late in the historical development, as one of four primary axioms (the other three being simply positivity, subadditivity and translational invariance) we are able to obtain results, some new, some proved in a new way, which appear to complement in an interesting way results proved around thirty years ago on limiting mean entropy and related questions. In particular, we prove that as the sizes of boxes in Z^n or R^n increase in the sense of set inclusion, (1) their mean entropy decreases monotonically and (2) their entropy increases monotonically. Our proof of (2) uses the notion of m-point entropies which we introduce and which generalize the notion of index of correlation (see e.g. R. Horodecki, Phys. Lett. A 187 p145 1994). We mention a number of further results and questions concerning monotonicity of mean entropy for more general shapes than boxes and for more general translationally invariant (/homogeneous) lattices and spaces than Z^n or R^n.

Sialolithiasis: Case studies and review

Three cases of sialolithiasis are presented, each representative of acute and chronic presentations of this problem. The evaluation and treatment of salivary gland and duct stones are outlined. The primary axiom is, “Treat the gland, not the stone,” and the essential aspects of emergency medical management are antibiotics, sialogogues, warm compresses, mechanical stimulation, and appropriate referral to an otolaryngologist.

Comment: The Basis for Selection of Hormonal Addition or Subtraction

The stimulus for progressive proliferation in human breast cancer depends on the hormonal secretions which influence normal mammary growth. The alteration of the hormonal milieu is known to modify the proliferation pattern of tumor cells for varying periods of time. The difficulty is that 50% of all breast cancers are primarily hormone-independent and nonresponsive to hormone therapy, while an increasing proportion of hormone-dependent tumors develop secondary independence during their course.³⁰The availability of modalities for varying the hormonal environment are many and the clinician managing the patient with disseminated cancer generally follows a scheme in which he sequentially selects the addition or subtraction of hormones. Let us examine the rationale for selection and study the physiologic vs the pragmatic factors influencing our choice. The primary axiom is alteration of the existent hormone state. The choice of ablative procedures in the premenopausal woman is logical in that hormone deprivation, specifically

Natural Science for Schools

I WAS glad to see that “Science Master” had pointed out some of the difficulties in the way of applying the principles laid down in Prof. Armstrong's valuable paper in your number for November 6 (p. 19). The difficulties to which he has adverted relate mainly to those gratuitously thrown in the way of sound and useful practical teaching in grammar-schools by boards of examiners. Another difficulty I ventured to point out in the brief discussion upon Prof. Armstrong's paper at the Educational Conference of the International Health Exhibition, but it did not receive the attention which I think it deserved—partly, perhaps, owing to press of business, and partly, perhaps, also to the fact of the naturally somewhat strong representation of South Kensington interests at a conference held within the shadow of the Brompton Boilers. Prof. Armstrong appeared specially to recommend his mode of teaching “in science classes, such as those held under the auspices of the Science and Art Department,” and towards the end of his paper he seems to recognise only one difficulty in the way of introducing it generally, viz. it “undoubtedly involves more trouble to the teacher than that ordinarily followed,” and he appears to hint that the present method is mainly due to the incapacity of the teacher, as he says, “I do not believe that it is because the Department consider it” (the system) “a satisfac tory one; but they know full well that it would be unwise to legislate far in advance of the intelligence and powers of the majority of the teachers,” There are many teachers who are only too anxious to teach, not chemistry merely, but physics and other branches of science upon a sensible system, and who would willingly take considerable trouble to attain that end, but the difficulty is that, were they to do so, they would not get paid for their work. The insane system of payment by results is responsible for the greater part of the bad and indifferent teaching of science in this country, and the real trouble is, not that something better is in advance of the intelligence and powers of the majority of teachers, but that it is in advance of the intelligence and powers of the majority of examiners. The Department accept as their primary axiom that no teaching is to be paid for except that which can be exactly tested and appraised by certain examiners; and so no teaching, whatever its educational value, is counted worth anything by them except that which is susceptible of being weighed and measured. I took the liberty at the discussion of asking Prof. Armstrong whether he had ever taught a class on his methods, and if that class was presented to the Department for examination, and if so what was paid for it, and I made bold to express my own opinion that the result would be either nil or despicably small. My question received no answer, but I got plentifully snubbed—firstly, that a science teacher should even think of such a subject as remuneration, and secondly, I was informed that practical teaching always paid best. But as it appeared that my critics had misapprehended the point at issue, and were not speaking of the kind of teaching advocated by Prof. Armstrong at all, but thought that practical teaching meant allowing the class to see certain experiments performed by the teacher himself—a mode of teaching which I am quite agreed with the reader of the paper in considering quite unpractical—I did not feel satisfied that my question was answered, and with your permission will again propound it. It is not a sufficient answer to say that the most practical teachers earn the best results—I am a science teacher of quite sufficiently long experience to know that—provided it is strictly on the lines laid down by the Department. What I doubt is whether sensible practical teaching would produce any pecuniary results.