Psychologists debate whether mental attributes can be quantified or whether they admit only qualitative comparisons of more and less. Their disagreement is not merely terminological, for it bears upon the permissibility of various statistical techniques. This article contributes to the discussion in two stages. First it explains how temperature, which was originally a qualitative concept, came to occupy its position as an unquestionably quantitative concept (§§1–4). Specifically, it lays out the circumstances in which thermometers, which register quantitative (or cardinal) (...) differences, became distinguishable from thermoscopes, which register merely qualitative (or ordinal) differences. I argue that this distinction became possible thanks to the work of Joseph Black, ca. 1760. Second, the article contends that the model implicit in temperature’s quantitative status offers a better way for thinking about the quantitative status of mental attributes than models from measurement theory (§§5–6). (shrink)

BackgroundMoral distress is a problem and negative experience among health-care professionals. Various instruments have been developed to measure the level and underlying reasons for experienced moral distress. The moral distress thermometer (MDT) is a single-tool instrument to capture the level of moral distress experienced in real-time.AimThe aim of this study was to translate the MDT and adapt it to the Swedish cultural context.Research designThe first part of this study concerns the translation of MDT to the Swedish context, and the second (...) part the psychometric testing of the Swedish version.Participants and research context89 healthcare professionals working at a hospital in northern Sweden participated. Convergent validity was tested between MDT and Measure of Moral Distress-Healthcare Professionals (MMD-HP), and construct validity was tested by comparing MDT scores among healthcare professionals. MDT was compared with responses to the final questions in MMD-HP. One-way ANOVA, Welch’s ANOVA, Games–Howell post-hoc test and Pearson’s correlation analysis were done.Ethical considerationsThe study was approved by the Swedish Ethics Review Authority (dnr 2020-04120) in accordance with Helsinki Declaration.ResultsThe translated Swedish version of MDT was described as relevant to capture the experience of moral distress. The mean value for MDT was 2.26, with a median of 2 and a mode value of 0. The result showed moderate correlations between the MDT and MMD-HP total scores. There was a significant difference when comparing MDT and healthcare professionals who had never considered leaving their present position with those who had left and those who had considered leaving but had not done so, with the latter assessing significantly higher moral distress.ConclusionThe MDT is an easily available instrument useful as an extension to MMD-HP to measure the real-time experience of moral distress among healthcare professionals in a Swedish context. (shrink)

I treat you as a thermometer when I use your belief states as more or less reliable indicators of the facts. Should I treat myself in a parallel way? Should I think of the outputs of my faculties and yours as like the readings of two thermometers the way a third party would? I explore some of the difficulties in answering these questions. If I am to treat myself as well as others as thermometers in this way, it (...) would appear that I cannot reasonably trust my own convictions over yours unless I have antecedent reason to suppose that I am more likely than you to get things right. I appeal to some probabilistic considerations to suggest that our predicament as thermometers might not actually be as bad as it seems. (shrink)

My uncle is obsessed with thermometers. I have seen him, in the street, stop in front of a chemist to check whether there would not be a thermometer in the window. Then he would carefully read the temperature. In his house, every room has its own thermometer. There are thermometers hidden in various places in the garden, too. When he is visiting, he often leaves a thermometer somewhere in the house. He may pity his hosts, living without a (...) thermometer at hand. But, more likely, he just wants to make sure that he will be able to read the room temperature next time he comes. He is afraid to be too hot. He thinks that you are more likely to catch viruses when you are hot... (shrink)

I treat you as a thermometer when I use your belief states as more or less reliable indicators of the facts. Should I treat myself in a parallel way? Should I think of the outputs of my faculties and yours as like the readings of two thermometers the way a third party would? I explore some of the difficulties in answering these questions. If I am to treat myself as well as others as thermometers in this way, it (...) would appear that I cannot reasonably trust my own convictions over yours unless I have antecedent reason to suppose that I am more likely than you to get things right. I appeal to some probabilistic considerations to suggest that our predicament as thermometers might not actually be as bad as it seems. (shrink)

We raise two objections to Slote’s article. First, empathy cannot provide information about the world in the direct way Slote proposes. Emotional contagion might be able to do so, but this type of process is different from the empathic one. Second, even if we accept his view of empathy, his claim that we make moral judgments via empathizing with the ‘warmth’ or ‘coldness’ of the actor seems misguided because, we usually empathize with the patient, and we empathize with emotions, not (...) “temperatures”. (shrink)

Environmental problems were not among the core issues for the United Nations at its creation in 1945. In the 1970s, however, they created a crescendo of public concern as the threats posed by toxic chemicals, large-scale destruction of natural ecosystems, and the loss of species became visible and were obviously linked to human activity. Pollution, it was clear, did not stop at national borders and solutions required common effort. As part of the special issue on “The United Nations at Seventy-Five: (...) Looking Back to Look Forward,” this essay explores how, as the only institution equipped to identify global problems and generate collective action toward their resolution, the UN became the platform for creating multilateral environmental agreements, convening global conferences, and mobilizing national and international effort through a progressively larger number of institutions at the national and international level to guide decisions and influence behavior. We have moved the environmental needle in terms of information, institutions, and awareness. Yet, many environmental problems persist, some are getting worse, and new challenges and, indeed, crises are emerging. (shrink)

An early description and illustration of the liquid-in-glass thermometer is found in J. S. Delmedigo's Hebrew work, Ma"yan Ganim . This publication predates by over 20 years the usually accepted date for the invention of this instrument and may in fact constitute its first published description and illustration.

The early history of thermometry is most commonly described as the result of a continuous development rather than the product of a single brilliant mind, and yet scholars have often credited the Italian physician Santorio Santori with the invention of the first thermometers. The purpose of using such instruments within the traditional context of Galenic medicine, however, has not been investigated and scholars have consistently assumed that, being subject to the influence of atmospheric pressure and en­vironmental heat, Santorio’s instruments (...) provided unreliable measurements. The discovery that, as early as 1612, Santorio describes all vacuum-related phenomena as effects of the atmospheric pressure of the air, provides ample room for reconsidering his role in the development of precision instruments and the early history of thermometry in particular. By drawing on a variety of written and visual sources, some unpublished, in the first part of this article I argue that Santorio’s appreciation of phenomena related to the weight of the air allowed him to construct the first thermometers working as sealed devices. Finally, in the second part, I consider Santorio’s use of the thermometer as related to the seventeenth-century medical practice and his way to measure the temperature as based on a wide sample of individuals. (shrink)

Summary At the beginning of the 1730s René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur published two long memoirs on a new type of thermometer equipped with a specially calibrated scale — known ever since as the Réaumur scale. It became one of the most common ‘standardized’ thermometers in Europe until the late nineteenth century. What made this thermometer so successful? What was it specifically? I will first argue that the real Réaumur thermometer as an instrument was a fiction, a ghost — (...) an idealized instrument. On paper, it was theoretically flawless. In reality, the standardized Réaumur thermometer was most likely never achieved. This article shows that its success was essentially due to a recontextualisation from theoretical natural philosophy — Réaumur's principle of uniformity — to: 1) the context of artisanal knowledge and practices and 2) the context of making and reporting in the Mémoires de l'Académie royale des sciences actual measurements done in the field (in Paris at the Observatory, in Provincial France, in the Colonies, and in the rest of Europe). Réaumur's thermometer was essentially a theoretical method to which was associated a particular scale. It was the instrument's reification for market consumption and fieldwork that gave this specific type of thermometer materiality and authority. Although most Réaumur thermometers ever made were strikingly different from one another, over time the thermomètre de Réaumur designation became a brand, a seal of approval born from customary artisanal practices and cultural habitudes. (shrink)

Although gas thermometers have long been the standard against which all other thermometers are checked, English-language physics textbooks usually propose experiments for students to test the linearity of the relationship, at constant pressure, between gas volume and temperature indicated by a mercury thermometer. This absurd exercise receives support from many authoritative textbooks which wrongly associate with Gay-Lussac's classic 1802 paper in Annales de Chimie—in which he announced that all gases have the same mean expansivity over the range 0 (...) to 100°C—a diagram of an apparatus he used, later, to compare mercury thermometers with air thermometers. This confusion is first found in Biot's Traité de Physique and has been perpetuated, with unfortunate consequences, by many subsequent authors. (shrink)

Background: Healthcare providers who are accountable for patient care safety and quality but who are not empowered to actualize them experience moral distress. Interventions to mitigate moral distress in the healthcare organization are needed. Objective: To evaluate the effect on moral distress and clinician empowerment of an established, health-system-wide intervention, Moral Distress Consultation. Methods: A quasi-experimental, mixed methods study using pre/post surveys, structured interviews, and evaluation of consult themes was used. Consults were requested by staff when moral distress was present. (...) The purpose of consultation is to identify the causes of moral distress, barriers to action, and strategies to improve the situation. Intervention participants were those who attended a moral distress consult. Control participants were staff surveyed prior to the consult. Interviews were conducted after the consult with willing participants and unit managers. Moral distress was measured using the Moral Distress Thermometer. Empowerment was measured using the Global Empowerment Scale. Results: Twenty-one consults were conducted. Analysis included 116 intervention and 30 control surveys, and 11 interviews. A small but significant decrease was found among intervention participants, especially intensive care staff. Empowerment was unchanged. Interview themes support the consult service as an effective mode for open discussion of difficult circumstances and an important aspect of a healthy work environment. Conclusions: Moral distress consultation is an organization-wide mechanism for addressing moral distress. Consultation does not resolve moral distress but helps staff identify strategies to improve the situation. Further studies including follow up may elucidate consultation effectiveness. (shrink)

I develop a general framework with a rationality constraint that shows how coherently to represent and deal with second-order information about one's own judgmental reliability. It is a rejection of and generalization away from the typical Bayesian requirements of unconditional judgmental self-respect and perfect knowledge of one's own beliefs, and is defended by appeal to the Principal Principle. This yields consequences about maintaining unity of the self, about symmetries and asymmetries between the first- and third-person, and a principled way of (...) knowing when to stop second-guessing oneself. Peer disagreement is treated as a special case where one doubts oneself because of news that an intellectual equal disagrees. This framework, and variants of it, imply that the typically stated belief that an equally reliably peer disagrees is incoherent, and thus that pure rationality constraints without further substantive information cannot give an answer as to what to do. The framework also shows that treating both ourselves and others as thermometers in the disagreement situation does not imply the Equal Weight view. (shrink)

BackgroundMoral distress (MD) is an emotional and psychological response to morally challenging dilemmas. Moral distress is experienced frequently by nurses in the intensive care unit (ICU) and can result in emotional anguish, work dissatisfaction, poor patient outcomes, and high levels of nurse turnover. Opportunities to discuss ethically challenging situations may lessen MD and its associated sequela.ObjectiveThe purpose of this project was to develop, implement, and evaluate the impact of nursing ethics huddles on participants’ MD, clinical ethics knowledge, work satisfaction, and (...) patient care among ICU nurses.Sample and SettingThe sample, 32 nurses from three ICU settings in an 800-bed tertiary academic medical center, participated in six nursing ethics huddles over a two-month period.MethodsAlvita K. Nathaniel’s Theory of Moral Reckoning guided development of the nursing ethics huddle process.1 The Moral Distress Thermometer was administered at three data points: baseline level of MD, and pre- and post-huddle to determine changes in the subjects’ level of MD.2 Focused content analysis was used to analyze qualitative responses from questionnaires about the subjects’ perception of the effect of the huddles on work satisfaction and patient care. Knowledge attainment was evaluated via open-ended short-answer questions.ResultsOverall, use of nurse-ethicist-led nursing ethics huddles was associated with improved quality of work life, patient care, and clinical ethics knowledge. The change in pre- and post-nursing ethics huddles MD scores was statistically significant (p < 0.0001). (shrink)

This paper describes a practice innovation: the addition of formal weekly discussions of patients with prolonged PICU stay to reduce healthcare providers’ moral distress and decrease length of stay for patients with life-threatening illnesses. We evaluated the innovation using a pre/post intervention design measuring provider moral distress and comparing patient outcomes using retrospective historical controls. Physicians and nurses on staff in our pediatric intensive care unit in a quaternary care children's hospital participated in the evaluation. There were 60 patients in (...) the interventional group and 66 patients in the historical control group. We evaluated the impact of weekly meetings to establish goals of care for patients with longer than 10 days length of stay in the ICU for a year. Moral distress was measured intermittently and reported moral distress thermometer scores fluctuated. "Clinical situations" represented the most frequent contributing factor to moral distress. Post intervention, overall moral distress scores, measured on the moral distress scale revised, were lower for respondents in all categories, and on three specific items. Patient outcomes before and after PEACE intervention showed a statistically significant decrease in PRISM indexed LOS, a statistically significant increase in both code status changes DNR, and in-hospital death, with no change in patient 30 or 365 day mortality. The addition of a clinical ethicist and senior intensivist to weekly inter-professional team meetings facilitated difficult conversations regarding realistic goals of care. The study demonstrated that the PEACE intervention had a positive impact on some factors that contribute to moral distress and can shorten PICU length of stay for some patients. (shrink)

PurposeThe aims of the study were first to investigate the association between illness perception and psychological distress and second to determine whether mindfulness affects psychological distress via illness perception and perceived stress in patients with lung cancer.MethodsAmong 300 patients with lung cancer who participated in this cross-sectional study, 295 patients made valid responses to distress thermometer, the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, and the Perceived Stress Scale between January and July 2021. The possible pathways of mindfulness (...) affecting psychological distress were analyzed based on the structural equation modeling analysis.ResultsA total of 24.4% patients with lung cancer had DT > 4. Illness perception and perceived stress had a direct effect on psychological distress. Mindfulness had a direct effect on illness perception and mindfulness indirectly influenced psychological distress through affecting illness perception alone or simultaneously affecting both the illness perception and perceived stress in patients with lung cancer.ConclusionLung cancer suffered from varying levels of psychological distress. Mindfulness may alleviate psychological distress by reducing the level of illness perception and perceived stress. We suggest developing a comprehensive factor model to clarify potential mechanisms of mindfulness on psychological distress due to the very low effect of mindfulness on psychological distress via illness perception and perceived stress. (shrink)

BackgroundIn the US, many patients forgo recommended care due to cost. The ANA Code of Ethics requires nurses to give care based on need. Therefore, US nurses are compelled to practice in a context which breaches their professional ethical code.Research ObjectivesThis study sought to determine if nurses do care for patients who forgo treatment due to cost (PFTDC) and if so, does this result in an experience of moral distress (MD).Research DesignSemi-structured interviews were transcribed and analyzed using a qualitative content (...) analysis.Participants and Research ContextA convenience sample of 20 nurses in practice for at least one year from a variety of health care setting participated.Ethical ConsiderationsThis project was approved by the Michigan State University Biomedical Institutional Review Board.ResultsThere were 19 female and one male nurse-participants, averaging 47 years old with an average of 10 years in practice. 18 reported caring for PFTDC. These 17 nurse-participants experienced a moderate degree of MD as a result, averaging 5.4 of 10 on the Moral Distress Thermometer. In the interviews, the following themes were identified, strategies to help PFTDC, and the broken US health care system which had the subthemes of preference for business over patient-oriented benefit, PFTDC using the emergency department, and limited support for treatment/management of PFTDC.ConclusionsThe existence of this phenomenon places the profession of nursing in the US in a position of moral compromise and threatens to corrupt the institution of nursing in the US. (shrink)

ObjectivePreviously Mindfulness-Based Swinging Technique 's immediate efficacy for overcoming psychological concerns has recently received empirical support, yet its longer-term efficacy needed to be evaluated among women with breast cancer. The objective of this study was to assess and report the efficacy of MBST intervention among breast cancer patients for hopelessness, anxiety, depression, self-efficacy, oxygen intensity, and heart rate-beats per minute at an 8-week period.MethodThe State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, The Emotion Thermometer, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Disease, and (...) Beck's Hopelessness Scale were used for assessing the intervention's outcome; 149 BC patients were randomly assigned into two groups. The participants in the control group received Cognitive Behavioural Therapy -Cognitive-Disputation for 20 min, and intervention group received MBST intervention. No additional psychological interventions were given between week-1 and week-8.ResultOutcomes of the 8-week post-treatment follow-up exhibited significantly higher improvements in all evaluated-measurements for CG, and some for IG with large effect size in the following: anxiety and depression levels. It increased self-efficacy for managing disease and hopefulness, and saturation levels measured by pulse-meter/oximeter.ConclusionsBoth CBT-CD and MBST have been found to be efficacious interventions to shorten the psychotherapy duration for reducing clinical anxiety and hopelessness as well as increase self-efficacy for BC women. This may have a distinct clinical importance for supporting BC patient's adherence-to-treatment since CBT-CD could be an alternative technique to MBST as a brief intervention. In future studies, the effectiveness of MBST through adapting to virtual reality and other online delivery methods should be examined. (shrink)

AimThe Coronavirus 2019 pandemic represents one of the most catastrophic events of recent times. Due to the hospitals’ emergency situation, the population of healthcare workers was the most affected. Healthcare workers who were exposed to COVID-19 patients are most likely to develop psychological distress and post-traumatic stress disorder. The present study aimed at investigating PTSD in a sample of Italian healthcare workers during this outbreak and to evaluate the effectiveness of the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy with this population.MethodsA (...) total of 744 healthcare workers were included. 587 healthcare workers were treated with EMDR, while the other 157 were not treated. Participants were asked to provide sociodemographic information; the post-traumatic symptomatology was evaluated through Impact of Event Scale-Revised and to investigate the level of intensity of emotional activation was used The Emotion Thermometer at two time points.ResultsThe results obtained between EMDR treatment and non-EMDR treatment were evaluated on only 2 hospitals. Treatment group n = 68 vs. waitlist non-treatment group n = 157. All scores pre- and post-EMDR decreased significantly showing an evident effect of EMDR. The differences between pre- and post-treatment of the IES-R scores of subjects in which EMDR was performed as compared to the scores pre- and post-12 weeks of waiting list subjects in which it was not performed were significantly different.LimitationThe emergency situation did not provide an opportunity to explore further aspects that would have been important for research. One limitation is the use and analysis of only two standardized tests. In addition, other psychopathologies were not investigated as outcome measures. A limitation is the comparison of subjects treated online and de visu. Although the protocol used was the same, the mode of intervention may have influenced the results. In addition, the effectiveness of EMDR treatment was only evaluated at two time points with no possibility of follow-up and the lack of a control group.Discussion/conclusionThe findings of the present study suggest that healthcare workers were at high risk of developing PTSD when confronted with COVID-19 outbreak and suggest the importance of psychological support during this humanitarian emergency. (shrink)

Summary This paper reconceptualizes Thomas Clifford Allbutt's contributions to the making of scientific medicine in late nineteenth-century England. Existing literature on Allbutt usually describes his achievements, such as his design of the pocket thermometer and his advocacy of the use of the ophthalmoscope in general medicine, as independent events; and his work on the development of comparative pathology is largely overlooked. In this paper I focus on this latter aspect. I examine Allbutt's books and addresses and claim that Allbutt argued (...) for the centrality of comparative pathology in the advancement of medical knowledge. He held that diseases should be studied as biological phenomena and that medicine should be made a biological science. He also argued that comparative pathology should be based upon the idea of evolution, and its study should embrace other nineteenth-century sciences including neurology, embryology and bacteriology. Allbutt's writings reveal that his endorsement of comparative pathology, his promotion of the use of the ophthalmoscope and the thermometer in clinical medicine, and his support of the hospital unit system were part of a single programme. All were grounded in his scientific vision of medicine which emphasized a research culture, a stringent nosological attitude and an integration of laboratory sciences and clinical medicine. (shrink)

The unprecedented cultural consciousness after decades of black cultural suppression in the South African public life since the 1990s summons us to the need to harness African ecclesiopolitical symbols in public life. This task is executed at a time when the notions of inter alia, spirituality and Imvuselelo are at the heart of the combustion chambers of our public and political life. Imvuselelo is a thermometer of decolonialist rebellion – the militant spirituality linked with Tiyo Soga – and is a (...) self-combustion escape route in instances of black African epistemicide and violence. The heuristic device of iziko is employed to illuminate and locate the reestablishment and anamnestic praxis of protological life-giving foundations of spirituality in the African universe in our interpretation of Imvuselelo. The notion of imvuselelo is illuminated through iziko to debunk the incompatibilities, disharmonies, incongruences and conflagrations of virtual spirituality in its capture and domestication of the resources of the downtrodden. (shrink)

Accounts of how the concept of temperature has evolved typically cast the story as ancillary to the history of the thermometer or the history of the concept of heat. But then, because the history of temperature is not treated as a subject in its own right, modern associations inadvertently get read back into the historical record. This essay attempts to lay down an authoritative record not of what people in the past thought about what we call ‘temperature’ but of what (...) they thought about what they called ‘temperature’ (or one of its cognates), from medieval times to today. I find that invention of the thermometer had little impact on the concept of temperature. Much more significant were Fahrenheit’s invention of a reliable instrument and William Thomson’s effort to make a degree of temperature a unit of measure. Overlapping definitions of temperature then emerged in the late nineteenth century, and twentieth-century scientific developments forced physicists to reconsider temperature’s conceptual boundaries. It turns out that the concept of temperature has evolved through stages that correspond to four increasingly sophisticated types of measurement. Its maturation and its maturity shed light on the philosophy of conceptual change. (shrink)

The Ultimatum Game is one of the most successful experimental designs in the history of the social sciences. In this article I try to explain this success—what makes it a “paradigmatic experiment”—stressing in particular its versatility. Despite the intentions of its inventors, the Ultimatum Game was never a good design to test economic theory, and it is now mostly used as a heuristic tool for the observation of nonstandard preferences or as a “social thermometer” for the observation of culture‐specific norms. (...) †To contact the author, please write to: Department of Sociology and Philosophy, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Exeter EX4 4DT, UK; e‐mail: [email protected]. (shrink)

Taking the formal analogies between black holes and classical thermodynamics seriously seems to first require that classical thermodynamics applies in relativistic regimes. Yet, by scrutinizing how classical temperature is extended into special relativity, I argue that the concept falls apart. I examine four consilient procedures for establishing the classical temperature: the Carnot process, the thermometer, kinetic theory, and black-body radiation. I argue that their relativistic counterparts demonstrate no such consilience in defining the relativistic temperature. As such, classical temperature doesn’t appear (...) to survive a relativistic extension. I suggest two interpretations for this situation: eliminativism akin to simultaneity, or pluralism akin to rotation. (shrink)

The debate about the passage of time is usually confined to Minkowski‟s geometric interpretation of space-time. It infers the block universe from the notion of relative simultaneity. But there are alternative interpretations of space-time – so-called axiomatic approaches –, based on the existence of „optical facts‟, which have thermodynamic properties. It may therefore be interesting to approach the afore-mentioned debate from the point of view of relativistic thermodynamics, in which invariant parameters exist, which may serve to indicate the passage of (...) time. Of particular interest is the use of entropic clocks, gas clocks and statistical thermometers, which suggest that two observers in Minkowski space-time could agree on an objective passing of time. (shrink)

Nostalgia as one of the complex emotions has been challenged over the past few decades due to its psychological and physiological functions. The present experiment investigates the effect of recalling nostalgic memories on amelioration of homeostatic and health state of people with cardiovascular disease. Method: The participants were 30 patients who were hospitalized for angiography procedure. The research was based on an experimental design with randomized and post-test groups. The instruments used included a thermometer with ° C, a checkout manipulation (...) test, a blood pressure monitor, an ice container and a manual timer, a pain intensity perception scale and Batcho’s nostalgia questionnaire. Results: The results showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups in perceived temperature, the resilience in the face of pain, and the perceived pain. The experimental group perceived higher temperature and showed greater resilience in the face of pain and also lower pain intensity was reported. There was no significant difference in blood pressure between the two groups. Conclusion: The results of this study provide significant evidence for the embodiment emotions hypothesis and positive role of Nostalgia in psychological and physiological homeostatic. Further practical implications of results and suggestions for future research were considered. (shrink)

Tuesday evening, December 27, 1983 …I did go skiing today, though, which is what I want to write about. The temperature is down to –10°C again, on my thermometer, which probably means –12 to –13°C, in real terms. The visibility is still very poor though the wind has stopped. I set off at 2 pm and got home at about 4 pm, which meant skiing in the dark all the time. This wouldn’t have bothered me except that I had an (...) unpleasant adventure in Torssukataq fiord, on the intended route for me New Year’s hike. No more and no less but one of my ski poles went through the ice. I am not sure whether it would have continued all the way down, but it went in deeper than I liked, and I heard and saw water coming up around where it had gone in. I didn’t feel like probing any further, especially in the dark, [so I] just turned in my tracks and, carefully testing the ice with my ski poles, went back as fast as I could. (shrink)

Long before the phrases “climate change” and “butterfly effect” were incorporated into the mainstream literature, these phrases appeared in an appropriate context almost verbatim in the first Chapter of a book entitled “The Emigrant” published in the mid-nineteenth century by Sir Francis Bond Head. Head was Upper Canada’s sixth Lieutenant Governor under King George IV and Queen Victoria. Head claimed that forest wildfires were “changing the climate” of North America as manifested in a warming effect “on the thermometer”. In that (...) author’s account, these fires were provoked by First Nations to create fly-free zones meant to attract game that they could then hunt more readily. Head used language such as “swarms of little flies, strange as it may sound, are, and for many years have been, most materially altering the climate…” which is remarkably reminiscent of E. N. Lorenz’s “butterfly effect” of the theory of chaotic dynamical systems. The historical context and the rationales that may have led Head to use this contemporary environmental language in a proper context are briefly discussed. (shrink)

We show how Berry phase can be used to construct a precision quantum thermometer. An important advantage of our scheme is that there is no need for the thermometer to acquire thermal equilibrium with the sample. This reduces measurement times and avoids precision limitations. We also discuss how such methods can be used to detect the Unruh effect.

ObjectiveHopelessness and depression are strongly associated with suicidality. Given that physical and psychological outcomes can be altered with hope, hope is a therapeutic goal of increasing importance in the treatment of brain tumor patients. Moreover, it is not yet understood which factors affect the perception of hope in brain tumor patients. In addition, it remains uncertain whether lower-grade brain tumor patients suffer less from psycho-oncological distress than higher-grade brain tumor patients.MethodsNeuro-oncological patients were examined perioperatively with the Distress Thermometer and the (...) Herth Hope Index. In addition, psychological comorbidities and an assessment of general psycho-oncological distress were recorded.ResultsSixty-six brain tumor patients were included. No differences between higher- and lower-grade brain tumor patients were observed for general psycho-oncological distress and hope. However, higher-grade brain tumor patients showed a significantly higher level of depression and more negative expectations regarding therapeutic success. The extent of depression correlated negatively with hope.ConclusionUnexpectedly, higher-grade brain tumor patients remained as hopeful as lower-grade brain tumor patients despite the devastating diagnosis, higher levels of depression, and a worse expectation of therapeutic success. Conversely, lower-grade brain tumor patients experience as much psycho-oncological distress as patients with a higher-grade brain tumor, underpinning the imperative need for comprehensive psycho-oncological screening. For all brain tumor patients, considering hope is important to avoid suicides resulting from hopelessness and depression. (shrink)

An earthy smell seeps from the cinderblock room, and a fan in the corner rattles as it circulates the heat. My eyes cross trying to read the square black numbers on the thermometer. I feel achy and tired. I would not be so nervous about the result except that I have been caring for Ebola patients in West Africa.

Clinical Ethics, Ahead of Print. ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to assess if a relationship existed between audiologists’ perceptions of moral distress, occupational wellbeing, and patient-practitioner orientation.DesignThe Moral Distress Thermometer, Health and Safety Executive Management Standards Indicator Tool and Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale was sent out to all audiologists registered with the professional body Audiology Australia.Study sample: A total of 43 audiologists completed the questionnaires.ResultsUsing a multiple linear regression model there was no evidence of a relationship between patient-practitioner orientation and (...) either moral distress or occupational wellbeing. However, an association between higher moral distress and lower occupational wellbeing was demonstrated. The occupational wellbeing subscales of ‘managerial support’, ‘peer support’, ‘relationships’, ‘role’, and ‘change’ were strongly associated with poorer scores on moral distress.ConclusionFor our sample of audiologists, ethical conflict appeared to be linked to reduced job satisfaction. There is a need to consider ways of providing supportive organisational structures in which ethical conflicts can be openly discussed and negotiated in order to improve occupational wellbeing in the profession. (shrink)

Theories of action tend to require agents to have mental representations. A common trope in discussions of artificial intelligence (AI) is that they do not, and so cannot be agents. Properly understood there may be something to the requirement, but the trope is badly misguided. Here we provide an account of representation for AI that is sufficient to underwrite attributions to these systems of ownership, action, and responsibility. Existing accounts of mental representation tend to be too demanding and unparsimonious. We (...) offer instead a minimalist account of representation that ascribes only those features necessary for explaining action, trimming the “extra” features in existing accounts (e.g., representation as a “mental” phenomenon). Our account makes ‘representation’ whatever it is that, for example, the thermostat is doing with the thermometer. The thermostat is disposed to act as long as the thermometer is outside a given range of parameters.. Our account allows us to offer a new perspective on the ‘responsibility gap’, a problem raised by the actions of sophisticated machines: because nobody has enough control over the machine’s actions to be able to assume responsibility, conventional approaches to responsibility ascription are inappropriate. We argue that there is a distinction between finding responsible and holding responsible and, in order to resolve the responsibility gap, we must first clarify the conceptual terrain on which agent is in fact responsible. (shrink)

It is wholly uncontroversial that measurements-or, more properly, propositions that are measurement reports-are often paradigmatically good cases of propositions that serve the function of evidence. In normal cases it is also obvious that stating such a report is an utterly pedestrian case of successful assertion. So, for example, there is nothing controversial about the following claims: (1) that a proposition to the effect that a particular thermometer reads 104C when properly used to determine the temperature of a particular patient is (...) evidence that the patient in question has a fever and (2) that there is nothing wrong with asserting the proposition that a particular thermometer reads 104C for appropriate reasons of communication, etc. when the thermometer has been properly used to determine the temperature of a particular patient. Here it will be shown that Timothy Williamson’s commitments to a number of principles about knowledge and assertion imply that a whole class of utterly ordinary statements like these that are used as evidence are not really evidence because they are not knowledge and so are (perversely) unassertable according to his principled commitments. This paper deals primarily with the second of these two problems and an alternative account of the norms of assertion is introduced which allows for the assertability of such measurement reports. (shrink)