The National Center for Biomedical Ontology is a consortium that comprises leading informaticians, biologists, clinicians, and ontologists, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap, to develop innovative technology and methods that allow scientists to record, manage, and disseminate biomedical information and knowledge in machine-processable form. The goals of the Center are (1) to help unify the divergent and isolated efforts in ontology development by promoting high quality open-source, standards-based tools to create, manage, and use ontologies, (2) to create (...) new software tools so that scientists can use ontologies to annotate and analyze biomedical data, (3) to provide a national resource for the ongoing evaluation, integration, and evolution of biomedical ontologies and associated tools and theories in the context of driving biomedical projects (DBPs), and (4) to disseminate the tools and resources of the Center and to identify, evaluate, and communicate best practices of ontology development to the biomedical community. Through the research activities within the Center, collaborations with the DBPs, and interactions with the biomedical community, our goal is to help scientists to work more effectively in the e-science paradigm, enhancing experiment design, experiment execution, data analysis, information synthesis, hypothesis generation and testing, and understand human disease. (shrink)

In a review of the cell biology and heredity studies of 1900–1910, Bernardino Fantini argues that the choice of an experimental subject or organism was crucial in opening up new discoveries and new theories for specific fields of research.69 Thinking on a broader level, Bütschli expressed a similar view when he stated that an understanding of the true nature and structure of the “elementary organism” was crucial to the whole of biology. In this article we have traced the impact of (...) Bütschli's unicellular model of protozoa up to the general acceptance of the eukaryotic cell as nature's primary organism. We have also seen that Bütschli's vision in the Studien gave birth to Protistenforschung and Zellforschung, sister sciences whose task it was to further and integrate knowledge of the living cell. Of necessity, we have confined ourselves to German scientific developments. However, our attempt to recapture and define the unity and meaning of a biology of the “cell-microcosm” has given us pause to reconsider the development and nature of Wilhelmian biological science. (shrink)

Conscience and Conscientious Objection of Health Care Professionals Refocusing the Issue Content Type Journal Article Pages 351-364 DOI 10.1007/s10730-009-9113-x Authors Natasha T. Morton, The University of Western Ontario Ontario Canada N6A 5B9 Kenneth W. Kirkwood, Arthur and Sonia Labatt Health Sciences Building London Ontario Canada N6A 5B9 Journal HEC Forum Online ISSN 1572-8498 Print ISSN 0956-2737 Journal Volume Volume 21 Journal Issue Volume 21, Number 4.

Natasha McKeever argues that prima facie, a friends-with-benefits relationship can be, at the same time, a good friendship. This is because sex is compatible with friendship in that it can complement and potentially even strengthen the three core characteristics of friendship: mutual liking, mutual caring, and mutual sharing. She acknowledges that, by generating uncertainty and having the potential to generate feelings of romantic love, sex does pose risks to friendship. However, she argues that while these risks are significant considerations, (...) they can be mitigated and managed and so do not provide strong reasons against friends-with-benefits relationships. (shrink)

(2013). Open Access Digital Data Sharing: Principles, Policies and Practices☆. Social Epistemology: Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 47-67. doi: 10.1080/02691728.2012.760663.

In Canada, much media attention has recently been focused on the formation of arbitration tribunals that would use Islamic law or Sharia to settle civil matters in Ontario. In fact, the idea of private parties voluntarily agreeing to arbitration using religious principles or a foreign legal system is not new. Ontario's Arbitration Act has allowed parties to resolve disputes outside the traditional court system for some time. This issue has been complicated by the fact that Canada has a commitment to (...) upholding both a policy of multiculturalism and an international obligation towards women's rights. Although these values need not necessarily conflict, in this context, they have carried a tension that must be reconciled. This paper will examine the legal implications of faith-based arbitration tribunals in family law, with a particular emphasis on the impact that Sharia could have on Muslim women in Ontario. (shrink)

Early life -- The decline of Athens -- The making of a philosopher -- A self-proclaimed gadfly -- Socrates on trial -- Socrates' execution and legacy.

To be a teacher of literature at a university today is to occupy a problematic position in the production and codification of knowledge - a fact that has generated a great deal of critical comment in recent years. But this position in its problematic dimensions is not necessarily new. The teacher of literature has always been a propagator of an aberrant science - yet a science that in its aberrations has more to do with the methodological problems of the natural (...) sciences than is usually credited. In this article the author approaches an initial statement of what makes the study of literature aberrant in this way, and in the process, elaborates upon a central dynamic of teaching literature that draws its strength from such scientific aberrance. In the process he moves towards a statement of the role played by an aberrant science in negotiating cultural identity. (shrink)

Harry Frankfurt has a comprehensive and, at times, compelling, account of love, which are outlined in several of his works. However, he does not think that romantic love fits the ideal of love as it ‘includes a number of vividly distracting elements, which do not belong to the essential nature of love as a mode of disinterested concern’. In this paper, I argue that we can, nonetheless, learn some important things about romantic love from his account. Furthermore, I will suggest, (...) conversely, that there is distinct value in romantic love, which derives from the nature of the relationship on which it is based. Frankfurt tries to take agape and reformulate it so that it can also account for love of particular people. Whilst he succeeds, to some extent, in describing parental love, he fails to accurately describe romantic love and friendship, and, moreover, overlooks what is distinctly valuable about them. Although it was not his intention to describe romantic love, by failing to include features such as reciprocity in his account of love, Frankfurt leaves no room for a kind of love that is important and valuable to many people. (shrink)

We investigate the effects of various forcings on several forms of the Halpern– Läuchli theorem. For inaccessible κ, we show they are preserved by forcings of size less than κ. Combining this with work of Zhang in [17] yields that the polarized partition relations associated with finite products of the κ-rationals are preserved by all forcings of size less than κ over models satisfying the Halpern– Läuchli theorem at κ. We also show that the Halpern–Läuchli theorem is preserved by <κ-closed (...) forcings assuming κ is measurable, following some observed reflection properties. (shrink)

This paper describes how to ethically conduct research with Black populations at the intersection of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement. We highlight the issues of historical mistrust in the USA and how this may impact Black populations’ participation in COVID-19 vaccination trials. We provide recommendations for researchers to ethically engage Black populations in research considering the current context. Our recommendations include understanding the impact of ongoing trauma, acknowledging historical context, ensuring diverse research teams and engaging in open and (...) honest conversations with Black populations to better address their needs. The core of our recommendation is recognising the impact of trauma in our research and health care practices. (shrink)

In this chapter, Natasha McKeever and Luke Brunning consider (sexual) jealousy in romantic life. They argue that jealousy is best understood as an emotional response to the threatened loss of love or attention, to which one feels deserving, because of a rival. Furthermore, the general value of jealousy can be questioned, and jealousy’s instrumental value needs to be balanced against a range of potential harms. They assess two potential ways of managing jealousy (which are not mutually exclusive)—firstly by adopting (...) a policy of monogamy and secondly by engaging in emotional work. Neither of these methods is easy, and neither will solve jealousy altogether, but Brunning and McKeever argue that the second strategy should be taken more seriously. (shrink)

The afterword discusses how this special issue’s articles work from different angles to unsettle the precepts of “attentional sovereignty” — the socially, politically, and economically valorized virtue that anchors most discussions over attention in its contemporary technological predicament. Whether the attentional sovereign appears in its liberal humanist or its neoliberal behavioral economic guise, sovereignty is valorized and considered under threat. By revealing the contemporary and historical backstories to our investment in this notion, these articles shift the terms of the debate (...) around the attention crisis and clear space for thinking anew about the possibilities and limits of attention today. (shrink)

Coalition announcement logic is one of the family of the logics of quantified announcements. It allows us to reason about what a coalition of agents can achieve by making announcements in the setting where the anti-coalition may have an announcement of their own to preclude the former from reaching its epistemic goals. In this paper, we describe a PSPACE-complete model checking algorithm for CAL that produces winning strategies for coalitions. The algorithm is implemented in a proof-of-concept model checker.

In this article, we study a minimal change approach to preference dynamics. We treat a set of preferences as a special kind of theory, and define minimal change preference contraction and revision operations in the spirit of the Alchourrón, Gärdenfors, and Makinson theory of belief revision. We characterise minimal contraction of preference sets by a set of postulates and prove a representation theorem. We also give a linear time algorithm which implements minimal contraction by a single preference. We then define (...) minimal contraction by a set of preferences, and show that the problem of a minimal contraction by a set of preferences is NP-hard. (shrink)

In some cultures, people tend to believe that it is very important to be sexually exclusive in romantic relationships and idealise monogamous romantic relationships; but there is a tension in this ideal. Sex is generally considered to have value, and usually when we love someone we want to increase the amount of value in their lives, not restrict it without good reason. There is thus a call, not yet adequately responded to by philosophers, for greater clarity in the reasons §why (...) it might be reasonable for a couple to adopt a policy of sexual exclusivity. This article argues that we cannot justify the demand for sexual exclusivity by a need to protect the relationship from the risk of one partner ‘trading-up’, or by appealing to jealousy. However, sexual exclusivity can be intelligible if it supports the romantic relationship and helps to distinguish it from other relationships. Nonetheless, sexual exclusivity ought not to be the hegemonic social norm that it currently is in some societies because this diminishes the potential value it might have and gives the idea of faithfulness the wrong focus. (shrink)

This book explores the ethical problems of algorithmic bias and its potential impact on populations that experience health disparities by examining the historical underpinnings of explicit and implicit bias, the influence of the social determinants of health, and the inclusion of racial and ethnic minorities in data. Over the last twenty-five years, the diagnosis and treatment of disease have advanced at breakneck speeds. Currently, we have technologies that have revolutionized the practice of medicine, such as telemedicine, precision medicine, big data, (...) and AI. These technologies, especially AI, promise to improve the quality of patient care, lower health care costs, improve patient treatment outcomes, and decrease patient mortality. AI may also be a tool that reduces health disparities; however, algorithmic bias may impede its success. This book explores the risks of using AI in the context of health disparities. It is of interest to health services researchers, ethicists, policy analysts, social scientists, health disparities researchers, and AI policy makers. (shrink)

Sex work is highly gendered, with 80 percent of sex workers being female, and the vast majority of buyers of sex being male. It is often taken for granted that this is how it is, and implicit in much of the debate around sex work is the assumption that it is inherently gendered. In this paper, I question this assumption, drawing on sociological research to challenge arguments which purport that it is inconceivable that women would ever want to pay for (...) sex, or that sex work would exist under conditions of gender equality. I argue that gendered sexual norms likely are a significant reason for why sex work is so gendered, but sex work would probably continue to exist under conditions of gender equality, due to the diversity in motivations people have for buying and selling sex. Acknowledging that sex work is not inherently gendered is important for (at least) two reasons. First, it is probable that the gendered nature of sex work contributes to the stigma and bad treatment that sex workers, particularly female ones, face. Secondly, if sex work is not inherently gendered, this will have implications for how we should think about it, morally, practically, and legally. (shrink)

Relative to a hyperstrong cardinal, it is consistent that measure one covering fails relative to HOD. In fact it is consistent that there is a superstrong cardinal and for every regular cardinal κ, κ + is greater than κ + of HOD. The proof uses a very general lemma showing that homogeneity is preserved through certain reverse Easton iterations.

There exists a considerable body of work on epistemic logics for resource-bounded reasoners. In this paper, we concentrate on a less studied aspect of resource-bounded reasoning, namely, on the ascription of beliefs and inference rules by the agents to each other. We present a formal model of a system of bounded reasoners which reason about each other’s beliefs, and investigate the problem of belief ascription in a resource-bounded setting. We show that for agents whose computational resources and memory are bounded, (...) correct ascription of beliefs cannot be guaranteed, even in the limit. We propose a solution to the problem of correct belief ascription for feasible agents which involves ascribing reasoning strategies , or preferences on formulas, to other agents, and show that if a resource-bounded agent knows the reasoning strategy of another agent, then its ascription of beliefs to the other agent is correct in the limit. (shrink)

Refugees and asylum seekers may experience challenges related to pre-arrival experiences, structural disadvantage after migration and during resettlement requiring the need for special protection when participating in research. The aim was to review if and how people with refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds have had their need for special protection addressed in national and international research ethics guidelines. A systematic search of grey literature was undertaken. The search yielded 2187 documents of which fourteen met the inclusion criteria. Few guidelines addressed (...) specific ethical considerations for vulnerable groups much less people with refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds. One guideline explicitly addressed vulnerability for refugees and asylums seekers. To ensure members of ethics committees and researchers consider the potential challenges of conducting research with these groups, guidelines may need to be supplemented with a refugee and asylum seeker specific research ethics framework. Such a framework may be necessary to optimally protect people with refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds in research. (shrink)

It is usually taken for granted that romantic relationships will be sexual, but it seems that there is no necessary reason for this, as it is possible for romantic relationships to not include sex. Indeed, sometimes sex is a part of a romantic relationship for only a relatively short period of it. Furthermore, scientific explanations of the link between sex and love don’t seem fully satisfying because they tell us only about the mechanics of sex, rather than its meaning or (...) phenomenology. Therefore, the question of why it is that the archetypal romantic relationship includes sex, calls for philosophical analysis, yet it has been under-explored in philosophy. In this paper, I attempt to remedy this. I argue that sex is important to romantic love because it partly constitutes, builds, and expresses four of the central goods of a romantic relationship: 1) pleasure, 2) union, 3) intimacy, and 4) vulnerability and care. Thus, sex can be, and often is, an important vehicle for romantic love, though it is not essential for it. (shrink)

This paper argues that there are important irrational elements to love. In the philosophical literature, we typically find that love is either thought of as rational or arational and that any irrational elements are thought to be defective, or extraneous to love itself. We argue, on the contrary, that irrationality is in part connected to what we find valuable about love. -/- We focus on 3 basic elements of love: -/- 1) Whom you love 2) How much you love them (...) 3) How much of a role love plays in your life -/- And in each case, we argue that love can be irrational and valuable. (shrink)

The effective reasoning capability of an agent can be defined as its capability to infer, within a given space and time bound, facts that are logical consequences of its knowledge base. In this paper we show how to determine the effective reasoning capability of an agent with limited memory by encoding the agent as a transition system and automatically verifying whether a state where the agent believes a certain conclusion is reachable from the start state. We present experimental results using (...) the Model Based Planner (MBP) which illustrates how the length of the deduction varies for different memory sizes. (shrink)

This paper establishes a connection between structure sensitive categorial inference and classical modal logic. The embedding theorems for non-associative Lambek Calculus and the whole class of its weak Sahlqvist extensions demonstrate that various resource sensitive regimes can be modelled within the framework of unimodal temporal logic. On the semantic side, this requires decomposition of the ternary accessibility relation to provide its correlation with standard binary Kripke frames and models.

For many families, the idea of going out for walks and family adventures can be a dream that is erased by the determination of autistic spectrum in a child. Gaps in the health and quality of life of young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are well documented. One particularly noticeable gap that affects both physical health and quality of life is in the area of outdoor recreation, particularly including outdoor recreation activities such as biking, hiking, running, canoeing/kayaking, horseback riding, (...) and skiing. Of the many outdoor activities to promote physical fitness, hiking is perhaps the most versatile and accessible for people with ASD. Hiking is a natural extension of walking. It is one of the first skills we acquire, one of the most important activities in everyday life and one of the few forms of recreation that does not require specific equipment and conditions. On the other hand, except for perhaps the most densely populated urban areas, there are almost always trails nearby. Lately even urban hikes that move around the city are becoming more and more popular. Whether you’re climbing the mountains at an expert level or hiking a trail, hiking gets your kids moving, which is of utmost importance in our modern society, when childhood seems to be filled more and more with time spent in front of the screens, and for children with autism this can become a serious problem. The main goal of this paper, on the one hand, is to increase awareness of the importance of hiking for psychophysical health, both for people from the general population and for people with ASD, but also to give recommendations for the approach and the way of organizing hiking activities for people with ASD, on the other hand. (shrink)

Agents which perform inferences on the basis of unreliable information need an ability to revise their beliefs if they discover an inconsistency. Such a belief revision algorithm ideally should be rational, should respect any preference ordering over the agent’s beliefs (removing less preferred beliefs where possible) and should be fast. However, while standard approaches to rational belief revision for classical reasoners allow preferences to be taken into account, they typically have quite high complexity. In this paper, we consider belief revision (...) for agents which reason in a simpler logic than full first-order logic, namely rule-based reasoners. We show that it is possible to define a contraction operation for rule-based reasoners, which we call McAllester contraction, which satisfies all the basic Alchourrón, Gärdenfors and Makinson (AGM) postulates for contraction (apart from the recovery postulate) and at the same time can be computed in polynomial time. We prove a representation theorem for McAllester contraction with respect to the basic AGM postulates (minus recovery), and two additional postulates. We then show that our contraction operation removes a set of beliefs which is least preferred, with respect to a natural interpretation of preference. Finally, we show how McAllester contraction can be used to define a revision operation which is also polynomial time, and prove a representation theorem for the revision operation. (shrink)

The universal homogeneous triangle-free graph, constructed by Henson [A family of countable homogeneous graphs, Pacific J. Math.38(1) (1971) 69–83] and denoted H3, is the triangle-free analogue of the Rado graph. While the Ramsey theory of the Rado graph has been completely established, beginning with Erdős–Hajnal–Posá [Strong embeddings of graphs into coloured graphs, in Infinite and Finite Sets. Vol.I, eds. A. Hajnal, R. Rado and V. Sós, Colloquia Mathematica Societatis János Bolyai, Vol. 10 (North-Holland, 1973), pp. 585–595] and culminating in work (...) of Sauer [Coloring subgraphs of the Rado graph, Combinatorica26(2) (2006) 231–253] and Laflamme–Sauer–Vuksanovic [Canonical partitions of universal structures, Combinatorica26(2) (2006) 183–205], the Ramsey theory of H3 had only progressed to bounds for vertex colorings [P. Komjáth and V. Rödl, Coloring of universal graphs, Graphs Combin.2(1) (1986) 55–60] and edge colorings [N. Sauer, Edge partitions of the countable triangle free homogenous graph, Discrete Math.185(1–3) (1998) 137–181]. This was due to a lack of broadscale techniques. We solve this problem in general: For each finite triangle-free graph G, there is a finite number T(G) such that for any coloring of all copies of G in H3 into finitely many colors, there is a subgraph of H3 which is again universal homogeneous triangle-free in which the coloring takes no more than T(G) colors. This is the first such result for a homogeneous structure omitting copies of some nontrivial finite structure. The proof entails developments of new broadscale techniques, including a flexible method for constructing trees which code H3 and the development of their Ramsey theory. (shrink)

We build a collection of topological Ramsey spaces of trees giving rise to universal inverse limit structures, extending Zheng’s work for the profinite graph to the setting of Fraïssé classes of finite ordered binary relational structures with the Ramsey property. This work is based on the Halpern-Läuchli theorem, but different from the Milliken space of strong subtrees. Based on these topological Ramsey spaces and the work of Huber-Geschke-Kojman on inverse limits of finite ordered graphs, we prove that for each such (...) Fraïssé class, its universal inverse limit structure has finite big Ramsey degrees under finite Baire-measurable colorings. For such Fraïssé classes satisfying free amalgamation as well as finite ordered tournaments and finite partial orders with a linear extension, we characterize the exact big Ramsey degrees. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This article argues against Giorgio Agamben’s use of Paul’s Epistles to align Walter Benjamin’s critique of violence with antinomian theology and anarcholibertarian politics. It focuses specifically on Benjamin’s critical inheritance of Hermann Cohen’s concepts of unintentional sin and atonement to show that he reactivates a prophetic register of education in Jewish religious ethics. The article contends that these normative and narrative elements of Talmud Torah refute a reductive view of Jewish legalism in confronting the cultural afterlives of historical violence. (...) This argument not only uncouples the reception of Benjamin’s theopolitics from contemporary continental philosophy’s revivals of Pauline messianism, but also contributes to a plural field of political theology emerging beyond the scope of secularized concepts of governance derived from a spurious universalism. This article proposes that the nonidentity between human law and divine justice can orient necessary resistance to justifications for and acts of state violence committed in a community’s name. (shrink)

“Captured” in the hands of twenty-first-century structural biologists, “life itself” is taking on new form. The current trend towards molecularization in the life sciences is revealing that “life itself” is denser than the one-dimensional logic of a genetic code: it has a multidimensional material body, and its molecular structures, forces, and movements carry out the regulated work of the cell. Researchers are no longer satisfied reducing the organism to the coding systems embedded in computer software ; the organism now has (...) a mechanical architecture, and its molecular mechanisms have come to resemble the many kinds of machines with which we currently live and work. These include electronic circuitry, and the levers, switches, hinges, springs, locks, and clamps of modern day mechanical devices. These are the molecular machines that populate what is fast becoming the factory-floor of the cell... (shrink)