As sharing and secondary research use of biospecimens increases, IRBs and researchers face the challenge of protecting and respecting donors without comprehensive regulations addressing the human subject protection issues posed by biobanking. Variation in IRB biobanking policies about these issues has not been well documented.

This review should properly be prefaced with two caveats. First, I am not a specialist in the field of human origins. I am not an archaeologist or anthropologist, but a geologist who is generally unfamiliar with the literature covered and reviewed in this book as well as the issues and controversies. Second, I did not read the entire book. This review is based on a reading of the introduction and conclusion while skimming the rest of the text. For those who (...) find it unsettling that a reviewer has not read a book in its entirety, I can only tell you that it is very difficult to find people who are willing to donate the time necessary to read and review long technical books. (I’m still waiting on JSE to find reviewers for books I published in 2010). Anyone who is offended by my failure to peruse this volume from front to back covers may satisfy themselves with one-hundred percent of nothing by stopping their reading at this point. Ancient Ocean Crossings examines the evidence and arguments that human cultures in the Western Hemisphere were influenced by occasional contacts with ocean voyagers before Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492. As the author notes, it’s now conceded that Vikings established a few settlements in North America hundreds of years before Columbus, yet these colonies were short-lived and apparently had little to no influence on American Indians. The ocean crossings referred to in the text are hypothetical voyages that may have occurred in the ten thousand years before Europeans first set foot in the Americas. There are some striking and unexplained cultural similarities between native peoples of the Old World and the Americas. These include “technical complexities of weaving and dyeing that are shared between southern Asia and the Central Andean region of South America, “stepped temple pyramids that are oriented to the cardinal directions in both Mesoamerica and Cambodia, and the belief “in both China and Mesoamerica, that raw jade can be discovered in nature owing to ‘exhalations’ coming from the stone” (p. 5). (shrink)

The EMERT(ecological microexpression recognition test) by Zhang, et.al.(2017) used block design for backgrounds, therefore participants could not get comparable scores. The current study used random design for backgrounds to improve EMERT to REMERT (random EMERT), and used eyes-closed and eyes-open resting-state fMRI to detect relevant brain activity of REMERT for the first time. The results showed: (1)Two new recapitulative indexes of REMERT/EMERT were adopted, such as microexpression M and microexpression SD. Using random design, the participants could effectively identify almost all (...) the microexpressions, and each microexpression type had significantly background effect. Using two EMERT as duplicates and calibrations, the REMERT had good duplicate reliability and calibration validity. Therefore the REMERT can be used as an individual test, and each participant can get comparable and recapitulative scores. (2)ALFFs in both eyes-closed and eyes-open resting-states and ALFFs-difference could predict microexpression M, and the ALFFs-difference was less predictive. The relevant brain areas of microexpression M were some frontal lobes, insula, cingulate cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, fusiform gyrus, parietal lobe, caudate nucleus, precuneus, thalamus, putamen, temporal lobe and cerebellum. (3)ALFFs in both eyes-closed and eyes-open resting-states and ALFFs-difference could predict microexpression SD, and the ALFFs-difference was more predictive. The relevant brain areas of microexpression SD were some frontal lobes, central anterior gyrus, supplementary motor area, insula, hippocampus, amygdala, cuneus, occipital lobe, fusiform gyrus, parietal lobe, caudate nucleus, pallidum, putamen, thalamus, temporal lobe and cerebellum. (4)There were many similarities and some differences of the relevant brain areas between microexpression M and SD. The ALFFs-difference was more sensitive to REMERT fluctuations. All these brain areas can be trained to enhance ecological microexpression recognition ability. (shrink)

In view of the confusion about the use of the term ‘population’ in biology, an analysis has been made of the use of the concept of population in biology. Origin and development, logic and epistemology of the population-concept have been investigated for that purpose. It appears that several concepts of population coexist in biology. The term ‘population’ is used for all these concepts, so it is not amazing that confusion has arisen. This confusion is the more dangerous, since ‘population’ plays (...) an important part in the theory of evolution. A modus has been suggested to diminish this confusion by defining ‘population’ in a very wide sense of the term and by proposing a ‘deme’—terminology to specify the various special concepts of population. (shrink)

This study first investigates robust iterative learning control issue for a class of two-dimensional linear discrete singular Fornasini–Marchesini systems under iteration-varying boundary states. Initially, using the singular value decomposition theory, an equivalent dynamical decomposition form of 2-D LDSFM is derived. A simple P-type ILC law is proposed such that the ILC tracking error can be driven into a residual range, the bound of which is relevant to the bound parameters of boundary states. Specially, while the boundary states of 2-D LDSFM (...) satisfy iteration-invariant boundary states, accurate tracking on 2-D desired surface trajectory can be accomplished by using 2-D linear inequality theory. In addition, extension to 2-D LDSFM without direct transmission from inputs to outputs is presented. A numerical example is used to illustrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the designed ILC law. (shrink)

Available evidence highlights the importance of emotion regulation in psychological well-being. However, translation of the beneficial effects of ER from laboratory to real-life remains scarce. Here, we present proof-of-principle evidence from a novel cognitive-emotional training intervention targeting the development of ER skills aimed at increasing resilience against emotional distress. This pilot intervention involved training military veterans over 5–8 weeks in applying two effective ER strategies [Focused Attention and Cognitive Reappraisal ] to scenarios presenting emotional conflicts. Training was preceded and followed (...) by neuropsychological, personality, and clinical assessments, and resting-state functional MRI data were also collected from a subsample of the participants. Results show enhanced executive function and psychological well-being following training, reflected in increased working memory, post-traumatic growth, and general self-efficacy. Brain imaging results showed evidence of diminished bottom-up influences from emotional and perceptual brain regions, along with evidence of normalized functional connectivity in the large-scale functional networks following training. The latter was reflected in increased connectivity among cognitive and emotion control regions and across regions of self-referential and control networks. Overall, our results provide proof-of-concept evidence that resilience and well-being can be learned through ER training, and that training-related improvements manifested in both behavioral change and neuroplasticity can translate into real-life benefits. (shrink)

In 1979 astronomer Carl Sagan popularized the aphorism “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. But Sagan never defined the term “extraordinary.” Ambiguity in what constitutes “extraordinary” has led to misuse of the aphorism. ECREE is commonly invoked to discredit research dealing with scientific anomalies, and has even been rhetorically employed in attempts to raise doubts concerning mainstream scientific hypotheses that have substantive empirical support. The origin of ECREE lies in eighteenth-century Enlightenment criticisms of miracles. The most important of these was Hume’s (...) essay On Miracles. Hume precisely defined an extraordinary claim as one that is directly contradicted by a massive amount of existing evidence. For a claim to qualify as extraordinary there must exist overwhelming empirical data of the exact antithesis. Extraordinary evidence is not a separate category or type of evidence--it is an extraordinarily large number of observations. Claims that are merely novel or those which violate human consensus are not properly characterized as extraordinary. Science does not contemplate two types of evidence. The misuse of ECREE to suppress innovation and maintain orthodoxy should be avoided as it must inevitably retard the scientific goal of establishing reliable knowledge. (shrink)

Theological debate about the origin of evil derives from the quest after God’s goodness and justice. This problem can be constructively discussed only within the framework of a universe that has been created good, and within a corresponding anthropology. Anselm’s enquiry proceeds much along these tracks, and is based on the premises of the Platonic‐Augustinian view of evil as the privation of good, yet it concludes with a reference to the domain of the irrational and contradiction in which such a (...) discussion must necessarily harbour. The strength and uniqueness of his approach lies in his well defined hermeneutical and epistemological framework: his definition of theology as fides quaerens intellectum on the one hand, and his concept of ordo et pulchritudo universitatis on the other.The aim of this article is to discuss Anselm’s answer to the origin of evil in a wider context of his definitions of freedom and theology, trying to consider the issue, as Anselm does, from the point of view of the doctrine of Creation by the Word. His argument will be considered from the standpoint of Systematic Theology, which will enable us to contrast it with the thought of modern thinkers. Therefore the goal of this writing is not primarily to show how unique Anselm’s solution is in the history of dogma, but rather to highlight the uniqueness of the manner of his elaboration of this problem within his own theological framework. (shrink)

This collection addresses a post-WWII shift in the hierarchy of scientific explanations, where the highest goal moves from reductionism towards some ...

Research targeting emotion’s impact on relational episodic memory has largely focused on spatial aspects, but less is known about emotion’s impact on memory for an event’s temporal associations. The present research investigated this topic. Participants viewed a series of interspersed negative and neutral images with instructions to create stories linking successive images. Later, participants performed a surprise memory test, which measured temporal associations between pairs of consecutive pictures where one picture was negative and one was neutral. Analyses focused on how (...) the order of negative and neutral images during encoding influenced retrieval accuracy. Converging results from a discovery study (N = 72) and pre-registered replication study (N = 150) revealed a “forward-favouring” effect of emotion in temporal memory encoding: Participants encoded associations between negative stimuli and subsequent neutral stimuli more strongly than associations between negative stimuli and preceding neutral stimuli. This finding may reflect a novel trade-off regarding emotion’s effects on memory and is relevant for understanding affective disorders, as key clinical symptoms can be conceptualised as maladaptive memory retrieval of temporal details. (shrink)

For the theorists of crisis, the revolutionary state comes into existence through violence, and due to its inability to provide an authoritative katechon (restrainer) against internal and external violence, it perpetuates violence until it self-destructs. Writing during extreme economic depression and growing social and political violence, the crisis theorists––Joseph de Maistre, Juan Donoso Cortés, and Carl Schmitt––each sought to blame the chaos of their time upon the Janus-faced postrevolutionary ideals of liberalism and socialism by urging a return to pre-revolutionary moral (...) and religious values. They are united by three counterrevolutionary principles, all of which are purported to remedy revolutionary violence: traditional constitutional fidelity, the philosophy of the decision, and opposition to bourgeois liberalism. This essay is followed by the first complete English translation and publication of Donoso’s letter of October 24, 1851, which contains Donoso’s only reference to the “discussing class,” a political entity later popularized by Schmitt in his 1922 work Political Theology. (shrink)

In Art of the Ordinary, Deming brings together the arts, philosophy, and psychology in new and compelling ways so as to offer generative, provocative insights into how we think and represent the world to others as well as to ourselves.

For decades, the dominance of the Clovis-first paradigm precluded the possibility of acknowledging a human presence in the Western Hemisphere before 11.5 ka. Yet there are a multitude of sites in the Americas with significant evidence for human occupation dating back to 200 ka and older. At two of these sites, Holloman in Oklahoma, and Hueyatlaco in Mexico, stone tools were found that indicate the possible presence of a lithic technology advanced beyond that found contemporaneously in Eurasia. Culturally modern humans (...) may not have originated in Africa as is currently thought, but in America where evolutionary change was facilitated by geographic isolation. Homo sapiens could have re-entered Eurasia from America as early as 75 ka and spread rapidly, displacing archaic Homo species. The opening and closing of the Bering Land Bridge over the last several hundred thousand years may have functioned as the pacemaker of human evolution. Keywords: Clovis, Out-of-Africa, evolution, Pleistocene, America. (shrink)

: Believing that philosophy had become a single-minded pursuit of a dead metaphor, Nietzsche constructs his authorial self as a "strong poet," a writer who attempts a new vocabulary and increases flexibility for available discourses. Building on observations by Gilles Deleuze, Sarah Kofman, and others, this article maps the literary register of Nietzsche's thinking, particularly in Beyond Good and Evil, to see the ways that tropes and rhetorical devices drive Nietzsche's textual negotiations. Such literary self-interrogation into how a text might (...) enact its own will to power gives rise—for Nietzsche, the reader, and for philosophy itself—to methods of self-overcoming. (shrink)

In much of the current academic and public discussion, conspiracy theories are portrayed as a negative phenomenon, linked to misinformation, mistrust in experts and institutions, and political propaganda. Rather surprisingly, however, philosophers working on this topic have been reluctant to incorporate a negatively evaluative aspect when either analyzing or engineering the concept conspiracy theory. In this paper, we present empirical data on the nature of the concept conspiracy theory from five studies designed to test the existence, prevalence and exact form (...) of an evaluative dimension to the ordinary concept conspiracy theory. These results reveal that, while there is a descriptive concept of conspiracy theory, the predominant use of conspiracy theory is deeply evaluative, encoding information about epistemic deficiency and often also derogatory and disparaging information. On the basis of these results, we present a new strategy for engineering conspiracy theory to promote theoretical investigations and institutional discussions of this phenomenon. We argue for engineering conspiracy theory to encode an epistemic evaluation, and to introduce a descriptive expression—such as ‘conspiratorial explanation’—to refer to the purely descriptive concept conspiracy theory. (shrink)

The spiritual geography of Russian cosmism. General characteristics ; Recent definitions of cosmism -- Forerunners of Russian cosmism. Vasily Nazarovich Karazin (1773-1842) ; Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev (1749-1802) ; Poets: Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, (1711-1765) and Gavriila Romanovich Derzhavin (1743-1816) ; Prince Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky (1803-1869) ; Aleksander Vasilyevich Sukhovo-Kobylin (1817-1903) -- The Russian philosophical context. Philosophy as a passion ; The destiny of Russia ; Thought as a call for action ; The totalitarian cast of mind -- The religious and spiritual (...) context. The kingdom of god on earth ; Hesychasm: two great Russian saints ; The Third Rome ; Pre-Christian antecedents -- The Russian esoteric context. Early searches for "deep wisdom" ; Popular magic ; Higher magic in the time of Peter the Great ; Esotericism after Peter the Great ; Theosophy and anthroposophy -- Nikolai Fedorovich Fedorov (1829-1903), the philosopher of the common task ; The one idea ; The unacknowledged prince ; The village teacher ; First disciple: Dostoevsky and Tolstoy ; The Moscow librarian ; Last years: Askhabad: the only portrait -- The "common task" ; Esoteric dimensions of the "common task" ; Fedorov's legacy: projectivism, delo, regulation -- The religious cosmists. Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov (1853-1900) ; Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov (1871-1944) ; Pavel Aleksandrovich Florensky (1882-1937) ; Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev (1874-1948) -- The scientific cosmists. Konstantin Edouardovich Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) ; Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863-1945) ; Alexander Leonidovich Chizhevsky (1897-1964) ; Vasily Feofilovich Kuprevich (1897-1969) -- Promethean theurgy. Life-creation ; Cultural immortalism ; God-building ; Re-aiming the arrows of Eros ; Technological utopianism ; Occultism -- Fedorov's twentieth century followers. Nikolai Pavlovich Peterson (1844-1919) and Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kozhevnikov (1852-1917) ; Svyatogor and the biocosmists ; New wine and the universal task ; Alexander Konstantinovich Gorsky (1886-1943) and Nikolai Alexandrovich Setnitsky (1888-1937) ; Valerian Nikolaevich Muravyov (1885-1932) ; Vasily Nikolaevich Chekrygin (1897-1922) -- Cosmism and its offshoots today. The N.F. Fedorov museum-library ; The Tsiolkovsky museum and Chizhevsky center ; ISRICA - Institute for Scientific Research in Cosmic Anthropoecology ; Lev Nikolaevich Gumilev (1912-1992) and neo-eurasianism ; The hyperboreans ; Scientific immortalism: Igor Vishev, Danila Medvedev ; Conclusions about the Russian cosmists. (shrink)

In July, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Science and Technology Policy published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking proposing sweeping changes to the rules governing oversight of research on human subjects—changes aimed at “better protect[ing] human subjects who are involved in research, while facilitating valuable research and reducing burden, delay, and ambiguity for investigators.”1 The process is likely to amend not only the core regulation on human-subjects research , but also regulations governing vulnerable subjects, (...) IRB registration requirements, research regulations of the Food and Drug Administration, and the “privacy rule” of the .. (shrink)