Axiomatizing hybrid products: How can we reason many-dimensionally in hybrid logic?

The aim of this paper is to propose a two-dimensional hybrid logic in order to formalize inferences containing both spatial and temporal propositions. The semantic idea behind the proposal is to name both horizontal and vertical lines in a 2D-plane by two kinds of nominals. This is a generalization of the idea of naming a point in one-dimensional hybrid logic. I give an axiomatization of the proposed two-dimensional hybrid logic and show that it enjoys a general completeness result (called pure completeness) with respect to product Kripke frames. Moreover, in order to capture $T\times W$-frames studied by R.H. Thomason (1984), I introduce the notion of a dependent product frame, which enables us to represent the dependence of space over time. I also give a complete axiomatization of this dependent two-dimensional hybrid logic, and, as a corollary, reveal that a hybridization of $T\times W$-logic enjoys strong completeness.     

SIGNALING STATIC: ARTISTIC,RELIGIOUS, AND SCIENTIFIC TRUTHS IN A RELATIONAL ONTOLOGY

Abstract. In this essay I point toward the difficulties inherent in ontological objectivity and seek to restore our truth claims to validity through a relational ontology and the dynamic of coimplication in signals and noise. Theological examination of art and science points toward similarities between art, religion, and science. All three have often focused upon a “metaphysics of presence,” the desire for absolute presence of the object (the signified, the divine, the natural object). If we accept a relational ontology, however, we must accept that the revelation of presence is always simultaneously a concealment. This helps explain technoscientific achievement without recourse to a philosophically flawed objectivity. Twentieth‐century information theory shows the impossibility of a “pure signal.” By accepting that signal and noise are permanently interconnected, we begin to see how noise makes signal possible and even how noise becomes signal (allowing the discovery of novel facts). Information theory thus underscores important similarities and leads toward new approaches in aesthetics, Christian theology, and scientific research. By comparing art, religion, and science, I argue that rejecting a metaphysics of presence without rejecting presence itself allows human beings to know the world. Although religion, science, and art often seek the absolute presence of their objects, they function better without.     

Idealizations and Concretizations in Laws and Explanations in Physics

The paper tries to provide an alternative to Hempel’s approach to scientific laws and scientific explanation as given in his D-N model. It starts with a brief exposition of the main characteristics of Hempel’s approach to deductive explanations based on universal scientific laws and analyzes the problems and paradoxes inherent in this approach. By way of solution, it analyzes the scientific laws and explanations in classical mechanics and then reconstructs the corresponding models of explanation, as well as the types of scientific laws appearing in it. Finally, it compares this reconstruction with the approaches of J. Woodward and C. Hitchcock, C. Liu and with the views of M. Thalos on analytic mechanics.

STRUCTURES OF EVIL ENCOUNTERED IN PASTORAL COUNSELING

This essay explores some relationships between social structures or systems and the internal psychological structures or systems of individuals. After defining evil, pastoral counseling, and structures or systems, I present examples of persons affected by social systems of power who have sought counseling. I present a form of counseling known as Internal Family System Therapy (IFS) and show with an extended example how I have worked with clients using this approach. In this process the client is guided to use “Self‐leadership” in healing and transforming inner conflict between various subpersonalities or “parts.” I then compare the IFS approach to one used by mediators in community conflict transformation and peacebuilding.     

Co-induction of long-term potentiation and long-term depression at a central synapse in the leech

Most studies of long-term potentiation (LTP) have focused on potentiation induced by the activation of postsynaptic NMDA receptors (NMDARs). However, it is now apparent that NMDAR-dependent signaling processes are not the only form of LTP operating in the brain [Malenka, R. C., & Bear, M. F. (2004). LTP and LTD: An embarrassment of riches. Neuron, 44, 5–21]. Previously, we have observed that LTP in leech central synapses made by the touch mechanosensory neurons onto the S interneuron was NMDAR-independent [Burrell, B. D., & Sahley, C. L. (2004). Multiple forms of long-term potentiation and long-term depression converge on a single interneuron in the leech CNS. Journal of Neuroscience, 24, 4011–4019]. Here we examine the cellular mechanisms mediating T-to-S (T → S) LTP and find that its induction requires activation of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs), voltage-dependent Ca²⁺ channels (VDCCs) and protein kinase C (PKC). Surprisingly, whenever LTP was pharmacologically inhibited, long-term depression (LTD) was observed at the tetanized synapse, indicating that LTP and LTD were activated at the same time in the same synaptic pathway. This co-induction of LTP and LTD likely plays an important role in activity-dependent regulation of synaptic transmission.     

Trace administration of vitamin E can retrieve and prevent UV-irradiation- and metal exposure-induced memory deficits in nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

Vitamin E (α-tocopherol), a lipid-soluble anti-oxidant, prevents the uncontrolled propagation of lipid peroxidation by free radicals. Nevertheless, there is weak or no evidence of a protective effect of previous vitamin E intake on cognitive function in humans. In the present study, we explored the thermosensation model to investigate the possible effects of vitamin E administration on memory behaviors in Caenorhabditis elegans. Administration of 100 and 200 μg/mL of vitamin E had no significant effects on the memory for different time intervals, whereas relatively high concentration (400 μg/mL) of vitamin E exposure shortened the extinction period of the association paradigm (food at 20 °C). Following the UV-irradiation, post-treatment with 200 μg/mL of vitamin E not only retrieved the UV-irradiation-induced memory deficits, but also enhanced the memory functions in UV-irradiating animals. Post-treatment with trace vitamin E could also ameliorate the memory deficits in metal (Al or Pb) exposed worms. In addition, pre-treatment with 200 μg/mL of vitamin E could effectively prevent the occurrence of memory deficits induced by metal exposure and UV-irradiation. Therefore, the close association may exist between trace dietary vitamin E intake and memory behaviors, and a specific response mechanism may be activated after the administration of vitamin E in stress-exposed animals. Moreover, treatment with 200 μg/mL of vitamin E could restore the memory deficits formed in the ncs-1 mutant worms, suggesting that exogenous treatment with trace vitamin E can largely mimic the function of NCS-1 in regulating the memory for thermosensation.     

Apodemus sylvaticus (LOXT) is a suitable mouse strain for testing spatial memory retention in the Morris water maze

Information on the difference in cognitive function between laboratory and wild-caught mice is anecdotal and this question has not been systematically studied. Moreover, studying a wild-caught mouse strain per se may add information to the repertoire of mouse strains available. We aimed to study spatial memory in a wild mouse strain (Apodemus sylvaticus, AS) as compared to two individual laboratory mouse strains.Male AS (n = 20), CD1 (n = 19) and C57BL/6J mice (n = 19), 12–14 weeks old, were used in the experiments. The Morris water maze (MWM) was used for determination of spatial memory and time spent in the target quadrant at time points 5 (D5) and 12 days (D12) was evaluated. During the acquisition phase latency to reach the platform and path length to reach the platform was evaluated.Following four training days on day 5 (D5), time spent in the target quadrant was highest in AS > CD1 > C57BL/6J (P < 0.006). On day 12 (D12), time spent in the target quadrant was significantly higher in AS than in both other strains (P < 0.001).All animals learned the task and during the acquisition phase, latency to reach the platform as well as path length decreased significantly in AS.It is concluded that the AS is the most suitable strain for the evaluation of spatial memory in the MWM and is presenting with memory retention superior to laboratory mouse strains CD1 and C57BL/6J.     

AI,ME AND LEWIS (ABELIAN IMPLICATION,MATERIAL EQUIVALENCE AND C I LEWIS 1920)

C I Lewis showed up Down Under in 2005, in e-mails initiated by Allen Hazen of Melbourne. Their topic was the system Hazen called FL (a Funny Logic), axiomatized in passing in Lewis 1921. I show that FL is the system MEN of material equivalence with negation. But negation plays no special role in MEN. Symbolizing equivalence with → and defining ∼A inferentially as A→f, the theorems of MEN are just those of the underlying theory ME of pure material equivalence. This accords with the treatment of negation in the Abelian l-group logic A of Meyer and Slaney (Abelian logic. Abstract, Journal of Symbolic Logic 46, 425–426, 1981), which also defines ∼A inferentially with no special conditions on f. The paper then concentrates on the pure implicational part AI of A, the simple logic of Abelian groups. The integers Z were known to be characteristic for AI, with every non-theorem B refutable mod some Zn for finite n. Noted here is that AI is pre-tabular, having the Scroggs property that every proper extension SI of AI, closed under substitution and detachment, has some finite Zn as its characteristic matrix. In particular FL is the extension for which n = 2 (Lewis, The structure of logic and its relation to other systems. The Journal of Philosophy 18, 505–516, 1921; Meyer and Slaney, Abelian logic. Abstract. Journal of Symbolic Logic 46, 425–426, 1981; This is an abstract of the much longer paper finally published in 1989 in G. G. Priest, R. Routley and J. Norman, eds., Paraconsistent logic: essays on the inconsistent, Philosophica Verlag, Munich, pp. 245–288, 1989). Meyer was supported in this work as a Visiting Fellow in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, ANU.     

C. S. Lewis and the Rejection of the Tao

When asking about the worldview and ethics behind such stories as The Chronicles of Narnia, readers should try to understand C.S. Lewis's work in light of the Tao or moral Natural Law. Even though our modern culture affirms a relativism in values, Lewis affirms a non-relativist universal ground for moral judgment. Lewis's theological work, Mere Christianity, provides the clue for this interpretation. Despite the apparent negativity or violence in even some of the most memorable scenes in the Chronicles, the underlying moral is hopeful and positive, reflecting a 'mere Christian' worldview.     

麦金太尔解决休谟伦理难题的贡献与困惑

麦金太尔《德性之后》的一个重要意义,是试图解决休谟伦理难题,即“是”与“应该”的矛盾。本文对此作一个初步的分析,力图证明麦金尔在这个方面的贡献对及存在的不足。