scholarly journals Silicon: From the Invention of the Microprocessor to the New Science of Consciousness by Federico Faggin

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 687-692
Author(s):  
Rosemarie Pilkington
Keyword(s):  
Depth Perception ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Monocular Vision ◽  
Full Disclosure ◽  
Personal Journey ◽  
New Science ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Level Of Consciousness ◽  
Scientific Materialism

I was a little apprehensive about reviewing this book because I know little about engineering or the inner workings of the computer, but in the interest of full disclosure, I wanted to know more about Federico Faggin. Twenty years ago, returning from an afternoon trip during the SSE conference in San Diego, I sat next to him on the bus and mentioned that since we last met I had lost the vision in my right eye, which I was still adjusting to physically and emotionally. He volunteered that he had lost the vision in his left eye when he was a youth in Italy and lightly commented that depth perception, which concerned me, was only an issue for six or seven feet.  His admission and attitude were not only a revelation, but an inspiration for me: If this eminent gentleman had made world-changing inventions, was a successful businessman and had a happy social and family life despite monocular vision; I certainly could get on successfully with my life as well.  Silicon is the fascinating story of Federico Faggin’s remarkable life, but it is also his personal journey from scientific materialism to an awakening to a deeper level of consciousness. He divides his narrative into his four “lives.”  His first life took place in his native northern Italy where he was a brilliant student with a wide range of interests. He became interested in computers and transistors, which had been recently invented and read all he could independently, since it was not taught in his school. His fascination deepened and he got a job with Olivetti where he learned much more than he could have at school and which become pivotal to his subsequent career.

Microfabrication research at the National Submicron Facility

1983 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 86-89
Author(s):  
E.D. Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Integrated Circuits ◽  
Particle Physics ◽  
High Speed ◽  
New Technology ◽  
High Energy ◽  
High Energy Particle ◽  
New Science ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Intermediate Domain ◽  
Circuit Function

Most microelectronics devices and circuits operate faster, consume less power, execute more functions and cost less per circuit function when the feature-sizes internal to the devices and circuits are made smaller. This is part of the stimulus for the Very High-Speed Integrated Circuits (VHSIC) program. There is also a need for smaller, more sensitive sensors in a wide range of disciplines that includes electrochemistry, neurophysiology and ultra-high pressure solid state research. There is often fundamental new science (and sometimes new technology) to be revealed (and used) when a basic parameter such as size is extended to new dimensions, as is evident at the two extremes of smallness and largeness, high energy particle physics and cosmology, respectively. However, there is also a very important intermediate domain of size that spans from the diameter of a small cluster of atoms up to near one micrometer which may also have just as profound effects on society as “big” physics.

scholarly journals Genome-Wide Heritability Estimates for Family Life Course Complexity

Demography ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary Van Winkle ◽  
Dalton Conley
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Age At First Birth ◽  
Genetic Contribution ◽  
Sequence Complexity ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Family Trajectories

Abstract Sequence analysis is an established method used to study the complexity of family life courses. Although individual and societal characteristics have been linked with the complexity of family trajectories, social scientists have neglected the potential role of genetic factors in explaining variation in family transitions and events across the life course. We estimate the genetic contribution to sequence complexity and a wide range of family demographic behaviors using genomic relatedness–based, restricted maximum likelihood models with data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study. This innovative methodological approach allows us to provide the first estimates of the heritability of composite life course outcomes—that is, sequence complexity. We demonstrate that a number of family demographic indicators (e.g., the age at first birth and first marriage) are heritable and provide evidence that composite metrics can be influenced by genetic factors. For example, our results show that 11% of the total variation in the complexity of differentiated family sequences is attributable to genetic influences. Moreover, we test whether this genetic contribution varies by social environment as indexed by birth cohort over a period of rapid changes in family norms during the twentieth century. Interestingly, we find evidence that the complexity of fertility and differentiated family trajectories decreased across cohorts, but we find no evidence that the heritability of the complexity of partnership trajectories changed across cohorts. Therefore, our results do not substantiate claims that lower normative constraints on family demographic behavior increase the role of genes.

scholarly journals Observing the impossible – in situ observations of hail trajectories using the HailSonde

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Soderholm
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Sensor Applications ◽  
New Science ◽  
Prototype Development ◽  
Real Science ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Micro Sensor ◽  
Battery Technology ◽  
Aviation Risk ◽  
Ground Impact

<p>From the early stages of hailstone growth to the ground-impact finale, a trajectory is taken by each hailstone through the parent hailstorm. Larger hailstones form as their trajectory takes them into regions of the storm that are more favorable for growth, while others may miss out entirely. Simulation-based studies have shown that interactions between the hailstone fall speed, aerodynamics, storm winds (which continue to change along the trajectory and with new growth) can take hailstones on a myriad of different trajectories. Despite improvements in radar technology over the last 20 years, operational hail analysis techniques have changed little, and do not consider trajectories, leaving a high degree of uncertainty when estimating ground impact.</p> <p>Case studies have demonstrated that trajectory information provides significant improvements to hail impact mapping and nowcasting services, but the lack of robust<br />observational datasets to leverage new radar technology and verify trajectories prevents the transition of this new science into operations. The follow proposal presents an innovative approach to measuring trajectories within a hailstorm using hailstone-shaped probes called “HailSondes”. Recent advances in low-energy telemetry, battery technology and electronics miniaturization are combined to make this new sensor possible, which, until recently, was the realm of fantasy for meteorologists (e.g., the 1996 Hollywood classic “Twister” imagined a similar sensors for observing tornadoes). The design challenges, simulations, prototype development and deployment of HailSondes are discussed.</p> <p>HailSonde measurements will provide critical validation for the practical application radarderived trajectories for hailstorm analysis and nowcasting, supporting the transition to future hail services and benefiting a wide range of sectors from aviation, risk management, transport and public safety. This transition from science fiction into real science signifies extraordinary potential for further remote micro-sensor applications in the future. </p>

scholarly journals Automated pupillometry to detect command following in neurological patients: a proof-of-concept study

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6929 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Vassilieva ◽  
Markus Harboe Olsen ◽  
Costanza Peinkhofer ◽  
Gitte Moos Knudsen ◽  
Daniel Kondziella
Keyword(s):  
Brain Injury ◽  
Healthy Volunteers ◽  
Neurological Disorders ◽  
Mental Arithmetic ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Icu Patients ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Level Of Consciousness ◽  
Neurological Patients ◽  
Command Following

Background Levels of consciousness in patients with acute and chronic brain injury are notoriously underestimated. Paradigms based on electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) may detect covert consciousness in clinically unresponsive patients but are subject to logistical challenges and the need for advanced statistical analysis. Methods To assess the feasibility of automated pupillometry for the detection of command following, we enrolled 20 healthy volunteers and 48 patients with a wide range of neurological disorders, including seven patients in the intensive care unit (ICU), who were asked to engage in mental arithmetic. Results Fourteen of 20 (70%) healthy volunteers and 17 of 43 (39.5%) neurological patients, including 1 in the ICU, fulfilled prespecified criteria for command following by showing pupillary dilations during ≥4 of five arithmetic tasks. None of the five sedated and unconscious ICU patients passed this threshold. Conclusions Automated pupillometry combined with mental arithmetic appears to be a promising paradigm for the detection of covert consciousness in people with brain injury. We plan to build on this study by focusing on non-communicating ICU patients in whom the level of consciousness is unknown. If some of these patients show reproducible pupillary dilation during mental arithmetic, this would suggest that the present paradigm can reveal covert consciousness in unresponsive patients in whom standard investigations have failed to detect signs of consciousness.

Early Motion Processes and the Kinetic Depth Effect

1989 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Mather
Keyword(s):  
Depth Perception ◽  
Short Range ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Visual Display ◽  
Depth Effect ◽  
Temporal Properties ◽  
Early Motion ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Dimensional Object ◽  
Inter Frame

It has been known for over 30 years that motion information alone is sufficient to yield a vivid impression of three-dimensional object structure. For example, a computer simulation of a transparent sphere, the surface of which is randomly speckled with dots, gives no impression of depth when presented as a stationary pattern on a visual display. As soon as the sphere is made to rotate in a series of discrete steps or frames, its 3-D structure becomes apparent. Three experiments are described which use this stimulus, and find that depth perception in these conditions depends crucially on the spatial and temporal properties of the display: 1. Depth is seen reliably only for between-frame rotations of less than 15°, using two-frame and four-frame sequences. 2. Parametric observations using a wide range of frame durations and inter-frame intervals reveal that depth is seen only for inter-frame intervals below 80 msec and is optimal when the stimulus can be sampled at intervals of about 40–60 msec. 3. Monoptic presentation of two frames of the stimulus is sufficient to yield depth, but the impression is destroyed by dichoptic presentation. These data are in close agreement with the observed limits of direction perception in experiments using “short-range” stimuli. It is concluded that depth perception in the motion display used in these experiments depends on the outputs of low-level or “short-range” motion detectors.

scholarly journals Effects of social network diversity in the disablement process: a comparison of causal inference methods and an outcome-wide approach to the Indonesian Family Life Surveys, 2007–2015

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Schröders ◽  
Fatwa Sari Tetra Dewi ◽  
Maria Nilsson ◽  
Mark Nichter ◽  
Miguel San Sebastian
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Disablement Process ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract Background Social networks (SN) have been proven to be instrumental for healthy aging and function as important safety nets, particular for older adults in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite the importance of interpreting health outcomes in terms of SN, in many LMICs – including Indonesia – epidemiological studies and policy responses on the health effects of SN for aging populations are still uncommon. Using outcome-wide multi-method approaches to longitudinal panel data, this study aims to outline more clearly the role of SN diversity in the aging process in Indonesia. We explore whether and to what degree there is an association of SN diversity with adult health outcomes and investigate potential gender differences, heterogeneous treatment effects, and effect gradients along disablement processes. Methods Data came from the fourth and fifth waves of the Indonesian Family Life Survey fielded in 2007–08 and 2014–15. The analytic sample consisted of 3060 adults aged 50+ years. The primary exposure variable was the diversity of respondents’ SN at baseline. This was measured through a social network index (SNI), conjoining information about household size together with a range of social ties with whom respondents had active contact across six different types of role relationships. Guided by the disablement process model, a battery of 19 outcomes (8 pathologies, 5 impairments, 4 functional limitations, 2 disabilities) were included into analyses. Evidence for causal effects of SN diversity on health was evaluated using outcome-wide multivariable regression adjustment (RA), propensity score matching (PSM), and instrumental variable (IV) analyses. Results At baseline, 60% of respondents had a low SNI. Results from the RA and PSM models showed greatest concordance and that among women a diverse SN was positively associated with pulmonary outcomes and upper and lower body functions. Both men and women with a high SNI reported less limitations in performing activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental ADL (IADL) tasks. A high SNI was negatively associated with C-reactive protein levels in women. The IV analyses yielded positive associations with cognitive functions for both men and women. Conclusions Diverse SN confer a wide range of strong and heterogeneous long-term health effects, particularly for older women. In settings with limited formal welfare protection, intervening in the SN of older adults and safeguarding their access to diverse networks can be an investment in population health, with manifold implications for health and public policy.

Hurtin' Words

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted Ownby
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Rock Music ◽  
American South ◽  
Family Values ◽  
Family Crisis ◽  
Family Adaptability ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Family ◽  
Innovative Work

When Tammy Wynette sang "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," she famously said she "spelled out the hurtin' words" to spare her child the pain of family breakup. In this innovative work, Ted Ownby considers how a wide range of writers, thinkers, activists, and others defined family problems in the twentieth-century American South. Ownby shows that it was common for both African Americans and whites to discuss family life in terms of crisis, but they reached very different conclusions about causes and solutions. In the civil rights period, many embraced an ideal of Christian brotherhood as a way of transcending divisions. Opponents of civil rights denounced "brotherhoodism" as a movement that undercut parental and religious authority. Others, especially in the African American community, rejected the idea of family crisis altogether, working to redefine family adaptability as a source of strength. Rather than attempting to define the experience of an archetypal "southern family," Ownby looks broadly at contexts such as political and religious debates about divorce and family values, southern rock music, autobiographies, and more to reveal how people in the South used the concept of the family as a proxy for imagining a better future or happier past.

scholarly journals Colletotrichum spp. causing anthracnose on ornamental plants in northern Italy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimiro Guarnaccia ◽  
Ilaria Martino ◽  
Giovanna Gilardi ◽  
Angelo Garibaldi ◽  
M. Lodovica Gullino
Keyword(s):  
Plant Pathogens ◽  
Fruits And Vegetables ◽  
Ornamental Plants ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Liquidambar Styraciflua ◽  
Cyclamen Persicum ◽  
Important Species ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Ceanothus Thyrsiflorus ◽  
Mahonia Aquifolium

Abstract Species of Colletotrichum are considered among the most important plant pathogens, saprobes and endophytes on a wide range of ornamentals, fruits and vegetables. Several Colletotrichum species have been reported in nurseries and public or private gardens in northern Italy. In this study, the occurrence, diversity and pathogenicity of Colletotrichum spp. associated with several ornamental hosts was explored. Survey were carried out during the 2013–2019 period in Piedmont, Italy. A total of 22 Colletotrichum isolates were collected from symptomatic leaves and stems of two Campanula spp., Ceanothus thyrsiflorus, Coreopsis lanceolata, Cyclamen persicum, Hydrangea paniculata, Liquidambar styraciflua, Mahonia aquifolium and Rhyncospermum jasminoides. A multi-locus phylogeny was established based on the basis of three genomic loci (gapdh, act and tub2). The pathogenicity of selected, representative isolates was tested. Colletotrichum isolates were identified as members of four important species complexes: Acutatum, Gloeosporioides, Dematium and Destructivum. Colletotrichum fioriniae, C. nymphaeae and C. fuscum were found in association with leaf lesions of Mahonia aquifolium, Campanula rapunculoides and Coreopsis lanceolata, respectively. Colletotrichum lineola, C. grossum and C. cigarro were isolated from Campanula trachelium, Rhyncospermum jasminoides and Liquidambar styraciflua, respectively. Colletotrichum fructicola was found to be responsible of anthracnose of Ceanothus thyrsiflorus, Hydrangea paniculata, Cyclamen persicum and Liquidambar styraciflua. All the tested isolates were pathogenic and reproduced identical symptoms to those observed in private gardens and nurseries. The present study improves our understanding of Colletotrichum spp. associated with different ornamental hosts and provides useful information for an effective disease management programme.

Vico, Giambattista (1668–1744)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leon Pompa
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Theory Of Knowledge ◽  
Historical Interpretation ◽  
Comparative Linguistics ◽  
New Science ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Degree Of Certainty ◽  
Methodological Aspects ◽  
Insight Into

Vico lived in a period in which the successes of the natural sciences were frequently attributed to the Cartesian method of a priori demonstration. His own first interest, however, was in the cultivation of the humanist values of wisdom and prudence, to which this method was irrelevant. Initially, therefore, he sought a methodology for these values in the techniques of persuasion and argument used in political and legal oratory. But he soon came to believe that the Cartesian method was too limited to explain even the advances in the natural sciences and developed an alternative constructivist theory of knowledge by which to establish the degree of certainty of the different sciences. Wisdom and prudence, however, came low on this scale. Through certain historical studies in law, he became convinced that, although there were no eternal and universal standards underlying law at all times and places, the law appropriate to any specific historical age was dependent upon an underlying developmental pattern of social consciousness and institutions common to all nations except the Jews after the Fall. His New Science (1725, 1730 and 1744) was a highly original attempt to establish this pattern, originating in a primeval mythic consciousness and concluding in a fully rational, but ultimately corrupt, consciousness. He believed that knowledge of the pattern would enable us to interpret a wide range of historical evidence to provide continuous and coherent accounts of the histories of all actual gentile nations. The primacy of consciousness in the pattern led him to claim that there must be a necessary sequence of ideas upon which institutions rested, which would provide the key to the historical interpretation of meaning in all the different gentile languages. He supported this conception by extensive comparative anthropological, linguistic and historical enquiries, resulting most famously in his interpretation of the Homeric poems. He also advanced a more developed account of his earlier theory of knowledge, in which the work of philosopher and historian were mutually necessary, to show how this conception of ‘scientific history’ was to be achieved. Vico believed that the knowledge that wisdom and prudence vary in different historical ages in accordance with an underlying pattern could provide us with a higher insight into those of our own age and enable us to avoid a collapse into barbarism which, in an over rational age in which religious belief must decline, was more or less inevitable. Unfortunately, the metaphysical status of his pattern rendered this impossible. Much of his thought was expressed in a context of theological assumptions which conflict with important aspects of his work. This has given rise to continuous controversy over his personal and theoretical commitment to these assumptions. Despite this, however, his conceptions of the historical development of societies, of the relation between ideas and institutions, of social anthropology, comparative linguistics and of the philosophical and methodological aspects of historical enquiry in general, remain profoundly fruitful.

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