Parrots, Cockroaches, Octopuses: Are They Conscious?

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Jablonka ◽  
Simona Ginsburg ◽  
Anat Zeligowski
Keyword(s):  
Animal Species ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Pain And Suffering ◽  
To Come ◽  
Living Organisms

Which living organisms are conscious, feeling creatures, and which are more like sophisticated robots that can only respond to stimuli and solve simple problems? There are many different and hotly debated answers to this question. We used biology to come up with a new approach for determining which organisms are conscious. We propose that organisms that can learn in a specific, flexible manner are conscious. Using this criterion, it is likely that consciousness first appeared about 540 million years ago and can now be found in many animal species. If our ideas are accepted, this means that we must change our attitude toward non-human animals and do a better job of protecting them from pain and suffering.

‘To die, to sleep’ – assisted dying legislation in Victoria: A case study

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 1976-1982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Gilbert ◽  
Jane Boag
Keyword(s):  
Terminal Illness ◽  
Assisted Dying ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Australian Society ◽  
Australian State ◽  
Pain And Suffering ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Impact

Background: Assisted dying remains an emotive topic globally with a number of countries initiating legislation to allow individuals access to assisted dying measures. Victoria will become the first Australian state in over 13 years to pass Assisted Dying Legislation, set to come into effect in 2019. Objectives: This article sought to evaluate the impact of Victorian Assisted Dying Legislation via narrative view and case study presentation. Research design: Narrative review and case study. Participants and research context: case study. Ethical considerations: This legislation will provide eligible Victorian residents with the option to request access to assisted dying measures as a viable alternative to a potentially painful, protracted death. Findings: This legislation, while conservative and inclusive of many safeguards at present, will form the basis for further discussion and debate on assisted dying across Australia in time to come. Discussion: The passing of this legislation by the Victorian parliament was prolonged, emotive and divided not only the parliament but Australian society. Conclusion: Many advocates for this legislation proclaimed it was well overdue and will finally meet the needs of contemporary society. Protagonists claim that medical treatment should not provide a means of ending life, despite palliative care reportedly often failing to relieve the pain and suffering of individuals living with a terminal illness.

scholarly journals A New Approach for Early Assessment of the Epileptogenic Potential of Quinolones

1998 ◽  
Vol 42 (10) ◽  
pp. 2756-2758 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Delon ◽  
Claudine Pariat ◽  
Philippe Courtois ◽  
Serge Bouquet ◽  
William Couet
Keyword(s):  
Cerebrospinal Fluid ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Early Assessment ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Drug Concentrations ◽  
Quinolone Antibiotics ◽  
Concentration Ratios

ABSTRACT The epileptogenic potential of pefloxacin and norfloxacin, two quinolone antibiotics, was investigated in vivo in three different animal species by measuring drug concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which is part of the biophase, at the onset of convulsions. Interestingly, the pefloxacin-to-norfloxacin concentration ratios in CSF were virtually constant across the species (7.0, 6.6, and 6.0 in mice, rats, and rabbits, respectively), suggesting that this approach could be used to predict the relative epileptogenic potential of quinolones in humans.

Structuralism? Functionalism? Behaviorism? Or mechanism? Looking for a better approach to AI

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yixin Zhong
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent System ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
Powerful Approach ◽  
Reasonable Approach ◽  
The Common ◽  
To Come ◽  
The One

PurposeResearch of artificial intelligence (AI), has aimed at making machines intelligent via the simulation of natural intelligence, particularly human intelligence. During the past decades, there have been three major approaches aimed at achieving this goal, namely structuralism, functionalism and behaviorism. Unfortunately, they work separately and contradictorily to a large extent. The purpose of this paper is to present a better and more unified approach.Design/methodology/approachThe paper analyses each of the three major approaches to AI, describing their advantages and disadvantages. There then follows an attempt to explore a new and more reasonable approach to AI. The new approach should be able to solve all the problems that the existing approaches can solve on one hand and can solve the problems that the existing approaches cannot solve on the other hand.FindingsIt was found that the more reasonable and more powerful approach is the one that directly touches the common and core mechanism of intelligence formation. This is due to the fact that the mechanism of intelligence formation is much more essential than other windows of an intelligent system, such as structure, function, or behavior. It was also found that the common and core mechanism of intelligence formation can be implemented through the information‐knowledge‐intelligence transformation. The third finding is that the three existing approaches are special cases of the mechanism approach under different conditions and can thus be harmoniously unified within the frame of the mechanism approach.Originality/valueThe three findings in the paper: the mechanism approach, the implementation of the mechanism approach, and the unification of the existed three major approaches, are important laws never found before in the literature. The breakthrough of the mechanism approach to AI will be of great significance to both theoretical and practical research in AI in the years to come.

scholarly journals El derecho al medio ambiente sano como un derecho autónomo en el sistema interamericano de derechos humanos

2020 ◽  
pp. 63-83
Author(s):  
Digno José Montalván Zambrano ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
New Right ◽  
Advisory Opinion ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Healthy Environment ◽  
Derechos Humanos ◽  
El Sistema ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
The Right

The Advisory Opinion of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights No. OC-23/17, of 15 November 2017, on “Environment and Human Rights” and the ruling in the case Lhaka Honhat V. Argentina of 6 February 2020, develops the content of the right to a healthy environment from an approach that we could see as ecocentric. This right, as an autonomous right, protects nature not only because of its usefulness for human beings (anthropocentric-instrumental vision), but also because of its importance for other living organisms with which the planet is shared (biocentric-not instrumental vision). This paper analyzes this new right, giving an account of the possible legal philosophical presuppositions that inform it, as well as the possible changes that this new approach may bring to the Inter-American System of Human Rights.

Lodgments of expansion of alien animal species: the biota of a key site of anthropochory in Transcarpathia (Ukraine)

Geo&Bio ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (20) ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
Vasyl Gleba ◽  
◽  
Kateryna Ocheretna ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Human Factors ◽  
Alien Species ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Rail Transport ◽  
Agricultural Products ◽  
Living Organisms

The new cases that indicate the repeated entry of alien species, including invertebrates (molluscs, insects and other arthropods), to the Transcarpathian region (i.e. Zakarpattia Oblast) of Ukraine are considered. One of the main reasons of appearance of species in new territories is anthropochory — the transfer of specimen by human factors: road, air, water, or rail transport. This plays a significant role in the spread of living organisms to new territories. Usually the term is used for the transfer plants, but in this work and in a previous work of one of the authors, we focus on animal organisms, mainly invertebrates – insects and other arthropods, as well as molluscs. Most often, it happens unforeseen, but cases of intentional transportation of animals with their subsequent planned release into the environment are known too. Alien species of plants and animals entered Ukraine repeatedly through Transcarpathia. Unintentional spread of new species of animals through the territory due to the transportation of various foods and other kinds of goods, raw materials, including wood, and agricultural products. The paper presents not only the primary records of gastropods, arachnids, insects and other invertebrates, as well as some vertebrates found in trailers, etc., but also the findings of animals that have already been able to form self-reproducing populations in the region. In general, the authors had the opportunity to regularly inspect trailers during 2003–2007 and 2010–2017, working with imported raw materials (route from Italy via Slovenia and Hungary). Specimens were found on worn or old pallets with traces of moisture and soil, as well as traces of invertebrates that feed or live in wood and wood-destroying fungi. Dead insects were found in the cracks and between the boards (bedbugs, butterflies, beetles, orthopterans, and arachnids). There were also finds of live animals, which sometimes we managed to catch and photograph. The most important of them are presented by the authors in this publication.

e-Government Interoperability Framework in Lithuania

2011 ◽  
pp. 62-78
Author(s):  
Rimantas Gatautis ◽  
Elena Vitkauskaite ◽  
Genadijus Kulvietis ◽  
Demetrios Sarantis
Keyword(s):  
Service Composition ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
National Level ◽  
Process Models ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Lessons Learnt ◽  
Standards And Guidelines ◽  
Art Analysis ◽  
To Come ◽  
Development And Management

An e-Government Interoperability Framework (eGIF) is one way to achieve e-Government interoperability. An eGIF is a set of standards and guidelines that a government uses to specify the preferred way that its agencies, citizens and partners interact with each other. In order to come up to the expectations of their stakeholders and to achieve real resolution of the evolving interoperability problems, the scope of the eGIFs needs to be extended, including service composition and discovery, development and management of semantic schemas for governmental documents, certification mechanisms and authentication standards. Moreover, a shift from a paper-based specification towards a repository of services, data schemas and process models is needed, in order to serve the ever-changing nature of governments under transformation. Upon conducting a state of the art analysis of relevant frameworks at a pan-European and national level, lessons learnt from the pioneers UK eGIF, German SAGA and Greek eGIF are presented. The proposed Lithuanian eGIF model describes new approach, outlines the technical, semantic and organization dimensions and stresses the importance of political interoperability. It also provides three layers model moving from only standards and specifications based approach to systems and coordination support elements. Finally the chapter tackles the issues that rose within stakeholders’ community in the e-Government interoperability context.

4. Wildlife and microbes

2016 ◽  
pp. 79-99
Author(s):  
Peter A. Furley
Keyword(s):  
Animal Ecology ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Food Chains ◽  
Biological Interactions ◽  
East African ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Energy Pathways ◽  
The Way

‘Wildlife and microbes’ looks at energy pathways through the savanna system and the nature of the wildlife characterizing each of the major savanna landscapes, including the woody savannas of the Brazilian cerrado, the East African grasslands, dry and wetland savannas, and the Australian savanna woodlands. This brings into consideration food chains and food webs, as well as aspects of animal ecology that determine the number and character of living organisms. The two main aspects of wildlife to consider are the individual populations of animal species and the way they integrate into communities. Life in all savannas depends upon the complexity of biological interactions between the smallest and the largest organisms.

Morphogenesis of the Terrarium

2012 ◽  
Vol 74 (7) ◽  
pp. 521-524
Author(s):  
Andrew Brinker
Keyword(s):  
New Technology ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Gravel Soil ◽  
Living Organisms

Terrariums have decorated the shelves and counters of biology offices and classrooms for centuries. Living organisms inspire students and teachers alike. These wonderful ecosystems allow for both experimentation and observation of living systems. Here, I outline a new approach to building classroom terrariums. Historically, terrariums have been made using rocks, gravel, soil, wood, leaves, and organic props. This process often creates an immovable terrarium that weighs several hundred pounds. Although this approach will continue to produce beautiful terrariums, new technology has given us the opportunity to create more intricate terrariums that are a fraction of the weight and, therefore, mobile. The step-by-step protocol given here will allow biology professionals with little experience building terrariums an opportunity to explore this rewarding practice.

American Approaches to Moral Choice

Worldview ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 1 (10) ◽  
pp. 3-5
Author(s):  
Kenneth W. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Moral Problem ◽  
Moral Choice ◽  
To Come ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Military Preparedness ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Military ◽  
Goals And Objectives

Americans, for a substantial part of their history, have tried to come to terms with the moral problem by espousing one of two approaches. The first approach seeks to deal with the realities of world affairs with steady realism and tough-mindedness. It has its roots in historical experiences still fresh in the minds of many who were caught unprepared by the events of the period between World War I and II and who carry a sense of guilt for this failure. They alone for this guilt with strident affirmations about the facts of power. For the most part, power is seen as a comparatively simple phenomenon of which the military is overwhelmingly the most important part. Both of the recent American Secretaries of State have viewed power, not as the endlessly complicated relationship of two living organisms with goals and objectives both comparable and fundamentally unique, but as men might approach a problem in physics to be weighed on the simple scales of relative military preparedness and forces potentially in being.

Autonomous Imagery—A New Approach to Meetings

1992 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Willings ◽  
Nicholas J. Chamberlain
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Free Association ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Case Conferences ◽  
To Come ◽  
Second Procedure

The writers outline a double procedure for meetings: one procedure deals with general administrative matters and the second procedure concentrates on “allowing ideas to come” about problems using the process of “free association” of ideas. Willings and Chamberlain provide details of a number of brief case-studies of under-achieving pupils who were helped by their mentors after “case conferences” which relied on “free association” of ideas. In addition mentors themselves were often helped to resolve their own problems through insights derived from the meetings.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document