Optimizing touchscreen measures of rodent cognition by eliminating image bias

For the last twenty years, the Bussey-Saksida touchscreen-based operant conditioning platform has evolved in close parallel alongside the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) to produce batteries of tests for studying complex cognitive functions in rodents that are increasingly analogous to human diagnostic tests and greatly narrow the translational gap in cognition research. Naturally, with this increasing usefulness comes increasing use, and with it, a need for a greater understanding of and controlling for confounding factors that may limit the system's ability to optimally detect cognitive deficits. In the present study, we show a strong image preference bias in a standard pairwise discrimination task with a widely used spider-plane image pairing. This bias greatly influenced the performance of our experimental mice, significantly affecting the length of time it took mice to complete the task, their progress over time, and several accessory measures usefully recorded by the Bussey-Saksida touchscreen system. We further show that this bias can be corrected by using more highly similar image pairings without sacrificing the animal's ability to learn to distinguish the stimuli. This eliminated all significant stimuli specific differences seen with the spider-plane pairing. We then analyze the pixel composition of the various stimuli to suggest that the bias is due to a difference in image brightness. These findings highlight the importance of carefully modulating paired touchscreen stimuli to ensure equivalence prior to learning and the need for more studies of visual perception in mice, particularly as it relates to their performance in cognitive assays.

The Longer Theology of Aristotle in al-Andalus

The present article reports the discovery of previously unknown quotations from the Longer Theology of Aristotle (LThA), preserved in Lisān al-Dīn Ibn al-Khaṭīb’s (d. 776/1374) philosophical-mystical treatise Rawḍat al-taʿrīf bi-l-ḥubb al-sharīf (composed in Granada ca. 1366). The first of these quotations contains the famous ekstasis passage, which is not preserved in Judeo-Arabic. The second quotation has a close parallel in the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān al-ṣafāʾ). An analysis of these quotations provides additional evidence to the transmission of LThA in Arabic characters. The Appendix provides an up-to-date inventory of the Judeo-Arabic manuscripts of LThA, complete quire analysis of manuscripts A and C, and a table of correspondences between the unpublished “MS Fenton,” Borisov’s references to LThA, and modern pagination.

Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’: A Corpus-Based Study of Modality in the English and Chinese Versions

This paper compares the use of modal expressions in the English and Chinese versions of Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ (2015). It explores the Encyclical Letter as a corpus through the study of word lists and parallel concordance lines. The research also benefits from the close parallel reading of extracts from the two versions. It focuses on the semantic areas of prediction/volition/intention, lack of possibility/ability/permission and obligation. The results confirm predictable parallel expressions (e.g. will and 会 huì, cannot and 不能 bùnéng, be called to and 召 zhào) and bring to light less predictable renderings (e.g. zero (in English) and 会 huì, cannot and 无法 wúfǎ, the noun vocation and 召 zhào). They also suggest that some translation choices are due to the translator’s attempt to make the text explicit and to adapt it to the target culture.

Research on the reinforcement measures of close-parallel tunnels

Based on shallow parallel underground tunnel and double-line shield tunnel of Jinan Rail Transit Line R3, this paper proposes two reinforcement measures including bored piles and curtain grouting in the middle of the tunnel, making a numerical analysis and comparison of the reinforcement effect. The results show that the influence of later tunnel construction on the deformation of earlier tunnel can be effectively reduced after taking two reinforcement measures respectively and the reinforcement effect of the bored piles is better.

The measurement problem in Quantum Mechanics: Convivial Solipsism

The problem of measurement is often considered an inconsistency inside the quantum formalism. Many attempts to solve (or to dissolve) it have been made since the inception of quantum mechanics. The form of these attempts depends on the philosophical position that their authors endorse. I will review some of them and analyze their relevance. In this paper, I defend a new position, the “Convivial Solipsism”, according to which the outcome that is observed is relative to the observer, different but in close parallel to the Everett’s interpretation and sharing also some similarities with Rovelli’s relational interpretation and Quantum Bayesianism. I also show how “Convivial Solipsism” can help getting a new standpoint about the EPR paradox providing a way out of the seemingly unavoidable non-locality of quantum mechanics.

The Trouble with Calasiris

In this article, I take a new look at the problem of Calasiris’ ‘duplicity’ as depicted in the long autobiographical narrative he delivers to Cnemon in Books 2-5 of Heliodorus’Aethiopica. A close parallel for Calasiris’ self-presentation can be found in an unlikely source: the medical case histories of the doctor Galen. Through a comparison of Calasiris’ narrative with those of Galen, I demonstrate that both narrators employ similar ‘deceptive’ strategies to showcase their observational and deductive skills to their audience. Calasiris’ foregrounding of such ‘rational’ methods and his downplaying of the prophetic power that others attribute to him suggest that, despite theAethiopica’s religious trappings, its ideal reader is a secular one.

Political Vocation and Oratory in the Lives of Phocion, Cato Minor and Cato Maior

The pair of biographies Phocion – Cato the Younger begins by establishing, in the Life of Phocion, a comparison between the two protagonists that is illustrated and developed in the internal comparison that Plutarch implicitly traces throughout the two Lives. This can be seen, among other aspects, in their political vocation and in the description of their character and oratory. There is also a close parallel between these biographies and that of Cato the Elder, reinforced by the comparison of their protagonists with Socrates, which evokes the ideal image of the politician inspired by philosophy.

Traveling Sons

In both Tobit and the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32 there is featured a father-son relationship that revolves around the extended journey of the son and the son’s return to his father. This paper explores the figure of the traveling son in Tobit in close parallel with that of the traveling son in Luke 15:11-32. The aim is to indicate not solely similarities and contrasts between the two narratives but to show how Tobit might have been used as a source for the Lukan composition.

Itinerant Manipulators and Public Benefactors: Artificial Limb Patents, Medical Professionalism and the Moral Economy in Antebellum America

In 1847 the American Medical Association introduced its Code of Ethics, which deemed it ‘derogatory to professional character … for a physician to hold a patent for any surgical instrument, or medicine’. This chapter examines how the American patent system and the AMA’s ethics influenced B.F. Palmer, who in 1846 received the first patent for an artificial limb in the United States. While Palmer’s extra-medical position helped him avoid ethical controversy, the patent system also reinforced his aspirations to professional stature as a ‘surgeon-artist’. In arguing for a patent extension in 1860, Palmer and his attorney framed the patent as a kind of social contract, asserting the surgeon-artist’s exclusive, expert, and philanthropic character and depicting a benevolent professionalism in close parallel with that of the AMA. Palmer appealed to the moral economies of patenting and medicine alike, yet his argument also cast the sentimental work of resolving impairment in the hard fiscal terms legible to the Commissioner of Patents. The surgeon-artist’s professionalism depended on an ethic of beneficent contribution to the public good, underwritten by the authority of medicine, protected by the patent, and measured against the costs of charity.

Scythian Philosophy

This chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to show not only that Pyrrho's complete package is similar to Early Buddhism, but also that the same significant parts and interconnections occur in the same way in both systems. The earliest sources on Early Pyrrhonism and Early Buddhism are examined closely, including in some cases determining what “Early” means. They show that the close parallel between Early Pyrrhonism and Early (Pre-Normative) Buddhism is systemic and motivated by the same internal logic. Pyrrho's journey to Central Asia and India with Alexander thus had an outcome for the future of philosophy that has lasted down to the present.