Structural hierarchy of rock masses and the mechanisms of its formation

The formation mechanisms for the structural hierarchy in geological media are discussed. It is shown that the formation of such a hierarchy is caused by certain external and internal circumstances. The first ones consist in the fact that, because of external actions, the Earth’s poles continuously execute the translational and rotational motions responsible for a regular structure of rock fracture and for the appearance of the scale factor √2. The second ones consist in the fact that, under the action of many random factors and because of external actions, during the formation of geological media there appear dissipative structures and, hence, some self-similar fractal structures are formed.     

Reply to Nathan: How to reconstruct the causal argument

Nicholas Nathan tries to resist the current version of the causal argument for sense-data in two ways. First he suggests that, on what he considers to be the correct re-construction of the argument, it equivocates on the sense of proximate cause. Second he defends a form of disjunctivism, by claiming that there might be an extra mechanism involved in producing veridical hallucination, that is not present in perception. I argue that Nathan’s reconstruction of the argument is not the appropriate one, and that, properly interpreted, the argument does not equivocate on proximate cause. Furthermore, I claim that his postulation of a modified mechanism for hallucinations is implausibly ad hoc.     

Thermoplastic poly(ester‐imide)s derived from anhydride‐terminated polyester prepolymer and diisocyanate

The phase‐separation behavior of thermoplastic poly(ester‐imide) [P(E‐I)] multiblock copolymers, (A‐B)_n, was investigated by a stepwise variation of the imide content. All the multiblock copolymers were synthesized by solution polycondensation with dimethylformamide as a solvent. P(E‐I)s were prepared with anhydride‐terminated polyester prepolymer and diisocyanates. Polyester prepolymers were prepared by the reaction of pyromellitic dianhydride and two different polyols [poly(tetramethylene oxide glycol) (PTMG) and polycaprolactone diol (PCL)]. Structural determination was done with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Fourier transform NMR, and the molecular weight was determined by gel permeation chromatography. The effect of the imide content on the thermal properties of the synthesized P(E‐I)s was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. The polymers were also characterized for static and dynamic mechanical properties. Thermal analysis data indicated that the polymers based on PTMG were stable up to 330 °C in nitrogen atmosphere and exhibited phase‐separated morphology. Polymers based on PCL showed multistage decomposition, and the films derived from them were too fragile to be characterized for static and dynamic mechanical properties. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 341–350, 2004