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.     

Collaborative distributed decision making for large scale disaster relief operations: Drawing analogies from robust natural systems

One of the most ignored, but urgent and vital challenges confronting society today is the vulnerability of urban areas to extreme events. Current organization of response systems, predominantly based on a command and control model, limits their effectiveness and efficiency. Particularly, in decision‐making processes where a large number of actors may be involved. In this article, a new distributed collaborative decision‐making model is proposed to overcome command and control limitations encountered in stressful, hostile, chaotic, and large‐scale settings. This model was derived by borrowing concepts from the collective decision making of honeybees foraging, a successful process in solving complex tasks within complex settings. The model introduced in this article was evaluated through differential equations, i.e., continuous analysis, and difference equations, i.e., discrete analysis. The most important result found is that the best available option in any large‐scale decision‐making problem can be configured as an attractor, in a distributed and timely manner. We suggest that the proposed model has the potential to facilitate decision‐making processes in large‐scale settings. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 11:28–38, 2005     

Differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis investigation of the thermal properties and degradation of some radiation‐grafted films and membranes

The influence of irradiation and grafting on the crystallinity of three base polymers has been investigated with differential scanning calorimetry. Grafting has the largest effect on the base polymer crystallinity and results in a reduction of the crystallinity. The thermal degradation of the base polymers and grafted films has been investigated with thermogravimetric analysis. The extent of the fluorination of the base polymer, the irradiation method, and the graft level all influence the thermal degradation and its activation energy. It is proposed that the variation of the chain lengths of the grafted polystyrene chains is actually a primary underlying factor responsible for the influence of these various parameters on the degradation process. The first results of a comparative thermal analysis of some fuel‐cell membranes are also presented, and the promise and shortcomings of this method are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 2612–2624, 2004     

Variational conditions with smooth constraints: structure and analysis

 This is an expository paper about the analysis of variational conditions over sets defined in finite-dimensional spaces by fairly smooth functions satisfying a constraint qualification. The primary focus is on results that can provide quantitative and computable sensitivity information for particular instances of the problems under study, and our objective is to give a personal view of the state of current knowledge in this area and of gaps in that knowledge that require future work. The writing style is informal, in keeping with the objective of focusing the reader's attention on the basic concepts and the relationships between them, rather than on details of the particular results themselves. Received: December 1, 2002 / Accepted: April 25, 2003 Published online: May 28, 2003 Key words. variational condition – variational inequality – complementarity – sensitivity – stability – nondegeneracy Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): Primary: 90C31. Secondary: 47J20, 49J40, 49J53, 90C33     

Local adsorption sites and bondlength changes in Ni(1 0 0)/H/CO and Ni(1 0 0)/CO

The local adsorption geometry of CO adsorbed in different states on Ni(1 0 0) and on Ni(1 0 0) precovered with atomic hydrogen has been determined by C 1s (and O 1s) scanned-energy mode photoelectron diffraction, using the photoelectron binding energy changes to characterise the different states. The results confirm previous spectroscopic assignments of local atop and bridge sites both with and without coadsorbed hydrogen. The measured Ni–C bondlengths for the Ni(1 0 0)/CO states show an increase of 0.16 ± 0.04 Å in going from atop to bridge sites, while comparison with similar results for Ni(1 1 1)/CO for threefold coordinated adsorption sites show a further lengthening of the bond by 0.05 ± 0.04 Å. These changes in the Ni–CO chemisorption bondlength with bond order (for approximately constant adsorption energy) are consistent with the standard Pauling rules. However, comparison of CO adsorbed in the atop geometry with and without coadsorbed hydrogen shows that the coadsorption increases the Ni–C bondlength by only 0.06 ± 0.04 Å, despite the decrease in adsorption energy of a factor of 2 or more. This result is also reproduced by density functional theory slab calculations. The results of both the experiments and the density functional theory calculations show that CO adsorption onto the Ni(1 0 0)/H surface is accompanied by significant structural modification; the low desorption energy may then be attributed to the energy cost of this restructuring rather than weak local bonding.     

Recent changes in A-level Mathematics: is the availability and uptake of mechanics declining yet more?

In the past 6 years changes have occurred in GCE A-levels. Inparticular, there have been several major changes in A-levelMathematics courses. As engineering students are usually requiredto have studied A-level Mathematics, or its equivalent, thesechanges have had an effect on their prior mathematical knowledge.Moreover, engineering students traditionally obtained a goodgrounding in mechanics as part of their A-level Mathematicsqualification. However, mechanics, which was once included inthe core syllabus, is now optional. This article investigatesthe current availability and uptake of mechanics modules withinA-level Mathematics courses in schools. Comparisons are drawnbetween these results and results of a survey of schools in2004 and surveys of first year engineering students conductedin 2004 and 2005. It is found that there is a decline in theavailability of mechanics modules and the uptake of more thanone mechanics module has also decreased. The implications ofthese findings for engineering educators are discussed.     

A short synthesis of (±)-tecomanine via a Pauson-Khand-based route

The N-carboethoxy precursor to (±)-tecomanine has been prepared in 11 steps from 2-methyl-1-buten-3-yne. The key step, Pauson-Khand cyclization of a methylated 5-aza-6-nonen-1-yne succeeds, but only in low yield, a consequence of the dialkyl substitution about the azaenyne framework. Nevertheless, the overall sequence to that point is one of the more efficient to be described.