Speaker Intentions in Context King, Jeffrey C.
Noûs (Bloomington, Indiana),
June 2014, Letnik:
48, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
It is generally believed that natural languages have lots of contextually sensitive expressions. In addition to familiar examples like 'I', 'here', 'today, 'he', 'that' and so on that everyone takes ...to be contextually sensitive, examples of expressions that many would take to be contextually sensitive include tense, modals, gradable adjectives, relational terms ('local'; 'enemy'), possessives ('Annie's book') and quantifiers (via quantifier domains). With the exception of contextually sensitive expressions discussed by Kaplan 1977, there has not been a lot of discussion as to the mechanism whereby contextually sensitive expressions get their values in context, aside from vague references to speakers' intentions. The main task of this article is to propose a candidate for being this mechanism and defend the claim that it is such.
What I plan to do in the present paper is, first, sketch the theory of propositions I defended in a recent book I coauthored with Scott Soames and Jeff Speaks.1 Second, I want to respond to a ...criticism of that view raised by Hanks (2015). Finally, I want to discuss some changes in my view since the publication of King et al. (2014). Before all that, let me begin by motivating my view of propositions and describing how I came to hold it.In the mid 1990s, I began thinking about the metaphysics of propositions. I became convinced that any theory of propositions worth that epithet had to provide an explanation of how/why propositions have truth conditions. In my first papers on this topic in the mid 1990’s, I made clear that I viewed explaining how/why propositions have truth conditions or represent the world as being a certain way as an important desideratum for a theory of propositions
Both renewable and nuclear energy can provide significant contributions to decarbonizing the electric sector. However, a grid employing large amounts of wind and solar energy requires the balance of ...the system to be highly flexible to respond to the increased variability of the net load. This makes deployment of conventional nuclear power challenging both due to the technical challenges of plant cycling and economic limits of reduced capacity factor. In the United States nuclear power plants generally provide constant, base load power and are most economic when operated at constant power levels. Operating nuclear power plants in load-following modes decreases the plants' annual energy output and increases the levelized cost of energy, decreasing economic competitiveness.
One possible solution is to couple thermal energy storage to nuclear power plants. This would enable the reactor to remain at nearly constant output, while cycling the electrical generator in response to the variability of the net load. This paper conceptually explores combinations of wind, solar, and nuclear that can provide a large fraction of a system's electricity, assuming the use of thermal energy storage that would allow nuclear power to provide load following and cycling duty while operating at a constant reactor power output.
► Both renewable and nuclear energy have been proposed to decarbonize the electric sector. ► Deploying large amounts of wind and solar energy requires the balance of the grid to be highly flexible. ► Current reactor designs have technical and economic challenges in providing load-following power. ► Coupling thermal energy storage to nuclear power plants could improve their flexibility. ► Renewables and flexible nuclear power could together significantly decarbonize the electric sector.
•Options for small, LEU-fueled, space nuclear reactors are considered.•At low powers, moderated LEU reactors are less massive than non-moderated LEU reactors.•An 80 wt% moderator/fuel ratio results ...in the smallest reactor.•Disk or helical fuel geometries are preferred over spherical fuel geometries.
A LEU-fueled space reactor would avoid the security concerns inherent with Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) fuel and could be attractive to signatory countries of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or commercial interests. The HEU-fueled Kilowatt Reactor Using Stirling Technology (KRUSTY) serves as a basis for a similar reactor fueled with LEU fuel. Based on MCNP6™ neutronics performance estimates, the size of a 5 kWe reactor fueled with 19.75 wt% enriched uranium-10 wt% molybdenum alloy fuel is adjusted to match the excess reactivity of KRUSTY. Then, zirconium hydride moderator is added to the core in four different configurations (a homogeneous fuel/moderator mixture and spherical, disc, and helical fuel geometries) to reduce the mass of uranium required to produce the same excess reactivity, decreasing the size of the reactor. The lowest mass reactor with a given moderator represents a balance between the reflector thickness and core diameter needed to maintain the multiplication factor equal to 1.035, with a H/D ratio of 1.81. All three heterogeneous geometries yield a minimum mass reactor using a moderator/fuel ratio of 80 wt%. The lifetime is directly proportional to the initial amount of fissile material in the core in all the cases. Based on the small differences in estimated masses, but large difference in estimated lifetimes between the 60 wt% and 80 wt% moderated reactors, the 60 wt% moderated systems with disc or helical fuel geometries represent the best balance between total mass and operating lifetime.
W(h)ither Semantics!(?)1 King, Jeffrey C.
Noûs (Bloomington, Indiana),
December 2018, 2018-12-00, 20181201, Letnik:
52, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Call a semantics for a given language externalist just in case it assigns to any expression of the language in question an "entity in the world" as its semantic value (perhaps relative to a context ...or other parameters). When semantics assigns individuals to names and sets of individuals to one place predicates, this is an example of extensional semantics becoming externalist: externalist semantic theories posit a semantic relation between the expressions of the language and entities in the world. For the purposes of discussing externalist semantics in this article, the author sticks with names and one-place predicates, considering Chomsky's opposition to externalist (or reference-based) semantics.
Case reviews of maternal death have revealed a concerning pattern of delay in recognition of hemorrhage, hypertensive crisis, sepsis, venous thromboembolism, and heart failure. Early-warning systems ...have been proposed to facilitate timely recognition, diagnosis, and treatment for women developing critical illness. A multidisciplinary working group convened by the National Partnership for Maternal Safety used a consensus-based approach to define The Maternal Early Warning Criteria, a list of abnormal parameters that indicate the need for urgent bedside evaluation by a clinician with the capacity to escalate care as necessary in order to pursue diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. This commentary reviews the evidence supporting the use of early-warning systems and describes The Maternal Early Warning Criteria, along with considerations for local implementation.
Implementation of in vitro assays that correlate with in vivo human pharmacokinetics (PK) would provide desirable preclinical tools for the early selection of therapeutic monoclonal antibody (mAb) ...candidates with minimal non-target-related PK risk. Use of these tools minimizes the likelihood that mAbs with unfavorable PK would be advanced into costly preclinical and clinical development. In total, 42 mAbs varying in isotype and soluble versus membrane targets were tested in in vitro and in vivo studies. MAb physicochemical properties were assessed by measuring non-specific interactions (DNA- and insulin-binding ELISA), self-association (affinity-capture self-interaction nanoparticle spectroscopy) and binding to matrix-immobilized human FcRn (surface plasmon resonance and column chromatography). The range of scores obtained from each in vitro assay trended well with in vivo clearance (CL) using both human FcRn transgenic (Tg32) mouse allometrically projected human CL and observed human CL, where mAbs with high in vitro scores resulted in rapid CL in vivo. Establishing a threshold value for mAb CL in human of 0.32 mL/hr/kg enabled refinement of thresholds for each in vitro assay parameter, and using a combinatorial triage approach enabled the successful differentiation of mAbs at high risk for rapid CL (unfavorable PK) from those with low risk (favorable PK), which allowed mAbs requiring further characterization to be identified. Correlating in vitro parameters with in vivo human CL resulted in a set of in vitro tools for use in early testing that would enable selection of mAbs with the greatest likelihood of success in the clinic, allowing costly late-stage failures related to an inadequate exposure profile, toxicity or lack of efficacy to be avoided.
At least since Russell's influential discussion in The Principles of Mathematics, many philosophers have held there is a problem that they call the problem of the unity of the proposition. In a ...recent paper, I argued that there is no single problem that alone deserves the epithet the problem of the unity of the proposition. I there distinguished three problems or questions, each of which had some right to be called a problem regarding the unity of the proposition; and I showed how the account of propositions formulated in my book The Nature and Structure of Content 2007 Oxford University Press solves each of these problems. In the present paper, I take up two of these problems/questions yet again. For I want to consider other accounts of propositions and compare their solutions to these problems, or lack thereof, to mine. I argue that my account provides the best solutions to the unity problems.
A low-enriched-uranium (LEU)-fueled space reactor could avoid the security and proliferation concerns inherent with highly enriched uranium (HEU)-fueled space nuclear reactors. Recent LEU-fueled ...space reactor designs include a moderator to reduce the size and mass of the reactor core. This paper considers shadow shield options for an unmoderated HEU-fueled space reactor and a moderated LEU-fueled space reactor. Both reactors are kilowatt-class reactors, producing 15 kW(thermal) of thermal power over a 5-year operational lifetime. Based on the shielding required to meet established dose limits a neutron fluence of less than 10
14
n/cm
2
(1 MeV equivalent in silicon) and a gamma-ray dose of less then 1 Mrad in silicon, the moderated LEU-fueled space reactor will require a thicker shadow shield than the unmoderated HEU-fueled space reactor. The thinner reflector of the moderated LEU-fueled reactor results in more neutrons reaching the shadow shield at higher energies compared to the unmoderated HEU-fueled reactor. The presence of a significant reflector in most space reactor designs means that the core spectrum is relatively unimportant in terms of shadow shield design, as the reflector thickness has a much stronger impact on the neutrons and gamma rays reaching the shadow shield. Based on the results presented in this paper, the mass optimization of moderated LEU-fueled space nuclear reactors should always consider the coupled effects of the core, the reflector, and the shielding.
Biocompatible synthetic supramolecular systems have shed light on biomedical and tissue-regenerative material applications. The intrinsic functional applicability, tunability, and ...stimuli-responsiveness of synthetic supramolecular systems allow one to develop various multicontrolled supramolecular assemblies in aqueous media. However, it remains highly challenging to use state-of-the-art supramolecular assemblies of photoresponsive amphiphiles controlled by multiple stimulations in fabricating macroscopic materials. Herein, we demonstrate a stiff-stilbene amphiphile (SA) multicontrolled supramolecular assembling system that comprises two different charged end groups. The excellent photoswitchabilities of SA in both organic and aqueous media are demonstrated. Furthermore, multiple stimuli, i.e., light, pH, and counterions, are applied to control the supramolecular assembling behaviors, which are monitored by circular dichroism spectroscopy and electron microscopies. This multicontrolled supramolecular system can be systematically assembled into macroscopic soft functional scaffolds, whose structural parameters are investigated by electron microscopies and X-ray diffraction techniques, suggesting the large aspect ratio of SA nanostructures assembled into macroscopic soft scaffolds. The fabricated soft functional scaffold is highly biocompatible for photocontrolled biotarget encapsulation/release selectively, as well as a cell-material interface for diverse cells’ attachment. This new synthetic multicontrolled soft functional material provides a new strategy toward the development of next-generation controllable and biocompatible soft functional materials.
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