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Causal Connection (causal + connection)
Selected AbstractsCausal connections in the acquisition of an orthographic rule: a test of Uta Frith's developmental hypothesisTHE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 8 2006Claire Davis Background:, In a longitudinal study we tested Frith's causal hypothesis that children first gain orthographic knowledge through reading and then later, as a consequence, through spelling. Method:, Children from Years 2 and 3 were tested three times over two years on their reading and spelling of pseudo-words which conformed to the conditional orthographic rule, the ,final ,e' or ,split-digraph' rule. Results:, Cross-lagged panel correlation analyses suggested that the children's success in reading split-digraph words was a causal determinant of their learning to use split-digraphs in spelling, in the 7- to 8-year period and, with one year-group but not with the other, in the 8- to 9-year period. In the 9- to 10-year period children's success in reading no longer seemed to affect their spelling. Conclusions:, These results strongly support Frith's causal hypothesis about the development of orthographic knowledge. [source] Achieving high sexual size dimorphism in insects: females add instarsECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 3 2007TOOMAS ESPERK Abstract 1.,In arthropods, the evolution of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) may be constrained by a physiological limit on growth within each particular larval instar. A high SSD could, however, be attained if the larvae of the larger sex pass through a higher number of larval instars. 2.,Based on a survey of published case studies, the present review shows that sex-related difference in the number of instars is a widespread phenomenon among insects. In the great majority of species with a sexually dimorphic instar number, females develop through a higher number of instars than males. 3.,Female-biased sexual dimorphism in final sizes in species with sexually dimorphic instar number was found to considerably exceed a previously estimated median value of SSD for insects in general. This suggests a causal connection between high female-biased SSD, and additional instars in females. Adding an extra instar to larval development allows an insect to increase its adult size at the expense of prolonged larval development. 4.,As in the case of additional instars, SSD is fully formed late in ontogeny, larval growth schedules and imaginal sizes can be optimised independently. No conflict between selective pressures operating in juvenile and adult stages is therefore expected. 5.,In most species considered, the number of instars also varied within the sexes. Phenotypic plasticity in instar number may thus be a precondition for a sexual difference in instar number to evolve. [source] Fear of the Dead as a Factor in Social Self-OrganizationJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 2 2005AKOP P. NAZARETYAN The image of dead person returning to life was the most ancient source of irrational fear (i.e. fear not caused by objective menace) appeared in culture. This conclusion is argued with empirical data from archeology and ethnography. Fear has been expressed in funeral rites, the tying of extremities, burning and dismemberment of dead bodies, and ritual cannibalism (compensatory necrophilia) etc. At the same time, it was attended by effective care for helpless cripples, which seems to descend to the Lower Paleolithic as well. Dread of posthumous revenge played a decisive regulative role at the earliest stage of anthropogenesis, as the disparity between artificial weapons (the tools) and natural aggression-retention mechanisms (the instincts) became self-destructive. In the new conditions, individuals with normal animal mind were doomed to catastrophe. Those hominid groups proved viable, in which mystical fear, a product of unnaturally developed imagination, bounded lethal conflicts among kinsmen. The phobias corresponded to the psycho-nervous system's "strategic pathology"; that was a condition for early hominids' self-preservation. As a result, a causal connection between instrumental potential, cultural regulation quality and social sustainability (the techno-humanitarian balance law) was formed, which has been a mechanism of social selection for all of human history and prehistory. [source] Cross-cutting moraines reveal evidence for North Atlantic influence on glaciers in the tropical Andes,JOURNAL OF QUATERNARY SCIENCE, Issue 3 2010Jacqueline A. Smith Abstract Surface exposure dating of boulders on an exceptionally well-preserved sequence of moraines in the Peruvian Andes reveals the most detailed record of glaciation heretofore recognised in the region. The high degree of moraine preservation resulted from dramatic changes in the flow path of piedmont palaeoglaciers at the southern end of the Cordillera Blanca (10° 00, S, 77° 16, W), which, in turn, generated a series of cross-cutting moraines. Sixty 10Be surface exposure ages indicate at least four episodes of palaeoglacier stabilisation (>65, ca. 65, ca. 32 and ca. 18,15,ka) and several minor advances or stillstands on the western side of the Nevado Jeulla Rajo massif. The absence of ages close to the global Last Glacial Maximum (ca. 21,ka) suggests that if an advance culminated at that time any resulting moraines were subsequently overridden. The timing of expanded ice cover in the central Peruvian Andes correlates broadly with the timing of massive iceberg discharge (Heinrich) events in the North Atlantic Ocean, suggesting a possible causal connection between southward migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone during Heinrich events and a resultant increase in precipitation in the tropical Andes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] MORAL PERCEPTION AND THE CAUSAL OBJECTIONRATIO, Issue 3 2010Justin P. McBrayer One of the primary motivations behind moral anti-realism is a deep-rooted scepticism about moral knowledge. Moral realists attempt counter this worry by sketching a plausible moral epistemology. One of the most radical proposals in the recent literature is that we know moral facts by perception , we can literally see that an action is wrong, etc. A serious objection to moral perception is the causal objection. It is widely conceded that perception requires a causal connection between the perceived and the perceiver. But, the objection continues, we are not in appropriate causal contact with moral properties. Therefore, we cannot perceive moral properties. This papers demonstrates that the causal objection is unsound whether moral properties turn out to be secondary, natural properties; non-secondary, natural properties; or non-natural properties.1 [source] The Simple Analytics of Illicit Drug PolicyTHE AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 3 2008D. P. Doessel The impact of alternative drug policy objectives, specifically harm reduction/harm minimisation or prohibition, is unclear. The literature is confusing. This article conceptualises the causal connection between drug consumption and health harm (or reduced health status) then clarifies the implication of ,drug related harm'. By applying some geometrical tools from economics, the choice of policy objective is analysed. The preferences of policy advocates are then incorporated. Policy advocates are conceived as arguing that decision-makers and consumers should adopt their preferences between drugs and health harm. With this approach, the difference between alternative drug policies, in particular prohibition and harm minimisation/reduction, is demonstrated. [source] GENETIC TIES: ARE THEY MORALLY BINDING?BIOETHICS, Issue 2 2006GIULIANA FUSCALDO ABSTRACT Does genetic relatedness define who is a mother or father and who incurs obligations towards or entitlements over children? While once the answer to this question may have been obvious, advances in reproductive technologies have complicated our understanding of what makes a parent. In a recent publication Bayne and Kolers argue for a pluralistic account of parenthood on the basis that genetic derivation, gestation, extended custody and sometimes intention to parent are sufficient (but not necessary) grounds for parenthood.1 Bayne and Kolers further suggest that definitions of parenthood are underpinned by the assumption that ,being causally implicated in the creation of a child is the key basis for being its parent'.2 This paper examines the claim that genetic relatedness is sufficient grounds for parenthood based on a causal connection between genetic parents and their offspring. I argue that parental obligations are about moral responsibility and not causal responsibility because we are not morally accountable for every consequence to which we causally contribute. My account includes the conditions generally held to apply to moral responsibility, i.e. freedom and foreseeability. I argue that parental responsibilities are generated whenever the birth of a child is a reasonably foreseeable consequence of voluntary actions. I consider the implications of this account for third parties involved in reproductive technologies. I argue that under some conditions the obligations generated by freely and foreseeably causing a child to exist can be justifiably transferred to others. [source] Coincidence, coevolution, or causation?BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS, Issue 1 2001DNA content, cellsize, the C-value enigma ABSTRACT Variation in DNA content has been largely ignored as a factor in evolution, particularly following the advent of sequence-based approaches to genomic analysis. The significant genome size diversity among organisms (more than 200000-fold among eukaryotes) bears no relationship to organismal complexity and both the origins and reasons for the clearly non-random distribution of this variation remain unclear. Several theories have been proposed to explain this ,C-value enigma' (heretofore known as the ,C-value paradox'), each of which can be described as either a ,mutation pressure' or ,optimal DNA' theory. Mutation pressure theories consider the large portion of non-coding DNA in eukaryotic genomes as either ,junk' or ,selfish' DNA and are important primarily in considerations of the origin of secondary DNA. Optimal DNA theories differ from mutation pressure theories by emphasizing the strong link between DNA content and cell and nuclear volumes. While mutation pressure theories generally explain this association with cell size as coincidental, the nucleoskeletal theory proposes a coevolutionary interaction between nuclear and cell volume, with DNA content adjusted adaptively following shifts in cell size. Each of these approaches to the C-value enigma is problematic for a variety of reasons and the preponderance of the available evidence instead favours the nucleotypic theory which postulates a causal link between bulk DNA amount and cell volume. Under this view, variation in DNA content is under direct selection via its impacts on cellular and organismal parameters. Until now, no satisfactory mechanism has been presented to explain this nucleotypic effect. However, recent advances in the study of cell cycle regulation suggest a possible ,gene-nucleus interaction model' which may account for it. The present article provides a detailed review of the debate surrounding the C-value enigma, the various theories proposed to explain it, and the evidence in favour of a causal connection between DNA content and cell size. In addition, a new model of nucleotypic influence is developed, along with suggestions for further empirical investigation. Finally, some evolutionary implications of genome size diversity are considered, and a broadening of the traditional ,biological hierarchy' is recommended. [source] Recent Insights into PDGF-Induced GliomagenesisBRAIN PATHOLOGY, Issue 3 2010Filippo Calzolari Abstract Gliomas are aggressive and almost incurable glial brain tumors which frequently display abnormal platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) signaling. Evidence gained from studies on several in vivo animal models has firmly established a causal connection between aberrant PDGF signaling and the formation of some gliomas. However, only recently has significant knowledge been gained regarding crucial issues such as the glioma cell of origin and the relationship between the transforming stimulus and the cellular characteristics of the resulting tumor. Based on recent evidence, we propose that PDGF can bias cell-fate decisions, driving the acquisition of cell type-specific features by the progeny of multipotent neural progenitors, thus determining the shape and direction of the transformation path. Furthermore, recent data about the cellular mechanisms of PDGF-driven glioma progression and maintenance indicate that PDGF may be required, unexpectedly, to override cell contact inhibition and promote glioma cell infiltration rather than to stimulate cell proliferation. [source] Narrative vigilance: the analysis of stories in health careNURSING PHILOSOPHY, Issue 2 2005John Paley ma Abstract The idea of narrative has been widely discussed in the recent health care literature, including nursing, and has been portrayed as a resource for both clinical work and research studies. However, the use of the term ,narrative' is inconsistent, and various assumptions are made about the nature (and functions) of narrative: narrative as a naive account of events; narrative as the source of ,subjective truth'; narrative as intrinsically fictional; and narrative as a mode of explanation. All these assumptions have left their mark on the nursing literature, and all of them (in our view) are misconceived. Here, we argue that a failure to distinguish between ,narrative' and ,story' is partly responsible for these misconceptions, and we offer an analysis that shows why the distinction between them is essential. In doing so, we borrow the concept of ,narrativity' from literary criticism. Narrativity is something that a text has degrees of, and our proposal is that the elements of narrativity can be ,sorted' roughly into a continuum, at the ,high narrativity' end of which we find ,story'. On our account, ,story' is an interweaving of plot and character, whose organization is designed to elicit a certain emotional response from the reader, while ,narrative' refers to the sequence of events and the (claimed) causal connections between them. We suggest that it is important not to confuse the emotional persuasiveness of the ,story' with the objective accuracy of the ,narrative', and to this end we recommend what might be called ,narrative vigilance'. There is nothing intrinsically authentic, or sacrosanct, or emancipatory, or paradigmatic about narrative itself, even though the recent health care literature has had a marked tendency to romanticize it. [source] The rational design of biological complexity: A deceptive metaphorPROTEINS: STRUCTURE, FUNCTION AND BIOINFORMATICS, Issue 6 2007Marc H. V. Van Regenmortel Dr. Abstract Biologists often claim that they follow a rational design strategy when their research is based on molecular knowledge of biological systems. This claim implies that their knowledge of the innumerable causal connections present in biological systems is sufficient to allow them to deduce and predict the outcome of their experimental interventions. The design metaphor is shown to originate in human intentionality and in the anthropomorphic fallacy of interpreting objects, events, and the behavior of all living organisms in terms of goals and purposes. Instead of presenting rational design as an effective research strategy, it would be preferable to acknowledge that advances in biomedicine are nearly always derived from empirical observations based on trial and error experimentation. The claim that rational design is an effective research strategy was tested in the case of current attempts to develop synthetic vaccines, in particular against human immunodeficiency virus. It was concluded that in this field of biomedicine, trial and error experimentation is more likely to succeed than a rational design approach. Current developments in systems biology may give us eventually a better understanding of the immune system and this may enable us in the future to develop improved vaccines. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||