Organisms inherit various kinds of developmental information and cues from their parents. The study of inheritance systems is aimed at identifying and classifying the various mechanisms and processes of heredity, the types of hereditary information that is passed on by each, the functional interaction between the different systems, and the evolutionary consequences of these properties. We present the discussion of inheritance systems in the context of several debates. First, between proponents of monism about heredity (gene-centric views), holism about heredity (Developmental (...) Systems Theory), and those stressing the role of multiple systems of inheritance. Second, between those analyzing inheritance solely in terms of replication and transmission, and views that stress the multi-generation reproduction of phenotypic traits. A third debate is concerned with different criteria that have been proposed for identifying and delimiting inheritance systems. A fourth controversy revolves around the significance of the “Lamarckian” aspects of some of the inheritance systems that have been identified, such as epigenetic inheritance and behavioral inheritance, that allow the transmission of environmentally induced characters (i.e., “soft inheritance”). (shrink)

Introduction The purpose of this study is to characterize a conception of prayer that plays an important role in the religious thought of the medieval ...

ABSTRACT Numerous benefits for patients have been predicted if prescribing decisions were routinely accompanied by pharmacogenetic testing. So far, little attention has been paid to the possibility that the routine application of this new technology could result in considerable harm to patients. This article emphasises that pharmacogenetic testing shares both the opportunities and the pitfalls with ‘conventional’ disease‐genetic testing. It demonstrates that performing pharmacogenetic tests as well as interpreting the results are extraordinarily complex issues requiring a high level of expertise. (...) It further argues that pharmacogenetic testing can have a huge impact on clinical decisions and may influence the therapeutic strategy as well as the clinical monitoring of a patient. This view challenges the predominant paradigm that pharmacogenetic testing will predict patients’ responses to medicines, but that it will not provide any other significant disease‐specific predictive information about the patient or family members. The article also questions published proposals to reduce the consent procedure for pharmacogenetic testing to a simple statement that the physician wishes to test a sample of the patient's DNA to see if a drug will be safe or whether it will work, and presents an alternative model that is better suited to protect patients’ interests and to obtain meaningful informed consent. The paper concludes by outlining conditions for the application of pharmacogenetic testing in clinical practice in a way that can make full use of its potential benefits while minimising possible harm to patients and their families. (shrink)

We construct a new class of 1 categorical structures, disproving Zilber's conjecture, and study some of their properties.

Persistent activity can be the product of mechanisms other than attractor reverberations. The single-unit data presented by Amit cannot discriminate between the different mechanisms. In fact, single-unit data do not appear to be adequate for testing neural network models.

Kochen and Specker's theorem can be seen as a consequence of Gleason's theorem and logical compactness. Similar compactness arguments lead to stronger results about finite sets of rays in Hilbert space, which we also prove by a direct construction. Finally, we demonstrate that Gleason's theorem itself has a constructive proof, based on a generic, finite, effectively generated set of rays, on which every quantum state can be approximated.

This study compares the argumentative writing characteristics of students from different sociocultural backgrounds. We focused on Jewish ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) students, educated in a segregated religious school for boys (yeshiva), who are now attempting to integrate in secular higher education in Israel. To better understand the unique characteristics of this population, we reviewed 92 essays written by Haredi students, and compared them with 76 essays by public education (PE) graduates. Our analysis was based on the cognitive and sociocultural perspectives of argumentation. (...) Both bottom-up and top-down criteria were used to elicit the argumentative writing characteristics either emerging from the data or based on existing theories. Our primary findings indicate that Haredi students have distinct argumentative characteristics, including the use of more complex and dialectic arguments and unique persuasive tactics. These findings are discussed in light of previous research on yeshiva learning methods and recommendations are provided for adjusting the existing higher education curricula to suit both PE and Haredi students. (shrink)

A first order theory T of power λ is called unidimensional if any twoλ+-saturated models of T of the same cardinality are isomorphic. We prove here that such theories are superstable, solving a problem of Shelah. The proof involves an existence theorem and a definability theorem for definable groups in stable theories, and an analysis of their relation to regular types.

[1]: meha-haḳdamah ṿe-ʻad pereḳ 19 --.

Definition of the problem: Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a new technique to test the in-vitro embryo for genetic disorders. Currently in Germany a debate arises whether the use of PGD is ethically acceptable. Many authors emphasize that PGD might lead us on a slippery slope towards the killing of persons, the creation of designer babies or the discrimination of disabled.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a wide variety of psychological crises worldwide. In order to respond rapidly and efficiently to the complex challenges, mental health professionals are required to adopt a multidimensional and integrative view. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy founded by Albert Ellis promotes rationality and self-acceptance. Logotherapy, pioneered by Viktor Frankl potentiates meaning and resilience. Both approaches are complementary and mutually enriching. The goal of this paper is to propose an integrative model of “optimal sense-making,” a concept that (...) combines both rationality and meaning, as well as the role of self-transcendence and healthy negative emotions. The model offers a theoretical and clinical foundation for efficient and effective psychological intervention plans for those affected by the pandemic. Along with theoretical background, illustrating case studies are presented to support potential application of the integrative model to affected individuals as well as the work of first-line health professionals during these times of pandemic. Implications are considered for utilizing theoretical and applied insights from the model to cultivate resilience in face of adversity and suffering. (shrink)

Using methods of geometric stability , we determine the structure of Abelian groups definable in ACFA, the model companion of fields with an automorphism. We also give general bounds on sets definable in ACFA. We show that these tools can be used to study torsion points on Abelian varieties; among other results, we deduce a fairly general case of a conjecture of Tate and Voloch on p-adic distances of torsion points from subvarieties.

Kueker's conjecture is proved for stable theories, for theories that interpret a linear ordering, and for theories with Skolem functions. The proof of the stable case involves certain results on coordinatization that are of independent interest.

We attempt to formulate issues around modularity and Zilber’s trichotomy in a setting that intersects additive combinatorics. In particular, we update the open problems on quasi-finite structures from [9].

We use a new construction of an o-minimal structure, due to Lipshitz and Robinson, to answer a question of van den Dries regarding the relationship between arbitrary o-minimal expansions of real closed fields and structures over the real numbers. We write a first order sentence which is true in the Lipshitz-Robinson structure but fails in any possible interpretation over the field of real numbers.

We show that knowledge satisfies _interpersonal independence_, meaning that a non-trivial sentence describing one agent’s knowledge cannot be equivalent to a sentence describing another agent’s knowledge. The same property of interpersonal independence holds, mutatis mutandis, for belief. In the case of knowledge, interpersonal independence is implied by the fact that there are no non-trivial sentences that are common knowledge in every model of knowledge. In the case of belief, interpersonal independence follows from a _strong interpersonal independence_ that knowledge does not (...) have. Specifically, there is no sentence describing the beliefs of one person that implies a sentence describing the beliefs of another person. (shrink)

A likelihood order is defined over linear subspaces of a finite dimensional Hilbert space. It is shown that such an order that satisfies some plausible axioms can be represented by a quantum probability in two cases: pure state and uniform measure.

We examine the problem of generating definite noun phrases that are appropriate referring expressions; that is, noun phrases that (a) successfully identify the intended referent to the hearer whilst (b) not conveying to him or her any false conversational implicatures (Grice, 1975). We review several possible computational interpretations of the conversational implicature maxims, with different computational costs, and argue that the simplest may be the best, because it seems to be closest to what human speakers do. We describe our recommended (...) algorithm in detail, along with a specification of the resources a host system must provide in order to make use of the algorithm, and an implementation used in the natural language generation component of the IDAS system. (shrink)

The concept of abolition of labour ( Aufhebung der Arbeit) appeared in some of Marx’s posthumously published works. Few of his notable successors highlighted this concept as key to opposing the Fordist stage of capitalism. Marcuse viewed this stage as a new peak in the repression of imagination and free instincts, bound to ‘the performance principle’. However, the rise of neo-liberalism presents unforeseen challenges to the criticism of labour. While the Keynesian welfare state is collapsing, its universal services are commodified (...) and inequality rates are skyrocketing – some factors of the abolition of labour are surprisingly uplifted. This article will examine the evolution of some factors of abolition of labour that thrive with the spread of neo-liberalism and the erosion of other vital factors; we will elucidate the diminishing role of Marcuse’s performance principle, unravel the reality principle replacing it and discuss the relevance of the concept ‘abolition of labour’ today. (shrink)

In this Article we examine Israel’s ongoing process of bank privatization to explore the link between privatization programs and the ownership structure of public companies. Our thesis is that concentrated ownership provides regulators with a platform for exerting informal influence over corporate decision-making. This platform serves regulators as a safety valve when all else fails, especially when they would like firms to terminate senior executives or board members. Communicating with controlling shareholders increases the likelihood that both the regulatory intervention and (...) the reasons underlying it will remain confidential. Moreover, controlling shareholders can make swift decisions and implement them quickly, with no need for formal group deliberation. When informal influence is important — as in the case of banks — the government may prefer firms with controlling shareholders to widely held firms. It may therefore prefer to sell a control block in the firm undergoing privatization rather than distribute its shares through the stock market. (shrink)

We prove (Proposition 2.1) that if $\mu$ is a generically stable measure in an NIP (no independence property) theory, and $\mu(\phi(x,b))=0$ for all $b$ , then for some $n$ , $\mu^{(n)}(\exists y(\phi(x_{1},y)\wedge \cdots \wedge\phi(x_{n},y)))=0$ . As a consequence we show (Proposition 3.2) that if $G$ is a definable group with fsg (finitely satisfiable generics) in an NIP theory, and $X$ is a definable subset of $G$ , then $X$ is generic if and only if every translate of $X$ does not (...) fork over $\emptyset$ , precisely as in stable groups, answering positively an earlier problem posed by the first two authors. (shrink)

Finitely axiomatizable ℵ 1 categorical theories are locally modular.

A stable theory is finitely based if every set of indiscernibles is based on a finite subset. This is a common generalization of superstability and 1-basedness. We show that if such theories have more than one model they must have infinitely many, and prove some other conjectures.

Let G be a group with a metric invariant under left and right translations, and let ????r be the ball of radius r around the identity. A (k,r)-metric approximate subgroup is a symmetric subset X of G...

Scientists are once again worried about ideologically driven bad science. We explain that this problem results from the conjunction of two worthy values that make science susceptible to recurrence of such situations. The solution is to acknowledge the social, political, economic, and ideological frameworks in which science is embedded.