云南云龙水库地区种子植物区系研究

云龙水库地区有种子植物446种(含亚种和变种),隶属于117科299属。区系成分中,世界分布35属, 占全部属数的11.70％,热带分布109属,占除世界分布属以外的41.29％(下同),温带分布151属,占57.20％, 中国特有4属,占1.51％。区系组成复杂,生物多样性丰富,具有以温带分布为主的亚热带植物区系性质。     

Two claims about potential human beings

It seems that at conception something is formed which, due to its genetic make-up, has the potentiality to develop into a full-blown human being. Many believe that in virtue of this potentiality, this organism, the human zygote or early embryo, has in instrinsic value which makes it wrong to use or produce it merely as a means to some end, e.g., some scientific end such as to produce embryonic stem cells. Against this it is here argued, first, that it does not follow from the fact that something has a potential to become a (fully developed) human being that it already is a human being (in a rudimentary sense). In fact, a human being begins to exist no earlier than a couple of weeks after conception, at the stage known as gastrulation. Thus, even granted the questionable assumption that something has instrinsic value in virtue of being a human being, the zygote will not have intrinsic value. Secondly, the value an embryo has in virtue of its potentiality to become a full-blown human being can only be instrumental, a value as a means. But of course it cannot be wrong to treat that which has merely instrumental value as a mere means or instrument to some end.     

Marquis: A Defense of Abortion?

This is a reply to Don Marquis'Why Abortion is Immoral.' Marquis, who asserts that abortion is morally wrong, bases his argument on the following premise: Killing a being is morally wrong if that being is the sort of being who has a valuable future. I argue that this premise is false. I then assert that if I am correct about this premise being false, Marquis is faced with a dilemma. If he does not alter the premise in a way that makes it true, his argument is unsound. However, if he does make such an alteration, he must also alter a second premise in his argument, and this second change opens him to the charge of question begging. In addition, I conclude that such an alteration requires Marquis to adopt a position much like that taken by Judith J. Thompson in 'A Defense of Abortion,' a position he initially states is indefensible.     

大中山自然保护区种子植物区系研究

云南省大中山自然保护区有种子植物749种,隶属于137科396属。区系成分中,世界分布33属,占全部总属数的8.33%;热带分布206属,占除世界分布属以外的56.75%(下同),温带分布148属,占40.77%,中国特有9属,占2.48%。该地区植物种类丰富,种子植物区系起源古老,地理成分复杂,具有明显的亚热带特性。从区系成分和植物类群多样性所占比例上看,是一个需要重点保护的区域。     

Teucrium ramaswamii sp. nov. (Lamiaceae) from India

A new species of Lamiaceae, Teucrium ramaswamii M. B. Viswan. & U. Manik. is described from the Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) in the Agastyamalai hills of the southwestern Ghats in peninsular India. It is allied to T. tomentosum Heyne ex Benth. but differs by stem, leaves and inflorescence being glandular strigose; leaves being deltoid–ovate, crenate–dentate or doubly crenate–dentate at margin, subcoriaceous, sparsely strigose above, densely strigose beneath; bracts being oblong–deltoid, ca 9.4×2.6 mm; calyx with uppermost teeth being lanceolate, ca 2.8×1.9 mm, lateral teeth being broadly triangular, lower teeth being oblong–lanceolate; corolla being glandular strigose outside below lateral lobes and ovary being glandular strigose. Using the IUCN criteria, conservation status of the species is assigned as Critically Endangered based on the field data (2000–2002). Life history studies, population ecology, genome resource banking and wild population management are recommended for conserving this species.     

Human death--a view from the beginning of life

This paper presents a simple argument against definitions of the death of a human being in terms of death, or the cessation of functioning, of its brain: a human being is alive, and so is capable of dying, before it acquires a brain. Although a more accurate definition is sketched, it is stressed that it should not be taken for granted that it is ethically urgent to work out such a definition. What morally matters more than the death of a human being may be something for which its death is sufficient, but not necessary, namely the irreversible loss of its capacity for consciousness. It is when we lose this capacity that we lose our moral standing, as subjects who can be benefited and harmed, and who can have rights. But, as is also suggested, the loss of this capacity is ill suited to be what the death of a human being definitionally consists of.     

L’ipséité : son importance en psychopathologie

This paper aims at showing the fecundity of the notion of ipseity or self in the domain of psychopathology. The notions of subject or ego which have been used since Descartes to describe the being of man have led to think it on the model of a substantial and unalterable being. Contemporary philosophy, especially with Heidegger, has on the contrary elaborated a quite other conception of man as an essentially temporal and relational being. What constitutes fundamentally the being of man is not the presence of an invariable nucleus of personality, but it is on the contrary the relations that he is able to establish with the world and the others which defines it in return. The notion of self defines therefore the reflexive character of the being of man. As Paul Ricceur also shows, the identity of the human being is fundamentally a narrative identity, i.e. an identity that constitutes itself through the hazards of a history. What is deeply altered in the different forms of mental diseases is precisely this openness and receptivity that defines the self. What has therefore to be restored by means of therapy is the capacity of the human being to constitute himself as a self in time and to open itself to the unforseeable character of what happens to him.     

Place illusion and plausibility can lead to realistic behaviour in immersive virtual environments

In this paper, I address the question as to why participants tend to respond realistically to situations and events portrayed within an immersive virtual reality system. The idea is put forward, based on the experience of a large number of experimental studies, that there are two orthogonal components that contribute to this realistic response. The first is ‘being there’, often called ‘presence’, the qualia of having a sensation of being in a real place. We call this place illusion (PI). Second, plausibility illusion (Psi) refers to the illusion that the scenario being depicted is actually occurring. In the case of both PI and Psi the participant knows for sure that they are not ‘there’ and that the events are not occurring. PI is constrained by the sensorimotor contingencies afforded by the virtual reality system. Psi is determined by the extent to which the system can produce events that directly relate to the participant, the overall credibility of the scenario being depicted in comparison with expectations. We argue that when both PI and Psi occur, participants will respond realistically to the virtual reality.     

Sequelae of injuries of thoracic vertebrae with spinal cord trauma in persons under the influence of alcohol

An analysis of 416 patients treated at the Department of Rehabilitation for the trauma to thoracic spine is presented. Analysed group included 178 patients who underwent trauma being drunk. Sequelae of the trauma, the results of neurological and functional treatment were compared in two groups of patients: admitted to the hospital under the influence of alcohol and sober. An analysis of the data indicates lower degree of the trauma to the spinal cord and markedly better neurological and functional results of therapy in patients being sober during the accident. Mortality rate is also lower in this group comparing to this in the group of patients being drunk during the accident. Statistical analysis of these date suggests high degree of the probability of interdependence of therapeutical results and sobriety of the victims.     

Three Facets of Meaning

Vygotsky and Luria's "cultural-historical theory of psychology" is little known to broad circles of the Soviet public. Nor is this theory yet very familiar in the world of pedagogy, since the leaders in this area of psychology do not yet have a completed system of views. The "cultural-historical theory of psychology" is just in the process of being formed, but even so has managed to do much damage to psychology's theoretical front, deftly concealing its pseudoscientific aspects alien to Marxism with quotations from the works of the founders of Marxism. This theory is being aggressively introduced into pedagogical practice in higher education; its authors are forcefully publicizing it in the pages of journals and books, textbooks, and encyclopedias; and it makes claims to being the closest to Marxism of all the psychological currents existing in the USSR.     

The HUPO proteomics standards initiative--easing communication and minimizing data loss in a changing world

The amount of data currently being generated by proteomics laboratories around the world is increasing exponentially, making it ever more critical that scientists are able to exchange, compare and retrieve datasets when re-evaluation of their original conclusions becomes important. Only a fraction of this data is published in the literature and important information is being lost every day as data formats become obsolete. The Human Proteome Organisation Proteomics Standards Initiative (HUPO-PSI) was tasked with the creation of data standards and interchange formats to allow both the exchange and storage of such data irrespective of the hardware and software from which it was generated. This article will provide an update on the work of this group, the creation and implementation of these standards and the standards-compliant data repositories being established as result of their efforts.     

The diagnosis of pulmonary embolism.

Currently, clinicians have to make decisions about how to manage pulmonary embolism on the basis of imperfect tests and assessment of odds. Management protocols that inevitably result in large numbers of patients being referred for angiography are unhelpful. Management decisions based on assessment of odds and investigation of leg veins will inevitably result in some patients who have survived a pulmonary embolus being left untreated. Current evidence suggests that for most patients this is probably not important, the clear exception being those patients with underlying cardiorespiratory disease.     

A review of current hemostatic agents and tissue sealants used in laparoscopic partial nephrectomy

Laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) is currently considered to be one of the most challenging procedures in minimally invasive urological surgery. With an increasing number of renal tumors being managed using LPN, there is now a further interest in the development of techniques and agents to reduce complications associated with the procedure. Hemostasis is of paramount importance during LPN, and hemostatic agents and tissue sealants are now being used commonly during LPN. Despite this, there is a dearth of prospective, randomized, human trials in current literature that compare the various agents. This review evaluates hemostatic agents and tissue sealants being used during LPN as an adjuvant to suturing in human studies.     

The Importance of Demonstratively Restoring Order

Contrary to what is often assumed, order is not the strongest context for encouraging normative behavior. The strongest context effect on normative behavior comes from cues that clearly convey other people’s respect for norms. Ironically, this show of respect necessitates some contrasting disrespect that is being restored. Using civic virtues (such as helping behavior) as a prototype of normative behavior, the three field experiments described in this paper reveal the impact of normative cues on civic virtues. Results show that the strongest effect on making people follow prosocial norms in public places emanates from seeing order being restored, rather than just order being present. The robust and surprisingly large effects show that observing other people’s respect for one particular norm (as evidenced in their restoring physical order) makes it more likely that the onlooker follows other norms as well. This implies that prosocial behavior has the highest chance of spreading when people observe order being restored. There are clear policy implications: create low cost “normative respect cues” wherever it is desirable to increase conformity to norms.     

Protein-interaction mapping in search of effective drug targets

Signaling complexes and networks are being intensely studied in an attempt to discover pathways that are amenable to therapeutic intervention. A challenge in this search is to understand the effect that the modulation of a target will have on the overall function of a cell and its surrounding neighbors. Protein-interaction mapping reveals relationships between proteins and their impact on cellular processes and is being used more widely in our understanding of disease mechanisms and their treatment. The review discusses challenges and breakthroughs in this new and evolving area and its impact on medicine.     

Heavy ion radiography and tomography

In the latest years, radiation therapy with ion beams has been rapidly spreading worldwide. This is mainly due to the favourable interaction properties of ion beams with matter, offering the possibility of more conformal dose deposition with superior sparing of healthy tissue in comparison to conventional photon radiation. Moreover, heavier ions like carbon offer a selective increase of biological effectiveness which can be advantageous for the treatment of tumours being resistant to sparsely ionizing radiation. However, full clinical exploitation of the advantages offered by ion beams is still challenged by the lack of exact knowledge of the beam range within the patient. Therefore, increasing research efforts are being devoted to the goal of reducing range uncertainties in ion beam therapy. In this context, ion transmission imaging is being recognized as a promising modality capable of providing valuable pre- (or even “in-between”) treatment information on the patient-specific stopping properties for indirect in-vivo range verification and low dose image guidance at the treatment site. The more recent availability of energetic ion beam sources at therapeutic treatment facilities, in combination with the advances in detector technologies and computational power, have considerably renewed the interest in this imaging technique. Nowadays, many research efforts are being devoted to the development of novel detector prototypes for heavy ion radiography and tomography, as will be reviewed in this contribution.     

Mapping the new molecular landscape: social dimensions of epigenetics

Epigenetics is the study of changes in gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in the DNA itself. The field is rapidly growing and being widely promoted, attracting attention in diverse arenas. These include those of the social sciences, where some researchers have been encouraged by the resonance between imaginaries of development within epigenetics and social theory. Yet, sustained attention from science and technology studies (STS) scholars to epigenetics and the praxis it propels has been lacking. In this article, we reflexively consider some of the ways in which epigenetics is being constructed as an area of biomedical novelty and discuss the content and logics underlying the ambivalent promises being made by scientists working in this area. We then reflect on the scope, limits and future of engagements between epigenetics and the social sciences. Our discussion is situated within wider literatures on biomedicine and society, the politics of “interventionist STS”, and on the problems of “caseness” within empirical social science.     

Stages of life: A new metaphysics of conceptionism

When a human being comes into existence is crucial in bioethics. Conceptionism is the view that a human being comes into existence at conception. The twinning argument is an influential objection to this view. All versions of the twinning argument rely on a metaphysics of material objects, namely, endurantism. Given this, a strategy for defending conceptionism against the twinning argument is to deny endurantism and adopt an alternative metaphysics of material objects. A version of this strategy which has been debated in this journal is to adopt perdurantism, or the ‘multiple occupancy view’, on which monozygotic twins share the zygote region as a temporal part. We present a novel version of this strategy: conceptionists can evade the twinning argument by adopting an exdurantist metaphysics of material objects. We suggest reasons for thinking that this is a plausible and, indeed, preferable way for conceptionists to avoid the twinning argument.     

The argument from transfer

Utilitarian arguments on bioethical issues regarding human reproduction typically start with the view that it is wrong, other things being equal, not to procreate when this would have resulted in an additional being with a life worth living. The paper takes this view for granted and examines the common utilitarian claim that overpopulation and destitution in the world mean that, in practice, this obligation to procreate, other things being equal, often turn into a (categorical) obligation not to procreate. A version of this argument is defended— a version called the argument from transfer — according to which, rather than having additional children and care for them in order to make them happy, many people in the West ought to abstain from procreation and take care of destitute children already existing. The reasoning leading up to this conclusion raises some philosophical questions, seldom discussed in connection with bioethics, which indicate that the argument from transfer, although supporting the claim above, cannot neutralise the obligation to create mare happy people as easib as assumed by utilitarians. It is argued that the argument from transfer may place many people facing the choice of procreation in a peculiar moral dilemma.