The pH on the frustule of individual cells of the marine centric diatoms Coscinodiscus granii and Coscinodiscus wailesii (Bacillariophyceae) was measured with pH microsensors in culture media with increasing pH values of 8.04, 8.14, and 8.22, respectively. In 85-96% of the C.granii cells the pH on the frustule was up to 0.4 units higher than that of the medium, reaching a maximum pH 8.95. Only ...

Why do computers need emotional intelligence? Science fiction often portrays emotional computers as dangerous and frightening, and as a serious threat to human life. One of the most famous examples is HAL, the supercomputer onboard the spaceship Discovery, in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. HAL could express, recognize and respond to human emotion, and generally had strong emotional skills – t...

Vagueness is not undecidability, but undecidability does enter into an explanation of why there is vagueness. My theory, called the Undecidability Theory of Vagueness, explains vagueness largely as a result of the fact that we are computationally bound.1 Vagueness is not due to any particularly human weakness, but due to a weakness that any computationally bound agent possesses; even HAL from 2...

When measured over decades in countries that have been relatively stable, returns from stocks have been substantially better than returns from bonds. This is often attributed to investors’ risk aversion: stocks are thought to be riskier than bonds, and so investors will pay less for an expected return from stocks than for the same expected return from bonds. The game-theoretic probability-free ...

A new species of Habralictus Moure (Apoidea, Halictidae) is described from the island of Dominica, Habralictus gonzalezisp. n. The species is distinguished from other West Indian Habralictus and a key is provided to the West Indian Habralictus. Brief comments on the genus Habralictus and bee species of Dominica are provided.

We measured the mechanical properties of the respiratory system of C57BL/6 mice using the optimal ventilation waveform method in closed- and open-chest conditions at different positive end-expiratory pressures. The tissue damping (G), tissue elastance (H), airway resistance (Raw), and hysteresivity were obtained by fitting the impedance data to three different models: a constant-phase model by ...

In this essay I will explore an understanding of the potential moral agency of robots, arguing that the key characteristics of physical embodiment, adaptive learning, empathy in action, and a teleology toward the good are the primary necessary components for a machine to become a moral agent. In this context, other possible options will be rejected as necessary for moral agency, including simpl...

The HAL 9000 computer, the inimitable star of the classic Kubrick and Clarke film "2001: A Space Odyssey," displayed image understanding capabilities vastly beyond today’s computer systems. HAL could not only instantly recognize who he was interacting with, but also he could lip read, judge aesthetics of visual sketches, recognize emotions subtly expressed by scientists on board the ship, and r...

An ab initio study of the mono-and difluorides of krypton. Results from ab initio calculations at the CCSD͑T͒ level of theory are presented for krypton monofluoride ͑KrF͒, krypton monofluoride cation (KrF ϩ), linear, ground-state krypton difluoride (KrF 2), the triplet state of krypton difluoride, and the krypton–fluorine van der Waals complex (Kr–F 2). These are the first calculations demonstratin...

Americans age 12 or older experienced approximately 24.2 million violent and property victimizations in 2001 according to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Overall criminal victimizations included about 18.3 million property crimes (burglary, motor vehicle theft, and theft), 5.7 million violent crimes (rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault), and abo...