Life Sciences Commons^™

Reef Society And The Tyranny Of Data, Robert Wintner

Animal Sentience

Modern science now approaches divergent processes in many areas, including health assessments of marine eco-systems and social aspects of marine species. Scientific data have long enjoyed a reputation for objectivity but incidents of science-for-hire, data spinning/skewing and political jading are more frequent than ever. In the field of reef creature sensitivity, technical treatises can “logically” explain away what a person of average education can clearly observe on any given reef. Western medicine discounted anecdotal evidence of any cure outside the 4% margin of error until those cures demanded attention and in some cases application. Modern science must now enter an …

Still Wondering How Flesh Can Feel, Gwen J. Broude

Animal Sentience

Reber believes he has simplified Chalmers’s “hard problem” of consciousness by arguing that subjectivity is an inherent feature of biological forms. His argument rests on the related notions of continuity of mind and gradual accretion of capacities across evolutionary time. These notions need to be defended, not just asserted. Because Reber minimizes the differences in mental faculties among species across evolutionary time, it becomes easier to assert, and perhaps believe, that sentience is already present in early biological forms. The more explicit we are about the differences among these mental faculties and the differences across species, the less persuasive is …

The Chemistry Of The Flint Water Crisis, Ernest M. Oleksy

The Downtown Review

Politics and science do not always go hand-in-hand. Nowhere was this more clear than in the Flint Water Crisis. Negligence towards growing levels of lead poisoning in drinking water led to incredibly deleterious effects on Flint's citizens. The chemistry of equilibrium and the shortcomings of local leaders led to Flint's water becoming a crisis.

Vincentian Education: The Role Of Compassion, Jerrold Ross

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

The renowned Vincentian Center of St John's University brings with it additional prestige and recognition to the research faculties who produce important findings for all levels of Catholic education and for the perpetuation of a tradition long associated with the University. Beginning with Catholic education in preschool and continuing through higher education, Vincentian education, now in its second century, should provide Hope, answer our dreams and refresh its reaction to a vibrant social context, so that people can understand its meaning beyond philosophical statements.

The Heart Of Vincentian Higher Education, Dennis H. Holtschneider Cm.

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

It means a great deal to me to be here at St. John’s University, where I began my university service twenty-seven years ago. It has been my own great joy to spend my life in Vincentian education. Working in Vincentian Universities combines my love for the intellectual life with a desire to serve the poor that I myself received because I attended a Vincentian university in my youth. And it’s the great heart of a Vincentian university to see possibility in ALL the young. I doubt that Bishop Loughlin, whose idea that there should be a university for immigrants led …

Jovsa: Editorial, Marc E. Gillespie

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

Vincentian Universities are engaged in service at so many levels and in so many ways, yet it is easy to move through our day unaware of the herculean efforts that our students and colleagues are engaged in. The Vincentian Universities seem rooted in the idea of service. For us, service is not another trend that we adopted, but rather it has always been part of our constitution. The work presented in this issue provides two direct examples of how we can better serve.

Cover Page

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of Zero-Tolerance Policies, Stephanie D. Stahl

CrissCross

Most Americans today have a largely negative image of zero-tolerance policies (ZTP) enacted to stop and prevent violence in the United States school system. According to the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement, zero-tolerance procedures are policies that mandate predetermined consequences or punishments for specific offenses (Walker). These policies specifically targeted actions considered violent and threatening, such as possession of a firearm or weapon. The concept of zero-tolerance policies was introduced into the education system during the 1980s as part of the failed War on Drugs as an attack on drug usage and violence in schools. …

The Labyrinth Of The Mind: The Psychology Of War Stories In Tim O’Brien’S Going After Cacciato, Rebekah Smith

CrissCross

This paper explores and analyzes the psychological reasons for storytelling by soldiers and veterans both during and after their deployments in war. It brings in multiple works by author-veterans as well as critical writing about these books with a specific focus on Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien. Paul Berlin, the novel's protagonist, imagines a fictional quest leaving Vietnam and going all the way to Paris following the desertion of a fellow soldier gone AWOL. He creates this journey to create order, find meaning, generate understanding, and focus on the good rather than the bad. This paper also explores the …

American Spring, Sam Mullooly, Tom Mullooly

CrissCross

Composer's Notes

I composed American Spring during the 2015-2016 school year, my final year as an undergraduate at Illinois Wesleyan University, in connection with the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. This opera takes place mostly in April 1865, the year Richmond burned and Lincoln died, and deals with America’s feelings of pride and shame in war. The opera’s main character is Varina Davis, the wife of confederate President Jefferson Davis. Varina offers the 1860’s Southern perspective on slavery and the war, one glossed over in most readings of our history because it is so obviously repugnant …

Birthing Center Versus Hospitalized Birth, Nicolette Larsen

CrissCross

There are many risks and benefits of giving birth at a birthing center versus a hospital. Determining the location of birth is an important decision, as women in the world today have many options of where to have their child. Hospitals and birthing centers are two places where medical professionals provide prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum care for the mother and fetus during this memorable time. While hospital nurses and physicians provide advanced medical care, birthing centers focus on holistic care of the family unit emphasizing mental, spiritual, and physical health. Doctors often perform cesarean sections (C-sections) for non-medical …

A Park Story, David Flowers, Evan Dolan

CrissCross

Composer's Note

A Park Story was written to be an honest and objective portrayal of the struggles that both characters experience throughout their collective story. Christopher and his mother both end up fighting two dominating perspectives of their identity: their family roles, and how they identify themselves. Their self-identities collide with each other in an irreconcilable manner; while both of them strongly desire the family bond they have, the mother’s convictions become the line that neither of them have any desire to cross.

Tracking The Elephant (Lexodonta Africana) Corridor And The Human-Wildlife Conflict In Selela Village, Nicole Chlebek, Laura Stalter

CrissCross

The beastly journey of long-distance migration for the African Elephant (Lexodonta Africana) is important for upholding their connections between diminishing protected areas, especially in northeastern Tanzania. However, human development is encroaching into these corridors, creating a human-elephant conflict, which can ruin livelihoods of villagers, depending on the extent of conflict. This study focused on exploring the hypothesized human-elephant conflict on the Selela corridor, specifically in Selela village, as well as GPS (Global Positioning System) mapping evidence of elephant travel along the projected Selela elephant corridor connecting Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), to Selela Forest Reserve (SFR), and finally to …

Animals Aren’T Persons, But Is It Time For A Neologism?, Helen Steward

Animal Sentience

Mark Rowlands argues that at least some animals are persons, based on the idea that (i) many animals have a property he calls “pre-reflective awareness,” (ii) the capacity for pre-reflective awareness is sufficient to satisfy the traditional Lockean definition of personhood, and (iii) satisfaction of the traditional Lockean definition of personhood is sufficient for being a person. I agree with (i) and can see that there is a persuasive case for (ii), but I think the case against (iii) blocks the conclusion that animals are persons. I suggest that we may need instead to coin a neologism in order to …

Reber’S Caterpillar Offers No Help, Carl Safina

Animal Sentience

Reber’s target article “Caterpillars, consciousness and the origins of mind” seems only to shift but not to address the question of where the mind is and how minds occur.

Minerva 2016, The Honors College

Minerva

This issue of Minerva includes the article "Dear Bill and Betsy," documenting student gratitude for generous Honors donors Bill and Betsy Leitch; an interview with former professor and Honors Preceptor, Walter Macdougall; and an article on Honors student Emily Illingworth and her experiences in Honors. Other highlights include an article on distinguished Honors graduates Mark Pettegrow and Mark Haskell; and an article on the 2016 election as covered by UMaine Journalism students.

The Charm Of Secrecy: Secrecy And Society As Secrecy Studies, Susan Maret

Secrecy and Society

No abstract provided.

Insect Consciousness: Commitments, Conflicts And Consequences, Colin Klein, Andrew B. Barron

Animal Sentience

Our target article, “Insects have the capacity for subjective experience,” has provoked a diverse range of commentaries. In this response we have collated what we see as the major themes of the discussion. It is clear that we differ from some commentators in our commitments to what subjective experience is and what the midbrain is capable of. Here we clarify where we stand on those points and how our view differs from some other influential perspectives. The commentaries have highlighted the most lively areas of disagreement. We revisit here the debates surrounding whether the cortex is essential for any form …

Consciousness And Evolutionary Biology, Yew-Kwang Ng

Animal Sentience

Reber’s axiom: “Any organism with flexible cell walls, a sensitivity to its surrounds and the capacity for locomotion will possess the biological foundations of mind and consciousness” does not seem to be supported by things we know and the logic of evolutionary biology. The latter leads to the conclusion that conscious species are flexible in their behavior (rather than in their cell walls), as argued in Ng (1995, 2016). Locomotion may be completely hard-wired and need not involve consciousness. It is hard enough to explain how consciousness could emerge in a sophisticated brain: Isn’t it a harder problem to show …

The Difference Between Conscious And Unconscious Brain Circuits, Ezequiel Morsella, Zaviera Reyes

Animal Sentience

Theoretical frameworks in which consciousness is an inherent property of the neuron must account for the contrast between conscious and unconscious processes in the brain and address how neural events can ever be unconscious if consciousness is a property of all neurons. Other approaches have sought answers regarding consciousness by contrasting conscious and unconscious processes and through investigating the complex interactions between the two kinds of processes, as occurs most notably in human voluntary action. In voluntary action, consciousness is associated most, not with motor control or low-level perceptual processing, but with the stage of processing known as action selection.

Resolving The Hard Problem And Calling For A Small Miracle, Arthur S. Reber

Animal Sentience

With the exception of the commentary by Key, the commentaries on Reber have a common feature: the commenters feel, with varying levels of enthusiasm, that there is at least some virtue in the core assumption of the Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC) theory that consciousness (or subjectivity or sentience) accompanies the earliest forms of life. The model has two important entailments: (a) it resolves the (in)famous Hard Problem by redirecting the search for the biochemical foundations of sentience away from human consciousness; and (b) it reduces the need for an emergentist miracle to a far simpler scale than is currently …

No Help On The Hard Problem, Derek Ball

Animal Sentience

The hard problem of consciousness is to explain why certain physical states are conscious: why do they feel the way they do, rather than some other way or no way at all? Arthur Reber (2016) claims to solve the hard problem. But he does not: even if we grant that amoebae are conscious, we can ask why such organisms feel the way they do, and Reber’s theory provides no answer. Still, Reber’s theory may be methodologically useful: we do not yet have a satisfactory theory of consciousness, but perhaps the study of simple minds is a way to go about …

Unconscious Higher-Order Thoughts (Hots) As Pre-Reflective Self-Awareness?, Rocco J. Gennaro

Animal Sentience

Rowlands argues that many nonhuman animals are “persons,” contrary to the prevailing orthodoxy which rests on a mistaken conception of the kind of self-awareness relevant to personhood. He argues that self-awareness bifurcates into two importantly different forms — reflective self-awareness and pre-reflective self-awareness — and that many animals can have the latter, which is sufficient for personhood. I agree that there is good reason to think that many animals can have pre-reflective self-awareness, but I think Rowlands is mistaken about its nature. His account runs the risk of leading to an infinite regress objection, and his notion of pre-reflective self-awareness …

The Psychological Concept Of “Person”, Kristin Andrews

Animal Sentience

Reluctance to overextend personhood seems to drive many of the skeptical responses in the first round of commentaries on Rowlands's target article. Despite Rowlands’s straightforward Response that we already accept some nonhumans as persons, there is still hesitation to accept that other nonhuman animals are persons. Rowlands's argument is sound but the skeptics don’t accept the Lockean notion of person. The metaphysical sense of person is a psychological one, however, and psychological properties grant one moral status according to many ethical theories.

Fish Names Variability Traces The Geo-Historical Dynamics Of Moroccan Fishermen Communities, Hicham Masski, Abdelaziz Ait Hammou

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

Fish vernacular names in Morocco needs a structuring system. Though used widely, these names are highly variable and do not necessarily meet trade requirements. The 138 species considered in this study have 691 vernacular names and the vernacular names lists of the 16 study sites show large disparities. The most part of this variability is of linguistic origin coming from four geographic regions and thus cultural groups. Even if possible, the adoption of a unique standard, which is the goal of the national fisheries regulation authorities, might encounter resistance to its dissemination throughout fishermen and the local population.

Public Opinions Of Farmer-Oriented Environmentally Friendly Extension Programs: A Case Of Best Management Practices, Pei-Wen Huang, Alexa J. Lamm, Joy N. Rumble

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

Public concern about environmental protection has been developing for decades. However, a knowledge gap exists between farmers and consumers regarding the implementation of environmental protection practices through the use of Best Management Practices (BMPs). Extension can bridge this knowledge gap by developing effective educational programs about BMP use. This study sought to identify consumers’ perceptions of BMPs and preferred communication channels to facilitate the development of farmer-oriented Extension programs which assist with direct communication between farmers and consumers. Residents in seven Florida counties (N = 700) were surveyed for this descriptive study. Respondents were asked about their perceptions, beliefs, trust, …

Full Issue, Volume 4, Number 3, Journal Of Human Sciences And Extension

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

No abstract provided.

From Resistance To Receptiveness: Farmer Willingness To Participate In Extension Discussions About Climate Variability And Climate Change, David C. Diehl, Elder P. Garcia, Nicole L. Sloan, Daniel R. Dourte, Sebastian Galindo-Gonzalez, Clyde W. Fraisse

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

Identifying what Extension professionals believe are the critical elements of a communication strategy that is most likely to encourage agricultural producers to participate in discussions of climate variability and climate change is pivotal to providing timely solutions to issues facing farmers. The current study involved interviews with 50 Extension professionals from four southeastern states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina) who were engaged in ongoing work related to climate and agriculture. Respondents were asked to assess how best to engage farmers in conversations related to climate variability and climate change. Qualitative analysis showed that Extension professionals recommended avoiding content related …

Experiencing The Culture Of Cap-Haïtien: A Trip To Haiti, Alacyn Cox, Kamille Brawner, Kylie Echard

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Alacyn Cox and Kamile Brawner, third-year students, and Kylie Echard, a second-year student, are in the College of Agriculture. In this article, they provide readers with a glimpse of their first impressions on the economy, traditions, and culture they experienced during a study abroad, service-learning experience in Haiti.

Consciousness And The Unity Of Mind, Mark Rowlands

Animal Sentience

Several types of objection have been raised against the arguments I presented in my target article, “Are animals persons?” Among the objections are the following: (1) the claim that animals are persons is of little significance, (2) my use of the Lockean conception of the person is questionable, (3) whether a creature qualifies as a person is a matter of social construction rather than objective fact, (4) reflective consciousness is more important than I realize, (5) my reliance on implicit self-awareness in the account of personhood is ill-advised, (6) my account entails that too many creatures qualify as persons, and …