Mechanisms

Biological effects of static electric and 50-Hz electric (E) and magnetic (B) fields with intensities similar to occupational exposure have been analyzed at the Bioelectromagnetic Laboratory of Biophysics Department in the Medical Faculty of Gazi University for more than 25 years. A principal aim of this review is to evaluate the results of our in vivo studies. Static electric field in the range of 0.3-1.9 kV/m (0.3, 0.6, 0.8, 0.9, 1.35, 1.8, 1.9 kV/m) and ELF electric field in the range of 1.35-12 kV/m (1.35, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 12 kV/m) were applied to lab animals, directions (vertical and horizontal) and exposure periods (4-8 h/day, for 1, 3, 5, 7, 10 days). ELF magnetic fields were also applied with intensities of 1, 1.5, 2, and 3 mT. Magnetic field exposure periods were 4 h/day for 4, 5 or 7 days and 8 h/day for 5 days. Under the above exposure conditions, cellular enzymatic activities (SOD, GSH-Px, MPO, CAT, ADA and XO) and free radicals (MDA and NOx) were analyzed in t...

Emx2 is a vertebrate homeobox gene involved in the control of the central nervous system development. In the formation of cerebral cortex, Emx2 expression is restricted mainly to the germinal ventricular zone fading away in the first postmitotic neurons. This expression pattern, the severe impairment of cortex organization and the size in mutant mice suggest a role of Emx2 in the control of proliferation and migration of neural precursor cells. The observed persistence of Emx2 expression in adult neurogenic areas in vivo is here confirmed at later stages. We also find that Emx2 is expressed at high levels in adult neural stem cells (ANSCs) in vitro and is down modulated upon differentiation. Overexpression of Emx2 gene in ANSCs has an anti-proliferative effect but it does not influence a particular differentiation pathway. Our results suggest that Emx2 may act promoting an asymmetric mode of cell division thereby increasing the size of a transit amplifying population.

In conjunction with its development of high performance air bags for small cars in the early 1970's, Minicars, Inc. attempted to provide truly passive protection in all accident modes. The passive interior concept was epitomized in the design for NHTSA of the Minicars Research Safety Vehicle (RSV) (1,2), the Large Research Safety Vehicle (3), then applied to the Chevrolet Citation in the Modified Production Vehicle program (MIV) (4) and incorporated and publicized to some extent in General Motors X and J cars (5) in the late 70's and early 80's.

In the recent methodological individualism-holism debate on explanation, there has been considerable focus on what reasons methodological holists may advance in support of their position. We believe it is useful to approach the other direction and ask what considerations methodological individualists may in fact offer in favor of their view about explanation. This is the background for the question we pursue in this paper: Why be a methodological individualist? We start out by introducing the methodological individualism-holism debate while distinguishing two forms of methodological individualism: a form that says that individualist explanations are always better than holist accounts and a form that says that providing intervening individualist mechanisms always makes for better explanations than purely holist ones. Next, we consider four lines of reasoning in support of methodological individualism: arguments from causation, from explanatory depth, from agency, and from normativity. We argue that none of them offer convincing reasons in support of the two explanatory versions of individualism we consider. While there may well be occasions in which individualists' favorite explanations are superior, we find no reason to think this always must be the case.

International research, has demonstrated that acculturation implemented through school mechanisms, via specific practices, act as stabilizing agents for the social system, and as tools for imposing disciplineand integrating people within the current social status quo (Fragoudaki, Dragona, 1997; Avdela, 1998; Lee, Slater, Walsh , White, 1992; Alexiadou, 1992; Terlexis, 1987 ) Rieger(1995) defined acculturation as the process through which the members of a group that come from a specific cultural background adapt to the culture of a different social network. Strategies of acculturation usually applied by the National states in the Balkan Peninsula were an expression, on an ideological level, of the process of the national configuration within which education was constructing a newlycreated nationalism. In this context the educational mechanism was selected as the most forceful medium within the process of acculturation and as the most applicable strategy for the national homogenization to be achieved (Yinger, 1981: 249-264; Cornell, Hartmann,1998). It is of a main importance to focus on Western Greek Macedonia because, according to the data from the sources, the incorporation of the Macedonia region to the Greek State signified the start of a period during which it specified that the hard core of the problem of the desired acculturation in the Greek example were the Slav-speaking communities of Macedonia whose acculturation was consideredas a national goal. Specifically Western Macedonia was considered in this survey as a field for investigation due to its particular characteristics: a) the first is related to the lack of homogeneity in its population (Gounaris, 1997:35; Kofos, 1990: 23), since it was home to slav-speaking populations in the region. B) The second is related to the refugee settlement. Similar methods can be selected in the Serbians’ attitude to the Greek minority in Pelagonia, to the Bulgarians’ behavior in the Greek minority in South Bulgaria “Since 1923., which took on huge dimensions in Macedonia and caused numerous problems which also affected the field of education (Michailidis, 1992: 23) c) the third is related to the fact that the process of acculturation was addressed to illiterate slav-speaking native population and not to a new minority population. This research covers the period 1912-1936. The year 1912 was chosen as its starting point because that is when these regions were incorporated within the Greek state, which was the official body responsible for the implementation of educational policies. The year 1936 was selected as the terminus antequem on the other hand, because that is when the power was usurped by Ioannis Metaxas, replaced the use of educationas a tool capable of contributing to the acculturation, with the logic of taking violent measures to suppress the Slav-speaking in Macedonia.

In this paper, I evaluate recently defended mechanistic accounts of the unity of neuroscience from a metaphysical point of view. Considering the mechanistic framework in general (section 2 and 3), I argue that explanations of this kind are essentially reductive (section 4). The reductive character of mechanistic explanations provides a sufficiency criterion, according to which the mechanism underlying a certain phenomenon is sufficient for the latter. Thus, the concept of supervenience can be used in order to describe the relation between mechanisms and phenomena (section 5). Against this background, I show that the mechanistic framework is subject to the causal exclusion problem and faces the classical metaphysical options when it comes to the relations obtaining between different levels of mechanisms (section 6). Finally, an attempt to improve the metaphysics of mechanisms is made (section 7) and further difficulties are pointed out (section 8).

A novel design of compliant slider-crank mechanism is introduced and utilized as an impact and contact-force generator. This class of compliant slider mechanisms incorporates an elastic coupler, which is an initially straight flexible beam and buckles when it hits the stopper. The elastic pin-pin coupler, a buckling beam, behaves as a rigid body prior to the impact pushing the rigid slider. At a certain crank angle, the slider hits a stopper generating an impact force. This force can be changed by regulating the angular velocity of the crank and by achieving a desired velocity of the slider. Moreover, after the impact when the slider establishes a permanent contact with the stopper, the maximum contact force can also be adjusted by calculating the coupler dimensions (the length, the width, the thickness, and the amount of compression). The contact duration, the crank angular rotation range, can also be changed and attuned in this mechanism by moving the location of the impacted obje...

Abstract- Wear plate welding machines requires some special raw material handling system as they are heavy to handle.Wear plate welding requires 4-5 workers for handling and clamping of raw material. This paper reviews different material handling equipment used by various industries. As the raw material is heavy, it is very difficult to handle manually. Hence there is requirement of integrated material handling and clamping system to do this heavy task. An integrated approach for material handling and clamping is suggested. In this paper, various handling mechanisms like scissor lifting mechanism, hydraulic lift platform in scissors type mechanism, hydraulic lifting system based on multistage telescopic cylinder are discussed. Their analysis is done by using various software. Some failure diagnosis points are also discussed by mathematical calculations. Clamping mechanisms like electric power clamping device driven by step motor and screw-toggle-lever force amplifier in series, unil...

Neurogenesis in the compound eyes of Drosophila and the camera eyes of vertebrates spreads in a wave-like fashion. In both phyla, waves of hedgehog expression are known to drive the wave of neuronal differentiation. The mechanism controlling the propagation of hedgehog expression during retinogenesis of the vertebrate eye is poorly understood. The Iroquois homeobox genes play important roles in Drosophila

[Purpose] This study reports the effects of the Muslim prayer, known as Salat, on heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) while performing and miming the actions of Salat: standing, bowing, prostrating and sitting. [Subjects] Thirty Muslim subjects were asked to perform the actual and mime Salat. [Methods] HR and BP were measured using a Schiller AT-102 Electrocardiograph and an Omron SEM-1 Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor. [Results] The findings revealed that there was a significant difference in the HR of the subjects between performing and miming Salat. The standing and prostration positions of Salat produced the highest and the lowest HR, respectively. A lower HR may be of potential benefit to an individual's health. The systolic and the diastolic BP decreased significantly after performance and mime of Salat, and a greater reduction in BP was observed during performance of Salat. [Conclusion] This is the first study of HR and BP in relation to Salat positions. The findings will encourage further studies to explore the benefits of Salat maneuvers for patients with cardiovascular diseases.

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In this article, I present two conceptual problems for Craver’s mutual manipulability account of constitutive relevance in mechanisms. First, constitutive relevance threatens to imply causal relevance despite Craver (and Bechtel)’s claim that they are strictly distinct. Second, if (as is intuitively appealing) parthood is defined in terms of spatio-temporal inclusion, then the mutual manipulability account is prone to counterexamples, as I show by a case of endosymbiosis. I also present a methodological problem (a case of experimental underdetermination) and formulate two partial, but fallible solutions based on the notions of parthood and synchronicity.