bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Descriptive vs Revisionary Social Epistemology: The Former as Seen by the Latter
Authors: Fuller Steve
Published: July 2008

When Peter Strawson (1959) subtitled the most celebrated book in ordinary language philosophy, Individuals, ‘An essay in descriptive metaphysics’, he shocked mainly for having reintroduced ‘metaphysics’ into intellectually respectable English a quarter-century after A.J. Ayer had consigned it to the logical positivists' index of forbidden philosophical words (Passmore 1966, 504). Few at the time appreciated the import of the modifiers ‘descriptive’ and its opposite, ‘revisionary’. Now, another half century on, philosophers have come around to Bertrand Russell's original view that both the ordinary language philosophy Strawson championed and the ideal scientific language philosophy Ayer championed offer alternative metaphysical visions. The remaining question of philosophical interest is what hangs in the balance between a descriptive and revisionary approach to metaphysics – or, for that matter, any branch of philosophy. This paper critically examines the currently dominant descriptive approach from a revisionary standpoint, initially relying on the terms Strawson uses to frame the distinction, and then moving outward to consider its implications for our understanding of the history of modern philosophy, especially the ‘naturalist’ sensibility that has been especially influential in analytic social epistemology.
Fallibilism, Objectivity, and the New Cynicism
Authors: Haack Susan
Published: July 2008

Nobody seriously doubts the possibility, or the usefulness, of finding things out; that is something we all take for granted when we inquire about our plane schedule, the state of our bank account, the best treatment for our child's illness, and so forth – a presupposition of the most ordinary, everyday looking into things as well as of the most sophisticated scientific research, not to mention of the legal system. Of course, nobody seriously doubts, either, that sometimes, instead of really looking into things, people fake, fudge, and obfuscate to avoid discovering unpalatable truths or having to give up comfortable tenets; that is something we all take for granted when we ask who paid for a reassuring (or a damning) study, who stands to gain from an Official Inquiry, which party an expert witness works for, and so on.

Of late, however, radical feminists, multiculturalists, sociologists and rhetoricians of science, and (I am embarrassed to say) a good many philosophers as well – though they look into questions about their plane schedules, bank accounts, medical treatments, etc., just like everyone else – profess to have seen through what the rest of us take for granted.
What's the Fuss about Social Constructivism?
Authors: Dupré John
Published: July 2008

The topic of this paper is social constructivist doctrines about the nature of scientific knowledge. I don't propose to review all the many accounts that have either claimed this designation or had it ascribed to them. Rather I shall try to consider in a very general way what sense should be made of the underlying idea, and then illustrate some of the central points with two central examples from biology. The first thing to say is that, on the face of it, some doctrine of the social construction of science must self-evidently be true. The notion of science as progressing through the efforts of solitary geniuses may have had some plausibility in the seventeenth century, but it has none today. Science is a massively cooperative, social, enterprise. And surely it is constructed. Scientific knowledge doesn't grow on trees; it is produced through hard work by human agents. Putting these two banal points together we conclude that science is socially constructed.
Boundaries, Reasons, and Ideology: Reply to Sismondo
Authors: Brown James Robert
Published: July 2008

Sergio Sismondo's “Boundary Work and the Science Wars” (this journal, xxx) nicely exemplifies a hotly debated central issue. One side, let me call them the rationalists, tries to explain episodes in the history of science in terms of reason. They claim that scientists, past and present, believe what they do because of the evidence that they have at the time. The other side, following Sismondo, let me call them STSers (STS = science and technology studies), claim that social and other non-cognitive factors are the frequent causes of belief. This disagreement naturally leads to a meta-level debate. Rationalists, such as myself, try to give reasons for believing the STSers are wrong-headed in their approach. And Sismondo replies with the claim that whether I realize it or not I am really doing boundary work – an explanation of my activity in terms of social factors.
The Competing Practices Argument and Self-Defeat
Authors: Stewart Todd
Published: July 2008

Andy believes that p because his tarot cards indicate that p. Betty believes that ∼p because her crystal ball reveals that ∼p. If Andy and Betty know that they disagree, and disagree because they engage in different practices, is Andy's belief that p rational? The answer depends in part on whether Andy has good reasons to think that reading tarot cards is reliable about the topic while reading crystal balls is not. If a person has good reasons to believe that practice P1 is reliable while a competing practice P2 is not, then it is not irrational to form beliefs by engaging in P1. What if a person does not have good reasons to think that one practice is reliable about a topic while competing practices are not, though? In such cases, would Andy's awareness of the existence of competing practices, on its own, be enough to render his belief that p irrational?
Group Knowledge and Group Rationality: A Judgment Aggregation Perspective
Authors: List Christian
Published: July 2008

In this paper, I introduce the emerging theory of judgment aggregation as a framework for studying institutional design in social epistemology. When a group or collective organization is given an epistemic task, its performance may depend on its ‘aggregation procedure’, i.e. its mechanism for aggregating the group members' individual beliefs or judgments into corresponding collective beliefs or judgments endorsed by the group as a whole. I argue that a group's aggregation procedure plays an important role in determining whether the group can meet two challenges: the ‘rationality challenge’ and the ‘knowledge challenge’. The rationality challenge arises when a group is required to endorse consistent beliefs or judgments; the knowledge challenge arises when the group's beliefs or judgments are required to track certain truths. My discussion seeks to identify those properties of an aggregation procedure that affect a group's success at meeting each of the two challenges.
Epistemic Value Theory and Judgment Aggregation
Authors: Fallis Don
Published: July 2008

We frequently make judgments about the world. Juries make judgments about whether defendants are guilty. Umpires make judgments about whether pitches are strikes. Tenure committees make judgments about whether professors deserve tenure. We typically want these judgments about the world to have good epistemic properties. We would like our judgments to be true rather than false, for example. We would also like our judgments to be consistent with each other; and we would like to have good reasons for our judgments. This paper will be concerned with how we can make judgments that have such good epistemic properties.
Universal Intellectual Trust
Authors: Foley Richard
Published: July 2008

All of us get opinions from other people. And not just a few. We acquire opinions from others extensively and do so from early childhood through virtually every day of the rest our lives. Sometimes we rely on others for relatively inconsequential information. Is it raining outside? Did the Yankees win today? But we also depend on others for important or even life preserving information. Where is the nearest hospital? Do people drive on the left or the right here? We acquire opinions from family and close acquaintances but also from strangers. We get directions from and heed the warnings of individuals we've never met, and likewise read books and articles and listen to television and radio reports authored by individuals we don't know personally. Moreover, we undertake inquiries in groups in which the group relies on the conclusions of the individuals making up the group. In some of these collective efforts everyone knows one another, for example, a set of neighbors taking a census of birds in the neighborhood. But others, such as the effort to understand gravity, are not so nearly self-contained. Indeed, many of the most impressive human intellectual accomplishments are the collective products of individuals far removed from another in location (and sometimes even over time) who rely on each other's conclusions without feeling the need to re-confirm them.
The Autonomy of Social Epistemology
Authors: Bishop Michael A.
Published: July 2008

Social epistemology is autonomous: When applied to the same evidential situations, the principles of social rationality and the principles of individual rationality sometimes recommend inconsistent beliefs. If we stipulate that reasoning rationally from justified beliefs to a true belief is normally sufficient for knowledge, the autonomy thesis implies that some knowledge is essentially social. When the principles of social and individual rationality are applied to justified evidence and recommend inconsistent beliefs and the belief endorsed by social rationality is true, then that true belief would be an instance of social knowledge but not individual knowledge.
Social Epistemology and the Politics of Omission
Authors: Talisse Robert B.
Published: July 2008

Contemporary liberal democracy employs a conception of legitimacy according to which political decisions and institutions must be at least in principle justifiable to all citizens. This conception of legitimacy is difficult to satisfy when citizens are deeply divided at the level of fundamental moral, religious, and philosophical commitments. Many have followed the later Rawls in holding that where a reasonable pluralism of such commitments persists, political justification must eschew appeal to any controversial moral, religious, or philosophical premises. In this way, the Rawlsian account of public political justification involves a politics of omission, where citizens are expected to bracket off their most fundamental commitments and seek justifications that draw only from uncontroversial premises. This politics of omission is necessary, Rawls argues, for political stability. But there is good social epistemic evidence for the view that the politics of omission encourages insularity among like-minded groups, and that this insularity in turn generates extremism. So omission is likely to lead to instability, not stability.
Two aggregation paradoxes in social decision making: the Ostrogorski paradox and the discursive dilemma
Authors: Pigozzi Gabriella
Published: July 2008

The Ostrogorski paradox and the discursive dilemma are seemingly unrelated paradoxes of aggregation. The former is discussed in traditional social choice theory, while the latter is at the core of the new literature on judgment aggregation. Both paradoxes arise when, in a group, each individual consistently makes a judgment, or expresses a preference, (in the form of yes or no) over specific propositions, and the collective outcome is in some respect inconsistent. While the result is logically inconsistent in the case of the discursive paradox, it is not stable with respect to the level of aggregation in the case of the Ostrogorski paradox. In the following I argue that, despite these differences, the two problems have a similar structure. My conclusion will be twofold: on the one hand, the similarities between the paradoxes support the claim that these problems should be tackled using the same aggregation procedure; on the other hand, applying the same procedure to these paradoxes will help clarify the strengths and weaknesses of the aggregation method itself. More specifically, I will show that an operator defined in artificial intelligence to merge belief bases can deal with both paradoxes.
Re-thinking the Duplication of Speaker/Hearer Belief in the Epistemology of Testimony
Authors: Buenting Joel
Published: July 2008

Most epistemologists of testimony assume that testifying requires that the beliefs to which speakers attest are identical to the beliefs that hearers accept. I argue that this characterization of testimony is misleading. Characterizing testimony in terms of duplicating speaker/hearer belief unduly resticts the variety of beliefs that might be accepted from speaker testimony.
Epistemic Systems
Authors: Koppl Roger
Published: July 2008

Epistemic systems are social processes generating judgments of truth and falsity. I outline a mathematical theory of epistemic systems that applies widely. Areas of application include pure science, torture, police forensics, espionage, auditing, clinical medical testing, democratic procedure, and the market economy. I examine torture and police forensics in relative detail. This paper is an exercise in comparative institutional epistemics, which considers how the institutions of an epistemic system influence its performance as measured by such things as error rates and the volume of judgments generated.
Openness versus Secrecy in Scientific Research
Authors: Resnik David B.
Published: July 2008

Openness is one of the most important principles in scientific inquiry, but there are many good reasons for maintaining secrecy in research, ranging from the desire to protect priority, credit, and intellectual property, to the need to safeguard the privacy of research participants or minimize threats to national or international security. This article examines the clash between openness and secrecy in science in light of some recent developments in information technology, business, and politics, and makes some practical suggestions for resolving conflicts between openness and secrecy.
The Epistemic Features of Group Belief
Authors: Mathiesen Kay
Published: July 2008

Recently, there has been a debate focusing on the question of whether groups can literally have beliefs. For the purposes of epistemology, however, the key question is whether groups can haveknowledge.More specifically, the question is whether “group views” can have the key epistemic features of belief, viz., aiming at truth and being epistemically rational. I argue that, while groups may not have beliefs in the full sense of the word, group views can have these key epistemic features of belief. However, I argue that on Margaret Gilbert's influential “plural subject” account of group belief, group views are unlikely to be epistemically rational.
Introduction: When Difference Makes a Difference
Authors: Wylie Alison
Published: July 2008

Taking seriously the social dimensions of knowledge puts pressure on the assumption that epistemic agents can usefully be thought of as autonomous, interchangeable individuals, capable, insofar as they are rational and objective, of transcending the specificities of personal history, experience, and context. If this idealization is abandoned as the point of departure for epistemic inquiry, then differences among situated knowers come sharply into focus. These include differences in cognitive capacity, experience, and expertise; in access to information and the heuristics that make it intelligible; and in motivating interests and orienting standpoint. Dissent takes on rather different significance, as a potentially productive feature of epistemic life rather than evidence of a failure of aperspectivality or an indication of error. The central questions are, then, what forms of diversity are epistemically consequential, and how can they best be deployed to ensure that the beliefs we warrant as knowledge are as well grounded and truth-tracking as possible.
Epistemic Trust and Social Location
Authors: Daukas Nancy
Published: July 2008

Epistemic trustworthiness is defined as a complex character state that supervenes on a relation between first- and second-order beliefs, including beliefs about others as epistemic agents. In contexts shaped by unjust power relations, its second-order components create a mutually supporting link between a deficiency in epistemic character and unjust epistemic exclusion on the basis of group membership. In this way, a deficiency in the virtue of epistemic trustworthiness plays into social/epistemic interactions that perpetuate social injustice. Overcoming that deficiency and, along with it, normalized practices of epistemic exclusion, requires developing a self-critical perspective on the partial, socially-located character of one's perspective and the consequent epistemic value of inclusiveness.
Norms of Epistemic Diversity
Authors: Solomon Miriam
Published: July 2008

Epistemic diversity is widely approved of by social epistemologists. This paper asks, more specifically, how much epistemic diversity, and what kinds of epistemic diversity are normatively appropriate? Bothlaissez-faireand highly directive approaches to epistemic diversity are rejected in favor of the claim that diversity is a blunt epistemic tool. There are typically a number of different options for adequate diversification. The paper focuses on scientific domains, with particular attention to recent theories of smell.
Objectivity and Perspective in Empirical Knowledge
Authors: Kukla Rebecca
Published: July 2008

Epistemologists generally think that genuine warrant that is available to anyone must be available to everyone who is exposed to the relevant causal inputs and is able and willing to properly exercise her rationality. The motivating idea behind this requirement is roughly that an objective view is one that is not bound to a particular perspective. In this paper I ask whether the aperspectivality of our warrants is a precondition for securing the objectivity of our claims. I draw upon a Sellarsian account of perception in order to argue that it is not; rather, inquirers can have contingent properties and perspectives that give them access to forms of rational warrant and objective knowledge that others do not have. The universal accessibility of reasons, on my account, is not a precondition for the legitimacy of any actual warrant, but rather a regulative ideal governing inquiry and communication.
Powerlessness and Social Interpretation
Authors: Fricker Miranda
Published: July 2008

Our understanding of social experiences is central to our social understanding more generally. But this sphere of epistemic practice can be structurally prejudiced by unequal relations of power, so that some groups suffer a distinctive kind of epistemic injustice—hermeneutical injustice. I aim to achieve a clear conception of this epistemicethical phenomenon, so that we have a workable definition and a proper understanding of the wrong that it inflicts.
Deliberative Democracy and the Epistemic Benefits of Diversity
Authors: Bohman James
Published: July 2008

It is often assumed that democracies can make good use of the epistemic benefits of diversity among their citizenry, but difficult to show why this is the case. In a deliberative democracy, epistemically relevant diversity has three aspects: the diversity of opinions, values, and perspectives. Deliberative democrats generally argue for an epistemic form of Rawls' difference principle: that good deliberative practice ought to maximize deliberative inputs, whatever they are, so as to benefit all deliberators, including the least effective. The proper maximandum of such a principle is not the pool of reasons, but rather the availability of perspectives. This sort of diversity makes robustness across different perspectives the proper epistemic aim of deliberative processes. Robustness also offers a measure of success for those democratic practices of inquiry based on the deliberation of all citizens.
Deliberating Groups versus Prediction Markets (or Hayek's Challenge to Habermas)
Authors: Sunstein Cass R.
Published: July 2008

For multiple reasons, deliberating groups often converge on falsehood rather than truth. Individual errors may be amplified rather than cured. Group members may fall victim to a bad cascade, either informational or reputational. Deliberators may emphasize shared information at the expense of uniquely held information. Finally, group polarization may lead even rational people to unjustified extremism. By contrast, prediction markets often produce accurate results, because they create strong incentives for revelation of privately held knowledge and succeed in aggregating widely dispersed information. The success of prediction markets offers a set of lessons for increasing the likelihood that groups can obtain the information that their members have.
From Epistemic Diversity to Common Knowledge: Rational Rituals and Cooperation in Democratic Athens
Authors: Ober Josiah
Published: July 2008

Classical Athens provides a historical case study of effective joint action by a democratic community, at scale, over time, and across a socially and epistemically diverse population. Athens was concerned both with aggregating diverse knowledge for decision-making and with building common knowledge for coordinated joint action. A preserved prosecution speech delivered in an Athenian treason trial reveals how common knowledge was generated by democratic institutions and employed in legal arguments. Common knowledge facilitated effective coordination among citizens through productive alignment cascades. Yet Athenian lawcourt procedures rendered cascading difficult, pointing to an institutionalized awareness that coordination among jurors might violate fairness as equality before the law; such violations threatened democratic values and the equilibrium between elite and non-elite citizens. Common knowledge was promoted by repeated public rituals, public monuments, and public architecture that allowed for the interpresence of large numbers of deliberative and intervisible citizens.
A Neutral Conception of Reasonableness?
Authors: Weinstock Daniel M.
Published: July 2008

Much liberal theorizing of the past twenty years has been built around a conception of neutrality and an accompanying virtue of reasonableness according to which citizens ought to be able to view public policy debates from a perspective detached from their comprehensive conceptions of the good. The view of “justificatory neutrality” that emerges from this view is discussed and rejected as embodying controversial views about the relationship of individuals to their conceptions of the good. It is shown to be based upon a “protestant” assumption according to which conceptions of the good can be cashed out in terms of propositionalbeliefs. An alternative conception of reasonableness, grounded in the stable disposition of individuals to prefer social peace over conflict is described. It is argued that it better satisfies the neutralist requirement than do theories of justificatory neutrality.
Introduction: Epistemic Relativism
Authors: Schmitt Frederick F.
Published: July 2008

This issue of Episteme is devoted to the topic of epistemic relativism. It includes a symposium on Paul Boghossian's treatment of epistemic relativism in chapters 5 through 7 of his new book, Fear of Knowledge (2006). The symposium centers on Boghossian's argument against epistemic relativism in chapter 6 of that book. In their contributions to the symposium, Gideon Rosen and Ram Neta offer criticisms of Boghossian's argument, and Neta argues for a version of epistemic relativism. In addition to the symposium, Jonathan Weinberg, Michael Williams, and Roger White supply stand-alone articles on related topics. The purpose of this introduction is to situate epistemic relativism in the constellation of relativist views, to distinguish several forms of epistemic relativism, and to remark briefly on how the versions of relativism discussed in the articles in this issue fit these forms of relativism.
Epistemic Subjectivism
Authors: White Roger
Published: July 2008

Epistemic subjectivism, as I am using the term, is a view in the same spirit as relativism, rooted in skepticism about the objectivity or universality of epistemic norms. I explore some ways that we might motivate subjectivism drawing from some common themes in analytic epistemology. Without diagnosing where the arguments go wrong, I argue that the resulting position is untenable.
Moderate Epistemic Relativism and Our Epistemic Goals
Authors: Weinberg Jonathan M.
Published: July 2008

Although radical forms of relativism are perhaps beyond the epistemological pale, I argue here that a more moderate form may be plausible, and articulate the conditions under which moderate epistemic relativism could well serve our epistemic goals. In particular, as a result of our limitations as human cognizers, we find ourselves needing to investigate the dappled and difficult world by means of competing communities of highly specialized researchers. We would do well, I argue, to admit of the existence of unresolvable disputes between such communities, but only so long as there is a sufficient amount of fruitful exchange between them as well. I close with some speculation about when it is or is not legitimate to make an “appeal to discipline”: responding to another’s argument by saying something like, “we should do it this way, because we are philosophers (/linguists/psychologists/…), and that’s just what we do”.
Conspiracy Theories and the Internet: Controlled Demolition and Arrested Development
Authors: Clarke Steve
Published: July 2008

Following Clarke (2002), a Lakatosian approach is used to account for the epistemic development of conspiracy theories. It is then argued that the hypercritical atmosphere of the internet has slowed down the development of conspiracy theories, discouraging conspiracy theorists from articulating explicit versions of their favoured theories, which could form the hard core of Lakatosian research programmes. The argument is illustrated with a study of the “controlled demolition” theory of the collapse of three towers at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Becoming Interdisciplinary: Making Sense of DeLanda's Reading of Deleuze
Authors: Holdsworth David
Published: July 2008

Despite the generally positive reception of Manuel DeLanda's Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy (2002), it has been pointed out that DeLanda's reconstruction of Deleuze's ontology has concentrated almost exclusively on the processes of becoming actual, and has thus far failed to address the processes of becoming virtual. In this article, I suggest a way of reading DeLanda which recovers for mathematical practice a capacity to clarify the meaning of events as they arise within a synthetic process of becoming interdisciplinary. First, I attempt to show that modern mathematical practices can be understood as already characterized by a denial of essentialism in just the way required by Deleuze. Second, I argue that mathematical practice, so understood, is of a piece with literary practice, in the sense that both can be understood as the free and transformative production of concepts within the space of what Deleuze has characterized as a form of the comedic. I conclude with an outline of an argument showing that the transformative and the comedic can be embraced within a realist philosophy of the kind so clearly evident in DeLanda's reconstruction of Deleuze's ontology.
Molecular Biology in the Work of Deleuze and Guattari
Authors: Marks John
Published: July 2008

This article looks at Deleuze and Guattari's understanding of molecular biology, focusing particularly on their reading of two highly influential works by the eminent French molecular biologists François Jacob and Jacques Monod, La logique du vivant (The Logic of Living Systems) and Le hasard et la nécessité (Chance and Necessity). In these two works, Jacob and Monod present the significance of molecular biology in broadly reductionist terms. What is more, the lac operon model of gene regulation that they propose serves to reinforce the so-called Central Dogma of molecular biology, according to which information passes from DNA to RNA to proteins, with no reverse route. However, Deleuze and Guattari discover intensive potentials within the descriptions of molecular biology offered by both writers. It is argued that Jacob's work in particular, as it has developed in the years since the publication of La logique du vivant in 1970, has itself developed these intensive potentials.
Letters from Lacan
Authors: Aoki Douglas Sadao
Published: July 2008

The infamous difficulty of Lacan's writing has its own, very apt synecdoche: the matheme. What makes this ‘little letter’ that structures the signifier so apposite a device is how it stymies even those sophisticated readers for whom Lacan is as close-readable as Mallarm e. The proposition offered here is that this crisis of reading is not the consequence of either some terrible mistake or egregious failing in character, but rather a typically Lacanian move by which his text stages the very theory it is presumably explicating. This article suggests that by striving to read the matheme, instead of seizing upon excuses to avoid it, we can begin to understand what Lacan meant when he said that everything emerges from the structure of the signifier.
Narrating Pain: The Power of Catharsis
Authors: Kearney Richard
Published: July 2008

This article explores ways in which narrative retelling and remembering might provide cathartic release for sufferers of trauma. It looks at examples drawn from genocide, literature, history and psychotherapy. It draws particularly from Aristotle's theory of mythos-mimesis and Ricœur's theory of narrative configuration.
On Testimony, Sincerity and Truth
Authors: Plant Bob
Published: July 2008

In much recent cultural theory there has been a noticeable turn to testimonial discourse, perhaps especially in the context of finding ways of bearing witness to human suffering, tragedy and trauma.While this shift toward allowing others to speak ‘in the first person’ provides an important and powerful methodological tool, appealing to first-person testimony is also a hazardous enterprise. (It is, after all, especially difficult to raise questions about the authenticity of visibly pained testimonies.) Drawing on a number of disparate philosophers and writers, in this article I explore some of the central epistemological and ethical problems surrounding testimony. More specifically, I argue that the distinction between truth and sincerity is of fundamental importance here, and as such any unreflective methodological reliance on testimonial discourse is at best misconceived, at worst irresponsible.
Derrida Un-Cut: Cixous's Art of Hearts1
Authors: Regard Frédéric
Published: July 2008

This article concerns the Portrait of Jacques Derrida, drawn by Hélène Cixous in 2001. The pages I choose to focus on are nine extracts of Derrida's footnoted additions to an essay by Geoffrey Bennington, either annotated or highlighted, sometimes both, in Cixous's hand in red, blue or black pen. The central point I develop is that Cixous's close relation to Derrida is not so much to an intimate friend whose skin could be touched, as to Derrida qua writing being, Derrida as corpus. I argue that intimacy operates by loosening Derrida's tongue, entering into his tongue in order to get to his heart by means of a hand-performed ‘ritual’, which I call the ritual of ‘sur-lining’.
Compounding
Authors: Schöppner Volker , Kloke Philipp
Published: July 2008

This article deals with compounding of polymer and rubber products in general. In the field of polymer processing, compounding means incorporating certain additives into a polymer matrix. Although the rubber industry utilizes the compounding process to realize defined rubber properties, the plastics industry wants to enhance the raw material by incorporating certain additives.

In the following article, the ingredients of compounding, which can be divided into two classes, are presented. On the one hand, there are the additives which are intruded in small amounts to change or strengthen the plastics' properties. On the other hand, there are the fillers and reinforcing agents that are used to improve the stiffness and impact strength by incorporating an amount up to 80 wt%.

For handling of these different kinds of additives, a special infrastructure is needed to generate a compound. The infrastructure depends on the diversity of feeding units to the different kinds of machine concepts. Especially, the machine concept of the tightly intermeshing, corotating twin‐screw extruder for plastics, and the internal mixer for developing rubber compounds are the most common technologies utilized. In addition, other machines are described as well.
Furniture
Authors: Kuhlke William C. , Giornelli Ray
Published: July 2008

Plastics are used in home, office, and institutional furniture and stadium seating. Typical applications of various resins and their methods of fabrication are given. Flexible polyurethane foam is one of the most popular materials used in furniture and bedding. Plastics have been used to simulate wood parts. Before finishing, the resin used must be cleaned to remove contaminants. Conventional paints and stains cannot be used on plastics. A barrier coat must be used before coating. Plastic‐molded components facilitate integrated design. New biofoams based on natural oil polyols are a rising trend in the furniture and bedding industries.
Networks, Elastomeric
Authors: Mark J. E. , Erman B.
Published: July 2008

The most striking features of a rubber‐like material are its ability to undergo very large deformations with essentially complete recoverability. In order for a material to exhibit such unusual behavior, it must consist of relatively long polymeric chains that have a high degree of flexibility and mobility and are joined into a network structure. The requirement of flexibility and mobility is associated with the very high deformability. As a result of an externally imposed stress, the long chains may alter their configurations which take place relatively rapidly due to their high mobilities. The requirement of linking the chains into a network structure is associated with the solid‐like features, where the chains are prevented from flowing relative to each other under external stresses. As a result, a typical rubber or elastomer may be stretched up to about 10 times its original length. Upon removal of the external force, it rapidly recovers its original dimensions, with essentially no residual or nonrecoverable strain. As a result of these unique mechanical properties, elastomers find important usages ranging from automobile tires to heart valves, to gaskets in jet planes and space vehicles.

The article discusses the preparation and structure of networks, the effects of network structure on properties as well as reviews elasticity theories and experimental results for a number of elastomers.
Polyampholytes
Authors: Kudaibergenov Sarkyt E.
Published: July 2008

This article highlights the synthetic polyampholytes that are able to mimic the behavior of natural polyampholytes, proteins, and illustrates some examples that merge the interface between artificial and natural materials. The electrochemical behavior, solubility, viscosity, mobility, hydrodynamic properties, phase, and conformational transitions of polyampholytes are considered. Adsorption of polyampholytes onto solid, liquid, and gas interfaces is discussed from polarization‐induced attraction forces point of view. The so‐called “isoelectric effect,” which is realized at the isoelectric point of polyampholytes, is emphasized. Complexation of polyampholytes with proteins, polyelectrolytes, metal ions, and surfactants is analyzed. Practical significance of polyampholytes in water purification, desalination, protein separation, oil industry, catalysis, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and medicine is outlined.
Meta‐Analysis in Nonclinical Risk Assessment
Authors: Jones David R. , Sutton Alex , Peters Jaime
Published: July 2008

Systematic review and meta‐analysis methods seek to combine all relevant evidence in transparent, reproducible, updatable, and quantifiable ways. They are well established in evidence‐based medicine and some other fields but remain relatively uncommon in risk assessment. Systematic review and meta‐analysis methods should be adopted both for assessing evidence from human epidemiological studies alone or from animal studies alone and in combining animal and human data in risk assessment processes.
Oriented Poly(dialkylstannane)s
Authors: Choffat Fabien , Fornera Sara , Smith Paul , Caseri Walter R. , Breiby Dag W. , Andreasen Jens W. , Nielsen Martin M.
Published: July 2008

The inorganic (or ‘organometallic’) polymers poly(dibutylstannane), poly(dioctylstannane), and poly(didodecylstannane) have been oriented by shear forces, the tensile drawing of blends with polyethylene, and deposition from solution onto glass slides coated with an oriented, friction‐deposited poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) layer. Orientation of the polystannanes has been examined by polarization microscopy, UV‐vis spectroscopy with polarized light, and X‐ray diffraction and their direction is found to depend on the length of the alkyl side groups and the method of orientation. Remarkably, in some cases the polystannane backbones are oriented parallel and in other instances perpendicular to the direction of the external orientation stimuli. The latter structural arrangement is most conspicuous for polymers substituted with dodecyl side groups, which are found to align parallel to the applied orientation direction, which forces the polymer backbone into a perpendicular position. Finally, UV‐vis spectra indicate that changes in the backbone conformation of certain polystannanes might be induced by applying mechanical stress.
Self‐Assembly of DNA‐Templated Polypyrrole Nanowires: Spontaneous Formation of Conductive Nanoropes
Authors: Pruneanu Stela , Al‐Said Said A. Farha , Dong Liqin , Hollis Tom A. , Galindo Miguel A. , Wright Nicholas G. , Houlton Andrew , Horrocks Benjamin R.
Published: July 2008

Polypyrrole nanowires formed by polymerization of pyrrole on a DNA template self‐assemble into rope‐like structures. These ‘nanoropes’ may be quite smooth (diameters 5–30 nm) or may show frayed ends where individual strands are visible. A combination of electric force microscopy, conductive atomic force microscopy and two‐terminal current–voltage measurements show that they are conductive. Nanoropes adhere more weakly to hydrophobic surfaces prepared by silanization of SiO2 than to the clean oxide; this effect can be used to aid the combing of the nanoropes across microelectrode devices for electrical characterization.
Large‐Scale Synthesis of New Pyranoid Building Blocks Based on Aldolase‐Catalysed Carbon‐Carbon Bond Formation
Authors: Wolberg Michael , Dassen Ben H. N. , Schürmann Martin , Jennewein Stefan , Wubbolts Marcel G. , Schoemaker Hans E. , Mink Daniel
Published: July 2008

A new large‐scale approach to the synthetically versatile chloromethyl‐substituted, α,β‐unsaturated δ‐lactone 3 is described. The synthesis is based on a biocatalytic process performed on an industrial scale. Conjugate addition of C‐, N‐, O‐, and S‐nucleophiles to lactone 3 affords a variety of new pyranoid building blocks in a highly diastereoselective manner. The operational simplicity of the whole sequence allows for preparing these building blocks on an attractive scale.
Elaboration of a quantitative job‐exposure matrix for historical exposure to airborne exposures in the Polish rubber industry
Authors: de Vocht F. , Sobala W. , Peplonska B. , Wilczynska U. , Gromiec J. , Szeszenia‐Dabrowska N. , Kromhout H.
Published: July 2008

Background

A job‐exposure matrix (JEM) for inhalable aerosols, aromatic amines, and cyclohexane soluble matter (CSM) was elaborated based on measurements collected routinely between 1981 and 1996.

Methods

The data were grouped based on similarities in exposure levels and time trends in different departments, and were analyzed using smoothing splines and mixed effects models.

Results

Although higher than in western European countries, inhalable aerosol exposure decreased after changes in production volume and implementation of exposure reduction measures in mid‐1980s. Aromatic amines concentrations first increased following the factory's production volume, but subsequently decreased in more recent years. CSM concentrations were uniformly distributed between departments.

Conclusions

This JEM provides an overview of historical exposure levels in a large Polish rubber factory and will enable estimation of lifetime exposure for individual workers in a Polish rubber workers cohort and further investigation of the associations between specific exposures and cancer risk. Am. J. Ind. Med. 51:852‐860, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Predictors of upper extremity symptoms and functional impairment among workers employed for 6 months in a new job
Authors: Gardner Bethany T. , Dale Ann Marie , VanDillen Linda , Franzblau Alfred , Evanoff Bradley A.
Published: July 2008

Background

We sought to identify personal and work‐related predictors of upper extremity symptoms and related functional impairment among 1,108 workers employed for 6 months in a new job.

Methods

We collected data at baseline and 6‐month follow‐up using self‐administered questionnaires. Multivariate logistic regression models were created for each outcome variable. Predictors included personal risk factors, physical work exposures and psychosocial factors.

Results

Independent predictors for upper extremity symptoms at 6‐month follow‐up were age, Caucasian race, female gender, baseline history of UE symptoms, and job tasks involving wrist bending or forceful gripping. Independent predictors for functional impairment were baseline history and severity of UE symptoms, wrist bending, and social support.

Conclusions

Both personal and work‐related factors were independent predictors of upper extremity symptoms and functional impairment in this working population. We found different risk factors for symptoms than for functional impairment related to symptoms. Am. J. Ind. Med. 51:932–940, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Thermal analysis of glycerol citrate/starch blends
Authors: Holser Ronald Alan
Published: July 2008

The reaction of glycerol and citric acid was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermal gravimetric analysis. Reactions were performed in the DSC with a temperature oscillation of 1°C/min applied while scanning the range of 20–220°C. This modulated technique allowed separation of reversible and irreversible thermal effects. The energy associated with the esterification of glycerol and citric acid, 40 J/g, was calculated from the irreversible component of the heat flow. When cornstarch was blended with glycerol and citric acid, the weight loss curves displayed prominent shifts in maxima values attributable to starch degradation. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008
Mechanical and viscoelastic properties of novel silk fibroin fiber/poly(ε‐caprolactone) biocomposites
Authors: Li Wei , Qiao Xiuying , Sun Kang , Chen Xiaodong
Published: July 2008

Silk‐fibroin (SF)‐fiber‐reinforced poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) biocomposites with different fiber contents were fabricated by a melt‐blending method. The mechanical and viscoelastic properties of these SF/PCL composites were investigated by mechanical property testing, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, and dynamic rheological analysis. The mechanical properties of PCL were obviously reinforced by fiber addition, and the maximum tensile and flexural strengths appeared at fiber contents of 35 and 45%, respectively. As the fiber content increased, both the storage modulus and loss modulus increased, whereas the glass‐transition temperature of the PCL component decreased. The appearance of a storage modulus plateau indicated the formation of reinforcement network structures in the SF/PCL composites, which enhanced the elasticity and viscosity of the composites. The interfacial interaction between the fiber and PCL matrix was not very strong. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008
Nonfluorinated copolymerized polyimide thin films with ultralow dielectric constants
Authors: Yuan Yuan , Lin Bao‐Ping , Zhang Xue‐Qin , Wu Li‐Wei , Zhan Yao
Published: July 2008

A series of copolymerized polyimide (PI) thin films with low dielectric constants were prepared with different molars ratio of bis[3,5‐dimethyl‐4‐(4‐aminophenoxy)phenyl]methane and 9,9‐bis[4‐(4‐aminophenoxy)phenyl]fluorene as diamines and 4,4′‐(4,4′‐isopropylidenediphenoxy)bis(phthalic anhydride) as a dianhydride. Some films possessed good dielectric properties with an ultralow dielectric constant of 2.3 at 1 MHz. The structures and properties of the thin films were measured with Fourier transform infrared and NMR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and dynamic mechanical analysis. The PI films exhibited glass‐transition temperatures in the range 223–243°C and possessed initial thermal decomposition temperatures reaching up to 475–486°C in air and 464–477°C in nitrogen. All of the PI films exhibited excellent solubility in organic solvents. The mechanical properties of these films were also examined. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008
Filled reactive ethylene terpolymer primers for cathodic disbondment mitigation
Authors: Love C. T. , Karbhari V. M.
Published: July 2008

A reactive ethylene terpolymer (RET) with inorganic fillers of clay, talc, and zinc was examined for its cathodic disbondment (CD) performance and as a potential coating primer material for pipeline applications. The filler type and volume fraction influenced the mechanical, thermal, adhesion, and CD resistance of the coatings. The tensile modulus and strength of the RETs increased at higher loadings of selected fillers. The dry adhesive strength of the clay‐filled RET maintained the same level of adhesion up to approximately 23 vol %, whereas the talc‐ and zinc‐filled RETs showed decreases in adhesive performance. CD resistance was significantly improved with 18–23 vol % clay, whereas the overall disbondment area was reduced approximately 82% from pure RET. However, the post‐cathodic‐disbondment adhesive strength for the clay‐filled RET decreased as a result of the degradation of the primer/topcoat interface caused by moisture absorption. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008
Three‐dimensional consensus structure of sst2‐selective somatostatin (SRIF) antagonists by NMR
Authors: Grace Christy Rani R. , Erchegyi Judit , Reubi Jean Claude , Rivier Jean E. , Riek Roland
Published: July 2008

The three‐dimensional NMR structures of seven octapeptide analogs of somatostatin (SRIF), based on octreotide, with the basic sequence H‐Cpa/Phe2‐c[DCys3‐Xxx7‐DTrp/DAph(Cbm)8‐Lys9‐Thr10‐Cys14]‐Yyy‐NH2(the numbering refers to the position in native SRIF), with Xxx7being Aph(Cbm)/Tyr/Agl(NMe,benzoyl) and Yyy being Nal/DTyr/Thr, are presented here. Most of these analogs exhibit potent and highly selective binding to sst2receptors, and all of the analogs are antagonists inhibiting receptor signaling. Based on their consensus 3D structure, the pharmacophore of the sst2‐selective antagonist has been defined. The pharmacophore involves the side chains of Cpa2,DTrp/DAph(Cbm)8, and Lys9, with the backbone for most of the sst2‐selective antagonists comprised a Type‐II′ β‐turn. Hence, the sst2‐selective antagonist pharmacophore is very similar to the sst2‐selective agonist pharmacophore previously described. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 89: 1077–1087, 2008.

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