Institut national de la recherche scientifique

About: Institut national de la recherche scientifique is a education organization based out in Québec, Quebec, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Laser & Population. The organization has 5689 authors who have published 12569 publications receiving 344260 citations. The organization is also known as: INRS.

The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience

Abstract: Part 1 The departing ground: a fundamental circularity - in the mind of the reflective scientist - an already-given condition, what is cognitive science?, cognitive science within the circle, the theme of this book what do we mean "Human Experience"? - science and the phenomenological tradition, the breakdown of phenomenology, a non-western philosophical tradition, examining experience with a method - mindfulness/awareness, the role of reflection in the analysis of experience, experimentation and experiential analysis. Part 2 Varieties of cognitivism: symbols - the cognitivist hypothesis - the foundational cloud, defining the cognitivist hypothesis, manifestations of cognitivism, cognitivism and human experience, experience and the computational mind the I of the storm - what do we mean by "Self"?, looking for a self in the aggregates, momentariness and the brain, the aggregates without a self. Part 3 Varieties of emergence: emergent properties and connectionism - self-organization - the roots of an alternative, the connectionist strategy, emergence and self-organization, connectionism today, neuronal emergences, exeunt the symbols, linking symbols and emergence selfless minds - societies of mind, the society of object relations, co-dependent arising, basic element analysis, mindfulness and freedom, selfless minds, divided agents, minding the world. Part 4 Steps to a middle way: the Cartesian anxiety - a sense of dissatisfaction, representation revisited, the Cartesian anxiety, steps to a middle way, enaction - embodied cognition - recovering common sense, self-organization revisited, colour as a study case, cognition as embodied action, the retreat into natural selection evolutionary path making and natural drift - adaptationism - an idea in transition, a horizon of multiple mechanisms, beyond the best in evolution and cognition, evolution - ecology and development in congruence, lessons from evolution as natural drift, defining the enactive approach, enactive cognitive science. Part 5 Worlds without ground: the middle way - evocations of groundlessness, Nagarjuna and the Madhyamika tradition, the two truths, groundlessness in contemporary thought laying down a path in walking - science and experience in circulation, nihilism and the need for planetary thinking, Nishitani Keiji, ethics and human transformation. Appendices: meditation terminology categories of experiential events used in mindfulness/awareness works on Buddhism and mindfulness/awareness.

Recent Advances in Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Abstract: The recent advances in electrocatalysis for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are thoroughly reviewed. This comprehensive Review focuses on the low- and non-platinum electrocatalysts including advanced platinum alloys, core–shell structures, palladium-based catalysts, metal oxides and chalcogenides, carbon-based non-noble metal catalysts, and metal-free catalysts. The recent development of ORR electrocatalysts with novel structures and compositions is highlighted. The understandings of the correlation between the activity and the shape, size, composition, and synthesis method are summarized. For the carbon-based materials, their performance and stability in fuel cells and comparisons with those of platinum are documented. The research directions as well as perspectives on the further development of more active and less expensive electrocatalysts are provided.

Iron-based catalysts with improved oxygen reduction activity in polymer electrolyte fuel cells.

Abstract: Iron-based catalysts for the oxygen-reduction reaction in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells have been poorly competitive with platinum catalysts, in part because they have a comparatively low number of active sites per unit volume. We produced microporous carbon-supported iron-based catalysts with active sites believed to contain iron cations coordinated by pyridinic nitrogen functionalities in the interstices of graphitic sheets within the micropores. We found that the greatest increase in site density was obtained when a mixture of carbon support, phenanthroline, and ferrous acetate was ball-milled and then pyrolyzed twice, first in argon, then in ammonia. The current density of a cathode made with the best iron-based electrocatalyst reported here can equal that of a platinum-based cathode with a loading of 0.4 milligram of platinum per square centimeter at a cell voltage of >/=0.9 volt.

Observation of PT-Symmetry Breaking in Complex Optical Potentials

Abstract: In 1998, Bender and Boettcher found that a wide class of Hamiltonians, even though non-Hermitian, can still exhibit entirely real spectra provided that they obey parity-time requirements or PT symmetry. Here we demonstrate experimentally passive PT-symmetry breaking within the realm of optics. This phase transition leads to a loss induced optical transparency in specially designed pseudo-Hermitian guiding potentials.

Macrophage cytokines: involvement in immunity and infectious diseases.

Abstract: The evolution of macrophages has made them primordial for both development and immunity. Their functions range from the shaping of body plans to the ingestion and elimination of apoptotic cells and pathogens. Cytokines are small soluble proteins that confer instructions and mediate communication among immune and non-immune cells. A portfolio of cytokines is central to the role of macrophages as sentries of the innate immune system that mediate the transition from innate to adaptive immunity. In concert with other mediators, cytokines bias the fate of macrophages into a spectrum of inflammation-promoting "classically activated," to anti-inflammatory or "alternatively activated" macrophages. Deregulated cytokine secretion is implicated in several disease states ranging from chronic inflammation to allergy. Macrophages release cytokines via a series of beautifully orchestrated pathways that are spatiotemporally regulated. At the molecular level, these exocytic cytokine secretion pathways are coordinated by multi-protein complexes that guide cytokines from their point of synthesis to their ports of exit into the extracellular milieu. These trafficking proteins, many of which were discovered in yeast and commemorated in the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, coordinate the organelle fusion steps that are responsible for cytokine release. This review discusses the functions of cytokines secreted by macrophages, and summarizes what is known about their release mechanisms. This information will be used to delve into how selected pathogens subvert cytokine release for their own survival.