28 results on '"Rachael Briggs"'
Search Results
2. Truthmaking without necessitation.
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
3. Propositions and same-saying: introduction.
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs and Mark Jago
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. The big bad bug bites anti-realists about chance.
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs
- Published
- 2009
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
5. Faster Sensitivity Loss around Dense Scotomas than for Overall Macular Sensitivity in Stargardt Disease: ProgStar Report No. 14
- Author
-
Etienne M. Schönbach, Rupert W. Strauss, Mohamed A. Ibrahim, Jessica L. Janes, David G. Birch, Artur V. Cideciyan, Janet S. Sunness, Beatriz Muñoz, Michael S. Ip, SriniVas R. Sadda, Hendrik P.N. Scholl, Yulia Wolfson, Millena Bittencourt, Syed Mahmood Shah, Mohamed Ahmed, Etienne Schönbach, Kaoru Fujinami, Elias Traboulsi, Justis Ehlers, Meghan Marino, Susan Crowe, Rachael Briggs, Angela Borer, Anne Pinter, Tami Fecko, Nikki Burgnoni, Carol Applegate, Leslie Russell, Michel Michaelides, Simona Degli Esposti, Anthony Moore, Andrew Webster, Sophie Connor, Jade Barnfield, Zaid Salchi, Clara Alfageme, Victoria McCudden, Maria Pefkianaki, Jonathan Aboshiha, Gerald Liew, Graham Holder, Anthony Robson, Alexa King, Daniela Ivanova Cajas Narvaez, Katy Barnard, Catherine Grigg, Hannah Dunbar, Yetunde Obadeyi, Karine Girard-Claudon, Hilary Swann, Avani Rughani, Charles Amoah, Dominic Carrington, Kanom Bibi, Emerson Ting, Mohamed Nafaz Illiyas, Hamida Begum, Andrew Carter, Anne Georgiou, Selma Lewism, Saddaf Shaheen, Harpreet Shinmar, Linda Burton, Paul Bernstein, Kimberley Wegner, Briana Lauren Sawyer, Bonnie Carlstrom, Kellian Farnsworth, Cyrie Fry, Melissa Chandler, Glen Jenkins, Donnel Creel, David Birch, Yi-Zhong Wang, Luis Rodriguez, Kirsten Locke, Martin Klein, Paulina Mejia, Samuel G. Jacobson, Sharon B. Schwartz, Rodrigo Matsui, Michaela Gruzensky, Jason Charng, Alejandro J. Roman, Eberhart Zrenner, Fadi Nasser, Gesa Astrid Hahn, Barbara Wilhelm, Tobias Peters, Benjamin Beier, Tilman Koenig, Susanne Kramer, José-Alain Sahel, Saddek Mohand-Said, Isabelle Audo, Caroline Laurent-Coriat, Ieva Sliesoraityte, Christina Zeitz, Fiona Boyard, Minh Ha Tran, Mathias Chapon, Céline Chaumette, Juliette Amaudruz, Victoria Ganem, Serge Sancho, Aurore Girmens, Robert Wojciechowski, Shazia Khan, David G. Emmert, Dennis Cain, Mark Herring, Jennifer Bassinger, Lisa Liberto, Sheila West, Ann-Margret Ervin, Beatriz Munoz, Xiangrong Kong, Kurt Dreger, Jennifer Jones, Srinivas Sadda, Anamika Jha, Alex Ho, Brendan Kramer, Ngoc Lam, Rita Tawdros, Yong Dong Zhou, Johana Carmona, Akihito Uji, Amirhossein Hariri, Amy Lock, Anthony Elshafei, Anushika Ganegoda, Christine Petrossian, Dennis Jenkins, Edward Strnad, Elmira Baghdasaryan, Eric Ito, Feliz Samson, Gloria Blanquel, Handan Akil, Jhanisus Melendez, Jianqin Lei, Jianyan Huang, Jonathan Chau, Khalil G. Falavarjani, Kristina Espino, Manfred Li, Maria Mendoza, Muneeswar Gupta Nittala, Netali Roded, Nizar Saleh, Ping Huang, Sean Pitetta, Siva Balasubramanian, Sophie Leahy, Sowmya J. Srinivas, Swetha B. Velaga, Teresa Margaryan, Tudor Tepelus, Tyler Brown, Wenying Fan, Yamileth Murillo, Yue Shi, Katherine Aguilar, Cynthia Chan, Lisa Santos, Brian Seo, Christopher Sison, Silvia Perez, Stephanie Chao, Kelly Miyasato, Julia Higgins, Zoila Luna, Anita Menchaca, Norma Gonzalez, Vicky Robledo, Karen Carig, Kirstie Baker, David Ellenbogen, Daniel Bluemel, Theo Sanford, Daisy Linares, Mei Tran, Lorane Nava, Michelle Oberoi, Mark Romero, Vivian Chiguil, Grantley Bynum-Bain, Monica Kim, Carolina Mendiguren, Xiwen Huang, Monika Smith, and Natalie Sarreal
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Visual acuity ,Adolescent ,genetic structures ,Visual Acuity ,ABCA4 ,Sensitivity and Specificity ,Retina ,Young Adult ,Ophthalmology ,Humans ,Stargardt Disease ,Medicine ,Prospective Studies ,Fluorescein Angiography ,Scotoma ,Prospective cohort study ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,biology ,business.industry ,Blind spot ,Middle Aged ,Fluorescein angiography ,medicine.disease ,eye diseases ,Clinical trial ,Stargardt disease ,biology.protein ,Visual Field Tests ,ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters ,Female ,Visual Fields ,medicine.symptom ,business ,Microperimetry ,Tomography, Optical Coherence - Abstract
Mean sensitivity (MS) derived from a standard test grid using microperimetry is a sensitive outcome measure in clinical trials investigating new treatments for degenerative retinal diseases. This study hypothesizes that the functional decline is faster at the edge of the dense scotoma (eMS) than by using the overall MS.Multicenter, international, prospective cohort study: ProgStar Study.Stargardt disease type 1 patients (carrying at least 1 mutation in the ABCA4 gene) were followed over 12 months using microperimetry with a Humphrey 10-2 test grid. Customized software was developed to automatically define and selectively follow the test points directly adjacent to the dense scotoma points and to calculate their mean sensitivity (eMS).Among 361 eyes (185 patients), the mean age was 32.9 ± 15.1 years old. At baseline, MS was 10.4 ± 5.2 dB (n = 361), and the eMS was 9.3 ± 3.3 dB (n = 335). The yearly progression rate of MS (1.5 ± 2.1 dB/year) was significantly lower (β = -1.33; P.001) than that for eMS (2.9 ± 2.9 dB/year). There were no differences between progression rates using automated grading and those using manual grading (β = .09; P = .461).In Stargardt disease type 1, macular sensitivity declines significantly faster at the edge of the dense scotoma than in the overall test grid. An automated, time-efficient approach for extracting and grading eMS is possible and appears valid. Thus, eMS offers a valuable tool and sensitive outcome parameter with which to follow Stargardt patients in clinical trials, allowing clinical trial designs with shorter duration and/or smaller cohorts.
- Published
- 2020
6. Longitudinal Changes of Fixation Location and Stability Within 12 Months in Stargardt Disease: ProgStar Report No. 12
- Author
-
Etienne M. Schönbach, Rupert W. Strauss, Xiangrong Kong, Beatriz Muñoz, Mohamed A. Ibrahim, Janet S. Sunness, David G. Birch, Gesa-Astrid Hahn, Fadi Nasser, Eberhart Zrenner, SriniVas R. Sadda, Sheila K. West, Hendrik P.N. Scholl, Yulia Wolfson, Millena Bittencourt, Syed Mahmood Shah, Mohamed Ahmed, Etienne Schönbach, Kaoru Fujinami, Elias Traboulsi, Justis Ehlers, Meghan Marino, Susan Crowe, Rachael Briggs, Angela Borer, Anne Pinter, Tami Fecko, Nikki Burgnoni, Carol Applegate, Leslie Russell, Michel Michaelides, Simona Degli Esposti, Anthony Moore, Andrew Webster, Sophie Connor, Jade Barnfield, Zaid Salchi, Clara Alfageme, Victoria McCudden, Maria Pefkianaki, Jonathan Aboshiha, Gerald Liew, Graham Holder, Anthony Robson, Alexa King, Daniela Ivanova Cajas Narvaez, Katy Barnard, Catherine Grigg, Hannah Dunbar, Yetunde Obadeyi, Karine Girard-Claudon, Hilary Swann, Avani Rughani, Charles Amoah, Dominic Carrington, Kanom Bibi, Emerson Ting Co, Mohamed Nafaz Illiyas, Hamida Begum, Andrew Carter, Anne Georgiou, Selma Lewism, Saddaf Shaheen, Harpreet Shinmar, Linda Burton, Paul Bernstein, Kimberley Wegner, Briana Lauren Sawyer, Bonnie Carlstrom, Kellian Farnsworth, Cyrie Fry, Melissa Chandler, Glen Jenkins, Donnel Creel, David Birch, Yi-Zhong Wang, Luis Rodriguez, Kirsten Locke, Martin Klein, Paulina Mejia, Artur V. Cideciyan, Samuel G. Jacobson, Sharon B. Schwartz, Rodrigo Matsui, Michaela Gruzensky, Jason Charng, Alejandro J. Roman, Gesa Astrid Hahn, Barbara Wilhelm, Tobias Peters, Benjamin Beier, Tilman Koenig, Susanne Kramer, José-Alain Sahel, Saddek Mohand-Said, Isabelle Audo, Caroline Laurent-Coriat, Ieva Sliesoraityte, Christina Zeitz, Fiona Boyard, Minh Ha Tran, Mathias Chapon, Céline Chaumette, Juliette Amaudruz, Victoria Ganem, Serge Sancho, Aurore Girmens, Robert Wojciechowski, Shazia Khan, David G. Emmert, Dennis Cain, Mark Herring, Jennifer Bassinger, Lisa Liberto, Sheila West, Ann-Margret Ervin, Beatriz Munoz, Kurt Dreger, Jennifer Jones, Srinivas Sadda, Michael S. Ip, Anamika Jha, Alex Ho, Brendan Kramer, Ngoc Lam, Rita Tawdros, Yong Dong Zhou, Johana Carmona, Akihito Uji, Amirhossein Hariri, Amy Lock, Anthony Elshafei, Anushika Ganegoda, Christine Petrossian, Dennis Jenkins, Edward Strnad, Elmira Baghdasaryan, Eric Ito, Feliz Samson, Gloria Blanquel, Handan Akil, Jhanisus Melendez, Jianqin Lei, Jianyan Huang, Jonathan Chau, Khalil G. Falavarjani, Kristina Espino, Manfred Li, Maria Mendoza, Muneeswar Gupta Nittala, Netali Roded, Nizar Saleh, Ping Huang, Sean Pitetta, Siva Balasubramanian, Sophie Leahy, Sowmya J. Srinivas, Swetha B. Velaga, Teresa Margaryan, Tudor Tepelus, Tyler Brown, Wenying Fan, Yamileth Murillo, Yue Shi, Katherine Aguilar, Cynthia Chan, Lisa Santos, Brian Seo, Christopher Sison, Silvia Perez, Stephanie Chao, Kelly Miyasato, Julia Higgins, Zoila Luna, Anita Menchaca, Norma Gonzalez, Vicky Robledo, Karen Carig, Kirstie Baker, David Ellenbogen, Daniel Bluemel, Theo Sanford, Daisy Linares, Mei Tran, Lorane Nava, Michelle Oberoi, Mark Romero, Vivian Chiguil, Grantley Bynum-Bain, Monica Kim, Carolina Mendiguren, Xiwen Huang, Monika Smith, and Natalie Sarreal
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Fixation stability ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Adolescent ,Visual Acuity ,Fixation, Ocular ,Retina ,Article ,Standard deviation ,Macular Degeneration ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Ophthalmology ,medicine ,Humans ,Stargardt Disease ,Prospective Studies ,Young adult ,Child ,Prospective cohort study ,Aged ,business.industry ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,Confidence interval ,Stargardt disease ,Fixation (visual) ,030221 ophthalmology & optometry ,Visual Field Tests ,Female ,Visual Fields ,business ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Natural history study ,Follow-Up Studies - Abstract
Purpose To investigate the natural history of Stargardt disease (STGD1) using fixation location and fixation stability. Design Multicenter, international, prospective cohort study. Methods Fixation testing was performed using the Nidek MP-1 microperimeter as part of the prospective, multicenter, natural history study on the Prog ression of Star gardt disease (ProgStar). A total of 238 patients with ABCA4-related STGD1 were enrolled at baseline (bilateral enrollment in 86.6%) and underwent repeat testing at months 6 and 12. Results Outcome measures included the distance of the preferred retinal locus from the fovea (PRL) and the bivariate contour ellipse area (BCEA). After 12 months of follow-up, the change in the eccentricity of the PRL from the anatomic fovea was −0.0014 degrees (95% confidence interval [CI], −0.27 degrees, 0.27 degrees; P = .99). The deterioration in the stability of fixation as expressed by a larger BCEA encompassing 1 standard deviation of all fixation points was 1.21 degrees squared (deg2) (95% CI, −1.23 deg2, 3.65 deg2; P = .33). Eyes with increases and decreases in PRL eccentricity and/or BCEA values were observed. Conclusions Our observations point to the complexity of fixation parameters. The association of increasingly eccentric and unstable fixation with longer disease duration that is typically found in cross-sectional studies may be countered within individual patients by poorly understood processes like neuronal adaptation. Nevertheless, fixation parameters may serve as useful secondary outcome parameters in selected cases and for counseling patients to explain changes to their visual functionality.
- Published
- 2018
7. An Accuracy‐Dominance Argument for Conditionalization
- Author
-
Richard Pettigrew and Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Philosophy ,Dominance (ethology) ,060302 philosophy ,05 social sciences ,Economics ,06 humanities and the arts ,0509 other social sciences ,Positive economics ,050905 science studies ,0603 philosophy, ethics and religion ,16. Peace & justice - Abstract
Epistemic decision theorists aim to justify Bayesian norms by arguing that these norms further the goal of epistemic accuracy—having beliefs that are as close as possible to the truth. The standard defense of Probabilism appeals to accuracy dominance: for every belief state that violates the probability calculus, there is some probabilistic belief state that is more accurate, come what may. The standard defense of Conditionalization, on the other hand, appeals to expected accuracy: before the evidence is in, one should expect to do better by conditionalizing than by following any other rule. We present a new argument for Conditionalization that appeals to accuracy‐dominance, rather than expected accuracy. Our argument suggests that Conditionalization is a rule of coherence: plans that conflict with Conditionalization don't just prescribe bad responses to the evidence; they also give rise to inconsistent attitudes.
- Published
- 2018
8. Costs of abandoning the Sure-Thing Principle
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Microeconomics ,Philosophy ,Decision theory ,Economics ,Allais paradox ,Risk aversion (psychology) ,Subjective expected utility ,Von Neumann–Morgenstern utility theorem ,Outcome (game theory) ,Sure-thing principle ,Expected utility hypothesis - Abstract
Risk-weighted expected utility theory (REU theory for short) permits preferences which violate the Sure-Thing Principle (STP for short). But preferences that violate the STP can lead to bad decisions in sequential choice problems. In particular, they can lead decision-makers to adopt a strategy that is dominated – i.e. a strategy such that some available alternative leads to a better outcome in every possible state of the world.
- Published
- 2015
9. The future, and what might have been
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs and Graeme A. Forbes
- Subjects
Structure (mathematical logic) ,Philosophy of mind ,Counterfactual conditional ,05 social sciences ,Metaphysics ,06 humanities and the arts ,0603 philosophy, ethics and religion ,050105 experimental psychology ,BD ,Epistemology ,Philosophy of language ,Philosophy ,Modal ,060302 philosophy ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Causation ,Psychology ,Modality (semiotics) ,B1 - Abstract
We show that five important elements of the ‘nomological package’—laws, counterfactuals, chances, dispositions, and counterfactuals—needn’t be a problem for the Growing-Block view. We begin with the framework given in Briggs and Forbes (in The real truth about the unreal future. Oxford studies in metaphysics. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012), and, taking laws as primitive, we show that the Growing-Block view has the resources to provide an account of possibility, and a natural semantics for non-backtracking causal counterfactuals. We show how objective chances might ground a more fine-grained concept of feasibility, and furnished a places in the structure where causation and dispositions might fit. The Growing-Block view, thus understood, provides the resources to explain the close link between modality and tense, so that it predicts modal change as time passes. This account lets us capture not only what the future might hold for us, and also what might have been.
- Published
- 2018
10. Utility Monsters for the Fission Age
- Author
-
Daniel Nolan and Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Multiple occupancy ,Range (mathematics) ,Utility monster ,Philosophy ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Personal identity ,Consequentialism ,Metaphysics ,Doctrine ,Simplicity ,media_common ,Epistemology - Abstract
One of the standard approaches to the metaphysics of personal identity has some counter-intuitive ethical consequences when combined with maximising consequentialism and a plausible (though not uncontroversial) doctrine about aggregation of consequences. This metaphysical doctrine is the so-called ‘multiple occupancy’ approach to puzzles about fission and fusion. It gives rise to a new version of the ‘utility monster’ problem, particularly difficult problems about infinite utility, and a new version of a Parfit-style ‘repugnant conclusion’. While the article focuses on maximising consequentialism for simplicity, the problems demonstrated apply more widely to a range of ethical views, especially flavours of consequentialism. This article demonstrates how these problems arise, and discusses a number of options available in the light of these problems for a consequentialist tempted by a multiple occupancy metaphysics.
- Published
- 2015
11. Transformative Experience and Interpersonal Utility Comparisons
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Philosophy ,Psychotherapist ,Transformative learning ,Interpersonal communication ,Psychology ,Social psychology - Published
- 2015
12. The Growing-Block: Just one thing after another?
- Author
-
Graeme A. Forbes and Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Philosophy of mind ,Property (philosophy) ,Counterfactual conditional ,Philosophy ,05 social sciences ,Philosophy of space and time ,Metaphysics ,06 humanities and the arts ,050905 science studies ,0603 philosophy, ethics and religion ,Supervenience ,BD ,Epistemology ,060302 philosophy ,0509 other social sciences ,Causation ,Master argument - Abstract
In this article, we consider two independently appealing theories—the Growing-Block view and Humean Supervenience—and argue that at least one is false. The Growing-Block view is a theory about the nature of time. It says that (a) past and present things exist, while future things do not, and (b) the passage of time consists in new things coming into existence. Humean Supervenience is a theory about the nature of entities like laws, nomological possibility, counterfactuals, dispositions, causation, and chance. It says that none of these entities are fundamental, since if there were, this would entail the existence of irreducible necessary connections between matters of fact. Instead, these entities supervene on a fundamental, nonnomological “Humean mosaic” of property instances at spacetime points. We will further explain and motivate the Growing-Block view and Humean Supervenience in sections 2 and 3, but first, we turn to our master argument.
- Published
- 2016
13. Visual Acuity Loss and Associated Risk Factors in the Retrospective Progression of Stargardt Disease Study (ProgStar Report No. 2)
- Author
-
Xiangrong Kong, Rupert W. Strauss, Michel Michaelides, Artur V. Cideciyan, José-Alain Sahel, Beatriz Muñoz, Sheila West, Hendrik P.N. Scholl, Yulia Wolfson, Millena Bittencourt, Syed Mahmood Shah, Mohammed Ahmed, Etienne Schonbach, Kaoru Fujinami, Elias Traboulsi, Justis Ehlers, Meghan Marino, Susan Crowe, Rachael Briggs, Angela Borer, Anne Pinter, Tami Fecko, Nikki Brugnoni, Janet S. Sunness, Carol Applegate, Leslie Russell, Anthony Moore, Andrew Webster, Sophie Connor, Victoria McCudden, Maria Pefkianaki, Jonathan Aboshiha, Gerald Liew, Graham Holder, Anthony Robson, Alexa King, Daniela Ivanova Cajas Narvaez, Katy Barnard, Catherine Grigg, Hannah Dunbar, Yetunde Obadeyi, Karine Girard-Claudon, Hilary Swann, Avani Rughani, Charles Amoah, Dominic Carrington, Kanom Bibi, Emerson Ting Co, Andrew Carter, Anne Georgiou, Selma Lewis, Saddaf Shaheen, Harpreet Shinmar, Linda Burton, Paul Bernstein, Kimberley Wegner, Briana Lauren Sawyer, Bonnie Carlstrom, Kellian Farnsworth, Cyrie Fry, Melissa Chandler, Glen Jenkins, Donnel Creel, David Birch, Yi-Zhong Wang, Luis Rodriguez, Kirsten Locke, Martin Klein, Paulina Mejia, Samuel G. Jacobson, Sharon B. Schwartz, Rodrigo Matsui, Michaela Gruzensky, Alejandro J. Roman, Eberhart Zrenner, Fadi Nasser, Gesa Astrid Hahn, Barbara Wilhelm, Tobias Peters, Benjamin Beier, Tilman Koenig, Susanne Kramer, Saddek Mohand-Said, Isabelle Audo, Caroline Laurent-Coriat, Ieva Sliesoraityte, Christina Zeitz, Fiona Boyard, Minh Ha Tran, Mathias Chapon, Céline Chaumette, Juliette Amaudruz, Victoria Ganem, Serge Sancho, Aurore Girmens, Robert Wojciechowski, Shazia Khan, David G. Emmert, Dennis Cain, Mark Herring, Jennifer Bassinger, Lisa Liberto, Ann-Margret Ervin, Beatriz Munoz, Kurt Dreger, Jennifer Jones, Srinivas Sadda, Anamika Jha, Alex Ho, Brendan Kramer, Amirhossein Hariri, Gloria Rebecca Blanquel, Ngoc Lam, Sean Pitetta, Yue Shi, Rita Tawdros, Christine Petrossian, Dennis Jenkins, Muneeswar Gupta, Yong Dong Zhou, Katherine Aguilar, Cynthia Chan, Lisa Santos, Brian Seo, Christopher Sison, Silvia Perez, Stephanie Chao, Kelly Miyasato, Julia Higgins, Zoila Luna, Anita Menchaca, Norma Gonzalez, Vicky Robledo, Karen Carig, Kirstie Baker, David Ellenbogen, James Russell, Daniel Bluemel, Alex Moreno, Royal Pham, Theo Sanford, Daisy Linares, and Mei Tran
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Adult ,Male ,Pediatrics ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Visual acuity ,Adolescent ,Cross-sectional study ,Vision Disorders ,Visual Acuity ,03 medical and health sciences ,Macular Degeneration ,Young Adult ,0302 clinical medicine ,Risk Factors ,medicine ,Humans ,Stargardt Disease ,Age of Onset ,Prospective cohort study ,Child ,Generalized estimating equation ,Aged ,Retrospective Studies ,business.industry ,Retrospective cohort study ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,United States ,Stargardt disease ,Europe ,Ophthalmology ,030104 developmental biology ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,030221 ophthalmology & optometry ,Physical therapy ,Disease Progression ,Linear Models ,Age of onset ,medicine.symptom ,business ,Cohort study - Abstract
To examine the association between characteristics of Stargardt disease and visual acuity (VA), to estimate the longitudinal rate of VA loss, and to identify risk factors for VA loss.Retrospective, multicenter cohort study.A total of 176 patients (332 eyes) with molecularly and clinically confirmed Stargardt disease enrolled from the United States and Europe.Standardized data report forms were used to collect retrospective data on participants' characteristics and best-corrected or presenting VA from medical charts. Linear models with generalized estimating equations were used to estimate the cross-sectional associations, and linear mixed effects models were used to estimate the longitudinal VA loss.Yearly change in VA.The median duration of observation was 3.6 years. At baseline, older age of symptom onset was associated with better VA, and a longer duration of symptoms was associated with worse VA. Longitudinal analysis estimated an average of 0.3 lines loss (P0.0001) per year overall, but the rate varied according to baseline VA: (1) eyes with baseline VA ≥20/25 (N = 53) declined at a rate of approximately 1.0 line per year; (2) eyes with VA between 20/25 and 20/70 (N = 65) declined at a rate of approximately 0.9 lines per year; (3) eyes with VA between 20/70 and 20/200 (N = 163) declined at a rate of 0.2 lines per year; and (4) eyes with VA worse than 20/200 (n = 49) improved at a rate of 0.5 lines per year. Older age of onset was associated with slower VA loss: Patients with onset age30 years showed 0.4 lines slower change of VA per year (P = 0.01) compared with patients with onset age ≤14 years.Given the overall slow rate of VA loss, VA is unlikely to be a sensitive outcome measure for treatment trials of Stargardt disease. However, given the faster decline in younger patients and those with no or mild visual impairment, VA may be a potential outcome measure for trials targeting such subgroups of patients. These observations will need to be assessed in a prospective study bearing in mind the inherent limitations of retrospective datasets.
- Published
- 2016
14. THE NORMATIVE STANDING OF GROUP AGENTS
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Value (ethics) ,Social group ,Philosophy of mind ,History and Philosophy of Science ,Group (mathematics) ,Normative ,Psychology ,Methodological individualism ,Social psychology - Abstract
Christian List and Philip Pettit (henceforth LP) argue that groups of people can be agents – beings that believe, desire and act. Their account combines a non-reductive realist view of group attitudes, on which groups literally have attitudes that cannot be analyzed in terms of the attitudes of their members, with methodological individualism, on which good explanations of group-level phenomena should not posit forces above individual attitudes and behaviors. I then discuss the main normative conclusion that LP draw from the claim that group agents exist: that we ought morally to grant legal rights and responsibilities to group agents, but that group rights should be more limited than individual rights. I argue that when it comes to the fitness of group agents to bear legal rights and responsibilities, LP can draw support from nonreductionist views elsewhere, particularly in the philosophy of mind. I raise some objections to LP's views about the value of granting legal rights and responsibilities to group agents.
- Published
- 2012
15. Interventionist counterfactuals
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Philosophy ,Class (set theory) ,Counterfactual conditional ,Computer science ,Semantics (computer science) ,Similarity (psychology) ,Inference ,Truth condition ,Modus ponens ,Epistemology ,Causal model - Abstract
A number of recent authors (Galles and Pearl, Found Sci 3 (1):151–182, 1998; Hiddleston, Nous 39 (4):232–257, 2005; Halpern, J Artif Intell Res 12:317–337, 2000) advocate a causal modeling semantics for counterfactuals. But the precise logical significance of the causal modeling semantics remains murky. Particularly important, yet particularly under-explored, is its relationship to the similarity-based semantics for counterfactuals developed by Lewis (Counterfactuals. Harvard University Press, 1973b). The causal modeling semantics is both an account of the truth conditions of counterfactuals, and an account of which inferences involving counterfactuals are valid. As an account of truth conditions, it is incomplete. While Lewis’s similarity semantics lets us evaluate counterfactuals with arbitrarily complex antecedents and consequents, the causal modeling semantics makes it hard to ascertain the truth conditions of all but a highly restricted class of counterfactuals. I explain how to extend the causal modeling language to encompass a wider range of sentences, and provide a sound and complete axiomatization for the extended language. Extending the truth conditions for counterfactuals has serious consequences concerning valid inference. The extended language is unlike any logic of Lewis’s: modus ponens is invalid, and classical logical equivalents cannot be freely substituted in the antecedents of conditionals.
- Published
- 2012
16. Epistemic Dispositions: Reply to Turri and Bronner
- Author
-
Daniel Nolan and Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Philosophy of mind ,Philosophy ,Contemporary philosophy ,Analytic philosophy ,Tracking (education) ,Disposition ,Attribution ,Epistemology - Abstract
We reply to recent papers by John Turri and Ben Bronner, who criticise the dispositionalised Nozickian tracking account we discuss in “Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know.” We argue that the account we suggested can handle the problems raised by Turri and Bronner. In the course of responding to Turri and Bronner’s objections, we draw three general lessons for theories of epistemic dispositions: that epistemic dispositions are to some extent extrinsic, that epistemic dispositions can have manifestation conditions concerning circumstances where their bearers fail to exist, and that contrast is relevant to disposition attributions.
- Published
- 2012
17. The Metaphysics of Chance
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Philosophy ,Metaphysics ,Psychology ,Determinism ,Epistemology - Abstract
This article surveys several interrelated issues in the metaphysics of chance. First, what is the relationship between the probabilities associated with types of trials (for instance, the chance that a twenty-eight-year old develops diabetes before age thirty) and the probabilities associated with individual token trials (for instance, the chance that I develop diabetes before age thirty)? Second, which features of the the world fix the chances: are there objective chances at all, and if so, are there non-chancy facts on which they supervene? Third, can chance be reconciled with determinism, and if so, how?
- Published
- 2010
18. Decision-Theoretic Paradoxes as Voting Paradoxes
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Philosophy ,Contemporary philosophy ,Analytic philosophy ,General interest ,Platitude ,Voting ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Benchmark (computing) ,Causal decision theory ,Evidential decision theory ,Psychology ,media_common ,Epistemology - Abstract
It is a platitude among decision theorists that agents should choose their actions so as to maximize expected value. But exactly how to define expected value is contentious. Evidential decision theory (henceforth EDT), causal decision theory (henceforth CDT), and a theory proposed by Ralph Wedgwood that this essay will call benchmark theory (BT) all advise agents to maximize different types of expected value. Consequently, their verdicts sometimes conflict. In certain famous cases of conflict—medical Newcomb problems—CDT and BT seem to get things right, while EDT seems to get things wrong. In other cases of conflict, including some recent examples suggested by Andy Egan, EDT and BT seem to get things right, while CDT seems to get things wrong. In still other cases, EDT and CDT seems to get things right, while BT gets things wrong.It's no accident, this essay claims, that all three decision theories are subject to counterexamples. Decision rules can be reinterpreted as voting rules, where the voters are the agent's possible future selves. The problematic examples have the structure of voting paradoxes. Just as voting paradoxes show that no voting rule can do everything we want, decision-theoretic paradoxes show that no decision rule can do everything we want. Luckily, the so-called “tickle defense” establishes that EDT, CDT, and BT will do everything we want in a wide range of situations. Most decision situations, this essay argues, are analogues of voting situations in which the voters unanimously adopt the same set of preferences. In such situations, all plausible voting rules and all plausible decision rules agree.
- Published
- 2010
19. The Anatomy of the Big Bad Bug*
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Philosophy ,Anatomy - Published
- 2009
20. Distorted Reflection
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Philosophy - Abstract
Diachronic Dutch book arguments seem to support both conditionalization and Bas van Fraassen's Reflection principle. But the Reflection principle is vulnerable to numerous counterexamples. This essay addresses two questions: first, under what circumstances should an agent obey Reflection, and second, should the counterexamples to Reflection make us doubt the Dutch book for conditionalization?In response to the first question, this essay formulates a new “Qualified Reflection” principle, which states that an agent should obey Reflection only if he or she is certain that he or she will conditionalize on veridical evidence in the future. Qualified Reflection follows from the probability calculus together with a few idealizing assumptions. The essay then formulates a “Distorted Reflection” principle that approximates Reflection even in cases where the agent is not quite certain that he or she will conditionalize on veridical evidence.In response to the second question, the essay argues that contrary to a common misconception, not all Dutch books dramatize incoherence—some dramatize a less blameworthy sort of epistemic frailty that the essay calls “self-doubt.” The distinction between Dutch books that dramatize incoherence and those that dramatize self-doubt cross-cuts the distinction between synchronic and diachronic Dutch books. The essay explains why the Dutch book for conditionalization reveals true incoherence, whereas the Dutch book for Reflection reveals only self-doubt.
- Published
- 2009
21. The big bad bug bites anti-realists about chance
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Philosophy ,Philosophy of science ,Credence ,Ontology ,General Social Sciences ,Metaphysics ,Quasi-realism ,Supervenience ,Relativism ,Realism ,Epistemology - Abstract
David Lewis’s ‘Humean Supervenience’ (henceforth ‘HS’) combines realism about laws, chances, and dispositions with a sparse ontology according to which everything supervenes on the overall spatiotemporal distribution of non-dispositional properties (Lewis 1986a, Philosophical papers: Volume II, pp. ix–xvii, New York: Oxford Univesity Press, 1994, Mind 103:473–490). HS faces a serious problem—a “big bad bug” (Lewis 1986a, p. xiv): it contradicts the Principal Principle, a seemingly obvious norm of rational credence. Two authors have tried to rescue Lewis’s ontology from the ‘big bad bug’ (henceforth ‘the Bug’) by rejecting realism about laws, chances, and dispositions (Halpin 1994, Aust J Phil 72:317–338, 1998, Phil Sci 65:349–360; Ward 2005, Phil Sci 71:241–261). I will argue that this strategy cannot possibly work: it is the ontology, not the realist thesis, that lies at the root of the problem.
- Published
- 2007
22. Why Lewisians Should Love Deterministic Chance
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Core (game theory) ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Credence ,Philosophy ,Spite ,Quantum level ,Metaphysics ,Function (engineering) ,Indeterminism ,Evolutionary theory ,media_common ,Epistemology - Abstract
David Lewis claimed that deterministic chance was impossible. But deterministic chance seems ubiquitous in casinos, in statistical mechanics, and in evolutionary theory. It would be best for Lewis's metaphysics if, in spite of what he says, we could reconcile his core views with deterministic chance. In this chapter, the author briefly rebuts two Lewisian objections to deterministic chance. The first is that our world is indeterministic at the quantum level, and this lower‐level indeterminism translates to indeterminism at higher levels. The chapter explains how deterministic chances are possible on a broadly Lewisian theory. It also explains how there can be deterministic chances that function as nomological magnitudes, guide credence, and arise in objectively chancy situations. It is true that the author's deterministic chances are not time‐indexed. It is also true that they do not exactly satisfy principles, proposed by Lewis and others in a broadly Lewisian tradition, that presuppose time‐indexing.
- Published
- 2015
23. Individual Coherence and Group Coherence
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs, Fabrizio Cariani, Kenny Easwaran, and Branden Fitelson
- Published
- 2014
24. Free Logic
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs and Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
- Australian poetry--21st century
- Abstract
Transmuting techniques, forms, and figures as she moves with enviable ease from themes of love through landscape to logic, Rachael Briggs evinces a relentless inventiveness and intelligence in this collection of poems. Structured as eight sets of inventive poems, from “Twelve Love Stories,” which features different kinds of love to “Solve for X and Y,” which pits characters against surreal problems to “Tough Luck,” a crown of sonnets which follows one narrator through a journey of unrequited love and identity discovery, this exciting new volume announces the arrival of a fresh and vital voice in Australian poetry.
- Published
- 2013
25. Mad, bad and dangerous to know
- Author
-
Daniel Nolan and Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Philosophy ,Engineering ,business.industry ,Engineering ethics ,business - Published
- 2012
26. Unavoidable decoherence in the quantum control of an unknown state
- Author
-
David Kielpinski, Howard M. Wiseman, and Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Quantum Physics ,Technology ,Quantum decoherence ,Computer science ,quantum measurement ,FOS: Physical sciences ,State (functional analysis) ,decoherence-free subspace ,Dimension (vector space) ,Control theory ,Coherent control ,quantum decoherence ,Quantum system ,Control (linguistics) ,quantum control ,Quantum Physics (quant-ph) ,Protocol (object-oriented programming) ,Subspace topology - Abstract
A common objective for quantum control is to force a quantum system, initially in an unknown state, into a particular target subspace. We show that if the subspace is required to be a decoherence-free subspace of dimension greater than 1, then such control must be decoherent. That is, it will take almost any pure state to a mixed state. We make no assumptions about the control mechanism, but our result implies that for this purpose coherent control offers no advantage, in principle, over the obvious measurement-based feedback protocol., Comment: 3 pages. To be published in Quantum Measurements & Quantum Metrology http://versita.com/qm/
- Published
- 2013
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
27. The Real Truth about the Unreal Future*
- Author
-
Graeme A. Forbes and Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Engineering ,Scrutiny ,business.industry ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Subject (philosophy) ,Metaphysics ,Truth condition ,Pessimism ,Epistemology ,Optimism ,Financial crisis ,Worry ,Social science ,business ,media_common - Abstract
Recent times have been very much focussed on the future. The election of Barack Obama in America was accompanied by a wave of optimism. The Global Financial Crisis and the challenge of Climate Change cause many to descend into pessimism. It is not whether our glass is half-empty or half-full that we worry about, but whether it will be empty or full. As philosophers, naturally, we want to illuminate such concerns, so that we might understand them better and subject them to rational scrutiny. According to the Growing-Block view of time, most famously put forward by C.D. Broad [1923], the flow of time consists in events coming into existence, so that past things and events are real, while future things and events are not. While the Growing-Block view is often considered intuitively appealing, some are concerned it has little to say about the future it denies the existence of. We show how Growing-Block theorists can assign meaningful, mind-independent truth conditions to sentences about the future.
- Published
- 2012
28. Being For: Evaluating the Semantic Program of Expressivism
- Author
-
Rachael Briggs
- Subjects
Cognitive science ,Philosophy ,Computer science ,Expressivism - Published
- 2009
Catalog
Discovery Service for Jio Institute Digital Library
For full access to our library's resources, please sign in.