Consistency, causation

To obtain the mass emissions of pollutants from e-waste recycling processes, it is essential that the inputs of pollutants are truly e-waste related. To fulfill this requirement, a causal analysis is desirable. However, the concept of causation is rather problematic because causal mechanisms are complex [26]. Nonetheless, we are compelled to identify causes, in an attempt to minimize the uncertainties associated with our estimates. In this chapter, the strict empiricist, David Hume s empirical criterion, was adopted. This approach requires only a combination of (1) e-waste processing and environmental pollution are associated in space and time (contiguity) (2) e-waste processing precede to environmental pollution (temporal succession) and (3) e-waste processing is always conjoined with environmental pollution (consistent conjunction). These are always the cases judged from a number of previous studies [6, 27-35]. 

In humans, a prominent effect of cocaine consists in increased vigilance and elevated mood. While cocaine itself is not used clinically, several catecholamine and serotonin reuptake blockers are used as antidepressants. Imipramine (Figure 10.13) is a classic but not so very specific in addition to inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin and of norepinephrine, it also has antihistaminic and antimuscarinic activity. This will lead to side effects in both the central nervous system and the peripheral autonomic system. A prominent one is the causation or deterioration of cardiac arrhythmias due to its antimuscarinic action. 

Thus, the EPA opts for a causal analysis (that parallels and updates Hill s initial work consisting of nine criteria) forjudging causation (EPA 2005) ... 

This looks far more plausible the whole enterprise of quantum chemistry, after all, is to use quantum mechanics to recover facts about chemical bonding that are well known to the chemist. If there is meshing between chemistry and quantum mechanics, do the real meshes and interfaces we saw in the last section really support strict physicalism Surely they cannot, if they are consistent with downward causation. In any case, it is not as if, in the explanation of the spectrum of carbon dioxide, there are two independent theoretical accounts that were compared and found to be consistent. Perhaps that would constitute an explanation of the less fundamental models. But neither chemistry nor the quantum mechanics of resultant Hamiltonians have the resources for independent accounts of the spectrum of carbon dioxide. Rather than an explanation of chemical structure by physical theory there was a joint venture the explanation of various facts by the use of quantum mechanics applied to a given molecular structure. There was no mesh or interface between the quantum mechanics and chemistry, at least none that required explanation. What we had was an instance of quantum chemistry, the quantum theory of atoms and molecules.14... 

Despite the extensive effort of Feng et al. [310-331, 333-345], the mechanisms underlying the cerebro-protective actions of phthalides 30, 31 and 32 remain largely unclear. One of the possible reasons is that the authors often failed to demonstrate any causation or even correlation between the butylphthalide-mediated cerebro-protective responses and the various mechanisms proposed for example, direct evidence of protection such as reduction of infarct size was not reported in the mechanistic studies. The lack of consistency in the experimental protocols employed between the antiischemia and mechanism studies, such as 24-hour MCAO without reperfusion versus 2-hour MCAO with 24-hour reperfusion, also renders direct comparisons and correlations difficult (see Table 4). Moreover, some ambiguous data presentations and inadequate statistical analysis further complicated the interpretation of results in a number of studies. Nevertheless, these phthalides remain as potential therapeutic agents for the treatment of cerebral ischemia, and phthalide 30 was claimed to be effective for the treatment of cerebrovascular disease in a Chinese patent [7]. 

So far, many of the lupus-associated alleles identified exert weak effects (Table 1). Based on knowledge of the biological function of normal alleles (e.g. B cell activation threshold tendency towards reduced central or peripheral tolerance), disease-associated variants often appear to be consistent with causation but are of limited heuristic value, failing to shed light on the pattern of autoantibody... 

It seems to me that a theory of mind that allows for higher-level mental causation is consistent with, and maybe even a necessary consequence of, what good philosophy of science tells us. Furthermore, using similar methodologies to those in real science when studying mental causation makes philosophy of mind an area of study worthy of real progress based on empirical facts. 

Consistency - repeated observation of an association in different studies and under different conditions support causation. 

GNE protein is predicted to have three isoforms which are created by four transcript variants. GNE 1, consisting of 722 amino acids, is encoded by GNE transcripts I and IV [10, 17, 18]. GNE2 and GNE3 have modified N-termini with the addition of another exon (Al encodes the first 17 amino acids) and are encoded by two other splice variants [17]. The GNE2 N-terminus is longer by 31 additional amino acids and is encoded by transcript II. GNE3 lacks exon 2 and thus it does not have the first 55 amino acids of GNEl it is encoded by transcript in. The tissue expression of three isoforms seems tissue-specific, but the roles of these isoforms in disease causation have not been clarified. 

In the context of medical causation. Sir Austin Bradford Hill, suggested in 1965 that to imply causation from the observation of association we should consider its (1) strength, (2) consistency, (3) specificity - the restriction to specific conditions, (4) temporality - the order of events, (5) dose-response relationship, (6) theoretical plausibility, and (7) coherence - the consistency with other related phenomena. Although these guidelines were presented in the context of medicine and epidemiology, it would be very usefiil to keep these necessary conditions for causality in mind when evaluating crash causation on the basis of statistical associations. 

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