Nowadays, depression is the world’s major health concern and economic burden worldwide. However, due to the limitations of current methods for depression diagnosis, a pervasive and objective approach is essential. In the present study, a psychophysiological database, containing 213 subjects, was constructed. The electroencephalogram signals of all participants under resting state and sound stimulation were collected using a pervasive prefrontal-lobe three-electrode EEG system at Fp1, Fp2, and Fpz electrode sites. After denoising using the Finite Impulse Response filter combining the Kalman (...) derivation formula, Discrete Wavelet Transformation, and an Adaptive Predictor Filter, a total of 270 linear and nonlinear features were extracted. Then, the minimal-redundancy-maximal-relevance feature selection technique reduced the dimensionality of the feature space. Four classification methods distinguished the depressed participants from normal controls. The classifiers’ performances were evaluated using 10-fold cross-validation. The results showed thatK-Nearest Neighbor had the highest accuracy of 79.27%. The result also suggested that the absolute power of the theta wave might be a valid characteristic for discriminating depression. This study proves the feasibility of a pervasive three-electrode EEG acquisition system for depression diagnosis. (shrink)

Ce texte reprend une conférence faite par H.-J. Wirth à Washington (États-Unis) en octobre 2005. Ces réflexions pourraient facilement se transposer sur la relation entre le thérapeute et le patient ; de la même façon, elle se caractérise par des positions de pouvoir différentes. Jurg Willy, se référant à Dicks et à son concept de collusion dans le cadre de la thérapie de couple, en a élargi la formulation dans la mesure où il a placé les attentes inconscientes, réciproques et (...) le jeu inconscient des deux partenaires, au centre de sa réflexion. (shrink)

Written in the 1960s, TRUTH AND METHOD is Gadamer's magnum opus.

A two boundary quantum mechanics without time ordered causal structure is advocated as consistent theory. The apparent causal structure of usual “near future” macroscopic phenomena is attributed to a cosmological asymmetry and to rules governing the transition between microscopic to macroscopic observations. Our interest is a heuristic understanding of the resulting macroscopic physics.

The paper explores the main paradigmatic failures of structural functionalism in anthropology. Structural functionalism explains institutions and social behavior by their contribution to the reproduction of social structure. Starting from Radcliffe-Brown and Malinowski, who represent two main variants of functionalism in anthropology, its main paradigmatic problems are discussed: its inability to analyze social conflict and change, its reducing of society to norms and values as well as its mode of explaining social facts. These failures are illustrated by two functional theories (...) of tribal wars, by Evans-Pritchard and by Rappaport. Various theoretical alternatives emerge from the decline of functionalism in anthropology. Conflict theory as well as game theory, new institutionalism, theories of collective action and evolutionary economics represent true alternatives. This again is illustrated by a theory of tribal war, explaining cooperation both within local groups and between allies against the background of the warlike social environment in which local groups are interacting. (shrink)

Émile Durkheim remains one of the most controversial, and deeply misunderstood, classics of social theory. His work differs from the dominant version of sociology that has essentially accepted the modernist self-description of contemporary societies; and it contradicts the individualism that has come to dominate the social sciences. For everybody who is interested in constructing theoretical alternatives to this individualism, Durkheim's sociology can be a useful inspiration - not only because of the solutions it suggests, but already because of the questions (...) it asks. Making use of the theoretical possibilities offered by the Durkheimian tradition, however, requires going beyond the familiar appropriations. The Oxford Handbook of Émile Durkheim takes stock of the different recent debates on Durkheimian sociology, and makes them accessible to a wide audience spanning various disciplines; this includes crucial debates that, due to language barriers, are not easily accessible for an English-reading public. The handbook's chapters elucidate the controversial key concepts of Durkheimian sociology; situate them within the contemporary political and theoretical debates they were originally responding to; offer surveys of empirical research that uses Durkheimian concepts (on topics that were already central for Durkheim's own work as well as on topics that Durkheim hardly touched upon), thus demonstrating the possibilities of a Durkheimian sociology; bring out the divergent, and competing, ways in which Durkheim's ideas have been appropriated and reformulated within more recent theoretical developments in the social sciences. In doing so, this volume is an important resource for all scholars and students looking to understand Durkheimian sociology. (shrink)

The so called ‘Prose Edda’ or ‘Snorra Edda’, usually dated to the third decade of the 13th century, contains after a short prologue two substantial sections dealing mainly with mythography and poetics and a long concluding skaldic poem. In the extant medieval manuscripts from around 1300 and the beginning of the 14th century, additional material like genealogies, grammatical treatises, etc. is included. The present paper focuses on one of the earliest of these manuscripts, codex DG 11 4to, University Library Uppsala, (...) and analyses some central features of the specific way in which it presents different narrative layers. For the first time, this analysis combines a study of textual and visual aspects of the manuscript, and special attention is given to two of the many illustrations in this codex. Together with later scribal notes, the drawings contribute heavily to the process of framing, which is one of the main features of the ‘Prose Edda’. This process of creating potentially endless narrative and visual frames is part of the text‘s ambition to establish a distance to the traditional pagan myths and to facilitate new fictional possibilities. (shrink)

This study examines the consequences of computerization for women who do information work. Syntheses of research findings from both the general social science literature and the business and management periodical literature are compared with each other. The two bodies of research results converge with respect to employment consequences and shifts in work, but differ markedly when it comes to control of the labor process and training. In contrast to social scientists, management researchers pay scant attention to differential gender effects of (...) microcomputer deployment. Similarities and differences between the two research traditions show that social science and business research, if combined, yield a better understanding of the changes prompted by new information technology. (shrink)

Deliberative democracy is now an influential approach to the study of democracy and political behaviour. Its key proposition is that, in politics, it is not only power that counts, but good discussions and arguments too. This book examines the interplay between the normative and empirical aspects of the deliberative model of democracy. Jürg Steiner presents the main normative controversies in the literature on deliberation, including self-interest, civility and truthfulness. He then summarizes the empirical literature on deliberation and proposes methods by (...) which the level of deliberation can be measured rather than just assumed. Steiner's empirical research is based in the work of various research groups, including experiments with ordinary citizens in the deeply divided societies of Colombia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Belgium, as well as Finland and the European Union. Steiner draws normative implications from a combination of both normative controversies and empirical findings. (shrink)

'Deliberative politics' refers to the role of conversation and arguments in politics. Until recently discussion of deliberative politics took place almost exclusively among political philosophers, but many questions raised in this philosophical discussion cry out for empirical investigation. This book provides the first extended empirical study of deliberative politics, addressing, in particular, questions of the preconditions and consequences of high level deliberation. Using parliamentary debates in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States as an empirical base, the authors (...) measure the level of deliberation by constructing a 'Discourse Quality Index'. As deliberative politics moves to the forefront of political theory, this book makes an important contribution to deliberative democracy. (shrink)

Sartori (1970) warned a long time ago of the danger of concept stretching for effective and cumulative theory building. Such concept stretching has happened with regard to deliberation, which has become a very faddish term. For theoretically well-founded empirical research it is better conceptually to distinguish clearly between strategic bargaining and deliberation, although in the empirical political world the two concepts are usually heavily intertwined. Keywords deliberation; concept stretching; strategic bargaining.

Homeotic genes are subject to transcriptional silencing, which prevents their expression in inappropriate body regions. Here, we shall focus on Drosophila, as little is known about this process in other organisms. Evidence is accumulating that silencing of Drosophila homeotic genes is conferred by two types of cis‐regulatory sequences: initiation (SIL‐I) and maintenance (SIL‐M) elements. The former contain target sites for transient repressors with a highly localised distribution in the early embryo and the latter for constitutive repressors that are likely to (...) be present in all cells. We discuss how SIL‐I elements may cooperate with SIL‐M elements to promote formation of a silencing complex. We propose that this complex consists of specific non‐histone proteins, the so‐called Polycomb group proteins, and that it is anchored at SIL‐M elements and at the promoter. (shrink)

. We explore a connection between different ways of representing information in computer science. We show that relational databases, modules, algebraic specifications and constraint systems all satisfy the same ten axioms. A commutative semigroup together with a lattice satisfying these axioms is then called an “information algebra”. We show that any compact consequence operator satisfying the interpolation and the deduction property induces an information algebra. Conversely, each finitary information algebra can be obtained from a consequence operator in this way. Finally (...) we show that arbitrary (not necessarily finitary) information algebras can be represented as some kind of abstract relational database called a tuple system. (shrink)

From the local level to international politics, deliberation helps to increase mutual understanding and trust, in order to arrive at political decisions of high epistemic value and legitimacy. This book gives deliberation a dynamic dimension, analysing how levels of deliberation rise and fall in group discussions, and introducing the concept of 'deliberative transformative moments' and how they can be applied to deeply divided societies, where deliberation is most needed but also most difficult to work. Discussions between ex-guerrillas and ex-paramilitaries in (...) Colombia, Serbs and Bosnjaks in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and police officers and locals in Brazilian favelas are used as case studies, with participants addressing how peace can be attained in their countries. Allowing access to the records and transcripts of the discussions opens an opportunity for practitioners of conflict resolution to apply this research to their work in trouble spots of the world, creating a link between the theory and practice of deliberation. (shrink)

A two boundary quantum mechanics incorporating a big bang/big crunch universe is carefully considered. After a short motivation of the concept we address the central question how a proposed a-causal quantum universe can be consistent with what is known about macroscopia and how it might find experimental support.

We give a detailed account of the Algebraically Closed and Existentially Closed members of the second Lee class B 2 of distributive p-algebras, culminating in an explicit construction of the countable homogeneous universal model of B 2. The axioms of Schmid [7], [8] for the AC and EC members of B 2 are reduced to what we prove to be an irredundant set of axioms. The central tools used in this study are the strong duality of Clark and Davey [3] (...) for B 2 and the method of Clark [2] for constructing AC and EC algebras using a strong duality. Applied to B 2, this method transfers the entire discussion into an equivalent dual category X 2 of Boolean spaces which carry a pair of tightly interacting orderings. The doubly ordered spaces of X 2 prove to be much more readily constructed and analyzed than the corresponding algebras in B 2. (shrink)

Change, Choice and Inference develops logical theories that are necessary both for the understanding of adaptable human reasoning and for the design of intelligent systems. The book shows that reasoning processes - the drawing on inferences and changing one's beliefs - can be viewed as belonging to the realm of practical reason by embedding logical theories into the broader context of the theory of rational choice. The book unifies lively and significant strands of research in logic, philosophy, economics and artificial (...) intelligence. It elaborates on the relevant theories and provides a mathematically precise foundation for the thesis that large parts of theoretical reason can be subsumed under practical reason. (shrink)