A simple introduction to numbers and their meanings.

Frost presents an explanatory theory of reading that generalizes across several languages, based on a revised role of orthographic coding. Perceptual and psychophysical evidence indicates a decay of letter position encoding as a function of the eccentricity of letters ; this factor may account for some of the differences in the languages considered by Frost.

In this article we will present the Conjoint Family Drawing, a graphic-interactive tool developed to evaluate family relationships. This tool allows an analytical and clinical evaluation of families and their relationships while facilitating the understanding of the overall family functioning through a synthetic coding system which distinguishes families from each other. First of all, a presentation of the analytical coding system is provided; such system consists of a grid, formed by two distinct levels of observation: the analysis of the product, (...) which, in turn focuses on two levels, the global-familiar one and the individual one, and the analysis of the drawing process, which is made up of the observations of family interactions at the individual and group level. Consistently with our objectives and the theoretical and methodological literature on family drawing in its various forms and ways of implementation, 10 indicators for product analysis and 9 indicators for process analysis have been identified. A sample of 117 Conjoint Family Drawings was analyzed in order to verify the coding system’s applicability and effectiveness. The sample was constituted according to a convenience criterion. Following, a computing system was developed to allow the investigation of the overall family functioning through three steps: the analysis of the frequency distribution of each indicator, in order to verify the non-determinability rates and the distribution of the different answer options; a two-step cluster analysis, to determine homogeneous groups of Conjoint Family Drawings and identify, within each cluster, the indicators and answer modalities that mostly affect the clusters’ aggregation itself; the development of a synthetic system to code the Conjoint Family Drawing, beginning with the indicators that define the typological profiles of the clusters obtained. The synthetic system was developed through a summative and logical-combinatorial method, merging the most discriminating and clinically significant coding items, that is, those that are best associable to specific ways of family functioning. Seven family types emerged from these analyses: families characterized by optimal functioning, families characterized by adequate functioning, families characterized by chaotic functioning, families characterized by fragile paternity, families characterized by separate functioning, families with multiproblematic functioning and residual families. The characteristics of these family types will be outlined in this article. (shrink)

Lo studio nasce da due constatazioni tra loro contrastanti: la prima è che Hobbes e Locke sono considerati tra i maggiori teorici della società e dello stato laici; la seconda è che nei loro scritti è presente una decisa riserva sull’affidabilità sociale dell’ateo. Solo nel caso in cui la prima constatazione potesse essere incrinata, le posizioni di Hobbes e di Locke in tema di affidabilità sociale degli atei, ovviamente, sarebbero inscrivibili all’interno della loro filosofia politica. Ma dato che la prima (...) constatazione sembra irresistibile, la ricerca della sua compatibilità con la seconda va condotta in un livello di discorso diverso da quello della filosofia politica. Attraverso un’analisi dei testi dei due filosofi e una discussione della letteratura critica al riguardo, si è cercato dunque di individuare l’ambito nel quale rintracciare le premesse in grado di dare ragione delle opinioni di Hobbes e di Locke in materia di ateo. (shrink)

O presente artigo começa por mostrar até que ponto a influência cultural derivada da publicação, em 1927, de Sein und Zeit de Martin Heidegger contagiou também o campo psicopatológico, tendo sido especialmente Ludwig Binswanger (1881-1966) quem colheu e transferiu estes conteúdos filosóficos para o campo psiquiátrico. A autora salienta que enquanto Heidegger se ocupava com os aspectos ontológicos do ser, Binswanger se interessava particularmente pelos aspectos ônticos, factuais do ser, ou melhor, pela presença humana que se exprime mediante a sua (...) estrutura a priori de ser-no-mundo e de ser-com. O artigo mostra também até que ponto ao homo natura das ciências positivistas e da psicanálise Binswanger contrapoõe o homo existentia, superando dessa forma a dicotomia sujeito-objecto. Finalmente, coincidindo a nossa existência com a nossa possibilidade de ser no mundo, ou seja, de nos exprimirmos no mundo, o artigo mostra ainda até que ponto os conceitos de são e de doente constituem duas categorias que pertencem ao mesmo mundo, ou seja, ao mesmo modo de estar no mundo, pelo que da antropoanálise se pode dizer ela não fazer uma distinção de fundo entre a saúde e a doença. /// The present article seeks to demonstrate to what degree the publication of Heidegger's Sein und Zeit in 1927 had a cultural influence that extended to the field of psychopathology. It was particularly Ludwig Binswanger (1881-1966) who received and then transferred the work's philosophical contents into the domain of psychiatry. The author underscores the fact that, while Heidegger was concerned with the ontological aspects of being, Binswanger focused his interest on the ontical, factual dimension of being, i. e., on the human presence expressed in his a priori structure as being-in-the-world and as being-with. The article also demonstrates the degree to which the homo natura conceived in the positive sciences and psychoanalysis can be countered by Biswanger's concept of homo existentia, that overcomes the subject/object dichotomy. Finally, recognizing the coincidence of our existence with our possibility of being, i. e., of expressing the world, the article endeavors to show how the concepts of healthy and sick constitute categories belonging to the same world. It is thus that anthropoanalysis can be said to make no fundamental distinction between the two aforesaid concepts. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to study the use of “UP–DOWN” metaphors in Russian and French material. A list of 10 conceptual metaphors expressing up–down movement was proposed by CitationLakoff and Johnson (1980), and this list has been reproduced many times since. However, this analysis shows that the list is not fully accurate. In addition to the conceptual metaphors proposed by Lakoff and Johnson, the authors find it important to include 5 more metaphorical models expressing vertical movement. On the (...) other hand, 5 of the conceptual metaphors in Lakoff and Johnson's list turned out not to be relevant to this analysis. The authors also attempt to describe the connections between different metaphoric models and observe that not all metaphoric models are equally important in their evidential and conceptual power. (shrink)

Fission of cellular membranes is ubiquitous and essential for life. Complex protein machineries, such as the dynamin and ESCRT spirals, have evolved to mediate membrane fission during diverse cellular processes, for example, vesicle budding. A new study suggests that non-specialized membrane-bound proteins can induce membrane fission through mass action due to protein crowding. Because up to 2/3 of the mass of cellular membranes is contributed by proteins, membrane protein crowding is an important physiological parameter. Considering the complexity of membrane shape (...) transitions during a fission reaction, spatial and temporal variability in protein distribution, and the abundance of intrinsically disordered regions in proteins on an invaginating membrane, protein crowding can have diverse consequences for fission in the cell. The question is, how and to what extent this mechanism combines with the action of dedicated fission machineries. Membrane fission, which is required for formation of vesicles or cytokinesis, can be carried out by specialized proteins like dynamin and the ESCRT complex. Recent work suggests that fission of cellular membranes, which are densely packed with proteins, can also be induced by protein crowding due to high entropic tension. (shrink)

Colonial ascidians offer opportunities to investigate how developmental events are integrated to generate the animal form, since they can develop similar individuals (oozooids from eggs, blastozooids from pluripotent somatic cells) through very different reproductive processes, i.e. embryogenesis and blastogenesis. Moreover, thanks to their key phylogenetic position, they can help in the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of morphogenesis and their evolution in chordates. We review organogenesis of the ascidian neural complex comparing embryos and buds in terms of topology, developmental mechanisms (...) and terminology. We propose a new interpretation of bud territories, and reconsider nervous system development based on recent results suggesting that ascidians have vertebrate placodal and neural‐crest‐like cells. Comparing embryonic and blastogenic development in Botryllus schlosseri, we propose that the bud has territories with a placodal potentiality, suggesting that chordate ancestors possessed neurogenic placodes, and that the genetic pathways regulating neurogenic placode formation were co‐opted for new developmental processes, such as blastogenesis. BioEssays 28: 902–912, 2006. © 2006 Wiley periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Denis Diderot’s ideas about war and peace crystalize many of the contradictions in the world that he identified. On the one hand, war is a natural product of contradictions between natural law and human developments. On the other hand, it can and should always be subject to moral judgment based on a wide-ranging knowledge of history and context. War can be good if it eliminates tyranny, and bad if it limits freedom, equality, and prosperity. Peace can be good if it (...) cultivates the latter, and bad if it freezes inequality. Diderot never allows himself to rest on universal judgments for all times and all places, but insists upon never-ending comparisons and contrasts between the moral world and the natural world. Philosophical materialism provides the basis for his understanding of the world, but morals provide the instruments of judgment. (shrink)

REM sleep behaviour disorder is a REM sleep-related parasomnia which may be considered a “dissociated state of wakefulness and sleep”, given that conflicting elements of REM sleep and of wakefulness coexist during the episodes, leading to motor and behavioural manifestations reminiscent of an enacted dream. RBD has been reported in association with α-synucleinopathies: around a third of patients with Parkinson’s disease have full-blown RBD.Recent data indicate that PD patients with RBD are more prone to hallucinations than PD patients without this (...) parasomnia. However it is still not clear why RBD in PD is associated with an increased prevalence of VHs.Data exist which suggest that visual hallucinations in PD may be the result of untimely intrusions of REM visual imagery into wakefulness. RBD, which is characterised by a REM sleep dissociation pattern, might be a condition that particularly favours such intrusions. However, other hypotheses may be advanced. In fact, deficits in attentional, executive, visuoperceptual and visuospatial abilities have been documented in RBD and found to occur far more frequently in PD with RBD than in PD without RBD. Neuropsychological deficits involving visual perception and attentional processes are thought to play an important role in the pathophysiology of VHs. On this basis, RBD in PD could be viewed as a contributory risk factor for VHs. (shrink)

New Blackfriars, Volume 103, Issue 1104, Page 309-316, March 2022.

Jacques le fataliste et son maître,1 Diderot’s “novel that is not a novel,” has no beginning and multiple endings. The narrator lacks credibility, is dismissive or even rude to the reader, and actually strives to be boring. The flow of narration is interrupted no less than fifty-one times, often just so the narrator can relish his power to direct the story. The fictional reader, a character embedded in the narrative, asks no fewer than forty-seven questions, usually requesting clarification, sometimes registering (...) complaints. Entire sections of Jacques have been unceremoniously copied from Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. It was generally judged a critical failure: for a hundred years after Jacques’s.. (shrink)

Despite the remarkable advances in behavioral and brain sciences over the last decades, the mind/body (brain) problem is still an open debate and one of the most intriguing questions for both cognitive neuroscience and philosophy of mind. Traditional approaches have conceived this problem in terms of a contrast between physicalist monism and Cartesian dualism. However, since the late sixties, the landscape of philosophical views on the problem has become more varied and complex. The Multiple Realization Thesis (MRT) claims that mental (...) properties can be (or are) realized, and mental processes can be (or are) implemented by neural correlates of different kinds. Thus, MRT challenges the psychoneural type-identity theory and the corresponding reductionism. Many philosophers have acknowledged the a priori plausibility of MRT. However, the existence of empirical evidence in favor of intraspecific, human multiple realizations of mental processes and properties is still controversial. Here we illustrate some cases that provide empirical evidence in support of MRT. Recently, it has been proposed that foveal agnosic vision, like peripheral vision, can be restored by increasing object parts’ spacing (Strappini et al., 2017a; Crutch and Warrington, 2007). Agnosic fovea and normal periphery are both limited by crowding, that impairs object recognition, and provides the signature of visual integration. Here we define a psychological property of restored object identification and we cross-reference the data of visually-impaired patients with different etiologies. In particular, we compare the data of two stroke patients, two patients with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), six cases of strabismic amblyopia, and one case with restored sight. We also compare these patients with unimpaired subjects tested in the periphery. We show that integration (i.e. restored recognition) seems to describe quite accurately the visual performance in all these cases. While the patients have different etiologies and different neural correlates, the unimpaired subjects have no neural damage. Thus similarity in the psychological property given the differences in the neural substrate can be interpreted in relation to MRT and provide evidence in its support. Finally, we will frame our contribution within the current debate concerning MRT providing new and compelling empirical evidence. (shrink)