The content-analysis of the Russian federal and regional basic legislation on the cultural policy has indicated a need in a deep revision of all existing regulatory legal acts, which support the state cultural policy implementation towards building a universal terminology and vesting the functions on the cultural policy implementation in the government as opposed to the statement of the departmental specific approach to the culture.

The attitudes of the Greeks, a Mediterranean population, to the issue of telling the truth to the patient have been studied. There is no clear answer to the question: 'Do the Greeks wish to be informed of the nature of their illness?'. The answer is: 'It depends'. It depends on age, education, family status, occupation, place of birth and residence and on whether or not they are religious people. However, it does not depend on their sex--men and women have similar (...) reactions to the issue of truth-telling. Although the present study shows lower percentages of those who wish to know the truth than studies on other populations, the conclusion is that, emphasising the need for good communication between doctors and patients, doctors should not lie, but should disclose to their patients the part of the truth they are ready to accept. (shrink)

We believe the dichotomy of processes introduced in the target article is highly speculative, because the dichotomy is shaped by the questionable assumption of modularity and the complementary assumption of locality. As a result, the author falls into a line of circular reasoning that biases his analysis of the experimental and neuropsychological data, and weakens the proposed model.

En la atención médica y en la investigación en salud resulta indispensable favorecer la toma de decisiones de los pacientes y/o participantes bajo el principio de autonomía. En particular, esta capacidad, consignada en la Convención de los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad, se concreta mediante la detección de necesidades de asistencia, ajustes y apoyos que dan paso a una plena y efectiva capacidad de ejercicio. Las reflexiones bioéticas hechas desde la perspectiva principialista, personalista y de los Derechos Humanos ofrecen (...) elementos para potenciar la autonomía de las personas con discapacidad, promoviendo la figura de asistencia personal y enfatizando el interés superior, la gradualidad y la revisión judicial permanente como principios de figuras sustitutivas. (shrink)

Zonulin is a physiological modulator of intercellular tight junctions, which upregulation is involved in several diseases like celiac disease (CeD). The polyQ gliadin fragment binds to the CXCR3 chemokine receptor that activates zonulin upregulation, leading to increased intestinal permeability in humans. Here, we report a general hypothesis based on the structural connection between the polyQ sequence of the immunogenic CeD protein, gliadin, and enteric coccidian parasites proteins. Firstly, a novel interaction pathway between the parasites and the host is described based (...) on the structural similarities between polyQ gliadin fragments and the parasite proteins. Secondly, a potential connection between coccidial infections as a novel environmental trigger of CeD is hypothesized. Therefore, this report represents a promising breakthrough for coccidian research and points out the potential role of coccidian parasites as a novel trigger of CeD that might define a preventive strategy for gluten‐related disorders in general. Also see the video abstract here: https://youtu.be/oMaQasStcFI. (shrink)

Let ‘semantic relevance’ be the thesis that the wide semantic properties of representational mental states (like beliefs and desires) are causally relevant to behavior. A popular way of arguing for semantic relevance runs as follows: start with a sufficient counterfactual condition for causal or explanatory relevance, and show that wide semantic properties meet it with respect to behavior (e.g., Loewer & Lepore (1987,1989), Rescorla (2014), Yablo (2003)).This paper discusses an in‐principle limitation of this strategy: even the most sophisticated counterfactual criteria (...) systematically misclassify irrelevant properties as relevant when they stand in certain kinds of modal co‐variation or ‘entanglement’ relations to genuinely relevant properties. This entanglement problem, I argue, is more general and more serious than proponents of the counterfactual strategy have recognized: it threatens recent interventionist arguments for semantic relevance, and is not easily solved by appeal to proportionality or naturalness. I end by suggesting that proponents of semantic relevance may need to shift their attention from patterns of counterfactuals to the lawful psychological generalizations that explain them. (shrink)

many symbols. We define o, as the probability that an arbitrary machine be circular and we prove that o, is a random number that goes beyond..

Humans are by nature social beings tuned to communicate and interact from the very beginning of their lives. The sense of touch represents the most direct and intimate channel of communication and a powerful means of connection between the self and the others. In our digital age, the development and diffusion of internet-based technologies and virtual environments offer new opportunities of communication overcoming physical distance. It however, happens that social interactions are often mediated, and the tactile aspects of communication are (...) overlooked, thus diminishing the feeling of social presence, which may contribute to an increased sense of social disconnection and loneliness. The current manuscript aims to review the extant literature about the socio-affective dimension of touch and current advancements in interactive virtual environments in order to provide a new perspective on multisensory virtual communication. Specifically, we suggest that interpersonal affective touch might critically impact virtual social exchanges, promoting a sense of co-presence and social connection between individuals, possibly overcoming feelings of sensory loneliness. This topic of investigation will be of crucial relevance from a theoretical perspective aiming to understand how we integrate multisensory signals in processing and making sense of interpersonal exchanges, this is important in both typical and atypical populations. Moreover, it will pave the way to promising applications by exploring the possibility to use technical innovations to communicate more interactively in the case of people who suffer from social isolation and disconnection from others. (shrink)

At the outset of an ethnographic inquiry, we navigated national and international resources to search for theoretical and practical guidance on obtaining parents and children’s informed consent/assent. While much theoretical guidance debating ethical issues to children’s participation in research was found, a paucity of published papers offering practical guidance on assent processes and/or visual representations of child assent forms and information sheets was discovered. The purpose of this article is to describe our experiences, both theoretically and practically, of negotiating the (...) process of obtaining informed consent and assent with parents and children for a non-therapeutic qualitative research study. We hope this article instigates a platform for others to explicate their experience and contributes to the construction of a coherent body of knowledge which will clearly delineate important elements that must be considered when negotiating children’s agreement to participate in research. (shrink)

In this paper, we examine the scientific, legal, and ethical foundations for inclusion of transgender women athletes in competitive sport, drawing on IOC principles and relevant Court of Arbitration for Sport decisions. We argue that the inclusion of trans athletes in competition commensurate with their legal gender is the most consistent position with these principles of fair and equitable sport. Biological restrictions, such as endogenous testosterone limits, are not consistent with IOC and CAS principles. We explore the implications for recognizing (...) that endogenous testosterone values are a ‘natural physical trait’ and that excluding legally recognized women for high endogenous testosterone values constitutes discrimination on the basis of a natural physical trait. We suggest that the justificatory burden for such prima facie discrimination is unlikely to be met. Thus, in place of a limit on endogenous testosterone for women, we argue that ‘legally recognized gender’ is most fully in line with IOC and CAS principles. (shrink)

Un invito a vedere nella vita e nelle opere di don Sturzo delle risposte alle difficoltà del mondo attuale, approfondendo le ragioni di un impegno cristiano per il recupero della dimensione etica dell’economia, della politica e delle istituzioni.

It is commonly thought that that the best system account of lawhood ((Mill (1843), Ramsey (1978)[fp. 1928], Lewis (1973)) makes available a nice explanation for why laws are ‘distinctively appropriate targets of scientific inquiry’ (Hall, 2015). The explanation takes the following general form: laws are especially valuable for agents like us because they efficiently encode a lot of valuable (non-nomic) information in a tractable format. The goal of this paper is to challenge this style of explanation: I argue that the (...) general principle it presupposes is in conflict with our best account of practical rationality. After considering and rejecting a number of proposals for dissolving the tension, I conclude that BSA proponents may need to scale back the explanatory ambitions of their theory; in particular, they may need to give up the hope of non-circular explanations of the value of nomic information. I end by outlining some challenges for the humean world-view that results after this shift. (shrink)

Cognitive Science, Volume 46, Issue 4, April 2022.

Machine generated contents note: Chapter 1 -- The Prison of the Known -- Chapter 2 -- Can We Live without Conflict? -- Chapter 3 -- The Meaning of Dialogue -- Chapter 4 -- Practice and Solidarity: We Are the World -- Chapter 5 -- Science and the Religious Mind -- Chapter 6 -- A Call for Active Being: Being at Home in the World.

We live in dangerous times, ruled by the imperatives of what Hannah Arendt calls “the catastrophic interiority of the selfish I” 1 which threatens the planet and the survival of humanity. But I believe, nevertheless, that it is possible to reinvent the world since, by and large, it is evident that its shape reflects our notions of reality and value, the way we weave together the various strands of existence. Antonio Gramsci may have had something like this in mind when (...) he wrote that it is only by “the conquest of greater consciousness” that we will be able to bring a different kind of culture into being because, “man is above all spirit,” a creature, that is, with imagina- tion, the ability to reconfigure the way we see ourselves and the world. Just as importantly, he argues that this may mean returning to some things we once knew but have now forgotten or ignored. Poetry or, to be more accurate, poetic ways of seeing, may be one of these things, to the extent that it generates ways of seeing beyond the merely rational. In this essay I therefore want to explore the work of Judith Wright and the ways in which it explores the possibilities of being ‘true to the earth’. 2. (shrink)

It’s relatively easy to say that the debates about whether trans and intersex women athletes deserve full and equal inclusion in women’s sport is a contentious contemporary issue. I’ve already argued for the legal, ethical, and scientific basis for full and equal inclusion of trans and intersex women in women’s sport. In this paper, I want to analyze what I take to be a representative selection of recent arguments against full and equal inclusion of trans and intersex women in women’s (...) sport. In short, these arguments tend to be based on mere assumption, unsupported “common sense,” straw arguments, fallacious question begging, and a number of hypotheticals and unsupported counterfactuals rather than established fact. Essentially, they’re based on a lot of “ifs.”. (shrink)

Background:Ethical competence in nursing practice helps clinical nurses to think critically, analyse issues, make ethical decisions, solve ethical problems and behave ethically in their daily work. Thus, ethical competence contributes to the promotion of high-quality care. However, studies on ethical competence in Malawi are scanty.Objectives:The aim of this study was to explore ethical competence among clinical nurses in selected hospitals in Malawi.Methodology:A cross-sectional survey was conducted in four selected hospitals in Malawi with a sample of 271 clinical nurses. Data were (...) collected using self-administered questionnaires, which included a Moral Competence Scale for Home Care Nurses. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were computed for the dataset using STATA version 12.0.Ethical consideration:The study protocol complied with all ethical requirements and was approved by the College of Medicine Research Ethics Committee under the University of Malawi.Results:The clinical nurses in Malawi are ethically competent. However, there is a significantly high number (p 0.05). Three determinants of high ethical competence level (strong will, judgement skills and recognition of discrepancy of intention) were identified through a reduced model after stepwise logistic regression analysis. Furthermore, results show that indicators of ethical competence include caring, confidentiality and observance of nurses dressing code. The study has also confirmed that the Moral Competence Scale for Home Care Nurses is a reliable tool to assess ethical competence in low-resource settings.Conclusion:The majority of nurses who completed the survey had low ethical competence. However, clinical nurses with high ethical competence level are required to competently manage complex ethical challenges in health facilities. Strategies for enhancing ethical competence such as continuing ethics education, establishment of ethics committees and provision of supportive supervision are recommended to enable nurses in Malawi attain a high level of ethical competence. (shrink)

O presente artigo parte da enunciação da tese de que são os tumultos uma das principais razões para o ordenamento republicano. A partir da análise do capítulo quatro do livro I dos Discursos sobre a primeira década de Tito Lívio, da autoria de Nicolau Maquiavel, é possível afirmar que a república, forma de governo que na tipologia maquiaveliana se opõe à monarquia ou principado, encontra na duplicidade dos humores existentes no tecido social a causa de sua liberdade, na medida em (...) que da tensão entre o desejo insaciável de poder dos grandes e o desejo popular de proteção contra a opressão enseja a criação de um espaço institucional propício para o exercício legislativo voltado para o bem comum. O campo da política deixa de ser observado enquanto obra da fortuna ou da virtù, tal como defendido pela tradição humanista, para ser analisado a partir da realidade social concreta. (shrink)

The presence of stigmatizing language in the electronic health record (EHR) has been used to measure implicit biases that underlie health inequities. The purpose of this study was to identify the presence of stigmatizing language in the clinical notes of pregnant people during the birth admission. We conducted a qualitative analysis on N = 1117 birth admission EHR notes from two urban hospitals in 2017. We identified stigmatizing language categories, such as Disapproval (39.3%), Questioning patient credibility (37.7%), Difficult patient (21.3%), (...) Stereotyping (1.6%), and Unilateral decisions (1.6%) in 61 notes (5.4%). We also defined a new stigmatizing language category indicating Power/privilege. This was present in 37 notes (3.3%) and signaled approval of social status, upholding a hierarchy of bias. The stigmatizing language was most frequently identified in birth admission triage notes (16%) and least frequently in social work initial assessments (13.7%). We found that clinicians from various disciplines recorded stigmatizing language in the medical records of birthing people. This language was used to question birthing people's credibility and convey disapproval of decision‐making abilities for themselves or their newborns. We reported a Power/privilege language bias in the inconsistent documentation of traits considered favorable for patient outcomes (e.g., employment status). Future work on stigmatizing language may inform tailored interventions to improve perinatal outcomes for all birthing people and their families. (shrink)

As críticas de Newton e Voltaire endereçadas à negação do vazio por parte de Descartes compartilham uma estrutura básica: ambos parecem concordar que tal tese cartesiana conduz a implicações indesejáveis tanto no campo da mecânica, quanto no que diz respeito à teologia. Entretanto, embora Newton admita as implicações teológicas da negação do vazio, elas não constituem o fim último de sua crítica, o que parece ocorrer na crítica de Voltaire. Ao contrário, os argumentos newtonianos para assumir o vazioencontram na mecânica (...) não apenas um campo de prova; eles constituem uma parte importante da fundamentação de um dos pilares do newtonianismo: o espaço absoluto. (shrink)

Abstract:Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) can enable communication for persons in severe paralysis including locked-in syndrome (LIS); that is, being unable to move or speak while aware. In cases of complete loss of muscle control, termed “complete locked-in syndrome,” a BCI may be the only viable solution to restore communication. However, a widespread ignorance regarding quality of life in LIS, current BCIs, and their potential as an assistive technology for persons in LIS, needlessly causes a harmful situation for this cohort. In addition (...) to their medical condition, these persons also face social barriers often perceived as more impairing than their physical condition. Through social exclusion, stigmatization, and frequently being underestimated in their abilities, these persons are being locked out in addition to being locked-in. In this article, we (1) show how persons in LIS are being locked out, including how key issues addressed in the existing literature on ethics, LIS, and BCIs for communication, such as autonomy, quality of life, and advance directives, may reinforce these confinements; (2) show how these practices violate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and suggest that we have a moral responsibility to prevent and stop this exclusion; and (3) discuss the role of BCIs for communication as one means to this end and suggest that a novel approach to BCI research is necessary to acknowledge the moral responsibility toward the end users and avoid violating the human rights of persons in LIS. (shrink)

Este artigo visa introduzir a noção de dramatização em Gilles Deleuze. Trata-se da subversão das clássicas perguntas metafísicas que justificam as essências e as idéias. Uma distribuição de diferenças determina a atualização das idéias. O método de dramatização envolve processos de diferenciação. Diferenças internas, relativas a blocos de espaço-tempo criam condições para os conceitos. Um campo intensivo e diferencial de forças faz emergir um teatro especial de virtualidades e uma expressividade das idéias. A realidade não é dada , mas dramatizada (...) por forças não individuais e subjetividades larvares. O método de dramatização está aquém do conhecimento e até mesmo de toda consolidação que a filosofia ganha com os conceitos. O artigo procurará ainda indicar os vínculos da dramatização com os mundos incompossíveis de Leibniz e com o cinema de David Lynch. (shrink)

The introduction of new medical treatments based on invasive technologies has often been surrounded by both hopes and fears. Hope, since a new intervention can create new opportunities either in terms of providing a cure for the disease or impairment at hand; or as alleviation of symptoms. Fear, since an invasive treatment involving implanting a medical device can result in unknown complications such as hardware failure and undesirable medical consequences. However, hopes and fears may also arise due to the cultural (...) embeddedness of technology, where a therapy due to ethical, social, political and religious concerns could be perceived as either a blessing or a threat. While Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) for treatment resistant depression (TRD) is still in its cradle, it is important to be proactive and try to scrutinize both surfacing hopes and fears. Patients will not benefit if a promising treatment is banned or avoided due to unfounded fears, nor will they benefit if DBS is used without scrutinizing the arguments which call for caution. Hence blind optimism is equally troublesome. We suggest that specificity, both in terms of a detailed account of relevant scientific concerns as well as ethical considerations, could be a way to analyse expressed concerns regarding DBS for TRD. This approach is particularly fruitful when applied to hopes and fears evoked by DBS for TRD, since it can reveal if our comprehension of DBS for TRD suffer from various biases which may remain unnoticed at first glance. We suggest that such biases exist, albeit a further analysis is needed to explore this issue in full. (shrink)

La 4e de couverture indique : "Du Mutterrecht, l'oeuvre majeure de Bachofen, Walter Benjamin écrivait qu'il s'agissait d'une « prophétie scientifique ». De prime abord, il s'agit là d'une étrange définition pour un ouvrage qui, loin de se tourner vers l'avenir et d'en délinéer les formes, explore les confins du passé pour esquisser, par le biais de l'étude des mythes, le contour de l'origine de nos sociétés. La pensée de Bachofen est prophétique car révolutionnaire, et par là même porteuse de (...) fruits pour l'avenir. Il a en effet avancé une thèse bouleversante : les premières sociétés humaines auraient été régies par un droit maternel, l'organisation patriarcale n'étant qu'une forme plus avancée, certes, mais plus tardive de l'évolution spirituelle et sociale de l'humanité. Sa pensée permet ainsi de réfléchir à la prégnance de l'opposition masculin/féminin, maternel/paternel dans les fondements mêmes de nos sociétés, mais aussi de considérer l'importance que la notion d'origine, et la représentation, pour erronée qu'elle soit, qui en est faite, revêt pour la construction et le maintien de la société et de ses structures. C'est bien là une réflexion avec laquelle, aux dires de Bachofen lui-même, « on n'est pas prêt d'en finir ».". (shrink)