Modified action, either artificially induced or occurring naturally during life-span, alters organization and processing of primary somatosensory cortex, thereby serving as a predictor of age-related changes. These findings, together with the interconnectedness between motor-sensory systems and temporally-distributed processing across hierarchical levels, throws into question a sharp division between early perception and cognition, and suggest that composite codes of perception and action might not be limited to higher areas.

Single cell receptive field dynamics characterized by highly complicated spatio-temporal activity distributions observable during sensory information processing transforms into much simpler spatio-temporal activity pattern at a population level, indicating a qualitative transformational step of time-variant processing from microscopic to mesoscopic levels. As these dynamics are subject to significant modifications during learning, dynamic information processing is in a permanent state of use-dependent fluctuations.

This article integrates previously missing components of government quality into the governance-piracy nexus in exploring governance mechanisms by which global obligations for the treatment of IPRs are effectively transmitted from international to the national level in the battle against piracy. It assesses the best governance tools in the fight against piracy and upholding of intellectual property rights (IPRs). The instrumentality of IPR laws (treaties) in tackling piracy through good governance mechanisms is also examined. Findings demonstrate that: (1) while all governance (...) tools under consideration significantly decrease the incidence of piracy, corruption-control is the most effective weapon; (2) but for voice and accountability, political stability and democracy, IPR laws (treaties) are instrumental in tackling piracy through government quality dynamics of rule of law, regulation quality, government effectiveness, corruption-control, and press freedom. Hence, the need for a policy approach most conducive to expanding development is to implement an integrated system of both IPRs and corollary good governance policies. Moreover, our findings support the relevance of good governance measures in developing countries wishing to complement their emerging IPR regimes. (shrink)

Our reasoning evolved not for finding the truth, but for social bonding and convincing. This book highlights the consequences of these facts for scientific practice, and suggests how to correct the mistakes we still make.

In people with chronic low back pain, maladaptive structural and functional changes on a cortical level have been identified. On a functional level, somatosensory cortical excitability has been shown to be reduced in chronic pain conditions, resulting in cortical disinhibition. The occurrence of structural and/or functional maladaptive cortical changes in people with CLBP could play a role in maintaining the pain. There is currently no measurement protocol for cortical excitability that employs stimulation directly to the lower back. We developed a (...) protocol for the measurement of single pulse somatosensory evoked potential waveforms and paired-pulse behavior generated from sensory nerves of the lower back and quantified its test–retest reliability in a sample of 30 healthy individuals to gain insights into the normal variability of cortical responses, which could then be compared to results from people with CLBP. We investigated cortical excitability by measuring SEPs and PPB. PPB was defined as the ratio of the amplitude of the second cortical response divided by the first cortical response. A2s was determined by subtracting the response to single-pulse stimuli from the paired pulse stimuli response to account for linear superposition effects. The test–retest reliability of the protocol was very poor with no evidence of systematic bias but a high amount of random variability between sessions. There was no significant difference in the right side PPB for session 1 and session 2 ; mean session difference [ = −0.44 ; t = −1.17, p = 0.26]. The ICC3.1 for the outlier-removed right side PPB were 0.19 and 0.43 for left side PPB. This finding potentially has wider implications for PPB protocols. If these findings were replicated in other groups and other nerves, it would question the validity of this measure more generally. However, these findings are restricted to healthy people and sensory nerves of the lower back and may not be generalizable. (shrink)

Anselmo escribió su primer libro, el Monologion, forzado por los hermanos de su monasterio. El método también le fue impuesto: no decir nada desde la autoridad de la Escritura, profundizar todo desde la sola razón y, al mismo tiempo, presentar todo con claridad. El artículo estudia las tres partes del método. Se ve la importancia de los razonamientos dentro del peligro de no citar la Escritura, sobre todo en tiempo en que la dialéctica entusiasmaba a los jóvenes inexpertos. Las razones (...) necesarias son una marca indeleble del método anselmiano. La claridad de la verdad pone en marcha la búsqueda de una presentación clara de la doctrina cristiana y, al mismo tiempo, el drama del cristiano que no puede expresar totalmente esta verdad en palabras humanas porque la verdad nos sobrepasa. Además, la Verdad es Dios mismo, inefable. Este método y su estudio nos ayudan a entrar en el pensamiento anselmiano, especialmente en el Monologion. Nos introducen también en el método teológico actual. Por algo, Anselmo es el Padre de la escolástica. Anselm wrote his first book, the Monologion, forced by the brothers of his monastery. The method also was imposed: to say nothing from the authority of Scripture, to deep everything from reason alone and, at the same time, to present everything clearly. This article examines the three parts of the method. We see the importance of reasoning despite the danger of not quote the Scripture, especially in times when the dialectic excited young inexperienced. The reasons needed are an indelible mark of Anselm’s method. The clarity of truth starts the search for a clear presentation of Christian doctrine and at the same time, the drama of the Christian that cannot fully express this truth in human words because the truth is beyond us. In addition, Truth is God himself, ineffable. This method and its study help us to enter the Anselm's thought, especially in the Monologion. We also introduce in the current theological method. We all know that Anselm is the Father of scholasticism. (shrink)

Eshel Ben-Jacob’s manuscript entitled ‘Bacterial wisdom, Gödel’s theorem and creative genomic webs’ summarizes decades of work demonstrating adaptive mutagenesis in bacterial genomes. Bacterial genomes, each an essential part of a Kantian whole that is a single bacterium, are thus not independent of the environment as sensed; and a single bacterium is therefore a semiotic entity. Ben-Jacob suggests this but errs in 1) assigning autonomy to the genome, and 2) analogizing through computation without making clear whether he is doing so for (...) illustrative purposes or making committed ontological propositions. We reinterpret adaptive mutagenesis and related phenomena in ways both metaphysically rigorous and revealing. We conclude that bacteria are much farther removed from the ‘self-organizing’ world of inanimate process than from the Peircian world of signs; and a critical reappraisal of existing knowledge can enhance our understanding of selfhood, semiosis, and the roots of subjective experience. (shrink)

The evolving nature of armed conflict, characterized by a new emphasis on crisis management and peace support, is bringing morality to the forefront of military leadership. The challenges of today's military operations place a new imperative upon Professional Military Education (PME) to maximize the quality of instruction on ethics in terms of both content and effectiveness. This volume presents the refined proceedings of two conferences of the European Forum on Military Pedagogy dealing with ethical issues of teaching and learning in (...) PME. It explores the philosophical and scientific aspects of current ethical questions, as well as the historical, psychological, and technological dimensions of education in ethics. Further attention is given to ethical and educational implications of asymmetric conflict and warfare. (shrink)

IN the last decade deliberative democracy has developed rapidly from a “theoretical statement” into a “working theory.”1 Scholars and practitioners have launched numerous initiatives designed to put deliberative democracy into practice, ranging from deliberative polling to citizen summits.2 Some even advocate deliberation as a new “revolutionary now.”3 Deliberative democracy has also experienced the beginning of an empirical turn, making significant gains as an empirical (or positive) political science. This includes a small, but growing body of literature tackling the connection between (...) the normative standards of deliberation, how well they are met, and the empirical consequences of meeting them.4 This trend has, for instance, included the use of methods and frameworks borrowed from other fields, such as political and social psychology. Such studies suggest that cases approaching ideal deliberation are rare, but that group interaction sometimes works surprisingly well according to such ideals.5. (shrink)

"This book provides a representative survey of early and more recent concerns in cognitively inspired lexical semantics.

Bernays' idea of the power-set is neither univocal nor ambiguous. according to its domain of application it has a different mathematical meaning in spite of its identical logical definition. in his last axiomatisation of set-theory bernays' introduced a very powerful axiom stating that every property of the universe of all sets is mirrored by some set. this is a most peculiar application of the general--philosophical and theological--principle of analogy as a key principle in the foundations of mathematics.