Hydrogen activation on the (100) surface of MoS2 structures was investigated by means of density functional theory calculations. Linear and quadratic synchronous transit methods with a conjugate gradient refinement of the saddle point were used to localize transition states. The calculations include heterolytic and homolytic dissociation of hydrogen; that is, an H2 molecule dissociates on an MoS2 catalyst surface into two hydrogen atoms, which react further with the catalyst surface under formation of either one Mo-H and one S-H (heterolytic) or (...) of two S-H surface groups (homolytic). Our results favor the heterolytic adsorption of hydrogen. Ni- and Co-promoted MoS2 have been considered to investigate the secondary promotional effect on the H2 dissociation. The authors observed a negative secondary promotional influence on the H2 dissociation in the case of Ni-promoted MoS2, whereas Co shows a positive effect. (shrink)

While scientific interest in the relationship between psychotherapeutic praxis and spirituality is growing, there is still little knowledge on this topic, especially in an East Central European context. To explore how psychotherapists understand spiritual issues and experiences they encounter in their work and to learn what happens to these issues in the course of psychotherapy, this study analyses semi-structured interviews with 30 Hungarian psychotherapists. Applying a grounded theory analytical strategy, three main topics were identified: the therapist's attitude towards spirituality leaves (...) a discernible trace in the psychoterapeutic treatment; the therapist influences the way spiritual issues are treated; and the therapist may have a shared spiritual experience with the client. We present individual variations of these experiences as they appear in the code tree. Results are interpreted with reference to a systemic view of the psychotherapeutic process, the intersubjective space of patient and therapist, and the notion of the therapists’ mentalizational capacity. (shrink)

Review of Mihnea S. Stoica, Populismul în Europa. Dezvoltare istorică, discurs politic ş i sus ţ inători ai dreptei radicale.

Medical bribery seems to be a global problem from Eastern Europe and the Balkans to China, a diffuse phenomenon, starting with morally acceptable gratitude and ending with institutional bribery. I focus my attention on Romania and analyze similar cases in Eastern European and postcommunist countries. Medical bribery can be regarded as a particular form of human transaction, a kind of primitive contract that occurs when people do not trust institutions or other forms of social contract that are meant to guarantee (...) their rights and protect their interests. Concluding with strategies to fight medical bribery, I will underline better public policies for financing health and social care, and an ethic of trust that may help to restore trustworthiness of institutions and to rebuild interpersonal trust. This should be complemented by an educational program dedicated to understanding the negative consequences and mechanisms of corruption and the importance of ethical behavior. (shrink)

This study discusses the potential of virtual reality therapy to treat traumatic experiences. It considers the main advantages of exposure therapy through virtual reality in comparison with traditional exposure therapy. In order to explain the effectiveness of using virtual reality to treat trauma, the main research question that was asked was how to conceptualize it. It was assumed that the trauma was a deviation from the normal narrative that people create for a particular crisis event. The results of the empirical (...) research prove that virtual reality therapy can be considered a powerful tool for treating traumatic experiences, as cyberspace allows reformulation of self-images, experimenting and practicing coping skills, creating a new life story, and finding meaning in certain crisis events. (shrink)

Awareness of internal bodily sensations and its connection to complex socioemotional abilities like empathy has been postulated, yet the functional neural circuitry they share remains poorly understood. The present fMRI study employs independent component analysis to investigate which empathy facet shares resting-state functional connectivity and/or BOLD variability with IA. Healthy participants viewed an abstract nonsocial movie demonstrated to evoke strong rsFC in brain networks resembling rest, and resultant rsFC and rsBOLD data were correlated with self-reported empathy and IA questionnaires. We (...) demonstrate a bidirectional behavioral and neurobiological relationship between empathy and IA, depending on the type of empathy interrogated: Affective empathy and IA share both rsFC and rsBOLD, while Cognitive empathy and IA only share rsBOLD. Specifically, increased rsFC in the right inferior frontal operculum of a larger attention network was associated with increased vicarious experience but decreased awareness of inner body sensations. Furthermore, increased rsBOLD between brain regions of an interoceptive network was related to increased sensitivity to internal sensations along with decreased Affective empathy. Finally, increased rsBOLD between brain regions subserving a mentalizing network related to not only an improved ability to take someone’s perspective, but also a better sense of mind-body interconnectedness. Overall, these findings suggest that the awareness of one’s own internal body changes is related to the socioemotional ability of feeling and understanding another’s emotional state and critically, that this relationship is reflected in the brain’s resting state neuroarchitecture. Methodologically, this work highlights the importance of utilizing rsBOLD as a complementary window alongside rsFC to better understand neurological phenomena. Our results may be beneficial in aiding diagnosis in clinical populations such as autism spectrum disorder, where participants may be unable to complete tasks or questionnaires due to the severity of their symptoms. (shrink)

Autistic individuals can be socially motivated. We disagree with the idea that self-report is sufficient to understand their social drive. Instead, we underscore evidence for typical non-verbal signatures of social reward during the early development of autistic individuals. Instead of focusing on whether or not social motivation is typical, research should investigate the factors that modulate social drives.

If moral enhancement is possible, the caring capacity of human beings should be considered one of the first and most important traits for augmentation. To assess the plausibility of enhancing care, I will explore how the concept and its associated human dispositions are socially constructed, and identify some of the critical points and complexities. Scientific advances regarding neuro-enhancing substances that allegedly make humans more caring will be considered and assessed against the main principles that govern the ethics of care approach. (...) I argue that given the relational and contextual nature of care, its enhancement, if targeted at the individual level, can be more disadvantageous than helpful, by overlooking the “webs of care” people are situated in, and the role of social institutions in shaping behaviours, duties, attitudes, and principles. (shrink)

My main interest here is to look at pain as a sign of the body that something is wrong. I will argue that there is a meaning of pain before and after an illness is diagnosed. An illness contains its own semantic paradigm, but the pain before the diagnosis affects the pace of life, not only by limiting our interactions, but also as a struggle with its meaning and a reminder of mortality.My main approach is what I call bio-hermeneutics, an (...) extension of medical hermeneutics branching out from the Continental hermeneutical tradition. As such, I will explore the connection between pain and language, temporality, dialectics, and ontology. Given the centrality of language in constructing the meaning of pain, my analysis is informed by the semantics (looking at pain metaphors), syntax (pain as incoherence), and pragmatics (pain as companion) of expressing pain.The last section explores the meaning of pain in connection with death, as memento mori. Revisiting an old definition of philosophy asmelete thanatou, or ‘rehearsal of death’, I will reflect on the difficulty of finding meaning not only for pain, but also for death as cessation of all existential possibilities. (shrink)

In all European countries, the eighteenth century was characterised by efforts to improve the vernaculars. The Transylvanian case study shows how both codified medical language and ordinary language were constructed and enriched by a large number of medical books and brochures. The publication of medical literature in Central European vernacular languages in order to popularise new medical knowledge was a comprehensive programme, designed on the one hand by intellectual, political and religious elites who urged the improvement of the fatherland and (...) the promotion of the common good by perfecting the arts and sciences. On the other hand, the imperial administration’s initiatives affected local forms of medical knowledge and the construction of vernacular languages. In the eighteenth century, the construction of vernacular languages in the Habsburg Monarchy took on a significant political character. However, in the process of building of the scientific and medical vocabulary, the main preoccupation was precision, clarity and accessibility of the neologisms being invented to encompass the medical phenomena being described. In spite of political conflicts among the ‘nations’ living in Transylvania, physicians borrowed words from German, Hungarian and Romanian. Thus they elevated several words used in everyday language to the upper social stratum of language use, leading to the invention of new terms to describe particular medical practices or phenomena. (shrink)

The article explores the challenges of ensuring voluntary and informed consent which is obtained from potential research subjects in the north‐eastern part of Romania. This study is one of the first empirical papers of this nature in Romania. The study used a quantitative survey design using the adapted Quality of Informed Consent (QuIC) questionnaire. The target population consisted of 100 adult persons who voluntarily enrolled in clinical trials. The informed consent form must contain details regarding the potential risks and benefits, (...) the aim of the clinical trial, study design, confidentiality, insurance and contact details in case of additional questions. Our study confirmed that although all required information was included in the ICF, few clinical trial participants truly understood it. We also found that the most important predictive factor for a good subjective and objective understanding of the clinical trial was the level of education. Our study suggests that researchers should consider putting more effort in order to help clinical trials participants achieve a better understanding of the informed consent. In this way they will ensure that participants’ decision‐making is meaningful and that their interests are protected. (shrink)

Identity in our multicultural world is one of the major problems of contemporary man. There are not cultures totally isolated from the others. Social groups and individuals are directly and indirectly confronted with many problems. And the modern global society needs more than ever to take adequate decisions on different problems. The concept of value is the central category of philosophical axiology. Is the general course of civilizational changes able to influence the axiological systems of autonomous cultures, involving them in (...) the process of an inevitable inner change and to testify, in this manner, to its own cultural but not transcendental nature? This is one of the main questions of the present research. My article also will stress why is significant the role of philosophers in the dialogue dedicated to the contemporary role of values within our society. The philosopher’s role, besides all is to analyze a future and criticize worldview systems in order to achieve a future value synthesis. (shrink)

Speculations about Islam, Islamization and Fundamentalism proceed from the deficit of a serious historic study on the origin and activity of the Bulgarian Muslims (the Pomaks), which is due to both the politicization and ideologization of this theme through many centuries, and various national and chauvinistic interests. From the beginning of the 1890's and especially in the 1920’s and 1930's, the continuous campaign in the press encourages public opinion to differentiate religious affiliation from ethnic affiliation and to accept the Pomaks (...) as the part of the Bulgarian nation. In the 1960’s, there is a growing pressure to integrate the “Bulgarian Muslims” (the Pomaks) into the community of the ethnic Turks at the same time that the ethnic Turks use the privileges of communism,of which they were gradually deprived later. Twenty years after the change, the state continues to abdicate its responsibilities for this clearly Bulgarian compactmass of the population, whose mother tongue is Bulgarian. The state does not pay attention to the poor, to education, to the large unemployment rate, the lack of investments in these regions, the lack of infrastructure, the discovery of the adequate and transparent way of financing the religious education of these people, or to their need to participate actively in the processes of building civil society. (shrink)

This study addresses the issues of screen synthesis through which a certain type of message is suggested; in this case: the impact of films featuring violence, cruelty, and aggression, as well as the polysemantic nature of the screen message and the transformation in the receptions of adolescents between 13 and 18 years old. The focus is on the motives for choosing topics in the film industry that are related to the interpretations of aggression and crime, mainly among young people. The (...) emotional involvement of the viewer, especially during the period of physical and mental maturation, is a precarious process with unpredictable consequences and side effects. Playing with the audience, with their conscious perceptions and unconscious experiences, especially through attempts at manipulation, which are not missing, can prove to be a very dangerous territory. (shrink)

The surviving pictorial hagiographical cycles of St Panteleimon were executed in the period between the 10th and 15th centuries. The most elaborate one is on a vita icon, consisting of sixteen scenes, at the monastery of St Catherine, Mt. Sinai and is at the centre of this research. The painter used the Passion of St Panteleimon by Symeon Metaphrastes as a main textual source for its creation. In addition, we may presume that the iconography of the images was influenced by (...) other existing pictorial cycles of the life of the saint. Also, the selection of the images, included in the saint's cycle, reflects the devotional needs and wishes of the unknown donor. (shrink)

Directive of muse, as any authentic poet, Friedrich Schiller, author of an indelibly work, expressed himself in various styles: theatre, lyrical, ballad, and works of aesthetical. Thirsty of truth, exceeding rationality, he wrote for cotemporary saddles a lesson of civilization, inviting on each to enjoy from art and to live in consonance with the Geist world conscious that the aesthetical education is the road toward politics and a proper ethical corresponding with historic periods inwhich was enchain. Aesthetic expressions as "the (...) beautiful", "the sublime", transformed into ethical expressions, not in the aim of forming of a value scale, but more to express feelings and provoke answers, forming a new consciousness. (shrink)

Directive of muse, as any authentic poet, Friedrich Schiller, author of an indelibly work, expressed himself in various styles: theatre, lyrical, ballad, and works of aesthetical. Thirsty of truth, exceeding rationality, he wrote for cotemporary saddles a lesson of civilization, inviting on each to enjoy from art and to live in consonance with the Geist world conscious that the aesthetical education is the road toward politics and a proper ethical corresponding with historic periods inwhich was enchain. Aesthetic expressions as "the (...) beautiful", "the sublime", transformed into ethical expressions, not in the aim of forming of a value scale, but more to express feelings and provoke answers, forming a new consciousness. (shrink)

Although there is consensus that authentic leaders act according to their true values, we have no empirical evidence of what specific values authentic leaders have. While traditional leadership approaches place power at the core of leadership, authentic leadership scholars would argue that benevolence is the value that is central to effective authentic leadership. To date, the questions about whether and when authentic leaders with high power values promote or hurt followers’ performance have not been investigated. Ostensibly, authentic leaders with high (...) power values seem to represent the dark side of authentic leadership. In this paper, we develop a theoretical model and empirically investigate the role that leaders’ power values play in the functioning of authentic leadership. We also test the assumption that authentic leaders with high benevolence values promote followers’ performance. Based on our multilevel analyses of 477 employees in 72 teams, we found that authentic leaders with prominent power values could foster followers’ performance, only when followers’ perceived value congruence was low. Authentic leaders with high benevolence values, however, cultivated followers’ performance unconditionally, regardless of perceived value congruence levels. (shrink)

Multimedia technologies and ICT in organising e-portfolio for students An electronic portfolio, also known as an e-portfolio or digital portfolio, is a collection of electronic evidence assembled and managed by a user, usually on the Web. Such electronic evidence may include inputted text, electronic files such as Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF files, images, multimedia, Blog entries, and hyperlinks.One of the approaches, which can be used for improving the attractiveness of the e-portfolio is presented, and it is an implementation of (...) the multimedia technologies in it. In this case we are speaking about multimedia electronic portfolio. What makes them very different from the traditional portfolios is that they can include scanned or digital photos, video and sound clips, animations, recordings of the students, text, traditional writings and drawings.Two main groups of tools for creating multimedia e-portfolio are presented. (shrink)

To foster research integrity (RI), research institutions should develop a continuous RI education approach, addressing various target groups. To support institutions to achieve this, we developed RI education guidelines together with RI experts and research administrators, exploring similarities and differences in recommendations across target groups, as well as recommendations about RI education using approaches other than formal RI training. We used an iterative co-creative process. We conducted four half-day online co-creation workshops with 16 participants in total, which were informed by (...) the RI education evidence-base. In the first two workshops, participants generated ideas for guidelines’ content, focusing on different target groups and various approaches to RI education. Based on this content we developed first drafts of the guidelines. Participants in the third and fourth workshop refined those drafts. We next organized a working group which further prioritized, reorganized, and optimized the content of the guidelines. We developed four guidelines on RI education focusing on (a) bachelor, master and PhD students; (b) post-doctorate and senior researchers; (c) other RI stakeholders; as well as (d) continuous RI education. Across guidelines, we recommend mandatory RI training; follow-up refresher training; informal discussions about RI; appropriate rewards and incentives for active participation in RI education; and evaluation of RI educational events. Our work provides experience-based co-created guidance to research institutions on what to consider when developing a successful RI education strategy. Each guideline is offered as a distinct, publicly available tool in our toolbox (www.sops4ri.eu/toolbox) which institutions can access, adapt and implement to meet their institution-specific RI education needs.Trial registrationhttps://osf.io/zej5b. (shrink)

The volume draws attention to the unknown and unexplored areas, trends and ways of thinking under the communist regime. It demonstrates how various bodies of knowledge were produced, disseminated and used for a wide variety of purposes: from openly justifying dominant political views to framing oppositional and non-official discourses and practices.