Functional electrical stimulation (FES), a method for inducing muscle contraction, has been successfully used in gait rehabilitation for patients with deficits after neurological disorders and several clinical studies have found that it can improve gait function after stroke and spinal cord injury. However, FES gait training is not suitable for patients with walking difficulty, such as those with severe motor paralysis of the lower limbs. We have previously shown that action observation combined with motor imagery (AO + MI) of walking (...) induces walking-related cortical activity. Therefore, we combined FES, which alternately generates dorsiflexion and plantar flexion, with AO + MI as an alternative to gait training. The present study investigates the transient effects of 20-min of FES simultaneously with and without AO + MI of walking on corticospinal and spinal reflex excitability in able-bodied participants. We measured motor evoked potentials and Hoffmann-reflexes to assess corticospinal and spinal reflex excitability at rest before and after the 20-min FES with and without the AO + MI. Our results show that FES without AO + MI did not change excitability (p > 0.05), while FES with AO + MI facilitated corticospinal excitability (p < 0.05). This facilitation likely occurred due to the synchronization of sensory inputs from FES and cortical activity during AO + MI. Facilitation was observed only in the dorsiflexor but not the plantar flexor muscle (p < 0.05), suggesting muscle specificity of the facilitation. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of combining FES with AO + MI and pave the way for novel neurorehabilitation strategies for patients with neurological gait deficits. (shrink)

One of the central debates in the cognitive science of language has revolved around the nature of human linguistic competence. Whether syntactic competence should be characterized by abstract hierarchical structures or reduced to surface linear strings has been actively debated, but the nature of morphological competence has been insufficiently appreciated despite the parallel question in the cognitive science literature. In this paper, in order to investigate whether morphological competence should be characterized by abstract hierarchical structures, we conducted the crowdsourced acceptability (...) judgment experiment on morphologically complex words and evaluated five computational models of morphological competence against human acceptability judgments: Character Markov Models (Character), Syllable Markov Models (Syllable), Morpheme Markov Models (Morpheme), Hidden Markov Models (HMM), and Probabilistic Context-Free Grammars (PCFG). Our psycholinguistic experimentation and computational modeling demonstrated that "morphous" computational models with morpheme units outperformed "amorphous" computational models without morpheme units and, importantly, PCFG with hierarchical structures most accurately explained human acceptability judgments on several evaluation metrics, especially for morphologically complex words with nested morphological structures. Those results strongly suggest that human morphological competence should be characterized by abstract hierarchical structures internally generated by the grammar, not reduced to surface linear strings externally attested in large corpora. (shrink)

This paper examines the semantics and pragmatics of the Japanese causal connective mono. We show that the meaning of mono has three components: a causal relation, an emotive attitude toward the causing proposition, and an indication that the causal relation is of high quality. Further, we show that the latter two components are not at-issue content but expressive content. A formalization is provided in terms of the analysis of mixed content in McCready (2010). Finally, the proposal is briefly compared with (...) previous, informal, accounts of the meaning of mono. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is phe-nomenological interpretation of the various faces of divinity in the later Heidegger and elucidation of the human comportment corresponding to this divinity. In the first chapter, I will make clear the relation between ontological difference in the sense of the later Heidegger and the primordial dimension of divinity which is called the last god and the sacred. Further, the relation between such divinity and entity as a whole will be clarified. In the second chapter, (...) I will elucidate the place of the divinities in the manifestation of entity as a whole by considering the role of the godlikes in the fourfold. When the primordial alterity of the last god should be experienced in entity as whole, which leads to the notion of the godlikes, it must confront human subject in totally asymmetrical manner. Such asymmetrical communication can be structurally made explicit by taking the concept of “discourse” in Being and Time into account. Finally, I will consider the character of human comportment called preservation with focusing on its relation to the later Heidegger’s conceptions of divinity. This will shed light on how human beings could properly appreciate the experience of what is beyond our understanding and nevertheless supporting our existence.El objetivo de la ponencia es llevar a cabo una interpretación fenomenológica de las diversas facetas de la divinidad en el Hei-degger tardío y elucidar el comportamiento humano respecto de esta divinidad. En el primer capítulo, se esclarece la relación entre la diferencia ontológica en el sentido que le da el segundo Heidegger y la dimensión primordial de la divinidad, llamada el último dios y lo sagrado. A conti-nuación, se esclarecerá la relación entre la divinidad así concebida y lo ente en totalidad. En el segundo apar-tado, se elucidará el lugar de las divinidades en la manifestación de lo ente en totalidad considerando el papel de los divinos la Cuaternidad. Cuando la alteridad primordial del último dios se experimente en lo ente en totaliadd, lo cual conduce a la noción de los divinos, tiene que enfrentarse al sujeto humano de una forma totalmente asimétrica. Esta comunicación asimétrica puede explicitarse estructuralmente mediante la consideración del concepto del discurso en Ser y tiempo. Final-mente, consideraré el carácter del comportamiento humano denominado la preservación, con especial atención a su relación con la noción de lo divino en Heidegger tardío. Esto arrojará luz sobre cómo los seres humanos podrían apreciar de manera adecuada lo que está más allá de nuestra comprensión y sin embargo, sostiene nuestra existencia. (shrink)

This article considers social choice theory without the Pareto principle. We revisit the trade-off theorem developed by Campbell and Kelly (Econometrica 61:1355–1365, 1993) and generalize their result. By introducing an alternative measure of decisive structure, a dominance relation, we show that if a social welfare function dominates another social welfare function, then the number of pairs of alternatives which social ranking is independently of individual preferences under the former is not more than that under the latter. Moreover, we offer two (...) applications of our main result. (shrink)

As humans, we constantly change our movement strategies to adapt to changes in physical functions and the external environment. We have to walk very slowly in situations with a high risk of falling, such as walking on slippery ice, carrying an overflowing cup of water, or muscle weakness owing to aging or motor deficit. However, previous studies have shown that a normal gait pattern at low speeds results in reduced efficiency and stability in comparison with those at a normal speed. (...) Another possible strategy is to change the gait pattern from normal to step-to gait, in which the other foot is aligned with the first swing foot. However, the efficiency and stability of the step-to gait pattern at low speeds have not been investigated yet. Therefore, in this study, we compared the efficiency and stability of the normal and step-to gait patterns at intermediate, low, and very low speeds. Eleven healthy participants were asked to walk with a normal gait and step-to gait on a treadmill at five different speeds, ranging from very low to normal walking speed. The efficiency parameters and stability parameters were analyzed from the motion capture data and then compared for the two gait patterns. The results suggested that step-to gait had a more efficient gait pattern at very low speeds of 10–30 m/min, with a larger percent recovery, and was more stable at 10–60 m/min in comparison with a normal gait. However, the efficiency of the normal gait was better than that of the step-to gait pattern at 60 m/min. Therefore, step-to gait is effective in improving gait efficiency and stability when faced with situations that force us to walk slowly or hinder quick walking because of muscle weakness owing to aging or motor deficit along with a high risk of falling. (shrink)

"In the room the graduate students come and go, talking of Michel Foucault". Michael Shapiro presents an instructive critique of positivism in contemporary political science from the perspective of contemporary philosophy--including Husserl, Heidegger, several linguistic analysts, Habermas, and, principally, Michel Foucault, who in fact reviewed the manuscript. Shapiro describes his work as a "meta-politics," an inquiry into what makes phenomena political. He criticizes the social sciences for neglecting the extent to which language shapes thought. The regnant positivism "restricts the meaning (...) of statements to the relationship between the utterance and that which the utterance is about, thereby ignoring the context that is involved in constituting what an utterance is about and the relationship between the speaker and the utterance". On the contrary, "to speak is... to be caught in the flow of that activity rather than to create or initiate a wholly new activity". Language makes men. Shapiro reiterates this contention in critiques of the positivist understanding of various issues in social science, such as the fact-value distinction, motive and intention in human action, political science models, and the relationship between theory or knowledge and ideology. (shrink)

No one can fail to be impressed by Paul Rahe's magnificent contribution to the history of political theory. With almost eight hundred pages of text and over four hundred pages of notes and elaborate index, it is an indispensable reference for scholars concerned with classical political philosophy and its ramifications for the West, particularly in America. The volume's three books--"The Ancien Regime," "New Modes and Orders", and "Inventions of Prudence"--present reflective accounts of ancient republicanism, early modern political philosophers, and the (...) American novus ordo seclorum, respectively. A historian by training, Rahe displays an impressive command of the scholarship in both political philosophy and political history. It is a rare scholar who would not profit from this book. (shrink)

William M. Sullivan wishes to restore the themes of civic republicanism, responsibility, and human dignity to their high place in public life. The first two-thirds of the book makes familiar criticisms of selfish, individualistic liberalism in its political, philosophic, and psychological dimensions. The remainder presents the author's own alternatives. Surveying contemporary economic and social analysis, Sullivan maintains that "the present crisis of government is a general crisis of the liberal capitalist form of society". Due to its "contradictions" liberal capitalism can (...) no longer distribute goods as it has, and in any event it cannot foster human dignity. But the real problem is that liberalism, with its roots in Hobbes and Locke, emphasizes individual freedom while having merely instrumental notions of social relationships, value, and reason. The modern philosophic tradition, including such critics of the earlier moderns as Rousseau and Kant, by and large failed to provide the proper "moral ecology" which connects individual motivation with communal "social interactions." Now, John Rawls at least possesses a more appropriate moral ecology, as evidenced by his difference principle. But in the end even Rawls's admirable effort repeats liberalism's failing. Morality remains disjointed in Lawrence Kohlberg's structuralist psychology of moral reasoning. For him "Moral judgment is... a practical application of a decision procedure which can be stated in a formal principle". Kohlberg's levels and stages exhibit a nihilistic "failure of moral imagination" which invalidates his claim to have established true formal principles; for instance, his moral reasoning scale slights women. Contrary to all these variants of liberalism, Sullivan seeks a politics and morality based on a social human nature; hence he makes Dewey an honorable exception to his critique of liberalism, as the book's title indicates. (shrink)

This book's principal virtue is its attempt, in the first two-thirds of the text, to take seriously the speech of the Laws in the Crito, while disputing the "authoritarian" interpretation of it. In the remainder Kraut seeks to make the Crito consistent with the "early dialogues," concluding that Socrates is less hostile to democracy than much conventional scholarship makes him out to be.

ObjectiveNoisy galvanic vestibular stimulation (nGVS) is often used to improve postural stability in disorders, such as neurorehabilitation montage. For the safe use of nGVS, we investigated whether arterial pressure (AP) and heart rate vary during static supine and slow whole-body tilt with random nGVS (0.4 mA, 0.1–640 Hz, gaussian distribution) in a healthy elderly population.MethodsThis study was conducted with a double-blind, sham-controlled, cross-over design. Seventeen healthy older adults were recruited. They were asked to maintain a static supine position on a (...) bed for 10 min, and the bed was tilted up (TU) to 70 degrees within 30 s. After maintaining this position for 3 min, the bed was passively tilted down (TD) within 30 s. Real-nGVS or sham-nGVS was applied from 4 to 15 min. The time course of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and RR interval variability (RRIV) were analyzed to estimate the autonomic nervous activity.ResultnGVS and/or time, including pre-/post-event (nGVS-start, TU, and TD), had no impact on MAP and RRIV-related parameters. Further, there was no evidence supporting the argument that nGVS induces pain, vertigo/dizziness, and uncomfortable feeling.ConclusionnGVS may not affect the AP and RRIV during static position and whole-body tilting or cause pain, vertigo/dizziness, and discomfort in the elderly. (shrink)

BackgroundSocial cognitive impairments adversely affect social functioning in patients with schizophrenia. Although pharmacological interventions have been suggested to provide some benefits on social cognition, little information is available on the comparative efficacy of pharmacotherapy. Thus, the aim of this planned systematic review and network meta-analysis is to perform a quantitative comparison of the effects of various psychotropic drugs, including supplements, on social cognition disturbances of schizophrenia.MethodsThe literature search will be carried out using the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled (...) Trials, PsycINFO, ClinicalTrials.gov, and International Clinical Trials Registry Platform databases from inception onward. Randomized controlled trials that examined the efficacy of drugs in social cognitive disturbances will be included, based on the most recent studies and the broader literature than previously searched. This protocol defines a priori the methods that will be used for study selection, data collection, quality assessment, and statistical syntheses.DiscussionThe findings this work are expected to help promote the development of better therapeutics of social cognitive impairments in schizophrenia and related psychiatric conditions.Systematic Review Registration[www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero], identifier [CRD42021293224]. (shrink)

On April 5 2000, the Diet elected Yoshiro Mori as Japan's 55th prime minister. His predecessor, Keizo Obuchi, had suffered a stroke and became unable to carry out his official responsibility. Mori, who was the former Secretary General of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), inherited the three party coalition between the LDP, the new Komei Party and the Conservative Party, and reappointed all of Obuchi's cabinet members. Yohei Kono was reposted as the Minister of Foreign Affairs; Hideo Usui (...) as Justice; Kiichi Miyazawa as Finance; Hirofumi Nakasone as Education, Science and Technology; Yuya Niwa as Health and Welfare; Tokuichiro Tanazawa as Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; Takeshi Fukaya as International Trade and Industry; Toshihiro Nikai as Transport; Eita Yashiro as Posts and Telecommunications; Takamori Makino as Labor; Masaaki Nakayama as Construction; Kosuke Hori as Home Affairs, Mikio Aoki as Chief Cabinet Secretary; Kunihiro Tsuzuki as Management and Coordination; Tsutomu Kawara as Defense; Taichi Sakaiya as Economic Planning; Kayoko Shimizu as environment; and Sadakazu Tanigaki as Financial Reconstruction. (shrink)