Background: The intrauterine hearing experience differs from the extrauterine hearing exposure within a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) setting. Also, the listening experience of a neonate drastically differs from that of an adult. Several studies have documented that the sound level within a NICU exceeds the recommended threshold by far, possibly related to hearing loss thereafter. The aim of this study was, firstly, to precisely define the dynamics of sounds within an incubator and, secondly, to give clinicians and caregivers an (...) idea about what can be heard “inside the box.” Methods: Audio recordings within an incubator were conducted at the Pediatric Simulation Center of the Medical University Vienna. They contained recorded music, speech and synthesized sounds. To understand the dynamics of sounds around and within the incubator the following stimuli were used: broadband noise with decreasing sound level in ten steps of 6 dB, sine waves (62.5, 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000 and 16000 Hz), logarithmic sweep (Chirp) over the frequency band 20 Hz to 21 kHz, singing male voice, singing and whispering female voice. Results: Our results confirm a protective effect of the incubator from noises above 500 Hz in conditions of “no-flow” and show almost no protective effect of an incubator cover. We, furthermore, observed a strong boost of low frequencies below 125 Hz within the incubator, as well as a notable increase of higher frequency noises with open access doors, a significant resonant effect of the incubator, and a considerable masking effect of the respiratory support against any other source of noise or sound stimulation even for “low-flow” conditions. Conclusion: Our study reveals high noise levels of air supply at high flow rates and the boost of low frequencies within the incubator. Education of medical staff and family members as well as modifications of the physical environment should aim at reducing noise exposure of preterm infants in the incubator. Audiovisual material is provided as supplementary material. (shrink)

The development of the various themes of Catholic Social Teaching is based on numerous papal documents and ecclesiastical statements. While this paper provides a summary of a number of these documents, this paper focuses on two themes: the common good and care of the environment, and on three documents authored by Pope John Paul II in 1990, by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010, and by Pope Francis in 2015. By analyzing these documents from an engineer’s perspective, the author proposes a (...) model for Socially Responsible Engineering. The proposed model is intended to serve as a guide for engineering students and practicing engineers of all faith traditions and to those with no faith tradition at all who wish to incorporate CST in the daily conduct of their personal and professional lives; to provide guidance for the professional the author terms the aspiring Socially Responsible Engineer; and to offer engineers a preferred alternative to the undesirable aspects of the technocratic paradigm. While intended primarily for engineers, this document also serves as a guide for those with expertise in social justice and who, by gaining a better understanding of the thought processes of engineers, can become better mentors for engineering students and practicing engineers seeking to incorporate CST into their daily lives. (shrink)

Giordano Bruno's notorious public death in 1600, at the hands of the Inquisition in Rome, marked the transition from Renaissance philosophy to the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. In his philosophical works he addressed such delicate issues as the role of Christ as mediator and the distinction, in human beings, between soul and matter. This volume presents new translations of Cause, Principle and Unity, in which he challenges Aristotelian accounts of causality and spells out the implications of Copernicanism (...) for a new theory of an infinite universe, and of two essays on magic, On Magic and A General Account of Bonding, in which he interprets earlier theories about magical events in the light of the unusual powers of natural phenomena. (shrink)

Habermas proposes a new solution to the problematic relation between republican values and democracy. He asserts that a new model of social cohesion is needed and he suggests that the sense of community in a democratic society should be founded exclusively on the acceptance and support of a system of constitutionally established rules which are the logical result of the historical evolution of constitution-making. He argues that an account of the constitutional process which led to the formation of the modern (...) republican state should provide the criteria for a rational set of norms which will exclude nationalism from the political arena. In this article, I point out the democratic hazards and the internal incoherence of Habermass alternative to the national state and I argue that a theoretical substitute should consider the existence of national identities as one of the aspects of modern pluralistic society. (shrink)

In questo articolo si descrivono e discutono le caratteristiche principali della lingua quechua relative alla distinzione tra ‘maschio’ e ‘femmina’. La prima parte del testo indica il modo in cui il quechua codifica questa distinzione attraverso il lessico, ponendo l’attenzione sui termini di parentela; la seconda parte mostra i sostantivi, aggettivi e verbi indicanti persone, comportamenti e abitudini considerati come tipicamente femminili o maschili. Sia la prima parte che la seconda sono vòlte a evidenziare alcuni fattori di tipo socio-culturale associati (...) alla distinzione linguistica tra genere femminile e maschile. (shrink)

This volume presents a collection of essays on objectivity in legal discourse. Has law a distinctive type of objectivity? Is there one specific type of legal objectivity or many, depending on the observatory language utilized? Is objectivity fit for law? The analyses in the various contributions show that the Cartesian paradigm of objectivity is not relevant to the current legal discourse, and new forms of legal objectivity are revealed instead. Each essay, in its distinctive way, analyses the strong commitment of (...) law to objectivity, shedding light on the controversies that surround it. (shrink)

This volume provides a unique overview of methodologies that are conducive to a successful legal transplant in East Asia and Oceania. Each chapter is drafted by a scholar who holds direct professional experience on the legal transplant considered and has a distinctive insight into the pragmatic difficulties related to grafting an alien institution into a legal tradition. The range of transplants includes the implementation of contractual obligations, the regulation of commercial investments and the protection of the environment. The majority of (...) recent legal reforms in these geographical areas have aimed at improving national economic performance and fostering trade and have been directly inspired by European and North American institutional experiences. There is also, however, a tendency to couple economic reforms, aimed at attracting foreign investment, with constitutional reforms that improve the protection of individual rights, the environment and the rule of law. (shrink)

The concept of judicial objectivity is a cornerstone of modern legal systems. This article discusses the interplay between the lexical uses of the concept of judicial objectivity in cases that review the judicial impartiality of the court. The data for this project is retrieved from a large sample of cases from Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the UK. The analysis of the data shows that in the case of alleged judicial bias, the concept of objectivity is referred to (...) in order to justify a series of judicial activities. In particular, the study provides a strong indication of what Legrand called ‘pre-judices’, which are the cultural aspects that are embedded in the process of the professional socialisation of each legal system. (shrink)

The book examines the life and the writings of Gabriele Biondo, a secular priest who lived in the little town of Modigliana between the second half of the fifteenth century and the first decades of the sixteenth century. Through a careful examination of his writings and the sources he used, this book allows the reader to obtain a more precise understanding of Biondo, his background, his life, his movements, the difficulties that he encountered (mainly with the ecclesiastical authorities and the (...) other members of the clergy, but also with civic leaders), and the main events of his life. Additionally, Biondo was the leader of a minor following formed by nuns, secular women, and laymen. Therefore, this book illustrates Biondo’s pastoral activity, the ideas and principles that supported his actions, and the objectives he was pursuing. Given these various objectives, this book is of interest to those scholars and academics interested in the religious tensions that swept through Europe in the years immediately preceding the Protestant Reformation and who, consequently, seek to investigate Biondo’s personal and complex answer to these tensions. (shrink)

The rise of the idea of the Anthropocene is promoting multiple reflections on its meaning. As we consider entering this new geological epoch, we realize the pervasiveness of humankind’s deconstruction and reconstruction of the Earth, in both geophysical and discursive terms. As the body of the Earth is marked and reshaped, so is its idea. From a hostile territory to be subjugated and exploited through sovereign commands, the Earth is now reframed as a vulnerable domain in need of protection. The (...) mode of sovereignty, which has accompanied human and legal history and practice during modernity and its project of mastery, is no longer useful. Humanity’s control of the Earth is being reimagined and reconfigured along biopolitical coordinates of thought and action. Biopolitics shifts the focus of power, changes its modalities of interventions, and rearticulates its legitimacy on the idea of taking responsibility for the Earth, for nature. A biopolitical re-orientation of law captures the fundamental aim of caring for nature, of fostering its vital possibilities and of enhancing its productive potential. Yet, biopolitics engulfs nature in its entirety under its framework of control, where protection and subjugation, vulnerability and productivity, life and death are constantly entangled in a reciprocal and inevitable relation of indistinguishability. Sovereignty becomes thus a key modality of biopolitical intervention, when nature is recalcitrant, wild, spontaneous, unpredictable, violent, dangerous. Biopolitics, thus, remains caught in an undecidable dilemma, where in order to protect the Earth, it must subjugate it; to save it, it must condemn it. In this respect, biopolitics remains utterly modern, or as argued by Roberto Esposito, modernity has always been biopolitical, insofar as modernity has emerged as a framework for the protection of life against life’s own excesses. But how can we escape the biopolitical reframing and enframing of the Earth and its total subsumption under its matrix of control? How can we rethink the encounter between law and nature without remaining entangled in the aporetic dilemma of biopolitics? An aesthetics of wonder may offer a way. (shrink)

Vito Tanzi offers a truly comprehensive treatment of the economic role of the state in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries from a historical and world perspective. The book addresses the fundamental question of what governments should do, or have attempted to do, in economic activities in past and recent periods. It also speculates on what they are likely or may be forced to do in future years. The investigation assembles a large set of statistical information that should prove useful (...) to policy-makers and scholars in the perennial discussion of government's optimal economic roles. It will become an essential reference work on the analytical borders between the market and the state, and on what a reasonable 'exit strategy' from the current fiscal crises should be. (shrink)

2Public space is an old habit. The words public space are deceptive; when I hear the words, when I say the words, I’m forced to have an image of a physical place I can point to and be in. I should be thinking only of a condition; but, instead, I imagine an architectural type, and I think of a piazza, or a town square, or a city commons. Public space, I assume, without thinking about it, is a place where the (...) public gathers. The public gathers in two kinds of spaces. The first is a space that is public, a place where the public gathers because it has a right to the place; the second is a space that is made public, a place where the public gathers precisely because it doesn’t have the right—a place made public by force.3In the space that is public, the public whose space this is has agreed to be a public; these are people “in the form of the city,” they are public when they act “in the name of the city.” They “own” the city only in quotes. The establishment of certain space in the city as “public” is a reminder, a warning, that the rest of the city isn’t public. New York doesn’t belong to us, and neither does Paris, and neither does Des Moines. Setting up a public space means setting aside a public space. Public space is a place in the middle of the city but isolated from the city. Public space is the piazza, an open space separated from the closure of alleys and dead ends; public space is the piazza, a space in the light, away from the plots and conspiracies in dark smokey rooms. Vit Acconci’s latest show, entitled “Public Places,” was held in 1988 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He is currently at work on a park in Detroit, a pedestrian mall in Baltimore, and a housing project in Regensburg, Germany. (shrink)

"Teaching after all is about knowing children well" -- from A Letter to Teachers "Perrone has given us a gift, a book worth reading over many times, an important reflection on his many years of close observation of schools and school people, parents, teachers, children, and their communities." -- Deborah W. Meier, principal, Central Park East Secondary School Simple, elegant and full of common sense, these reflections on the art of teaching address the deepest concerns teachers have for their work (...) with children and young people. (shrink)

We investigated the contributions of familiarity of setting, self-relevance and self-projection in time to episodic future thinking. The role of familiarity of setting was assessed, in Experiment 1, by comparing episodic future thoughts to autobiographical future events supposed to occur in unfamiliar settings. The role of self-relevance was assessed, in Experiment 2, by comparing episodic future thoughts to future events involving familiar others. The role of self-projection in time was assessed, in both Experiments, by comparing episodic future thoughts to autobiographical (...) events that were not temporal in nature. Results indicated that episodic future thoughts were more clearly represented than autobiographical future events occurring in unfamiliar setting and future events involving familiar others. Our results also revealed that episodic future thoughts were indistinguishable from autobiographical atemporal events with respect to both subjective and objective detail ratings. These results suggest that future and atemporal events are mentally represented in a similar way. (shrink)

L’articolo mette in luce due paradossi, il primo dei quali è dato dal fatto che proprio in quelle terre dove si affermò la radicale impostazione anti-umanistica del protestantesimo ebbe a scaturire una straordinaria fioritura dell’umano fino alla consacrazione della libertà come principio della ricerca scientifica e del vivere civile. Il secondo paradosso è dato dalla manifestazione in quelle stesse terre meno di un secolo fa dell’ideologia nazista. La tesi sostenuta è che il principio protestante di fatto affermatosi nella coscienza europea (...) consiste non tanto nella teoria teologica della giustificazione (sola Gratia, sola Fide, sola Scriptura) quanto nella affermazione filosofica e politica della libera coscienza personale, il cui evento decisivo fu la dichiarazione di Lutero alla Dieta di Worms. Ma proprio il carattere abissale della libertà e il destino di interpretazione infinita cui la consegnò Lutero sono anche all’origine di quel disagio della coscienza e dell’esistenza da cui sorse il malessere che portò al totalitarismo.Nel sostenere la tesi enunciata l’articolo si struttura secondo quattro movimenti: 1) argomentazione sul carattere radicalmente anti-umanistico del protestantesimo; 2) argomentazione sui notevoli effetti umanistici storicamente prodotti dalla Riforma protestante; 3) argomentazione sulle possibili connessioni tra il terreno preparato dalla Riforma nella società tedesca e il sorgere in essa dell’ideologia nazionalsocialista; 4) considerazioni finali sulla dialettica della libertà umana. (shrink)