Exhaled breath analysis in evaluation of psychological stress: A short literature review

Physiological stress is pervasive in today's society. Its detection is normally performed through several unobtrusive methods, driving both caregivers and patients to take measures to reduce the burden of this condition on human health. Among the methods for assessing stress, exhaled breath analysis represents a non‐invasive, real‐time alternative to classic laboratory tests. Therefore, a literature review was performed to assess the presence of altered parameters, related to psychological stress, in exhaled breath. Most studies in our review measured nitric oxide (NO), whose concentration was often correlated, either positively or negatively, with psychological stress, with reasonable scientific support. Other compounds (isoprene, terpene and so on) were rarely studied and with mixed evidence. Further investigations are needed to elucidate the involvement and the pathophysiological role of NO in stress, possibly including a greater number of individuals, as sample size actually represents the main limitation of the work published to date.     

Hippocampal sharp wave bursts coincide with neocortical "up-state" transitions

The sleeping neocortex shows nested oscillatory activity in different frequency ranges, characterized by fluctuations between "up-states" and "down-states." High-density neuronal ensemble recordings in rats now reveal the interaction between synchronized activity in the hippocampus and neocortex: Electroencephalographic sharp waves in the hippocampus were more probable during down-states than during up-states, and tended to coincide with transitions from down-states to up-states. The form of cortical activity fluctuations and their interactions with sharp waves depend on sleep depth: In deeper sleep stages, characterized by strong neocortical oscillation in the delta range or slower (approximately 0.8-4 Hz), sharp-wave-triggered peri-event time histograms (PETH) are consistent with a longer duration for down-states than for up-states. In lighter sleep, the sharp-wave-triggered PETH suggested longer up-states than down-states. These results highlight the interplay in the hippocampal/neocortical loop: Decreased neocortical input during down-states may be a factor in generation of sharp waves. In turn, sharp waves may facilitate down-to-up transitions. This interplay may reflect joint memory trace reactivation in the hippocampus and in the neocortex, possibly contributing to consolidation of long-term memory: Off-line reactivation of recent neural activity patterns in the hippocampus occurs during 50-100-msec electroencephalographic sharp waves, corresponding to pyramidal-cell population bursts. The neocortical up-states starting in correspondence with sharp waves may be influenced by the reactivated information carried by the hippocampal sharp wave.     

Quine and Slater on Paraconsistency and Deviance

In a famous and controversial paper, B. H. Slater has argued against the possibility of paraconsistent logics. Our reply is centred on the distinction between two aspects of the meaning of a logical constant ^*c^* in a given logic: its operational meaning, given by the operational rules for ^*c^* in a cut-free sequent calculus for the logic at issue, and its global meaning, specified by the sequents containing ^*c^* which can be proved in the same calculus. Subsequently, we use the same strategy to counter Quine's meaning variance argument against deviant logics. In a nutshell, we claim that genuine rivalry between (similar) logics ^*L^* and ^*L^* is possible whenever each constant in ^*L^* has the same operational meaning as its counterpart in ^*L^* although differences in global meaning arise in at least one case.     

The explanatory objection to the fitting attitude analysis of value

Philosophical Studies - The fitting attitude analysis of value states that for objects to have value is for them to be the fitting targets of attitudes. Good objects are the fitting targets of...     

Signs and demonstration in Aristotle

In this paper, I explore the contrast drawn by Aristotle in two parallel passages of the Posterior Analytics (I.6, 75a28–37 and II.17, 99a1–4) between ‘signs’ and ‘demonstration’. I argue that while at APo. I.6 Aristotle contrasts demonstration proper with a deductively valid sign-syllogism (the tekmērion of APr. II.27), at APo. II.17 the contrast is rather between a demonstration proper and a deductively invalid sign-syllogism (the sēmeion in the strict sense of APr. II.27).     

Forgiveness and religious practice: a study on a sample of Italian preadolescents

Abstract

In this study we examined the gender differences in self-reported forgiving behaviours in a sample of Italian preadolescents (aged 11 to 14 years), who were either involved or not involved in religious practises. Were asked 289 Catholic, Italian preadolescent students were asked about their involvement in the religious practises. They also completed measures of forgiveness, avoidance and revenge motivations. The results showed that forgiveness was negatively correlated to avoidance and revenge, as expected, given that these constructs represent two different forms of non-forgiveness. Avoidance and revenge motivations were positively inter-correlated, highlighting how these forms of non-forgiveness are two distinct, but related pathways, leading away from forgiveness. Regarding age, younger participants reported higher degrees of forgiveness than their older counterparts. Lastly, regarding the association between involvement in one’s faith and gender as predictors of forgiving behaviours, only girls actively practising their faith emerged as significantly more forgiving than the other participants.     

Risk preference and choice stochasticity during decisions for other people

In several contexts, such as finance and politics, people make choices that are relevant for others but irrelevant for oneself. Focusing on decision-making under risk, we compared monetary choices made for one’s own interest with choices made on behalf of an anonymous individual. Consistent with the previous literature, other-interest choices were characterized by an increased gambling propensity. We also investigated choice stochasticity, which captures how much decisions vary in similar conditions. An aspect related to choice stochasticity is how much decisions are tuned to the option values, and we found that this was higher during self-interest than during other-interest choices. This effect was observed only in individuals who reported a motivation to distribute rewards unequally, suggesting that it may (at least partially) depend on a motivation to make accurate decisions for others. Our results indicate that, during decision-making under risk, choices for other people are characterized by a decreased tuning to the values of the options, in addition to enhanced risk seeking.     

Experiencing Musical Improvisation: The Body,the Mind,and the Senses

In the following article, I will try to describe and, thus, share with my readers those moments and those segments in my life that have allowed me to be involved in the experience of musical improvisation, which is comprised of the gestures, ideas, and emotions that, together, encompass the musical objects of improvisation, and the desire, the pleasure of sharing these objects in their shaping and creation.     

Freedom of Expression,Laïcité and Islam in France: The Tension between Two Different (Universal) Perspectives

ABSTRACT

In France, freedom of expression is perceived as a sort of liberté matricielle, a matrix of other fundamental freedoms. As such, it is reflected in many constitutional provisions, including those referring to religion. In addition, the practical exercise of freedom of expression remains strictly linked with the principle of laïcité, which is part of the institutional, legal and intellectual history of the French Republic and has even become the basis of its founding “values.” All this, however, also implies an accentuation of individual freedom of expression, which normally takes precedence over the protection of religions, sometimes justifying caricature of divinities, rules, rites and symbols. The legal cases related to the right to satirical expression are examples of this. The article underlines the role of freedom of expression in the light of the principle of laïcité, which normally rejects the communitarian dimension of religious rights, which may explain some important aspects of, on the one hand, the evolution of legislation regarding both hate speech and blasphemy within French liberal constitutionalism and, on the other, the relationship between freedom of expression and the secular state. This approach offers a possibility of better evaluating existing French law in relation to some religious nomoi groups, specifically, Islamic organizations. These issues are particularly analysed from two perspectives: the right to criticize or challenge religions and the right to satirize. This analysis makes it possible to identify the legal limits of freedom of expression before and after the 2015 Charlie Hebdo tragedy and highlights the difficulties faced by the so-called laïcité à la française in dealing with today's multicultural societies. The need emerges for a proper balance to be struck between religious diversity and protection of human rights – not only the rights of groups to be different, but also the rights of persons within these groups, which also involves the efforts of religious denominations to articulate their claims in order to make them more compatible with constitutional rights, including those referring to freedom of expression.     

On the edge of language acquisition: inherent constraints on encoding multisyllabic sequences in the neonate brain

To understand language, humans must encode information from rapid, sequential streams of syllables – tracking their order and organizing them into words, phrases, and sentences. We used Near‐Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) to determine whether human neonates are born with the capacity to track the positions of syllables in multisyllabic sequences. After familiarization with a six‐syllable sequence, the neonate brain responded to the change (as shown by an increase in oxy‐hemoglobin) when the two edge syllables switched positions but not when two middle syllables switched positions (Experiment 1), indicating that they encoded the syllables at the edges of sequences better than those in the middle. Moreover, when a 25 ms pause was inserted between the middle syllables as a segmentation cue, neonates’ brains were sensitive to the change (Experiment 2), indicating that subtle cues in speech can signal a boundary, with enhanced encoding of the syllables located at the edges of that boundary. These findings suggest that neonates’ brains can encode information from multisyllabic sequences and that this encoding is constrained. Moreover, subtle segmentation cues in a sequence of syllables provide a mechanism with which to accurately encode positional information from longer sequences. Tracking the order of syllables is necessary to understand language and our results suggest that the foundations for this encoding are present at birth.