COLLECTIVE SELF‐ORGANIZATION IN GENERAL BIOLOGY: GILLES DELEUZE,CHARLES S. PEIRCE,AND STUART KAUFFMAN

Stuart Kauffman's proposal in Investigations to ground a “general biology” in the laws of self‐organization governing systems of autonomous agents runs up against the methodological problem of how to integrate formal mathematical with semantic and semiotic approaches to the study of evolutionary development. Gilles Deleuze's concept of the virtual and C. S. Peirce's system of existential graphs provide a theoretical framework and practical art for answering this problem of method by modeling the creative event of collective self‐organization as both represented and practiced in the scientific community.     

A study of the psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory‐II,the Montgomery and Åsberg Depression Rating Scale,and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in a sample from a healthy population

The objective of this study is to evaluate internal consistency and psychometric properties of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Beck Depression inventory‐II (BDI‐II) and the Montgomery and Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) for screening for major depressive episode (MDE) in a selected sample from a healthy population. Participants answered the BDI‐II and the HADS questionnaires and were interviewed with MADRS. The Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)‐IV Axis I Disorders‐Clinician Version (SCID‐CV) was used to diagnose MDE. Current MDE was diagnosed in 20 (6%) of the 357 participants. All three scales including the depression sub‐scale for HADS had high area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (ROC) (AUC) (0.84–0.87), and internal consistency was also high for all scales (0.75–0.89). Optimal cut‐off for MDE was ≥ 12 for BDI‐II, MADRS ≥ 8, HADS total ≥ 9, and HADS‐D ≥ 4, which all resulted in sensitivities = 85% and specificities > 78%. Diagnostic accuracy was low on all depression scales (Cohen's kappa = 0.20–0.40). Reports of the properties of depression scales in a healthy population are limited. We found BDI‐II, HADS and MADRS to be acceptable as screening instruments for MDE in a selected sample from healthy population with recommend cut‐offs as mentioned above.     

Some Fundamentals of Integral Economics

There has been a growing interest in the integration of knowledge but few broad theoretical attempts in the field of economics. If integration is to be taken seriously, combining economic questions with the social and the natural sciences will not suffice. Psychology and the humanities will have to be incorporated, too. Inspired by the works of K. W. Kapp, C. G. Jung, and others, we develop a preliminary framework combining three key “integrative concepts”—(a) social metabolism, (b) the institutional structure, and (c) the inner world—within a perspective characterized by the interior/exterior distinction, evolution, openness, and the dialectics of potentials and actualizations. We argue that these three concepts help to integrate economics with the environment, the collective, and the self and spirituality. For each one of these integrated areas, we highlight some fundamental economic principles, namely (a) the implications of the differentiation of “natural resources,” (b) the signification of the distinction between property and possession, and (c) the need to take into account the unconscious and the individuation process in order to reach a realistic picture of the “economic actor” in search of existential fulfilment. Finally, we suggest sixteen economic propositions that could form a preliminary basis for an integral economics.     

腰-硬联合麻醉在高海拔高龄患者髋关节置换术中的应用

探讨腰-硬联合麻醉及全身麻醉用于高海拔高龄低氧患者行人工髋关节置换的临床优势。分析2010年1月～2013年11月来我院进行人工髋关节置换术的高龄（年龄＞69岁）低氧患者86例,其中全麻31例,腰-硬联合麻醉55例,记录麻醉后5min、15min、30min及术毕血压、心率,术中低血压发生率,术后转ICU比例等指标。与全麻相比,腰-硬联合麻醉组血流动力学稳定、术中低血压发生率降低（P＜0．05）、入住ICU几率显著降低（P＜0．05）。在高海拔高龄低氧患者行人工髋关节置换术中采用腰-硬联合麻醉可以使患者麻醉效果突出,血流动力学平稳,安全有效,比全麻更有临床应用优势。     

酮咯酸氨丁三醇复合丙泊酚-瑞芬太尼麻醉用于门诊宫腔镜检术的效果观察

观察和评价酮咯酸氨丁三醇复合丙泊酚一瑞芬太尼麻醉用于门诊宫腔镜检术的临床效果。选取无痛门诊宫腔镜检术患者60例,依据随机数字表法将患者随机分为瑞芬太尼组（R组）和酮咯酸氨丁三醇组（K组）。统计患者麻醉满意度、围术期心血管用药情况和术毕2h内不良反应发生情况。结果与K组相比,R组手术开始时（T1）、手术开始10min（T2）循环和呼吸抑制较明显（P〈0．05）,麻醉起效时间相对较长（P〈0．05）,术毕镇静效果较差（P〈0．01）,麻醉满意度较低（P〈0．01）,同时心血管用药次数增多（P〈0．05）。两组患者术后均未发生严重不良反应,但K组患者术后镇痛效果明显好于R组（P〈0．05）。酮咯酸氨丁三醇复合丙泊酚一瑞芬太尼麻醉应用于门诊无痛宫腔镜检术能够使患者呼吸循环更加平稳,提高麻醉满意度,减少围术期心血管用药次数和有效缓解术后疼痛的发生。     

The Institution of Philosophy: Escaping Disciplinary Capture

Philosophers view themselves as critical thinkers par excellence. But they have overlooked the institutional arrangements that govern their lives. The early twentieth‐century research university disciplined philosophers, placing them in departments, where they wrote for and were judged by their disciplinary (and now increasingly subdisciplinary) peers. Oddly, this change has been unremarked upon, or has been treated as simply part of the necessary professionalization of an academic field of research. The department has been tacitly assumed to be a neutral space from which thought germinates; it is not itself an object of reflection. We find no explorations of the effects that departmentalization might have on philosophical theorizing, or speculations about where else philosophers could be housed, or how, by being located elsewhere, they might develop alternative accounts of the world or have come up with new ways of philosophizing.     

Grain Size and Parameter Recovery with TIMSS and the General Diagnostic Model

The purpose of this study was to explore the degree of grain size of the attributes and the sample sizes that can support accurate parameter recovery with the General Diagnostic Model (GDM) for a large-scale international assessment. In this resampling study, bootstrap samples were obtained from the 2003 Grade 8 TIMSS in Mathematics at varying sample sizes from 500 to 4000 and grain sizes of the attributes from a unidimensional model to one with ten attributes. The results showed that the eight-attribute model was the one most consistently identified as best fitting. Parameter estimation for more than ten attributes and samples less than 500 failed. Furthermore, the precision of item parameter recovery decreased as the number of attributes measured by an item increased and sample size decreased. On the other hand, the distributions of latent classes were relatively stable across all models and sample sizes.     

Causal cognitive architecture 1: Integration of connectionist elements into a navigation-based framework

The brain-inspired Causal Cognitive Architecture 1 (CCA1) tightly integrates the sensory processing capabilities found in neural networks with many of the causal abilities found in human cognition. Causality emerges not from a central controlling stored program but directly from the architecture. Sensory input vectors are processed by robust association circuitry and then propagated to a navigational temporary map. Instinctive and learned objects and procedures are applied to the same temporary map, with a resultant navigation signal obtained. Navigation can similarly be for the physical world as well as for a landscape of higher cognitive concepts. There is good explainability for causal decisions. A simulation of the CCA1 controlling a search and rescue robot is presented with the goal of finding and rescuing a lost hiker within a grid world. A simulation of the CCA1 controlling a repair robot is presented that can predict the movement of a series of gears.     

Dynamic dominance persists during unsupported reaching

Previous studies examining lateralization of arm movements focused on supported movements in the horizontal plane, removing the effects of gravity. The authors hypothesized that interlimb differences in free reaching would be consistent with the differences shown during supported reaching. Kinematic and kinetic data were collected for the forearm and upper arm segments in a 3-direction reaching task. Results showed lateralization of coordination, reflected by initial movement direction and trajectory curvature. The nondominant arm showed increased initial direction errors, and path curvature associated with a timing deficit between elbow and shoulder peak torques. These coordination deficits did not disrupt final position accuracy. The authors conclude that nondominant arm coordination deficits are similar to those reported previously for horizontal plane movements.     

World Crisis and the Changing Policies of Peace and Patriotic Societies

Abstract

Emotional intelligence is an increasingly popular consulting tool. According to popular opinion and work-place testimonials, emotional intelligence increases performance and productivity; however, there has been a general lack of independent, systematic analysis substantiating that claim. The authors investigated whether emotional intelligence would account for increases in individual cognitive-based performance over and above the level attributable to traditional general intelligence. The authors measured emotional intelligence with the Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MEIS; J. D. Mayer, P. Salovey, & D. R. Caruso, 1997). As measured by the MEIS, overall emotional intelligence is a composite of the 3 distinct emotional reasoning abilities: perceiving, understanding, and regulating emotions (J. D. Mayer & P. Salovey, 1997). Although further psychometric analysis of the MEIS is warranted, the authors found that overall emotional intelligence, emotional perception, and emotional regulation uniquely explained individual cognitive-based performance over and beyond the level attributable to general intelligence.