Applying value relevance analysis to a sample of European banks, we test the following: (i) the direct effects of the sustainability report on stock price; (ii) whether the report modifies the value relevance of financial accounting variables (indirect effects); and (iii) whether the value relevance of sustainability reports varies across countries. Results show that investors appreciate the additional and complementary disclosure provided by the sustainability report and that this disclosure produces a positive effect on stock prices. Estimates of the indirect (...) effects demonstrate that it has a negative influence on book value per share, whereas the effect on earnings per share is not significant. Cross-country analysis shows that the value relevance of the sustainability report varies across European countries, consistent with the hypothesis that the value relevance of the sustainability report is likely to be influenced by different institutional contexts. (shrink)

In light of developments within the field of media theory, a certain consensus has evolved in favour of approaches like mediatization and mediation. While these approaches above all focus on societal change from a media-dependent point of view, this article addresses the reverse side of these processes, asking about media users' appropriation of media in order to experience sociality that has only just been enabled by media-use. This awareness of medial terms and conditions is characterized as recipients' acknowledgment as well (...) as utilization of medial constraints, which is subsequently referred to as mediality. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Demosthenes, Aristoteles und Pausanias berichten von dem Dikasterion in Phreatto, zu dem ein außer Landes gegangener Athener auf einem Boot heranfährt, dieses unmittelbar an der Küste festmacht und sich dann in einem Prozess verteidigt. Er betritt zu keinem Zeitpunkt athenischen Boden, sondern bleibt auf dem Boot und vernimmt dort das Urteil, ob er vorsätzlich getötet hat oder nicht. Diese Verhandlungsform zwischen Land und Meer kann – so aufwendig und eigentümlich sie auch anmutet – durchaus historisch sein, ist aber nur (...) zu begreifen, wenn man von Drakons Gesetz über die Tötung ausgeht. Der Gesetzgeber hat 621/620 v. Chr. den Vollzug der Blutrache unter die Kontrolle der athenischen Gemeinschaft gestellt und damit einen wichtigen Schritt zur Eindämmung von Konflikten in der Polis geleistet. Das Verfahren in Phreatto ist im Kontext dieser Verordnung zu betrachten. (shrink)

School physical education has the potential to contribute to public-health promotion and well-being, but oftentimes students' lack of motivation toward PE or physical activity in general, especially during adolescence, diminishes, or eradicates the positive effects associated with PE. Therefore, practical approaches are required that help teachers to increase or awake students intrinsic motivation toward PE, for which self-determination theory may provide the conceptual framework. In that regard, the purpose of the present study was to examine whether the use of real-time, (...) heart rate feedback during regular PE lessons has the potential to increase students' autonomous motivation and physical effort. To achieve this, we had forty healthy adolescents between 16 and 17 years of age run for 30 min either with or without real-time, individualized heart rate feedback during a regular PE class and compared physical and perceived exertion as well as joy of running between the two groups. Participants were randomly assigned to the groups. Our data revealed that participants in the EG enjoyed running more than participants in the CG despite a higher physical and perceived exertion. That means, running with real-time, individualized heart rate feedback apparently increased participants' motivation to run and to enjoy running at higher levels of exertion. In that regard, real-time, individualized activity feedback should be implemented in regular PE classes systematically and repeatedly to create a controllable and attainable situation that allows students to actively adjust their own behavior to achieve appealing and realistic goals. (shrink)

This volume deals with the rapports among the extant Greek commentaries on Aristotle's _Metaphysics_: Alexander of Aphrodisias, Syrianus, Asclepius, Ps. Alexander. It traces the precise map of these texts and provides a starting point for any future research in the field.

Concetta Pennuto, « Pulsations du corps en médecine », Histoire, médecine et santé, 11, été 2017, p. 55-76. Cet article propose une illustration de la manière dont la musique a fourni, par le biais de ses harmonies et son langage, un outil aux médecins pour comprendre et maîtriser les pulsations du coeur. Après une courte exploration de l'acte de prendre le pouls dans l'Antiquité et au Moyen Âge, l'étude présente des exemples de médecins modernes qui utilisent non seulement les (...) moyens de l'harmonie - Médecine – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Résumé Au cours de son histoire, la Commission Léonine a élaboré une méthode ecdotique de plus en plus complexe et raffinée. L’’édition de saint Thomas constitue, en effet, dans son ensemble, un cas unique dans l’histoire de la philologie moderne, car chaque étape a comporté l’acquisition de notions fondamentales pour tout éditeur de textes anciens et médiévaux. L’analyse minutieuse de chaque volume montre, contre toute idée reçue, que des principes de critique textuelle tout à fait corrects sont déjà à l’œuvre (...) dans les premières éditions (1882-1886) et que, dans la polémique qui opposa, à propos de l’’édition de la I a Pars, Cl. Baeumker et les éditeurs de la Léonine, ce sont ces derniers qui défendent le point de vue philologiquement le plus rigoureux. La découverte du phénomène de la pecia à l’occasion de l’’édition du Supplementum (1906) marque un tournant décisif dans l’’élaboration de la technique d’édition en donnant naissance à la philologie des textes universitaires, qui, portée à sa perfection dans les derniers volumes, constitue un des résultats les plus importants dans l’histoire de la philologie. (shrink)

Résumé L’œuvre philologique du Père Louis Jacques Bataillon (1914-2009) a profondément marqué les études médiévales en général et la philologie en particulier. L’élaboration de notions-clefs telles que celle d’original, la grande variété de traditions textuelles étudiées, la maîtrise hors pair des techniques d’édition élaborées dans le cadre de l’Édition Léonine de Saint Thomas d’Aquin, ainsi que la connaissance exceptionnelle des fonds manuscrits les plus importants d’Europe, font de l’œuvre du Père Bataillon une référence incontournable pour tout philologue.

El artículo expone en detalle el texto agustiniano de conf. 12,37 y explica cómo el obispo ha hablado aparentemente acerca del Génesis: en realidad, ha disertado sobre su obra y ha indicado lo que puede ser de provecho para el lector, desarrollando con amplitud una fuente clásica, un pasaje de Cicerón (Top. 33).

A partir de los paralelismos lexemáticos entre conf. 5, 15 y la 'Eneida', el artículo estudia los paralelismos semánticos y semióticos entre ambos textos, para señalar como uno de los hipotextos de conf. 5, 15 el de los libros IV-VI de la 'Eneida' virgiliana.

The semantical structures called T x W frames were introduced in (Thomason, 1984) for the Ockhamist temporal-modal language, $[Unrepresented Character]_{o}$ , which consists of the usual propositional language augmented with the Priorean operators P and F and with a possibility operator ◇. However, these structures are also suitable for interpreting an extended language, $[Unrepresented Character]_{so}$ , containing a further possibility operator $\lozenge^{s}$ which expresses synchronism among possibly incompatible histories and which can thus be thought of as a cross-history 'simultaneity' operator. (...) In the present paper we provide an infinite set of axioms in $[Unrepresented Character]_{so}$ , which is shown to be strongly complete for T x W-validity. Von Kutschera (1997) contains a finite axiomatization of T x W-validity which however makes use of the Gabbay Irreflexivity Rule (Gabbay, 1981). In order to avoid using this rule, the proof presented here develops a new technique to deal with reflexive maximal consistent sets in Henkin-style constructions. (shrink)

The λ-continuum of inductive methods was derived from an assumption, called λ-condition, which says that the probability of finding an individual having property $x_{j}$ depends only on the number of observed individuals having property $x_{j}$ and on the total number of observed individuals. So, according to that assumption, all individuals with properties which are different from $x_{j}$ have equal weight with respect to that probability and, in particular, it does not matter whether any individual was observed having some property similar (...) to $x_{j}$ (the most complete proof of this result is presented in Carnap, 1980). The problem thus remained open to find some general condition, weaker than the λ-condition, which would allow for the derivation of probability functions which might be sensitive to similarity. Carnap himself suggested a weakening of the λ-condition which might allow for similarity sensitive probability functions (Carnap, 1980, p. 45) but he did not find the family of probability functions derivable from that principle. The aim of this paper is to present the family of probability functions derivable from Carnap's suggestion and to show how it is derived. In Section 1 the general problem of analogy by similarity in inductive logic is presented, Section 2 outlines the notation and the conceptual background involved in the proof, Section 3 gives the proof, Section 4 discusses Carnap's principle and the result, Section 5 is a brief review of the solutions which have previously been proposed. (shrink)

In March 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that humanity was entering a global pandemic phase. This unforeseen situation caught everyone unprepared and had a major impact on several professional categories that found themselves facing important ethical dilemmas. The article revolves around the category of biomedical and clinical engineers, which were among those most involved in dealing with and finding solutions to the pandemic. In hindsight, the major issues brought to the attention of biomedical engineers have raised important ethical (...) implications, such as the allocation of resources, the responsibilities of science and the inadequacy and non-universality of the norms and regulations on biomedical devices and personal protective equipment. These issues, analyzed one year after the first wave of the pandemic, come together in the appeal for responsibility for thought, action and, sometimes, even silence. This highlights the importance of interdisciplinarity and the definitive collapse of the Cartesian fragmentation of knowledge, calling for the creation of more fora, where this kind of discussions can be promoted. (shrink)

BackgroundData processing of health research databases often requires a Data Protection Impact Assessment to evaluate the severity of the risk and the appropriateness of measures taken to comply with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation. We aimed to define and apply a comprehensive method for the evaluation of privacy, data governance and ethics among research networks involved in the EU Project Bridge Health.MethodsComputerised survey among associated partners of main EU Consortia, using a targeted instrument designed by the principal investigator (...) and progressively refined in collaboration with an international advisory panel. Descriptive measures using the percentage of adoption of privacy, data governance and ethical principles as main endpoints were used for the analysis and interpretation of the results.ResultsA total of 15 centres provided relevant information on the processing of sensitive data from 10 European countries. Major areas of concern were noted for: data linkage, access and accuracy of personal data and anonymisation procedures. A high variability was noted in the application of privacy principles.ConclusionsA comprehensive methodology of Privacy and Ethics Impact and Performance Assessment was successfully applied at international level. The method can help implementing the GDPR and expanding the scope of Data Protection Impact Assessment, so that the public benefit of the secondary use of health data could be well balanced with the respect of personal privacy. (shrink)

David Brady argues that low European poverty rates are a result of the welfare state. His finding relies on a relative measure of poverty, according to which the threshold for being poor differs across countries. Using the American poverty threshold as a fixed measure, though, Western Europe has a poverty rate of 18 percent, higher than that of the United States. Moreover, Brady's thesis that welfare-state spending explains cross-country differences in inequality does not take account of the problem of reverse (...) causality. Historically, welfare states developed in homogeneous nations that started out with higher levels of social capital and lower inequality. Scandinavia, for example, had unusually low poverty rates a century ago, and even today Americans with Scandinavian ancestry exhibit a poverty rate no higher than that in Scandinavia. Since poverty, social capital, population homogeneity, and the size of the welfare state relate in multiple ways to each other, we cannot rely on cross-country correlations to isolate the causal effect of the welfare state on poverty rates. (shrink)

The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals’ psychosocial functioning was widely attested during the last year. However, the extent to which individual differences are associated with adaptive and maladaptive outcomes during quarantine in Italy remains largely unexplored. Using a person-oriented approach, the present study explored the association of personality profiles, based on three broad individual dispositions and two self-efficacy beliefs in the emotional area, with adaptive and maladaptive outcomes during the first Italian lockdown. In doing so, we focused (...) also on how different age groups differently faced the pandemic. The study was conducted through an online survey from May to June 2020 and included 1341 participants living in Italy, divided into two groups: 737 young adults aged 18–35 and 604 adults aged 36–60 years old. Latent Profile Analysis identified three personality profiles: resilient, vulnerable, and moderate. A subsequent path analysis model showed that the resilient profile was positively associated with prosocial behavior as an indicator of adaptive outcome, and negatively associated with three maladaptive outcomes: interpersonal aggression, depressive symptoms, and anxiety problems. Contrarily, the vulnerable profile resulted negatively associated with prosocial behavior and positively associated with the three maladaptive outcomes. Finally, regarding age group differences, young adults belonging to the vulnerable profile showed a greater association especially with interpersonal aggression, depression, and anxiety problems, as compared to adults belonging to the same profile. Overall, the results of the present study highlighted the importance to analyze individual functioning during an isolation period by using a person-oriented approach. Findings evidenced the existence of three different profiles and subsequent path analysis revealed, especially for the vulnerable profile and young adults, a greater maladaptive consequence of the quarantine. The practical implications will be discussed. (shrink)

In this thesis I defend and pursue that line about the foundations of probability theory which has come to be known as "the logicist view about probability", and, in particular, the shape which it took in Carnap's Inductive Logic. ;Most philosophers who now deal with probability theory claim that Carnap's program of Inductive Logic has failed. The main aim of my thesis is to show that this judgment is based on a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature and the aim of (...) inductive logic. To that end, I follow, in chapter 1, the events in the history of probability, logic and mathematics which led to choosing certain requirements as the requirements which any theory about the foundations of probability must fulfill in order to be acceptable. ;In chapter 2 I explain how Carnap's inductive logic fulfills those requirements and how the method it uses to give foundations to probability theory can also be used to solve another major problem about probability, namely, the problem of statistical inference. ;Chapter 3 shows how the ideas explained in chapter 2 were developed, formally, by Carnap, and how Carnap's program can be continued in a particular case, that of reasoning by analogy. ;Finally, in chapter 4, I attempt to show that subjectivism about probability theory, the rival theory to Carnap's logicism, does not succeed in meeting the most basic requirement for the acceptability of any theory about the foundations of probability. (shrink)

ObjectiveTo assess the impact of the closure of group-based cardiac rehabilitation training during the first COVID-19 lockdown in spring 2020 on patients’ physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness, and cardiovascular risk, and to describe the patient experience of lockdown and home-based exercise training during lockdown.DesignMixed methods study. Prospectively collected post-lockdown measurements were compared to pre-lockdown medical record data. Quantitative measurements were supplemented with qualitative interviews about the patient experience during lockdown.SettingOutpatient CR centre in Salzburg, Austria.ParticipantsTwenty-seven patients [six female, mean age 69 years] (...) who attended weekly CR training sessions until the first COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020.Outcome MeasureQuantitative: exercise capacity, cardiovascular risk. Qualitative: individual semi-structured interviews.ResultsExercise capacity had significantly reduced from pre- to post-lockdown: mean power in maximal ergometry 165 vs. 151, p < 0.001; submaximal ergometer training 99 vs. 97, p = 0.038. There was no significant difference in Framingham risk score and other cardiovascular risk factors. Qualitative data showed that almost all patients had kept physically active during lockdown, but 17 said they had been unable to maintain their exercise levels, and 15 felt their cardiorespiratory fitness had deteriorated. Many patients missed the weekly CR training and the motivation and sense of community from training together with others. Several patients stated that without professional supervision they had felt less confident to carry out home-based exercise training at high intensity.ConclusionThis study highlights the importance of group-based supervised exercise training for patients who engage well in such a setting, and the detrimental impact of disruption to this type of CR service on physical activity levels and exercise capacity. Additionally, learning from the COVID-19 pandemic may inform the development and implementation of remote CR modalities going forward. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungVerbundmodelle von Schule und Spitzensport wie die NRW-Sportschule sind als Netzwerke mit vielfältigen Akteuren und Erwartungen zu beobachten, in denen programmatische Zielvorstellungen in die Gestaltung und Durchführung von Maßnahmen und die Arbeit diverser Organisationen und Personen übertragen werden sollen. Die Herausforderung für eine zielgerichtete Steuerung des Netzwerks liegt deshalb in der Koordination des Handelns einzelner Personen und der Entwicklung systemischen Wissens sowie der Ermöglichung des Lernens des Netzwerks. Der Beitrag präzisiert das Problem der Steuerung im Verbund aus der Perspektive von (...) Netzwerktheorie und Wissensmanagement. Empirische Erkenntnisse aus der Evaluation der NRW-Sportschule dienen als Anwendungsbeispiele der Bearbeitung dieser Herausforderung. Zugleich ist die Evaluation selbst als Steuerungsversuch des Netzwerks kritisch einzuordnen. (shrink)

Control of the population diversity in genetic algorithms applied to the protein structure prediction problem. Genetic Algorithms (GAs), a successful approach for optimization problems, usually fail when employed in the standard configuration in the protein structure prediction problem, since the solution space is very large and the population converges before a reasonable percentage of the possible solutions is explored. Thus, this work investigates the effect of increasing the diversity of the population on this problem by using Hypermutation and Random Immigrants, (...) two traditional population diversity control schemes, in the structure prediction of the proteins Crambin (PDB 1CRN), Met-Enkephalin (PDB 1PLW), and DNA-Ligand (PDB 1ENH). Results show a significant reduction of the minimal energy found, thanks to the diversity, but this does not necessarily means a higher similarity to the original structure.(Portuguese). (English) Copyright of Scientia is the property of Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (shrink)