Objectives: Neuroplastic changes that drive recovery of shoulder/elbow function after stroke have been poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between neuroplastic brain changes related to shoulder/elbow movement control in response to treatment and recovery of arm motor function in chronic stroke survivors.Methods: Twenty-three chronic stroke survivors were treated with 12 weeks of arm rehabilitation. Outcome measures included functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) for the shoulder/elbow components of reach and a skilled motor function test (Arm (...) Motor Abilities Test, AMAT), collected before and after treatment.Results: We observed two patterns of neuroplastic changes that were associated with gains in motor function: decreased or increased task-related brain activation. Those with significantly better motor function at baseline exhibited a decrease in brain activation in response to treatment, evident in the ipsilesional primary motor and contralesional supplementary motor regions; in contrast, those with greater baseline motor impairment, exhibited increased brain activation in response to treatment. There was a linear relationship between greater functional gain (AMAT) and increased activation in bilateral primary motor, contralesional primary and secondary sensory regions, and contralesional lateral premotor area, after adjusting for baseline AMAT, age, and time since stroke.Conclusions: Recovery of functional reach involves recruitment of several contralesional and bilateral primary motor regions. In response to intensive therapy, the direction of functional brain change (i.e., increase or decrease in task-related brain recruitment) for shoulder/elbow reach components depends on baseline level of motor function and may represent either different phases of recovery or different patterns of neuroplasticity that drive functional recovery. (shrink)

This article considers how networked large urban screens can act as a platform for the creation of an experimental transnational public sphere. It takes as a case study a specific Australia-Korea cultural event that linked large screens in Federation Square, Melbourne, and Tomorrow City, Incheon, 1 through the presentation of SMS-based interactive media art works. The article combines theoretical analyses of global citizenship, mobility, digital technologies, and networked public space with empirical analyses of audience response research data collected during the (...) screen event. The central argument is that large public screens can offer a strategic site for examining transformations in the constitution of public agency in a digitized, globalized environment. The idea of ‘aesthetic cosmopolitanism’ is finally proposed as a conceptual framework for understanding how new forms of transnational public agency in mediated public spaces might operate. (shrink)

This mixed-methods study examined Grade 4 students’ growth in two types of civic competencies—argumentation skills and disciplinary thinking, and how civic competencies interweave and co-develop over an academic year in the context of an interdisciplinary social studies curriculum called Digital Civic Learning (DCL). A total of 106 fourth-grade students (38.7% girls) and 6 social studies teachers participated in the study. Quantitative evidence indicates that students in the DCL curriculum significantly improved in their argumentation skills (argument-counterargument integration, claim-evidence integration) and disciplinary (...) thinking. These civic competencies became more strongly associated with each other by the end of the curriculum. Multiple case studies revealed how two students synergistically applied their evolving argumentation skills and disciplinary thinking through distinct learning pathways. These results paint a complex picture of the development of students’ disciplinary thinking and integrating of argumentation skills, and the role of the curriculum in fostering the concurrent development of these civic competencies. Findings align with our overarching assumption that, through collaborative discourse and immersive learning about complex social issues, students can leverage their disciplinary thinking during argumentative social interactions, grappling with solutions and seeking common ground; continuous discourse among peers further enhances argumentation skills while honing disciplinary thinking. This study bridges the research-practice gap by providing evidence for the co-development of argumentation and disciplinary thinking within social studies classrooms. Our findings underscore the importance of inquiry-based learning, aligning with the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework, fostering critical civic competencies, and empowering students to actively participate in democratic processes. Particularly in this digitalized society, DCL emerges as a promising approach to integrate disciplinary thinking and argumentation skills across both physical and digital environments, fostering informed and active citizenship among students. (shrink)

In this paper I identify two problematic strands of Wilber's transpersonal theory. Firstly, I question Wilber's claim that his spectrum model is supported by the materials of all the world's major mystical traditions, arguing that his integral, hierarchical perspective privileges some traditions, while distorting others. Drawing heavily upon Andrew Rawlins on's recent, taxonomic study of mystical traditions, which identifies four authentic routes to spiritual emancipation (Cool Structured, Cool Unstructured, Hot Structured and Hot Unstructured), I argue that while Wilber's model, itself (...) Cool (the source of spiritual liberation hes within oneself) and Structured (developmental, hierarchical), provides a valuable cartography of transpersonal structures and states of consciousness, h cannot adequately handle the materials of the alternative, soteriological paths of Hot traditions (emphasising the numinous, and as other than oneself) and Unstructured traditions (affirming that there can be no gradual, or progressive, spiritual development at ah). Secondly, and more cursorily, in the light of this discussion, I argue that it is Wilber's Cool Structured perspective that informs his judgement that Jung is an elevationist. I demonstrate that Jung's psychic model of the conjunction of opposhes is a Hot Structured one, which provides an alternative, soteriological path for people whose spiritual needs are very different from those addressed by Wilber. (shrink)

Written three years before his death, The Undiscovered Self combines acuity with concision in masterly fashion and is Jung at his very best. Offering clear and crisp insights into some of his major theories, such as the duality of human nature, the unconscious, human instinct and spirituality, Jung warns against the threats of totalitarianism and political and social propaganda to the free-thinking individual. As timely now as when it was first written, Jung's vision is a salutary reminder (...) of why we should not become passive members of the herd. With a new foreword by Sonu Shamdasani. (shrink)

A great deal of research has now established that written texts embody interactions between writers and readers. A range of linguistic features have been identified as contributing to the writer's projection of a stance to the material referenced by the text, and, to a lesser extent, the strategies employed to presuppose the active role of an addressee. As yet, however, there is no overall typology of the resources writers employ to express their positions and connect with readers. Based on an (...) analysis of 240 published research articles from eight disciplines and insider informant interviews, I attempt to address this gap and consolidate much of my earlier work to offer a framework for analysing the linguistic resources of intersubjective positioning. Attending to both stance and engagement, the model provides a comprehensive and integrated way of examining the means by which interaction is achieved in academic argument and how the discoursal preferences of disciplinary communities construct both writers and readers. (shrink)

In terms of image processing, encryption plays the main role in the field of image transmission. Using one algorithm of deep learning, such as neural network backpropagation, increases the performance of encryption by learning the parameters and weights derived from the image itself. The use of more than one layer in the neural network improves the performance of the algorithm. Also, in the process of image encryption, randomness is an important component, especially when used by smart learning methods. Deep neural (...) networks are related to pixels used to manipulate position and value according to the predicted new value given from a variable neural system. It also includes messy encrypted images used via applying randomness and increasing the key space in addition to using the logistic and Henon map for complexity. The main goal of any encryption method is to increase the complexity of the encrypted image to be difficult or impossible to decrypt the image without the proposed key. One of the important measurements for image encryption is the histogram and how it can be uniformed by the proposed method. Variables of randomness are used as features for the deep learning system, with feedback during iteration. An ideal image processing encryption yields high messy images by keeping the quality. Experimental results showed the backpropagation algorithm achieved better results than other algorithms. (shrink)

I argue that Descartes' Second Causal Proof of God in the Third Meditation evidences, and commits him to, the belief that time is "strongly discontinuous" -- that is, that there is actually a gap between each consecutive moment of time. Much of my article attempts to reconcile this interpretation, the "received view," with Descartes' statements about time, space, and matter in his other writings, including his correspondence with various philosophers.

Morten Frederiksen explores Carl Gustav Jung's elusive notion of synchronicity from a transrational perspective and relates synchronicity to the transpersonality of the "All-One". This is done by expanding the content and meaning of Wolfgang Dietrich's layers of Elicitive Conflict Mapping (ECM) through re-relating them to Ken Wilber's model of the structures of consciousness; with synchronicity as the literal connecting principle. The result, then, is an expanded notion of the transrational peace philosophy which includes Wilber's model of stages shorn of (...) its evolutionary slant and fathoms synchronicity in its theoretical outlook and practical application. Contents A Transrational Approach to Peace Studies through processing the Topic of Synchronicity Jungian Psychology and his Concept of Synchronicity Transrational Peace Philosophy and Consciousness Development Seven different Structures of Consciousness Consequences of Synchronicity for a transrational-oriented Peace Philosophy and Practice Target Groups Lecturers and Students of Psychology, Peace Students and Conflict Transformation Researchers Practitioners in the Field of Elicitive Conflict Transformation About the Author Morten Frederiksen is a Peace Researcher from the MA Program in Peace, Security, Development and International Conflict Transformation at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and Coordinator of the Danish Development Aid Agency "U-landsforeningen Svalerne". (shrink)

Over the last 25 years, there has been a concerted effort to settle questions about multiple realization by bringing detailed scientific evidence to bear. Ken Aizawa and Carl Gillett have pursued this scientific approach to multiple realization with a precise theory and applications. This paper reviews the application of the Dimensioned approach to human color vision, addressing objections that have appeared in the literature.

This essay links Barthes’ late development on the Neutral in his 1978 Collège de France lecture course to his early reflections on the ‘white’ or ‘neutral’ writing by looking at lesser-known materials: articles published in the sanatorial student journal Existences (1942–4), and in the newspaper Combat (1947–51), as well as how these pieces were integrated into his first book, Writing Degree Zero (1953). I show that Barthes’ first approaches to the ‘neutral’, under the spell of Sartre’s theory of committed literature, (...) both ‘consents’ to the idea of the political responsibility of literature and rejects it, creating a third, crosswise notion of writing that prefigures the recalcitrant force of the Neutral. By exploring the complexities of these early pieces, I argue that some of the unsolved issues will reappear in the Collège de France lecture course, notably the figure of ‘aporia’, and I discuss the ethical implications of this ‘impossibility’. (shrink)

At workplaces where nanomaterials are produced or used, risk assessment and risk management are extremely difficult tasks since there is still limited evidence about the risks of nanomaterials. Measurement methods for nanoparticles are contested and safety standards have not yet been developed properly. To support compliance with the legal obligation of the employer to care for safe workplaces a large number of ‘soft’ regulatory tools have been proposed (e.g. codes of conduct, benchmarks, standards). However, it is not clear whether and (...) under which conditions soft regulation is complied with. This article discusses the potential advantages and drawbacks of soft regulation. It explores compliance issues when exposure measurement devices and other technology-related factors are involved. The exploration of three examples of soft regulation on occupational health and safety (a ministerial recommendation on preliminary exposure benchmarks, a nano-specific guidance of a chemical company and a public–private OHS guideline) shows that the capacity of the regulated parties to comply depends on the availability of appropriate technological devices and methods, technical expertise and other resources. When technological prerequisites are met, compliance is likely to increase. (shrink)

The target article by Henrich et al. describes some economic experiments carried out in fifteen small-scale societies. The results are broadly supportive of an approach to understanding social norms that is commonplace among game theorists. It is therefore perverse that the rhetorical part of the paper should be devoted largely to claiming that “economic man” is an experimental failure that needs to be replaced by an alternative paradigm. This brief commentary contests the paper's caricature of economic theory, and offers a (...) small sample of the enormous volume of experimental data that would need to be overturned before “economic man” could be junked. (shrink)

Phosphatidylinositol 4,5‐bisphosphate (PI4,5P2) is a key lipid signaling molecule that regulates a vast array of biological activities. PI4,5P2 can act directly as a messenger or can be utilized as a precursor to generate other messengers: inositol trisphosphate, diacylglycerol, or phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5‐trisphosphate. PI4,5P2 interacts with hundreds of different effector proteins. The enormous diversity of PI4,5P2 effector proteins and the spatio‐temporal control of PI4,5P2 generation allow PI4,5P2 signaling to control a broad spectrum of cellular functions. PI4,5P2 is synthesized by phosphatidylinositol phosphate kinases (...) (PIPKs). The array of PIPKs in cells enables their targeting to specific subcellular compartments through interactions with targeting factors that are often PI4,5P2 effectors. These interactions are a mechanism to define spatial and temporal PI4,5P2 synthesis and the specificity of PI4,5P2 signaling. In turn, the regulation of PI4,5P2 effectors at specific cellular compartments has implications for understanding how PI4,5P2 controls cellular processes and its role in diseases. (shrink)

Some critics nowadays are calling for the development of a transracial or “color-blind” society. They claim that the current focus on multiculturalism is causing undue social conflict. In general, these critics want to promote an absolute culture that provides a universal standard for assimilation. The problem with this approach to maintaining social order is that diversity is undermined, along with key elements of democracy. What is needed, instead, is an image of society that does not require unquestioned assimilation in order (...) to insure solidarity. In this way, the democratization of culture can be promoted. (shrink)

Residential rent control is a contentious issue in many jurisdictions throughout the world. While tenant groups have often argued vociferously in defence of control, landlord groups and the vast majority of economists have been equally vehement in their criticisms. This paper examines some key normative issues involved in rent control. In particular I examine arguments in favor of control based on the alleged unfairness of winfall profits, upon affordability, and finally on the creation of rights to security of tenure. Various (...) objections by libertarian and free market philosophers and economists are examined. I conclude with a somewhat limited defense of rent control as used in specific situations as part of a more comprehensive policy to satisfy the normative demands at the root of tenant pressure for rent control. (shrink)

The present topic, I must admit, has a forbidding aura of tension and invites a controversy which is philosophical, political, and even personal. The comparison between Martin Heidegger and Leo Strauss is a sensitive issue. In the early 1960s, while I was searching for an alternative to political behavioralism as a viable approach to the study of politics, I was impressed with the argument advanced by Strauss on the importance of ethical issues in political inquiry. Sometime later in 1961, I (...) was attending a seminar, given by the late John Wild at Northwestern University, which was devoted to the careful reading and explication of Heidegger’s Sein und Zeit. Wild was the American philosopher who met Edmund Husserl in 1931, studied with Heidegger at the University of Freiburg, came to the defense of Plato against Karl Popper, and was one of those who were primarily instrumental for propagating phenomenology on the American scene. It took me only a short while to realize that particularly in its critique of both intellectualism and empiricism, phenomenology is a paradigmatic force in political inquiry. In the following pages I shall discuss in broad strokes four main issues: Heidegger’s involvement with German National Socialism in relation to his philosophy ; Strauss’s critique of positivism which may be corroborated with phenomenological insights ; his critique of Heidegger’s ontology as historicism ; and the deconstruction of technology as an example of Heidegger’s seminal and epochal contribution to modern thought. (shrink)

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG In der bisherigen Hegel-Literatur wird Schlegel zumeist als Hegels Antipode behandelt. Im Gegensatz dazu richtet sich mein Interesse in der vorliegenden Arbeit darauf, zu zeigen, dass Hegels Darstellung der Komödie In der „Phänomenologie des Geistes“ unter dem Einfluss von Schlegels Texten über die Komödie entstanden sein könnte. Um dies belegen zu können, werden zunächst die literaturgeschichtliche Bedeutung von Schlegels Aufsatz über Aristophanes aus dem Jahr 1974 und der Ruf gezeigt, den er in der damaligen intellektuellen Öffentlichkeit erlangte. Daraufhin soll (...) dargelegt werden, inwieweit es strukturelle Überschneidungen zwischen Hegels und Schlegels Darstellungen der Komödie gibt. Im Zentrum der Argumentation steht aber, dass beide Autoren die Parabase als das zentrale Element der Darstellung verwenden. Im letzten Teil der Arbeit wird aber versucht zu zeigen, dass Hegel über Schlegel hinausgeht, sofern die Komödie in Hegels System das Potenzial darstellt, über die Art und Weise der Vorstellung hinaus zum absoluten Wissen zu gelangen. ABSTRACT In the previous Hegel literature, Schlegel is mostly treated as Hegel’s antipode. In contrast to this, my interest in the present work is directed towards showing that Hegel’s presentation of comedy in the „Phenomenology of the Spirit“ may have developed under the influence of Schlegel’s texts on comedy. In order to be able to prove this, the significance of Schlegel’s essay on Aristophanes from 1974 and the reputation he gained in the intellectual public of the time are shown first. It will then be shown to what extent there are structural overlaps between Hegel’s and Schlegel’s presentations of comedy. At the center of the argument, however, is the fact that both authors use the parabasis as the central element of the presentation. In the last part of the work, the attempt is made to show that Hegel goes beyond Schlegel, insofar as the comedy in Hegel’s system displays the potential to reach absolute knowledge beyond the way of representation. (shrink)

Should defaming the name of God be of concern even for those who do not have faith in Him? With Gregory Reichberg and Farzad Mahootian.

How should we think about the beginnings and endings of humans' biological lives? Is an ethical system based on natural law the only way to safeguard the value of individual human life? Does holding a secular perspective on the boundaries of human life necessarily leave one on a slippery slope? With Peter Caws and Sr. Regina Geiger.

Should all digital communication be accessible to government inspection? Is robust cryptography in the hands of the public a threat to our national security? With Dorothy Denning and Patrick Sullivan.

Has some of the fruit of feminism begun to rot on the vine? Or is the work of feminist philosophy just beginning? Are we still in thrall to pervasive sexist assumptions at the roots of our thinking and our language? With Marjorie Jolles, Ellen Klein, and Helen Mitchell.

Can the use of terror as a political weapon ever be justified? What are the political implications of the struggle to define the concept of "terrorism"? Was the attack on the USS Cole a terrorist act? What role do the intentions of the terrorist and the state of mind of the victims play? Does the modern concept of the nation-state necessarily require the radical devaluation of the use of terror for political ends? With Robert Rafalko, Philip Devine, and Scott Hibbard.

Is political discourse an impotent spectator to the ongoing exercise of political power? Can we ever resolve the tensions between the political values of liberty and equality? With Drew Arrowood, Lawrence Hatab, and James Sterba.

Who gets to use force and when? How are we supposed to justify the use of violence in achieving political goals and establishing and maintaining political communities and structures? With Anthony Ellis , David Garren , and Scott Hibbard.