Mini-football, a dynamic sport, demands a blend of motor skills and peak physical abilities such as acceleration, deceleration, jumping, and directional changes, often executed with high intensity. Many technical skills, including passing, dribbling, ball control, and shooting, are performed using only one foot, underscoring the importance of balance in player performance. Given its role in stabilizing movements and optimizing coordination, balance training is crucial for enhancing technical proficiency in mini-football. The present study aimed to enhance balance in senior mini-football players (...) through a 12-week experimental training program utilizing Blazepod technology. 20 senior mini-football players participated in an experimental intervention, where specific proprioceptive exercises targeting balance were integrated into training sessions twice per week. The study used the Y Balance Test to assess balance improvements in multiple movement directions. The results revealed a statistically significant improvement in balance performance across all test parameters. The most significant progress was observed in the forward direction for the right foot and the backward-right direction for the left foot. These findings not only validate the effectiveness of balance training using innovative technologies but also provide practical insights for coaches and practitioners in the field of sports training, inspiring them to adopt modern training methodologies to enhance the performance levels of mini-football players. (shrink)

In this landmark book, first published in English in 1958, renowned scholar of religion Mircea Eliade lays the groundwork for a Western understanding of Yoga.

In this article the authors analyse narratives of the ‘agents’ associated with book publishing in Latvia, instrumentalizing the Bourdieusian theoretical framework of habitus–capital–field in order to understand the particulars of power relationships in the national book publishing field. Based on the results of the narrative analysis, authors conclude that power relationships in book publishing in Latvia have historically shifted during periods when major social transformations have taken place in other fields of the social world and echoed in the publishing field (...) in the form of altered conditions. Depending on each agent’s position in the field, these changes have meant that values and meanings linked with the practice of publishing have either had to be adjusted or been significantly disruptive. (shrink)

Knowledge of the input-output characteristics of various neuronal types is a necessary first step toward an understanding of cellular events related to waking and sleep. In spite of the oversimplification involved, the dichotomy in terms of type I (long-axoned, output) neurons and type II (short-axoned, local) interneurons is helpful in functionally delineating the neuronal circuits involved in the genesis and epiphenomena of waking and sleep states. The possibility is envisaged that cortical interneurons, which are particularly related to higher neuronal activity (...) and have been found in previous experiments to be more active during sleep than during wakefulness, might be involved in complex integrative processes occurring during certain sleep stages. Electrophysiological criteria for the identification of output cells and interneurons are developed, with emphasis on various possibilities and difficulties involved in recognizing interneurons of the mammalian brain. The high-frequency repetitive activity of interneurons is discussed, together with various possibilities of error to be avoided when interpreting data from bursting cells. Data first show opposite changes in spontaneous and evoked discharges of identified output cells versus putative interneurons recorded from motor and parietal association cortical areas in behaving monkeys and cats during wakefulness (W) compared to sleep with synchronized EEG activity (S): significantly increased rates of spontaneous firing, enhanced antidromic or synaptic responsiveness, associated with shorter periods of inhibition in type I (pyramidal tract, cortico-thalamic and cortico-pontine) cells during W versus significantly decreased frequencies of spontaneous discharge and depression of synaptically elicited reponses of type II cells during W compared to S. These findings are partly explained on the basis of recent iontophoretic studies showing that acetylcholine, viewed as a synaptic transmitter of the arousal system, excites output-type neurons and inhibits high-frequency bursting cells. Comparing W and S to the deepest stage of sleep with desynchronized EEG activity (D) in type I and type II cells revealed that: (a) the increased firing rates of output cells in D, over those in W and S, is substantially due to a tonic excitation during this state, and rapid eye movements (REMs) only contribute to the further increase of discharge frequencies; (b) in contrast, the increased rates of discharge in interneurons during D is entirely ascribable to REM-related firing. On the basis of experiments reporting that increased duration of D has beneficial effects upon retention of information acquired during W, the suggestion is made that increased firing rates of association cortical interneurons during REM epochs of D sleep are an important factor in maintaining the soundness of a memory trace. (shrink)

In view of an enhancement of our implementation on the computer, we explore the possibility of an algorithmic optimization of the various proof-theoretic techniques employed by Kohlenbach for the synthesis of new effective uniform bounds out of established qualitative proofs in Numerical Functional Analysis. Concretely, we prove that the method of “colouring” some of the quantifiers as “non-computational” extends well to ε-arithmetization, elimination-of-extensionality and model-interpretation.

This is the first book on the provocative and innovative contributions to philosophy of language, metaphysics, the philosophy of mathematics, and logic made by Kit Fine, one of the world's foremost philosophers. Topics covered include meaning and representation, arbitrary objects, essence, ontological realism, and the metaphysics of modality.

In Reference without Referents, Mark Sainsbury aims to provide an account of reference that honours the common-sense view that sentences containing empty names like "Vulcan" and "Santa Claus" are entirely intelligible, and that many such sentences -"Vulcan doesn't exist", "Many children believe that Santa Claus will give them presents at Christmas", etc.- are literally true. Sainsbury's account endorses the Davidsonian program in the theory of meaning, and combines this with a commitment to Negative Free Logic, which holds that all simple (...) sentences containing empty names are false. In this critical review, we pose a number of problems for this account. In particular, we question the ability of Negative Free Logic to make appropriate sense of the truth of familiar sentences containing empty names, including negative existential claims like "Vulcan doesn't exist". /// En Reference without Referents, Mark Sainsbury se propone ofrecer una explicación de la referencia que respete la idea de sentido común de que las oraciones con nombres vacíos como "Vulcano" y "Santa Claus" son completamente inteligibles, y que muchas de oraciones de este tipo -"Vulcano no existe", "Muchos niños creen que Santa Claus les traerá regalos en Navidad", y demás- son literalmente verdaderas. La propuesta de Sainsbury se inscribe dentro del programa davidsoniano en teoría del significado, y combina éste con un compromiso con la Lógica Libre Negativa, según la cual todas las oraciones simples que contienen nombres vacíos son falsas. En este estudio crítico, presentamos varios problemas de esta explicación. En particular, ponemos en duda la habilidad de la Lógica Libre Negativa de entender de manera apropiada la verdad de oraciones conocidas que contienen nombres vacíos, incluidas negaciones de existencia como "Vulcano no existe". (shrink)

A myth relates a sacred story, that is to say, it recounts a primordial event that occurred at the beginning of time. But to tell a sacred story is equivalent to revealing a mystery, because the characters in a myth are not human beings. They are either gods or civilizing heroes, and therefore their gesta constitute mysteries: man would not know these tales if they were not revealed to him. Consequently, a myth is a story of what happened—what the gods (...) and supernatural beings did—at the beginning of time. “To recount” a myth is to proclaim what occurred then. Once “told,” in other words, once revealed, the myth becomes the apodictic truth: it establishes truth. “It is so because it is said to be so,” the Netsilik Eskimos declared in order to justify the validity of their sacred history and their religious traditions. The myth proclaims the advent of a new cosmic situation or narrates a primordial event, and so it is always the story of a “creation”; it tells how something has been effectuated, has begun to be. That is why the myth is interdependent with ontology; it deals solely with realities, with what really happened, with what was clearly manifest. (shrink)

Hölder’s review of Robert Graßmann’s Theory of Number provides the first statement of Hölder’s most significant tenets concerning the distinction between the genetic and axiomatic presentation of mathematics, the mature expression of which is found in Hölder’s book The Mathematical Method of 1924. By translating Hölder’s review into English, I hope to make this unique document known to a wider public. In my introductory note I provide some context to Hölder’s paper and a few other remarks concerning the translation work.

In this paper I provide a brief reconstruction of Otto Hölder’s conception of proof. My reconstruction focuses on Hölder’s critical assessment of David Hilbert’s account of axiomatics in general, and of Hilbert’s conception of metamathematics in particular. I argue that Hölder’s analysis of Hilbert’s general methodological ideas and, more importantly, Hölder’s analysis of the logical structure of the proofs provided by Hilbert in his Grundlagen der Geometrie of 1899 are helpful in reaching a clearer understanding of van der Waerden’s claim (...) linking Hölder’s conception of proof to the tradition established by Kurt Gödel. (shrink)

A collective volume in memoriam Mihail Radu Solcan.

People dedicate significant attention to others’ facial expressions and to deciphering their meaning. Hence, knowing whether such expressions are genuine or deliberate is important. Early research proposed that authenticity could be discerned based on reliable facial muscle activations unique to genuine emotional experiences that are impossible to produce voluntarily. With an increasing body of research, such claims may no longer hold up to empirical scrutiny. In this article, expression authenticity is considered within the context of senders’ ability to produce convincing (...) facial displays that resemble genuine affect and human decoders’ judgments of expression authenticity. This includes a discussion of spontaneous vs. posed expressions, as well as appearance- vs. elicitation-based approaches for defining emotion recognition accuracy. We further expand on the functional role of facial displays as neurophysiological states and communicative signals, thereby drawing upon theencoding-decodingandaffect-inductionperspectives of emotion expressions. Theoretical and methodological issues are addressed with the aim to instigate greater conceptual and operational clarity in future investigations of expression authenticity. (shrink)

Explaining phenomenal consciousness may be the scientific and philosophical problem of our time, the last frontier of knowledge. This is not at all an easy task. For any serious attempt at finding a place for consciousness within the natural world was not successful so far. There is a conceptual tension here which makes this business of coming up with a unified (monist) explanation of mind and physical world one of the most intriguing mystery. The most predominant image of the natural (...) world is one of a physicalist type, whereas the mind, and especially the conscious subjective experience seem not to fit well within that physicalistexplanation. That explanatory failure may require a dualist metaphysical scheme (probably of a neo-Cartesian type). It may seem very well that we are caught in a dilemma, for we either embrace a physicalist explanation, but then it seems that we leave out consciousness from the big picture we are looking for, or else we face the huge task of conceiving a dramatic change of our scientific outlook about the natural world, and we don’t quite see how that would be possible or desirable. But then, should any attempt at understanding consciusness be a dead-end, something doomed to fail from a theoretical and explanatory point of view? In my paper I explore some philosophical underpinnings of contemporary dualism, focussing on the modal facets of the conceivability (neo-Cartesian) arguments. I will asses both the prospects and the moot points of this type of arguments. Of particular interest is the role that two-dimensional semantics plays in nowadays discussions of this topic. (shrink)

I. Dimensiunea românească a existenței -- II. Chipuri spirituale. Prolegomene sociologice.

" "Each of these essays contains insights which will be fruitful and challenging for professional students of religion, but at the same time they all retain the kind of cultural relevance and clarity of style which makes them accessible to ...