We address the issue of whether, why and under what conditions, quarantine and isolation are morally justified, with a particular focus on measures implemented in the developing world. We argue that the benefits of quarantine and isolation justify some level of coercion or compulsion by the state, but that the state should be able to provide the strongest justification possible for implementing such measures. While a constrained form of consequentialism might provide a justification for such public health interventions, (...) we argue that a stronger justification is provided by a principle of State Enforced Easy Rescue: a state may permissibly compel individuals to engage in activities that entail a small cost to them but a large benefit to others, because individuals have a moral duty of easy rescue to engage in those activities. The principle of State Enforced Easy Rescue gives rise to an Obligation Enforcement Requirement: the state should create the conditions such that submitting to coercive or compulsive measures becomes a fundamental moral duty of individuals, i.e. a duty of easy rescue. When the state can create such conditions, it has the strongest justification possible for implementing coercive or compulsive measures, because individuals have a moral duty to temporarily relinquish the rights that such measures would infringe. Our argument has significant implications for how public health emergencies in the developing world should be tackled. Where isolation and quarantine measures are necessary, states or the international community have a moral obligation to provide certain benefits to those quarantined or isolated. (shrink)

If realism about possible worlds is to succeed in eliminating primitive modality, it must provide an 'analysis' of possible world: nonmodal criteria for demarcating one world from another. This David Lewis has done. Lewis holds, roughly, that worlds are maximal unified regions of logical space. So far, so good. But what Lewis means by 'unification' is too narrow, I think, in two different ways. First, for Lewis, all worlds are (almost) 'globally' unified: at any world, (almost) every part is directly (...) linked to (almost) every other part. I hold instead that some worlds are 'locally' unified: at some worlds, parts are directly linked only to "neighboring" parts. Second, for Lewis, each world is (analogically) 'spatio-temporally' unified; every world is 'spatio-temporally' isolated from every other. I hold instead: a world may be unified by nonspatio-temporal relations; every world is 'absolutely' isolated from every other. If I am right, Lewis's conception of logical space is impoverished: perfectly respectable worlds are missing. (shrink)

In his long and illuminating paper [1] Joe Barback defined and showed to be non-vacuous a class of infinite regressive isols he has termed “complete y torre” isols. These particular isols a enjoy a property that Barback has since labelled combinatoriality. In [2], he provides a list of properties characterizing the combinatoria isols. In Section 2 of our paper, we extend this list of characterizations to include the fact that an infinite regressive isol X is combinatorial if and only if (...) its associated Dekker semiring D satisfies all those Π2 sentences of the anguage LN for isol theory that are true in the set ω of natural numbers. of the various function and relation symbols of LN via the “lifting ” to D of their Σ1 definitions in ω coincide with their interpretations via isolic extension.) We also note in Section 2 that Π2-correctness, for semirings D, cannot be improved to Π 3-correctness, no matter how many additional properties we succeed in attaching to a combinatoria isol; there is a fixed equation image sentence that blocks such extension. In Section 3, we provide a proof of the existence of combinatorial isols that does not involve verification of the extremely strong properties that characterize Barback's CT isols. (shrink)

Social isolation has serious repercussions for people and communities across the globe, yet knowledge about this phenomenon has remained rather limited – until now. The first multidisciplinary study to explore this issue, Social Isolation in Modern Society integrates relevant research traditions in the social sciences and brings together sociological theories of social networks and psychological theories of feelings of loneliness. Both traditions are embedded in research, with the results of a large-scale international study being used to describe the (...) extent, nature and divergent manifestations of social isolation. With a new approach to social inequality, this empirically based study includes concrete policy recommendations, and presents a clear insight into personal, social and socio-economic causes and the consequences of social isolation. (shrink)

In the present paper we prove that the isolated differences of r. e. degrees are dense in the r. e. degrees.

There is a huge chasm between the notion of lawful determination that figures in fundamental physics, and the notion of causal determination that figures in the "folk physics" of everyday objects. In everyday life, we think of the behavior of an ordinary object as being determined by a small set of simple conditions. But in fundamental physics, no such conditions suffice to determine an ordinary object's behavior. What bridges the chasm is that fundamental physical laws make the folk picture of (...) the world approximately true in certain domains. How? In part, by entailing that many objects are approximately isolated from most of their environments. Dynamical laws yield this result only in conjunction with appropriate statistical assumptions about initial conditions. (shrink)

Challenges the widely held view that good models must necessarily be simplifications and hence cannot be true. This is done by distinguishing between whole truth (complete description) and truth (essential description, attained by the method of isolation).

Many results have been obtained on isolated graphs and complete graphs. In this paper, a necessary and sufficient condition will be proved for a single valued neutrosophic graph to be an isolated single valued neutrosophic graph.

This paper examines two recent approaches to the nature and functioning of economic models: models as isolating representations and models as credible constructions. The isolationist view conceives of economic models as surrogate systems that isolate some of the causal mechanisms or tendencies of their respective target systems, while the constructionist approach treats them rather like pure constructions or fictional entities that nevertheless license different kinds of inferences. I will argue that whereas the isolationist view is still tied to the representationalist (...) understanding of models that takes the model-target dyad as the basic unit of analysis, the constructionist perspective can better accommodate the way we actually acquire knowledge through them. Using the example of Tobin’s ultra-Keynesian model I will show how many of the epistemic characteristics of modelling tend to go unrecognised if too much focus is placed on the model-target dyad. (shrink)

We show that non-isolated from below 2-c.e. Q -degrees are dense in the structure of c.e. Q -degrees. We construct a 2-c.e. Q -degree, which can't be isolated from below not only by c.e. Q -degrees, but by any Q -degree. We also prove that below any c.e. Q -degree there is a 2-c.e. Q -degree, which is non-isolated from below and from above.

While many studies of 'On the Concept of Irony' treat Kierkegaard's "irony" primarily from a literary perspective, "The Isolated Self" also examines irony with an eye to the fundamental problem in Kierkegaard's authorship, namely, the challenge of becoming a "self". Kierkegaard's "irony" is a cavalier way of life that seeks isolation from the other -- an isolation he considers necessary to becoming a self. At the same time, irony is said to be a hindrance to selfhood because the (...) self fails to become a part of the social world in which it resides. The book puts the existential tension of 'On the Concept of Irony' into relief and suggests how it sets the stage for the rest of Kierkegaard's authorship. The book reconstructs the horizon of understanding during Kierkegaard's time, including Hegel's interpretation of both Socratic irony and Friedrich Schlegel's romantic irony. In addition, the work explores material from the little-known Danish discussion of irony in the works of Poul Martin Møller, Johan ,Ludwig Helberg and Hans Lassen Martensen. (shrink)

While individuals presented in central texts of the period are indeed often alone or separated from others, Yousef regards this isolation as a problem the texts attempt to illuminate, rather than a condition they construct as normative or ...

There is a long tradition of preferring local theories to ones that posit lawful or causal influence at a spacetime distance. In this paper, we argue against this preference. We argue that nonlocality is scientifically unobjectionable and that nonlocal theories can be known. Scientists can gather evidence for them and confirm them in much the same way that they do for local theories. We think these observations point to a deeper constraint on scientific theorizing and experimentation: the (quasi‐) isolation (...) of causal or lawful influence. We argue that this requirement ought to replace the locality desideratum in science. We then explore the possibility that the order of explanation has been reversed: perhaps it is isolatable influence that determines what counts as local in the first place. (shrink)

In this commentary we concur with Frost's view of the centrality of universal principles in models of word identification. However, we argue that other processes in sentence comprehension also fundamentally constrain the nature of written word identification. Furthermore, these processes appear to be universal. We, therefore, argue that universality in word identification should not be considered in isolation, but instead in the context of other linguistic processes that occur during normal reading.

In transfinite arithmetic 2n is defined as the cardinality of the family of all subsets of some set v with cardinality n. However, in the arithmetic of recursive equivalence types 2N is defined as the RET of the family of all finite subsets of some set v of nonnegative integers with RET N. Suppose v is a nonempty set. S is a class over v, if S consists of finite subsets of v and has v as its union. Such a (...) class is an intersecting class over v, if every two members of S have a nonempty intersection. An IC over v is called a maximal IC , if it is not properly included in any IC over v. It is known and readily proved that every MIC over a finite set v of cardinality n ≥ 1 has cardinality 2n-1. In order to generalize this result we introduce the notion of an ω-MIC over v. This is an effective analogue ot the notion of an MIC over v such that a class over a finite set v is an ω-MIC iff it is an MIC. We then prove that every ω-MIC over an isolated set v of RET N ≥ 1 has RET 2N-1. This is a generalization, for while there only are χ0 finite sets, there are ϰ isolated sets, where c denotes the cardinality of the continuum, namely all the finite sets and the c immune sets. MSC: 03D50. (shrink)

This paper distinguishes between causal isolation robustness analysis and independent determination robustness analysis and suggests that the triangulation of the results of different epistemic means or activities serves different functions in them. Circadian clock research is presented as a case of causal isolation robustness analysis: in this field researchers made use of the notion of robustness to isolate the assumed mechanism behind the circadian rhythm. However, in contrast to the earlier philosophical case studies on causal isolation robustness (...) analysis (Weisberg and Reisman in Philos Sci 75:106–131, 2008 ; Kuorikoski et al. in Br J Philos Sci 61:541–567, 2010 ), robustness analysis in the circadian clock research did not remain in the level of mathematical modeling, but it combined it with experimentation on model organisms and a new type of model, a synthetic model. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungDer Elementarbaustein aller Lebewesen ist die Zelle. Sie besitzt eine reiche innere Struktur mit einer Vielzahl von Organellen fur verschiedene Stoffwechselfunktionen.Zur Analyse der Funktionen dieser Organelle wird die Methode der Zellfraktionierung einge‐setzt. Die Zellen werden dabei aufgebrochen und – meist mit Zentrifugations‐Techniken – in verschiedene Fraktionen aufgetrennt. Mit Hilfe von Markern, d.h. von charakteristischen bio‐chemischen oder morphologischen Merkmalen der einzelnen Organelle werden die Fraktionen identifiziert und dann im Hinblick auf ihre Stoffwechselfunktionen analysiert.Eine prinzipielle Schwierigkeit dieser Analyse besteht in der Tatsache, (...) dass es umso wahr‐scheinlicher ist, dass sich die Funktionen der isolierten Organelle verandern, je sorgfältiger sie gereinigt werden.SummaryThe elementary building block of all living organisms is the cell. It has a rich inner structure with a multitude of organelles for various metabolic functions.The analysis of these functions is made possible by the method of cell fractionation. Cells are homogenized and separated, mainly by centrifugation techniques, into a number of fractions. With the aid of markers, i.e. of characteristic biochemical or morphological properties of individual organelles, the fractions are identified and then analyzed for their metabolic functions.A principal difficulty of this analysis consists in the fact that an alteration of the functions of isolated organelles is the more probable, the more extensively they are purified.RésuméĽélément fondamental de tout être vivant est la cellule. Elle a une riche structure interieure avec une multitude ?on;organelles pour différentes fonctions metaboliques.Ľanalyse de leurs fonctions repose sur la méthode du fractionnement des cellules. Les cellules sont broyées et séparées en différentes fractions, le plus souvent par des techniques de centrifugation. Les fractions sont identifyérs àľaide de marqueurs, c'est‐à‐dire de propriétés biochimiques ou morphologiques charactéristiques pour une organelle individuelle, puis elles sont analysées quant a leurs fonctions métaboliques.Ľune des principales difficultés provient du fait que plus on purifie une organelle, plus on risque ?on;altérer sa fonction. (shrink)

There is a huge chasm between the notion of lawful determination that figures in fundamental physics, and the notion of causal determination that figures in the "folk physics" of everyday objects. In everyday life, we think of the behavior of an ordinary object as being determined by a small set of simple conditions. But in fundamental physics, no such conditions suffice to determine an ordinary object's behavior. What bridges the chasm is that fundamental physical laws make the folk picture of (...) the world approximately true in certain domains. How? In part, by entailing that many objects are approximately isolated from most of their environments. Dynamical laws yield this result only in conjunction with appropriate statistical assumptions about initial conditions. (shrink)

In §54 of the Grundlagen, Frege advances an interesting proposal on how to distinguish among different sorts of concepts, only some of which he thinks can be associated with number. This paper is devoted to an analysis of the two criteria he offers, isolation and non-arbitrary division. Both criteria say something about the way in which a concept divides its extension; but they emphasize different aspects. Isolation ensures that a concept divides its extension into discrete units. I offer (...) two construals of this: isolation as discreteness, i.e. absence of overlap, between the objects to be counted; and isolation as the drawing of conceptual boundaries. Non-arbitrary division concerns the internal structure of the units we count: it makes sure that we cannot go on dividing them arbitrarily and still find more units of the kind. Non-arbitrary division focuses not only on how long something can be divided into parts of the same kind; it also speaks to the way in which these divisions are made, arbitrarily or non-arbitrarily, as well as to the compositional structure of the objects divided. (shrink)

The Cinematography in Whisky (2004) is essential in the directors’ efforts to explore existential isolation. The incompleteness of knowledge, the uncrossable gaps between people, and the impossibility of communion among individuals are some of the themes explored in this film, directed by Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll. These are mostly absent in the scholarship about the movie, which tends to focus on the concept of small cinema. The present text aims to build on these discussions to propose a (...) reading of Whisky as a work of art that, although made within a very specific context of production, is not limited by it.Keywords: Cinematography. Uruguayan cinema. Small cinema. (shrink)

In this paper, we study the bi-isolation phenomena in the d.c.e. degrees and prove that there are c.e. degrees c₁ < c₂ and a d.c.e. degree d ∈ (c₁, c₂) such that (c₁, d) and (d, c₂) contain no c.e. degrees. Thus, the c.e. degrees between c₁ and c₂ are all incomparable with d. We also show that there are d.c.e. degrees d₁ < d₂ such that (d₁, d₂) contains a unique c.e. degree.

Examining various kinds of isolation phenomena in the Turing degrees, I show that there are, for every n>0, (n+1)-c.e. sets isolated in the n-CEA degrees by n-c.e. sets below them. For n≥1 such phenomena arise below any computably enumerable degree, and conjecture that this result holds densely in the c.e. degrees as well. Surprisingly, such isolation pairs also exist where the top set has high degree and the isolating set is low, although the complete situation for jump classes (...) remains unknown. (shrink)

Say that (a, d) is an isolation pair if a is a c.e. degree, d is a d.c.e. degree, a < d and a bounds all c.e. degrees below d. We prove that there are an isolation pair (a, d) and a c.e. degree c such that c is incomparable with a, d, and c cups d to o', caps a to o. Thus, {o, c, d, o'} is a diamond embedding, which was first proved by Downey in (...) [9]. Furthermore, combined with Harrington-Soare continuity of capping degrees, our result gives an alternative proof of N5 embedding. (shrink)

By reconsidering the theme of isolation in the philosophy of technology, and by drawing upon recent developments in social ontology, Lawson provides an account of technology that will be of interest and value to those working in a variety of different fields. Technology and Isolation includes chapters on the philosophy, history, sociology and economics of technology, and contributes to such diverse topics as the historical emergence of the term 'technology', the sociality of technology, the role of technology in (...) social acceleration, the relationship between Marx and Heidegger, and the relationship between technology and those with autism. The central contribution of the book is to provide a new ontology of technology. In so doing, Lawson argues that much of the distinct character of technology can be explained or understood in terms of the dynamic that emerges from technology's peculiar constitutional mix of isolatable and non-isolatable components. (shrink)

COVID 19 closed the people in their homes but for a small part of the society the period of isolation has passed in a learning and office environment. What are the effects of the social isolation on people – we will find out. How the environment – parents, friends, society, colleagues, influences on the successful dealing with stress and how it helps personal sustainability, we will know in the future. During the research we will see the dynamics in (...) the resilience levels of the cadets before, during and after the quarantine. The results will show us how the military environment helps the cadets to deal with the negative sides of the social isolation. The development of resilience will be monitored as an ability of selfregulation in a moments of crisis. (shrink)

We show the existence of a high d. c. e. degree d and a low2 c.e. degree a such that d is isolated by a.

We study semi-isolation as a binary relation on the locus of a complete type and prove that—under some additional assumptions—it induces the strict order property.

Phenomenal conservatism as developed by some philosophers faces a previously unnoticed problem. The problem stems from the fact that, as some develop the view, phenomenal conservatism holds that seemings alone justify—sensations have no justificatory impact. Given this, phenomenal conservatism faces a problem analogous to the isolation objection to coherentism. As foundationalists, supporters of phenomenal conservatism will want to allow that the isolation objection is effective against coherentism, and yet claim that a similar objection is not effective against their (...) view. Unfortunately, it appears that on most understandings of the nature of seemings phenomenal conservatism can only avoid its version of the isolation objection by sacrificing its internalist character. (shrink)

In this paper we present a contribution to a classical result of E. Ellentuck in the theory of regressive isols. E. Ellentuck introduced the concept of a hyper-torre isol, established their existence for regressive isols, and then proved that associated with these isols a special kind of semi-ring of isols is a model of the true universal-recursive statements of arithmetic. This result took on an added significance when it was later shown that for regressive isols, the property of being hyper-torre (...) is equivalent to being hereditarily odd-even. In this paper we present a simplification to the original proof for establishing that equivalence. (shrink)

In this paper we present a collection of results related to the comparability of summands property of regressive isols. We show that if an infinite regressive isol has comparability of summands, then every predecessor of the isol has a weak comparability of summands property. Recently R. Downey proved that there exist regressive isols that are both hyper-torre and cosimple. There is a surprisingly close connection between non-recursive recursively enumerable sets and particular retraceable sets and regressive isols. We apply the theorem (...) of Downey to show that among the regressive isols that are related to recursively enumerable sets there are some with a new property. (shrink)

An item that stands out (is isolated) from its context is better remembered than an item consistent with the context. This isolation effect cannot be accounted for by increased attention, because it occurs when the isolated item is presented as the first item, or by impoverished memory of nonisolated items, because the isolated item is better remembered than a control list consisting of equally different items. The isolation effect is seldom experimentally or theoretically related to the primacy or (...) the recency effects—that is, the improved performance on the first few and last items, respectively, on the serial position curve. The primacy effect cannot easily be accounted for by rehearsal in short‐term memory because it occurs when rehearsal is eliminated. This article suggests that the primacy, the recency, and the isolation effects can be accounted for by experience‐dependent synaptic plasticity in neural cells. Neurological empirical data suggest that the threshold that determines whether cells will show long‐term potentiation (LTP) or long‐term depression (LTD) varies as a function of recent postsynaptic activity and that synaptic plasticity is bounded. By implementing an adaptive LTP‐LTD threshold in an artificial neural network, the various aspects of the isolation, the primacy, and the recency effects are accounted for, whereas none of these phenomena are accounted for if the threshold is constant. This theory suggests a possible link between the cognitive and the neurological levels. (shrink)

Modelling cannot be characterized as isolating, nor models as isolations. This article presents three arguments to that effect, against Uskali Mäki's account of models. First, while isolation proceeds through a process of manipulation and control, modelling typically does not proceed through such a process. Rather, modellers postulate assumptions, without seeking to justify them by reference to a process of isolation. Second, while isolation identifies an isolation base—a concrete environment it seeks to control and manipulate—modelling typically does (...) not identify such a base. Rather, modellers construct their models without reference to concrete environments, and only later seek to connect their models to concrete situations of the real world. Third, Mäki argues that isolation employs idealization to control for disturbing factors, but does not affect the factors or mechanisms that are supposed to be isolated. However, models typically make idealizing assumptions about the factors and mechanisms that are the focus of investigation. Thus, even the product of modelling often cannot be characterized as isolation. (shrink)

In his note [5] Hausner states a simple combinatorial principle, namely: $$(H)\left\{ {\begin{array}{*{20}c} {if f is a function a non - empty finite set \sigma into itself, p a} \\ {prime, f^p = i_\sigma and \sigma _0 the set of fixed points of f, then } \\ {\left| \sigma \right| \equiv \left| {\sigma _0 } \right|(mod p).} \\\end{array}} \right.$$ .He then shows how this principle can be used to prove:Fermat's little theorem,Cauchy's theorem for finite groups,Lucas' theorem for binomial numbers.Letε=(0,1, ...),ℱ (...) 1−1 the family of all one-to-one functions from a subset ofε intoε andℳ 1−1 the family of all p.r. (i.e., partial recursive) one-to-one functions from a subset ofε intoε. A subsetα of ε is finite, ifα is not equivalent to a proper subset under a function inℱ 1−1. The setα is calledisolated, if it is not equivalent to a proper subset under a function inℳ 1−1. An isolated set can also be defined as a subset ofε which has no infinite r.e. (i.e., recursively enumerable) subset. While every finite set is isolated, there are $c = 2^{\aleph _0 }$ infinite sets which are isolated; these sets are calledimmune. It is the purpose of this paper to generalize (H) to a principle (H*) for isolated sets and to show how (H*) can be used to prove generalizations of Fermat's little theorem and Cauchy's theorem for finite groups. We have been unable to generalize Lucas' theorem in a similar manner. (shrink)

The isolation principle rests on defining internal and external differentiation for each subset of at least two objects. Subsets with larger external than internal differentiation form isolated groups in the sense that they are internally cohesive and externally isolated. Objects that do not belong to any isolated group are termed solitary. The collection of all isolated groups and solitary objects forms a hierarchical (encaptic) structure. This ubiquitous characteristic of biological organization provides the motivation to identify universally applicable practical methods (...) for the detection of such structure, to distinguish primary types of structure, to quantify their distinctiveness, and to simplify interpretation of structural aspects. A method implementing the isolation principle (by generating all isolated groups and solitary objects) is proven to be specified by single-linkage clustering. Basically, the absence of structure can be stated if no isolated groups exist, the condition for which is provided. Structures that allow for classifications in the sense of complete partitioning into disjoint isolated groups are characterized, and measures of distinctiveness of classification are developed. Among other primary types of structure, chaining (complete nesting) and ties (isolated groups without internal structure) are considered in more detail. Some biological examples for the interpretation of structure resulting from application of the isolation principle are outlined. (shrink)

Although the concept of modularity is pervasive across fields and disciplines, philosophers and scientists use the term in a variety of different ways. This paper identifies two distinct ways of thinking about modularity, and considers what makes them similar and different. For philosophers of mind and cognitive science, cognitive modularity helps explain the capacities of brains to process sundry and distinct kinds of informational input. For philosophy of biology and evolutionary science, biological modularity helps explain the capacity of random evolutionary (...) processes to give rise to highly complex and sophisticated biological systems. Although these different ways of thinking about modularity are largely distinct, this paper proposes a unifying feature common to both: isolability, or the capacity of subsystems to undergo changes without resulting in substantial changes to neighboring or interconnected subsystems. (shrink)

Reading the illness narratives of my professional collogues was a moving experience, which reminded me of my own vulnerability and made clear the wisdom of connecting the dots between lived experience and scholarship. Though this wisdom is compelling, it is far from clear how it might be done. Including lived–sexperience in medical humanities scholarship exposes researchers to the vulnerability and isolation that goes with illness. Disability studies analysis offers powerful tools for understanding this vulnerability and isolation. The next (...) step is to take that analysis into applied medical scholarship. These articles provide a valuable start in that direction. (shrink)

Widowhood is common in old age, can be accompanied by serious health consequences and is often linked to substantial changes in social network. Little is known about the impact of social isolation on the development of depressive symptoms over time taking widowhood into account. We provide results from the follow-up 5 to follow-up 9 from the longitudinal study AgeCoDe and its follow-up study AgeQualiDe. Depression was measured with GDS-15 and social isolation was assessed using the Lubben Social Network (...) Scale (LSNS-6). The group was aligned of married and widowed people in old age and education through entropy balancing. Linear mixed models were used to examine the frequency of occurrence of depressive symptoms for widowed and married elderly people depending on the risk of social isolation. Our study shows that widowhood alone does not lead to an increased occurrence of depressive symptoms. However, "widowed oldest old", who are also at risk of social isolation, have significantly more depressive symptoms than those without risk. In the group of "married oldest old", women have significantly more depressive symptoms than men, but isolated and non-isolated do not differ. Especially for people who have lost a spouse, the social network changes significantly and increases the risk for social isolation. This represents a risk factor for the occurrence of depressive symptoms. (shrink)

Intellectualism is the widespread view that practical reason is a species of theoretical reason, distinguished from others by its objects: reasons to act. I argue that if practical reason is a species of theoretical reason, practical judgments by nature have nothing to do with action. If they have nothing to do with action, I cannot act from my representation of reasons for me to act. If I cannot act from those representations, those reasons cannot exist. If they cannot exist, neither (...) can a species of theoretical reason about them. Intellectualism is thus self-undermining. (shrink)

Humans are social animals that rely on different ways to interact with each other. The COVID-19 pandemic strongly changed our communication strategies. Because of the importance of direct contact for our species, we predict that immediately after the forced social isolation, people were more prone to engage in direct rather than in virtual interactions, thus showing a lower mimicry response in the use of smartphones. In a non-longitudinal study, we collected behavioral data under naturalistic contexts and directly compared the (...) data of the mimicry response gathered immediately following the Italian lockdown (May–September 2020) with those gathered one year later (May–October 2021). Contrary to our expectations, the mimicry response in the use of smartphones was higher immediately after the lockdown than a year later. Probably the large use of these devices during the lockdown translated into a greater sensitivity to be affected by others’ smartphone manipulation. Indeed, social isolation modified, at least in the short term, the ways we interact with others by making us more prone to engage in “virtual” social interactions. The bright side of the coin unveiled by our findings is that the effect seems to diminish over time. The large behavioral dataset analyzed here (1,608 events; 248 people) also revealed that the mimicry response in the use of smartphones was higher between familiar subjects than between strangers. In this view, mimicry in manipulating smartphones can be considered an example of joint action that fosters behavioral synchrony between individuals that, in the long-term, can translate into the formation of social bonding. (shrink)

ABSTRACTEurope as an idea as well as a political and cultural project has been a vast subject in the British public debate, The relationship between Britain and Europe was mostly regarded as extremely cautious and parochially nationalist; however, whereas in the 1960s and 1970s opposition to the European Economic Community was predominantly led by intelligentsias and maverick politicians, the present-day debate seems less intellectually-driven and academic in his language. This article draws attention to the role of traditional and online media (...) in re-narrating the European question. Within this process, the re-semioticization of the role of Great Britain in the international scenario vis-à-vis the historical and cultural discourses of borders between the UK and the Continent play a pivotal function. Starting from here, the article considers, on the one hand, how the current re-narration of the European question is reproducing and reinterpreting historical arguments vis-à-vis old clichés. On the other, it deals primarily with the response to the profound transition taking place in the political landscape. (shrink)

Theorem A. Let T be a small superstable theory, A a finite set, and ψ a weakly minimal formula over A which is contained in some nontrivial type which does not have Morley rank. Then ψ is contained in some nonalgebraic isolated type over A. As an application we prove Theorem B. Suppose that T is small and superstable, A is finite, and there is a nontrivial weakly minimal type p ∈ S(A) which does not have Morley rank. Then the (...) prime model over A is not minimal over A. (shrink)

Community forms a crux of human living. In the wake of pandemic like Covid-19 to avoid community transmission what is most required of a responsible community member is to follow physical distancing to curb the spread of the infectious disease and this may lead to a feeling of isolation and loneliness. But this essay speaks of isolation with a positive connotation. It talks of isolation as solitude as the Indian philosophy also speaks extensively about this sense of (...) self-contemplation and reflection to understand others as we need to know our own selves. The say speaks of isolation as understood in Sāṃkhya philosophy. This essay talks of isolated consciousness and the three gunas particularly of the sattvic predicaments that enables positive mental development in human beings which is much needed in these tested times as the present pandemic. (shrink)

This article argues that outbreak preparedness and response should implement a ‘family presence’ policy for infected patients in isolation that includes the option of physical visits and care within the isolation facility under some conditions. While such a ‘physical family presence’ policy could increase infections during an outbreak and may raise moral dilemmas, we argue that it is ethically justified based on the least infringement principle and the need to minimize the harms and burdens of isolation as (...) a restrictive measure. Categorical prohibition of PFP during the course of an outbreak or epidemic is likely to result in unnecessary harms to patients and families, and violate values such as the moral commitments of families to care for each other. Supporting the option of PFP under particular circumstances, on the other hand, will least infringe these moral considerations. An additional reason for a family presence policy is that it may facilitate voluntary cooperation with isolation and other restrictive measures. We provide an analysis of these considerations for supporting modes of family presence during an outbreak emergency, before defending the riskier option of PFP in the isolation facility from plausible objections and concerns. (shrink)

There is an optimal way of increasing certain cardinal invariants of the continuum.