Objectives: Technology can assist and support both people with dementia and caregivers. Recently, technology has begun to embed remote components. Timely with respect to the pandemic, the present work reviews the most recent literature on technology in dementia contexts together with the newest studies about technological support published until October 2020. The final aim is to provide a synthesis of the timeliest evidence upon which clinical and non-clinical decision-makers can rely to make choices about technology in the case of further (...) pandemic waves.Methods: A review of reviews was performed alongside a review of the studies run during the first pandemic wave. PsycInfo, CINAHL, and PubMed-online were the databases inspected for relevant papers published from January 2010.Results: The search identified 420 articles, 30 of which were reviews and nine of which were new studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Studies were first sorted according to the target population, then summarized thematically in a narrative synthesis. The studies targeting technologies for PWD were categorized as follows: monitoring and security purposes, sustaining daily life, and therapeutic interventions. Each category showed potential benefits. Differently, the interventions for caregivers were classified as informative, psycho-education programs, psychosocial-supportive, therapeutic, and cognitive/physical training. Benefits to mental health, skills learning, and social aspects emerged.Conclusions: The evidence shows that technology is well-accepted and can support PWD and caregivers to bypass physical and environmental problems both during regular times and during future pandemic waves. Nevertheless, the lack of a common methodological background is revealed by this analysis. Further and more standardized research is necessary to improve the implementation of technologies in everyday life while respecting the necessary personalization. (shrink)

This paper problematizes the precision medicine approach embraced by the All of Us Research Program (US) and by Genomics England (UK) in terms of benefits distribution, by arguing that current “diversity and inclusion” efforts do not prevent exclusiveness, unless the framing and scope of the projects are revisited in public health terms. Grounded on document analysis and fieldwork interviews, this paper analyzes efforts to address potential patterns of exclusion upstream (from participating in precision medicine research) and downstream (from benefitting from (...) precision medicine outputs). It argues that efforts for inclusion upstream are not corresponded downstream, and this unbalance jeopardizes the equitable capacities of the projects. It concludes that enhanced focus on socio-environmental determinants of health and aligned public health interventions as precision medicine outputs would be to the benefit of all and especially of those who are most at risk of (upstream as well as downstream) exclusion. (shrink)

Monographic essay, Greek texts and fragments, translation, full commentary, and bibliography. Introductory essay -- Hierocles, Elements of ethics -- Stobaeus's extracts from Hierocles, On appropriate acts -- Fragments of Hierocles in the Studa.

In 2016, the Five Stars Movement (5SM), one of the parties currently in power in Italy, launched the ‘Rousseau platform’. This is a platform meant to enhance direct democracy, transparency and the real participation of the people in the making of laws, policies and political proposals. Although ennobled with the name of Rousseau, the 5SM’s redemptive promise has been strongly criticised in the public sphere for being irresponsible and ideological. Political realism, I will argue, can perform both a diagnostic and (...) a corrective task, by providing some tools to unveil populist distortions and by offering more solid grounds for political opponents’ critique. Three aspects of realism, in particular, will be pointed out as remedies against populist drifts. First, anti-moralism, complemented by anti-utopianism and contextualism, criticises the populists’ moralistic picture of politics, its anti-pluralistic attitude and its rejection of the role of experts in politics. Second, the Weberian ethic of responsibility offers standards to assess politicians’ actions, instead of embracing the populist aversion towards any professional politician; besides, it contrasts the populist image of politics as a derogatory activity. Finally, realism as ideology critique unveils the distorting narratives underlying populist propaganda and fostering uncritical support. (shrink)

Some realists in political theory deny that the notion of feasibility has any place in realist theory, while others claim that feasibility constraints are essential elements of realist normative theorising. But none have so far clarified what exactly they are referring to when thinking of feasibility and political realism together. In this article, we develop a conception of the realist feasibility frontier based on an appraisal of how political realism should be distinguished from non-ideal theories. In this realist framework, political (...) standards are feasible if they meet three requirements: they are politically intelligible, contextually recognisable as authoritative, and contestable. We conclude by suggesting that our conception of realist feasibility might be compatible with utopian demands, thereby possibly finding favour with realists who otherwise refuse to resort to the notion of feasibility. (shrink)

Political realists argue that the concept of political legitimacy should be linked to subjects’ beliefs, while still offering normative guidance. In this article, I suggest doing so by referring to the concepts of acceptance and acceptability. I argue that a regime is legitimate if its power is accepted by subjects, provided that such acceptance meets the requirements of acceptability: subjects’ beliefs about the regime’s legitimacy need to successfully satisfy three requirements—coherence, fact-sensitivity, and politics-sensitivity—via entering public debate. I rely on pragmatism (...) to investigate the link between subjects’ beliefs and their experience of facing political authority. (shrink)

As many cultural historians of the sciences have recently indicated, eighteenth-century illustrations of natural historical works represent an important source that can be used to explore the ways in which nature and the study of nature were regarded in the period. Naturalistic illustrations, however, are not the only genre of images that may help the historian in this investigation. Another interesting source is represented by images of nature and natural objects connected with fictional literature. Yet, little attention has been devoted (...) so far to this genre of images. In this paper I analyse some of the engravings which illustrate Retif de la Bretonne's imaginary voyage La Decouverte australe par un homme volant. My aim is to show that these illustrations convey a well-defined image of the natural universe, and that their analysis may contribute to our understanding of the various significances and roles attached to Nature in the period-particularly bringing to the fore its moral and political uses. Further, by analysing the ways in which they connect and integrate a variety of artistic and discursive traditions related to fiction, travel, and natural history, I hope to suggest some of the ways in which this genre of images may be used to shed light on the eighteenth-century interplay between spheres of knowledge later assigned to such distinct disciplines as 'science', 'literature', or 'art'. (shrink)

Journal Name: Apeiron Issue: Ahead of print.

El presente artículo es una traducción comentada de la Causa de la fundación de las escuelas, una particular “historia de la filosofía”, obra de Bahadbeshabba, intelectual nestoriano de la Escuela de Nisibi, del siglo VI-VII. Ésta es la continuación del artículo aparecido en el número anterior de ‘Ilu, que contiene la introducción y la bibliografía. Palabras clave: Bahadbeshabba (cArbayâ / de Halwan), Escuela de Nisibi, Cristianismo siro-nestoriano, filosofía siríaca, recepción de la filosofía griega en la cultura siríaca.

This article seeks to provide a theoretical exploration of Prandi's model of conceptual conflicts in metaphors (2017) and to highlight the advantages such model presents in its applications to translation and the text analysis preceding and preparing translation. Such advantages are mainly identified in the model aptness to meet the pragmatic requirements of translation, seen as a practice-based, goal-oriented and context-driven activity. These advantages also distinctly emerge from a comparison with the main tenets of the cognitive tradition. The theoretical basis (...) for an understanding of conceptual conflict and its applications to translation are illustrated through the analysis of three brief excerpts from literary texts in English and their Italian translation. (shrink)

Recently, interest in the unique pathways linking discrete positive emotions to specific health outcomes has gained increasing attention, but the role of awe is yet to be elucidated. Awe is a complex and transformative emotion that can restructure individuals' mental frames so deeply that it could be considered a therapeutic asset for major mental health major issues, including depression. Despite sparse evidence showing a potential connection between depression and awe, this link has not been combined into a proposal resulting in (...) specific intervention guidelines. The aim of this perspective was three-fold: to provide a new unifying model of awe's functioning—the Matryoshka model; to show systematic and explicit connections between this emotion and depression; and to suggest specific guidelines of intervention utilizing the potential therapeutic role of awe for mental health, specifically for depression. This theoretical endeavor in its entirety has been framed within the health domain. (shrink)

We study imagination as reality-oriented mental simulation (ROMS): the activity of simulating nonactual scenarios in one’s mind, to investigate what would happen if they were realized. Three connected questions concerning ROMS are: What is the logic, if there is one, of such an activity? How can we gain new knowledge via it? What is voluntary in it and what is not? We address them by building a list of core features of imagination as ROMS, drawing on research in cognitive psychology (...) and the philosophy of mind. We then provide a logic of imagination as ROMS which models such features, combining techniques from epistemic logic, action logic, and subject matter semantics. Our logic comprises a modal propositional language with non-monotonic imagination operators, a formal semantics, and an axiomatization. (shrink)

Computational models of legal precedent-based reasoning developed in AI and Law are typically based on the simplifying assumption that the background set of precedent cases is consistent. Besides being unrealistic in the legal domain, this assumption is problematic for recent promising applications of these models to the development of explainable AI methods. In this paper I explore a model of legal precedent-based reasoning that, unlike existing models, does not rely on the assumption that the background set of precedent cases is (...) consistent. The model is a generalization of the reason model of precedential constraint. I first show that the model supports an interesting deontic logic, where consistent obligations can be derived from inconsistent case bases. I then provide an explanation of this surprising result by proposing a reformulation of the model in terms of cases that support a new potential decision and cases that conflict with it. Finally, I show that the reformulation of the model allows us to verify that inconsistent case bases do not make verification that a decision is permissible substantially more complex than consistent case bases and to introduce intuitive criteria to compare different permissible decisions. (shrink)

To 2021, κατά τη µελέτη του κεραµικού υλικού που προέκυψε από την έρευνα που πραγµατοποίησε ο Olivier Pelon το 1978 και το 1985 στην αίθουσα IX b, που βρίσκεται στη βόρεια πτέρυγα του Ανακτόρου των Μαλίων, αναγνωρίστηκαν οκτώ λύχνοι τύπου «κηροπηγίου». Αυτοί οι λύχνοι που περιέχονται σε ένα σύνολο της ΠΜ ΙΙΙ - ΜΜ ΙΑ από το βορειότερο τµήµα του δωµατίου, αποτελούν προϊόντα τοπικής παραγωγής που κατασκευάστηκαν από έναν ηµι‑λεπτόκοκκο ερυθρό πηλό και µιµούνται τα περίτεχνα διακοσµητικά θέµατα της κεραµικής µε (...) ανοιχτόχρωµα µοτίβα επί σκοτεινού βάθους, η οποία αποτέλεσε το σήµα κατατεθέν της ύστερης Προανακτορικής παραγωγής στην Ανατολική Κρήτη. Αυτοί οι περίτεχνοι λύχνοι µε τα ανοιχτόχρωµα διακοσµητικά θέµατα επί σκοτεινούς βάθους που προέρχονται από στρώµατα της Ύστερης Προανακτορικής περιόδου του ανακτόρου των Μαλλιών φαίνεται να αντιπροσωπεύουν το πρωτότυπο των µεταγενέστερων λύχνων τύπου «κηροπηγίου», που µαρτυρούνται σε όλη την περιοχή των Μαλίων από τη ΜΜ Ι έως την ΜΜ ΙΙ. Η παρούσα εργασία έχει ως στόχο να παρουσιάσει οκτώ λύχνους και το ανασκαφικό τους περιβάλλον, να παραθέσει παράλληλα τόσο από τα Μάλια όσο και από την Μινωική Κρήτη και να ανιχνεύσει την εξέλιξη του συγκεκριµένου σχήµατος από την Ύστερη Προανακτορική περίοδο έως την Παλαιονακτορική περίοδο σε ολόκληρο το νησί. (shrink)

In this paper I explore modal metaphysics in regard to Francisco Suárez’s idea of real being, in order to track down an early model of the relationship between synchronical alternative states of affairs and the temporal frequency paradigm. In doing so this article will offer an interpretation of Suárez’s doctrine of eternal truths as found in Disputationes Metaphysicae d. 31, c. 12, § 38–§ 47. I argue that Suárez’s modal theory of real possibilities and logical possibilities should be regarded as (...) an actualist and essentialist form of modalism. (shrink)

El presente artículo discute la posición de Suárez sobre la teoría del doble sentido de la existencia. La subordinación, en la primera sección, entre conceptos de primer y segundo orden, en contraste con la subsución entre un objeto que cae dentro de un concepto de primer orden y la distinción entre una “marca característica” y la “propiedad” de un concepto, ayudará a clarificar el doble sentido del ens ut nomen and ens ut participium en las Disputationes Metaphysicae de F. Suárez. (...) Este análisis nos proporciona una consideración más cercana, en la segunda sección del artículo, a la explicación del ente como ente real en Suárez, y subraya el patrón de la ciencia dentro de su contexto histórico. Tan pronto como buceamos un poco en la materia, aparece de modo claro, como consideramos de forma breve en las notas conclusivas, que esta investigación sobre la significación del ens ut nomen and ens ut participium en Suárez será particularmente útil para una discusión contemporánea de lo que denominamos “teoría de los dos sentidos de la de la existencia” y, quizás, puede tener interés histórico y teorético, relativo al orden lógico y ontológico derivado de estos dos sentidos de la existencia, considerando qué efecto puede tener, si seguimos más de cerca la aproximación suareziana. (shrink)

During the 1970s, Dinu Adamesteanu uncovered a small sacred place within the chora of Heraklea. It is an open-air sanctuary, constituted by an area bounded by a temenos wall, with an altar and a small naiskos inside. A votive deposit was located within the temenos, which was filled with a large quantity of ritual and votive material, placed in the hole when the sacred place was abandoned. The architectural structures and a selection of the finds were first published by Dinu (...) Adamesteanu himself. He identified this small sacred place with Chalcas’ heroon, which is recorded in Lycophron’s famous passage. The subject of this contribution is a comprehensive re-examination of this sacred place – architectural structures as well as published and un-published finds – which allows us to present a different scenario from that first proposed by Adamesteanu. Most of the Black-Glaze vases pertain to the practice of the symposium, while the common wares suggest that food was usually prepared in order to be given as a gift to deities. The Red-Figure vases present interesting figural depictions, which tend to refer to Dionysian subjects and to the theme of weddings. With regard to coroplastic objects, three fragmentary life-size terracotta statues have been found. At least two of these represent young, beautiful women, seated on thrones and wearing lavish clothes. A number of small terracotta figurines show diverse iconographies, which pertain to the spheres of kourotropheia and sanatio, but there are also “erotic” subjects, referring to the Aphrodisian sphere, and votive clay fruits, which suggest the chthonian aspect of this cult. In light of this comprehensive analysis of archaeological data, a clearer and more detailed picture emerges of the Contrada Petrulla sanctuary. The sacred area was probably dedicated to feminine deities, who can be identified with the Nymphs, peripheral figures of Aphrodite’s circle. These feminine deities who have chthonian characteristics, personify water (generally a water spring), oversee the passage from a virginal condition to the status of nymphai, have a kourotrophic nature, and are ultimately associated with the Dionysian world. Therefore, the life-size seated statues found in the votive deposit can be considered as cult statues (depictions of the Nymphs themselves?). Previously, the statues had been located in the small naiskos, which was placed within the temenos wall and was open to the altar. (shrink)

IntroductionThe present study aimed to evaluate the effects of the Active Communication Education program on the social/emotional impacts of hearing loss in a group of older adults with a cochlear implant.DesignProspective cohort study design, with a “within-subject” control procedure.Study SampleTwenty adults over-65 post-lingually deafened CI users. All subjects were required to be native Italian speakers, to have normal cognitive level, have no significant psychiatric conditions and/or diagnosed incident dementia, and used CI for at least 9 months.Materials and MethodsTwenty participants were (...) assessed using the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly, the Geriatric Depression Scale, and the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale before, during, and after ACE program, with a one and 6-month follow up. The cognitive and audiological evaluation was carried out before commencing the ACE program.ResultsThe ACE program had a positive impact by reducing HL’s social/emotional effects. Participants benefited from a rehabilitative approach by improving multilevel skills: comprehension of audiological and hearing dimensions, acquisition of communicative, pragmatic and problem-solving strategies, and interaction and sharing of experiences with peers.ConclusionAlthough targeting the older adults with moderate HL, the ACE program also seemed to benefit older adult CI users. An improvement in social and emotional adaptation to hearing difficulties can, in turn, significantly promote optimal use of CI in the older adults, thereby possibly reducing the risk of losing motivation and engagement in device use and in rehabilitation protocols. (shrink)

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of social and emotional learning skills and resilience in explaining mental health in male and female adolescents, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three self-report questionnaires were administered to 778 participants aged between 11 and 16 years and recruited from 18 schools in Northern Italy. The SSIS-SELb-S and the CD-RISC 10 assessed SEL and resilience skills respectively, while the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was used to measure mental health in terms of (...) internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and prosocial behavior. We found that SEL and resilience skills were positively and significantly associated with each other, negatively associated with internalizing and externalizing problems, and positively related to prosocial behavior. Three linear regression analyses showed the significant role of resilience, age, and gender in explaining the variance of internalizing problems; the significant role of SEL skills, resilience, age, and gender in explaining the variance of externalizing problems; and the role of SEL skills, age, and gender in explaining prosocial behavior. Importantly, we found that resilience fully mediated the relationship between SEL skills and internalizing problems, partially mediated the relationship between SEL skills and externalizing problems and didn't mediate the relationship between SEL skills and prosocial behavior. The paper concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the study as well as its practical implications. (shrink)

Constellations, Volume 29, Issue 1, Page 93-106, March 2022.

European Journal of Philosophy, EarlyView.

This book analyses Eriugena’s Christian Platonic ideas on theology, cosmology, anthropology, epistemology, and ethics, and their sources in Patristic philosophical theology and ancient philosophy. The first part is devoted to Eriugena’s theology: thus, it focusses on God from a variety of perspectives, some of them also comparative in their nature. The second part consists in research into Eriugena's cosmology, anthropology, and ethics, including virtue ethics. The two large sections are interrelated by an exploration of Eriugena's concepts of apokatastasis and epistrophé, (...) in his great theory of the movement of all "from God to God". (shrink)

This book presents a novel analysis of concealed-question constructions, reports of a mental attitude in which part of a sentence looks like a nominal complement, but is interpreted as an indirect question. Such constructions are puzzling in that they raise the question of how their meaning derives from their constituent parts. In particular, how a nominal complement, normally used to refer to an entity ends up with a question-like meaning. In this book, Ilaria Frana adopts a theory according to (...) which noun phrases with concealed question meanings are analysed as individual concepts. The traditional individual concept theory is modified and applied to the phenomena discussed in the recent literature and some new problematic data. The end result is a fully compositional account of a wide range of concealed-question constructions. The exploration of concealed questions offered in the book provides insights into both issues in semantic theory, such as the nature of quantification in natural languages and the use of type shifter in the grammar, and issues surrounding the syntax-semantics interface, such as the interpretation of copy traces and the effects on semantic interpretation of different syntactic analyses of relative clauses. The book will interest scholars and graduate students in linguistics, especially those interested in semantics and the syntax-semantics interface, as well as philosophers of language working on the topic of intensionality. (shrink)

This article has an analytical and a constructive aim. The former consists in providing a taxonomy of the different ways progress can be defined, according to two variables: whether progress is conceived of in either a teleological or a processual way, and whether it relies on either a realist or a moralist approach to political normativity. After laying out the four resulting combinations, I proceed with the critical aim. This consists in proposing an argument for how political progress should be (...) conceived of. To do so, I first show that some teleological accounts of progress paradoxically risk being conservative, while processual ones are politically progressive and should therefore be privileged over the former. Second, and relatedly, I shed light on which are the standards for a genuinely progressive notion of political progress. Finally, I argue that a processual realist notion of political progress is more able than the rival conceptions to comply with these standards. (shrink)

Self-transcendence has been characterized as a decrease in self-saliency (ego disillusionment) and increased connection, and has been growing in research interest in the past decade. Several measures have been developed and published with some degree of psychometric validity and reliability. However, to date, there has been no review systematically describing, contrasting, and evaluating the different methodological approaches toward measuring self-transcendence including questionnaires, neurological and physiological measures, and qualitative methods. To address this gap, we conducted a review to describe existing methods (...) of measuring self-transcendence, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these methods, and discuss research avenues to advance assessment of self-transcendence, including recommendations for suitability of methods given research contexts. (shrink)