Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are present in fat tissues throughout the body, yet little is known regarding their biological role within epidural fat. We hypothesize that debridement of epidural fat and/or subsequent loss of MSCs within this tissue, disrupts homeostasis in the vertebral environment resulting in increased inflammation, fibrosis, and decreased neovascularization leading to poorer functional outcomes post‐injury/operatively. Clinically, epidural fat is commonly considered a space‐filling tissue with limited functionality and therefore typically discarded during surgery. However, the presence of MSCs (...) within epidural fat suggests that itis more biologically active than historically believed and may contribute to the regulation of homeostasis and regeneration in the dural environment. While the current literature supports our hypothesis, it will require additional experimentation to determine if epidural fat is an endogenous driver of repair and regeneration and if so, this tissue should be minimally perturbed from its original location in the spinal canal. Also see the video abstract here https://youtu.be/MIol_IWK1os. (shrink)

The great powers of regeneration shown by freshwater planarians, capable of regenerating a complete organism from any tiny body fragment, have attracted the interest of scientists throughout history. In 1814, Dalyell concluded that planarians could “almost be called immortal under the edge of the knife”. Equally impressive is the developmental plasticity of these platyhelminthes, including continuous growth and fission (asexual reproduction) in well‐fed organisms, and shrinkage (degrowth) during prolonged starvation. The source of their morphological plasticity and regenerative capability is a (...) stable population of totipotent stem cells—“neoblasts”; this is the only cell type in the adult that has mitotic activity and differentiates into all cell types. This cellular feature is unique to planarians in the Bilateria clade. Over the last fifteen years, molecular studies have begun to reveal the role of developmental genes in regeneration, although it would be premature to propose a molecular model for planarian regeneration. Genomic and proteomic data are essential in answering some of the fundamental questions concerning this remarkable morphological plasticity. Such information should also pave the way to understanding the genetic pathways associated with metazoan somatic stem‐cell regulation and pattern formation. BioEssays 28: 546–559, 2006. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The paper develops a conception of the good life within a digitalized society. Martha Nussbaum’s capability theory offers an adequate normative framework for that purpose as it systematically integrates the analysis of flourishing human lives with a normative theory of justice. The paper argues that a theory of good digital lives should focus on everyday life, on the impact digitalization has on ordinary actions, routines and corresponding practical knowledge. Based on Nussbaum’s work, the paper develops a concept of digital capabilities. (...) Digital capabilities are combined capabilities: To possess a digital capability, an individual must acquire certain skills and abilities (internal capabilities) and needs access to devices and external infrastructures like internet connections. If societies as a whole and everyday environments are digitalized to a certain degree, the possession of specific digital capabilities is a crucial precondition for a flourishing life. The paper likewise analyzes challenges that are connected to digital capabilities. Digital structures are constantly changing. In consequence, digital capabilities are never acquired once and for all, but always precarious and in danger of being lost—with serious consequences for individual everyday lives in digitalized environments. As digital capabilities are crucial for leading a good life, people are entitled to develop and maintain them. They describe demands of justice. Using the examples of filling in an online form and digital education, the paper finally illustrates the size of institutional changes that are necessary to meet these demands. (shrink)

Ausgehend von einer Bestimmung der ästhetischen Erfahrung als Erfahrung der Art und Weise der sinnlichen Gegebenheit von Gegenständen und Umwelten geht der vorliegende Text der Frage nach den Spezifika alltagsästhetischen Erfahrens nach. Dabei wird zunächst die alltagsästhetische Einstellung als eine fest in den handelnden Vollzug gewohnter Praktiken und Routinen eingebettete Wahrnehmungshaltung bestimmt. In einem nächsten Schritt werden charakteristische Merkmale alltagsästhetischen Erfahrens herausgearbeitet: Zu nennen sind die Wahrnehmung von – theoretisch näher zu beschreibenden – Ganzheiten, die Kategorien des Vertrauten, des Rhythmus (...) und des Takts sowie schließlich das Zusammenspiel aller Sinne. Die abschließenden Überlegungen widmen sich der engen Verbindung von moralischen, ästhetischen und funktionalen Erfahrungen und Urteilen im Raum des Alltäglichen. (shrink)

This book explores the puzzling phenomenon of new veiling practices among lower middle class women in Cairo, Egypt.

Background: The vascular depression hypothesis emphasizes the significance of vascular lesions in late-life depression. At present, no meta-analytic model has investigated whether a difference in hyperintensity burden compared to controls between late-life and late-onset depression is evident. By including a substantial number of studies, focusing on a meaningful outcome measure, and considering several moderating and control variables, the present meta-analysis investigates the severity of hyperintensity burden in major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD). A major focus of the present (...) meta-analysis refers to the role of age at illness onset. It is analyzed whether late-onset rather than late-life depression characterizes vascular depression. Method: In total, 68 studies were included in the meta-analysis and a multilevel random effects model was calculated using Hedges’ g as the effect size measure. Results: The severity of hyperintensity burden was significantly greater in the patient group compared to the control group. This effect was evident regarding the whole patient group (g = 0.229) as well as both depression subgroups, with a significantly greater effect in BD (g = 0.374) compared to MDD (g = 0.189). Hyperintensity burden was more pronounced in late-onset depression than in early-onset depression or late-life depression. A considerable heterogeneity between the included studies was observed, which is reflected by the large variability in effects sizes. Conclusion: In conclusion, the present meta-analysis underscores the association of hyperintensities with MDD and BD. Especially late-onset depression is associated with an increased hyperintensity burden, which is in line with the vascular depression hypothesis. The results suggest that it might be more feasible to confine the concept of vascular depression specifically to late-onset depression as opposed to late-life depression. Further research is needed to understand the causal mechanisms that might underlie the relation between hyperintensity burden and depression. (shrink)

In recent years, global corporations and national governments have been enacting a growing number of codes of conduct and public regulations to combat dangerous and degrading work conditions in global supply chains. At the receiving end of this activity, local producers must contend with multiple regulatory regimes, but it is unclear how these regimes interact and what results, if any, they produce. This article examines this dynamic in the sugar sector in Brazil. It finds that although private and public agents (...) rarely communicate, let alone coordinate with one another, they nevertheless reinforce each other’s actions. Public regulators use their legal powers to outlaw extreme forms of outsourcing. Private auditors use the trust they command as company insiders to instigate a process of workplace transformation that facilitates compliance. Together, their parallel actions block the low road and guide targeted firms to a higher road in which improved labor standards are not only possible but even desirable. (shrink)

All states of human life are limited by time. Human personality, but also interpersonal justice therefore have a temporal dimension. Is time thus a source of normativity: a factor that every ethic must take into account? Does it make any demands on the design of our personal way of life? And must norms and rules that aim to bring about, maintain, change or end certain states of human life always have to take into account the passage of time? In this (...) book, seventeen philosophers discuss the significance of the temporal dimension of human personality and interpersonal justice for ethics and law. It becomes clear that hardly any problem applied ethics face today does not refer to the normative meaning of the temporality of our existence and the passing of time. With contributions by Dieter Birnbacher, Frank Dietrich, Michael Grossheim, Martin Hoffmann, Jan C. Joerden, Sebastian Knell, Andrea Klonschinski, Walter Mesch, Lukas H. Meyer, Andreas Mueller, Johannes Mueller Salo, Michael Quante, Michael Schefczyk, Reinold Schmücker , Niko Strobach, Timothy Waligore, Ulla Wessels. (shrink)

Since the introduction of Ethereum in 2015, blockchain technology (BT) has been evolving, and BT has been associated with the concept of the sharing economy by business academics. Despite the marketing research on the sharing economy that has been extensively conducted in the last decade, the linkage between BT and ethical marketing in the sharing economy remains unclear. Through a systematic literature review of 163 articles and a co-citation analysis, this study identifies the key elements of blockchain capabilities, blockchain attributes, (...) and the underlying economic theories of blockchain. It also synthesizes and proposes a shift of ethical marketing logic in the blockchain-based sharing economy that delineates the principles of stakeholder capitalism. The article concludes with a list of future research directions that underline three approaches of stakeholder theory (i.e., the descriptive, instrument, and normative approaches). These directions aim to guide marketing scholars concerning how BT enables an institutionally embedded view of ethical marketing activities and practices that enhance collaborative marketing and subsequently innovate value chains and create sustainable business models in the sharing economy, as well as to the metaverse. (shrink)

Was ist die Rolle der akademischen Philosophie angesichts der Klimakrise? Können und sollen Philosoph:innen aktivistische Bewegungen unterstützen oder sogar selbst zu Aktivist:innen werden – oder sich eher auf die theoretische Reflexion konzentrieren? Die Herausforderungen der Klimakrise an der Schnittstelle von philosophischer Reflexion, institutioneller Praxis und individuellem Engagement standen im Mittelpunkt des Panels „Philosophie und Klima-Aktivismus“ der AG Nachhaltigkeit der DGPhil sowie der GAP im Rahmen des DKPhil 2024.

Mothers with prenatal substance use disorder often show broad deficits in their reflective functioning, implying severe risk for the relationship with their baby. Two different types of prenatal maternal RF may be important for parenting: adult attachment-focused-RF, regarding parent's own childhood experiences, and parenting-focused RF regarding their own current process of becoming a parent. However, their inter-relations and potentially different roles for parenting intervention outcomes are not clear. This study examined the associations between mothers' prenatal AAI-RF and pre- and post-natal (...) PRF, and their role in mother-infant interaction and substance use as treatment outcomes. The participants were 57 treatment-enrolled pregnant mothers with SUD and 50 low-risk comparison mothers. AAI-RF was measured with the Adult Attachment Interview. For a subsample of 30 mothers with SUD, PRF was measured with Pregnancy Interview, and with Parent Development Interview at 4 months. Mother-infant interaction was measured with Emotional Availability Scales at 4 and 12 months, and maternal substance use by post-natal substance relapses. Prenatal AAI-RF and pre- and post-natal PRF were highly associated with each other. Only higher prenatal PRF predicted better mother-infant interaction quality at 4 months and less substance use during the child's first year. Interestingly, prenatal PRF and AAI-RF predicted opposite changes in mother-infant interaction: lower prenatal PRF, but higher AAI-RF predicting more positive change. AAI-RF was especially associated with a change in maternal intrusiveness and hostility, indicating that it represents a more general regulatory tendency. Further studies are needed in larger and lower-risk samples. Our results suggest, however, that AAI-RF and PRF are partially distinct and should be uniquely targeted in perinatal interventions. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung: Obwohl sich die „Philosophie der Stadt“ in den letzten Jahrzehnten dynamisch entwickelt hat, stellt sie noch keine klar konturierte philosophische Teildisziplin dar. Dieser Zustand birgt Chancen und Probleme: Die aktuellen Debatten sind vielschichtig und kreativ, die Potentiale verschiedener Theorien, Traditionen und Methoden zur philosophischen Erschließung der Stadt werden erprobt und kombiniert. Zugleich zeigt sich nach wie vor eine gewisse Unsicherheit hinsichtlich der genauen Ziele und Aufgaben einer Philosophie der Stadt sowie hinsichtlich ihres Verhältnisses zu anderen Disziplinen der Stadtforschung. Die (...) Einleitung in den Schwerpunkt gibt Einblicke in den Stand der Debatte, arbeitet auf dieser Basis drei Ansätze der Beschreibung der Ziele und Aufgaben einer Philosophie der Stadt heraus, und ordnet die Beiträge des Schwerpunktes in diese Systematik ein. (shrink)

This paper offers an account of Susan Haack’s philosophy of law and points out several aspects within the legal pragmatist tradition that deserve further discussion. Firstly, a systematic presentation of legal pragmatism as it is defended by Haack, who follows Justice Oliver W. Holmes here, is given. Secondly, the limits of an evolutionary perspective of law recommended by legal pragmatism are considered. Finally, the paper discusses whether legal pragmatism is able to handle different legal traditions, thereby focusing on Anglo-American common (...) law and European civil law. (shrink)

This major study examines the most fundamental categories in terms of which we conceive of ourselves, critically surveying the concepts of substance, causation, agency, teleology, rationality, mind, body and person, and elaborating the conceptual fields in which they are embedded. The culmination of 40 years of thought on the philosophy of mind and the nature of the mankind Written by one of the world’s leading philosophers, the co-author of the monumental 4 volume _Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations_ Uses broad (...) categories, such as substance, causation, agency and power to examine how we think about ourselves and our nature Platonic and Aristotelian conceptions of human nature are sketched and contrasted Individual chapters clarify and provide an historical overview of a specific concept, then link the concept to ideas contained in other chapters. (shrink)

The reception of Buffon's Histoire Naturelle in the Enlightenment has not received the historical attention it deserves. Drawing primarily on archival sources, this paper examines Aberdeen reactions to the Histoire during the period c. 1750–1800. As pedagogues, the Aberdonians endeavoured to maintain intellectual orthodoxy, and hence they attacked Buffon for his apparent materialism and atheism. Moreover, the Aberdonians rejected Buffon's critique of taxonomy because they based their natural history courses on classifications of the three kingdoms of nature, and because they (...) attempted to use classification systems in nosology and the study of the human mind. Finally, in the 1790s Aberdeen readings of the Histoire were profoundly affected by the fears aroused by the French Revolution. (shrink)

This chapter contains section titled: Baker's New Conception Waismann and Wittgenstein Wittgenstein on the Psychoanalytic Analogy Wittgenstein's Methodology Reconsidered Wittgenstein and Ryle 1: Categorial Confusions Wittgenstein and Ryle 2: Logical Geography Baker's Wittgenstein.

The relativistic three-particle systems are studied within the framework of Relativistic Schrödinger Theory, with emphasis on the determination of the energy functional for the stationary bound states. The phenomenon of entanglement shows up here in form of the exchange energy which is a significant part of the relativistic field energy. The electromagnetic interactions become unified with the exchange interactions into a relativistic U gauge theory, which has the Hartree–Fock equations as its non-relativistic limit. This yields a general framework for treating (...) entangled states of relativistic many-particle systems, e.g., the N-electron atoms. (shrink)

(2010). The Theatrical Satanism of Self-Awareness Itself. Angelaki: Vol. 15, shadows of cruelty sadism, masochism and the philosophical muse – part two, pp. 29-43.

Entertainments and celebrations are meant to give audiences and participants pleasure. Pleasure and enjoyment are an integral part of flourishing human life, and the desire for pleasure and enjoyment is a distinctive aspect of human nature. Psychological hedonism is a descriptive doctrine concerned with giving an account of actual human motivation. Ethical hedonism is a prescriptive doctrine that advances the view that human beings ought to pursue pleasure and avoid pain, that prospective pleasure and pain are severally the only good (...) reasons for action. ‘Pleasure’, ‘enjoyment’, and ‘being pleased’ are three graces that stand at the intersection of psychology, axiology, and practical reasoning. The relation between pleasure and awareness or consciousness of pleasure is subtle and unlike the corresponding relation to having a pain. To live the life of a practical hedonist is to live a life guided by the pursuit of pleasure. (shrink)