Recent fMRI studies have shown that functional networks can be extracted even from resting state data, the so called “resting state networks” (RSNs) by applying independent component analysis (ICA). However, compared to fMRI, EEG and MEG have much higher temporal resolution and provide a direct estimation of cortical activity. To date, MEG studies have applied ICA for separate frequency bands only, disregarding cross-frequency couplings. In this study, we aimed to detect EEG-RSNs and their interactions in all frequency bands. We applied (...) low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography-ICA (LORETA-ICA) to resting-state EEG data in 80 healthy subjects using five frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha, beta and gamma band) and found five RSNs in alpha, beta and gamma frequency bands. Next, taking into account these frequency properties, five RSNs were identified; 1) the visual network, 2) dual-process of visual perception network, characterized by a negative correlation between the right ventral visual pathway (VVP) and left posterior dorsal visual pathway (DVP), 3) self-referential processing network, characterized by a positive correlation between the medial PFC and right VVP, 4) dual-process of memory perception network, functionally related to a negative correlation between the left VVP and the precuneus and 5) sensorimotor network. To detect aging-related changes of these five RSNs, the subjects were divided into three age groups: younger, middle aged, and elderly group, and Student's t test with Bonferroni correction on each coefficient of five independent components were performed. We found a significant attenuation in dual-process of visual perception network in elderly relative to middle aged subjects. Overall findings indicate that LORETA-ICA with EEG data can precisely identify five RSNs in their intrinsic frequency bands, and correct correlations and aging-related changes between and within RSNs. (shrink)

Em 2022 teremos uma celebração muito especial para a Música Popular Brasileira. O icônico disco “Clube da Esquina”, de Milton Nascimento e Lô Borges, completará 50 anos de lançado. O álbum apresentou ao mundo mais do que o resultado de uma parceria musical de rara beleza; ele foi uma espécie de marco zero de um movimento artístico e existencial nascido na bucólica Belo Horizonte da segunda metade da década de 1960, envolvendo amigos, música, cinema e literatura.

Desde que foram criados pelos sumérios há mais de 5 mil anos, os livros sempre aterrorizaram os ocupantes do topo de quaisquer formas de poder. Neles estiveram e continuam sendo guardados os sonhos, as ideias, os projetos e as ações da humanidade em todas as vertentes possíveis, sejam eles libertadores e instigantes para as transformações positivas do mundo e do próprio ser humano, sejam eles os caminhos opostos da destruição e da opressão. [...].

Ainda que possa ser visto como clichê sob diversos aspectos, o filme “O Céu da Meia-Noite” (dirigido e protagonizado por George Clooney para a Netflix) traz temas reflexivos na perspectiva existencial. Lançado em dezembro de um ano doloroso para a humanidade, ele teve as suas gravações encerradas pouco antes do início da pandemia, ainda que traga uma atmosfera tão soturna quanto a deste momento histórico.

Quando assisti pela primeira vez a “Sociedade dos Poetas Mortos”, em 1989 (ano de lançamento no cinema), a história protagonizada pelo saudoso Robin Williams me comoveu profundamente. Naquela época eu caminhava rumo aos meus 20 anos, quando a vida ainda parece uma areia movediça e o futuro, uma eternidade. Eu ainda estava na Faculdade de Filosofia da UFBA, em Salvador, preparando-me para ser professor.

Opinion is divided about the certainty of the evidence base for gender-affirming medical interventions in youth. Proponents claim that these treatments are well supported, while critics claim the poor-quality evidence base warrants extreme caution. Psychotherapy is one of the only available alternatives to the gender-affirming approach. Discussion of the treatment of gender dysphoria in young people is generally framed in terms of two binary approaches: affirmation or conversion. Psychotherapy/exploratory therapy offers a treatment option that lies outside this binary, although it (...) is mistakenly conflated with conversion therapies. Psychotherapy does not impose restrictive gender stereotypes, as is sometimes claimed, but critically examines them. It empowers young people to develop creative solutions to their difficulties and promotes agency and autonomy. Importantly, an exploratory psychotherapeutic process can help to clarify whether gender dysphoria is a carrier for other psychological or social problems that may not be immediately apparent. Psychotherapy can therefore make a significant contribution to the optimal, ethical care of gender-dysphoric young people by ensuring that patients make appropriate, informed decisions about medical interventions which carry risks of harm and have a contested evidence base. (shrink)

O início da terceira década do século 21, tão marcado pela globalização tecnológica e virtualização das relações humanas, ainda mantém fortes laços com o obscurantismo religioso da Idade Média. Com outra roupagem, o fanatismo de muitos cristãos das mais variadas igrejas eterniza sentimentos e ações que acreditávamos superados há séculos. A intolerância religiosa, normalmente carregada de outras tantas intolerâncias na pauta moral, revela com clareza que a caça às bruxas nos tempos da chamada Santa Inquisição foi atualizada com sucesso. O (...) Brasil, por exemplo, vive um de seus piores momentos históricos neste sentido, principalmente pelos recorrentes ataques furiosos às religiões de matriz africana e crimes de agressão e morte contra as chamadas minorias sociais. (shrink)

Revendo recentemente o ótimo filme “A Vila”, do diretor indiano M. Night Shyamalan (o mesmo diretor de “O Sexto Sentido”, “Corpo Fechado” e “Sinais”), é possível entender os motivos que levaram os fundadores do vilarejo fictício a criar um mundo à parte para as futuras gerações. O filme, de 2004, é inserido no gênero “suspense” por conta de sua história central em torno de uma lenda sobre criaturas aterradoras que vivem na floresta. Estas são o empecilho para que os moradores (...) cultivem o desejo de deixar o único lugar que conhecem. (shrink)

"Some patients find it difficult to be in the present because they are stuck in the past; others, by contrast, struggle to remain connected with the past and are suspended in a so-called present that is effectively atemporal, that is out of time”.1 For psychoanalysts, the most profound and ultimately ethical way that we can help individuals, is by helping them know themselves. This involves discovering how they were shaped by their past and how their ongoing self-experience cannot be understood (...) in isolation from its constitutive contexts. Psychoanalysts help patients explore foundational questions such as: ‘Who am I?’ ‘How did I get here?’ ‘How am I implicated in my own suffering?’ ‘How can I grow and flourish and truly engage with my life?’. The answers to these questions emerge from a detailed exploration of the persons lived relational history, their current social and relational context and the political systems within which they are embedded. It is via this expansion of self-awareness that individuals can access agency and true freedom of choice. The clinical approach presented by Notini et al 2 is grounded in a completely different, radically decontextualised understanding of human experience. Their conceptualisation of Phoenix’s gender identity is ahistorical and atemporal: it is indeed ‘out of time’. For these authors, gender identity is assumed to be an immutable core essence, much like Ehrensaft’s3 ‘true gender self….there from birth’. It simply ‘is’. This is a …. (shrink)

Mais de duas décadas após o seu lançamento, em 1999, o primeiro filme da trilogia Matrix tem neste segundo ano da pandemia do coronavírus uma atualidade atordoante. Em muitos aspectos, a humanidade vive dias muito próximos do enredo surreal descrito nos três filmes, que revi recentemente provavelmente pela décima vez. A diferença é que a realidade sombria vivida por bilhões de pessoas nos quatro cantos da Terra desde março de 2020 não tem uma versão amena como a existente dentro da (...) Matrix. (shrink)

Previous research investigating handle-response compatibility effects with graspable objects used different categories of objects as stimuli, regardless of their specific, intrinsic characteristics. The current study explores whether different types of objects’ characteristics may elicit different types of spatial compatibility, that is, handle-response and response-effect compatibility as well as their potential interaction. In Experiment 1, objects having a graspable handle opposite to either a visible functional component (i.e.,handle-function objects: a teapot) or a latent functional component (handle-only objects: a pitcher lacking the (...) spout) were presented separately in different blocks. Both the handle and the goal-directed functional components of these objects were located on the horizontal axis. In Experiment 2, handle-only objects had a handle located on the horizontal axis and a latent functional component located on the vertical axis (e.g., a cup). In both experiments, participants were required to judge the material (plastic and metal) the object was made of. Results showed that the handle-response compatibility effect was sensitive to whether the actions consequences of object manipulation took place on the horizontal rather than on the vertical axis. (shrink)

A humanidade tem sido tomada por angústias tão sutis que, aos poucos, vai se dissolvendo – física e psicologicamente – como se estivesse sendo consumida de dentro para fora. Neste sentido a saída – ainda que imediata e provisória – é propor um jogo de Xadrez com a morte. Não à toa Ingmar Bergman escolhe o Xadrez como a forma da sua personagem desafiar “alguém” tão poderoso. O jogo é um chamamento à razão, à luz capaz de organizar as ideias (...) e dar um rumo à vida. (shrink)

“Não existe ninguém que não esteja mais próximo da morte depois de um ano que antes dele, amanhã mais do que hoje, hoje mais do que ontem, pouco depois mais do que agora e agora pouco mais do que antes”. Neste trecho do livro “Cidade de Deus”, um dos mais importantes filósofos da Idade Média – Santo Agostinho (354-430) – enfatiza uma velha constatação da humanidade, mas que a angustia em qualquer época.

Recent studies suggest that covering the face inhibits the recognition of identity and emotional expressions. However, it might also make the eyes more salient, since they are a reliable index to orient our social and spatial attention. This study investigates whether the pervasive interaction with people with face masks fostered by the COVID-19 pandemic modulates the processing of spatial information essential to shift attention according to other’s eye-gaze direction, and whether this potential modulation interacts with motor responses. Participants were presented (...) with face cues orienting their gaze to a congruent or incongruent target letter location while wearing a surgical mask, a patch, or nothing. The task required to discriminate the identity of the lateralized target letters by pressing one of two lateralized response keys, in a corresponding or a non-corresponding position with respect to the target. Results showed that GCE was not modulated by the presence of the Mask, but it occurred in the No-Mask condition, confirming previous studies. Crucially, the GCE interacted with Simon effect in the Mask and Control conditions, though in different ways. While in the Mask condition the GCE emerged only when target and response positions corresponded, in the Control condition it emerged only when they did not correspond. These results indicate that people with face masks induce us to jointly orient our visual attention in the direction of the seen gaze in those conditions resembling a general approaching behavior. This is likely promoted by the fact that we tend to perceive wearing the mask as a personal safety measure and, thus, someone wearing the face mask is perceived as a trustworthy person. In contrast, people with a patch on their face can be perceived as more threatening, therefore inducing a GCE in those conditions associated with a general avoidance behavior. (shrink)

Sentences such as "The author started the book" are indeterminate because they do not make explicit what the subject (the author) started doing with the object (the book). In principle, indeterminate sentences allow for an infinite number of interpretations. One theory, however, assumes that these sentences are resolved by semantic coercion, a linguistic process that forces the noun "book" to be interpreted as an activity (e.g., writing the book) or by a process that interpolates this activity information in the resulting (...) enriched semantic composition. An alternative theory, pragmatic, assumes classical semantic composition, whereby meaning arises from the denotation of words and how they are combined syntactically, with enrichment obtained via pragmatic inferences beyond linguistic-semantic processes. Cognitive neuroscience studies investigating the neuroanatomical and functional correlates of indeterminate sentences have shown activations either at the ventromedial pre-frontal cortex or at the left inferior frontal gyrus. These studies have supported the semantic coercion theory assuming that one of these regions is where enriched semantic composition takes place. Employing fMRI, we found that indeterminate sentences activate bilaterally the superior temporal gyrus, the right inferior frontal gyrus, and the anterior cingulate cortex, more so than control sentences ("The author wrote the book"). Activation of indeterminate sentences exceeded that of anomalous sentences ("…drank the book") and engaged more left- and right-hemisphere areas than other sentence types. We suggest that the widespread activations for indeterminate sentences represent the deployment of pragmatic-inferential processes, which seek to enrich sentence content without necessarily resorting to semantic coercion. (shrink)

Discussions about abstraction are so important and so profound that this topic can hardly be neglected. It has inevitably cropped up again in various periods of philosophical enquiry. Despite these ancient roots and after the great debate that characterised the empirical and rationalistic tradition, interest in the problem has unfortunately been absent in large measure from the mainstream of mathematical logic and analytic philosophy. It seems that there is a gap between the epistemological theorization, in which it is difficult to (...) find new insights on the problem of abstraction, and the historical studies concerning the development of philosophical thought. Such studies, however, present a more fertile ground for such insights. Here the reader will find presented for the first time a collection of papers about the topic, considered from an historical point of view together with an awareness of the need for building a bridge between historical research and theoretical speculation. Accordingly the volume consists of both general overviews which sketch the signifcance and the fortunes of abstraction in science, philosophy and logic (the first part) and historical case studies which focus on abstraction in particular thinkers (the second part). This volume is of interest for both general philosophers and historians of philosophy. (shrink)

Dentre os movimentos religiosos do século XI, destaca-se o de Roberto d' Arbrissel, fundador da Ordem de Fontevraud, na qual conviviam homens e mulheres, cabendo a estas a direção. O projeto não teve longa duração em uma igreja de celibatários misóginos, e Roberto, apesar de suas virtudes, não foi canonizado.

General knowledge of the role of vitamin D3 in human physiology has been shaped by its discovery as a preventive agent of nutritional rickets, a defect in bone development due to inadequate uptake of dietary calcium. Studies on the function of the hormonal form of vitamin D3, 1α,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3, have been greatly accelerated by the molecular cloning and structural analysis of the vitamin D3 receptor, which is a ligand‐activated regulator of gene transcription. Molecular genetic techniques including genomics have helped reveal (...) that 1α,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3 can control more than calcium homeostasis. It has widespread effects on cellular differentiation and proliferation, and can modulate immune responsiveness, and central nervous system function. Moreover, accumulating epidemiological and molecular evidence suggests that 1α,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3 acts as a chemopreventive agent against several malignancies including cancers of the prostate and colon. Here, we survey the most‐recent findings and discuss their implications for the potential therapeutic uses of vitamin D analogues. BioEssays 26:21–28, 2004. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The informed consent process is the legal embodiment of the fundamental right of the individual to make decisions affecting his or her health., and the patient’s permission is a crucial form of respect of freedom and dignity, it becomes extremely important to enhance the patient’s understanding and recall of the information given by the physician. This statement acquires additional weight when the medical treatment proposed can potentially be detrimental or even fatal. This is the case of thalassemia patients pertaining to (...) class 3 of the Pesaro classification where Allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation remains the only potentially curative treatment. Unfortunately, this kind of intervention is burdened by an elevated transplantation-related mortality risk , equal to 30% according to published reports. In thalassemia, the role of the patient in the informed consent process leading up to HSCT has not been fully investigated. This study investigated the hypothesis that information provided by physicians in the medical scenario of HSCT is not fully understood by patients and that misunderstanding and communication biases may affect the clinical decision-making process. (shrink)

This paper reassesses Sismondi's Nouveaux principes d?économie politique (1819) by locating the origins of his unorthodox political economy in the republican tradition of thought. Deeply influenced by both Smith and Rousseau, Sismondi first expounded his republican creed in a political treatise, Recherches sur les constitutions des peuples libres (1797?1801). He was in favour of a balanced constitution combined with public virtue. Sismondi's major historical work, the Histoire des républiques italiennes du Moyen Age (1807?1818), amounts to a tribute to the liberty (...) and patriotism brought about by republican governments. After a brief examination of De la richesse commerciale (1803), the third section of the paper is devoted to a close analysis of the Nouveaux principes. The foci of interest are Sismondi's views on property, commercial wealth, work and leisure, division of labour, consumption and luxury, paper money and public credit, and citizenship. The paper concludes by suggesting that Sismondi managed to transform Genevan republicanism into a set of ideas which has nourished economic radicalism up to the present. (shrink)

Monetary intelligence theory asserts that individuals apply their money attitude to frame critical concerns in the context and strategically select certain options to achieve financial goals and ultimate happiness. This study explores the dark side of monetary Intelligence and behavioral economics—dishonesty. Dishonesty, a risky prospect, involves cost–benefit analysis of self-interest. We frame good or bad barrels in the environmental context as a proxy of high or low probability of getting caught for dishonesty, respectively. We theorize: The magnitude and intensity of (...) the relationship between love of money and dishonest prospect may reveal how individuals frame dishonesty in the context of two levels of subjective norm—perceived corporate ethical values at the micro-level and Corruption Perceptions Index at the macro-level, collected from multiple sources. Based on 6382 managers in 31 geopolitical entities across six continents, our cross-level three-way interaction effect illustrates: As expected, managers in good barrels, mixed barrels, and bad barrels display low, medium, and high magnitude of dishonesty, respectively. With high CEV, the intensity is the same across cultures. With low CEV, the intensity of dishonesty is the highest in high CPI entities —the Enron Effect, but the lowest in low CPI entities. CPI has a strong impact on the magnitude of dishonesty, whereas CEV has a strong impact on the intensity of dishonesty. We demonstrate dishonesty in light of monetary values and two frames of social norm, revealing critical implications to the field of behavioral economics and business ethics. (shrink)

Dans cet article, nous essayons de rendre compte de l’importance d’un principe qui commande une partie significative de la philosophie de l’histoire de Jan Patočka : l’histoire est caractérisée par une alternance d’essors et de déclins, alternance qui est déterminée par la tentative de l’existence de s’élever au-dessus des simples impératifs vitaux et par le risque toujours présent de retomber dans ce que Patočka appelle le projet de la « vie nue », enchaînée à elle-même. Ce principe s’appuie à son (...) tour sur la thèse suivant laquelle la finalité du mouvement vital est la recherche de sa propre conservation et reproduction. Nous analysons la présence de ces thèses patočkiennes à trois niveaux : le rôle du mouvement vital dans le mouvement de l’existence et notamment dans le travail ; le passage de la pré-histoire à l’existence historique proprement dite ; la description de deux phénomènes marquants de la contemporanéité, à savoir la domination de la technique et la guerre. Nous concluons en soulevant quelques questions critiques, concernant en particulier l’ambiguïté de la notion de vie, qui prend de fait des figures différentes dans les textes patočkiens. (shrink)

Monetary Intelligence theory asserts that individuals apply their money attitude to frame critical concerns in the context and strategically select certain options to achieve financial goals and ultimate happiness. This study explores the bright side of Monetary Intelligence and behavioral economics, frames money attitude in the context of pay and life satisfaction, and controls money at the macro-level and micro-level. We theorize: Managers with low love of money motive but high stewardship behavior will have high subjective well-being: pay satisfaction and (...) quality of life. Data collected from 6586 managers in 32 cultures across six continents support our theory. Interestingly, GDP per capita is related to life satisfaction, but not to pay satisfaction. Individual income is related to both life and pay satisfaction. Neither GDP nor income is related to Happiness. Our theoretical model across three GDP groups offers new discoveries: In high GDP entities, “high income” not only reduces aspirations—“Rich, Motivator, and Power,” but also promotes stewardship behavior—“Budget, Give/Donate, and Contribute” and appreciation of “Achievement.” After controlling income, we demonstrate the bright side of Monetary Intelligence: Low love of money motive but high stewardship behavior define Monetary Intelligence. “Good apples enjoy good quality of life in good barrels.” This notion adds another explanation to managers’ low magnitude of dishonesty in entities with high Corruption Perceptions Index. In low GDP entities, high income is related to poor Budgeting skills and escalated Happiness. These managers experience equal satisfaction with pay and life. We add a new vocabulary to the conversation of monetary intelligence, income, GDP, happiness, subjective well-being, good and bad apples and barrels, corruption, and behavioral ethics. (shrink)

La question de l'articulation du général et du particulier n'a pas qu'une dimension épistémologique, elle commande aussi la résolution du problème du rapport entre théorie et pratique éclairée, et ceci dans la mesure où la pratique s'exerce toujours sur des processus ou des phénomènes individués. Après avoir réalisé un examen critique de trois tentatives de réponse à cette question — l'approche positiviste traditionnelle, celle fondée sur la notion de « modèle » et celle, weberienne, qui fait appel aux « types (...) idéaux » —, nous envisageons cette articulation comme rapport particulier entre concepts théoriques — portant sur des déterminations ou objets abstraits-formels —, et concepts empiriques — portant sur celles de la singularité des objets concrets —. Cette solution méthodologique est présentée via la construction d'un concept exemplaire, celui de « formation sociale », et l'analyse de son fonctionnement dans l'étude d'un cas concret, à savoir les sociétés latino-américaines.The articulation of the general and the particular is not a question merely of epistemology. It also comprises a relation between theory and enlightened practice to the extent that processes and individualized phenomena always take place in practice. In this paper we examine critically three approaches to this question of articulation: that of traditional positivism, that based on the notion of "model" and that of Weberian "ideal types". We propose that this articulation is a particular relation between theoretical concepts relating to formal abstract objects or determinations and empirical concepts relating to particular determinations of concrete objects. We illustrate this methodological solution with the concept of "social formation" examining the sense in which it applies to the concrete case of Latin American societies. (shrink)

This book assesses how Vatican II opened up the Catholic Church to encounter, dialogue, and engagement with other world religions. Opening with a contribution from the President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, it next explores the impact, relevance, and promise of the Declaration Nostra Aetate before turning to consider how Vatican II in general has influenced interfaith dialogue and the intellectual and comparative study of world religions in the postconciliar decades, as well as the contribution (...) of particular past and present thinkers to the formation of current interreligious and comparative theological methods. Additionally, chapters consider interreligious dialogue vis-à-vis theological anthropology in conciliar documents; openness to the spiritual practices of other faith traditions as a way of encouraging positive interreligious encounter; the role of lay and new ecclesial movements in interreligious dialogue; and the development of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue. Finally, it includes a range of perspectives on the fruits and future of Vatican’s II’s opening to particular faiths such as Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. (shrink)

In this paper it is argued that qualitative theories (Q-theories) can be used to describe the statistical structure of cross classified populations and that the notion of verisimilitude provides an appropriate tool for measuring the statistical adequacy of Q-theories. First of all, a short outline of the post-Popperian approaches to verisimilitude and of the related verisimilitudinarian non-falsificationist methodologies (VNF-methodologies) is given. Secondly, the notion of Q-theory is explicated, and the qualitative verisimilitude of Q-theories is defined. Afterwards, appropriate measures for the (...) statistical verisimilitude of Q-theories are introduced, so to obtain a clear formulation of the intuitive idea that the statistical truth about cross classified populations can be approached by falsified Q-theories. Finally, it is argued that some basic intuitions underlying VNF-methodologies are shared by the so-called prediction logic, developed by the statisticians and social scientists David K. Hildebrand, James D. Laing and Howard Rosenthal. (shrink)

Dans cet article on se propose d’examiner les fondements ontologiques de l’argument anti-hédoniste de Philèbe 53c4-55a1. On soutiendra que l’usage des notions de γένεσις et οὐσία dans cet argument ne montre ni un abandon de la thèse de l’opposition du sensible à l’intelligible, ni, pour autant, une application mécanique de cette thèse. On souhaite montrer, en revanche, que ces notions jouissent d’une relativité sémantique telle que leurs significations varient en fonction des contextes argumentatifs, dont le passage retenu du Philèbe est (...) un exemple particulièrement représentatif. Dans ce passage, en effet, elles désignent, principalement, pour la première un processus génétique et pour la seconde un tout qui est constitué par l’imposition causale d’une limite à ce qui est en soi illimité. Sur la base de cette première proposition, on défendra une nouvelle lecture de la relation entre Phlb. 53c4-55a1 et les caractérisations de chaque membre du « troisième genre » comme γένεσις εἰς οὐσίαν (26d8) et γεγενημένη οὐσία (27b8-9). (shrink)

Cette contribution témoigne de l’importance de la réception de la phénoménologie de langue française en Amérique Latine. En revisitant la thèse de la duplicité de l’apparaître – apparaître de la vie comme affect et comme force, apparaître du monde comme sens et distance –, Roberto J. Walton s’attache au concept fondamental de la phénoménologie de la vie, en mettant en avant des modalités dans lesquelles l’auto-affection opère sans hétéro-affection d’une manière avérée. Il précise d’emblée que cette auto-affection sans hétéro-affection (...) est définie par deux aspects : un premier « aspect de base » – ou rapport de fondation – en vertu duquel l’auto-affection est la condition de possibilité de toute intentionnalité ou ek-stase ; et un deuxième aspect « d’intensification ou d’excédence » qui renvoie à la phénoménologie de l’événement, en ceci que l’auto-affection y apparaît dans une sorte de plus-value, c’est-à-dire dans la condition de l’acte comme accroissement créateur. (shrink)

BackgroundEvidence suggests that organizational models that provide care interventions including patient support programs may increase patient adherence to multiple sclerosis therapies by providing tailored symptom management, informational support, psychological and/or social support, lifestyle changes, emotional adjustment, health education, and tailored coaching, thus improving patients' overall quality of life across the disease course.ObjectiveThe main objective of this study was to describe MS patients' self-reported experience of a nurse-led, telephone-based PSP and to explore its potential role in improving disease and therapy management (...) skills.MethodsSurvey data were analyzed from a subset of patients relapsing–remitting MS using interferon beta-1a already registered in the adveva® PSP from three Italian multiple sclerosis centers with a consolidated experience in RRMS disease, treatment management, and PSP programs.ResultsIn total, 244 patient data at baseline were analyzed, of which 115 had a follow-up of at least 6 months. Results from this study provide an early view into the role of this PSP in improving the patients reported overall experience regarding disease management and injectable therapy, thus potentially ameliorating treatment adherence and decreasing health care cost. Moreover, study findings confirm the role of providing a patient-focused support by addressing non-medication-related topics in the PSP consultations. Indeed, patients involved in the adveva® PSP program reported a better psychological status in the follow up as demonstrated by an increased optimism regarding their future, tolerance of disease uncertainty, and their perceived ability to benefit from external help and social support.ConclusionsAs such, it is reasonable to conclude that the involvement in the adveva® PSP and the PSP's assistance in guiding patients on proper treatment self-management techniques is of great value to patients as it might contribute to improving engagement in their health care journey in terms of perceived self-care skills, emotional coping toward the future and the unpredictability of the disease course and their general attitudes toward the injection itself, involving pain tolerance. (shrink)

À Quelles conditions générales doit s'astreindre une épistémologie de l'histoire si elle veut réellement construire une théorie adéquate à la complexité de son objet? Dans l'énoncé même de cette question s'exprime, bien entendu, un jugement sur ce que les analyses épistémologiques de l'histoire ont, jusqu'à présent, généralement fourni. Ces analyses renvoient à des conceptions différentes des conditions générales d'une épistémologie de l'histoire. Nous nous proposons: d'examiner ces conceptions; d'avancer quelques propositions concernant les conditions générales d'une épistémologie de l'histoire plus féconde (...) et plus adéquate à son objet. (shrink)

BackgroundBeta thalassemia major is a severe inherited form of hemolytic anemia that results from ineffective erythropoiesis. Allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) remains the only potentially curative therapy. Unfortunately, the subgroup of adult thalassemia patients with hepatomegaly, portal fibrosis and a history of irregular iron chelation have an elevated risk for transplantation-related mortality that is currently estimated to be about 29 percent.DiscussionThalassemia patients may be faced with a difficult choice: they can either continue conventional transfusion and iron chelation therapy or (...) accept the high mortality risk of HSCT in the hope of obtaining complete recovery.Throughout the decision making process, every effort should be made to sustain and enhance autonomous choice. The concept of conscious consent becomes particularly important. The patient must be made fully aware of the favourable and adverse outcomes of HSCT. Although it is the physician's duty to illustrate the possibility of completely restoring health, considerable emphasis should be put on the adverse effects of the procedure. The physician also needs to decide whether the patient is eligible for HSCT according to the "rule of descending order". The patient must be given full details on self-care and fundamental lifestyle changes and be fully aware that he/she will be partly responsible for the outcome.SummaryOnly if all the aforesaid conditions are satisfied can it be considered reasonable to propose unrelated HSCT as a potential cure for high risk thalassemia patients. (shrink)