Are we Ready for a “Microbiome-Guided Behaviour” Approach?

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (04) ◽  
pp. 708-724
Author(s):  
ANDREA LAVAZZA ◽  
VITTORIO A. SIRONI

Abstract:The microbiome is proving to be increasingly important for human brain functioning. A series of recent studies have shown that the microbiome influences the central nervous system in various ways, and consequently acts on the psychological well-being of the individual by mediating, among others, the reactions of stress and anxiety. From a specifically neuroethical point of view, according to some scholars, the particular composition of the microbiome—qua microbial community—can have consequences on the traditional idea of human individuality. Another neuroethical aspect concerns the reception of this new knowledge in relation to clinical applications. In fact, attention to the balance of the microbiome—which includes eating behavior, the use of psychobiotics and, in the treatment of certain diseases, the use of fecal microbiota transplantation—may be limited or even prevented by a biased negative attitude. This attitude derives from a prejudice related to everything that has to do with the organic processing of food and, in general, with the human stomach and intestine: the latter have traditionally been regarded as low, dirty, contaminated and opposed to what belongs to the mind and the brain. This biased attitude can lead one to fail to adequately consider the new anthropological conceptions related to the microbiome, resulting in a state of health, both physical and psychological, inferior to what one might have by paying the right attention to the knowledge available today. Shifting from the ubiquitous high-low metaphor (which is synonymous with superior-inferior) to an inside-outside metaphor can thus be a neuroethical strategy to achieve a new and unbiased reception of the discoveries related to the microbiome.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 389
Author(s):  
Eleftheria Kampouri ◽  
Antony Croxatto ◽  
Guy Prod’hom ◽  
Benoit Guery

Clostridioides difficile is an increasingly common pathogen both within and outside the hospital and is responsible for a large clinical spectrum from asymptomatic carriage to complicated infection associated with a high mortality. While diagnostic methods have considerably progressed over the years, the optimal diagnostic algorithm is still debated and there is no single diagnostic test that can be used as a standalone test. More importantly, the heterogeneity in diagnostic practices between centers along with the lack of robust surveillance systems in all countries and an important degree of underdiagnosis due to lack of clinical suspicion in the community, hinder a more accurate evaluation of the burden of disease. Our improved understanding of the physiopathology of CDI has allowed some significant progress in the treatment of CDI, including a broader use of fidaxomicine, the use of fecal microbiota transplantation for multiples recurrences and newer approaches including antibodies, vaccines and new molecules, already developed or in the pipeline. However, the management of CDI recurrences and severe infections remain challenging and the main question remains: how to best target these often expensive treatments to the right population. In this review we discuss current diagnostic approaches, treatment and potential prevention strategies, with a special focus on recent advances in the field as well as areas of uncertainty and unmet needs and how to address them.


LingVaria ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2(32)) ◽  
pp. 119-129
Author(s):  
Aneta Wysocka

Prosody, Semantics and Style. On the Hierarchy of Levels of Equivalence in the Translation of Cabaret Songs (Case Study: Polish Versions of Fred Ebb's Money…) The article is a case study and contains a comparative analysis of four variants of the Polish translation of Fred Ebb and John Kander’s song Money… from the musical “Cabaret”. The author of the translation is Wojciech Młynarski, one of the most respected Polish songwriters of the second half of the twentieth century. In the study, an assumption is made that Młynarski, who repeatedly changed versions of his translation, sought to create the most faithful rendition of the songs from the musical for the needs of the Polish stage. His efforts can be observed at four levels of text organization. The translator aimed mainly for sound equivalence, i.e. conformity with the original song in terms of rhythm (word stress), rhyme (consonance) and voice instrumentation and, to a lesser extent, sound imitation. He also cared about pragmatic equivalence by rendering into Polish the original intentions, with particular emphasis on the modes of indirect communication, such as irony and satire. However, other aspects of equivalence remained in the background. Not everywhere the translator managed to keep the cognitive equivalence, i.e. convergence of imagery, by translating scenes and scenarios that were part of cultural knowledge into parallel ones and, more broadly, by trying to evoke similar images in the mind of the reader and listener. His efforts to achieve the effect of broadly understood stylistic equivalence were also noteworthy; only to a small extent they consisted in giving the right stylistic coloring to the individual lexical items which had their English equivalents, and they mainly boiled down to translating stylistic games that did not necessarily cover the same fragments of the song, though were usually based on the same mechanism (a clash between low and high style, absurdity). The analysis shows that the translator adopted tabular rather than linear approach to the original.


Sæculum ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-83
Author(s):  
Ionel Nariţa

AbstractBy „dispute” we mean an argumentative dialog where each of the two parts state opposite theses. Two sentences can be contrary if they have similar reference, but incompatible predicates (SIP – sentences with incompatible predicates). Usually, the disputes are solved using force in different ways, but that does not mean that the winner is right and his thesis is true. Therefore, we cannot evaluate a thesis on the ground of its success, but we need a reference mark for that. According to the Sophist school, the individual is the only reference mark, so any SIP is equally justified. The absolutist point of view claims that there is an objective reference mark and, consequently, the truth is, at its turn, objective and unique. Finally, the relativist orientation rejects any objective reference mark, but the right thesis is not arbitrary, as the sophists thought, it is true relatively to the state of the evaluator to a given moment. It follows that, for any evaluator, at a moment of time, only one SIP is true.


Author(s):  
Julian Le Grand ◽  
Bill New

This chapter examines the politics of paternalism. It first considers the question of whether the government can do better than the individual, outlining a set of justifications for government paternalism and showing how the state can intervene to improve the well-being of its citizens. It then discusses possible ways in which the government could be held to account to ensure that, in its paternalistic interventions aimed at improving its citizens' well-being, it does actually pursue the “right” agenda. It argues that the government can indeed raise the well-being of individuals who suffer from reasoning failure, even when allowance is made for possible reasoning failure among those individuals who constitute the government. However, democratic mechanisms must be put in place to ensure that the latter do not pursue their own agenda and turn the paternalistic state into an instrument of authoritarianism.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (12) ◽  
pp. 1507-1527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Schepici ◽  
Serena Silvestro ◽  
Placido Bramanti ◽  
Emanuela Mazzon

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, demyelinating, and degenerative disease that affects the central nervous system. A recent study showed that interaction between the immune system and the gut microbiota plays a crucial role in the development of MS. This review reports the clinical studies carried out in recent years that aimed to evaluate the composition of the microbiota in patients with relapsing–remitting MS (RR-MS). We also report what is available in the literature regarding the effectiveness of fecal microbiota transplantation and the role of the diet in restoring the intestinal bacterial population. Studies report that patients with RR-MS have a microbiota that, compared with healthy controls, has higher amounts of Pedobacteria, Flavobacterium, Pseudomonas, Mycoplana, Acinetobacter, Eggerthella, Dorea, Blautia, Streptococcus and Akkermansia. In contrast, MS patients have a microbiota with impoverished microbial populations of Prevotella, Bacteroides, Parabacteroides, Haemophilus, Sutterella, Adlercreutzia, Coprobacillus, Lactobacillus, Clostridium, Anaerostipes and Faecalibacterium. In conclusion, the restoration of the microbial population in patients with RR-MS appears to reduce inflammatory events and the reactivation of the immune system.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mark Prebble

<p>This thesis considers how best to administer redistribution policies. It focuses particularly on the information needed to assess relative circumstances, the implications of the government collecting such information, and processes by which the appropriate information may be assembled and assessed. In New Zealand, as with many other OECD nations, the Government's redistribution policies are administered through a range of different agencies, with duplication in some areas and gaps in others. An integrated approach to redistribution systems may offer a means to improve equity and efficiency. Part One discusses the assessment of relative well-being, and adopts the choice set as the intellectual device for this purpose. The time period for the assessment of income is examined in detail, with the conclusion that a long period should be used except where the individual is constrained to operate under a short time horizon. A new concept of "bankability" is developed as a means of identifying those operating under such constraints. Part Two uses the philosophical foundations of the value of privacy to develop a new statement of the right to privacy, such that everyone should be protected against the requirement to divulge information, unless that information is the "business" of another party. A view on the business of the state depends on one's ideology of the state. Since it is generally accepted in New Zealand in the late twentieth century that the state has a role in redistribution, the state has some right to collect information for that purpose. However, the rights of the state are moderated by the existence of a common law tradition of respect for individuals. A set of criteria for evaluating redistribution systems is devised in Part Three. These criteria, which include consideration of the information to be collected, individual control over personal information, and administrative simplicity, are then used to identify significant weaknesses in the systems currently used in New Zealand. The main problems identified are the collection of inadequate information, duplication, and complex institutional structures; the main virtue of the current systems is that information provided is only used for the purpose for which it was provided. An alternative approach is outlined which would address the problems while retaining the current protection of privacy interests. This thesis is a mix of inter-disciplinary academic enquiry and policy development. Part One is an amalgam of economic and philosophical approaches, Part Two involves philosophy and politics, and Part Three applies the theoretical considerations to issues of public administration.</p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-44
Author(s):  
E.S. Polishchuk

of psychological well-being features in students with different levels of role victimization. Role victimization shall be understood to mean such a strategy of victim relations, which is based on the individual predisposition to produce a particular playing or social type of victim behavior (playing and social role of the victim) (M.A. Odintsova). The article presents the analysis of psychological well-being of students with different levels of role victimization (N = 82, average age 21 years). "Auto-viktim» (N = 28), "victim» (N = 31), "non-viktim» (N = 23) groups were formed according to the level and nature of manifestations of the role victimization, and a comparative analysis of the level of psychological well-being and perception of the image of the world in these groups was made. The study shows that while level of role victimization increases, psychological well-being of students reduces and negative attitude toward the world forms. "Auto-viktim" students while facing difficulties play the role of victim, and "victim" students use social role. "Non-viktim" students have positive self-esteem, they are optimistic, easy to set goals and reach them. Also the article present an analysis of the peculiarities of the psychological well-being, the perception of image of the world, the level of role victimization in groups of male and female youth.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Jonathan Fredrik ◽  
Bagus Ardi Wibowo

Education plays a role in human life to prevent people from poverty, underdevelopment, and ignorance so that it is necessary to change the way of thinking of humans themselves to overcome these problems. The progress of the human mindset is a form of change and cannot be separated from the achievement of creativity. This article aims to describe and explain the use of mind maps in mathematics learning from a progressivism point of view through the learning process carried out from the primary and secondary education levels to produce creative products that can help students improve learning achievement through the role of the teacher as a facilitator and students as a learning center. This article uses literature study method, data is collected and analyzed as secondary data including books, journals and proceedings relevant to the topic. The results showed that the mind map method could be used by teachers and students to change the concept of thinking through active student involvement through the making of mathematics learning materials, addition and building space and the area of a circle in an attractive graphic form. Progressivism views that progress in thinking is a process of change and through the mindmaping learning method the concept of subject matter can be visualized in the form of a graphic infrastructure that can stimulate the right and left brains so that it can be useful to free students from the snare of rules when starting to learn. The conclusion of this study is a change in mindset that is in line with the viewpoint of progressivism philosophy is through a mind map learning model that can produce student creativity products and the role of the teacher as a facilitator can occur.


Author(s):  
Natalia Gorshkova ◽  
Victoria Ksenda

Modern economic science is developing dynamically under the influence of various factors. One of the new and relevant areas of economic research is nanoeconomics. Despite the relative novelty of this area of economic research, the foundations of theory and methodology have already been laid by a number of scientists. Nanoeconomics is defined as the individual’s economy and allows us to consider the determinants of its development, including the behavioral aspects of the individual directly affecting his economic activity. In the framework of this approach, the study of the individual’s financial behavior which directly affects the development of the financial system and the increase of country’s competitiveness becomes particularly relevant. The application of the institutional approach allows expanding the classification of financial behavior strategies adding a new type of tax behavior, which is defined as the individual behavior (incentive, protest, adaptive) associated with the obligation to pay taxes and fees, as well as the right to use tax deductions (property, social, investment). The analysis of the market of financial services, performance indicators of financial institutions, as well as tax payments and deductions shows that citizens think about their financial well-being and depending on various factors (psychological, sociological, economic, political) their financial behavior changes, which is confirmed by the analysis of statistical indicators.


2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clarissa Allen ◽  
Karine Sénécal ◽  
Denise Avard

While the realm of bioethics has traditionally focused on the rights of the individual and held autonomy as a defining principle, public health ethics has at its core a commitment to the promotion of the common good. While these two domains may at times conflict, concepts arising in one may also be informative for concepts arising in the other. One example of this is the concept of a “right not to know.” Recent debate suggests that just as there is a “right to know” information about one's genetic status, there is a parallel “right not to know” when it comes to genetic information that if communicated, could be detrimental to an individual's social or psychological well-being. As new genetic technologies continue to change the nature of genetic testing and screening, it is crucial that normative frameworks to guide and assess genetic public health initiatives be developed. In this context, the question of whether a “right not to know” may also be said to exist for populations on a public health level merits attention.


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