Subjectivation, Modernity, and Hypermodernity

Modernity is an action, a work (deed) that transforms the relation between a human group and its environment. The notion of “subjectivation” is the way I define human societies’ discovery and their creative capacity. Meanwhile the nation/states’ withdrawal into themselves, the closure of the borders to the full scope of globalization, and the acceptance or refusal of migrants become the central issue of all sociopolitical conflicts, replacing the previous labor-based conflicts that have been at the core of the industrial society. Sociological analysis today addresses the fundamental issue: What is the future of democracy? The answer lies in criticism visà- vis the idea of states and institutions as agents of democracy, and the assertion of a social definition of democracy.

Faces of security. Radicalization of prisoners as a challenge for the future of security of the Polish penitentiary institutions

An issue that is essential to contemporary society is the question of state security and personal safety of the citizens. Therefore, the state has to deal with one of the most important threats, i.e. radicalization. The phenomenon of home-grown radicalism is known in Western European countries. The phenomenon of radicalization should not be identified solely with contemporary domestic Islamic terrorism. Radicalism is not limited to one ideology. The question about the process of acquiring extremist beliefs is one of the most important for political scientists, political psychologists, sociologists and criminologists. Wanting to deal with the etiology of the decision about a terrorist attack, the focus should be on the moment when potential terrorists start and undergo the process of radicalization. The article aims to signal the problem of radicalization in Polish penitentiary units. The authors do not provide the knowledge necessary to counteract this phenomenon in penitentiary units. However, they point to the definition problems, the theoretical model of radicalization, the place of radicalization in the European Union's policy. They also present the penitentiary unit as a place susceptible to radicalization. They formulate general remarks on combating radicalization among prisoners. They inform that the Prison Service should not be left alone in counteracting the radicalization of prisoners. It is an element of the state security system. It also cooperates with other entities in the rehabilitation of prisoners. The authors acknowledge that the way to prevent the negative effects of the radicalization process of prisoners is first of all training personnel in this field. It is also the fundamental issue to isolate prisoners who are a source of danger. In this area, the authors suggest that if the radical attitudes of prisoners are intensified, it is worth considering introducing legislative solutions facilitating faster and adequate operation of prison staff in such cases.

Forgiving Others and Compassion

The virtue of forgiving others and the virtue of compassion occupy a pivotal position in the core study model because they provide an important point of departure for explaining how spiritual support affects health. This fundamental issue is explored in three sections: (1) a theoretical rationale for focusing specifically on forgiveness and compassion is provided—in the process the social underpinning of these virtues is highlighted; (2) studies on the relationship between forgiveness and health as well as compassion and health are reviewed; (3) a submodel is introduced that aims to flesh out the nature of the relationship between spiritual support and these two social virtues is provided.

Geografia sociale e partecipazione. L’esperienza di #esserefiera

Social geography cannot be confined to a theoretical dimension, however necessary: it is expected to play an active role, to encourage encounters with social actors and stakeholders, to take on a dimension of public engagement. Even in Italy this dimension is increasingly important, as universities are placing a growing value on their so-called third mission. Social geography must then address the fundamental issue of participation and its techniques. In doing so, those who graduate in geography will also be able to claim an essential role in the management of decision-making processes and participatory planning. This paper explores some methods and approaches that younger geographers can use to build the ‘toolbox’ of their future profession, looking at a case study from the city of Palermo.

Chapter 3. Logic Meets Learning: From Aristotle to Neural Networks

The tension between deduction and induction is perhaps the most fundamental issue in areas such as philosophy, cognition and artificial intelligence. In this chapter, we survey work that provides evidence for the long-standing and deep connections between logic and learning. After a brief historical prelude, our narrative is then structured in terms of three strands of interaction: logic versus learning, machine learning for logic, and logic for machine learning, but with ample overlap.

Patriarchy as Institutional

In considering patriarchy as potentially institutional and as a characteristic also of contemporary Western societies, a fundamental issue concerns how to make sense of largely informal institutions to begin with. Traditional accounts of institutions have often focused on formalized ones. It is argued here, however, that the principal idea behind one commonly accepted conception of institutions can be developed in a way that better facilitates an explication of informal institutions. When applied to the phenomenon of patriarchy, such an approach can then also allow us to ontologically make sense of gray areas and hierarchies of authority, as well as the intersectionality of social positions.

Tuberculosis in the Elderly

The tuberculosis (TB) epidemic is most prevalent in the elderly, and there is a progressive increase in the notification rate with age. Most cases of TB in the elderly are linked to the reactivation of lesions that have remained dormant. The awakening of these lesions is attributable to changes in the immune system related to senescence. The mortality rate from tuberculosis remains higher in elderly patients. Symptoms of active TB are nonspecific and less pronounced in the elderly. Diagnostic difficulties in the elderly are common in many diseases but it is important to use all possible techniques to make a microbiological diagnosis. Recognising frailty to prevent loss of independence is a major challenge in dealing with the therapeutic aspects of elderly patients. Several studies report contrasting data about poorer tolerance of TB drugs in this population. Adherence to antituberculosis treatment is a fundamental issue for the outcome of treatment. Decreased completeness of treatment was shown in older people as well as a higher risk of treatment failure.

LENNA (Learning Emotions Neural Network Assisted): An Empathic Chatbot Designed to Study the Simulation of Emotions in a Bot and Their Analysis in a Conversation

Currently, most chatbots are unable to detect the emotional state of the interlocutor and respond according to the interlocutor’s emotional state. Over the last few years, there has been growing interest in empathic chatbots. In other disciplines aside from artificial intelligence, e.g., in medicine, there is growing interest in the study and simulation of human emotions. However, there is a fundamental issue that is not commonly addressed, and it is the design of protocols for quantitatively evaluating an empathic chatbot by utilizing the analysis of the conversation between the bot and an interlocutor. This study is motivated by the aforementioned scenarios and by the lack of methods for assessing the performance of an empathic bot; thus, a chatbot with the ability to recognize the emotions of its interlocutor is needed. The main novelty of this study is the protocol with which it is possible to analyze the conversations between a chatbot and an interlocutor, regardless of whether the latter is a person or another chatbot. For this purpose, we have designed a minimally viable prototype of an empathic chatbot, named LENNA, for evaluating the usefulness of the proposed protocol. The proposed approach uses Shannon entropy to measure the changes in the emotional state experienced by the chatbot during a conversation, applying sentiment analysis techniques to the analysis of the conversation. Once the simulation experiments were performed, the conversations were analyzed by applying multivariate statistical methods and Fourier analysis. We show the usefulness of the proposed methodology for evaluating the emotional state of LENNA during conversations, which could be useful in the evaluation of other empathic chatbots.

Non-Earning Management Measures of The Quality of Financial Statements

The quality of financial statements is the fundamental issue in terms of the reliability of the accounting conducted by those who prepare them. Since the beginning of the 21st century, and with the growing concerns regarding the data released in financial statements, the development of methods for testing the quality of financial reporting has been of great and growing importance.

Alpenprojekt

Alpenprojekt videos register the action of cutting the skyline in the alpine mountains. The footage was taken at different sites in the Alps. The cutouts evoke the European tradition from the 18th century to depict portraits with scissors and paper. A deliberate intent to apprehend the landscape within a unique line in a reduced dimension is the main issue in Alpenprojekt I and II. To react in the face of this specific landscape as an effort to embrace what is not controllable became a fundamental issue in the Alpenprojekt series of works. Alpenprojekt began with artistic research related to the southern German region closely connected with its physical landscape. Its representation was then perceived as a memory heritage of historical facts, either forgotten or intentionally lost. The entire project is called Trilogy of the Mountains, and it is related to memory and history. Trilogy of the Mountains comprises three phases: Alpenprojekt, based on the alpine landscape; the second one approaches Beckton Alps, an artificial mountain in east London; and the third part is related to artificial mountains made with war debris in Germany. Each piece of the Trilogy comprises a series of works. The project was initially developed based on landscapes where the notion of Romanticism is still present. Then the project was set toward the post-industrialization period—and finally related to reshaping the topography in Germany after WWII. In Trilogy of Mountains, the tension between natural and artificial is a central issue, being rather complementary than the opposite.