Patient-Reported Outcomes in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Can Lupus Patients Take the Driver’s Seat in Their Disease Monitoring?

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that has detrimental effects on patient’s health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Owing to its immense heterogeneity of symptoms and its complexity regarding comorbidity burden, management of SLE necessitates interdisciplinary care, with the goal being the best possible HRQoL and long-term outcomes. Current definitions of remission, low disease activity, and response to treatment do not incorporate self-reported patient evaluation, while it has been argued that the physician’s global assessment should capture the patient’s perspective. However, even the judgment of a very well-trained physician might not replace a patient-reported outcome measure (PROM), not only owing to the multidimensionality of self-perceived health experience but also since this notion would constitute a direct contradiction to the definition of PROMs. The proper use of PROMs is not only an important conceptual issue but also an opportunity to build bridges in the partnership between patients and physicians. These points of consideration adhere to the overall framework that there will seldom be one single best marker that helps interpret the activity, severity, and impact of SLE at the same time. For optimal outcomes, we not only stress the importance of the use of PROMs but also emphasize the urgency of adoption of the conception of forming alliances with patients and facilitating patient participation in surveillance and management processes. Nevertheless, this should not be misinterpreted as a transfer of responsibility from healthcare professionals to patients but rather a step towards shared decision-making.

Predictive analytics in crime prevention and the European Convention on Human Rights: tackling risks in privacy and fair trial frameworks

In this paper, I discuss whether the European Convention on Human Rights provides safeguards to individuals affected by predictive analytics in crime prevention. I start with depicting a conceptual issue that worries legal scholars – the trend of law-enforcement authorities to increase their attention to crime prevention rather than traditional criminal investigations. Then, I dive into the right to privacy case-law of the European Court of Human Rights looking for the Court’s references to the threats of data processing. Lastly, I select concrete cases of the European Court of Human Rights on the right to a fair trial to show that the human rights safeguards are not yet developed to frame predictive analytics in crime prevention.

Adequate Interpretation of Socio-Political Values as a Conceptual Issue in the XXI Century (From the Perspective of the Concepts Used by B. Constant and A. Tocqueville)

The article analyzes the transformation of concepts like liberty, equality, and democracy depending on the political, historical, and socio-cultural context. The author proposes to trace the significant difference in understanding “universal” socio-political values by using the classical liberal theories of B. Constant and A. de Tocqueville compared to modern international political processes. The author uses comparative and historical analysis methods, and a cultural and axiological approach to studying the ideology and politics. The argument is that the ancient understanding of liberty was irrelevant for the society of the XIX century, just as B. Constant’s classical understanding of liberty no longer meets the changing socio-political needs of people living in the XXI century. It does not consider a fundamentally new sphere of human activity like freedom and privacy in the digital world. Recognizing the value of democracy, the author observes that today, A. de Tocqueville’s approach is more than adequate for understanding political processes. For example, the post-election information warfare in the United States in 2020 shows the relevance of the specific understanding of Tocqueville’s democracy as a profound process of total equality spread. The main conclusion is that the political values familiar to modern discourse often are interpreted inadequately to reality since scientific understanding is rigid and lags behind the rapid development of information technologies, globalization, and virtualization.

A New Definition of “Artificial” for Two Artificial Sciences

In this article, I deal with a conceptual issue concerning the framework of two special sciences: artificial intelligence and synthetic biology, i.e. the distinction between the natural and the artificial (a long-lasting topic of history of scientific though since the ancient philosophy). My claim is that the standard definition of the “artificial” is no longer useful to describe some present-day artificial sciences, as the boundary between the natural and the artificial is not so sharp and clear-cut as it was in the past. Artificial intelligence and synthetic biology, two disciplines with new technologies, new experimental methods, and new theoretical frameworks, all need a new, more specific, and refined definition of (the) “artificial”, which is also related to the use of the synthetic method to build real world entities and in open-ended (real or virtual) environments. The necessity of a new definition of the artificial is due to the close relationship of AI and synthetic biology with biology itself. They both are engineering sciences that are moving closer and closer, at least apparently, towards (natural) biology, although from different and opposite directions. I show how the new concept of the artificial is, therefore, the result of a new view on biology from an engineering and synthetic point of view, where the boundary between the natural and the artificial is far more blurred. From this, I try to formulate a brand-new, more useful definition for future understanding, practical, and epistemological purposes of these two artificial sciences.

GEOGRAFIA ESCOLAR, EDUCAÇÃO GEOGRÁFICA, AUTONOMIA DOCENTE E QUESTÃO CONCEITUAL: tecendo ligações

Este artigo apresenta algumas reflexões teóricas acerca do ensino de Geografia na educação básica, no intuito de problematizar a Geografia escolar enquanto leitura espacial de mundo. Entende-se que sua constituição requer que a atuação do professor e dos alunos, nos processos de ensino e aprendizagem, ocorra segundo as perspectivas da educação geográfica, cuja efetivação atrela-se à construção de discursos e de um vocabulário geográficos possíveis somente via apropriação conceitual. Identificou-se a autonomia docente como o meio, o elemento propiciador das possíveis ligações tecidas entre Geografia escolar, educação geográfica e questão conceitual, e propôs-se um desenho para tal tessitura. Espera-se que este texto contribua para a atuação docente geográfica autônoma e autoral e para a assunção do professor de Geografia enquanto sujeito epistêmico. Palavras-chave Geografia escolar, Atuação docente, Professor, Autonomia docente, Conceitos. SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY, GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION, TEACHING AUTONOMY AND CONCEPTUAL ISSUE: making connections Abstract This article presents some theoretical reflections about the teaching of Geography in basic education, in order to discuss school Geography as a spatial reading of the world. It is understood that its constitution requires that the performance of the teacher and the students, in the teaching and learning processes, take place according to the perspectives of geographic education, whose implementation is linked to the construction of speeches and some geographical vocabulary possible only via conceptual appropriation. Teaching autonomy was identified as the means, the element that facilitates the potential connections made between school geography, geographic education and conceptual issues, and a design was proposed for such organization. It is expected that this text will contribute to an autonomous and authorial geographical teaching performance and to the assumption of the Geography teacher as an epistemic subject. Keywords School geography, Teaching performance, Teacher, Teaching autonomy, Concepts.

Reward and emotion in the brain

Pleasure and reward are central for motivation, learning, feeling and allostasis. Although reward is without any doubt an affective phenomenon, there is no consensus concerning its relationship with emotion. In this mini-review we discuss this conceptual issue both from the perspective of theories of reward and emotion as well as human systems neuroimaging. We first describe how the reward process can be understood and dissected as intertwined with the emotion process, in particular in light of the appraisal theories, and then discuss how different facets of the reward process can be studied using neuroimaging and neurostimulation techniques. We conclude that future work needs to focus on mapping the similarities and differences across stimuli and processes that lead to pleasures and rewards and propose that an integrative affective sciences approach would provide means for studying the emotional nature of reward.

COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT OF EXPERT CONCLUSION IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

The authors of the article on the basis of analysis of scientific sources, forensic practice and legislation considers the conceptual issue of specifying the procedure of comprehensive evaluation of expert’s conclusion in criminal proceedings. There is a distinguishing features of this procedure is the following: the first stage examines the procedural form of the expert’s conclusion, the second – its content, the factual data on the basis of which the presence or absence of facts and circumstances relevant to criminal proceedings and subject to be proved. The criterion for assessing whether an expert’s conclusion is appropriate depends on the content of the conclusions provided to confirm or refute certain circumstances; confirmation of the reliability or inaccuracy of other evidence; the possibility or inability to use other evidence. The condition for the admissibility of an expert’s conclusion is compliance with the procedural form for conducting the examination and drawing up a conclusion, namely: compliance with the requirements of the criminal procedural law; due process registration of the appointment of the examination (decision, determination, petitions of the parties, etc.); the procedural independence and individual responsibility of the expert for the conclusion provided by him/her; immediacy of research; objectivity and reliability of the of the conducted research and conclusion; due documentation of the results of expert’s research. Objective reality indicates that doubts about the reliability of the expert’s conclusion will always be, however, if there are reasonable grounds for the unreliability of the expert’s conclusion, such a conclusion cannot be used in the process of proving. Consequently, there is a need for additional procedural actions aimed at obtaining data that confirm or refute the conclusion of the examination, among such actions is the appointment of a repeated examination. The dominant role in the criterion for assessing the sufficiency of evidence in the expert’s conclusion is played by the subjective conclusion of the initiator of the expert research, his/her inner conviction, which determines a different approach to the assessment of evidence in connection with a different level of knowledge and experience.

Housing Planning for Informal Settlements: Pante-Macassar (East Timor)

Regeneration of informal settlements is a topic being studied worldwide. Generally, cities comprise informal settlements, and consequently sustainability problems, requiring urgent actions. Often, the solutions regarding informal settlements do not adequately consider the local features, leading to difficulties such as environmental and public health deteriorations, weakening of housing access or troubles related to economic sustainability. Additionally, some housing programs don’t fit in community characteristics of social inequalities and poverty. In this sense, this paper intends to show the results of the development of a research methodology, to carry out strategies and to pursuit strategies of rethinking informal housing settlements, in an integrated and resilient way. It concludes with the application of a theoretical model to an informal neighbourhood in Pante Macassar, a city in the Oé-Cusse region of East Timor. The interest in this approach results from an ongoing Doctorate program in Civil Engineering at the University of Beira Interior, focused on the development of a set of good practice guidelines for the informal city regeneration. It aims to identify and assess informal and unhealthy features of urban settlements and their integration at city scale. The theoretical-conceptual issue addresses the informal settlements, comparing with formal housing programs.

Diverge Then Converge: A Strategy for Deepening Understanding Through Analyzing and Reconciling Contrasting Patterns of Reasoning

One of the challenges of teaching content courses for prospective elementary teachers (PTs) is engaging PTs in deepening their conceptual understanding of mathematics they feel they already know (Thanheiser, Philipp, Fasteen, Strand, & Mills, 2013). We introduce the Diverge then Converge strategy for orchestrating mathematical discussions that we claim (1) engenders sustained engagement with a central conceptual issue and (2) supports a deeper understanding of the issue by engaging PTs in considering both correct and incorrect reasoning. We describe a recent implementation of the strategy and present an analysis of students’ written responses that are coordinated with the phases of the discussion. We close by considering conditions under which the strategy appears particularly relevant, factors that appear to influence its effectiveness, and questions for future research.