Introduction

The introduction describes Philodemus’ works, especially the On Poems (and its structure and content), and lays out the background, methods, and conclusions of the whole book. Certain background topics in Epicurean philosophy are discussed and applied to poetry, such as epistemology, the prolēpsis, and hypographai. These answer questions like “how do you we know this is a poem?” and “how do we know that this is a good poem?” as well as grounding and explaining the possibility of an Epicurean theory of poetry. Poems, generally, are nonprosaic language: specially composed language that communicates some content. That is, they are defined by their formal elaboration. Meter presents a special problem, and here it is argued that Philodemus assumed it would be present in any poem properly so called.

"Obesity in the City" – urbanization, health risks and rising obesity rates from the viewpoint of human biology and public health

In 2007, for the first time worldwide, more people lived in urban conurbations than in rural settlement structures. This advancing urbanization has dramatically altered the living situation, the use of space, as well as human behavior along with the health situation and disease burden. This process began in Europe as early as the 19th century, while developing and emerging countries in particular are currently exposed to increasing urbanization. The burden of disease is clearly altered by living in a confined space, by environmental pollution in urban areas, the impossibility of producing food oneself, and being lost in an anonymous crowd. While city air made people “free” in medieval times, it often makes them “sick” today. Obesogenic environments represent a special problem in urban areas. A lack of physical activity, adverse dietary habits, and stressful and unsafe neighborhoods increase the risk of becoming overweight and obese in urban centers. Recently, modernization in rural areas and an adaptation to urban habits there increase the obesity rates in rural areas in high-income as well as low- and middle-income countries, too. Within cities, marked spatial differences in the prevalence of overweight and obesity occur. In Vienna, Austria, overweight and obesity rates during childhood and adolescence differ markedly between the individual Viennese districts. Highest overweight and obesity rates occur in districts characterized by a low socioeconomic status.

Phase field model for electrically induced damage using microforce theory

In this paper, we present a consistent derivation of the phase field model for electrically induced damage. The derivation is based on Gurtin’s microstress and microforce theory and the Coleman–Noll procedure. The resulting model accounts for Ohmic currents, includes charge conservation law and allows for finite electric permittivity and conductivity distribution in the medium. Special attention is devoted to the case when the damaged region is a codimension-two object, i.e., a curve in three dimensions. It is shown that in this case the free energy of the model necessarily includes a high-order term, which ensures the well-posedness of the problem. A special problem setting is proposed to account for the prescribed charge distribution. Local features of the phase field distribution are illustrated with one-dimensional axisymmetric numerical experiments.

Problems of selecting an anticoagulant for secondary stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation

The article describes the urgent problem of ischemic stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation. It is proved that ischemic stroke in combination with AF is the most severe in terms of developing stable motor and speech disorders and disability. The frail older patients, as well as patients with swallowing disorders and reduced medical adherence present a special problem from this point of view. The most famous clinical studies on secondary prevention of cardioembolic stroke are RE-LY, ROCKET-AF, and ARISTOTLE. Based on subanalyses of randomized controlled trials, direct oral anticoagulants demonstrated a favorable efficacy profile in patients with atrial fibrillation and stroke/ transient ischemic attack, but the level of knowledge on each of them remained different. A number of advantages of rivaroxaban for primary and secondary prevention of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation, including the elderly and patients with cognitive impairments and swallowing disorders, have been demonstrated.

Mauritania: the Evolution of Political Structures

The Islamic Republic of Mauritania as an independent State emerged as a result of the collapse of colonial French West Africa, which included Mauritania. Its independence was declared on November 28, 1960. At the turning point of historical epochs, under the influence of national liberation movements on the continent and the general democratization of world government institutions, wide opportunities opened up for political activity, both for individual parties and movements, and for a particular individual. The pressure of foreign monopolies, the archaic social structure, internal political instability and the complexity of relations with neighboring countries have become serious obstacles to the development of Mauritania. During the years of independence, Mauritania has repeatedly experienced coups d’etat, which could not but have a negative impact on the entire socio-political spectrum of this West African country. Decades of French colonial influence has been reflected in the formation of political institutions in Mauritania, such as the Constitutional Council and the judiciary. Mauritania’s domestic policy has been based on racial and ethnic lines for many years. The protracted confrontation resulted in a conflict between the black population mainly in the south of the country and the traditionally Berber Arabs living in the northern regions, whose representatives held leading state posts. Each new head of state who came to power in post-colonial Mauritania, among the main tasks of domestic development, set the task of uniting various ethnic groups. Despite the obvious difficulties in solving this issue, the main tasks of the country’s leadership in the field of domestic policy are strict compliance with the current legislation in order to restore public confidence in state institutions and psychological restructuring of the consciousness of the vast majority of the population, aimed at developing a new attitude to domestic political life. In the 1980s, the country began a movement for the right of women to participate in the socio-economic sphere. But only in the 21st century did they gain the right to hold political office, although they are still required to live under Sharia law. At the level of public consciousness, the participation of women in politics and in other spheres of public activity is not approved. Traditional slavery is a special problem of socio-political development.

GENERAL PLANNING OF MINERAL RAW MATERIALS PRODUCTION COSTS AND ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF ORE DEPOSITS

Material production of mineral raw materials is accompanied by specific costs, the general consideration of which is necessary as part of long-term production planning. A special problem that accompanies the definition of these costs is that their planned consideration must be performed much earlier before the start of the production in question. Already in the phase of geological exploration and finding of the ore deposit, a projection of economic profitability must be made, which should enable the relationship between the market price of mineral raw materials and production costs, because the continuation of exploration depends on such a positive result. A special problem arises in the case when due to the low level of exploration there are not enough elements for cost definition of future production. This paper analyzes the application of the method of economic evaluation of deposits, as a complex system of sets of factors and sets of indicators, which allows direct, or in combination with the method of analogy, general view of the costs of future mineral production.

The Nature of Offence

The experience of suffering offence relates to a constellation of unpleasant feelings stirred up when one’s expectations of being treated in a certain way are frustrated. This chapter explores how the nature of offence matters for the way the law responds to offensive conduct. Prohibiting speech which offends poses a special problem because it clashes with the free speech principle, i.e. the idea that there is something particularly important in being allowed to speak our minds, which sets free expression apart from a general liberty claim to choose a way of life. It is suggested that when deciding what should count as properly offensive for the purpose of exercising state coercion, only a very narrow definition of offensive speech is compatible with the values underlying freedom of expression. Then, offensive speech is distinguished from hate speech. As the two are morally different, it is inappropriate to borrow arguments from the hate speech debate to justify restrictions on offensive speech.

Formation of a human-centric approach to the prevention of torture in Ukraine

The paper is concerned with the role of key international human rights standards and soft law instruments of the Council of Europe in the preventing ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in the context of the human centrist approach. The paper determine the purpose of the formation of human-centric legal ideology in Ukraine, which is the creation of a mechanism of effective restriction of public power in the interests of protecting the fundamental rights. The paper is dedicated to the doctrine of human-centric legal ideology in Ukraine and its human dignity key element. Considering the fact that the process of forming a democratic human-centric legal ideology in Ukraine is still not complete, the paper highlights the cases of mass violations of fundamental human rights by law enforcement agencies, where a special problem is the illegal practice of law enforcement agencies against human dignity. One of its case is the ill-treatment and use of torture against persons deprived of their liberty. The paper highlights the ways to protect the right to dignity through the prism of legislative activity of government bodies and advocacy of civil society institutions. The Article 28 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which establishes the right to respect for human dignity as one of the key values of the Ukrainian legal system, is revealed. The category of dignity is revealed through the prism of Articles 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10, 1948, Articles 7 and 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of December 16, 1966 and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights of November 4, 1950. Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, acts of the European Committee against Torture.

Diagnosis and Surgical Principles in the Treatment of Acute Injuries of the Flexor Tendons of the Hand

Injuries to the flexor tendons of the wrist are a separate chapter in wrist surgery. Flexor tendon injuries still remain a challenge to ensure the patient's optimal outcome. A special problem in the exploration of hand injuries is the accurate assessment of whether there is an injury to one or more tendons, at what height the injury is, and whether it is accompanied by injury to other elements of the hand. On the volar side of the hand, both flexors of the fingers, superficial and deep, or just one of them, maybe injured. If the lesion is in the first zone depending on the severity of the injury, reinsertion or direct tenography is required. In the second zone, there are still ambiguous views on the reconstruction of the deep and superficial flexor, ie. whether the surface flexor needs to be reconstructed. Injury to the flexor tendons in the third zone requires careful exploration for possible injury to the neurovascular elements, and the fourth zone often requires the release of the carpal tunnel. In the most proximal zone of the flexor tendons, the fifth zone, injury to the main blood vessels of the hand and the nerves responsible for sensitive and motor innervation of the hand is possible. Each injury should be approached with careful preoperative examination, appropriate operative technique as well as postoperative rehabilitation in order to fully restore the function of the hand.