Consciousness Beyond Neural Fields: Expanding the Possibilities of What Has Not Yet Happened

In the field theories in physics, any particular region of the presumed space-time continuum and all interactions between elementary objects therein can be objectively measured and/or accounted for mathematically. Since this does not apply to any of the field theories, or any other neural theory, of consciousness, their explanatory power is limited. As discussed in detail herein, the matter is complicated further by the facts than any scientifically operational definition of consciousness is inevitably partial, and that the phenomenon has no spatial dimensionality. Under the light of insights from research on meditation and expanded consciousness, chronic pain syndrome, healthy aging, and eudaimonic well-being, we may conceive consciousness as a source of potential energy that has no clearly defined spatial dimensionality, but can produce significant changes in others and in the world, observable in terms of changes in time. It is argued that consciousness may have evolved to enable the human species to generate such changes in order to cope with unprecedented and/or unpredictable adversity. Such coping could, ultimately, include the conscious planning of our own extinction when survival on the planet is no longer an acceptable option.

Construction and validation of an instrument for classifying nipple and areola complex lesions resulting from breastfeeding

ABSTRACT Objectives: to construct and validate a classification of nipple and areola complex lesions resulting from breastfeeding, according to content and appearance. Methods: this is a methodological study, developed in four stages: operational definition, instrument construction, content and appearance validation. The Delphi technique and a Likert-type scale were used to validate content and appearance, through the participation of ten and sixteen judges, respectively. For analysis, Content Validity Index and Kappa Coefficient were applied. Results: Content Validity Index obtained an overall value of 0.93 and, for appearance, 0.94. Kappa values ranged between 0.46 and 1. The high rates of agreement among judges demonstrated the quality of the proposed content validity. Conclusions: the Nipple and Areola Complex Lesions Classification Instrument developed obtained acceptable values of its indexes, proving to be valid in terms of content and appearance.

Mixed Depression: A Survey on Psychopathological, Diagnostic, and Therapeutic Approaches among a Sample of Italian Psychiatrists

Background: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (5th edition) introduced the specifier “with Mixed Features” to the diagnosis of Major Depressive Episode to designate the presence of (hypo) manic symptoms as part of the clinical presentation. This change has led to renewed attention on the operational definition, diagnosis, and treatment of Mixed Depression. Objective: To investigate the diagnostic and therapeutic approaches towards Mixed Depression among a representative sample of Italian psychiatrists. Methods: Between March and April 2021, 342 psychiatrists working in Italian adult mental health services were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey comprising 32 questions designed to investigate clinical and psychopathological approaches regarding the management of mixed depression in daily psychiatric practice. Results: 83.74% of participants reported having performed a diagnosis of mixed depression in the last five years, with the majority of respondents affirming that they had not used any diagnostic tool. Only 7,5% of the surveyed psychiatrists considered the DSM-5 criteria to be fully adequate in the description of this clinical entity. The most used pharmacological approach was combined therapy, in particular antipsychotics plus mood stabilizers. For monotherapy, the preferred drugs were Valproate and Quetiapine. Regarding the conceptualization of mood disorders, 199 of the participants chose the Kraepelinian unitary spectrum view; meanwhile, 101 expressed their preference for the binary model. Conclusion: Our results suggest a prominent position of mixed depression in the context of mood disorders. Univocal operational criteria and additional research on pharmacological treatment are also needed to ensure the correct recognition and management of mixed depression.

Attack of the snowclones: A corpus-based analysis of extravagant formulaic patterns

The concept of ‘snowclones’ has gained interest in recent research on linguistic creativity and in studies on extravagance and expressiveness in language. However, no clear criteria for identifying snowclones have yet been established, and detailed corpus-based investigations of the phenomenon are still lacking. This paper addresses this research gap in a twofold way: On the one hand, we develop an operational definition of snowclones, arguing that three criteria are decisive: (i) the existence of a lexically fixed source construction; (ii) partial productivity; (iii) “extravagant" formal and/or functional characteristics. On the other hand, we offer an empirical investigation of two snowclones that can be considered ‘prototypical’ on the basis of previous literature, namely [the mother of all X] and [X BE the newY]. We use collostructional analysis and distributional semantics to explore the partial productivity of both patterns’ slot fillers. In sum, we argue that the concept of snowclones, if properly defined, can contribute substantially to our understanding of creative language use, especially regarding the question of how social,cultural, and interpersonal factors influence the choice of more or less salient linguistic constructions.

Conflict of interest: dialectics of a normative “tiered structure”

Objective: to carry out a legal and dogmatic analysis of the legislative structure of the “conflict of interests” concept and its constituent categories in order to ensure the applied tasks of effective law enforcement and prevention of corruption risks determined by a conflict of interests.Methods: the dialectical approach to the cognition of socio-legal phenomena, which allows identifying the unity of opposites in the legal categories that form the conflict of interests concept; the formal-logical method of scientific cognition, presented in the legal-dogmatic analysis of legislative norms; the method of operationalization of concepts.Results: the conducted comparative legal research, expressed in a combination of methods of analysis and synthesis of legal categories aimed at obtaining comparative knowledge, allows correlating their content with respect to the “conflict of interests” concept in proportion to the goals of law enforcement. A legal and linguistic analysis of legal categories has been carried out, the totality of which forms the content of the “conflict of interests” concept. Abstract and definite norms of categories are highlighted in the context of the proof necessary to ensure their connection (presence and absence) with legal facts.Scientific novelty: the term “normative ‘tiered structure’” was introduced into the scientific circulation of legal science, which comprehensively reflects the operational definition of the complex socio-legal phenomena described in composite legal categories. The theoretically presented phenomenon of the normative “tiered structure” conflict of interest in the discreteness of its constituent concepts and dispositive legal categories causes high risks of distortion or erroneous interpretations. These risks are formed out of court, initially registered in the decisions of the conflicts of interest settlement commissions. Prevention of such risks is ensured not only by the involvement of experts who, in addition to legal knowledge and professional-industry knowledge, also have moral and ethical foundations, the bearers of which are the arbiters of precedent law enforcement.Practical significance: the main provisions of the article can be used in practical activities to provide evidence of de jure manifestations of a conflict of interests. The revealed regulatory collisions and the incomplete legal regulation of public relations in the sphere of “personal interest” require improving the anti-corruption legislation in terms of simplifying the concept used for law enforcement purposes.

Social Representations and Individual Representations: What is the Difference? And Why are Individual Representations Similar?

This paper clarifies a long-standing ambiguity in the notion of social representations; it provides a clear operational definition of the relation between social representation and individual representation. This definition, grounded in the theory of sets, supports most current empirical investigation methods of social representations. In short, a social representation of an object in a population is the mathematical set of individual representations the individuals of that population have for this object. The components of the representation are the components used to describe this set, in intension in the mathematical sense of the term (in contrast with a definition in extension). Statistical techniques, as well as content analysis techniques, can construct such components by comparison of individual representations to extract commonalities, and that is what classic investigations on social representations indeed do. We then answer the question: how come that, in a given culture, individuals hold individual representations that are so similar to one another?

Impact of Different Operational Definitions of Sarcopenia on Prevalence in a Population-Based Sample: The Salus in Apulia Study

Background: In 2010, the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP1) issued its first operational definition to diagnose sarcopenia. This was updated in 2019 with a revised sequence of muscle mass and muscle strength (EWGSOP2). The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of these different operational definitions on sarcopenia prevalence in a representative population-based sample. Methods: For each algorithm, the prevalence of sarcopenia-related categories was calculated and related to sociodemographic and lifestyle variables, anthropometric parameters, and laboratory biomarkers. The present analysis used data from the Salus in Apulia Study (Italy, 740 subjects, mean age 75.5 ± 5.9 years, 54% women). Results: The application of the EWGSOP1 adapted algorithm resulted in 85% [95% confidence intervals (CI): 82–88%] non-sarcopenic subjects, 10% (95% CI: 8–12%) pre-sarcopenic subjects, and 5% (95% CI: 3–7%) sarcopenic/severe sarcopenic subjects. The sarcopenia-related categories were inversely related to weight and body mass index (BMI), particularly in overweight/obese subjects, and these categories showed favorable metabolic biomarkers. The EWGSOP2 algorithm yielded 73% (95% CI: 69–76%) non-sarcopenic subjects, 24% (95% CI: 21–27%) probably sarcopenic subjects, and 4% (95% CI: 2–5%) sarcopenic subjects. Conclusions: The present study identified BMI as a potential confounder of the prevalence estimates of sarcopenia-related categories in population-based settings with different EWGSOP operational definitions.

Defining Online Hating and Online Haters

According to a view widely held in the media and in public discourse more generally, online hating is a social problem on a global scale. However, thus far there has been little scientific literature on the subject, and, to our best knowledge, there is even no established scholarly definition of online hating and online haters in the first place. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide a new perspective on online hating by, first, distinguishing online hating from the phenomena it is often confused with, such as trolling, cyberstalking, and online hate speech, and, second, by proposing an operational definition of online hating and online haters based on ethnographic interviews and surveys of the existing scholarly literature.

Operationalizing Healthspan as an Outcome for Clinical Trials in Geroscience

Efforts targeting biological aging pathways are advancing interventions which could extend healthy lifespan. Design of clinical trials to test such interventions necessitates an operational definition of healthspan, such as slowed accumulation or progression of multiple chronic diseases, functional decline, and disability. In this talk we explore these composite measures of healthspan proposed as outcomes for clinical trials in aging. This will be examined in example cases including multimorbidity and deficit accumulation frailty indices in an 8-Year intensive lifestyle intervention trial, and an update on multimordbity, functional, and biomarker endpoints in the trial Targeting Aging with MEtformin (TAME). Through these examples we will explore issues related to effect sizes and statistical challenges related to composite endpoints. Finally, we will discuss the role existing and emerging biomarkers of aging in clinical trials in geroscience and summarize evidence linking biomarkers to clinically meaningful outcomes.

Contribution of Sensory Function to Preclinical Indicators of Physical and Cognitive Functioning With Aging

There are well established associations between sensory loss and physical and cognitive deficits with aging, but gaps remain in our understanding of the associations between sensory function and early preclinical indicators of physical and cognitive decline. This symposium will present data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) on a series of studies investigating the links among sensory function, motor function, and physical and cognitive outcomes in older adults. In the first study, Dr. Gross will present an operational definition of early cognitive impairment (ECI) based on a combination of two cognitive measures – the Card Rotations test and the California Verbal Learning Test Immediate Recall – to predict progression to MCI/AD. In the second study, Dr. Cai will evaluate the relationship between multisensory impairment (in vision, hearing, olfaction, proprioception and vestibular function) and the algorithmic definition of ECI. In the third study, Dr. Armstrong will evaluate the association between multisensory impairment and another biomarker of ECI or preclinical AD, specifically PET-PiB deposition. In the fourth study, Dr. Schrack, will present the joint contribution of multisensory (hearing and vision) impairment and motor function (gait speed) on risk of incident MCI/AD in longitudinal analyses. Finally, Dr. Martinez Amezcua will present the longitudinal association between hearing and vestibular function and decline in higher level physical function and endurance performance. Taken together, these studies present compelling data about the contribution of sensory function to preclinical indicators of physical and cognitive functioning with aging.