A Dominant Position as a Sign of Strategic Importance of an Economic Society

The paper analyzes regulatory legal acts governing implementation of transactions with securities, stakes, property or rights in relation to business entities that occupy a dominant position in a certain commodity market. The paper examines the issues related to the possibility of recognizing a dominant position as a criterion for classifying an economic society as an economic society of strategic importance for ensuring the country’s defense and state security (hereinafter: strategic importance) using as an example legislative restrictions on implementation of economic concentration in relation to organizations, providing communication services, port services, as well as in relation to natural monopolies. Based on the results of the study, a conclusion is made about the validity of modern approaches to establishing strategic importance of an economic society through the concept of a dominant position that over time can be transformed to use the concept of a dominant position as an independent criterion for establishing strategic importance of an economic society.

Cross-validating the Dot Counting Test Among an Adult ADHD Clinical Sample and Analyzing the Effect of ADHD Subtype and Comorbid Psychopathology

This study cross-validated the dot counting test (DCT) as a performance validity test (PVT) in an adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) clinical population and examined the effect of ADHD subtype and psychiatric comorbidity on accuracy for detecting invalidity. DCT performance was assessed among 210 consecutive adult ADHD referrals who underwent neuropsychological evaluation and were classified into valid ( n = 175) or invalid ( n = 35) groups based on seven independent criterion PVTs. The invalid group had significantly worse DCT performance than the valid group using both the standard and unrounded scoring procedure ([Formula: see text]). Classification accuracy was excellent, with 54.3% sensitivity/92% specificity at optimal cut-scores of ≥14 (rounded) and ≥13.38 (unrounded). Nonsignificant DCT performance differences emerged based on ADHD subtype or the presence/absence of comorbid psychopathology. The DCT functions well as a nonmemory-based PVT in an ethnoracially diverse ADHD population, supporting its clinical utility for detecting invalid neurocognitive performance during ADHD evaluations.

PSYCHOANALYTIC MANNER AND ITS RELATION TO THE LITERATURE

This research continues the methodological discussion between psychoanalytically-oriented therapists and their colleagues, who understand the point, the process and the influence of psychotherapy through a CBT-oriented lens. The central point of research is the question of connections between psychoanalysis and literature, or even, of psychoanalysis itself as a kind of literature. The key features of a psychoanalysts mode of thinking is to be found in the plane of aesthetics. It is proposed, that, unlike a CB-therapist, who mainly goes by the rational principles of cognition, a psychoanalyst is prone to experience the reality of psychotherapy in terms of literary aesthetics, and their attempts to verbalize their understanding of the patient is based on a literary perspective. There exists certain similarity between a writers work, as he tries to embody an imaginary character onto a page, and an analysts work, as he tries to incorporate his analytic intuition into a psychodynamic hypothesis and create a psychological portrait of the patient. Thus, the article is focused on the empirical exploration of therapeutic texts, made by therapists based on viewing an unstructured first-session interview, executed by therapists with different levels of psychotherapeutic education, experience and predisposition to psychoanalytic thinking. (For measuring said predisposition an adaptation of the Comparative Psychotherapy Process Scale(CPPS) has been carried out, its inner coherence and diagnostic validity have been established. The results of simultaneous independent criterion-based analysis of the produced texts by literary experts and psychoanalytic supervisors have shown, that the literary aesthetic is an a priory feature of the descriptions of psychoanalysts, and the more so, the higher the analysts therapeutic quality. This does not so much concern the artistic value of the descriptions, but the artistic taste: the ability to distinguish kitsch and artistic form, and the ability to integrate them into new gestalts on basis of sensual harmony. Thus, the evidence supports the claim, that artistic taste is a fundamental feature of a psychoanalysts therapeutic cognition. It is particularly the aesthetic ability of the analyst, which allows for the specific non-goal-oriented approach to his therapeutic influence, which gives room to the development of the true Self according to Winnicott, and further separates the therapeutic process from the goal-oriented therapeutic learning. Thus it is concluded, that the analytic process from the position of aesthetics may fall under the risk of devolving into forms of kitsch practices.

Lymphopenia predicts disease severity of COVID-19: a descriptive and predictive study

SummaryBackgroundCoronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a rapidly escalating epidemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. Identification of a simple and effective indicator to assess disease severity and prognosis is urgently needed.MethodsDynamic changes of blood lymphocyte percentage (LYM%) in 15 death cases, 15 severe cases as well as 40 moderate cases of COVID-19 patients were retrospectively analyzed. A Time-LYM% model (TLM) was established according to the descriptive studies and was validated in 92 hospitalized cases.ResultsResults from death and severe cases showed that LYM% in blood tests were inversely associated with the severity and prognosis of COVID-19. LYM% in moderate type of patients with COVID-19 remained higher than 20% 10-12 days after symptom onset. In contrast, LYM% was lower than 20% in severe cases. However, LYM% in severe cases was higher than 5% 17-19 days after the onset of the disease, while it fell below 5% in death cases. Accordingly, we established a Time-LYM% model (TLM), which was validated as an independent criterion of disease classification in another 92 hospitalized patients with COVID-19.ConclusionLymphopenia can be used as an indicator of disease severity and prognosis of COVID-19 patients. TLM is worth of application in the clinical practice.

New results on global asymptotic stability for a nonlinear density-dependent mortality Nicholson’s blowflies model with multiple pairs of time-varying delays

This paper is concerned with a class of Nicholson’s blowflies model involving nonlinear density-dependent mortality terms and multiple pairs of time-varying delays. By using differential inequality techniques and the fluctuation lemma, we establish a delay-independent criterion on the global asymptotic stability of the addressed model, which improves and complements some existing ones. The effectiveness of the obtained result is illustrated by some numerical simulations.

Experience, Understanding, and the Translational Transformation of Reality

The success of linguistic communication in general, and translation in particular, is dependent upon the veracity of our understanding of the meaning of concepts signified in or by a language or languages. This raises the question as to how such understanding may be accomplished and ensured. And while Platonists and their ilk rely upon the transcendental intuition of supposedly absolute concepts, purportedly inscribed in their souls, those skeptical of such metaphysics have tended to attempt to derive the meaning of the concepts signified by language ostensively from observations of the supposedly “Real” world. However, in this essay, I argue that this is problematic for a number of reasons, not the least being that, as Husserl, following Hume, has noted, even the existence, much less the nature, of a (quasi-Noumenal) “Real” world, outside or transcending our experiences of phenomenal “Appearances,” is no more empirically verifiable than is Plato’s transcendental realm. Nor may understanding of (the meaning of ) the concepts signified by the linguistic communications of others be derived from these appearances, since my understanding of how things appear to others presupposes my understanding of the language they must employ to communicate this to me. Furthermore, and contra Husserl, as Hermeneutic Phenomenologists such as Heidegger recognized, the very appearances from which we may seek to drive our concepts are always already mediated by our conceptions or preconceptions. All of this being so, then as we shall perhaps not be surprised to see, the (semantic meaning of ) concepts signified by language are, as de Saussure has argued, derived from the syntactic relations which delineate them. Consequently, as Derrida has shown, they change over time (or diachronically) as such relations change. Unable therefore to establish the veracity of individuals’ understanding of concepts communicated either within a single language, or between languages, by appealing outside language to an independent criterion of arbitration, we must instead rely upon the coherence of linguistic articulation and communication; a coherence which, although a necessary condition of ensuring the correspondence of our understanding with that of others, can never be sufficient to do so. However, confidence in our understanding increases with the specificity and number of communications achieved without the occurrence of incoherence.

Dynamics of clinical, X-ray and functional data during treatment of patients with sarcoidosis

Aim. To analyze the literature data and the results of original studies on the respiratory function in patients with sarcoidosis. Material and methods. The study included 1199 patients with sarcoidosis (67.8% women and 32.2% of males, median age 43 years). The first X-ray stage was documented in 34.8% ofpatients , stage II in 57.0%, stage III in 6.1%, stage IV in 1.3%, stage 0 in 0.7%. One patient (0.1%) had pleural sarcoidosis. Loefgren syndrome was diagnosed in 20% of the patients. In 658 patients (54.9%) the diagnosis was confirmed by biopsy studies. Results. The patients with sarcoidosis exhibited significant correlation between radiographic and spirometric characteristics. In those with Loefgren syndrome, all breathing parameters were much better than in the remaining ones. Changes of spirometry parameters were more pronounced in smokers and in patients with concomitant lung diseases. However, the lung function remained impaired after adjustment for these factors, and 9,7% of the cases positively responded to the administration of a short-acting bronchodilator. Х-ray examination and spirometry are independent methods for the evaluation of the health status of patients with sarcoidosis and their results do not always correlate with each other after different treatment regimens. Changes in Х-ray image and lung vital capacity were consistent in patients treated with prednisone, methotrexate and pentoxifylline, but not in the cases treated with vitamin E and in the absence of treatment. Spirometry with simultaneous X-ray examination is recommended for all patients with intrathoracic sarcoidosis. Conclusion. Forced vital capacity of lungs (FVC) is an independent criterion for evaluating the condition of patients with sarcoidosis and the effectiveness of the treatment.