Stranded Modernity

High modernity claims that the modernity project gave rise to institutional organs of modern nation states, culminating in an emergence of ultra-military states with wartime economy in the early twentieth century. It also argues that the same developmental pattern continued to dominate in the post-World War II period. This chapter examines this high-modernity thesis, employing Japan and Hiroshima as cases to be analyzed. Against the high-modernity thesis, many believe that Japan had a historical disjuncture in 1945, being ultramilitary before the end of World War II and a peaceful nation after. Examinations show that, while the modernity project controlled a large-scale historical process in Japan, it met vehement resistance, and became stranded in Hiroshima.

Acquiring the cardinal knowledge of number words: A conceptual replication

Understanding the way in which counting represent numerosities was shown to be a long-lasting process. As shown in the Give-a-number task, acquiring the meanings of verbal number words goes through successive developmental stages in which children first learn the cardinal meanings of small number words one at a time before generalizing the cardinal principle they have induced from the first three number words to all number words within their counting range. This acquisition would take about a year, and would be completed by the age of 3 ½ years. The aim of the present study was to provide a conceptual replication of the developmental sequence described in Wynn’s study nearly 30 years ago using the Give-a-number task. A first cross-sectional study was conducted on 213 Belgian children aged between 39 and 74 months using the Give-a-number task to examine the developmental pattern and the influence of age on this acquisition. The time span of acquisition was examined in a second study in which 34 children were tested five times every months between the age of 36 to 52 months. Results showed that acquiring the cardinal meanings of number words spread out over a protracted period, far more extended than assumed by Wynn. Furthermore, children do not generalize all-at-once to large number words, the cardinal knowledge they learned on small number words. Rather, number words were found to be learned one at a time in a really progressive manner. Results were discussed with regard to their implications for the existing theories and in relation with other tasks assessing the acquisition of verbal number symbols.

Transfer of the monospecific genus Nienburgella (Delesseriaceae, Rhodophyta) to Phycodrys, based on morphological and molecular evidence

The genus Phycodrys is characterized by having a Phycodrys-type apical organization, a well-developed central midrib with paired lateral veins, monostromatic areas between the veins, four-celled carpogonial branches with two groups of sterile cells, and a cystocarp with a large fusion cell and short-catenated carposporangia. In contrast, the monospecific genus Nienburgella has a faint midrib, a mostly polystromatic blade without lateral veins, bilaterally isometric second-order cell row length, and Phycodrys-like apical growth and cystocarp. Nothing is known about Nienburgella’s procarp. We collected several specimens of Nienburgella angusta from the East Sea of South Korea and noticed that they resemble Phycodrys radicosa. We compared these two species using morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses. Our results revealed that both species are closely related to one another than to other taxa in the tribe Phycodryeae, and that Nienburgella angusta procarp developmental pattern is the same as the one observed in Phycodrys rubens, the generitype species of Phycodrys. Thallus structure (mono- or polystromatic) was species-delimiting but not genus-delimiting. Bilateral second-order cell row isometry occurs in other Phycodrys species, including the type species. Therefore, we propose transferring the species Nienburgella angusta as well as the monospecific genus Nienburgella to Phycodrys.

Cross-species parallels in babbling: animals and algorithms

A key feature of vocal ontogeny in a variety of taxa with extensive vocal repertoires is a developmental pattern in which vocal exploration is followed by a period of category formation that results in a mature species-specific repertoire. Vocal development preceding the adult repertoire is often called ‘babbling’, a term used to describe aspects of vocal development in species of vocal-learning birds, some marine mammals, some New World monkeys, some bats and humans. The paper summarizes the results of research on babbling in examples from five taxa and proposes a unifying definition facilitating their comparison. There are notable similarities across these species in the developmental pattern of vocalizations, suggesting that vocal production learning might require babbling. However, the current state of the literature is insufficient to confirm this suggestion. We suggest directions for future research to elucidate this issue, emphasizing the importance of (i) expanding the descriptive data and seeking species with complex mature repertoires where babbling may not occur or may occur only to a minimal extent; (ii) (quasi-)experimental research to tease apart possible mechanisms of acquisition and/or self-organizing development; and (iii) computational modelling as a methodology to test hypotheses about the origins and functions of babbling. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Vocal learning in animals and humans’.

Challenges of Psychological Therapy Work With Autistic Adult

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as a neurodiverse developmental pattern, affects between one and two individuals in every 100 people. Autistic individuals experience different challenges in every decade of their lives. The difficulties in sensorimotor functioning, emotional codes, communication and cognition, albeit causing emotional distress, form a basis for developing a unique culture. Knowledge, understanding, respect and openness to neurodiversity are the fundamental prerequisites for Transcultural and Positive Psychotherapists and any professional who intends to deliver psychological therapy to autistic individuals. In this paper, we discuss the medical, psychological and sociocultural aspects of the autistic spectrum and present the basic goals of therapeutic work with autistic adults.

Critical Remarks on the Question of a “Moscow School of Metaphysics”

The article analyzes the concept of the “Moscow School of Metaphysics,” an expression proposed by S.L. Frank in 1932 referring to the institutionalization of the initial advancement of Russian thought in the form of a “scientific metaphysics.” S.L. Frank held the rationalism of L.M. Lopatin and the transcendentalism of S.N. Trubetskoy to be the chief methodologies of this movement. S.L. Frank’s institutional identification is judged to be one episode in the search for a general developmental pattern within Russian thought – a movement toward a scientific and systematic philosophy. In his book Russian Philosophy around S.L. Frank. Selected articles (2020) the contemporary investigator of Russian philosophy, G.E. Alyaev turned his attention to the “Moscow School of Metaphysics” as a historical and philosophical concept. Agreeing with Frank, G.E. Alyaev names the alleged participants in the school, excluding V.S. Solovyov considering him a “religious thinker.” Referring to the material in the journal Problems of Philosophy and Psychology and to the speeches of N.Ya. Grot and V.S. Solovyov, the author shows that the philosophical education of Russian society, and in particular of professional philosophers, was not at a level that allowed for the emergence of the school as a scientometric unit. With the final two decades of the nineteenth century in mind, the author prefers to speak not about the school, but about the direction of the philosophical sympathies of Russian educated society toward either positivism or metaphysics. Within the bounds of the latter, there took place a selection of methodological techniques that allowed Russian thought to move toward a scientific metaphysics. The author mentions V.S. Solovyov, with his final articles, as among those who persistently sought the principles of theoretical philosophy. The author also shows that S.L. Frank, who proposed the concept of the “Moscow Metaphysical School,” is far from precise in its application

Morphology of the first three zoeal stages of the deep-sea caridean shrimp Heterocarpus fascirostratus Yang, Chan & Kumar, 2018 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Pandalidae)

The larvae of the deep-sea pandalid shrimp Heterocarpus fascirostratus Yang, Chan & Kumar, 2018 were successfully hatched and cultured to the third zoeal stage. The larvae reached the third zoeal stage nine days after hatching at a water temperature of 21 ± 1 °C. Although members of Heterocarpus A. Milne-Edwards, 1881 have rather diverse body forms and are often separated into many species groups, the early zoeal morphology of H. fascirostratus follows the general developmental pattern of the species in Heterocarpus. The main differences amongst these larvae are body size, spines on the anteroventral margin of the carapace, and the endopod setation of the third maxilliped.

Gametophytic phase of the Indonesian ferns Amblovenatum immersum (Blume) Mazumdar and Christella subpubescens (Blume) Holttum (Thelypteridaceae)

The gametophytic generation of Amblovenatum immersum and Christella subpubescens (Thelypteridaceae), including spore germination, morphological development of the gametophytes, major vegetative features and reproduction strategies, was studied. For both species, the spore germination was of the Vittaria type and the developmental pattern was of the Drynaria type. Adult gametophytes were cordate and hairy, with unicellular and secretory hairs located in the margins and both the ventral and dorsal surfaces of the prothalli. C. subpubescens has another type of acicular hairs only in the margin of the prothallus. Gametangia were of the normal type described for leptosporangiate ferns. In A. immersum all the gametophytes were female. In C. subpubescens the gametophytes produced at first instance female gametangia and then became bisexual with time. Antheridiogen activity was observed in both species, suggested by the presence of small young ameristic gametophytes with antheridia surrounding well-developed female ones.

Microbe Profile: Dictyostelium discoideum: model system for development, chemotaxis and biomedical research

The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum is a versatile organism that is unusual in alternating between single-celled and multi-celled forms. It possesses highly-developed systems for cell motility and chemotaxis, phagocytosis, and developmental pattern formation. As a soil amoeba growing on microorganisms, it is exposed to many potential pathogens; it thus provides fruitful ways of investigating host-pathogen interactions and is emerging as an influential model for biomedical research.