bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
LEGAL AND SOCIAL DIMENSION OF MEDIATION IN
POLISH CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS
Authors: Boczkowska Małgorzata
Published: June 2021

The concept of mediation and related proceedings are becoming more
and more popular among practitioners and theorists of law and other
scientific fields, such as anthropology, philosophy, economics, sociology
or psychology. Mediation is used in various areas of human life, both
external, interpersonal, related to influencing human behavior, as well
as internal, intrapersonal, related to emotions, experiences, feelings and
social attitudes resulting from them. The use of this institution is also
closer to judicial practice, both in terms of broadly understood civil law
and criminal law or proceedings in juvenile cases. The analysis of this issue
gives grounds for the claim that mediation, as a certain form of striving for
agreement, has a real impact on every aspect of human life. However, the
problem is much more complex. This analysis is only an outline of it and
an attempt to draw attention to those issues that at first glance seem to be
of little importance, but as a consequence have a number of far-reaching
social and legal consequences.
The aim of the work is to present mediation in the Polish criminal trial
and its importance for every citizen, both from a legal, social and psychological
perspective. Also taken an attempt to verify, whether criminal
mediation can be an alternative to the court proceedings or only a support
for it.
ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH AS A CHALLENGE OF CONTEMPORARY HUMANIZATION OF WORK
Authors: Ulrych Wojciech , Wojtaszczyk Katarzyna
Published: June 2021

The aim of this article is to draw attention to the fact that a so-called healthy organization should only be considered so if the humanization of work within the company is also in a healthy state. We begin with presenting the concept of humanization of work and its genesis. Then, as revealed by a literature review, it is emphasized that the external manifestations of a healthy organization may simultaneously hide diseases internally. We then look at the various approaches used to diagnose the health of an organization and then associate symptoms of different diseases within an organizational system. The heuristic approach to diagnosing diseases of the organization’s system allowed us to present some examples of pathogenic outbreaks. At the end of the study, it was emphasized that the remedy for the aforementioned problems is still in the hands of work humanizers, whose interventions serve to minimize the negative effects of these diseases.
SMART CITY AS A CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT – SZCZECIN CASE STUDY
Authors: Kostrzewska Martyna
Published: June 2021

The smart city concept is a multi-faceted approach to urban development, allowing to combine determinants of competitiveness and sustainable development. Among the many concepts and visions of cities, the concept of intelligent city is becoming more and more popular. A smart city is a city that uses information and communication technologies to increase the interactivity and efficiency of urban infrastructure. The process of transforming urbanized areas under the influence of civilization changes, technological progress, globalization and increase of territorial competitiveness, aging of the society and growing ecological awareness creates new challenges in shaping the human life environment. The paper presents selected results of research on the evaluation of the concept of smart city on the example of Szczecin as an intelligent city. The main goal of the article is to determine the relationship between the concept of a smart city and the competitiveness of a modern city, understood as a standard of living of city’s inhabitants. The research method is a case study, based on a selected example of the city of Szczecin in Poland.
Energy-Efficient NoC-Based Systems for Real-Time Multimedia Applications using Approximate Computing
Authors: Penny Wagner I. , Palomino Daniel M. , Porto Marcelo S. , Zatt Bruno
Published: June 2021

This work presents an energy-efficient NoC-based system for real-time multimedia applications employing approximate computing. The proposed video processing system, called SApp-NoC, is efficient in both energy and quality (QoS), employing a scalable NoC architecture composed of processing elements designed to accelerate the HEVC Fractional Motion Estimation (FME). Two solutions are proposed: HSApp-NoC (Heuristc-based SApp-NoC), and MLSApp-NoC (Machine Learning-based SApp-NoC). When compared to a precise solution processing 4K videos at 120 fps, HSApp-NoC and MLSApp-NoC reduce about 48.19% and 31.81% the energy consumption, at small quality reduction of 2.74% and 1.09%, respectively. Furthermore, a set of schedulability analysis is also proposed in order to guarantee the meeting of timing constraints at typical workload scenarios.
AutoParBench: A Unified Test Framework for OpenMP-based Parallelizers
Authors: Mendonça Gleison Souza Diniz , Pereira Fernando Magno Quintão , Liao Chunhua
Published: June 2021

After decades of advances in techniques of automatic parallelization, software developers can count, today, on many different tools that transform a program, so that it runs in parallel. Yet, most of these tools are still considered research artifacts. They contain latent bugs, often consequence of a sparsity of testing frameworks for autoparallelizers. This dissertation describes one such framework: AutoParBench - the product of a cooperation between UFMG's Compilers Lab, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. AutoParBench is today publicly available, and has been successfully used to find three zero-day bugs in the Intel C Compiler. Its usage also uncovered problems in more research-oriented tools: 2 bugs in DawnCC, 4 in Rose AutoPar and 2 in Cetus. All these bugs have been confirmed, and some of them have been already fixed as an aftermath of this work.
Sunflower Theorems in Monotone Circuit Complexity
Authors: Cavalar Bruno Pasqualotto , Kohayakawa Yoshiharu
Published: June 2021

Alexander Razborov (1985) developed the approximation method to obtain lower bounds on the size of monotone circuits deciding if a graph contains a clique. Given a "small" circuit, this technique consists in finding a monotone Boolean function which approximates the circuit in a distribution of interest, but makes computation errors in that same distribution. To prove that such a function is indeed a good approximation, Razborov used the sunflower lemma of Erd\H{o}s and Rado (1960). This technique was improved by Alon and Boppana (1987) to show lower bounds for a larger class of monotone computational problems. In that same work, the authors also improved the result of Razborov for the clique problem, using a relaxed variant of sunflowers. More recently, Rossman (2010) developed another variant of sunflowers, now called "robust sunflowers", to obtain lower bounds for the clique problem in random graphs. In the following years, the concept of robust sunflowers found applications in many areas of computational complexity, such as DNF sparsification, randomness extractors and lifting theorems. Even more recent was the breakthrough result of Alweiss, Lovett, Wu and Zhang (2020), which improved Rossman's bound on the size of hypergraphs without robust sunflowers. This result was employed to obtain a significant progress on the sunflower conjecture. In this work, we will show how the recent progress in sunflower theorems can be applied to improve monotone circuit lower bounds. In particular, we will show the best monotone circuit lower bound obtained up to now, breaking a 20-year old record of Harnik and Raz (2000). We will also improve the lower bound of Alon and Boppana for the clique function in a slightly more restricted range of clique sizes. Our exposition is self-contained. These results were obtained in a collaboration with Benjamin Rossman and Mrinal Kumar.
The Effect of Intrathecal Injection of Dextromethorphan on the Experimental Neuropathic Pain Model
Authors: Fahmi Achmad , Aji Yunus Kuntawi , Aprianto Dirga Rachmad , Wido Akbar , Asadullah Asadullah , Roufi Nurkholis , Indiastuti Danti Nur , Subianto Heri , Turchan Agus
Published: June 2021

Background: Peripheral glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) are altered by peripheral nerve injury and may modulate the development of neuropathic pain. Two central pathogenic mechanisms underlying neuropathic pain are neuroinflammation and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)-dependent neural plasticity in the spinal cord. Objectives: This study examined the effect of the non-competitive NMDAR antagonist dextromethorphan on partial sciatic nerve ligation (PSL)-induced neuropathic pain and the spinal expression of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Methods: Male mice were randomly assigned into a sham group and two groups receiving PSL followed by intrathecal saline vehicle or dextromethorphan (iDMP). Vehicle or iDMP was administered 8 - 14 days after PSL. The hotplate paw-withdrawal latency was considered to measure thermal pain sensitivity. The spinal cord was then sectioned and immunostained for GR. Results: Thermal hyperalgesia developed similarly in the vehicle and iDMP groups prior to the injections (P = 0.828 and 0.643); however, it was completely mitigated during the iDMP treatment (P < 0.001). GR expression was significantly higher in the vehicle group (55.64 ± 4.50) than in the other groups (P < 0.001). The iDMP group (9.99 ± 0.66) showed significantly higher GR expression than the sham group (6.30 ± 1.96) (P = 0.043). Conclusions: The suppression of PLS-induced thermal hyperalgesia by iDMP is associated with the downregulation of GR in the spinal cord, suggesting that this analgesic effect is mediated by inhibiting GR-regulated neuroinflammation.
Nové poznatky o šibenici v Bystřici nad Pernštejnem
Authors: Pěnička Robin
Published: June 2021

Městské popraviště v Bystřici nad Pernštejnem se nacházelo na dobře viditelném kopci jižně od městské zástavby. Z původní šibenice čtvercového až mírně lichoběžníkovitého tvaru o vnější délce 4 až 4,5 m se dochovalo do výšky 65 cm kamenné ohrazení. Zkoumaná byla vnitřní část šibenice, kde se nacházely vrstvy kamenů, perleťářského odpadu a suti proložené humusovitou mezivrstvou s četnými rozptýlenými i anatomický uspořádanými lidskými kostmi. Na dně šibenice byl odkryt neporušený hrob chlapce ve věku kolem 13 let. Při odkryvu vnitřní výplně šibenice se našly zlomky keramiky datovatelné od přelomu 15. a 16. století do 18. století; nalezené záponky typu háček a očko a knoflíky byly běžnou součástí oděvu; hřebíky, železný nůž a srp pravděpodobně souvisely s provozem na místě. Nalezené stříbrné mince české, polské a korutanské ražby jsou datovatelné do 15. až 17. století. Sondáží byla zkoumaná terénní hrana, která vymezovala areál popraviště. Po ukončení výzkumu byl vnitřní prostor šibenice a její okolí upraveno v souvislosti s budováním lesní stezky.
INTERPERSONALITY IN RESEARCH ARTICLE ABSTRACTS: A DIACHRONIC CASE STUDY
Authors: Šandová Jana Kozubíková
Published: June 2021

Research article (RA) abstracts are not mere shortened versions of the research article content but constitute a separate genre of academic discourse with its own specific features, one of them being its interactional nature. This paper explores interactional metadiscourse markers occurring in RA abstracts from the diachronic perspective. The main focus is therefore on variation and change in the use of these linguistic means since it may be expected that their distribution could evolve over time, even though scholars follow specifi c writing conventions when writing RA abstracts. Connected with this is the question whether growth in the mean length of RA abstracts has led to any rhetorical change. Providing an answer to this question is another aim of this paper. The study is based on a corpus of 96 RA abstracts from the fi eld of Applied Linguistics published in a prestigious linguistic journal entitled Journal of Pragmatics over the course of the last 35 years. The theoretical framework followed here is the taxonomy of metadiscourse proposed by Hyland (2005a), which is particularly convenient as it off ers a pragmatically-grounded method of analysing interactional metadiscourse markers in academic texts. As the results suggest, the distribution of interactional metadiscourse markers has undergone diachronic changes, e.g. in the use of hedging and boosting devices, confi rming the dynamic character of this often overlooked genre of academic discourse with regard to its interpersonal aspects.
Recreational swimming as a physical aspect of wellness and its impact on health tourism
Authors: Nićiforović Jovan , Stajić Dalibor
Published: June 2021

Changes in Fitness index values, monitored by the Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (UKK) Walking test, were examined in this study due to its practical application in the assessment of aerobic capacity, especially after planned wellness activities of moderate intensity. This research is designed as a quasi-experimental uncontrolled before and after study, and according to it, Fitness index values obtained by the UKK test and body mass index (BMI) were evaluated before and after 8 weeks of planned wellness activities (recreational swimming). After the wellness activity, the average Fitness index value was increased by 1.13% (the difference was statistically significant with p = 0.000) while BMI value was significantly decreased by 1.82% (p = 0.000). Considering our results, the Fitness index could have practical importance for the assessment of endurance performance in man. That means that Fitness index can be used for estimating aerobic capacity and effect of wellness on health improvement and disease prevention.
Impact of extreme weather conditions on the population dynamics of bark beetles in the forests of Eastern Serbia
Authors: Tabaković-Tošić Mara , Milosavljević Marija
Published: June 2021

The paper presents the results of a one-year study of population dynamics of bark beetles by the method of bark beetle trapping using pheromone traps with the following pheromone dispensers-aggregation pheromones: IAC Ecolure (for Ips acuminatus and I. sexdentatus), IT Ecolure (for I. typographus) and PC Ecolure (for Pityogenes chalcographus), after the ice storm that hit the region of Eastern Serbia, especially the forest estate Timočke šume Boljevac (State enterprise Srbijašume) in November 2014. The population levels of the monitored bark beetle species in the controlled area in 2015 were generally within the limits of normal conditions.
State of artificially-established stands of introduced conifers on the site of sessile oak in MU "Cer-Vidojevica"
Authors: Spasojević Branka , Čokeša Vlado , Jović Đorđe
Published: June 2021

The paper presents the results of a study on the state of artificially established stands of Douglas-fir and white pine on the site of sessile oak with hornbeam (Querco-Carpinetum moesiacum Rud. 1945), in Podrinje-Kolubara forest area in MU 'Cer-Vidojevica'. The stands of Douglas-fir and white pine are 51 years. The main task of the paper was to examine extensive data on forest estimation elements obtained from the measurements carried out on the selected sample plots in order get a deeper insight into the structure (diameter structure, distribution of basal area, volume, height curve) and productivity (volume and volume increment) of the stands. With the aim of achieving comparability of the results, one sample plot was established in a 70-year old indigenous coppice stand of sessile oak. The knowledge of these characteristics will provide better understanding of the issues of forest management in these artificially-established stands and help define short-term and long-term management goals and measures for their implementation.
Heterogeneity of Agricultural Land Use Systems and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: Relationship and Evidence from Rural Nigeria
Authors: Apata Temidayo , Ogunleye Kayode , Agboola Olusola , Ojo Tope
Published: June 2021

Several factors influencing rural-poverty in sub-Saharan-Africa, for all the factors, agricultural-land access/management and “culture of poverty” are quite dominant in literature. This study examines socio-cultural/economic factors influencing poverty and establishes linkages of heterogeneity of land-use systems. Farm-level cost–route surveys of cross-sectional national-data of 800 respondents were used for analysis. Data were analyzed by descriptive-statistics, trans-logarithmic model, and poverty-measures. Descriptive statistics depict land-ownership structure, farmer’s socio-cultural practices, and exploits of government intervention programs influenced agricultural-poverty. Trans-logarithmic coefficients results of short-run sustainability-index (SRSI), land-policy intervention variables and household-sizes are dominance factors. Also, SRSI indicated 0.69, suggesting that 69% of the farmers made unsustainable use of agricultural-land. Moreover, 92% of extremely poor respondents with large household-sizes (61.2%) seek their agricultural-land ownership by rentage, while those with land-titled documents constitute 78.6% of the non-poor. Public-policy interventions must take into account formalization of land-property rights in order to facilitate its transferability and boosting investment.
E-working: Country Versus Culture Dimension
Authors: Beňo Michal
Published: June 2021

Globalisation and increasing digitisation mean that companies must increasingly orientate themselves internationally in order to become (more) competitive or to remain competitive. Promoting e-working can revitalise rural development. The issue involved is always interaction between people from different cultures, between people who, according to their cultural backgrounds, feel, think and act differently. When cultural diversity and differences are taken into account, greater creativity, more diverse ideas and faster problem solving are achieved. The cultural dimensions, according to Geert Hofstede, offer a comprehensive model for capturing the various expressions of intercultural values. This paper examines the motives for applying e-working in selected European countries in 2018 according to Hofstede’s six dimensions of national culture. Twenty-eight countries from the Eurostat database were analysed (Finland and the Netherlands were excluded, and software detected them in the e-working variable as outliers). Correlation with e-working is statistically significant at PDI (power distance index - negative: the lower the PDI index, the higher the proportion of e-working) and IVR index (indulgence versus restraint - positive: the higher the IVR index, the higher the proportion of e-working).
Fantômes contemporains, mue du roman
Authors: Duval Marine
Published: June 2021

Le présent article entend s’intéresser aux liens qui peuvent se nouer entre la question de la spectralité dans le roman contemporain et la notion de mutation. Étymologiquement, la mutation résulte de la combinaison entre un mouvement externe – physique, géographique – et un mouvement interne – le bouleversement, la métamorphose –, double mouvement que les spectres des romans d’Isaac Rosa ¡Otra maldita novela sobre la guerra civil! (2007), de Jesmyn Ward Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) et de Catherine Mavrikakis Le Ciel de Bay city (2008) incarnent et mettent au service d’une réflexion individuelle sur le sens et l’identité du littéraire confrontés à l’Historicité de la fiction.
"Aliquid novi": alcune considerazioni su novità e modernità nell’Alberti latino e volgare
Authors: Cabrini Anna Maria
Published: June 2021

The paper begins by looking at the most recent edition of Alberti’s Latin works, whose textual and literary acquisitions are taken as a starting point for further analyses of a key problem in Alberti’s writings: that is the question of originality, first of all in comparison to classical authors. The paper will focus on this crucial theme, through a close examination of paradigmatic introductions, from De commodis to Momus, and selected passages from vernacular works, particularly from Profugiorum ab erumna libri. The pursuit of writing "something new" – as far as difficult or nearly impossible to get for a modern author, because of ancient authors’ writings about everything – not only joins Latin and vernacular works but shows Alberti’s subtle and depth consciousness of the original foundations that mark his modernity.
Tzvetan Todorov: ipotesi per un ritratto a figura intera
Authors: Cosio Giulia
Published: June 2021

In this article, the author wishes to give an overview of the thought and work of Tzvetan Todorov, a Bulgarian philosopher who emigrated to France in 1963. Distinguished representative of the contemporary intellectual scene, his figure remains elusive, due to the multidisciplinary nature of his approach and the variety of themes he touchs. Former member of French structuralism, Todorov deviates gradually from the blueprint of structuralist thought to achieve a neo-humanism that finds echoes in contemporary French philosophy. This study intends to chart the parable of this personal and intellectual path, and to explain the peculiarities of this style. The attention to the central event of alterity in the constitution of human nature is framed in Todorov’s works through an original writing method (the exemplary history and the dialogical critic of thought) and a strong ethical reflection full of suggestions coming from several disciplines.
Le postille sulle carte di Renato Serra dedicate a Pascoli e a Kipling
Authors: Mandrioli Giulia
Published: June 2021

This work aims to describe and attribute the annotations on some reviews of Renato Serra. In particular it analyzes the handwritten notes of the Giovanni Pascoli and Rudyard Kipling texts on which are found comments and corrections in color pencil made by a sharply different handwriting from Serra’s. The thesis of the paper is that such notes should be ascribed to Luigi Ambrosini. Elements supporting the thesis are the relationship of trust and respect which bound the two critics, and especially the correspondence between the handwritings. The comparison between the handwritten texts and the final ones shows that Serra seriously took into account the suggestions in pencil. The result is a new perspective on Serra’s review works, and on the relationship between Serra and Ambrosini.
Dal dibattito accademico al progetto geopolitico Le Nuove Vie della Seta fra potere marittimo e potere continentale
Authors: Dossi Simone
Published: June 2021

The Belt and Road Initiative is closely related to an academic debate that took place in China during the past decade. Its topic was the relative importance of land and sea for the future of international politics, as well as its implications for China’s rise: should Beijing focus on the Asia-Pacific maritime domain or on the Eurasian landmass? In response to the academic debate, the Belt and Road Initiative was conceived as a geopolitical project that places China at the centre of the international space by leveraging on its dual nature as both a continental and a maritime power. Still, the fate of the Belt and Road Initiative hinges on finding a solution to some theoretical issues that the academic debate left unresolved.
Trap-Talk: la Nuova Via della Seta nella dinamica della crescita economica cinese
Authors: Garruccio Roberta
Published: June 2021

The contribution addresses the question how the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been representented in the field of political economy. This discipline has highlighted two challenges for the BRI, respectively labelled as middle-income trap and Thucydides trap. The article will then show how these two challenges emerged in the Western discourse and were related to the Chinese economic growth, but also how and how quickly they were taken up by the Chinese leadership, which presented the BRI as an answer to both traps.
Dopo la Via della Seta e prima delle Nuove Vie della Seta. Il viaggio in Cina di Carla Novellis di Coarazze (1906-1907)
Authors: Piastra Stefano
Published: June 2021

The paper analyzes geo-historical, topographical and perceptive issues of the travel diary by Carla Novellis di Coarazze (1865-?), née Dreyfus, of Hungarian origin, in China from November 1906 to January 1907 together with her husband, Italian Baron Carlo Maria Novellis di Coarazze (1855-1916), commander on board of the cruiser Marco Polo of the Italian Royal Navy. This travelogue, still unpublished, is now conserved in the Italian National Diary Archive, based in Pieve Santo Stefano (Province of Arezzo). In the framework of her Chinese stay, Carla Novellis describes mostly the quasi-colonial environment of the ‘Old Shanghai’ at the beginning of the 20th century, but also Suzhou and Guangzhou. The paper georeferences and discusses places of the above mentioned cities, quoted by Novellis in her diary.
Emotional Face Expressions in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Authors: Houlihan Michael , Fraser Ian , Donahue Meaghan , Sharma Monica , Bourque Wendy , MacLean Mary
Published: June 2021

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) occurs following a severely traumatic event and is characterized by: re-experiencing, avoidance, emotional blunting and reactivity. Of particular interest to this study are emotional blunting, which is the reduced responsiveness to cues unrelated to the traumatic experience, and reactivity which is an increased sensitivity to eventrelated cues. In two studies, the N170 was recorded in response to emotional faces (happy, sad, angry, surprised, neutral) and objects. In each study, high and low scorers on the PTSD checklist formed two companion groups. Angry faces are considered a generalized threat and it was expected that the clinical group would show larger N170 (hyper-reactive) to these emotional expressions, while responses to the other emotions would be reduced (emotional blunting). Preliminary analysis suggests that both of these processes are present. Results will be discussed in terms of possible deficits in processing emotional information in PTSD as well as the development of a clinical tool to aid the diagnosis of PTSD.
First-episode schizophrenia: characterization and clinical correlates
Authors: Bilder Robert M. , Goldman Robert S. , Robinson Delbert , Reiter Gail , Bell Lisa , Bates John A. , Pappadopulos Elizabeth , Alvir Jose Maria J. , Woerner Margaret G. , Geisler Stephen , Kane John M.
Published: June 2021

Neuropsychological impairments are well documented in schizophrenia and are important targets of treatment. Information about the severity and pattern of deficits after treatment for the first psychotic episode and about relationships between these deficits and syndromal characteristics remains limited. Comprehensive neuropsychological assessments including 41 individual tests were given to 94 patients with first-episode schizophrenia after initial stabilization of psychosis and to a comparison group of 36 healthy volunteers. Profiles of neuropsychological deficits and the relationship of deficits to sex and handedness were examined. Correlations of neuropsychological deficit with a broad range of historical and clinical characteristics, including outcome, were explored. Patients had a large generalized neuropsychological deficit. Patients also had, superimposed on the generalized deficit, subtle relative deficits in memory and executive functions. Learning/memory dysfunction best distinguished patients from healthy individuals; after accounting for this difference, only motor deficits further distinguished the groups. Patients with higher neuropsychological ability had only memory deficits, and patients with lower ability had both memory and executive deficits. Dextral patients had less severe generalized deficit. Severity of residual symptoms was associated with greater generalized deficit. Executive and attentional deficits were most linked to global functional impairment and poor outcome. The results document a large generalized deficit, and more subtle differential deficits, in clinically stabilized first-episode patients. Learning/memory deficits were observed even in patients with less severe generalized deficit, but the pattern was unlike the amnestic syndrome and probably reflects different mechanisms. Executive and attentional deficits marked the more severely disabled patients, and may portend relatively poor outcome. Failure to develop typical patterns of cerebral dominance may increase the risk for greater generalized deficit.
A validated battery of vocal emotional expressions
Authors: Maurage Pierre , Joassin Frédéric , Philippot Pierre , Campanella Salvatore
Published: June 2021

For a long time, the exploration of emotions focused on facial expression, and vocal expression of emotion has only recently received interest. However, no validated battery of emotional vocal expressions has been published and made available to the researchers’ community. This paper aims at validating and proposing such material. 20 actors (10 men) recorded sounds (words and interjections) expressing six basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, neutral and sadness). These stimuli were then submitted to a double validation phase: (1) preselection by experts; (2) quantitative and qualitative validation by 70 participants. 195 stimuli were selected for the final battery, each one depicting a precise emotion. The ratings provide a complete measure of intensity and specificity for each stimulus. This paper provides, to our knowledge, the first validated, freely available and highly standardized battery of emotional vocal expressions (words and intonations). This battery could constitute an interesting tool for the exploration of prosody processing among normal and pathological populations, in neuropsychology as well as psychiatry. Further works are nevertheless needed to complement the present material.
The cognitive science of metaphor from philosophy to neuropsychology
Authors: Rohrer Tim
Published: June 2021

In this paper I review some of the theoretical issues surrounding metaphor, and trace them through the context of the cognitive neuroscience debate. Metaphor, like all figurative language, has been usually explained as a secondary linguistic process which takes place as a function taking place on literal language. However this explanation does not fit well with some of the recent work on right hemisphere processing of language or recent cognitive studies, both of which suggest that the figurative and literal language are processed simultaneously and share much structure. In seeking ways to operationalize the Lakoff and Johnson view of metaphor as a constitutive cognitive phenomenon, I begin to spell out what kinds of theoretical predictions the Lakoff-Johnson model would make on the neurophysiological levels cognitive investigation. I conclude by offering some rudimentary thoughts on possible proposals for further investigation using these methods.
Understanding irony: an ERP analysis on the elaboration of acoustic ironic statements
Authors: Amenta Simona , Balconi Michela
Published: June 2021

Irony is part of our daily experience, that is probably the reason why a lot of studies have been trying to define its nature and the way we are able to understand the pragmatic intentions lying behind ironic communication. This study addresses the issue of pragmatic comprehension of language by analysing the differences or similarities in processing ironical and non-ironical language. The aim of the study is specifically to explore neuropsychological correlates (ERPs) of irony decoding. 10 subjects listened to 240 sentences presenting a counterfactual vs. non-counterfactual content (counterfactual modality) and spoken with ironical vs. neutral prosody (prosody modality). ERPs analysis showed a negative deflection peaking at about 460ms post stimulus onset (N400) for all the conditions. Statistical analyses (repeated measures ANOVA) applied to peak amplitudes showed no statistically significant differences between the conditions as a functions of the type of sentence (ironical vs. non ironical) and the content of ironical sentences (counterfactual vs. non counterfactual). An increase of N400 related to ironical sentences was observed although no statistical significant differences between ironical and non ironical sentences were found. The absence of an N400 effect may indicate that irony is not treated as a semantic anomaly, thus rejecting the standard pragmatic hypothesis. The observed differences in amplitude could be probably attributed to a higher requirement for the cognitive resources in order to integrate contrasting and complex lexical, prosodic and contextual cues.
Psychological and neuropsychological correlates of postconcussional disorder
Authors: Wymer B.S. Joy Helena
Published: June 2021

Each year approximately 2 million people in the United States suffer closed head injuries (CHI); approximately 500,000 are severe enough to require hospitalization (Brown, Fann & Grant, 1994). Other researchers have estimated the incidence of CHI in the United States at over 9 million (Miller & Berenguer-Gil, 1994). CHI account for about 10% of all emergency room visits (Sherer, Madison & Hannay, 2000). This number has recently decreased, possibly due to decreased hospitalization of individuals with mild brain injuries. According to the National Head Injury and Spinal Injury Survey of 1980, the typical male is four times more likely to experience a head injury than a female (Kalsbeek, McLaughlin, Harris & Miller, 1980). Men are believed to sustain more head injuries because they have been found to be greater risk-takers, more likely to be engaged in potentially dangerous work, more impulsive, and more likely to abuse alcohol or drugs. Alcohol is reported to be involved in 30% of head injuries suffered by males and 10% of those suffered by females (Bennett, 1987).
Consciousness and emotion. ERP modulation and attentive vs. pre-attentive elaboration of emotional facial expressions by backward masking
Authors: Balconi Michela , Mazza Guido
Published: June 2021

Attentive and pre-attentive facial stimulus processing is an important topic to explain how people comprehend affective disposition in others. The effect of perceived but not consciously elaborated emotional facial expression was explored in the present research. Secondly, we considered whether ERP can index unconscious mental process of emotion elaboration by using backward masking procedure. Pictures presenting a happy, sad, angry, fearful, disgusted, surprised expressions were submitted to twenty one subjects in both attentive and pre-attentive conditions. The two processes seem to be similar in their nature, since they are marked by analogous peak deflections. Two ERP effects were found, a positive (P300) deflection, maximally distributed on the parietal regions, and a negative (N200) deflection, more localized on the frontal sites. Nevertheless, some differences were found in terms of quantitative modulations of the two peaks. The N200 effect, ampler in attentive condition, may be considered such as an index of conscious processing of emotional faces, whereas the P3 (P3a) effect, higher in pre-attentive condition, was considered a specific marker of the automatic, unconscious process during the emotional face comprehension. The semantic significance of unconscious elaboration and the emotional type effect, as a function of arousal and valence, were discussed.
Gestural buffer impairment in early onset Corticobasal Degeneration: a single-case study
Authors: Poletti Michele , Nucciarone Barbara , Baldacci Filippo , Nuti Angelo , Lucetti Claudio , Del Dotto Paolo , Berti Caterina , Logi Chiara , Bonuccelli Ubaldo
Published: June 2021

We investigated limb apraxia in a case of a clinically diagnosed Corticobasal Degeneration with early onset (48 years) in a right handed woman. We used a new battery for the assessment of limb apraxia, based on a cognitive model of praxis. This cognitive model predicts five clinical pictures of limb apraxia: scores reported suggested that apraxia of the patients could be described as an impairment of the gestural buffer, that affects all execution tasks and preserves the ability to perform judgement and categorization tasks. This empirical evidence is in the same direction of other studies supporting that production of actions can be impaired while recognition of actions is spared, and recognition of actions can be impaired while production of actions is spared. This case finding and previously reported studies are consistent with models of praxis that draw a functional distinction between representations that underlie perception and representations that underlie production of actions.
The multicomponential nature of movement-related cortical potentials: functional generators and psychological factors
Authors: Santucci Edoardo , Balconi Michela
Published: June 2021

Starting from a general description of the several components which form movementrelated cortical potentials family, this paper aims to review the principal results coming from electrophysiological and motor neuroscience experiments. Empirical evidences of cortical and subcortical generators are analyzed, considering their mutual and simultaneous involvement for the generation of Bereitschaftspotential (BP) or Readiness Potential (RP). A specific section is dedicated to the review of the main psychological factors which influence the topography and magnitude of BP. Inside this psychological perspective another section deals with the role of motor representation for the preparation of the action, valuating the influence of motor imagery process on readiness potential.
Facial emotion recognition in myotonic dystrophy type 1 correlates with CTG repeat expansion
Authors: Winblad Stefan , Pauls Hellström Pauls , Lindberg Christopher , Hansen Stefan
Published: June 2021

We investigated the ability of patients with myotonic dystrophy type 1 to recognise basic facial emotions. We also explored the relationship between facial emotion recognition, neuropsychological data, personality, and CTG repeat expansion data in the DM-1 group. In total, 50 patients with DM-1 (28 women and 22 men) participated, with 41 healthy controls. Recognition of facial emotional expressions was assessed using photographs of basic emotions. A set of tests measured cognition and personality dimensions, and CTG repeat size was quantified in blood lymphocytes. Patients with DM-1 showed impaired recognition of facial emotions compared with controls. A significant negative correlation was found between total score of emotion recognition in a forced choice task and CTG repeat size. Furthermore, specific cognitive functions (vocabulary, visuospatial construction ability, and speed) and personality dimensions (reward dependence and cooperativeness) correlated with scores on the forced choice emotion recognition task. These findings revealed a CTG repeat dependent facial emotion recognition deficit in the DM-1 group, which was associated with specific neuropsychological functions. Furthermore, a correlation was found between facial emotional recognition ability and personality dimensions associated with sociability. This adds a new clinically relevant dimension in the cognitive deficits associated with DM-1.
First comparison of the Velumount® palatal device with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), repetition effect in neuropsychological tests, and comparative study factors
Authors: Staub Cristina
Published: June 2021

Data of 18 patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) on therapy with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) (with good efficacy) and with the Velumount® device were collected by respiratory polygraphy, blood pressure measurement, questionnaires, and neuropsychological tests to compare for the first time the effects of the Velumount® device to the one of CPAP therapy. Number of side effects (p < 0.001), oxygen saturation (p < 0.01), and systolic blood pressure (p < 0.05) significantly decreased with the Velumount® device. Compliance, therapy satisfaction, and apneahypopnea index significantly (AHI; p < 0.01) increased with the Velumount® device. There was no significant difference in the proposed compliance adjusted AHI. Average improvements in neuropsychological performance lay within the range of the repetition effect. Alternatives to CPAP therapy (such as the Velumount® device) should be individually adapted to OSAS patients. The proposed comparative study factors should be considered in required follow-up comparative studies.
Executive functions assessment and treatment at preschool age: a case report of a child at risk of ADHD
Authors: Stievano Paolo , Valeri Giovanni
Published: June 2021

An attention deficit hyperactivity disorder &(ADHD) single case was analyzed using a battery of developmentally sensitive measures of executive functions in young children. The child was then trained with executive function tasks similar to tests in which he had failed. A training program was administered individually in 45 minute sessions, 3 days a week for a month. The child was tested before training, after training, and in a five-months follow-up. Results show improvements in executive function tasks. Positive ecological impact of the training was confirmed by parents and teachers.
Virtual-grasping influences visual exploration in hemispatial neglect: a preliminary eye-tracking study
Authors: Crivelli Davide , Sozzi Matteo , Balconi Michela
Published: June 2021

The present study aims at investigating dissociations between vision-for-action and vision-for-perception in hemispatial neglect patients through eye-tracking. Three patients and ten controls completed two gap-bisection tasks. While patients showed a rightward bias during the perceptual task, in the virtual-grasping task we have not found evidences for a similar deviation.
Creatività, innovazione, tecnologie e competitività nel turismo
Authors: Antonioli Corigliano Magda , Baggio Rodolfo
Published: June 2021

Competitiveness and attractiveness of a tourism destination are, today, strongly influenced by the capability to innovate products, services and processes. It is also clear that these issues are only partially due to the capacities of single operators, but are rather a feature of the local system in which they operate. In tourism, so strongly dependent on information technologies, it becomes crucial the possibility to rely upon infrastructures and architectures that are designed with a high degree of standardization in order to focus on the contents more than on the technological forms. This allows the creation of an environment that favors creations able to generate a virtuous circle of innovation. This work discusses these topics and presents a European project, «TOURISMlink», that aims at creating a technological standardized and interoperable platform for small and medium European tourism companies.
Il turismo responsabile e il rapporto coi residenti
Authors: Fadini Sergio
Published: June 2021

The relationship between tourism and local residents is one of the most important problems of the tourist governance in a site; both in mature tourism destinations like European cultural towns, or in other sites, and where tourism is a novelty, so problems can be more. The concept of responsible tourism was born for helping local communities that bear tourism impact, using the values of sustainable development. So, inside it, this theme is very important, for who think that local communites must be more active in tourism; and for who think that it’s enough if they gain money from tourist activities. This paper analyzes the situation in Matera, a little town in the south of Italy, where tourism is becoming an important economic activity. Here there are daily problems between who plan and citizens. A planning concerning not only tourism, as the restricted traffic zone.
Sounding observation of vertical electric field in eyewall of Typhoon Wipha (No. 1907) during landing period
Authors: Zhang Ting-Long , Yu Hai , Chen Yang , Zhao Xiao-Ping , Chen Jie , Wen Zhong-Hai , Li Zhe , Jiang Xian-Ling , Zhang Mao-Hua ,   Key Laboratory of South China Sea Meteorological Disaster Prevention and Mitigation of Hainan Province, Haikou 570203, China,   Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Xichang 615000, China
Published: June 2021

In the summer of 2019, one case of electric field sounding in eyewall of No.1907 typhoon named Wipha was obtained in Wenchang, Hainan Island, China. Up to now, it has been the first case of electric field sounding results obtained in a typhoon system. In this paper, based on the observations of satellite, meteorological radar, ground electric field and cloud-to-ground flash location data of Hainan province, China, the basic characteristics of the typhoon are analyzed in detail. Owing to the limitation of cloud-to-ground flash location system, only flash activities of the typhoon before and after landing period are analyzed and the result does not show obvious features as reported by other researches. Referring to the radar reflectivity and sounding path, we confirm that the sounding penetrates through the eyewall region of the typhoon from cloud base to top. The electric field profile and the charge region distribution in the sounding path area are analyzed, and the results show that four positive and three negative charge regions exist between 5.74 and 9.10 km above sea level and the corresponding temperatures range from –2.4 to –16.7 ℃ of the seven charge regions. The mean charge densities of each charge region from bottom to top are 0.63 nC/m3, –0.33 nC/m3, 0.31 nC/m3, –1.03 nC/m3, 1.70 nC/m3, 1.57 nC/m3 and –1.20 nC/m3, respectively. According to the preliminary analysis, we consider that the two positive charge layers at the top should be in the same charge region. Under the comprehensive consideration of the thickness of charge regions, the intensities of these six charge regions are 0.33 nC/m2, –0.07 nC/m2, 0.06 nC/m2, –0.87 nC/m2, 0.73 nC/m2, and –0.18 nC/m2, respectively. We can find that there are three dominant charge regions with largest intensity and they are the lowest positive charge region, the middle main negative region, and upper main positive charge region. And these vertical distributions of the three dominant charge regions are characterized by a tripole charge structure. These results are basically consistent with some simulation results. In addition, a negative screen charge region with a shallow depth in a range of 15–20 dBZ of the upper cloud boundary can be found. Combining the popular charging mechanisms, the similarity of tripole charge structure between our sounding and normal thunderstorm are discussed, and we preliminary consider that the non-inductive charging mechanism and the inductive charging mechanism, which originate from normal convection, are also suitable for eyewall region of typhoon.