Widespread preservation of fossilized biomolecules in many fossil animals has recently been reported in six studies, based on Raman microspectroscopy. Here, we show that the putative Raman signatures of organic compounds in these fossils are actually instrumental artefacts resulting from intense background luminescence. Raman spectroscopy is based on the detection of photons scattered inelastically by matter upon its interaction with a laser beam. For many natural materials, this interaction also generates a luminescence signal that is often orders of magnitude more (...) intense than the light produced by Raman scattering. Such luminescence, coupled with the transmission properties of the spectrometer, induced quasi‐periodic ripples in the measured spectra that have been incorrectly interpreted as Raman signatures of organic molecules. Although several analytical strategies have been developed to overcome this common issue, Raman microspectroscopy as used in the studies questioned here cannot be used to identify fossil biomolecules. (shrink)

There is growing interest for implementing tools to monitor cognitive performance in naturalistic work and everyday life settings. The emerging field of research, known as neuroergonomics, promotes the use of wearable and portable brain monitoring sensors such as functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate cortical activity in a variety of human tasks out of the laboratory. The objective of this study was to implement an on-line passive fNIRS-based brain computer interface to discriminate two levels of working memory load during (...) highly ecological aircraft piloting tasks. Twenty eight recruited pilots were equally split into two groups (flight simulator vs. real aircraft). In both cases, identical approaches and experimental stimuli were used (serial memorization task, consisting in repeating series of pre-recorded air traffic control instructions, easy vs. hard). The results show pilots in the real flight condition committed more errors and had higher anterior prefrontal cortex activation than pilots in the simulator, when completing cognitively demanding tasks. Nevertheless, evaluation of single trial working memory load classification showed high accuracy (>76%) across both experimental conditions. The contributions here are two-fold. First, we demonstrate the feasibility of passively monitoring cognitive load in a realistic and complex situation (live piloting of an aircraft). In addition, the differences in performance and brain activity between the two experimental conditions underscore the need for ecologically-valid investigations. (shrink)

After spinal cord injury (SCI), motoneuron death occurs at and around the level of injury which induces changes in function and organization throughout the nervous system, including cortical changes. Muscle affected by SCI may consist of both innervated (accessible to voluntary drive) and denervated (inaccessible to voluntary drive) muscle fibers. Voluntary activation measured with transcranial magnetic stimulation (VATMS) can quantify voluntary cortical/subcortical drive to muscle but is limited by technical challenges including suboptimal stimulation of target muscle relative to its antagonist. (...) The motor evoked potential (MEP) in the biceps compared to the triceps (i.e., MEP ratio) may be a key parameter in the measurement of biceps VATMS after SCI. We used paired pulse TMS, which can inhibit or facilitate MEPs, to determine whether the MEP ratio affects VATMS in individuals with tetraplegia. Ten individuals with tetraplegia following cervical SCI and ten non-impaired individuals completed single pulse and paired pulse VATMS protocols. Paired pulse stimulation was delivered at 1.5, 10, and 30 ms inter-stimulus intervals (ISI). In both the SCI and non-impaired groups, the main effect of the stimulation pulse (paired pulse compared to single pulse) on VATMS was not significant in the linear mixed-effects models. In both groups for the stimulation parameters we tested, the MEP ratio was not modulated across all effort levels and did not affect VATMS. Linearity of the voluntary moment and superimposed twitch moment relation was lower in SCI participants compared to non-impaired. Poor linearity in the SCI group limits interpretation of VATMS. Future work is needed to address methodological issues that limit clinical application of VATMS. (shrink)

Cet article examine la question de l’attention dans son rapport à l’admiration, dont le traitement fait apparaître de profondes divergences entre les Passions de l’âme et l’ Éthique. Dans Les Passions de l’âme, Descartes propose une genèse passionnelle de l’attention, dont la destination gnoséologique est assurée par un acte de la volonté qui transcende les perceptions de l’âme. À l’inverse, dans l’ Éthique, la connaissance ne dépend pas de l’exercice d’une faculté autonome, elle est immanente à l’ordre des idées, ce (...) à quoi l’admiration fait irréductiblement obstacle. La critique spinoziste de l’admiration s’accompagne alors d’une refonte du statut de l’attention et repose sur la critique de la partition cartésienne des facultés de l’âme. Nous montrerons néanmoins que l’attention a une fonction positive sous la forme d’une présence à soi de l’esprit qui veille à l’enchaînement en lui des idées vraies. (shrink)

Suivant le fil directeur du temps, cet ouvrage met au jour la manière dont l'admiration est devenue un problème philosophique central à l'âge classique et examine les différentes conceptions dont elle fait l'objet chez les principaux penseurs de la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle.

There is widespread and growing concern among U.S. consumers about the treatment of farmed animals, and consumers are consequently paying attention to food product labels that indicate humane production practices. However, labels vary in their standards for animal welfare, and prior research suggests that consumers are confused by welfare-related labels: many shoppers cannot differentiate between labels that indicate changes in the way animals are raised and those that do not. We administered a survey to 1,000 American grocery shoppers to better (...) understand the extent to which consumers purchase and pay more for food with certain labels based on an assumption of welfare improvement. Results showed that 86% of shoppers reported purchasing at least one product with the following labels in the last year: “cage or crate-free”, “free-range”, “pasture-raised”, “natural”, “organic”, “no hormone”, “no antibiotic”, “no rBST”, “humane”, “vegetarian-fed”, “grass-fed”, “farm-raised”. Of those who purchased one of the aforementioned labels, 89% did so because they thought the label indicated higher-welfare production practices, and 79% consciously paid more for the product with the label because they thought that the label indicated better-than-standard animal welfare. However, many of these labels lack uniform standards for the production practices they represent, and some labels represent production practices that do not influence animal welfare, thus the degree of the animal welfare impact of a given label is highly variable. These results indicate that labels need to clearly and accurately specify their animal welfare benefits to improve the consumers’ ability to purchase products that align with their expectations. (shrink)

Jean-Marc Ferry stands opposed to the philosophy of Cornelius Castoriadis, claiming that it relies upon an arbitrary ontological decision. According to Ferry, Castoriadis’ philosophy does not respect the Kantian critique of reason. In this contribution, I reply to this objection. I comment on his specific methodological operation: elucidation. I show that this method does not go beyond Kantian finitude, and that it allows him to justify his ontological concepts. In the last part of this article, I interpret his method as (...) a ‘grounded constructivism’ and I explain how it contributes to those philosophical theories. (shrink)

Trust constitutes a fundamental strategy to deal with risks and uncertainty in complex societies. In line with the vast literature stressing the importance of trust in doctor–patient relationships, trust is therefore regularly suggested as a way of dealing with the risks of medical artificial intelligence (AI). Yet, this approach has come under charge from different angles. At least two lines of thought can be distinguished: (1) that trusting AI is conceptually confused, that is, that we cannot trust AI; and (2) (...) that it is also dangerous, that is, that we should not trust AI—particularly if the stakes are as high as they routinely are in medicine. In this paper, we aim to defend a notion of trust in the context of medical AI against both charges. To do so, we highlight the technically mediated intentions manifest in AI systems, rendering trust a conceptually plausible stance for dealing with them. Based on literature from human–robot interactions, psychology and sociology, we then propose a novel model to analyse notions of trust, distinguishing between three aspects: reliability, competence, and intentions. We discuss each aspect and make suggestions regarding how medical AI may become worthy of our trust. (shrink)

We contest two claims: (1) that language, understood as the processing of abstract symbolic forms, is an instrument of cognition and rational thought, and (2) that conventional notions of turn-taking, exchange structure, and move analysis, are satisfactory as a basis for theorizing communication between living, feeling agents. We offer an enkinaesthetic theory describing the reciprocal affective neuro-muscular dynamical flows and tensions of co- agential dialogical sense-making relations. This “enkinaesthetic dialogue” is characterised by a preconceptual experientially recursive temporal dynamics forming the (...) deep extended melodies of relationships in time. An understanding of how those relationships work, when we understand and are ourselves understood, when communication falters and conflict arises, will depend on a grasp of our enkinaesthetic intersubjectivity. (shrink)

Bioethics, Volume 36, Issue 2, Page 154-161, February 2022.

In this paper, we present a critical reflection on the concept of social capital. We argue that there is no such idea of an umbrella concept of social capital. Instead, two overarching conceptualizations of social capital exist, namely individual social capital and collective social capital. As these conceptualizations of social capital are completely different, we emphasize that studies using social capital as a theoretical lens should clarify the concept as well as be consistent in the interpretation of the concept, from (...) its definition to its methodological operationalization. In this article, we first map the two different conceptualizations of social capital. Next, these conceptualizations are illustrated with well-known teacher research studies, followed by examples of studies in which individual and collective social capital are mixed. Finally, we discuss the consequences of the use and the mix of these different conceptualizations in terms of measurement methods. Additionally, implications for teacher education are presented. (shrink)

Through a detailed re-reading of Saussure's work in the light of contemporary developments in the human, life and physical sciences, Paul Thibault provides us with the means to redefine and refocus our theories of social meaning-making. Saussure's theory of language is generally considered to be a formal theory of abstract sign-types and sign-systems, separate from our individual and social practices of making meaning. In this challenging book, Thibault presents a different view of Saussure. Paying close attention to the (...) original texts, including the Cours de Linguistic Generale, he demonstrates that Saussure was centrally concerned with trying to formulate a theory of how meanings are made. In addition to demonstrating the continuing viability of Saussure's thinking through a range of examples, Re-reading Saussure makes an important intervention in contemporary linguistic and semiotic debate. (shrink)

To study how expertise impacts the understanding of a complex system like the vineyard, three measures were used with 259 participants (190 non-experts, 34 winemakers and/or winegrowers, and 35 biologists): a questionnaire to check for expertise (the Plant Biology Questionnaire), a task about the Structure, Behaviour and Function model, and a measure of the content of the participants? discourse with the ALCESTE software. Results showed that biologists mentioned functions significantly more often than behaviours, whereas it was the opposite for winegrowers. (...) Non-experts mentioned functions and behaviours significantly less frequently than experts did. The content analysis confirmed the differential expression of each kind of expertise: scientific wording for biologists, technical wording for winegrowers, and words focused on perceptible structures for the non-experts. Results from all tasks were highly correlated and allowed for an interpretation of expertise in terms of mental models of the vineyard. (shrink)

"Aux centaines de livres intitulés "Socrate", quel est l'intérêt d'en ajouter un? Simplement parce que celui-ci le regarde autrement, tentant de le saisir en même temps que sa cité. En ajoutant "l'Athénien" à son nom, son titre fait allusion à ce regard nouveau ; d'un mot, il s'agit d'aller de lui à son monde et retour. Mais pourquoi lui? Parce qu'il a vécu dans la seconde partie du Ve siècle à Athènes, parce que la cité offre sur sa propre histoire (...) la plus riche quantité de sources et parce que, plus qu'un autre, il fut décrit par ses contemporains et leurs successeurs : étudier le Socrate d'Athènes, c'est jouir d'un trésor inégalé d'informations. Mais on ne fait pas d'histoire sans question et, dans ce face à face, c'est Athènes qui l'emporte. Cet ouvrage n'est ni un livre de philosophie ni une biographie, ses fins ne sont pas son procès, sa mort. Toute révérence gardée, je me sers de Socrate comme d'un révélateur, un réactif. Ne jamais le regarder sans son contexte - qui me l'explique -, m'aidant à faire de sa cité un portrait, certes fort partiel, mais plus juste. Ce livre jette sur ce transfert d'intérêt trois éclairages analytiques majeurs : lui et ses relations (la société ) ; lui vivant, s'y mouvant (son corps - le sens qu'il lui donne et son image) ; lui et sa conception, son usage du surnaturel : quelles croyances, quelle piété chez lui et les Athéniens?" Pierre Brulé. (shrink)

Femmes voilées : les Grecs aussi. À propos d’un livre de Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones. 2003 marque une date importante dans l’historiographie de l’Antiquité grecque : le livre de Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones « ose » comparer de façon systématique le port du voile par les Grecques à d’autres usages, à d’autres référents culturels comme ceux du monde araboislamique. Ce court hommage a pour objet d’insister sur l’originalité et l’importance de cette contribution majeure à l’histoire des femmes grecques ; il s’agit aussi de dénoncer (...) le silence et l’aveuglement des érudits. (shrink)

This article argues that the most widely disseminated reading of Lafitte’s writings, which aligns his proposals for ‘mechanology’ with cybernetics, overlooks the broader ethical and social project to which he hoped his ideas would contribute. It is shown that the purpose of mechanology articulated by Lafitte was the development of an ethical relation to machines, a theme he developed in his later publications. It is argued that Lafitte’s position resonates with positions taken by contemporary works focused on the renewal of (...) a critical approach to the philosophy of technology, particularly those that seek to transform the relationship between humans and the natural world. (shrink)

Dans l'oeuvre d'Edith Stein, l'alterite apparait comme constitutive de la personne humaine. D'un point de vue proprement subjectif, l'alterite renvoie... l'alter ego,... la dimension communautaire et, dans une perspective croyante, au Tout-Autre. D'un point de vue objectif, elle designe les valeurs, qui faconnent la personnalite, et la foi, qui vient au secours de la raison humaine. Un parcours des oeuvres principales de l'auteur permet de prendre la mesure... la fois de la continuite et de l'evolution de sa pensee. A partir (...) de l..., l'etude entreprend de mettre en evidence, d'une part, l'originalite de la pensee d'Edith Stein par rapport... celle de Husserl et, d'autre part, comment Edith Stein se situe par rapport... la pensee de Thomas d'Aquin. L'influence de l'oeuvre de Jean de la Croix est egalement abordee. Enfin, en dialogue avec des auteurs comme Ricoeur, Levinas ou Ladriere, la troisieme partie du livre aborde de maniere critique la question de l'alterite comme fondement de la personne et cela selon trois parcours, l'un lie... la phenomenologie d'Edith Stein, l'autre... sa philosophie chretienne, et le dernier... son attrait pour la mystique. (shrink)

Nombre d’exégètes ont déjà montré comment le nom a fonctionné comme un tremplin pour donner à la pensée mythique grecque une impulsion particulière. Ces noms sont souvent « parlants », mais il en est de géographiques, ainsi celui d’Eurôpè dans ses rapports avec l’Europe. Eurôpè apparaît plusieurs fois dans des récits généalogiques, et spécialement dans la Bibliothèque d’Apollodore. Elle est incluse dans des lignées, et sa présence leur donne tout leur sens. C’est l’occasion de revenir sur les qualités de ce (...) cadre narratif minimum que constituent ces généalogies. Productrices d’un passé spécifique, elles ne donnent point l’Histoire : insuffisamment structurées et porteuses de valeurs extrinsèques. Elles sont aussi productrices d’espace. Les noms des acteurs de ces récits, par leur simple présence, et aussi par l’ordre dans lequel ils apparaissent dessinent une géographie qui est celle d’un cosmos fort remodelé par le caractère très narcissique de cette pensée, refermée sur son hellénité.Geography and History of genealogical accounts. Many scholars have already shown how names have functioned as a springboard giving mythic Greek thought a particular direction. These names are often “speaking” names, but some are geographic like that of Eurôpè in their relations with Europe. Eurôpè appears many times in genealogic accounts, and especially in Apollodore’s Library. She is included in some lines and her presence gives them their entire signification. This provides the opportunity to return to this minimum narrative scope: the genealogic accounts. They give only a specific past, no history, because they are insufficiently structured and have outer values. They also give space. The names of the actors, simply by their presence, and also by the order in which they appear, draw a map, that of a cosmos, – but one remodelled by the highly narcissistic character of this thought, closed by its Hellenic conception. (shrink)

La fille grecque passe directement de ses jouets au lit de celui auquel son père l'a donnée. Certes, pour énoncer cette vérité, il convient de traquer les maigres sources à notre disposition. Il est alors recommandé de s'adresser aux poètes qui disent de la façon la plus complète et la plus évocatrice ce que signifie ce passage direct de l'enfance à l'érotique adulte et à la maternité. Le tableau de ce « pivotement du sacré », qui est la lecture religieuse (...) du passage, montre l'importance des divinités conductrices dans cette transition, les déesses qui aident la fille à faire ce bond dans l'inconnu : Artémis, du côté de l'enfance, Peithô (“Persuasion”) et Aphrodite, du côté d'Eros. Les hommes, la cité, s'intéressent évidemment à cet échange des filles entre les « maisons » que constitue le mariage et l'on trouve dans les textes normatifs ­ juridiques ­ des preuves de l'existence de mariages d'impubères en Grèce et ­ plus généralement ­ du très grand écart d'âge entre les époux. (shrink)

La fille grecque passe directement de ses jouets au lit de celui auquel son père l'a donnée. Certes, pour énoncer cette vérité, il convient de traquer les maigres sources à notre disposition. Il est alors recommandé de s'adresser aux poètes qui disent de la façon la plus complète et la plus évocatrice ce que signifie ce passage direct de l'enfance à l'érotique adulte et à la maternité. Le tableau de ce « pivotement du sacré », qui est la lecture religieuse (...) du passage, montre l'importance des divinités conductrices dans cette transition, les déesses qui aident la fille à faire ce bond dans l'inconnu : Artémis, du côté de l'enfance, Peithô (“Persuasion”) et Aphrodite, du côté d'Eros. Les hommes, la cité, s'intéressent évidemment à cet échange des filles entre les « maisons » que constitue le mariage et l'on trouve dans les textes normatifs ­ juridiques ­ des preuves de l'existence de mariages d'impubères en Grèce et ­ plus généralement ­ du très grand écart d'âge entre les époux. (shrink)

Cet article propose une réflexion sur la manière d’appréhender, en milieu autochtone, la collecte et l’analyse des données, les deux dimensions de la recherche qui sont les plus vulnérables aux biais ethnocentriques. En optant pour une démarche qui part du point de vue des participants eux-mêmes, il est suggéré de porter un regard de l’intérieur et d’aller à la rencontre du savoir intime, culturellement et territorialement situé, afin d’éclairer les choix réflexifs et originaux que font les acteurs autochtones. Pour cela, (...) il est proposé d’opter pour l’approche biographique et d’adapter celle-ci en fonction des réalités et des demandes des partenaires de recherche autochtones. Cette adaptation doit s’effectuer à différentes étapes du processus, notamment à l’étape de l’analyse et de la valorisation des résultats. Il est notamment proposé que les récits biographiques ne devraient pas être considérés comme de simples données de terrain, mais plutôt comme un niveau d’analyse en soi et qu’à ce titre, ils devraient pouvoir avoir une existence propre, en dehors tout autant qu’au sein de la recherche. (shrink)

The concepts underlying our present theoretical understanding of the radiative two-condensed-body problem in general relativity and in bimetric gravitation theory are critically reviewed. The relevance of the 1935 Einstein-Rosen “bridge” article is emphasized. The possibility (first suggested by N. Rosen, for the linearized approximation) of extending to gravity the Wheeler-Feynman time-symmetric approach is questioned.

Les réseaux et systèmes d’information jouent un rôle essentiel dans la société. Un ensemble de dispositions visent à assurer leur sécurité a été adopté. L’objectif est de prévenir les cyber-risques. Pour cela, les opérateurs sont tenus de mettre en place des mesures techniques et organisationnelles adaptées aux risques posés par les réseaux et systèmes d’information, les produits, services et processus numériques. À partir de l’ensemble de ces dispositions, il est possible de découvrir un devoir général de sécurité numérique.

The aim of the article is to introduce an approach to play based on semiotics of culture and, in particular, grounded in the works and ideas of Juri Lotman. On the one hand, it provides an overview of Lotman’s works dedicated to play and games, starting from his article on art among other modelling systems, in which the phenomenon of play is treated deeply, and mentioning Lotman’s articles dedicated to various forms of play forms, such as involving dolls and playing (...) cards. On the other hand, it applies a few Lotmanian theories and ideas to playfulness in order to shed some light on this highly debated, as well as intriguing, anthropic activity. Thus, the paper approaches some of the core questions for a play theory, such as the definition of play, the cultural role of toys and playthings, the importance of unpredictability, the position held by playfulness in the semiosphere and, finally, the differences and commonalities between play and art. Lotman’s theories and works, often integrated by other existing semiotic or ludologic perspectives offer an extremely insightful and fresh take on play and illustrate the great heuristic potential of semiotics of culture. (shrink)

Language plays a central role in human life. However, the term 'language' as defined in the language sciences of the 20th century and the traditions these have drawn on, have arguably, limited our thinking about what language is and does. The two inter-linked volumes of Thibault's study articulate crucially important aspects of an emerging new perspective shift on language - the Distributed Language view - that is now receiving more and more attention internationally. Rejecting the classical view that the (...) fundamental architecture of language can be localized as a number of inter-related levels of formal linguistic organization that function as the coded inputs and outputs to each other, the distributed language view argues that languaging behaviour is a bio-cultural organisation of process that is embodied, multimodal, and integrated across multiple space-time scales. Thibault argues that we need to think of human languaging as the distinctively human mode of our becoming and being selves in the extended human ecology and the kinds of experiencing that this makes possible. Paradoxically, this also means thinking about language in non-linguistic ways that break the grip of the conventional meta-languages for thinking about human languaging. Thibault's book grounds languaging in process theory: languaging and the forms of experience it actualizes is always an event, not a thing that we 'use'. In taking a distinctively interdisciplinary approach, the book relates dialogical theories of human sense-making to the distributed view of human cognition, to recent thinking about distributed language, to ecological psychology, and to languaging as inter-individual affective dynamics grounded in the subjective lives of selves. In taking this approach, the book considers the coordination of selves in social encounters, the emergent forms of self-reflexivity that characterise these encounters, and the implications for how we think of and live our human sociality, not as something that is mediated by over-arching codes and systems, but as emerging from the endogenous subjectivities of selves when they seek to coordinate with other selves and with the situations, artefacts, social institutions, and technologies that populate the extended human ecology. The two volumes aim to bring our understanding of human languaging closer to human embodiment, experience, and feeling while also showing how languaging enables humans to transcend local circumstances and thus to dialogue with cultural tradition. Volume 1 focuses on the shorter timescales of bodily dynamics in languaging activity. Volume II integrates the shorter timescales of body dynamics to the longer cultural-historical timescales of the linguistic and cultural norms and patterns to which bodily dynamics are integrated. (shrink)