Neuropsychological evaluation of pragmatics in a patient with acquired brain injury

Studies in patients with brain injury have provided to clinical practice a wide range of valuable language assessment tools and rehabilitation strategies. In contrast, the ability to make a proper use of language adapted to a specific social and cultural context has been scarcely explored in brain-damaged patients. Therefore, clinicians still lack specific assessment batteries to diagnose pragmatic difficulties in these patients. Given the importance of such disorders on their social and professional reinsertion, we aimed at studying the usefulness of the Montréal Protocol for the Evaluation of Communication (MEC) in order to detect abnormal pragmatic capacities in a patient with a brain injury, as compared to a control participant. In addition, we explored the role of other cognitive processes, such as executive functions and social cognition on pragmatics. Results revealed that the MEC is a useful protocol to structure and guide the evaluation process of pragmatics, and it is sensitive to most of the symptoms observed at baseline. A partial dissociation between executive control and pragmatics was evident in the presented case, along with an impaired ability to recognize facial emotions, a difficulty that might explain some of the symptoms observed at the pragmatic level

The Cybernetic Ethos of Cryptocurrencies: Economic and Social Dimensions

The last years have experienced an effervescence in the field of monetary innovation, concerning both complementary currencies and cryptocurrencies. The scenario of innovation has been intensively investigated with regard to economic and socio-political aspects. Against the peculiar multidimensionality of the phenomenon, the paper argues that the analysis should take the opportunity of grasping a cobelonging between the economic and the social. Whether they seem related to a proliferation of new forms of sociality (as in many experiences of complementary currencies) or to a disquieting desocialization (as in certain domains of the cryptocurrencies' world), the social dimensions of the new monies can be fruitfully analyzed by focusing on how they are consonant with certain basic conceptions of economic life. After a brief discussion of this point with regard to complementary currencies, the above-mentioned theoretical approach is used to investigate the cybernetic ethos of cryptocurrencies. The analysis shows that the socio-technical imaginaries of some cryptocurrencies (with particular regard to Bitcoin) call into question the relationship between human and non-human agency and are complicit with certain ideas of economic life, one of whose main traits concerns the demand for unconditionally "assuring" the economic and for denying the dimension of uncertainty

Neuropsychological evaluation of pragmatics in a patient with acquired brain injury

Studies in patients with brain injury have provided to clinical practice a wide range of valuable language assessment tools and rehabilitation strategies. In contrast, the ability to make a proper use of language adapted to a specific social and cultural context has been scarcely explored in brain-damaged patients. Therefore, clinicians still lack specific assessment batteries to diagnose pragmatic difficulties in these patients. Given the importance of such disorders on their social and professional reinsertion, we aimed at studying the usefulness of the Montréal Protocol for the Evaluation of Communication (MEC) in order to detect abnormal pragmatic capacities in a patient with a brain injury, as compared to a control participant. In addition, we explored the role of other cognitive processes, such as executive functions and social cognition on pragmatics. Results revealed that the MEC is a useful protocol to structure and guide the evaluation process of pragmatics, and it is sensitive to most of the symptoms observed at baseline. A partial dissociation between executive control and pragmatics was evident in the presented case, along with an impaired ability to recognize facial emotions, a difficulty that might explain some of the symptoms observed at the pragmatic level

Managing group dynamics with the viable systems approach (VSA): a study on consonance, group cohesiveness, and positive conformity

This dissertation makes an inquiry to the group phenomena from the perspective of the Viable Systems Approach (Golinelli, 2000a, 2000b, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011; Barile, 2000, 2006, 2008a, 2009, 2011; Barile et al., 2011). It is specifically focused in concepts like consonance (De Falco and Gatti, 2012), group cohesiveness (Festinger et al., 1950; Forsyth, 2010), conformity (Asch, 1955) and positive conformity, interpersonal attraction (Lott and Lott, 1965), and optimism (Scheier et al., 1994; Seligman, 2006). The empirical research was entirely conducted at the University of Tirana with the students of Organizational Behavior course. The study/experiment has shown that it was possible (.66) to achieve what the author of this thesis calls positive conformity. Also, the study verified that consonance, as one of the most discussed and researched VSA’s concepts, can be used as a valid indicator of group cohesiveness. Another innovative aspect of this dissertation was a new way of measuring consonance, weaving the apperception test with the value test which confirmed to be very effective

A syllable-based investigation of coarticulation

Coarticulation has been long investigated in Speech Sciences and Linguistics (Kühnert & Nolan, 1999). This thesis explores coarticulation through a syllable based model (Y. Xu, 2020). First, it is hypothesised that consonant and vowel are synchronised at the syllable onset for the sake of reducing temporal degrees of freedom, and such synchronisation is the essence of coarticulation. Previous efforts in the examination of CV alignment mainly report onset asynchrony (Gao, 2009; Shaw & Chen, 2019). The first study of this thesis tested the synchrony hypothesis using articulatory and acoustic data in Mandarin. Departing from conventional approaches, a minimal triplet paradigm was applied, in which the CV onsets were determined through the consonant and vowel minimal pairs, respectively. Both articulatory and acoustical results showed that CV articulation started in close temporal proximity, supporting the synchrony hypothesis. The second study extended the research to English and syllables with cluster onsets. By using acoustic data in conjunction with Deep Learning, supporting evidence was found for co-onset, which is in contrast to the widely reported c-center effect (Byrd, 1995). Secondly, the thesis investigated the mechanism that can maximise synchrony – Dimension Specific Sequential Target Approximation (DSSTA), which is highly relevant to what is commonly known as coarticulation resistance (Recasens & Espinosa, 2009). Evidence from the first two studies show that, when conflicts arise due to articulation requirements between CV, the CV gestures can be fulfilled by the same articulator on separate dimensions simultaneously. Last but not least, the final study tested the hypothesis that resyllabification is the result of coarticulation asymmetry between onset and coda consonants. It was found that neural network based models could infer syllable affiliation of consonants, and those inferred resyllabified codas had similar coarticulatory structure with canonical onset consonants. In conclusion, this thesis found that many coarticulation related phenomena, including local vowel to vowel anticipatory coarticulation, coarticulation resistance, and resyllabification, stem from the articulatory mechanism of the syllable

The efficacy of federalism in a multi-ethnic state: the Nigerian experience

The continuing debate among social and political commentators over the utility of federalism in a multi-ethnic federation like Nigeria, as well as the unending clamour in some parts of the country for the dissolution of the federal union, make the writing of this article not only timely, but also a worthwhile exercise. The paper, which adopts a historical and descriptive method of analysis, is therefore an attempt to join the discourse on the efficacy of federalism in Nigeria by arguing that the geo-demographic complexity of the Nigerian state and society makes federalism the most appropriate political framework for the country. This is not suggesting that the federal system of government constitutes a panacea to the country’s hydra-headed multiplicity. There is no denying that the system is not working the way it ought to in its current incarnation, but it has lived up to the expectation of the country’s founding fathers in ‘holding together’ the diverse ethnic groups in the country as well as in achieving ‘unity in diversity’. Therefore, our suggestion is that Nigerian political leaders should improve upon the current system and redress the inherent imbalances that have become its features, because history suggests that federalism is Nigeria’s best obtainable option