Meta-meta-institutional Concepts? A Tale on Schwyzer and the Force of Technical Ends (Live from Ruritania)

The paper is a critical analysis of Hubert Schwyzer\u2019s idea of meta-institutional concepts. First, I isolate a presupposition in Schwyzer\u2019s example of chess as ritual. I then show how Schwyzer\u2019s idea of meta-institutional concepts is far from being the endgame in the research on levels of institutionality. In fact, we can iterate on meta-institutional concepts. Schwyzer\u2019s idea has to face an infinite regress. I try to avoid such a regress by introducing the concept of technical end of game. A game defines its own terminal status. People playing the game can then attach different meanings to this norm-dependent terminal status. Hence, meta-institutional concepts are not conditions of possibility: they belong to pragmatics, not to an extra ontological layer. I conclude the paper sketching a classification of games based on different kinds of technical ends and I advocate the need to adopt a pluralistic conception on games and practices

Oggetti, non domande : la proposta filosofica del Manifesto del nuovo realismo di Maurizio Ferraris

In questo articolo presento i contenuti del Manifesto del nuovo realismo di Maurizio Ferraris. Dopo una disamina dei contenuti e una illustrazione sia della pars construens sia della pars destruens del Manifesto, cerco di valutarlo criticamente. Alla pars destruens si pu\uf2 obiettare che la ricostruzione usa una definizione non neutrale di \uabontologia\ubb e, parlando di spettacolarizzazione, presenta un punto di vista troppo pessimista sull\u2019accesso all\u2019informazione. Per quanto riguarda la pars costruens pongo invece il seguente interrogativo: la proposta filosofica di Ferraris si pu\uf2 ancora considerare filosofia? Se \ue8 cos\uec, perch\ue8 \ue8 cos\uec difficile benificiare di que- sti insegnamenti in una facolt\ue0 di filosofia

Norms, Norms, and Norms: Validity, Existence and Referents of the Term Norm in Alexy, Conte, and Guastini

In this paper we examine the interplay between validity and existence of a norm. We compare Amedeo Giovanni Conte\u2019s five-folded conception of norm with the \u201csemantic\u201d conception of Robert Alexy\u2019s and Riccardo Guastini\u2019s idea of existence-as-legal-membership. We show how Alexy\u2019s model encompasses all the referents of Conte. We investigate the interplay between different theses on the relationships between validity and existence of norms and the referents for norm that a theory is able to admit. In particular, we show that if we want to encompass all five Contean referents we have to give up the (Kelsenian) validity-as-existence thesis

Challenging the Constitutive Rules Inviolability Dogma

According to Searle (1969) a constitutive rule creates the very possibility of the entity it rules. Later on, other scholars - such as Benoist (2003), Conte (1983), Guastini (1983) - pointed out the inviolability of constitutive rules. In this paper we want to challenge the inviolability dogma by asking the following question: is it possible to have violations of constitutive rules? We will argue that a parametrical approach to constitutive rules can do away with the inviolability dogma. As a result, our approach allows for violations and introduces two different ways of exiting a game (semantic exit vs. practical exit)

The IASI Water Deficit Index to Monitor Vegetation Stress and Early Drying in Summer Heatwaves: An Application to Southern Italy

The boreal hemisphere has been experiencing increasing extreme hot and dry conditions over the past few decades, consistent with anthropogenic climate change. The continental extension of this phenomenon calls for tools and techniques capable of monitoring the global to regional scales. In this context, satellite data can satisfy the need for global coverage. The main objective we have addressed in the present paper is the capability of infrared satellite observations to monitor the vegetation stress due to increasing drought and heatwaves in summer. We have designed and implemented a new water deficit index (wdi) that exploits satellite observations in the infrared to retrieve humidity, air temperature, and surface temperature simultaneously. These three parameters are combined to provide the water deficit index. The index has been developed based on the Infrared Atmospheric Sounder Interferometer or IASI, which covers the infrared spectral range 645 to 2760 cm−1 with a sampling of 0.25 cm−1. The index has been used to study the 2017 heatwave, which hit continental Europe from May to October. In particular, we have examined southern Italy, where Mediterranean forests suffer from climate change. We have computed the index’s time series and show that it can be used to indicate the atmospheric background conditions associated with meteorological drought. We have also found a good agreement with soil moisture, which suggests that the persistence of an anomalously high water deficit index was an essential driver of the rapid development and evolution of the exceptionally severe 2017 droughts

ICA-based artifact removal diminishes scan site differences in multi-center resting-state fMRI

Resting-state fMRI (R-fMRI) has shown considerable promise in providing potential biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and drug response across a range of diseases. Incorporating R-fMRI into multi-center studies is becoming increasingly popular, imposing technical challenges on data acquisition and analysis, as fMRI data is particularly sensitive to structured noise resulting from hardware, software, and environmental differences. Here, we investigated whether a novel clean up tool for structured noise was capable of reducing center-related R-fMRI differences between healthy subjects. We analyzed three Tesla R-fMRI data from 72 subjects, half of whom were scanned with eyes closed in a Philips Achieva system in The Netherlands, and half of whom were scanned with eyes open in a Siemens Trio system in the UK. After pre-statistical processing and individual Independent Component Analysis (ICA), FMRIB's ICA-based X-noiseifier (FIX) was used to remove noise components from the data. GICA and dual regression were run and non-parametric statistics were used to compare spatial maps between groups before and after applying FIX. Large significant differences were found in all resting-state networks between study sites before using FIX, most of which were reduced to non-significant after applying FIX. The between-center difference in the medial/primary visual network, presumably reflecting a between-center difference in protocol, remained statistically significant. FIX helps facilitate multi-center R-fMRI research by diminishing structured noise from R-fMRI data. In doing so, it impr

Coping with poachers in European stalked barnacle fisheries: Insights from a stakeholder workshop.

In January 2020, a stakeholder workshop was organized as a knowledge sharing strategy among European stalked barnacle fisheries. Management of this fishery differs greatly among regions and ranges from less organized and governed at large scales (>100 km, coasts of SW Portugal and Brittany in France) to highly participatory systems which are co-managed at small spatial scales (10′s km and less, Galicia and Asturias). Discussions revealed that poaching is ubiquitous, hard to eradicate, and adapts to all types of management. The stakeholders identified some key management initiatives in the fight against poaching: granting professional harvesters with exclusive access to the resource, increasing social capital among harvesters through tenure systems (e.g. Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries) that empower them as stewards of their resource and intensi- fication of surveillance with the active participation of the harvesters. Furthermore, increased cooperation be- tween fishers associations and regional fisheries authorities, improved legal frameworks, adoption of new technologies and the implementation of market-based solutions can also help coping with this systemic problem

How Do They Do It? – Understanding the Success of Marine Invasive Species

From the depths of the oceans to the shallow estuaries and wetlands of our coasts, organisms of the marine environment are teeming with unique adaptations to cope with a multitude of varying environmental conditions. With millions of years and a vast volume of water to call their home, they have become quite adept at developing specialized and unique techniques for survival and – given increasing human mediated transport – biological invasions. A growing world human population and a global economy drives the transportation of goods across the oceans and with them invasive species via ballast water and attached to ship hulls. In any given 24-hour period, there are about 10,000 species being transported across different biogeographic regions. If any of them manage to take hold and establish a range in an exotic habitat, the implications for local ecosystems can be costly. This review on marine invasions highlights trends among successful non-indigenous species (NIS), from vectors of transport to ecological and physiological plasticity. Apart from summarizing patterns of successful invasions, it discusses the implications of how successfully established NIS impact the local environment, economy and human health. Finally, it looks to the future and discusses what questions need to be addressed and what models can tell us about what the outlook on future marine invasions is

Dovere implica potere a tutela dei diritti?

In questo breve lavoro presento un\u2019estensione della tesi \u201cdovere implica potere\u201d capace di andare oltre il classico ad impossibilia nemo tenetur e in grado di essere utilizzata anche a tutela dei diritti fondamentali e dei diritti sociali. Per fare questo presento la tesi \u201cdovere implica potere\u201d, la sua relazione con ad impossibilia nemo tenetur e le interpretazioni che si possono rinvenire nella letteratura (gius)filosofica relativa ai suoi utilizzi