Ethical issues in today's information society from a Spinoza perspective

Introduction This work aims to discuss some characteristic devices of the information society through Spinoza's Ethics. Methods. Qualitative analysis using concepts such as power or potentia, forces, "moraline" power devices, normalisation and other concepts from Spinoza and his followers. Analysis. We define Spinoza's Ethics as amoral and a posteriori, supported not by moral judgments, but by ethical reflections on increasing and decreasing power (potentia). The paper illustrates ethical issues of the information society and analyses them through Spinoza's philosophy including access to information, welfare and social networks, universal standards of happiness, simulations of stereotypes (real life versus social networks), promoting constant consumption, providing personal data with and without consent, surveillance of citizens by the states under the aegis of biopower and the need for privacy. Results. Finally, we conclude that Spinoza's Ethics aims to contextualise these phenomena and not evaluate them in advance and, as such, can serve as a basis for discussing the ethical demands of the information society

Can Middle-School Students Learn to Reason Statistically Through Simulation Activities?

This paper describes the implementation and quasiexperimental evaluation of a three-week instructional project designed in accordance with theories and assumptions of constructivism and socially situated cognition. Our goal was to develop students' ability to reason about real-life problems, where "good reasoning" was conceptualized in terms of a normative thinking model derived from cognitive research in decision making, probabilistic reasoning, and argumentation. In the spring of 1994, students in two middle school classrooms worked in teams that collected evidence, constructed arguments, and prepared presentations while engaged in activities that culminated in a mock legislative hearing. Through instruction and mentoring, students were encouraged to use statistics and probability as tools for reasoning. The effectiveness of the program was evaluated by comparing the written arguments of students from the two treatment classrooms with those of students from eight comparison classrooms. Students' arguments were scored in terms of how well they captured essential features of model reasoning and avoided particular thinking fallacies. That the reasoning abilities of students developed through social negotiation and shared problem solving was s

Inter-observer agreement for spectral- and time-domain optical coherence tomography image grading: a prospective study

The purpose of this study was to compare inter-observer agreement of Stratus™ OCT versus Spectralis™ OCT image grading in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Thirty eyes with neovascular AMD were examined with Stratus™ OCT and Spectralis™ OCT. Four different scan protocols were used for imaging. Three observers graded the images for the presence of various pathologies. Inter-observer agreement between OCT models was assessed by calculating intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC). In Stratus™ OCT highest interobserver agreement was found for subretinal fluid (ICC: 0.79), and in Spectralis™ OCT for intraretinal cysts (IRC) (ICC: 0.93). Spectralis™ OCT showed superior interobserver agreement for IRC and epiretinal membranes (ERM) (ICCStratus™: for IRC 0.61; for ERM 0.56; ICCSpectralis™: for IRC 0.93; for ERM 0.84). Increased image resolution of Spectralis™ OCT did improve the inter-observer agreement for grading intraretinal cysts and epiretinal membranes but not for other retinal change

Servicepersonalen - Sponsringens huvudrollsinnehavare - En fallstudie om hur två hotellkedjor arbetar med sponsring av Riksteatern

Syftet med uppsatsen är att utreda tillämpningen av marknadsföringsverktyget sponsring inom hotellkedjor med fokus på personalens funktion I fallstudien uppmärksammades att aktörerna på lokal och central nivå har skilda tolkningar om hur sponsringsaktiviten kommuniceras och dess övergripande mål. De lokala enheterna agerar endast efter egen uppfattning och har därmed inte använt marknadsföringsverktyget som marknadsstaben planlagt. I enlighet med teorin kan hotellkedjornas brist i den lokala förankringen av sponsringen resultera i att de inte har möjlighet att utnyttja servicepersonalens förmåga att marknadsföra kampanjen i mötet med kunden. Detta kan i sin tur försvaga sponsringens associationseffekt

Risk factors for postoperative cerebrospinal fluid leakage after intradural spine surgery.

OBJECTIVE Well-defined risk factors for cerebrospinal fluid leakage (CSFL) following intradural spine surgery are scarce in the literature. The aim of this study was to identify patient and surgery related risk factors and the incidence of CSFL. METHODS For this retrospective cohort study, we identified consecutive patients who underwent intradural spine surgery between 2009 and 2021 at our department. Primary endpoint was the incidence of clinically or radiologically proven CSFL. The impact of clinical and surgical factors on occurrence of CSFL was analyzed. RESULTS In total, 375 patients (60.3% female, mean age 54 ± 16.5 years) were included. Thirty patients (8%) had postoperative CSFL and thereby a significantly higher risk for wound healing disorders (OR 24.9, CI 9.3-66.7) and surgical site infections (SSIs; OR 8.4, CI 2.6-27.7) (p<0.01 for each). No patient-related factors were associated with CSFL. Previous surgery at the index level correlated significantly with postoperative CSFL (OR 2.76, CI 1.1-6.8, p=0.03) in multivariate analysis. Furthermore, patients with intradural tumors tended to have a higher risk for CSFL (OR 2.3, CI 0.9-5.8, p=0.07). Surgery related factors did not influence occurrence of CSFL. Surgery on the thoracic spine had a significantly lower postoperative CSFL rate than surgery on the cervical or lumbar spine (OR -2.5, CI 1.3-4.9, p=0.02). CONCLUSIONS Our study found no modifiable risk factors for preventing CSFL after intradural spine surgery. Patients with previous surgery at the index level were at higher risk for CSFL. CSFL resulted in significantly more wound healing disorders and SSIs necessitating further therapy

Serum neurofilament dynamics predicts neurodegeneration and clinical progression in presymptomatic Alzheimer's disease

Neurofilament light chain (NfL) is a promising fluid biomarker of disease progression for various cerebral proteopathies. Here we leverage the unique characteristics of the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network and ultrasensitive immunoassay technology to demonstrate that NfL levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (n = 187) and serum (n = 405) are correlated with one another and are elevated at the presymptomatic stages of familial Alzheimer's disease. Longitudinal, within-person analysis of serum NfL dynamics (n = 196) confirmed this elevation and further revealed that the rate of change of serum NfL could discriminate mutation carriers from non-mutation carriers almost a decade earlier than cross-sectional absolute NfL levels (that is, 16.2 versus 6.8 years before the estimated symptom onset). Serum NfL rate of change peaked in participants converting from the presymptomatic to the symptomatic stage and was associated with cortical thinning assessed by magnetic resonance imaging, but less so with amyloid-β deposition or glucose metabolism (assessed by positron emission tomography). Serum NfL was predictive for both the rate of cortical thinning and cognitive changes assessed by the Mini-Mental State Examination and Logical Memory test. Thus, NfL dynamics in serum predict disease progression and brain neurodegeneration at the early presymptomatic stages of familial Alzheimer's disease, which supports its potential utility as a clinically useful biomarker