Participatory Sense-making as Consensual Validation of Phenomenal Data

This article proposes a method for consensually validating phenomenal data. Such a method is necessary due to underreporting of explicit validation procedures in empirical phenomenological literature. The article argues that descriptive sciences – exemplified by phenomenology and natural history – rely on nominalization for construction of intersubjectively accessible knowledge. To this effect, epistemologies of phenomenology and natural history are compared. The two epistemological frameworks differ in terms of their attitudes towards the interpretation of texts and visual epistemology, however, they both rely on eidetic intuition of experts for knowledge construction. In developing the method of consensual validation, I started out with the prismatic approach, a method for researching embodied social dynamics. I then used debriefings on the experience of consensual validation to further refine the method. The article suggests that for a nominalization of experiential world to be intersubjectively accessible, such a vocabulary must be independently constructed by the entire group of co-researchers. I therefore propose that during consensual validation, co-researchers be presented with composite descriptions of experiential categories, compare them with their experience, attempt to falsify them, and finally jointly name them. This approach does not yield a single vocabulary for description of experience, but several commensurable vocabularies, contingent on a specific research setting

How Things Take Up Space: A Grounded Theory of Presence and Lived Space

In cognitive science, it is unclear what precisely presence (both in the sense of objecthood and immersion) refers to in lived experience. The present study addresses the research question of what the relationship between presence is and lived space. A hundred and seventeen phenomenological interviews were conducted with 14 participants. We sampled their experience in a transdiagnostic manner. That is, we observed how the experience of presence changes both in circumstances appraised as positive (e.g., sexual intimacy) and negative (e.g., psychopathology). Our grounded theory suggests that presence is a phenomenon that is comprised of all available sensory knowledge, however, it itself is not present in any one sensory modality. Presence takes the form of a disembodied sense of solidity. Our findings can be related to the notion of transmodality in contemporary qualitative phenomenology (i.e., the idea that there are some aspects of experience that can be readily translated from one sensory modality to another. Further, how presence (in its capacity as immersion) is related to lived space can shed further light on the formation of delusions, suggesting that it is based on sensory alterations rather than changes in belief. Finally, the observation that presence as it appears in lived space need not perfectly correspond to the objective situation, can elucidate extant discussion on whether presence is an amodal aspect of consciousness

“Becoming the color”: synesthetic gesture in a case study of multiple forms of synesthesia

Phenomenological investigations of participants with grapheme-color synesthesia—a condition wherein an inducer consistently and automatically triggers an additional concurrent perceptual experience—have revealed an apparent paradox. Namely, they describe the automaticity of their synesthetic experiences as being both willed and automatic. Here, we apply in-depth interviews and signal-contingent experience sampling to investigate the lived experience of a single case (HR) of synesthesia to address this paradox. Our results suggest that for HR an inducer elicits a non-visual, spatially-localized, immediate, and intuitive knowledge about the concurrent. Critically, HR reports that in order to experience the concurrent visually, she must perform a specific mental gesture. We suggest that reporting on the former yields descriptions of concurrent experience as being automatic, and reporting on the latter yields descriptions of concurrent experience as being willful. Our findings demonstrate the need for detailed phenomenological investigations of the experience of synesthesia, in order to develop more accurate descriptions of this experience

Recovery of superquadric parameters from range images using deep learning

With the recent advancements in deep neural computation, we devise a method to recover superquadric parameters from range images using a convolutional neural network. By training our simple, fullyconvolutional architecture on synthetic data images, containing a single superquadric, we achieve encouraging results. In a fixed rotation scenario, the model could already be used in practice, but we still need to improve on prediction of arbitrary rotational parameters in the future

Recovery of superquadric parameters from range images using deep learning

With the recent advancements in deep neural computation, we devise a method to recover superquadric parameters from range images using a convolutional neural network. By training our simple, fullyconvolutional architecture on synthetic data images, containing a single superquadric, we achieve encouraging results. In a fixed rotation scenario, the model could already be used in practice, but we still need to improve on prediction of arbitrary rotational parameters in the future

Segmentation and Recovery of Superquadric Models using Convolutional Neural Networks

In this paper we address the problem of representing 3D visual data with parameterized volumetric shape primitives. Specifically, we present a (two-stage) approach built around convolutional neural networks (CNNs) capable of segmenting complex depth scenes into the simpler geometric structures that can be represented with superquadric models. In the first stage, our approach uses a Mask RCNN model to identify superquadric-like structures in depth scenes and then fits superquadric models to the segmented structures using a specially designed CNN regressor. Using our approach we are able to describe complex structures with a small number of interpretable parameters. We evaluated the proposed approach on synthetic as well as real-world depth data and show that our solution does not only result in competitive performance in comparison to the state-of-the-art, but is able to decompose scenes into a number of superquadric models at a fraction of the time required by competing approaches. We make all data and models used in the paper available from https://lmi.fe.uni-lj.si/en/research/resources/sq-seg.Comment: 8 pages, in Computer Vision Winter Workshop, 202

An insight into the use of cannabis in medical and veterinary dermatological applications and its legal regulation

Cannabis contains more than 140 cannabinoid compounds, of which cannabidiol andtetrahydrocannabinol are the most exposed ones, as they have the potential for numerousapplications in various fields of health and medicine. Many scientific findings andnumerous clinical studies over the last decade report results related to pain relief,treatment of chronic diseases and certain neurological disorders in human medicine. Inline with the growing trend of research and application in human medicine, the researchand application potential in veterinary medicine is also increasing. Of the biologicallyactive molecules contained in the plant, cannabidiol has attracted the most interest. Thecultivation of cannabis for medical and pharmaceutical purposes requires, among otherthings, compliance with legal regulations. An analysis of the legal acts regulating the usefor medical and pharmaceutical purposes shows that the current regulation at state levelis complex and should be amended.Fil: Mišič, Jančar Jakob. University Of Ljubljana; EsloveniaFil: Schofs, Laureano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Departamento de Fisiopatología. Laboratorio de Farmacología; ArgentinaFil: Pečan, Luka Irenej. University Of Ljubljana; Eslovenia. Università degli Studi di Trieste; ItaliaFil: Oblak, Tine. Institut Jožef Stefan; EsloveniaFil: Sanchez Bruni, Sergio Fabian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación Veterinaria de Tandil; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Departamento de Fisiopatología. Laboratorio de Farmacología; ArgentinaFil: Kuhar, Aleš. University Of Ljubljana; EsloveniaFil: Ponikvar-Svet, Maja. Institut Jožef Stefan; EsloveniaFil: Tavčar, Gašper. Institut Jožef Stefan; EsloveniaFil: Hupli, Aleksi. Universidad de Tampere; FinlandiaFil: Jeran, Marko. Institut Jožef Stefan; Eslovenia10th Socratic Lectures International SymposiumLjubljanaEsloveniaUniversity of Ljubljana. Faculty of Health Science

Crisis of objectivity: using a personalized network model to understand maladaptive sensemaking in a patient with psychotic, affective, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms

IntroductionPsychiatric comorbidities have proven a consistent challenge. Recent approaches emphasize the need to move away from categorical descriptions of symptom clusters towards a dimensional view of mental disorders. From the perspective of phenomenological psychopathology, this shift is not enough, as a more detailed understanding of patients’ lived experience is necessary as well. One phenomenology-informed approach suggests that we can better understand the nature of psychiatric disorders through personalized network models, a comprehensive description of a person’s lifeworld in the form of salient nodes and the relationships between them. We present a detailed case study of a patient with multiple comorbidities, maladaptive coping mechanisms, and adverse childhood experiences.MethodsThe case was followed for a period of two years, during which we collected multiple streams of data, ranging from phenomenological interviews, neuropsychological assessments, language analysis, and semi-structured interviews (Examination of Anomalous Self Experience and Examination of Anomalous World Experience). We analytically constructed a personalized network model of his lifeworld.ResultsWe identified an experiential category “the crisis of objectivity” as the core psychopathological theme of his lifeworld. It refers to his persistent mistrust towards any information that he obtains that he appraises as originating in his subjectivity. We can developmentally trace the crisis of objectivity to his adverse childhood experience, as well as him experiencing a psychotic episode in earnest. He developed various maladaptive coping mechanisms in order to compensate for his psychotic symptoms. Interestingly, we found correspondence between his subjective reports and other sources of data.DiscussionHernan exhibits difficulties in multiple Research Domain Criteria constructs. While we can say that social sensorimotor, positive valence, and negative valence systems dysfunctions are likely associated with primary deficit (originating in his adverse childhood experience), his cognitive symptoms may be tied to his maladaptive coping mechanisms (although, they might be related to his primary disorder as well)