What Can Information Encapsulation Tell Us About Emotional Rationality?

What can features of cognitive architecture, e.g. the information encapsulation of certain emotion processing systems, tell us about emotional rationality? de Sousa proposes the following hypothesis: “the role of emotions is to supply the insufficiency of reason by imitating the encapsulation of perceptual modes” (de Sousa 1987: 195). Very roughly, emotion processing can sometimes occur in a way that is insensitive to what an agent already knows, and such processing can assist reasoning by restricting the response-options she considers. This paper aims to provide an exposition and assessment of de Sousa’s hypothesis. I argue information encapsulation is not essential to emotion-driven reasoning, as emotions can determine the relevance of response-options even without being encapsulated. However, I argue encapsulation can still play a role in assisting reasoning by restricting response-options more efficiently, and in a way that ensures which options emotions deem relevant are not overridden by what the agent knows. I end by briefly explaining why this very feature also helps explain how emotions can, on occasion, hinder reasoning

Tuberculosis/HIV/AIDS coinfection in Porto Alegre, RS/Brazil - invisibility and silencing of the most affected groups

OBJECTIVE: To analyze how belonging to certain social groups contributes to constituting the vulnerabilities associated with illnesses due to tuberculosis/HIV/AIDS coinfection. METHODOLOGYThis is a qualitative study carried out in the city of Porto Alegre, state of Rio Grande do Sul, in regions of high social vulnerability. Twenty coinfected people were interviewed in specialized health services between August and December 2016. The analysis was based on the frameworks The Sound of Silence and Vulnerability and Human Rights. RESULTS: Socioeconomic conditions were decisive for the constitution of the vulnerability conditions. Processes of people invisibilization, and the silencing of their voices, in a scenario marked by economic, racial and gender inequalities, contributed for their health needs not to be understood and effectively taken into account in the services actions. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS: The more effective strategies are to legitimize voices and to understand the needs of those affected by coinfection, the greater the chances that programmatic responses to the problem will be successful

Intellectual disability, unusual facial morphology and hand anomalies in sibs

Here we report on a Portuguese family with three sisters who shared moderate intellectual disability, unusual facial morphology (short palpebral fissures; broad nasal tip; thin upper and lower vermillion; broad and pointed chin) and hand anomalies in two of them (short left third and fifth right metacarpals in one case; marked syndactyly between the third and fourth fingers in another). One of the sisters had microcephaly and short stature, and the other two were obese. Obesity and somewhat similar facial features were also present in the otherwise healthy mother. Despite the overlap with several known syndromes (Albright osteodystrophy; Filippi syndrome; Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome; microdeletion 2q37), we suggest this condition is previously unreported, and most likely displays an autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance

Intellectual disability, coarse face, relative macrocephaly, and cerebellar hypotrophy in two sisters

We report on two Portuguese sisters with a very similar phenotype characterized by severe intellectual disability, absent speech, relative macrocephaly, coarse face, cerebellar hypotrophy, and severe ataxia. Additional common features include increased thickness of the cranial vault, delayed dental eruption, talipes equino-varus, clinodactyly, and camptodactyly of the fifth finger. The older sister has retinal dystrophy and the younger sister has short stature. Their parents are consanguineous. We suggest this condition constitutes a previously unreported autosomal recessive entity

Burden and factors associated with schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminth infections among school-age children in Huambo, Uige and Zaire provinces, Angola

Background: Schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) contribute high disease burdens amongst the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and are public health problems in Angola. This study reports the prevalence, intensity and risk factors for schistosomiasis and STH infection in Huambo, Uige and Zaire provinces, Angola, to inform a school-based preventive chemotherapy program. Methods: A two-stage cluster design was used to select schools and schoolchildren to participate in parasitological and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) surveys across Huambo, Uige, and Zaire provinces. Point-of-care circulating cathodic antigen and urinalysis rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) were used to determine the prevalence of Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium, respectively. Kato-Katz was used to identify and quantify STH species and quantify and compare with RDTs for S. mansoni. Urine filtration was used to quantify and compare with RDTs for S. haematobium. Descriptive statistics were used for prevalence and infection intensity of schistosomiasis and STH infection. Performance of RDTs was assessed through specificity and Cohen’s Kappa agreement with microscopy. A multivariate regression analysis was used to determine demographic and WASH factors associated with schistosomiasis and STH infection. Results: A total 575 schools and 17,093 schoolchildren participated in the schistosomiasis survey, of which 121 schools and 3649 schoolchildren participated in the STH survey. Overall prevalence of S. mansoni was 21.2% (municipality range 0.9–74.8%) and S. haematobium 13.6% (range 0–31.2%), with an overall prevalence of schistosomiasis of 31.4% (range 5.9–77.3%). Overall prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides was 25.1% (range 0–89.7%), hookworm 5.2% (range 0–42.6%), and Trichuris trichiura 3.6% (range 0–24.2%), with an overall prevalence of STH infection of 29.5% (range 0.8–89.7%). Ecological zone and ethnicity were factors associated with schistosomiasis and STH infection, with older age and female sex additional risk factors for S. haematobium. Conclusions: Most municipalities met World Health Organization defined prevalence thresholds for a schistosomiasis preventive chemotherapy program. A STH preventive chemotherapy program is indicated for nearly all municipalities in Uige and select municipalities in Huambo and Zaire. The association between ecological zone and ethnicity with schistosomiasis and STH infection necessitates further evaluation of home and school environmental, sociodemographic and behavioural factors to inform targeted control strategies to complement preventive chemotherapy programs

Subsequent reproductive outcome in women who have experienced a potentially life-threatening condition or a maternal near-miss during pregnancy

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the long-term reproductive consequences that affect women who have experienced potentially life-threatening or life-threatening (near-miss) maternal complications. INTRODUCTION: Although advances have been made in reducing maternal death, few studies have investigated the long-term repercussions of significant events such as severe maternal morbidity and maternal near-misses. These repercussions may be long-lasting and negatively affect quality of life. METHODS: A total of 382 women who had experienced a potentially life-threatening pregnancy-related condition within the last five years were analyzed in this retrospective cohort study. A control group of 188 women who gave birth without complications was also included. Trained interviewers contacted the subjects by telephone and completed a pre-coded, structured questionnaire on reproductive health. Data were analyzed using odds ratios adjusted for age. The main outcome measures were occurrence and outcome of subsequent pregnancies. RESULTS: The estimated risk of becoming infertile as a result of tubal ligation or hysterectomy was 3.5 times higher in women who experienced a maternal near-miss or severe maternal morbidity during the index pregnancy as compared to controls. Likewise, the risk of complications in subsequent pregnancies was five times greater in women who had experienced severe maternal morbidity. However, no differences were found in the occurrence or number of subsequent pregnancies or perinatal outcome. CONCLUSION: The occurrence of a life-threatening or potentially life-threatening maternal condition reduces future reproductive potential and increases the risk of complications in subsequent pregnancies.66813671372Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)FAPESP [2007/00290-8]FAPESP [2011/09701-6

Triplet-Singlet Spin Relaxation via Nuclei in a Double Quantum Dot

The spin of a confined electron, when oriented originally in some direction, will lose memory of that orientation after some time. Physical mechanisms leading to this relaxation of spin memory typically involve either coupling of the electron spin to its orbital motion or to nuclear spins. Relaxation of confined electron spin has been previously measured only for Zeeman or exchange split spin states, where spin-orbit effects dominate relaxation, while spin flips due to nuclei have been observed in optical spectroscopy studies. Using an isolated GaAs double quantum dot defined by electrostatic gates and direct time domain measurements, we investigate in detail spin relaxation for arbitrary splitting of spin states. Results demonstrate that electron spin flips are dominated by nuclear interactions and are slowed by several orders of magnitude when a magnetic field of a few millitesla is applied. These results have significant implications for spin-based information processing

Social network analysis shows direct evidence for social transmission of tool use in wild chimpanzees

The authors are grateful to the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland for providing core funding for the Budongo Conservation Field Station. The fieldwork of CH was funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the Lucie Burgers Stichting, and the British Academy. TP was funded by the Canadian Research Chair in Continental Ecosystem Ecology, and received computational support from the Theoretical Ecosystem Ecology group at UQAR. The research leading to these results has received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) and from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) REA grant agreement n°329197 awarded to TG, ERC grant agreement n° 283871 awarded to KZ. WH was funded by a BBSRC grant (BB/I007997/1).Social network analysis methods have made it possible to test whether novel behaviors in animals spread through individual or social learning. To date, however, social network analysis of wild populations has been limited to static models that cannot precisely reflect the dynamics of learning, for instance, the impact of multiple observations across time. Here, we present a novel dynamic version of network analysis that is capable of capturing temporal aspects of acquisition-that is, how successive observations by an individual influence its acquisition of the novel behavior. We apply this model to studying the spread of two novel tool-use variants, "moss-sponging'' and "leaf-sponge re-use,'' in the Sonso chimpanzee community of Budongo Forest, Uganda. Chimpanzees are widely considered the most "cultural'' of all animal species, with 39 behaviors suspected as socially acquired, most of them in the domain of tool-use. The cultural hypothesis is supported by experimental data from captive chimpanzees and a range of observational data. However, for wild groups, there is still no direct experimental evidence for social learning, nor has there been any direct observation of social diffusion of behavioral innovations. Here, we tested both a static and a dynamic network model and found strong evidence that diffusion patterns of moss-sponging, but not leaf-sponge re-use, were significantly better explained by social than individual learning. The most conservative estimate of social transmission accounted for 85% of observed events, with an estimated 15-fold increase in learning rate for each time a novice observed an informed individual moss-sponging. We conclude that group-specific behavioral variants in wild chimpanzees can be socially learned, adding to the evidence that this prerequisite for culture originated in a common ancestor of great apes and humans, long before the advent of modern humans.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Observed Reductions in Schistosoma mansoni Transmission from Large-Scale Administration of Praziquantel in Uganda: A Mathematical Modelling Study

To date schistosomiasis control programmes based on chemotherapy have largely aimed at controlling morbidity in treated individuals rather than at suppressing transmission. In this study, a mathematical modelling approach was used to estimate reductions in the rate of Schistosoma mansoni reinfection following annual mass drug administration (MDA) with praziquantel in Uganda over four years (2003-2006). In doing this we aim to elucidate the benefits of MDA in reducing community transmission.Age-structured models were fitted to a longitudinal cohort followed up across successive rounds of annual treatment for four years (Baseline: 2003, TREATMENT: 2004-2006; n = 1,764). Instead of modelling contamination, infection and immunity processes separately, these functions were combined in order to estimate a composite force of infection (FOI), i.e., the rate of parasite acquisition by hosts.MDA achieved substantial and statistically significant reductions in the FOI following one round of treatment in areas of low baseline infection intensity, and following two rounds in areas with high and medium intensities. In all areas, the FOI remained suppressed following a third round of treatment.This study represents one of the first attempts to monitor reductions in the FOI within a large-scale MDA schistosomiasis morbidity control programme in sub-Saharan Africa. The results indicate that the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, as a model for other MDA programmes, is likely exerting a significant ancillary impact on reducing transmission within the community, and may provide health benefits to those who do not receive treatment. The results obtained will have implications for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of schistosomiasis control programmes and the design of monitoring and evaluation approaches in general