Strenghts and Weaknesses of Habermas' Pragmatic Realism

After analysing Habermas's philosophical evolution from his theory of interests to his late pragmatic realism (1), I will focus on the problems of this last conception (2), trying to draw a plausible way out which avoids both naturalistic reductionism and a too weak form of realism (3)

Truth and reality in Jürgen Habermas' Pragmatic Realism

The present work is divided into three sections. The first (only in Italian) is an analysis of some of the main philosophical issues about the notions of reality and truth. The second section provides both a historical reconstruction and a theoretical discussion of the notion of truth in the philosophy of Jürgen Habermas. It shows how Habermas' approach to truth changes during the years. In the '60s (chapter one) he maintains a weak kind of realism, connected to the idea of transcendental and natural interests at the basis of an emancipatory, interpretative-practical and descriptive-technical attitude. During the '70s Habermas enhances the role of communication, thus coming to a “consensualist” theory of truth, where truth is linked to justifications obtained in discurses inspired by an ideal speech situation (chapter two). Finally, he has recently come to a realist turn, linked to a “Janus-faced” theory of truth (chapter three). The third section aims to assess whether and how this last formulation is a realist approach to truth. Such an evaluation will unveil the hiding place for the theoretical problems affecting Habermas' realist turn: the notion of objectivity

Switching emergency contraceptives to non-prescription status and unwanted pregnancy among adult and teenage women: A long-term European comparative study

Abstract   Aim: Unwanted pregnancy is an important social issue, not least among teenagers. Emergency contraceptives (EMCs) can prevent from unintended pregnancy, if taken quickly after unprotected sex. This study’s objective was assessing abortion/birth rates among adult and teenage women in Europe before/after an EMC switch to non-prescription status. Methods: National authorities were consulted for EMC consumption data and abortion/live birth statistics. Rates (n=26 countries) in the year before the switch (= year of reference) were compared with rates before/after the change (up to ±15 years). The focus was laid on the European Union and further countries closely related to the European Union. Results: All countries with available data (n=12) experienced a substantial increase of EMC consumption after the switch. On average, abortion rates among women aged 15–49 years were 83% higher 15 years before (compared with the year of reference) and 14% lower 15 years after the switch. Correspondingly, teenage abortion rates were 35% higher 15 years before and 40% lower 15 years after the switch. In 2017, no country had higher teen abortion rates than at time of the switch. Teen birth rates continued decreasing at almost the same rate after the switch as before. Conclusion: An EMC switch to non-prescription status increases EMC use and may contribute reducing unwanted pregnancy among teenage girls.   Conflicts of interest: None declared.     &nbsp

Switching emergency contraceptives to non-prescription status and unwanted pregnancy among adult and teenage women: A long-term European comparative study

Aim: Unwanted pregnancy is an important social issue, not least among teenagers. Emergency contraceptives (EMCs) can prevent from unintended pregnancy, if taken quickly after unprotected sex. This study’s objective was assessing abortion/birth rates among adult and teenage women in Europe before/after an EMC switch to non-prescription status. Methods: National authorities were consulted for EMC consumption data and abortion/live birth statistics. Rates (n=26 countries) in the year before the switch (= year of reference) were compared with rates before/after the change (up to ±15 years). The focus was laid on the European Union and further countries closely related to the European Union. Results: All countries with available data (n=12) experienced a substantial increase of EMC consumption after the switch. On average, abortion rates among women aged 15–49 years were 83% higher 15 years before (compared with the year of reference) and 14% lower 15 years after the switch. Correspondingly, teenage abortion rates were 35% higher 15 years before and 40% lower 15 years after the switch. In 2017, no country had higher teen abortion rates than at time of the switch. Teen birth rates continued decreasing at almost the same rate after the switch as before. Conclusion: An EMC switch to non-prescription status increases EMC use and may contribute reducing unwanted pregnancy among teenage girls. &nbsp

rehabilitation in neuro oncology a meta analysis of published data and a mono institutional experience

Background. Rehabilitation for cancer patients with central nervous system (CNS) involvement is rarely considered and data on its use are limited. The purpose of the present study is to collect all available published data on neuro-oncology rehabilitation and perform a meta-analysis where results were presented in a comparable manner. Moreover, the authors report results on cancer patients with neurological disabilities undergoing rehabilitation at their unit. Study design. A PubMed search was performed to identify studies regarding cancer patients with CNS involvement undergoing inpatient physical rehabilitation. Studies with a complete functional evaluation at admission and discharge were selected. As the most common evaluation scales were Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and Barthel Index (BI), only articles with complete FIM and/or BI data were selected for the meta-analysis. Moreover, 23 cancer patients suffering from diverse neurological disabilities underwent standard rehabilitation program be..

Deep ensemble learning and transfer learning methods for classification of senescent cells from nonlinear optical microscopy images

The success of chemotherapy and radiotherapy anti-cancer treatments can result in tumor suppression or senescence induction. Senescence was previously considered a favorable therapeutic outcome, until recent advancements in oncology research evidenced senescence as one of the culprits of cancer recurrence. Its detection requires multiple assays, and nonlinear optical (NLO) microscopy provides a solution for fast, non-invasive, and label-free detection of therapy-induced senescent cells. Here, we develop several deep learning architectures to perform binary classification between senescent and proliferating human cancer cells using NLO microscopy images and we compare their performances. As a result of our work, we demonstrate that the most performing approach is the one based on an ensemble classifier, that uses seven different pre-trained classification networks, taken from literature, with the addition of fully connected layers on top of their architectures. This approach achieves a classification accuracy of over 90%, showing the possibility of building an automatic, unbiased senescent cells image classifier starting from multimodal NLO microscopy data. Our results open the way to a deeper investigation of senescence classification via deep learning techniques with a potential application in clinical diagnosis

Noninvasive morpho-molecular imaging reveals early therapy-induced senescence in human cancer cells

Anticancer therapy screening in vitro identifies additional treatments and improves clinical outcomes. Systematically, although most tested cells respond to cues with apoptosis, an appreciable portion enters a senescent state, a critical condition potentially driving tumor resistance and relapse. Conventional screening protocols would strongly benefit from prompt identification and monitoring of therapy-induced senescent (TIS) cells in their native form. We combined complementary all-optical, label-free, and quantitative microscopy techniques, based on coherent Raman scattering, multiphoton absorption, and interferometry, to explore the early onset and progression of this phenotype, which has been understudied in unperturbed conditions. We identified TIS manifestations as early as 24 hours following treatment, consisting of substantial mitochondrial rearrangement and increase of volume and dry mass, followed by accumulation of lipid vesicles starting at 72 hours. This work holds the potential to affect anticancer treatment research, by offering a label-free, rapid, and accurate method to identify initial TIS in tumor cells

Full-Spectrum CARS Microscopy of Cells and Tissues with Ultrashort White-Light Continuum Pulses

Coherent anti-StokesRaman scattering (CARS) microscopyis an emergingnonlinear vibrational imaging technique that delivers label-free chemicalmaps of cells and tissues. In narrowband CARS, two spatiotemporallysuperimposed picosecond pulses, pump and Stokes, illuminate the sampleto interrogate a single vibrational mode. Broadband CARS (BCARS) combinesnarrowband pump pulses with broadband Stokes pulses to record broadvibrational spectra. Despite recent technological advancements, BCARSmicroscopes still struggle to image biological samples over the entireRaman-active region (400-3100 cm(-1)). Here,we demonstrate a robust BCARS platform that answers this need. Oursystem is based on a femtosecond ytterbium laser at a 1035 nm wavelengthand a 2 MHz repetition rate, which delivers high-energy pulses usedto produce broadband Stokes pulses by white-light continuum generationin a bulk YAG crystal. Combining such pulses, pre-compressed to sub-20fs duration, with narrowband pump pulses, we generate a CARS signalwith a high (<9 cm(-1)) spectral resolution inthe whole Raman-active window, exploiting both the two-color and three-colorexcitation mechanisms. Aided by an innovative post-processing pipeline,our microscope allows us to perform high-speed (approximate to 1 ms pixeldwell time) imaging over a large field of view, identifying the mainchemical compounds in cancer cells and discriminating tumorous fromhealthy regions in liver slices of mouse models, paving the way forapplications in histopathological settings

Detection of TDP-43 seeding activity in the olfactory mucosa from patients with frontotemporal dementia

INTRODUCTION: We assessed TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) seeding activity and aggregates detection in olfactory mucosa of patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP-43-immunoreactive pathology (FTLD-TDP) by TDP-43 seeding amplification assay (TDP43-SAA) and immunocytochemical analysis. METHODS: The TDP43-SAA was optimized using frontal cortex samples from 16 post mortem cases with FTLD-TDP, FTLD with tau inclusions, and controls. Subsequently, olfactory mucosa samples were collected from 17 patients with FTLD-TDP, 15 healthy controls, and three patients carrying MAPT variants. RESULTS: TDP43-SAA discriminated with 100% accuracy post mortem cases presenting or lacking TDP-43 neuropathology. TDP-43 seeding activity was detectable in the olfactory mucosa, and 82.4% of patients with FTLD-TDP tested positive, whereas 86.7% of controls tested negative (P < 0.001). Two out of three patients with MAPT mutations tested negative. In TDP43-SAA positive samples, cytoplasmatic deposits of phosphorylated TDP-43 in the olfactory neural cells were detected. DISCUSSION: TDP-43 aggregates can be detectable in olfactory mucosa, suggesting that TDP43-SAA might be useful for identifying and monitoring FTLD-TDP in living patients

Detection of TDP-43 seeding activity in the olfactory mucosa from patients with frontotemporal dementia

Introduction: We assessed TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) seeding activity and aggregates detection in olfactory mucosa of patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP-43-immunoreactive pathology (FTLD-TDP) by TDP-43 seeding amplification assay (TDP43-SAA) and immunocytochemical analysis. Methods: The TDP43-SAA was optimized using frontal cortex samples from 16 post mortem cases with FTLD-TDP, FTLD with tau inclusions, and controls. Subsequently, olfactory mucosa samples were collected from 17 patients with FTLD-TDP, 15 healthy controls, and three patients carrying MAPT variants. Results: TDP43-SAA discriminated with 100% accuracy post mortem cases presenting or lacking TDP-43 neuropathology. TDP-43 seeding activity was detectable in the olfactory mucosa, and 82.4% of patients with FTLD-TDP tested positive, whereas 86.7% of controls tested negative (P&nbsp;&lt;&nbsp;0.001). Two out of three patients with MAPT mutations tested negative. In TDP43-SAA positive samples, cytoplasmatic deposits of phosphorylated TDP-43 in the olfactory neural cells were detected. Discussion: TDP-43 aggregates can be detectable in olfactory mucosa, suggesting that TDP43-SAA might be useful for identifying and monitoring FTLD-TDP in living patients