The neural foundation of moral decision-making

The nature of moral judgments has received considerable attention not only in philosophy and psychology but lately in neuroscience as well. There are two major paradigms that consider moral judgments either mainly rational, or as emotional-/ intuition-based processes. Relatively recent neuroimaging studies revealed however that both rational and emotional processes may support moral judgments. In line with these results, this doctoral thesis focused on ways that could better elucidate the supporting cognitive and/ or emotional processes of moral judgments. In a first study, moral judgments were compared to esthetic judgments by employing a whole-brain analysis. This idea was based on the philosophical and the psychological frameworks of moral sense theory and social intuitionist model respectively. Both models view moral judgments akin to esthetic judgments, as decision-making processes based on emotions/ subjective feelings. The fMRI data suggest a common denominator between the judgment modalities - a network involved in both cognitive and emotion processing. However, moral judgments seem to rely on an additional social component. In a second fMRI study, the two main paradigms of moral research were investigated. A main difference between the paradigms is the perspective the participants have towards the moral stimuli (i.e. first- or third-perspective). The fMRI data revealed that neural differences may emerge, and that they may be related to the so-called “actor-observer bias”, a tendency to attribute one’s own behavior to the situation, and the behaviors of others to their inner characteristics. Several hypotheses are put forth, which try to explain the complex neural mechanisms of moral decision-making.Die Natur moralischer Urteile hat nicht nur in der Philosophie und Psychologie, sondern neuerdings auch in den Neurowissenschaften beträchtliche Aufmerksamkeit erhalten. Es gibt zwei Haupt-Paradigmen, die moralische Urteile entweder als vorwiegend rationale, oder als emotionale und auf Intuition basierende Prozesse betrachten. Bildgebende Studien haben jedoch gezeigt, dass moralische Urteile sowohl durch rationale als auch durch emotionale Prozesse beschrieben werden können. Auf diesen Befunden aufbauend ist die vorliegende Doktorarbeit einer vertiefenden Untersuchung der zugrundeliegenden neuro-kognitiven und emotionalen Prozesse moralischer Urteile gewidmet. In einer ersten Studie wurden moralische und ästhetische Urteile durch den Einsatz einer „whole brain“ Analyse verglichen. Dieser Idee liegen philosophische und psychologische Hypothesen der „Moral Sense Theorie“ und dem „Social Intuitionist Model“ zu Grunde. Die fMRT-Daten legen einen gemeinsamen Nenner der beiden Urteilsarten nahe; es konnte ein Netzwerk identifiziert werden, das sowohl für kognitive und als auch für emotionale Verarbeitung zuständig ist. Bei moralischen Urteilen werden allerdings weitere neuronale Areale kooptiert, die eine soziale Komponente des Urteilens repräsentieren. In einer zweiten fMRT-Studie wurden zentrale Paradigmen der moralischen Forschung untersucht. Ein Hauptunterschied zwischen den Paradigmen ist die Perspektive der Teilnehmer auf die moralischen Stimuli (d.h. der ersten oder dritten Perspektive). Die fMRT-Daten legen nahe, dass Unterschiede in neuronalen Aktivierungen auf den sogenannten „Actor-Observer-Bias“ zurückgeführt werden können. Dieser Bias stellt eine Tendenz dar, das eigene Verhalten jeweils der äußeren Situation zuzuschreiben, und das Verhalten der anderen jeweils deren persönlichen Merkmalen. Auf der Grundlage neuro-kognitiver und psychologischer Hypothesen werden die komplexen neuronalen Mechanismen der moralischen Entscheidungsfindung zu erklären versucht

The Management of Manufacturing-Oriented Informatics Systems Using Efficient and Flexible Architectures

Industry and in particular the manufacturing-oriented sector has always been researched and innovated as a result of technological progress, diversification and differentiation among consumers' demands. A company that provides to its customers products matching perfectly their demands at competitive prices has a great advantage over its competitors. Manufacturing-oriented information systems are becoming more flexible and configurable and they require integration with the entire organization. This can be done using efficient software architectures that will allow the coexistence between commercial solutions and open source components while sharing computing resources organized in grid infrastructures and under the governance of powerful management tools.Manufacturing-Oriented Informatics Systems, Open Source, Software Architectures, Grid Computing, Web-Based Management Systems

The neural foundation of moral decision-making

The nature of moral judgments has received considerable attention not only in philosophy and psychology but lately in neuroscience as well. There are two major paradigms that consider moral judgments either mainly rational, or as emotional-/ intuition-based processes. Relatively recent neuroimaging studies revealed however that both rational and emotional processes may support moral judgments. In line with these results, this doctoral thesis focused on ways that could better elucidate the supporting cognitive and/ or emotional processes of moral judgments. In a first study, moral judgments were compared to esthetic judgments by employing a whole-brain analysis. This idea was based on the philosophical and the psychological frameworks of moral sense theory and social intuitionist model respectively. Both models view moral judgments akin to esthetic judgments, as decision-making processes based on emotions/ subjective feelings. The fMRI data suggest a common denominator between the judgment modalities - a network involved in both cognitive and emotion processing. However, moral judgments seem to rely on an additional social component. In a second fMRI study, the two main paradigms of moral research were investigated. A main difference between the paradigms is the perspective the participants have towards the moral stimuli (i.e. first- or third-perspective). The fMRI data revealed that neural differences may emerge, and that they may be related to the so-called “actor-observer bias”, a tendency to attribute one’s own behavior to the situation, and the behaviors of others to their inner characteristics. Several hypotheses are put forth, which try to explain the complex neural mechanisms of moral decision-making.Die Natur moralischer Urteile hat nicht nur in der Philosophie und Psychologie, sondern neuerdings auch in den Neurowissenschaften beträchtliche Aufmerksamkeit erhalten. Es gibt zwei Haupt-Paradigmen, die moralische Urteile entweder als vorwiegend rationale, oder als emotionale und auf Intuition basierende Prozesse betrachten. Bildgebende Studien haben jedoch gezeigt, dass moralische Urteile sowohl durch rationale als auch durch emotionale Prozesse beschrieben werden können. Auf diesen Befunden aufbauend ist die vorliegende Doktorarbeit einer vertiefenden Untersuchung der zugrundeliegenden neuro-kognitiven und emotionalen Prozesse moralischer Urteile gewidmet. In einer ersten Studie wurden moralische und ästhetische Urteile durch den Einsatz einer „whole brain“ Analyse verglichen. Dieser Idee liegen philosophische und psychologische Hypothesen der „Moral Sense Theorie“ und dem „Social Intuitionist Model“ zu Grunde. Die fMRT-Daten legen einen gemeinsamen Nenner der beiden Urteilsarten nahe; es konnte ein Netzwerk identifiziert werden, das sowohl für kognitive und als auch für emotionale Verarbeitung zuständig ist. Bei moralischen Urteilen werden allerdings weitere neuronale Areale kooptiert, die eine soziale Komponente des Urteilens repräsentieren. In einer zweiten fMRT-Studie wurden zentrale Paradigmen der moralischen Forschung untersucht. Ein Hauptunterschied zwischen den Paradigmen ist die Perspektive der Teilnehmer auf die moralischen Stimuli (d.h. der ersten oder dritten Perspektive). Die fMRT-Daten legen nahe, dass Unterschiede in neuronalen Aktivierungen auf den sogenannten „Actor-Observer-Bias“ zurückgeführt werden können. Dieser Bias stellt eine Tendenz dar, das eigene Verhalten jeweils der äußeren Situation zuzuschreiben, und das Verhalten der anderen jeweils deren persönlichen Merkmalen. Auf der Grundlage neuro-kognitiver und psychologischer Hypothesen werden die komplexen neuronalen Mechanismen der moralischen Entscheidungsfindung zu erklären versucht

The Management of Manufacturing-Oriented Informatics Systems Using Efficient and Flexible Architectures

Industry and in particular the manufacturing-oriented sector has always been researched and innovated as a result of technological progress, diversification and differentiation among consumers' demands. A company that provides to its customers products matching perfectly their demands at competitive prices has a great advantage over its competitors. Manufacturing-oriented information systems are becoming more flexible and configurable and they require integration with the entire organization. This can be done using efficient software architectures that will allow the coexistence between commercial solutions and open source components while sharing computing resources organized in grid infrastructures and under the governance of powerful management tools

On Improving the Performances of Pneumatic Positioning Systems The Romanian Review Precision Mechanics

Abstract: The paper presents some solutions developed in order to improve the performances of the pneumatic positioning units and also the experimental models built to verify this methods. A pneumatic linear positioning system with piezoelectric compensation of the error is also presented

An analysis of MRI derived cortical complexity in premature-born adults : regional patterns, risk factors, and potential significance

Premature birth bears an increased risk for aberrant brain development concerning its structure and function. Cortical complexity (CC) expresses the fractal dimension of the brain surface and changes during neurodevelopment. We hypothesized that CC is altered after premature birth and associated with long-term cognitive development. One-hundred-and-one very premature-born adults (gestational age <32 weeks and/or birth weight <1500 ​g) and 111 term-born adults were assessed by structural MRI and cognitive testing at 26 years of age. CC was measured based on MRI by vertex-wise estimation of fractal dimension. Cognitive performance was measured based on Griffiths-Mental-Development-Scale (at 20 months) and Wechsler-Adult-Intelligence-Scales (at 26 years). In premature-born adults, CC was decreased bilaterally in large lateral temporal and medial parietal clusters. Decreased CC was associated with lower gestational age and birth weight. Furthermore, decreased CC in the medial parietal cortices was linked with reduced full-scale IQ of premature-born adults and mediated the association between cognitive development at 20 months and IQ in adulthood. Results demonstrate that CC is reduced in very premature-born adults in temporoparietal cortices, mediating the impact of prematurity on impaired cognitive development. These data indicate functionally relevant long-term alterations in the brain’s basic geometry of cortical organization in prematurity