1,623 research outputs found
La Fenomenologia dello spirito di Hegel: Problemi e interpretazioni
No full textIl volume raccoglie saggi dedicati alla Fenomenologia dello spirito di G.W.F. Hegel e ad alcune sue principali interpretazioni. A scritti dal taglio più nettamente storiografico che ne ricostruiscono le influenze in autori quali Marx, Gentile, Heidegger, Kojève, Paci, Lacan e Brandom, si affiancano contributi volti a ricostruire alcuni nodi categoriali che, sollecitati dal testo hegeliano, hanno segnato le riflessioni etiche, teoretiche, filosofico-politiche e psicoanalitiche successive: dialettica, cultura, negazione, desiderio, corpo, fenomeno, riconoscimento. Questa raccolta non intende quindi né riproporre la lettera del testo hegeliano, né avanzare una sua specifica interpretazione. Piuttosto, gli autori hanno condiviso lo sforzo di illustrare in actu exercito le possibilità di movimento tra questi due estremi – testo e interpretazione – tra cui la cultura filosofica si muove. Attraverso questo movimento la Fenomenologia dello spirito continua a produrre filosofia, ossia ad essere occasione e strumento per la comprensione del “proprio tempo col pensiero”
Fixation Drifts in Neuromorphic Vision Sensing & Computing: a Natural Approach for Effective Space-Time Encoding of Static Scenes
No full textDespite the name, human fixation is a highly dynamic process. Contrary to a photographer, who puts a great effort in keeping the lens still, eyes incessantly move even during fixation, to the point visibility would otherwise rapidly fade away. Beyond avoiding perceptual fading, many functional advantages of Fixational Eye Movements have been pointed out in biology, persuading the scientific community that FEMs are far from being a nuisance as originally believed. On the wave of these findings, I investigate their role in neuromorphic vision sensing and processing, hence bridging two active research fields: vision neuroscience and neuromorphic computing. By emulating primary functionalities of the human retina, neuromorphic cameras represent a convenient device for either investigating (by modeling) visual neuroscience theories, as well as building power-efficient robotic systems. I exploit neuromorphic technology to examine the effects of active viewing strategies during fixation, emphasizing the benefits they provide in terms of both space and time encoding of static visual inputs. My aim is to confirm main biological evidence and propose new arguments on the importance of such movements for artificial vision systems, further extendable to biological ones. The scientific questions I tackle can be expressed as follows: (1) “How do bio-inspired fixation drifts influence the spatio-temporal representation of static visual features in neuromorphic sensing?” and (2) “How does this affect subsequent processing stages?”. The first step to answer both questions is the design of a neuromorphic active- vision setup – able to finely reproduce microscopic and randomly-drifting bio-inspired motion patterns – combined with the development of a suitable software toolkit. This enables to effortlessly acquire significant amount of event-based data from different static visual sources, for further analysis. I then characterize the output signal of the silicon retina using either traditional computer vision algorithms, latest deep-learning architectures, and emerging spiking neural networks. Specifically, to answer the first question, I examine purely spatial information gathered from event-based recordings of natural images and synthetic stimuli. I adopt both traditional amplitude-based image correlation approaches (frequently employed for efficient coding studies in vision science), as well as more sophisticated phase-based examination techniques (coupled with Gabor filter banks for robust local feature extraction,
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and metrics inherited from neuroimaging research). The influence of motion isotropy is then evaluated based on circular statistic tests and image deconvolution techniques (refined using Tikhonov regularization). Finally, to conclude the first question, I asses the distribution events on the temporal dimension by using a custom deep-learning pipeline, together with neuromorphic data recorded from a large and well-established computer-vision dataset. The pipeline uses progressively increasing temporal scales of the data stream, and mainly comprises state-of-the-art 2D and 3D convolutional neural networks, as well as a cutting-edge spiking network model. Since the latter is particularly suitable for neuromorphic hardware implementations, this answers the second question as well. Collectively, my results prove that fixational drifts assist vision in (i) minimizing redundancy, by removing space correlations and inducing whitening effects of the amplitude spectrum, (ii) preserving relevant structural information, by retaining local phase with no alteration, (iii) acting as preliminary anisotropic filtering stages, that can be combined in time for unbiased feature extraction, (iv) inducing biologically-comparable time modulations of static visual information, by arranging events in complex spatio-temporal patterns, and (v) improving a subsequent spike-based computation, able to learn rich temporal codes for high-level vision tasks. Overall, these aspects reflect in an efficient spatio-temporal encoding of static visual scenes, that benefits both transmission and computation of spiking data downstream the hierarchical structure of the visual system. Hopefully, the modeling framework I propose could serve as a methodological basis to (i) investigate data encoding in visual systems, (ii) provide preliminary proofs or refusals of neuroscientific theories about FEMs, (ii) produce novel and suitable benchmarks for advancing the field of neuromorphic computing, and finally (iv) inspire future robotic applications to efficiently gather visual information during fixation. Since neuromorphic hardware is particularly suited for embedded and power-constrained solutions, a mechanism that helps discarding redundancy while preserving informative content can be a convenient tool for optimizing data transmission, both in terms of wiring and energy requirements. Moreover, given that spike-based algorithms and processors are particularly convenient for (and devoted to) richly time-structured data, finding an optimal strategy for effectively encoding space in time is crucial for real-world neuromorphic vision applications. Nature came up with a single elegant solution for both problems
Actual and Perceived Level of Scientific English across Italian Physiotherapy Courses: A Cross-Sectional Study
No full textThe knowledge of the English language is fundamental for the application of evidence-based practice. This study explores, through an online survey, the (1) perceived and (2) actual level of Scientific English among Italian undergraduate (UGs) and postgraduate (PGs) physiotherapists. As for (1), the participants expressed their agreement with 10 statements regarding the attitude towards Scientific English through a 1–4 Likert-type scale, with consensus set at ≥70%. As for (2), an ad-hoc 10-point questionnaire was developed through a Delphi procedure, with a pass score set at ≥60%. The survey was completed by 421 participants (UG: 47%; PG: 53%). As for (1), consensus was achieved in both groups in 4 out of 10 statements, specifically the ones addressing the capability to fully understand a scientific paper and physiotherapy-specific language in English. As for (2), the mean score reached by both groups was below 60%. The participants who had studied or were studying at a university in southern Italy presented 2.56 [1.54; 4.24] times higher odds to fail the test. New strategies to bridge the gap in the knowledge of Scientific English in Italy should be developed, through the creation of a unique syllabus tailored to the needs of future physiotherapist
Active fixation as an efficient coding strategy for neuromorphic vision
No full textAbstract Contrary to a photographer, who puts a great effort in keeping the lens still, eyes insistently move even during fixation. This benefits signal decorrelation, which underlies an efficient encoding of visual information. Yet, camera motion is not sufficient alone; it must be coupled with a sensor specifically selective to temporal changes. Indeed, motion induced on standard imagers only results in burring effects. Neuromorphic sensors represent a valuable solution. Here we characterize the response of an event-based camera equipped with fixational eye movements (FEMs) on both synthetic and natural images. Our analyses prove that the system starts an early stage of redundancy suppression, as a precursor of subsequent whitening processes on the amplitude spectrum. This does not come at the price of corrupting structural information contained in local spatial phase across oriented axes. Isotropy of FEMs ensures proper representations of image features without introducing biases towards specific contrast orientations
A Bio-Inspired Neuromorphic Active Vision System Based on Fixational Eye Movements
No full textSimilar to biological retinas, neuromorphic Dynamic Vision Sensor (DVS) devices only respond to changes in the visual scene. It has been observed that in biological systems there is a causal relationship between fixational eye movements and target visibility during fixation, which plays a central role in vision. Based on these findings we implemented an active vision system comprising of a DVS mounted on a pan-tilt unit to introduce microscopic and erratic camera movements as a pivot for artificial vision of static scenes. The key principle is that moving the sensor over an image shifts the low temporal frequency power of a static scene into a range that an event-based retina can properly signal and encode it as highly synchronous activity. By characterizing the signal provided by the active vision system we evidenced (1) an amplification of its response to high spatial frequencies; (2) a whitening effect when scaling stimulus contrast to match the structure of natural images; and (3) an equalized response to all possible orientations of static stimuli related to the isotropic statistics of the random-like motion. The design of a further proper anisotropic spatial summation of events with opponent contrast polarity in a biologically-realistic spiking neural network allowed the detection of information relative to the local orientation of stimuli in a fully bio-inspired fashion. We validate the system proposed with experimental results using synthetic control stimuli
The role of strategic communication in facing paracrisis: a multiple case approach in the lab-grown meat industry
No full textPrevalence, Characteristics, Association Factors of and Management Strategies for Low Back Pain Among Italian Amateur Cyclists: an Observational Cross-Sectional Study
No full textBackground Low back pain (LBP) is a burdensome problem affecting amateur cyclists. This cross-sectional study analysed Italian amateur cycling cohort's demographic and sport-specific characteristics, the prevalence and characteristics of LBP among this population, its possible association factors, the management strategies adopted to deal with LBP and the sample's beliefs among possible LBP triggers. A web-based cross-sectional survey was created. The questionnaire included 56 questions divided into six sections, querying the sample's demographic, clinical, and cycling characteristics. Binomial logistic regression with a Wald backward method was performed to ascertain the effects of some covariates ("Sex", "Age", "Body Mass Index", "Sleep hours", "Work type", "Cycling year", "Number of training sessions per week", "Stretching sessions", "Being supervised by a coach or following a scheduled training", "Other sports practised regularly", "Number of cycling competitions per year", "Past biomechanic visits", "Specific pedal training", "LBP before cycling") on the likelihood of developing LBP in the last 12 months. Results A total of 1274 amateur cyclists answered the survey. The prevalence of LBP appeared to be 55.1%, 26.5% and 10.8% in life, in the last 12 months and the last 4 weeks, respectively. The final model of the logistic regression included the covariates "Sex", "Work type", "Cycling year", "Being supervised by a coach or following a scheduled training", "Other sports practised regularly", "Specific pedal training", "LBP before cycling", among which "Cycling year" (variable "Between 2 and 5 years" vs. "Less than 2 years", OR 0.48, 95% CI [0.26-0.89]), "Being supervised by a coach or following a scheduled training" (OR 0.53, 95% CI [0.37-0.74]), "Specific pedal training" (OR 0.69, 95% CI [0.51-0.94]), and "LBP before cycling" (OR 4.2, 95% CI [3.21-5.40]) were found to be significant. Conclusions The prevalence of LBP among Italian amateur cyclists seems to be less frequent compared to the general population. Moreover, undergoing previous specific pedal training and being supervised by a coach or following scheduled training drew a negative association with LBP development. This evidence highlights the importance of being overseen by specific sport figures that could offer a tailored evidence-based training to reach good physical level and to practise sports safely
Management of non-specific thoracic spine pain: a cross-sectional study among physiotherapists
No full textAbstract Background The thoracic area has mainly been neglected in research compared to the lumbar and cervical regions. No clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for non-specific thoracic spine pain (TSP) have been compiled. Therefore, it can be argued that the absence of specific CPGs raises questions about the management of non-specific TSP. Hence, this study aimed at determining the management of non-specific TSP among physiotherapists in Italy. Methods A web cross-sectional survey investigating physiotherapists’ management of non-specific TSP was conducted. The survey instrument was divided into three sections. The first section obtained participants’ characteristics. The second section determined participants’ agreement with 29 statements regarding the clinical management of non-specific TSP utilising a five-point Likert scale. Participants who partially or completely agreed (scores 4–5) were considered to agree with the statements. A ≥ 70% of agreement with a statement was considered as consensus according to previous literature. The third section asked the participants to indicate how often they adopted several treatments to manage non-specific TSP with a 5-point scale (always – often – sometimes – rarely - never). The frequencies of answers were calculated, and a visual representation through a bar chart was reported. The online version of the survey instrument was delivered through the newsletter of the Italian Association of Physiotherapists and the postgraduate master’s degree in Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation of the University of Genova (Genova, Italy). Results In total, 424 physiotherapists (mean age (SD): 35.1 years (10.5); 50% women) completed the survey. In the second section, physiotherapists achieved consensus for 22/29 statements. Those statements addressed the importance of psychosocial factors, exercise, education, and manual therapy techniques in managing non-specific TSP. In the third section, 79.7% of participants indicated they would always adopt a multimodal treatment (education, therapeutic exercise, manual therapy), followed by education and information (72.9%), therapeutic exercise (62.0%), soft tissue manual therapy (27.1%), and manual therapy (16.5%). Conclusions Study participants considered fundamentally using a multimodal programme based on education, exercise and manual therapy to manage non-specific TSP. This approach aligns with the CPGs for other chronic musculoskeletal pain than non-specific TSP
Intersubjetividade, natureza e sentimentos morais. A teoria crítica de A. Honneth e a regra de ouro
No full textThe text raises the question of the conditions for the possibility of intersubjectivity in the theory of recognition. An analysis of the theory of recognition formulated by Axel Honneth shows how the conflict determined by moral motivations relativizes the Habermasian premise of the linguistic understanding and brings the normative dimension back to social theory. The author returns to the pages of the Encyclopedia of Hegel to recover the objective dimension of intersubjectivity and highlights problems in Honneth’s theoretical project. He confronts both the linguistic-hermeneutic and the recognition paradigm with his pressuposition of this intersubjectivity that yet have to be established, and concludes that the theory of recognition can not explain the normative basis of intersubjectiv recognition. This theory, so Testa, describes contexts of interaction and not moral imperatives. The golden rule, especially his negative formulation is seen as a better codification of the requirement to give recognition without neglecting the experience of offenses and fight; it is seen as a better positive justification of the norms of reciprocity.O texto coloca a questão das condições de possibilidade da intersubjetividade na teoria do reconhecimento. Uma análise da teoria do reconhecimento formulada por Axel Honneth mostra como o conflito determinado por motivações morais relativiza o postulado Habermasiano do entendimento lingüístico e traz de volta a dimensão normativa à teoria social. O autor faz um retorno às páginas da Enciclopédia de Hegel para recuperar a dimensão objetiva da intersubjetividade e destacar problemas teóricos no projeto de Honneth. Com isso passa a confrontar tanto o paradigma lingüísticohermenêutico como o do reconhecimento com o fato de pressuporem a intersubjetividade a ser ainda constituída, para concluir que a teoria do reconhecimento não consegue explicitar um núcleo normativo do reconhecimento intersubjetivo; ela descreve contextos de interação e não imperativos morais. A da regra de ouro, em especial na formulação negativa (“não faças a ninguém aquilo que não gostarias que fosse feito a ti – Tb 4,15) é vista como melhor codificação da exigência de reconhecimento sem prescindir da experiência da ofensa e da luta, como melhor justificação positiva das normas de reciprocidade. Palavras-chave: Regra de ouro; Reciprocidade; Reconhecimento; Axel Honnet
The Experience of Pelvic Floor Muscle Training in People with Urinary Incontinence: A Qualitative Study
No full textPelvic Floor Muscle Training (PFMT) is the first primary solution to improve urinary incontinence (UI) symptoms, but many challenges stems from certain PFMT-related practices. Exploring PFMT experience will help to increase treatment satisfaction, enjoyment, and empowerment. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate the experience of pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) in Italian people with UI. A qualitative semi-structured interview study was conducted. The interviews’ transcriptions were analysed using a constructionist epistemology lens and adopting the “Reflexive Thematic Analysis”. Sixteen Italian participants (Women N = 10, Men = 6) with UI who experienced PFMT were interviewed. Four themes were generated: (1) ‘Learn to Control the Unconscious Consciously’ as participants learned to control continence through active exercises; (2) ‘Starting PFMT, Changing Mind’ as they realised they can have an active role in managing their condition; (3) ‘Into the unknown intimacy’, as they bridged the gap in their (mis)understanding of the pelvic floor area, overcoming the discomfort linked to intimacy; (4) The Importance of Not Being Alone in this Process’, as the participants emphasised the paramount role of the physiotherapists in the healing process. To conclude, in people with UI, PFMT enhanced pelvic floor knowledge and understanding, fostering awareness, positive mindset, and symptom relief. The physiotherapist's pivotal role as an educator and empathetic guide in exercise programs, along with a preference for active exercises. Overall, our results proved that PFMT has positive consequences in people’s beliefs and mindset about and in the management of UI
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