Paradoxical State Research Articles

To the question of the paradigm shift of psychiatry

The main problem of psychiatry is that, having gained huge empirical experience in observing psychopathology, it has not become a full-fledged science. Perhaps this happened because Western medicine followed a path different from Eastern medicine - the path of deep study of private pro-phenomena of diseases and the search for their natural causes. However, huge problems lie along this path - the multifactorial impact of the external environment and the limited knowledge of man. As a result, a paradoxical state of affairs was created in psychiatrics and psychology: not a single objective method of research was created that allows you to diagnose mental illness due to the fact that there is still no one's idea of ​ ​ how the brain performs its main function - to think. That is, the reasons for psychiatry's failures lie in the deep crisis of neurophysiology.

Currency Risk and Capital Accumulation

The Lucas Paradox states that there are large and persistent differences in capital-output ratios across countries, suggesting capital is not flowing to countries where it is relatively scarce. In the data, capital-output ratios vary a lot cross-sectionally even within developed countries, and they are negatively correlated with currency risk premia and risk-free rates. To rationalize these patterns, I build a quantitative multi-country model of capital accumulation with external habit and heterogeneous exposures to a global productivity shock. I show that currency risk in this model generates cross-country variations in risk-free rates and capital-output ratios that are consistent with the data. I estimate the model using GDP data from countries issuing the G10 currencies and find two main results: (1) The heterogenous loadings that I extract from GDP data alone are highly correlated with capital-output ratios; and (2) when I feed the estimated loadings to the model, model-generated capital-output ratios account for roughly 55% of the cross-country variation in the data. I conclude that variation in currency risk and therefore currency risk premia have significant effects on the real economy.

Comparative Perspectives that Challenge Brain Warming as the Primary Function of REM Sleep.

SummaryRapid eye movement (REM) sleep is a paradoxical state of wake-like brain activity occurring after non-REM (NREM) sleep in mammals and birds. In mammals, brain cooling during NREM sleep is followed by warming during REM sleep, potentially preparing the brain to perform adaptively upon awakening. If brain warming is the primary function of REM sleep, then it should occur in other animals with similar states. We measured cortical temperature in pigeons and bearded dragons, lizards that exhibit NREM-like sleep and REM-like sleep with brain activity resembling wakefulness. In pigeons, cortical temperature decreased during NREM sleep and increased during REM sleep. However, brain temperature did not increase when dragons switched from NREM-like to REM-like sleep. Our findings indicate that brain warming is not a universal outcome of sleep states characterized by wake-like activity, challenging the hypothesis that their primary function is to warm the brain in preparation for wakefulness.

Paradoxes of economic theory in the perception of justice

The article considers the economic theory at the main stages of its formation in relation to the phenomenon of justice. A variant of the topic disclosure is implemented through: a) distancing from existing and widespread practices of its knowledge; b) using the experience of these practices as a source and empirical material for diagnosing points of contact and discrepancies between the economic and legal approaches to justice, existing trends and distortions in economic and legal thought; c) extracting the desired understanding of what the justice economy is through analyzing and solving the problems of the research process devoted to it.
 Following this methodological course, we found that justice in economic theory is in a paradoxical state. And this state is not accidental. It is caused, as it was found out, by a number of circumstances. First of all, the impact of the negative experience of the knowledge of justice and the organization of its work in practice that underlies economic knowledge. Then the influence of stereotypes and biases that arose on its basis. Under the weight of a combination of these factors, science has removed justice from its sphere of competence and scientific and practical development.
 At the same time, the study found that the contradictions identified in the economic idea are the property, and their struggle provides its Genesis. The main achievement of science is that it, despite its negative experience, gave this very experience. Its reinterpretation and verification in the modern socio-economic context makes it possible to make sure that justice can and should be considered as an economic enterprise.

Intranasal delivery of Thyroid hormones in MCT8 deficiency.

Loss of function mutations in the gene encoding the thyroid hormone transporter monocarboxylate transporter 8 (MCT8) lead to severe neurodevelopmental defects in humans associated with a specific thyroid hormone phenotype manifesting high serum 3,5,3'-triiodothyronine (T3) and low thyroxine (T4) levels. Patients present a paradoxical state of peripheral hyperthyroidism and brain hypothyroidism, this last one most likely arising from impaired thyroid hormone transport across the brain barriers. The administration of thyroid hormones by delivery pathways that bypass the brain barriers, such as the intranasal delivery route, offers the possibility to improve the neurological defects of MCT8-deficient patients. In this study, the thyroid hormones T4 and T3 were administrated intranasally in different mouse models of MCT8 deficiency. We have found that, under the present formulation, intranasal administration of thyroid hormones does not increase the content of thyroid hormones in the brain and further raises the peripheral thyroid hormone levels. Our data suggests intranasal delivery of thyroid hormones is not a suitable therapeutic strategy for MCT8 deficiency, although alternative formulations could be considered in the future to improve the nose-to-brain transport.

Rapid eye movement sleep patterns of brain activation and deactivation occur within unique functional networks.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is a paradoxical state where the individual appears asleep while the electroencephalogram pattern resembles that of wakefulness. Regional differences in brain metabolism have been observed during REM sleep compared to wakefulness, but it is not known whether the spatial distribution of metabolic differences corresponds to known functional networks in the brain. Here, we use a combination of techniques to evaluate the networks associated with sites of REM sleep activation and deactivation from previously published positron emission tomography studies. We use seed‐based functional connectivity from healthy adults acquired during quiet rest to show that REM‐activation regions are functionally connected in a network that includes retrosplenial cingulate cortex, parahippocampal gyrus, and extrastriate visual cortices, corresponding to components of the default mode network and visual networks. Regions deactivated during REM sleep localize to right‐lateralized fronto‐parietal and salience networks. A negatively correlated relationship was observed between REM‐activation and deactivation networks. Together, these findings show that regional activation and deactivation patterns of REM sleep tend to occur in distinct functional connectivity networks that are present during wakefulness, providing insights regarding the differential contributions of brain regions to the distinct subjective experiences that occur during REM sleep (dreaming) relative to wakefulness.

Whereof one cannot speak … but should try to

ABSTRACT The multiplicity of voices reflecting on the actual crisis shows that we are not looking at extreme dichotomies but are rather facing the coexistence of contradictory elements, or elements in tension, or a state of paradox. The essay tries to list these contradictory elements—newness or repetition? solidarity or egoism? local or global? private or public? democratic or autocratic outcome? nature or culture?—in an attempt to organize the current perplexity.

Asian Interpretations of Philippians 2:5–11

Interpretations of Philippians 2 have a conspicuous place in the theological imagination of Asian Christians. This is a paradoxical state of affairs. The biblical pericope is kenotic in content, but its function in Asia has been to assert liberation. Asian scholarship on the passage has generated a variety of goals: economic justice, social equality, interfaith relations, and national development. The choice of the passage as a catch-all anchor is not an accident. Its kenotic content constitutes the very ground used by marginal voices to theologize for influence. As a result, a study of theological interpretations of Philippians 2 in Asia reveals the particular goals of Asian theologies and constitutes a case study on the religious imagination of Christians in Asia.

The Easterlin Paradox

The Easterlin Paradox states that at a point in time happiness varies directly with income, both among and within nations, but over time the long-term growth rates of happiness and income are not significantly related. The principal reason for the contradiction is social comparison. At a point in time those with higher income are happier because they are comparing their income to that of others who are less fortunate, and conversely for those with lower income. Over time, however, as incomes rise throughout the population, the incomes of one's comparison group rise along with one's own income and vitiates the otherwise positive effect of own-income growth on happiness. Critics of the Paradox mistakenly present the positive relation of happiness to income in cross-section data or in short-term time fluctuations as contradicting the nil relation of long-term trends.

Blockade of receptor for advanced glycation end products improved essential response of inflammation in diabetic wound healing

Inflammation in impaired diabetic wound healing has been described as caught in a persistent inflammatory state. Accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) is closely relevant to impaired diabetic wound. Recent studies identified that blockade of AGEs-RAGE increased neovascularization and granulation tissue formation to improving diabetic wound healing. This study aimed to evaluate the correlation among the pathogenic effects of AGEs-RAGE, persistent abnormal inflammatory inflammation stage, and impaired wound healing on diabetes. Authors examined the levels of inflammatory factor secretion and inflammatory leukocytes infiltration and the connection with AGEs-RAGE interaction on diabetic mice. Blockade of AGEs-RAGE improved essential secretion of inflammatory factors and infiltration of inflammatory leukocytes in the early inflammatory stage. Furthermore, it also improved the clean of neutrophils by macrophages. In summary, these findings suggest that rather than a hyper-inflammatory state, diabetic wounds are lack of an essential inflammatory response in the early phase, thus may induce a paradoxical and persistent inflammation state, and AGEs-RAGE play a vital role in these pathogenic progresses.

Etiology of Cryptogenic Stroke

Ischemic stroke is a heterogeneous syndrome with a plurality of potential etiological factors. The routine diagnosis does not always allow the cause of acute cerebrovascular accident to be found, in such cases we talk about cryptogenic ischemic stroke, which incidence is 20-40%. The category of patients with cryptogenic stroke was first characterized and assigned to a separate group in the database of the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke in the USA, and later in the TOAST study. The diagnosis of cryptogenic stroke is usually based on the exclusion of well-known causes of acute cerebrovascular accidents, such as atherosclerosis, cardiac arrhythmias, arterial hypertension. Due to the considerable variability of concepts for cryptogenic stroke, the term ESUS (Embolic Stroke of Undetermined Source) appeared in 2014 and formulated criteria which accurately characterized these patients: non-lacunar cerebral infarction by CT and/or MRI, no atherosclerotic lesion stenosing a stroke-associated artery of more than 50%, no sources of high-risk cardioembolism, no other causes of stroke such as dissection of the artery supplying the area of infarction in the brain, migraine, arteritis. Among the potential causes and sources of cerebral embolism in patients with cryptogenic stroke are heart, veins of lower extremities and pelvis, nonstenosing atherosclerosis of brachiocephalic artery, atheroma of aortic arch, paradoxical embolism non-atherosclerotic vasculopathy, monogenic diseases, hypercoagulable states, and others. We should note that there is a lot of studies on the possible causes of cryptogenic stroke in the available literature, but no common approach to classification of etiologic factors and examination algorythms were developed. The high incidence of cryptogenic stroke, the significant heterogeneity of its etiopathogenetic mechanisms and the need for differentiated approaches to the secondary prevention of this type of acute cerebrovascular accident determine the relevance of further studies in this field.

Being in Uncertainties: An Inquiry-based Model Leveraging Complexity in Teaching-Learning

Education is traditionally structured as a closed system, privileging result-driven methods that offer control and predictability. In recent decades this reductionist approach has been effectively challenged by interdisciplinary work in complex systems theory, revealing myriad levels of orderly disorder that make either-or, linear instruction an inadequate norm. Narrowing the broad implications of a complexity lens on education, this paper focuses on generative uncertainty in teaching-learning, a paradoxical state of epistemological and creative growth described by English poet John Keats as "the negative capability of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts." Opportunities to advance this potentiating capacity are especially abundant in constructivist curricula, for example the Methods of Inquiry (MoI) program discussed herein. MoI's open, complexity-based approach foregrounds uncertainty-tolerance and other interactive dispositions, providing a fluid structure for the emergent, often turbulent nature of meaning production. Such dynamic attitudes and strategies are seen as essential for any classroom practice that seeks to transform as well as inform, to guide and also empower.

Così è (se vi pare) 1: Talking Migration to Italians

ABSTRACT The importance of the portrayal of reality in the press is well recognised, especially with respect to its capacity to affect public opinion. Articles on migration found in the Italian press with respect to four periods – the 2014 European Parliament elections; the end of the Mare Nostrum operation in the Mediterranean in 2014; the EU-Turkey Statement of March 2016; and an eventless week in 2016 – revealed five main narratives: solidarity, responsibility, state-centred (Westphalian), instrumental and humanitarian. Each of them had its own specificities, while all were informed by Italy’s condition as a frontline state with regard to migration – the EU’s gatekeeper – and its paradoxical state of living in a ‘permanent/potential emergency’, constantly torn by its inability to reconcile security and humanitarian needs. An understanding of justice as non-domination was the main result of the analysis carried out, while there was little reference to migrants’ human rights.

Neurobiology: REM-Sleep-Promoting ‘Goldilocks’ Neurons

REM sleep is a paradoxical state accompanied by suspended thermoregulation that is preferentially expressed under optimal ambient temperatures. Komagata and colleagues now demonstrate that activity in hypothalamic melanin concentrating hormone neurons is essential for the temperature-dependent modulation of REM sleep.

Long-Lived and Transient Supersolid Behaviors in Dipolar Quantum Gases

By combining theory and experiments, we demonstrate that dipolar quantum gases of both $^{166}$Er and $^{164}$Dy support a state with supersolid properties, where a spontaneous density modulation and a global phase coherence coexist. This paradoxical state occurs in a well defined parameter range, separating the phases of a regular Bose-Einstein condensate and of an insulating droplet array, and is rooted in the roton mode softening, on the one side, and in the stabilization driven by quantum fluctuations, on the other side. Here, we identify the parameter regime for each of the three phases. In the experiment, we rely on a detailed analysis of the interference patterns resulting from the free expansion of the gas, quantifying both its density modulation and its global phase coherence. Reaching the phases via a slow interaction tuning, starting from a stable condensate, we observe that $^{166}$Er and $^{164}$Dy exhibit a striking difference in the lifetime of the supersolid properties, due to the different atom loss rates in the two systems. Indeed, while in $^{166}$Er the supersolid behavior only survives a few tens of milliseconds, we observe coherent density modulations for more than $150\,$ms in $^{164}$Dy. Building on this long lifetime, we demonstrate an alternative path to reach the supersolid regime, relying solely on evaporative cooling starting from a thermal gas.

Abstract TP226: Impact of Non-Vitamin K Antagonist Oral Anticoagulant Withdrawal on Stroke Outcomes

Introduction: Discontinuation of antithrombotics can be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events and poor outcomes. Abrupt warfarin withdrawal may also induce a rebound or a paradoxical prothrombotic state, subsequently leading to an increased incident risk of stroke for up to 3 months. Hypothesis: Considering the potent anticoagulant effect of non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants (NOACs) on the suppression of thrombogenesis, NOAC withdrawal may be associated with profound hypercoagulable state, leading to severe stroke and poor outcomes in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) related stroke. The aim of this study was to compare the initial stroke severity and functional outcome associated with NOAC withdrawal to those associated with other prior medication statuses including warfarin withdrawal in patients with NVAF. Methods: A total of 719 patients with ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack and NVAF who were admitted at five regional hospitals between January 2013 and December 2016 were included. Prior medication status was categorized into seven groups such as no antithrombotics, antiplatelet-only, warfarin with a subtherapeutic intensity, warfarin with a therapeutic intensity, NOAC, warfarin withdrawal, and NOAC withdrawal. We compared initial National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores between groups. Results: The mean age was 73.9 ±10.2 years, and 397 (55.2%) patients were men. Median CHA 2 DS 2 -VASc score was 4 (interquartile range [IQR] 3-5). Among 719 patients, the NOAC withdrawal group had the highest median NIHSS scores at stroke onset (16, interquartile range, IQR [4-20]), followed by the warfarin withdrawal group (11, IQR [3-17]), the no antithrombotic group (5, IQR [2-16]), and the warfarin with subtherapeutic intensity group (5, IQR [2-13]). Multivariable analysis demonstrated that NOAC withdrawal was independently associated with higher NIHSS scores at stroke onset (B 4.645, 95% CI 0.384-8.906, P=0.033). Conclusions: Stroke occurred after discontinuing oral anticoagulants, particularly NOAC, was independently associated with severe stroke severity.

J.R.R. Tolkien and Creativity I: Transitionality and the Creative Process

J.R.R. Tolkien and Creativity I:Transitionality and the Creative Process John Rosegrant (bio) The popularity of J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional universe, remarkable from the start, has continued to expand since the appearance of Peter Jackson's movie adaptations. Wikipedia's list of the best-selling books of all time shows The Lord of the Rings (1954/2004) in third place and The Hobbit (1937) in sixth. Four out of five reasonably broad (although unscientific) polls conducted at the end of the last millennium came out with The Lord of the Rings rated the greatest book of the century, while in the fifth poll it was second only to the Bible (Shippey, 2000). Although Tolkien has been largely ignored by the psychoanalytic journals on PEP, his enormous appeal is worthy of psychoanalytic exploration. One reaction to his popularity has been to dismiss Tolkien's work as childish escapism: "juvenile trash" (Wilson, 1956, para 7); "The good boys, having fought a deadly battle, emerge at the end of it well, triumphant and happy, as boys would naturally expect to do" (Muir, 1955, p. 11). Other critics have countered that Tolkien addresses head-on and in great depth the traumas of modernity and war (see Croft, 2015; Curry, 1997; Hiley, 2011; Shippey, 2000). On a more psychological level, I have argued that Tolkien addresses the desire to retain experiences of enchantment during maturity (Rosegrant, 2016). I propose that Tolkien's work can be read as an examination of creative living that grew out of Tolkien's personal experience of creativity. In this first of two interconnected papers, I will present two episodes from Tolkien's creative life and examine how his work at times grew and at other times was inhibited by the struggle to establish and maintain transitional space. In the second paper, I will show ways in which Tolkien's work itself depicts the ongoing tension between transitional experience and perverse experience. [End Page 145] Tolkien experienced several traumatic losses (Carpenter, 2000; Garth, 2003; Rosegrant, 2016) that created sensitivity to these issues. In this paper, I will focus on specific experiences of loss and struggle to maintain access to transitionality as it affected his creativity at two points in time. In an essay throwing light on his creative viewpoint shortly before he commenced The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien stated that "the primal desire at the heart of Faerie [is] the realization, independent of the conceiving mind, of imagined wonder" (Tolkien, 2008, p. 42). Here Tolkien described a paradoxical state of consciousness: experience that is both subjective—imagined wonder—and objective—realized independent of the conceiving mind. Tolkien is saying that to enter Faerie, it is necessary to go through the doors of subjectivity and objectivity simultaneously. This vision of Tolkien's bears a notable similarity to Winnicott's (1953, 1967, 1971) description of transitional objects and transitional phenomena. For example, Winnicott stated that in addition to the internal world and the external world, the third part of the life of a human being […] is an intermediate world of experiencing, to which inner reality and external life both contribute. It is an area that is not challenged, because no claim is made on its behalf except that it shall exist as a resting-place for the individual engaged in the perpetual human task of keeping inner and outer reality separate and yet interrelated. (1971, p. 2) So, in Winnicottian terms, Tolkien's statement about the realization of imagined wonder means that Faerie exists in transitional space. But Tolkien also wrote that one of the three great benefits provided by fairy stories is recovery, which he defined as "seeing things as we are (or were) meant to see them—as things apart from ourselves" (2008, p.77). At first, hearing this sounds like the opposite of transitional space, emphasizing separateness rather than areas of interpenetration. But Tolkien's additional description of this phenomenon puts it in a different light: [End Page 146] We need […] to clean our windows; so that the things seen clearly may be freed from the drab blur of triteness or familiarity—from possessiveness […]things that are trite are things that we have appropriated, legally...

Developmental State and Ethnic Federalism in Ethiopia:

The ethnic federalization of the post-1991 Ethiopia and the subsequent adoption of developmental state paradigm are the two most important pillars for the country’s political and economic restructuring. An interventionist developmental state model is opted for against the dominant narrative of the non-interventionist neo-liberal approach as the right path to conquer poverty: a source of national humiliation. On the other hand, ethnically federated Ethiopia is considered as an antidote to the historical pervasive mismanagement of the ethno-linguistic and cultural diversity of the polity. The presence of these seemingly paradoxical state models in Ethiopia makes it a captivating case study for analysis. Ethiopia’s experiment of pursuing a developmental state in a decentralized form of governance not only deviates from the prevalent pattern but also is perceived to be inherently incompatible due to the competing approaches that characterize the two systems. This article argues that the way in which the developmental state is being practiced in Ethiopia is eroding the values and the very purposes of ethnic federalism. Its centralized, elitist and authoritarian nature, which are the hallmark of the Ethiopian developmental state, defeats the positive strides that ethnic federalism aspires to achieve, thereby causing discontent and disenfranchisement among a swathe of the society. The article posits that the developmental state can and should be reinvented in a manner that goes in harmony with the ideals of ethnic federalism. The notion of process-based leadership remains one way of reinventing the Ethiopian developmental state model. 

The Paradox of Police Data

This paper considers the history and politics of ‘police data.’ Police data, I contend, is a category of endangered data reliant on voluntary and inconsistent reporting by law enforcement agencies; it is also inconsistently described and routinely housed in systems that were not designed with long-term strategies for data preservation, curation or management in mind. Moreover, whereas US law enforcement agencies have, for over a century, produced and published a great deal of data about crime, data about the ways in which police officers spend their time and make decisions about resources—as well as information about patterns of individual officer behavior, use of force, and in-custody deaths—is difficult to find. This presents a paradoxical situation wherein vast stores of extant data are completely inaccessible to the public. This paradoxical state is not new, but the continuation of a long history co-constituted by technologies, epistemologies and context.

Centrality-friendship paradoxes: when our friends are more important than us

AbstractThe friendship paradox states that, on average, our friends have more friends than we do. In network terms, the average degree over the nodes can never exceed the average degree over the neighbours of nodes. This effect, which is a classic example of sampling bias, has attracted much attention in the social science and network science literature, with variations and extensions of the paradox being defined, tested and interpreted. Here, we show that a version of the paradox holds rigorously for eigenvector centrality: on average, our friends are more important than us. We then consider general matrix-function centrality, including Katz centrality, and give sufficient conditions for the paradox to hold. We also discuss which results can be generalized to the cases of directed and weighted edges. In this way, we add theoretical support for a field that has largely been evolving through empirical testing.