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"The pedagogical caring as aid relationship". This article examines the theoretical-pedagogical plan of the concept of “care” (self-care, care of other, care of the world) in relation to the deep and native meaning of epimeleia heautou, emphasizing its value and actuality and the inseparable nexus with the ethics. On the furrow traced by Michel Foucault, the objective is to show that the capacity of taking care, as fundamental ethical act, allows to think a subjectivity that constitutes itself, rather than being constituted.

In the course of a very long period of time, the body of the different has had to contend, at the price of many sufferings, with the clichés of a stereotypical normality. The diversity has existed for a long time as a negation of normality. The conformity to standard is always a problem still open which poses challenges and dilemmas with respect to everything that is not socially ‘normalized’. There is still the risk of a dis-human discrimination that, appealing to a need for normalization and, then, graders, does not recognize at the human being, by virtue and in respect for his ontology, a diversity structurally unique and inviolable that expresses itself in infinites ways to being-in-the-world.

This paper, starting from the question “Which etichs for what future?”, retraces a few streets of ethical reflection, subdividing the exploration in moments of classical Greece (with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle), of modernity (with Kant, developments science, Hegel) and of the current globalized world (with Jürgen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel). The problem of values, in particular, and of ethics, in general, arises today, as in the past, in a double sense: regards, on the one hand, their possible foundation or legitimation, on the other, their possible sharing and acceptance by all members of the community. Discourse ethics, especially in the version theorized by Karl-Otto Apel, appears more congenial in outlining the minimum basis of a common ethics shared, guaranteed by the universal consensus of ethics intrinsic to the discourse.

The model of the politic of difference, proposed by Charles Taylor, in the wake of a conception of liberalism ‘hospitable’, unfolds in a journey aimed to comply with the ontological dimensions of the dignity of different cultures, of cultural traditions and ways of life. Being a self, constructed in terms of dialogue and dialectic of mutual recognition between cultures, refers, in the Charles Taylor’s reflection, to the safeguarding of single, intersubjective or common meanings of specific social, moral, narrative spaces.

Methoden zur Konstruktion konformaler Konfidenzbereiche, welche im Rahmen des sogenannten On-Line Settings angewendet werden, haben vor allem durch die Arbeit von Gammerman et al. (2005) sowie von Shafer und Vovk (2008) Bekanntheit erlangt. Die hier vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit zwei besonderen Herangehensweisen: die Full- und die Split-Methode, welche beide in G‘Sell et al. (2016) vorgestellt werden. Dabei wird der Schwerpunkt auf zwei Aspekte gelegt. Zum einen wird gezeigt, dass beide Methoden unter der Bedingung der Vertauschbarkeit der datengenerierenden Folge von Zufallsvariablen bei fester Stichprobengröße gültige Konfidenzbereiche hervorbringen, d.h. Konfidenzbereiche, deren Übderdeckungswahrscheinlichkeit das vorgegebene Konfidenzniveau nicht unterschreitet und mit wachsender Stichprobe sich diesem sogar annähert. Zum anderen wird unter der stärkeren Annahme, dass die datengenerierende Folge aus unabhängigen und identisch verteilten Zufallsvariablen besteht, für beide Methoden die auf wachsende Stichproben Bezug nehmende Asymptotik untersucht, wobei das Konvergenzverhalten der empirischen Überdeckungsrate sowie der Breite der Konfidenzbereiche von Relevanz ist. Diese Untersuchung wird außerdem noch durch eine einfache Simulation eines On-Line Settings exemplarisch ergänzt. Im Verlauf dieser Arbeit zeigt sich, dass bezüglich rechentechnischer Umsetzung und Robustheit die Split-Methode gegenüber der Full-Methode einige Vorzüge aufzuweisen hat., Methods to construct conformal confidence regions, which are applied within the framework of the so called on-line setting, have been popularised through Gammerman et al. (2005) as well as through Shafer and Vovk (2008). The work in hand deals with two particular approaches: the full- and the split-method, which are both introduced by G’Sell et al. (2016). The focus is laid on two issues. On the one hand, it is shown that under exchangeability of the data generating sequence of random variables and fixed sample size both methods generate valid confidence regions, i.e. confidence regions whose coverage probability does not fall short of the given confidence level and even converges towards it with increasing sample size. On the other hand, the asymptotics of both methods, which refers to increasing sample size, are examined with respect to the convergence behaviour of both the empirical coverage rate and the width of the relevant confidence regions under the stronger assumption that the data generating sequence consists of independent and identically distributed random variables. In addition, these examinations are supplemented by a simple simulation of an on-line setting framework. Throughout this work, it becomes apparent that the split method exhibits some advantages over the full method regarding computational realization and robustness.

“Critical Thought”: Presentation of the volume in honour of Prof. Michele Borrelli (International Centre of Philosophy Karl-Otto Apel - Wednesday, April 4, 2012, 16.00/20.00) - This paper has been presented during the public presentation of the volume “Critical Thought” that collects some international writings in honour of the philosopher and the pedagogist Michele Borrelli. The paper focus on some pillars of the Michele Borrelli’s research activity: the relationship between philosophy and pedagogy; the dialectic subject-society and the pedagogical consequences; theactuality of the critical thought.

Review of "Contemporary Philosophies" - This contribution is a review of the book edited by Michele Borrelli and Raúl Fornet-Betancourt titled "Contemporary Philosophies" in which it is proposed a journey in the contemporary philosophical world through the reading of some reflections of its protagonists. It is an excursus about the major turning points in the history of the contemporary philosophy, whose explosive impact (you needonly think of the transcendental-pragmatics perspective of Karl-Otto Apel, the philosophy of liberation, the ‘Praxis Group’, the ‘Budapest School’, the ‘weak thought’) has created and produced a wide range of transformations and consequences in the context of the philosophical thought.

This essay discusses the foundation of educational theory by means of the comparison with centrals principles of Kant’s ethical.

One of the hottest topics in rehabilitation robotics is that of proper control of prosthetic devices. Despite decades of research, the state of the art is dramatically behind the expectations. To shed light on this issue, in June, 2013 the first international workshop on Present and future of non-invasive peripheral nervous system (PNS) Machine Interfaces (MI; PMI) was convened, hosted by the International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics. The keyword PMI has been selected to denote human-machine interfaces targeted at the limb-deficient, mainly upper-limb amputees, dealing with signals gathered from the PNS in a non-invasive way, that is, from the surface of the residuum. The workshop was intended to provide an overview of the state of the art and future perspectives of such interfaces; this paper represents is a collection of opinions expressed by each and every researcher/group involved in it.

Stable myoelectric control of hand prostheses remains an open problem. The only successful human-machine interface is surface electromyography, typically allowing control of a few degrees of freedom. Machine learning techniques may have the potential to remove these limitations, but their performance is thus far inadequate: myoelectric signals change over time under the influence of various factors, deteriorating control performance. It is therefore necessary, in the standard approach, to regularly retrain a new model from scratch.We hereby propose a non-linear incremental learning method in which occasional updates with a modest amount of novel training data allow continual adaptation to the changes in the signals. In particular, Incremental Ridge Regression and an approximation of the Gaussian Kernel known as Random Fourier Features are combined to predict finger forces from myoelectric signals, both finger-by-finger and grouped in grasping patterns.We show that the approach is effective and practically applicable to this problem by first analyzing its performance while predicting single-finger forces. Surface electromyography and finger forces were collected from 10 intact subjects during four sessions spread over two different days; the results of the analysis show that small incremental updates are indeed effective to maintain a stable level of performance.Subsequently, we employed the same method on-line to teleoperate a humanoid robotic arm equipped with a state-of-the-art commercial prosthetic hand. The subject could reliably grasp, carry and release everyday-life objects, enforcing stable grasping irrespective of the signal changes, hand/arm movements and wrist pronation and supination.

Diskurs 14 (2004) 3, S. 67-75, Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt einen kurzen Überblick über die angewandte Forschung zum Thema "Straßenjugendliche" und Ausreißer/innen, die während der letzten zwei Jahrzehnte im englischsprachigen Teil Kanadas durchgeführt wurde, sowie über ausgewählte Arbeiten insbesondere aus den USA. Diese Gruppe verdient besondere Aufmerksamkeit, weil sie typischerweise in höchstem Maße gefährdet ist und öffentlich sichtbare Risikojugendliche umfasst. Die konzeptionellen und theoretischen Fragestellungen sowie die Herausforderungen, die sich bei der Formulierung einer brauchbaren Definition von "Straßenjugend" ergeben, werden einer eingehenden Analyse unterzogen. Schließlich wird auf die gängigen Debatten in der Literatur zu den veränderten Konzeptualisierungen von Kindern und Kindheit sowie auf die Implikationen dieser Entwicklungen für die künftige Forschung im Bereich Risikojugendliche und "Straßenjugendliche" eingegangen. (DIPF/Orig.)

South Tyrol, the main Italian apple growing area, is characterised by an highly intensive soil cultivation. Previous investigations shows the existence of replant disorders although it has not been evaluated which are the main causes. A survey has been carried out in this area with two main aims I) to evaluate the role of soil borne pathogens in apple replant disease and II) to evaluate the effect of soil management toward soil borne pathogens causing replant diseases. The experimental sites were chosen in order to obtain three couples of contiguous conventional and organic apple orchards. Soil sickness test with young apple plants gave a significant growth reduction in all soil samples if compared to a peat control. Among all root colonising fungi (Fusarium oxysporum, F. solani, Aphanomyces sp., Cy/incrocarpon sp., Rhizoctonia sp. and Pythium sp.) some Rhizoctonia solani strains and all Pythium spp. were the most pathogenic. In all cases organic management seems to reduce the soil sickness severity caused by root rot fungal pathogens.

The German Adjuvant Breast Cancer Study Group (GABG) conducts trials of preoperative chemotherapy in patients with primary breast cancer using a combination of doxorubicin and docetaxel (ADoc). -We conducted a parallel-grouped phase IIa-study with 42 patients with a conventionally dosed and a dose-dense ADoc-schedule (4 cycles of Doxorubicin 50 mg/m(2), Docetaxel 75 mg/m(2) i. v. day 1, q day 15 or 22; G-CSF day 3-15 only for the dose-dense schedule) and a randomized phase IIb-study (GEPARDO-Study) with 250 patients with ADoc +/- Tamoxifen. Biological factors were determined immunohistochemically on 197 core biopsies before treatment. A comparison to a sequential AC-Doc regimen including 913 patients has been completed recently. -ADoc can be applicated on schedule in 93 % of all patients. The dose-dense regimen shows a tendency to more toxicity but also to more efficacy. The rate of complete pathological remissions (pCR) was 9.7 %. No difference was found between chemo- and chemoendocrine treatment. Clinically negative lymphnodes and a negative estrogen receptor status is predictive for a higher pCR-rate. To date no differences in toxicity could be found between ADoc and AC-Doc. -The dose-dense ADoc regimen is well tolerated and highly effective as preoperative therapy of breast cancer.

Textured implant surfaces are thought to enhance endosseous integration. Torque removal forces have been used as a biomechanical measure of anchorage, or endosseous integration, in which the greater forces required to remove implants may be interpreted as an increase in the strength of bony integration. The purpose of this study was to compare the torque resistance to removal of screw-shaped titanium implants having a dual acid-etched surface (Osseotite) with implants having either a machined surface, or a titanium plasma spray surface that exhibited a significantly more complex surface topography. Three custom screw-shaped implant types - machined, dual acid-etched (DAE), and titanium plasma sprayed (TPS) - were used in this study. Each implant surface was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and optical profilometry. One DAE implant was placed into each distal femur of eighteen adult New Zealand White rabbits along with one of the other implant types. Thus, each rabbit received two DAE implants and one each of the machined, or TPS, implants. All implants measured 3.25 mm in diameter x 4.00 mm in length without holes, grooves or slots to resist rotation. Eighteen rabbits were used for reverse torque measurements. Groups of six rabbits were sacrificed following one, two and three month healing periods. Implants were removed by reverse torque rotation with a digital torque-measuring device. Three implants with the machined surface preparation failed to achieve endosseous integration. All other implants were anchored by bone. Mean torque values for machined, DAE and TPS implants at one, two and three months were 6.00+/-0.64 N-cm, 9.07+/-0.67 N-cm and 6.73+/-0.95 N-cm; 21.86+/-1.37 N-cm, 27.63+/-3.41 N-cm and 27.40+/-3.89 N-cm; and 27.48+/-1.61 N-cm, 44.28+/-4.53 N-cm and 59.23+/-3.88 N-cm, respectively. Clearly, at the earliest time point the stability of DAE implants was comparable to that of TPS implants, while that of the machined implants was an order of magnitude lower. The TPS implants increased resistance to reverse torque removal over the three-month period. The results of this study confirm our previous results that demonstrated enhanced bony anchorage to dual acid-etched implants as compared to machined implants. Furthermore, the present results indicate that dual acid etching of titanium enhances early endosseous integration to a level which is comparable to that achieved by the topographically more complex TPS surfaces.