L. Klaus

Cultural and biographical influences on the expression of emotions manifest themselves in so-called “display rules.” These rules determine the time, intensity, and situations in which an emotion is expressed. To date, only a small number of empirical studies deal with this transformation of how migrants, who are faced with a new culture, may change their emotional expression. The present, cross-sectional study focuses on changes in anger expression as part of a complex acculturation process among Iranian migrants. To this end, Iranian citizens in Iran, German citizens, and Iranian migrants in Germany were compared in terms of anger expression behavior and acculturation strategy was assessed among the migrants, using the Frankfurt Acculturation Scale. A questionnaire developed in a preliminary study was used to measure anger expression via subjective anger experience and anger expression within 16 hypothetical situations. Multivariate Analyses of Variance revealed that Iranians and Iranian migrants reported higher anger experience ratings than Germans and directed their anger more often inward. Further findings suggest that transformation processes may have affected Iranian migrants in terms of suppressed anger : Iranian migrants with a higher orientation toward German culture reported lower average anger-in scores. These results suggest that there was different emotional expression among Iranian migrants, depending on their acculturation. The results provide new insight into socio-cultural and individual adjustment processes.

Plato’s Phaidon, as generally held, is set in Phlius (northern Argolis), shortly after the death of Socrates: the scarcely twenty-year-old Phaidon (see 89b2), on his way from Athens to his home town of Elis, is visiting the Pythagorean Echecrates and his companions. In this article I will show that the established place and time neglect some special dynamics of the start of the meeting (Section I) and a series of ethopoietic effects in the course of the dialogue (Section II). Moreover, relevant testimonies about Echecrates of Phlius and some adverbial references (especially 118a16 τότε) suggest that the dramatic time of the dialogue should be understood as set substantially later (Section III). Finally, general reflections on the naturalness of the whole setting (Section IV) seem to confirm that in the Platonic Phaidon, the already more mature Phaidon, when visited ‘years after’ (Wilamowitz) in Elis by the Pythagorean Echecrates, reports details of the memorable death of his former master.

Today’s social, economic, ecological and political state-of-affairs, the lack of confidence in business and political leaders and the associated rise of populist parties pose new and structurally different challenges to mankind. They are likely to be deepened in the course of the implementation of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. While all societal actors are called upon to reflect on their contribution to necessary reforms, business has a particularly important role to play. Competing with integrity today means much more than compliance with law and regulation. The article discusses the necessity of top manager’s reflection on values and coherent practical action and uses the World Ethos body of thought as a compass. It also draws attention to the complexity of such a values management and stresses the importance of ethical leadership.

This article shows under which circumstances fraudulent accreditation can occur in Brazilian military hospitals, calling attention to the tone at the top as a critical aspect of military fraud deterrence – and hence as a critical aspect of this branch of military ethics. The problems allegedly found in Brazilian military health institutions were revealed through in-depth interviews conducted with 29 professionals who reported to work or have worked in a Brazilian military hospital. These fraud allegations were mostly associated with false documentation and procedures designed to give the appearance that legal requirements for accreditation were met and could be traced back to a weak or corrupt “tone at the top” coming from military higher ranks.

There has been a tremendous increase in interest in bioethics, which has come in direct response to the substantial advances in biomedical research and medical technology over the past 30 years. The more sophisticated medical science and technology becomes, the more sophisticated are questions that are raised: Who has the right to decide whether a medical treatment should be initiated, continued, or stopped? How much information are healthcare professionals required to give to patients? When should a patient's right to confidentiality be violated? When, if ever, is active or passive euthanasia or abortion justified, and who has the right to decide on these issues?

We investigate the long-term evolution of degree-degree correlations (assortativity) in functional brain networks from epilepsy patients. Functional networks are derived from continuous multi-day, multi-channel electroencephalographic data, which capture a wide range of physiological and pathophysiological activities. In contrast to previous studies which all reported functional brain networks to be assortative on average, even in case of various neurological and neurodegenerative disorders, we observe large fluctuations in time-resolved degree-degree correlations ranging from assortative to dissortative mixing. Moreover, in some patients these fluctuations exhibit some periodic temporal structure which can be attributed, to a large extent, to daily rhythms. Relevant aspects of the epileptic process, particularly possible pre-seizure alterations, contribute marginally to the observed long-term fluctuations. Nevertheless, our findings suggest that physiological and pathophysiological activity may modify functional brain networks in a different and process-specific way. We evaluate factors that possibly influence the long-term evolution of degree-degree correlations.

Mild signs of postpartum depression or anxiety are present in up to half of all new mothers. However, the impact of having the “baby blues” on infant development remains largely unknown. The current study explores a potential relation between mother’s self-reported depression or anxiety symptoms and infant’s motor development in a longitudinal sample of 50 mother-infant dyads. Further, we examine whether engaging in fetal kick counting during pregnancy may reduce maternal psychopathology symptoms and thereby positively influence infant motor development and parent-child engagement during the first months of life. We hypothesized that subclinical maternal psychopathology would negatively impact infant motor development, and that completing a fetal kick count activity during the third trimester would reduce overall signs of maternal psychopathology. Results only partially support these hypotheses. Postpartum maternal anxiety seems to negatively affect the emergence of infants’ fine motor skills. However, engaging in fetal kick counting during pregnancy did not reduce maternal depression or anxiety symptoms. Nevertheless, preliminary evidence suggests that engaging in fetal kick counting may impact early child development by altering the mother’s attitudes toward the child. Future research is needed to examine the value of this low-cost intervention strategy more closely.

In this brief essay, we will argue that modern neuroscience and Whitehead’s process thinking arrive at rather similar conclusions about the essence of human experiences. Important issues evolving from neuroscientific research, specifying the identity of human beings, are explained as resulting from the development and stepwise changes of highly dynamic neuronal networks. These conclusions appear to fit the physical concepts developed by Whitehead, who claims that the elucidation of immediate experience, proceeding from objectivity to subjectivity, is the sole justification of our thought. Both lines of thought assume that our bodily experience, emerging from the perception of various bodily organs, is the basis of our existence.