n their writings, the Second Vatican Council’s bishops demonstrated that the choice of communication style for handing on Catholic teaching is a significant, perhaps pivotal, pastoral decision. The bishops chose a persuasive style of language to shift the priority of their teaching away from that of winning arguments to that of building common ground. As a result, according to the eminent churc...

The clinical outcome of cardiovascular diseases as myocardial infarction and stroke are generally caused by rupture of an atherosclerotic plaque. However, the actual cause of a plaque to rupture is not yet established. Interestingly, pathology studies have shown an increased presence of the mast cell, an important inflammatory effector cell in allergy and host defense, in (peri)vascular tissue ...

Qualitative probabilistic networks have been designed for probabilistic reasoning in a qualitative way. Due to their coarse level of representation detail, qualitative probabilistic networks do not provide for resolving trade-offs and typically yield ambiguous results upon inference. We present an algorithm for computing more insightful results for unresolved trade-offs. The algorithm builds up...

Experience shapes brain function throughout life to varying degrees. In a recent issue of Nature, Donato et al. identify reversible shifts in focal parvalbumin cell state during adult learning, placing it on a mechanistic continuum with developmental critical periods. A disinhibitory microcircuit controls the plasticity switch to modulate memory formation.

It is shown that the BK inequality holds for the (tree-ordered) pivotal sampling algorithm a.k.a. the Srinivasan sampling process. This is done via a mapping, which commutes with the -operation, from increasing sets of samples to sets of match sequences and an application of Reimer’s inequality.

The transfer of the plasma current from thermal to relativistic electrons is a threat to ITER achieving its mission. This danger is significantly greater in the nuclear than in the nonnuclear phase of ITER operations. Two issues are pivotal. The first is the extent and duration of magnetic surface breaking in conjunction with the thermal quenches. The second is the exponential sensitivity of th...

the practice of neuropsychology within athletic settings. In recent months, the NFL acknowledged potential risks associated with football and the long-term health of professional athletes. The death of University of Pennsylvania football player, Owen Thomas, drew particular attention after the New York Times reported that his autopsy showed evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Media co...

Cloud Computing (CC) is the new trend in computing and resource management. This architectural shift towards thin clients and the centralized on-demand provision of computing resources aspires to offer significant economical benefits to its users. However, the adaption of the CC model has forced many times the IT industry and the academia to revisit most of the traditional tools and technologie...