In Leviathan, the foundation and stability of commonwealth arises from agreement about what is good and how the good is to be obtained. Hobbes argues that we all agree that peace and the means to peace are good, and such agreement, which Hobbes associates closely with reason, is a necessary condition on the covenant to form the commonwealth. However, there is also significant diversity. The chapter offers an account of this diversity, which poses a threat to the stability and success of commonwealths. Overcoming the threat depends upon the plasticity of our passions. Hobbes suggests that the passions that characterize us, even if they are diverse, are not plastic: most of us are dominated by fear; a few of us by other passions; and we cannot change who we are in this respect enough for such changes to matter to social theory. Reason also is fixed: a few, great social scientists perhaps can acquire the ability to reason better than they do, but whole populations cannot. We are notably plastic, however, in the objects of our passions. It is this plasticity that prudent sovereigns can exploit in order to bring about thriving commonwealths.

This final chapter looks to the future of intergroup theories and research, and to changes that could lead to stronger intergroup theories - remembering that the most practical thing is a good theory. First, closer ties are suggested between intergroup theories and research on (a) feminist theory (b) allyship and (c) intersectionality. Second, it is proposed that intergroup theories pay more attention to (1) integrating individual, group, and societal processes (2) irrationality and emotions (3) rights and duties (4) plasticity in intergroup behavior (5) leadership (6) conflict resolution.

Perinatal stroke refers to strokes that occur between 20 weeks of gestation and 28 days postnatally, and it is increasingly recognized as a significant cause of neurologic complications such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and behavioral disorders, along with impaired visual and language development. The incidence of perinatal stroke is approximately 1 in 2,000 live births. This condition can be classified based on various criteria, including blood supply (venous or arterial), age at stroke (fetal or neonatal), and type (ischemic or hemorrhagic). Perinatal arterial ischemic stroke (PAIS) is defined by focal disruptions in cerebral blood flow arising from arterial issues or cerebral sinovenous thrombosis. PAIS is further categorized into fetal ischemic stroke, neonatal ischemic stroke, and presumed perinatal ischemic stroke, depending on the diagnosis timing. Perinatal hemorrhagic stroke is less defined but can also be categorized similarly to ischemic strokes.

We begin by explaining the notion of pressure and stress tensors as energy derivatives with respect to volume. Then, we discuss equations of state, elasticity, and the rheology of crystals, providing a comprehensive understanding of crystal mechanics.

The destructive competition hypothesis views the brain as a system with finite processing resources, where new cognitive functions compete with evolutionary older ones for cortical space. In contrast, our combined neuroimaging and behavioral evidence points to a different conclusion: The human brain has the remarkable capacity to accommodate new cultural skills, such as reading, while simultaneously enhancing related preexisting abilities, such as face recognition. Rather than impairing older functions, reading acquisition appears to support and refine them.

philosophy of neuroscience, experimental philosophy, philosophy of action, free will, libertarianism, agent-causation, wild coincidence objection, statistical laws, probabilistic models, stochastic models, plasticity

It has been argued that our scientific discoveries support at least one of two distinct forms of causal reduction thereby making the notion that we irreducible agents obsolete. One is the reduction of the manifestation of causal dispositions to stimulated responses. The other is the reduction of kinds of causes of physical change to those studied in the hard sciences. In this chapter, I argue that neither have any scientific support. Rather, whether either form of reduction is viable won’t ultimately be resolved by scientific advancement but by analytic progress. Furthermore, I argue that attempts at the first are misguided as attempts at reducing what is a process (i.e., the manifestation of a causal disposition) to what can be a result of various processes (i.e., a stimulated response); while attempts at the second ultimately involve not fully taking into account how the specificity of any domain of science limits the generalizability of what can be discovered through it.

The best models for certain neural matters underlying the expression of our agency are stochastic or probabilistic. While this fact has been thought to be consistent with the notion that we are irreducible agents who settle matters that aren’t already settled, this consistency has come under dispute. It has been argued that, given probabilistic models apply to the underlying neural matters, for the way we express the ability to settle matters that aren’t already settled to perfectly align with what should be expected would, over the long run, amount to a wild coincidence. I argue that this objection is an empirical objection that goes against empirical findings. Thus, it isn’t credible. Moreover, what we continue to observe through neuroscience is evocative of the idea that we are irreducible agents who do this sort of settling in the midst of disposing and inclining factors.

This chapter offers an in-depth discussion of various nanoelectronic and nanoionic synapses along with the operational mechanisms, capabilities and limitations, and directions for further advancements in this field. We begin with overarching mechanisms to design artificial synapses and learning characteristics for neuromorphic computing. Silicon-based synapses using digital CMOS platforms are described followed by emerging device technologies. Filamentary synapses that utilize nanoscale conducting pathways for forming and breaking current shunting routes within two-terminal devices are then discussed. This is followed by ferroelectric devices wherein polarization states of a switchable ferroelectric layer are responsible for synaptic plasticity and memory. Insulator–metal transition-based synapses are described wherein a sharp change in conductance of a layer due to external stimulus offers a route for compact synapse design. Organic materials, 2D van der Waals, and layered semiconductors are discussed. Ionic liquids and solid gate dielectrics for multistate memory and learning are presented. Photonic and spintronic synapses are then discussed in detail.

This chapter begins with an overview of the major changes in physical size and proportions and the nature of developmental changes in physical growth. We also examine factors that influence growth and discuss the problem of childhood obesity. We then shift our focus to one of the most important and drastic periods of change in the life span—adolescence and the onset of sexual maturity. We next look at aspects of children’s motor development, examining both gross and fine motor changes in children’s abilities to control their bodies. We then devote a relatively large section to the development of perhaps the body’s most important organ—at least from a psychological perspective—the brain, which is expanded in later chapters.

For different types of environmental conditions, the logarithmic changes in each concentration Xj, denoted by δXj(E), are proportional for almost all components, over a wide range of perturbations, where the proportionality coefficient is given by the ratio of change in cell growth rate δμ(E). Then consider the evolution after applied environmental changes. Let the change in log concentration be δXj(G) and the change in growth rate be δμ(G). The theory suggests that δX_j(G)/ δX_j(E)= δμ(G)/ δμ(E), as confirmed experimentally. With evolution, the right hand term gradually moves toward 0, accordingly the change in concentrations does. This is a process similar to the Le Chatelier principle of thermodynamics. The relationships described above arise because phenotypic changes due to environmental perturbations, noise, and genetic changes are constrained to a common low-dimensional manifold as a result of evolution. This is because the adapted state after evolution should be stable against a variety of perturbations, while phenotypes retain plasticity to change, in order to have evolvability. To achieve this dimensional reduction, there is a separation of a few slow modes in the dynamics for phenotypes. The variance of phenotypes due to noise and mutation is proportional over all phenotypes, leading to the possibility of predicting phenotypic evolution.

The other facet of adaptation, immutability or homeostasis, is discussed. Dynamical system models that buffer external changes in a few variables to suppress changes in other variables are presented. In this case, some variable makes a transient change depending on the environmental change before returning to the original state. This transient response is shown to obey fold-change detection (or Weber–Fechner law), in which the response rate by environmental changes depends only on how many times the environmental change is to the original value. As for the multicomponent cell model, a critical state in which the abundances of each component are inversely proportional to its rank is maintained as a homeostatic state even when the environmental condition is changed. In biological circadian clocks, the period of oscillation remains almost unchanged against changes in temperature (temperature compensation) or other environmental conditions. When several reactions involved in the cyclic change use a common enzyme, enzyme-limited competition results. This competition among substrates explains the temperature compensation mentioned above. In this case, the reciprocity between the period and the plasticity of biological clocks results.

This chapter presents an overview of the goals of universal biology. It is noted that biological systems are generally hierarchical as molecules-cells-organisms, where the components of each level are quite diverse. How such diversity arises and is maintained is discussed. We then discuss the possibility of understanding such biological systems with diverse components, and explore the possibility of macroscopic theory to reveal and formulate universal properties in living states, noting that robustness, plasticity, and activity are essential to life. Recalling the spirit (not the formulation) of thermodynamics, we explore the possibility of formulating a theory for characterizing universal properties in life, emphasizing macroscopic robustness at each level of the hierarchy and the importance of macro-micro consistency.