The Ethics of Delusional Belief

In this paper we address the ethics of adopting delusional beliefs and we apply consequentialist and deontological considerations to the epistemic evaluation of delusions. Delusions are characterised by their epistemic shortcomings and they are often defined as false and irrational beliefs. Despite this, when agents are overwhelmed by negative emotions due to the effects of trauma or previous adversities, or when they are subject to anxiety and stress as a result of hypersalient experience, the adoption of a delusional belief can prevent a serious epistemic harm from occurring. For instance, delusions can allow agents to remain in touch with their environment overcoming the disruptive effect of negative emotions and anxiety. Moreover, agents are not blameworthy for adopting their delusions if their ability to believe otherwise is compromised. There is evidence suggesting that no evidence-related action that would counterfactually lead them to believe otherwise is typically available to them. The lack of ability to believe otherwise, together with some other conditions, implies that the agents are not blameworthy for their delusions. The examination of the epistemic status of delusions prompts us to acknowledge the complexity and contextual nature of epistemic evaluation, establish connections between consequentialist and deontological frameworks in epistemology, and introduce the notion of epistemic innocence into the vocabulary of epistemic evaluatio

Stability of domain structures in multi-domain proteins

Multi-domain proteins have many advantages with respect to stability and folding inside cells. Here we attempt to understand the intricate relationship between the domain-domain interactions and the stability of domains in isolation. We provide quantitative treatment and proof for prevailing intuitive ideas on the strategies employed by nature to stabilize otherwise unstable domains. We find that domains incapable of independent stability are stabilized by favourable interactions with tethered domains in the multi-domain context. Stability of such folds to exist independently is optimized by evolution. Specific residue mutations in the sites equivalent to inter-domain interface enhance the overall solvation, thereby stabilizing these domain folds independently. A few naturally occurring variants at these sites alter communication between domains and affect stability leading to disease manifestation. Our analysis provides safe guidelines for mutagenesis which have attractive applications in obtaining stable fragments and domain constructs essential for structural studies by crystallography and NMR

Posthospitalization COVID-19 cognitive deficits at 1 year are global and associated with elevated brain injury markers and gray matter volume reduction

\ua9 The Author(s) 2024.The spectrum, pathophysiology and recovery trajectory of persistent post-COVID-19 cognitive deficits are unknown, limiting our ability to develop prevention and treatment strategies. We report the 1-year cognitive, serum biomarker and neuroimaging findings from a prospective, national study of cognition in 351 COVID-19 patients who required hospitalization, compared with 2,927 normative matched controls. Cognitive deficits were global, associated with elevated brain injury markers and reduced anterior cingulate cortex volume 1 year after COVID-19. Severity of the initial infective insult, postacute psychiatric symptoms and a history of encephalopathy were associated with the greatest deficits. There was strong concordance between subjective and objective cognitive deficits. Longitudinal follow-up in 106 patients demonstrated a trend toward recovery. Together, these findings support the hypothesis that brain injury in moderate to severe COVID-19 may be immune-mediated, and should guide the development of therapeutic strategies

Highly symmetric POVMs and their informational power

We discuss the dependence of the Shannon entropy of normalized finite rank-1 POVMs on the choice of the input state, looking for the states that minimize this quantity. To distinguish the class of measurements where the problem can be solved analytically, we introduce the notion of highly symmetric POVMs and classify them in dimension two (for qubits). In this case we prove that the entropy is minimal, and hence the relative entropy (informational power) is maximal, if and only if the input state is orthogonal to one of the states constituting a POVM. The method used in the proof, employing the Michel theory of critical points for group action, the Hermite interpolation and the structure of invariant polynomials for unitary-antiunitary groups, can also be applied in higher dimensions and for other entropy-like functions. The links between entropy minimization and entropic uncertainty relations, the Wehrl entropy and the quantum dynamical entropy are described.Comment: 40 pages, 3 figure

Using value of statistical life for the ex ante evaluation of transport policy options: a discussion based on ethical theory

This paper aims to discuss a number of questions that are highly important for the ex ante evaluation of the safety impacts of transport policy options, from the perspective of ethical theory: (1) Is it morally OK to express prevention on acceptance of fatalities or risks in monetary terms? (2) How useful is the concept of the value of a statistical life (VOSL) for ex ante evaluations of transport policy options? (3) What are the pros and cons of pricing protection of lives or prevention of risks in ex ante evaluations? (4) Which methods are available for expressing (protection of) human lives in monetary terms, and what are the main related methodological discussions? (5) Are all safety-related costs generally included in ex ante evaluations of the safety impacts of transport policy options, and if not: what is the relevance of excluded costs categories from an ethical perspective? (6) How important is the distribution of safety effects from an ethical perspective? The answer to the first question highly depends on the ethical theory that is used. With respect to question 2 we think that the VOSL is a useful concept, but that its application is not straightforward, for several reasons. Thirdly we think that probably pricing safety improves the quality of decision making, but to the best of our knowledge there is no research to underpin this expectation. The answer to question 4 is that several methods exist to estimate the value of a statistical life (VOSL), willingness-to-pay (WTP) methods being the most common category of methods. However, several methodological issues arise that make estimates of VOSL less straightforward. With respect to question 5 we conclude that behaviour-related avoidance costs are often overlooked and that these costs are relevant from an ethical perspective because the freedom to move and the freedom to participate in activities are challenged. Finally the answer to question 6 is that from an ethical perspective, in terms of the evaluation of policy measures, it might matter which groups of the population are the victims of the transport system, or are at risk. Egalitarian theories as well as sufficientarianism are useful theories to discuss distribution effects. Different theories conclude differently. © 2012 The Author(s)

Posthospitalization COVID-19 cognitive deficits at 1 year are global and associated with elevated brain injury markers and gray matter volume reduction

Data availability: Individual-level data and samples from the COVID-Clinical Neuroscience Study are available for collaborative research by application through the NIHR BioResource Data Access Committee https://bioresource.nihr.ac.uk/using-our-bioresource/apply-for-bioresource-data-access/. The Committee decide on academic applications, with escalation to the NIHR BioResource Steering Committee for contentious applications, and/or applications from industry. Participants in the NIHR BioResource have all consented to the sharing of de-identified data with bona fide researchers worldwide, for research in the public interest. There are limits to these consents both by expectation and legal—some datasets may not be shared beyond a safe setting in the UK. The Data Access Committee aim to process data-only requests as quickly as possible and meet fortnightly to consider applications. Once approved, timeframes for data availability vary from 2 weeks to 6 months depending on the nature of the data requested.Code availability: Code is publicly available via https://github.com/tnggroup/covidcns.Extended data are available online at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03309-8#Sec24 .Supplementary information is available online at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03309-8#Sec25 .The spectrum, pathophysiology and recovery trajectory of persistent post-COVID-19 cognitive deficits are unknown, limiting our ability to develop prevention and treatment strategies. We report the 1-year cognitive, serum biomarker and neuroimaging findings from a prospective, national study of cognition in 351 COVID-19 patients who required hospitalization, compared with 2,927 normative matched controls. Cognitive deficits were global, associated with elevated brain injury markers and reduced anterior cingulate cortex volume 1 year after COVID-19. Severity of the initial infective insult, postacute psychiatric symptoms and a history of encephalopathy were associated with the greatest deficits. There was strong concordance between subjective and objective cognitive deficits. Longitudinal follow-up in 106 patients demonstrated a trend toward recovery. Together, these findings support the hypothesis that brain injury in moderate to severe COVID-19 may be immune-mediated, and should guide the development of therapeutic strategies.Members of the COVID-CNS Study Group are supported to conduct COVID-19 neuroscience research by the UK Research and Innovation/Medical Research Council (UKRI/MRC; grant no. MR/V03605X/1). G.K.W. is funded by the UK NIHR as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow (ACF-2022-07-007). B.D.M., G.B. and other investigators are supported by NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections at University of Liverpool, NIHR/Wellcome Trust King’s Clinical Research Facility, NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at South London, Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London. B.D.M. is also supported for additional neurological inflammation research due to viral infection by grants from: the NIHR (award CO-CIN-01), the MRC (MC_PC_19059), the UKRI/MRC (MR/V007181/1), MRC (MR/T028750/1) and Wellcome (ISSF201902/3). J.-P.T. is supported by the Newcastle NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and the NIHR Dementia Translational Research Collaboration. This publication was supported by the Association of British Neurologists, British Paediatric Neurology Association, British Association of Stroke Physicians and the Royal College of Psychiatrists