Four-Dimensional Graded Consciousness.

Both the multidimensional phenomenon and the polysemous notion of consciousness continue to prove resistant to consistent measurement and unambiguous definition. This is hardly surprising, given that there is no agreement even as regards the most fundamental issues they involve. One of the basic disagreements present in the continuing debate about consciousness pertains to its gradational nature.

Subjectivity: A Case of Biological Individuation and an Adaptive Response to Informational Overflow.

The article presents a perspective on the scientific explanation of the subjectivity of conscious experience. It proposes plausible answers for two empirically valid questions: the 'how' question concerning the developmental mechanisms of subjectivity, and the 'why' question concerning its function. Biological individuation, which is acquired in several different stages, serves as a provisional description of how subjective perspectives may have evolved.

Consciousness: individuated information in action.

Within theoretical and empirical enquiries, many different meanings associated with consciousness have appeared, leaving the term itself quite vague. This makes formulating an abstract and unifying version of the concept of consciousness - the main aim of this article -into an urgent theoretical imperative. It is argued that consciousness, characterized as dually accessible (cognized from the inside and the outside), hierarchically referential (semantically ordered), bodily determined (embedded in the working structures of an organism or conscious system), and useful in action (pragmatically functional), is a graded rather than an all-or-none phenomenon.

Osteoporosis: genetic determinants and relationship with cardiovascular disease.

Osteoporosis has become one of the major public health problems, affecting about two hundred million people worldwide, including one third of all postmenopausal women. The paper presents a review of the current literature concerning the pathophysiology and the most common genetic and environmental determinants that account for the individual predisposition to age-related osteoporosis. Particular emphasis is placed on the specific linkage between the causative factors of osteoporosis and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Significance of vascular endothelial growth factor and epidermal growth factor in development of papillary thyroid cancer.

Background And Aims: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) induces proliferation of endothelial cells, stimulates angiogenesis and increases vascular permeability. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) induces proliferation of epidermal cells and stimulates epidermal migration. Increased VEGF and EGF expression have been associated with poor clinical outcome in many malignancies.