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The expansion and continuing prestige of democracy no longer seems inevitable. Doubts frequently arise about the viability of "democracy" as a political solution, and concerns still resurface regarding its well known imperfections. Some theorists and political philosophers believe that the solution to the current problems of democracy is more democracy, which idea finds expression in their books about how democracies die, against voting and in favor of the draw by lot, etc. Others, instead, fear the excesses of democracy, and out of concern they speak of the myth of rational voters, of illiberal democracies, of minority rights, etc. Notwithstanding the variety of outlooks, almost no one seriously questions political democracy as the only legitimate regime. The goal of this paper is to show that these problems and imperfections are not a new discovery, but inherent to the very first experiments in democracy in the modern era, acknowledged namely in Rousseau's and Condorcet's theories, an awareness maintained in the reflection of sociologists such as Robert Dahl or Arend Lijphart, and rational choice theorists such as James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock. The awareness of these essential features of democracy should help us to advance its defense—since no other known decision procedures evade them.

[Excerpt] In Philosophy and Vulnerability, the author sets out to put a certain idea of philosophy to work by commenting on the writings of three artists, activists and thinkers: Catherine Breillat, a French filmmaker, novelist and professor; Joan Didion, an American political writer; and Audre Lorde, a poet, feminist, and civil rights activist – none of whom are professional academic philosophers.

Botanicals and Plant Food Supplements (PFS) have received an increasing interest by consumers. They are not intended to treat diseases, but their activity should contribute to maintain the homeostasis. Due to the general belief that "Natural is always safe", the risk associated with the intake of PFS is often underestimated by consumers. To collect new information about the risk associated with the PFS consumption, different activities were performed during and after the EU project PlantLIBRA (Plant Food Supplements: Levels of Intake, Benefit and Risk Assessment, n. 245199): 1. A review of the published data on: adverse effects related to PFS/botanical ingredients, botanical misidentification, and the interactions of PFS/botanicals with pharmaceutical drugs or nutrients; 2. The collection of cases occurred at the European Poisons Centres (and a Brazilian centre); 3. The elaboration of self-reported adverse effects cited during the European PlantLIBRA PFS Consumer Survey 2011-2012; 4. After the end of the project, further data were supplied by the Pavia Poison Centre and ANSES (Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail); 5. Finally, information were collected by the FDA website. According to all data collected and elaborated during and after the European Project PlantLIBRA: 1. Valeriana officinalis (valerian) and Camellia sinensis (green tea) were the plants most frequently involved in adverse effects in Europe; 2. Cases from the FDA's website were mainly associated with Silybum marianum (milk thistle) and Serenoa repens (saw palmetto); 3. Although most case reports described mild symptoms, some severe events was observed, with few fatalities; 4. Symptoms were mainly localized at liver, gastrointestinal and nervous systems. As described above, some severe adverse effects with convincing causality were described, so that family doctors and other health professionals must be aware of the problem and contribute to the surveillance. This research has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 245199, and has been carried out within the PlantLIBRA project (www.plantlibra.eu). This abstract does not necessarily reflect the Commission's views or future policy in these areas.

Available information concerning the elastic moduli of refractory carbides at temperatures (T) of relevance for practical applications is sparse and/or inconsistent. Ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations at T = 300, 600, 900, and 1200 K are carried out to determine the temperature-dependences of the elastic constants of rocksalt-structure (B1) TiC, ZrC, HfC, VC, TaC compounds, as well as high-entropy (Ti,Zr,Hf,Ta,W)C and (V,Nb, Ta,Mo,W)C. The second-order elastic constants are calculated by least-square fitting of the analytical expressions of stress/strain relationships to simulation results obtained from three tensile and three shear deformation modes. Sound-velocity measurements are employed to validate AIMD values of bulk, shear, and elastic moduli of single-phase B1 (Ti,Zr,Hf,Ta,W)C and (V,Nb,Ta,Mo,W)C at ambient conditions. In comparison with the predictions of previous ab initio calculations - where the extrapolation of finite-temperature elastic properties accounted for thermal expansion while neglecting intrinsic vibrational effects - AIMD simulations produce a softening of shear elastic moduli with T in closer agreement with experiments. The results show that TaC is the system which exhibits the highest elastic resistances to tensile and shear deformation up to 1200 K, and indicate the (V,Nb,Ta,Mo,W)C system as candidate for applications that require superior toughness at room as well as elevated temperatures. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. ; Funding Agencies|Swedish Research CouncilSwedish Research CouncilEuropean Commission [VR-2015-04630]; Center for High Performance Computing (PDC) in Stockholm; High Performance Computing Center North (HPC2N) in Umea, Sweden; Competence Center Functional NanoscaleMaterials (FunMat-II) (Vinnova Grant) [2016-05156]; Swedish Research Council (VR)Swedish Research Council [2019-05600]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University (Faculty Grant SFO-Mat-LiU) [200900971]; Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation through Wallenberg Scholar Project [2018.0194]; Olle Engkvist Foundation; Office of Naval Research ONR-MURIMURIOffice of Naval Research [N00014-15-1-2863]; Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation of NUSTMISIS [K2-2020-026, 211]