Arabidopsis thaliana (Thale cress, Arabidopsis) is an ideal model organism for the molecular genetic analysis of many plant processes. The availability of a complete physical map would greatly facilitate the gene cloning steps in these studies. The small genome size of Arabidopsis makes the construction of such a map a feasible goal. One of the approaches to construct an overlapping library of the Arabidopsis genome takes advantage of the many mapped markers and the availability of Arabidopsis yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) (...) libraries. Mapped molecular markers are used to identify corresponding YAC clones and thereby place them on the genetic map. Subsequently, these YAC clones provide the framework for directed walking experiments aimed at closing the gaps between the YAC contigs. Adopting this strategy, YAC clones comprising about 10% of the genome have been assigned to the top halves of Arabidopsis chromosomes 4 and 5. Extensive walking experiments in a 10 cM interval of chromosome 4 have resulted in two contiguous regions in the megabase size range. (shrink)

Plus qu'un ouvrage concernant les rapports ombrageux et controversés de l'art et de la pathologie, ce recueil est d'abord une rencontre, un creuset entre des champs, la clinique et la théorie qui, pour s'y confronter, excèdent les limites du " prêt-à-penser ". C'est pourquoi ici les divergences de méthodes et de perspectives entre des approches phénoménologique et psychanalytique ne dressent pas de strictes délimitations, mais font résonner des dissonances capables de laisser penser l'écart entre l'art et la pathologie comme établi (...) sur une entr'appartenance plus essentielle, ne livrant rien de son secret à celui qui s'en tient à des distinctions de principe. Encore faut-il entendre pathologie en son sens grec, au sens où la rencontre avec le monde ouvre, dans le réel, une brèche incolmatable dont seul l'art peut authentiquement rendre compte et dans laquelle la psychose s'engouffre si aucune mise en œuvre ne vient l'endiguer ou la ressourcer. " Aussi ne faut-il pas s'étonner que penser l'art et penser la folie puissent converger dans la mesure où ni l'un ni l'autre ne sont conceptualisables. Finalement, penser l'art ou penser la folie, c'est avoir ouverture à eux, à travers les œuvres, à travers les êtres malades et cela n'est possible précisément que dans une rencontre. Qu'est-ce qu'une rencontre? C'est cette situation qui n'a pas d'antécédent, qui n'a pas d'espace ni de temps qui puisse la précéder. L'épiphanie de quelqu'un dans le regard d'un autre implique nécessairement l'autophanie de celui-ci. L'échec de la rencontre, récusant tout passage lucide à l'ouvert, rejette le thérapeute sur sa facticité. C'est pour se dérober à l'épreuve sans partage de cette absence de soi, que la psychiatrie médicale, scientifico-médicale fait l'impasse sur la présence de l'autre, en objectivant tout ce qui touche à l'homme, en faisant de lui un cas particulier de cette objectivation universelle qui est la caractéristique de la culture de notre époque. ". (shrink)

In recent years there has been a growth of single-issue campaigns in western democracies and a proliferation of groups attempting to exert political influence and achieve social change. In this context, it is important to consider why individuals do or don't get involved in collective action, for example in the trade union movement and the women's movement. Social psychologists have an important contribution to make in addressing this question. The social psychological approach directly concerns the relationship between the individual and (...) society and a number of theories have been developed in the field, particularly by contemporary European researchers. Yet, surprisingly, there has never been, until now, a concerted attempt to bring these various strands of research together in a coherent, detailed presentation of the social psychological approach to collective action. The authors of _The Social Psychology of Collective Action _review and integrate a number of theories developed in this field as well as presenting their own original research and data. The research discussed in the book ranges over a number of different contexts, with a particular focus on women's groups organizing around issues of gender. Questions addressed include: why do women get involved in women's groups? What part is played by experiences of discrimination in the family and in the workplace? What are the benefits of group involvement? How are feminist activists perceived by others who choose not to get involved? Findings from questionnaires and interviews are integrated with contemporary social psychological theory, especially social identity theory. (shrink)

Using an ethnographic case study based in a UK state school for 11- to 18-year-olds, this paper explores the tensions that arose when the senior leadership team (SLT) introduced a justice-based ethic-of-care that prioritized good grades and equal treatment for all pupils over a feminist ethic-of-care (preferred by most teachers in non-leadership roles) that accentuated individual pupil need and placed greater emphasis on a broader social education. Through highlighting the tensions between a feminist ethic-of-care and a more ‘masculine’ style, justice-based (...) approach to care-ethics, the paper extends the organisational care-ethics literature. We emphasise that such tensions occurred whether the different ethics were enacted by men, women, or non-binary individuals. In order to better understand the tensions between these two ethical approaches, we draw upon the theoretical work of Donald Winnicott, which highlights the importance both of maternal and paternal roles during infancy. We update Winnicott’s ideas, noting how maternal and paternal caring roles can be undertaken by people of varied gender identities. Building on Winnicott’s theory, we propose a new ‘Parentalist’ ethic-of-care, which has the potential to balance and hold together ideas of both a feminist ethic-of-care, and a justice-based ethic. A Parentalist ethic-of-care could support teachers yet recognize the context of the contemporary neo-liberal environment, where most children need to attain formal qualifications in a marketized world, and where such measures of success are highly valued. (shrink)

Caroline Franks Davis provides a clear, sensitive, and carefully argued assessment of the value of religious experiences as evidence for religious beliefs. Much more than an 'argument from religious experience', the inquiry systematically addresses underlying philosophical issues such as the role of interpretation in experience, the function of models and metaphors in religious language, and the way perceptual experiences in general are used as evidence for claims about the world. The author examines several arguments from religious experience and, using (...) contemporary and classic sources from the world religions, gives an account of the different types of experience. To meet sceptical challenges to religious experience, she draws extenisvely on psychological and sociological as well as philosophical and religious literature, probing deeply into the questions whether religious experiences are merely a matter of interpretation, whether there is irreducible conflict among religious experiences, and whether psychological and other reductionist explanations of religious experience are satisfactory. She concludes that religious experiences, like most experiences, are most effective as evidence within a cumulative style of argument which combines evidence from a wide range of sources. (shrink)

We define an easily verifiable notion of an atomic formula having uniformly bounded arrays in a structure M. We prove that if T is a complete L-theory, then T is mutually algebraic if and only if there is some model M of T for which every atomic formula has uniformly bounded arrays. Moreover, an incomplete theory T is mutually algebraic if and only if every atomic formula has uniformly bounded arrays in every model M of T.

As donor trust legitimises research, trust is vital for research in the fields of biomedicine, genetics, translational medicine and personalised medicine. For parts of the donor community, the consent signature is a sign of trust in research. Many consent processes in biomedical research ask donors to provide their data for an unspecified future use, which introduces uncertainty of the unknown. This uncertainty can jeopardise donor trust or demand blind trust. But which donor wants to trust blindly? To reduce this uncertainty, (...) we explore first, which future-proof actors donors could trust when signing a consent form. Second, we discuss the question Can we know if donor trust expires? and what prevents donor trust from expiring. Finally, we present possible measures that can help to nurture trust in the far future. In this article, we draw on our previous research on trust in biomedical research, on trust in the broader healthcare system and Niklas Luhmann’s and Anthony Giddens’ trust theories. Our findings suggest that, in the far future, researchers will need to consider donor autonomy, as well as societal norms and values of the time period in which the data were donated. They will need to find mechanisms where possible to publicly announce the use of old data sets. However, foremost researchers will need to treat the data respectfully. It remains vital that professionals and the society continue to elaborate on the norms and values that shape the common understanding of what is morally right and wrong when researching data. (shrink)

Eye gaze is a ubiquitous cue in child–caregiver interactions, and infants are highly attentive to eye gaze from very early on. However, the question of why infants show gaze-sensitive behavior, and what role this sensitivity to gaze plays in their language development, is not yet well-understood. To gain a better understanding of the role of eye gaze in infants' language learning, we conducted a broad systematic review of the developmental literature for all studies that investigate the role of eye gaze (...) in infants' language development. Across 77 peer-reviewed articles containing data from typically developing human infants in the domain of language development, we identified two broad themes. The first tracked the effect of eye gaze on four developmental domains: vocabulary development, word–object mapping, object processing, and speech processing. Overall, there is considerable evidence that infants learn more about objects and are more likely to form word–object mappings in the presence of eye gaze cues, both of which are necessary for learning words. In addition, there is good evidence for longitudinal relationships between infants' gaze following abilities and later receptive and expressive vocabulary. However, many domains are understudied; further work is needed to decide whether gaze effects are specific to tasks, such as word–object mapping or whether they reflect a general learning enhancement mechanism. The second theme explored the reasons why eye gaze might be facilitative for learning, addressing the question of whether eye gaze is treated by infants as a specialized socio-cognitive cue. We concluded that the balance of evidence supports the idea that eye gaze facilitates infants' learning by enhancing their arousal, memory, and attentional capacities to a greater extent than other low-level attentional cues. However, as yet, there are too few studies that directly compare the effect of eye gaze cues and non-social, attentional cues for strong conclusions to be drawn. We also suggest that there might be a developmental effect, with eye gaze, over the course of the first 2 years of life, developing into a truly ostensive cue that enhances language learning across the board. (shrink)

It is widely held that free speech is a distinctive and privileged social kind. But what is free speech? In particular, is there any unified phenomenon that is both free speech and which is worthy of the special value traditionally attached to free speech? We argue that a descendent of the classic Millian justification of free speech is in fact a justification of a more general social condition; and, via an argument that 'free speech' names whatever natural social kind is (...) justified by the best arguments, that free speech is therefore this more general condition. This condition involves not merely the orthodox freedom (in some sense) of speakers to distribute words, but also two less frequently acknowledged dimensions of free speech: audience understanding and consideration. We conclude with some discussion of the policy implications of this conception of free speech. (shrink)

Wijdicks and colleagues1 recently presented the Full Outline of UnResponsiveness (FOUR) scale as an alternative to the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)2 in the evaluation of consciousness in severely brain-damaged patients. They studied 120 patients in an intensive care setting (mainly neuro-intensive care) and claimed that “the FOUR score detects a locked-in syndrome, as well as the presence of a vegetative state.”1 We fully agree that the FOUR is advantageous in identifying locked-in patients given that it specifically tests for eye movements (...) or blinking on command. This is welcomed given that misdiagnosis of the locked-in syndrome has been shown to occur in more than half of the cases (see Laureys and colleagues3 for review). As for the diagnosis of the vegetative state, the scale explicitly tests for visual pursuit, and hence can disentangle the vegetative state from the minimally conscious state (MCS). The diagnostic criteria for MCS have been proposed4 only recently, but Wijdicks and colleagues1 do not mention the existence of this clinical entity in their article. As for the vegetative state, MCS can be encountered in the acute or subacute setting as a transitional state on the way to further recovery, or it can be a more chronic or even permanent condition. The MCS refers to patients showing inconsistent, albeit clearly discernible, minimal behavioral evidence of consciousness (eg, localization of noxious stimuli, eye fixation or tracking, reproducible movement to command, or nonfunctional verbalization).4 The FOUR scale does not test for all of the behavioral criteria required to diagnose MCS.4 It is known from the literature (see Majerus and colleagues5 for review) that about a third of patients diagnosed with vegetative state are actually in MCS, and this misdiagnosis can lead to major clinical, therapeutic, and ethical consequences. We tested the ability of the newly proposed FOUR scale to correctly diagnose the vegetative state in an acute (intensive care and neurology ward) and chronic (neurorehabilitation) setting.. (shrink)

Circadian rhythm abnormalities in bipolar disorder have led to a search for genetic abnormalities in circadian "clock genes" associated with BD. However, no significant clock gene findings have emerged from genome-wide association studies. At least three factors could account for this discrepancy: complex traits are polygenic, the organization of the clock is more complex than previously recognized, and/or genetic risk for BD may be shared across multiple illnesses. To investigate these issues, we considered the clock gene network at three levels: (...) essential "core" clock genes, upstream circadian clock modulators, and downstream clock controlled genes. Using relaxed thresholds for GWAS statistical significance, we determined the rates of clock vs. control genetic associations with BD, and four additional illnesses that share clinical features and/or genetic risk with BD. Then we compared the results to a set of lithium-responsive genes. Associations with BD-spectrum illnesses and lithium-responsiveness were both enriched among core clock genes but not among upstream clock modulators. Associations with BD-spectrum illnesses and lithium-responsiveness were also enriched among pervasively rhythmic clock-controlled genes but not among genes that were less pervasively rhythmic or non-rhythmic. Our analysis reveals previously unrecognized associations between clock genes and BD-spectrum illnesses, partly reconciling previously discordant results from past GWAS and candidate gene studies. (shrink)

The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between the following three assessments: the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale, the Alberta Infant Motor Scale, and the General Movement Assessment. 29 patients from the neonatal unit of the Gynecology and Obstetrics Clinical Hospital were examined. The study was conducted between feedings by a person properly trained in the use of the NBAS, the AIMS, and the GMA. The average postmenstrual age of the examined newborns was 35.6 weeks. The average week (...) of gestation was the 29th, the average birth weight was 1469 g, and the Median Apgar score in the fifth minute of life was 7. A relationship was found between the AIMS and the NBAS. It was concluded that the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale and the Alberta Infant Motor Scale may be used to determine the motor development of preterm infants. Moreover, it is advisable to use more than one assessment method in order to adjust the intervention. (shrink)

Nearly five centuries have elapsed since Apollonia von Freyberg departed from her convent in Mülhausen. Little is known about this Poor Clare nun who witnessed the dissolution of her conventual shelter in the midst of her community’s protracted financial struggles as well as spiritual conflict catalyzed by the emerging Reformation. It is fortuitous, however, that documents related to Apollonia are preserved at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and at the Archives de Mulhouse, in Mulhouse, France. Among these (...) are letters written to and on behalf of Apollonia as well as a detailed church inventory in which Apollonia’s many donations to her convent are recorded.... (shrink)

Acting classes and theatre education have long been framed as activities during which children can learn skills that transfer outside the acting classroom. A growing empirical literature provides evidence for acting classes’ efficacy in teaching vocabulary, narrative, empathy, theory of mind, and emotional control. Yet these studies have not been based in what is actually happening in the acting classroom, nor on what acting teachers report as their pedagogical strategies. Instead, previous work has been unsystematic and fragmented in its measured (...) transfer outcomes, and absent mechanistic explanation. Expanding research on this topic requires more grounding in teachers’ beliefs about the acting classes they teach, as well as observation of the classes themselves. As a first step, we surveyed 173 acting teachers online, asking them about the activities within acting classes they believed caused change in their students, as well as which outcomes they believed were changed as a result of acting classes. Teachers taught across educational levels (elementary to professional) and had a variety of training in teaching acting. Overall, teachers rated almost every activity within classes as important for and causing impact on students, and almost every outcome as being positively influenced as a result of acting class. When forced to rank order outcomes, teachers focused on collaboration, communication, creativity, confidence, and empathy as most likely to change. Teachers rated importance of class activities and outcomes differently depending on what level they taught. This study shows the difficulty of surveying highly motivated teachers, given the globally high rankings, but also proposes candidate psychological skills likely to change as a result of acting classes, and the mechanistic behaviors that may cause change. (shrink)

Background and ObjectivesUp to 10% of fathers experience perinatal depression, often accompanied by anxiety, with a detrimental impact on the emotional and behavioural development of infants. Yet, few evidence-based interventions specifically for paternal perinatal depression or anxiety exist, and few depressed or anxious fathers engage with support. This mini-review aims to build on the evidence base set by other recent systematic reviews by synthesising more recently available studies on interventions for paternal perinatal depression and anxiety. Secondarily, we also aimed to (...) identify useful information on key implementation strategies, if any, that increase the engagement of men.MethodsWe drew upon three major previous systematic reviews and performed an updated search of PubMed/Medline; Psycinfo; Cochrane Database; Embase and Cinahl. The search was limited to trials, feasibility studies or pilot studies of interventions published between 2015 and 2020 that reported on fathers' perinatal mental health. We included psychological, educational, psychosocial, paternal, couple-focused, or group therapies, delivered face-to-face, via telephone and/or online that reported on either paternal depression, anxiety or both.ResultsEleven studies satisfied search criteria. The majority were randomised controlled trials. Most interventions incorporated counselling, therapy or psychoeducation and took an indirect approach to perinatal mental health through antenatal or postnatal education and were couple-focused. No studies reported a presence of diagnosed depression or anxiety at baseline, although five studies reported a positive effect on sub-threshold symptoms.DiscussionThere was some evidence that these approaches may be useful in the initial engagement of fathers with perinatal supports and improve depression and anxiety scores. No studies targeted the explicit treatment of clinically depressed or anxious men, and this remains the most substantial gap in the peer-reviewed evidence base. Our results highlight the need to deliver perinatal interventions specifically designed for men and evaluate them in populations with clinical levels of depressive and anxious symptomatology. (shrink)

As more young people feel safe to outwardly identify as transgender or gender expansive (TGE), meaning that their gender identity does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth, an increasing number of youth who identify as TGE seek gender-affirming medical care (GAMC). GAMC raises a number of ethical questions, such as the capacity of a minor to assent or consent, the role of parents or legal guardians in decisions about treatment, and implications for equitable access to care (...) when differing parental or custodial viewpoints are present. These questions are further complicated by the difficulties in explaining the limits of long-term research in GAMC, with regard to the preservation of fertility, for example. We present two de-identified composite case studies to highlight dilemmas that may arise and offer recommendations to better support patient- and family-centered decision making for GAMC. These include employing a multidisciplinUniverary shared decision-making approach, disentangling informed consent and assent from chronological age, developing a consistent approach to the assessment of decisional capacity, and developing age-appropriate informational materials. (shrink)

Bien que les approches basées sur les déficits soient encore prédominantes en formation à l’enseignement, on reconnaît de plus en plus l’apport potentiel des approches basées sur les forces, afin de développer une identité professionnelle positive. Conséquemment, nous avons expérimenté une activité innovante d’écriture réflexive, basée sur la psychologie positive, auprès de 50 stagiaires en enseignement préscolaire/primaire au Québec. L’analyse de ces empreintes offre de dégager divers aspects constitutifs de l’identité professionnelle des stagiaires, de décrire l’évolution du processus de construction (...) identitaire, ce qui permet d’apprécier la contribution de ce type d’activité pour rendre ce processus plus explicite. (shrink)

Background: Neonatal nurse practitioners have become the frontline staff exposed to a myriad of ethical issues that arise in the day-to-day environment of the neonatal intensive care unit. However, ethics competency at the time of graduation and after years of practice has not been described. Research aim: To examine the ethics knowledge base of neonatal nurse practitioners as this knowledge relates to decision making in the neonatal intensive care unit and to determine whether this knowledge is reflected in attitudes toward (...) ethical dilemmas in the neonatal intensive care unit. Research design: This was a prospective cohort study that examined decision making at the threshold of viability, life-sustaining therapies for sick neonates, and a ranking of the five most impactful ethical issues. Participants and research context: All 47 neonatal nurse practitioners who had an active license in the State of Mississippi were contacted via e-mail. Surveys were completed online using Survey Monkey software. Ethical considerations: The study was approved by the University of Mississippi Medical Center Institutional Review Board (IRB; #2015-0189). Findings: Of the neonatal nurse practitioners who completed the survey, 87.5% stated that their religious practices affected their ethical decision making and 76% felt that decisions regarding life-sustaining treatment for a neonate should not involve consultation with the hospital’s legal team or risk management. Only 11% indicated that the consent process involved patient understanding of possible procedures. Participating in the continuation or escalation of care for infants at the threshold of viability was the top ethical issue encountered by neonatal nurse practitioners. Discussion: Our findings reflect deficiencies in the neonatal nurse practitioner knowledge base concerning ethical decision making, informed consent/permission, and the continuation/escalation of care. Conclusion: In addition to continuing education highlighting ethics concepts, exploring the influence of religion in making decisions and knowing the most prominent dilemmas faced by neonatal nurse practitioners in the neonatal intensive care unit may lead to insights into potential solutions. (shrink)

We can think about the use of controlled substances in the treatment of anxiety disorders in two simple but diametrically opposed ways. First, we can say that anxiety disorders are trivial and require only acts of willpower, or, if anxiety disorders do require treatment, they are better treated without the use of benzodiazepines. When BZs are used to treat anxiety, they pose grave risks of addiction to the patients to whom these medicines are prescribed; they relieve patients’ symptoms, but are (...) the equivalent of a pharmacological “roach motel,” a haven into which many unsuspecting patients enter, but from which few emerge without becoming addicted. Patients must then face terrible struggles to free themselves of dependence on BZs, and this compounds the problem for which they sought treatment. Furthermore, the large number of prescriptions for BZs are a threat to the public health because these drugs are widely abused by alcoholics and drug addicts. (shrink)

Resumo: Este estudo objetiva retomar o diálogo efetuado entre a tradição da ontologia hermenêutica heideggeriana e a psicanálise freudiana, a fim de discutir se ele ainda tem lugar na atualidade e, em caso positivo, problematizar como ele tem sido construído. Apesar de existirem muitos argumentos que questionam a possibilidade de articulação entre esses dois campos, eles não encerram consensualmente essa discussão e exigem ser atualizados. No cenário mais recente, algumas pesquisas têm acenado para o estabelecimento de pontos de conexões entre (...) elas, sem, contudo, desconsiderarem a especificidade dos campos teóricos em questão. Essa forma de interlocução parece o grande desafio aos pesquisadores na atualidade.: This study aims to retake the dialogue made between the tradition of the heideggerian hermeneutic ontology and freudian psychoanalysis, in order to discuss whether it still has a place in the actuality and, if so, to problematize how it has been constructed. Despite having a lot of arguments which question the possibility of articulation between both fields, they don't enclose consensually this debate and require an updating. In the last scenario, some researches go towards the establishment of connection points among them, without, however, disregarding the specificity of the theoretical fields in question. This way of interlocution seems the great challenge of the researchers nowadays. (shrink)

Le critère d’absence d’envie, introduit par J. Tinbergen et utilisé par certaines théories de la justice distributive, ne permet pas, dans tous les cas, d’identifier des allocations de biens respectant l’exigence de pareto-optimalité. Pour cette raison il a été, durant un temps, délaissé. Néanmoins, ce critère demeure utile dans certains contextes dont nous voudrions préciser les caractéristiques. En effet, plusieurs travaux récents d’économie normative ont montré que, sous certaines conditions et même dans un contexte de production, l’absence d’envie offre une (...) solution à la recherche d’allocations équitables. Ainsi, nous voudrions examiner, à partir de ces résultats, sous quelles conditions le champ d’application du critère d’absence d’envie peut être étendu, en vue d’identifier des allocations équitables, dans un contexte économique d’échange comme de production.The non envy criterium, introduced by Tinbergen and convoqued by some theories of justice, cannot always be used to identify allocations which also satisfy the requirement of Pareto-optimality. This is the reason why it had been neglected for a while. Nevertheless, it is still useful in some contexts we would like to describe. In fact, recent conclusions of normative economy demonstrated that, in some conditions and even in the framework of production, this criterium provide a solution for fair allocations. Precisely, we would like, on the basis of these results, to determine which extent has the implementation of non envy criterium in order to identify fair distributive allocations in a context of exchange and production as well. (shrink)

Les principes de l’éthique médicale sont, pour l’essentiel, clairement définis. Néanmoins on ignore, pour une large part, dans quelle mesure ils sont l’objet d’une réappropriation normative par les acteurs et comment ils structurent les pratiques. Nous avons interrogé ces processus dans le champ de la psychiatrie, en nous fondant sur un recueil de données qualitatives. Celui-ci nous a permis de saisir les interprétations de l’éthique médicale émergeant des discours des soignants en psychiatrie et d’identifier sa nature. Nous en exposerons les (...) facettes en tentant d’abord de comprendre le sens conféré à l’exclusion de l’éthique du champ de leur pratique par certains médecins. Puis nous saisirons les contours se dessinant empiriquement de l’éthique en psychiatrie pour autant qu’elle repose sur une réinterprétation de principes canoniques de l’éthique médicale. Nous montrerons enfin que cette éthique de l’action se conçoit comme une éthique que la philosophie morale décrirait comme particulariste. (shrink)

Dans les formes contemporaines de gouvernance éthiquement significative, on insiste sur l’attention accordée, dans le dialogue et dans la délibération, aux personnes autres que les décideurs et les experts. Cela est illustré par l’expérience des « États généraux de la bioéthique » en France, en 2009. Dans ce processus, toutefois, les représentations sous-jacentes de l’éthique, de l’État et du règne du droit ont comme résultat un ensemble de contraintes significatives sur les possibilités d’incorporer dans les choix sociaux les opinions exprimées (...) par les citoyens des panels sélectionnés. De plus, le processus de dialogue réserve un rôle important à des « Grands témoins » choisis qui utilisent leur expertise pour délimiter les interprétations tolérables des principes de référence et les occasions de procéder à des compromis acceptables. Cela produit une configuration de la discussion dans laquelle l’expertise empirique spécialisée et l’expérience personnelle, non moins que les attitudes épistémologiques et les représentations du « naturel », jouent un rôle crucial. En conséquence, la distinction entre l’expertise spécialisée et la discussion éthique ouverte se trouve relativisée, bien que l’ensemble du processus s’appuie sur elle. (shrink)

There seems to be a proliferation of prizes and rankings for ethical business over the past decade. Our principal aims in this article are twofold: to initiate an academic discussion of the epistemic and normative stakes in business-ethics competitions; and to help organizers of such competitions to think through some of these issues and the design options for dealing with them. We have been able to find no substantive literature — academic or otherwise — that addresses either of these two (...) broad topics and audiences. Our modest aim, therefore, is to suggest an agenda of issues, and to begin to explore and analyse some of the possible arguments for and against various philosophical or practical solutions. Part I explores the challenges facing a prize-organizing committee, including problems derived from what Rawls calls the "fact of pluralism" in democratic societies (reasonable people will always disagree over some basic values, including those relevant to evaluating business practices), and epistemic issues about how we can justify qualitative judgments on the basis of incomplete quantitative data. We also try to identify risks and opportunity costs for ethics-prize granters. In Part II we spell out (a) a range of design options and (b) some advice about how any particular prize-awarding committee might select among these options to best achieve its goals (which typically involve highlighting and publicizing best practices for ethical business). (shrink)

In this paper anorexia nervosa is examined through three lenses to determine its possible causes. This paper contains a clinical analysis of the anorexic personality, a psychoanalytic/religious interpretation of the demands of society, and· a feminist reinterpretationof the effects of those demands on the female body. The societal demands to renounce instincts, when examined through a feminist lens, reveals that these demands, in concert with the detrimental effects of feminine socialization and characteristics of the anorexic personality, may lead some women (...) to view their needs as not important, and cause a detachment from and turning against the body in the form of anorexia nervosa. It is concluded that anorexia is not just women taking a diet “too far.” There are other psychological, philosophical, and social factors leading to a prevalence of anorexia nervosa in Western culture. (shrink)