We introduce the notion of a convex tree. We show that the binary expansion for real numbers in the unit interval ) is equivalent to weak König lemma ) for trees having at most two nodes at each level, and we prove that the intermediate value theorem is equivalent to \ for convex trees, in the framework of constructive reverse mathematics.

These days paradoxes seem to be all around us, constantly produced under the impetus of new technologies but tending to dissolve no less quickly at the instigation of these same technologies. Everything that was considered durable (concepts, organizations, ideas) tends to shift towards immediacy, as if long-term memory can and must become instantaneous memory. New technologies, especially the various networks and mobile telephones, fit less and less into established frames of reference. They go so far as to break with the (...) very notion of a frame, and thus place us in a movement of continuous and chaotic knowledge that the author has dubbed rheomorphism. The Web is increasingly oriented towards interaction among users, and the creation of rudimentary social networks that can provide content that makes good use of the network effects, with or without real visual and interactive rendering of web pages. In this sense, current websites act more as points of presence, or Web portals centred on the user rather than on traditional websites that were more or less static pages of data. (shrink)

Working within Bishop’s constructive framework, we examine the connection between a weak version of the Heine–Borel property, a property antithetical to that in Specker’s theorem in recursive analysis, and the uniform continuity theorem for integer-valued functions. The paper is a contribution to the ongoing programme of constructive reverse mathematics.

The ‘best interests’ decision making standard is used in clinical care to make necessary health decisions for non-capacitated individuals for whom neither explicit nor inferred wishes are known. It has been also widely acknowledged as a basis for enrolling some non-capacitated adults into clinical research such as emergency, critical care, and dementia research. However, the best interests standard requires that choices provide the highest net benefit of available options, and clinical research rarely meets this criterion. In the context of modern (...) norms of bioethics, the best interests standard rarely supports surrogate consent for research and should not be accepted as a routine provision. (shrink)

Just as noncapacitated decision making will forever be a feature of clinical medicine, so will the quest for effective advance care planning and serviceable documentation of these preferences. “Re-...

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concepts of issue legitimacy and organizational legitimacy, providing a new measure of each construct. The scales were developed and tested using data collected through a statewide survey of Alabama residents. Assessments of issue legitimacy were based on perceptions of direct-to-consumer advertising, whereas assessments of organizational legitimacy were based on perceptions of the pharmaceutical industry as a whole. The findings provide evidence that organizational legitimacy can be reliably measured using a five-item scale (...) and issue legitimacy can be reliably measured using a six-item scale. The implications of the results and potential uses of the scales are discussed. (shrink)

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 11, Issue 7, Page 51-53, July 2011.

Providers and patients bring different understandings of health and disease to their encounters in the hospital setting. The literature to date only infrequently addresses patient and provider concordance on the reported reason for hospitalization, that is, whether they express this reason in similar ways. An agreement or common ground between such understandings can serve as a basis for future communication regarding an illness and its treatment. We interviewed a convenience sample of patients on the medical wards of an urban academic (...) medical center. We asked subjects to state the reason why their doctors admitted them to the hospital, and then compared their statement with the reason in the medical record. We defined concordance on reported reason for hospitalization as agreement between the patient’s report and the reason abstracted from the chart. We interviewed and abstracted chart data from a total of 46 subjects. Concordance on reported reason for hospitalization was present in 24 (52%) and discordance in 17 (37%); 5 patients (11%) could not give any reason for their hospitalization. Among the 17 patients whose report was discordant with their chart, 12 (71%) reported a different organ system than was recorded in the chart. A significant proportion of medical inpatients could not state their physicians’ reason for admission. In addition, patients who identify a different reason for hospitalization than the chart often give a different organ system altogether. Providers should explore patient understanding of the reason for their hospitalization to facilitate communication and shared decision making. (shrink)

G. Vespignani hat mit diesem Buch über den Hippodrom von Konstantinopel eine reich dokumentierte Studie vorgelegt, die sich vor allem mit der ideologischen und politischen Bedeutung des Bauwerks beschäftigt.

First published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Ce travail a pour but de fournir des repères permettant d’évaluer dans quelles circonstances une séparation judiciaire parents-enfant doit être décidée. L’auteur, chef de service en psychiatrie de l’enfant au CHU de Saint-Étienne (hôpital Bellevue), décrit quatre profils à haut risque, qui montrent bien comment, quand une séparation est mise en place trop tardivement, ou alors quand elle est mal gérée, avec notamment des contacts parents-enfant insuffisamment protégés, on aboutit à des résultats dont le coût humain, financier, et social est (...) catastrophique : déficience intellectuelle (77 % des enfants adressés au service), échec scolaire, troubles graves du comportement avec violence, etc. Pour aider à y voir plus clair, il propose avec son équipe trois sortes de jalons : les premiers concernent la structuration psychique des parents, les deuxièmes la manière dont la pathologie parentale se manifeste dans l’interaction parents-enfant, et les troisièmes la manière dont l’enfant réagit face à la pathologie parentale. Enfin, il décrit les facteurs qui empêchent l’utilisation de ces jalons, principalement l’ancienneté de la loi de 1970 sur « l’assistance éducative », l’idéologie du lien familial, l’absence d’évaluation des actions menées, et la peur face à certains parents très violents. (shrink)