bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Slovakia and the European ethos
Authors: Bilasová Viera
Published: April 2017

The paper explores how the ethos in Slovakia has been shaped and “matured” in the context of the values, principles and norms inherent in the European ethos. The presence of this ethos, including its sources and forms, can be considered in the Slovak historical context to be a moral phenomenon and an integral part of human being, encoded in the moral values held by individuals and society. By seeking out its ties and analysing the way it is intertwined with the evolution of the European ethos, it provides us with the space to understand and resolve many of today’s issues and conflicts in an ethical manner. The author considers moral consciousness to be an important part of the culture of civilization today, which faces the challenge of finding new forms of human coexistence and a life in peace. It attests to the importance of ethics and morality in the life of individual and society, and the utility of ethical reflection in solving moral issues in life and in searching for one’s own way through it.
Gabriel Marcel and the question of human dignity
Authors: Palenčár Marián
Published: April 2017

This article explores the concept of human dignity in the work of French philosopher Gabriel Marcel. It demonstrates how this lesser-known aspect of his philosophical thinking is organic to his work and draws attention to the current relevance of the way he resolves the question of human dignity for philosophy and ethics. The first part of the article looks at the basic ideas behind Marcel’s understanding of man as a being on the road, as unfinished, temporal, in the process of becoming, and creatively open on the road of transcendence to the mystery of being. This is followed by an explanation of Marcel’s criticism of the traditional understanding of human dignity (on both the social and ontological levels), which has degenerated into the formalism. Criticizing this rationalist (Kantian) conception of dignity as a particular kind of power, Gabriel Marcel produces an original conception of existential dignity as weakness—the fragile vulnerable finitude of the human individual. But it is an active weakness/finitude that lies in the ability of the individual to creatively resist attempts to humiliate him and in his effort to recognize his unique human values. Part of this finitude, on the inter-subjective level, is an encounter with the neighbour in love, which is a service to others in defence of man’s weakness. The author draws attention to the fact that Marcel’s conception of human dignity has been partially accepted in philosophy, ethics and bioethics.
Nature of dignity and human dignity
Authors: Gluchman Vasil
Published: April 2017

This paper argues that the concept of dignity should be understood as a concept that we use to describe an aggregate of values and qualities of a person or thing that deserves esteem and respect. The primary value that creates the right to have dignity is life. The degree of dignity a life form has depends on its place in the evolutionary scale. Human beings are the highest form of life so they possess the highest degree of dignity.
Moral motivation in humanitarian action
Authors: Komenská Katarína
Published: April 2017

In humanitarian actions, people respond to crisis and disaster situations in which victims are unable to recover on their own and in which their vulnerability puts them at further risk. Individuals involved in humanitarian work are driven by strong motivation which source can be identified using an ethics-based approach. Moral motivation is the basis for the commitment to the moral course of the human agent’s action. Humanitarian ethics shows us it is important to renew the discussion on the role of moral motivation in ethical decision-making. Some of the moral sources of motivation will be critically examined in this study—namely, the partiality, the popularity of ethics, the value declaration, and moral motivation based on moral obligation (according to the ethics of social consequences).
(Military) human enhancement – ethical aspects
Authors: Švaňa Lukáš
Published: April 2017

The article deals with the philosophical and ethical implications of transhumanism and human enhancement techniques. It considers how enhancement and therapy are two different types of biomedical intervention. It then looks at the implementation of these ideas in the military sector. It analyses various standpoints and views on transhumanism, the benefits and risks of using newly acquired scientific knowledge to improve and alter naturally deficient human nature. The need for ethical reflection and argumentation is emphasized; new scientific discoveries can dramatically change our experience of the world around us and may present a huge risk to mankind if left unchecked and not critically discussed. The article reflects on the dangers and risks of human enhancement and its possible consequences on the battlefield as well as the broader contexts and implications. The article also considers which criteria would be suitable to ensure beneficial and less controversial enhancements are carefully selected and to enable these to be distinguished from more dangerous practices that change the human body and/or mind. The aim is to consider and evaluate the possible benefits (positive consequences) and risks (negative consequences) of using enhancements for military purposes and to identify possible criteria for their justification and/or rejection.
Ethics of social consequences and ethical issues of consumption
Authors: Kalajtzidis Ján
Published: April 2017

The main aim of the present paper is to analyze the issue of consumption from the position of the ethics of social consequences, and to consider some questions connected to the issue. In this paper consumption is viewed through the triumph of the market and the triumph of consumerism, as determining factors in today’s society. The central part of the paper introduces the issue of justice, which is closely connected to many questions regarding consumerism, an excessive form of consumption. Later, three different categories of justice found in the theory of the ethics of social consequences are outlined. The last part of the paper then examines in more detail the forms of justice (distributive, reciprocal) closely connected to the issue of consumption. Two ways of achieving fair conditions (distributive justice) on global markets as a requirement for reciprocal justice are then discussed. The first approach relates to the macro level, and the second to ethical consumption at the micro level.
Narrative Policy Framework: Narratives as heuristics in the policy process
Authors: Veselková Marcela
Published: April 2017

This paper discusses how the assumption that individuals and policy makers do not automatically update their prior beliefs with the new information has shaped policy process theories. Rather than the rational homo economicus, humans are homo narrans: they are more likely to respond to narratives than to expert-based information. The assumption that humans are storytellers is central to the Narrative Policy Framework, which (1) examines the strategic construction of policy narratives by competing coalitions and (2) offers improved measures of narrative elements, strategies, etc., which provide insights into how information is processed by individuals and entire organizations.
Green and single: The role of green distinction among environmentalists
Authors: Kala Lukáš
Published: April 2017

This paper examines profiles on online dating sites for environmentally aware singles identifying as ‘green single’. The research was motivated by these research questions: What kind of people use these sites to search for a partner? How do green singles earn ‘green distinction’, the markings of a green identity? The main objective of this research is to find out how green singles impress a potential partner on dating sites. The paper discusses recent research influenced by the work of Bourdieu and Maffesoli. It considers a specific group of singles obtained from the quantitative and qualitative analysis of one thousand randomly selected profiles. It investigates self-presentation strategies, characteristic green performances and identity construction among green singles, particularly ‘green cultural codes’ and ‘green scripts’. The paper contributes to the knowledge on symbolic boundaries, social differentiation and collective identity in the environmentalist subculture, discussed as a kind of neo-tribal community.
Why we can’t and shan’t measure gender
Authors: Fúsková Jana , Hargašová Lucia , Andraščiková Simona
Published: April 2017

The aim of this article is to draw attention to the fact that the constructions of gender - frequently quantified in scientific research (and practice)—are unstable across time and space. In this regard, we look at the genesis of the measures and definitions reflective of the social change and knowledge that has shaped views on the gender dimensions. Our analysis of gender measures shows that the majority are based on definitions that conceive of femininity and masculinity as stable personality traits and that these measures are part of essentialist assumptions on gender roles and gender identity. We consider these measures to be strongly stereotypical and “outdated”. In the second part, we put forward evidence, from research findings, that indicates that perceptions of gender have not just changed over time. Different interpretations of masculinity and femininity exist within specific cultures, social categories and spaces.
Philosophical questions about the “art of living”
Authors: Šulavíková Blanka
Published: April 2017

The article deals with philosophical questions on the “art of living” in philosophy in recent decades. It provides an overview of the conceptions that continue to resonate in philosophy, covering the basic approach to conceptions of the “art of living” found in the work of theorists such as P. Hadot, J. Kekes, A. Nehamas, Z. Bauman, A. MacIntyre, R. Veenhoven, W. Schmid, and J. Dohmen.

The basic framework of the “art of living” can, we believe, be imagined as a square, where each side represents an essential component (attribute): 1. value system; 2. integrity of life; 3. meaning of life; 4. authenticity of life. The art of living therefore presupposes that there is a value system the individual can use as a navigational guide and to make decisions in the world. It also presupposes an ability to integrate one’s life within a meaningful whole and to seek out and find the meaning of one’s life. Finally the art of living depends on the ability to lead an authentic life.
Hydrodynamics and Mass Transfer Simulation in Airlift Bioreactor with Settler using Computational Fluid Dynamics
Authors: Hernández-Calderón Oscar M. , González-Llanes Marcos D. , Rios-Iribe Erika Y. , Jiménez-Lam Sergio A. , Chavez-Parga Ma.del Carmen , Escamilla-Silva Eleazar M.
Published: April 2017

In this work, the effect of inlet-gas superficial velocity over the circulation liquid velocity, gas holdup and mass transfer, from an airlift bioreactor with settler were studied by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling and contrasted with experimental results. Multiphase mixture model and κ-ε turbulence model were used to describe the two phases gas-liquid flow pattern in airlift bioreactor. The hydrodynamic parameters such as liquid circulation velocity and gas holdup were computed by solving the governing equations of continuity, moment and turbulence transport using the finite volume method. Global mass transfer coefficient was evaluated through the Higbie’s penetration theory and the two-phase fluid dynamic theory. Comparison between our numerical data and experimental data previously reported in the literature was done. Numerical and experimental data were very close, and the differences found were discussed in terms of the limitations of this study.
The Influence of Impeller Combination on the Gas-Liquid Dispersion Performance of a Coaxial Mixer in Viscous Fluids
Authors: Liu Baoqing , Fan Fangyi , Chen Xiaoge , Liu Jinliang , Jin Zhijiang
Published: April 2017

As a kind of mixer with wide adaptability, coaxial mixer has a wide-application in the process industry. With the help of experiment and numerical simulation, the gas-liquid dispersion performance of four impeller combinations in viscous system was studied in terms of the global gas holdup, local gas holdup, local bubble size and liquid phase flow field. Wall-scraping anchor is the common outer impeller of the four impeller combinations, and the four inner impellers are Rushton turbine, six-straight-blade turbine (SBT), 45° six-pitched-blade turbine pumping downwards (PBTD) and 45° six-pitched-blade turbine pumping upwards (PBTU). The experimental results indicate that the global gas holdup of the Rushton impeller combination is the highest among the four impeller combinations and that of PBTU is the lowest. The local gas holdup of Rushton and PBTU combinations are all high, but the gas distribution with the Rushton combinations is more uniform. Besides, the local bubble size of the four impeller combinations has the same tendency with the local gas holdup. Under the same conditions, the flow field and distribution of gas holdup of the four impeller combinations in stirred tank were simulated numerically. Compared with the experimental results, the simulation results show a good agreement on the value and distribution of local gas holdup. Among the four coaxial mixers, the Rushton impeller combination is more suitable for gas-liquid dispersion.
Parameters Affecting Adsorption and Photocatalytic Degradation Behavior of Gentian Violet under UV Irradiation with Several Kinds of TiO2 as a Photocatalyst
Authors: Bendjabeur Seyfeddine , Zouaghi Razika , Kaabeche O.N.H , Sehili Tahar
Published: April 2017

The photocatalytic decolorization of Gentian violet (GV) from an aqueous solution was studied by focusing on comparison of the photoactivity of different type of TiO2 catalyst. The process was carried out under a variety of conditions. The efficiency of P25-Degussa and PC50-Millennium photocatalysts were compared. The effect of different parameters such as pH, initial dye concentration, catalyst loading and the presence of some anions on both adsorption in the absence of light and the degradation under UV irradiation have been studied. 365 nm UV-A lamp was employed as irradiation source. The kinetic study showed that no correlation was observed between the adsorption capacity of the catalyst and its photoactivity, despite of this the effect of various parameters on adsorption and photocatalytic kinetic behavior was practically similar on various catalysts. The photocatalytic degradation of GV followed first-order reaction kinetics and the higher adsorption and photocatalytic degradation were obtained at the alkaline medium (pH = 10 for P25 and pH = 8 for PC50). However, the reaction at the acidic medium was gradually delayed due to the effect of charge repulsion. The presence of some anions (Cl−, SO42−, NO3−) in the medium at higher concentration was found to reduce the adsorption and to inhibit the degradation.
The Effects of T-TIP Market Access Reform on EU Beef Import Demand
Authors: Countryman Amanda M , Muhammad Andrew
Published: April 2017

Import policies in the European Union have greatly restricted beef imports from all sources. The presence of a binding tariff-rate quota (TRQ) on beef imports in tandem with sanitary and phytosanitary restrictions on biotechnological food products specifically inhibit beef imports from the United States and limit market access in the EU. Potential passage of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership may lead to a loosening of non-tariff measures (NTM) that serve as technical barriers to trade and give rise to the coexistence of hormone and non-hormone beef products in the EU marketplace. This research assesses the potential changes in import demand for beef under a trade agreement that allows for imports of conventional beef as well as an expansion of the existing TRQ in the EU beef import market. Results confirm that EU imports of beef will increase from all sources with an expansion of the TRQ and that elimination of the NTM related to beef production practices leads to an increase in competiveness of U.S. and Australian beef in the EU import market.
Gentiana kurroo Royle attenuates the metabolic aberrations in diabetic rats; Swertiamarin, swertisin and lupeol being the possible bioactive principles
Authors: Ghazanfar Khalid , Mubashir Khan , Dar Showkat A , Nazir Tazeen , Hameed Iqra , Ganai Bashir A , Akbar Seema , Masood Akbar
Published: April 2017

Background

Gentiana kuroo Royle is a medicinally important plant of north-western Himalayas used for various ailments. In the present study, the plant extracts were investigated for the antidiabetic effects in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

Methods

The impact of the extracts on serum glucose levels of diabetic rats was compared with reference drug – glibenclamide-treated diabetic rats. Streptozotocin injection was used to induce diabetes in fasted rats. Various biochemical, physiological and histopathological parameters in diabetic rats were observed for assessing the antidiabetic activity.

Results

The serum glucose concentrations in diabetic rats were significantly lowered by the extracts (methanolic and hydroethanolic at the doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg body weight). Several related biochemical parameters like creatinine, low-density lipoproteins, triglycerides, cholesterol, alkaline phosphatase, serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase and serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase were likewise decreased by the concentrates. The extracts also showed reduction in feed and water consumption of diabetic rats when compared with the diabetic control. The extracts were found to demonstrate regenerative/protective effect on β-cells of pancreas in diabetic rats. The methanolic and hydroethanolic extracts also exhibited hypoglycaemic effect in normal glucose-fed rats (oral glucose tolerance tests). LC-MS characterization of this extract showed the presence of these compounds – Swertiamarin, swertisin, lupeol, etc.

Conclusions

The current study demonstrated the counter diabetic capability of G. kuroo Royle being powerful in hyperglycaemia and can viably ensure against other metabolic deviations created by diabetes in rats. The possible bioactive principles responsible for the antidiabetic activity of G. kurroo Royle are Swertiamarin, swertisin and lupeol.
Hyperandrogenism in adolescent girls: relationship with the somatotrophic axis
Authors: Hernandez María Isabel , López Patricia , Gaete Ximena , Villarroel Claudio , Cavada Gabriel , Avila Alejandra , Iñiguez German , Cassorla Fernando
Published: April 2017

Background:

During puberty there is a physiologic increase in adrenal and ovarian androgens. It has been suggested that the somatotrophic axis may be related to the development of hyperandrogenism and anovulation in non-obese adult women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). The objective of the study was to investigate whether ovarian androgen secretion in young postmenarchal girls is related to the function of their somatotropic axis.

Methods:

This was a cross-sectional study of adolescent girls. We studied non-obese adolescent girls with hyperandrogenism (HA; n = 21) matched with control girls (C; n = 25) for chronological age, age at menarche and body mass index. We obtained a fasting blood sample for measurement of serum glucose, insulin, 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17OH-Prog), dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S), androstenedione, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), total testosterone, IGF-I, IGF-II, IGFBP-1, IGFBP-3, ghrelin, leptin, AMH (antiMüllerian hormone), luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) during the follicular phase of the menstrual period. We performed an oral glucose tolerance test to determine blood glucose, insulin and ghrelin levels and urine samples to measure urinary GH (growth hormone) levels.

Results:

As expected, the hyperandrogenic girls had significantly higher Ferriman scores, basal total testosterone, free androgen index (FAI), androstenedione, AMH, and basal LH levels compared with the girls in controls. Serum IGF-I, IGF-II, IGFBP-3 and urinary GH did not differ between HA and C. There was a correlation between urinary GH and FAI in all girls (r 0.29, p < 0.05). In addition, in HA girls FAI correlated with insulin, homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) and ghrelin.

Conclusions:

We observed a correlation between urinary GH and FAI in the hyperandrogenic and control girls, suggesting that the function of the somatotrophic axis may influence the secretion of androgens in adolescent girls.
Copy number variations in “classical” obesity candidate genes are not frequently associated with severe early-onset obesity in children
Authors: Windholz Jan , Kovacs Peter , Schlicke Marina , Franke Christin , Mahajan Anubha , Morris Andrew P. , Lemke Johannes R. , Klammt Jürgen , Kiess Wieland , Schöneberg Torsten , Pfäffle Roland , Körner Antje
Published: April 2017

Background:

Obesity is genetically heterogeneous and highly heritable, although polymorphisms explain the phenotype in only a small proportion of obese children. We investigated the presence of copy number variations (CNVs) in “classical” genes known to be associated with (monogenic) early-onset obesity in children.

Methods:

In 194 obese Caucasian children selected for early-onset and severe obesity from our obesity cohort we screened for deletions and/or duplications by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification reaction (MLPA). As we found one MLPA probe to interfere with a polymorphism in

Results:

In the selected subset of most severely obese children, we did not find CNV with

Conclusions:

In our modest sample of severely obese children, we were unable to find CNVs in well-established monogenic obesity genes. Nevertheless, we found an association of rs3734354 in
Dilemmatic aspects of language policies in a trilingual preschool group
Authors: Puskás Tünde , Björk-Willén Polly
Published: April 2017

This article explores dilemmatic aspects of language policies in a preschool group in which three languages (Swedish, Romani and Arabic) are spoken on an everyday basis. The article highlights the interplay between policy decisions on the societal level, the teachers’ interpretations of these policies, as well as language practices on the micro level. The preschool group is seen as a complex context for negotiating language policies and expectations regarding language use. The theoretical framework builds on Billig’s work on ideological and everyday dilemmas that we argue are detectable at both levels of the analysis. The analysis of the ethnographic material shows that the explicit language policy formulated in the Swedish preschool curriculum leads, in practice, to ideological, pedagogical and everyday dilemmas. Moreover, an unwillingness to set rules for children’s language choice combined with the central position of free play in Swedish preschool practice has led to a situation in which children fall short of their potential to develop bilingual competence.
Goal and Strategies of an Insurgent Group: Violent and Non-violent Actions
Authors: Zambrano Andrés , Zuleta Hernando
Published: April 2017

We model the strategy of an insurgent group that follows a pattern of prolonged popular war but negotiates with the government. The main results of the model are the following: (i) If the marginal probability of signing a peace treaty is significantly low when the guerrilla invests little on non-violent strategies, then they will continue to fight and allocate all its resources on military power. (ii) Ceteris paribus, the future stock of military power of a guerrilla is increasing in their current military power and its budget. (iii) The greater the government’s military power, the lower the share of resources guerrillas allocate to violent strategies. We also provide two examples of negotiation processes between the Colombian government and FARC, and relate it to our theoretical results.
Earning a Peace Dividend in a Crisis Environment: The Greek Case
Authors: Bragoudakis Zacharias G. , Zombanakis George A.
Published: April 2017

In this paper we attempt to assess the extent to which conversion policies involving the shift of resources from the defence to the non-defence sector may entail some form of peace dividend for the economy of Greece. The issue has become one of increasing importance during the past few years during which the demand for growth-supporting policies has been a top priority requirement as an antidote to the recession. The paper employs a VAR model in order to investigate the interactions among the growth rate of gross domestic product and alternative measures of defence expenditure. We find that defence spending and more so, expenditure on defence equipment, under the present circumstances in which the bulk of the procurement represents import payments is not related in any form of Granger-causal relationship with the economic growth of Greece. Our results point to the fact that there can be no possibility of a peace dividend under the circumstances prevailing, unless defence procurement policies shift to an import – substitution strategy.
Converging Allies?
Authors: Arvanitidis Paschalis , Kollias Christos , Messis Petros
Published: April 2017

In the relevant literature, policy convergence is broadly defined as the gradual process through which countries acquire similar traits in terms of one or more policy characteristics such as objectives, inputs, instruments, outputs. Within the broader policy convergence discourse, this paper empirically investigates the presence of a defence policy convergence in the NATO alliance. Defence spending expressed as a share of GDP represents the resources countries allocate to the production of military capabilities and is adopted as the variable through which the question at hand is examined. In broad terms, results reported herein fromβandσ-convergence methodologies as well as from Markov chains, suggest the presence of a defence policy convergence process.
From Revolution to Elections. A Comparative Analysis of Tunisia and Egypt
Authors: Bettarelli Luca
Published: April 2017

Political participation is far from being a trivial issue. The focus of this paper will be on two dissimilar acts of political participation in the context of the Arab Spring: revolution and elections. In detail, I will first describe participants in revolution and elections – who they are and why they do participate – to then analyse the link (if any) between revolution and electoral participation. This study will develop a comparison between the cases of Tunisia and Egypt. The findings will illustrate that Tunisian insurgents are more likely to vote in post-revolution elections when compared to their Egyptian fellows, and that this is consistent with the events in the aftermath of the two revolutions.
From Head to Head: An Emergy Analysis of a War Rifle Bullet
Authors: Gonella Francesco , Elia Christian , Cristiano Silvio , Spagnolo Sofia , Vignarca Francesco
Published: April 2017

Emergy (spelled with an “m”) analysis is a method for environmental and systemic accounting in terms of sustainability and quality of resources used for a product, service or process. In this paper, it is applied to the assault rifles projectiles used in war battlefields. The specific emergy is evaluated in terms of sej/bullet, pointing out the upstream investment made by both the environment and the human society to produce the bullet in its operating war conditions. Comparison is made with alternative uses of the same resources when addressed to the support of development and wellbeing.
‘Of the Expence of Defence’: What Has Changed Since Adam Smith?
Authors: Brauer Jurgen
Published: April 2017

This essay selectively reviews the history of economic thought on war and peace, starting with Adam Smith. Today, Smith’s trickle of thoughts has become a broad marshland. In this marshland, however, discrete currents are apparent – some stronger, some weaker – which this essay identifies, in rough chronological order, as war, defense, conflict, military, security, and peace economics. As these terms often are used interchangeably, one purpose of the essay is to more clearly delineate these intellectual currents and differentiate them from each other. By building canals in the marshlands as it were, the aim is to help all flows of contributions become stronger.
Law and Equity, and “Law and History” as a Resource of Critique
Authors: Wilson Sarah
Published: April 2017

This article’s support for the critical equity agenda can be found in proposing that scholarship on equity could benefit from embracing a distinctive “Law and History” approach. In doing so, it acknowledges that amongst “mainstream” areas of law, equity has been the subject of very extensive historical scrutiny, and suggests that further but differently focused historicization can complement what is already exigent within conventional legal history alongside critical legal history. In illuminating how “Law and History” might differ from traditional and critical legal histories, the analysis explains how “Law and History” embodies established approaches within both, but emphasises the work of historians to a much greater degree than either. In identifying its current hallmarks, it explains that the parameters of “Law and History” are still being worked through. It also suggests that this notwithstanding, setting out for lawyers how historians perceive themselves and their work, and approach their craft – drawing this from current and highly profiled debate within history itself – identifies the potential of history as a resource of critique across legal scholarship. In identifying historians’ own perceptions of the importance of “mutual reinforcement” in social science scholarship, the analysis also explains how law can become a much more extensive resource of critique for history than is currently the case.
Equity and Legal Reasoning
Authors: Samuel Geoffrey
Published: April 2017

This paper defends the distinction between law and equity with regard to legal reasoning. It argues that equity not only can provide – as the late Bernard Rudden said – an alibi but equally can add an extra dimension to the reasoning process. It helps the legal reasoner to escape from a two-dimensional “flat” world into one that functions in three-dimensions in which the complexities of social reality can be given more adequate expression.
Equity and the Social Reproduction of Capital
Authors: Gearey Adam
Published: April 2017

This essay draws on Marxist thinking to argue that equity is essential to the social reproduction of finance capital. Equitable doctrines can be seen as assemblages that define and reproduce the way in which money, people and property relate to each other. Assemblages of equity/capital are ideological complexes – ways of being, thinking and acting that effectively legitimize a particular mode of production. The role that equity plays in the functioning of a regime of profit making is effectively concealed from the student of the subject. Feminist scholars have perhaps been the most successful in drawing attention to the “hidden” patriarchal logic of the subject. However, unless feminist insights are linked to an understanding of the social reproduction of capital, we cannot appreciate how modes of capital accumulation operate under cover of the legitimizing effects of equitable doctrines.
Equity, Property, and the Ethical Subject
Authors: Stone Matthew
Published: April 2017

Orthodox ideas of ownership tend to depict property as a private domain that expresses the owner’s formal rights. Yet equity does much to resist this outlook, deploying ethically-loaded ideas such as conscience and articulating an interpersonal and distinctly duty-driven character to property relations. Focusing on English case law, this article suggests that we can gather various strands of equitable property norms, particularly those derived from the constructive trust, around relationships of responsibility and vulnerability. Furthermore, the article asks what such equitable ideas about property might therefore tell us about the purportedly (self-)possessive character of human subjectivity. Rather than constructing people as sovereign, autonomous proprietors, we might read equity as tracing an ethical quality to the way we perceive ourselves and others through property-related ideas.
The Castrated Trustee: Jouissance and Breach of Trust
Authors: Herian Robert
Published: April 2017

As a highly prolific legal mechanism that both predated and subsequently found form amid the development of Anglo-American capitalist societies, the modern-day trust operates across manifold private, commercial, domestic and international spheres. As a consequence of their complex legal, economic and political significance that informs, for example, the worlds of global corporate finance as well as public pensions, trusts play a remarkably important role in helping shape the wider socio-cultural domain of Anglo-American jurisdictions and beyond. Yet trusts remain under- or ill-considered juridical sites in terms of continuing critical-legal dialogues, and especially the dialogue between equity and psychoanalysis. This article will explore how the trust mirrors or recreates in an external juridical form the internal regulation of desire and enjoyment that occurs within the psychic space of the subject-as-trustee. In particular, via duties and obligations a trustee holds on behalf of the subject-as-beneficiary, and the resultant
Tending the Garden: Equity and Exscription
Authors: Oppermann Jan-Patrick
Published: April 2017

The first part of this essay means to make a modest contribution to the critical – that is to say investigative and non-traditional – study of the philosophical origin, sense, and parameters of the concept of equity. Its focus will at first be on Aristotle. Then I will seek to widen the Aristotelian concept of equity by a consideration of the moral and intellectual capacity of “enlarged mentality” as found in Hannah Arendt’s interpretation of Kant. In doing so, I will actively seek to loosen the legal or judicial bonds of this concept, instead allowing it to freely enter a larger conceptual space involving the political and the psychological. In the second part of the essay, this larger conceptual space leads me to a wider meditation with speculative moments concerning the possibility of an ontological extension of a trans-legal interpretation of equity through a consideration of some aspects of the work of French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, particularly his notion of “exscription.” In the third part of the essay, I then supplement this Nancean meditation with a psychological turn focusing on Nancy’s commentary on Freud’s remark on the “extension of psyche.” I offer these speculative moments to step beyond Aristotelian and Arendtian/Kantian constraints and also in order to advance possible philosophical exploration of equity and justice against overly narrow containers in “legal philosophy” including “critical legal theory.”
From Helen’s Pharmacy to the Multiverse of Equities: Difference, Opposition, Différance
Authors: Baldissone Riccardo
Published: April 2017

Equity’s remedial intervention may be traced back to the pharmacological ambiguity of writing, as construed by Plato in the dialogue
Paul Johnston’s Body Politic: A Speculative Fable
Authors: Fiorato Sidia
Published: April 2017

Dystopias are speculative fictions with a close connection with the present condition and focus on the transformative potential of human agency. Paul Johnston’s futuristic crime fiction
Utopias in The Tempest
Authors: Laghi Simona
Published: April 2017

The Early Modern period is characterised by political and social turmoil, so the investigation of new forms of government develops with the aim to restore peace and stability. The theological idea of sovereignty reveals the weakness of its foundational principles, which are overtaken by a renewed interest in scientific discoveries and an increasing faith in human reason. As a consequence of all this, new concepts of government arise and spread in Europe, opening the way to new political and social scenarios. In the circumscribed space of the unknown island in
From Hard-Copy to Digital Law via “Illustrated Courtrooms”: Visualising the History of Legal English
Authors: Nicolini Matteo
Published: April 2017

This essay addresses different patterns of the visualisation of the law. It examines how scholars attempt to depict, represent, and perform the law and its founding authority. It also focuses on the pragmatics of legal language: written and spoken standard legal English are pragmatically enriched within contexts where the law is interpreted, uttered, or performed. The linguistic notion of “context” discloses the interrelations between the agendas of law and power and reveals how the law conveys its content to the body politic as its ultimate addressee. It then proposes a renewed concept of legal linguistics. In order to determine the different ideologies underpinning the evolution of English legal language, as well as its prototypical forms of the visualisation of the law, three stages in the history of the English language will be examined: Late Middle English, Early Modern English, and Contemporary English. Each of these stages will be likened to the different parts of judicial proceedings. This will allow us to examine how English legal language has been used in a specific context, the trial, where the law is both uttered and performed.
“The Last Laugh?” A Multimodal Analysis of Captions in Photojournalism
Authors: Logaldo Mara
Published: April 2017

It is generally agreed that in photojournalism pictures come first. However, also the short verbal texts that accompany them play a crucial role, as they lead readers among the different signifieds of the image. A multimodal discourse analysis of captions will aptly consider both the linguistic elements that appear within the verbal discourse and the image-text relation. The interconnectedness of captions and pictures has lately been defined as a “loop,” a view which blurs the traditional distinction between anchoring and relaying processes theorized by Barthes. The association of the relaying function with comics, however, seems to establish an interesting point of contact between photojournalism and pop art. Captions actually show the tension between “high” and “low” culture, the former being traditionally identified with the word and the latter with the image. While in the heyday of photojournalism captions were made necessary by the poor quality of the photographs, they soon began to provide an abstractive summary of the story told by the picture. This selective process involves interpretation. For this reason, captions can be ethically misleading and even legally controversial forms of discourse, for instance when they are used instrumentally to convey a specific point of view. In photojournalism dealing with crime cases, in particular, captions may display a sensationalist and populist view of justice, thus articulating the thoughts of public opinion supported by the newspaper’s stand. My case study focuses on the caption that accompanied the photo portraying Perry Smith and Richard Hickock while leaving the courtroom on March 29, 1960. The two murderers – who have become famous after the publication of the documentary novel
How to Enforce the Law: Video-Shocks for Road Security
Authors: Carpi Daniela
Published: April 2017

In the contemporary world the law must use images to enforce our compliance: the law needs some enforcement in the form of visual help. Why then does the law have to rely on advertising in order to have its voice heard? What impact does advertising have on the legal profession?
Advances in chemical product design
Authors: Zhang Lei , Fung Ka Yip , Wibowo Christianto , Gani Rafiqul
Published: May 2017

The nature of chemical product design problems is diverse and multidisciplinary. It involves many design issues such as project management, market study, product design, process design, and economic analysis for better organizing the product design project and achieving better products. This article provides an overview of chemical product design with a multidisciplinary hierarchical framework including all the design issues and tasks. Each of the design issues and tasks are introduced and discussed, methods and tools are summarized and compared, challenges and perspectives are presented to help the chemical product design researchers on finding more novel, innovative and sustainable products, by the combined effort from academia and industry to develop a systematic generic framework, and tools including product simulator, process simulator, database manager, modeling tool, and templates for design problems.
“You have to teach the judge what to do”: Semiotic gaps between unrepresented litigants and the common law
Authors: Yeung Matthew W. L , Leung Janny H. C
Published: April 2017

The courtroom can be seen as a semiotic space where the practice of signs is institutionalized. There are specific ways to perform signs in court, be they verbal (e. g., turn-taking) or nonverbal (e. g., attire). Legal signs communicate and signify differently than their non-legal counterparts. Laypeople may not be aware of such differences, and may encounter a gap between their expectation and the actual practice of legal signs. This is precisely the case for unrepresented litigants, laypeople who go to court without legal counsel, whose understanding and practice of signs usually differ from legal ones given their limited exposure to legal knowledge and culture. This paper examines unrepresented litigants’ lay practice of signs in Hong Kong courtrooms, and analyses how it clashes with that used by legal professionals. Our data consist of courtroom observations of 54 Cantonese case managements and 13 Cantonese trials in district courts in Hong Kong, 10 interviews with unrepresented litigants and 6 relevant judgments. The paper shows that the differences in the use of semiotics often place laypeople as out-group members of the law and may limit their access to justice. Our analysis will contribute to an understanding of laypeople’s behavior in the courtroom, which in turn bridges the communication gap between laypeople and legal professionals in common law jurisdictions.
The semiotic interpretation of legal subjects in China’s new criminal procedure law
Authors: Lin Xu , Liang Li
Published: April 2017

Semiotically, it is worth discussing some legal terminology that expresses the legal subjects in the criminal procedure law drawn up in 2012. In China’s new criminal procedure law, it can been seen that different legal concepts are adopted to refer to the same legal subject, while different legal subjects are referred to by the same legal concept. In Article 106 of the new criminal procedure law, “participants in the proceedings” means the parties, legal representatives, agents ad litem, defenders, witnesses, expert witnesses, and interpreters. However, all kinds of criminal lawsuit participants appearing in the new criminal procedure law are far beyond the scope of “participants in the proceedings” defined in Article 106. While Article 3, Article 4, and Article 290 of the new criminal procedure law are all about subjects in the criminal procedure law, nevertheless, why is Article 290 arranged as the last article? With the help of the Peircean semiotic methodology and Greimas’ semiotic theory fused with legal materiality, some semiotic interpretations of legal terms are very necessary. Background metalanguage, consensus metalanguage, and context-oriented metalanguage are the foundation for analyzing the problems mentioned previously. In addition, legal language autonomy and unipolarity, the relationship of legal text and real legal meaning, and the transition from law in the text to the law in action provides several strong perspectives to make them clear. Drawing upon semiotic methodology fused with legal materiality, this paper will explore legislative techniques and methodology, especially logical deduction by reasoning between lawmakers and judges, including legal interpretation, legal reasoning, and interest measure. It will be beneficial to establish the authority of China’s new criminal procedure law and have it smoothly implemented in China.
Dialectal variation in Spanish diminutives: A performance model
Authors: Eddington David
Published: April 2017

While the diminutive form of most Spanish words is invariant, a great deal of variation is found in bisyllabic words that either contain /je, we/ in the stem (e. g., viejo ‘old’> viejito/viejecito, pueblo ‘town’ > pueblecito/pueblito), or that end in /e/ (e. g., dulce ‘sweet’ > dulcecito/dulcito), or that end in /jo, ja/ (e. g., rubio ‘blonde’ > rubiecito/rubito). Data from the Corpus del Español indicate that in many cases both diminutive forms exist within a single country. This kind of variation has been accounted for in a number of competence-based studies. However, many of these studies, along with the entities and mechanisms they employ, are not designed to explain actual language processing. The purpose of the present study, on the other hand, is to present a performance model of diminutive formation that accounts for the observed variation. The model assumes that highly frequent diminutives have been lexicalized, and as a result, their production is a matter of lexical retrieval. In contrast, low frequency words are diminutivized based on analogy to the diminutive forms of words stored in the mental lexicon. A data set of existing diminutives in each country was extracted from the Corpus del Español. Using these data sets, a series of computational simulations was performed in order to predict the diminutive allomorphs. The model proved to be highly successful in correctly predicting the diminutives in each country.
Menor uso pese a mayor estatus: discursos sobre el valor de la lengua en Galicia
Authors: Pérez Castillejo Susana
Published: April 2017

This paper contributes to the literature on the current discrepancy between the use of and attitudes towards Galician. Previous studies attribute this conflict to the higher prestige of Spanish as the language of social mobility, together with stereotypes of rurality still linked to the vernacular language. Instead of focusing on prestige as a value that explains the progressive shift to Spanish, this paper examines the discursive processes of prestige attribution to uncover the ideological underpinnings of speakers’ motivations. The critical analysis of the attitudes expressed in 72 semi-structured interviews reveals that, when discursively constructing their evaluations, speakers do not necessarily reproduce traditional linguistic prejudices. Instead, they resort to discourses of authenticity, anonymity, linguistic rights, or discourses about the value of bilingualism vs monolingualism to justify their opinions. Sometimes, the ideologies mobilized by these discourses naturalize attitudes and behaviors that undermine the normalization of Galician, even if the speakers overtly express positive attitudes towards the language.