bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Lipopolysaccharide-Triggered Acute Aggravation of Mesangioproliferative Glomerulonephritis through Activation of Coagulation in a High IgA Strain of ddY Mice
Authors: Shimosawa Makiko , Sakamoto Koji , Tomari Yuki , Kamikado Kohei , Otsuka Hidetaka , Liu Ning , Kitamura Hisayo , Uemura Kazuhide , Nogaki Fumiaki , Mori Noriko , Muso Eri , Yoshida Haruyoshi , Ono Takahiko
Published: June 2009

Background: The high IgA (HIGA) strain of ddY mice represents an inbred model of IgA nephropathy that shows mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis with mesangial IgA deposition. In this study, aggravation of glomerulonephritis in HIGA mice through lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-triggered activation of coagulation was investigated. Methods: Twelve-week-old HIGA and BALB/c mice were intraperitoneally injected with LPS twice at an interval of 3 days, and kidney specimens were collected 7 days after the second LPS injection. In an intervention experiment, the factor Xa inhibitor danaparoid was injected intraperitoneally every day for 7 days after the first LPS injection. Results: LPS injection induced macrophage infiltration and cellular proliferation in the mesangium together with fibrin deposition and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 mRNA expression, as well as antigen deposition of tissue factor, factor V, factor X, and protease-activated receptor 2. These phenomena were obvious in HIGA mice when compared to BALB/c mice. Interestingly, toll-like receptor 4 was intensely expressed in HIGA mice before LPS injection and subsequently decreased. Danaparoid treatment significantly ameliorated proteinuria, cellular proliferation, and fibrin deposition. Conclusions: The present data suggest that tissue factor and factor V induction by LPS may in part accelerate mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis through activation of factor X and downstream proinflammatory and procoagulant mechanisms.
Ischemic Preconditioning Attenuates Renal Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury by Inhibiting Activation of IKKβ and Inflammatory Response
Authors: Chen Xin , Liu Xiaodong , Wan Xin , Wu Yu , Chen Yu , Cao Changchun
Published: June 2009

Background: Renal ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury is a major cause of acute renal failure (ARF). The transcription factor nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) has been implicated as a key mediator of reperfusion injury. Activation of NF-κB is dependent upon the phosphorylation of its inhibitor, IκB, by the specific inhibitory κB kinase (IKK) subunit, IKKβ. We hypothesized that ischemic preconditioning (IPC) reduces acute renal damage following I/R injury by inhibiting activation of IKKβ. As neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), an early predictive biomarker of acute kidney injury, is regulated by NF-κB, we approached the relationship between NGAL and IKKβ. Method: Thirty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 3 groups after right kidney nephrectomy. Group A rats were sham-operated controls. Group B rats were 45-min ischemic in the left renal artery while Group C rats were pre-treated with 3 cycles of 2-min ischemia and 5-min reperfusion. All the rats were sacrificed at 24 h after reperfusion. We harvested kidneys and serum to do further analysis, including histological and functional parameters, expressions of NGAL and IKKβ in renal tissues. Results: Compared with rats subjected to I/R injury, pre-treated rats had a significant decrease in serum creatinine level (Scr) and tubulointerstitial injury scores (Scr, 86.79 ± 12.98 vs. 205.89 ± 19.16 μmol/l, p < 0.01; tubulointerstitial injury scores, 1.3 ± 0.48 vs. 3.8 ± 0.79, p < 0.01). In addition, expressions of IKKβ (0.95 ± 0.21 vs. 1.74 ± 0.17, p < 0.05) and NGAL (1.71 ± 0.032 vs. 2.66 ± 0.078, p < 0.05) at renal tubule in pre-treated rats were attenuated significantly compared with rats subjected to ischemia-reperfusion injury. Moreover, our study showed that IKKβ and NGAL were in positive correlation (R = 0.965 > R0.01(30) = 0.448, p < 0.01). Conclusions: The evidence suggests that IKKβ may play a role in renal I/R injury and give rise to the generation of NGAL. It appears that IPC may attenuate renal injury and the expression of NGAL following acute I/R injury. IKKβ may offer a clinically accessible target for preventing renal injury following I/R.
Medication Adherence
Authors: Ho P. Michael , Bryson Chris L. , Rumsfeld John S.
Published: June 2009

Medication adherence usually refers to whether patients take their medications as prescribed (eg, twice daily), as well as whether they continue to take a prescribed medication. Medication nonadherence is a growing concern to clinicians, healthcare systems, and other stakeholders (eg, payers) because of mounting evidence that it is prevalent and associated with adverse outcomes and higher costs of care. To date, measurement of patient medication adherence and use of interventions to improve adherence are rare in routine clinical practice. The goals of the present report are to address (1) different methods of measuring adherence, (2) the prevalence of medication nonadherence, (3) the association between nonadherence and outcomes, (4) the reasons for nonadherence, and finally, (5) interventions to improve medication adherence.
Cyprian of Carthage
Authors: Burns J. Patout
Published: June 2009

Cyprian served as bishop of Carthage from 248 until his martyrdom in 258. He guided the African Christian church through crises of persecution and division. His theology places the episcopal college at the centre of the church, as the guarantor of its unity, purity, and sanctifying power. His thought proved a troublesome guide for the African church as it negotiated the transition from persecuted to established church.
The Rise and Fall of the Gospel of Matthew
Authors: Sim David C.
Published: June 2009

The Gospel of Matthew, the most influential Gospel in the ancient Christian Church, has lost its primary position in the modern world. It has been replaced by John as the most popular Gospel, and it is challenged by Mark for second position. This study seeks to explain Matthew's fall from grace by isolating a number of the Gospel's features that are deemed to be either offensive or problematic by modern interpreters.
Concerning Communities
Authors: Mason Roger A.
Published: June 2009

The concept of community is central to the Church's understanding of itself and its mission, but in an age of freedom of information and personal movement unparalleled in human history, the traditional definitions of what constitutes a community are increasingly unusable. This article examines the idea of community in the Apostolic Church as seen in the New Testament. It is intended as a contribution to the ongoing and vital search for a concept of community appropriate for the Church in the twenty-first century.
Mobile Phone Communication: Extending Goffman to Mediated Interaction
Authors: Rettie Ruth
Published: June 2009

Mediated interaction has become a feature of everyday life, used routinely to communicate and maintain contacts, yet sociological analysis of mediated communication is relatively undeveloped. This article argues that new mediated communication channels merit detailed sociological analysis, and that interactional differences between media have been overlooked. Goffman explicitly restricted his interaction order to face-to-face interaction.The article adapts some of Goffman's interactional concepts for synchronous mediated interaction, but argues that his situational focus is less relevant to asynchronous media. The theoretical approach developed is illustrated and supported by qualitative research on mobile phones, which fortuitously afford both synchronous and asynchronous communication.The study suggests that although the distinction between synchronous and asynchronous interaction is important, it is not technologically determined, but shaped by interactional norms.
Revisiting Weber's Concept of Disenchantment: An Examination of the Re-enchantment with Sailing in the Post-Communist Czech Republic
Authors: Numerato Dino
Published: June 2009

The significance of sport as a social practice remains hidden at the margins of sociology. This article aims to highlight the social significance of sport by providing a sociological interpretation of the transformations of sailing in Czechoslovakia, and later in the Czech Republic, following the Velvet Revolution of 1989. These sport-related changes are understood to be consequences of wider socio-cultural, economic and political transformations. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork of the Czech sailing movement, I argue that during Czechoslovakia's communist period, a time when sailing was labelled pejoratively as a `bourgeois sport', it actually experienced a `golden age' of enchantment. Based on Weber's concept of disenchantment and its subsequent developments in contemporary sociology, this article demonstrates how this earlier enchantment was jeopardized by disenchantment threats that occurred after 1989, and how sailing has once again been re-enchanted in the current period.
`Every Time I Do It I Absolutely Annihilate Myself': Loss of (Self-)Consciousness and Loss of Memory in Young People's Drinking Narratives
Authors: Griffin Christine , Bengry-Howell Andrew , Hackley Chris , Mistral Willm , Szmigin Isabelle
Published: June 2009

Young people's alcohol consumption has been the focus of heightened concern over `binge drinking' in social policy, academic research and popular culture. A normalized culture of intoxication is now central to many young people's social lives, playing an important role in the night-time economy of towns and cities across the UK. In this article we draw on the findings of a study on the significance of alcohol consumption in the everyday lives of `ordinar y' young adult drinkers to explore the significance of loss of consciousness and loss of memory in their drinking stories. Through an analysis of focus group discussions with 89 young women and men aged 18 to 25, we explore the role of `passing out stories' in the classed and gendered domain of young people's alcohol consumption in the neo-liberal social order, focussing on the constitution of risk and pleasure in their accounts.
Religiosity, National Identity and Legitimacy: Israel as an Extreme Case
Authors: Sorek Tamir , Ceobanu Alin M.
Published: June 2009

This article investigates the relationship between religiosity and contemporary national identities by using Israel as a case study and comparing it to other countries. Survey data from the ISSP 2003 (ZA 3910) module and the Jewish Religious Behaviour in Israel study (2000)1 are used to evaluate the level of national sentiments among people with different degrees of religiosity. It is found that secular Jewish Israelis are significantly less proud in almost every dimension of national pride than other Jewish Israeli groups. A similar pattern was noticed in other countries, but the gap in national pride between religious and less religious people in Israel is the highest among the 17 majoritarian ethnic groups examined.These findings point to the difficulty of stripping ethnic symbols from their religious origin, as well as to the special quest of Israeli Jews for legitimacy, which can be achieved more easily via religious justifications.
`Don't Ask a Woman to Do Another Woman's Job': Gendered Interactions and the Emotional Ethnographer
Authors: Lumsden Karen
Published: June 2009

This article contributes to the reflexive turn within the social sciences by arguing for enhanced recognition of the role of gender and emotions in the research process. The chief instrument of research, the ethnographer herself, may alter that which is being studied and may be changed in turn (Golde, 1970). Women may trigger off specific behaviours in male-dominated settings such as the `boy racer' culture. This includes the gender-related behaviours of `sexual hustling' and `sexist treatment' (Gurney, 1985). Ethnographers must adopt a reflexive approach and locate themselves within the ethnography while recognizing the influence of their social position on interactions with the researched and the research itself. An awareness of these interactions does not undermine the data but instead acknowledges that the researcher and the researched are embedded within the research. Hence, they shape the ethnography while also being shaped in turn.
Gender Equality in the European Union: The EU Script and its Support by European Citizens
Authors: Gerhards Jürgen , Schäfer Mike S. , Kämpfer Sylvia
Published: June 2009

The article analyses attitudes of European citizens towards gender equality. It describes how the EU script on gender relations emphasizes gender equality. Subsequently, the article analyses the extent to which citizens of different European countries agree with this idea, based on Eurobarometer data.The analyses show a strong overall support for gender equality in the economic, political, and educational realms, but also differences between countries. In explaining these differences, we go beyond other studies not only by concentrating on endogenous characteristics of the analysed countries, but also by taking into account their levels of modernization, institutionalized gender regimes, and religious composition. Moreover, following neo-institutionalist theory, we include an exogenous variable — the influence of the EU — in multi-level analyses and can show that, in addition to all endogenous variables, it also has an effect on attitudes towards gender relations.
Implementing, Embedding, and Integrating Practices: An Outline of Normalization Process Theory
Authors: May Carl , Finch Tracy
Published: June 2009

Understanding the processes by which practices become routinely embedded in everyday life is a long-standing concern of sociology and the other social sciences. It has important applied relevance in understanding and evaluating the implementation of material practices across a range of settings.This article sets out a theory of normalization processes that proposes a working model of implementation, embedding and integration in conditions marked by complexity and emergence. The theory focuses on the work of embedding and of sustaining practices within interaction chains, and helps in understanding why some processes seem to lead to a practice becoming normalized while others do not.
Lay and Professional Constructions of Time: Implications for Illness Behaviour and Management of a Chronic Condition
Authors: Morgan Myfanwy , Thomas Michelle
Published: June 2009

Time permeates all aspects of our everyday lives but its very centrality often renders it invisible. This article examines how temporal understandings and priorities shape and inform lay and professional constructions of illness, understandings of symptoms and help-seeking behaviour, based on semi-structured interviews with 20 GPs and 16 parents of children with asthma. This identifies the significance of a temporal perspective for beliefs about the nature of asthma as episodic or linear, the appropriate sequences and timing of symptoms and treatment, patterns of help-seeking, and perceptions of speed and treatment choices. Comparing GPs' and parents' accounts highlights both the concordance and divergences in temporal perspectives.We argue that understanding the complexity of illness behaviours requires engagement with the ways in which temporal understandings shape and inform behaviours throughout the illness trajectory and may vary among different social and cultural groups.
Ironic midwives
Authors: Westfall Joseph
Published: June 2009

In this article, I argue that despite their philosophical differences, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard share a philosophical method or style rooted in the irony of Socrates. Such irony, when used to distance the author of a written work from its reader, effects the same sort of relationship between the author and the truth as was characteristic of Socrates. Thus, by way of writing in a certain, artful way, both Kierkegaard and Nietzsche are able to pull away from their readers, depriving themselves of all authority and leaving the question of what is true in what they write ultimately up to the consideration, discernment and interpretation of the reader. As such, I conclude, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard are akin as two different instances of the Socratic midwife or maieutician.
The leftist fascination with Schmitt and the esoteric quality of `the political'
Authors: Dyrberg Torben Bech
Published: June 2009

The article looks critically at the Schmitt revival among radical leftists, how they try to insulate his work from his political conviction and make a problematic distinction between liberalism and democracy, which undercuts the specificity of modern democracy and plays into reactionary identity politics. I then turn to how Schmitt conceptualizes the political and argue that the structure of his argument is antithetic to modern democracy. Against those who hold that it is possible to use Schmitt against himself, I argue that to adopt Schmitt for the purpose of strengthening liberal democracy runs into serious difficulties, because the whole set-up is geared to combat this regime form. Finally, I show that the political undermines right/left orientation because it is structured in terms of other orientational metaphors, which sustain a restrictive view on membership (in/out), unconditional loyalty to the state (up/down) and a strong sense of belonging and destiny (front/back).
Levinas and the Palestinians
Authors: Caro Jason
Published: June 2009

Levinas is often credited with introducing a strong notion of ethics into postmodern thought. But his commitment to Zionism, his views on the Palestinian people, and his underformulated theory of justice raise questions about the desirability of his thinking for politics. In this study, the well-known encounter between Levinas and the Palestinians is addressed in order to determine how his philosophy of ethics can be deployed for political ends. As the philosopher famously concerned with the connection between self and the Other, the relation between Levinas, Israel and the Palestinians stands as the natural political test of his ethics. Based on this encounter, it is demonstrated that Levinasian justice is too unsafe as a prescription for a political order. Only when Levinas' ethics as first philosophy is supported by love as first politics is his Messianic polity acceptable.
The autonomy of the political
Authors: Thornhill Chris
Published: June 2009

This article sets out a series of critical reflections on recent and contemporary theoretical literature that makes expansive claims for the status of the political as an autonomous category of social practice in modern society, and it argues that such theories usually rest on rather tautological and self-supporting constructions of society's politicality. To counter this, the article advocates and proposes a social-functional reconstruction of what, precisely, is political in modern society, and it suggests that modern societies are in fact structurally dependent on their ability to reduce the volume of social exchanges that have to be articulated as specifically political. In particular, it asserts that many aspects of the legitimatory grammar of modern societies — especially rights and constitutions — are devices through which societies restrict their political concentration and de-politicize their primary functions. On this basis, the article concludes by proposing a more limited concept of the political that is socio-theoretically adjusted to, and usable in, the evolved form of a modern society.
Fathers of the Nation? Bismarck, Garibaldi and the Cult of Memory in Germany and Italy
Authors: Gerwarth Robert , Riall Lucy
Published: June 2009

This essay explores the origins and functions of two national father figures, Bismarck and Garibaldi, in modern Italy and Germany. Although fundamentally different in character and political outlook, Bismarck and Garibaldi acquired the status of `fathers' of the nation due to their pre-eminent roles in bringing about national unification. The ways in which these father figures were portrayed shifted remarkably over the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, testifying to the ability of both narratives to adapt to changing circumstances and even to different types of political rule. The divergent meanings attached to them were reflections of highly fragmented societies trying to establish historical continuities in times of profound and rapid historical change. Ultimately both men were employed by fascist dictatorships in an attempt to win over broader public support and to bolster the dictatorships' claims to historical legitimacy, but with varying degrees of success.
Men for All Seasons? Carson, Parnell, and the Limits of Heroism in Modern Ireland
Authors: Foster Roy , Jackson Alvin
Published: June 2009

Charles Stewart Parnell and Edward Carson both failed in their fundamental political objectives (a socially and geographically united and autonomous Ireland, as against a wholly Unionist Ireland). However, both men were the objects of great reverence during their lifetimes; and each was the focus of careful image building. Their heroic reputations were swiftly defined in regal, mystical and sexual terms: the reputation of each was commodified. Both were redefined according the needs of later generations: Parnell's alleged radicalism grew with the passing of the years, and with the establishment of an independent Ireland under bourgeois Catholic domination; the complexities of Carson's career were masked by the demands of later Unionist generations. Both men have to some extent been superseded by rival heroic reputations within their respective cultures. Parnell's standing has been challenged by the insurgents of 1916—21, while Carson's legacy has been sometimes overshadowed by that of his former lieutenant, James Craig.
Flawed Saviours: the Myths of Hindenburg and Pétain
Authors: von der Goltz Anna , Gildea Robert
Published: June 2009

Although Hindenburg and Pétain emerged from very different historical traditions, one monarchical and authoritarian, the other democratic and republican, their trajectories and cults in the twentieth century in fact had much in common. Both emerged as military heroes, saving the fatherland in 1914 in iconic victories, and both were subsequently called back as political saviours as the Weimar and Third Republics ran into difficulties and collapsed. The status and reputation of each was enhanced by a cult that was both manufactured and spontaneous, ranging widely across the political spectrum and reaching deep into the body politic. The cults drew on powerful images of solidity and ancient heroes. Both leaders were, however, flawed, compromising with Nazi power, and they were buried far from the sites of their victories. In spite of these flaws, however, the cults of Hindenburg and Pétain have been remarkably adaptable and enduring.
Gender and the Construction of Wartime Heroism in Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union
Authors: Kirschenbaum Lisa A. , Wingfield Nancy M.
Published: June 2009

During World War II, the Soviet media featured both male and female military heroes as part of an effort to mobilize the entire nation for the protection of hearth and home. The wartime hero cults inspired post-war commemoration in both the Soviet Union and in countries it `liberated' from Nazism. However, no single Communist/Soviet model of commemoration and heroism was imposed on post-World War II Eastern Europe. The relative lack of female heroes constituted one of the most striking differences between the `cults' of the war in the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. The difference can be explained in part as a consequence of the very different Soviet and Czechoslovak wartime experiences. The absence of female heroes also points to post-war differences in how the two states' leaders understood and employed the legitimizing potential of the war. These differences in turn shaped the post-Communist fate of hero cults in both countries.
Forests of citation: concluding unauthorized postscript to figured fragments of Bernard S. Cohn's `History and Anthropology: the State of Play'
Authors: Axel Brian Keith
Published: June 2009

This text represents an exploration of the possible significance of Bernard S. Cohn's 1980 essay, `History and Anthropology: The State of Play', for understanding the present of historical anthropology and its futures. My discussion has two aims: (1) to reflect on both Bernard S. Cohn's pedagogy and mode of inquiry; and (2) to explore the complexity and nuance of citationality as a generative principle within the constitution of historical anthropology's subject. Toward this, I examine Cohn's notion of `the colonial situation' and reflect on how the emergence of the human sciences is intertwined with the proliferation of colonialism's enduring legacy within postcoloniality.
Quentin Skinner's revised historical contextualism: a critique
Authors: Lamb Robert
Published: June 2009

Since the late 1960s Quentin Skinner has defended a highly influential form of linguistic contextualism for the history of ideas, originally devised in opposition to established methodological orthodoxies like the `great text' tradition and a mainly Marxist epiphenomenalism. In 2002, he published Regarding Method, a collection of his revised methodological essays that provides a uniquely systematic expression of his contextualist philosophy of history. Skinner's most arresting theoretical contention in that work remains his well-known claim that past works of political theory cannot be read as contributions to `perennial' debates but must instead be understood as particularistic, ideological speech acts. In this article I argue that he fails to justify these claims and that there is actually nothing wrong at all with (where appropriate) treating past works of political theory as engaged in perennial philosophical debates. Not only do Skinner's arguments not support the form of contextualism he defends, their flaws are actually akin to those he identified in his critique of previous methodological orthodoxies.
Sentimentality, communicative action and the social self: Adam Smith meets Jürgen Habermas
Authors: Wilson David , Dixon William
Published: June 2009

There is a long and tortuous history of misinterpreting Smithian social theory. After rehearsing that history we offer here a way of understanding Smith that, unlike much of recent revisionist Smith scholarship, does not further add to this confusion. Our proposal is to understand the relation between moral and economic behaviour in Smith as analogous to the way in which Habermas makes strategic (and normatively oriented) behaviour parasitic on a more basic communicative competence. Given this analogy, it is ironic that Habermas's own understanding of Smith's theory also leaves much to be desired.
The `Poor in Spirit' and Our Life in Christ: An Eastern Orthodox Perspective on Christian Discipleship
Authors: Barbu Liviu
Published: June 2009

In his study on the Sermon on the Mount, Hans Dieter Betz remarks that the expression `the poor in spirit' (οί πτωχοί τω πνεύματι) (Mt. 5:3) is unique in the entire New Testament and does not appear at all in the early Christian literature or elsewhere in the Greek language. Considering the profound and veiled meaning of the first Matthean beatitude in the Sermon on the Mount, this article asks whether a patient analysis of the Christian virtue of humility may reveal a way of life worthy of the blessings enjoyed by the `poor in spirit' in the Kingdom of Heaven. As such, it is argued throughout that the virtue of humility is the foundation of Christian discipleship, adducing arguments from the patristic exegesis of the first beatitude, the humility of the incarnate Son, and the Eastern Orthodox practice of spiritual direction.
`Not to Abolish, But to Fulfil': The Person of the Preacher and the Claim of the Sermon On the Mount
Authors: Ziegler Philip G.
Published: June 2009

The claims of Mt. 5:17—20 are often taken to provide the interpretive key to the ethical claims of the Sermon on the Mount as a whole. The theological issue at stake here is the determinative relation between Christ's person and work and his teaching. This article explores the vital role played by the identity of Christ as the `fulfiller of the law' and `bringer of the Kingdom' in the exegesis of the Sermon offered by Eduard Thurneysen and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in their respective works Die Bergpredigt (1936) and Nachfolge (1937). Both readings assert that the force and nature of the claims of the Sermon cannot be understood aright apart from constant attention to the difference made by the fact that Christ is the preacher. Out of this shared conviction, both theologians advance a reading of the Sermon as `the gospel itself' in the light of the eschatological identity of Jesus. Such readings of the Sermon, arising amidst the German Kirchenkampf of the 1930s, represent substantial contributions to the `responsible interpretation' of the Barmen Declaration (1934) whose second article states that, `As Jesus Christ is God's assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins, so in the same way and with the same seriousness is he also God's mighty claim upon our whole life.'
Decolonization of the Lifeworld by Reconstructing the System: a Critical Dialogue Between Jürgen Habermas and Reinhold Niebuhr
Authors: Ahn Ilsup
Published: June 2009

For all Habermas's remarkable contribution to moral theory, his discourse ethics has left behind some debatable points. In particular, `delinguistified media' such as money and power have been excluded from the domain of moral discourse. The exclusion of money and power from the domain of moral discourse has also motivated Habermas to develop an idea of `colonization of lifeworld by system' by giving us the impression that the delinguistified media are the main culprit of colonizing the lifeworld. In this article, by drawing on Reinhold Niebuhr's theological ethics, I argue that the lifeworld is colonized not by the delinguistified media as such, but, rather, by the people who mismanage money and power. I also develop the argument that in order to `decolonize' the colonized lifeworld, we need the substantive ethical ideals as well as the communicatively established law to guide the moral conduct of these system managers.
Dancing with Macromolecules: Ethical Tasks at the Dawn of Molecular Medicine
Authors: Heuser Stefan
Published: June 2009

Rival paradigms of genetics suggest different perceptions of human life and, correspondingly, of the task of medicine. In dialogue with two paradigmatic heuristics of genetics, I will show that bioethics needs to articulate a narrative that encourages a renewed understanding of the complexity of the phenomena of human life to which molecular medicine must be open. These considerations will be put to the test by discussing the ethical implications of the recent developments in stem cell research and in personal genetics.
`Felicity to the Original Text'? The Translation of Bonhoeffer's Ethics
Authors: Moberly Jennifer
Published: June 2009

In this article Moberly considers in detail the question of how well the translation of Bonhoeffer's Ethics for the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works series represents his thought. While recognizing the difficulties the translators faced, and some successes achieved, Moberly highlights a number of ways in which the translation is flawed through linguistic weaknesses, questionable editorial decisions, and through translations which obscure or distort Bonhoeffer's thought theologically or philosophically. These issues render the translation unreliable for scholarly work, leading the author to question whether for a critical edition there is sufficient warrant to retranslate Bonhoeffer's Ethics .
The Morality of Cluster Bombing
Authors: Winright Tobias
Published: June 2009

Consensus among human rights groups and churches in recent years about cluster bombs has culminated in the Convention on Cluster Munitions. While there is apparent agreement that cluster bombs ought to be illegal, no substantive ethical treatment of this issue exists. In statements, references are typically made to the danger cluster munitions pose to civilians; it is alleged that these weapons are inherently immoral, and appeal is given only implicitly or in a cursory fashion to traditional just war reasoning. Taking its cue from Jesuit moral theologian John C. Ford's influential article appearing in 1944 on `The Morality of Obliteration Bombing', and drawing on the more recent work of Oliver O'Donovan on `immoral weapons', this essay offers a critical moral assessment of cluster bombs and their use through attention to the principles of discrimination, proportionality, and the framework of double effect reasoning.
Religion, Bioethics and Nursing Practice
Authors: Fowler Marsha D
Published: June 2009

This article calls nursing to engage in the study of religions and identifies six considerations that arise in religious studies and the ways in which religious faith is expressed. It argues that whole-person care cannot be realized, neither can there be a complete understanding of bioethics theory and decision making, without a rigorous understanding of religious-ethical systems. Because religious traditions differ in their cosmology, ontology, epistemology, aesthetic, and ethical methods, and because religious subtraditions interact with specific cultures, each religion and subtradition has something distinctive to offer to ethical discourse. A brief example is drawn from Native American religions, specifically their view of `speech' and `words'. Although the example is particular to an American context, it is intended to demonstrate a more general principle that an understanding of religion per se can yield new insights for bioethics.
Lived Religion: Implications for Nursing Ethics
Authors: Reimer-Kirkham Sheryl
Published: June 2009

This article explores how ethics and religion interface in everyday life by drawing on a study examining the negotiation of religious and spiritual plurality in health care. Employing methods of critical ethnography, namely, interviews and participant observation, data were collected from patients, health care providers, administrators and spiritual care providers. The findings revealed the degree to which `lived religion' was intertwined with `lived ethics' for many participants; particularly for people from the Sikh faith. For these participants, religion was woven into everyday life, making distinctions between public and private, secular and sacred spaces improbable. Individual interactions, institutional resource allocation, and social discourses are all embedded in social relationships of power that prevent religion from being a solely personal or private matter. Strategies for the reintegration of religion into nursing ethics are: adjusting professional codes and theories of ethics to reflect the influence of religion; and the contribution of critical perspectives, such as postcolonial feminism, to the understanding of lived ethics.
Incorporating Patients' Spirituality Into Care Using Gadow's Ethical Framework
Authors: Pesut Barbara
Published: June 2009

Incorporating patients' spiritual beliefs into health care decision making is essential for ethically good care. Gadow's three-level ethical framework of ethical immediacy, ethical universalism, and relational narrative is presented as a tool for enhancing nurses' ability to explore and deepen understandings of patients' spiritual beliefs, given that these and their experiences are often expressed in a language that seems foreign to nurses. The demographic and cultural shifts that lead to the necessity to understand patients who use principles and metaphors that, while commonly understood within their spiritual tradition, may seem incomprehensible to outsiders, are here set in the Canadian context. A case study on palliative sedation is used to illustrate how the ethical framework can help to reveal the spiritual certainties, principles and narratives patients bring to their health care experiences.
Teaching Ethics in Religious or Cultural Conflict Situations: a Personal Perspective
Authors: Benari Gili
Published: June 2009

This article portrays the unique aspects of ethics education in a multicultural, multireligious and conflict-based atmosphere among Jewish and Arab nursing students in Jerusalem, Israel. It discusses the principles and the methods used for rising above this tension and dealing with this complicated situation, based on Yoder's `bridging' method. An example is used of Jewish and Arab students together implementing two projects in 2008, when the faculty decided to co-operate with communities in East Jerusalem, the Arab side of the city. The students took it upon themselves to chaperon the teachers who came to watch them at work, translate, and facilitate interaction with a guarded and suspicious community. This approach could also be relevant to less extreme conditions in any inter-religious environment when trying to produce graduates with a strong ethical awareness.
Nurses' Perceptions of Ethical Issues in the Care of Older People
Authors: Rees Jenny , King Lindy , Schmitz Karl
Published: June 2009

The aim of this thematic literature review is to explore nurses' perceptions of ethical issues in the care of older people. Electronic databases were searched from September 1997 to September 2007 using specific key words with tight inclusion criteria, which revealed 17 primary research reports. The data analysis involved repeated reading of the findings and sorting of those findings into four themes. These themes are: sources of ethical issues for nurses; differences in perceptions between nurses and patients/relatives; nurses' personal responses to ethical issues; and the patient—nurse relationship. The findings reveal that ageism is one of the major sources of the ethical issues that arise for nurses caring for older people. Education and organizational change can combat ageist attitudes. Wider training is required in the care of older people, workplace skills, palliative care and pain management for older people. The demands of a changing global demography will necessitate further research in this field.
The Struggle for Dignity by People with Severe Functional Disabilities
Authors: Wadensten Barbro , Ahlström Gerd
Published: June 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate what strategies people with severe functional disabilities who receive personal assistance in their homes use in their daily life to achieve autonomy, integrity, influence and participation. Qualitative interviews were carried out and subjected to qualitative latent content analysis. The main finding was expressed in terms of six subthemes: trying to keep a private sphere; striving to communicate; searching for possibilities; taking the initiative; striving to gain insight; and using one's temperament. These generated the overall theme: maintaining dignity in close relationships. This study contributes an understanding of the strategies used by people who are dependent on personal assistance. Future efforts in nursing must focus on supporting personal assistants with ethical knowledge and guidance in order that people with severe functional disabilities are empowered to achieve autonomy, integrity, influence and participation in their daily lives.
Nursing and Euthanasia: a Review of Argument-Based Ethics Literature
Authors: Quaghebeur Toon , Dierckx de Casterlé Bernadette , Gastmans Chris
Published: June 2009

This article gives an overview of the nursing ethics arguments on euthanasia in general, and on nurses' involvement in euthanasia in particular, through an argument-based literature review. An in-depth study of these arguments in this literature will enable nurses to engage in the euthanasia debate. We critically appraised 41 publications published between January 1987 and June 2007. Nursing ethics arguments on (nurses' involvement in) euthanasia are guided primarily by the principles of respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence and justice. Ethical arguments related to the nursing profession are described. From a care perspective, we discuss arguments that evaluate to what degree euthanasia can be considered positively or negatively as a form of good nursing care. Most arguments in the principle-, profession- and care-orientated approaches to nursing ethics are used both pro and contra euthanasia in general, and nurses' involvement in euthanasia in particular.
Moral Issues in Mentoring Sessions
Authors: Hunink Gert , van Leeuwen René , Jansen Michel , Jochemsen Henk
Published: June 2009

This article describes the results of research that investigated whether student nurses identified the moral aspects of everyday nursing care situations and, if so, how they dealt with them. We intended to elucidate the role of mentoring situations in moral development. Student written documents reflecting discussions during mentoring situations were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The students studied in one of the three nursing schools involved in the research. In only a small proportion of cases (<13%) did the students identify the ethical questions in those situations. The results indicate that the nursing students rarely identified moral issues, implying that there was little conscious moral reflection and deliberation in their mentoring situations dealing with their problematic experiences during their internship. Additional competences will be required for session leaders in order to allow mentoring situations to play a more prominent role in moral development.
Ethical Reasoning in Baccalaureate Nursing Students
Authors: Callister Lynn Clark , Luthy Karlen E , Thompson Pam , Memmott Rae Jeanne
Published: June 2009

Nurses are encountering an increasing number of ethical dilemmas in clinical practice. Ethics courses for baccalaureate nursing students provide the opportunity for the development of critical thinking skills in order to deal with these effectively. The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study was to describe ethical reasoning in 70 baccalaureate nursing students enrolled in a nursing ethics course. Reflective clinical journals were analyzed as appropriate for qualitative inquiry. The overriding theme emerging from the data was `in the process of becoming', which includes: practicing as a professional, lacking the confidence as a student nurse to take an ethical stand, advocating for patients, being just in the provision of care, identifying the spiritual dimensions of nursing practice, confronting the `real world' of health care, making a commitment to practice with integrity, and caring enough to care. The development of critical thinking and ethical reasoning within the framework of knowing and connecting is essential in nursing education.
Not an ‘Angel’, not a ‘Whore’
Authors: Pande Amrita
Published: June 2009

In this study of surrogate mothers in Gujarat, India, I introduce the concept of ‘sexualised care work’ to describe a new type of care work—commercial surrogacy—that is similar to existing forms of care work but is stigmatised in the public imagination, among other reasons, because of its parallels with sex work. I use the oral histories of the surrogates to examine the accounts they give, justifying their work and resisting stigma. I argue that while the narratives can be seen as a form of resistance, they reinforce the primary identity of these women as dependent mothers rather than independent workers.
Chhadi Lage Chham Chham, Vidya Yeyi Gham Gham(The Harder the Stick Beats, the Faster the Flow of Knowledge)
Authors: Paik Shailaja
Published: June 2009

More than a reference to corporal punishment, the chhadi (stick) in this article denotes the psychologically crippling and inerasable experiences of Dalit girls in formal institutions of education. A Dalit girl's journey to the citadel of dnyan (knowledge) to gain an education is strewn with many social and cultural obstacles. I argue that power relationships in the wider society have a strong bearing on both access to education and the quality of the education that Dalit girls receive. Dalit girls are subjected to the discipline, control, regulation and surveillance of not only state services in the education system but also of their parents. Thus, they face double discrimination along lines of both caste and gender.
Magic Moments of Struggle
Authors: Roy Mallarika Sinha
Published: June 2009

This paper focuses on women's memories of participation in the Naxalbari movement in West Bengal. These memories, sourced from women's oral histories and published memoirs, capture not only women's visions of emancipation and camaraderie but their everyday struggles, experiences of fear and violence and patriarchal domination within the movement as well. As these memories are refracted by the women's diverse socio-economic and cultural locations, the paper makes an effort to distinguish the multiple meanings of the ‘magic moments of struggle’ in the lives of peasant/working-class women, from those of middle-class women from smaller towns and upper middle-class metropolitan women.
On the Etiology and Politics of Sexual Phenomenology
Authors: Prasad Ajnesh
Published: June 2009

Working from the conceptual site, which discloses the relationship between the theory and the practice of Judith Butler's post-structuralist framework, this paper looks at male lesbians to amplify the diversity within gender identity and sexual expression. Male lesbians problematise the sex-leads-to-gender hierarchy and, in doing so, unravel the entire enterprise of heteronormativity. More importantly, perhaps, they illustrate the confluence in the culturally manifested and scientifically prescribed binary between nature and culture. In short, this paper considers the myriad possibilities ‘biologically read’ males who identify as lesbians have on the current social epistemology that has been crystallised on dichotomies of male/female and nature/culture.
Human Rights of Women Prisoners in India
Authors: Kaushik Anupma , Sharma Kavita
Published: June 2009

The Constitution of India guarantees equality to women and various laws have been enacted to protect and empower women. While some women have definitely benefited from these provisions, for the majority of poor and illiterate women life still remains a struggle in a very traditional, patriarchal and feudal society. The pathetic situation of women prisoners, branded as bad women who deserve bad treatment, is not surprising. The concept of human rights is totally alien to such women. We conducted a study in October 2005 of 150 women convicts lodged in Jaipur Central Prison in Rajasthan and found highly unsatisfactory conditions. Basic facilities are lacking for the women and their children; also the prisoners are visibly scared of the prison staff. There is scope for vast improvement, on all levels, particularly in the attitude of the prison staff who need to learn to respect the human rights of women prisoners.
Understanding local reception of globalized cultural products in the context of the international cultural economy
Authors: Ting Wang
Published: June 2009

The populist-oriented Hollywood blockbuster movies that tend to target the lowest common denominator are often accused by Chinese intellectuals of being culturally debilitating. Yet China's nationwide debate revolving around two recent technocratic, spectacle-driven domestic blockbusters by its renowned film director Zhang Yimou, Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004), and their flamboyant marketing have demonstrated Hollywood's broader and more systemic impact on China's film style, marketing practice and media culture, which are increasingly in line with the unified global standard set by Hollywood and marked by relentless commercialism. By studying the two movies' reception in China, this article discusses how a national culture receives globalized versions of its own traditions, the role of Hollywood, and the implications for international cultural exchange and national identity in the context of the international cultural economy.