bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Speaking of the Value of Life
Authors: Sulmasy Daniel P.
Published: June 2011

The phrase ‘the value of life’ is important in bioethics, particularly for those who hold the traditional views that life has intrinsic value and that the distinction between killing and allowing to die is valid. Ambiguities in the meaning of ‘the value of life,’ however, can lead to errors in medical ethical analysis by those who hold these traditional views. This essay notes three sources of such ambiguity: (1) three senses of the verb ‘is,’ (2) the difference between the transcendent and the transcendental, and (3) the difference between the transcendental and the empirical. On the basis of these distinctions, several conclusions are drawn: that the value of life is transcendental, not transcendent, both finite and priceless, that decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatments are always judgments about the qualities of a person’s life, so one cannot universally condemn “quality of life judgments,” that the traditional distinction between killing and allowing to die tracks the distinction between the transcendental and the empirical, that “life itself” is not a benefit of treatment, and that foregoing treatments that are not futile can be consistent with respect for the value of life.
A Framework for Risk-Benefit Evaluations in Biomedical Research
Authors: Rid Annette , Wendler David
Published: June 2011

Essentially all guidelines and regulations require that biomedical research studies have an acceptable risk-benefit profile. However, these documents offer little concrete guidance for implementing this requirement and determining when it is satisfied. As a result, those charged with risk-benefit evaluations currently assess the risk-benefit profile of biomedical research studies in unsystematic ways, raising concern that some research participants are not being protected from excessive risks and that some valuable studies involving acceptable risk are being rejected. The present paper aims to address this situation by delineating the first comprehensive framework, which is based on existing guidelines and regulations as well as the relevant literature, for risk-benefit evaluations in biomedical research.
How Clinical Trials Really Work: Rethinking Research Ethics
Authors: DeBruin Debra A. , Liaschenko Joan , Fisher Anastasia
Published: June 2011

Despite prevalent concerns about the ethical conduct of clinical trials, little is known about the day-to-day work of trials and the ethical challenges arising in them. This paper reports on a study designed to fill this gap and demonstrates a need to refine the oversight system for trials to reflect an understanding of this day-to-day work. It also illuminates ethical challenges that cannot be addressed by the oversight system and so necessitate a rethinking of the ethics of clinical trials.
A Test of the Cognitive Assumptions of Magnitude Estimation: Commutativity does not Hold for Acceptability Judgments
Authors: Sprouse Jon
Published: June 2011

The introduction of the psychophysical technique of magnitude estimation to the study of acceptability judgments (Bard et al. 1996) has led to a surge of interest in formal acceptability-judgment experiments over the past fifteen years. One of the primary reasons for its popularity is that it was developed as a tool to measure actual units of perception, offering the possibility of data that is inherently more informative than previous scaling tasks. However, there are several untested cognitive assumptions that must hold in order for ME to be the perceptual measurement test that it is purported to be. Building on the recent formalization of these assumptions in the psychophysics literature (Narens 1996, Luce 2002), this article presents two experiments designed to test whether these assumptions hold for acceptability-judgment experiments. The results suggest that the cognitive assumptions of magnitude estimation do not hold for participants in acceptability-judgment experiments, eliminating any reason to believe that ME could deliver inherently more meaningful data than other acceptability-judgment tasks.
External Sandhi in a Second Language: The Phonetics and Phonology of Obstruent Nasalization in Korean-Accented English
Authors: Zsiga Elizabeth
Published: June 2011

This article presents the results of an acoustic study of nasal assimilation and gestural overlap at word boundaries in Korean and Korean-accented English. Twelve speakers of Seoul Korean recorded phrases containing obstruent#nasal and obstruent#obstruent sequences in both Korean and English. Nasalization of the word-final obstruent, predicted by the rules of Korean phonology, occurred in 93% of obstruent#nasal sequences in Korean and in 32% of such sequences in Korean-accented English, a rate of application higher than that reported in most other studies of external sandhi alternations in nonnative speech. Acoustic analysis found categorical nasalization in the L1 Korean productions, but both categorical and gradient nasalization, along with a high degree of inter- and intraspeaker variation, in the L2 English productions. For a subset of speakers, there was a significant correlation between quantitative measures of nasalization in English and measures of consonant overlap in the English obstruent#obstruent sequences. An analysis in terms of articulatory gestures and the coupled-oscillator model of speech planning is supported. The analysis is based on the articulatory phonology model (Browman & Goldstein 1990a,b, 1992, 2000, Goldstein et al. 2006), though with modifications. Implications for phonetic and phonological representations, and for speech planning in both L1 and L2, are explored.
Typological feature analysis models linguistic geography
Authors: Donohue Mark , Musgrave Simon , Whiting Bronwen , Wichmann Søren
Published: June 2011

Dunn and colleagues (2008) describe and exemplify the use of sophisticated analyses of abstract structural features to reconstruct language histories. The techniques that they use do show some clustering in the groups of languages that they examine; Dunn et al. state that they 'tend to favor a phylogenetic origin for the signal of relatedness' (p. 748), and that the results of their test case 'show a close degree of correspondence to the existing linguistic classification based on sound-meaning correspondences' (p. 747). We argue that a more parsimonious explanation for the results obtained by Dunn et al.'s methodology is that it accurately maps linguistic geography, the network of contact and diffusion that postdates a proto-language, in most cases corresponding to geographic distance.
Exploring a 'Pragmatic Ambiguity' of Negation
Authors: Pitts Alyson
Published: June 2011

This article explores a 'pragmatic ambiguity' of negation in English, first discussed by Horn (1985, 1989:Ch.6) in his appeal to an intuitive division between ordinary, 'descriptive' negation and marked, 'metalinguistic' uses of negation in everyday language. The main agenda is to better understand what such a pragmatic ambiguity of negation really amounts to: are there sufficient grounds to posit two types of negation, and what prevents Horn's pragmatic ambiguity from being semantic in its nature? In this article, I review the key features promoted by Horn as characteristic of the purported duality in negation—particularly those posited for marked, metalinguistic uses of negation, such as resistance to prefixal incorporation, failure to trigger negative polarity items, and employment of the paradigmatic not X but Y construction. I then consider and evaluate subsequent attempts to posit a finer-grained analysis of metalinguistic negation, as endorsed by Foolen (1991) and Geurts (1998). The article concludes by upholding the so-called pragmatic ambiguity, but advises due caution with regard to Horn's diagnostics when appealing to this intuitive distinction of negation within use.
On the Informativity of Different Measures of Linguistic Acceptability
Authors: Weskott Thomas , Fanselow Gisbert
Published: June 2011

This article deals with the claim that the magnitude estimation (ME) method of gathering acceptability judgments produces data that are more informative for linguists than binary or n -point scale judgments. We performed three acceptability-rating experiments that directly compared ME data to binary and seven-point scale data. The results clearly falsify the hypothesis that data gathered by the ME method carry a larger amount of information about the acceptability of a given linguistic phenomenon. The three measures are largely equivalent with respect to informativity. Moreover, ME judgments are shown to be more liable to producing spurious variance under certain circumstances.
Repetition, Remembering, Repetition: Virginia Woolf’s Late Fiction and the Return of War
Authors: Whittier-Ferguson John
Published: June 2011

This essay focuses on The Years and Between the Acts and argues that Virginia Woolf’s late style can be understood in part as a response to a sense of historical impasse and to the repetition of war itself that brackets her writing life. The essay works in detail with the signal features of Woolf’s late style: an interest in cliché and repetition on a variety of levels, a fascination with platitudes and outworn formulae, and an apparent determination to mar the rhythms of her sentences.
Against the Dialectic of Nation: Abraham Cahan and Desire’s Spectral Jew
Authors: Schreier Benjamin
Published: June 2011

This article aims to reimagine Jewish American literary history outside a nationalist framework that assumes Jewish American literature represents a recognizable historical subject. Free of the historicist expectation that its job is the coordination of literature with a historical Jewish subject, Jewish American literary history would not disregard the problem of identity, but would function as a counterdiscourse of identity. In this essay I focus on Abraham Cahan’s “The Imported Bridegroom,” which subverts the expectation of identity’s self-evidence, making available a non-nationalist Jewish American literary history oriented not by recognition and continuity, but by desire and emergence.
Reproductive Technologies, Fetal Icons, and Genetic Freaks: Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl and the Limits and Possibilities of Donna Haraway’s Cyborg
Authors: Latimer Heather
Published: June 2011

This article uses Donna Haraway’s work in “A Cyborg Manifesto” to examine how new reproductive technologies and politics meet and converge with fictional representations of the posthuman subject in Shelley Jackson’s hypertext, Patchwork Girl . It argues that Jackson’s text offers a cyborgian reading of reproduction that challenges the dominant discourse surrounding new reproductive technologies. Ultimately, it argues that Jackson’s text represents assisted conceptions, cyborgian births, and monstrous progenesis in ways that explore the possibilities and limitations of the cyborg, and it addresses current preoccupations with the potential benefits and horrors of new reproductive technologies.
Faulkner on Feminine Hygiene, or, How Margaret Sanger Sold Dewey Dell a Bad Abortion
Authors: Holcombe Heather E.
Published: June 2011

This essay argues that William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying elucidates the political economies driving the illicit over-the-counter trade in birth control products during the 1910s and 1920s. Drawing on works such as Margaret Jarman Hagood’s ethnographic studies of tenant farm women, advertisements for feminine hygiene products, and Margaret Sanger’s political tracts, I read Faulkner’s novel as staging—through the endeavours of Addie, Cora, and Dewey Dell—a series of failed rebellions against maternity that represent the real historical co-optation, by commercial interests, of women’s radical demands for reproductive rights.
Irony in the Poetry of Rosalía de Castro
Authors: Small Elizabeth
Published: June 2011

This article explores ironic and dissociative devices in the poetry of Rosalía de Castro, as one of the means by which the poet tempers the intimate, frequently sentimental tone of her work. After a brief review of literary theories of irony, elements of Castro's work discussed include ironic discourse in her introduction to Cantares galegos , multiple subjective stances in the first section of Follas novas, and the ironic twists in several poems from En las orillas del Sar .
Nuestro hombre en Buenos Aires: una lectura cubana del peronismo a través de Virgilio Piñera
Authors: Marturano Jorge
Published: June 2011

Todavía no se ha estudiado en detalle la influencia que las sucesivas estadías de Virgilio Piñera en Argentina han tenido en su obra misma. Un aspecto llamativo de esta influencia puede verse en el relato "El muñeco" ( Cuentos fríos , 1956), en el que Piñera se ocupa, aunque todavía no haya sido enfatizado debidamente por la crítica, de leer ficcionalmente al peronismo. Quisiera proponer entonces que en su lectura del peronismo, Piñera, sin abandonar el tono burlón que caracteriza su cuentística, plantea que la reproducción del poder político (en su expresión populista) a partir de la ubicuidad de la imagen del líder necesita de un suplemento tecnológico—representado en el relato por la confección de un "muñeco"—que garantice la centralidad del ceremonial como fundamento de la relación política. Este suplemento tecnológico, que en el relato está representado al comienzo por la reproducción (cinematográfíca) de las imágenes del líder, es leído literalmente por el narrador, ya que propone inventar otro tipo suplemento tecnológico, un muñeco de goma, que reproduzca físicamente al líder mismo, pero que termina convirtiéndose en una copia que carece de original, enfatizando así la centralidad que tiene el simulacro en el que se basa, en última instancia, el poder político.
Inscribing Victory: Rivalry and Mise en Abyme in María de Zayas's Novella Collections
Authors: Farmer Julia
Published: June 2011

This study proposes that María de Zayas's collections of novellas may be read together as a two-pronged response to the sort of open-ended, out-of-control female desire that Zayas had earlier portrayed in her one extant play, La traición en la amistad . The treacherous, desirous female protagonist of La traición , Fenisa, finds her counterpart in the novella collections in the figure of Lisarda, whose apparent victory over her rival Lisis in the Novelas amorosas provokes a carefully-structured response by the latter in the Desengaños —a response specifically designed to quash the threats posed by seemingly endless female desire.
Sarmiento the Geographer: Unearthing the Literary in Facundo
Authors: Madan Aarti S.
Published: June 2011

This paper reads Facundo alongside and against the formation of Argentina's geographical institutions. I argue that Sarmiento seeks authority in European texts, particularly those of Alexander von Humboldt. He models Humboldtian geographical discourse in order to construct a marketable geography—a brochure of sorts—designed to illustrate the productive Argentine terrain to potential European and North American immigrants. This reproduction is not exact, however. Rather, Sarmiento revises Humboldt's rendition of Latin American terrain through a uniquely Argentine lens, which appeals to the unification of form and content—to the language of Vico's primitive man—in order to simulate national consolidation.
Preachers and Confessors against "Superstitions": Bernardino Busti and Sermon 16 of His Rosarium Sermonum
Authors: Conti Fabrizio
Published: June 2011

This article looks at idolatry and superstition in Sermon 16 of Bernardino Busti's Rosarium Sermonum, which proves a rich source for the developing concept of witchcraft at the close of the fifteenth century. The sermon elaborates on ways in which it is possible to sin against the proscription of idolatry in the first commandment. Busti was particularly worried about three elements of idolatry common to depictions of witches: demonic involvement, ritualistic behaviors, and negation of the principles of Christianity. By describing maleficae et maladictae feminae who renounced the Catholic faith, he contributed to ratification of the stereotype of the striga in the early modern period.
The Heresy of Witchcraft in Western Switzerland and Dauphiné (Fifteenth Century)
Authors: Utz Tremp Kathrin
Published: June 2011

This article proceeds from the hypothesis that witchcraft (or witch hunting) is best understood when one considers it as a heresy that succeeded other medieval heresies like Catharism and Waldensianism in the later Middle Ages. The author notes that, as with Cathars or Waldensians, research is shaped almost entirely by inquisitorial sources. She considers the recent historiography of witchcraft, looking at approaches which clarify the relation of concepts and stereotypes surrounding suspected witches to those that were associated with other heretics and protestants, especially Anabaptists
Witch Craze?: Beyond the Legends of Panic
Authors: Midelfort H. C. Erik
Published: June 2011

Historians have long been interested in the "witch craze" or Hexenwahn of premodern Europe. Though the author himself has written of "panic" and "frenzy" in earlier studies, he argues here that these terms have led to a distorted perspective which encourages attention to episodes of large-scale panic and overemphasizes torture and the devil. The distortion can be corrected by looking at places that avoided massive outbursts (the Palatinate, Rothenburg o.d. Tauber, Württemberg) and noting that even when there were many executions, trials could occur within the framework of processus ordinarius (Mecklenburg). Overall, most witch trials were routine, focusing on ordinary maleficium ,which was far more widespread than we thought a generation ago; England, with trials of individuals more than chain-reaction trials, and with little interest in diabolical witchcraft, is more typical than we thought.
Lethal Convictions: The Power of a Satanic Paradigm in Russian and European Witch Trials
Authors: Kivelson Valerie A.
Published: June 2011

According to the revisionist view of Wolfgang Behringer, Erik Midelfort, and others, the satanic overlay obscures the more common small-scale witch trials. These historians advocate a view of witchcraft that is more broadly comparable throughout Europe. Against this, the author argues that there are pitfalls to downplaying the salience of Europe's demonological view of witchcraft, since it is precisely this element that distinguishes European witchcraft most clearly. In Russia, for example, until the eighteenth century there was little connection between witchcraft and the Devil: the pact, the sabbath, and sex between witches and demons were virtually absent, leading questions were not common, and interrogations were self-limiting. Only under Peter the Great was a version of demonic witchcraft introduced, not in his Ecclesiastical Regulation (1721) but in his Military Statute (1716).
Envisioning the Library's Role in Scholarly Communication in the Year 2025
Authors: Carpenter Maria , Graybill Jolie , Offord Jerome , Piorun Mary
Published: June 2011

This research probes future roles for libraries in the scholarly communication process through the use of scenarios. The researchers asked 20 ARL library directors to read and provide constructive comments on the scenarios, name the scenarios, and either select a scenario that most closely matched their vision or propose a new scenario. The directors identified six possible futures. Issues such as library as publisher, the economy, and the need for collaboration are discussed, as well as the timeframe for such futures and the desire versus the likelihood of a particular scenario happening.
Asking for Permission: A Survey of Copyright Workflows for Institutional Repositories
Authors: Hanlon Ann , Ramirez Marisa
Published: June 2011

An online survey of institutional repository (IR) managers identified copyright clearance trends in staffing and workflows. The majority of respondents followed a mediated deposit model, and reported that library personnel, instead of authors, engaged in copyright clearance activities for IRs. The most common "information gaps" pertained to the breadth of information in copyright directories like SHERPA/RoMEO. To fill these gaps, most respondents directly contacted publishers for permissions. Respondents typically did not share publisher responses with other IRs, citing barriers such as time, expertise, staffing, and the need for improved methods for sharing data with copyright directories.
Economic Status of Academic Librarians
Authors: Perret Robert , Young Nancy J.
Published: June 2011

This article examines some of the factors affecting the current economic status of academic librarians, as well as the history of changes in that economic picture. Issues discussed include the ranking of beginning academic librarian salaries in comparison to others in the profession, historical differences between academic librarian salaries and those of other tenured faculty, and regional variations in library and faculty salaries. Data from salary surveys by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the American Association of University Professors/National Center for Education Statistics (AAUP/NCES), the American Library Association-Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA), and the Library Journal over a 25-year span are analyzed in concert to develop new information not readily apparent from each data set in isolation.
Planning for Preservation During Mass Digitization Projects
Authors: Teper Jennifer Hain , Shaw Emily F.
Published: June 2011

In anticipation of current and future mass digitization projects in which the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Library will participate, the Library's Conservation Unit began to gather data on the "scannability" of our general book collections to anticipate potential effects on conservation and preservation work flows. The findings from this project will be valuable to other libraries involved, or contemplating participation, in a mass digitization project by outlining the steps necessary to evaluate materials for digitization based on condition, as well as offering some selection guidelines used by the University of Illinois that could be applied in other institutions.
Determining Data Information Literacy Needs: A Study of Students and Research Faculty
Authors: Carlson Jacob , Fosmire Michael , Miller C.C. , Nelson Megan Sapp
Published: June 2011

Researchers increasingly need to integrate the disposition, management, and curation of their data into their current workflows. However, it is not yet clear to what extent faculty and students are sufficiently prepared to take on these responsibilities. This paper articulates the need for a data information literacy program (DIL) to prepare students to engage in such an "e-research" environment. Assessments of faculty interviews and student performance in a geoinformatics course provide complementary sources of information, which are then filtered through the perspective of ACRL's information literacy competency standards to produce a draft set of outcomes for a data information literacy program.
The Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia: An Historical and Philosophical Analysis
Authors: Kendler Kenneth S. , Schaffner Kenneth F.
Published: June 2011

Abstract: The dopamine (DA) hypothesis of schizophrenia (DHS) has, since its inception over 30 years ago, been among the most prominent etiologic theories in psychiatry. This essay begins by summarizing the history of its emergence and efforts to empirically test it through the examination of (i) cerebrospinal fluid DA metabolites, (ii) neuroendocrine measures, (iii) clinical response to psychostimulants, (iv) brain levels of DA and its metabolites, (v) brain studies of DA receptors, and (vi) genetic association studies. We then examine how successful the DHS has been and by what criteria its performance should be evaluated. In this process, it is critical to distinguish the etiological DHS from the pharmacological DA hypothesis of neuroleptic action. Although the DHS stimulated much science, most efforts to empirically validate it have failed, in contrast with the well-supported pharmacological DA hypothesis of neuroleptic action. Nonetheless, the DHS has held the status of a scientific paradigm defended by some with great avidity. Like other temporally extended theories, the DHS in its most general form is relatively nonspecific and protean in nature. In its evolution through successive more specific forms, often embodying ad hoc modifications of subsidiary hypotheses, it became very difficult to falsify. Although stimulating much research, it has not produced a progressive research program generating various novel and confirmed predictions about schizophrenia. For most of its history, the DHS has lacked a viable competing alternative theory against which it could be incisively compared. Sociological factors, especially the rise to prominence of the biological psychiatry movement, and the conflation of the DHS and the DA theory of antipsychotic drug action have probably played an important role in its persistence. Psychiatry needs theories with higher levels of specificity and falsifiability. As the science of psychiatry matures, the field needs to become more self-critical about the validity of its theories.
Phenomenological Psychopathology and Schizophrenia: Contemporary Approaches and Misunderstandings
Authors: Sass Louis , Parnas Josef , Zahavi Dan
Published: June 2011

Abstract: The present paper clarifies key issues in phenomenology and phenomenological psychopathology (especially of schizophrenia) through a critique of a recent article that addresses these topics. Topics include (1) Phenomenology's role in clarifying issues not amenable to purely empirical methods; (2) The relationship between a phenomenological approach (focusing on the subjective life of the patient) and empirical science, including neuroscience; (3) The nature of self-experience, especially in its pre-reflective form (" ipseity "—involving "operative intentionality"), and its possible disturbance in schizophrenia ("hyper-reflexivity" and "diminished self-affection"); (4) The relationship between self-disturbance in schizophrenia and disorders of both temporality and (what Husserl termed) "passive syntheses"; (5) The role of intentional or quasi-volitional processes in the perceptual (and other) disorders in schizophrenia; (6) The nature and diversity of phenomenology's potential contribution to the enterprise of "explanation"; and (7) The meaning of several concepts: "hermeneutic" or "existential" approach, phenomenological "reflection," and "negative symptoms."
The Search for a "Profane Spirituality"
Authors: Bouckaert Luk
Published: June 2011

The search for a 'profane spirituality' is linked to the process of globalization deconstructing existing national, ideological and religious boundaries. This ongoing deconstruction of familiar social identities and institutional settings makes it necessary to find a new and deeper source of self-orientation and creativity. Therefore, spirituality as a way of exploring our deeper self and the ultimate purpose of life becomes part of the non-religious or 'profane' processes of discernment, choice and decision-making. The paper deals with four interrelated topics: (1) The emergence of a spiritual wave in Western culture; (2) The meaning of "spirituality in economics"; (3) The European SPES project; and (4) The link to Christian spirituality
Applied Spirituality: Reflections of an Educator
Authors: Flanagan Bernadette
Published: June 2011

The article provides an overview of the development of the academic study of spirituality in Ireland, with particular reference to the changing relationship between theology and spirituality. The outline serves as a compass for mapping equivalent developments internationally. The new disciplinary partnership which is being forged with educational theory and practice in the unfolding development of spirituality is explored. Particular attention is paid to ht principle of transformational learning. Thus the learning which the programme aims to facilitate extends beyond a mere comprehensive knowledge of spirituality literature and disciplinary identity of spirituality to embrace learning by contemplative engagement.
Searching for Spiritual Roots and Discipleship in a Postmodern Consumer Culture: The Norwegian CrossRoad Movement
Authors: Engedal Leif Gunnar
Published: June 2011

The article analyzes the distinctive character of the Christian spirituality developed within the Norwegian movement Korsvei-bevegelsen, The CrossRoad Movement . I seek to demonstrate how this radically Christian spirituality relates to and interacts with dominant processes in its postmodern social and cultural context. These patterns of interaction develop in a characteristically dialectical way: Established cultural patterns and priorities are both confirmed and critically confronted. Christian practices are embedded in as well as strongly opposed to dominating values and lifestyles. This can be seen in a variety of social and ethical issues and in relation to important existential concerns like autonomy and authority, freedom and commitment.
Current Perspectives on Spirituality in Northwestern Europe
Authors: Hense Elisabeth , Maas Frans
Published: June 2011

The climate of contemporary European spirituality is changing rapidly. Two profiles of spirituality have been attracting attention in recent years: the bond between spirituality and art, the theatre in particular, which is based on a respectful relationship of equivalency; and the bond between spirituality and the social sectors of education, employment, and caregiving which seems to be detached from their former religious context and appears to be primarily functional. Both of these give form to spirituality within a secular culture but have differing relationships with classical Christian spirituality.
Dag Hammarskjöld and Markings : A Reconsideration
Authors: Lipsey Roger
Published: June 2011

Dag Hammarskjˆld (1905-1961) was second secretary-general of the United Nations in the years 1953-61. During this 50 th anniversary of his death in an air crash while on a peacekeeping mission in the Congo, his legacy is being re-explored both in his native Sweden and worldwide. In this essay, a reconsideration of his posthumously published journal Markings , he is recognized as a rigorous Christian seeker, learning from (among others) Meister Eckhart in the spiritual dimension and Thomas ‡ Kempis in the dimensions of ethics and self-scrutiny. Markings is now somewhat forgotten. This essay is an act of memory and homage.
Re-reading Job: Entertaining Spiritualities of Suffering
Authors: Chase Steven
Published: June 2011

What does it mean to "entertain suffering," that is to hold, maintain and keep suffering as a guest with a certain amount of hospitality? This essay considers what can be learned about the spiritual significance of suffering from reading the book of Job as "an entertainment," a sustained exercise in holding fast to suffering. Both within the book of Job itself and throughout the long commentary tradition that emerged from it, one often senses a refusal or unwillingness to entertain suffering, an impulse to couch it in mitigating theological or spiritual language. This essay asks instead what it might mean to learn to become hospitable to suffering.
A Modern Orthodox Approach to Spirituality
Authors: Andreopoulos Andreas
Published: June 2011

The modern Orthodox world faces certain challenges that inform the discussions among Orthodox theological circles the last forty years. Some of the most important of these challenges, especially the ones that can be directly connected with the spiritual tradition of the Christian East, are discussed and analyzed in this article, in order to sketch the profile of modern Orthodoxy. Such challenges include problems that originated in the last few centuries, and yet still affect the life of the Church, such as the close connection of the Orthodox identity with national identity, or the parallel Orthodox jurisdictions in the West, both of which are contrary to the early Orthodox tradition. While such deviations from the tradition came about for practical and pastoral reasons in the past, they are now approached from a spiritual perspective in the Orthodox world. The article concludes with a brief overview of the views of the Orthodox Church on ecclesiology and anthropology, two of the fields that characterize the concerns and the directions it explores at the dawn of the twenty-first century.
Our Year of Hiding from Microwaves
Authors: Peynado Brenda
Published: June 2011

In this WSQ prose contribution, Brenda Peynado examines how private and sacred dwellings can be rendered unsafe by common household items like appliances. In doing so, Peynado reveals how intimately the unsafe is woven into the fabric of normal life and family, bringing further illumination to the myth of home as a place of security.
Análises espaciais na identificação das áreas de risco para a esquistossomose mansônica no município de Lauro de Freitas, Bahia, Brasil
Authors: Cardim Luciana Lobato , Ferraudo Antonio Sergio , Pacheco Selma Turrioni Azevedo , Reis Renato Barbosa , Silva Marta Mariana Nascimento , Carneiro Deborah Daniela M. Trabuco , Bavia Maria Emilia
Published: June 2011

A disseminação da esquistossomose mansônica vem desafiando o sistema de saúde brasileiro, deixando clara a necessidade da reavaliação das estratégias do programa de controle da endemia. O objetivo deste trabalho foi delimitar as áreas geográficas de risco para a esquistossomose em Lauro de Freitas, Bahia, Brasil, e estabelecer o perfil epidemiológico e socioeconômico da doença no município. Utilizou-se o estimador de densidade de Kernel para a identificação visual de aglomerados de casos e a análise de varredura espaço-temporal de Kulldorff & Nagarwalla para a obtenção de aglomerados com significância estatística e mensuração do risco. As duas técnicas identificaram quatro áreas de risco para a doença no município, com indicadores socioeconômicos mais baixos que as áreas fora dos aglomerados. A análise de correspondência múltipla mostrou um perfil diferenciado nos pacientes positivos para a esquistossomose pertencentes ao aglomerado primário. As técnicas empregadas se configuram em uma importante aquisição metodológica para a vigilância e controle da doença no município.
Tabagismo entre adolescentes e adultos jovens de Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil: influência do entorno familiar e grupo social
Authors: Abreu Mery Natali Silva , Souza Charles Ferreira de , Caiaffa Waleska Teixeira
Published: June 2011

Este estudo objetivou estimar a prevalência de tabagismo entre jovens residentes em Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil, e avaliar possíveis fatores associados. Foram incluídas informações de 563 jovens entre 15-24 anos. Utilizou-se a base populacional do Inquérito Domiciliar sobre Comportamentos de Risco e Morbidade Referida de Doenças e Agravos não Transmissíveis, realizado pelo Instituto Nacional de Câncer (2002-2003). O documento contém dados sociodemográficos; atividade física; tabagismo e consumo de bebidas alcoólicas. Buscaram-se fatores associados ao tabagismo utilizando regressão logística, com entrada hierarquizada das variáveis no modelo e método de estimação GEE. A prevalência de tabagismo foi de 11,7%, e os fatores associados foram: consumo excessivo de álcool (OR = 20,6), idade (OR = 1,2); pai fumante (OR = 4,0), irmão fumante (OR = 2,5) e melhor amigo fumante (OR = 5,2). A prevalência de tabagismo em jovens de Belo Horizonte ainda é considerada alta, aumentando com idade, consumo de álcool e contato com familiares e amigos fumantes.
O conhecimento sobre o câncer de mama e a mamografia das mulheres idosas frequentadoras de centros de convivência em São Paulo (SP, Brasil)
Authors: Santos Glenda Dias dos , Chubaci Rosa Yuka Sato
Published: June 2011

A detecção precoce do câncer de mama em estágio inicial por meio da mamografia é das maneiras efetivas de se reduzirem as taxas de morbidade e mortalidade. Os objetivos deste artigo foram verificar o conhecimento que as mulheres idosas têm sobre o câncer de mama e mamografia; identificar se elas fazem esse exame e apontar os motivos que as levam ou não a realizarem esse exame. Trata-se de estudo exploratório de corte transversal, com 98 mulheres de três Centros de Convivência da Terceira Idade em São Paulo. Sobre o conhecimento da mamografia como exame usado na detecção precoce do câncer de mama, 55% das mulheres responderam que conheciam. A grande maioria (77,6%) costumava fazer esse exame, e 22,4% nunca o fizeram. Os motivos mais apontados para se submeter à mamografia foram: preocupação com a saúde (53,8%) erecomendação médica (38,5%). Os motivos para não fazer o exame foram: não ter recomendação médica (50%), nunca terá a doença (23,0%), não teve sintomas (19,2%) e medo (7,7%). Este estudo mostrou que o assunto "câncer de mama" é bem conhecido pelas mulheres, porém a mamografia ainda precisa ser esclarecida quanto aos seus objetivos e recomendações. O fato de termos mulheres idosas que nunca realizaram oexame aponta a necessidade contínua de realizarmos ações educativas sobre o câncer de mama e seus exames de detecção precoce.
Validation study of a scale of life quality evaluation in a group of pediatric patients infected by HIV
Authors: Ferreira Dennis de Carvalho , Passos Mauro Romero Leal , Rubini Norma de Paula Motta , Knupp Rosiangela Ramalho de Souza , Curvelo José Alexandre da Rocha , Reis Helena Lucia Barroso dos , Herdy Gesmar Volga Haddad
Published: June 2011

With the advent of potent antiretroviral therapy and the increase in life expectancy of pediatric patients infected with HIV, the quest for the promotion of enhanced quality of life should currently be the main focus in care of children with HIV/Aids. The scope of this study was to validate the Scale of Children's Quality of Life in a group of children infected with HIV receiving clinical care in Aids Service Units in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This scale consists of 26 questions and was tested on 100 children, with ages varying between 4 and 12, and their respective parents or guardians. Statistical analysis was conducted using canonical correlation and confidence interval analysis and the c² test. The results showed that the cut-off point obtained was 49; the internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha was 0.73 for the children and 0.67 for parents or guardians. The response profile revealed marked satisfaction with aspects such as vacations and birthdays, though less satisfaction with items including hospitalization and playing alone. The conclusion was that the scale revealed satisfactory psychometric measurements, proving to be a reliable, consistent, valid and recommended instrument for measuring the quality of life of children infected with HIV.
Coliformes em água de abastecimento de lojas fast-food da Região Metropolitana de Recife (PE, Brasil)
Authors: Porto Maria Anunciada Leal , Oliveira Amanda de Morais , Fai Ana Elizabeth Cavalcante , Stamford Tânia Lúcia Montenegro
Published: June 2011

A garantia do fornecimento de água potável nos serviços de alimentação é uma questão relevante para a saúde pública. Assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a qualidade microbiológica da água destinada ao abastecimento de uma rede de lojas fast-food da cidade de Recife (PE) e Região Metropolitana e comparar os resultados aos padrões estabelecidos pela Portaria nº 518/2004 do Ministério da Saúde. Mensalmente, foi analisada uma amostra proveniente de uma das torneiras da área de manipulação das oito lojas investigadas, perfazendo 96 amostras ao longo de um ano, todas coletadas em duplicata. As análises seguiram a metodologia estabelecida na American Public Health Association (APHA) para realização do ensaio presuntivo utilizando o Teste Presença-Ausência, considerando-se o padrão de potabilidade determinado na legislação pertinente. Os resultados revelaram que 11,46% de todas as amostras apresentaram água contaminada por coliformes totais e 1,04% contaminação por coliformes termotolerantes. Conclui-se, portanto, que a qualidade da água disponível nos estabelecimentos produtores de alimentos estudados encontra-se em estado de alerta, uma vez que o percentual significativo das amostras analisadas mostrava-se impróprio para o consumo humano de acordo com a legislação vigente, a qual preconiza ausência de coliformes totais e termotolerantes.
Modelling environmental impacts over urban areas and facilities
Authors: Almeida José-Paulo de , Coutinho-Rodrigues João
Published: June 2011

The Portuguese government has conceived a nationwide plan for the co-incineration of hazardous industrial waste at two existing cement plants located near the cities of Coimbra and Setúbal. This has been a problem of great concern for the populations of both cities, who have demonstrated strong opposition to the incineration of hazardous substances so close to the aforementioned urban centres. This paper describes a study that was carried out to evaluate possible environmental impacts on the city of Coimbra in particular and some of its urban facilities. A computerised environmental impact modelling approach for atmospheric dispersion, using a Gaussian model and its linkage to a geographical information system, was implemented. Using actual physical information, such as the direction and speed of more frequent winds, this study showed how the accidental emission of pollutants into the atmosphere by the cement plant at the north of Coimbra would affect some particularly sensitive urban facilities (e.g. hospital units and pre-primary schools) and all the inhabited area between the cement plant and the city centre. The regional health authority has requested the results obtained to design a plan of ambient monitoring.
Environmental benefits of new waste management facilities in Manchester, UK
Authors: Mannall Christopher , Chinn Martin
Published: June 2011

In 2002, the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority drew up a long term strategy for improving recycling rates, providing waste processing and achieving resource and energy recovery. This strategy recognises the imperative to reduce disposal of biodegradable waste to landfill and thereby to reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon dioxide footprint arising from the conventional disposal of municipal waste. To implement the strategy, a £3·8 billion, 25-year private finance initiative contract was developed and awarded in April 2009 for the construction and operation of waste disposal facilities to process domestic refuse arising from nine of the ten boroughs within Greater Manchester. The new facilities include 25 household waste recycling centres, seven transfer loading stations, four in-vessel composting plants, a materials recovery facility and five mechanical biological treatment plants. This paper describes environmental benefits arising from the scheme including increased recycling rates, optimisation of carbon impact from transportation, energy from waste (by way of combined heat and power from generating and utilising biogas arising from on-site anaerobic digestion facilities), nutrient capture and recycling (through British Standard PAS100 and Animal By-product Regulations compliant composting) and improved environmental performance (including odour control) of the upgraded facilities.
Culture in sustainable infrastructure
Authors: Omoregie Alohan , Ehiorobo Jacob O.
Published: June 2011

The high failure rate of infrastructures around the world is alarming, most especially when such failures constrain economic growth and development. In most cases, existing institutions or strategies designed to maintain and reproduce effective infrastructures in areas that lack them have been mostly unsuccessful, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. A carefully conducted survey covering the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria confirms the low-level stability, supply, quality and maintenance of infrastructure and its services. Using the severity index in matrix order model developed in this study, major factors responsible for unsustainable infrastructure delivery and failures are identified. The paper further argues that these major factors are interrelated rather than being peculiar to Nigeria or sub-Saharan Africa. Suffice it to say that the effects of these problems are widespread and of global impact. However, what cuts across all the major factors responsible for unsustainable infrastructure delivery and high failure rates are gross institutional lapses. In view of the fact that sustainable infrastructure is essential for sustainable development, this paper emphasises the uniqueness of the recipients' cultures and values alongside the integration of indigenous communities and infrastructure users: from conceptualisation to delivery within the framework for institutional building and sustainable infrastructure provision.
Briefing: The challenges of climate-critical design
Authors: Coackley Richard
Published: June 2011

Design for climate change needs to be incorporated in everyday design thinking and processes. This briefing outlines some of the challenges involved and what is required of designers and engineers.
Briefing: Keeping up with the Suds revolution and legislative evolution
Authors: Goodson Joanne M.
Published: June 2011

The past ten years has seen progressive integration of sustainable drainage systems into the fabric of development and planning policy across the UK. With increasing urbanisation, exceptional flood events and the potential changes in our climate behaviour, there is a need for careful management of surface water and consideration of its quantity, quality and a symbiotic need to combine this with amenity and biodiversity within a hardening, simplified environment. From the implementation of the water framework directive, through to the recent implementation of the Flood and Water Management Act, sustainable drainage systems have evolved from a conceptual, novel idea to a design of principal importance for most new developments. This paper reviews the progression of sustainable drainage systems from a little-applied soft drainage technique to an essential feature of flood risk assessments and planning policy through responsive and strategic legislative development that also lead to new roles for all flood management authorities.
Briefing: Reducing the carbon impact of transportation schemes
Authors: Jenkinson Ian
Published: June 2011

This briefing introduces the UK Department for Transport's local authority carbon tool. The tool offers a method by which the carbon dioxide emissions of different transportation policy options can be assessed.
The role of micro-climates in urban regeneration planning
Authors: Collier Chris G.
Published: June 2011

The industrial revolution in the UK was accompanied by the rapid development of large urban areas. Over the last 50 years or so, this legacy has been substantially changed through regeneration projects in many cities. Taking the experience of Greater Manchester in north-west England as an example, this paper explores how these changes may have impacted local weather and air quality. Such impacts are sometimes more imagined than real, but in other cases they provide industrial advantage or are detrimental to human activity and even health. It is proposed that weather impacts should be one consideration when assessing the sustainability of future urban developments.