bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The needs and problems of older people with a visual impairment: historical, current and future perspectives
Authors: Davis Mark 
Published: March 2007

Of the approximate one million people who are registrable as blind or partially sighted nine out of ten are over the age of 60. One in seven of all older people over the age of 75 are registrable as blind or partially sighted. The vast majority will not be totally blind but will have some degree of residual vision. In the first of a series of articles highlighting the needs, difficulties and problems faced by older visually impaired people, Mark Davis, Community Care Officer - Older People, RNIB Social Services Development Unit, reviews the status of older visually impaired people through a series of official reports and outlines the problems they still face.
A FINAL LOOK BACK AT SOVIET SOCIOLOGY
Authors: Filippov Alexander F. 
Published: March 2007

Soviet sociology must be understood against the background of the Soviet empire which provided its frame of reference as well as most of its substantive topics of enquiry. Sociology in the USSR benefitted from the weakening of totalitarian control in the 1980s. It became possible to develop and express ideas with relative freedom, i.e., controlled by the state in order to halt the rapid dissolution of the ecological and social fabric. Sociologists were in demand to start empirical research, especially on social crises and public opinion. A somewhat technocratic version of sociology focussing on the economy and social stratification came to be officially tolerated as a major contribution to stabilising the remaining Soviet state policy in the period of perestroika. With the total collapse of the Soviet empire, however, this imperial sociology has lost its raison d'être. The vacuum left by the demise of the empire, in which a civil society has not yet developed, is parallelled by an intellectual vacuum in post-totalitarian sociology. This is only gradually being filled by a regionalisation of sociology in the various new states and its continued internationalisation by professional sociology (especially in Moscow and St. Petersburg). Social research into all aspects of political and social life is spreading throughout the territory of the former empire.
Global Environmental Change and Contemporary Society
Authors: Prades José A. 
Published: March 2007

Aiming at a progressive accumulation of knowledge complementary to recent and important works by environmental sociologists (Dunlap and Michelson, 1997; Redclift and Benton, 1994) and public agencies (CEQ, 1980; Olson, 1996), the general objective of this article is to pursue a renewed sociological understanding of contemporary society confronted by a particular process called global environmental change (GEC). Conceived within a specific integrated theoretical, empirical and applied approach, there is no place here for `inventories' (Sunderlin, 1995), nor `assessment analysis' (Buttle and Taylor, 1994) of current literature. In line with the author's own expertise (Prades, 1969, 1987, 1992, 1994), the specific objective of this article is to examine how a heuristic reading (Prades, 1990) of Weber and Durkheim provides basic theoretical insights for the study of GEC as a crucial contemporary societal-environmental problem. According to its own limits, the present text may only suggest avenues for further reflection and research. Using macro-sociological, theoretical and methodological material directly oriented towards a concrete, problem-solving approach, this article contains three parts. As an introduction, the first section suggests a preliminary definition of contemporary sociogenic (societally generated) GEC. Searching for theoretical understanding and historical meaning, the second section concentrates on the pathological nature of contemporary sociogenic GEC and subsequently identifies `particularistic anomic individualism' as a key strategical explanatory cause of such a pathological process. Finally and decisively, the third section studies how this state of affairs can be practically overcome in a functional `societal solidarity' perspective based on the impulse of `sustainable development'.
The Language of State Agency Executive Transitions
Authors: Orosz Janet Foley 
Published: March 2007

Destructive metaphors used by one state's agency directors in describing the executive transition experience justify the initial anxiety typically felt by employees during periods of leadership change. Awareness of the words leaders use to grasp and deal with phases of organizational disruption can lead to an understanding of the dysfunctions of organizational change—and possibly to the substitution of metaphors leading to greater organizational health. This article calls attention to the destructive potential of current transition metaphors and suggests some substitute metaphors. It also provides an example of metaphorical analysis.
Automatic Grasp Planning in the Presence of Uncertainty
Authors: Brost Randy C. 
Published: March 2007

This paper presents an algorithm for automatic planning of robot grasping motions that are insensitive to bounded uncer tainties in the object's location. The algorithm plans parallel- jaw grasping motions for arbitrary two-dimensional polygo nal objects, which need not be of uniform density. Grasping motions are viewed as parameterized operations, where the parameter values that describe an individual operation define an operation space of all possible operations. By combining an analysis of object geometry and the physics of friction, the planning algorithm divides the operation space into regions, where all operations within a given region produce the same final grasping configuration. Task uncertainties are then included by shrinking these regions by the amount of uncer tainty present. The smaller regions that remain after shrink ing indicate all those operations that will successfully result in a given grasping configuration, even if the worst-case combination of errors occurs. Moreover, the grasping operations presented in this paper intrinsically reduce task uncertainty. If an operation is cho sen from a region and executed, then two degrees of uncer tainty will be removed from the object's position when the operation is completed. It is shown that simple squeeze-grasp operations are not sufficient for grasping all possible objects, and offset-grasp and push-grasp operations are added to increase the scope of the planner. The planner has been implemented, and the resulting program has been tested with an industrial manipu lator.
Looking With Fresh Eyes Across Time and Space: Europe from a Confucian Perspective
Authors: Choi Kee Il 
Published: March 2007

The most valuable finding of my first sightseeing trip was that medieval Europe was the seat of Christendom and that Christianity defines the West. I was amazed to see that Europe reveals so much of its past. I had not had such an experience in the United States, where I had lived as a student and then as a professor of economics.As I glimpsed the West, I found myself rediscovering Confucian civilization and how much I am still Confucian, although I was born into a Presbyterian family in Korea. But then, Korea is the most Confucian country. Curious about the West since my first trip, whenever I can I have toured Europe in search of the meaning of the West.While travelling in Europe, my mind often jumps back to my early life in Korea and Japan. I am struck by the vivid contrast in appearance between medieval European towns and Asian towns, which were grey and as flat as pancakes. Medieval towns are stony and solid. Nothing is flimsy. Shaped by spires, domes, and towers, a European town's silhouette rises and falls like a stock market graph. Europeans obviously loved the vertical emphasis. A traveller can see either a soaring church tower or a castle keep miles away on the horizon. Churches predominate, as if to emphasize that the main business of the town is the worship and glorification of God.
Making One out of Many: The Brazilian Experience
Authors: Villela-Petit Maria 
Published: March 2007

Brazil, land of miscegenation (métisse). An indisputable fact and an unending process. But how should we understand its genesis and how should we, while respecting the requirements of a historiography worth the name, interpret it in terms of our hopes for the future? This is the horizon binding these reflections, which is to be put in perspective in the studies published in this issue of Diogenes.Foregrounding miscegenation, and understanding its origins, has been one of the constant themes among the most distinguished practitioners of Brazilian thought since the 1930s, and has been accepted, indeed demanded, since the 1920s by the artistic and literary movement known as ‘modernism’, of which one of the major figures was the São Paulo writer, Mário de Andrade. Gilberto Freyre (1900–1987), who would now have been a hundred years old, comes particularly to mind, as does Sergio Buarque de Holanda (1902–1982). Freyre made history with the publication of his two first works, Casa Grande & senzala [Masters and Slaves] of 1933 and Sobrados e mucambos of 1936. The same year Buarque de Holanda published his Raízes de Brasil [Roots of Brasil]. Motivated by the desire to understand their country, its shaping and – with some kind of concern as to identity – their own origins, both had been led to pave the way for what might be called an ‘open’ sociology, which immediately acquired a strongly anthropological character with Freyre and quickly incorporated increasingly historical aspects with Buarque de Holanda.
Literature and Racial Integration
Authors: Mauricio Gomes de Almeida José 
Published: March 2007

The historical formation of Brazil is distinguished from the majority of ex-colonial nations by one factor that is especially characteristic: an intense process of ethnic and cultural mixing. The Portuguese colonisers, who, unlike the English Puritans in North America, left their families and arrived in Brazil in small groups mainly composed of men, naturally tended to pair off with the women they found available - first of all indigenous women and later African women. There was nothing in Brazil to prevent this spontaneous behaviour similar to the role played in the English colonies of North America by the strength of the family group or the strict religious observance of the community. Thus from the outset Brazil tended to accept racial mixing as a de facto reality. As Gilberto Freyre correctly noted in his book Casa Grande e Senzala:They mixed happily with women of colour from the very first contacts and many mixed-race children resulted, so much so that only a few thousand men were enough to colonize vast areas and compete with the greatest and most numerous peoples as regards the extent of the colonial territory and the effectiveness of colonizing activity.
A ‘Green' Referendum in Russia? Contribution to the Study of the Birth of a Civil Society
Authors: Jeannier-Groppo Armelle 
Published: March 2007

On 12 June 2000, the tenth anniversary of Boris Yeltsin's election as head of the reconstituted Russian state, 180 people who had formed an ‘initiative group for a pan-Russian referendum’ launched a campaign to collect the two million signatures required by Russian law to organize a popular initiative referendum which included these three questions:-Are you opposed to the importing of radioactive material from other states to be stored, buried or reprocessed on Russian territory?-Are you in favour of the existence of a federal environmental protection agency which would be independent of those bodies concerned with exploiting and managing natural resources?-Are you in favour of the existence of a legally independent state service for forests in Russia?
The Confrontation Between Reason and Imagination: the Example of Darwin
Authors: Eng Erling 
Published: March 2007

The theme of Darwin's struggle between reason and imagination is perhaps most clearly shown in his efforts in the Origin to conceive of how the eye of the body might have developed through natural selection. Thus he wrote:To arrive, however, at a just conclusion regarding the formation of the eye, with all its marvellous yet not absolutely perfect characters, it is indispensable that the reason * should conquer the imagination; but I have felt the difficulty far too keenly to be surprised at others hesitating to extend the principle of natural selection to so startling a length.
The Box of Digital Images: The World as Computer Theater
Authors: Bartels Klaus 
Published: March 2007

FramesIn 1934 the Belgian artist René Magritte painted a room with a view. On an easel in front of the window stands a painting depicting the very piece of landscape blocked from sight. Magritte named his painting La Condition Humaine (“The Human Condition”), which is quite apt, for the life of everyone is determined by windows, doors, mirrors and many other frames. Indeed, to avert anxiety, one actually cultivates social behavior born of the fear of being “outside the frame.” Because of this apprehension, we organize all reality into a series of preestablished frames.
Montaigne: European Reader of America
Authors: Rigolot François 
Published: March 2007

Our world has just discovered another world [ … ] I am much afraid[ ... ] that we will have sold it our opinions and our arts very dear.Michel de Montaigne, Essays, III, 1588The year 1992 saw many important cultural commemorations take place, of which the most important, the fifth centenary of the “discovery” of America, seemed to eclipse, at least on the American continent, the four hundredth anniversary of the death of Montaigne (1533-1592). It therefore does not seem inappropriate to question the view of the author of the Essays concerning the theme, “much fussed over” by ideologues on all sides, of the “encounter,” as memorable as it is debatable, between the “New” world and the “Old”.
Sun at Midnight. Despair and Trust in the Islamic Mystical Tradition
Authors: Schimmel Annemarie 
Published: March 2007

In the Name of the One who has no Name,He who appears before you, how ever you call Him!How does Islamic theology and Koran exegesis, some of whose representatives set out to find the most modern developments, such as the atomic bomb, in the Koran, deal with the latest interpretations of quantum physics, of Heisenberg's uncertainty relation, and with the question of whether the sub-atomic world is made up of waves or particles? How does a theologian react to the notion that parts of the atom influence each other and that the observer himself plays a role in the shaping of future events? Are these discoveries compatible with the traditional idea of a God who knows all; are they compatible with the various terms for fate: qadar, qada, or qismat?
From the Mirror to Post-History
Authors: Berger René 
Published: March 2007

All societies are made up of members who have a certain number of things in common, by virtue of which they understand, identify and communicate with each other, on the one hand, and establish differences with members of other societies on the other. Among the most important of these things is language.In this regard, let us recall two examples raised by Ferdinand de Saussure. The first: “Language is both a social product of the faculty of speech and an ensemble of necessary conventions adopted by the social body to allow for the exercise of this faculty in each individual.” The second: “Speech, distinct from language, is on the contrary an individual act of intelligence and will … by which the speaking subject uses the code of language to express his personal thought.”
Bioethics
Authors: Héritier Françoise 
Published: March 2007

This issue of Diogenes is devoted to questions of bioethics. This subject was chosen not because bioethics is fashionable but rather because the purpose of this journal is to explore the timely and timeless questions of our era in order to understand what is at stake and to share this knowledge with our readers.I have chosen to call my piece “Bioethics: Between the Plausible and the Thinkable” to highlight at least three themes that are taken up either directly or indirectly in the articles that follow.
Context as resource for constructing artistic value: cases of non-recognition
Authors: Tota Anna Lisa 
Published: March 2007

This article sets out to document the plausibility of adopting a contextual conception of a work of art. Underlining the eminently social nature of the formation processes of artistic value, it illustrates how a work of art is also created by the local contexts in which it is produced and, above all, by those in which it is consumed. The first part of the article questions those romantic conceptions, according to which artistic value is normally attributed to a work of art exclusively on the basis of the author's talent, and tries to document the existence of a series of social factors that play a decisive role in establishing that a given object belongs to the “art system”. Different conceptions of the work of art are classified according to the way in which they solve the problem of genesis. Three main perspectives are identified: authorial, reception and contextual theories. It is argued that neither the authorial nor the reception theory is able to explain, on a sociological level, the process of artistic production and reception. In the second part, the different approaches to the genesis problem are connected with different interpretations of cases of non-recognition, those cases in which a “true” work of art is not recognized, for example, because it has been placed outside its own traditional reception context. It is argued that explanation of these cases of “non-recognition” is linked to the implied conception of artistic production. Three examples are considered: (a) the young Mozart; (b) Botticelli, who, held to be a mediocre painter up to the middle of the 19th century, becomes a talented artist thanks to the studies of Herbert Horne and Aby Warburg; and (c) Sting, who, in the Ladbroke Grove underground station in London, performed as a street musician.
A New Hybrid-Stress Element for Multilayer Laminates
Authors: Wang Tsun Kuei , Yuan Yuan  
Published: March 2007

This paper presents a quadrilateral hybrid-stress element SZ-YS. In this element, the average individual rotation of each layer and the total warping of laminates are adopted to describe the boundary displacements of laminates. Many examples are calculated using SZ-YS and are compared with the ex act elastic solution and the classical lamination theory solution. Excellent results have been obtained for both the transverse displacement W and com plex distributions of stresses with fewer degrees of freedom. Only the results for typical 7-layer and 9-layer cross-ply laminates are given here. However in these multilayer cases, many other elements will either meet difficulties in computer core storage or give poor stress distributions in comparison with the exact elastic solution. SZ-YS is shown to be a quite efficient element for those commonly used composites.
Pocket Computer Solution to Composite Materials Formulas
Authors: Tsai Stephen W. , Park Won J. 
Published: March 2007

This paper contains the descriptions and instructions of the use of Radio Shack TRS-80 Pocket Computer for the key calculations of stiffness and strength of sym metric composite laminates. Specific programs are constructed, using BASIC language, to give instant computa tions on: (1) In-Plane Stiffness of Symmetric Laminates (2) Flexural Rigidity of Symmetric Sandwich Plates (3) In-Plane Strength of Symmetric Laminates (4) Flexural Strength of Symmetric Sandwich Plates The formulas and equation numbers used in the programming are the same as that found in Tsai and Hahn's "Introduction to Composite Materials" (Technomic, 1980). Listings of the programs are included along with flow diagrams, operation charts and memory contents. It would be a simple matter to run the program on a variety of minicomputer systems by altering the syntax as appropriate.
Hygrothermal Effects on the Stress Field of Laminated Composites
Authors: Bouadi Hacene , Sun C.T. 
Published: March 2007

In this paper the effects of temperature and humidity on the stress field of laminated composites are investigated. A three-dimensional finite element program based on dis placement field was developed and the stress field induced by hygrothermal and/or initial strain was evaluated. Boundary conditions of zero-stress on the free surfaces were not taken into account in this preliminary investigation. Numerical results of the three-dimensional stress field for [90/0]2s laminates were plotted as a function of position. It is observed that some of the stress components induced by hygrothermal change are significant to cause failure of the laminate.
Three-Dimensionally Braided Preform for a Composite Connecting Rod: Concept Development and Demonstration
Authors: Malkan Sanjiv R. , Ko Frank K. 
Published: March 2007

The focus of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of manufacturing near-net-shape (NNS) three-dimensionally braided connecting rod preforms for 4-stroke automobile engines. Based on a design methodology, several design concepts for the NNS manufacturing of connecting rod preforms have been demonstrated. Making use of the concept of geometric hybrid design, the regions of near stress concentration and crack ini tiation were strategically reinforced. A parallel study was also carried out to assess the feasibility of resin impregnation into the dense 3-D fiber network of connecting rod pre forms. By demonstrating the feasibility for NNS manufacturing of the connecting rod preforms, this study has established a foundation for further exploration of large scale manufacturing as well as stimulating more creative use of 3-D braided fibrous structures for the structural reinforcement of automobile components.
Numerical Analysis of Notched Shear Specimens for Composite Materials
Authors: Pintado Publio , Cañas Jose , Morton John 
Published: March 2007

A new Compact Double-Notched specimen [1] for measuring in-plane shear properties of laminated fiber composites is analyzed using the Finite Element method. The uniformity and purity of the shear stress distributions for unidirectional and bidirectional laminates are assessed and compared to those of the losipescu configuration currently under consideration for adoption as an ASTM standard. It is shown that the promising experimental results from the preliminary evaluation of the Compact Double-Notched specimen followed from a fortuitous laminate stacking se quence. The new test configuration suffers from the fundamental drawback that large stress raisers occur near, but outside, the test zone so that the load range for unidirectional laminates would be very small and the specimen could not be used for strength mea surement.