(Series copy) The new Oxford Readings in Feminism series maps the dramatic influence of feminist theory on every branch of academic knowledge. Offering feminist perspectives on disciplines from history to science, each book assembles the most important articles written on its field in the last ten to fifteen years. Old stereotypes are challenged and traditional attitudes upset in these lively-- and sometimes controversial--volumes, all of which are edited by feminists prominent in their particular field. Comprehensive, accessible, and intellectually daring, the (...) Oxford Readings in Feminism series is vital reading for anyone interested in the effects of feminist ideas within the academy. Can science be gender-neutral? In recent years, feminist critics have raised troubling questions about the practice and goals of traditional science, demonstrating the existence of a pervasive bias in the ways in which scientists conduct and discuss their work. This exciting volume gathers seventeen essays--by sociologists, scientists, historians, and philosophers--of seminal significance in the emerging field of feminist science studies. Analyzing topics from the stereotype of the "Man of Reason" to the "romantic" language of reproductive biology, these fascinating essays challenge readers to take a fresh look at the limitations--and possibilities--of scientific knowledge. (shrink)

Christian Diehm has argued against using a genetically modified American chestnut variety in forest restoration. He is concerned that a GM variety sets a bad precedent and is disrespectful toward nature. He is also concerned that not enough has been done to consult with Native American tribes. We give evidence that consultation with tribes, environmental organizations, and the public is valuable and necessary – and that there is support for the GM chestnut. Genetic modification that saves a species from functional (...) extinction shows respect to that species and its ecological relationships. Hopeful, wise, coordinated action is needed to save ecosystems. (shrink)

The spiders Cupiennius salei and Achaearanea tepidariorum are firmly established laboratory models that have already contributed greatly to answering evolutionary developmental questions. Here we appraise why these animals are such useful models from phylogeny, natural history and embryogenesis to the tools available for their manipulation. We then review recent studies of axis formation, segmentation, appendage development and neurogenesis in these spiders and how this has contributed to understanding the evolution of these processes. Furthermore, we discuss the potential of comparisons of (...) silk production between Cupiennius and Achaearanea to investigate the origins and diversification of this evolutionary innovation. We suggest that further comparisons between these two spiders and other chelicerates will prove useful for understanding the evolution of development in metazoans. BioEssays 30:487–498, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

We argue that the wild release of genetically modified organisms can be justified as a way of preserving species and ecosystems. We look at the case of a genetically modified American chestnut that is currently undergoing regulatory review. Because American chestnuts are functionally extinct, a genetically modified replacement has significant conservation value. In addition, many of the arguments used against GMOs, especially GMO crops, do not hold for American chestnut trees. Finally, we show how GMOs such as the American chestnut (...) support a reorientation of conservation values away from restoration as it has historically been interpreted, and toward an alternative framework known as rewilding. (shrink)

The goal of the present study was to investigate whether children’s cognitive strengths can compensate the accompanied weaknesses related to their specific learning difficulties. A Bayesian multigroup mediation SEM analysis in 281 fourth-grade children identified a cognitive compensatory mechanism in children with mathematical learning difficulties : Children with weak number sense, but strong rapid naming performed slightly better on mathematics compared to peers with weak rapid naming. In contrast, a compensatory mechanism was not identified for children with a comorbid mathematical (...) and reading difficulty. One explanation for the latter finding could relate to the lack of ability to compensate, because of the difficulties these children experience in both academic domains. These findings lead to a new direction in research on learning difficulties in mathematics and/or reading by suggesting that children with a learning disability each have a unique profile of interrelated cognitive strengths and weaknesses. Children might compensate with these strengths for their weaknesses, which could lead to learning gains in the affected domain. (shrink)

Resumo: A inclusão no Ensino Superior é uma premissa de âmbito social, educacional e político. Muitos passos têm sido trilhados para que os discursos sobre equidade e igualdade possam ser proferidos e perspectivados, reconhecendo que o ajustamento dos estudantes com Necessidades Educativas Especiais (NEE) precede-se de inúmeros fatores, entre eles, das políticas educativas. Para possibilitar algumas reflexões, o presente estudo, de natureza qualitativa, objetivou conhecer as percepções de colaboradores (n=85) de Instituições de Ensino Superior portuguesas sobre o papel das políticas (...) educativas em prol da inclusão. Os dados, provenientes de um questionário online, foram tratados sob a técnica de análise de conteúdo, com apoio do software webQDA. Os resultados evidenciaram 60 referências na categoria de potencialidades, refletidas na garantia da efetivação do percurso acadêmico de estudantes com NEE no Ensino Superior e concretização dos seus direitos. Verificou-se que 91,7% dos participantes compreendem que as políticas educativas são importantes para o seu país, pelo que 88,2% dos colaboradores acreditam que estas políticas potenciam a inclusão e a permanência de estudantes com NEE no Ensino Superior, na qual 40,7% verificaram ações de apoio e incentivo, ao nível político, em prol da inclusão em Portugal. Palavras-chave: Políticas Educativas; Inclusão; Ensino Superior; Portugal; Necessidades Educativas Especiais. Educational policies and inclusion in Higher Education: perceptions about the Portuguese context Abstract: Inclusion in Higher Education is a social, educational and political premise. Many steps have been taken so that the discourses on equity and equality can be delivered and envisaged, recognizing that the adjustment of students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) is preceded by numerous factors, among them, educational policies. To enable some reflections, the present study, of a qualitative nature, aimed to know the perceptions of employees (n = 85) of Portuguese Higher Education Institutions about the role of educational policies on behalf of inclusion. The data, from an online survey, were treated using the content analysis technique, with the support of the webQDA software. The results revealed 60 references in the potentialities category, reflected in the guarantee of the effectiveness of the academic path of students with SEN in Higher Education and the realization of their rights. It was found that 91.7% of participants understand that educational policies are important for their country, so 88.2% of employees believe that these policies enhance the inclusion and permanence of students with SEN in Higher Education, in which 40.7% verified support and incentive actions, at the political level, in favor of inclusion in Portugal. Keywords: Educational Policies; Inclusion; Higher Education; Portugal; Special Educational Needs. Políticas educativas e inclusión en la educación superior: percepciones sobre el contexto portugués Resumen: La inclusión en la Educación Superior es una premisa en el marco social, educativo y político. Se han dado muchos pasos para que los discursos sobre equidad e igualdad puedan ser pronunciados y verificados, reconociendo que la adaptación de los estudiantes con Necesidades Educativas Especiales (NEE) está precedida por numerosos factores, entre ellos, las políticas educativas. Para posibilitar algunas reflexiones, el presente estudio, de carácter cualitativo, tuvo como objetivo conocer las percepciones de los colaboradores (n = 85) de las Instituciones de Educación Superior portuguesas sobre la función de las políticas educativas a favor de la inclusión. Los datos, provenientes de una encuesta online, fueron tratados mediante la técnica de análisis de contenido, con el apoyo del software webQDA. Los resultados evidenciaron 60 referencias en la categoría de potencialidades, reflejadas en la garantía de la efectividad de la trayectoria académica de los estudiantes con NEE en la Educación Superior y la realización de sus derechos. Se constató que el 91,7% de los participantes entiende que las políticas educativas son importantes para su país, por lo que el 88,2% de los empleados cree que estas políticas potencian la inclusión y permanencia de los estudiantes con NEE en la Educación Superior, en la que el 40,7% verificó acciones de apoyo e incentivo, a nivel político, a favor de la inclusión en Portugal. Palabras clave: Políticas Educativas; Inclusión; Educación superior; Portugal; Necesidades Educativas Especiales. Data de registro: 16/04/2021 Data de aceite: 01/12/2021. (shrink)

According to some contemporary nonnaturalists about normativity (e.g., Parfit, Scanlon, Dworkin), normative facts exist in an ontologically non-committing sense. These nonnaturalists face an explanatory burden. They must explain their claim that normative facts exist in such a sense. I identify criteria for an adequate explanation, and extract five distinct candidate explanations from the writings of these authors (based on causal efficacy, analogy with modality, fundamentality, domain-relativity and first-order considerations respectively). I assess each. None is both (a) informative and (b) recognizable (...) as a version of contemporary nonnaturalism. In light of this, I assess the best options for proponents of this view. (shrink)

Social networks play a significant role in learning and thus in farmers’ adoption of new agricultural technologies. This study examined the effects of social network factors on information acquisition and adoption of new seed varieties among groundnut farmers in Uganda and Kenya. The data were generated through face-to-face interviews from a random sample of 461 farmers, 232 in Uganda and 229 in Kenya. To assess these effects two alternative econometric models were used: a seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model and a (...) recursive bivariate probit model. The statistical evaluation of the SUBP shows that information acquisition and adoption decisions are interrelated while tests for the RBP do not support this latter model. Therefore, the analysis is based on the results obtained from the SUBP. These results reveal that social network factors, particularly weak ties with external support, partially influence information acquisition, but do not influence adoption. In Uganda, external support, gender, farm size, and geographic location have an impact on information acquisition. In Kenya, external support and geographic location also have an impact on information acquisition. With regard to adoption, gender, household size, and geographic location play the most important roles for Ugandan farmers, while in Kenya information from external sources, education, and farm size affect adoption choice. The study provides insight on the importance of external weak ties in groundnut farming, and a need to understand regional differences along gender lines while developing agricultural strategies. This study further illustrates the importance of farmer participation in applied technology research and the impact of social interactions among farmers and external agents. (shrink)

O presente artigo visa problematizar a concepção de música proposta pelo filósofo Friedrich Schelling em sua obra ‘Filosofia da Arte’, na qual essa forma artística é concebida enquanto uma potência real do Absoluto. Desse modo, pretende-se apontar para o caráter inovador e peculiar da concepção schelliniana em contraste com a noção romântica de música absoluta, assim como situá-la dentro do panorama geral do sistema de identidades desenvolvido pelo autor.

Effective solutions to global warming will likely require coordinated national and international policies. But in the short term, individuals might choose to take actions or not take actions which will reduce their own contribution to global warming. Philosophers have argued that individual action to curb climate emissions is not morally inconsequential. A strong case can be made for individual causal responsibility for the production of the moral harms which would result from climate change. However, the nature of human moral psychology (...) is such that we can expect a lack of moral motivation to assume responsibility at the crucial moment of action. That is, moral agents face “the problem of failed intentions.” This paper assesses the moral value of specific techniques and technologies which promise to increase the ability of moral agents to fulfill their moral intentions. For instance, since individuals typically evaluate others’ actions as less moral than their own, social norming techniques which provide objective information about how one’s climate emissions compare to others can be an effective means of supporting moral action. (shrink)

Ce chapitre aborde l’histoire des avocats au Mexique depuis la microanalyse, c’est-à-dire pour en proposer une histoire globale à partir d’une échelle réduite et pendant la période de consolidation de ce qui était considéré comme une administration judiciaire moderne et professionnalisée, à la veille de la Révolution. Sont abordées les questions de leurs origines sociales, leur formation, la concurrence des conseillers juridiques informels, le coût de leurs services, la qualité de leurs relations, parfois houleuses, avec leurs clients. En dernière partie (...) est traité un aspect très particulier de leur histoire : le fait qu’ils constituaient le vivier d’où étaient nommés juges et notaires, violentant ainsi la constitution libérale. Pour cela, ont été mobilisées des sources judiciaires, des lettres adressées ou rédigées par l’Exécutif de l’État de Tlaxcala ainsi que quelques sources notariales. (shrink)

Este texto reflete sobre o modo como Foucault aborda as noções de materialidade e referencial em seu livro A arqueologia do Saber. De modo mais específico, procura-se identificar séries de signos, isto é, frases ou palavras escritas e registradas na referida obra sobre materialidade e referencial, a fim de conhecer o entendimento de Foucault sobre elas. Do ponto de vista teórico-metodológico, opera-se em uma perspectiva analítico-argumentativa que objetiva percorrer, no terreno da linguagem, o conjunto de coisas ditas por Michel Foucault (...) sobre as noções de materialidade e referencial à luz da abordagem arqueológica do discurso, proposta pelo próprio autor em A arqueologia do saber. Vale salientar que a busca pela identificação das séries de signos não visam explorar o sistema de significação dos significantes, mas em compreender como elas podem assumir, no discurso, a condição de enunciado. Assim, um procedimento preliminar, amparado na abordagem arqueológica, consiste em percorrer a diversidade documental, haja vista identificar as séries de signos que funcionam, no discurso investigado, em um modo particular de existência, isto é, na condição de enunciados. Orientando-se por estes pressupostos, fez-se o mapeamento dos conceitos de materialidade e referencial no livro A arqueologia do saber; em seguida a explicitação e análise do modo como Foucault os compreende. Do estudo realizado, conclui-se que a análise discursiva, na perspectiva arqueológica, não está sujeita ao mesmo regime sígnico, materializado na relação entre os pares significante-significado, frase-sentido, proposição-referente; antes, liga-se a um referencial constituído pelo conjunto de relações enunciativas, tecidas a partir das condições de possibilidade e de regras próprias de utilização: relações entre enunciados, temas, posições de sujeito e materialidades distintas. Tais relações estão sujeitas a um regime de materialidade repetível, que permite reiterar-se em sua identidade, apesar das diferenças de enunciação, ou distinguir-se, mesmo que sob a existência de expressões semânticas, gramaticais ou formais idênticas. (shrink)

In this paper, I explore the problematic relation between sex and gender in parallel with the equally problematic relation between nature and science. I also offer a provisional analysis of the political dynamics that work to polarize both kinds of discourse, focusing especially on their intersection (i.e., on discussions of gender and science), and on that group most directly affected by all of the above considerations (i.e., women scientists).

Com referência na perspectiva marxista-gramsciana, o estudo que ora se apresenta pretende analisar as repercussões das estratégias organizativas da classe trabalhadora na construção de uma nova hegemonia na sociedade brasileira. Para isso, tomaremos como base as experiências vigentes, desenvolvidas pelo Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra/MST. Vale ressaltar que partiremos do ponto de vista das contradições, não apenas dessas estratégias, mas da própria sociedade capitalista.

Les communications du colloque sur "La fonction critique de l'Art" qui s'Est déroulé à l'Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, les 28, 29 et 30 novembre 2007 sous l'Impulsion d'Evelyne Toussaint, témoignent d'Une volonté d'eclairer la production d'Artistes qui ont pris position sur des questions politiques, sociales, économiques ou esthétiques. Sans céder à certains jugements qui se révèlent souvent comme autant de témoignages de méconnaissance, de distraction, d'emballements rhétoriques ou de volonté d'emprise, résistant aux arbitrages qui les inciteraient (...) à opter exclusivement pour l'esthétique relationnelle, la micropolitique, le détournement, le documentaire, l'art contextuel ou l'art autonome, de nombreux artistes se moquent, en effet, de l'injonction qui lescontraindrait à dissocier œuvre sensible et œuvre critique. (shrink)

Even though various investigations found a preponderance of negative emotions in dreams, the conclusion that human dream life is, in general, negatively toned is limited by several methodological issues. The present study made use of three different approaches to measure dream emotions: dream intensity rated by the dreamer, intensity rated by a judge, and scoring of explicitly mentioned emotions (Hall & Van de Castle, 1966). Results indicate that only in the case of external raters' estimates do negative emotions outweigh the (...) positive ones; but in the case of self-ratings (i.e., those made by the dreamer himself/herself), the ratio was balanced. Analyses showed that this is mainly due to the underestimation of positive emotions in the external ratings. Additionally, a positive correlation was found between the intensity of dream emotions and dream recall frequency, whereas gender differences were nonsignificant as regards the emotional tone of diary dreams. (shrink)

In recent years, historians David S. Wyman and Deborah E. Lipstadt have contended in carefully documented books that the U.S. media provided inadequate coverage of Holocaust developments. Thus, these historians contend, American media helped create public apathy, which led to inadequate responses of the Roosevelt administration to requests for aid to Holocaust victims. Wyman believes ?several hundred thousand?; Jews might have been saved from gas chambers if the United States had insisted on determined Allied rescue action earlier than belated efforts (...) of the War Refugee Board, established in 1944. This paper examines U.S. media responses to Holocaust news and the reasons for those responses. It contends the objectivity ethic and violations of other ethical standards by U.S. media may have contributed to the magnitude of the Holocaust tragedy. (shrink)

While art is omnipresent in human history, the neural mechanisms of how we perceive, value and differentiate art has only begun to be explored. Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies suggested that art acts as secondary reward, involving brain activity in the ventral striatum and prefrontal cortices similar to primary rewards such as food. However, potential similarities or unique characteristics of art-related neuroscience remain elusive, also because of a lack of adequate experimental tools: the available collections of art stimuli often lack (...) standard image definitions and normative ratings. Therefore, we here provide a large set of well-characterized, novel art images for use as visual stimuli in psychological and neuroimaging research. The stimuli were created using a deep learning algorithm that applied different styles of popular paintings on ordinary animal, plant and object images which were drawn from established visual stimuli databases. The novel stimuli represent mundane items with artistic properties with proposed reduced dimensionality and complexity compared to paintings. In total, 2,332 novel stimuli are available open access as “art.pics” database at https://osf.io/BTWNQ/ with standard image characteristics that are comparable to other common visual stimuli material in terms of size, variable color distribution, complexity, intensity and valence, measured by image software analysis and by ratings derived from a human experimental validation study [n = 1,296, age 30.2 ± 8.8 y.o.]. The experimental validation study further showed that the art.pics elicit a broad and significantly different variation in subjective value ratings as well as in recognizability, arousal and valence across different art styles and categories. Researchers are encouraged to study the perception, processing and valuation of art images based on the art.pics database which also enables real reward remuneration of the rated stimuli and a direct comparison to other rewards from e.g., food or money.Key Messages: We provide an open access, validated and large set of novel stimuli of standardized art images including normative rating data to be used for experimental research. Reward remuneration in experimental settings can be easily implemented for the art.pics by e.g., handing out the stimuli to the participants, as done in the presented validation task. Experimental validation showed that the art.pics’ images elicit a broad and significantly different variation in subjective value ratings across different art styles and categories, while size, color and complexity characteristics remained comparable to other visual stimuli databases. (shrink)

Amidst the many voices clamoring to interpret the environmental crisis, some of the most important are the voices of religious traditions. Long before modernity's industrialism began the rape of Earth, premodern religious and philosophical traditions mediated to untold generations the wisdom of living as a part of nature. These traditions can illuminate and empower wiser ways of postmodern living. The original writings of Worldviews and Ecology creatively present and interpret worldviews of major religious and philosophical traditions on how humans can (...) live more sustainably on a fragile planet. Contributors include Charlene Spretnak, Larry Rasmussen, Noel Brown, Jay McDaniel, Tu Wei-Ming, Thomas Berry, David Ray Griffin, J. Baird Callicott, Eric Katz, Roger E. Timm, Robert A. White, Christopher Key Chapple, Brian Swimme, Brian Brown, Michael Tobias, Ralph Metzner, George Sessions, and Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim. Insights from traditions as diverse as Jain, Jewish, ecofeminist, deep ecology, Christian, Hindu, Bahai, and Whiteheadian will interest all who seek an honest analysis of what religious and philosophical traditions have to say to a modernity whose consciousness and conscience seems tragically narrow, the source of attitudes that imperil the biosphere. (shrink)