Dancers and musicians are experts in spatial and temporal processing which allows them to coordinate movement with music. This high-level processing has been associated with structural and functional adaptation of the brain for high performance sensorimotor integration. For these integration processes, adaptation does not only take place in primary and secondary sensory and motor areas but tertiary brain areas, such as the lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC) and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), also provide vital resources for highly specialized performance. Here, we (...) review evidence for the role of these brain areas in multimodal training protocols and integrate these findings into a new model of sensorimotor processing in complex motor learning. (shrink)

Checklists have been used to improve quality in many industries, including healthcare. The use of checklists, however, has not been extensively evaluated in clinical ethics consultation. This article seeks to fill this gap by exploring the efficacy of using a checklist in ethics consultation, as tested by an empirical investigation of the use of the checklist at a large academic medical system (Cleveland Clinic). The specific aims of this project are as follows: (1) to improve the quality of ethics consultations (...) by providing reminders to ethics consultants about process steps that are important for most patient-centered ethics consultations, (2) to create consistency in the ethics consultation process across the medical system, and (3) to establish an effective educational tool for trainers and trainees in clinical ethics consultation. The checklist was developed after a thorough literature review and an iterative process of revising and testing by a group of experienced ethics consultants. To pilot test the checklist, it was distributed to 46 ethics consultants. After a six-month pilot period in which ethics professionals used the checklist during their clinical activities, a survey was distributed to all of those who used the checklist. The 10-item survey examined consultants’ perceptions regarding the three aims listed above. Of the 25 survey respondents, 11 self-reported as experts in ethics consultation, nine perceived themselves to have mid-level expertise, and five self-reported as novices. The majority (68 percent) of all respondents, regardless of expertise, believed that the checklist could be a “helpful” or “very helpful” tool in the consultation process generally. Novices were more likely than experts to believe that the checklist would be useful in conducting consultations. The limitations of this study include: reduced generalizability given that this project was conducted at one medical system, utilized a small sample size, and used self-reported quality outcome measures. Despite these limitations, to the authors’ knowledge this is the first investigatation of the use of a checklist systematically to improve quality in ethics consultation. Importantly, our findings shed light on ways this checklist can be used to improve ethics consultation, including its use as an educational tool. The authors hope to test the checklist with consultants in other healthcare systems to explore its usefulness in different healthcare environments. (shrink)

The Disney movie Frozen is the fifth highest grossing movie of all time. In order to better understand this phenomenon and to hypothesize as to why the movie resonated so strongly with audiences, we have interpreted the movie using psychodynamic theory. We pay particular attention to the themes of puberty, adolescence and sibling relationships and discuss examples of ego defenses that are employed by the lead character in relation to these concepts.

The term sustainability has become one of the most significant in the current era. It seems to be ubiquitous amongst academics, politicians, business leaders, media personnel and even the general public. It is no exaggeration to state that it is considered all over the world to be the most pressing issue to be addressed for the long-term future of the planet and its inhabitants. The topic is of course complex, and the issue of sustainability is under much debate as to (...) what it actually is and how it can be achieved, but it is completely certain that the resources of the planet are fixed in quantity and, once used, cannot be reused except through being reused in one form or another. At present, much of the discourse of sustainability has focused upon the environment and in particular upon climate change and the effects that this is having. Thus, the discourse has tended to be about mitigation. Sustainability of course requires all three pillars of the triple bottom line—economic, environmental and social—to be addressed. Indeed, it might be considered that the effects upon the social, and how we choose to live our lives, might well be the most profound effect of achieving sustainability. This book therefore focuses upon some of the many aspects of the social and how we can adapt our lives to accommodate the requirements of sustainability. it therefore takes a very different approach to addressing the issues of sustainability, while of course not ignoring the other pillars. This book therefore sets out to examine various aspects of the changes to personal, corporate and institutional behaviour which may have to come about in our search for sustainability. It is tended to address some of the issues and how they are being dealt with in various parts of the world. As always, our concept is to share best practice and thereby enrich both the discourse and our progress towards sustainability. Thus, we focus upon the current situation while also considering the extent to which the focus is changing so much that we need to think about new approaches to our understanding of behaviour and differing effects in practice. The international origins of the contributors to this book make this an original contribution taking some of the best ideas from around the world. This book therefore addresses these issues from a perspective not generally addressed by researchers, or even by politicians and the press. It therefore provides fresh perspectives upon the important issue of our common future. As always, this approach is based on the tradition of the Social Responsibility Research Network srrnet.org (a worldwide body of scholars with membership of several thousand), which in its 20-year history has sought to broaden the discourse and to treat all research as inter-related and relevant to business. This tradition has always been to explore the subject widely and to seek relevant solutions, while also sharing best practice. This book is based primarily upon some of the contributions from the network at our recent conference and shows both commonality and diversity in approaches and effects. (shrink)

The use of contraceptives has become prevalent among females in Thailand in the past 20 years, and oral contraceptive use has been suggested to trigger changes in fat intake, energy expenditure, fat metabolism and blood pressure. Based on field investigations of 391 married women aged 20 years or over in Yasothon Province, North-east Thailand, this study aims to elucidate the effects of oral contraceptive use on body mass index (BMI: kg/m2 ) and blood pressure, taking into account reproductive histories and (...) socioeconomic conditions. The proportion of obese (BMI> 25) subjects was high in the age groups 3049 and 5049, 5069 age groups. Current contraceptive practices in the studied population included sterilization by operation, oral contraception and injection. These methods accounted for 43·0%, 12·8% and 8·2% of the population, respectively. Sociodemographic factors such as reproductive history, years of education and household income were not significantly related to BMI or to blood pressure (ANOVA with age adjustment). In contrast, oral contraceptive users had significantly higher BMIs and diastolic blood pressures (p<0·01, ANOVA with age adjustment). Multiple regression analysis also revealed that oral contraceptive use was a weak but significant contributing factor to both high BMI and blood pressure when sociodemographic factors were taken into account and controlled for statistically. It can thus be concluded that the use of contraceptive pills, which contain oestrogen and progestin and are provided free of charge to Thai women, tend to increase BMI and to elevate blood pressure. (shrink)

Idea słowiańska” jest terminem ogólnym, odnoszącym się do wielu politycznych, historiozoficznych i kulturowych wątków, dla których inspiracją było językowe i kulturowe pokrewieństwo między narodami słowiańskimi. Takie ruchy jak słowianofilstwo i panslawizm miały na celu kulturalne i polityczne zjednoczenie Słowian. Idea ta wywarła silny wpływ na muzykę krajów środkowej i wschodniej Europy w XIX i XX wieku. Pod jej wpływem powstała znaczna liczba utworów muzycznych. Można utwory te podzielić na kilka grup. W jednych „słowiańskość” podkreślana była poprzez tytuł. Kompozytorzy używali również (...) typowo słowiańskich gatunków tanecznych i pieśniowych, jak polski mazurek i ukraińska dumka. Innym sposobem realizacji idei słowiańskiej były muzyczne kontakty między twórcami. Idea muzyki słowiańskiej pojawia się również w komentarzach muzykologicznych: słowiański „charakter” muzyczny bywał najczęściej łączony ze specyficznymi kategoriami emocjonalnymi, takimi jak smutek, tęsknota, szczególnie zaś żal, które to określenie stosowano do opisu przemożnego nastroju panującego w dziełach Chopina. (shrink)

U większości ludzi lewa półkula odgrywa decydującą rolę zarówno w kontroli zdolności językowych jak i wyuczonych gestów manualnych. U osób praworęcznych, lewostronne obszary kory mózgowej kontrolują ponadto działania dłoni i palców ręki dominującej, włączając w to ruchy sięgania w kierunku celu, chwytania przedmiotów i manipulowania nimi. Dlatego do niedawana nie było oczywiste, czy lateralizacja funkcji językowych jest ściślej związana z kontrolą preferowanej ręki, czy też z przetwarzaniem informacji wyższego rzędu niezbędnych w sprawnej komunikacji przy pomocy gestów, niezależnie od wykorzystywanego ramienia (...) i dłoni. Za drugą z tych opcji przemawia to, że u większości osób leworęcznych lewa półkula także dominuje w kontroli języka i~gestów. Przeciw zdają się świadczyć przykłady nietypowej lateralizacji zdolności językowych do prawej półkuli, przy lewopółkulowej reprezentacji gestów manualnych. Choć dotąd względnie dobrze poznano jak często dochodzi do nietypowej lateralizacji niektórych funkcji w mózgu, ciągle nie jest jasne, jakie są tego przyczyny. Co ważniejsze, dopiero niedawno naukowcy zaczęli z sukcesem badać wzajemne relacje pomiędzy różnymi zdolnościami poznawczymi u ludzi zdrowych. Badania te sugerują istnienie bliskich zależności pomiędzy lateralizacją na pozór odmiennych funkcji, takich jak język i gesty, w przypadkach dotąd uznawanych za raczej wyjątkowe. Te ostatnie, z kolei, często łączono z reorganizacją mózgu w następstwie choroby lub innych zakłóceń jego działania. Tymczasem, istnienie ścisłych relacji pomiędzy reprezentacjami na pozór odmiennych dyspozycji poznawczych w przypadkach nietypowych, a nie mających źródła w chorobie i urazach, sugeruje nieco inny model lateralizacji funkcji w mózgu. (shrink)

Celem artykułu jest skonstruowanie pewnego eksperymentu myślowego polegającego na zastosowaniu koncepcji neo-monadyzmu Gabriela Tarde’a do przemyślenia podstaw liberalnej oikodycei. Przez liberalną oikodyceę rozumiem koncepcję ładu społecznego opartą o idee racjonalnej, autonomicznej jednostki działającej w warunkach wymiany ekonomicznej. Zaproponowana przez Tardea rekapitulacja leibnizjańskiej koncepcji monadyzmu w świetle współczesnej mu wiedzy i zastosowanie jej do świata społecznego pozwala na stwierdzenie, że taki model podmiotowości jest niewystarczający do wytłumaczenia wielu - z pozoru nieracjonalnych - zjawisk jak ruchy populistyczne czy spekulacje finansowe, charakterystycznych dla (...) ekonomii politycznej XXI wieku. (shrink)