We report the identification of a recurrent, 520-kb 16p12.1 microdeletion associated with childhood developmental delay. The microdeletion was detected in 20 of 11,873 cases compared with 2 of 8,540 controls and replicated in a second series of 22 of 9,254 cases compared with 6 of 6,299 controls. Most deletions were inherited, with carrier parents likely to manifest neuropsychiatric phenotypes compared to non-carrier parents. Probands were more likely to carry an additional large copy-number variant when compared to matched controls. The clinical (...) features of individuals with two mutations were distinct from and/or more severe than those of individuals carrying only the co-occurring mutation. Our data support a two-hit model in which the 16p12.1 microdeletion both predisposes to neuropsychiatric phenotypes as a single event and exacerbates neurodevelopmental phenotypes in association with other large deletions or duplications. Analysis of other microdeletions with variable expressivity indicates that this two-hit model might be more generally applicable to neuropsychiatric disease. © 2010 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved. (shrink)

Resumo: A pesquisa aqui apresentada resulta de uma reflexão sobre as epistemologias subalternas, sobretudo de matrizes africanas, tomando como exemplo a etnomatemática. O discurso filosófico sobre o “epistemicídio” dos saberes locais e tradicionais, por parte do paradigma científico dominante, pode ser aplicado a vários âmbitos disciplinares, entre os quais a matemática, nas suas duas vertentes principais, a aritmética e a geometria, que representa um caso paradigmático e significativo. Teorizada pela primeira vez pelo brasileiro D’Ambrosio e o holandês-moçambicano Paulus Gerdes, a (...) etnomatemática vive hoje uma contradição: ela foi aceite em termos epistemológicos, mas, especialmente em África, teve muitos problemas em se afirmar, entrando com dificuldades nos curricula oficiais. A pesquisa mostra como se deu tal processo, em Moçambique, um país símbolo do caminho da etnomatemática africana, em consideração da contribuição de Gerdes e da educação progressiva na primeira fase da sua independência.: This work aims at carrying out a reflection on the subaltern epistemologies, considering as an example the Ethnomathematics. The philosophical discourse on the “epistemicide of local and traditional knowledge by the dominant scientific paradigm can be aplied to various disciplinary fields. Among them it is possible to find Mathematics, in its two main branches, arithmetic and geometry. Mathematics represents a paradigmatic and meaningful case. It has been theorized for the first time by the Brazilian D’Ambrosio and the Dutch-Mozambican Paulus Gerdes, ethnomathematics is living today a contradiction: it was accepted in epistemological terms, but, especially in Africa, it registered many problems in assert itself, showing difficulties in being accepted in official curricula. The research shows how this process occurred in Mozambique, a symbolic country for African ethnomathematics, both in consideration of Gerdes’ contribution and of the progressive education during the first phase of its independence. (shrink)

Las posibilidades educativas que ofrece la realidad virtual inmersiva (RVI) son actualmente incuestionables, si bien aún se cuenta con escasas propuestas que estén diseñadas expresamente por y para el aula. En esta contribución se presentan los primeros pasos de una interesante iniciativa diseñada por la Fundación Integra (Región de Murcia) entre las que se encuentra el desarrollo de un videojuego de RVI de temática histórica ambientado en el Teatro Romano de Cartagena y al que se juega con gafas Oculus Rift (...) o HTC VIVE. El videojuego ha sido diseñado a modo de serious game y se completa con una secuencia didáctica que permite su integración en el aula. A pesar de que aún no se ha realizado la fase de evaluación de los aprendizajes, la observación de los primeros prepilotajes del juego con estudiantes parecen mostrar su valor como elemento para el aprendizaje y favorecer un acercamiento motivador a la historia. (shrink)

Patient and citizen participation is now regarded as central to the promotion of sustainable health and health care. Involvement efforts create and encounter many diverse ethical challenges that have the potential to enhance or undermine their success. This article examines different expressions of patient and citizen participation and the support health ethics offers. It is contended that despite its prominence and the link between patient empowerment and autonomy, traditional bioethics is insufficient to guide participation efforts. In addition, the turn to (...) a “social paradigm” of ethics in examinations of biotechnologies and public health does not provide an account of values that is commensurable with the pervasive autonomy paradigm. This exacerbates rather than eases tensions for patients and citizens endeavoring to engage with health. Citizen and patient participation must have a significant influence on the way we do health ethics if its potential is to be fulfilled. (shrink)

Are wealthy countries' duties towards developing countries grounded in justice or in weaker concerns of charity? Justice in a Globalized World offers both an in-depth critique of the most prominent philosophical answers to this question, and a distinctive approach for addressing it.

The research presented in this paper focuses on business ethical values inChina, a country in which the process of institutional transformation has left cultural values in a state of flux. A survey was conducted in China and the U.S. by using five business scenarios. Survey results show similarities between the Chinese and American decision choices for three out of five scenarios. However, the results reveal significant differences in rationales, even forsimilar decisions. The implications of similarities and differences between the U.S. (...) and Chinese samples are discussed. (shrink)

This article explores the relevance of ontological assumptions for justifications of agency and ethics. It critiques Kantian ethics for being based upon an ontological imaginary that starts from the substantialism of Newtonian physics. Substantialism shapes Western political philosophy’s view about who we are as subjects and how the world works. In this ontological imaginary, validation of ethics is based upon universality and abstractions. Furthermore, Kantian ethics underscores an anthropocentric and theocratic vision of how to govern societies. I argue Kantian criteria (...) are not only insufficient to make good choices but are also conducive to wrong ones, since they elicit self-appeasement in international intervention, and contribute to the conceptual repertoire of coloniality. I propose that an ontology of entanglements opens possibilities for overcoming the shortcomings of an ethos based upon abstractions and possibly for correcting some of its moral failures. In a quantum ontological imaginary, the validation of ethical choices relies instead upon the exploration of the apparatuses we deploy, as well as upon careful situational evaluation. Specific practices, rather than an abstract humanity, are the referents for devising such ethos. This position, I argue, resonates with the critical project of decoloniality and its acknowledgment of the political salience of ontological imaginaries. (shrink)

El presente trabajo se propone explorar la apropiación que realiza Hannah Arendt de algunas categorías de la teoría aristotélica de la tragedia en el marco de su reflexión en torno a la historia. A partir del análisis del sentido que adquieren en sus escritos, centralmente de los años cincuenta, términos como héroe, grandeza, mimesis y catarsis, sostendremos que la autora encuentra en la narrativa trágica un modo de afrontar el desafío que pesa sobre la comprensión histórica en el contexto pos-totalitario: (...) re-articular pensamiento político y perspectiva histórica. Para finalizar, realizaremos algunas sugerencias para situar esta lectura en diálogo con el modo en que dos de sus maestros, Heidegger y Jaspers, han comprendido filosóficamente lo trágico. Atendiendo a la distancia parcial pero decisiva que Arendt toma respecto a ambos, se vuelve más clara la singularidad de su propuesta. (shrink)

In the Algerian War of Independence, women famously used both traditional and modern clothing as part of their revolutionary efforts against French colonialism. This paper uncovers some of the principal lessons of this historical episode through a phenomenological exploration of agency, religion, and political transformation. Part I draws primarily on the philosophical insights of Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty alongside the memoirs of Zohra Drif, a young woman member of the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale, in order to explore the (...) worldly and habitual nature of human agency in contrast to the Enlightenment stress on individual rationality and autonomy. Part II turns to John Russon’s phenomenological interpretation of religion in order to argue for the ineluctable significance of religion on human existence, in contrast to the modern tendency to oppose religious tradition and secular modernity. Part III analyzes the dynamics of intercultural communication, and argues for the political power of phenomenology as a critical enterprise that enables more just and emancipatory visions of collective human life and political transformation to come to the fore. (shrink)

This portrait proceeds from the hypothesis that an actress should be studied as a distinct subject and that, in this sense, Giacinta Pezzana is representative because of her artistic choices and feminism, resting on friendship among women. In this article the author proposes a theoretical biography in nuce, which identifies the contexts and the problematical issues of Pezzana’s history, in the interweaving of the public and personal spheres, favouring the use of epistolary sources. Her lifetime witnessed the coexistence of the (...) Grande attore tradition, issues of Naturalism, Duse’s revolutionary art and industrial standardization. Pezzana stood out for her ethical sense and strong emphasis on expressivity, which disposed her to populist developments. Hence, her interest in popular and experimental theatre, renewable through linguistic and dramaturgic inventions. This brings about a double identity as writer and actress and an original twofold repertoire: the warhorses – such as Zola’s Teresa Raquin – and the ‘intellectual luxuries’, such as the Serate Dantesche, where she appears as a precursor of one-woman-shows. (shrink)

This article attempts to bring into discussion concepts from contemporary theories of republicanism from the vantage point of the particular theory of republican citizenship advocated by David Miller, and based on national identity. It emerges from the discussion of his notions of national identity and republican citizenship that he works with two parallel notions of political obligation: one that can be intimated from Miller’s Rousseauian vision of a political community as a community of common will, and another that can be (...) derived from his discussion of republican citizenship as a practice of deliberation. After identifying these two notions of political obligation as ancestral obligation and political obligation as public practice I proceed to show that they work independently of one another, and that the latter is to be preferred to the former. I conclude by suggesting that these findings entitle us to think that national identity is neither a necessary nor a desirable foundation for republican citizenship. (shrink)

The exhibition Space/Sight/Self was designed to study the role of portraiture in contemporary art as a nexus of three issues identity, vision, and place. The goal was to produce a portrait, as it were, of contemporary portraiture. This catalog documents the exhibition and helps to facilitate viewers' reflections and responses about the spaces, sights, and selves that enable us to construct and question our identity.".

The prevailing scientific paradigm is that matter is primary and everything, including consciousness can be derived from the laws governing matter. Although the scientific explanation of consciousness on these lines has not been realized, in this view it is only a matter of time before consciousness will be explained through neurobiological activity in the brain, and nothing else. There is an alternative view that holds that it is fundamentally impossible to explain how subjectivity can arise solely out of material processes—“the (...) hard problem of consciousness”—and instead consciousness should be regarded in itself as a primary force in nature. This view attempts to derive, for example, the laws of physics from models of consciousness, instead of the other way around. While as scientists we can understand and have an intuition for the first paradigm, it is very difficult to understand what “consciousness is primary” might mean since it has no intuitive scientific grounding. Here we show that worlds experienced through virtual reality are such that consciousness is a first order phenomenon. We discuss the Interface Theory of Perception which claims that in physical reality perceptions are not veridical and that we do not see the “truth” but that perception is based on evolutionary payoffs. We show that this theory may provide an accurate description of perception and consciousness within VR, and we put forward an experimental study that could throw light on this. We conclude that VR does offer an experimental frame that provides intuition with respect to the idea that “consciousness is first” and what this might mean regarding the perceived world. However, we do not draw any conclusions about the veracity of this notion with respect to physical reality or question the emergence of consciousness from brain function. (shrink)

There is a long-standing failure to create an ethical culture around substance use disorders (SUDs) or dependence that actively supports people’s recovery efforts. Issues which impede the development of prorecovery environments are complex, but include the far-reaching effects of the social stigma that surrounds SUDs; and the failure to harness relational and social support that allows debates to transcend blaming individual substance users. As part of efforts to create prorecovery environments, it is important to acknowledge that bioethics debate on SUDs (...) is narrow in scope, prioritising topics related to its traditional interests in individual autonomy and novel technologies. As a result, it has not played a significant role in helping to transform the ethical cultures in which substance use recovery takes place. For example, it largely neglects the ethical challenges of developing an empathic, person-centred approach to substance use problems that listens and responds to the voices of clients. It has also participated little in efforts to develop a positive response to reducing the toxic effects of stigma. Indeed, some contributions from the field fan stigma, rather than alleviate it. The aim of this paper is to seed broader ethical debate, in academic literature and lay/professional communities, on how societies should respond to SUDs: steering a course between the critical, but narrow approach of bioethics and the empowerment discourse of evidence-based treatments. (shrink)

Given the sensitive nature of trauma-focused research, it is important that researchers understand the impact of research participation on study participants. The current study examined the relationship between type of child abuse, psychological adjustment, and self-reported participatory distress in 105 female adult survivors of childhood abuse. Several key findings emerged: (a) overall, participants reported low levels of participatory distress; (b) greater levels of participatory distress were reported by sexual abuse survivors and were associated with higher scores on depressed mood and (...) posttraumatic stress; and (c) posttraumatic stress symptomatology served as a mediator in the relationship between abuse type and participatory distress. The findings inform researchers and members of Institutional Review Boards on variables related to participatory distress in studies of child abuse. (shrink)

Xenotransplantation - the transfer of living tissue between species - has long been heralded as a potential solution to the severe organ shortage crisis experienced by the United Kingdom and other 'developed' nations. However, the significant risks which accompany this biotechnology led the United Kingdom to adopt a cautious approach to its regulation, with the establishment of a non-departmental public body - UKXIRA - to oversee the development of this technology on a national basis. In December 2006 UKXIRA was quietly (...) disbanded and replaced with revised guidance, which entrusts the regulation of xenotransplantation largely to research ethics committees. In this article we seek to problematize this new regulatory framework, arguing that specialist expertise and national oversight are necessary components of an adequate regulatory framework for a biotechnology which poses new orders of risk, challenges the adequacy of traditional understandings of autonomy and consent, and raises significant animal welfare concerns. We argue for a more considered and holistic approach, based on adequate consultation, to regulating biotechnological developments in the United Kingdom. (shrink)

There are established links between education and well-being, and between poverty and education. This article draws on interviews with parents of school-aged children impacted by a policy in the UK commonly referred to as the ‘bedroom tax’. A critical psychology perspective to education is put forward, acknowledging the complex interrelationships between psychological well-being, sociopolitical factors and education.

This paper examines a particular type of frontispiece - a depiction of angels showing a title tabula - that seems to have been in the decorative repertoire of Late Antique Gospel Books. The oldest surviving miniature presenting this composition is the title page of the Trier Gospels from eighth-century Echternach, which derives from a sixth-century prototype. A copy of this prototype was possibly made by the Registrum Master, which, by the end of the tenth century, was in contact with the (...) scriptorium of Echternach. A Gospel Book from the diocese of Liège provides evidence of the existence of this supposed model; the decoration of the Liège example seems likely to have been copied in part from that model, which later also became a source of inspiration for the luxurious Gospel Books created at Echternach. The eleventh-century miniatures suggest that the decorative cycle of the Late Antique prototype may have included several angel pages. The type of frontispiece considered here appears also in some illustrated manuscripts of Beatus’s Commentary on the Apocalypse, whose angel and Evangelist pages derive, however, from other Late Antique sources. (shrink)

Research suggests that the ability to understand one’s own and others’ minds, or mentalizing, is a key factor for mental health. Most studies have focused the attention on the association between global measures of mentalizing and specific disorders. In contrast, very few studies have analyzed the association between specific mentalizing polarities and global measures of mental health. This study aimed to evaluate whether self and other polarities of mentalizing are associated with a multidimensional notion of mental health, which considers symptoms, (...) functioning, and well-being. Additionally, the level or depth of mentalizing within each polarity was also analyzed. A sample of 214 adolescents was evaluated on measures of self- and other- mentalizing, multi-informed measures of psychopathology and functioning based on Achenbach’s system, and measures of psychological well-being. Results revealed no association between mentalizing polarities and higher-order symptom factors. Self-mentalizing was associated with self-esteem and motivation to life goals, and other-mentalizing was associated to general, social and role functioning. This association between aspects of self-other mentalizing and self-other function has important implications for treatment and prevention. Deeper mentalizing within each polarity revealed stronger associations with functioning and well-being. Because mentalizing polarities are associated with functioning and well-being but not with symptoms, a new hypothesis is developed: mentalizing does not contribute to resiliency by preventing symptoms, but by helping to deal with them, thus improving functioning and well-being independently of psychopathology. These findings support that promoting mentalizing across development may improve mental health, even in non-clinical population. (shrink)

En sus lecciones de los años treinta, Heidegger se centra en el pensamiento de Nietzsche dado que considera que en él se ha consumado el nihilismo de la metafísica a través de la inversión de sus principios en su doble inicio platónico y cartesiano. Pero el “nihilismo impropio” de la metafísica entendido como el “olvido del ser”, es motivado a su vez por el “nihilismo propio” o “abandono del ser”. Consecuentemente Heidegger propone la “superación-sobretorsión” de la metafísica en el sentido (...) de una “torsión” del olvido del ser, camino que lo llevará a la búsqueda de un pensamiento no metafísico entendido como el “recuerdo interiorizante en la metafísica” primeramente, y seguidamente en el sentido de un pensamiento rememorante. Seguidamente la presente propuesta se detiene en la temática del “último Dios” en el horizonte de la temporalidad, donde Heidegger lo anuncia como “el último” pero en el sentido del más originario, pensado desde la dimensión del “tiempo auténtico” tetradimensional, donde lo advenidero no es lo meramente futuro, sino lo predeterminado por “lo sido”. Así se comprende la humanidad de los advenideros, un pueblo de creadores que son “los vigías del silencio del pasaje del último Dios”. (shrink)

Through case studies that highlight the type of information that is seldom reported in the news, Faces of Environmental Racism exposes the type and magnitude of environmental racism, both domestic and international. The essays explore the justice of current environmental practices, asking such questions as whether cost-benefit analysis is an appropriate analytic technique and whether there are alternate routes to sustainable development in the South.

Numinous spaces in British literature from William Wordsworth to Samuel Beckett -- Jesus figures in American literature from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Edward Albee -- Using Bakhtin's definitions to discover ethical voices in Solzhenitsyn and Tolstoy -- René Girard's categories of scapegoats in literature of the American South -- Hopkins's metaphysics of nature as sacred disclosure -- The book of job as mirrored in Hopkins's metaphysics -- Beckett's mythos of the absence of God.

Todo Estado de Derecho moderno tiene su fundamento en ciertos principios que rigen la manera en cómo se ejerce el Poder Público, y es el modo en que efectivamente se aplican, lo que ciertamente determinará la naturaleza y característica de dicho Estado. En el caso venezolano, tales principios se encuentran expresamente plasmados en nuestra Carta Magna y son: El principio de competencia administrativa, el principio de legalidad, el principio de separación y colaboración entre los poderes y el principio de responsabilidad (...) del Estado y sus funcionarios. La intención es definir y desarrollar brevemente estos principios, a fin de poder establecer las características del Estado Venezolano, desde el punto de vista Constitucional (positivo) y desde el punto de vista real. Palabras clave: Principios constitucionales; Responsabilidad del Estado; Competencia; Legalidad; Separación de poderes. Constitutional principles concerning the exercise of public power.Every modern law-ruled State has its foundation on certain principles which govern theway Public Power is exercised. It is the manner in which those principles are in fact applied what will actually determine the nature and characteristics of such a State. In Venezuela’s case such principles are explicitly presented in our Constitution. They are: the principle of administrative competence, the principle of legality, the principle of separation and cooperation between powers and the principle of responsibility of the State and its officials. The aim is to define and briefly unfold these principles, so as to establish the characteristics of the Venezuelan State, both from the Constitutional (positive) and reality standpoints. Keywords : Constitutional Principles; State Responsibility; Competence; Legality; Separation of Powers. (shrink)

As a worldwide economic crisis emerged at the end of 2008, international health agencies were quick to highlight its predictable impact on health in the poorest of communities. The World Health Organization underscored the need for a multisectoral approach to the crisis, “seeking health gains through demonstrating the importance of health in all policies” and whether current investments in health addressed the broader social determinants of health. However, despite good intentions and decades of discussion addressing the need for transformative changes (...) globally to reduce poverty and improve health equity, little progress has been made.A recent report on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals indicates that many targeted goals have not been met, with some goals lagging many years behind schedule. Although progress towards achieving the MDGs has been made for some specific conditions, where targeted interventions have had an immediate impact, limited progress is reported in more complex areas such as maternal child health. Such complex health issues require structural changes, strong political will, long-term funding, and consideration of other health determinants, such as education and exposure to environmental hazards. (shrink)

Virtual reality allows the user to be immersed in environments in which they can experience situations and social interactions from different perspectives by means of virtual embodiment. In the context of rehabilitation of violent behaviors, a participant could experience a virtual violent confrontation from different perspectives, including that of the victim and bystanders. This approach and other virtual scenes can be used as a useful tool for the rehabilitation of intimate partner violence perpetrators, through improvement of their empathic skills or (...) for training in non-violent responses. In this perspective, we revise and discuss the use of this tool in a prison environment for the rehabilitation of IPV perpetrators with a particular focus on practical aspects based on our experience. (shrink)

The “historical myths” addressed in the target article are but one type of societal meta-narrative, a cognitive framework for understanding the story of one's group: Its origins, purpose, turning points, threats and opportunities, key relationships, and the appropriate affect for group members. Engagement with the broader literature on meta-narratives, including political and sacred myths, and on group entitativity is recommended.