© 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.Genetic studies have identified single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with the risk of prostate cancer. It remains unclear whether such genetic variants are associated with disease aggressiveness. The NCI-SPORE Genetics Working Group retrospectively collected clinicopathologic information and genotype data for 36 SNPs which at the time had been validated to be associated with PC risk from 25,674 cases with PC. Cases were grouped according to race, Gleason score and aggressiveness. Statistical analyses were used to compare the frequency (...) of the SNPs between different disease cohorts. After adjusting for multiple testing, only PC-risk SNP rs2735839 was significantly and inversely associated with aggressive and high-grade disease in European men. Similar associations with aggressive and high-grade disease were documented in African-American subjects. The G allele of rs2735839 was associated with disease aggressiveness even at low PSA levels in both European and African-American men. Our results provide further support that a PC-risk SNP rs2735839 near the KLK3 gene on chromosome 19q13 may be associated with aggressive and high-grade PC. Future prospectively designed, case-case GWAS are needed to identify additional SNPs associated with PC aggressiveness. (shrink)

Background:Clinical investigation is a growing field employing increasing numbers of nurses. This has created a new specialty practice defined by aspects unique to nursing in a clinical research context: the objectives, setting, and nature of the nurse–participant relationship. The clinical research nurse role may give rise to feelings of ethical conflict between aspects of protocol implementation and the duty of patient advocacy, a primary nursing responsibility. Little is known about whether research nurses experience unique ethical challenges distinct from those experienced (...) by nurses in traditional patient-care settings.Research objectives:The purpose of the study was to describe the nature of ethical challenges experienced by clinical research nurses within the context of their practice.Research design:The study utilized a qualitative descriptive design with individual interviews.Participants and research context:Participating nurses self-identified as having experienced ethical challenges during screening. The majority were Caucasian, female, and worked in outpatient settings. Approximately 50% had > 10 years of research experience.Ethical considerations:The human subjects review board approved the study. Written informed consent was obtained.Findings:Predominant themes were revealed: the inability to provide a probable good, or/do no harm, and dual obligations. The following patterns and subthemes emerged: conflicted allegiances between protocol implementation, needs of the participant, desire to advance science, and tension between the nurse–patient therapeutic relationship versus the research relationship.Discussion:Participants described ethical challenges specific to the research role. The issues are central to the nurse–participant relationship, patient advocacy, the nurse’s role in implementing protocols, and/or advancing science.Conclusion:Ethical challenges related to the specialized role of clinical research nurses were identified. More research is warranted to fully understand their nature and frequency and to identify support systems for resolution. (shrink)

This article provides ethical guidance on using race in health research as a variable or in defining the study population. To this end, a plain, non-exhaustive checklist is provided for researchers and research ethics committees, preceded by a brief introduction on the need for justification when using race as a variable or in defining a study population, the problem of exoticism, that distinctions pertain between race, ethnicity and ancestry, the problematic naming of races, and that race does not serve well (...) as a presumed biological construct in genetic research. (shrink)

“How can it be that the female is both functional and a failure?”. Sophia Connell’s response comes in the form of a careful, thorough, and philosophically sensitive interpretation of Aristotle’s treatise on animal generation. By pursuing the topic of what Aristotle says about female animals and their role in reproduction, Connell casts light into many difficult corners of his theory: What does it mean to say that the male is the “hê archê [tês] kinêseos” of the generation? How should we (...) think of the motions in the semen that “construct” the embryo? Are these motions the same? According to Connell, they are not. The efficient cause of the generation is the male; he is the origin... (shrink)

In De schijn-élite van de valse munters laat Martin Bosma, Tweede-Kamerlid voor de PVV, zien dat de anti-immigratiepolitiek van die partij in lijn ligt met het socialisme van Jacques de Kadt en Willem Drees. Hij deconstrueert het multiculturalisme van Nieuw Links, dat daarna kwam, en wijst erop dat het blind was voor steeds nijpender immigratie- en criminaliteitskwesties. In de eigen ideologie van de PVV die Bosma vervolgens tentoonspreidt, zijn echter eveneens de nodige witte vlekken aan te wijzen.

This paper examines the complexity and fluidity of maternal identity through an examination of narratives about "real motherhood" found in children's literature. Focusing on the multiplicity of mothers in adoption, I question standard views of maternity in which gestational, genetic and social mothering all coincide in a single person. The shortcomings of traditional notions of motherhood are overcome by developing a fluid and inclusive conception of maternal reality as authored by a child's own perceptions.

A comprehensible model is proposed aimed at an analysis of the reasons for theory change in science. According to the model the origins of scientific revolutions lie not in a clash of fundamental theories with facts, but of “old” fundamental theories with each other, leading to contradictions that can only be eliminated in a more general theory. The model is illustrated with reference to physics in the early 20th century, the three “old” theories in this case being Maxwellian electrodynamics, statistical (...) mechanics and thermodynamics. Modern example, referring to general relativity and quantum field theory fusion, is highlighted. Key words: Popper, Kuhn, Lakatos, Feyerabend, Stepin, Bransky,Mamchur, mature theory, structure, Einstein, Lorentz, , Boltzmann, Planck, Hawking, De Witt. (shrink)

This is an excerpt from the contentReligion and Human Rights: An Introductionby John Witte and M. Christian Green, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011Religion and Development: Ways of Transforming the Worldby Gerrie ter Haar London: Hurst & Co., 2011The question of religion in either human rights or development has sparked long and loud debate in the wake of the Cold War. This discourse focuses on whether or not religion is needed in a post-Enlightenment world, and if it is what (...) its role should be, or whether or not religions must jettison articles of faith for a new humanistic social order. The two books reviewed here, Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction, edited by John Witte and M. Christian Green, and Religion and Development: Ways of Transforming the World, edited by Gerrie ter Haar, meet this question head on and attempt to provide recommendations for including religion in the great struggle to bring freedom and justice to all people. The collected essays are stunning in their depth and breadth of per. (shrink)

Mit dem «Catalogue raisonné» von Oskar Wulff: „Altchristliche und mittelalterliche Bildwerke“ (1909 bzw. 1911) war die Erforschung und Präsentation der in den Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin gesammelten einschlägigen Kunst seinerzeit mit einem Schlage in die vorderste Reihe wissenschaftlicher Kataloge in Europa gerückt worden. Abgesehen von einer Neubearbeitung durch Wolfgang Fritz Volbach (1950) ist entsprechend Umfassendes für die ehemalige „Frühchristlich-Byzantinische Sammlung“ der Berliner Museen seither nicht wieder geleistet worden. Mit dem beträchtlichen zeitlichen Abstand zu den älteren Katalogen erscheint es verständlich und (...) begrüßenswert, wenn – nach der Zusammenführung der seit 1945 zwischen Ost und West geteilten musealen Bestände – eine neue Bestandsaufnahme unternommen wird. Das anspruchsvolle, dem Geleitwort von Arne Effenberger zufolge auf 10 Bände (mit Unterteilungen) angelegte Vorhaben verspricht noch umfassender und auf seine Art vorbildlich zu werden, wie es die Kataloge von Wulff waren. Inzwischen ist ein erster Teil von Band 1 über die Textiliensammlung erschienen. Wie dieser ist auch der 2. Band über „Werke der Alltagskultur“ auf mehrere Teilbände angelegt, deren eben erschienener erster Part ausschließlich den sog. Menasampullen gewidmet ist. Es handelt sich dabei um die bekannten Pilgerandenken aus dem unweit Alexandria in der Mariotis gelegenen Wüstenheiligtum des hl. Menas. Es geht freilich nicht um die erste Bearbeitung dieser kleinformatigen, auch von Privatsammlern hochgeschätzten Objekte: es sei verwiesen auf ältere Arbeiten von C.M. Kaufmann, dem Ausgräber von Abu Mina, sowie aus jüngster Zeit auf die Veröffentlichungen von C. Metzger zu den Sammlungen des Louvre (1981) und G. Kaminski-Menssen zu den Beständen des Liebieg-Hauses in Frankfurt (1997). Berlin nimmt mit 63 Menas-Ampullen immerhin einen bedeutenden Platz ein. (shrink)

We are all immersed in a sea of social norms, but they are sometimes tricky to observe with any clarity. They are often invisible to us and emerge only when they are not observed. Social norms are important to understand because they are both limiting of our freedom, such as gendered and racialized norms, and at the same time the very conditions of our agency. Social Goodness presents an original, externalist answer to the question of the source or origin of (...) social role normativity. Rather than grounding social normativity in the attitudes of persons, the book argues for an externalism that roots social role normativity in the social world itself: in its positions, institutions, and larger architecture. The core insight of externalism is that the function or structural feature of an enterprise or activity can bring with it normative demands quite independently of the attitudes of those who engage with it. According to the artisanal model, just as a carpenter, ceramicist, or chef is responsive to and evaluable under a set of artisanal norms or techniques, so too is a mother and or an academic or a President. The source of normativity is this technique or expertise, independent of the preferences, endorsements, or recognitive attitudes of individuals. The artisanal model for social role normativity has resources to explain both the "stickiness" or persistence of social norms and our ability to criticize existing norms and to engage in normative self-creation--to create new normative selves. The artisanal model also has resources to capture and express the social situatedness, locality, and materiality of social roles. The relational ontology of social roles, implicit in the artisanal model, provides a useful frame to consider both hierarchical and oppressive social relations. (shrink)

Er arbeitete für eine Erneuerung des Judentums auf der Grundlage der deutschen Sprache. Doch das Land, das ihm Heimat war, verjagte ihn. Nach Auschwitz sah er die Beziehung des Judentums mit Deutschland zerstört, und ist doch offen für ein neues Gespräch. Was hat es mit Martin Buber und den Deutschen auf sich? War er der vom "geistigen Deutschland anerkannter deutsche Jude" oder nur der "Jude für die Deutschen nach Auschwitz"? Dieser Essay begibt sich auf eine spannende Spurensuche. Er bringt das (...) facettenreiche Bild einer ebenso spannungsvollen wie fruchtbaren Beziehung zu Tage. (shrink)

Nachdruck der Originalausgabe aus dem Jahr 1914.

Heute dominieren vereinseitigende Selbstbeschreibungen des Menschen, die ihn gentechnologisch, radikalkonstruktivistisch oder hirnphysiologisch auf sein biologisches Substrat reduzieren. Die Polyphonie, die man noch um 1800 in der Beschreibung des Menschen als das Zugleich von Körper und Geist hören konnte, weicht einer Einstimmig- und Einsinnigkeit kraft einer nur noch naturwissenschaftlichen Selbstthematisierung. Hieran ist zu erinnern, wenn man für die Zeit um 1800 festhält, dass sich die Denker zwar um solch disziplinäre Grenzen zwischen Naturgeschichte, Philosophie und Literatur nicht kümmerten, aber gerade dadurch der (...) Vielstimmigkeit einen Raum eröffneten. Die Verwendung des „Bildungstriebes“ in unterschiedlichen Zusammenhängen ist hierfür ein beredtes Zeugnis. Die vorliegende Arbeit zum „Bildungstrieb“ will und kann bisherige Rekonstruktionen des Bildungsbegriffs keineswegs ersetzen, sondern bestenfalls ergänzen. Damit aber werden im „Bildungstrieb“ Wurzeln des Bildungsbegriffs wieder in Erinnerung gerufen, die jenseits einer rein kognitiven, mentalen, subjektivistischen Zurichtung von „Bildung“ liegen. ***** Today, the dominant feature of the self-description of humans is one that confines them to their biological substrate. Genetic engineering, radical constructivism or brain physiology are among those disciplines which advocate such a perspective. The polyphonic descriptions of human beings around 1800, pointing out the simultaneity of body and mind, fall silent in favour of a one-sided and limited purely scientific self-thematization. Around 1800, due to their non-compliance regarding disciplinary boundaries between natural history, philosophy and literature, thinkers opened up a space for polyphony. The use of the “Bildungstrieb” (nisus formativus) in various contexts is eloquent evidence for this. The present volume on the “Bildungstrieb” does not and cannot replace previous reconstructions of the concept of “Bildung”, but at best complements them by drawing the reader’s attention once again to the roots of the concept of “Bildung” in the “Bildungstrieb” that lie beyond a purely cognitive, mental, subjectivist understanding of “Bildung”. (shrink)

Although the principle of fair subject selection is a widely recognized requirement of ethical clinical research, it often yields conflicting imperatives, thus raising major ethical dilemmas regarding participant selection. In this paper, we diagnose the source of this problem, arguing that the principle of fair subject selection is best understood as a bundle of four distinct sub-principles, each with normative force and each yielding distinct imperatives: (1) fair inclusion; (2) fair burden sharing; (3) fair opportunity; and (4) fair distribution of (...) third-party risks. We first map out these distinct sub-principles, and then identify the ways in which they yield conflicting imperatives for the design of inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the recruitment of participants. We then offer guidance for how decision makers should navigate these conflicting imperatives to ensure that participants are selected fairly. (shrink)