Can computer and information technology (IT), widely used in the development of livestock health and production, be of any benefit for Third World farmers and institutions? And if so, how can they be implemented on a large scale? The authors try to answer these and related questions based on experiences with computerized dairy herd health and production programs in Costa Rica. They conclude that IT is becoming a key instrument in the planning and operation of modern extension services and on-farm (...) research for meeting the farmers' increasing needs for information and for enhancing their ability to manage the available resources efficiently. IT enables private sector extension services provided by farmer groups and advisors to give farmers access to information that they previously lacked. These services facilitate bottom-up planning. Where IT does not allow the farmer or extension agent to solve the problem, IT can be used to articulate the problem for researchers or policy makers to address. For low-resource smallholders, access to IT can be provided through local farmer organizations. At the institutional level, IT is giving a strong impulse to the improvement of on-farm research, teaching programs, institutional and disciplinary cooperation, regional networking, and to a better linkage with the productive sector. (shrink)

A biography of the foremost Christian humanist of the Renaissance who devoted his life to uplifting man's condition through faith, reason, and education.

"Qu'appelle-t-on "poétiser" à l'âge romantique? Telle est la question que cet essai philosophique sur Gérard de Nerval adopte comme fil conducteur pour interroger la puissance de l'art et le sens de la création au sein d'une modernité désenchantée. Tendue entre sublime et mélancolie, ruines et chimères, l'écriture nervalienne réfléchit son propre geste poétique en même temps qu'elle reconfigure nos représentations de l'existence. En philosophant avec la littérature, cet essai entend faire droit à la singularité d'une pensée qui se tisse à (...) même les formes, les tours et les détours des oeuvres de Gérard de Nerval."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

A philosophical analysis of sonically charged concepts to map a theory of "sound affects.".

This study examines the extent to which business students from Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan react differently to ethical dilemmas involving employees, supervisors, customers, suppliers, and business rivals. The empirical results show that the national origin of the students does have an impact on their reactions to particular ethical dilemmas. In addition, the results indicate that controlling for the problem of social desirability response bias is important to ensure the validity of the empirical findings.

This article argues for an understanding of the scream at the nexus of a pre-verbal, imperceptible and inaudible operation. The work of Jean-François Lyotard describes a figure that breaks with figurative, illustrative and narrative forms, and takes up an operative function. In aesthetic terms, this operative figure – the figure of the matrix of desire – is what Lyotard describes as “seeing” rather than “vision”. That is, a child-like look that does not recognise the world by which it might master (...) it, but which desires to surpass limited existence, to lose oneself and to desire everything incompossibly. “Seeing”, in other words, is an opening of the self to the world in the original sense of aisthesis. Such an opening describes a masochistic jouissance inasmuch as this is an eroticism that has no mastery in dialectical terms or in verbal expression. This article will examine the screaming, howling, whooping and wailing of characters in Marco Ferreri's La Grande Bouffe (1973) to understand the appearance of masochistic jouissance in cinema. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to determine if reading achievement of students from high-poverty US schools differs as a function of participation in summer tutoring versus access to books. Data fro...

Background The Constitutional Court of South Korea declared that an abortion ban was unconstitutional on April 11, 2019. The National Health Care System will provide abortion care across the country as a formal medical service. Conscientious objection is an issue raised during the construction of legal reforms. Methods One hundred sixty-seven perioperative nurses responded to the survey questionnaire. Nurses’ perception about conscientious objection, support of legislation regarding conscientious objection, and intention to object were measured. Logistic regression was used to explore (...) the factors associated with support of the legislation and the intention to conscientiously object. Results Only 28.8% of the responding nurses were aware of health care professionals’ conscientious objection. The majority felt that patients’ rights should be prioritized over health care professionals’ conscientious objection. On the other hand, 45.8% supported the legislation on conscientious objection to abortion, and 42.5% indicated a willingness to refuse to participate in an abortion case if conscientious objection was permitted. Religion, awareness of conscientious objection, and prioritizing of nurses’ right to conscientious objection were significantly associated with supporting the legislation. Moreover, religion and prioritizing nurses' rights were significantly associated with the intention to conscientiously object. Conclusions This study provides information necessary for further discussion of nurses’ conscientious objection. Nursing leaders, researchers, and educators should appeal to nurses and involve them in making policies that balance a women's right to non-discrimination and to receiving appropriate care with nurses' rights to maintain their moral integrity without compromising their professional obligation. (shrink)

The construct of moral intensity, proposed by Jones (1991), was used to predict the extent to which individuals were able to recognize moral issues. We tested for the effects of the six dimensions of moral intensity: social consensus, proximity, concentration of effect, probability of effect, temporal immediacy and magnitude of consequences. A scenario-based study, conducted among business individuals in Singapore, revealed that social consensus and magnitude of consequences influenced the recognition of moral issues. The study provided evidence for the effects (...) of temporal immediacy. There was marginal support for the impact of proximity and probability of effect but no evidence that concentration of effect influenced recognition of moral issues. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for researchers and organisational practitioners. (shrink)

Volume 46, Issue 6, November 2020, Page 708-726.

Gratitude is often perceived from the perspective of economic reciprocity, i.e., from the simple logic of quid pro quo. It is for this reason that Marcel Mauss ignores the topic of gratitude in his famous work on gift-giving, and that Seneca believes that gratitude is something which is given in return: ‘for the benefit that is accomplished by an act has been repaid by our gratitude if we give it friendly welcome’. In this paper I will demonstrate that gratitude is (...) not something that is given in return or a cancelation of debt. Instead, I will argue for the claim that gratitude is the recognition of that which cannot be returned, which leads, in ideal cases, to a sense of responsibility for the other. (shrink)

In this paper we present a modern version of the classic theory of “ultimate psychological hedonism” . As does the UPH, our two-dimensional model of metatelic orientations also postulates a fundamentally hedonistic motivation for any human action. However, it makes a distinction between “telic” or content-based goals of actions and “metatelic” or emotional reasons for actions. In our view, only the emotional reasons for action, but not the goals of action, conform to the UPH. After outlining our model, we will (...) elucidate the similarities and differences between our model and classic UPH. In this context we will clarify several basic misconceptions regarding classic UPH. In a next step, two major criticisms of the theory of ultimate psychological hedonism will be discussed, that is the statement that the hedonistic principle has no motivating effect at all and the argument that the hedonistic motivation is only one of many motivations of human actions. We believe that both of these arguments can be refuted. Finally, we will discuss the compatibility of our model with evolutionary theory. (shrink)

BackgroundHealth screening is undertaken to identify individuals who are deemed at higher risk of disease for further diagnostic testing so that they may possibly benefit from interventions to modify the natural course of disease. In Singapore, screening tests are widely available in the form of a package, which bundles multiple tests in one session and commonly includes non-recommended tests. There are various ethical issues associated with such testing as they may not be clinically appropriate and can result in more harm (...) than benefit. This article describes the practice of health screening packages, identifies the ethical issues arising from such packages and discusses the implications of these ethical issues on policy and practice of screening in Singapore.MethodsA content analysis of the websites of providers offering general health screening packages to individuals was conducted. A total of 14 health screening package providers were analysed for how packages were conducted and promoted, how clinically appropriate screening tests were, and the price range and composition of screening packages. A normative ethical analysis based on the four principles approach of beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy and justice in biomedical ethics was used.ResultsTwelve of the 14 providers included non-recommended tests such as tumour markers, treadmill stress tests and MRI scans in their general health screening packages. Package prices ranged from S$26 to S$10,561, with providers charging higher when more tests were included. Health screening packages were broadly conducted in three stages: the offer and selection of a health screening package; medical assessment and performance of screening tests; a post-screening review. While material provided by all providers was factual, there was no information on the potential risks or harms of screening.ConclusionSeveral ethical issues were identified that should be addressed with regard to health screening packages in Singapore. A key issue was the information gap between providers and patients, which may result in patients undergoing inappropriate testing that may be more harmful than beneficial. Health screening packages can stimulate unnecessary demand for healthcare and contribute to an inequitable distribution of healthcare resources. (shrink)

Martin Mees | : Cet article propose une réévaluation de la notion d’« événement » en matière d’esthétique, ce qui nécessite de s’interroger plus spécifiquement sur la temporalité propre au concept de « sublime », associé traditionnellement à une fulgurance, un instant sidérant qui ferait justement événement. Le développement s’appuie sur l’Analytique kantienne du sublime qui, en diverses occasions, met en avant le caractère paradoxal d’un sublime qui ne semble pouvoir se déployer qu’au prix d’une temporalité double, qualifiée ultimement (...) de régressive. Je défendrai ici la thèse que le sublime renvoie en réalité à une expérience esthétique de l’événement comme tel, à même de nous faire penser une certaine « Idée esthétique » du temps. Une telle expérience semble d’ailleurs pouvoir trouver forme dans différentes productions poétiques de notre modernité. | : This article proposes a re-evaluation of the notion of “event” in the field of aesthetics, which requires to question the specific temporality of the concept of “sublime”, traditionally associated with a flash, a staggering moment, which precisely constitutes an event. The development leans on the Kantian Analytic of the sublime which, on diverse occasions, highlights the paradoxical character of a sublime that only seems able to fulfil itself at the price of a double temporality, ultimately named regressive. I shall defend here the thesis that the sublime refers actually to an aesthetic experience of the event per se, allowing us to conceptualise a certain “aesthetic idea” of time. Such an experience, as a matter of fact, seems to be embodied in different poetic productions of our modernity. (shrink)

The cause of Paget's disease is still unknown, despite many years of intensive study. During this time, evidence has sporadically emerged to suggest that the disease may result from a slow viral infection by one or more of the Paramyxoviruses. More recently, epidemiologic and molecular studies have suggested that the canine paramyxovirus, canine distemper virus, is the virus responsible for the disease. If true, then along with rabies, this would be a further example of a canine virus causing human disease. (...) Studies in the natural host have now supported these findings. Further investigations have proposed that the bony abnormalities seen in Paget's disease are due to the effects of the virus on osteoclastic interleukin‐6 and c‐FOS production, possibly via the transcription factor NF‐kB. (shrink)

Cet article propose une relecture du traité du Pseudo-Longin, le Peri Hupsous (Du Sublime), pour mettre en évidence l’un de ses enjeux philosophiques dont l’intérêt apparaît particulièrement actuel. Au cours de sa conceptualisation du sublime, l’auteur antique produit certes une définition du grand-dire mais il questionne surtout la puissance des œuvres, et ce de façon immanente, avant toute réception subjective. Or cette pensée de la puissance esthétique est solidaire d’une conception de l’art qui récuse tout dualisme de la forme pour (...) saisir l’œuvre en tant qu’unité paradoxale et intimement cohérente. Notre hypothèse tient en l’idée qu’à travers cette adéquation de la puissance à la logique même de la poièsis, le Pseudo-Longin ne nous donne à lire rien de moins qu’une première formulation de ce que nous appellerions dans un vocabulaire contemporain la performativité de l’art. Ce sont les conditions d’une telle performativité, étendue du discours à l’esthétique en général, que cet article tente de repérer tout au long du traité. (shrink)

Cet article revient sur une notion à la fois féconde et polémique des derniers travaux de Foucault : l’esthétique de l’existence, ou la possibilité d’élaborer sa vie comme une œuvre d’art. À rebours de plusieurs critiques et malentendus, il s’agit de saisir le sens et les enjeux de cette idée en faisant pleinement droit à sa dimension esthétique. À travers l’analyse de la conférence sur La Culture de soi, l’article commence par montrer la spécificité de l’esthétique de l’existence au sein (...) des larges réflexions de Foucault sur les problématisations du sujet. En confrontant ensuite différents textes du philosophe entre eux, on en vient à dégager une double série de propositions qui mettent en lumière la profonde actualité de l’esthétique de l’existence et son potentiel subversif. (shrink)

This article discusses the contributions of American industrial engineers Frank and Lillian Gilbreth to management thought. It suggests that the work of the Gilbreths represents a very modernist form of rationalization, of the measuring, categorization, recording, and governing of work, work methods, employees, and processes. The motion studies and uses of psychology stressed by the Gilbreths would seem to represent some of the most pronounced forms of governance of production in the history of management thought. Frederick Taylor’s mental revolution entailed (...) recourse to a ‘science’ of management as the ultimate arbiter of work processes. The committing of processes to writing and film would be Taylorized even more completely under Frank Gilbreth’s motion study, while workers would be enrolled more fully into the new labour process by the equally coercive and ideologized Taylorization of their minds in Lillian Gilbreth’s much more teacherly psychology of management. (shrink)