Tacitus opens the Annals with a succinct sketch of the constitutional history of Rome from the kings to Augustus (1.1.1). The common interpretation holds that Tacitus adopts a cyclical view of this history which identifies the supremacy of Augustus with kingship, and chooses his vocabulary of power primarily with stylistic variation in mind. The terms employed, princeps and imperium, are also held to announce a major interpretative preoccupation of the Annals, the gap between the ‘appearance’ and the ‘reality’ of power (...) under the principate. This essay will demonstrate that these interpretations of the structure and language of the preface are misleading. Tacitus offers a sequential view of Roman constitutional history that casts Augustus as a pivot between the tradition stretching back to the foundation of the city and a new phase which he identifies in its own terms, not as a reversion to kingship. The introduction of the motif of ‘appearance v. reality’ comes not with the language of princeps and imperium, but at 1.2.1. An appendix analyses the use of the term principatus in Velleius Paterculus and Tacitus. (shrink)

This essay offers three arguments concerning the ancient tradition about the mons Caelius. (1) Tacitus’ digression on the name of the mons Caelius at Annals 4.65 provides a useful framework for interpreting the complexity of the tradition: Caeles Vibenna should be regarded as a constant feature, his chronological context as an unstable feature that was recognised as such. (2) Claudius’ report of Etruscan auctores on the naming of the mons Caelius in his speech of A. D. 48 about the Gauls, (...) correctly emended, offers a unique etymology that cannot be reconciled with Roman accounts. (3) The presence of appellitare in Tacitus’ digression and Claudius' speech is normally assumed to prove Tacitus’ debt to Claudius, but this assumption cannot be sustained in the face of their fundamentally irreconcilable treatments of Caeles Vibenna. Tacitus used appellitare independently of Claudius, who was not a source of Ann. 4.65. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “Social Autopoiesis?” by Hugo Urrestarazu. Upshot: Although accepting Urrestarazu’s view of how autopoietic dynamics can be sought in the domain of the non-living, we see no reason to trace the social to autonomy. Rather, we stress that social systems happen all the time: they arise as people coordinate while also using the peculiarities of human languaging.

A survey of works on automatic theorem-proving in the ussr 1964-1970. the philosophical problems are not touched.

Anydomainofscientificresearchhasitssustainingorthodoxy. Thatis, research on a problem, whether in astronomy, physics, or biology, is con- ducted against a backdrop of broadly shared assumptions. It is these as- sumptionsthatguideinquiryandprovidethecanonofwhatisreasonable-- of what "makes sense." And it is these shared assumptions that constitute a framework for the interpretation of research results. Research on the problem of how we see is likewise sustained by broadly shared assump- tions, where the current orthodoxy embraces the very general idea that the business of the visual system is to (...) create a detailed replica of the visual world, and that it accomplishes its business via hierarchical organization and by operatingessentiallyindependently of other sensorymodalitiesas well as independently of previous learning, goals, motor planning, and motor execution. (shrink)

House of Lords ruling on assisted dyingIn July 2009, the House of Lords ruled that the Director of Public Prosecutions must produce clear guidelines on the prosecution of those who help friends or relatives travel abroad for assisted suicide. 1 As previously reported here, both the High Court and Court of Appeal had rejected Debbie Purdy’s case before it reached the Lords.2 As a person with primary progressive multiple sclerosis, she had asked the court to rule that her husband would (...) not face prosecution if he accompanied her to Switzerland if she decides to end her life. 3By requiring the DPP to publish offence-specific guidelines about the circumstances in which a prosecution would be brought, the law lords did not go so far as to assert a right to assistance in dying by legalising assisted suicide. It was reiterated that any change to the criminal law against aiding and abetting suicide remained a political matter for Parliament. The Lords did, however, acknowledge that the right to privacy, and the associated right to autonomy, was potentially infringed by the absence of a transparent policy about those who are competent and terminally ill, or severely and incurably disabled, and who need help to travel abroad for assisted dying. The five law lords unanimously agreed that Ms Purdy’s right to a private life, as protected by article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, included the right to clarity regarding the exercise of the DPP’s discretion as to whether or not to prosecute.Following the Lords’ ruling, the DPP, Keir Starmer, confirmed that the new guidance would apply to all acts of assisted suicide, those taking place within and outside of the jurisdiction.4 He then published an interim policy for wide consultation in September 2009, and is expected to produce the final policy in …. (shrink)

Apresentamos um resumo do desenvolvimento e do contexto institucional do Projecto Humanização dos Cuidados Paliativos em Contexto Domiciliário, aprovado e financiado pela Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. Utilizam-se largamente os próprios documentos que o justificaram e os relatórios oficiais para dar uma imagem vivida, realista e técnica das dificuldades da profissionalização e reforma dos Cuidados Paliativos, mesmo quando integrada em acções de formação num serviço de um Centro de Tratamento Compreensivo do Cancro. We put forward a synopsis of the development and institutional (...) context of the Project Humanização dos Cuidados Paliativos em Contexto Domiciliário, approved and financed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The groundwork documents are widely used as well as official reports so as to convey a lively, realistic and technical image arising from professionalizing and reforming Palliative Medicine even when it is based on in-service training programmes in an Comprehensive Cancer Center. (shrink)

Living organ donation in the UKThe prospect of new regulation is often met with reluctance and legitimate fears of additional bureaucracy for very little benefit. Changes to the approval procedure for living organ donation in the UK, however, appear to have made a real, and positive, difference to the practice. The Human Tissue Act 2004 abolished the Unrelated Live Transplants Regulatory Authority and handed responsibility for overseeing living donation to the newly established Human Tissue Authority. On paper, the new system (...) appeared to be a significant improvement on the old one. It removed the illogical disparity between related and unrelated donors. Previously only donations from unrelated individuals needed prior approval and evidence of a genetic link was a green light to proceed without further investigation, suggesting, erroneously, that donation within families was always voluntary and free from pressure and coercion. While the reasoning behind this distinction was obvious—coming as it did in the immediate aftermath of the uncovering of an international trade in human organs—the logic behind the distinction was lacking. Although the list of permitted relationships was broad, donation between spouses, long-term partners or friends was subject to the full and frequently drawn-out approval process designed to prevent surreptitious payment.Now all living organ donation needs prior approval but the system has been streamlined to avoid the long delays that became synonymous with the old system. Under the new regime: Applications are reviewed at a local level by a group of “independent assessors” who have been trained and accredited by the HTA.The independent assessor must be satisfied that the person consenting to the donation has been given and understood the necessary information and that there is no evidence of reward or coercion or evidence that the person has been subjected to pressure to consent. …. (shrink)

BackgroundAccurate reporting on sex and gender in health research is integral to ensuring that health interventions are safe and effective. In Canada and internationally, governments, research organizations, journal editors, and health agencies have called for more inclusive research, provision of sex-disaggregated data, and the integration of sex and gender analysis throughout the research process. Sex and gender analysis is generally defined as an approach for considering how and why different subpopulations (e.g., of diverse genders, ages, and social locations) may experience (...) health conditions and interventions in different or similar ways.The objective of this study was to assess the extent and nature of reporting about sex and/or gender, including whether sex and gender analysis (SGA) was carried out in a sample of Canadian randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with human participants.MethodsWe searched MEDLINE from 01 January 2013 to 23 July 2014 using a validated filter for identification of RCTs, combined with terms related to Canada. Two reviewers screened the search results to identify the first 100 RCTs that were either identified in the trial publication as funded by a Canadian organization or which had a first or last author based in Canada. Data were independently extracted by two people from 10% of the RCTs during an initial training period; once agreement was reached on this sample, the remainder of the data extraction was completed by one person and verified by a second.ResultsThe search yielded 1433 records. We screened 256 records to identify 100 RCTs which met our eligibility criteria. The median sample size of the RCTs was 107 participants (range 12–6085). While 98% of studies described the demographic composition of their participants by sex, only 6% conducted a subgroup analysis across sex and 4% reported sex-disaggregated data. No article defined “sex” and/or “gender.” No publication carried out a comprehensive sex and gender analysis.ConclusionsFindings highlight poor uptake of sex and gender considerations in the Canadian RCT context and underscore the need for better articulated guidance on sex and gender analysis to improve reporting of evidence, inform policy development, and guide future research. (shrink)

The last half century has been characterized by a growth in the regulation of clinical research nationally and internationally. Each area of research on human subjects has been the subject of a vast academic literature and extensive public policy debate, from issues of informed consent to that of regulatory structures. Professor Bernard Dickens has provided an outstanding contribution to this debate internationally through his many innovative and incisive papers in this area. This paper provides an English lawyer’s perspective upon the (...) increasing regulation of clinical research practices and asks – does regulation equate with effective rights protection? From Nuremberg onwards, there has been concern to ensure that research practices are ethical and in accordance with legal principles. So, for example, there have been statements such as the Declaration of Helsinki, which was initially produced in 1964. In the European context in particular, notably influential statements have been the European Convention on Human Rights, which has been followed by the Council of Europe Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine and, more recently, a Draft Additional Protocol on medical research. (shrink)

The last half century has been characterized by a growth in the regulation of clinical research nationally and internationally. Each area of research on human subjects has been the subject of a vast academic literature and extensive public policy debate, from issues of informed consent to that of regulatory structures. Professor Bernard Dickens has provided an outstanding contribution to this debate internationally through his many innovative and incisive papers in this area. This paper provides an English lawyer’s perspective upon the (...) increasing regulation of clinical research practices and asks – does regulation equate with effective rights protection? From Nuremberg onwards, there has been concern to ensure that research practices are ethical and in accordance with legal principles. So, for example, there have been statements such as the Declaration of Helsinki, which was initially produced in 1964. In the European context in particular, notably influential statements have been the European Convention on Human Rights, which has been followed by the Council of Europe Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine and, more recently, a Draft Additional Protocol on medical research. (shrink)