Optic neuropathies are conditions that cause disease to the optic nerve, and can result in loss of visual acuity and/or visual field defects. An improved understanding of how these conditions affect the entire visual system is warranted, to better predict and/or restore the visual loss. In this article, we review visually-driven functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of optic neuropathies, including glaucoma and optic neuritis (ON); we also discuss traumatic optic neuropathy (TON). Optic neuropathy-related vision loss results in fMRI deficit (...) within the visual cortex, and is often strongly correlated with clinical severity measures. Using predominantly flickering checkerboard stimuli, glaucoma studies indicated retinotopic-specific cortical alteration with more prominent deficits in advanced than in early glaucoma. Some glaucoma studies indicate a reorganized visual cortex. ON studies have indicated that the impacted cortical areas are briefly hyperactive. For ON, brain deficits are greater in the acute stages of the disease, followed by (near) normalization of responses of the LGN, visual cortex, and the dorsal visual stream, but not the ventral extrastriate cortex. Visually-driven fMRI is sensitive, at least in ON, in discriminating patients from controls, as well as the affected eye from the fellow eye within patients. The use of a greater variety of stimuli beyond checkerboards (e.g., visual motion and object recognition) in recent ON studies is encouraging, and needs to continue to disentangle the results in terms of change over time. Finally, visually-driven fMRI has not yet been applied in TON, although preliminary efforts suggest it may be feasible. Future fMRI studies of optic neuropathies should consider using more complex visual stimuli, and inter-regional analysis methods including functional connectivity. We suggest that a more systematic longitudinal comparison of optic neuropathies with advanced fMRI would provide improved diagnostic and prognostic information. (shrink)

Optic neuropathy refers to disease of the optic nerve and can result in loss of visual acuity and/or visual field defects. Combining findings from multiple fMRI modalities can offer valuable information for characterizing and managing optic neuropathies. In this article, we review a subset of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) studies of optic neuropathies. We consider glaucoma, acute optic neuritis (ON), discuss traumatic optic neuropathy (TON), and explore consistency between findings from RS and visually driven fMRI studies. Consistent with (...) visually driven studies, glaucoma studies at rest also indicated reduced activation in the visual cortex and dorsal visual stream. RS-fMRI further reported varying levels of functional connectivity in the ventral stream depending on disease severity. ON patients show alterations within the visual cortex in both fMRI techniques. Particularly, higher-than-normal RS activity is observed in the acute phase and decreases as the disease progresses. A similar pattern is observed in the visual cortex of TON-like, open globe injury (OGI), patients. Additionally, visually driven and RS-fMRI studies of ON patients show recovery of brain activity in the visual cortex. RS-fMRI suggests recovery of signals in higher-tier visual areas MT and LOC as well. Finally, RS-fMRI has not yet been applied to TON, although reviewing OGI studies suggests that it is feasible. Future RS-fMRI studies of optic neuropathies could prioritize studying the fine scale RS activity of brain areas that visually driven studies have identified. We suggest that a more systematic longitudinal comparison of optic neuropathies with advanced fMRI would provide improved diagnostic and prognostic information. (shrink)

Volume 20, Issue 10, October 2020, Page 65-66.

Des mortalités anormales frappent les ruchers d’Europe et d’autres continents depuis un peu plus de vingt ans. Depuis le début des troubles, des suspicions pèsent sur des insecticides d’un genre nouveau, utilisés en traitement de semences. La législation prescrivant l’évaluation des risques environnementaux de toute substance insecticide dès avant sa mise sur le marché, des apiculteurs sont allés consulter les dossiers portant sur les molécules suspectées, ce qui les a amenés à s’impliquer dans la critique et l’élaboration des règles d’évaluation, (...) et à côtoyer le monde des experts en toxicologie de l’abeille.Beehives across Europe and other continents have been affected by abnormal mortality for the last twenty years. Since these problems first appeared, suspicion has fallen on a new type of insecticide, which is used to treat seeds. The legislation prescribes environmental risk assessments of any insecticide substance before it reaches the market, and beekeepers therefore decided to consult the files concerning the suspect molecules. As a result, they became involved in critically reviewing and developing assessment rules, and thus came to rub shoulders with experts in bee toxicology. (shrink)

Que l’on s’attache à mettre en lumière une forme d’humanité chez l’abeille ou que l’on observe dans l’espèce humaine des comportements d’essaims, la volonté de rapprocher les deux espèces est coutumière et récurrente. Ne faut-il voir dans ces déclarations de proximités, cet intérêt et cette fascination pour l’abeille qu’anthropomorphisme simpliste, rêveries champêtres de poètes dominicaux ou fantaisies puériles nourries d’images d’Épinal et de dessins animés japonais ? Le rapprochement n’est ..

This study investigated potential risk factors (coping, perfectionism and self-regulation) for substantial injuries in contemporary dance students using a prospective cohort design, as high-quality studies focusing on mental risk factors for dance injuries are lacking. Student characteristics (age, sex, BMI, educational program and history of injury) and psychological constructs (coping, perfectionism and self-regulation) were assessed using the Performing artist and Athlete Health Monitor (PAHM), a web-based system. Substantial injuries were measured with the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center (OSTRC) Questionnaire on (...) Health Problems and recorded on a monthly basis as part of the PAHM system. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to test the associations between potential risk factors (i.e. student characteristics and psychological constructs) and substantial injuries. 99 students were included in the analyses. During the academic year 2016-2017, 48 students (48.5%) reported at least one substantial injury. Of all factors included, coping skills (OR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.84–0.98), age (OR: 0.67; 95% CI: 0.46–0.98) and BMI (OR: 1.38; 95% CI: 1.05–1.80) were identified as significant risk factors in the multivariate analysis. The model explained 24% of the variance in the substantial injury group. Further prospective research into mental risk factors for dance injuries with larger samples sizes is needed to develop preventive strategies. Yet, dance schools could consider including coping skills training as part of injury prevention programs and, perhaps, providing special attention to younger dancers and those with a higher BMI through transitional programs to assist them in managing the stress they experience throughout their (academic) career. (shrink)

En prenant pour exemple mon parcours personnel allant du travail de la cure à celui de l’écriture, des violences politiques reflétées dans celles de la famille à la douleur de leurs inscriptions psychiques et textuelles, la première partie de l’exposé montrera en quoi le travail d’élaboration et d’écriture que doit effectuer un descendant de survivants, s’il cherche à psychiser, historiciser et inscrire le trauma de ses ascendants, constitue une démarche violente et transgressive. La seconde partie dégagera quelques aspects des déterminants (...) psychiques qui affectent les descendants de survivants : le caractère double du vécu traumatique, l’expérience d’une délocalisation psychique en l’absence d’image narcissisante, le souvenir de la terreur dans le rapport aux autres, la mutilation ou l’incapacité d’être. (shrink)

Le présent article s’appuie sur une pratique psychologique dans le cadre de visites médiatisées. Il cible notamment les entretiens cliniques réalisés par le psychologue avec les parents dans l’après-coup des visites médiatisées et a pour objectif de saisir l’enjeu clinique de ces temps d’entretiens. Deux vignettes cliniques permettent d’esquisser les potentialités des rencontres en l’absence des enfants. Il apparaît que ces entretiens favorisent le rétablissement d’une activité de mentalisation et de symbolisation. Enfin, une discussion métapsychologique éclaire les études de cas.

Cette édition numérique a été réalisée à partir d'un support physique, parfois ancien, conservé au sein du dépôt légal de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, conformément à la loi n° 2012-287 du 1er mars 2012 relative à l'exploitation des Livres indisponibles du XXe siècle. L'histoire des hommes est l'histoire de leurs guerres, dit-on, la paix ne serait qu'une trêve préparant de nouveaux conflits. « Copyright Electre » Pages de début Avant-propos Introduction Première partie - La réalité de la guerre Présentation (...) 1 - La guerre, l'ordre du monde et l'ordre de Dieu 2 - Le désir et la guerre 3 - La nature, le destin et la guerre 4 - La liberté et la guerre Deuxième partie - Les utopies de la paix Présentation 1 - Conjecture sur la paix naturelle 2 - La paix originelle et la paix civile 3 - La paix perpétuelle Troisième partie - Vers la paix Présentation 1 - La faille ontologique 2 - Une ontologie oubliée 3 - Laparole et la paix Pages de fin. (shrink)

: Three unpublished ayyubid letters are presented here. They are addressed to ascetics, fuqarāʾ and ṣūfī, residing in the great mosque of Damascus, and devoted to reading the Qurʾān and praying at the tomb of prophet Zakariyyāʾ. This veneered shrine or ziyāra had been ignored until now, although it was known and it is common knowledge nowadays, that some rituals took place around the location where the head of John the Baptist, known in the lands of Islamic world as Yaḥyā (...) b. Zakariyyāʾ, was kept. Our research seeks to present aspects of the rituals held in the tomb of Zakariyāʾ, arguing that it was initially established with an impetus from Saladin, then thrived under his ayyubid successors, to start dwindling until it was abandoned by the end of the mamluk era. (shrink)

En France, parler d’argent est encore plus difficile que de parler de sexualité. À partir d’une enquête par histoires de vie, effectuée auprès de cent cinq hommes et femmes de tous âges, tous milieux et toutes régions, Janine Mossuz-Lavau montre comment se fait l’apprentissage de l’argent, quel est le poids des cultures familiales dans la formation des comportements à son égard, comment il pèse sur les couples, qu’ils perdurent ou se séparent, et sur leurs enfants.

Ce livre part d'une question : pourquoi les gauches ne parviennent-elles pas à faire émerger un projet crédible, en dépit de l'urgence du besoin? Il repose sur urge conviction : un des (nombreux) obstacles réside dans le fait que l'on reste trop souvent sur le terrain de l'adversaire, en ne combattant pas explicitement la forme même de pensée sur laquelle s'appuie l'idéologie dominante et qui la conforte. A l'heure actuelle émerge, à partir des avancées scientifiques, une nouvelle forme de pensée, (...) profondément dialectique, la pensée du complexe, qui peut fournir une aide considérable à l'action politique émancipatrice et nourrir un renouvellement du rationalisme. (shrink)

De récents scandales clans l'industrie du médicament ou l'agro-alimentaire ont montré les risques d'un détournement de la recherche scientifique. L'objet de ce livre est de mieux comprendre les ressorts de la crise qui s'installe ainsi entre science et société et de proposer des solutions respectant aussi bien l'indépendance de la recherche que le besoin de démocratie, très largement à inventer au demeurant, dans les choix de politique scientifique. Il s'adresse aux scientifiques comme aux citoyens. Il analyse la manière dont le (...) capitalisme néolibéral tente de mettre la science et les techniques au service de la compétitivité et des profils. Il s'appuie sur les résistances à cette politique pour montrer que la démocratie scientifique ne se résume pas à la question des choix technologiques ou de la gestion des risques et ne concerne pas la seule communauté scientifique. Il veut ouvrir des pistes pour mettre la connaissance scientifique et le développement technique au service des besoins humains (y compris le besoin de connaissances), ce qui appelle de nouvelles formes d'investissement citoyen et de pluralisme scientifique. (shrink)

The fifteenth Journal for Research in Mathematics Education monograph had its origins in a conference titled An Interdisciplinary Conference on Assessment in K--12 Mathematics: Collaborations Between Mathematics Education and Psychometrics, which was held in 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia. The basis for the conference was the renaissance in the field of psychometrics in which an increasing variety of psychometric models are becoming available through advances in computer hardware and software. This is opening new avenues for studying the mathematical knowledge of teachers (...) and students. The overarching purpose of the monograph is to guide further interdisciplinary collaborations between mathematics education researchers and psychometricians by examining theoretical and conceptual issues that have arisen in recent efforts to apply contemporary psychometric models to mathematics education research. Specifically, its chapters are intended to (a) illustrate for mathematics education researchers the two main categories of psychometric models-models that locate individuals along continua and models that place individuals into discrete groups, as well as hybrids of these approaches; (b) provide examples that apply these different categories of psychometric models to mathematics education research; (c) illustrate how researchers have selected different psychometric models on the basis of the researchers' goals and (d) demonstrate issues related to item development. With these goals in mind, the monograph will enhance an awareness among mathematics education researchers that it is increasingly possible to select from a variety of model options when pursuing particular research goals and that choosing among models involves trade-offs. (shrink)

La parution récente en français du livre de M. Denton : “Evolution. Une théorie en crise” , qui traite des theories explicatives actuelles de l'évolution, nous amine à rappeler les caracteres généraux des grandes theories biologiques et à présenter une critique sommaire du livre en question.La science West pas une simple accumulation de connaissances. Le scientifique ne doit pas se contenter de decrire et de mesurer des faits. Son but eat d'essayer de les relier et de construire des théories qui (...) tentent de nous faire comprendre le “reel”, objet de ses recherches.Cependant, la nature du matériel biologique — c'est-à-dire les espèces vivantes et les catégories qu'on y a reconnues, classe ou ordre par exemple — est si complexe qua la biologie actuelle est fort loin encore Wavoir réalisé une synthèse qui ressemble, méme très approximativement, à la classification de Mendéleiev pour les éléments chimiques.Malgré cette complexité, les biologques ont réussi à construire la th6orie du fait de l'evolution et ils proposent aujourd'hui une théorie explicative de cette évolution qui, bien qua critiquée, est incontestablement bien étayee. Nous allons essayer de définir la structure des grandes théories biologiques; ensuite nous analyserons sommairement quelques-unes des critiques qui sont adressees aux theories de l'évolution.Considering the publication in French version of Michael Denton's book, Evolution : A Theory in crisis , in which he critizes the synthetical theory of the biological evolution, we thought it useful to point out the main errors of argumentation contained in that book by first referring to the characteristics of general biological theories.In biology, there exist elementary theories - such as that dealing with the extinction of giant Reptiles - and general theories - such as the chromosomic theory of heredity and the explanatory theory of evolution. The latter generally consist of a group of elementary theories imbricated so that they form a whole like a jig-saw puzzle. An example is provided by the synthetic theory of evolution that can be defined in 20 propositions divided into two categories : the propositions relating to the naturalists' observations - which correspond to descriptive concepts - and those relating to the data of the population genetics - which correspond to explanatory concepts . The general scheme of the theory is formed by a network of relations between the descriptive concepts and the explanatory concepts. There also exist other theories in general biology supported by thousands of minor facts which only together can be of proof of validity. These theories are quite reliable and cannot be questioned by facts still to be explained. Questioning can only happen if they are confronted to well-established data in nearly equal numbers.In his work, Denton does not deny the phenomenon of biological evolution, but he criticizes the syntheticians' ideas by emphasizing that no great evolutive changes can be accounted for by the complex mechanism of random mutations and selection. He goes back to a typological concept of the zoological classification in some way similar to that of Vialleton's. However, Denton agrees with the phenomenon of the biological evolution and accepts the existence of "saltations" among the great zoological groups. The arguments used by Denton merely show that he is not conversant with the complexity of sciences particularly in comparative anatomy and zoology, the teaching of which is being somehow neglected today.By giving as an example the structure of the aortic arches in Amphibians and by a summary of the variations of those structures and the evolution of the blood-circulation in Vertebrates, we proved that the typological argument is of no value. As a matter of fact, a study of the now living beings clearly shows the gradual transition - e.g. a transition by a very large number of feasible stages - from the Lower Vertebrates to the Higher Vertebrates. In particular, there have been several attempts at double circulation and there still exist many species in which the blood of the double circulation is mixed. It seems therefore obvious that the double circulation has been achieved, stage by stage, with many intermediate schemes; we are inclined, therefore, to conclude that this succession of small transformations was produced by a huge mechanism of selected small mutations.Our present-day biological knowledge includes a number of examples large enough to consider the “argument of the impossible” used by Denton is due to inadequate fossil data and not to any mysterious mechanism such as macromutations. Let us say again that the typological structures seem to occur only when the data of comparative anatomy and zoology are over-simplified. (shrink)

Le divorce du corps et de l'esprit est-il caractéristique de la pensée d'aujourd'hui? Une révolte contre l'ordre biologique semble infiltrer sourdement la conception que nous avons du monde. Les auteurs d'attentats suicides semblent rejoindre la fascination pour la destruction d'écrivains comme Mishima, Pasolini ou Foucault. Se libérer du corps pour rétablir une union - mystique? - entre l'âme et le cosmos, affirmer la toute-puissance de l'esprit serait le dénominateur commun de conduites que la pensée actuelle semble admettre tout uniment. La (...) misogynie nouvelle, qui, au nom du féminisme, répudie la maternité, participe-t-elle en quelque point de ces mouvements? Ce livre, né du regard d'un psychanalyste - femme et non-médecin (elle est diplômée, entre autres, de l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris) - sur notre société, constitue une analyse sans concession ni compromis de mécanismes, aussi étranges que violents, qui surgissent dans le monde contemporain. (shrink)

Is todayâ??s thinking conditioned by body-mind dualism? A rebellion against the biological order seems to have silently infiltrated our world view. Suicide bombers appear to share a fascination with destruction with writers such as Mishima, Pasolini and Foucault. A liberation from the body to re-establish a possibly mystical union of soul and cosmos and an assertion of the mindâ??s omnipotence appear to be common features of forms of behavior that seem to be taken for granted in contemporary thought. Is the (...) new misogyny, which rejects motherhood in the name of feminism, contributing in any way to these trends? This review of our society by a woman psychoanalyst â?? a non-medic and graduate of the Institut d'Ã?tudes Politiques in Paris â?? presents a sharp and rigorous analysis of the strange and violent mechanisms that are erupting in the world today. (shrink)

Em A última razão dos reis, Renato Janine Ribeiro se volta para a sociedade e a política do Antigo Regime, buscando entender em que condições algo de novo se pode gerar na aventura humana. Trata-se, aqui, de estudar o passado para verificar o quanto ele nos serve e, inversamente, até que ponto continua a nos governar. Por que uma ética aristocrática é a que melhor convém à fortuna? Por que, no mito de D. Juan, o tema do ateísmo veio (...) a ser posteriormente recalcado, restando apenas o do sedutor? Como e quando teve início a moderna análise de texto? O que existe em comum entre o discurso de um filósofo contemporâneo, Michel Foucault, e o dos moralistas franceses do século XVII? Qual a relação entre uma concepção da história centrada na idéia de novidade e as diversas vertentes da doutrina da soberania surgidas nos séculos XVII e XVIII? O que distingue a revolução socialista da burguesa no Dezoito Brumário de Marx? Questões que o autor analisa neste livro unindo clareza de estilo e erudição, e que interessam às mais variadas áreas, da filosofia à literatura, passando, evidentemente, pela política e pela história. (shrink)

Gouvernance et libéralités de Saladin: D’après les données inédites de six documents arabes. Edited by Jean-Michel Mouyon; Dominique Sourdel; and Janine Sourdel-Thomine. Documents relatifs à l’histoire des croisades, vol. 22. Paris: AcadémIe des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettred, 2015. Pp. 148. €30.

Name der Zeitschrift: Der Islam Jahrgang: 93 Heft: 1 Seiten: 286-290.

Ce livre est le fruit d’un colloque organisé le 8 mars 2006, en collaboration avec l’association Archives du féminisme, à la Bibliothèque Nationale de France à Paris pour le cinquantenaire du Mouvement Français pour le Planning Familial (MFPF). Malgré son titre, l’ouvrage n’est pas un récit historique linéaire sur ce mouvement emblématique de la lutte pour les droits des femmes en France. En fait, les onze articles rédigés par des historiennes, sociologues et politistes interrogent les rappor...

Ce livre exceptionnel à tous égards associe des chercheuses spécialistes de l’histoire, de la langue et de la culture polonaises en France et en Pologne, pour traiter une source inégalée dans l’histoire de l’immigration, accessible aux archives départementales d’Indre-et-Loire, un corpus de 1 300 lettres envoyées à une inspectrice de la main d’œuvre immigrée, Julie Duval, en 1934. Écrites en polonais, il a fallu les déchiffrer avant, pour certaines, les traduire (130) et les analyser. Julie D...

When shared decision making breaks down and parents and medical providers have developed entrenched and conflicting views, ethical frameworks are needed to find a way forward. This article reviews the evolution of thought about the best interest standard and then discusses the advantages of the harm principle (HP) and the zone of parental discretion (ZPD). Applying these frameworks to parental refusals in situations of complexity and uncertainty presents challenges that necessitate concrete substeps to analyze the big picture and identify key (...) questions. I outline and defend a new decision-making tool that includes three parts: identifying the nature of the disagreement, checklists for key elements of the HP and ZPD, and a “think list” of specific questions designed to enhance use of the HP and ZPD in clinical decision making. These tools together will assist those embroiled in complex disagreements to disentangle the issues to find a path to resolution. (shrink)

This paper examines the impact of integrated reporting on the integration of environmental, social, and governance issues into the business model and the related economic and ESG performance changes. To investigate these internal and external transformational effects of IR, important differences between IR and alternative ESG reporting strategies are worked out. Using three matched samples of companies from around the world for the sample period 2002–2011, IR companies are matched with companies applying no ESG reporting, stand-alone ESG reporting, or ESG (...) reporting in the annual report. The results suggest that IR is a superior mechanism only for the integration of ESG issues into the core business model when comparing IR with the ESG reporting strategies of no ESG reporting and ESG reporting in annual reports. In comparison with, stand-alone ESG reporting, the results indicate that IR is negatively associated with the ESG integration level and with the economic and ESG performance. Moreover, this negative impact is lower for companies that have already implemented ESG management tools prior to the initiation of IR and is stronger for companies residing in countries with legal requirements for the disclosure of ESG information. A separate change analysis reveals that companies do not benefit from a switch from stand-alone ESG reporting to IR. Thus, this paper provides empirical evidence that contradicts the general notion of IR as a superior reporting mechanism, as the benefits of IR are driven by several factors. (shrink)

An anthology that provides new translations and makes available much of the relevant historical literature needed for an exploration of the view that morality is very literally created by God. Contains 41 selections representing discussions of divine command morality in Ancient philosophy, scholastic philosophical theology, the Reformation tradition, the British modern period, and contemporary analytic philosophy. This book includes a bibliography of Latin, French, English, German, and Italian sources on divine command morality.

Any worlds semantics for intentionality has to provide a plenitudinous theory of impossibility: For any impossible proposition, it should provide a world where it is true. Hence, also any semantics for impossibility statements that extends Lewis’s concretism about possible worlds should be plenitudinous. However, several such proposals for impossibilist semantics fail to accommodate two kinds of impossibility that, albeit not unheard of, have been largely neglected in the literature on impossible worlds, but that are bound to arise in the Lewisian (...) context. The proposals discussed here stop short of plenitude because they adhere to what Lewis occasionally referred to as ‘ontological truth’, as they lack the semantic ability to misrepresent ontological facts. The paper develops a framework for systematic misrepresentations on the basis of Mares’s situation-based account of impossible ‘worlds’, and which confines ‘ontological truth’ to possibility. It thus illustrates how a plenitude of impossibilities can be achieved. (shrink)

Reports of children participating in hunger strikes while detained in offshore detention centres raise interrelated ethical issues and recognizable challenges for the medical decision-makers at these sites. A composite case study, informed by reports in the public domain, is employed to explore the unique challenges of consent and decision-making in these circumstances and the perennial issues inherent in adolescents’ developing capacity and autonomy. We present an amalgamated case of a fourteen-year-old adolescent who refused to consent to medical reversal of her (...) hunger strike protest. The medical team became the final arbiter when her parents, who were also in detention, could not agree with each other even after mediation. The case explores the complexity of evaluating the adolescent’s capacity to provide informed consent while influenced by the opinions of co-detainees in this extreme setting. We argue that the parents and the child had compromised decisional capacity due to the effects of detention. The challenges to the medical team are recognized and discussed. The team members faced a difficult dilemma and considered the competing values of the multiple cultural and ethical factors. Each team member integrated his or her own roles, duties, and discipline-specific professional guidelines with the primary goal of mitigating potential harms. (shrink)

This paper examines whether and to what extent the overall business strategy influences the firm’s mismanagement of sustainability. Specifically, an empirical measure for the mismanagement of sustainability is developed by exploiting the newly available materiality guidelines for US firms to define industry-specific material sustainability issues. Using this measure, this paper shows that mismanagement of sustainability can represent unethical business behavior when firms intentionally perform better on immaterial issues than on material issues by diverting stakeholders’ attention from the firm’s low overall (...) sustainability performance. This paper assumes that the right business strategy can prevent such unethical actions. Based on Miles and Snow’s organizational theory, this paper distinguishes between Prospector and Defender business strategies. By employing multiple firm-level panel regressions, the findings suggest that Prospector-type firms are more likely to mismanage sustainability issues compared to Defender-type firms intentionally. The results give implications for researchers, regulators and standard setters, auditors, sustainability practitioners, and scholars. (shrink)

The Administration of Buddhism in China: A Study and Translation of Zanning and the Topical Compendium of the Buddhist Clergy, by Albert Welter. Cambria Press, 2018. 722pp., Hb. $154.99. ISBN-13: 9781604979428.

Authentic Replicas: Buddhist Art in Medieval China by Hsueh-man Shen. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press 2019. 352 pp.; 132 illustrations, 113 in colour. Hb $72 ISBN-13: 9780824867058.

The dominant theory of elite power, grounded in Weberian bureaucracy, has analyzed elites in terms of stable positions at the top of enduring institutions. Today, many conditions that spawned these stable ‘command posts’ no longer prevail, and elite power thus warrants rethinking. This article advances an argument about contemporary ‘influence elites’. The way they are organized and the modus operandi they employ to wield influence enable them to evade public accountability, a hallmark of a democratic society. Three cases are presented, (...) first to investigate changes in how elites operate and, second, to examine varying configurations in which the new elites are organized. The cases demonstrate that influence elites intermesh hierarchies and networks, serve as connectors, and coordinate influence from multiple, moving perches, inside and outside official structures. Their flexible and multi-positioned organizing modes call for reconsidering elite theory and grappling with the implications of these elites for democratic society. (shrink)

Stories of young children who make up exaggerated stories provide questions for a discussion about lying.