BioPortal is a Web portal that provides access to a library of biomedical ontologies and terminologies developed in OWL, RDF(S), OBO format, Protégé frames, and Rich Release Format. BioPortal functionality, driven by a service-oriented architecture, includes the ability to browse, search and visualize ontologies (Figure 1). The Web interface also facilitates community-based participation in the evaluation and evolution of ontology content.

Ce recueil réunit des articles qui s'interrogent, depuis un ensemble de perspectives philosophiques des plus diverses, sur le rapport entre nature et éthique.

The twelve essays by Kendall Walton in this volume address a broad range of issues concerning the arts. Walton introduces an innovative account of aesthetic value, and explores relations between aesthetic value and values of other kinds. His classic 'Categories of Art' is included, as is 'Transparent Pictures', his controversial account of what is special about photographs. A new essay investigates the fact that still pictures are still, although some of them depict motion. New postscripts have been added to several (...) of the reprinted essays. (shrink)

Technology, according to Derry and Williams's Short History, ‘comprises all that bewilderingly varied body of knowledge and devices by which man progressively masters his natural environment’. Their casual, and unconscious, sexism is not unrelated to my present topic. Women enter the story as spinners, burden bearers and, at long last, typists. ‘The tying of a bundle on the back or the dragging of it along upon the outspread twigs of a convenient branch are contributions [and by implication the only contributions] (...) to technology which probably had a feminine origin’. Everything else was done by men, and what they did was master, conquer, and control. It is also significant that Derry and Williams take it for granted that ‘the men [sic] of the Old Stone Age, few and scattered, developed little to help them to conquer their environment’: until the advent of agriculture, and settled civilization, there was, they say, neither leisure nor surplus. (shrink)

Technology, according to Derry and Williams's Short History, ‘comprises all that bewilderingly varied body of knowledge and devices by which man progressively masters his natural environment’. Their casual, and unconscious, sexism is not unrelated to my present topic. Women enter the story as spinners, burden bearers and, at long last, typists. ‘The tying of a bundle on the back or the dragging of it along upon the outspread twigs of a convenient branch are contributions [and by implication the only contributions] (...) to technology which probably had a feminine origin’. Everything else was done by men, and what they did was master, conquer, and control. It is also significant that Derry and Williams take it for granted that ‘the men [sic] of the Old Stone Age, few and scattered, developed little to help them to conquer their environment’: until the advent of agriculture, and settled civilization, there was, they say, neither leisure nor surplus. (shrink)

Horace has told us that the author of a literary work, qui uariare cupit rem prodigialiter unam, falls into absurdities. Much more likely to meet this fate is the interpolator who has the same ambition. The above four lines are a case in point; for it is fairly certain that if this Hymn were presented to readers as it came from the hand of its author, the whole passage with its phenomenal bull and its four pacifist dogs which apparently had (...) agreed together not to bark and bite, ‘as is their nature to,’ would not be found in the text. Undoubtedly it is true, though it is by no means a marvel , that the bull which was somewhere else and the dogs which were following in his wake were not taken by the infant cattle-lifter who was satisfied, as he well might be, with a trifle of fifty cows. The veracity of the interpolater in this regard may, therefore, pass without question, and furthermore his knowledge of epic metre does not fail seriously till he reaches the fourth line, although ό δ ταρος is not really epic and λλων not λλων is required in the opening line, for he certainly did not mean, as he unwittingly says ‘other bulls,’ but ‘the others, the cows.’ After ο μνλειθεν it is quite out of the question that οĩ τε κύνες τε ταȗρος, two flagrant examples of the later article, should follow. (shrink)

Horace has told us that the author of a literary work, qui uariare cupit rem prodigialiter unam, falls into absurdities. Much more likely to meet this fate is the interpolator who has the same ambition. The above four lines are a case in point; for it is fairly certain that if this Hymn were presented to readers as it came from the hand of its author, the whole passage with its phenomenal bull and its four pacifist dogs which apparently had (...) agreed together not to bark and bite, ‘as is their nature to,’ would not be found in the text. Undoubtedly it is true, though it is by no means a marvel , that the bull which was somewhere else and the dogs which were following in his wake were not taken by the infant cattle-lifter who was satisfied, as he well might be, with a trifle of fifty cows. The veracity of the interpolater in this regard may, therefore, pass without question, and furthermore his knowledge of epic metre does not fail seriously till he reaches the fourth line, although ό δ ταρος is not really epic and λλων not λλων is required in the opening line, for he certainly did not mean, as he unwittingly says ‘other bulls,’ but ‘the others, the cows.’ After ο μνλειθεν it is quite out of the question that οĩ τε κύνες τε ταȗρος, two flagrant examples of the later article, should follow. (shrink)

A Pulitzer Prize–winning dance critic teaches us to appreciate—and enact—grace in every dimension, from the physical to the emotional. Grace has long been taught as essential to civilized living. The Three Graces—goddesses of charm, beauty, and creativity—exemplify ease and harmony with one another and the world around them. But what has happened to this simple, marvelous concept of being at ease in the world? With warmth, humor, and an ever-perceptive eye, Sarah L. Kaufman sifts the graceful from the graceless, celebrating (...) heart-catching moments of physical elegance in sports, movies, dance, fashion, and music; rare sightings of celebrity grace; the secrets of gracious hosts; and grace found unexpectedly, in the kitchen of a high-end restaurant and among strippers in a basement bar. Kaufman’s thought-provoking reflections on these physical and social acts of grace offer hope for even the clumsiest, most awkward among us. Guided by the muse of Cary Grant (with further inspiration from Smokey Robinson, Roger Federer, Nelson Mandela, Margot Fonteyn, Amy Purdy, Beyoncé, and others), Kaufman illuminates the importance of grace in the small moments of everyday life. In The Art of Grace, she inspires us to walk taller, spend time on unnecessary kindnesses, and celebrate the grace notes in our lives and those of others. (shrink)

The value of Plutarch’s perception of physical reality and his attitude towards the natural spectacle Plutarch was very interested in the natural world around him, not only in terms of its elementary composition and physical processes, but also with respect to its providential ordering and marvels. His writings teach us a lot about his perception of physical reality and about his attitude to the natural spectacle. He found his greatest inspiration in the ontological and epistemological framework of Plato’s Timaeus, but (...) a wide range of other authors were also of seminal interest to his project. Moreover, the highly literary value of Plutarch’s natural philosophical writings should not be underrated. It is therefore not surprising that recently scholars have started to reassess the ancient scientific value of Plutarch’s natural philosophical writings. Natural Spectaculars aims to give further impetus to this dynamic by treating several aspects of Plutarch’s natural philosophy which have remained unexplored up to now. (shrink)

Duncan traces the renewed interest in the poetry of Donne, Herbert, Marvell, and others, among poets and critics during the past century and a half.--L. S. F.

How does the physics we know today-- a highly professionalized enterprise, inextricably linked to government and industry-- link back to its origins as a liberal art in ancient Greece? What is the path that leads from the old philosophy of nature and its concern with humankind's place in the universe to modern massive international projects that hunt down fundamental particles and industrial laboratories that manufacture marvels? John Heilbron's fascinating history of physics introduces us to Islamic astronomers and mathematicians, calculating the (...) size of the earth whilst their caliphs conquered much of it; to medieval scholar-theologians investigating light; to Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton, measuring, and trying to explain, the universe. We visit the 'House of Wisdom' in 9th-century Baghdad; Europe's first universities; the courts of the Renaissance; the Scientific Revolution and the academies of the 18th century; the increasingly specialized world of 20th and 21st century science. Highlighting the shifting relationship between physics, philosophy, mathematics, and technology-- and the implications for humankind's self-understanding-- Heilbron explores the changing place and purpose of physics in the cultures and societies that have nurtured it over the centuries. (shrink)

How does the physics we know today-- a highly professionalized enterprise, inextricably linked to government and industry-- link back to its origins as a liberal art in ancient Greece? What is the path that leads from the old philosophy of nature and its concern with humankind's place in the universe to modern massive international projects that hunt down fundamental particles and industrial laboratories that manufacture marvels? John Heilbron's fascinating history of physics introduces us to Islamic astronomers and mathematicians, calculating the (...) size of the earth whilst their caliphs conquered much of it; to medieval scholar-theologians investigating light; to Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton, measuring, and trying to explain, the universe. We visit the 'House of Wisdom' in 9th-century Baghdad; Europe's first universities; the courts of the Renaissance; the Scientific Revolution and the academies of the 18th century; the increasingly specialized world of 20th and 21st century science. Highlighting the shifting relationship between physics, philosophy, mathematics, and technology-- and the implications for humankind's self-understanding-- Heilbron explores the changing place and purpose of physics in the cultures and societies that have nurtured it over the centuries. (shrink)

"Littlejohn organizes his introduction around the central metaphor of a spreading kudzu vine, whose roots, trunk, stalks, branches, and leaves grow beneath, in, around, and over the vast and complex terrain of Chinese culture. He does a marvellous job exploring the origins, developments, and transformations of Daoism by guiding readers through canonical texts, across historical contexts, and around expressions of Daoism in fine art, popular symbols, literature, ritual, and other forms of material culture. The result is a masterful and comprehensive (...) introduction to this protean, venerable, and vital tradition that will engage and enlighten novices and experts alike and delight anyone interested in Chinese religion, philosophy, or culture."--Philip J. Ivanhoe, Reader-Professor of Philosophy, City University of Hong Kong . (shrink)

Evan Thompson has written a marvelous book. Waking, Dreaming, Being blends intellectual autobiography, phenomenology, cognitive science, studies in Buddhist and Vedānta philosophy, and creative metaphilosophy in an exploration of what it is to be a person, of the nature of consciousness, and of the relation of contemplative to scientific method in the understanding of human life. I have learned a great deal from it, and the community of philosophers and cognitive scientists will be reading and discussing it for some time. (...) But I have come to criticize Thompson, not to praise him. Here I raise a few issues regarding Thompson’s treatment of the self and the connections between his own account and the Madhyamaka and... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Professional Sexual Ethics: A Holistic Ministry Approach ed. by Patricia Beattie Jung and Darryl W. StephensDolores L. ChristieProfessional Sexual Ethics: A Holistic Ministry Approach Edited by Patricia Beattie Jung and Darryl W. Stephens minneapolis: fortress press, 2013. 256 pp. $24.00.Sex is a powerful element in human life. It infects politics and power struggles, baby making, and the world of marketing. This book cuts across denominational lines to address (...) the impact of hot-button sexual issues on ministry. It presents a holistic approach, articulating honestly the sexual reality of the minister and the need to name and nurture it. Knowledge of the sexual self and of skills needed to deal adequately with sexual dilemmas in personal and professional relationships are essential to successful ministry.The book is made up of twenty essays and is divided into four sections. The first section, “Ethical Landscape of Ministry,” deals primarily with ministers themselves. It considers sexual wholeness, the murky area of exploitation, and boundaries in ministerial relationships. This portion of the book could serve as a valuable tutorial for novice ministers or as a refresher course for those [End Page 217] long in the ministerial tooth. The second section, “Sources of Wisdom,” considers inherited historical conclusions that influence how we think about sex, revisiting the usual suspects—Augustine and Aquinas—but also including contemporary insights from liberation and feminist thought. Culturally conditioned assumptions about marriage, gender variety, self-love and self-care, and the distinctions among friendship, love, and sex are explored. “Practices of Ministry,” the third section, covers everything from clergy dating to teaching sexual ethics in a congregational setting. The essays address such central issues as power, intimacy, and sexual feelings. One of the most interesting essays deals with the implications of sex for preaching; listeners in the pew may infer something entirely different from what preachers think they are communicating.Since most people involved in ministry have likely considered many of the aforementioned topics before reading this book, perhaps the most helpful part—even for experienced ministers—is the final section, “Pastoral Leadership.” Social media, online pornography, and the endurance of digital utterances have added a new dimension to sexual ethics in ministry. Moral lapses by congregational ministers have become an increasingly public problem.All of the essays are brief and to the point. “Thick” cases are used generously to illustrate delicate or even dangerous situations that might occur in the professional and personal lives of ministers. Each case is paired with good analysis and practical solutions, and sometimes a checklist to facilitate application of the authors’ thinking. Also offered are suggestions for personal reflection and discernment by the minister and principles or criteria for dealing with difficult issues. These include guidelines for dealing with adolescents and congregational education on sex. As a consistently taboo subject, it is refreshing to hear voices advocating for systematic sexual instruction for the local church. Each author includes a pertinent bibliography.It is difficult to review twenty essays adequately, particularly with the richness each offers. Which marvelous chocolate should I choose? The reader may decide to savor one at a time. Discussion questions demand reflection on the issues that touch the reader, like red wine to enhance the taste of each chocolate. This book teaches ethics in the best way—as a real life activity rather than a spectator sport—and there are only a few weaknesses. For some reason the book ends with an itemization of quoted scripture passages, which might have been more useful had connections been made to specific issues. And while the book affirms healthy sex and offers suggestions for dealing with sexual problems that ministers might encounter, it has little to say about the peculiar situation of celibate Catholic clergy. Nevertheless, this modest volume is a must read for both the novice minister and the seasoned practitioner. [End Page 218]Dolores L. ChristieJohn Carroll UniversityCopyright © 2016 Society of Christian Ethics... (shrink)

Cette contribution se propose de caractériser le personnage de Superman au travers du prisme de la série télévisée Smallville. Prioritairement adressée aux adolescents, elle se consacre largement à représenter les rites de passages, qu’ils soient ceux du jeune garçon appelé à devenir un homme parmi les siens, ou ceux du héros en quête de ses origines, devenu une légende inscrite dans l’imaginaire collectif depuis plus de sept décennies. Notre approche s’appuie sur la possibilité d’une lecture de cette série sur deux (...) plans : celui de la biologie imaginée, cerveau imaginé compris ; et celui du cerveau imaginant. Smallville s’offre, de manière quasi immédiate, à une approche mythopoïétique du parcours super-héroïque donné au cours des dix saisons, jouant sur les thématiques de la mémoire, celle des origines comme celle de la génétique imaginée. Elle permet aussi par sa mise en images insistante des capacités spectaculaires du futur Superman, de mieux comprendre dans quel incubateur neural d’ontologies fantastiques le récit puise cette composante génératrice de son célèbre pouvoir de vol aptère, les expériences « hors-du-corps ». Nous avons pu ainsi distinguer dans les « imaginaires du cerveau », aussi clairement que possible, les apports du cerveau imaginant au cerveau imaginé chez notre super-héros. This contribution aims at unveiling—through episodes of television series Smallville —the complementarity of apparently dissociated aspects of Superman character. Primarily targeted at teenagers, rites of passage are pervasive in Smallville, whether for the young boy to become a man, or for the hero to succeed in the quest of his origins—as he became a legend in the collective imagination over more than seven decades. Our approach dwells on the potentiality to read Smallville on two levels: as so-called “naïve” or intuitive biology, including the imagined brain; as the imagining brain, with its neural correlates of imagination, i.e. biology as counter-intuitive as science may be. Smallville lends itself to a mythopoïetic reading, for the life course of our superhero, focussing on his personal memory issues, deeply concerned both with his origins and what is imagined about his own genetics. Smallville allows also, by the dramatic pageantry of Superman supernatural powers by design, to inquire about the neural incubator of such marvel ontologies, over-intuitively gifted, in Superman mainly his airworthiness for wingless flight, like in so-called oneiric out-of-body experiences. Thus in the brain imaginarium we ended with disentangling what of the over-intuitive sensori-motor experience of the imagining brain was tapped into the imagined brain of our superhero. (shrink)

Al-Jabartī, ʿAjāʾib al-āthār fī l-tarājim wa-l-akhbār. Edited by Shmuel Moreh. Max Schloessinger Memorial Series, Texts, vol. 9. 5 vols. Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 2013. Pp. 2,780. $525.

Cognitive Science, Volume 46, Issue 9, September 2022.

Documents the problems and possibilities for women's studies, and exposes the resistance to women's initiatives, authority and autonomy. Contributors offer insights into debates surrounding the nature of knowledge, the multiple realities of female experience, dominance and the politics of research.

This article examines how distrust drives exchange. We propose a theoretical framework integrating the literature of trust into cultural sociology and use a case of patients giving hongbao (red envelopes containing money) to doctors in China to examine how distrust drives different forms of unofficial exchange. Based on more than two years’ ethnography, we found that hongbao exchanges between Chinese patients and doctors were, ironically, bred by the public’s generalized distrust in doctors’ moral ethics. In the absence of institutional assurance, (...) Chinese patients drew on the cultural logic of particularism and its associated cultural repertoire to induce fidelity from their physicians. They mobilized interpersonal networks to function as assurance and presented hongbao as a return of favor to the doctors. This form of exchange is gifting-oriented. Alternatively, if there were no interpersonal networks to rely on, they proactively offered hongbao to doctors at arm’s length in an attempt to personalize the relationship to seek assurance and abate their anxieties. This form of exchange is bribery-oriented. Both forms of exchange co-existed when there was one-way generalized distrust manifested from patients to doctors. When doctors also developed generalized distrust in patients, arm’s length exchanges declined, leaving embedded exchanges as the dominant form. Our study asserts the central role of culture in constituting exchange behaviors and the importance of institutions in shaping the form of exchange. It contributes to the midrange theory of trust, generating a number of hypotheses for future research on the relationships among culture, institutions, distrust, assurance, and illicit exchange. (shrink)

Cheri Lynne Carr explores the very real potential of Deleuze's clandestine use of Kantian critique for developing a new ethical practice. This new practice is built on an idea implicit in much of Deleuzian thought: the idea of critique as a way of life.

Based on two years’ ethnographic research on doctor-patient relations in urban China, this paper examines the causes of patients’ mistrust of physicians. I identify the major factors at the societal, institutional, and interpersonal levels that lead to patients’ mistrust of physicians. First, I set the context by describing the extent of mistrust at the societal level. Then, I investigate the institutional sources of mistrust. I argue that the financing mechanism of public hospitals and physicians’ income structures are the most crucial (...) factors in inducing patients’ mistrust. Hospitals’ heavy reliance on self-finance has basically caused public hospitals to run like private hospitals, resulting in blatant conflicts of interest between hospitals and patients. Related to this is physicians’ reliance on bonuses and commissions as part of their regular incomes, which has inevitably resulted in overtreatment and, hence, mistrust from the patients. At the interpersonal level, I describe how individual physicians’ attitudes toward and interaction with patients may also affect patients’ sense of trust or mistrust in physicians. In conclusion, I discuss the ethical implications of the mistrust problem, and suggest changes at the institutional and interpersonal levels to mitigate the problem. (shrink)

The primary function of smooth muscle cells is to contract and alter the stiffness or diameter of hollow organs such as blood vessels, the airways and the gastrointestinal and urogenital tracts. In addition to purely structural functions, smooth muscle cells may play important metabolic roles, particularly in various inflammatory responses. In cell culture, these cells have been shown to be metabolically dynamic, synthesizing and secreting extracellular matrix proteins, glycosaminoglycans and a wide variety of cell–cell signaling proteins, such as interleukins, chemokines (...) and peptide growth factors. Secreted cell signaling proteins participate in the inflammatory response of smooth muscle‐containing organs, and some can also stimulate smooth muscle migration, proliferation and contraction. The cellular signaling pathways controlling synthesis of these signaling proteins are similar to those used by cells mediating innate immunity and may contribute to pathogenesis of diverse diseases including atherosclerosis, asthma, inflammatory bowel diseases and preterm labor. Appreciating the role of smooth muscle cells in these diseases may lead to better understanding of the beneficial effects of anti‐inflammatory drugs as well as identification of new targets for anti‐inflammatory therapy. BioEssays 26:646–655, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to investigate how shopping behaviors and environment influence dietary intake and weight status among homeless Minnesotans living in food deserts. Seven focus groups (n = 53) and a quantitative survey (n = 255), using the social cognitive theory as the theoretical framework, were conducted at two homeless shelters (S1 and S2) in the Twin Cities area. Heights, weights, and 24-h dietary recalls were also collected. Food stores within a five-block radius of the shelters were (...) evaluated for the price and availability of foods and compared to the Thrifty Food Plan’s market basket prices (MBP). Results showed that almost 80% of the sample was overweight or obese, with women consuming less than the recommended level for the fruits, vegetables, and milk food groups and excess for the fats/oils/sweets food group. Focus groups and participant surveys indicated that the shelter infrastructure and surrounding community influenced the types of foods available, food store access, and the foods purchased and consumed. Participants relied on food assistance programs, including food stamps, to supplement their food supply; however, some felt the high food prices at neighboring stores limited food choice and that food stamps did not adequately cover food costs. Results from the food store survey found the majority of food prices exceeded Midwest or national MBP. To promote healthier dietary intake and weight status, community-based interventions and city planners should aim to increase access to food through improved food availability and food access within the shelter environment and surrounding community. (shrink)

A feminist-inspired, Deleuzo-Guattarian conception of love can be a model of designing virtual reality experiences that pursue their liberating rather than enslaving trajectories.

Progressive educators must find ways of addressing the unconscious investments of desire that subvert free actions if they want to inspire just practices. This essay takes up that challenge, describing what a Deleuzian pedagogy might look like and what it can do by combining an exploration of learning, ethics and autonomy in Difference and Repetition with the activation of Deleuzo-Guattarian thought in contemporary Communities of Philosophical Inquiry.

For a full list of entries and contributors, sample entries, and more, visit the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women website. Featuring comprehensive global coverage of women's issues and concerns, from violence and sexuality to feminist theory, the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women brings the field into the new millennium. In over 900 signed A-Z entries from US and Europe, Asia, the Americas, Oceania, and the Middle East, the women who pioneered the field from its inception collaborate with the new scholars (...) who are shaping the future of women's studies to create the new standard work for anyone who needs information on women-related subjects. (shrink)