OBJECTIVES: To study the ethical reasoning of nurses and physicians, and to assess whether or not modified focus groups are a valuable tool for this purpose. DESIGN: Discussion of cases in modified focus groups, each consisting of three physicians and three nurses. The discussion was taped and analysed by content analysis. SETTING: Five departments of internal medicine at Danish hospitals. SAMPLE: Seven discussion groups. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Ethical content of statements, style of statements, time used by each participant. RESULTS: Danish physicians (...) and nurses do not differ in the kind of ethical reasoning they use, but physicians use more of the discussion time than nurses, they use a more assertive style of argumentation, and the solutions chosen are usually first put forward by physicians. CONCLUSION: The results and informal comparisons with similar data from long qualitative interviews indicate that groups of this kind are a useful tool for gathering data on ethical reasoning. (shrink)

In research textbooks, and much of the research practice, they describe, qualitative processes and interpretivist epistemologies tend to dominate visual methodology. This article challenges the assumptions behind this dominance. Using exemplification from three existing visual data sets produced through one large education research project, this article considers the affordances and constraints of the research process focusing particularly on analysis. It examines how and when the visual can be incorporated, gives some critical reflections on the role and use of visual methods (...) to fulfil different research intents, and, in particular, considers combining large, open-ended data sets with acceptable and rigorous analysis techniques. We then explore arguments about the nature of visual data, what is considered epistemologically appropriate and the decision-making which accompanies any appraisal of process in education research. The intention is to challenge ourselves, and fellow visual methods researchers, to develop a more complete understanding of the theory and practice of visual research. (shrink)

It is shown that the application of the Lax-Phillips scattering theory to quantum mechanics provides a natural framework for the realization of the ideas of the “Many-Hilbert-Space” theory of Machida and Namiki to describe the development of decoherence in the process of measurement. We show that if the quantum mechanical evolution is pointwise in time, then decoherence occurs only if the Hamiltonian is time-dependent. If the evolution is not pointwise in time (as in Liouville space), then the decoherence may occur (...) even for closed systems. These conclusions apply as well to the general problem of mixing of states. (shrink)

This volume should prove of value to the instructor who desires to stimulate ethical discussion among undergraduates. Its concern is the perennial debate between deontologists and teleologists over what is right and what is wrong in particular cases. A straightforward introduction by the editor defines the problem and summarizes the positions taken in the readings. The selections are intelligent and well-arranged. From the extremes of Kant and Sidgwick, the reader proceeds to twentieth century efforts at compromise. There is a section (...) from Ross on prima facie obligations. Rule-utilitarianism is advocated by J. Harrison and attacked by J. J. C. Smart. A provocative piece by C. Strange offers a possible answer to Smart. The final selection is R. Brandt's "Toward a Credible Form of Utilitarianism" with its attempted reduction of rule-to act-utilitarianism. A good, short bibliographic essay completes this volume.--E. S. P. (shrink)

In lower quadrupedal vertebrates locomotor efficiency seems to result from the associate movements of the axial and appendicular systems, which are totally independent in structure and embryological origin. The curvature of the trunk, produced by a standing wave, magnifies the propulsive action of the limbs. In intermediate forms, the association of an elongate trunk with limbs reduced in size brings about functional consequences which may be noticeably diverse according to the degree of trunk elongation and limb reduction. According to environmental (...) constraints, animals search for better locomotor efficiency, which implies the maintenance or breakage of this association of both locomotor systems. In some cases, limb action on the ground is added to the axial wave action through a perfect mutual adjustment of rhythmic activity, until mechanical inefficiency of the limbs is reached by possible loss of contact with the ground. In other cases, the limbs dragged on the ground during the stance phase act against the axial action or, on the contrary, are inhibited by the axial system. A review of available data tries to contribute to an understanding of the respective roles of both systems in the transition to limblessness. (shrink)

The widely cited Nuffield Council on Bioethics ‘Intervention Ladder’ structurally embodies the assumption that personal autonomy is maximized by non-intervention. Consequently, the Intervention Ladder encourages an extreme ‘negative liberty’ view of autonomy. Yet there are several alternative accounts of autonomy that are both arguably superior as accounts of autonomy and better suited to the issues facing public health ethics. We propose to replace the one-sided ladder, which has any intervention coming at a cost to autonomy, with a two-sided ‘Balanced Intervention (...) Ladder,’ where intervention can either enhance or diminish autonomy. We show that not only the alternative, richer accounts of autonomy but even Mill’s classic version of negative liberty puts some interventions on the positive side of the ladder. (shrink)

From the jumping bean controversy, through his jousts with Malraux, to his charge against Picasso, Roger Caillois's attitude remained the same: a fear of the seductions of misunderstood originality, a condemnation of the fear of influence that characterized the moderns, and praise for imitation, conceived as the only true school of art. Originality, according to the formula he was fond of repeating time and again in the most varied contexts, consists not in refraining from imitating anyone else, but rather in (...) beine inimitable. (shrink)

Digeser contends that our rich and varied practices of friendship multiply and moderate connections to politics. Along the way, she sets forth a series of ideals that appreciates friendship's many forms and its dynamic relationship to individuality, citizenship, political and legal institutions, and international relations.

The Twin Earth thought experiment invites us to consider a liquid that has all of the superficial properties associated with water (clear, potable, etc.) but has entirely different deeper causal properties (composed of “XYZ” rather than of H2O). Debates about natural kind concepts have sought to accommodate an apparent fact about ordinary people's judgments: Intuitively, the Twin Earth liquid is not water. We present results showing that people do not have this intuition. Instead, people tend to judge that there is (...) a sense in which the liquid is not water but also a sense in which it is water. (shrink)