An intervention for people with learning disabilities and epilepsy

Date of Acceptance: 09/01/2015Epilepsy is relatively common in people with learning disabilities, and can be complex and refractory to treatment, with negative effects on quality of life and service costs. This article describes a randomised controlled feasibility trial, called Wordless Intervention for Epilepsy in Learning Disabilities, under way at Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust. Recruitment of people with learning disabilities and epilepsy to the trial has been affected by logistical issues, such as difficulties in identifying potential patients and contacting carers. However, public and patient involvement has improved study design and management, and has helped maximise recruitment. Should the present study confirm feasibility, a full-scale randomised controlled trial will address the effects of the Books Beyond Words title Getting on With Epilepsy as an intervention for people with learning disabilities and epilepsy.Peer reviewe

The materiality of the kitchen house: building, food and history on Mere Lava, northern Vanuatu

Houses and food in Vanuatu are prominent artefacts that materialise people's links to the land and social relationships. Nowadays on Mere Lava, a striking emphasis is put on the building or re-building of kitchen houses, n-ean̄ kuk, as architectural elements central to households. Drawing upon recent theories of material efficacy that consider objects as potent media through which people think, this thesis examines the underpinnings of the major cultural role these buildings play. It suggests that their prominence is grounded precisely in the ways their material features relate to people's conceptualisation of the world, such as the notion of histri, 'history'. Key material features of n-ean̄ kuk as well as the values they embody are explored through the lens of the technical processes of house-building and food processing, as well as through the different usages and roles of these artefacts in daily and ceremonial life. The mechanisms that bind artefacts to Mere Lava key social concepts and values are highlighted, in order to show how these artefacts become parts of an efficacious social aesthetic that ensure the continuity and transformation of the social order

Peacock's "History of Arithmetic", an Attempt to reconcile empiricism to universality

When the Whig Anglican algebraist Rev. George Peacock (1791-1858) conceived of his new abstract view of Symbolical Algebra in the 1830s, he had already written an impressive little known « History of Arithmetic » for the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, eventually published in 1845, back in the 1820s. This paper studies why this « History of Arithmetic » was conceived and how it reinforced Peacock's general view of algebra as a symbolizing process. As a fellow, tutor and lecturer at Trinity College since 1814, Peacock was already involved in the renewal of mathematics curriculum and mathematical research in Cambridge, as well as in the cultivation and the diffusion of science. As a reformer, Peacock along with his colleagues in Cambridge, faced the Industrial Revolution, its varied pressures on the country's academic institutions, and its concern with transformation processes. As soon as the 1820s, Peacock sought out a universal genesis from arithmetic to algebra, founded on the mathematical language of operations, and he launched his « History of Arithmetic » as a large inquiry into the vocabulary that all known tribes and nations used for elementary computations. In this way, he supported a moderate empiricist approach to science, deeply rooted in Locke's philosophy of human understanding. With a comparative and philological approach to numeral languages in hand, Peacock presented first arithmetic and then algebra as the progressive developments of asbtract calculating languages,.symbolising algorithmical processes. This view accounted for the special place he gave to Indian and Arabic arithmetics in his exposition of contemporaneous knowledge on numbers.Lorsque l'algébriste Whig anglican George Peacock (1791-1858) présente sa nouvelle conception de l'algèbre symbolique en 1830, il a déjà écrit une "History of Arithmetic", impressionnante mais peu connue, publiée dans l'Encyclopaedia Metropolitana en 1846. Cet article analyse les orientations philosophiques qui nourrissent cette "History of Arithmetic", et en quoi elles affirment déjà sa conception de l'algèbre comme une étape dans le processus de symbolisation des opérations. En tant que tuteur, "lecturer" et "fellow" de Trinity College depuis 1814, Peacock, tout comme ses collègues à Cambridge, est directement impliqué dans le renouvellement des études et de la recherche en mathématiques, ainsi que dans le renforcement du rôle de la science en Grande-Bretagne. En tant que réformateur, il est directement confronté aux effets de la révolution industrielle, notamment sur les institutions universitaires et les sociétés savantes, et sur l'importance qu'elle insuffle aux processus de transformation. Dès les années 1820, Peacock envisage un mode universel de développement de l'arithmétique, puis de l'algèbre, fondé sur l'expérience des opérations, et perçu à travers le vocabulaire qui les représente. L'"History of Arithmetic" est structurée comme une vaste enquête sur le langage littéral et numérique qu'utilisent les différentes tribus et nations du monde connu pour représenter les calculs élémentaires. Peacock soutient ainsi un empirisme modéré, profondément enraciné dans la philosophie de Locke sur l'entendement humain. Cette approche comparatiste et philologique des langages sur les opérations permet d'envisager l'arithmétique, puis l'algèbre, comme étapes successives du processus de symbolisation des opérations, conçues comme algorithmiques. L'importance accordée aux arithmétiques développées en Inde et dans le monde arabe prend ici tout son sens

Household Water Demand Estimation using Micro-Level Data

La Reunion Island is facing to specific difficulties in supplying drinking water. In the western part of this french departement drincking water is lacking. In this context, well-suited policies require to know perfectly households consumption behavior. To this end, the household water demand function is estimated. Data have been recorded on a random sample of 2000 consumers by a telephone poll. Water bills have been collected by post, from 200 volunteer households.

Un projet de recherche exempté d’évaluation éthique : Réflexions et questionnements sur l’article 2.1 de l’Énoncé de politique des trois Conseils

Étude de cas / Case studyCette étude de cas présente l’article 2.1 de l’Énoncé de politique des trois Conseils, permettant désormais à certains projets de recherche qualitative à risque minimal d’être exempté d’évaluation éthique. Cependant, son application soulève des questionnements.This case study presents the Article 2.1 of the Tri-council Policy Statement, which now allows some qualitative research with minimal risk to be exempt from ethics review. However, its application raises questions

Le XXIe siècle appelle à revisiter la puissance

Jamais dans l’histoire de l’humanité, la distribution de la puissance dans le monde n’a connu une transformation aussi rapide. En un quart de siècle, le centre de gravité du monde s’est déplacé d’un Occident transatlantique vers une Asie en pleine effervescence. En parallèle, les nouvelles technologies numériques ont changé totalement le temps et la qualité des échanges entre les acteurs (...)

Un projet de recherche exempté d’évaluation éthique : quelques précisions

Lettre à l'éditeur / Letter to the EditorEn réponse aux commentaires de Caillé et Beauregard, ce texte apporte quelques précisions au sujet de l’exemption d’évaluation éthique d’un projet de recherche.This piece responds to the comments made by Caillé and Beauregard by offering clarifications regarding the exemption from ethics review of a research project