Literary Philosophy and the Use of Uselessness

We build this work from the memory of the time we stumbled into tulips at city hall. As guard sirens fled off into the night, we wondered, “Maybe we can borrow some.” We ripped handfuls from the ground and ran. “Don’t worry,” we said, “they are too busy to catch us stealing tulips.” Likewise, we get away with this useless project because others are busy doing useful work: exigent, coherent, important work. We support much of that busyness, and at the same time wonder what is lost with all that attention towards usefulness. What we offer here, through a hybrid of reflective, poetic, essayistic and scholarly forms, may be an attempted escape from the obligations of scholarship. It may be indulgent. It may tell the reader nothing, or only what the reader already knows. Yet it is oriented towards an enduring promise. This is the promise of a literary experience, understood as a kind of resonance, ineffable primarily, but nevertheless one that matters. Such a promise is found in the power and possibility of story, through poetic lines that must be broken and conceptual tethers left incommensurable. We enter this space of breaking and unfurling through an inquiry into use. The question of use and uselessness is one way of holding human contradictions in both hands. By this we mean that we make and leave space for literary and philosophical inquiries considered useless—in that they do not resolve anything—but nevertheless matterful. We suggest that readers meander these curated pages as they \ meander through an art exhibition or a museum. Within a literary exhibition one can wander through pages, spaces, and ideas. Pause. Dwell. Think. We curate a literary home beyond the demands of making something of use and we invite the reader to sit with us. As with an exhibition, possibility cannot be controlled for and so we exist in potentiality acknowledging both its positive and negative potential. Through our use, misuse, and abuse of literature and philosophy, we make ourselves a home in a possibility that can only be offered, not demanded. We manifest this literary home through fragments of philosophy evoked through a series of microfictions. As scholars, learners, teachers, and writers we are often asked to defend what our writing does. And it is implicitly suggested that knowledge creation is the result. What is the use of a work that cannot promise new knowledge? Literary knowledge may only be one gorgeous possible ordering. It is a practice which produces a kind of knowledge which is no knowledge, which is useless. If we must answer what it is that our writing does we suppose that—if anything—it offers up fictions for philosophizing. We explore a home for this work in scholarly contexts which too often find it useless, which is to say we position uselessness as a concept of value for our work as scholars, writers, and teachers. In the end we name no new uses but fiction; we steal tulips

Efeito de programas de intervenção com Realidade virtual no equilíbrio e marcha em idosos: revisão da literatura

Projeto de Graduação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Licenciada em FisioterapiaObjetivo: Sumariar a evidência científica sobre o efeito de programas de intervenção que incluam a realidade virtual no equilíbrio e marcha em idosos. Metodologia: Pesquisa computadorizada nas bases de dados PubMed, Web of Science e PEDro de modo a selecionar estudos experimentais em idosos que avaliassem o efeito de intervenções com realidade virtual sobre testes/parâmetros relacionados com o equilíbrio e a marcha. Resultados: 9 estudos cumpriram os critérios de elegibilidade definidos, tendo apresentado os resultados para um total de 283 idosos. Idosos sujeitos a programas de exercícios com realidade virtual apresentaram, na sua maioria, melhorias significativas em diferentes testes/parâmetros do equilíbrio e marcha, e inclusivé, melhores resultados em comparação com idosos sujeitos a programas de exercícios convencionais. Conclusão: existe evidência de que a realidade virtual tem efeitos positivos sobre o equilíbrio e a marcha de idosos.Aim: To summarize the scientific evidence about the effect of exercise programs including virtual reality on the balance and gait of the elderly. Methodology: Computerized research was executed in the PubMed, Web of Science and PEDro databases in order to select experimental studies that evaluated the effect of virtual reality interventions in the elderly on balance and gait tests/parameters. Results: 9 studies fulfilled the eligibility criteria, presenting the results for a total of 283 elderly. Elderly subjects submitted to virtual reality exercise programs presented, in their majority, significant improvements in different balance and gait tests/parameters, and also better results in comparison with elderly subjects submitted to conventional exercise programs. Conclusion: there is evidence that virtual reality has positive effects on the balance and gait of the elderly.N/

Efeito de programas de intervenção com Realidade virtual no equilíbrio e marcha em idosos: revisão da literatura

Projeto de Graduação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Licenciada em FisioterapiaObjetivo: Sumariar a evidência científica sobre o efeito de programas de intervenção que incluam a realidade virtual no equilíbrio e marcha em idosos. Metodologia: Pesquisa computadorizada nas bases de dados PubMed, Web of Science e PEDro de modo a selecionar estudos experimentais em idosos que avaliassem o efeito de intervenções com realidade virtual sobre testes/parâmetros relacionados com o equilíbrio e a marcha. Resultados: 9 estudos cumpriram os critérios de elegibilidade definidos, tendo apresentado os resultados para um total de 283 idosos. Idosos sujeitos a programas de exercícios com realidade virtual apresentaram, na sua maioria, melhorias significativas em diferentes testes/parâmetros do equilíbrio e marcha, e inclusivé, melhores resultados em comparação com idosos sujeitos a programas de exercícios convencionais. Conclusão: existe evidência de que a realidade virtual tem efeitos positivos sobre o equilíbrio e a marcha de idosos.Aim: To summarize the scientific evidence about the effect of exercise programs including virtual reality on the balance and gait of the elderly. Methodology: Computerized research was executed in the PubMed, Web of Science and PEDro databases in order to select experimental studies that evaluated the effect of virtual reality interventions in the elderly on balance and gait tests/parameters. Results: 9 studies fulfilled the eligibility criteria, presenting the results for a total of 283 elderly. Elderly subjects submitted to virtual reality exercise programs presented, in their majority, significant improvements in different balance and gait tests/parameters, and also better results in comparison with elderly subjects submitted to conventional exercise programs. Conclusion: there is evidence that virtual reality has positive effects on the balance and gait of the elderly.N/

Towards a rule-based support system for the coding of health conditions in the patient summary

In the frame of federated and interoperable Electronic Health Records (EHRs), specific coding systems are mandatory for filling out healthcare documents such as the Patient Summary (PS). PS cannot be automatically generated from the patient’s EHR data, because of the sensitivity of its content. For this reason it needs to be validated by a General Practitioner (GP), who is the sole responsible of this document. The literature shows that the practice of coding is recognized as a difficult task for GPs and it often generates coding errors and misspecifications of clinical data. To overcome this issue, a support system based on standardized and formalized coding rules for the domain of application is proposed, to facilitate a more accurate coding process without breaking the law

Towards a rule-based support system for the coding of health conditions in the Patient Summary

Abstract. In the frame of federated and interoperable Electronic Health Records (EHRs), specific coding systems are mandatory for filling out healthcare documents such as the Patient Summary (PS). PS cannot be automatically generated from the patient's EHR data, because of the sensitivity of its content. For this reason it needs to be validated by a General Practitioner (GP), who is the sole responsible of this document. The literature shows that the practice of coding is recognized as a difficult task for GPs and it often generates coding errors and misspecifications of clinical data. To overcome this issue, a support system based on standardized and formalized coding rules for the domain of application is proposed, to facilitate a more accurate coding process without breaking the law

Immunotherapy with ponezumab for probable cerebral amyloid angiopathy

Objective: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is caused by cerebrovascular deposition of β‐amyloid fragments leading to cerebrovascular dysfunction and other brain injuries. This phase 2, randomized, double–blind trial in patients with probable CAA assessed the efficacy and safety of ponezumab, a novel monoclonal antibody against Aβ1–40. Methods: Thirty‐six participants aged 55–80 years with probable CAA received intravenous placebo (n = 12) or ponezumab (n = 24). The change from baseline to Days 2 and 90 in cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) was measured in the visual cortex as the natural log of the rising slope of the BOLD fMRI response to a visual stimulus. Safety and tolerability were also assessed. Results: The mean change from baseline to Day 90 was 0.817 (ponezumab) and 0.958 (placebo): a mean ratio of 0.852 (90% CI 0.735–0.989) representing a trend towards reduced CVR in the ponezumab group. This trend was not present at Day 2. There was one asymptomatic occurrence of amyloid–related imaging abnormality–edema in the ponezumab group. The total number of new cerebral microbleeds from baseline to day 90 did not differ between groups. The ponezumab group had a participant with nonfatal new cerebral hemorrhage with aphasia and a participant with subdural hemorrhage that site investigators deemed to be nondrug related. In the placebo group one participant had a fatal intracerebral hemorrhage and one participant had migraine with aura

The Youngest Victims: Children and Youth Affected by War

In 1989, the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child declared, “[state parties] shall take all feasible measures to ensure protection and care of children who are affected by an armed conflict.” In addition to attempting to secure the welfare of children in armed conflict, the Convention went on to ban the recruitment and deployment of children during armed conflict. Despite the vast majority of sovereign nations signing and ratifying this agreement, this treaty, unfortunately, has not prevented children and youth from witnessing, becoming victims of, or participating in political, ethnic, religious, and cultural violence across the past three decades. This chapter offers an “ecological perspective” on the psychosocial consequences of exposure to the trauma of war-related violence and social disruption

Where Does It Hurt?

The question of an existential experience of hurt is not only relevant during present times of enduring hurt through realities such as a deadly pandemic, racialized violence, precarious educational realities, and ongoing struggles for justice in its many forms. The work of this poetic inquiry is enduringly relevant insofar as both institutions and people hold, create, sustain, and attempt to respond to hurt of many kinds. At times, we may cause more hurt than we soothe. As I write, I am grounded in the practices of poetic and literary analysis and position this piece a space and a form to hold the seemingly incommensurable questions for us as teachers, as artists, and as humans existing and living through a world of hurt. As a philosopher of education, I am perpetually concerned with the possibilities of a humanizing education that may soothe and eradicate existential hurt. I look toward poetry and art to show us the way

Notiziario n. 18 - Luglio 2007

IN QUESTO NUMERO1) Editoriale del Presidente IGF;2) Cariche sociali biennio 2005-2007;3) Verbale dell’Assemblea Annuale dei Soci 2006;4) Verbali dei Consigli di Presidenza;5) Resoconti delle attività del 2006;6) XIX Convegno Nazionale IGF – Milano 2007;7) Convocazione Assemblea Annuale dei Soci 2007;8) Calendario congressi internazionali ;9) Modulo di iscrizione IGF-ESIS