Ethics and the Advocate in the Adversarial System

This thesis is an inquiry into the ethical aspects of the advocate's function within the adversarial system. Specifically, it addresses the question whether that function is inherently unethical in so far as it subordinates truth to client interest. While many of the issues dealt with are common to both civil and criminal proceedings, the inquiry concentrates mainly on the role of the advocate in criminal proceedings and particularly on that of defence counsel. The advocate's role is examined within the context of the principles underlying the adversarial system; in particular, the relationship in that system between the pursuit of truth and its recognition of other values associated with individual freedom and autonomy. The thesis is sequentially structured as follows

Agency, Optimism, and the Longitudinal Course of Anxiety and Well-Being

Positive expectancies for the future provide an important pathway to the development of mental health and resilience against the development of mental illness. Generalized expectancies in the form of optimism beliefs and specific positive expectancies regarding personal agency have both been shown to predict higher levels of mental health and lower levels of mental illness. Previous research, however, has generally been limited by the failure to establish the incremental validity of agency and optimism theories and the reliance on cross-sectional designs. Therefore, the present study attempted to improve our understanding of how positive expectancies relate to mental health by longitudinally examining the unique effects of agency and optimism on anxiety and well-being. Results demonstrated that agency and optimism both have robust effects on mean levels of anxiety and well-being across time, but that agency beliefs are consistently a better predictor of improved psychological functioning than is optimism. These results therefore demonstrate that positive expectancies are important contributors to the development of mental health and the prevention of mental illness, and that positive expectancies regarding a sense of personal agency are the more important predictor of adaptive psychological functioning

Investment provisions in trade and investment treaties: the need for reform

This repository item contains a policy brief from the Boston University Global Economic Governance Initiative. The Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) is a research program of the Center for Finance, Law & Policy, the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, and the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. It was founded in 2008 to advance policy-relevant knowledge about governance for financial stability, human development, and the environment.Nations of the world are currently negotiating a variety of significant trade and investment treaties that cover upwards of eighty percent of the world economy. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would further integrate a number of Pacific-Rim nations; the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) would be a treaty between the United States and European countries. The United States and others are also negotiating major bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with China and India

Making enactivism even more embodied

The full scope of enactivist approaches to cognition includes not only a focus on sensory-motor contingencies and physical affordances for action, but also an emphasis on affective factors of embodiment and intersubjective affordances for social interaction. This strong conception of embodied cognition calls for a new way to think about the role of the brain in the larger system of brain-body-environment. We ask whether recent work on predictive coding offers a way to think about brain function in an enactive system, and we suggest that a positive answer is possible if we interpret predictive coding in a more enactive way, i.e., as involved in the organism’s dynamic adjustments to its environment

Cosmic Evolution of Black Holes and Spheroids. IV. The BH Mass - Spheroid Luminosity Relation

From high-resolution images of 23 Seyfert-1 galaxies at z=0.36 and z=0.57 obtained with the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), we determine host-galaxy morphology, nuclear luminosity, total host-galaxy luminosity and spheroid luminosity. Keck spectroscopy is used to estimate black hole mass (M_BH). We study the cosmic evolution of the M_BH-spheroid luminosity (L_sph) relation. In combination with our previous work, totaling 40 Seyfert-1 galaxies, the covered range in BH mass is substantially increased, allowing us to determine for the first time intrinsic scatter and correct evolutionary trends for selection effects. We re-analyze archival HST images of 19 local reverberation-mapped active galaxies to match the procedure adopted at intermediate redshift. Correcting spheroid luminosity for passive luminosity evolution and taking into account selection effects, we determine that at fixed present-day V-band spheroid luminosity, M_BH/L_sph \propto (1+z)^(2.8+/-1.2). When including a sample of 44 quasars out to z=4.5 taken from the literature, with luminosity and BH mass corrected to a self-consistent calibration, we extend the BH mass range to over two orders of magnitude, resulting in M_BH/L_sph \propto (1+z)^(1.4+/-0.2). The intrinsic scatter of the relation, assumed constant with redshift, is 0.3+/-0.1 dex (<0.6 dex at 95% CL). The evolutionary trend suggests that BH growth precedes spheroid assembly. Interestingly, the M_BH-total host-galaxy luminosity relation is apparently non-evolving. It hints at either a more fundamental relation or that the spheroid grows by a redistribution of stars. However, the high-z sample does not follow this relation, indicating that major mergers may play the dominant role in growing spheroids above z~1.Comment: 39 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

The application of antimicrobial stewardship knowledge to nursing practice: a national survey of United Kingdom pre‐registration nursing students.

To assess student nurses understanding and skills in the application of antimicrobial stewardship knowledge to practice. Five hundred and twenty three student nurses responded across 23 UK universities. Although students felt prepared in competencies in infection prevention and control, patient-centred care and interprofessional collaborative practice, they felt less prepared in competencies in which microbiological knowledge, prescribing and its effect on antimicrobial stewardship is required. Problem-based learning, activities in the clinical setting and face-to-face teaching were identified as the preferred modes of education delivery. Those who had shared antimicrobial stewardship teaching with students from other professions reported the benefits to include a broader understanding of antimicrobial stewardship, an understanding of the roles of others in antimicrobial stewardship and improved interprofessional working. There are gaps in student nurses' knowledge of the basic sciences associated with the antimicrobial stewardship activities in which nurses are involved, and a need to strengthen knowledge in pre-registration nurse education programmes pertaining to antimicrobial management, specifically microbiology and antimicrobial regimes and effects on antimicrobial stewardship. Infection prevention and control, patient-centred care and interprofessional collaborative practice are areas of antimicrobial stewardship in which student nurses feel prepared. Interprofessional education would help nurses and other members of the antimicrobial stewardship team clarify the role nurses can play in antimicrobial stewardship and therefore maximize their contribution to antimicrobial stewardship and antimicrobial management. There is a need to strengthen knowledge from the basic sciences, specifically pertaining to antimicrobial management, in pre-registration nurse education programmes. What Problem Did the Study Address?: Nurses must protect health through understanding and applying antimicrobial stewardship knowledge and skills (Nursing and Midwifery Council 2018); however, there is no research available that has investigated nurses understanding and skills of the basic sciences associated with the antimicrobial stewardship activities in which they are involved. What Were the Main Findings?: There are gaps in student nurses' knowledge of the basic sciences (specifically microbiology and prescribing) associated with the antimicrobial stewardship activities in which nurses are involved. Problem-based learning, and activities in the clinical setting, were reported as useful teaching methods, whereas online learning, was seen as less useful. Where and on Whom Will the Research Have an Impact?: Pre-registration nurse education programmes

Examining hope as a transdiagnostic mechanism of change across anxiety disorders and CBT treatment protocols.

Hope is a trait that represents the capacity to identify strategies or pathways to achieve goals and the motivation or agency to effectively pursue those pathways. Hope has been demonstrated to be a robust source of resilience to anxiety and stress and there is limited evidence that, as has been suggested for decades, hope may function as a core process or transdiagnostic mechanism of change in psychotherapy. The current study examined the role of hope in predicting recovery in a clinical trial in which 223 individuals with 1 of 4 anxiety disorders were randomized to transdiagnostic cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), disorder-specific CBT, or a waitlist controlled condition. Effect size results indicated moderate to large intraindividual increases in hope, that changes in hope were consistent across the five CBT treatment protocols, that changes in hope were significantly greater in CBT relative to waitlist, and that changes in hope began early in treatment. Results of growth curve analyses indicated that CBT was a robust predictor of trajectories of change in hope compared to waitlist, and that changes in hope predicted changes in both self-reported and clinician-rated anxiety. Finally, a statistically significant indirect effect was found indicating that the effects of treatment on changes in anxiety were mediated by treatment effects on hope. Together, these results suggest that hope may be a promising transdiagnostic mechanism of change that is relevant across anxiety disorders and treatment protocols.R01 MH090053 - NIMH NIH HHSAccepted manuscrip

What do part-time geographically dispersed faculty members need for their professional development?

As the landscape of higher education has changed over the past decade, many institutions of higher education find that they are employing an ever increasing number of part-time, temporary faculty members. While many of the part-time temporary faculty members come to the institution with high levels of experience and skills in their disciplinary area, they are often not well grounded in the workings of institutions of higher education or in providing high-quality instruction to the young adult and adult learners who populate the classrooms in higher education. One way institutions of higher education can promote high levels of student success and student achievement is through providing high-quality professional development that equips the faculty member with the tools needed to provide effective instruction and a strong focus on student learning. Yet a review of literature in this area yields few examples of institutions that have analyzed the professional development needs of their part-time temporary faculty and addressed these needs in any depth. As a result, the professional development activities offered by the current faculty professional development programs may not meet their unique needs. This project, a collaborative venture between the Faculty Professional Development program and Extended Campuses undertook a purposive sampling of part-time faculty members in geographically distributed locations in an attempt to identify themes and issues related to providing effective professional development activities. This poster session will provide a summary of the findings of this sampling and plans for subsequent follow up surveys to more accurately understand the range of potential needs of faculty members distributed across and outside the state