Personal assistance for disabled people and the understanding of human being

This paper explores personal assistance – a practice considered crucial for supporting the independence and social inclusion of disabled people. The starting point of the analysis is the presumption that the significance of personal assistance goes well beyond welfare, touching upon existential-ontological issues. In order to uncover these issues, a phenomenological approach is used. The aim is to highlight the understanding of human being which is mediated by an internationally prominent model of personal assistance, to wit, the one promoted by the European Independent Living advocates, as described by Adolf Ratzka (2004a). It is argued that despite its liberal-individualist assertions the scheme described by Ratzka presupposes a distributed, relational understanding of human being. A case study of recent disability-related activism in Bulgaria is developed in order to further substantiate this claim. In conceptual terms, then, the paper adds a fresh perspective to the debates on individualist vs. collectivist approaches to disability equality. This perspective is informed by the phenomenological insights of Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In policy terms the paper argues for the necessity of promoting and supporting disabled people’s self-organizing, most importantly peer support and advocacy activities. </jats:p

Governing through personal assistance: a Bulgarian case

This paper brings together concepts from the domains of disability studies, governmentality studies and Actor-Network Theory in order to develop a micro-level analysis of a scheme for the provision of personal assistance for disabled people, currently administered by the Sofia Municipality in Bulgaria. The workfare conditionality embedded in the scheme’s needs assessment procedure is highlighted and subjected to critique. The micro-level analysis is deployed on the background of wider, macro-level observations concerning the neoliberal mode of government and its relations to subjectivity and freedom. The conclusion suggests practical policy alternatives in line with the Independent Living philosophy and practice

Breeding progress in grain yield of winter wheat cultivars grown at different nitrogen levels in semiarid conditions

The objectives of this study were to estimate the progress in wheat genetic yield potential, associated with changes in some agronomic traits, under different N rates. Twenty-four cultivars of winter wheat (T. aestivtum L.) representing most of the cultivars released in Serbia from 1955 to 2006 were analyzed. The cultivars were grown for four years (2005-2008) in field trails with two levels of agronomic inputs (low nitrogen-N-45 and high nitrogen-N-110). Data were collected on 1000-kernel weight, kernels per spike, kernels per square meter, spikes per square meter, plant height, harvest index, heading time and grain yield. Mean difference between the two fertilization levels was 0.44 t ha(-1). The average rate of increase in yield potential per year of release, estimated from the slope, was 41 kg ha(-1) year(-1) and it was significantly different from zero (P lt = 0.01). It was 35 kg ha(-1) year(-1) or 0.55% at the low level of N input, and 46 kg ha(-1) year(-1) or 0.68% at the high level of N input. This suggests that modern cultivars are better adapted to high N input. Our results suggested that individual contribution of the most of analyzed traits may vary depending on the genotype as well as environmental conditions

A new doubly discrete analogue of smoke ring flow and the real time simulation of fluid flow

Modelling incompressible ideal fluids as a finite collection of vortex filaments is important in physics (super-fluidity, models for the onset of turbulence) as well as for numerical algorithms used in computer graphics for the real time simulation of smoke. Here we introduce a time-discrete evolution equation for arbitrary closed polygons in 3-space that is a discretisation of the localised induction approximation of filament motion. This discretisation shares with its continuum limit the property that it is a completely integrable system. We apply this polygon evolution to a significant improvement of the numerical algorithms used in Computer Graphics.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

Anisotropic inharmonic Higgs oscillator and related (MICZ-)Kepler-like systems

We propose the integrable (pseudo)spherical generalization of the four-dimensional anisotropic oscillator with additional nonlinear potential. Performing its Kustaanheimo-Stiefel transformation we then obtain the pseudospherical generalization of the MICZ-Kepler system with linear and $\cos\theta$ potential terms. We also present the generalization of the parabolic coordinates, in which this system admits the separation of variables. Finally, we get the spherical analog of the presented MICZ-Kepler-like system.Comment: 7 page