Charles Taylor (1931-)

Et grundrids over Taylors liv og værk indtil nu under inddragelse af bl.a. Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity fra 1989. Ruth Abbey skitserer hovedtrækkene og -problematikkerne i dette værk samt i Taylors seneste bog Modern Social Ima¬ginaries fra 2004, der fortsat beskæftiger sig med den bekymring for det særligt etiske eller normative træk ved den moderne eksistens, som også kommer til udtryk i Sources. Hermed præsenteres en række tilbagevendende temaer i Taylors tænkning, bl.a. det moderne selvs begreb om ’frigjort frihed’, forestillingen om ’naturen som kilde’ og forestillingen om ’engageret, legemliggjort viden’. Samtidig redegør Abbey for Taylors kritik af hhv. atomismen – der for ham er et andet udtryk for individualisme – og af den såkaldte ’figurative epistemo¬logi’, hvor viden opfattes som det menneskelige subjekts forestilling om en uafhængig virkelighed. Subjektet distanceres derved fra den omkringliggende verden, idet signifikansen af både kroppen og betydningen af den praktiske omgang med verden ifølge Taylor på væsentlige områder negligeres

The competencies of registered nurses working in care homes: a modified Delphi study

BACKGROUND: Registered Nurses (RNs) working in UK care homes receive most of their training in acute hospitals. At present the role of care home nursing is underdeveloped and it is seen as a low status career. We describe here research to define core competencies for RNs working in UK care homes. METHODS: A two-stage process was adopted. A systematic literature review and focus groups with stakeholders provided an initial list of competencies. The competency list was modified over three rounds of a Delphi process with a multi-disciplinary expert panel of 28 members. RESULTS: Twenty-two competencies entered the consensus process, all competencies were amended and six split. Thirty-one competencies were scored in round two, eight were agreed as essential, one competency was split into two. Twenty-four competencies were submitted for scoring in round three. In total, 22 competencies were agreed as essential for RNs working in care homes. A further ten competencies did not reach consensus. CONCLUSION: The output of this study is an expert-consensus list of competencies for RNs working in care homes. This would be a firm basis on which to build a curriculum for this staff group

Countercurrent chromatography in analytical chemistry (IUPAC technical report)

© 2009 IUPACCountercurrent chromatography (CCC) is a generic term covering all forms of liquid-liquid chromatography that use a support-free liquid stationary phase held in place by a simple centrifugal or complex centrifugal force field. Biphasic liquid systems are used with one liquid phase being the stationary phase and the other being the mobile phase. Although initiated almost 30 years ago, CCC lacked reliable columns. This is changing now, and the newly designed centrifuges appearing on the market make excellent CCC columns. This review focuses on the advantages of a liquid stationary phase and addresses the chromatographic theory of CCC. The main difference with classical liquid chromatography (LC) is the variable volume of the stationary phase. There are mainly two different ways to obtain a liquid stationary phase using centrifugal forces, the hydrostatic way and the hydrodynamic way. These two kinds of CCC columns are described and compared. The reported applications of CCC in analytical chemistry and comparison with other separation and enrichment methods show that the technique can be successfully used in the analysis of plants and other natural products, for the separation of biochemicals and pharmaceuticals, for the separation of alkaloids from medical herbs, in food analysis, etc. On the basis of the studies of the last two decades, recommendations are also given for the application of CCC in trace inorganic analysis and in radioanalytical chemistry

Patient Health Questionnaire-9 scores do not accurately estimate depression prevalence: individual participant data meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES: Depression symptom questionnaires are not for diagnostic classification. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scores ≥10 are nonetheless often used to estimate depression prevalence. We compared PHQ-9 ≥10 prevalence to Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (SCID) major depression prevalence and assessed whether an alternative PHQ-9 cutoff could more accurately estimate prevalence. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Individual participant data meta-analysis of datasets comparing PHQ-9 scores to SCID major depression status. RESULTS: A total of 9,242 participants (1,389 SCID major depression cases) from 44 primary studies were included. Pooled PHQ-9 ≥10 prevalence was 24.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 20.8%, 28.9%); pooled SCID major depression prevalence was 12.1% (95% CI: 9.6%, 15.2%); and pooled difference was 11.9% (95% CI: 9.3%, 14.6%). The mean study-level PHQ-9 ≥10 to SCID-based prevalence ratio was 2.5 times. PHQ-9 ≥14 and the PHQ-9 diagnostic algorithm provided prevalence closest to SCID major depression prevalence, but study-level prevalence differed from SCID-based prevalence by an average absolute difference of 4.8% for PHQ-9 ≥14 (95% prediction interval: -13.6%, 14.5%) and 5.6% for the PHQ-9 diagnostic algorithm (95% prediction interval: -16.4%, 15.0%). CONCLUSION: PHQ-9 ≥10 substantially overestimates depression prevalence. There is too much heterogeneity to correct statistically in individual studies

Reading Between the Matrices: Conflicting Strategies in The Strategy of Conflict

Thomas Schelling is one of the first writers to apply game theory to the study of international relations and his 1960 work, The Strategy of Conflict, is the first book in which he does this. As such, this work is a seminal text in what is currently one of the dominant family of approaches to international relations theory -- rationalism. This paper offers a close reading of The Strategy of Conflict which highlights the many significant tensions the text is heir to and seeks to demonstrate that in many places and on many important questions, Schelling's arguments undermine themselves. Read in this way, The Strategy of Conflict is not just one of the seminal works in the rationalist tradition of international relations theory, but is also a testament to the limitations, difficulties and perhaps even impossibility of using game theory to explain international relations

Pluralism in Practice: The Political Thought of Charles Taylor

This review article outlines some of the major contributions made to political theory by Charles Taylor. It focuses on his relationship to liberalism, his contribution to the understanding of democracy and his analysis of the politics of recognition. Several lines of critique of Taylor's thought on these issues are also explored. Some reflections on Taylor's style of theorising about politics are offered, and the question of whether he is a conservative or critical theorist is examined