Revelation and Idolatry: Holy Law and Holy Terror

THE Book of Exodus desscribes the identity of justice and the law. Because elsewhere the gap between justice and the law is so wide -- in Christian theology when it sees the Pharisaic law as inhibiting the realization of justice; in philosophy where from Plato on, law is formal while is justice substantive; in political theory, which includes those who endorse procedural justice when they abandon substantive justice -- this radical biblical vision, wherein the law is justice is surely unique. This is not an understanding of the law as a series of prescriptions, the yoke of the law but the minimal requiremnt of respoect for another\u27s life and responsibility for those lacking protection: the widow, orphan, and poor. Emmanuel Levinas has noted the revolutional aspect of this revelation of justice, and defined the heirs of Abraham as those who hav duties toward the other

Revelation and Idolatry: Holy Law and Holy Terror

THE Book of Exodus desscribes the identity of justice and the law. Because elsewhere the gap between justice and the law is so wide -- in Christian theology when it sees the Pharisaic law as inhibiting the realization of justice; in philosophy where from Plato on, law is formal while is justice substantive; in political theory, which includes those who endorse procedural justice when they abandon substantive justice -- this radical biblical vision, wherein the law is justice is surely unique. This is not an understanding of the law as a series of prescriptions, the yoke of the law but the minimal requiremnt of respoect for another\u27s life and responsibility for those lacking protection: the widow, orphan, and poor. Emmanuel Levinas has noted the revolutional aspect of this revelation of justice, and defined the heirs of Abraham as those who hav duties toward the other

Morphological Segmentation for Keyword Spotting

We explore the impact of morphological segmentation on keyword spotting (KWS). Despite potential benefits, state-of-the-art KWS systems do not use morphological information. In this paper, we augment a state-of-the-art KWS system with sub-word units derived from supervised and unsupervised morphological segmentations, and compare with phonetic and syllabic segmentations. Our experiments demonstrate that morphemes improve overall performance of KWS systems. Syllabic units, however, rival the performance of morphological units when used in KWS. By combining morphological, phonetic and syllabic segmentations, we demonstrate substantial performance gains.United States. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (United States. Army Research Laboratory Contract W911NF-12-C-0013

CBS mutations are good predictors for B6-responsiveness : a study based on the analysis of 35 brazilian classical homocystinuria patients

Background Classical homocystinuria (HCU) is a monogenic disease caused by the deficient activity of cystathionine β‐synthase (CβS). The objective of this study was to identify the CBS mutations in Brazilian patients with HCU. Methods gDNA samples were obtained for 35 patients (30 families) with biochemically confirmed diagnosis of HCU. All exons and exon‐intron boundaries of CBS gene were sequenced. Gene expression analysis by qRT‐PCR was performed in six patients. Novel missense point mutations were expressed in E. coli by site‐directed mutagenesis. Results Parental consanguinity was reported in 16 families, and pyridoxine responsiveness in five (15%) patients. Among individuals from the same family, all presented the same phenotype. Both pathogenic mutations were identified in 29/30 patients. Twenty‐one different mutations were detected in nine exons and three introns; being six common mutations. Most prevalent were p.Ile278Thr (18.2%), p.Trp323Ter (11.3%), p.Thr191Met (11.3%), and c.828+1G>A (11.3%). Eight novel mutations were found [c.2T>C, c.209+1delG, c.284T>C, c.329A>T, c.444delG, c.864_868delGAG c.989_991delAGG, and c.1223+5G>T]. Enzyme activity in E. coli‐expressed mutations was 1.5% for c.329A>T and 17.5% for c.284T>C. qRT‐PCR analysis revealed reduced gene expression in all evaluated genotypes: [c.209+1delG; c.572C>T]; [c.2T>C; c.828+1G>A]; [c.828+1G>A; c.1126G>A]; [c.833T>C; c.989_991delAGG]; [c.1058C>T; c.146C>T]; and [c.444delG; c.444delG]. The expected phenotype according to the genotype (pyridoxine responsiveness) matched in all cases. Conclusions Most patients studied were pyridoxine nonresponsive and presented early manifestations, suggesting severe phenotypes. Many private mutations were observed, but the four most prevalent mutations together accounted for over 50% of mutated alleles. A good genotype–phenotype relationship was observed within families and for the four most common mutations

Cumulative Lead Dose and Cognitive Function in Adults: A Review of Studies That Measured Both Blood Lead and Bone Lead

OBJECTIVE: We review empirical evidence for the relations of recent and cumulative lead dose with cognitive function in adults. DATA SOURCES: A systematic search of electronic databases resulted in 21 environmental and occupational studies from 1996 to 2006 that examined and compared associations of recent (in blood) and cumulative (in bone) lead doses with neurobehavioral outcomes. DATA EXTRACTION: Data were abstracted after consideration of exclusion criteria and quality assessment, and then compiled into summary tables. CONCLUSIONS: At exposure levels encountered after environmental exposure, associations with bio-markers of cumulative dose (mainly lead in tibia) were stronger and more consistent than associations with blood lead levels. Similarly, in studies of former workers with past occupational lead exposure, associations were also stronger and more consistent with cumulative dose than with recent dose (in blood). In contrast, studies of currently exposed workers generally found associations that were more apparent with blood lead levels; we speculate that the acute effects of high, recent dose may mask the chronic effects of cumulative dose. There is moderate evidence for an association between psychiatric symptoms and lead dose but only at high levels of current occupational lead exposure or with cumulative dose in environmentally exposed adults

Linguistic and auditory temporal processing in children with specific language impairment

TEMA: diversos estudos sugerem a associação do distúrbio específico de linguagem (DEL) ao déficit no processamento auditivo. Pesquisas fornecem evidência de que a discriminação de estímulos breves estaria comprometida em crianças com DEL. Este déficit levaria a dificuldades em desenvolver habilidades fonológicas necessárias para mapear fonemas e decodificar e codificar palavras e frases efetiva e automaticamente. Entretanto, a correlação entre processamento temporal (PT)e distúrbios de linguagem tem recebido pouca atenção. OBJETIVO: analisar a correlação entre duas as áreas: PT (teste de padrão de freqüência - TPF) e Processamento Lingüístico (complexidade sintática). MÉTODO: Dezesseis crianças com desenvolvimento típico de linguagem (8;9 ± 1;1) e sete crianças diagnosticadas com DEL (8;1 ± 1;2) e participaram de TPF e Testes de Compreensão de Complexidade Sintática (TCCS). RESULTADOS: A porcentagem de acerto no TCCS decresceu com o aumento da complexidade sintática (p < 0,01). Na comparação inter-grupos, a diferença no desempenho no TCCS foi estatisticamente significante (p = 0,02). Como esperado, crianças com DEL apresentaram desempenho no TPF fora dos valores de referência.No grupo DEL, as correlações entre os resultados do TPF e do TCCS foram positivas e maiores para frases de alta complexidade sintática (r = 0,97) do que para frases com baixa complexidade sintática (r = 0,51). CONCLUSÃO: Resultados sugerem que o TPF está correlacionado positivamente com habilidades de complexidade sintática. O baixo desempenho no TPF pode servir de um indicativo adicional sobre déficits em processamento lingüístico complexo.Estudos futuros devem considerar, além do aumento da amostra,a análise do efeito do treinamento auditivo temporal de freqüência no desempenho em tarefas de compreensão sintática de alta complexidade.BACKGROUND: several studies suggest the association of specific language impairment (SLI) to deficits in auditory processing.It has been evidenced that children with SLI present deficit in brief stimuli discrimination. Such deficit would lead to difficulties in developing phonological abilities necessary to map phonemes and to effectively and automatically code and decode words and sentences. However, the correlation between temporal processing (TP) and specific deficits in language disorders - such as syntactic comprehension abilities - has received little or no attention. AIM: to analyze the correlation between: TP (through the Frequency Pattern Test - FPT) and Syntactic Complexity Comprehension (through a Sentence Comprehension Task). METHOD: Sixteen children with typical language development (8;9 ± 1;1 years) and seven children with SLI (8;1 ± 1;2 years) participated on the study. RESULTS: Accuracy of both groups decreased with the increase on syntactic complexity (both p < 0.01). On the between groups comparison, performance difference on the Test of Syntactic Complexity Comprehension (TSCC) was statistically significant (p = 0.02).As expected, children with SLI presented FPT performance outside reference values. On the SLI group, correlations between TSCC and FPT were positive and higher for high syntactic complexity (r = 0.97) than for low syntactic complexity (r = 0.51). CONCLUSION: Results suggest that FPT is positively correlated to syntactic complexity comprehension abilities.The low performance on FPT could serve as an additional indicator of deficits in complex linguistic processing. Future studies should consider, besides the increase of the sample, longitudinal studies that investigate the effect of frequency pattern auditory training on performance in high syntactic complexity comprehension tasks

Consequências jurídicas para a devolução de crianças e adolescentes adotados no Brasil: a possibilidade da pensão alimentícia

The aim of this study is to demonstrate the legal possibility of setting child support in favor of children and adolescents returned after a final adoption, to be borne by those who returned them. The controversy arises because of the paradoxical lack of express provision, in the Brazilian legal system, of legal consequences for such serious conduct.adoption; return; child supportEste trabajo tiene como objetivo demostrar la posibilidad legal de establecer una pensión alimenticia a favor de los niños y adolescentes devueltos después de una adopción final, a cargo de quienes los devolvieron. La controversia surge debido a la paradójica falta de disposición expresa, en el sistema legal brasileño, de las consecuencias legales de una conducta tan grave.Este trabalho visa a demonstrar a possibilidade jurídica da fixação de pensão alimentícia em prol das crianças e adolescentes devolvidos após uma adoção finalizada, a ser arcada por aqueles que os devolveram. A controvérsia coloca-se em razão da paradoxal falta de previsão expressa, no ordenamento jurídico brasileiro, de consequências jurídicas a tão grave conduta

Parenting Enhancement, Interpersonal Psychotherapy to Reduce Depression in Low-Income Mothers of Infants and Toddlers: A Randomized Trial

Depressive symptoms and clinical depression are highly prevalent in low-income mothers and negatively affect their infants and toddlers