Social Justice and the Basic Course: A Central Student Learning Outcome

The economic, social, political, cultural, and environmental dimensions of globalization impacting our society demand new ways of thinking, acting, and teaching the Basic Communication Course (BCC). By emphasizing the learning outcomes of intellectual and practical skills and acceptance of personal and social responsibility, students will experience a new central learning outcome: what we are calling a social justice sensibility. In this essay we will emphasize the need to integrate the intellectual and practical skills of oral communication and personal and social justice in the BCC. We will discuss how the BCC can help students learn habits of citizenship and the art of parrhesia by incorporating service learning for social justice advocacy. Importantly, we discuss how faculty can modify their grading rubric to assess this new outcome

On “Marriage Dissidents”: From Marriage to “Radical Parenting”

While “marriage equality” represents progress, “marriage” as a legal concept insufficiently recognizes its roots as a problematic institution. By examining the essentialism of “traditional marriage,” we can begin to understand many of the existing contemporary problems of marriage, which same-sex marriage may have imported. Marriage has historically contributed to a profound sense of sexism that, in general, oppresses women and promotes a white, middle-class heteronormativity that can be problematic for many, including same-sex couples who, having vindicated their civil rights, might be perpetuating a dysfunctional social institution

Delusions in frontotemporal lobar degeneration

We assessed the significance and nature of delusions in frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), an important cause of young-onset dementia with prominent neuropsychiatric features that remain incompletely characterised. The case notes of all patients meeting diagnostic criteria for FTLD attending a tertiary level cognitive disorders clinic over a three year period were retrospectively reviewed and eight patients with a history of delusions were identified. All patients underwent detailed clinical and neuropsychological evaluation and brain MRI. The diagnosis was confirmed pathologically in two cases. The estimated prevalence of delusions was 14 %. Delusions were an early, prominent and persistent feature. They were phenomenologically diverse; however paranoid and somatic delusions were prominent. Behavioural variant FTLD was the most frequently associated clinical subtype and cerebral atrophy was bilateral or predominantly right-sided in most cases. We conclude that delusions may be a clinical issue in FTLD, and this should be explored further in future work

FMRFamide-Like Peptides (FLPs) Enhance Voltage-Gated Calcium Currents to Elicit Muscle Contraction in the Human Parasite Schistosoma mansoni

Schistosomes are amongst the most important and neglected pathogens in the world, and schistosomiasis control relies almost exclusively on a single drug. The neuromuscular system of schistosomes is fertile ground for therapeutic intervention, yet the details of physiological events involved in neuromuscular function remain largely unknown. Short amidated neuropeptides, FMRFamide-like peptides (FLPs), are distributed abundantly throughout the nervous system of every flatworm examined and they produce potent myoexcitation. Our goal here was to determine the mechanism by which FLPs elicit contractions of schistosome muscle fibers. Contraction studies showed that the FLP Tyr-Ile-Arg-Phe-amide (YIRFamide) contracts the muscle fibers through a mechanism that requires Ca2+ influx through sarcolemmal voltage operated Ca2+ channels (VOCCs), as the contractions are inhibited by classical VOCC blockers nicardipine, verapamil and methoxyverapamil. Whole-cell patch-clamp experiments revealed that inward currents through VOCCs are significantly and reversibly enhanced by the application of 1 µM YIRFamide; the sustained inward currents were increased to 190% of controls and the peak currents were increased to 180%. In order to examine the biochemical link between the FLP receptor and the VOCCs, PKC inhibitors calphostin C, RO 31–8220 and chelerythrine were tested and all produced concentration dependent block of the contractions elicited by 1 µM YIRFamide. Taken together, the data show that FLPs elicit contractions by enhancing Ca2+ influx through VOCC currents using a PKC-dependent pathway

Narrative Themes of the American Character

Este trabajo interpreta a la economía y la política como el contexto que condiciona, expresa o tácitamente, al proceso educativo. Este abordaje permite conocer los límites en los que se desenvuelve la educación, a fin de orientar su desempeño en el marco de los intereses que la condicionan, reduciendo los posibles conflictos interpretativos y la frustración originada en el desconocimiento de causas. La educación es una actividad de la sociedad con fines de socialización y capacitación de sus integrantes. La evolución social la convierte en una institución del Estado cuya expresión estructural, funcional y cognoscitiva, es producto de las relaciones de poder por la apropiación de los excedentes sociales de producción. La educación así concebida es el resultado tangible y concreto de la intención objetiva de los grupos de mayor influencia social. Nos preguntamos ¿Cómo estos intereses modelan la conducta de los individuos y de las instituciones?. Pretendemos encontrar respuesta a esta interrogante, interpretando la ética como el mecanismo idóneo e instintivo que reproduce la conducta socialmente aceptada, moldeando un estereotipo social

Toward a scholarship of social influence: Critical theory, neo-pragmatism, and rhetorical inquiry

This dissertation urges scholars in the Speech Communication Association to commit themselves toward redescribing our understandings of theory, criticism, and pedagogy in neo-pragmatic terms. When human knowledge becomes socialized, the distinctions between our public, academic, and instructional personae fade. In place of such traditional personae, a new identity is encouraged for scholars in our discipline. Both ironist and socialist, the critical rhetorician assumes a cultural importance in society