Useful Lies: The Limits of Enlightening the Common Man : Frederick the Great and Franco-German Cultural Transfer

This article asks if the role of the Enlightenment philosopher was, as understood by contemporaries, to work against elites, or to underpin them. Concentrating particularly on the arch-elitist Frederick the Great and his court philosophers, we will track the notion of the elite and their position as holders of truth and enlighteners. The central tenet of the debate will concern the notion of lying to the masses and the utility of truth. It will be shown that advocacy of absolute truth was rare and often dissimulated by philosophers keen to avoid censure. This dividing line will be used to show the cultural transfer of Francophone debates to the German intellectual sphere

Figura e cor : retratos em 2020

Nesta pesquisa apresento um grupo de trabalhos de pintura, feitos por mim entre o final de 2019, 2020 e começo de 2021 assim como exploro questões, métodos e referências externas relacionadas a ela. Desenvolvo parte dessa reflexão a partir de pensamentos de José Ortega e Gasset e autores contemporâneos que revisitaram a sua obra A desumanização da arte, e algumas ideias de Giulio Carlo Argan desenvolvidas no seu livro A Arte Moderna. Comento e relaciono os pintores contemporâneos: Lou Ros, Winston Chiemilinski e Edwige Fouvry com o presente trabalho. Este grupo de pinturas tem como característica mais evidente, o fato de que os trabalhos transitam entre a abstração e a figuração, se utilizam da figura humana, especialmente retratos para criar composições visuais e pretende dar ao fato estético e a experiência imediata do encontro da obra com o expectador, o principal relevo, assemelhando-se assim a algo da experiência da imediaticidade da música

A protocol for a trial of homeopathic treatment for irritable bowel syndrome

Background Irritable bowel syndrome is a chronic condition with no known cure. Many sufferers seek complementary and alternative medicine including homeopathic treatment. However there is much controversy as to the effectiveness of homeopathic treatment. This three-armed study seeks to explore the effectiveness of individualised homeopathic treatment plus usual care compared to both an attention control plus usual care and usual care alone, for patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Methods/design This is a three-armed pragmatic randomised controlled trial using the cohort multiple randomised trial methodology. Patients are recruited to an irritable bowel syndrome cohort from primary and secondary care using GP databases and consultants lists respectively. From this cohort patients are randomly selected to be offered, 5 sessions of homeopathic treatment plus usual care, 5 sessions of supportive listening plus usual care or usual care alone. The primary clinical outcome is the Irritable Bowel Syndrome Symptom Severity at 26 weeks. From a power calculation, it is estimated that 33 people will be needed for the homeopathic treatment arm and 132 for the usual care arm, to detect a minimal clinical difference at 80 percent power and 5 percent significance allowing for loss to follow up. An unequal group size has been used for reasons of cost. Analysis will be by intention to treat and will compare homeopathic treatment with usual care at 26 weeks as the primary analysis, and homeopathic treatment with supportive listening as an additional analysis. Discussion This trial has received NHS approval and results are expected in 2013. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN9065114

Influência de fatores relacionados ao paciente no resultado estético de procedimentos plásticos periodontais

A literatura tem demonstrado que algumas condições, tais como idade e fumo podem afetar de forma negativa o reparo e a cicatrização de diversos tecidos, incluindo os tecidos periodontais e por consequência, prejudicar o resultado das cirurgias plásticas periodontais. O presente estudo tem o objetivo de avaliar a influência de diversos fatores relacionados ao paciente no resultado estético final de 4 diferentes tipo de procedimentos plásticos periodontais destinados a tratar recessões gengivais associadas a lesão cervical não-cariosa. Para tal, setenta e oito (78) defeitos foram tratados com uma das seguintes abordagens: retalho posicionado coronariamente (CAF), CAF associado à restauração de ionômero de vidro (CAF+ R); enxerto de tecido conjuntivo sozinho (CTG); CTG associado à restauração de ionômero de vidro (CTG+R). Foram confeccionados painéis com a foto inicial do pré-operatório e pós-operatórios de 6 meses, e arranjo destas em ordem para avaliação no método de RES e para a avaliação cosmética qualitativa (ACQ). Assim, foram apresentadas a 3 examinadores previamente calibrados que julgaram o resultado estético de cada caso, utilizando os dois métodos: 1. O método modificado de RES e 2. Avaliação Cosmética Qualitativa (ACQ). Através de análises de regressões, a idade, a presença de hábito tabagista, gênero, raça, índice de placa e gengival foram correlacionados com os resultados de cada um dos métodos (RES e ACQ) para se avaliar a influência de cada um desses fatores na qualidade estética final de cada procedimento plástico realizado. Além disso, os fatores relacionados aos pacientes também foram correlacionados com cada parâmetro utilizado pela escala RES no intuito de se avaliar em qual item da estética cada fator pode ter influência. A partir da pesquisa verificamos que as abordagens que não levaram a restauração apresentaram resultados finais ao longo prazo melhores que as mesmas técnicas associadas a restauração de ionômero de vidro modificada por resina. Além disso, fatores como a inflamação gengival e índice de placa alto prejudicam a estética final dos casos. Assim com o reparo prejudicado, pode haver a formação de cicatriz e recobrimento radicular incompleto, o que podem levar a resultados estéticos piores.Literature has shown that some conditions, such as age and the smoking habit can negatively affect cicatrization and the repair of a number of tissues, including periodontal tissues and consequently can harm the wound healing after periodontal plastic surgery. The present study is aimed to evaluate the influence of some patient-related factors in the final aesthetic outcome in 4 different types of periodontal plastic procedures to treat gingival recessions associated with non-carious cervical lesion. Seventy eight (78) defects treated with one of the following approaches: coronary associated flap (CAF); CAF with restoration of glass ionomer (CAF+R); conjunctive tissue graft (CTG); CTG associated with glass ionomer restoration (CTG+R) were included. There were made panels presenting the initial picture of the pre operatory and post operatory of 6 months and arranged in this order so that the RES method and the qualitative cosmetic evaluation could be performed. They were presented to 3 examiners previously calibrated which judged the aesthetic outcome in each case by using the 2 methods: 1.modified RES method and 2.Cosmetic Assessment. By regressions analysis, age, smoke habit, gender, race, plaque index and bleeding index were correlated and the results of each method in order to evaluate the influence of each one of these factors in the final aesthetic quality of the plastic procedure used. The results show that the approaches performed (CAF and CTG) without the association of the restoration presented better long-term final results than the techniques associated with glass ionomer restoration. Besides, factors such as high gingival inflammation and plaque index harm final aesthetics in the studied cases. Therefore, with damage in wound healing there may be scar formation and an incomplete root coverage, which may leed to worst aesthetic assessment

Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu: Esprit des lois [The Spirit of Laws]

Encyclopedia article on Montesquieu's Spirit of the Law