The Expansionist View of Systematic Testimonial Injustice: South Asian Context

In this paper, I offer an expansionist view of the Frickerian central case of testimonial injustice, citing examples from the South Asian context. To defend this expansionist position, I provide an argument in three parts. First, I argue that credibility deficit and credibility excess are entangled with each other in such a way that often, one produces the other. Secondly, I contend that we should not say that systematic testimonial injustice is a consequence of credibility deficit only because of the entanglement between them. I also contend that for being the central case of testimonial injustice, identity prejudice should not be necessarily negative; it can be positive as well. Propounding a twofold condition of the status of a knower, the last part claims that testimonial injustice occurs when one of the two conditions remains unmet

Organized intra-atrial thrombus in growing premature infant

This article reports interesting echocardiographic images of the atrial septum in two growing premature infants related to the previous use of umbilical venous lines in the neonatal period. Complications related to central venous lines are well documented but when they are identified in follow up after several months, their relevance is difficult to establish. Atrial septal findings of organized clot in these asymptomatic infants needs to be correlated with details of neonatal care.peer-reviewe

The Motivation Problem, Future Generations, and the Idea of “Leaving the Earth No Worse”

The author examines the problem of motivation about future generations. He argues that though many philosophers think that direct motivations are problematic for future generations only, they are not unproblematic for the current generations too, and that the motivation problem can be solved if we consider the idea of “leaving the earth no worse.” He also shows why such an idea should be promoted and can motivate us to work in the best interests of current and future generations. The author also contends that prioritizing the idea of “leaving the earth no worse” is not exclusively anthropocentric

Pakistani Couples: Different Productive and Reproductive Realities?

Gender systems depict several dimensions of the relations between men and women across different social settings. Mason (1995) has described the complexity of gender systems that encompass concepts such as women’s standing, empowerment, the sexual division of spheres and the rather widely used concept of women’s status. Gender systems in Pakistan are posited to be unequal in favour of men, because of strong patriarchal systems, which ordain that men and older persons make all major decisions. As a result, women’s status is argued to be low in most dimensions poor educational attainment, few economic opportunities apart from family based employment which is largely unpaid and the virtual seclusion of women from the public spheres of life especially those involving financial transactions. Spheres of life are quite separate with men having the primary responsibility of breadwinning and women to be primarily responsible for within household routine chores such as those involving cleaning, cooking, animal care and child care. Men control the major part of decision making and presumably act in their own interest which may not necessarily coincide with women [Folbre (1988)]. Especially in terms of productive decisions but also in reproductive decisions, women necessarily play a subsidiary role which relegates them to a lower position in terms of decision making and control of resources [Dwyer and Bruce (1988)]. This paper looks more closely at the two spheres of production and reproduction in rural Pakistan. It uses responses from matched husbands and wives to test whether in fact there is a difference between spouses in their perceptions, goals/orientation about production and reproduction.

Application of chromium doped titanium dioxide in solar-to-chemical energy conversion

The thesis postulates that the photocatalytic performance of semiconducting materials based on nonstoichiometric compounds, such as TiO2-based solid solutions, is determined by point defects. Therefore, the performance of the studied solid solutions in solar energy conversion may be considered in terms of defect-related properties. The present research project aimed at verification of the postulate of the thesis. The ultimate aim was to understand the effect of chromium on defect disorder of TiO2 and its defect-related properties, such as photocatalytic properties. The research involved the determination of the effect of processing conditions of Cr-doped TiO2 on chromium segregation and the related concentration gradients of defects within the surface layer that is active photo-catalytically. The strategic aim of the research is to develop a new technology of the conversion of solar energy into chemical energy. Such technology may lead to the reduction of the costs of water processing and elimination of the use for this purpose of the electrical energy produced from fossil fuels. Ultimately, the technology could reduce global warming and climate change

Cytological, Phenological and Molecular Characterization of B (S)-Genome Synthetic Hexaploids (2n = 6x = 42; AABBSS)

The B(S) genome diploids (2n = 2x = 14) are a unique reservoir of genetic diversity that can provide wheat breeders a rich source of allelic variation for stress traits that limit productivity. Restricted in practical use essentially due to their complex chromosomal behavior, these diploids have been in limited practical usage. The classic utilization example has been the suppression activity of the Ph locus and role in alien genetic transfer aspects that has been a standard in cytogenetic manipulation studies. For applied efforts focusing on Aegilops speltoides researchers in CIMMYT initiated an ambitious program to make AABBBB(SS) synthetics and made progress by generating over 50 such synthetics. Of these 20 were available for this study in which phenology and powdery mildew screening were evaluated. Four of these 20 synthetics appeared to be useful sources for further exploitation in breeding. These were entries 6, 9, 10 and 11 suited for exploitation in pre-breeding, with positive phenological characters particularly high thousand-kernel weight and are cytologically near euploid at 2n = 6x = 42. The subtle hyper (43) and hypoploid number would not negate their applied use potential. Preference however goes to genotypes 9 and 11

Promoting physical activity in the workplace: a stage of change approach

Regular physical activity is associated with improved physiological and psychological wellbeing, by reducing the risk of chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis and depression. There is a common perception that physical activity levels in the population are declining, and one of the biggest changes affecting this is occupational based activity. Since adults spend on average over 50% of their waking hours at work, work sites have the potential to be an important setting for health promotion initiatives. Cognitions and behaviours are key causal factors behind many of today s most widespread health problems and illnesses. The stage of change model has been highlighted as having intuitive appeal because it considers the dynamic nature of attitudes and behaviour change. This thesis is concerned with the application of the stage of change model to an occupational health intervention promoting physical activity. Several research studies were undertaken to explore the experiences of employees with workplace health initiatives and investigate the strategies and practices used by occupational health to promote healthy behaviours. These research studies highlighted the barriers and facilitators to successful health interventions and contributed towards the design, development and implementation of an activity promotion intervention. Additional research was also conducted to develop information materials based on the stage of change model. The stage approach was simplified and intervention materials were classified based on whether employees were thinking about making a change or not thinking about making a change to their activity levels. In order to test the materials, a twelve month intervention was implemented in ten work sites across the UK that were allocated to one of three groups. Two groups received information materials and one group received no information during the intervention period (control group). The difference between the two groups who received information was that one group received standard activity promotion information (standard group) and the second group received tailored information based on their stage of change construct (staged group). Participants in the staged intervention group demonstrated significant decreases in body mass index, fat percentage, waist circumference, blood pressure and resting heart rate following the twelve month intervention. In contrast, reductions were identified for the standard intervention group for waist circumference and diastolic blood pressure. Finally, there were no long-term significant improvements identified for the control group. However, group comparisons revealed there were no significant differences between the intervention conditions. The intervention also recorded self-reported psychological outcomes, which demonstrated variations throughout the intervention period for all groups. The potential reasons for these inconsistent outcomes are discussed. A process evaluation following the intervention demonstrated employees valued the health screenings and identified issues relating to knowledge, behaviour change and health implications that were important outputs of the intervention. Based on these findings, the research concludes there is scope to make physical activity interventions in the workplace more effective by applying the stage of change approach. Using the process of simplifying the stages and focusing on whether employees want to change their behaviours or not allows occupational health to deliver information that could be more meaningful and have a significant impact on behaviour change. By understanding employees readiness to change their activity behaviours and targeting information based on their beliefs, attitudes and intentions to change may produce significant improvements in health outcome measures compared to standard information. The results also suggest there is potential for this type of tailored intervention to be extended to other occupational health issues

Use of Annual and Perennial Triticeae Species for Wheat Improvement

Constraints due to global biotic and abiotic stress continue to exist in wheat germ plasm. Novel genetic diversity resides in several annual/perennial Triticeae species that can be introgressed into wheat through intergeneric hybridization, of which Thinopyrum curvifolium is the principle source as it addresses the emphasis here for achieving wheat derivatives resistant to Helminthosporium leaf blight (Cochliobolus sativus). Some additional sources like Th. elongatum (2n=2x= 14) and Secale cereale are also mentioned. The interspecific hybridization strategy offers alien genetic introgression opportunities, for which the closely related Triticum species have a priority. Of these sources, the D genome T. tauschii (Aegilops squarrosa) accessions and some of the A genome species (T. boeoticum, T. monococcum and T. urartu) are being exploited

Realist Evaluation for Practice

The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Keynote Speaker: Dr. Mansoor A.F. Kazi, Reader and Director of Centre for Evaluation Studies, The University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, HD13DH, England - "Realist Evaluation for Practice"The Ohio State University College of Social Wor

A Realistic Simulation for Swarm UAVs and Performance Metrics for Operator User Interfaces

Robots have been utilized to support disaster mitigation missions through exploration of areas that are either unreachable or hazardous for human rescuers [1]. The great potential for robotics in disaster mitigation has been recognized by the research community and during the last decade, a lot of research has been focused on developing robotic systems for this purpose. In this thesis, we present a description of the usage and classification of UAVs and performance metrics that affect controlling of UAVs. We also present new contributions to the UAV simulator developed by ECSL and RRL: the integration of flight dynamics of Hummingbird quadcopter, and distance optimization using a Genetic algorithm