The Metaphysics of Mind and the Practical Science of the Law

In “Mind of a Moral Agent,” Susanna Blumenthal elegantly limns the rise and partial fall of the common sense theory of moral responsibility in American law. As Blumenthal convincingly describes it, the problem for early American jurists was nothing less than to solve the paradox of determinism and free will. How can the law declare someone morally culpable unless we are free to choose our own ends? After the Revolution, according to Blumenthal’s account, American doctors and jurists turned to a sunny, Scottish Enlightenment theory of moral responsibility. In place of the tortured moral gymnastics of an older generation of Calvinist-influenced thinkers, men like Benjamin Rush and James Wilson adopted the Scots’ idea of an innate moral faculty — a moral sensibility with which to distinguish right from wrong. The dilemma of responsibility seemed to have been solved. Human beings possessed the equipment with which to determine their fate, and if a person chose to pursue a morally wrong path, legal liability was her just desert

Preservation of a species

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, September 2011."September 2011." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-142).To put it simply, humans are going extinct. I identify the source of the problem as an imperceptible societal trend to eliminate the experience that authenticates us as a living species: failure. We've unanimously designated its unattainable opposite as the standard of success: perfection. This quality is a requisite of our accelerated culture, the achievement manifested in an exponentially growing inventory of artifacts that are "faster, sleeker, better." And humans are becoming some of them. In the search for ever-increasing modes of efficiency and precision, humans have adapted their posture to the rigidity of architecture and adopted proliferate technological mediators as prosthetics. The overwhelming pressure to occupy a flawless state of being is a symptom of society, generated by the ego and aggravated by our continual exposure to environments that boast aesthetic and functional attributes exceeding our own. In a competitive fashion, we've subjected ourselves to a mechanical and agitated lifestyle that demands instantaneous reaction, shaping us into receivers and transmitters that function at impeccable and unsustainable speeds. My artistic practice is a critical investigation of human behavior as it is informed and manipulated by the prescriptive streamlined circumstances we've constructed and similarly inhabit in our digitally saturated culture. Instinctual impulses and organic chaos are suppressed in the automatic and regulated state incited by our technoutopian environments. I use performance to explore three general interfaces that I've located as antagonistic towards natural human behavior: architecture, technology and codes of regulation. Primarily employing myself as a subject, I design situations in which I contend with the three aforementioned interfaces, and subsequently have developed a catalogue of responses that strive to mitigate the external forces governing human behavior.by Sarah Witt.S.M

Auswirkung einer intrastriatalen Injektion von Botulinum-Neurotoxin-A auf die cholinergen Interneurone des Caudatus-Putamen-Komplexes der Maus: eine quantitative Studie

Bereits 2011/2012 wurden Arbeiten veröffentlicht, die die intrazerebrale Injektion von Botulinumneurotoxin-A zur Therapie des experimentellen Hemiparkinson der Ratte untersucht haben. Aufgrund des demografischen Wandels und der damit verbundenen steigenden Anzahl an Parkinson-Patienten wird die Optimierung der Therapie des Morbus Parkinson an Bedeutung gewinnen. Die vorliegende Arbeit stützt die Annahme, dass die intrastriatale Injektion von BoNT-A nach Untersuchungen an Mausgehirnen eine nebenwirkungsarme Komponente der künftigen Parkinsontherapie werden kann

Mental Health Intervention Strategies for Youth in Rural Northeast TN

Title: MENTAL HEALTH INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR YOUTH IN RURAL NORTHEAST TN Introduction: A major need in Hawkins County entails lack of access to mental health resources. As a rural Appalachian county, this scarcity is especially felt by the area’s youth, who are subject to peer pressure, higher ACE scores, and may lack the autonomy to seek out professional help. Methods: The community-based intervention spanned in three consecutive weekly small-group sessions. Eligible participants were recruited from the afterschool program at the Boys and Girls Club of Hawkins County and must have been in the 5th to 8th grade (middle school) during the course of the study (n=13). Each participant completed a pre-­intervention assessment, a series of short weekly surveys (one per session) and a post-­intervention assessment to determine effectiveness and retention of the material presented. Statistical significance was determined using a paired T-Test. Results: Results did not provide any statistically significant relationships but trends were observed in perceived stress which decreased overall from pre-survey to post-survey (p=0.716), as did the self-reported use of negative coping strategies in the group (p=0.193). There was also a slight increase (p=0.653) in self-reported use of positive coping skills. A trend for greater change in the male participants was also observed. The mindfulness activity was perceived with a higher affinity than the baseline knowledge (Unpacking Mental Health) session (p=0.017). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that short 1-hour interventions per week, especially those incorporating mindfulness strategies, can influence attitudes and coping strategies in rural adolescent children compared to mental health knowledge sessions alone (p=0.017). Trends in gender differences could underlie cultural and societal norms. Due to the limited number of mental health providers, evaluating behaviors were considered but not utilized. These trends, especially in mindfulness activities, could help further guide community partner mental health strategies for youth in rural Appalachia. Overall, these initial trends warrant further work in a much larger sample size and power of the study to draw definitive results

Radiative equilibrium in Monte Carlo radiative transfer using frequency distribution adjustment

The Monte Carlo method is a powerful tool for performing radiative equilibrium calculations, even in complex geometries. The main drawback of the standard Monte Carlo radiative equilibrium methods is that they require iteration, which makes them numerically very demanding. Bjorkman & Wood recently proposed a frequency distribution adjustment scheme, which allows radiative equilibrium Monte Carlo calculations to be performed without iteration, by choosing the frequency of each re-emitted photon such that it corrects for the incorrect spectrum of the previously re-emitted photons. Although the method appears to yield correct results, we argue that its theoretical basis is not completely transparent, and that it is not completely clear whether this technique is an exact rigorous method, or whether it is just a good and convenient approximation. We critically study the general problem of how an already sampled distribution can be adjusted to a new distribution by adding data points sampled from an adjustment distribution. We show that this adjustment is not always possible, and that it depends on the shape of the original and desired distributions, as well as on the relative number of data points that can be added. Applying this theorem to radiative equilibrium Monte Carlo calculations, we provide a firm theoretical basis for the frequency distribution adjustment method of Bjorkman & Wood, and we demonstrate that this method provides the correct frequency distribution through the additional requirement of radiative equilibrium. We discuss the advantages and limitations of this approach, and show that it can easily be combined with the presence of additional heating sources and the concept of photon weighting. However, the method may fail if small dust grains are included... (abridged)Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in New Astronom

Impact of geography on Scottish cancer diagnoses in primary care:Results from a national cancer diagnosis audit

Funding The National Cancer Diagnosis Audit (NCDA) in Scotland received enabling support from Cancer Research UK and the Scottish Government. Acknowledgements This audit used data provided by patients and collected by NHS as part of their care and support. The authors would like to thank all GPs and health professionals who participated in the NCDA in Scotland, the members of the NCDA Steering Group, as well as contributing staff at Cancer Research UK; Information Services Division (NHS Scotland); Scottish Government; the Royal College of General Practitioners; and Macmillan Cancer Support. National Cancer Diagnosis Audit (2014) Steering Group: Sue Ballard (patient †), Patricia Barnett, David H Brewster, Cathy Burton, Anthony Cunliffe, Jane Fenton-May, Anna Gavin, Sara Hiom (chair), Peter Hutchison, Dyfed Huws, Maggie Kemmner, Rosie Loftus, Georgios Lyratzopoulos, Emma McNair, John Marsh (patient), Jodie Moffat, Sean McPhail, Peter Murchie, Andy Murphy, Sophia Nicola, Imran Rafi, Jem Rashbass, Richard Roope, Greg Rubin, Brian Shand, Ruth Swann, Janet Warlow, David Weller, and Jana Witt.Peer reviewedPostprin

LGG-11. Analysis of neurosurgical complications in pediatric supratentorial midline low-grade glioma – results from the German LGG [Abstract]

OBJECTIVE: Around 80% of all pediatric low-grade glioma (LGG) patients undergo at least one tumor surgery. Interventions in the supratentorial midline (SML) are particularly challenging due to the proximity of eloquent areas, yet associated complications are scarcely reported. We investigated the frequency of neurosurgical complications and related impairments and aimed at identifying risk factors for their appearance related to patient characteristics or the procedure. PATIENTS AND METHOD: Records were retrospectively analyzed from 321 patients with SML-LGG from the successive multicenter German LGG studies, who underwent neurosurgery at 63 hospitals between May 12th,1998 and June 27th, 2020. RESULTS: 543 operations (235 resections, 168 biopsies, 140 non-tumor interventions) were performed on 321 patients (54% male, median age 9 years, 11% NF1 positive, 43% visual pathway glioma). Surgical mortality rate was 0,93% (n=3). Applying the Drake classification postoperative surgical morbidity was observed in 259 cases (47,7%), medical morbidity in 103 cases (19%). 30-day persistence rate of newly developed neurological deficits was 44,8% (65/165 cases); neuroendocrine impairment affected 57 patients (17,8%), visual deterioration 34 (10,6%). Complications/impairments following resections were associated with patient age below 3 years at operation, tumor volume above 80 cm(3), presence of hydrocephalus prior to surgery, complete resection, intervention in centers with fewer reported resections and surgery performed between 1998-2006 by univariate analysis. In contrast, the neurosurgical approach, tumor location, NF1 status as well as previous antineoplastic treatment were not associated with the frequency of complications. Regarding biopsies, open biopsies showed significantly more surgery-associated complications/impairments compared with stereotactic procedures. CONCLUSIONS: Neurosurgery-associated complications and impairments were frequent in pediatric patients with supratentorial midline LGG undergoing open surgery in the German LGG-studies. We identified six patient- and institution-associated factors that may increase the risk for surgical complications. Skills at the treating center and extent of resection should be considered appropriately prior to intervention

Efficacy and safety data based on historical or pre-existing conditions at baseline for patients with active rheumatoid arthritis who were treated with baricitinib

This study was funded by Eli Lilly and Company and Incyte Corporatio

The RIPI-f (Reporting Integrity of Psychological Interventions delivered face-to-face) checklist was developed to guide reporting of treatment integrity in face-to-face psychological interventions.

Objectives: Intervention integrity is the degree to which the study intervention is delivered as intended. This article presents the RIPI-f checklist (Reporting Integrity of Psychological Interventions delivered face-to-face) and summarizes its development methods. RIPI-f proposes guidance for reporting intervention integrity in evaluative studies of face-to-face psychological interventions. Study Design and Setting: We followed established procedures for developing reporting guidelines. We examined 56 documents (reporting guidelines, bias tools, and methodological guidance) for relevant aspects of face-to-face psychological intervention integrity. Eighty four items were identified and grouped as per the template for intervention description and replication (TIDieR) domains. Twenty nine experts from psychology and medicine and other scholars rated the relevance of each item in a single-round Delphi survey.Amultidisciplinary panel of 11 experts discussed the survey results in three online consensus meetings and drafted the final version of the checklist. Results: We propose RIPI-f, a checklist with 50 items. Our checklist enhances TIDieR with important extensions, such as therapeutic alliance, provider’s allegiance, and the adherence of providers and participants. Conclusion: RIPI-f can improve the reporting of face-to-face psychological interventions. The tool can help authors, researchers, systematic reviewers, and guideline developers. We suggest using RIPI-f alongside other reporting guidelines.post-print504 K