Philosophy

Guns aren't going to be banned in the US. Given this fact, the proper response to mass shootings is the elimination of many so-called gun-free zones in areas mass shooters tend to target. Even if guns ought to be banned, given that they won't be banned, I argue that the proper response to mass shootings is allowing civilians to carry firearms in self and other-defence.

... Giulio E. Lancioni Æ Mark F. O'Reilly Nirbhay N. Singh Æ Jeff Sigafoos Æ Doretta Oliva Simona Baccani Æ Andrea Bosco Æ Fabrizio ... Institute, Chesterfield, Virginia, USA J. Sigafoos University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA D. Oliva Æ S. Baccani Lega F. D'Oro Research Center ...

This study assessed whether a post-coma woman functioning at the lower end of the minimally conscious state would (a) develop adaptive responding through the use of microswitch technology and contingent stimulation, (b) consolidate and maintain her responding over time, and (c) show evidence of response-consequences awareness (learning and discrimination). The study involved an ABABB1CB1 sequence in which the A represented baseline phases, the B and B1 intervention phases, and the C a control phase with continuous stimulation. Results indicated that the woman developed adaptive responding and consolidated it over the intervention phases of the study. The woman also showed evidence of being aware of response-consequences links. Potential implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.

The present study assessed the possibility of promoting pre-ambulatory foot-leg movements in children with multiple disabilities by motivating their action through contingent stimulation combined with a support device. Two children aged 10 and 8 years participated. Microswitch technology (i.e., pressure sensors under the shoes or optic sensors at the front-inner side of the shoes) served for detecting the foot-leg movements and providing contingent stimulation on their occurrence. Sensor activation produced 5 s of stimulation during intervention. Data showed that both children had significant increases in foot-leg movements during the intervention phases. Implications of the data in terms of skill acquisition and further intervention prospects are discussed.

Persons with a diagnosis of minimally conscious state and pervasive motor disabilities tend to be passive and isolated. A way to help them improve their adaptive behavior (relate to their environment) involves the use of intervention packages combining assistive technology with motivational strategies. The types of assistive technology included in those packages may consist of (a) microswitches allowing direct access to environmental stimuli, (b) combinations of microswitches and voice output communication devices (VOCAs) allowing stimulus access and calls for caregivers' attention, respectively, and (c) computer presentations of stimulus options and microswitches allowing choice among those options and access to them.

In literary romance loves operates as a narrative point of access, suspension, and ending: every element works toward its ultimate consummation. However, in the novels of Henry James, including The Golden Bowl, love is not fulfilled because it is intrinsically flawed. Here, I examine the broken nature of Jamesian love through two key philosophers, Jean-Luc Nancy and Martha Nussbaum, who assist in providing a rich theoretical dimension to the question of love's representation. Ultimately, I address how love's negative dialectic is elemental to narrative, thinking, and subjectivity.

In Camera Lucida (1980), Roland Barthes proposes that "[e]very photograph is a certificate of presence" (87). For Barthes, photographs provide "a certainty" that validates "the thing [that] has been" (Barthes 80, 76). Written twenty five years after Barthes' theory of photography, Dionne Brand's What We All Long For (2005) challenges photography's informational value and destroys the promise of certainty that the photograph constitutes for Barthes. In this thesis I argue that Brand's novel sensitizes readers to the insufficiency of photography as a medium of documentation in the postmodern era.
I show that longing functions in the novel much like photographic certainty: neither are fulfilled. In my first chapter I demonstrate that references to longings in the novel highlight the gap between photographic images and the reality they seem to represent and posit photography not as "a mirror, to reflect the true meaning as it already exists in the world" of the novel but as a device with which to shape it (Hall, 24). I therefore argue that Brand's novel departs from the Barthesian theory and invites us to read photography as a practice that constructs rather than reflects reality. In my second chapter I examine the novel's representation of photography as a device that preserves the illusory stability that is manifested in still photographs. I then demonstrate that by accentuating this illusion Brand's novel questions the validity of photography as a documentary medium. Finally, I show that by pointing to the unstable status of photography Brand's novel reveals not only the uncertainties embedded in the reception history of photography but also those which are intrinsic to the histories that photographs construct and reproduce. My thesis suggests that by simultaneously affirming and resisting photography's status as a tool of documentation, Brand's novel comments on the pervasive but ultimately problematic faith in visual media as reliable forms of documentation in the postmodern era.

In literary romance love operates as a narrative point of access, suspension, and ending: every element works toward its ultimate consummation. However, in the novels of Henry James, including The Golden Bowl, love is not fulfilled because it is intrinsically flawed. Here, I examine the broken nature of Jamesian love through two key philosophers, Jean-Luc Nancy and Martha Nussbaum, who assist in providing a rich theoretical dimension to the questions of love's representation. Ultimately, I address how love's negative dialectic is elemental to narrative, thinking, and subjectivity.

A fetal patient presented at 27.3 weeks of gestation with polyhydramnion. Ultrasound examination showed enlarged cerebral ventricles, abnormal position of the fingers and abnormal external genitals. Chromosome studies in chorionic villus material were normal male: in cultured amniocytes a distal deletion 14q32 was demonstrated and confirmed by FISH analysis. The baby was born at 37 weeks and died spontaneously during labour. This is the first report of prenatal diagnosis of a terminal 14q deletion.

Velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS) is a syndrome with a known, but variable clinical and behavioural phenotype. Most reported cases are patients of a relatively young age. The development of the behavioural phenotype and psychopathology in older patients with VCFS is less known. We present a case of a 52 year old male patient with VCFS and a deletion in chromosome band 22q11.2. He presents with typical symptoms reported in the behavioural phenotype, autistic features and an overall deteriorating process, which fulfils the DSMIV criteria for dementia.