Inside Circles Research Articles

Dysexecutive difficulty and subtle everyday functional disabilities: the digital Trail Making Test.

Digital neuropsychological tests reliably capture real-time, process-based behavior that traditional paper/pencil tests cannot detect, enabling earlier detection of neurodegenerative illness. We assessed relations between informant-based subtle and mild functional decline and process-based features extracted from the digital Trail Making Test-Part B (dTMT-B). A total of 321 community-dwelling participants (56.0% female) were assessed with the Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ) and the dTMT-B. Three FAQ groups were constructed: FAQ = 0 (unimpaired); FAQ = 1-4 (subtle impairment); FAQ = 5-8 (mild impairment). Compared to the FAQ-unimpaired group, other groups required longer pauses inside target circles (p < 0.050) and produced more total pen strokes to complete the test (p < 0.016). FAQ-subtle participants required more time to complete the entire test (p < 0.002) and drew individual lines connecting successive target circles slower (p < 0.001) than FAQ-unimpaired participants. Lines connecting successive circle targets were less straight among FAQ-mild, compared to FAQ-unimpaired participants (p < 0.044). Using stepwise nominal regression (reference group = FAQ-unimpaired), pauses inside target circles classified other participants into their respective groups (p < 0.015, respectively). Factor analysis using six dTMT-B variables (oblique rotation) yielded a two-factor solution related to impaired motor/cognitive operations (48.96% variance explained) and faster more efficient motor/cognitive operations (28.88% variance explained). Digital assessment technology elegantly quantifies occult, nuanced behavior not previously appreciated, operationally defines critical underlying neurocognitive constructs related to functional abilities, and yields selected process-based scores that outperform traditional paper/pencil test scores for participant classification. When brought to scale, the dTMT-B test could be a sensitive tool to detect subtle-to-mild functional deficits in emergent neurodegenerative illnesses.

Which motor-cognitive abilities underlie the digital Trail-Making Test? Decomposing various test scores to detect cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s disease—Pilot study

Since Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a heterogeneous disorder with symptoms, such as tremors, gait and speech disturbances, or memory loss, individualized diagnostics are needed to optimize treatment. In their current form, the typical paper-pencil methods traditionally used to track disease progression are too coarse to capture the subtleties of clinical phenomena. For this reason, digital biomarkers that capture, for example, motor function, cognition, and behavior using apps, wearables, and tracking systems are becoming increasingly established. However, given the high prevalence of cognitive impairment in PD, digital cognitive biomarkers to predict mental progression are important in clinical practice. This pilot study aimed to identify those components of our digital version of the TMT (dTMT) that allow discrimination between PD patients with and without cognitive deficits. A total of 30 healthy control (age 66.3 ± 8.61) and 30 participants with PD (age 68.3 ± 9.66) performed the dTMT using a touch-sensitive tablet to capture enhanced performance metrics, such as the speed between and inside circles. The decomposition of cognitive abilities based on integrating additional variables in the dTMT revealed that the Parkinson’s disease group was significantly more sensitive to parameters of inhibitory control. In contrast, the mild cognitive impairment group was sensitive to parameters of cognitive flexibility and working memory. The dTMT allows objective, ecologically valid, and long-term cognitive and fine-motor performance tracking, suggesting its potential as a digital biomarker in neurodegenerative disorders.

Automated Dimension Estimation of Steel Pipes Stacked at Construction Sites Using Euclidean Distances Calculated by Overlapping Segmentation.

Pipes are construction materials for water and sewage, air conditioning, firefighting, and gas facilities at construction sites. The quantification and identification of pipes stacked at construction sites are indispensable and, thus, are directly related to efficient process management. In this study, an automated CNN-based technique for estimating the diameter and thickness of the pipe in an image is proposed. The proposed method infers the thickness of the pipe through the difference by segmentation, by overlapping the inside and outside circles for a single pipe. When multiple pipes are included in the image, the inside and outside circles for the identical pipe are matched through the spatial Euclidean distance. The CNN models are trained using pipe images of various sizes to segment the pipe circles. An error of less than 7.8% for the outer diameter and 15% for the thickness is verified through execution with a series of 50 testing pipe images.

Evaluation of Motor and Cognitive Performance in People with Parkinson’s Disease Using Instrumented Trail-Making Test

Introduction: Parkinson’s disease (PD) progressively impairs motor and cognitive performance. The current tools to detect decline in motor and cognitive functioning are often impractical for busy clinics and home settings. To address the gap, we designed an instrumented trail-making task (iTMT) based on a wearable sensor (worn on the shin) with interactive game-based software installed on a tablet. The iTMT test includes reaching to 5 indexed circles, a combination of numbers (1–3) and letters (A&B) randomly positioned inside target circles, in a sequential order, which virtually appears on a screen kept in front of the participants, by rotating one’s ankle joint while standing and holding a chair for safety. By measuring time to complete iTMT task (iTMT time), iTMT enables quantifying cognitive-motor performance. Purpose: This study’s objective is to examine the feasibility of iTMT to detect early cognitive-motor decline in PDs. Method: Three groups of volunteers, including 14 cognitively normal (CN) older adults, 14 PDs, and 11 mild cognitive impaireds (MCI), were recruited. Participants completed MoCA, 20 m walking test, and 3 trials of iTMT. Results: All participants enabled to complete iTMT with <3 min, indicating high feasibility. The average iTMT time for CN-Older, PD, and MCI participants were 20.9 ± 0.9 s, 32.3 ± 2.4 s, and 40.9 ± 4.5 s, respectively. After adjusting for age and education level, pairwise comparison suggested large effect sizes for iTMT between CN-older versus PD (Cohen’s d = 1.7, p = 0.024) and CN-older versus MCI (d = 1.57, p < 0.01). Significant correlations were observed when comparing iTMT time with the gait speed (r = −0.4, p = 0.011) and MoCA score (r = −0.56, p < 0.01). Conclusion: This study demonstrated the feasibility and early results supporting the potential application of iTMT to determine cognitive-motor and distinguishing individuals with MCI and PD from CN-older adults. Future studies are warranted to test the ability of iTMT to track its subtle changes over time.

Sexualidad y homosexualidad en la obra de Carlos Alberto Seguin

La sexualidad ha sido siempre un tema de interés tanto en círculos académicos como para el público en general. El concepto de “lo normal” en la sexualidad estuvo relacionado con cuestiones morales, religiosas o legales hasta el siglo XIX, a partir del cual se le comenzó a relacionar con conceptos y temas médicos. En comparación con otros psiquiatras de su época, Carlos Alberto Seguin dio mucha importancia al estudio de la sexualidad humana. Consideró que el desequilibrio de una personalidad puede verse reflejado directamente en su actividad psico-sexual, por lo cual es necesario indagar detenidamente acerca de élla. Las “desviaciones sexuales”, con la homosexualidad como paradigma, suscitan tanto o más interés. La historia de la homosexualidad en el campo de la psiquiatría es compleja, algunos psiquiatras mantenían un enfoque de soporte y menos punitivo, mientras que otros jugaron un papel importante en el tratamiento médico de las conductas homosexuales. Seguin no consideró a la homosexualidad como una enfermedad, si bien la entendía como algo no deseable, contrapuesto al ideal de heterosexualidad. En base a su práctica clínica, postuló un sistema de clasificación de la homosexualidad y mantuvo una actitud comprensiva hacia ella, aun cuando no examinó de una manera directa las opiniones sociales y culturales sobre el tema, en el Perú de su época.

Is the AIIB a China‐controlled Bank? China’s Evolving Multilateralism in Three Dimensions (3D)

AbstractIs the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank a China‐controlled bank? This basic question highlights the issue of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s (AIIB) international credibility, especially as a multilateral institution. AIIB president Jin Liqun recognized the ‘multilateral challenge’ for China from the outset of the planning to create the new Bank, and he understood that the new Bank would only be a real success for China if the AIIB is truly a multilateral development bank – inside Beijing circles, he added, ‘and only if the new Bank does better than the long‐established counterpart MDBs’. These sentiments were alluded to in Jin’s remarks in the Financial Times: ‘China benefited a lot from the existing international system. China needs to do something which can help it be recognized as a responsible member and maybe a responsible leader in the future… if it does well, that will enhance China’s credibility, but if this institution does not follow the international best practice, who will believe in China in the future’. Skeptics, however, question whether it is ever possible that China will allow the AIIB to develop into an actual multilateral bank.

The reception of Austrian economics in Italy

Nowadays the Austrian School enjoys high reputation in Italy: books by Mises, Hayek and other Austrian economists are constantly republished and reviewed with great interest, both inside and outside academic circles. The situation was very different decades ago, when just a few Italian economists devoted attention to the Austrian School. This work studies the reception of Austrian Economics in Italy, from the beginning to our days, so as to bring out, by way of comparison, relevant features of Italian economic culture. We will try to offer just an overview of the entire story, in an attempt to provide useful elements for a deeper analysis of further topics and periods.

Structure Design and Optimization of Deep Cavity Rollers of Rotary Steering Spindle System

The center shaft of rotary steering spindle system is bendable under bias force. A severe partial load effect occurs among rollers, the inside and outside circles of the first cantilever bearing. Simulation analysis was conducted by loading boundary condition of the spindle under bias force. Furthermore, three different types of deep cavity rollers, which were cylindrical, conical, and spherical, respectively, were analyzed by finite element method. The effects of deep cavity angles, radius, and offset on mechanical properties of bearing were studied. The data obtained by simulation analysis were trained and predicted by Back Propagation (BP) neural network, and then the BP neural network model was incorporated into fmincon function. Thereby, structure optimization of rollers was established based on BP neural network model and fmincon function. The results show that structure of the conical deep cavity roller gets optimal mechanical performance. After being optimized, maximum stress of edge region and elliptical area decreases, respectively, by 22 and 17% than before, indicating that structure optimization method of the neural network and fmincon function can be used in optimization of deep cavity rollers. This method can quickly search for the optimal solution with sufficient engineering accuracy, ease of use, and adaptability.

Caught in the Middle: Reform and Youth Rebellion in Russia’s Madrasas, 1900–10

Caught in the MiddleReform and Youth Rebellion in Russia’s Madrasas, 1900–10 Danielle Ross (bio) Becoming a scholar was a common aspiration among Muslims in late imperial Russia. In 1909, a young Muslim poet published a lullaby as part of a reader for young children: One day he’ll go to the madrasa,After studying and working hard,He’ll become a scholar.1 On the surface, the song’s sentiment was straightforward: one day the infant would grow up and go to school. In return for the effort he invested in his education, he would become a scholar. But what did it mean to “become a scholar”? In the Volga–Ural region at the beginning of the 20th century, this was a controversial question. Battles over what it meant to be educated and what role educated people should play in the Muslim community created a new generation of leaders but also spawned lasting hostilities among educated Muslims and undermined the relationships that had once provided continuity across generations of Volga–Ural clergy. Educational reform in the Muslim communities of late imperial Russia has received considerable scholarly attention.2 In the case of the Volga–Ural region, however, the conceptualization and implementation of educational [End Page 57] reform have usually been discussed as components of modernization or identity creation. Given this focus, such studies have tended to concentrate on how education reform contributed to broader changes in self-identity (i.e., the emergence of national identity) and relations between the state and a religious minority rather than on how the same reforms transformed the culture of education itself.3 An exception to this trend is an article by Norihiro Naganawa, “Maktab or School?” which examines how Muslims perceived the differences between Islamic and non-Islamic education from 1906 to the eve of World War I, and how zemstvo funding altered the balance of power among the clerics, teachers, merchant sponsors, and community members who sought to shape educational institutions.4 Naganawa suggests that complex financial and ideological conflicts evolved around Volga–Ural Muslim education and engaged many participants beyond the clergy and the intelligentsia. A second exception is an article by Mustafa Tuna, which considers Volga–Ural Muslim education reform in the framework of a shift from a religious to a secular discursive tradition, a process to which the author attributes the political radicalization of Volga–Ural youth.5 His exploration of the link between changing curriculum and changing student worldviews points to the potential for educational reform to generate conflict inside reformist circles. Like Naganawa, Tuna suggests that rather than sparking a confrontation between reformers and conservatives, educational reform inspired multiple simultaneous conflicts among Muslims of different generational, regional, and social groups. The present article extends this line of investigation that construes educational reform as a force for conflict and destabilization in Volga–Ural Muslim society. It builds on Naganawa’s examination of conflicts over education that engaged parents and community members in addition to clerics and teachers but shifts its attention from state–community interactions to perceptions and social dynamics within the Muslim community. This approach [End Page 58] makes it possible to map out a different but parallel set of conflicts among teachers, parents, and students over the mission of the madrasa.6 While I agree with Tuna’s assertion about the secularization of the madrasa curriculum during the early 1900s, I propose that the secularization of the curriculum represents an inadequate explanation for the intergenerational conflicts that unfolded within and around the madrasas. At least as important were the changing demographics of the student population, the urban environment in which many reformed schools were located, and disagreements over the purpose of the madrasa as an institution. Adeeb Khalid’s interpretation of madrasas as sites of socialization and acquisition of cultural capital provides a starting point for making sense of the student–teacher conflicts that erupted in urban madrasas of the Volga–Ural region between 1900 and 1908. In his study of educational reform in Central Asia, he identifies the madrasa as “the site of social reproduction of Islamic legal knowledge and its carriers.”7 This transmission was achieved through relationships between teachers and their...

The occurrence of triterpenoids from Euphorbia gummifera inside the fairy circles of Garub in the southern Namibian pro-desert

The cause and maintenance of the fairy circle phenomenon of the Namibian pro-desert have not yet been satisfactorily explained. Several diverse hypotheses have been put forward, but none have universally been accepted. In the current study a possible link between the barren patches (fairy circles) of the Garub region (southern Namibian pro-desert) and Euphorbia gummifera was investigated, by determining if a characteristic compound(s) from this poisonous plant is present inside the fairy circles. With the use of GCMS trace analysis it was possible to identify euphol, a characteristic triterpenoid of the Euphorbia genus, in substantial quantities in 19 out of 20 soil samples from inside fairy circles in the Garub region. Only trace amounts of euphol could be found in 3 of 20 samples from outside the fairy circles. This implies that E. gummifera was present where there are now fairy circles. A comparison of the size of the fairy circles and E. gummifera found within the same area (Garub) additionally linked the barren patches to E. gummifera. The circles in this area have an average diameter of 3.53m and the plants 3.44m. This study partially supports the first published hypothesis by Theron in 1979, that the fairy circles are caused by Euphorbia spp. or their remains.

Recursive circle packing problems

AbstractThis paper presents a class of packing problems where circles may be placed either inside or outside other circles, the whole set being packed in a rectangle. This corresponds to a practical problem of packing tubes in a container. Before being inserted in the container, tubes may be put inside other tubes in a recursive fashion. A variant of the greedy randomized adaptive search procedure is proposed for tackling this problem, and its performance is assessed in a set of benchmark instances.

Fast and Accurate Circle Detection Algorithm for Porous Components

Fast and Accurate Circle Detection Algorithm for Porous Components In this paper, a fast and accurate circle detection algorithm is presented. The proposed algorithm satisfies the application requirements on accurate circle localization for porous components with excellent real-time performance. The core idea of the algorithm is to cluster circle edge points by an easy-to-implement image analysis technique. Specifically, the original image is firstly down sampled with uniformly spaced grid to form an image with smaller size. The new image is then analyzed, pixel by pixel, to find the candidate grid points located inside the circle on the original image. Secondly, candidate grid points are evaluated to eliminate the ones which are not inside real circles. Thirdly, grid points located inside one circle are regrouped according to minimum distance between circles. These remaining grid points are the reference points to cluster circle edge points. Finally, parameters for a specific circle including radius and center coordinates are calculated based on the edge points belonging to that circle with Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm. Experiment results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed circle detection method.

Microstructural investigation of concentric-circled poly(l-lactic acid) spherulites with self-assembled nanofibrils

The morphology and microstructure of poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) with different amounts of self-assembled 1,3:2,4-dibenzylidene-D-sorbitol (DBS) nanofibrils were examined using polarizing optical microscopy (POM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). A small amount of DBS (less than 4 wt% DBS) changed the spherulitic morphologies and microstructures of PLLA. The formation of concentric-circled PLLA spherulites was due to the aggregation of DBS nanofibrils around the inside circles (or inside the spherulites). The concentric-circled spherulites were easily obtained at high DBS contents and high PLLA crystallization temperatures. However, at higher crystallization temperatures, the average diameter of the inside circles would exceed the final spherulite size of PLLA. Meanwhile, the DBS nanofibrils were mostly outside the spherulites. Therefore, the concentric-circled structures were not observed. Both the DBS content and PLLA crystallization temperature influenced the formation of concentric-circled spherulites. Moreover, PLLA crystallization temperatures seemed to have slightly larger effects. The crystallization temperature affected the nucleation and spherulite growth rate of PLLA, and thus altered the aggregation of DBS molecules and nanofibrils thereof. SAXS results indicated the long period of the PLLA samples was not significantly influenced by the formation of the concentric-circled spherulites. However, the maximum peak of PLLA broadened when DBS was added. The DBS nanofibrils influenced the regularity of PLLA lamellae, leading to the broader peak.

Unseen objects can contribute to visual size averaging

People can rapidly extract average size information from a set of objects (Ariely, 2001; Chong & Treisman, 2003). Here we explored whether this average is computed using a late representation of the display that has undergone iterative processing, or an initial representation. We asked participants to judge the average size of a set of six circles presented for 30 ms, along with two additional circles that were either smaller or larger than the average. These additional circles were surrounded by four dots that either disappeared simultaneously with the circles, or remained for an additional 320 ms. When the dots disappeared simultaneously, the additional circles were visible. When the dots remained longer, however, the additional circles were invisible due to object substitution masking (Enns & Di Lollo, 1997). If the averaging process uses a late representation of the display, the masked circles should not influence average size judgments. In contrast, we found that masked circles strongly influenced average size judgments, suggesting that the averaging process does not require conscious perception. Average size was also overestimated when the circles were invisible relative to when they were visible, but this difference was not observed in the control condition where the mask did not contain a circle. We speculate that the size of the mask, which always subtended a larger area than the biggest circle in a display, participated in the global average. That is, the mask size was counted into the average calculation when it made the inside circles invisible. In summary, we found that masked circles strongly influenced size averages even though they were never consciously perceived, and that the four-dot mask itself could also contribute to the size average, but only when it blocks the conscious access to the masked objects

The housing spatial structures in Guangzhou urban built-up area and their causes' analysis

Urban housing spatial structure can be viewed as the substantial expression of urban development history. The housing spatial structure of Guangzhou city is typical in that it lies on the front of opening zone and, furthermore, it is one of the three largest cities in China. Basing on the housing data of Guangzhou's 5th Census, the paper employs factor and cluster methods to analyze 5 key factors taking from 40 variables of 77 sub-districts (F70%). They are housing constructed years, housing sources, kitchen equipments, toilet equipments and housing floors. The results of the factor scores help to divide the houses in urban built-up area of Guangzhou city into four types with different features: Ⅰ) Pre-establishment Housing Area (in which houses constructed before the founding of P. R. China); Ⅱ) Government Welfare Housing Area (Ⅱa: in which houses constructed for public servant from the time of the founding of P. R. China to the Reform and Opening) and Enterprise Welfare Housing Area (Ⅱb: in which houses constructed for people serving public owned enterprises from the time of the founding of P. R. China to the Reform and Opening); Ⅲ) 1980s Housing Area (houses with relatively rough equipment constructed during the 1980s); Ⅳ) 1990s Housing Area, in which Commercial Houses (Ⅳa) and Privately Constructed Houses (Ⅳb) centralized. The results can be used to explain the formation mechanism of Guangzhou's housing spatial structure. 1) As a result of Guangzhou's development, housing spatial structure turns on concentric circles from inside to outside. The quality of houses in the former urban area (inside circles) is poorer than that in the outer because they are the origin of the city. Some underdeveloped villages were surrounded by built-up area with urban expansion, while some of them were developed apart from the urban. 2) City planning distorted the concentric circle structure. 3) City reconstruction changed the homogeneous situation of the former urban area. 4) Although the housing reform institute changed houses' tenure, their public-owned attribute has not been broken. 5) Outskirts of the city become the hot area of real estate development, which result in the highest ratio of commercial housing in the outside of the built-up area. As a conclusion, the paper deduces the structure mode of housing spatial structure in the large cities of China: The Pre-establishment Housing Area normally lies in the inner circle. The second circle is the Welfare Housing Area. The Commercial Housing Area mainly centralized in the 3rd circle, which surrounds those relatively underdeveloped villages originally far from urban built-up area and some special function area constructed in the culture and education areas in the 1980s. The broad suburban housing area and industrial area together formed the 4th circle.

Del director

Del director Ijust returned from an exceptionally enjoyable conference, a Symposium held at Indiana University under the leadership ofJuan Carlos Conde to celebrate the five-hundredth anniversary of the publication ofthe Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea. Most know the pleasant - but all too infrequent - experience of attending an academic event where all the papers are solid and the informal exchanges rich and enlightening . It occurred to me that there's an informal index that helps flag such a gathering: how many offprints are swapped from one presenter to the next. I came home the happy recipient of over a dozen excellent studies recently published by the panelists who helped commemorate this milestone in the history of Spain's second most important literary work. Those whojust finished reading the preceding sentence probably thought my last affirmation unremarkable: Celestina in its definitive 2 1-act form is commonly hailed, both inside academic circles and among the educated public in every Spanish-speaking country, as second only to Cervantes's Don Quijote in literary glory. But this school year I have endured a long semester of challenges from my undergraduates who want to know precisely who decided that ranking was true. It's certainly not that they are ill disposed to the Tragicomedia (although few have actually read it at this point); the problem is one of canonicity and the negotiation of cultural capital that canons imply. At my university we recently abandoned our traditional undergraduate program blandly labeled as "Spanish" with its routine surveys of "Spanish Literature I and II" and single-author, single-genre courses in favor of a completely rethought cadre of offerings in a newly rebaptized Program in Hispanic Studies. I am impressed with the new ventures my colleagues have created under rubrics like "Landscapes of Spain: Real Places, Imagined Spaces", "Knights, Witches, Savages: Introduction to Early Modern Spanish Culture", and (I confess ) my own "Love and Prostitution in Medieval Spain" where I regularly teaching Celestina. The faculty in Hispanic Studies recognized from the outset that these thematically organized courses would not easily subsume any number of major works to which our students deserved an introduction, literary landmarks like Cien años de soledad, La regenta and Don Quijote. So we invented a non-repeatable course called "Masterworks and Issues of Canon Formation". My naively trusting colleagues asked me to launch the series with a reading of the Libro de buen amor, which most ofus would probably agree shares top honors in medieval Spanish literature with Celestina and the Poema de mio Cid. That's what I told my students in "Masterworks". And again they asked with an entirely reasonable insistence how we academic guardians of the canon came up with that short list. Many of this journal's readers who teach in the United States still bear the scars of our recent "canon wars" that still flare up in persistent skirmishes between political and cultural opponents who claim the Western canon as their battlefield. The sniping over curriculum, research funding in the arts and humanities, political correctness, multiculturalism, and more are in part a byproduct of an uneasy conscience over America's generally unrepentant national self-obsessiveness and our often smug presumption that we are the center of the universe. The sharpest hostilities seem to be a smokescreen for political forces in our conservative right wing who perceive any indication of going soft on the Western canon as a spineless concession to valueless - not to mention Godless - liberalism. I would hesitate to invite canon-thumpers like William J. Bennett (former Secretary of Education in the Reagan administration and also past Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities in one of its more reactionary phases) to share our discussion in a recent issue of this journal on "Return to Queer Iberia". Bennett, E.D. Hirsch, Allan Bloom and other defenders of a static canon would actually insist that we who teach the great literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance should be on the front lines of resisting trendy approaches and non-canonical texts. But the Tragicomedia would make an odd bulwark against liberal excess or wrongheadedness. Yes, scholars have entertained a prolonged debate on the work's...

Contemporary Environmental Ethics From Metaethics to Public Philosophy

In the past thirty years environmental ethics has emerged as one of the most vibrant and exciting areas of applied philosophy. Several journals and hundreds of books testify to its growing importance inside and outside philosophical circles. But with all of this scholarly output, it is arguably the case that environmental ethics is not living up to its promise of providing a philosophical contribution to the resolution of environmental problems. This article surveys the current state of the field and offers an alternative path for the future development of environmental ethics toward a more publicly engaged model of applied philosophy.

The Urban Blind Spot in Environmental Ethics

In the past 30 years environmental ethics and political ecology have emerged as two of the most vibrant and exciting areas of applied philosophy. Several journals and hundreds of books testify to their growing importance inside and outside philosophical circles. But surprisingly very little has ever been said, in particular, by environmental ethicists about cities, and what has been written is largely negative. This contribution offers an explanation for why the urban environment has been ignored in environmental ethics; second, provides a series of ecological and social arguments for why urban issues cannot be overlooked in a complete environmental ethic; and finally, offers an example of the sorts of issues that an expanded environmental ethic, inclusive of urban environments, would need to focus on.

Harbingers of Peace? Women and American Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones Changing Differences: Women and the Shaping of American foreign Policy, 1917-1994

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones's Changing Differences documents the roles that women, both as insiders and outsiders, have played in shaping American foreign policy since the early years of this century. The tone of the study is optimistic: The author claims that women are, in his words, “the emergent gender” (p. 170) whose “untapped talent” is, in spite of struggle, experiencing “a measurable degree of success” (p. 197). We are left with the sense that women are likely to increase their influence over American foreign policy in coming years and that this will have a beneficial effect due to women's more peaceful nature.1 The association of women with peace is one of the major theses of the book, a claim the author supports both in his discussion of individual women, inside and outside policy circles, and by documenting a consistent gender gap in American public opinion with women being more likely to support peace initiatives and peace candidates than men. Beginning with pre-World War I women's peace movements, Jeffreys-Jones describes the role women have played in working for peace throughout the twentieth century. His discussion of women's groups lobbying for free trade during the 1930s, a movement that explicitly linked its ideas to a nineteenth-century liberal ideology that connected trade with peace, adds a dimension to women's peace activities that has hitherto not received much attention.

A Psychoanalytic Account for Lesbianism

Diane Hamer's impressive article 'Significant others' (1990) is one ofthe rare attempts I have come across to assess lesbianism in analytical theory without pathologizing it. Her assumption that analysis does not necessarily have to categorize lesbianism in terms of illness seems to me a valid way to rethink lesbianism in psychoanalytical terms. Such an approach could do the same for lesbian relations as for heterosexual ones; it could allow a better understanding of psychic relations and lift the restrictions that have hampered our thought. Unfortunately, analysis has often been misused in a different way, namely to pathologize, destroy and marginalize lesbian love. Diane Hamer managed to use analytical theory for a positive understanding of lesbian life. However, I still cannot quite agree with the assessment of lesbianism she prescribes. So I will try to elaborate my own thoughts on the subject. As I believe that the point from which somebody writes should be disclosed as far as possible, here is my account: I am a German woman and bisexual, however vague this term may be. My love with a woman has predominated in my life far more than any heterosexual relation but I have only limited experience with the social role of a lesbian, be it inside or outside lesbian circles. I have been in analysis and although it changed my attitude within the lesbian relationship it didn't turn me into a rigid straight. However, I do not use the word 'we' in this article but I hope that this does not deter the lesbian reader who would identify in this way.