Crucial Difference (crucial + difference)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


The cognitive nature of forgiveness: Using cognitive strategies of primary appraisal and coping to describe the process of forgiving

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2007
John Maltby
The present study investigated forgiveness in a traditional cognitive model of stress appraisal and coping and in a more recent model that includes the construct of low control stressors. One-hundred sixty six men and 168 women completed measures of forgiveness, primary stress appraisals, and coping strategies. For men, forgiveness was found to be positively associated with the use of challenge appraisals, and negatively associated with the use of loss appraisals and emotion-focused coping. For women, forgiveness was found to be positively associated with emotion-focused coping and acceptance, and negatively associated with avoidance. The results for women indicate that when forgiveness situations are conceptualized as low-control stressors, we are able to explain the relationships between forgiveness, appraisal, and coping. The results for men are broadly in line with a more traditional model of coping, which does not consider the construct of low control. Crucial differences in the ways that men and women appraise and cope with situations involving forgiveness are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol. [source]


Understanding the multiple meanings of ,inbreeding' and ,effective size' for genetic management of African rhinoceros populations

AFRICAN JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2009
Stanton Braude
Abstract Although some African rhinoceros populations are currently increasing, others are critically endangered. Even healthy populations are extensively managed in the wild and in captivity. While political and demographic considerations are of primary concern, many decisions are made in the name of genetic management. Such decisions should be informed by a full understanding of the multiple meanings of inbreeding and effective population size. In this essay, we examine inbreeding and effective size of wild and captive populations of African rhinoceroses. We conclude by showing how misunderstanding of effective size and Franklin's 50/500 rule can make a crucial difference in informing management decisions. Résumé Bien que certaines populations de rhinocéros africains soient actuellement en augmentation, d'autres sont en danger critique. Même les populations saines sont gérées très activement dans la nature et en captivité. Alors que les considérations politiques et démographiques soient les principaux motifs d'inquiétude, de nombreuses décisions sont prises au nom de la gestion génétique. Ces décisions devraient se faire en pleine connaissance des multiples implications de l'inbreeding et de ce qu'est une taille de population nécessaire. Dans cet essai, nous examinons l'inbreeding et la taille nécessaire des populations sauvages et captives de rhinocéros africains. Nous concluons en montrant comment une mauvaise compréhension de la taille nécessaire et de la règle 50/500 de Franklin peut entraîner une différence cruciale lorsqu'il s'agit de prendre, en connaissance de cause, les décisions opportunes. [source]


THE CONFESSING ANIMAL IN FOUCAULT AND WITTGENSTEIN

JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS ETHICS, Issue 4 2006
Bob Plant
ABSTRACT In The History of Sexuality, Foucault maintains that "Western man has become a confessing animal" (1990, 59), thus implying that "man" was not always such a creature. On a related point, Wittgenstein suggests that "man is a ceremonial animal" (1996, 67); here the suggestion is that human beings are, by their very nature, ritualistically inclined. In this paper I examine this crucial difference in emphasis, first by reconstructing Foucault's "genealogy" of confession, and subsequently by exploring relevant facets of Wittgenstein's later thinking. While there are significant correlations between Foucault and Wittgenstein, an important disparity emerges in relation to the question of the "natural." By critically analyzing this, I show how Wittgenstein's minimal naturalism provides an important corrective to Foucault's more extravagant claims. By implication, we see why any radical relativist, historicist, and/or constructivist position becomes untenable on Wittgensteinian grounds, even though Wittgenstein himself is often read as promoting such views. [source]


IS POST-MORTEM HARM POSSIBLE?

BIOETHICS, Issue 8 2009
UNDERSTANDING DEATH HARM AND GRIEF
ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is not to affirm or deny particular philosophical positions, but to explore the limits of intelligibility about what post-mortem harm means, especially in the light of improper post-mortem procedures at Bristol and Alder Hey hospitals in the late 1990s. The parental claims of post-mortem harm to dead children at Alder Hey Hospital are reviewed from five different philosophical perspectives, eventually settling on a crucial difference of perspective about how we understand harm to the dead. On the one hand there is the broadly ,analytical' tradition1 of thinking that predicates the notion of harm on the basis of an existing subject. Since the dead are non-existent persons, it makes little sense to view the dead as being harmed. On the other hand, there is a phenomenological perspective, where the dead, in respect to the experience of grief, are existentially absent. This forms the basis that it is possible to harm grieving parent's experiences of how their dead are treated. The article ends with a short examination of what harming the dead implies for traditional bioethical concerns, namely, obtaining informed consent from significant others when planning medical research on the newly dead. [source]


Catherine's legacy: social communication development for individuals with profound learning difficulties and fragile life expectancies

BRITISH JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION, Issue 3 2005
Mary Kellett
In this article, Mary Kellett, of the Children's Research Centre at the Open University, draws on case study evidence to illustrate how an 11,year-old girl's quality of life was transformed in the last few months before she died when an Intensive Interaction intervention approach was adopted. The study raises issues about the way we respond to individuals with the most profound disabilities who are hardest to reach and have fragile life expectancies. It also examines the role of the researcher in situations where a participant dies; how this impacts on data processing - particularly where this involves video footage of a participant -and the complex ethics which need to be considered. Initially, the sadness of the situation and the incompleteness of the data overshadowed the findings. Due attention was not given to the contribution Catherine's data could make to our knowledge and understanding of the lived experiences of children like her and the implications this has for policy and practice. However, ,interrupted' findings from her case study point to the effectiveness of the Intensive Interaction approach in developing sociability, particularly with regard to eye contact and the ability to attend to a joint focus. This article affirms the principle that it is never too late to start an intervention; that severity of impairment should not be a barrier to this; and that the social interaction Intensive Interaction promotes can make a crucial difference to quality of life. [source]


Spatial variation of metals and acid volatile sulfide in floodplain lake sediment

ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 3 2003
Corine van Griethuysena
Abstract In risk assessment of aquatic sediments, much attention is paid to the immobilizing effect of acid volatile sulfide (AVS) on trace metals. The difference of AVS and simultaneously extracted metals (SEM) gives an indication of metal availability. In floodplain sediments, where changing redox conditions occur. AVS may play a major role in determining variation in metal availability. The importance of spatial heterogeneity has been recognized in risk assessment of trace-metal-polluted sediments. However, little is known about spatial variation of available metal fractions. We studied spatial variability of sediment, environmental conditions, total contaminant concentrations, and available metals (as SEM-AVS or SEM-AVS/fOC) in a floodplain lake. The top 5 cm of sediment was sampled at 43 locations. Data were analyzed with correlation and principal component analysis as well as with geostatistical methods. Trace metal and SEM concentrations and most sediment characteristics were more or less constant within 10%. In contrast, AVS concentrations were much more variable and showed a strong spatial dependence due to differences in lake depth, total sulfur pools, and redox potential (Eh), which resulted in crucial differences in trace-metal availability within the lake. The spatial pattern of SEM-AVS deviates from total or normalized trace-metal patterns. This particularly has implications for risk assessment of sediments prone to dynamic hydrological conditions, where AVS concentrations are also variable in time. [source]


Cyclin-dependent kinase 1 plays a critical role in DNA replication control during rat liver regeneration,

HEPATOLOGY, Issue 6 2009
Delphine Garnier
Liver regeneration is a unique process to restore hepatic homeostasis through rapid and synchronous proliferation of differentiated hepatocytes. Previous studies have shown that hepatocyte proliferation is characterized by high expression levels of the "mitotic" cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (Cdk1) during S-phase compared to other mammalian cells. In the light of findings showing that Cdk1 compensates for the loss of Cdk2 and drives S-phase in Cdk2-deficient cells derived from Cdk2 knockout mice, we took advantage of the models of liver regeneration following partial hepatectomy and primary cultures of normal rat hepatocytes to further examine the involvement of Cdk1 during DNA replication in hepatocytes and to dissect specific cell cycle regulation in hepatocytes compared to control human foreskin fibroblasts. In hepatocytes, Cdk1 exhibited a biphasic activation pattern correlating S-phase and G2/M transition, bound to cyclin A or B1 and localized to the nucleus during DNA replication. Importantly, small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated silencing of Cdk1 led to a strong decrease in DNA synthesis without affecting centrosome duplication. Furthermore, in hepatocytes arrested by the iron chelator O-Trensox in early S-phase prior to DNA replication, Cdk1/cyclin complexes were active, while replication initiation components such as the minichromosome maintenance 7 (Mcm7) protein were loaded onto DNA. Moreover, Mcm7 expression and loading onto DNA were not modified by Cdk1 silencing. Conversely, in fibroblasts, Cdk1 expression and activation were low in S-phase and its silencing did not reduce DNA synthesis. Conclusion: Cdk1 is essential for DNA replication downstream formation of replication initiation complexes in hepatocytes but not in fibroblasts and, as such, our data exemplify crucial differences in the cell cycle regulation between various mammalian cell types. (HEPATOLOGY 2009.) [source]