Spinal cord injured people: differences in psychological variables from a gender perspective

This ex post factor study is within the framework of studies dealing with the psychological aspects involved in the rehabilitation of people with physical handicaps from the perspective of gender. From this perspective, the study focuses on comparing and studying the differences between men and women using the EMELM Scale (Multidimensional Evaluative Scale for People with Spinal Cord Injury). Participants were 143 people -99 men and 44 women- with spinal cord injuries. The results showed no differences as a result of gender in any of the following psychological variables related to the spinal cord injury adjustment process: extraversion-neuroticism, motivation and anxiety, locus of control, current coping strategies, remembrance of coping strategies and depression. The implications of these results for future research are discussed.     

Relationship between productivity and efficiency in research funding for Spanish regions

Quality is a major current needs and requirements for any university system. The funding that universities receive a relevant influence on the scientific productivity of these. Thus the main objective of this study is to classify the Spanish regions in terms of scientific productivity and economic efficiency of their universities. It followed the same procedure used to prepare the 2009 ranking of research productivity in Spanish universities. The results show that there are differences in the classifications made on the basis of productivity and efficiency in the investigation. The more efficient Spanish regions in managing its resources to obtain research results are Catalonia, Asturias, Aragon, and Cantabria. From the results, each region can compare their situation with the rest and analyze strengths and weaknesses in research in terms of resources.     

Discovering New Ways of Moving: Observational Analysis of Motor Creativity While Dancing Contact Improvisation and the Influence of the Partner

Contact improvisation (CI) is a form of dance based on motor creativity, improvisation and the physical contact between different improvisers dancing together. This will generate different ways of moving and a varied use of motor creativity depending on the dancers involved. This study aims to observe the differences in movement generation depending on the partner by using OSMOS (Observational System of Motor Skills; Castañer & Camerino 2006; Castañer et al., 2009). Four contact improvisers were video‐recorded while dancing in duets. Data were analysed by three observers using Theme Coder software (Magnusson, 1996) for the detection of T‐patterns and the production of event frequency charts. The results show that (1) the motor skills that appear most frequently are the conduction of partners, elevations, spatial level changes and turns; (2) motor creativity is affected by the partner, as there is a reciprocal influence in the dance; and (3) motor creativity is enhanced by interaction with a partner.     

Social sciences,modernization, and late colonialism: The Centro de Estudos da Guiné Portuguesa

In Portugal, studies of transformations since the mid-1950s in colonial social research have focused on the colonial school in Lisbon or other bodies directly under the supervision of the metropolitan administration. Nonmetropolitan initiatives have been neglected and the social-scientific undertakings of the Centro de Estudos da Guiné Portuguesa (CEGP), in particular, have been only marginally dealt with. This article maps CEGP's creation in Bissau, in 1945, and its social-scientific activity not only to establish its precedence but also to highlight local colonial enterprise and to specify its imprint upon developments in the metropole. It addresses CEGP's immediate context and main actors, institutional setting, research activities, publications, and other scientific outlets, to then put forward some concluding remarks regarding the epistemic reach of overseas governmental measures and the practical effects, in metropolitan colonial policies and scientific research, of peripheral imperial bureaucratic knowledge.     

THE EARLIEST SYRIAC RECEPTION OF DIONYSIUS1

This essay examines the earliest Syriac reception of the Corpus Dionysiacum in the first decades of the sixth century. This reception is earlier than the standard Greek reception and moves us closer, I hypothesize, to the original text and context of the CD than do the subsequent Greek edition and commentaries of John of Scythopolis. The principal texts associated with the earliest Syriac reception all betray the influence of “Origenism,” which, I argue, reflects the original milieu of the author of the CD. I conclude this essay with some thoughts on how an acknowledgement of the Origenism of the CD complicates our understanding of “orthodoxy” and “heresy” during this period.     

Drop it like it’s HOT: a vicious regress for higher-order thought theories

Higher-order thought (HOT) theories of consciousness attempt to explain what it takes for a mental state to be conscious, rather than unconscious, by means of a HOT that represents oneself as being in the state in question. Rosenthal (in: Liu, Perry (eds) Consciousness and the self: new essays, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2011) stresses that the way we are aware of our own conscious states requires essentially indexical self-reference. The challenge for defenders of HOT theories is to show that there is a way to explain the required reference-fixing mechanisms that is compatible with the theory. According to Rosenthal, the reference to oneself as such is grounded in the disposition to identify the individual the HOT refers to as the individual who has that HOT. I argue that this leads to a vicious infinite regress on the more than plausible assumption that our cognitive capacities are limited. This leaves such theories without a foundation, since self-reference is thought essential to consciousness.

     

A Scottish Millennial Mission to Jews

This paper investigates how the missionaries of the Church of Scotland sought to convert the Jews in Hungary. The research studies carefully Adolph Saphir's change of faith, his theological views, and his work. His family was the first “fruit” of Scottish missionary activity among the Hungarian Jews in 1843. After scrutinizing his conversion, the study proceeds to map his sphere of work as a missionary. In particular, it examines his millennial views, which gave the impetus to his missionary activity. Finally, the paper demonstrates that he became an ardent supporter of mission to the Jews not only in Britain but also in Central Europe.