Anthropocentric Rhetorical Discourse in Popular Science Writing about Human Evolution

Discourse describing evolution in contemporary popular science writing often posits that humans evolved not from an ape, but from a merely ape-like or generalized primate. Contemporary fossil and genetic evidence, though, have revealed what can accurately be described as an extinct ape species as ancestral to the human lineage. The persistence of ambiguous terms in popular science writing may be interpreted as a form of anthropocentric rhetorical discourse. Nonetheless, while such discourse is often justified in terms of increasing the public understanding of science, it may also mitigate (whether consciously intended or not) religion-based resistance to evolutionary theory.     

Welfare Rights

The article tries to qualify the contentious issue of whetherthere is a human right to welfare. Our notion of human rightsis practically without criteria for distinguishing between whenit is used correctly and when incorrectly. The first step inany satisfactory resolution of the issue about welfare rightsis to supply duly determinate criteria. I then consider thechief reasons for doubting that there is a human right towelfare, in the light of what seem to be, all things considered,the best criteria to attach to the notion of a human right.     

Understanding of the current police caution (England and Wales)

The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (England and Wales) modified suspects' right to silence during police questioning and required a new police caution. The current 37-word caution was introduced after it was found that a proposed 60-word draft version was too complex. The results of the present study show that, although more succinct, the current caution is no easier to explain. Even under optimal conditions, when the participants could focus on each sentence in turn, only 1 in 10 of the general population (n=15), 6 in 10 of A-level students preparing for university (n=72) and 9 in 10 police officers (n=21) demonstrated their understanding by explaining all three sentences correctly. For all groups, the difficulties were more marked when the caution was presented in its entirety, as would happen in real life. The complexity of the caution has serious implications for suspects in police detention. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Postural control,falls and Parkinson’s disease: Are fallers more asymmetric than non-fallers?

Postural control asymmetry is an important aspect of Parkinson’s disease (PD) that may be associated with falls. The aim of this study was to compare the postural control asymmetry during postural tasks between fallers and non-fallers in people with PD and neurological healthy age-matched controls (CG). Individuals with idiopathic PD (n = 24) and CG (n = 24) were sub-divided into groups of fallers and non-fallers based on their fall history over the past year. Participants performed blocks of three 30-s trials of quiet standing with feet in a side-by-side and semi-tandem stance position. The center of pressure parameters for each limb were measured and used to calculate the symmetry index. Fallers compared to non-fallers had decreased asymmetry of vertical force in the side-by-side condition. During the tandem-front leg condition, PD non-fallers increased asymmetry of the medial-lateral velocity of sway compared to CG non-fallers. In addition, for the tandem–back leg condition, PD non-fallers increased asymmetry of total displacement and medial-lateral root mean square and mean velocity of sway compared to PD fallers. The results of the study did not support the hypothesis that PD fallers are more asymmetric than PD non-fallers. On the contrary, our results indicated that PD non-fallers had higher postural control asymmetry, especially during the more challenging (semi-tandem standing) postural task.     

Challenge your stereotypes! Human Library and its impact on prejudice in Poland

Human Library is a public event aimed at reducing stereotypes and prejudices, in the form of an interactive, contact‐based intervention. It employs the logic of a regular library yet with readers “borrowing” Living Books, which are real people representing various minority groups. Readers engage in 30‐min conversations, during which they can challenge their stereotypes and widen their scope of knowledge and understanding. This pre‐post intervention study examined the effectiveness of the Human Library (held in Wroc?aw, Poland) in reducing social distance towards Roma, Muslims, dark‐skinned, and transgender people, as well as in decreasing homonegativity. Also, we measured whether participation in the Human Library changes individual attitudes towards diverse workgroups. We found that the Human Library decreased social distance towards Muslims. Also, the more Living Books that the participants “read,” the bigger the shift in their social distance towards Muslims. Furthermore, we observed an increase in positive affective attitude towards working in diversified groups, as a result of participation in the event. The study serves as partial support for the effectiveness of the Human Library in altering one's attitude towards minority groups and diversity. The intervention is discussed as a promising but not yet entirely understood tool to improve intergroup relations.     

Law,discipline and governance based on cognitive process simulation – analysis of legal forms in the modern rights relationship

People are becoming more and more humanized in the process of understanding the law. According to the right to discipline, the law has its own core setting factors, while some limits can't reach people's desire. Therefore, the legal and illegal mode of transcending rights is very important. In order to analyze the legal form of modern rights, in this paper, the cognitive learning and memory process of human brain were simulated through the artificial neural network and the understanding of human brain structure, and the role of law, discipline and governance was reflected. In the study, the structure and algorithm of the model neural network were optimized, the memory forgetting curve mechanism that can simulate the human brain was introduced, and thus the network recognition rate was improved. And in the algorithm, the calculation of matching degree was avoided, and the computational complexity was reduced to the sample. Then the sample was compared with the SOM, ART1, and PNN algorithms. The experimental simulation results show that the recognition speed of this sample is 1.9 times faster than that of ART1, 58 times than that of SOM, and 1.5 times than that of the PNN network.     

Coping with diversity in Religious Education: an overview

As a result of secularisation and increasing religious diversity, several European nation have states adapted their policy with regard to the organisation of Religious Education (RE) (or its equivalent) in state schools (schools funded and established by the state). In this article, different strategies will be outlined and evaluated: (1) the shift from confessional/catechetical to semi-confessional RE; (2) the possibility of exemption; (3) the organisation of an alternative, non-confessional, subject; (4) the expansion of RE subjects (multi-religious RE); (5) the shift from confessional to non-confessional RE; (6) the integration of information about religions in other school subjects. Based on a human rights perspective, the author argues why some of these strategies are preferable to others.     

Psychiatrists and community partners examine religion and spirituality

ABSTRACT

The commentary reflects on the definition of spirituality and religion and further implications for the practice of psychiatry. These include the possibilities to partner with spiritual and religious practitioners to support education and research, provide access to care for people with or at risk of mental ill health, and also consider how to the reduce the risks to the well-being of vulnerable people and families from some practices and settings. The World Psychiatric Association sees the possibilities for collaborating with its member societies and community partners including service users and family carers to develop resources on working with faith groups and spiritual healers in high- and low-income countries.     

Taking a children’s rights perspective on children’s spirituality

Abstract

The right to spiritual development has had little attention in public educational policy. This is more challenging, considering the fact of increasing religious diversity and the focus on spirituality and religion in that context, as well as the way the spiritual is mentioned in documents on children’s rights. This article traces the development from the first documents on the rights of the child and responses to these documents. It is argued that educational policy and practice should pay more attention to the way children’s spirituality is included in the documents. This is an issue of general education as well as of moral philosophy. The article concludes with a claim: spiritual development is a matter of survival and flourishing as human beings, and considering this in the framework of children’s rights could mean exploring spiritual sources in one’s own faith as well as in other faiths.