Knowledge of Breast Cancer Genetics Among Breast Cancer Patients and First-Degree Relatives of Affected Individuals

The cloning of BRCA1, a susceptibility gene for inherited breast cancer, has made genetic screening possible for individuals and families whose medical histories are suggestive of an inherited predisposition to breast cancer. To date, few systematic attempts have been made to determine the level of knowledge about breast cancer genetics among women who are likely to seek BRCA1 screening when it becomes widely available. The present study attempted to assess the general knowledge about BRCA1 mutations in two groups: (1) first-degree relatives (FDRs) of breast cancer patients; and (2) women with a previous diagnosis of breast cancer. A self-administered, thirty-item questionnaire was developed through a pilot study. Ten of the items were objective, factual questions about breast cancer genetics. Responses to these questions were used to generate an overall knowledge score for each respondent. The study population was moderately knowledgeable about breast cancer genetics, with an average score of 5.35 out of 10. Counselors should not underestimate the importance of evaluating each counselee's existing knowledge about breast cancer, which can affect the provision and reception of genetic information. In particular, specific areas of knowledge that may be confusing or misunderstood were identified and these topics are discussed in detail.     

经颈静脉肝内门腔静脉分流术的哲学思考

本文阐述了经颈静脉肝内门腔静脉分流术的产生和曲折发展的道路,ＴＩＰＳＳ是人们不断探索,认识进一步深化的结果,符合人类认识的规律。     

Postmodernism: What One Needs to Know

This essay is an introduction to postmodernism and deconstruction as they relate to the special challenges of scholarship and teaching in the science and religion multidiscipline.     

New Roles for Rhetoric: From Academic Critique to Civic Affirmation

The classical conception of rhetoric as the method of reasoned political judgment survived into the Renaissance but was reduced to academic critiques of style and "empty" public rhetoric with the rise of modern science and its representationalist theories of language. Recently, however, rhetoric, textuality, and the "linguistic turn" generally, have become central metaphors in the human sciences. This renewed rhetorical perspective not only fosters a critique of positive philosophy and of scientism in public discourse, it also offers affirmative methods by which persons can construct their civic lives.     

Between Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: Examination of Reasons for Academic Study based on the Theory of Internalization

In contrast with the view that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are antagonistic, the view proposed in this article is that they are anchors of a continuous variable. According to the theory set out here, intrinsic motivation develops by means of internalization. This gives rise to four types of motivation: external, introjected, identified, and intrinsic. The main purpose of this study was to construct a scale to measure these four types of motivation for academic achievement and then to examine its validity. The Stepping Motivation Scale, created by the author, was administered to 483 junior high school students. Intercorrelations among the four subscales conformed to a simplex structure, and documented a continuum from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation. To clarify the distinction among the four types of motivation, relevant variables such as causal attributions and coping behaviors in failing situations, beliefs in links between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, and teachers' evaluation of students' motivation were related to motivation types. A difference in motivational types was exhibited in the differential patterns of correlations.     

THE JOHN TEMPLETON FOUNDATION MODEL COURSES IN SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Abstract. In 1994 the John Templeton Foundation Humility Theology Information Center launched a major initiative, the Science-Religion Course Program, to encourage the teaching of high-quality academic courses focusing on the relationship between science and religion. In the first phase of the program, six courses were selected—four from the United States, one from Canada, and one from New Zealand—to serve as models for other academics wishing to initiate their own classes on the science-religion interface. In particular these six model courses will serve as examples for the second phase of the Templeton Foundation program, which will provide financial support for up to 100 courses at universities, colleges, and seminaries around the world. This paper is a report on the pedagogical strategies and methodologies employed in each of the six selected model courses.     

Marital attributions in spouses of depressed patients

Causal attributions (i.e., locus, stability, globality) and responsibility attributions (i.e., bad intent, selfish motivation, blame) were assessed in the spouses of 27 depressed psychiatric inpatients and 30 nondepressed dyads to test predictions derived from Hooley's (1987) symptom-controllability model of marital distress. Results indicated that (1) depressed patients and their spouses were less dyadically adjusted than nondepressed spouses, (2) causal and responsibility attributions about depressive behaviors predicted lower dyadic adjustment, and (3) attributions of causality mediated the relationship between group status (depressed or nondepressed) and dyadic adjustment among spouses who had higher expectations for their partner to change. Results suggest that among spouses with a high expectancy for change, depression may be a risk factor for marital distress.     

Why are there no objective values?

Using the mathematical frameworks of economic preference ranking, subjective probability, and rational learning through empirical evidence, the epistemological implications of teleological ethical intuitionism are pointed out to the extent to which the latter is based on cognitivist and objectivist concepts of value. The notions of objective value and objective norm are critically analysed with reference to epistemological criteria of intersubjectively shared valuative experience. It is concluded that one cannot meaningfully postulate general material theories of morality that could be tested, confirmed or refuted by intersubjective empirical evidence of preferences and values, however loosely the empirical evidence of values may be interpreted. This situation is explained with reference to the ways in which preceived values become systematically influenced by the concomitants of individual valuative experience, but which have nothing to do with contingent subjective interests.     

Social epistemology and reflexivity: Two versions of how to be really useful

This essay argues that the really useful character of reflexivity is that it enables a radical critique of representation and its conventional material and rhetorical practices. It is uniquely able to produce paradox and thus disrupt discourses by undermining authorial privilege. Because Fuller's social epistemology is insensitive to its own reflexive implications, and limits itself to normative questions about knowledge policy, it is too limited — and limiting — to provide a context that can nurture reflexivity.     

Game logic and its applications I

This paper provides a logic framework for investigations of game theoretical problems. We adopt an infinitary extension of classical predicate logic as the base logic of the framework. The reason for an infinitary extension is to express the common knowledge concept explicitly. Depending upon the choice of axioms on the knowledge operators, there is a hierarchy of logics. The limit case is an infinitary predicate extension of modal propositional logic KD4, and is of special interest in applications. In Part I, we develop the basic framework, and show some applications: an epistemic axiomatization of Nash equilibrium and formal undecidability on the playability of a game. To show the formal undecidability, we use a term existence theorem, which will be proved in Part II.The authors thank Hiroakira Ono for helpful discussions and encouragements from the early stage of this research project, and Philippe Mongin, Mitio Takano and a referee of this journal for comments on earlier versions of this paper. The first and second authors are partially supported, respectively, by Tokyo Center of Economic Research and Grant-in-Aids for Scientific Research 04640215, Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.Presented by H. Ono