Three Years in a Mad-House: The Story of my Life at the Asylum, my Escape, and the Strange Adventures which Followed

http://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/ebooks/1007/thumbnail.jpg

Strange bedfellows: The ethics and politics of medical futility in Texas

Background: Futile medical treatments are interventions that are not associated with a benefit to the patient. The definition and concept of medical futility are controversial. The Texas Advance Directives Act (TADA) was passed in 1999 to address medically inappropriate interventions by allowing providers to withdraw inappropriate interventions against a surrogate decision maker's wishes following a review, attempt to transfer the patient, and 10-day waiting period. The original legislation was a negotiated compromise by players across the political spectrum. However, in recent years there has been increasing controversy regarding TADA and attempts to alter its applicability in Texas. ^ Purpose: The purpose of this project was to apply Paul Sabatier's advocacy coalition framework (ACF) to gain understanding into the historical, ethical, and political basis of the initial compromise, and determine the sources of conflict that have led to increased opposition to TADA. ^ Methods: Using the ACF model, key actors within the medical futility policy debate in Texas were aggregated into coalitions based on shared beliefs. A narrative summary based analysis identified the core elements of the policy subsystem, as well as the constraints and resources of the subsystem actors. Externalities that promoted adjustments to coalition beliefs and tactics used by coalition participants were analyzed. Data sources included review of the published literature regarding medical futility, as well as analysis of published newspaper accounts and editorials regarding the medical futility issue in Texas, legislative testimony, and review of weblogs and online commentaries dealing with the issue. ^ Results: Primary coalition participants in developing compromise legislation in 1999 were the Providers and Vitalists, with Autonomists gaining a prominent role starting in 2006. Internal factors associated with the breakdown of consensus included changes to the makeup of the governing coalition and changes in individual case information available to the Vitalist coalition. Externalities related to the intertwining of the Sun Hudson case and the Terri Schiavo case generated negative publicity for the TADA from progressive and conservative viewpoints. Dissemination of information in various venues regarding contentious cases was associated with more polarization of viewpoints, and realignment of coalition alliances. ^ Conclusions: The ACF provided an outline for the initial compromise over the creation of the Texas Advance Directives Act as well as the eventual loss of consensus. The debate between the Provider, Vitalist, and Autonomist coalitions has been affected by internal policy evolution, changes in the governing coalition, and important externalities. The debate over medical futility in Texas has had much broader implications in the dispute over Health Care Reform.^

Noise-induced attractor annihilation in the delayed feedback logistic map

We study dynamics of the bistable logistic map with delayed feedback, under the influence of white Gaussian noise and periodic modulation applied to the variable. This system may serve as a model to describe population dynamics under finite resources in noisy environment with seasonal fluctuations. While a very small amount of noise has no effect on the global structure of the coexisting attractors in phase space, an intermediate noise totally eliminates one of the attractors. Slow periodic modulation enhances the attractor annihilation.

2.4 "The Strange Disappearance of Lloyd Gaines"

The May 1951 Ebony Magazine Article "The Strange Disappearance of Lloyd Gaines"

Observation of strange kinetics in protein folding

Highly nonexponential folding kinetics in aqueous solution have been observed during temperature jump-induced refolding of two proteins, yeast phosphoglycerate kinase and a ubiquitin mutant. The observations are most easily interpreted in terms of downhill folding, which posits a heterogeneous ensemble of structures en route to the folded state. The data are also reconciled with exponential kinetics measured under different experimental conditions and with titration experiments indicating cooperative folding.

From the initial interest in ‘Why do people often communicate in very "strange" ways on Social Media?’ to a research project on CMC

This presentation is about the inside story of the PhD project El malagueño real, mental y virtual. Configuración de los significados sociales de una variedad urbana in Hispanic Linguistics. That is, the production and perception of the Spanish spoken in the city of Malaga and used on the social network sites Facebook and Tuenti by users from Malaga is analysed. Actually, the southern Spanish variety in question is quite distinct from the national standard in terms of its phonetic features, its prestige, and the attitudes to it. Thus, the project started with the initial interest in «Why do people often communicate in very “strange” ways on social media» which then slightly changed to the final research interest in «What do the different non-standard variants mean in virtual (and real) malagueño?». This long – sometimes hazardous, yet mostly fun – process is exposed in more detail by looking at the research questions, the methods and results. Lastly, the presentation concludes with some lessons learnt and an outlook on possibilities and necessities for further investigation.

'Strange Fruit', ícono de identidad y memoria

Nuestra identidad se forma con lo que nuestra vida diaria, la sociedad y la familia en la que nacemos, y -sobre todo- nuestro pasado, nos dan. Y no hay identidad sin memoria. A pesar de que un pueblo pueda ignorar muchos detalles sobre su historia, es producto de ella, y por ello, su realidad se encuentra inserta en lo que ha sucedido antes de su llegada al mundo. Nos comportamos de manera que 'encajemos' en ese lugar en el que nos ha tocado existir, y heredamos un modo de vida, el cual, a veces, puede llegar a estar construido sobre la base de prejuicios y odio irracional hacia otros, que nos hacen tener una sensación de pertenencia, es decir, una identidad. Si los aceptamos sin cuestionar sus razones ni saber sus orígenes, podemos contribuir a su extensión en el tiempo y en las personas. Una manera de hacerlo es a través de la creación de monumentos conmemorativos de eventos nefastos que han sucedido en la historia. "La memoria se hace concreta en piedras y monedas: algo que sirve de recordatorio y advertencia, y algo que sirve de punto de partida para el pensamiento o la acción" (Manguel, 2000, p. 249, trad. mía). Otros tipos de arte también pueden tener esta función: una fotografía, una pintura, una novela, un poema, una canción. En este trabajo, estudiaremos 'Strange Fruit', una canción muy conocida en la versión de Billie Holiday de 1939, que se ha convertido en un ícono de los movimientos por los derechos humanos hasta el día de hoy. Veremos a qué hace referencia y cómo ha servido de herramienta para la memoria y la conciencia, dentro de una cultura cuyo sentido de identidad proviene de la diferencia entre blancos y negros y el mantenimiento de esa división

The strange career of Mr. Hoover under two flags,

Mode of access: Internet.

Do you speak "credit"? : when you sign a loan contract you may be agreeing to some strange things.

Mode of access: Internet.

The mystics, ascetics, and saints of India : a study of Sadhuism, with an account of the Yogis, Sanyasis, Bairagis, and other strange Hindu sectarians /

Decorated initials.

The strange fire of schism : sermon, delivered at the Lauderdale Road Sephardic Synagoge, April 26, 1914-5674 /

"Reprinted from The Jewish Chronicle, May 1st, 1914-5674."