Enhancement of writings on a damaged medieval manuscript using ultraviolet imaging

The Minutarium Majus, a register dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, was transferred by the paleographers responsible for its transcription to the Institute of Forensic Science of the University of Lausanne with the aim of enhancing portions of text that had become worn away and illegible. The manuscript had suffered from deterioration and damage for different unknown reasons, but most likely because of the colour instability of the ink, contaminations, storage conditions and repeated human manipulation. A total of 69 areas of text, ranging in size from just a few words to full pages, were photographically recorded under both white and ultraviolet (UV) light illumination. UV illumination observed in the visible range proved to be efficient in detecting the writings. Most of the texts could thus be successfully transcribed by the paleographers. The technique proved to be extremely useful for the exposure of damaged medieval writings.

Sobre la facticitat de la consideració moral dels animals no humans

Aquest treball s'enquadra en l'àmbit del que s'anomena bioètica animal i es desenvolupa al voltant de la consideració moral dels animals no humans a partir d'un tractament interdisciplinari que implica l'encontre de disciplines tan diverses com filosofia, història, psicologia o estudis de gènere, entre d'altres.

Réductoire moral de Pierre le Bercheur. Réductoire moral de Pierre le Bercheur.

Augustins.

Being Drunk to Have Fun or to Forget Problems? Identifying Enhancement and Coping Drinkers Among Risky Drinking Adolescents

Prevention programs in adolescence are particularly effective if they target homogeneous risk groups of adolescents who share a combination of particular needs and problems. The present work aims to identify and classify risky single-occasion drinking (RSOD) adolescents according to their motivation to engage in drinking. An easy-to-use coding procedure was developed. It was validated by means of cluster analyses and structural equation modeling based on two randomly selected subsamples of a nationally representative sample of 2,449 12- to 18-year-old RSOD students in Switzerland. Results revealed that the coding procedure classified RSOD adolescents as either enhancement drinkers or coping drinkers. The high concordance (Sample A: kappa - .88, Sample B: kappa - .90) with the results of the cluster analyses demonstrated the convergent validity of the coding classification. The fact that enhancement drinkers in both subsamples were found to go out more frequently in the evenings and to have more satisfactory social relationships, as well as a higher proportion of drinking peers and a lower likelihood to drink at home than coping drinkers demonstrates the concurrent validity of the classification. To conclude, the coding procedure appears to be a valid, reliable, and easy-to-use tool that can help better adapt prevention activities to adolescent risky drinking motives.

A Classification of Adjectives for Polarity Lexicons Enhancement

Subjective language detection is one of the most important challenges in Sentiment Analysis. Because of the weight and frequency in opinionated texts, adjectives are considered a key piece in the opinion extraction process. These subjective units are more and more frequently collected in polarity lexicons in which they appear annotated with their prior polarity. However, at the moment, any polarity lexicon takes into account prior polarity variations across domains. This paper proves that a majority of adjectives change their prior polarity value depending on the domain. We propose a distinction between domain dependent and romain independent adjectives. Moreover, our analysis led us to propose a further classification related to subjectivity degree: constant, mixed and highly subjective adjectives. Following this classification, polarity values will be a better support for Sentiment Analysis.

Vivência do sofrimento moral na enfermagem: percepção da enfermeira

Objetivando conhecer a percepção do sofrimento moral vivenciado, relacionando frequência e intensidade, realizou-se pesquisa Survey, utilizando escala Likert variando de 0 a 6 pontos, com 124 enfermeiras em hospitais do sul do Brasil, no ano de 2008. Mediante questionário autoaplicável e análise fatorial, foram identificados e validados quatro constructos. Os resultados finais foram obtidos através de três diferentes análises: 1) estatística descritiva; 2) análises de variância 3) regressão múltipla. O constructo que apresentou maior intensidade de percepção de vivência do sofrimento moral foi a falta de competência na equipe de trabalho (4,55), seguido pela negação do papel da enfermeira como advogada do paciente (4,30), obstinação terapêutica (3,60) e desrespeito à autonomia do paciente (3,57). Em relação à percepção da frequência do sofrimento moral, destacou-se, novamente, o constructo falta de competência na equipe de trabalho (2,42), seguido da obstinação terapêutica (2,26), negação do papel da enfermeira como advogada do paciente (1,71) e desrespeito à autonomia do paciente (1,42).

Moral distress: challenges for an autonomous nursing professional practice

Constantly experiencing limiting situations that hinder a professional practice coherent with its principles - of autonomy and advocacy of users' interests -, and often conditioned to experience moral distress, the nursing profession plays a prominent role in the current health model because it has the characteristic of managing the care rendered to users in a perspective of social inclusion, both in the basic health network and in hospitals. Aiming at carrying out a reflection on the nursing practice and the difficulties present in its work routine, and considering its characteristics as a profession, this article sought to make a reflection between the practice of nursing and the numerous moral challenges imposed by the routine, resulting, in many cases, in a value crisis that can reverberate directly on the quality of the service rendered, and in abandonment of the ideals of advocacy for users.

Catholic Confession of Sins as Third-Party Moral Enforcement

Catholicism has built up a legalistic religion based on two pillars: salvation by works and 'auricular' confession of sins to a priest with judicial functions. Since the Reformation, many consider auricular confession inferior to less institutional and more individual conceptions of faith. This article analyzes how all these historical solutions trade off specialization advantages against exchange costs to produce moral enforcement. After showing the behavioral foundations of confession and the adaptiveness of its historical evolution, it tests hypotheses on its efficacy, exploitation and opportunity cost. Econometric evidence supports the efficacy but not the exploitative character of Catholic confession. It also explains its secular decline as a consequence of two factors. First, the rise in education, which makes moral self-enforcement less costly. Second, the productivity gap suffered by confession, given its necessarily interpersonal nature.

A Formacao Moral, Profissional e Social Nas Escolas Secundarias de Cabo Verde

O estudo sobre a formação moral, profissional e social nas escolas secundárias de Cabo Verde mostra, substancialmente, o nosso anseio e as nossas aspirações em relação à necessidade de elaborar um instrumento pedagógico e didáctico que tenha por finalidade a orientação, a educação e a formação integral da personalidade dos estudantes adolescentes em fase de crescimento e a sua devida integração e inserção social através da realização de um projecto de vida pessoal e profissional. Partindo desta consideração básica, fizemos uma abordagem abrangente do ponto de vista histórico, teórico, empírico e operativa-didáctico (prospectivo), tendo em conta vários aspectos pessoais, institucionais, sociais, ambientais e culturais que englobam a adolescência nas suas diversas fases de crescimento. E no que se refere ao estudo empírico, os dados reflectem, essencialmente, sobre os alunos do Ensino Secundário, abrangendo a faixa etária de 11 aos 21 anos de idade. Entretanto, as respostas dadas pelos alunos revelam e confirmam algumas ideias hipotéticas à volta das escolas e do perfil dos professores da disciplina de formação pessoal e social. Na generalidade, trata-se de um estudo eminentemente pedagógico, educativo e formativo com o intuito de apoiar os professores e os alunos no desenrolar das suas acções educativas, esperando que, juntos, saberão colocar-se numa atitude de reciprocidade, quer no processo da aprendizagem quer na consolidação e estruturação efectiva e integral da própria personalidade.

Nurses, nursing technicians and assistants: who experiences more moral distress?

Objective: To identify the frequency and intensity of moral distress experienced by nurses, technicians and nursing assistants who worked in hospitals in the South of Rio Grande do Sul State. Method: A survey research was conducted with 334 nursing workers from three institutions, through a questionnaire of moral distress. Constructs were validated through factorial analysis and Cronbach’s alpha: lack of competence of the working team, disrespect to the patient’s autonomy, insufficient working conditions and therapeutic obstinacy. Results: With descriptive statistics and analysis of variance, it was found that nurses and nursing assistants have higher perception of moral distress when compared to nursing technicians. Organizational questions and ways of communication influence lower perception of moral distress.Conclusion: Implementation of actions to favor coping, decision making and autonomy exercise from those workers.


The role of moral values in the economic analysis of crime: A general equilibrium approach

In this paper, we develop a general equilibrium model of crime and show thatlaw enforcement has different roles depending on the equilibrium characterization and the value of social norms. When an economy has a unique stable equilibrium where a fraction of the population is productive and the remaining predates, the government can choose an optimal law enforcement policy to maximize a welfare function evaluated at the steady state. If such steady state is not unique, law enforcement is still relevant but in a completely different way because the steady state that prevails depends on the initial proportions of productive and predator individuals in the economy. The relative importance of these proportions can be changed through law enforcement policy.