The automatic detection of implicitly offensive language is a challenge for NLP, as such language is subtle, contextual, and plausibly deniable, but it is becoming increasingly important with the wider use of large language models to generate human-quality texts. This study argues that current difficulties in detecting implicit offence are exacerbated by multiple factors: (a) inadequate definitions of implicit and explicit offense; (b) an insufficient typology of implicit offence; and (c) a dearth of detailed analysis of implicitly offensive linguistic data. (...) In this study, based on a qualitative analysis of an implicitly offensive dataset, a new typology of implicitly offensive language is proposed along with a detailed, example-led account of the new typology, an operational definition of implicitly offensive language, and a thorough analysis of the role of figurative language and humour in each type. Our analyses identify three main issues with previous datasets and typologies used in NLP approaches: (a) conflating content and form in the annotation; (b) treating figurativeness, particularly metaphor, as the main device of implicitness, while ignoring its equally important role in the explicit offence; and (c) an over-focus on form-specific datasets (e.g. focusing only on offensive comparisons), which fails to reflect the full complexity of offensive language use. (shrink)

The traditional perspective on emotions assumes an unassailable dualism between emotions and reason. For common sense, including legal common sense, emotions are always dangerous and have nothing to do with rational decision-making. Nonetheless, the Aristotelian perspective regarding the relationship between emotions and reason is extremely enlightening. The relationship between emotions and law has been studied by a large range of scholars from different legal movements and with diverse objectives. This chapter is based on three theoretical pillars: Aristotle’s theory of emotions (...) as elaborated in Rhetoric and Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle’s view on the close relationship between reason, emotions and phronesis as elaborated in the Nicomachean Ethics, and a specific contemporary view: Jurisprudentialism. We assert that through a Jurisprudentialist analysis of Law as an open task and through Aristotle’s account of emotions, the challenges of legal education could be more realistically reassessed. (shrink)

A organizadora explica que tudo começou com um desafio: criar uma visão abrangente da obra de Paulo Freire, retomando seus temas mais queridos - o diálogo e a partilha na construção de um mundo novo e a prática educativa transformadora e libertadora. O Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisas em Paulo Freire aceitou a proposta, produzindo coletivamente textos que dialogam com as principais obras e ideias do mestre numa linguagem acessível, voltada aos militantes dos movimentos sociais e das escolas no Brasil. (...) Selecionado pela Fundação Biblioteca Nacional - programa Livro Aberto - para conhecer o Paulo Freire que defende que temos o dever de mudar o mundo. O livro inclui três textos de Paulo Freire em diálogo com educadores e educandos do campo e da cidade: Extensão e invasão cultural; Reforma agrária: transformação cultural e o papel do agrônomo educador; Carta do direito e do dever de mudar o mundo. (shrink)

An anonymous biography of Lucan known as the Life of Vacca attributes to the poet the composition of a work called Siluae. This information has been accepted by scholars with regard to both Lucan and Statius, thus transforming Lucan into a predecessor of Statius’ Siluae. This article seeks to demonstrate that neither the manuscript tradition of Lucan's biography nor alleged references to Lucan's Siluae in Statius’ collection substantiate the affirmation that Lucan composed a work called Siluae. It is argued that (...) the Life of Vacca is most probably late and its very long catalogue of works (mostly problematic or otherwise unknown) aggrandizes Lucan in response to the need for a commendatory biography of the poet when he became a school author. Pomponio Leto is responsible for perpetuating the mention of Lucan's Siluae by including it in his influential biography of Lucan (the first to reach the printed press). It is further argued that the circumstances of the tradition of Statius’ Siluae explain Leto's acceptance of Lucan's work of the same title. Leto was working on a commentary on the recently rediscovered Siluae, which explains his inclusion of a work called Siluae in his biography of Lucan, a great poet who had preceded Statius. Finally, this article deconstructs the theories that find references to Lucan's Siluae in Statius’ Siluae or that justify Statius’ silence about Lucan's Siluae with its political motifs. (shrink)

En noviembre de 1976, Amnesty Internacional llegó al país a constatar denuncias sobre violaciones a los derechos humanos. Dos de sus integrantes llegaron a la ciudad de Córdoba. El Hotel Crillón, ubicado en plena city cordobesa y locación donde se alojaron los visitantes, fue el escenario de las acciones de espionaje, persecución y amedrentamiento que sufrieron los dos delegados, un varón y una mujer, que habían llegado para contactarse con posibles denunciantes. Al no poder constituirse como un refugio seguro para (...) expresar aquello que las autoridades negaban, el artículo analiza cómo se frustró esta visita en base a los informes elevados por la Policía Federal a través de un memorando reservado. En la misma se contextualiza el momento, apoyándonos en la historia de la represión local, y se procura una lectura analítica del documento resguardado en el Archivo Provincial de la Memoria de Córdoba. Asimismo, se ofrece su cotejo y contraste con otras informaciones provenientes de testimonios vertidos en diferentes momentos. ¿Cómo y por qué se frustró la visita? ¿Quiénes tuvieron contacto con los visitantes y por qué no fue posible contactar a los familiares y allegados de la/os represaliada/os? ¿Qué testimonios posteriores se conocieron de este acontecimiento frustrado? ¿Cómo habrá incidido en la costosa configuración de la cuestión de los derechos humanos en Córdoba, algo que hemos demostrado en nuestras investigaciones previas del tema? Por fin, ¿qué nos dice este evento de las características de la represión local, de los modos de informar y de las actitudes sociales en dictadura? (shrink)

Este livro procura orientar o leitor em geral e os interessados em educação em particular, no estudo e na recuperação do Tratado de Pirkei Avot - Ética dos Pais, que integra o Talmud, à luz das modernas teorias da educação, permite o resgate de noções fundamentais relacionadas, principalmente, a atitudes e comportamentos do mestre e do aprendiz. Tais atitudes implicam uma relação horizontal e dialógica entre ambos e o constante intercâmbio de seus repertórios, condições imprescindíveis para a aquisição do conhecimento.

In 2020, the European Union announced the award of the contract for the biometric part of the new database for border control, the Entry Exit System, to two companies: IDEMIA and Sopra Steria. Both companies had been previously involved in the development of databases for border and migration management. While there has been a growing amount of publicly available documents that show what kind of technologies are being implemented, for how much money, and by whom, there has been limited engagement (...) with digital methods in this field. Moreover, critical border and security scholarship has largely focused on qualitative and ethnographic methods. Building on a data feminist approach, we propose a transdisciplinary methodology that goes beyond binaries of qualitative/quantitative and opacity/transparency, examines power asymmetries and makes the labour of coding visible. Empirically, we build and analyse a dataset of the contracts awarded by two European Union agencies key to its border management policies – the European Agency for Large-Scale Information Systems (eu-LISA) and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex). We supplement the digital analysis and visualisation of networks of companies with close reading of tender documents. In so doing, we show how a transdisciplinary methodology can be a device for making datafication ‘intelligible’ at the European Union borders. (shrink)

Authentic leadership has become increasingly important in the literature, attracting the attention of many scholars in the last decade. This study adopted an employee-centered perspective to guide its examination of the relationship between authentic leadership and individual performance and investigation of the sequential mediation of employees’ affective commitment and individual creativity. An analysis was conducted of data collected from 214 employees working in different business sectors. The results reveal a statistically significant positive relationship between authentic leadership and employees’ workplace performance, (...) which are both directly connected and indirectly linked through the two proposed psychosocial mechanisms. The findings thus indicate that authentic leadership reinforces workers’ emotional connection with their organizations, thereby increasing their individual creativity and, subsequently, promoting better on-the-job performance. This study presents new and significant results since, on the one hand, it relied on a sequential mediation analysis of variables and, on the other hand, integrated the four main constructs into a single model. The proposed model displays the chain of effects between authentic leadership, affective commitment, individual creativity, and employee workplace performance. Implications for organizational management are discussed. (shrink)

O presente artigo debruça-se na crítica de Diderot à Helvétius. Apesar da crítica ser feita pontualmente a cada trecho comentado do livro De l’Homme de Helvétius, consideramos que ela possui um núcleo principal, que é a diferente concepção de materialismo dos autores e suas consequências para o que ambos anseiam para a sociedade. Por isso, investigamos o que há no horizonte do materialismo de Helvétius e de Diderot no que concerne à educação e como, apesar de estarem próximos no ponto (...) de partida, o materialismo, seu norte é diferente. A escolha do tema da educação justifica-se por tratar-se de algo que ultrapassa a teorização filosófica e busca inserção prática na sociedade, mostrando assim não só as consequências práticas das teses materialistas como também o ideal de sociedade proposto por cada autor. Aqui, apontamos para as principais diretrizes sobre a construção de uma educação institucional em De l’Esprit (1754) e De l’Homme (1771), de Helvétius, nas Em Reflexions sur le livre De l’Esprit (1877) e Refutations suivre l’ouvrage intitule De l’Homme (1877)1, e em outras obras de Diderot. 1 As críticas reunidas de Diderot foram publicadas apenas postumamente. Estima-se que a segunda, dedicada à De l’Homme foi redigida em um longo período, que coincide com a redação do Plan d’Université (1775) e Elements de Phisiologie (1875). (shrink)

The somatic mutation theory (SMT) of cancer has been and remains the prevalent theory attempting to explain how neoplasms arise and progress. This theory proposes that cancer is a clonal, cell‐based disease, and implicitly assumes that quiescence is the default state of cells in multicellular organisms. The SMT has not been rigorously tested, and several lines of evidence raise questions that are not addressed by this theory. Herein, we propose experimental strategies that may validate the SMT. We also call attention (...) to an alternative theory of carcinogenesis, the tissue organization field theory (TOFT), which posits that cancer is a tissue‐based disease and that proliferation is the default state of all cells. Based on epistemological and experimental evidence, we argue that the TOFT compellingly explains carcinogenesis, while placing it within an evolutionarily relevant context.magnified imagemagnified imageAna Soto and Carlos Sonnenschein are at Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA. (shrink)

Online education has become an essential component of education. Thus, several factors, such as the student’s learning strategy and motivation, generally contribute to their academic success. This study investigates the relationship between learning strategies, motivation, and online learning environment among 150 first-year college students. Employing correlational design, the statistical findings of the study reveal that the r coefficient of 0.59 indicates a moderate positive correlation between the variables. The p-value of 0.00, which is less than 0.05, leads to the decision (...) to reject the null hypothesis. Hence, a significant relationship exists between learning strategies, motivation, and the online learning environment. (shrink)

In this essay I present some of my thoughts on the issue of boundaries in the professional relationship between service users and social workers. As a graduate student of social work, I had an opportunity to discuss ethical dilemmas in an international perspective in one of my courses. A guest professor, who provided international perspectives, was Prof. Kim Strom from UNC at Chapel Hill in North Carolina, USA. The lectures offered a fresh perspective that raised many questions about thick and (...) thin boundaries in social work – especially when approaching social work by following prevailing guidelines for social work in Slovenia requiring us to co-create solutions through dialogue with service users, keeping in mind that service users are actually the ones who are the experts from experience. In this way, the working relationship seeks to foster a sense of partnership between social workers and service users. In this essay I would like to challenge the idea of rigid boundaries in social work and explore the possibility of fluid boundaries, keeping in mind that boundaries should reflect their main purpose, which I believe is to protect human dignity. (shrink)

The theory of mental models postulates that meaning and knowledge can modulate the interpretation of conditionals. The theory's computer implementation implied that certain conditionals should be true or false without the need for evidence. Three experiments corroborated this prediction. In Experiment 1, nearly 500 participants evaluated 24 conditionals as true or false, and they justified their judgments by completing sentences of the form, It is impossible that A and ___ appropriately. In Experiment 2, participants evaluated 16 conditionals and provided their (...) own justifications, which tended to be explanations rather than logical justifications. In Experiment 3, the participants also evaluated as possible or impossible each of the four cases in the partitions of 16 conditionals: A and C, A and not-C, not-A and C, not-A and not-C. These evaluations corroborated the model theory. We consider the implications of these results for theories of reasoning based on logic, probabilistic logic, and suppositions. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to investigate human spatiality and perception in general, with the experience of adventure sports as its background. These activities highlight especially our strong relationship with the world when we consider the specific way in which the environment participates in the development of human potential. We first analyse the notions of risk and instability as important elements in adventure sports. Then we explore the notion of experience and spatiality, considering the way in which we establish (...) our relationship with the world. The theoretical background is found in the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty and Bachelard’s phenomenology of imagination to investigate perspectives of space among adventurers. We hold that more than a different range of corporeal techniques, adventure sports can teach us a way of interrogating and looking at the world. They require a peculiar sensibility that allows our body to experience the environment in favour of a corporeal wisdom. Alternative sports indicate the possibility that we have to build up different ways of inhabiting the world and comprehending it. (shrink)

Lack of vaccine confidence can contribute to drops in vaccination coverage and subsequent outbreaks of diseases like measles and polio. Low trust in vaccines is attributed to a combination of factors, including lack of understanding, vaccine scares, flawed policies, social media and mistrust of vaccine manufacturers, scientists and decision-makers. The COVID-19 crisis has laid bare societies’ vulnerability to new pathogens and the critical role of vaccines in containing this and future pandemics. It has also put science at the forefront of (...) the response, with several governments relying on academics to help shape policy and communicate with the public. Against this backdrop, protecting public trust in scientists and scientific output is arguably more important than ever. Yet, conflicts of interest in biomedical research remain ubiquitous and harmful, and measures to curb them have had limited success. There is also evidence of bias in industry-sponsored vaccine studies and academics are voicing concerns about the risks of working in a CoI prevalent research area. Here, we set out to challenge established thinking with regard to vaccine confidence, by shifting the gaze from a deficit in public understanding towards probity in research relationships and suggesting an alternative and perhaps complementary strategy for addressing vaccine mistrust. We argue that a concerted effort needs to be made to revisit the norms that undergird contemporary vaccine research, coupled with a willingness of all stakeholders to reimagine those relationships with an emphasis on demonstrating trustworthiness and probity. (shrink)

Flexibility in conceptual projection constitutes one of the most challenging issues in the embodiment and conceptual metaphor literatures. We sketch a theoretical proposal that places the burden of the explanation on attentional dynamics in interaction with mental models in working memory that are constrained to be maximally coherent. A test of this theory is provided in the context of the conceptual projection of time onto the domain of space. Participants categorized words presented at different spatial locations (back–front, left–right) as referring (...) to the past or to the future. Responses were faster when the irrelevant word location was congruent with the back–past, front–future metaphoric mapping. Moreover, when a new highly task-relevant spatial frame of reference was introduced, it changed the projection of past and future onto space in a way that was congruent with the new frame (past was now projected to left space and future to right space), as predicted by the theory. This study shows that there is substantial flexibility in conceptual projection and opens a venue to study metaphoric variation across tasks, individuals, and cultures as the result of attentional dynamics. (shrink)

Supranational governance is being challenged by politicians and citizens around the EU as over-centralized and undemocratic. This book is premised on the idea that polycentric governance, developed by Vincent and Elinor Ostrom, is a fruitful place to start for addressing this challenge. Assessing the presence of, and potential for, polycentric governance within the EU means approaching established principles and practices from a new perspective. While the debate on these issues is rich, longstanding and interdisciplinary, it has proven difficult to sidestep (...) the 'renationalisation/federalisation' dichotomy. The aim of this volume is not to reject the EU's institutional structure but provide a different benchmark for the assessment of its functioning. Polycentric theory highlights the importance of multilevel horizontal relationships within the EU - between states, but also between many sub-state actors, all the way down to individuals. This helps us answer the question: how do we achieve self-governance in an interdependent world? (shrink)

Body ecology by cosmosis refers to the experience of immersion, or the incorporation of the elements of nature through a body practice, leisure or sport. In this article, we propose comprehensive u...

O artigo objetiva compreender como o termo “espiritualidade” tem sido utilizado na área da saúde, discutindo os problemas decorrentes e as possíveis adversidades de sua polissemia. Para tanto, dividimos o estudo em três partes. Na primeira, apresentamos as diferentes definições de “espiritualidade” nas ciências humanas, sua relação histórica com a teologia cristã, e recente ressignificação pela Nova Era. Na sequência, demonstramos como a maior parte das produções sobre a temática na área da saúde adota uma concepção reificada e essencializada de (...) espiritualidade. Na terceira, discutimos as principais fragilidades identificadas no estudo. O termo espiritualidade está sendo utilizado nas ciências médicas para que a religião adentre seus espaços, inclusive de políticas públicas, ainda que de modo secularizado. Um paralelo com a fenomenologia da religião foi traçado para demonstrar as consequências da má conceituação de uma categoria em longo prazo. Por fim, identificamos uma supervalorização da dimensão psicológica da espiritualidade em detrimento das dimensões morais e rituais. (shrink)

A teoria pedagógica comporta muitos fenômenos que o educador deve compreender e levar em consideração, dentre eles, a crise. Alguns educadores exercem dignamente o seu ofício. Mesmo diante das situações mais adversas, eles podem ser considerados resilientes. Resiliência é o nome dado à capacidade concreta das pessoas de não só superarem situações críticas, mas também de utilizá-las em seus processos de desenvolvimento pessoal. Os estudos sobre o tema se propõem a enfatizar a promoção de processos educativos que facilitem ou tornem (...) as pessoas mais resistentes e maduras para enfrentar as dificuldades que ocorrem em sua vida. A inclusão da espiritualidade como um fator de favorecimento da resiliência parece ser o de desafiar o futuro numa perspectiva de superação, considerando as adversidades como obstáculos que poderão favorecer o amadurecimento pessoal, através da ampliação da visão de mundo e do estabelecimento de novas formas de equilíbrio. Acredita-se que um professor resiliente poderá mais facilmente manter-se firme em sua tarefa de educar, transcendendo as questões meramente pedagógicas, buscando desenvolver a integralidade na prática formativa, sobretudo porque possui mais possibilidades de vivenciar a sua própria multidimensionalidade. Este texto tem como finalidade estudar a importância da espiritualidade no favorecimento de uma postura resiliente no educador. (shrink)

Nursing education is a dynamic process that is constantly changing. Currently, we want the profile of a professional who not only has technical-scientific skills, but also adopts a critical-reflexive and humanistic approach based on ethics. O aprender a cuidar em Enfermagem perpassa por questões que vão além do saber teórico, exigindo outras formas de agir, no que tange à formação e prática apoiadas na humanização. This study aimed to understand the senses of humanization in the teacher-student relationship during the supervised (...) internships in Tertiary Health Care services of a graduation. Nursing course in the interior of Pernambuco. This study aimed to understand the senses of humanization in the teacherstudent relationship during the supervised internships in Tertiary Health Care services of a graduation. Nursing course in the interior of Pernambuco. And as specific objectives: To investigate what is the perception about human relationship between teacher and student during supervised internships; identify how the relationship between teachers and students is developed during such activities and; To analyze how this relationship can affect and or impact on the development and performance of pairs. We emphasize that the study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee, with the Certificate of Presentation for Ethical Appreciation of n. 05009218.4.0000.5208. The research in question was characterized by a qualitative approach, of an exploratory nature and to obtain the data, we conducted semistructured and audio-recorded interviews, from March to May 2019, with seven supervising professors from a Private Higher Education Institution in Agreste de Pernambuco, who fallowed the Supervised Internships in the Tertiary Care to Health. Data analysis took place from the perspective of Bardin and the obtained results showed that both teachers and students understood and recognized that a humanized relationship, in the context of supervised internships, is based on respect for beliefs, values and principles, aiming at the comprehensiveness of the human being. Besides, the studies show us that the type of relationship established between this binomial can impact in various ways on the development of its activities. This research made it possible to identify and understand the meanings of humanization in the teacher-student relationship during the exercise of Supervised Internship, through a practice based on the integrality of being. Keywords: Human Formation. Nursing. Humanization. Education. Supervised Internship. (shrink)

The intention of this article is to shed light on the contemporary polarization of Croatian society to the Left and Right of politics and the way in which the ideas of gender, gender ‘ideology’ and cultural war are used in this polarization, as well as the possible influence of these polarizations on the further development of equitable gender relations in Croatia. The reason why the debate about gender ‘ideology’ is a powerful polarizing factor in Croatia will be expounded against the (...) background of the historical antagonism between communism and the Catholic Church and the role attributed in this antagonism to the feminist movement, as well as on the basis of the presentations of gender ‘ideology’ interpretations in the documents of the Catholic Church. The basic postulation in the article is that contemporary socio-political discourses will not stop the developmental process of egalitarian gender models in Croatia. Sociological research shows that Croatian society is not actually polarized but represents a complex structure in which elements of pre-modern, modern and post-modern interweave, and that alongside tendencies to reinstitute traditional values the trend toward the modernization of value-orientated stands is also apparent. As far as the latter is concerned, gender equality is precisely the thin thread of modernization that can be pinpointed in the process. (shrink)

The emphasis on the organization of entities and their activities and interactions has been labeled one of the most distinct contributions of mechanistic philosophy. In this paper I discuss the manner in which the organization of entities and their activities and interactions participates in bringing about phenomena. I present a well-known example from molecular biology—the functioning of the genetic switch in phage lambda—and discuss Marco J. Nathan’s notion of causation by concentration. Nathan introduces causation by concentration to account for the (...) irreducible causal role that the concentration ratio between two kinds of proteins possesses in the genetic switch mechanism in phage lambda. I discuss what the irreducibility of this causal role amounts to and provide a mechanistic interpretation of Nathan’s causation by concentration; that is, I explain this irreducible causal role as one organizational feature of this mechanism. The paper concludes that biological mechanisms need a causal pluralist framework [similar to Glennan’s account in, and but slightly modified] where organizational features such as the concentration ratio have a causally relevant role, yet all the causally productive relations occur at the level of entities or individuals. (shrink)

The language of ethics expertise has become particularly important in bioethics in light of efforts to establish the value of the clinical ethics consultation, to specify who is qualified to function as a clinical ethics consultant, and to characterize how one should evaluate whether or not a person is so qualified. Supporters and skeptics about the possibility of ethics expertise use the language of ethics expertise in ways that reflect competing views about what ethics expertise entails. We argue for clarity (...) in understanding the nature of expertise and ethics expertise. To be an ethics expert, we argue, is to be an expert in knowing what ought to be done. Any attempt to articulate expertise with respect to knowing what ought to be done must include an account of ethics that specifies the nature of moral truth and the means by which we access this truth or a theoretical account of ethics such that expertise in another domain is linked to knowing or being better at judging what ought to be done and the standards by which this “knowing” or “being better at judging” is determined. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our analysis for the literature on ethics expertise in CEC. We do think that there are clear domains in which a clinical ethics consultant might be expert but we are skeptical about the possibility that this includes ethics expertise. Clinical ethics consultants should not be referred to as ethics experts. (shrink)

The somatic mutation theory has been the prevailing paradigm in cancer research for the last 50 years. Its premises are: (1) cancer is derived from a single somatic cell that has accumulated multiple DNA mutations, (2) the default state of cell proliferation in metazoa is quiescence, and (3) cancer is a disease of cell proliferation caused by mutations in genes that control proliferation and the cell cycle. From this compelling simplicity, an increasingly complicated picture has emerged as more than 100 (...) oncogenes and 30 tumor suppressor genes have been identified. To accommodate this complexity, additional ad hoc explanations have been postulated. After a critical review of the data gathered from this perspective, an alternative research program has been proposed. It is based on the tissue organization field theory, the premises of which are that carcinogenesis represents a problem of tissue organization, comparable to organogenesis, and that proliferation is the default state of all cells. The merits of these competing theories are evaluated herein. BioEssays 26:1097–1107, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Fencing for the blind and visually impaired is an emerging sub-discipline of fencing that creates unusual conditions for meaning-making through interaction between embodied endowments and worldly affordances. With the rules of fencing slightly adjusted to the needs of the blindfolded participants – regardless of their sightedness – the discipline requires the fencers to engage in a duel by relying on other than visual cues. This article explores what an autoethnographic account of experiences of participation in fencing for the blind and (...) visually impaired brings to debates on the embodied, and specifically sensory difference. The discussion of these experiences intersects with debates on affect, affordance, and habit, with all three having important roles in related semiotic processes. Presented vignettes draw upon the author’s lived experiences of participation in fencing for the blind and visually impaired and are analyzed as part of a mixed-method autoethnographic study, accompanied by sensory methodologies, with a focus on an inquiry beyond the visual. The vignettes elucidate how we make sense of our surroundings through a complex engagement with the ecology of sensory and affective processes. In addition to exploring the role of affective and pre-conceptual aspects of our experiences, the article seeks to understand how semiosis occurs through both exposure to as well as the active pursuit of specific environmental signs available to us. The article also derives from biosemiotics to examine the complex relationship between meaning-making processes and habits. Finally, the autoethnographic account provides an insight into how we habituate the world and our embodied differences and thus enable meaning-making processes. (shrink)

Croatia is a transitional society in that it is a country emerging from a socialist command economy toward a market-based economy with ensuing structural changes of a social and political nature—some extending into the healthcare system. A legacy from our past is that, until now, Croatian healthcare institutions have had no real experience with clinical ethics support services. When clinical cases arise presenting complex ethical dilemmas in treatment options, the challenges presented to the medical team are substantial. The case described (...) below recently occurred on a ward in a university hospital in Croatia. An unexpected request from the patient’s parents created a number of issues that needed to be addressed by the medical team, which was made more difficult by the lack of clinical ethics support services. Such cases press the question currently being debated as to what type of ethics support services would be suitable for Croatia and why. (shrink)