There are some human beings who live their lives at the extremes of the human condition because of some gross intellectual, cognitive, neurological, or developmental impairment to their human nature. The evidence from practices of care and concern towards such people – the profoundly impaired – suggests that they are acknowledged and respected as moral peers within the human community. Such pre-reflective intuitions and commonplace practices lend credence to the anthropological claim that the profoundly impaired are recognisably persons. Yet what might an argument in support of this intuition look like? How is it that the profoundly impaired are recognisably persons among fellow persons? This thesis is a theological response to that question. The presupposition underpinning the question is that there is something at stake for the humanity of the profoundly impaired in their being the particularly conditioned human beings that they are. There are, however, those who do not allow for the personhood of the profoundly impaired precisely because of the impaired condition in which they live their lives, and there are others who do uphold the personhood of the profoundly impaired precisely by sidelining their impairment. Peter Singer is representative of the first position. Christian theology can and should make an effective response to Singer’s challenge. An emerging field in Christian theology seeks to do so by proposing a distinct theology of disability that re-imagines Christian anthropology. The aim is to secure the humanity of the disabled without the condition of their humanity becoming an obstacle to their moral status within the community of persons. Key to this re-imagining is the adoption of a paradigm of inclusion towards the disabled. However, a critique will be offered of those theological re-imagined Christian anthropologies that centre on a paradigm of inclusion, and on a commitment to separating out the condition of the profoundly impaired from the question of their humanity. The Dutch Protestant theologian Hans Reinders proposes one such re-imagined anthropology in his recent major work, Receiving the Gift of Friendship: Profound Disability, Theological Anthropology, and Ethics. His claim is that the humanity of the profoundly disabled cannot be secured by the traditionally held Christian doctrine of the imago Dei because that doctrine treats personhood as something intrinsic to human beings, thereby making it inaccessible to the profoundly disabled who do not have the personalising capacities of reason and will. Instead, he proposes ‘being chosen as a friend’ by God as the only way in which the humanity of the profoundly disabled can be secured, thereby rejecting an immanent reading of the imago Dei in favour of a transcending conception of friendship. This thesis will argue that Reinders’ anthropological project fails because his transcendent concept cannot do for the humanity of the profoundly disabled what it sets out to do. Consequently, a return will be made to that tradition of Christian anthropology centred on the imago Dei to see what may be retrieved from it, such that the condition under which the profoundly impaired live their lives is central to them being recognisably the persons that they are. This is a proposition which says that the personal presence of the profoundly impaired among other persons is not to be denied to them (contra Singer), nor only extended to them as a means of belonging (contra a paradigm of inclusion), nor simply eschewed of them so that they may thereby be included by other means (contra Reinders). In placing the doctrine of the imago Dei at the heart of the creaturely life of human beings, the Catholic Church has made this doctrine the structural centre of any theological account of the personhood of the profoundly impaired. It will be the positive task of this thesis to uncover the theological import of this Catholic anthropological imagination. The two authors most significantly engaged with in undertaking this task will be C S Lewis and Josef Pieper.

No description available.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) antogs i USA som ett svar på deredovisningsskandaler som uppdagades under 2000-talets början. Lagengäller även exteritorriellt och därför har flera svenska bolag varit tvungna attfölja lagstiftningen, vilket även påverkat de svenska revisorernas arbete.SOX:s främsta syfte är att se till att VD:n och ledningen tar ett större ansvarför bolagets finansiella rapporter och att se till att de upprätthåller en godintern kontroll. Det är Section 404 i SOX som behandlar den internakontrollen och ställer dessa krav på ledningen.Uppsatsen syfte är att beskriva samt att öka förståelsen för hur revisornsgranskning av de berörda bolagens interna kontroll, utifrån de svenskarevisorernas perspektiv, har påverkats i och med införandet av Section 404.Syftet är vidare att ta reda på om revisorns oberoende enligt Section 201påverkats och i sådana fall i vilken bemärkelse det har påverkats. Vi har valtatt tillämpa en kvalitativ metod med aktörssynsätt. För att få en ökadförståelse för problemet genomförde vi intervjuer med revisorer som harbetydande kunskaper och arbetar aktivt inom området.I studien har det framkommit att revisorer idag måste granska den internakontrollen mer på detaljnivå än vad de gjort tidigare, för att ta reda på vilkakontroller som är väsentliga för bolagets interna kontroll. Studiensrespondenter anser att SOX bidrar till att öka revisionens kvalitet då bolagenidag har mer kontroller samt dokumentation. Detta ger revisorn en bättreöverblick av bolagets verksamhet och därmed ett bättre underlag för eneffektivare och grundligare revision.Section 201 förbjuder revisorer att utföra icke-revisionstjänster för sinabefintliga revisionsklienter. Men bolagen har idag sällan någon annan änrevisorn att vända sig till för eventuella råd avseende SOX. Revisorn fårdock aldrig vara en del av sin klients interna kontrollstruktur. Detta dårevisorn måste vara noga med att bibehålla sin roll som en skeptisk ochobjektiv granskare för att inte oberoendet skall ifrågasättas av intressenterna.Det har i uppsatsen framkommit att revisorernas oberoende påverkats i enpositiv bemärkelse men inte enbart på grund av SOX, utan även från ökadekrav från marknaden. Investerarna har blivit mer kritiska och kräver mer avrevisorer för att de skall kunna lita på bolagens finansiella information. Föratt revisorernas granskning skall ses som legitim måste intressenterna serevisorn som oberoende. Om revisorn inte uppfattas som oberoende avintressenterna förlorar revisionen sitt värde. / Uppsatsnivå: D

Angiotensin II (Ang II) promotes vascular disease and hypertension in part by the formation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, oxidative stress and inflammation. Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is a transcription factor known to play key roles in cytokine signaling and growth in immune cells. We tested the hypothesis that STAT3 plays an essential role in Ang II-induced vascular dysfunction and hypertension. Responses of carotid arteries from C57BL6 mice were examined in vitro after 22-hour incubation with vehicle or Ang II (10 nM) in the presence or absence of a small molecule inhibitor of STAT3 activation, S3I-201. The endothelium-dependent agonist acetylcholine (Ach) produced relaxation in arteries treated with vehicle and the response was inhibited by ~50% by Ang II (P<0.01). S3I-201 (10 πM) co-incubation prevented the Ang II-induced dysfunction. Relaxation to nitroprusside, an endothelium-independent agonist, was not altered in any group. Ang II increased vascular superoxide more than 2-fold (P<0.05) measured by chemiluminescence. S3I-201 (10 πM) prevented the Ang II induced increase of superoxide. Similar findings were obtained with STATTIC, a second small molecule inhibitor of STAT3 activation. In contrast to these findings, lipopolysaccharide (0.5 πg/ml)-induced endothelial dysfunction was not altered by S3I-201. Blood pressure and responses of carotid arteries and small resistance arteries within the brain were examined in C57BL6 mice with either saline or Ang II (1000 ng/kg/min) infused for 14 days via osmotic minipump, which were also treated with dimethyl sulfoxide (vehicle) or S3I-201 (5 mg/kg, IP, every two days). Infusion with Ang II increased systolic blood pressure compared to saline-infused animals (155±2 and 112±2 mmHg, respectively; P<0.001). S3I-201 reduced pressure slightly in saline infused mice but protected against Ang II-induced increase in pressure at 14 days (102±2 and 114±3 mmHg, respectively). Following systemic treatment with Ang II, carotid artery relaxation responses to Ach were significantly impaired compared to vehicle infused mice (72±3% and 101±1%, respectively, P<0.05). S3I-201 treatment significantly prevented Ang II-induced impairment (94±4%, P<0.05). Ang II treated mice exhibited 55% impaired dilator responses to Ach in small resistance arteries within the brain studied in vitro and S3I-201 treatment prevented most of this impairment (P<0.05). Vasorelaxation to nitroprusside was not altered in any group. In summary, these findings provide the first evidence that STAT3 plays an essential role in Ang II-induced vascular dysfunction and hypertension. Targeting STAT3 with small molecule inhibitors or other approaches may have beneficial effects during hypertension and other disease states in which Ang II contributes to vascular dysfunction (e.g. diabetes and aging).

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore whether or not there exists a difference between the old and new migrants who moved to Istanbul, Ankara, Bursa, Izmir, Gaziantep, Erzurum and Sanliurfa provinces pre and post 1990, and the disadvantaged residents born in the urban areas of these provinces in terms of education, health and employment. To attain this aim, a theoretical framework, through which main features of the concept of disadvantageous were discussed.The overview of the literature, is based on these three dimensions of being disadvantaged, which are education, health and employment by using socio-economical characteristics as the interpretive tools. Therefore, the definition of disadvantageous centered on the notion of migration is accepted as a background of the study. In this respect, disadvantaged people are accepted as a group that experiences a higher risk of poverty and social exclusion than the general population.

No description available.

The aim of this study is to investigate the elementary school students&amp / #8217 / understandings of the nature of science (NOS). A total of 1949 students (1026 sixth graders and 923 eighth graders) from six different elementary schools participated in the study. Nature of Science Questionnaire for Elementary Level (E-NOS) questionnaire, adapted from Views on Science-Technology-Society (VOSTS) developed by Aikenhead, Fleming and Ryan (1989) and Views on Nature of Science (VNOS-D) constructed by Lederman, Adb-El-Khalick, Bell and Schwartz (2002), was used to assess the students&amp / #8217 / views on the NOS. E-NOS consisted of eleven items that examined the students&amp / #8217 / views on seven constructs concerning the NOS, namely tentativeness, subjectivity and creativity of scientific knowledge, social and cultural embeddedness of science, the role of observations and inferences, theories and laws and uncertainty in developing science. Additionally, the definitions of science, the difference of science from the other disciplines and scientific approach in scientific investigations were examined. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted by twelve volunteer students (7 sixth and 5 eighth graders) to investigate the students&amp / #8217 / views on nature of science in depth. Data were analyzed both frequency and Chi-squire analyses. Results of this study revealed that the majority of Turkish elementary school students held traditional views on some aspects of the nature of science. According to these results, it was especially notable that the largest group of the students was not aware of the fact that scientific theories and laws are different kinds of scientific knowledge. In addition, many of the students had the idea that there is certain and defined scientific method in order to develop scientific knowledge. It was also found that more 8th grade students held contemporary (realistic) views of the tentative and subjective nature of science and the role of precision and uncertainty in science and more 6th graders had contemporary views on the role of observations and inferences in science. Furthermore, it was indicated that more female students than males possessed contemporary views on the subjectivity and creativity of the nature of science. Chi-square statistics also displayed that there are statistically significant differences in distributions of the students&amp / #8217 / responses on all aspects of the nature of science with respect to grade level. In addition, it was found that there are statistically significant differences in distributions of the students&amp / #8217 / responses on the subjective nature of scientific knowledge, social and cultural embeddedness of the scientific knowledge, creativity and the role of prediction and uncertainty in science and scientific approach to investigations in science with respect to gender.

This thesis attempts to stress the decisiveness of armed force for the capitalist hold of state power and that only if a multi-level analytical framework is adopted a fuller account of the reality can be given with reference to the capitalist hold of state power. After laying the methodological and theoretical grounds for a multi-level analysis along with the privilege of armed force as the factor enabling the state power, it concretizes the multi-level analytical framework in the context of Turkey. It drives the attention to the co-existence of micro and macro level factors influential over state practices. The mafia forces are also proposed to be integrated to the analysis of the capitalist state on account of the considerable economic and armed means they hold. The Weberian approach describing the state in terms of its monopoly of legitimate use of force is proposed to be replaced by an alternative one not holding the consent of the inhabitants as an unconditional necessity for the presence of the state. The class struggle process is held to take place at a site embracing the interplay of associative and communal relationships in a micro-macro range. The routes of tendential multiplicity and totality are attempted to be explored at least partially. Also the importance of strategy and tactics are stressed and some threats waiting the forces longing for a world without exploitation and domination are underlined.

This study investigates the Fisher Effect for a sample of ten developed countries and ten developing countries. The study examines whether the nominal interest rate adjusts to the expected inflation rate in the long run. The distinction between the developed countries and developing countries also enables to identify special conditions under which Fisher Effect is more likely to hold. To analyze the long run relationship between the nominal interest rate and expected inflation rate, Bounds test approach of Pesaran et. al. (2001) is utilized. Estimation results show that the adjustment of nominal interest rate to expected inflation is encountered mostly for the developing countries which have inflationary history in their economies.