Medicine on the line? Computer‐mediated social support and advice for people with diabetes

The advent of thousands of Usenet groups on the Internet, covering a vast range of medical and welfare issues and ostensibly devoted to the mutual social support of participating members, has raised the potential for the development of new forms of 'virtual' health care. This article critically analyses the use by people with diabetes of one such Usenet group. It seeks to establish, first, the extent to which such a site provides some demonstrable measure of social support to its participants. This is approached by undertaking a structural analysis of the site to identify the extent of usage, and the nature of supporting interventions using a fivefold classification (instrumental, informational, esteem and social companionship and other). Second, the article attempts to identify any disparity between the lay health-knowledge in evidence and biomedical opinions proffered by the use of a panel of consultant diabetiologists. The results of the analysis suggest that the diabetes newsgroup provides an example of an active forum for largely well-informed participants who routinely use the media as an aid to the reflexive management of their medical condition. It also raises the prospect of a renegotiated relationship between medical knowledge and lay experience based upon shared learning     

A toolbox for public relations: The oeuvre of Michel Foucault

In this article, we provide a brief introduction to the work of Michel Foucault. Our focus is on the major themes of Foucault's work: discourse, power/knowledge and subjectivity. We demonstrate the rich contribution that Foucauldian theory can make to public relations practice and scholarship by moving beyond a focus on excellence towards an understanding of public relations as a discourse practice with power effects.     

Risk,trust and knowledge networks in farmers’ learning

This study reports on New Zealand dairy farmers’ access to and use of information as mediated through conditions of risk and trust within the context of their interpersonal social networks. We located participants’ reports of their information use within their perceived environments of trust and risk, following Giddens's [1990. The consequences of modernity. Polity Press, Stanford, CA] typology of trust and risk in pre-modernity and modernity. The research participants were constant users of interpersonal and print information from numerous sources, and monitored their incoming data in the light of strategic needs, reflecting their roles as both farming practitioners and business owners. Socio-spatial knowledge networks (SSKNs) combine individuals’ explanatory cognitive models of information acquisition and use with a micro-geographical analysis of their interpersonal networks. The participants showed characteristics of pre-modern, modern and even post-modern society in respect of their use of complex interactional forms, as well as a blending of individualistic and communitarian practices and concerns in their professional and personal lives.     

On the logic of common belief and common knowledge

The paper surveys the currently available axiomatizations of common belief (CB) and common knowledge (CK) by means of modal propositional logics. (Throughout, knowledge — whether individual or common — is defined as true belief.) Section 1 introduces the formal method of axiomatization followed by epistemic logicians, especially the syntax-semantics distinction, and the notion of a soundness and completeness theorem. Section 2 explains the syntactical concepts, while briefly discussing their motivations. Two standard semantic constructions, Kripke structures and neighbourhood structures, are introduced in Sections 3 and 4, respectively. It is recalled that Aumann's partitional model of CK is a particular case of a definition in terms of Kripke structures. The paper also restates the well-known fact that Kripke structures can be regarded as particular cases of neighbourhood structures. Section 3 reviews the soundness and completeness theorems proved w.r.t. the former structures by Fagin, Halpern, Moses and Vardi, as well as related results by Lismont. Section 4 reviews the corresponding theorems derived w.r.t. the latter structures by Lismont and Mongin. A general conclusion of the paper is that the axiomatization of CB does not require as strong systems of individual belief as was originally thought — onlymonotonicity has thusfar proved indispensable. Section 5 explains another consequence of general relevance: despite the infinitary nature of CB, the axiom systems of this paper admit of effective decision procedures, i.e., they aredecidable in the logician's sense.     

中国城市化的重要发展趋势:城市群(圈)的出现及对投资的需求

由于经济全球化的影响和科学技术的进步,以及中国经济的高速发展、经济体制日趋市场化和对外开放的不断扩大,中国的城市化出现了一些新的发展趋势,那就是城市群(圈)的涌现。城市群(圈)的发育和发展,要求有完善的交通、通讯及其他基础设施的支撑,需要大量的投资。     

知识经济时代对图书馆的挑战

该文从知识经济的崛起 ,使作为搜集、整理、分析和传递知识的重要社会力量的图书馆又一次面临着新的生存和发展的考验。着重论述了图书馆在知识经济中的重要作用和地位 ,以及在观念、体制、管理、服务和人才诸方面进行变革     

“三曹”与六朝诗风

“三曹”文学成就,世所公认。然不同时代对“三曹”的品鉴称许,表现出不同的审美好尚。如今人某些观点中就钟嵘《诗品》将陈思、文帝、魏武依次列入上、中、下三品所表现出的责难就体现了这种审美差异。实则“三曹”不仅仅体现出“建安风骨”这一种风格,他们亦是六朝以华美为主流的多元化美学风格的滥觞者。     

论谢灵运的诗学精神

作为一位伟大的山水诗人谢灵运并不以理论著称,但他在诗学方面的成就与贡献却很大。他具有描山绘水以"娱情适性"的创作态度;在他的山水诗中营造了一种"生新幽奇"的艺术境界;谢灵运山水诗极力追求一种"尚巧似"的创作风格。     

苏格拉底正义思想解读

苏格拉底从培养个人道德出发来阐释正义,寻求德性在实践上与生活的内在一致性;他以美德为知识,把德性因素注入到正义观念之中,赋予正义内在伦理性的内涵,从德性和智性中来寻求把握,通过个人自制伦理的方式获取正义,并以法的形式维护正义。     

Emotion Knowledge, Social Competence, and Behavior Problems in Childhood and Adolescence: A Meta-analytic Review

The present meta-analytic review examined the magnitude of the relation between discrete emotion knowledge and three of its most commonly studied correlates in childhood and adolescence: social competence, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. Emotion knowledge demonstrated small to medium-sized relations with each correlate. Moderators of effect size were also examined and included multiple sample and methodological characteristics. Using random effects models, significant moderators of effect size for relations between emotion knowledge and externalizing problems included sample recruitment, sample age, and the source of externalizing problems ratings. Moderators of effect size were not found for emotion knowledge and social competence, and the effect sizes across samples for emotion knowledge and internalizing problems were homogeneous. Results highlight the relatively consistent yet modest relations between emotion knowledge and its correlates. Implications for applied research and new directions for research on emotion knowledge using innovative methods are discussed.