Boilerplate Radin, Margaret Jane
2012., 20121207, 2012, 2013-01-01
eBook
Boilerplate--the fine-print terms and conditions that we become subject to when we click "I agree" online, rent an apartment, enter an employment contract, sign up for a cellphone carrier, or buy ...travel tickets--pervades all aspects of our modern lives. On a daily basis, most of us accept boilerplate provisions without realizing that should a dispute arise about a purchased good or service, the nonnegotiable boilerplate terms can deprive us of our right to jury trial and relieve providers of responsibility for harm.Boilerplateis the first comprehensive treatment of the problems posed by the increasing use of these terms, demonstrating how their use has degraded traditional notions of consent, agreement, and contract, and sacrificed core rights whose loss threatens the democratic order.
Margaret Jane Radin examines attempts to justify the use of boilerplate provisions by claiming either that recipients freely consent to them or that economic efficiency demands them, and she finds these justifications wanting. She argues, moreover, that our courts, legislatures, and regulatory agencies have fallen short in their evaluation and oversight of the use of boilerplate clauses. To improve legal evaluation of boilerplate, Radin offers a new analytical framework, one that takes into account the nature of the rights affected, the quality of the recipient's consent, and the extent of the use of these terms. Radin goes on to offer possibilities for new methods of boilerplate evaluation and control, among them the bold suggestion that tort law rather than contract law provides a preferable analysis for some boilerplate schemes. She concludes by discussing positive steps that NGOs, legislators, regulators, courts, and scholars could take to bring about better practices.
Placed at the intersection of semantics and pragmatics, the concept of semantic prosody has been associated with various notions including evaluative meaning, attitudinal meaning and connotations, ...and there is no agreement among researchers as to its definition and operationalization. In this critical-reflection theoretical paper, we provide an overview of collocational and discoursal approaches to semantic prosody, which we treat as distinct and, at the same time, complementary. Furthermore, we suggest that the semantic prosody can be conceptualised as an interaction between a source and a target term, where the target term has a descriptive semantic content, and it receives its evaluative meaning from the source term, which can be either only evaluative (thin) or both evaluative and descriptive (thick). Next, we propose that the source of semantic prosody can be accounted for in terms of value judgments. In particular, a value judgment that a speaker ascribes to the factual content of a term is always relative to a certain kind of standard. Thus, our proposal supports the view that the speaker's stance, manifested in value judgments that they ascribe to terms, can be considered as a source of semantic prosody.
•We propose a new theoretical reading of semantic prosody grounded in the philosophy of language.•We argue that semantic prosody arises as a result of interaction between thin and thick terms.•We argue that the semantics of expressions that have semantic prosody can be understood in terms of value judgments.•We argue that value judgements ascribed by speakers to expressions are relative to a culturally-marked kind of standard.•Our proposal supports both the collocational and discoursal views of semantic prosody.
A neural-network model of fractional order with impulsive perturbations, time-varying delays, and reaction-diffusion terms is investigated in this article. The focus is on investigating qualitative ...properties of the states and developing new almost periodicity and stability criteria. The uncertain case is also considered. Examples are established and the effectiveness of the obtained criteria is demonstrated.
Conventional Evaluativity Zakkou, Julia
Australasian journal of philosophy,
04/2023, Volume:
101, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Some expressions, such as 'generous' and 'stingy', are used not only to describe the world around us. They are also used to evaluate the things to which they are applied. In this paper, I suggest a ...novel account of how this evaluation is conveyed-the conventional triggering view. It partly agrees and partly disagrees with both the standard semantic view and its popular pragmatic contender. Like the former and unlike the latter, my view has it that the evaluation is conveyed due to the conventional meaning of the sentences in question. Unlike the former and much like the latter, my view suggests that the evaluation is a secondary rather than a primary content.
Purpose
Lung transplant recipients often develop acute kidney injury (AKI) evolving into chronic kidney disease (CKD). The immunosuppressant tacrolimus might be associated with the emergence of AKI. ...We analyzed the development and recovery of kidney injury after lung transplantation and related AKI to whole-blood tacrolimus trough concentrations and other factors causing kidney injury.
Methods
We retrospectively studied kidney injury in 186 lung-transplantation patients at the UMC Utrecht between 2001 and 2011. Kidney function and whole-blood tacrolimus trough concentrations were determined from day 1 to 14 and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months postoperative. Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), septic shock, and nephrotoxic medications were evaluated as covariates for AKI. We analyzed liver injury and drug-drug interactions.
Results
AKI was present in 85 (46%) patients. Tacrolimus concentrations were supra-therapeutic in 135 of 186 patients (73%). AKI in the first week after transplantation was related to supra-therapeutic tacrolimus concentrations (OR 1.55; 95% CI 1.06–2.27), ≥3 other nephrotoxic drugs (OR 1.96; 95% CI 1.02–3.77), infection (OR 2.48; 95% CI 1.31–4.70), and cystic fibrosis (OR 2.17; 95% CI 1.16–4.06). Recovery rate of AKI was lower than expected (19%), and the cumulative incidence of severe CKD at 1 year was 15%.
Conclusions
After lung transplantation, AKI is common and often evolves into severe CKD, which is a known cause of morbidity and mortality. Supra-therapeutic whole-blood tacrolimus trough concentrations are related to the early onset of AKI. Conscientious targeting tacrolimus blood concentrations might be vital in the early phase after lung transplantation.
What is known about this subject?
• Lung transplant recipients often develop acute kidney injury evolving into chronic kidney disease increasing both morbidity and mortality.
• To date, the pathophysiology of kidney injury after lung transplantation has not been fully elucidated.
• The immunosuppressant tacrolimus is difficult to dose, especially in the unstable clinical setting, and is nephrotoxic.
What this study adds:
• For the first time, supra-therapeutic whole-blood tacrolimus trough concentrations are related to the emergence of acute kidney injury in the first days after lung transplantation.
• Supra-therapeutic whole-blood tacrolimus trough concentrations often occur early after lung transplantation.
• AKI after lung transplantation shows low recovery rates.
The article presents the analysis of compound English and Latin anatomical terms and the analysis of their specific configurations. The oldest language that played a very important role in the ...development of medicine in Europe was Greek. English medical terminology developed from medieval Latin terminology, which had absorbed a developed Greek terminology. Modern anatomical terminology is based on centuries-old tradition and constantly revised knowledge. Most anatomical and clinical terms used in medicine today are Latin or Latinized Greek words, the origin of which can be traced back to the 5th century B.C. In the textbook “Human Anatomy”, M. Prives, V. Bushkovich, and N. Lisenkov offer a progressive view of descriptive, evolutionary, functional, and practical anatomy. Medical terms in the textbook can be basically divided into one-word and multiple-word terms. Anatomical terminology is the foundation of medical terminology, so it is extremely important for physicians and scientists worldwide to use uniform terms for each anatomical entity. Medical terms in the textbook can be basically divided into one-word and multiple-word terms. One-word terms can be simple (underived) words, derived words, compounds, or a combination of derived and compound words. Compound anatomical terms can consist of two-five words. This article focuses on the comparative structural and semantic analysis of the anatomical terms of Latin and English languages. The study reveals some significant coincidences and differences between two-word and three-word Latin and English anatomical terms and their frequency of usage. One of the terminologies of the fields of medical science is analysed using descriptive and comparative methods. A descriptive-analytical method was employed to perform quantitative and qualitative (of specific configurations) analyses.
Purpose
Drug-coated balloons (DCBs) for femoropopliteal peripheral artery disease have been shown to be clinically superior and cost-effective compared to conventional percutaneous transluminal ...angioplasty (PTA). However, few studies enrolled patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI). Our objective was to study the cost-effectiveness of endovascular treatment with versus without DCB in CLTI patient populations in the Netherlands and Germany.
Material and Methods
Target lesion revascularization (TLR) and major amputation rates were obtained from the CLTI subgroup of the IN.PACT Global study. Rates for “status quo” treatment involving PTA with primary or bailout stenting were derived from systematic literature search. Costs and cost-effectiveness were calculated using a decision-analytic Markov model considering, in the base case, a 2-year horizon, and strategy-specific quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gains calculated from survival and health state-specific utilities. A willingness-to-pay threshold of €50,000/QALY was assumed, and extensive sensitivity analyses were performed.
Results
Model-projected 24-month probabilities of TLR were 26.2% and 32.8% for treatment with and without DCB, and probabilities for amputation were 2.8% and 11.9%, respectively. DCB added 0.017 QALYs while saving €1,030 in the Dutch setting and €513 in the German setting, respectively. DCB was found dominant or cost-effective across a wide range of assumptions.
Conclusion
Urea excipient drug-coated balloon therapy for treating CLTI from femoropopliteal artery disease is associated with improved patient outcomes and expected overall cost savings to payers in the Dutch and German healthcare systems, rendering it a cost-effective and likely dominant treatment strategy.
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