The belief persists in philosophy, religion, science, and popular culture that some special cognitive property of persons like self-consciousness confers a unique moral standing. However, no set of cognitive properties confers moral standing, and metaphysical personhood is not sufficient for either moral personhood or moral standing. Cognitive theories all fail to capture the depth of commitmen...

This paper is the third in a series in which the social behavior of mentally disabled clients in community facilities was examined. In this report, social choice for various cognitive and physical characteristics and for exposure to others was investigated in five settings. Preferences were inferred from observed affiliation, self reports, and staff judgments. Clients tended to prefer peers who...

Persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) are less physically active than nondiseased persons and often report low self-efficacy levels. In the context of an awareness project to promote physical activity and participation in MS, we addressed the impact of training for and participation in a unique expedition. Medical events, relapses, and self-reported neurological worsening were followed from 6 mo...

INTRODUCTION This explorative study examines personal and neighbourhood characteristics associated with short-distance trips made by car, bicycle or walking in order to identify target groups for future interventions. METHODS Data were derived from 'Mobility Research Netherlands (2004-2009; MON)', a dataset including information regarding trips made by household members (n = ±53,000 responden...

In addition to labeling people as mentally ill, the law often labels them as incompetent to exercise certain rights or to play particular roles. Indeed, under the broad dicta of Zinermon v. Burch, incompetency labeling may increase dramatically. This article uses principles of social and cognitive psychology to examine the effects of incompetency labeling. Such labeling is shown to produce pote...

The failure of control programs for visceral leishmaniasis (VL) that depend on elimination of infected dogs suggests that other reservoir hosts may participate in the transmission cycle. To determine whether persons infected with Leishmania chagasi can infect the vector sand fly, laboratory-reared Lutzomyia longipalpis were allowed to feed on Brazilian subjects with active, cured, and asymptoma...