The term “deep history” refers to historical accounts framed temporally not by the advent of a written record but by evolutionary events (Smail 2008; Shryock and Smail 2011). The presumption of deep history is that the events of today have a history that traces back beyond written history to events in the evolutionary past. For human kinship, though, even forming a history of kinship, let alone a deep history, remains problematic, given limited, relevant data (Trautman et al. 2011). With (...) regard to a deep history, one conjecture is that human kinship evolved from primate social systems in a gradual, more-or-less continuous manner (see Chapais 2008); another conjecture is that kinship, in accordance with the incest account of Claude Lévi-Strauss (1969) or the fanciful, tetradic account of Nicholas J. Allen (1986), “comes into existence with a leap” (Trautman et al. 2011: 176); and yet another, the account to be developed in this paper, is that kinship, as it is understood and lived by culture bearers today, is the consequence of a profound and qualitative evolutionary transformation going from an ancestral primate-like social system predicated on extensive face-to-face interaction to the relation-based social systems that characterize human societies (Read 2012). (shrink)

Desde la formulación geométrica de la gravedad, según la ecuaciones de Einstein-Grosmann-Hilbert, de noviembre de 1915, como el movimiento geodésico en la variedad semirimenniana de curvatura positiva, espaciotiempo, donde por ausencias de simetrías, no es posible la conservación de la energía-impulso tomando en conjunto los procesos materiales y el del campo geométrico gravitacional, sin embargo, dadas esas simetrías en el espaciotiempo plano de Minkowski, usando el modelo de De Sitter, Einstein linealizando la gravitación, por supuesto, realmente en ausencia de gravedad, (...) en 1916, depuradas de algunos errores matemáticos en 1918, introdujó las "ondas gravitacionales" como perturbaciones en la curvatura del espacio, y en ausencia de saber físicamente qué es el espaciotiempo y filosoficamente en pleito, que previamente en 1936 y definitivamente en 1937, Einstein demostró no existían. Fue por parte de los trabajos surgidos de la dinámica del discurrir académico, desde la perspectiva no de Einstein sino de Weyl, que Bondi, Pirani, Robinson y Trautman, en la década de 1950, posterior al fallecimiento de Einstein, las "ondas gravitacionales" fueron reintroducidas y motivaron que experimentalmente se buscaran. En el 2002, a partir del experimento de VLBI de Sergei Kopeikin fue establecida su supuesta velocidad, sin que obtuviera el reconocimiento unánime de la comunidad de científicos sino diviéndolos. Y fue en febrero de 2016, que la colaboración aLIGO-aVirgo anunciaran haberlas detectado por primera vez. En este trabajo se presenta la historia que conllevo a este supuesto descubrimiento y se plantea que las ondas detectadas son realmente del vacío cuántico en el cual está inmerso todo lo existente, tésis del autor expuesta inmediatamente como respuesta a ese anunció de 2016. (shrink)

Abstract: Potatoes are edible tubers, available worldwide and all year long. They are relatively cheap to grow, rich in nutrients, and they can make a delicious treat. The humble potato has fallen in popularity in recent years, due to the interest in low-carb foods. However, the fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals it provides can help ward off disease and benefit human health. They are an important staple food in many countries around the world. There are an estimated 200 varieties of (...) potatoes, which can be classified into a number of categories based on the cooked texture and ingredient functionality. Using a public dataset of 2400 images of potatoes, we trained a deep convolutional neural network to identify 4 types (Red, Red Washed, Sweet, and White).The trained model achieved an accuracy of 99.5% of test set, demonstrating the feasibility of this approach. (shrink)

Two studies demonstrate that a dispositional proneness to disgust (“disgust sensitivity”) is associated with intuitive disapproval of gay people. Study 1 was based on previous research showing that people are more likely to describe a behavior as intentional when they see it as morally wrong (see Knobe, 2006, for a review). As predicted, the more disgust sensitive participants were, the more likely they were to describe an agent whose behavior had the side effect of causing gay men to kiss in (...) public as having intentionally encouraged gay men to kiss publicly— even though most participants did not explicitly think it wrong to encourage gay men to kiss in public. No such effect occurred when subjects were asked about heterosexual kissing. Study 2 used the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Nosek, Banaji, & Greenwald, 2006) as a dependent measure. The more disgust sensitive participants were, the more they showed.. (shrink)

This paper is a critical discussion of John Dupré's recent defence of promiscuous realism in Part 1 of his The Disorder of Things: Metaphysical Foundations of the Disunity of Science. It also discusses some more general issues in the philosophy of biology and science. Dupré's chief strategy of argumentation appeals to debates within the philosophy of biology, all of which concern the nature of species. While the strategy is well motivated, I argue that Dupré's challenge to essentialist and unificationist views (...) about natural kinds is not successful. One conclusion is that an integrative conception of species is a real alternative to Dupré's pluralism. (shrink)

There is a long tradition in philosophy and literary theory defending the view that engagement with literature promotes readers’ empathy. Until the last century, few of the empirical claims adduced in that tradition were investigated experimentally. Recent work in psychology and neuropsychology has now shed new light on the interplay of empathy and literature. This article surveys the experimental findings, addressing three central questions: What is it to read empathically? Does reading make us more empathic? What characteristics of literature, if (...) any, affect readers’ empathy? While experimental studies have delivered no conclusive answers to these questions, it has exposed their psychological complexity and constructed a more nuanced picture of the diverse ways in which literature interacts with our empathic capacities. (shrink)

In everyday life and in science we acquire evidence of evidence and based on this new evidence we often change our epistemic states. An assumption underlying such practice is that the following EEE Slogan is correct: 'evidence of evidence is evidence' (Feldman 2007, p. 208). We suggest that evidence of evidence is best understood as higher-order evidence about the epistemic state of agents. In order to model evidence of evidence we introduce a new powerful framework for modelling epistemic states, Dyadic (...) Bayesianism. Based on this framework, we then discuss characterizations of evidence of evidence and argue for one of them. Finally, we show that whether the EEE Slogan holds, depends on the specific kind of evidence of evidence. (shrink)

The task of visual search is to determine as rapidly as possible whether a target item is present or absent in a display. Rapidly detected items are thought to contain features that correspond to primitive elements in the human visual system. In previous theories, it has been assumed that visual search is based on simple two-dimensional features in the image. However, visual search also has access to another level of representation, one that describes properties in the corresponding three-dimensional scene. Among (...) these properties are three dimensionality and the direction of lighting, but not viewing direction. These findings imply that the parallel processes of early vision are much more sophisticated than previously assumed. (shrink)

Note: The paper attached here is a "pre-review" version, not the final version that has now been published online first at the link below. -/- In “Nothing is True,” Will Gamester defends a form of alethic nihilism that still grants truth-talk a kind of legitimacy: an expressive role that is implemented via a pretense. He argues that this view has all of the strengths of deflationism, while also providing an elegant resolution of the Liar Paradox and its kin. For the (...) alethic nihilist, Liar and related sentences are not true, and that is the end of the story. No contradiction arises because it does not thereby follow that any of these sentences are also true, since nothing is. Gamester concludes that the simplicity of this response to the semantic paradoxes makes alethic nihilism an attractive approach. We disagree. In addition to providing insurmountable obstacles for his form of alethic nihilism, we contend that a certain form of non-nihilist deflationism is better placed to deal with the paradoxes and to account for truth-talk more generally. (shrink)

Driven by technological innovations, newborn screening (NBS) panels have been expanded and the development of genomic NBS pilot programs is rapidly progressing. Decisions on disease selection for NBS are still based on the Wilson and Jungner (WJ) criteria published in 1968. Despite this uniform reference, interpretation of the WJ criteria and actual disease selection for NBS programs are highly variable. A systematic literature search [PubMED search “Wilson” AND “Jungner”; last search 16.07.22] was performed to evaluate the applicability of the WJ (...) criteria for current and future NBS programs and the need for adaptation. By at least two reviewers, 105 publications (systematic literature search, N = 77; manual search, N = 28) were screened for relevant content and, finally, 38 publications were evaluated. Limited by the study design of qualitative text analysis, no statistical evaluation was performed, but a structured collection of reported aspects of criticism and proposed improvements was instead collated. This revealed a set of general limitations of the WJ criteria, such as imprecise terminology, lack of measurability and objectivity, missing pediatric focus, and absent guidance on program management. Furthermore, it unraveled specific aspects of criticism on clinical, diagnostic, therapeutic, and economical aspects. A major obstacle was found to be the incompletely understood natural history and phenotypic diversity of rare diseases prior to NBS implementation, resulting in uncertainty about case definition, risk stratification, and indications for treatment. This gap could be closed through the systematic collection and evaluation of real-world evidence on the quality, safety, and (cost-)effectiveness of NBS, as well as the long-term benefits experienced by screened individuals. An integrated NBS public health program that is designed to continuously learn would fulfil these requirements, and a multi-dimensional framework for future NBS programs integrating medical, ethical, legal, and societal perspectives is overdue. (shrink)

There appears to be a tension between two commitments in liberalism. The first is that citizens, as rational agents possessing dignity, are owed a justification for principles of justice. The second is that members of society who do not meet the requirements of rational agency are owed justice. These notions conflict because the first commitment is often expressed through the device of the social contract, which seems to confine the scope of justice to rational agents. So, contractarianism seems to ignore (...) the justice claims of the severely cognitively impaired. To solve this problem, Martha Nussbaum proposes the capabilities approach. The justifiability condition, on this approach, is met by the idea of overlapping consensus. This essay argues that overlapping consensus cannot meet liberalism’s justifiability condition, nor is it more inclusive of the cognitively impaired. Therefore, we have reason to retain the contract device and look for another way to ensure that liberalism respects the justice claims of all. (shrink)

This paper describes an Intelligent Tutoring System for helping users with ADO.NET called ADO-Tutor. The Intelligent Tutoring System was designed and developed using (ITSB) authoring tool for building intelligent educational systems. The user learns through the intelligent tutoring system ADO.NET, the technology used by Microsoft.NET to connect to databases. The material includes lessons, examples, and questions. Through the feedback provided by the intelligent tutoring system, the user's understanding of the material is assessed, and accordingly can be guided to different difficulty (...) level of exercises and/or the lessons. The Intelligent Tutoring System was evaluated by a group of users and the results were more than satisfactory in terms of the quality of the material and the design of the system. (shrink)

Initial responses to questionnaires used to assess participants' understanding of informed consent for malaria vaccine trials conducted in the United States and Mali were tallied. Total scores were analyzed by age, sex, literacy (if known), and location. Ninety-two percent (92%) of answers by United States participants and 85% of answers by Malian participants were correct. Questions more likely to be answered incorrectly in Mali related to risk, and to the type of vaccine. For adult participants, independent predictors of higher scores (...) were younger age and female sex in the United States, and male sex in Mali. Scores in the United States were higher than in Mali (P = 0.005). Despite this difference participants at both sites were well informed overall. Although interpretation must be qualified because questionnaires were not intended as research tools and were not standardized among sites, these results do not support concerns about systematic low understanding among research participants in developing versus developed countries. (shrink)

This paper addresses the cultural impact of genomics and the Human Genome Project on human self-understanding. Notably, it addresses the claim made by Francis Collins that the genome is the language of God and the claim made by Max Delbrück that Aristotle must be credited with having predicted DNA as the soul that organises bio-matter. From a continental philosophical perspective I will argue that human existence results from a dialectical interaction between two types of texts: the language of molecular biology (...) and the language of civilisation; the language of the genome and the language of our socio-cultural, symbolic ambiance. Whereas the former ultimately builds on the alphabets of genes and nucleotides, the latter is informed by primordial texts such as the Bible and the Quran. In applied bioethics deliberations on genomics, science is easily framed as liberating and progressive, religious world-views as conservative an... (shrink)

Beauty is evil, a surreptitious diversion of earthly delights planted by the devil, according to the third century theologian-philosopher Tertullian. Beauty is a manifestation of the divine on earth, according to another third century philosopher, Plotinus. Could these two really be talking about the same thing? That beauty evokes an experience of pleasure is probably the only point on which all participants in the continuing debate on beauty agree. But what kinds of pleasure one considers relevant to an experience of (...) beauty, is the crux of the problem of beauty. In ancient, medieval and eighteenth century philosophy, the problem of beauty was framed by the larger concern of what constituted a good life. The question regarding the nature of beauty was answered with a view to its role in achieving the good life for those who cultivated its apprehension. In the twentieth century, philosophers framed the problem of beauty as a problem for conceptual analysis. The questions asked were: Is beauty subjective or objective? Are there properties in the object that count towards beauty in all cases; that are sufficient or necessary for an object to be judged beautiful? What kind of pleasure is the pleasure we experience of beauty? I will examine how these questions can be seen to have been answered by earlier philosophical traditions and then I will use these questions as a guide to developing an explanatory theory of beauty based on contemporary theories of perception. (shrink)

We present a rigorous way to evaluate the visual perception of correlation in scatterplots, based on classical psychophysical methods originally developed for simple properties such as brightness. Although scatterplots are graphically complex, the quantity they convey is relatively simple. As such, it may be possible to assess the perception of correlation in a similar way. Scatterplots were each of 5.0 extent, containing 100 points with a bivariate normal distribution. Means were 0.5 of the range of the points, and standard deviations (...) 0.2 of this range. Precision was determined via an adaptive algorithm to find the just noticeable differences (jnds) in correlation, i.e., the difference between two side-by-side scatterplots that could be discriminated 75% of the time. Accuracy was measured by direct estimation, using reference scatterplots with fixed upper and lower values, with a test scatterplot adjusted so that its correlation appeared to be halfway between these. This process was recursively applied to yield several further estimates. Results of the discrimination tests show jnd(r) = k (1/b – r), where r is the Pearson correlation, and parameters 0 < k, b < 1. Integration yields a subjective estimate of correlation g(r) = ln(1 – br) / ln(1– b). The values of b found via discrimination closely match those found via direct estimation. As such, it appears that the perception of correlation in a scatterplot is completely described by two related performance curves, specified by two easily-measured parameters. (shrink)

A surge in post-publication activity related to editing, including by technical editors and copyeditors, is worthy of some discussion. One of these issues involves the issue of 'tortured phrases', which are bizarre terms and phrases in academic papers that replace standard English expressions or jargon. This phenomenon may reveal an attempt to avoid the detection of textual similarity or to masquerade plagiarism, and yet remain undetected by editors, peer reviewers and text editors. Potentially thousands of cases have already been discovered (...) and reported publicly on the post-publication platform PubPeer. In this opinion paper, 35 cases from ranked scholarly journals are presented, mainly the fields of materials, computer and engineering sciences. This collation serves to expand discussion about this integrity-related phenomenon and to increase educational awareness of the topic. (shrink)

We sley Salmon, in his influential and detailed book, Four Decades of Scientific Explanation, argues that the pragmatic approach to scientific explanation, “construed as the claim that scientific explanation can be explicated entirely in pragmatic terms” (1989, 185) is inadequate. The specific inadequacy ascribed to a pragmatic account is that objective relevance relations cannot be incorporated into such an account. Salmon relies on the arguments given in Kitcher and Salmon (1987) to ground this objection. He also suggests that Peter Railton’s (...) concepts of the ideal explanatory text and explanatory information (Railton 1981) can provide what the pragmatic approach lacks. This suggestion is not a conclusion of course; we read it as the promotion of part of a research program aimed at forging a greater consensus on scientific explanation-an admirable goal. However, we do not see the pragmatic approach as inadequate. We will show that a synthetic account inspired by Salmon’s adaptation of Railton would be equivalent to van Fraassen’s pragmatic account in three respects: accepting or rejecting requests for explanation; the practice of giving scientific explanations; and the evaluation of the goodness of explanations. We include all three under the general rubric of explanatory “practice.” Admittedly these are not the only three features by which an account of explanation might be evaluated. Roughly, we mean to show that a synthetic account cannot do a better job of accounting for the scientific practices which are of importance to the constructive empiricist, and therefore no argument can be presented to the constructive empiricist to convince her that by her own standards the synthetic account is superior. (shrink)

This study examined students’ perception of rape and sexual violence and methods of prevention in tertiary institutions in Lagos State. It was a cross-sectional study carried out among one thousand, two hundred and eleven (1,211) female undergraduates selected from two tertiary institutions in Lagos State. The sample size for the study was one hundred and twenty-one (121) representing 10% of the population. Inferential statistics was used for analysis. The results revealed that majority of the students are aware of the different (...) types of rape but did not consider forced sexual intercourse between spouses as rape. The students have a good knowledge of rape and sexual violence. The students perceive that rape can have detrimental effects on the victims’ mental, physical and reproductive health. Avoiding late nights, dressing decently, increasing the presence of security officers at strategic places on campus and the likes were identified ways of preventing rape in tertiary institutions. Among the recommendations proffered are that students should review their dressing styles to conform to the morals of the society to prevent the occurrence of rape. (shrink)

This study explores the employee retention strategies implemented by administrators in educational institutions, focusing on Immaculate Conception College of Balayan, Inc. The qualitative case study involved 10 participants, including administrators and employees selected based on stable tenure and appropriate qualifications. Through face- to-face interviews, key determinants influencing retention, such as teacher satisfaction, job contentment, professional growth, and loyalty, were identified. Recognition and incentives emerged as the primary retention strategy, significantly influencing employee satisfaction and fostering a sense of belonging. The study (...) concludes that these strategies are effective, contributing to the retention of skilled professionals. Recommendations emphasize the importance of recognizing and providing incentives as core strategies for administrators in educational settings, recognizing their role in creating a positive work environment and promoting sustained employee commitment. The findings at ICCBI underscore the observed effectiveness of these strategies. (shrink)

I focus on the No-Paradise Dilemma, which results from some initially plausible epistemic ideals, coupled with an assumption concerning our evidence. Our evidence indicates that we are not in an epistemic paradise, in which we do not experience cognitive failures. I opt for a resolution of the dilemma that is based on an evidentialist position that can be motivated independently of the dilemma. According to this position, it is rational for an agent to believe a proposition on the agent’s total (...) evidence just in case the (total) evidence stably supports the proposition. Based on this evidentialist position, I argue that it is not an epistemic ideal in the actual world that we hold rational beliefs that are logically equivalent to our rational beliefs. The dilemma is resolved by giving up this ideal for the actual world and adopting the evidentialist position in terms of stable evidential support. (shrink)

In this chapter, we outline the interdisciplinary contributions that philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience have provided in the understanding of the self and identity, focusing on one specific line of burgeoning research: the importance of morality to perceptions of self and identity. Of course, this rather limited focus will exclude much of what psychologists and neuroscientists take to be important to the study of self and identity (that plethora of self-hyphenated terms seen in psychology and neuroscience: self-regulation, self-esteem, self-knowledge, self-concept, self-perception, (...) and more). We will likewise not engage with many canonical philosophical treatments of self and identity. But we will lay out a body of research that brings together classic themes in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience to raise empirically tractable philosophical questions, and philosophically rigorous empirical questions about self and identity. More specifically, in section 4.2, we will review some recent research that has treated traditional philosophical questions about self and identity as empirical questions. Within this body of work, we will be primarily concerned with the finding that morality (more so than memory) is perceived to be at the core of self and identity. Then, in section 4.3, we raise and respond to a variety of questions and criticisms: first, about the operationalization of identity concepts in the empirical literature; second, about the generalizability of the moral self effect; third, about the direction of change; fourth, about connections with recent work in neuroscience; and fifth, about the target of evaluation. Finally, in section 4.4, we consider a variety of implications and applications of this work on the moral self. Throughout, we aim to highlight connections between classical themes in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience, while also suggesting new directions for interdisciplinary collaboration. (shrink)

The concept of law is not a theorist's invention but one that people use every day. Thus one measure of the adequacy of a theory of law is its degree of fidelity to the concept as it is understood by those who use it. That means as far as possible. There are important truisms about the law that have an evaluative cast. The theorist has either to say what would make those evaluative truisms true or to defend her choice to (...) dismiss them as false of law or not of the essence of law. Thus the legal theorist must give an account of the truth grounds of the more central evaluative truisms about law. This account is a theory of legitimacy. It will contain framing judgments that state logical relations between descriptive judgments and directly evaluative judgments. Framing judgments are not directly evaluative, nor do they entail directly evaluative judgments, but they are nonetheless moral judgments. Therefore, an adequate theory of law must make (some) moral judgments. This means that an adequate theory of law has to take a stand on certain (but not all) contested issues in political philosophy. Legal theory is thus a branch of political philosophy. Moreover, one cannot be a moral-aim functionalist about legal institutions without compromising one's positivism about legal norms. (shrink)

The study aimed to identify the reality of total quality management in university colleges in Gaza Strip, through its dimensions, which are (commitment of senior management; organizational building; employee empowerment; continuous improvement; focus on beneficiaries; management by facts), and to detect differences in the responses of sample members according to For personal variables (type; educational qualification; college; nature of work; years of service). The researchers used the descriptive analytical method, and used a main tool to collect information: the questionnaire consisted (...) of (42) phrases, and the study population reached (596) academic and administrative employees distributed to (5) university colleges in Gaza Strip, and it was chosen A stratified random sample of them consisted of (240) employees, approximately (40.3%) of the study population. (SPSS) was used to analyze the data. The study concluded a set of results, the most important of which are: (1) The application of the requirements of total quality management in university colleges in Gaza Strip is generally appropriate in terms of: (the commitment of senior management to total quality management, organizational building, facts management, focus on beneficiaries, employee empowerment, continuous improvement), where the response of the sample members was about the dimensions Total quality management with relative weight (69.93%). (2) There are differences at the level of significance (α =.05) between the averages of the respondents' responses to total quality management in university colleges in Gaza Strip due to gender and differences in favor of the male category. And differences attributed to the college and in favor of the University College of Professional Sciences. (3) There are no differences between the averages of the respondents' responses to total quality management in university colleges in Gaza Strip due to (Educational Qualification, Nature of Work, and Years of Service). Among the most important recommendations of the study: The need for university colleges to ensure: (achieving job satisfaction, employee participation when setting regulations and policies and making important decisions, adhering to the requirements of scientific research and encouraging scientific achievements and job creativity among employees, while providing material and moral facilities for scientific research and development, developing Mechanisms and patterns of electronic work). And that university colleges give attention to handling complaints and grievances through: (assigning a competent and competent committee to handle complaints and grievances in all fairness and transparency, adopting and following up on the results of implementing complaints and grievances, protecting the complainants from any arbitrary procedure against them). (shrink)

The study aimed to identify the level of business intelligence in its dimensions (data reliability, information technology, competitive intelligence, analytical ability, business management performance, immediate analytical processing) in NGOs in the southern Palestinian governorates. The study used the analytical descriptive approach, and a structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Which contribute to the development of the objectives of the study, and the study population consists of employees in Non-Governmental Organizations in the southern Palestinian governorates, and a random sample was (...) used to collect data from the study community, as the sample reached (184) individuals, and the results of the study showed that the general estimate of business intelligence came with a high level and weight Relative (90.49%), and the arrangement of business intelligence dimensions was as follows: (data reliability, information technology, competitive intelligence, analytical ability, business management performance, and instant analytical processing). The study presented a set of recommendations, the most important of which are: the need for the organization to use modern technological systems to analyze and make its own reports, to work on employing the use of business intelligence techniques in detecting new competitors, and predicting their strategies. (shrink)

ESPAÑOL: Traducción de segmentos de los capítulos 1 y 6 del libro de Evan Wolson’s Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People’s Right to Marry. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004). ENGLISH: Translation (English to Spanish) of segments from chapters 1 and 6 of Evan Wolfson’s Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People’s Right to Marry. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004).

The late Jerry Cohen struggled to reconcile his egalitarian political principles with his personal style of life. His efforts were inconclusive, but instructive. This comment locates the core of Cohen’s discomfort in an abstract principle that connects what we morally ought to be compelled to do and what we have a duty to do anyway. The connection the principle states is more general and much tighter than Cohen and others, e.g. Thomas Nagel, have seen. Our principles of justice always put (...) our personal integrity to the test, unless those principles are designed not to. But to craft principles with an view to avoiding that test is, as Cohen argued, itself to undermine both justice and our integrity. (shrink)

Due to the emergence of ICT in ELT sector, seasoned English teachers find it resistant to such a shift despite having a positive attitude towards its use. This quasi-experimental study aimed to examine the extent to which seasoned English language teachers developed their ICT skills through a Service-Learning Activity (SLA). Using a one-group pre- and post-test design, this study collected the data through a modified Needs Assessment Survey (NAS) distributed to fourteen purposively selected participants. It was administered to examine what (...) professional ICT development would greatly benefit them. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and themes according to the Service-Learning Activity (SLA) topics. A Post Evaluation Survey (PES) was administered, and its result was compared to the initial test. The results showed that the seasoned teachers gained significant learning gains in terms of (1) sharing of knowledge from other teachers; (2) being encouraged to use ICT tools; (3) training opportunities; (4) working with other colleagues; and 5) attending professional workshops which include SLA. However, this study unveiled that the English teachers had no significant difference in perceptions regarding the roles of computers in teaching before and after the intervention. Limitations and recommendations for future studies were discussed. (shrink)

In fundamental rights adjudication, should judges defer to the judgment of other decision makers? How can they defer, without betraying the respect that judges ought to accord those rights? How can they refuse to defer, without betraying the respect that judges ought to accord to other decision makers? I argue that only principles of comity justify deference, and their reach is limited. Comity never forbids the judges to take and to act upon a different view of fundamental rights from that (...) of another decision maker. I elaborate this view by reference to the decision of the House of Lords in Adan and Aitseguer [2001] 1 All ER 593. (shrink)

The purpose of the article is to solve an important scientific problem – further development of the basics of management decisions on the implementation of export-import activities based on the results of enterprise symptomatic diagnostics in disruption conditions of sustainable development of the world economy. The essence of enterprise symptomatic diagnostics in the context of management activity is specified by the results of the critical analysis of the scientific publications. The study of the features of the symptomatic diagnostics process of (...) enterprise export-import activity might become the basis for the development of a comprehensive approach to its implementation, which reveals the interaction of the theoretical, scientific and methodological basis and the targeted direction of managers` actions in the diagnostics process. Generalization of symptomatic complex of export-import activity of enterprises-manufacturers of BOPP films – Terichem Tervakoski, a.s. and Xpro India Ltd, helped to identify issues that are reducing its performance. A set of measures was explored in order to avoid the negative symptoms of export-import activity of Terichem Tervakoski and Xpro India Ltd. The authors revealed some dependency respecting that the more negative symptoms of export-import activity realization lead to decline the efficiency of its implementation. The results of the study might clarify the impact of symptoms on the results of the enterprise export-import performance. Symptomatic diagnostics of enterprise export-import activity is considered as the basis of a sequence of management measures in order to avoid negative symptoms of export-import activity. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and study the characteristic function of a neutrosophic set. After given the fundamental definitions of neutrosophic set operations generated by the characteristic function of a neutrosophic set ( Ng for short), we obtain several properties, and discussed the relationship between neutrosophic sets generated by Ng and others. Finally, we introduce the neutrosophic topological spaces generated by Ng . Possible application to GIS topology rules are touched upon.

The study aimed to identify the level of institutional competence in Non-Governmental Organizations in Palestine. The study used the descriptive analytical approach. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data that contribute to achieving the objectives of the study. The study population consists of employees in Non-Governmental Organizations in the southern Palestinian governorates, and a random sample was used. For data collection, (183) applicable questionnaires were retrieved. The results of the study showed that the general assessment of the level of (...) institutional efficiency was high with a relative weight of (91.85%). The results also showed that there were statistically significant differences in achieving institutional efficiency according to the variables (gender, number of years of service), while it was found that there were no statistically significant differences in achieving institutional efficiency. Depending on the variables (educational qualification, age group). The study presented a set of recommendations, the most important of which are: the necessity of providing a budget for training and development, and attracting expertise and specialists in digital transformation to work in organizations. (shrink)

:The study aimed to identify the level of enhancing the competitive advantage of training institutions in Palestine. The study used the descriptive analytical approach. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data that contribute to achieving the objectives of the study. The study population consists of workers in training institutions operating in the southern Palestinian governorates. The random sample for data collection, where (90) applicable questionnaires were retrieved. The results of the study showed that the general estimate for the competitive (...) advantage axis came with a high degree and a relative weight (90.67%). The results also showed that there were no statistically significant differences in enhancing the competitive advantage according to the variables (gender, governorate). As well as the existence of statistically significant differences in enhancing the competitive advantage according to the variables (Educational Qualification, Age Group, Number Of Years of Service). The study presented a set of recommendations, the most important of which are: the need for centers to develop their training systems in line with modern technology, in addition to the need for centers to target new areas in their service by opening other branches in diffe rent geographical locations. (shrink)

The recent health crisis experienced by all nations in the world created detrimental change in the countenance of educational sector especially in the new mode of delivering the instructions as measure in containing the virus and as well as continuing education. In the works of literature, little to no attention was given to the formulation of the most essential learning competencies (MELCs) as strategic measure for modular learning. This paves the way to probe the lived experiences of the teachers pertaining (...) to the compromised competencies under MELCs. Anchoring to the Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development by Vgotsky, this study utilized Interpretative Phenomenological Research Design with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) popularized by Moustakas and modified by Van Kaam as approach to analyzed the transcripts. Using purposive sampling, there were 7 informants participated the study. They are all qualified according to the inclusion criteria set by the study. The study generated three themes which are: The Compromised, The Cut-short, and The Champion. These themes elaborated the lived experiences of the teachers using the Most Essential Learning Competencies forwarded to the students. It is recommended that the learning support should be magnified in the new learning modality. Hence, the Most Essential Learning Competencies will be not be compromised. (shrink)

The study aimed to identify the availability of governance requirements in NGOs in the southern Palestinian governorates. The study used the descriptive analytical approach. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data that contribute to the requirements of the study objectives. The study population consists of employees in NGOs in the southern Palestinian governorates. The use of a random sample to collect data from the study population, where the sample amounted to (184) individuals, and the results of the study showed (...) that the general assessment of the governance axis was also high with a relative weight of (92.94%). The results also showed that there were statistically significant differences in the level of achieving governance according to the variables (Academic Qualification, Age Group, Job Title, Years of Service, and Governorate). And there are no statistically significant differences in the level of governance achievement according to the variable (Gender). The study presented a set of recommendations, the most important of which are: the need for the organization to use the principles and requirements of governance in its various activities, and for the organizations to disclose their administrative activities to employees in order to enhance the principle of transparency. (shrink)

In this paper I examine Grace A. de Laguna’s theory of universals in its historical context and in relation to contemporary debates in analytic metaphysics. I explain the central features of her theory, arguing that her theory should be classified as a form of immanent realism and as a powers ontology. I then show in what ways her theory affords a theory of modality in terms of potentialities and discuss some of its consequences along the way.

About six weeks ago, our post referred to the long-winding path to a new theoretical innovation as the pursuit of “useless knowledge” in Flexner’s terms. That little creation is the freshly minted informational entropy-based definition of value, presented in a very short paper, initially regarded by its authors as a research note. (And it still is.) Well, only two and a half months since its birth, this new concept of value has had enough time to power up several of our (...) publications in different disciplinary fields. The first published paper using the new definition deals with climate change denialism. The second paper (forthcoming) discusses the problem of academic retractions amidst the growing influence of generative AI. And the third, just accepted, explains the underlying mechanism of submission mechanism employed by journal editors and peer-reviewers, and the information-value nexus associated with it. (shrink)

The study aimed to identify the effect of Total Quality Management in achieving the requirements of the quality of job life among university college employees, and the researchers used the descriptive and analytical approach, and used a main tool to collect information, which is: the questionnaire. The study population reached (596) academic and administrative employees distributed among (5) University colleges in Gaza Strip, and a stratified random sample of (240) employees was selected, approximately (40.3%) of the study population. SPSS software (...) was used to analyze the data. The study concluded that the application of the requirements of total quality management in university colleges in Gaza Strip is appropriate in general in terms of: (the commitment of the top management to total quality management, organizational structure, management with facts, focus on beneficiaries, staff empowerment, and continuous improvement). The sample on the dimensions of total quality management with a relative weight is (69.93%). And that the elements of job quality in university colleges in Gaza Strip are generally adequate in terms of: (moral working conditions, wages and rewards, participation in decision-making, handling of complaints and grievances, benefits provided to employees), where the response of the sample respondents was about the dimensions of job quality with a relative weight (63.30%), and the existence of a strong positive relationship between Total Quality Management in university colleges in Gaza Strip. And that there is a statistically significant effect of the variables of comprehensive quality management and quality of career in university colleges in Gaza Strip at a significance level (α = 0.05). And that the dimensions of total quality management most influencing the dimensions of job quality are: (empowering employees; continuous improvement; focusing on beneficiaries; managing with facts). The absence of differences between the answers of the sample members about the impact of Total Quality Management in achieving the requirements of the quality of the job life of the employees in university colleges due to the variable (academic qualification, years of service). And the existence of differences attributed to a variable (gender in favor of the male category, the college in favor of the university college of applied sciences category, and the nature of work attributed to an academic category with an administrative position). Among the most important recommendations of the study is the necessity for university colleges to be keen on: (achieving job satisfaction, employee participation when setting regulations and policies and making important decisions, adhering to scientific research requirements and encouraging scientific achievements and career creativity among employees, while providing material and moral facilities for scientific research and development, developing mechanisms and patterns of electronic work). University colleges must provide benefits to employees such as: (providing health care, organizing leisure trips, contributing to solving economic problems, providing club subscriptions). And the necessity for university colleges to pay attention to handling complaints and grievances through: (Assigning an efficient and competent committee to handle complaints and grievances in all fairness and transparency, adopting and following up the results of the application of handling complaints and grievances, protecting complainants from any arbitrary action against them). And the need for the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to develop the evaluation role of the National Authority for Accreditation, Quality and Quality of Higher Education Institutions to evaluate the performance of university colleges, to ensure the application of academic and administrative quality standards in colleges, and to seek the help of quality and excellence experts in evaluating the application of Total Quality Management in the academic and administrative f ield in accordance with regional performance standards And global. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo sostenemos que la teoría de la competencia que Rodríguez postula en su Teoría Analítica del Derecho (TAD) adolece de algunos problemas. El primero de ellos consiste en ser un enfoque reduccionista de la competencia (similar al de Bulygin y el de Ferrer), en el cual la competencia queda reducida a reglas determinativas que determinan potestades. Es dudoso que la competencia pueda reducirse a un único tipo de norma y el mismo Rodríguez parece albergar dudas a este (...) respecto. El segundo problema consiste en el rechazo que Rodríguez hace de la idea misma de regla constitutiva. Dicho rechazo a su vez se basa en un rechazo más general: el de las tesis de Searle sobre las reglas constitutivas. Sostenemos que rechazar las tesis de Searle no implica el tener que rechazar el concepto de regla constitutiva, que el problema de la competencia puede explicarse de una manera más completa acudiendo a la noción (ligeramente reformulada) de regla eidético-constitutiva de Amedeo Conte y que esto permite construir un sistema de normas que constituya de manera completa la competencia de los agentes jurídicos. A este tipo de sistemas lo llamamos “sistema constitutivo” y creemos que su implementación permite considerar un enfoque de la competencia más completo que el ofrecido en TAD, resolver la ambivalencia que Rodríguez parece tener frente a su propio enfoque y rescatar la idea de regla constitutiva de la condena que Rodríguez le aplica. (shrink)

This is a conjecture about the conditions and operating structures that are required for the phenomenality of certain mental states. Specifically, full-blown phenomenality is assumed, as contrasted with constrained examples of phenomenal experience such as sensations of color and pain. Propositional attitudes and content, while not phenomenal per se, are standardly concurrent and may condition phenomenal states (e.g., when tied to false beliefs). It is conjectured that full phenomenality natively arises in coherent processes of situated sensory synthesis and representation (with (...) conceptual content) that are looped, mereologically whole and multi-dimensional. And that phenomenal states are typically phase-states within a parameterized conjoint structure of world and experiencer processes that are causally modulated across Markov blankets (which are conditionally independent and may be nested: cf. M. Kirchoff, et. al., 2017, 2018; and T. Burge, 2010, re: anti-individualism). Though they may, it is not accepted that phenomenally conscious states must be targets of higher-order representations (cf. A. Byrne, 2004). (shrink)

Background: Educated women tend to have a greater awareness of the existence of ANC services, more aware of health problems, know more about the availability of health care services, and utilize the information more effectively than non-educated women. Moreover, higher levels of education tend to positively affect healthseeking behaviors, and education may increase a woman’s control over her pregnancy and expose women to more health education messages and campaigns, enabling them to recognize danger signs and complications and take appropriate action. (...) In this study, we tried to analyze to what level the maternal education can influence the antenatal care services and childcare. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 93 randomly selected mothers who have children less than 7 years by using a pre-tested structured questionnaire for data collection at various tribal villages, at an average 25 kms away from Adilabad town from April-October 2019. Analysis was done using SPSS for windows version 16, Microsoft excel and Open epi website. Results: Out of 93 study subjects, 19.3% (18) of the study subjects were not registered for the antenatal services. Higher the maternal education higher the age at pregnancy (p<0.05), was associated with more preference for deliveries by doctors (p<0.05). More the frequency of exclusive breast feeding, long lasting breast feeding was associated more than a year (p<0.05), a smaller number of children with wasting (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study revealed that utilization of ANC services was relatively better for the mother’s educated higher than secondary school, but they are still low. Educational status is important in having more health seeking behavior. In this study, it proves that health education is more important than the mere school education which can help to improve knowledge on ANC. (shrink)

David Lewis objected to theories that posit necessary connections between distinct entities and to theories that involve a magical grasping of their primitives. In On the Plurality of Worlds, Lewis objected to nondescript ersatzism on these grounds. The literature contains several reconstructions of Lewis’ critique of nondescript ersatzism but none of these interpretations adequately address his main argument because they fail to see that Lewis’ critique is based on broader methodological considerations. I argue that a closer look at his methodology (...) reveals the broader objection he presented against nondescript ersatzism. This objection, I further argue, remains a challenge for the ersatzer who posits structure-less entities as possible worlds. (shrink)

On what conditions, if it all possible, can Christianity be life-affirming in line with the general schema outlined throughout Nietzsche's wide-ranging corpus? Through a post-modern interpretation of Christ as OverMan of course. Pack your crosses and your pentagrams and buckle up for this visual transmission of my most recent brainchild.

Existing social disparities in the United States are inconsistent with the promise of democracy; therefore, there was a need for critical conceptualization of the first principles that undergird American democracy and the genesis of democratic social change in America. This constructivist grounded theory study aimed to construct a grounded theory that provides an understanding of the process of American democratic social change as it emerged from the nation’s founding documents. A post hoc polytheoretical framework including Foucault’s, Bourdieu’s, and Marx and (...) Engels’s theories of power was used to understand power dynamics. The research question focused on understanding the process of democratic social change in America. The sample comprised the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and the U.S. Constitution. The documents were retrieved from the National Archives and Library of Congress. The data analysis plan incorporated successive comparison, situational and dramaturgical analysis, deconstruction, and perspective taking as strategies. The result was the construction of a democratic social change process theory preceded by five grounded theories: (a) first principles of democracy, (b) first principles of democracy conceptual framework, (c) socio-ethical principles of democracy, (d) demoralizing process, and (e) either-or approach to democracy. Positive social change implications include applying a democratic social change process to future social change endeavors across domains and levels of analysis, a normative framework for a republican form of government, and a tool to analyze and minimize the latent consequences of social justice policies. (shrink)

I propose a distinct type of robustness, which I suggest can support a confirmatory role in scientific reasoning, contrary to the usual philosophical claims. In model robustness, repeated production of the empirically successful model prediction or retrodiction against a background of independentlysupported and varying model constructions, within a group of models containing a shared causal factor, may suggest how confident we can be in the causal factor and predictions/retrodictions, especially once supported by a variety of evidence framework. I present climate (...) models of greenhouse gas global warming of the 20th Century as an example, and emphasize climate scientists’ discussions of robust models and causal aspects. The account is intended as applicable to a broad array of sciences that use complex modeling techniques. (shrink)

This paper will consider ethical issues arising from medical tort litigation. I will argue that deep changes are required to ensure fairness in litigation and in order to hold morally responsible those corporations that take unnecessary risks with consumers’ lives.

This paper proposes a view of time that takes passage to be the most basic temporal notion, instead of the usual A-theoretic and B-theoretic notions, and explores how we should think of a world that exhibits such a genuine temporal passage. It will be argued that an objective passage of time can only be made sense of from an atemporal point of view and only when it is able to constitute a genuine change of objects across time. This requires that (...) passage can flip one fact into a contrary fact, even though neither side of the temporal passage is privileged over the other. We can make sense of this if the world is inherently perspectival. Such an inherently perspectival world is characterized by fragmentalism, a view that has been introduced by Fine in his ‘Tense and Reality’ (2005). Unlike Fine's tense-theoretic fragmentalism though, the proposed view will be a fragmentalist view based in a primitive notion of passage. (shrink)

This Research Topic explores Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) eight, which is to “promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.” It highlights the COVID-19 pandemic’s severe impact and triggered global economic recession, worsened gender pay gaps, increased undeclared employment, and significantly raised unemployment (United Nations, 2024). From a sociology-specific perspective, this Research Topic examines the global and local implementation of SDG8, its adaptation to different geographical contexts, stakeholder involvement, and issues related to (...) decent work conditions worldwide. (shrink)