It is well-established that the experience of nature produces an array of positive benefits to mental well-being. Much less is known about the specific attributes of green space which produce these effects. In the absence of translational research that links theory with application, it is challenging to design urban green space for its greatest restorative potential. This translational research provides a method for identifying which specific physical attributes of an environmental setting are most likely to influence preference and restoration responses. (...) Attribute identification was based on a triangulation process invoking environmental psychology and aesthetics theories, principles of design founded in mathematics and aesthetics, and empirical research on the role of specific physical attributes of the environment in preference or restoration responses. From this integration emerged a list of physical attributes defining aspects of spatial structure and environmental content found to be most relevant to the perceptions involved with preference and restoration. The physical attribute list offers a starting point for deciphering which scene stimuli dominate or collaborate in preference and restoration responses. To support this, functional definitions and metrics—efficient methods for attribute quantification are presented. Use of these research products and the process for defining place-based metrics can provide (a) greater control in the selection and interpretation of the scenes/images used in tests of preference and restoration and (b) an expanded evidence base for well-being designers of the built environment. (shrink)

This paper addresses the question, how does wisdom contribute to management in circumstances of extreme unpredictability? We first discuss three key factors that fundamentally affect the conduct of business—human, knowledge, and the environment—as well as their characteristics and interactions. We then argue that managing the interaction between these factors to effectively deal with the complexity and unpredictability of a rapidly changing business world requires the appropriate application of wisdom, in particular ethics in the form of practical, moral, and epistemic virtues. (...) We propose that these three virtues are the link between the three factors and more effective decision-making and action taking in an unpredictable business world. A model is developed that conceptualizes the interconnection among the three factors and three virtues. This model has important academic and practical implications. For practice, the model points the way for both individuals and organizations to improve decision-making skills through the systematic expansion of perspectives gained through consideration of the three virtues. For academics, the model is an incremental, but important step in understanding the role of wisdom in management. (shrink)

With the excessive emphasis that modern PhD training places on the epistemological contribution of the thesis, a question that arises is: do PhD programmes help PhD students achieve philosophia – “love of wisdom”, or do the programmes just facilitate deepening and developing students’ knowledge? This paper challenges the modern approach to PhD training and by extension all academic research, and considers phronesiology, a wisdom-based approach to research design, to add value to traditional epistemic methodologies. In illustration, we use phronesiology and (...) social practice wisdom principles to reflect on the merits of a recently completed empirical study of wise managerial decision-making. Through a reflective analysis, this paper demonstrates that phronesiology not only allows for contributions to knowledge, but can, as a matter of principle and choice, also increase research practitioner wisdom. In doing so, this may enable researchers to implement better and more comprehensive intellectual and practical outcomes that deal effectively with the economic, social, political, and environmental complexities of the contemporary world. Further, we argue that such a wisdom approach is more “practical” than further instrumentalizing PhD training. The paper offers a series of phronetic reflective questions for PhD researchers in social sciences, especially in organizational and management fields, to consider when designing and carrying out research. (shrink)

Cynicism and turnover intentions are highlighted as being detrimental to organisations’ sustainability. Drawing on the social exchange theory, this paper aims to examine the effect of organisational cynicism on turnover intention and the mediating role of organisational support on this relationship. A survey was conducted with 289 employees and managers. Data were gathered from 54 technology firms from Istanbul, Turkey, and analysed through structural equation modelling using AMOS. The findings suggest that the cognitive and affective dimensions of cynicism are significant (...) predictors of turnover intention, and further that organisational support mediates the relationship between the cognitive and affective dimensions of cynicism and turnover intention. This research is novel in that it deepens our understanding of how detrimental workplace perceptions might affect employees’ intentions to leave their organisations and to what extent organisational support mediates this relationship in technology firms in Istanbul, Turkey. To our knowledge, no study has investigated these three variables together, as in the proposed model. (shrink)

Philosophy in the Islamic world emerged in the ninth century and continued to flourish into the fourteenth century. It was strongly influenced by Greek thought, but Islamic philosophers also developed an original philosophical culture of their own, which had a considerable impact on the subsequent course of Western philosophy. This volume offers new translations of philosophical writings by Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ghazali, Ibn Tufayl, and Ibn Rushd. All of the texts presented here were very influential and invite comparison with later (...) works in the Western tradition. They focus on metaphysics and epistemology but also contribute to broader debates concerning the conception of God, the nature of religion, the place of humanity in the universe, and the limits of human reason. A historical and philosophical introduction sets the writings in context and traces their preoccupations and their achievement. (shrink)

Power and authority in terms of the Ten Commandments (TCs) are discussed. The paper reviews the TCs in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The treatment and basis for power and authority in each religion are clarified. Implications of power and authority using the perspective of the TCs are provided. The paper suggests that in today's business environment people tend to be selective in identifying only with certain elements of the TCs that fit their interest and that the TCs should be viewed (...) as general moral guidelines. (shrink)

In January 2023, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock forward to 90 s before midnight.

This book advances and enriches the debates and discussions about the value of art. It offers a close reading of passages from Marx’s entire body of work and an engaging and accessible narrative of the beginnings, development and discoveries of Marx’s thoughts on art.

This Article explores the process of discovering legal scholarship. One may read, read, and read cases and statutes and articles to generate one's own piece of scholarship. But research, though necessary, does not produce durable scholarship. Lasting scholarship is like discovering penicillin. It is like capturing a fleeting revelation. It is an experience reported in language. True legal scholarship is researched poetry of the highest order. Rumi, Frost, Keats would have been great legal scholars. (This article might benefit new law (...) professors who are striving to make their scholarship float in the ocean of words.). (shrink)

On taking the common distinction between the legal and the ethical as a point of departure, and in an effort to understand Marshall's approach to self-interest, and thereby to his conception of an ethics of commerce, I read three of his essays in the light of some non-technical writings of Frank Hahn and three other Cambridge intellectuals. My larger project connects self-interest and self-deception to a possible ethics of theorizing in economics, and thereby to the ethics of the relationship between (...) the theorist and the theorized, the analyst and the analyzed. (shrink)

This article offers an exploratory quantitative analysis of the conceptual career of climate in US English over the period 1800–2010. Our aim is to qualify two, closely related arguments circulating in Environmental Humanities scholarship regarding the concept’s history, namely that we only started to think of climate as a global entity aft er the introduction of general circulation models during the final quarter of the twentieth century, and, second, that climatic change only became an issue of environmental concern once scientists (...) began to approach climate as a global model. While we do not dispute that the computer revolution resulted in a significantly new understanding of climate, our analysis points to a longer process of singularization and growing abstraction starting in the early nineteenth century that might help to nuance and deepen insights developed in environmental history. (shrink)

We know quite a lot about the general structure of ω-stable solvable centerless groups of finite Morley rank. Abelian groups of finite Morley rank are also well-understood. By comparison, nonabelian nilpotent groups are a mystery except for the following general results:• An ω1-categorical torsion-free nonabelian nilpotent group is an algebraic group over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0 [Z3].• A nilpotent group of finite Morley rank is the central product of a definable subgroup of finite exponent and of a (...) definable divisible subgroup [N3].• A divisible nilpotent group of finite Morley rank is the direct product of its torsion part (which is central) and of a torsion-free subgroup [N3].However, we do not understand nilpotent groups of bounded exponent. It seems that the classification of nilpotent (but nonabelian)p-groups of finite Morley rank is impossible. Even the nilpotent groups of Morley rank 2 contain insurmountable difficulties [C], [T]. At first glance, this may seem to be an obstacle to proving the Cherlin-Zil'ber conjecture (“simple groups of finite Morley rank are algebraic groups”). Our purpose in this article is to show that if such a group is a definable subgroup of a nonnilpotent group, then it is possible to obtain a classification within the boundaries of our present knowledge. In this respect, our article may be considered as a relief to those who are trying to classify simple groups of finite Morley rank.Before explicitly stating our result, we need the following definition. (shrink)

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the primary sources and methods of Web-based messaging during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. The authors use ethical lens to develop a conceptual framework to inform and reduce conflicts of Web-based messaging associated with COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides a comprehensive review of three different ethical schools and identifies the cohesive theme of common good across them. Common good leading to a greater good serves as the overarching ethical construct (...) for Web-based messages that focus on society and not the singular individual, business or political ideology. Findings The findings suggest that the ethical construct of common good focuses on prioritizing the society over the individual and draws upon utilitarian principles focused on consequences, Kantian principles focused on intentions and Aristotelian principles focused on the definition of good. Web-based messaging on COVID-19 originates from diverse public and private sources and ethically can be governed by adherence to achieving the greatest good for society. Pervasive conflicts with COVID-19 messaging can be mitigated by pursuing a more ethical agenda with messages. Originality/value This manuscript provides a conceptual framework, based on ethical principles, to serve as a blueprint for Web-based messaging during a pandemic. This work offers an ethical perspective for communication during a pandemic and it is original in conceptualizing the components of Web-based messaging and decomposing them into the different levels where conflicts can occur. This article can serve as a template for Web-based communication pertaining to future pandemics and other events that benefit from prioritizing the impact on society over the impact on the individual. (shrink)

Here, a novel conservative chaotic oscillator is presented. Various dynamics of the oscillator are examined. Studying the dynamical properties of the oscillator reveals its unique behaviors. The oscillator is multistable with symmetric dynamics. Equilibrium points of the oscillator are investigated. Bifurcations, Lyapunov exponents, and the Poincare section of the oscillator’s dynamics are analyzed. Also, the oscillator is investigated from the viewpoint of initial conditions. The study results show that the oscillator is conservative and has no dissipation. It also has various (...) dynamics, such as equilibrium point and chaos. The stability analysis of equilibrium points shows there are both stable and unstable fixed points. (shrink)

Hemos querido en este ensayo presentar algunas conclusiones gruesas de la investigación que fuimos realizando desde la Cátedra de Pensamiento Latinoamericano de la Escuela de Filosofía de la UCV, desde que la fundamos (1990) hasta nuestra jubilación (2010). Nos parecen centrales las siguientes ideas para la elaboración de una filosofía de la historia de Venezuela: comprender que no hubo guerra de independencia sino de secesión pues fue una guerra civil, no confundir patria con república, pues esta es sólo una etapa (...) de la primera y de estas conclusiones pasamos a realizar una reflexión filosófico-histórica que incorpora de una nueva manera la relación presente/pasado/futuro en la conformación de nuestro sujeto sociohistórico. (shrink)

Construction cost estimation is one of the essential processes in construction management. Project cost is a complex engineering problem due to various factors affecting the construction industry. Accurate cost estimation is important in construction management and significantly impacts project performance. Artificial intelligence models have been effectively implemented in construction management studies in recent years owing to their capability to deal with complex problems. In this research, extreme gradient boosting is developed as an advanced input selector algorithm and coupled with three (...) AI models, including random forest, artificial neural network, and support vector machine for cost estimation. Datasets were gathered based on a survey conducted on 90 building projects in Iraq. Statistical indicators and graphical methods were used to evaluate the developed models. Several input predictors were used, and XGBoost highlighted inflation as the most crucial parameter. The results indicated that the best prediction was attained by XGBoost-RF using six input parameters, with r-squared and the mean absolute percentage error equal to 0.87 and 0.25, respectively. The comparison results revealed that all AI models showed good prediction performance when applied to datasets affected by more than two parameters. The outcomes of this research revealed an optimistic strategy that can help decision makers select the influencing parameters in the early phases of project management. Also, developing a prediction model with high precision results can assist the project’s estimators in decreasing the errors in the cost estimation process. (shrink)

This article assesses the prospects of social democracy in Turkey in light of two prominent debates regarding social democracy: the challenge of populism and the proper balance between a politics of redistribution and a politics of recognition. By focusing on the Republican People’s Party (CHP), it shows that the main problem the party faces is to find ways of addressing the issues of recognition and redistribution. Success in addressing these issues would provide an effective alternative to the populist agenda of (...) the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and build channels for participatory democracy and institutions of accountability. We argue that social democracy, with its legacy of democratic rule and institutions, can serve as a significant anchoring point in such an effort. We point out, however, why current social, institutional, political, and cultural factors make the CHP’s task of pursuing a social democratic agenda in Turkey particularly difficult. (shrink)

By shedding light on accounts from unaccompanied Afghan asylum-seeking minors in Sweden who were child soldiers in Syria, this thesis explores and examines their narratives and their involvement in the civil war in Syria. The research aims to create a deeper understanding of how these children themselves made sense of their participation in the war by answering the following questions: How were the children approached by the recruiters? What kind of reasons for joining the war are put forward by the (...) recruiters and what strategies do the children encounter: a) economic; b) identity formation; c) social deprivation; d) feeling of vulnerability; e) militarization; f) mental development; g) ideology/ religious-sectarian; or all together? How do the children perceive these encounters and make sense of their recruitment to the Shiite Fatemiyoun Brigade? To which extent has the ideology of Shi’ism played an important role for them in joining the Syrian War? This is a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews which combines procedures from two approaches and techniques: an ethnographic approach and a narrative approach that explores the interviewees’ experiences in a period of time and also generates detailed insights. Despite the fact that none of the respondents testified for being recruited at gunpoint or having been ill-treated, the respondents emphasized that they were forced to join due to the bad circumstances they were living in. In addition, many similarities with other cases regarding child soldiering in several countries have been explored in this thesis, for instance factors related to the socio- economic context and the experiences that are related to the children’s development processes. Differences can be located in various details regarding ideologies and indoctrination since the respondents did not share the politico-religious purposes of the recruiters. (shrink)

I begin by contending that an absolute prohibition to avoid resorting to shoot-to-kill, under any circumstances, does not adequately address the considerable negative consequences that could follow. In opening up the question for debate, I seek to alert us to the risks of moral corruption in both thought and practice, but I do not take these to be unassailable. Next, I pose a set of questions in order to interrogate unsafe assumptions and to disambiguate critical language in the shoot-to-kill scenario. (...) (1) How might shoot-to-kill be analogous to self-defence? (2) Should we not distinguish between reasons which could explain from those which do not justify why a suicide bomber acted as they did? (3) Must we avoid entertaining any charges of complicity on the suicide bombers’ behalf? (4) How, if at all, does racial profiling adulterate the grounds for police suspicion? (5) Does “reasonability” differ from “absolute necessity” as a precondition for enacting shoot-to-kill? And, (6), prompted by the injustice of the Jean Charles de Menezes case, can we assess the moral consequences of relocating the moment of decision from the firearms officer to their operational commander? After taking stock of the results of these enquiries, I conclude that resort to 'Kratos' rules of engagement unjustifiably raises the risk of shooting dead an innocent person, compared to the risk from harm that the general population may be reasonably expected to shoulder. (shrink)

Code of conduct in society according to Islam.

This study applied an artifact-centric view to investigate the consequences of enterprise social media usage. It investigates how enterprise social media usage influences employee creativity. A moderated mediation model is developed based on social exchange theory. The empirical sample of 238 employees is used to test the proposed model. Results of the empirical analysis performed using PROCESS macro of SPSS indicate that enterprise social media usage positively impacts employee creativity via the mediating mechanisms. Furthermore, social media usage frequency negatively moderates (...) this impact of enterprise social media usage on employee creativity via leader-member exchange. Interestingly, the empirical analysis reveals that the impact of enterprise social media usage frequency strengthens the indirect effect that enterprise social media usage has on employee creativity via perceived support for innovation. (shrink)