Both healthcare professionals and the healthcare system must defend each patient's health individually while simultaneously seeking to protect the population's health in general. Nowadays, there is an important increase in the cost of healthcare supply, mainly due to the developments of medical science, the public's expectations and the demographic ageing. Since healthcare resources are not unlimited, it is obvious that immoderate consumption of them by certain patients limits the use of the same funds by others. Therefore, we have to seek (...) an optimal distribution of the existing resources in order to manage a constriction of expenses, especially under the circumstances of the modern economic crisis. The criteria of effectiveness and efficiency should be used. Health policies focus on both the public's behaviour and the rules of medical practice. Under the modern challenges the physician's role is particularly important for the protection of the patient's health and the promotion of public health. (shrink)

This paper describes an attempt to develop a program for teaching history and philosophy of mathematics to inservice mathematics teachers. I argue briefly for the view that philosophical positions and epistemological accounts related to mathematics have a significant influence and a powerful impact on the way mathematics is taught. But since philosophy of mathematics without history of mathematics does not exist, both philosophy and history of mathematics are necessary components of programs for the training of preservice as well as inservice (...) mathematics teachers. (shrink)

It is argued that the philosophical and epistemological beliefs about the nature of mathematics have a significant influence on the way mathematics is taught at school. In this paper, the philosophy of mathematics of the NCTM's Standards is investigated by examining is explicit assumptions regarding the teaching and learning of school mathematics. The main conceptual tool used for this purpose is the model of two dichotomous philosophies of mathematics-absolutist versus- fallibilist and their relation to mathematics pedagogy. The main conclusion is (...) that a fallibilist view of mathematics is assumed in the Standards and that most of its pedagogical assumptions and approaches are based on this philosophy. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Klio Jahrgang: 99 Heft: 1 Seiten: 380-385.

One of the main characteristics of the post-modern society is the democratized diffusion of knowledge even on issues of which the average citizen could hardly be aware: social, cultural, ecological and economical risks. However, many philosophers and thinkers (Chomsky, Barber, Zizek, Sartori) argue that we live rather in information societies than in knowledge ones, because the content of information on political actions of major importance are ideologically-oriented and therefore misleading. In the present paper we study two examples of political and (...) scientific rhetoric, trying to interpret not only their political and moral determinants but also their possible impact on international welfare. Aristotle and modern semiotic theories will provide the methodological tools of thisanalysis. (shrink)

In this paper, we address the issue of privacy protection in context aware services, through the use of entropy as a means of measuring the capability of locating a user’s whereabouts and identifying personal selections. We present a framework for calculating levels of abstraction in location and personal preferences reporting in queries to a context aware services server. Finally, we propose a methodology for determining the levels of abstraction in location and preferences that should be applied in user data reporting (...) during service provision, according to her personal privacy settings. (shrink)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Greek authorities enforced a vaccination mandate for healthcare workers (HCWs). At the same time, multiple concerns were raised about the epidemiological profile of Greece in addition to the ethical status of the harsh measures and their impact on employees, organizations, society, and public health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), considerations regarding the evidence of vaccine safety and effectiveness, necessity, and proportionality should be clearly evaluated by before imposing mandatory vaccination policies. We discuss the (...) issues regarding the mechanics of the transmission and contraction of SARS-CoV-2, the toxicity of COVID-19 vaccines, and the impact of the suspension of HCWs who did not vaccinate versus the potential expected benefits in addition to whether the vaccine mandates were justified considering the overall epidemiological context. (shrink)

The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex is a key node in the human salience network. It has been ascribed motor, pain-processing and affective functions. However, the dynamics of information flow in this complex region and how it responds to inputs remain unclear and are difficult to study using non-invasive electrophysiology. The area is targeted by neurosurgery to treat neuropathic pain. During deep brain stimulation surgery, we recorded local field potentials from this region in humans during a decision-making task requiring motor output. (...) We investigated the spatial and temporal distribution of information flow within the dACC. We demonstrate the existence of a distributed network within the anterior cingulate cortex where discrete nodes demonstrate directed communication following inputs. We show that this network anticipates and responds to the valence of feedback to actions. We further show that these network dynamics adapt following learning. Our results provide evidence for the integration of learning and the response to feedback in a key cognitive region. (shrink)

Individual actions designed to address issues of public concern is a common theme in the discourse on how to mobilize resources and target efforts toward sustainable practices. We contribute to this area by developing and empirically validating a multidimensional scale for civic engagement; synthesizing and testing the adequacy of the theory of planned behavior and the value–belief–norm theory in explaining civic engagement; and considering how an individual’s orientation, identity, and beliefs motivate moral thinking and action. The focus is on the (...) important social issues of global warming and climate change, income inequality, and world poverty, and hunger. We follow both correlational and configurational approaches to examine symmetric and asymmetric causal relationships, respectively. The findings from a sample of 819 US citizens reveal that the TPB and VBN theory can adequately explain civic engagement, after we control for the influence of past experience. In addition, while belief in a just world inhibits the occurrence of adverse consequences and the formation of positive attitudes, social value orientation, and moral identity facilitate them. Notably, at least two causal conditions need to be present for adverse confsequences to emerge, while moral identity is almost a necessary condition for the development of positive attitudes. We conclude with a discussion of important implications for researchers and practitioners. (shrink)

Teachers need to acquire technology and digital skills in order to be able to follow the rapid changes in society. Since 2003, a national project has been carried out in Greece concerning the certification of teachers in basic computer skills. During this project many teachers participated and certified through a Computer Based Assessment system that has been developed by the Computer Technology Institute & Press - Diophantus. In this paper a brief view of syllabus, item bank, and tools that are (...) used for preparing and delivering examinations for teachers’ certification on basic computer skills is given. Moreover, the participants profile based on teachers’ responses is explored. (shrink)

What are the driving forces of cultural macroevolution, the evolution of cultural traits that characterize societies or populations? This question has engaged anthropologists for more than a century, with little consensus regarding the answer. We develop and fit autologistic models, built upon both spatial and linguistic neighbor graphs, for 44 cultural traits of 172 societies in the Western North American Indian (WNAI) database. For each trait, we compare models including or excluding one or both neighbor graphs, and for the majority (...) of traits we find strong evidence in favor of a model which uses both spatial and linguistic neighbors to predict a trait’s distribution. Our results run counter to the assertion that cultural trait distributions can be explained largely by the transmission of traits from parent to daughter populations and are thus best analyzed with phylogenies. In contrast, we show that vertical and horizontal transmission pathways can be incorporated in a single model, that both transmission modes may indeed operate on the same trait, and that for most traits in the WNAI database, accounting for only one mode of transmission would result in a loss of information. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Klio Jahrgang: 96 Heft: 1 Seiten: 313-316.

In 1920s Russia domestic life is the object of a specific political debate that tries to formulate housing forms and comfort models alternative to the one of the bourgeois house. By analysing the texts written by Fourier, Engels and Russian functionalist architects and the discourses that accompany USSR housing policies, the article reconstructs the concepts of comfort underlying this debate and their functions.