Background: Moral sensitivity is the foremost prerequisite to ethical performance; a review of literature shows that nurses are sometimes not sensitive enough for a variety of reasons. Moral distress is a frequent phenomenon in nursing, which may result in paradoxes in care, dealing with patients and rendering high-quality care. This may, in turn, hinder the meeting of care objectives, thus affecting social healthcare standards. Research objective: The present research was conducted to determine the relationship between moral sensitivity and moral distress (...) of nurses in intensive care units. Research design: This study is a descriptive-correlation research. Lutzen’s moral sensitivity questionnaire and Corley Moral Distress Questionnaire were used to gather data. Participants and research context: A total of 153 qualified nurses working in the hospitals affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences were selected for this study. Subjects were selected by census method. Ethical considerations: After explaining the objectives of the study, all the participants completed and signed the written consent form. To conduct the study, permission was obtained from the selected hospitals. Findings: Nurses’ average moral sensitivity grade was 68.6 ± 7.8, which shows a moderate level of moral sensitivity. On the other hand, nurses also experienced a moderate level of moral distress (44.8 ± 16.6). Moreover, there was no meaningful statistical relationship between moral sensitivity and moral distress (p = 0.26). Discussion: Although the nurses’ moral sensitivity and moral distress were expected to be high in the intensive care units, it was moderate. This finding is consistent with the results of some studies and contradicts with others. Conclusion: As moral sensitivity is a crucial factor in care, it is suggested that necessary training be provided to develop moral sensitivity in nurses in education and practical environments. Furthermore, removing factors that contribute to moral distress may help decrease it in nurses. (shrink)

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many emotional consequences for teachers, including feelings of isolation, loneliness, and hopelessness. However, evidence on the prevalence of hopelessness and the associated factors in teachers during the pandemic is limited. The purpose of this research was to examine the prevalence of hopelessness in public school teachers and identify risk factors associated with it. A sample of 168 teachers aged 25–49 years participated in the study by completing the Socio-Demographic Questionnaire, the Beck (...) Hopelessness Scale, and the Multi-Dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The results revealed a moderate level of experienced hopelessness in teachers. Hopelessness prevalence was also significantly different across teacher gender, age groups, socioeconomic status, educational level, professional experience, and perceived social support. The results of a logistic regression analysis confirmed the effects of these demographic and occupational attributes on hopelessness by explaining ~71% of the variance in hopelessness feelings. Higher odds ratios were associated with age, socioeconomic status, and perceived social support, signifying the prominence of these factors in predicting hopelessness. The study contributes to identifying and screening teachers at risk of hopelessness in public schools and recommends promoting collegial/superior support as well as a positive school climate as the protective factors against hopelessness. (shrink)

This essay reads Hobbes’ account of human action against Aristotle’s accounts of animal motion and human action, thus offering a new perspective for understanding Hobbes’ account and illuminating a neglected aspect of Hobbes’ relationship to Aristotle. I argue that the basic structure of Hobbes’ account is indebted to Aristotle’s account of animal motion, except that Hobbes purges the teleological elements from his predecessor and presents a picture that is mechanistic and explicitly deterministic. Moreover, while Aristotle introduces ‘deliberation’ as a way (...) of explaining the diversity of human actions as their varied attempts at realizing the distinctly human end of the good life, Hobbes’ radically anti-Aristotelian notion of ‘deliberation’ explains that diversity in terms of the fundamental uncertainty of the passions. I conclude with some reflections on two related tensions in Hobbes: between Hobbes’ determinism and his account of human action, and between his ethical project of reducing human life to mere life and his separate ethical project of justifying diverse ways of life. This essay contributes to our understanding of the significance of Hobbes’ account of human action in both the history of the debate on determinism and the history of ethics. (shrink)

In [20] Krajíček and Pudlák discovered connections between problems in computational complexity and the lengths of first-order proofs of finite consistency statements. Later Pudlák [25] studied more statements that connect provability with computational complexity and conjectured that they are true. All these conjectures are at least as strong as $\mathsf {P}\neq \mathsf {NP}$ [23–25].One of the problems concerning these conjectures is to find out how tightly they are connected with statements about computational complexity classes. Results of this kind had been (...) proved in [20, 22].In this paper, we generalize and strengthen these results. Another question that we address concerns the dependence between these conjectures. We construct two oracles that enable us to answer questions about relativized separations asked in [19, 25] (i.e., for the pairs of conjectures mentioned in the questions, we construct oracles such that one conjecture from the pair is true in the relativized world and the other is false and vice versa). We also show several new connections between the studied conjectures. In particular, we show that the relation between the finite reflection principle and proof systems for existentially quantified Boolean formulas is similar to the one for finite consistency statements and proof systems for non-quantified propositional tautologies. (shrink)

ABSTRACT As a culture-specific phenomenon, academic dishonesty remains an under-researched domain. The purpose of this study was to voice teachers’ perceptions of: the influential factors contributing to AD, the consequences of AD for the quality of teacher–student relationships, and the specific strategies for regulating TSR. Using a qualitative phenomenological design, we attempted to present a detailed description of teachers’ lived experiences regarding the above aims. The participants were English language and Mathematics teachers with different personal and professional characteristics working in (...) public high schools of Iran. Data was collected through intensive semi-structured interviewing and analyzed by a five-step approach applied to phenomenology in psychological research. Data analysis revealed three general themes regarding teachers’ perceptions with several components. We found that the lack of attention and intrinsic motivation were the prominent perceived factors with consequences for TSR. Also, personal talk and active supervision were the common techniques that teachers utilized with students who commit AD to manage and control the TSR quality. The results were discussed with reference to teachers’ academic discipline, gender, and teaching experience. (shrink)

. NormalBoost is a new boosting algorithm which is capable of classifying a multi-dimensional binary class dataset. It adaptively combines several weak classifiers to form a strong classifier. Unlike many boosting algorithms which have high computation and memory complexities, NormalBoost is capable of classification with low complexity. The purpose of this paper is to present NormalBoost as a framework which establishes a platform to solve classification problems. The approach was tested with a dataset which was extracted automatically from real-world traffic (...) sign images. The dataset contains both images of traffic sign borders and speed limit pictograms. This framework involves the computation of Haar-like features of these images and then employs the NormalBoost classifier to classify these traffic signs. The total number of images which were classified was 6500 binary images. A -fold validation was invoked to check the validity of the classification which resulted in a classification rate of 98.4% and 98.9% being achieved for these two databases. This framework is distinguished by its invariance to in-plane rotation of the images under consideration. Experiments show that the classification rate remains almost constant when traffic sign images with different angles of rotations were tested. (shrink)

Speed is one of the major factors by which the traffic safety is affected. If the speed limit traffic signs on the road are recognised and displayed to a driver, this will be a motivation to keep the vehicle's speed within the permitted range. The purpose of this paper is to investigate Eigen-based traffic sign recognition which can aid in the development of Intelligent Speed Adaptation. This system is based on invoking the PCA technique to detect the unknown speed limit (...) traffic sign and computes its best effective Eigen vectors. The traffic sign is then recognized and classified by using the shortest Euclidean distance to the different speed limit traffic sign classes. The system was trained using 24 037 images which were collected in different light conditions. To check the robustness of this system, it was tested against 1429 images and it was found that the accuracy of recognition was 97.5% which indicates clearly the high robustness targeted by this system. (shrink)

. This paper presents a new approach to segment low quality fingerprint images which are collected by low quality fingerprint readers. Images collected using such readers are easy to collect but difficult to segment. The proposed approach is based on combining global and local processing to achieve segmentation of fingerprint images. On the global level, the fingerprint is located and extracted from the rest of the image by using a global thresholding followed by dilation and edge detection of the largest (...) object in the image. On the local level, fingerprint's foreground and its border image are treated using different fuzzy rules. These rules are based on the mean and variance of the block under consideration. The approach is implemented in three stages: pre-processing, segmentation, and post-processing. Segmentation of 100 images was performed and compared with manual examinations by human experts. The experiments showed that 96% of images under test are correctly segmented. The results from the quality of segmentation test revealed that the average error in block segmentation was 2.84% and the false positive and false negatives were approximately 1.4%. This indicates the high robustness of the proposed approach. (shrink)

Background: Moral distress is a very common experience in the nursing profession, and it is one of the main reasons for job dissatisfaction, burnout, and quitting among nurses. For instance, morally difficult situations in taking care of child patients who are severely ill may lead to moral distress for nurses. However, most of the studies about moral distress have been conducted on nurses of special wards and adult medical centers with much focus on developed countries. Subsequently, little has been researched (...) on this topic among nurses in other nations such as Iran, and most certainly, there has been hardly any such research involving Iranian pediatric nurses. Aim/objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate moral distress among nurses in selected pediatric hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Research design: This cross-sectional study was conducted on eligible nurses who were selected through proportional stratified sampling and who completed demographic characteristics and the pediatric version of Moral Distress Scale-Revised questionnaires. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t test, one-way analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation coefficient. Participants and research context: In total, 195 pediatric nurses working at three selected children’s specialized university hospitals in Tehran participated in this study. Ethical considerations: This study was evaluated and approved by the institutional review board of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Findings: The mean and standard deviation of total score of moral distress was 106.41 ± 61.64 within a range of 10–257. Also, the difference between the mean score of moral distress of the group who had not quitted their position and those who have quit in the past was statistically significant (p = 0.043). The situation that was associated with the highest moral distress was “observing medical students performing painful procedures on patients just to gain some skill.” Total score of moral distress was significantly higher among male nurses (p = 0.014), while nurses with a master’s degree experienced just a higher intensity of moral distress compared to those who had a bachelor’s degree (p = 0.006). Conclusion: Since many pediatric nurses clearly face moral distress while taking care of children, it is necessary to consider measures for preventing or decreasing situations that would lead to this distress. (shrink)

This survey was conducted in 2017 to investigate factors influencing social risk perception of biotechnologists and plant breeders in training toward GM food based on a conceptual model. A random sample of 210 biotechnologists and plant breeders in training was studied. Confirmatory factor analysis and the reliability tests have been used to verify the uni-dimensionality of the measurement scale, SEM also was carried out to determine the most parsimonious models with the best fit for social risk perception of GM foods (...) and path analysis was conducted to understand the exogenous variables introduced in the research model. The findings revealed that the engineers in training had moderate social risk perception regarding GM foods. Moreover, the results of structural equation modeling showed the capability of the model in predicting the social risk perceptions of engineers in training. The psychological attributes of risks, social benefit perception, attitude toward using technology, level of religiosity, and moral and ethical beliefs emerged as the most powerful predictors of the social risk perception. The social benefit perception and attitude toward using technology also mediated the effects of psychological attributes of risks, level of religiosity, and moral and ethical beliefs. The social benefit perception also had an indirect influence on the engineers in training’s social risk perception of GM foods. Finally, we recommend the application of the model developed by this study for better understanding of social risk perception of stakeholders to have a more informed view of the development and promotion of GM foods. (shrink)

One of the mathematical programming techniques is data envelopment analysis, which is used for evaluating the efficiency of a set of similar decision-making units. Fixed resource allocation and target setting with the help of DEA is a subject that has gained much attention from researchers. A new model was proposed by determining a common set of weights. All DMUs were involved with the aim of achieving higher efficiency in every DMU after the procedure. The minimum resources and targets allocated to (...) each DMU were commensurate to the efficiency of that DMU and the share of DMU in the input resources and the output productions. To examine the proposed method, other methods in the DEA literature were examined as well, and then, the efficiency of the method was demonstrated through a numerical example. (shrink)

Background: Responsibility is an important component of the professional values and core competencies for bachelor degree nursing students and has relationships with nursing education and professionalization. It is important for providing safe and high-quality care to the clients for the present and future performance of student. But there is no clear and operational definition of this concept for bachelor degree nursing students; however, there are extensive contents and debates about the definitions, attributes, domains and boundaries of responsibility in nursing and (...) non-nursing literature. Objective: To examine the concept of responsibility among bachelor degree nursing students using the evolutionary approach to concept analysis. Methods: A total of 75 articles published between 1990 and 2016 and related to the concept of responsibility were selected from seven databases and considered for concept analysis based on Rogers’ evolutionary approach. Ethical considerations: Throughout all stages of data collection, analysis and reporting, accuracy and bailment were respected. Findings: Responsibility is a procedural, spectral, dynamic and complex concept. The attributes of the concept are smart thinking, appropriate managerial behaviours, appropriate communicational behaviours, situational self-mandatory and task-orientation behaviours. Personal, educational and professional factors lead to the emergence of the responsible behaviours among bachelor degree nursing students. The emergence of such behaviours facilitates the learning and education process, ensures nursing profession life and promotes clients and community health level. Responsibility has some effects on nursing students. Discussion: This concept had been changed over time since 1990–2016. There are similarities and differences in the elements of this concept in disciplines of nursing and other educational disciplines. Conclusion: The analysis of this concept can help to develop educational or managerial theories, design instruments for better identification and evaluation of responsible behaviours among bachelor degree nursing students, develop strategies for enhancing the responsibility and improve the safety and quality of nursing care in the community and healthcare system. (shrink)

We give a counterexample to the claim that every provably total function of Basic Arithmetic is a polynomially bounded primitive recursive function.

We study Basic Arithmetic, $$\textsf{BA}$$ introduced by Ruitenburg (Notre Dame J Formal Logic 39:18–46, 1998). $$\textsf{BA}$$ is an arithmetical theory based on basic logic which is weaker than intuitionistic logic. We show that the class of the provably total recursive functions of $$\textsf{BA}$$ is a proper sub-class of the primitive recursive functions. Three extensions of $$\textsf{BA}$$, called $$\textsf{BA}+\mathsf U$$, $$\mathsf {BA_{\mathrm c}}$$ and $$\textsf{EBA}$$ are investigated with relation to their provably total recursive functions. It is shown that the provably total (...) recursive functions of these three extensions of $$\textsf{BA}$$ are exactly the primitive recursive functions. Moreover, among other things, it is shown that the well-known MRDP theorem does not hold in $$\textsf{BA}$$, $$\textsf{BA}+\mathsf U$$, $$\mathsf {BA_{\mathrm c}}$$, but holds in $$\textsf{EBA}$$. (shrink)

This research explores the concept of religious universalism and its potential impact on expressions of Islamic devotion within Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The study aims to investigate how Islamic practices and beliefs can serve as a deterrent against the proliferation of religious extremism. By examining various dimensions of Islamic religiosity in these countries, this research seeks to uncover the ways in which a broad and inclusive interpretation of religion can contribute to countering the influence of radical ideologies. Through an analysis (...) of religious rituals, educational frameworks, and cross-faith engagements, this study offers insights into the capacity of religious universalism to mitigate the advancement of religious extremism across diverse cultural and social contexts. Contribution: This research enhances our understanding of how universality of religion can serve as a deterrent against religious extremism by examining its manifestations within the contexts of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The findings offer practical insights and recommendations that can inform policies and initiatives aimed at fostering tolerance, inclusivity, and harmony within diverse religious societies. (shrink)

Considering the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the foundation of our socio-economic and environmental systems, it is imperative to apply multi-faceted sustainability approaches for the current and post-pandemic era. The built environment plays a key role in the spatial engagement of humans and their workspace in the urban environment. Proposing new concepts for the post-pandemic era that combine the built environment and sustainability techniques may provide an opportunity for better integration into the essence of sustainability. In this regard, this paper (...) recommends applying circular economy idea in adaptive reuse practice of industrial heritage to create circular workplaces for the post-pandemic period. As an example of this given proposal, a scheme for a textile factory in Isfahan, Iran is presented. (shrink)

This paper presents a new boosting algorithm called NormalBoost which is capable of classifying a multi-dimensional binary class dataset. It adaptively combines several weak classifiers to form a strong classifier. Unlike many boosting algorithms which have high computation and memory complexities, NormalBoost is capable of classification with low complexity. Since NormalBoost assumes the dataset to be continuous, it is also noise resistant because it only deals with the means and standard deviations of each dimension. Experiments conducted to evaluate its performance (...) shows that NormalBoost performs almost the same as AdaBoost in the classification rate. However, NormalBoost performs 189 times faster than AdaBoost and employs a very little amount of memory when a dataset of 2 million samples with 50 dimensions is invoked. (shrink)

Women constitute the majority of workers in global value chains (GVCs), yet few GVC scholars focus on the governance of gender. Based on an investigation (2013–2017) started after the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh, this article presents “voice to the subordinate strata” as the first principle of feminist governance in the GVC. Findings reveal the matrix of power, which includes the International Labour Organization and the state that underpins the political economy of the Southern factory. This study provides a transformative (...) model of feminist governance as transnational justice. As the relational ethic that links justice in the workplace to the quality of a woman's life, feminist governance is also the moral economy of the GVC wherein the woman worker is valued as a citizen in the global economy. (shrink)

The increasing use of Generative AI raises many ethical, philosophical, and legal issues. A key issue here is uncertainties about how different degrees of Generative AI assistance in the production of text impacts assessments of the human authorship of that text. To explore this issue, we developed an experimental mixed methods survey study (N = 602) asking participants to reflect on a scenario of a human author receiving assistance to write a short novel as part of a 3 (high, medium, (...) or low degrees of assistance) X 2 (human or AI assistant) factorial design. We found that, for a human author, the degree of assistance they receive matters for our assessments of their level of authorship, creatorship, and responsibility, but not what or who rendered that assistance, although it was more important to disclose human rather than AI assistance. However, in our assessments of the assisting agent, human assistants were viewed as warranting higher rates of authorship, creatorship, and responsibility, compared to AI assistants rendering the same level of support. These results help us to better understand emerging norms around collaborative human-AI generated text, with implications for other types of collaborative content creation. (shrink)

While there has been a number of consumers’ studies looking at factors that influence individuals’ attitudes and behavior toward GM foods, few studies have considered agricultural professionals’ intentions in this regard. This study illuminates agricultural professionals’ insights toward GM foods in Southwest Iran. A random sample of 262 respondents was studied. The results indicated that the majority of the respondents had little knowledge about GM foods. They perceived few benefits or risks of GM foods. Their perceived benefits and trust in (...) individuals and institutions had positive impacts on the behavioral intentions of the agricultural professionals. The results also revealed that the low knowledge level of the respondents had a negative impact on the behavioral intentions toward GM foods. This state of affairs is problematic, either GM foods have serious problems or the knowledge conveyed to the Iranian agricultural experts is inappropriate. We recommend a well defined communication strategy to provide information in such a way that allows individuals to feel adequately informed about GM foods. Furthermore, the development of trust and knowledge regarding GM foods can be greater when risk analysis frameworks are transparent, risk assessment methodologies are objective, all stakeholders are engaged in the risk management process, and risk communication focuses on consumers. (shrink)

The present study aimed to reflect on the predictive role of socio-demographic characteristics (SDCs), moral sensitivity (MS) and moral distress (MD) in nurses’ ageism toward older adults. A total of 145 nurses were recruited to complete the main research instruments, i.e. a Sociodemographic Information Form, the Tool for Evaluating Ageism in Nursing Care of Older People, the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire and the Moral Distress Scale. The results of the study confirmed that gender and MS could predict nurses’ ageism toward older (...) adults. However, MD was not correlated with ageism. The results of the study could therefore contribute to the development of some strategies to improve nurses’ gerontological nursing knowledge and skills through continuing education. (shrink)

A person who arrives at correct solutions via false premises is right and wrong simultaneously. Similarly, a person who generates “logical intuitions” through superficial heuristics can likewise be right and wrong at the same time. However, heuristics aren't guaranteed to deliver the logical solution, so the claim that system 1 can routinely produce the alleged system 2 response is unfounded.

The Gamer’s Dilemma challenges us to justify the moral difference between enacting virtual murder and virtual child molestation in video games. The Dilemma relies for its argumentative force on the claim that there is an intuitive moral difference between these acts, with the former intuited as morally acceptable and the latter as morally unacceptable. However, there has been no empirical investigation of these claims. To explore these issues, we developed an experimental survey study in which participants were asked to reflect (...) on imaginary video game scenarios as part of a 2 (undertake virtual murder or molestation) X 2 (against an adult or child) X 2 (in a high or low realism virtual environment) factorial design. We found that there was a significant difference between people’s views about virtual murder and virtual molestation. Whether the virtual act was performed against an adult or child was non-significant in most conditions, whereas whether it was performed in a high or low realism virtual environment was significant in most conditions. Gender did not impact these results, whereas perceived gaming experience, hours of video game play per week, and integrity did. These results provide an empirical grounding for future discussions of the Gamer's Dilemma. (shrink)

Background: Lower limb spasticity after stroke is common that can affect the balance, increase the risk of falling, and reduces the quality of life.Objective: First, evaluate the effects of spasticity severity of ankle plantar flexors on balance of patients after stroke. Second, to determine the relationship between the spasticity severity with ankle proprioception, passive ankle dorsiflexion range of motion, and balance confidence.Methods: Twenty-eight patients with stroke based on the Modified Modified Ashworth Scale were divided into two groups: High Spasticity Group (...) or a Low Spasticity Group. The MMAS scores, Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Questionnaire, postural sway of both affected and non-affected limbs under the eyes open and eyes closed conditions, timed up and go test, passive ankle dorsiflexion ROM, and ankle joint proprioception were measured.Results: The ankle joint proprioception was significantly better in the LSG compared to the HSG. No significant differences were found between the LSG and HSG on all other outcome measures. There were no significant relationships between the spasticity severity and passive ankle dorsiflexion ROM, and balance confidence.Conclusion: The severity of ankle plantar flexor spasticity had no effects on balance of patients with stroke. However, the ankle joint proprioception was better in patients with low spasticity. Our findings suggest that the balance is affected regardless of the severity of the ankle plantar flexor spasticity in this group of participants with stroke. (shrink)

BackgroundResearch misconduct is a global concern in biomedical science. There are no comprehensive data regarding the perception and situation of scientific misconduct among the Iranian medical faculty members. We conducted a nationwide survey to assess the research misconduct among the medical faculty members in Iran.MethodsWe used the Persian version of the research misconduct questionnaire (PRMQ) on the Google Forms platform. We sent the survey link to a systematic random sample of medical faculty members in Iran (N = 4986). Descriptive analyses (...) were performed on the individual items of the PRMQ, with frequencies and percentages for categorical and Likert-type response items, and means and standard deviation (S.D.) for continuous variables. Chi-square analysis was conducted to test hypotheses examining differences in the frequency of responses related to factors influencing misconduct. We also defined four tenure categories (TC) based on the working years of the participants as tenured faculty members. All the analyses were performed using R 3.6.0.ResultsThe response rate was 13.8% (692 responses). Nearly 70% of the respondents agreed that their publication output would be of higher quality if there were no publication pressure. Approximately three-quarters (N =499, 72.1%) of the respondents had been aware of some instances of research misconduct during the previous year according to their understanding of misconduct. Among the participants, 18.5% perceived the effectiveness of their associated organisation’s rules for reducing research misconduct to be high or very high. Pressure for tenure was identified as the item most frequently perceived with a strong behavioural influence on engaging in research misconduct (80.2%).ConclusionsThis study confirms that research misconduct needs to be actively addressed among the medical faculty members. Making policies with a focus on boosting awareness regarding the occasions of scientific misconduct and its management seems to be indispensable in the future in Iran. (shrink)