Peer review is a widely accepted instrument for raising the quality of science. Peer review limits the enormous unstructured influx of information and the sheer amount of dubious data, which in its absence would plunge science into chaos. In particular, peer review offers the benefit of eliminating papers that suffer from poor craftsmanship or methodological shortcomings, especially in the experimental sciences. However, we believe that peer review is not always appropriate for the evaluation of controversial hypothetical science. We argue that (...) the process of peer review can be prone to bias towards ideas that affirm the prior convictions of reviewers and against innovation and radical new ideas. Innovative hypotheses are thus highly vulnerable to being “filtered out” or made to accord with conventional wisdom by the peer review process. Consequently, having introduced peer review, the Elsevier journal Medical Hypotheses may be unable to continue its tradition as a radical journal allowing discussion of improbable or unconventional ideas. Hence we conclude by asking the publisher to consider re-introducing the system of editorial review to Medical Hypotheses. (shrink)

Was bringt einen Menschen dazu, sich auf das einzulassen, was man "Glauben" nennt, sein Leben also auf anderes zu setzen als auf das, dessen man sich verfügend sicher sein kann? Hermann Pius Siller macht deutlich: In der Theologie ist die Beachtung der eigenen Lebenserfahrung und der Lebenserfahrung des Gesprächspartners unverzichtbar. Für das, was das Wort "Gott" benennen soll, muss eine bestimmte Erfahrung beschrieben werden können. Mit "Gewissen", "Geheimnis" und "reine Gabe" benennt er dabei exemplarisch drei elementare Zugänge zu "letzten (...) Erfahrungen", wie sie im Leben von John Henry Newman, Karl Rahner und Paulus von Tarsus gemacht, gelebt und theologisch durchdacht wurden. Vor dem Hintergrund der gegenwärtigen Gottes- und Kirchenkrise, also der fehlenden Glaubwürdigkeit kirchlicher Rede von Gott in der Gesellschaft, leistet er damit einen wichtigen Beitrag verantworteter, die lebensgeschichtlichen Voraussetzungen berücksichtigender Gottesrede. (shrink)

Wie kaum ein anderes Gefühl ist Mitleid von Unsicherheiten geprägt: Der Begriff »Mitleid« wird widersprüchlich verwendet - aber auch das Gefühl selbst kann schwanken. Dies wirft Fragen der Angemessenheit auf. Georg Sillers genaue Lektüre Ludwig Wittgensteins zeigt, dass solche Unbestimmtheiten jedoch nicht als Defizite gesehen werden müssen: Erstens sind psychologische Begriffe in ihrer Bedeutungsvielfalt Teil unserer Lebensform und damit mehr als die Bezeichnung von Zuständen, zweitens stellt schwankendes Mitleid eine ganz eigene Haltung dar - und zwar häufig die des Respekts. (...) Diese Perspektive ermöglicht neue Zugriffe auf Aristoteles, Nietzsche, Brecht, Arendt sowie die Neuropsychologie - und nicht zuletzt auf Wittgenstein selbst. (shrink)

The Automated External Defibrillator (AED) is an intuitive device used by witnesses of an incident without medical training in cases of sudden cardiac arrest. Its operation consists in delivering an electrical pulse to the cardiac conduction system, as a result of which normal heart rate is restored. The lack of awareness in society concerning the usefulness of the device and the inadequate deployment of AEDs result in their too infrequent application by witnesses of incidents. The aim of this paper is (...) to verify whether cluster analysis is the appropriate statistical method to determine the appropriate deployment of AED devices on the basis of cases of sudden cardiac arrest in out-of-hospital conditions. The initial cluster analysis showed the validity of using the method in question for planning the appropriate locations of AEDs. (shrink)

The collection of papers assesses the impact of the reception of Averroist ideas on philosophy between the 15th and 17th century in the Latin West. Most of the articles in the volume were presented at the conference "Averroism between the 15th and 17th century", which was held on 9th-10th November, 2016 by the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts at Palacký University, Olomouc, the Czech Republic. The contributors explore the influence of Averroes, identify the difficulties in the interpretation of his (...) works, and study his followers and critics in the Latin, Hebrew, and Byzantine traditions"--Back cover. (shrink)

Constructing dependency relations, in particular subject-verb agreement, in languages in which verbs may occupy the final position in the sentence, requires a combination of newly appearing lexical items with the existing context, such that it extends beyond the limits of the phrase. New words can be integrated only if the part of the sentence that has already been processed remains in a state of activation, being open to receive new elements. This article focuses on the question of the specificity for (...) the domain of linguistic knowledge of the working memory, as the cognitive system in which representations are temporarily stored and manipulated. (shrink)

The post-Soviet scene in Lithuania is one of rapid change in medical and nursing ethics. A short introduction to the current background sets the scene for a wider discussion of ethics in health care professionals' education. Lithuania had to adapt rapidly from a politicized nursing and ethics curriculum to European regulations, and from a paternalistic style of care to one of engagement with choices and dilemmas. The relationships between professionals, and between professionals and patients, are affected by this in particular. (...) This short article highlights these issues and how they impact on all involved. (shrink)

This paper provides the theoretical analysis of forms of solidarity in academia and its relationship to academic integrity. This analysis is inspired by the Guidelines for an Institutional Code of Ethics in Higher Education drawn up by the International Association of Universities and the Magna Charta Observatory. These Guidelines refer to the principle of solidarity in the context of international cooperation between higher education institutions. However, the author of this paper believes that this principle might also be used in a (...) broader academic context, in particular, in the field of academic ethics and academic integrity. Therefore, this paper aims at revealing the relevance of solidarity in academia and argues that the principle of solidarity can be considered as one of fundamental principles of academic ethics and should be reflected in the structure and provisions of the codes of academic ethics. For this purpose the author explores the philosophical and sociological approaches towards solidarity and defines the concept of academic solidarity, discusses the conceptual connection between academic solidarity, ethics and integrity and illustrates the impact of solidarity on the development of academic integrity. This analysis allows the author of the paper to recommend embedding the principle of solidarity in the codes of academic ethics of higher education institutions as well as extending the scope of its application by linking the rights and responsibilities of different groups within the academic community in a way that best expresses their unity, shared responsibility, mutual support in meeting the standards of social ethos. (shrink)

In the Polish language, there exists the expression ‘interview-river’ meaning a very long interview draining the subject to the greatest possible depth. The article Varieties of Interview-river on given examples covers the analysis of three chosen interview-rivers with three different people. The interviews were discussed in reference to the following aspects: • interview structure • determination of its thematic variety • nature of questions • interviewer – interviewee interaction The conclusions present what is interview-river and what it is characterised by. (...) The aim of this article is to pinpoint the interview-river’s generic features and its functions. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Salonnières and the Philosophes in Old Regime France: The Authority of Aesthetic Judgment*Jolanta T. PekaczDuring the eighteenth century a significant shift occurred in the perception of the authority of aesthetic judgment in France, from a group usually referred to as “polite society” and widely considered the exclusive source of taste (goût) to various competing groups arrogating to themselves the right to judge artistic matters. 1 In the (...) present article I discuss the changing recognition of the genders as arbiters of taste, exemplified by Parisian salonnières on the one hand, and the philosophes on the other, during two eighteenth-century quarrels over the French and Italian operas: the Querelle des Bouffons in the 1750s and the controversy between Gluckistes and Piccinistes in the 1770s. I argue that by the end of the 1770s, as a result of the collapse of the old paradigm of “polite society” of which salons were a part, Parisian salon women lost the position (however illusory it might have been) which they enjoyed in the seventeenth century as arbiters of taste. While the philosophes attended feminine salons, [End Page 277] they rejected the idea of consulting salonnières on the matters of taste (and on other matters), as was previously the case, and relegated them to formal, if not merely decorative, roles of guardians of good manners and propriety, the roles accepted by salonnières.The ousting of the salonnière from aesthetic arbitration exemplified by the two operatic quarrels may be viewed as a continuation of the process of exclusion of salon women from discursive development that began in the seventeenth century, as discussed by Erica Harth in Cartesian Women: Versions and Subversions of Rational Discourse in the Old Regime (1992) and, most recently, by Joan DeJean in Ancients against Moderns: Culture Wars and the Making of a Fin de Siècle (1997). In the seventeenth century the norms of feminine bienséance (decorum, propriety) allowed a woman to establish a salon but made it impossible for a salonnière to create a space intellectually comparable to that of the French Academy. After having lost a gendered competition for intellectual space with the Academy by the 1680s, the salon, as Erica Harth put it, “proved a discursive dead end for women.”In this essay I carry through this argument into the eighteenth century and demonstrate that salon women lost a competition with the philosophes not only in the intellectual but also in the aesthetic sphere. Salonnières did not choose not to make aesthetic judgments out of respect for the exclusive right of the philosophes to make such judgments 2 but rather were silenced by the philosophes and complied in order not to violate the limits of feminine bienséance in the public sphere, that is, to survive as salonnières. The seventeenth-century ideals of feminine bienséance taken over by eighteenth-century salonnières were no longer perceived as sufficient (or legitimate) to recognize women as arbiters of taste. In fact these ideals proved to be as detrimental as a source of authority for salon women in the siècle des lumières as they were ambiguous in the grand siècle.Ironically, not only were the eighteenth-century Parisian salonnières ousted from aesthetic arbitration, but neither did they succeed in their roles as guardians of propriety and good manners for the philosophes, that is, in keeping the Enlightenment discourse civil. In both operatic quarrels the dominant genre of discourse was a pamphlet, a libelle, not a salon conversation. While during the Querelle des Bouffons the philosophes were unanimously pro-Italian, the Gluck-Piccini quarrel caused a deep split among them, followed by fratricidal fighting, which seriously undermined their authority in public matters.I. The negative connotation associated with the epithets pedant, savant, and their derivatives in seventeenth-century French treatises on honnêteté indicates [End Page 278] that the authority of judgment of “persons of quality” in matters of taste resulted from the code of bienséances in social relations. Blaise Pascal probably best summarized arguments for the superiority of an honnête person (as opposed to a professional) in the realm of aesthetics; being an... (shrink)

Der Artikel wird der Methode der Debatte gewidmet, die seit einigen Jahren in vielen polnischen Schulen angewandt wird. Eine Debatte ist keine freie unordentliche Diskussion, sondern sie hat eine spezifische Struktur, die von den Sprechern beachtet werden muss. Die eine Mannschaft verteidigt eine These, und die zweite stoßt diese These um. Die Mitglieder der beiden Mannschaften sollen Argumente für Verteidigung ihrer Stelle erheben, und auch damit die Argumente der Gegner umstoßen. Diese Mannschaft gewinnt, die nach der Meinung des Richters (Lehrers) (...) den richtigen, ehrlichen und mehr akzeptablen Ansichtspunkt zu dem bestimmten Thema darstellt. Der mit der Methode der Debatte geführte Unterricht ermöglicht Inhalte aus verschiedenen Fächern integrieren, ist also ein Fächer übergreifender Unterricht. Der Anteil an Debatten entwickelt bei Schülern viele Fähigkeiten, die zum Leben in der gegenwärtigen kommerziellen Welt notwendig sind, d.h. zum Beispiel kritisch zu denken, den Entschluss zu fassen und ihre eigene Stellung zu verteidigen. Debatten lehren auch erfolgreiche Teilnahme an dem Dialog und verschiedenen Verhandlungen, bilden die Bereitschaft der Arbeit im leam, die Fähigkeit der Selbstbildung. Das Debattieren bereitet junge Leute auf die Arbeit in vielen Berufen vor, wie z.B. Manager, Journalist, Lehrer, Jurist und auf die zukünftige politische Tätigkeit sowie auf aktive und bewusstsame Teilnahme am Leben der heutigen Gesellschaft. (shrink)

Globalisation, repeated economic (financial) crisis and other contemporary social processes are changing the capability of the state to provide individual social security and guarantee human rights. There is therefore a need to review social policy guidelines and their implementation measures. The problem is how to develop the social security system of state, so that human rights are not violated. For the reformation of the social security system to be consistent, it is also necessary to determine the principles on which the (...) social security system should be based. This article examines the concept of the principle of subsidiarity and its impact on the implementation of socio-economic human rights. The goal of this research is to explore theoretical aspects of application of principle of subsidiarity for ensuring the protection of socio-economic human rights and development of the policy of social security in Lithuania. In order to achieve this goal, the research starts from the analysis of the concept and origin of the principle of subsidiarity and its impact on the implementation of human rights. Further the constitutional basis and levels of application of this principle for implementation of socio-economic human rights are studied. Lastly, according to the principle of subsidiarity, some relevant issues of Lithuanian social security system are evaluated. (shrink)

In English: Epochs and formation an attempt of adaptation reconstruction.

The raging cynicism felt toward businesses and business leaders is a by-product of perceived violations in the social contracts owed to the public. Business schools have a unique opportunity to make a significant impact on present and future business leaders, but ‘practicing what we teach’ is a critical condition precedent. This paper presents frameworks for ethical practices for assessing the social contracts owed by business schools in their role as citizens in the larger community. We identify the ethical implications of (...) business school practices to guide the development of tools for self-assessment and to focus on delivering the implied duties owed to the stakeholders of business schools. (shrink)

Throughout the pandemic, the media and scholars have widely discussed increasing social inequality and thereby publicly pointed to often hidden and neglected forms of inequality. However, the “newly” arisen awareness has not yet been put into action to reduce this inequality. Dealing with social inequality implies exploring and confronting social privileges, which are often seen as the other side of inequality. These social constructs, inequality and privilege, are often discussed in light of vulnerability and resilience. This is particularly important in (...) the context of the worldwide coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and efforts to end the pandemic, as both constructs are discussed regarding access to healthcare, vaccination, and education and knowledge, misinformation, social resources, economic resources, and so forth. Minority and/or marginalized groups may be particularly vulnerable to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, resilience factors in these groups may be neglected and underreported. This narrative review aims at illustrating the specific and intertwined aspects of resilience and vulnerability in minority and/or marginalized groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve this, we use an intersectional lens based on recommendations made by Moradi and Grzanka. A total of 48 articles were included in the narrative review. Most of them were commentaries focusing on social inequality, vulnerability, and/or resilience. Based on the dissection of articles at structural, systemic, and individual levels, we propose three hypothesis on vulnerability and resilience in minority and marginalized individuals and groups: social inequality must be considered at a global level; inequality at a global level translates into a vulnerable context for an individual; vulnerability is historically situated: vulnerability is maintained and reinforced by history; strength through collective hardship: vulnerability is not the opposite of resilience but may serve as an aspect of resilience. The conclusions drawn from this review show that we need to include diverse voices to advance concepts, such as vulnerability and resilience, in minority and marginalized groups. Additionally, these concepts are not necessarily in opposition to each other, but vulnerability should be understood as an integral part of resilience. (shrink)

W niniejszym artykule pragnę zwrócić uwagę nauczycieli języków obcych na wykorzystanie w procesie nauczania języków obcych autentycznych informacji prasowych, które umożliwiają uczącym się poznawanie języka obcego w naturalnym kontekście kulturowym i socjoznawczym. Teksty te, poruszając konkretne aktualne problemy i wydarzenia, dostarczają nie tylko faktów, lecz również argumentów i kontrargumentów, zachęcających do dyskusji, wymiany zdań i poglądów na dany temat. Są one tym samym przyczynkiem do rozwoju obcojęzycznej kompetencji komunikacyjnej, tak ważnej w praktykowanej obecnie w nauczaniu języków obcych metodzie komunikacyjnej. Praca (...) z autentycznym tekstem prasowym jest wyzwaniem nie tylko dla uczącego się, lecz również dla nauczyciela, i ze względu na specyficzny charakter języka publicystyki, oraz specyfikę danego rodzaju tekstu jest możliwa w grupach na poziomie zaawansowanym, w klasach z rozszerzonym programem nauczania danego języka obcego. Włączenie autentycznych tekstów prasowych do nauczania języka obcego nie oznacza jednocześnie konieczności rezygnacji z podręcznika. Teksty te mogą być dodatkowymi materiałami i pomocami w procesie nauczania, zapewniającymi progresję w zakresie sprawności językowej. Dzięki swej autentyczności wpływają motywująco na uczących się i uatrakcyjniają przebieg lekcji. Konfrontacja uczącego się z tekstem prasowym ma nie tylko znaczenie w trakcie procesu instytucjonalnego nauczania języka obcego, lecz również poza nim lub nawet po zakończeniu tego procesu. Praca z autentycznym tekstem prasowym to nauka selektywnego czytania, rozróżnianie ważnych i mniej ważnych treściowo słów i elementów danego tekstu, a także odwołanie się do wiedzy encyklopedycznej, wiedzy o świecie uczących się, ich inteligencji i zdolności logicznego myślenia. Jest to niewątpliwie zadanie dla ambitnych nauczycieli i ich ambitnych uczniów. (shrink)

Living organisms are the ultimate survivalists, having evolved phenotypes with unprecedented adaptability, ingenuity, resourcefulness, and versatility compared to human technology. To harness these properties, functional descriptions and design principles from all sources of biodiversity information must be collated − including the hundreds of thousands of possible survival features manifest in natural history museum collections, which represent 12% of total global biodiversity. This requires a consortium of expert biologists from a range of disciplines to convert the observations, data, and hypotheses into (...) the language of engineering. We hope to unite multidisciplinary biologists and natural history museum scientists to maximize the coverage of observations, descriptions, and hypotheses relating to adaptation and function across biodiversity, to make it technologically useful. This is to be achieved by developments in meta‐ taxonomic classification, phylogenetics, systematics, biological materials research, structure and morphological characterizations, and ecological data gathering from the collections − the aim being to identify and catalogue features essential for good biomimetic design. (shrink)

Specialization is an agent of separation, both between competing specialists and between technology and society. Specialization is not an agent of integration. In the problem conception phase of the engineering design process, the emphasis must be on formulating and developing the questions that will frame the ultimate design solution. Using specialists in this phase often leads to biased questions based on the specialists’ areas of expertise. Rather, what is needed is a suspension of commitment to particular solutions and to ask (...) questions without preconceived biases. This study takes a critical look at engineering education as now practiced versus the practice of 40 years ago and concludes with a recommendation for more broadly educating future engineers. (shrink)