The main objective of the present paper is to introduce some features of fake/bogus conferences and some viable approaches to differentiate them from the real ones. These fake/bogus conferences introduce themselves as international conferences, which are multidisciplinary and indexed in major scientific digital libraries. Furthermore, most of the fake/bogus conference holders offer publishing the accepted papers in ISI journals and use other techniques in their advertisement e-mails.

Background Moral distress is a complex and challenging issue in the nursing profession that can negatively affect the nurses’ job satisfaction and retention and the quality of patient care. This study focused on describing the resources and constraints, consequences, and interventions of moral distress in nurses. Methods In a literature review, an extensive electronic search was conducted in databases including PubMed, ISI, Scopus as well as Google Scholar search engine using the keywords including “moral distress” and “nurses” to identify resources, (...) constraints, consequences, and interventions about moral distress in nurses, from the earliest records up to 26 December 2020. The required data were extracted from 61 relevant studies by two independent reviewers. Results Resources and constraints in the occurrence of moral distress among nurses can be divided into three general categories including internal factors, clinical factors, and external factors. The consequences of moral distress on nurses and the medical system reduced moral sensitivity, development of psychological and physical health problems, and the intention to leave the profession. The potential effective interventions were the implementation of integrated communication programs, strengthening physician–nurse collaboration, nursing involvement in clinical decision-making and end-of-life issues, social support, using a resiliency bundle, interdisciplinary discussion, and promoting nurses’ ethical and communication skills. Conclusion There are a wide range of resources and constraints impacting moral distress in nurses that could lead to negative consequences. Further studies are necessary to identify, evaluate, and implement a range of potential effective interventions for the management of moral distress in nurses. (shrink)

RésuméLe célèbre savant Abū ʿAlī b. Sīnā montrait une maîtrise exceptionnelle de tous les sujets qu'il traitait. Il est surtout connu pour ses nombreux travaux en logique, en philosophie et en médecine. Son influence est telle que même en Europe ses travaux ont été étudiés jusqu’à l’époque moderne. Il comprenait parfaitement la structure interne de la tradition gréco-arabe ; il l'a transmise et a aidé son développement et sa transformation. En témoignent ses nombreux travaux, mais aussi plusieurs exposés explicites quant (...) aux sciences et à leurs divisions. Cet article contient l’édition d'un tel exposé, dont deux copies seulement ont été identifiées à ce jour. On expliquera que le texte en question a probablement été écrit a Boukhara quand Avicenne était encore jeune. De plus, on montrera que le texte peut très bien dériver de son célèbre Al-ḥāṣil wal-maḥṣūl, une encyclopédie philosophique en vingt volumes, perdue depuis longtemps. L'absence de l'algèbre, et un fondement des sciences plus philosophique que religieux, sont des indices importants révélant le point de vue d'Avicenne sur les sciences rationnelles à une période précoce de son activité. (shrink)

Moral distress (MD) has received considerable attention in the nursing literature over the past few decades. It has been found that high levels of MD can negatively impact nurses, patients, and their family and reduce the quality of patient care. This study aimed to investigate the potentially effective interventions to alleviate MD in critical care nurses. In this systematic review, a broad search of the literature was conducted in the international databases including PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Scopus, as well (...) as Google Scholar search engine using keywords such as moral distress, intensive care unit, ICU, nurses, and critical care nurses from 1984, when the concept of MD was first introduced in the nursing literature, up to 29 October 2020. Studies focusing on the interventions for managing MD in critical care nurse were evaluated. The quality of eligible papers was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal checklist. A total of 8 studies fulfilled the eligibility criteria. Three studies had RCT design and five studies had quasi-experimental design. All studies were conducted in the United States or Iran. Educational workshop, moral empowerment program, social work intervention, nursing ethics huddles, and multifaceted resiliency bundle intervention were effective interventions for managing of MD among critical care nurses. There is limited but promising research evidence evaluating the efficacy of educational interventions for managing of MD among critical care nurses. Although some positive results have been reported, there is limited generalizable evidence due to the variability of interventions. These findings highlight the need for further studies to validate the efficacy of these interventions or develop more potent and efficient interventions for reducing MD in critical care nurses. (shrink)

The primary aim of this study was to determine the role of psychometric intelligence, emotional intelligence, and emo-sensory intelligence in university students’ academic achievement. To this end, 212 university students at different academic levels, composed of 154 females and 58 males, were asked to complete the Raven’s Progressive Matrices, the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory, and the Emo-Sensory Intelligence Scale. Data were then matched with students’ Grade Point Averages as a measure of their academic achievement. The results revealed that students’ level (...) of IQ and EQ could positively predict their academic achievement. In the case of their ESQ level, its auditory sub-component was found to be a positive predictor of academic success. Results were discussed, and possible implications and applications for increasing students’ chances for success were presented. (shrink)

Resumo: A bioética islâmica e os valores da globalização moderna colidem, à medida que as forças globais penetram nos países de maioria muçulmana, necessitando de uma integração ponderada, para promover a compreensão mútua. Esta investigação explora as perspectivas islâmicas sobre os avanços biomédicos para identificar áreas de convergência e divergência com os valores globalizados. Utilizando a análise teórica, a síntese, a comparação e a generalização, surgiram conclusões notáveis. Enquanto a globalização promove procedimentos médicos sem entraves, a bioética islâmica apresenta posições (...) matizadas que refletem a falta de unidade do Islão. Os principais resultados mostraram que a bioética islâmica está em sintonia com os valores globais. em alguns procedimentos, como o transplante de órgãos e o aborto precoce, mas diverge em relação à reprodução assistida, à maternidade de substituição e à eutanásia ativa. devido a proibições morais. Em última análise, esta investigação realça a importância de uma integração gradual que respeite as tradições islâmicas, aliada à educação. para aumentar a compreensão e a abertura à evolução bioética. A navegação ponderada do intrincado nexo entre a globalização e a bioética islâmica pode permitir a prossecução de avanços médicos que afirmem a vida. sem sacrificar os valores fundamentais. (shrink)

It is obligatory to educate student researchers before they start their work by teaching them about the various types of plagiarism and how to avoid them. It is also vital that research supervisors take into account the sources of data that are explored in their students’ manuscripts. This article tries to draw the reader’s attention to the importance of avoiding all types of plagiarism in their research.

Research shows that exploring language corpora through data-driven learning plays a significant role in language learning. Nevertheless, it is not clear if using concordancing as an application of DDL affects the learners’ second language motivation. To address this gap, the current study adopted a triangulation design, validating quantitative data model, and a quasi-experimental design. Ninety English-major university students with an intermediate level of English language proficiency, divided into control and experimental groups, took part in the study. Drawing on a second (...) language motivational self-system questionnaire, the findings of the study did not result in any statistically significant differences between the students in their second language motivational self-system. Altogether, the students found learning English through a DDL approach with concordancing less motivating than receiving explicit instruction. The study has implications for language teaching and learning. (shrink)

Appealing to some analytic tools developed by contemporary analytic philosophers, I discuss Avicenna’s views regarding the problem(s) of linguistic and mental reference to non-existents, also known as the problem(s) of ‘empty intentionality’. I argue that, according to Avicenna, being in an intentional state directed towards an existing thing involves three elements: (1) an indirect relation to that thing, (2) a direct relation to a mental representation of that thing, and (3) a direct relation to the essence of that thing. Empty (...) intentionality does not involve the first element. Moreover, depending on the nature of the non-existent we are thinking about, the third element may not be involved either. Thus, the necessary element of being in an intentional state towards something is to be related to a mental representation of that thing. The nature of this representation may vary depending on the nature of the non-existent towards which our thought is directed. (shrink)

According to the second law of thermodynamics, irreversible processes in an isolated system move towards the goal of reaching maximum entropy. In this state, mechanical work is converted to thermal energy and thermodynamic equilibrium occurs; which is determined by the equilibrium in temperature, pressure, etc. Assuming that the universe is an isolated system, the second law of thermodynamics states that the fate of the universe is a state of thermodynamic equilibrium in which all mechanical energies are converted to thermal energy (...) and the heat is dispersed all throughout the universe. In this state, there will be no movement and the universe will expire; an event called the “heat death”. This theory has certain theological implications that can serve as a proof for the perishability of the material world. And since decay implies creation, the heat death theory can be considered an argument in favor of the temporal originatedness of the material world. (shrink)

Divided into five parts, the book provides general background information on Biruni's time, his world, and his life. It includes the full names of the 183 books written by Biruni. The titles of these books are given in Arabic, Persian, transliteration of the Arabic title, and English, and they are all annotated and if available the number of folios is given for each one. A list of available references in English on Biruni, including articles, bibliographies, books, internet sites, a dissertation, (...) and even a film. A list of Persian reference sources is also included. (shrink)

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has led to renewed ambitions of developing artificial general intelligence. Alongside this has been a resurgence in the development of virtual and augmented reality (V/AR) technologies, which are viewed as “disruptive” technologies and the computing platforms of the future. V/AR effectively bring the digital world of machines, robots, and artificial agents to our senses while entailing the transposition of human activity and presence into the digital world of artificial agents and machine forms of (...) intelligence. The intersection of humans and machines in this shared space brings humans and machines into ontological continuity as informational entities in a totalizing informational environment, which subsumes both cyber and physical space in an artificially constructed virtual world. The reconstruction of mind (through AI) and world (through V/AR) thus has significant epistemological, ontological, and anthropological implications, which constitute the underlying features in the artificialization of mind and world. (shrink)

This article provides the findings of a quantitative and qualitative study of participants from the prematurely cancelled Ontario Basic Income Pilot in the Hamilton region. We compare our evidence with those of other large-scale experiments from the high-income countries between 1968 and 2019 to place OBIP’s findings in the context of evidence from randomized control experiments with similar policy conditions to Ontario’s. Our study identified a small decline in labour market participation, but improvements on a variety of quality-of-life measurements. We (...) hypothesize that OBIPs comparatively positive results on general well-being can be attributed to its: i) generous benefit rates relative to social assistance rates; ii) 50 percent take back rate; and iii) unconditionality; iv) broad well-being/welfare design. (shrink)

In "Intuitionistic validity in -normal Kripke structures," Buss asked whether every intuitionistic theory is, for some classical theory , that of all -normal Kripke structures for which he gave an r.e. axiomatization. In the language of arithmetic and denote PA plus Open Induction or Open LNP, and are their intuitionistic deductive closures. We show is recursively axiomatizable and , while . If proves PEM but not totality of a classically provably total Diophantine function of , then and so . A (...) result due to Wehmeier then implies . We prove is not -conservative over . If , then is not closed under MR or Friedman's translation, so range (). Both and are closed under the negative translation. (shrink)

There has recently been a surge of development in augmented reality (AR) technologies that has led to an ecosystem of hardware and software for AR, including tools for artists and designers to accelerate the design of AR content and experiences without requiring complex programming. AR is viewed as a key “disruptive technology” and future display technologies (such as digital eyewear) will provide seamless continuity between reality and the digitally augmented. This article will argue that the technologization of human perception and (...) experience of reality, coupled with the development of artificial intelligence (AI)–based natural language assistants, may lead to a secular re‐enchantment of the world, in the sense outlined by Charles Taylor, where human existence is shaped through AR inhabited by advanced personal and social AI agents in the form of digital avatars and daemons, and that enchantment has been persistent throughout the formation of modernity and is being rekindled by the integration of AI in the plane of AR. (shrink)

In this paper, we aim to discuss the fake journals and their advertisement and publication techniques. These types of journals mostly start and continue their activities by using the name of some indexed journals and establishing fake websites. The fake journals and publishers, while asking the authors for a significant amount of money for publishing their papers, have no peer-review process, publish the papers without any revision on the fake sites, and put the scientific reputation and prestige of the researchers (...) in jeopardy. In the rest of the paper, we present some viable techniques in order for researchers and students to identify these journals. (shrink)

Background:Emergency care providers are frequently faces with situations in which they have to make decisions quickly in stressful situations. They face barriers to ethical decision-making and recognizing and finding solutions to these barriers helps them to make ethical decision.Objectives:The purpose of this study was to identify barriers of ethical decision-making in Iranian Emergency Medical Service personnel.Methods:In this qualitative research, the participants (n = 15) were selected using the purposive sampling method, and the data were collected by deep and semi-structured interviews. (...) Finally, the data are analyzed using the content analysis approach.Ethical considerations:Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. The objectives of the study were explained to the participants and written consent was received from them. Also, participants were assured that necessary measures were taken to protect their anonymity and confidentiality.Findings:The results of the analysis are classified in five main categories. It encompasses the following areas: perception of situation, patient-related factors, input and output imbalance, uncoordinated health system, and paradoxes.Conclusion:Emergency Medical Service personnel make ethical decisions every day. It is important that prehospital personnel know how to manage those decisions properly so that clients’ moral rights are respected. Hence, by identifying the dimensions and obstacles of ethical decision-making in Emergency Medical Service personnel, it is possible to enhance the moral judgment and ethical accountability of the personnel and develop the strategies necessary for ethical decision-making in them. (shrink)

The durability of buildings which depends on the nature of the supervisory system used in their construction is an important feature of the construction industry. This article tries to draw the readers’ attention to the effect of untrained and unprofessional building supervisors and their unethical performance on the durability of buildings.

Avicenna believes that God must be understood in the first place as the Necessary Existent. In his various works, he provides different versions of an ingenious argument for the existence of the Necessary Existent—the so-called Proof of the Sincere —and argues that all the properties that are usually attributed to God can be extracted merely from God's having necessary existence. Considering the centrality of tawḥîd to Islam, the first thing Avicenna tries to extract from God's necessary existence is God's oneness. (...) The aim of the present Element is to provide a detailed discussion of Avicenna's arguments for the existence and unity of God. Through this project, the author hopes to clarify how, for Avicenna, the Islamic concept of monotheism is intertwined with the concept of essential existence. (shrink)

In this article, we discuss ethical issues related to using and disclosing artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT and other systems based on large language models (LLMs), to write or edit scholarly manuscripts. Some journals, such as Science, have banned the use of LLMs because of the ethical problems they raise concerning responsible authorship. We argue that this is not a reasonable response to the moral conundrums created by the use of LLMs because bans are unenforceable and would encourage (...) undisclosed use of LLMs. Furthermore, LLMs can be useful in writing, reviewing and editing text, and promote equity in science. Others have argued that LLMs should be mentioned in the acknowledgments since they do not meet all the authorship criteria. We argue that naming LLMs as authors or mentioning them in the acknowledgments are both inappropriate forms of recognition because LLMs do not have free will and therefore cannot be held morally or legally responsible for what they do. Tools in general, and software in particular, are usually cited in-text, followed by being mentioned in the references. We provide suggestions to improve APA Style for referencing ChatGPT to specifically indicate the contributor who used LLMs (because interactions are stored on personal user accounts), the used version and model (because the same version could use different language models and generate dissimilar responses, e.g., ChatGPT May 12 Version GPT3.5 or GPT4), and the time of usage (because LLMs evolve fast and generate dissimilar responses over time). We recommend that researchers who use LLMs: (1) disclose their use in the introduction or methods section to transparently describe details such as used prompts and note which parts of the text are affected, (2) use in-text citations and references (to recognize their used applications and improve findability and indexing), and (3) record and submit their relevant interactions with LLMs as supplementary material or appendices. (shrink)

Publication date: 14 June 2017 Source: Author: Javad Momeni, Rasoul Mohsenzadeh, Tahereh Mohsenzadeh, Rasoul Zarchini In this research, we have studied the population of street children in Khorram Abad in Iran, in 2015, with the emphasis on the role of economic and legal factors forcing children to work on the streets. The results of this research show that the issue of child labor is the consequence of both global and local matters. These children are the products of the urban (...) society, poverty, and cultural, legal, and local factors. The research method is a survey, and the statistical population is the street children, aged between 7 to 18 living in Khorram Abad, in 2015. The sample population chosen randomly includes 242 people, and the required information was gathered using the questionnaire and interview technique. In Khorram Abad, Lorestan, economic crisis and parents' misdemeanor are the two main factors that force the children to fill their fathers' missing place by working in the streets. But, gender factors such as being a boy, and cultural factors such as belonging to a specific tribe are influential in the howness of this phenomenon. In this article, we have attempted to use native sources for a better understanding of the local situation of the phenomenon, and have proposed a few solutions to alter the current situation. (shrink)

The study contributes to building an understanding of the impact of political forces on the information environment of listed firms in a developing economy. Specifically, it investigates the tensions between politico-institutional factors and accounting regulation on the prolonged and incomplete implementation of the International Financial Reporting Standards in Bangladesh from 1998 to 2010. Two phases of interviews were conducted in 2010–2011 and IFRS-related enforcement documents from 1998 to 2010 were evaluated. The study contributes that IFRSs are being diffused to developing (...) countries like Bangladesh, but they invariably interact with local institutions, with variable outcomes. Coercive, normative and mimetic isomorphisms are low in Bangladesh. Notably, political forces have been undermining mimetic isomorphism because of the high level of government intervention and the high level of political lobbying. Political institutional pressures stand in the way of mimetic isomorphism and constitute negative forces that add further tension to accounting regulation in Bangladesh. Regarding the low level of normative isomorphism, there is evidence of a ‘blame culture’, with state institutions and professional accountancy institutions in the country blaming each other for the poor progress in IFRS implementation. Although the study focuses on Bangladesh, its results have implications for international policy makers, as well as the governments and regulators of other developing economies facing similar challenges in implementing IFRS. (shrink)

Background:Moral distress is increasingly recognized as a problem affecting healthcare professionals, especially nurses. If not addressed, it may create job dissatisfaction, withdrawal from the moral dimensions of patient care, or even encourage one to leave the profession. Spiritual well-being is a concept which is considered when dealing with problems and stress relating to a variety of issues.Objective:This research aimed to examine the relationship between spiritual well-being and moral distress among a sample of Iranian nurses and also to study the determinant (...) factors of moral distress and spiritual well-being in nurses.Research design:A cross-sectional, correlational design was employed to collect data from 193 nurses using the Spiritual Well-Being Scale and the Moral Distress Scale-Revised.Ethical considerations:This study was approved by the Regional Committee of Medical Research Ethics. The ethical principles of voluntary participation, anonymity, and confidentiality were considered.Findings:Mean scores of spiritual well-being and moral distress were 94.73 ± 15.89 and 109.56 ± 58.70, respectively. There was no significant correlation between spiritual well-being and moral distress ( r = −.053, p =.462). Marital status and job satisfaction were found to be independent predictors of spiritual well-being. However, gender and educational levels were found to be independent predictors for moral distress. Age, working in rotation shifts, and a tendency to leave the current job also became significant after adjusting other factors for moral distress.Discussion and conclusion:This study could not support the relationship between spiritual well-being and moral distress. However, the results showed that moral distress is related to many elements including individual ideals and differences as well as organizational factors. Informing nurses about moral distress and its consequences, establishing periodic consultations, and making some organizational arrangement may play an important role in the identification and management of moral distress and spiritual well-being. (shrink)

The article at hand presents the results of a literature review on the ethical issues related to scientific authorship. These issues are understood as questions and/or concerns about obligations, values or virtues in relation to reporting, authorship and publication of research results. For this purpose, the Web of Science core collection was searched for English resources published between 1945 and 2018, and a total of 324 items were analyzed. Based on the review of the documents, ten ethical themes have been (...) identified, some of which entail several ethical issues. Ranked on the basis of their frequency of occurrence these themes are: 1) attribution, 2) violations of the norms of authorship, 3) bias, 4) responsibility and accountability, 5) authorship order, 6) citations and referencing, 7) definition of authorship, 8) publication strategy, 9) originality, and 10) sanctions. In mapping these themes, the current article explores major ethical issue and provides a critical discussion about the application of codes of conduct, various understandings of culture, and contributing factors to unethical behavior. (shrink)

This intriguing work offers a new perspective on Islamic Peripatetic philosophy, critiquing modern receptions of such thought and highlighting the contribution it can make to contemporary Western philosophy. Mohammad Azadpur focuses on the thought of Alfarabi and Avicenna, who, like ancient Greek philosophers and some of their successors, viewed philosophy as a series of spiritual exercises. However, Muslim Peripatetics differed from their Greek counterparts in assigning importance to prophecy. The Islamic philosophical account of the cultivation of the soul to (...) the point of prophecy unfolds new vistas of intellectual and imaginative experience and accords the philosopher an exceptional dignity and freedom. With reference to both Islamic and Western philosophers, Azadpur discusses how Islamic Peripatetic thought can provide an antidote to some of modernity’s philosophical problems. A discussion of the development of later Islamic Peripatetic thought is also included. (shrink)

Recent business headlines, particularly those related to the collapsed energy-trading giant, Enron and its auditor, Arthur Andersen raise concerns about accountants' ethical reasoning. We propose, and provide evidence from 90 new auditors from Big-Five accounting firms, that a selection-socialization effect exists in the accounting profession that results in hiring accountants with disproportionately higher levels of the Sensing/thinking (ST) cognitive style. This finding is important and relevant because we also find that the ST cognitive style is associated with relatively low levels (...) of ethical reasoning, regardless of gender. This finding implies a need for emphasis on the ethical training of accountants. The results also suggest that accounting firms should consider recruiting accountants with cognitive styles associated with relatively higher levels of ethical reasoning. (shrink)

After a justificationist period, William P. Alston has tried to eliminate justification from the epistemology of belief. He introduced a list of epistemic desiderata all of which contribute to the positive status of beliefs and none of which has an exclusive and decisive role so that it could be isolated as the property of being justified. Careful examination reveals, however, that this list includes fewer desiderata than advertised. Truth-conducive desiderata are most important for Alston, and these are five; during his (...) discussion, however, Alston reduces these desiderata to only one, the reliability of process, which has an externalist character. Besides this desideratum, there is one other group of desiderata, all of which have an internalist character. What Alston has in fact done, then, through the presentation of his anti-justificationist list, is to separate externalist and internalist elements for the positive status of belief and to give an independent role to each. Since Alston regards the truth-conducive group as the most important, however, and since he has failed to show a real pluralism in this group, we may conclude that he continues to have a monistic approach to the evaluation of beliefs, which belies his alleged pluralism. (shrink)

The diachronic question of persons deals with personal identity over time: “In virtue of what conditions is a person, P1, at t1, the same person, P2, at t2?” To answer the question, I suggest expanding the constitution theory from a static definition to a dynamic definition. ‘Life’ is an event and the stream of consciousness is an event too. Reflective self-consciousness—which I take to be definitive of persons—is an event. Persons are irreducible constituted events who remain the same through time (...) while they undergo change. This idea faces neither the problem of substance dualism nor the fission problem. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to understand the drivers of social responsibility in purchasing (PSR). This study replicated and extended the range of empirical application of the model developed by Carter and Jennings {Journal of Business Logistics 25(1), 145-186, 2004). Consequently, the present study contributes to the nomological validity of concept of PSR or Purchasing Social Responsibility. The method used is derived from the previous study by Carter and Jennings (Journal of Business Logistics 25(1), 145-186, 2004), and the present (...) study extends the application of that method to an Asian environment. The data were obtained from 197 respondents in Thailand. This sample was largely composed of purchasing and supply chain managers. Respondents were asked to indicate how different dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) affect PSR. The findings of the present study suggest that all the six hypothesized paths have been substantiated. Individual values and people-oriented organizational culture are the most powerful predictors of PSR. This article contributes towards filling the gap in understanding the determinants of PSR in managing supply chains, particularly in an Asian context. (shrink)

Retractions solicited by authors following the discovery of an unintentional error—what we henceforth call a “self-retraction”—are a new phenomenon of growing importance, about which very little is known. Here we present results of a small qualitative study aimed at gaining preliminary insights about circumstances, motivations and beliefs that accompanied the experience of a self-retraction. We identified retraction notes that unambiguously reported an honest error and that had been published between the years 2010 and 2015. We limited our sample to retractions (...) with at least one co-author based in the Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany or a Scandinavian country, and we invited these authors to a semi-structured interview. Fourteen authors accepted our invitation. Contrary to our initial assumptions, most of our interviewees had not originally intended to retract their paper. They had contacted the journal to request a correction and the decision to retract had been made by journal editors. All interviewees reported that having to retract their own publication made them concerned for their scientific reputation and career, often causing considerable stress and anxiety. Interviewees also encountered difficulties in communicating with the journal and recalled other procedural issues that had unnecessarily slowed down the process of self-retraction. Intriguingly, however, all interviewees reported how, contrary to their own expectations, the self-retraction had brought no damage to their reputation and in some cases had actually improved it. We also examined the ethical motivations that interviewees ascribed, retrospectively, to their actions and found that such motivations included a combination of moral and prudential considerations. These preliminary results suggest that scientists would welcome innovations to facilitate the process of self-retraction. (shrink)

Decision-makers in governments, enterprises, businesses and agencies or individuals, typically, make decisions according to various regulations, guidelines and policies based on existing records stored in various databases, in particular, relational databases. To assist decision-makers, an expert system, encompasses interactive computer-based systems or subsystems to support the decision-making process. Typically, most expert systems are built on top of transaction systems, databases, and data models and restricted in decision-making to the analysis, processing and presenting data and information, and they do not provide (...) support for the normative layer. This paper will provide a solution to one specific problem that arises from this situation, namely the lack of tool/mechanism to demonstrate how an expert system is well-suited for supporting decision-making activities drawn from existing records and relevant legal requirements aligned existing records stored in various databases.We present a Rule-based reporting systems architecture, which is intended to integrate databases, in particular, relational databases, with a logic-based reasoner and rule engine to assist in decision-making or create reports according to legal norms. We argue that the resulting RuleRS provides an efficient and flexible solution to the problem at hand using defeasible inference. To this end, we have also conducted empirical evaluations of RuleRS performance. (shrink)

Islamism and Post-Islamism analyzes political thought in Iran since 1979. Seyed Javad Miri engages with one of the seminal thinkers in contemporary Iranian politics, Allama Jafari, on key relevant concepts.

In the present paper, I investigate the ways in which the grammar of God-talk in David B. Burrell’s philosophical theology comes to meet Muhammad Husiyn-i Tabatabai’s account of divine names, which has been developed in his theory of religious language. I begin the first part of the paper by introducing Tabatabai’s innovative articulation of the concept of Mental Construct and its relevance to his account of language and meaning. I, then, clarify how he proceeds to elucidate his conception of religious (...) language in terms of what he calls ‘focal meaning’, i.e. his idea of a true sense underlying the application of a word. In the second part of the article, Burrell’s methodology of God-talk is introduced and briefly discussed, before proceeding with interlocutory explanations as well as an examination of Tabatabai’s semantics of divine names. On the basis of Burrellian reading of via analogia, I propose a novel interpretation of the principle of focal meaning. This interpretation is particularly concerned with the most appropriate manner in which we can comprehend the literality of religious language. I conclude by explaining the way in which Burrell’s analysis is useful and elucidating for a contemporary interpretation of Tabatabai’s work. (shrink)

INTRODUCTION: BUILDING DEMOCRATIC STATES ON NATIONAL DIVERSITY Mohammad-Saïd Darviche & William Genieys Juan J. Linz is one of the most famous scholars in ...