In 2015, the major critical care societies issued guidelines outlining a procedural approach to resolving intractable conflict between healthcare professionals and surrogates over life-sustaining treatments (LST). We report our experience with a resolving conflict procedure. This was a retrospective, single-centre cohort study of ethics consultations involving intractable conflict over LST. The resolving conflict process was initiated eleven times for ten patients over 2,015 ethics consultations from 2000 to 2020. In all cases, the ethics committee recommended withdrawal of the contested LST. (...) In seven cases, the patient died or was transferred or a legal injunction was obtained before completion of the process. In the four cases in which LST was withdrawn, the time from ethics consultation to withdrawal of LST was 24.8 ± 12.2 days. Healthcare provider and surrogate were often distressed during the process, sometimes resulting in escalation of conflict and legal action. In some cases, however, surrogates appeared relieved that they did not have to make the final decision regarding LST. Challenges regarding implementation included the time needed for process completion and limited usefulness in emergent situations. Although it is feasible to implement a due process approach to conflict over LST, there are factors that limit the procedure’s usefulness. (shrink)

For a computable structure \, if there is a computable infinitary Scott sentence, then the complexity of this sentence gives an upper bound for the complexity of the index set \\). If we can also show that \\) is m-complete at that level, then there is a correspondence between the complexity of the index set and the complexity of a Scott sentence for the structure. There are results that suggest that these complexities will always match. However, it was shown in (...) Knight and McCoy that there is a structure ) for which the index set is m-complete \, though there is no computable \ Scott sentence. In the present paper, we give an example of a particular equivalence structure for which the index set is m-complete \ but for which there is no computable \ Scott sentence. There is, however, a computable \ pseudo-Scott sentence for the structure, that is, a sentence that acts as a Scott sentence if we only consider computable structures. (shrink)

Causes for celibacy, divorces and successful marriage are discussed in the article. Absence of true love and inability to build and keep it are the main reasons for family disruption. Amorousness, immature love and various forms of false or flawed love substitute the true feeling. It is caused by increased women’s independence, loss of mutual understanding and trust (due to infidelity or jealousy), incompatibility of characters or values. Celibacy is often conditioned by physical disability, revaluation of freedom and independence, huge (...) requirements to partners, consumer attitude to life, infertility, alcohol and drug abuse, abnormalities in personality and sexuality. (shrink)

The title of this article might quite well be given the more hackneyed form, Has Kant answered Hume? Much of the discussion pertains to this latter question, but as the aim is also to emphasize some points concerned with Kant himself a deviation in title may be permissible.

No one who is interested in the problem of value and attempts to read through the literature on the subject can fail to be struck by the extraordinary diversity of opinion. Some of this difference of view is traceable to ambiguities in language; there are various terms employed, each of which, of course, may or may not express anyvalid idea—terms like value, values, kinds of value, sorts of things that have value, value-objects, things that have value. The terms value and (...) values are subject to and lead to much confusion, even on the part of those who are aware of the existence of such a danger. Much of the difference may probably be due to two other importantfactors: first, the education and training in earlier years whereby emotional reactions to words instead of intelligent understanding of their meaning and validity are induced, and, second, the continual reliance upon moral experience, which reliance may seem to be necessary, but which may be invalidated by the consideration, generally overlooked and unappraised, that moral, like social, experience might not be what it is if certain views were not entertainedand did not prevail. The latter possibility would put moral and social studies on a plane quite different from that of physical investigations, for the moral and social inquirer would always have to bear in mind that the facts with which he is confronted, and to which he seeks to appeal, may exist to confront him and his fellowmen only in the sense that they arise from the acceptance and effectuation of a belief or theory, and would not be but for the effectuation of the belief or theory. The other factor, that of the influence of education and training upon emotional reactions, is also important in relation to a study of value, for it is necessary to be on guard against confusing reactions to words and reactions to objects, things, or situations. (shrink)

It is well known to readers of the Republic that, according to Plato's representation, a casual meeting of several friends develops into a sederunt for the express purpose of finding a solution to the question, what is justice? The question has its origin in the remark of the aged Cephalus, quoting Pindar, that whoever lives a life of justice and holiness, Sweet hope, the nourisher of age, his heart Delighting, with him lives; which most of all Governs the many veering (...) thoughts of man. (shrink)

v. 1. Philosophie. Rechtsphilosophie -- v. 2-4. Volkenrecht -- v. 5-6. Rechtsgeschiedenis. Burgerlijk recht. Procesrecht. Octrooirecht. Studie.

For the past two decades, matters biological have been given constant attention in our press - not only in specialized publications of natural science but in those aiming at the very broadest range of readers. After the meeting of the Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 1948, biological questions were arbitrarily converted into problems of the most purely political nature, and the struggle against dissenters was waged in this field with no less bitterness and with essentially the same means and (...) techniques as in the field of politics. There was the same attaching of derogatory labels for holding nonconforming views, the same reprisals against spokesmen for independent trends in science, the same persecution of honest people whose sole "guilt" lay in their disagreement with the views of Academician Lysenko and his followers, who called themselves "Michurinists." It sufficed merely to name a scientist - not even in the field of biology - a Morgan-Weismann-Mendelian, for the need to support the accusations against him with scientific argumentation automatically to disappear, while the individual who had been accused of the deadly sin of Morgan-Weismann-Mendelianism was immediately and just as automatically deprived of the opportunity to defend his views, prove them, or offer facts or theoretical arguments of whatever nature in support of them. In those melancholy times, it sufficed to label an honest man an enemy of the people to do away with him once and for all. The struggle in biology was a mirror image of what was then occurring throughout the land and was later defined as the cult of the individual, of Stalin. (shrink)

We analyse the effect of the regulatory T cells (Tregs) in the local control of the immune responses by T cells. We obtain an explicit formula for the level of antigenic stimulation of T cells as a function of the concentration of T cells and the parameters of the model. The relation between the concentration of the T cells and the antigenic stimulation of T cells is an hysteresis, that is unfold for some parameter values. We study the appearance of (...) autoimmunity from cross-reactivity between a pathogen and a self antigen or from bystander proliferation. We also study an asymmetry in the death rates. With this asymmetry we show that the antigenic stimulation of the Tregs is able to control locally the population size of Tregs. Other effects of this asymmetry are a faster immune response and an improvement in the simulations of the bystander proliferation. The rate of variation of the levels of antigenic stimulation determines if the outcome is an immune response or if Tregs are able to maintain control due to the presence of a transcritical bifurcation for some tuning between the antigenic stimuli of T cells and Tregs. This behavior is explained by the presence of a transcritical bifurcation. (shrink)

This anthology on creativity represents a lifetime of reading and study by the late Charles Dewey Tenney, a philosopher who had been a student of Alfred North Whitehead at Harvard. In a series of fourteen essays Tenney considers the various factors that can be identified in creativity, followed by the recorded testimony of philosophers, artists, historians, explorers, scientists and others, both theorists and practitioners. The contributors extend in time from Aristotle and Sophocles to Buckminster Fuller and May Sarton. They include (...) such diverse thinkers as Martin Luther, Karl Marx, Lewis Carroll, Julian Huxley, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Gertrude Stein, Henry Nelson Wieman and Alfred North Whitehead. In all, more than 300 of the world's most creative individuals are included. Contents: Discovery, Invention and Creation; Roots of Discovery; Environs of Discovery; Agents of Discovery; Hinderances to Discovery; Observation and Discovery; Reason in Discovery; Reverie Discovery; Imagination in Discovery; Sensibility and Discovery; Method in Discovery; Artistry in Discovery; Diffusion; and Foresight and Discovery. (shrink)

There can be no doubt that the process of differentiation of the sciences today is going forward with rising intensity. This process is expressed in two ways: in the appearance of new sciences and disciplines outside those already existing, and as the further subdivision of existing sciences into narrower and more fragmented disciplinary branches.

It may be most convenient to respond to Dr Andreae’s points in turn. Unless the claim that a child should determine its own genetic characteristics before it is conceived or born is intended to be flippant, it is logically incoherent. Conception is a decision that only a prospective parent can make. The editorial argument is that denial of choice of sex contributes to preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, particularly in developing countries. ….

THE question which I am to raise for discussion is one which has long been debated by philosophers, and consequently I consider it doubtful whether anything very new can be said on the matter. But it may be profitable to review once more the present position of the controversy and to have in mind the reasons which at present make the question of interest and of importance.

The article presents an approach to the formation of a decision support system in the management of energy consumption of production technological systems. Such systems allow the company to detect and respond in a timely manner to the appearance of hidden energy losses, to carry out organizational measures aimed at energy saving and to optimize the timing and scope of repair and restoration work. The approach is based on the modeling of stationary sections of energy consumption, presented in the form (...) of precedents, their accumulation and subsequent analysis in the space of influential technological parameters. In addition to the base of precedents, the system includes software modules for assessment and formation of the profile of hidden energy losses, modules of technical condition, forecast and formation of precedents. The analysis of precedents consists in the selection of similar cases of energy consumption, the formation of efficient energy consumption functions and the calculation of energy losses with its help. Hidden energy losses can be calculated in real time for all technological systems of the enterprise. This allows you to build a profile of energy losses of the enterprise. The advantage of this approach in comparison with the known ones is that it allows to adapt to technological systems with different energy sources. The article emphasizes that the method can work with the energy manager with both linear and nonlinear dependence of energy consumption on process parameters. However, the limitations of this approach are noted. Thus, the determination of latent energy losses and technical condition of the equipment requires the participation of qualified specialists of the enterprise, who must be able to analyze the results and propose measures to eliminate energy losses. (shrink)

The question of a new journal and the philosophical debate of 1947 In 1922-43 Soviet philosophers had their own journal titled Pod znamenem marksizma [Under the Banner of Marxism]. It came into being in early 1922 and its third issue contained Lenin's programmatic article "On the Significance of Militant Materialism" [O znachenii voinstvuiushchego materializma]. This journal published many good combative articles in its twenty years. But during the War it fell ill and in mid-1943 ceased to exist. It was not (...) discontinued. No, it simply lacked the strength to appear. Thereafter, we Soviet philosophers did not have our own journal for several years. The lack was felt especially keenly after the end of the Great Patriotic War when philosophical studies developed quickly in our country. A wide discussion of philosophical questions, especially contentious, controversial questions—and there were quite a few of them—became necessary but there was no forum for discussing them. This was also true of the critical analysis of the philosophical literature that was coming out: a rare review appeared from time to time in the existing journals, but it was clearly inadequate and, most importantly, it did not give a comprehensive evaluation of the merits and shortcomings of the published philosophical work. It seemed to us then that an unhealthy situation such as the one involving G. F. Aleksandrov's book The History of Western European Philosophy [Istoriia zapadnoevropeiskoi filosofii], which was not evaluated on its merits and, despite its serious flaws, was praised by admirers of the author's talent, could only arise in the absence of a philosophical journal. Had there been a journal, it could have helped to prevent such stuffy situations from arising in certain sections of the philosophical front. Obviously, this opinion was quite naive: at the time many of us did not understand that if Aleksandrov had had "his" man on the journal, no criticism of his book would have been permitted. We realized this later. (shrink)

The discovery of spectrum analysis occupies an important place on the long and thorny path of the advance of human knowledge toward the atoms, the stars, and the mastery of their laws. This great discovery was made one hundred years ago . The decisive role in this achievement belongs by right to two outstanding German scientists, Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff. This discovery simultaneously opened the path into the atomic world, making it possible to judge the internal structure of atoms (...) from their optical properties, and into the world of heavenly bodies, the chemical composition of whose substances was first determined by means of spectrum analysis. All this led to an unprecedented expansion of the field of scientific knowledge both in the direction of the investigation of microscopic objects in nature and in that of the study of macro-objects. But the most remarkable thing was that in their development both these trends in research proved to be interrelated. The penetration of science into the field of the macro-cosmos was a direct consequence of its more profound penetration into the field of the micro-cosmos. In a word, this was one of the boldest of scientific achievements, one that enabled human reason to penetrate into the depths of the substance of the earth and the cosmos, to know its properties, its composition, and its laws. (shrink)

The study of the problem of religious relations is of particular interest, since upon the annexation to Russia, during the years 1794-1796, and in some places until 1798, the almost complete elimination of the Uniate Church in Right-Bank Ukraine took place. This issue has been covered extensively in pre-revolutionary historiography, including at the local level. Thus, the history of the existence and liquidation of the Uniate Church in Podillya became the leading topic of research of the "Podolsky Diocesan Historical and (...) Statistical Committee". Another printed organ, where the church-historical information about Podolsk parishes, collected by priests, became Podilskie Eparchial Gazettes. The main idea behind the content of these studies was that Podillya was considered as originally Russian possession, and Orthodoxy was the only possible denomination of the land. (shrink)