Walter Burley is mostly known for his defense of realism against William of Ockham. The concept of time that he developed in his late literal commentary on Aristotle's Physics has even been labelled 'extremely realistic,' in contrast to William of Ockham's so-called 'extremely subjectivistic' alternative. However, as is shown in this article, when Burley's concept of time is viewed against the background of medieval theories of time, it appears that it is mainly a restatement and further elaboration of opinions held (...) by Averroes. A detailed investigation of Burley's explanation of the reality, definition, and unicity of time, as well as of the relation between time and the intellective soul shows that his realism is certainly far less extreme than it has been believed. (shrink)

The argument that automatic processes are responsible for affective/evaluative priming effects has been primarily based on studies that have manipulated the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA; i.e., the interval between the onset of the prime and the onset of the target). Moreover, these SOA studies provide an insight in the time course of the activation processes underlying automatic affect/attitude activation. Based on a fine-grained manipulation of the SOA employing either the evaluative decision task (Experiment 1) and the pronunciation task (Experiment 2) (...) we concluded that affective priming, and hence automatic affect activation, is based on fast-acting automatic processes. The results of Experiment 3 provide a valid explanation for an apparent discrepancy between the results of Experiments 1 and 2 and previous findings. Finally, the results of Experiment 3 support the prediction of Jarvis and Petty (1996) that affective priming effects should be stronger for participants who are more chronically engaged in conscious evaluations. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Das Mittelalter Jahrgang: 20 Heft: 2 Seiten: 311-326.

In the 1970s Codd introduced the relational algebra, with operators selection, projection, union, difference and product, and showed that it is equivalent to first-order logic. In this paper, we show that if we replace in Codd’s relational algebra the product operator by the “semijoin” operator, then the resulting “semijoin algebra” is equivalent to the guarded fragment of first-order logic. We also define a fixed point extension of the semijoin algebra that corresponds to μGF.

This publication forms a basis for the interdisciplinary development of a certification system for artificial intelligence. In view of the rapid development of artificial intelligence with disruptive and lasting consequences for the economy, society, and everyday life, it highlights the resulting challenges that can be tackled only through interdisciplinary dialogue between IT, law, philosophy, and ethics. As a result of this interdisciplinary exchange, it also defines six AI-specific audit areas for trustworthy use of artificial intelligence. They comprise fairness, transparency, autonomy (...) and control, data protection as well as security and reliability while addressing ethical and legal requirements. The latter are further substantiated with the aim of operationalizability. (shrink)

Die vorliegende Publikation dient als Grundlage für die interdisziplinäre Entwicklung einer Zertifizierung von Künstlicher Intelligenz. Angesichts der rasanten Entwicklung von Künstlicher Intelligenz mit disruptiven und nachhaltigen Folgen für Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft und Alltagsleben verdeutlicht sie, dass sich die hieraus ergebenden Herausforderungen nur im interdisziplinären Dialog von Informatik, Rechtswissenschaften, Philosophie und Ethik bewältigen lassen. Als Ergebnis dieses interdisziplinären Austauschs definiert sie zudem sechs KI-spezifische Handlungsfelder für den vertrauensvollen Einsatz von Künstlicher Intelligenz: Sie umfassen Fairness, Transparenz, Autonomie und Kontrolle, Datenschutz sowie Sicherheit und (...) Verlässlichkeit und adressieren dabei ethische und rechtliche Anforderungen. Letztere werden mit dem Ziel der Operationalisierbarkeit weiter konkretisiert. (shrink)

Modern research has established the prejudice that Diocletian focused on defending Roman law against the influence of primitive legal concepts of non-Roman origin and aimed to protect classical law from any kind of change. This is based, on the one hand, on circular textual criticism, which declared all innovations in the jurisprudence of Diocletian’s chancellery to be the result of later alterations of the primary texts, and, on the other hand, on the assumption that the parties to a dispute confronted (...) the emperor directly with their own legal ideas, even though they knew that he judged only according to Roman law. An unbiased examination of Diocletian’s decisions on the law of obligations reveals a completely different picture: The rulings by which Diocletian’s chancellery purportedly reacted to popular legal ideas can almost always be explained by misunderstandings which stem from the concepts of classical Roman law itself. And once liberated from the exaggerated textual criticism of the 20th century, one can identify a variety of innovations that are more in keeping with Diocletian’s character than the obstinate conservatism that is commonly attributed to him in legal matters. (shrink)

To discuss moral behavior in organizations, a growing number of authors turn to a ‘virtue ethics’ approach. Central to this approach is the so-called moral character of individuals in organizations: a well-developed moral character enables organizational members to deal with the specific moral issues they encounter during their work. If a virtue ethics perspective is seen as relevant, one may ask how organizations can facilitate that their members can exercise and develop their moral character. In this paper, we argue that (...) the way tasks are defined and interlinked has a profound influence on “exercising and developing moral character”—it can enhance and frustrate it. In order to show how structures may support organizational members to exercise and develop their moral virtues, the paper first describes what it means to exercise and develop virtues in an organizational setting and what is required for it. Next, the paper sets out to explain how specific values on different structural parameters at different structural levels relate to exercising virtues in organizations. (shrink)

This intervention study explored the effects of a newly developed intergenerational encounter program on cross-generational age stereotyping. Based on a biographical-narrative approach, participants were invited to share ideas about existential questions of life. Therefore, the dyadic Life Story Interview had been translated into a group format, consisting of 10 90-min sessions. Analyses verified that LSEP participants of both generations showed more favorable CGAS immediately after, but also 3 months after the program end. Such change in CGAS was absent in a (...) control group. The LSEP-driven short- and long-term effects on CGAS could be partially explained by two program benefits, the feeling of comfort with and the experience of learning from the other generation. (shrink)

In the 1970s Codd introduced the relational algebra, with operators selection, projection, union, difference and product, and showed that it is equivalent to first-order logic. In this paper, we show that if we replace in Codd’s relational algebra the product operator by the “semijoin” operator, then the resulting “semijoin algebra” is equivalent to the guarded fragment of first-order logic. We also define a fixed point extension of the semijoin algebra that corresponds to μGF.

The "West," the "Atlantic community," the "transatlantic alliance"--these were expressions used widely during the decades of east-west conflict, distinguishing the West from the negative image of the eastern bloc. The end of the old political order in Eastern Europe gave the Atlantic community the opportunity to redefine its self-image. In this book, high-ranking experts and politicians examine the question of whether and to what extent this chance was used. The highly endorsed values of this community are put to the test (...) here and the idea of a "civic society" discussed: is it the appropriate groundwork for a new bridge across the Atlantic? (shrink)

John R. Searle is one of the world's leading philosophers. During his long and outstanding career, he has made groundbreaking and lasting contributions to the philosophy of language, to the philosophy of mind, as well as to the nature, structure, and functioning of social reality. This volume documents the 13th Münster Lectures on Philosophy with John R. Searle. It includes not only 11 critical papers on Searle's philosophy and Searle's replies to the papers, but also an original article by John (...) R. Searle on his overall philosophical enterprise entitled "The Basic Reality and the Human Reality". -/- "I think Münster is probably unique among contemporary universities in its ability to produce such a high level of philosophical production from their philosophy students." - John R. Searle. (shrink)

In affective Simon studies, participants are to select between a positive and negative response on the basis of a nonaffective stimulus feature (i.e., relevant stimulus feature) while ignoring the valence of the presented stimuli (i.e., irrelevant stimulus feature). De Houwer and Eelen (1998) showed that the time to select the correct response is influenced by the match between the valence of the response and the (irrelevant) valence of the stimulus. In the affective Simon studies that have been reported until now, (...) only words were used as stimuli and the relevant stimulus feature was always the grammatical category of the words. We report four experiments in which we examined the generality of the affective Simon effect. Significant affective Simon effects were found when the semantic category, grammatical category, and letter-case of words was relevant, when the semantic category of photographed objects was relevant, and when participants were asked to give nonverbal approach or avoidance responses on the basis of the grammatical category of words. Results also showed that the magnitude of the affective Simon effect depended on the nature of the relevant feature. (shrink)

Primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) shows a highly variable disease progression with poor prognosis and a characteristic accumulation of disabilities in patients. These hallmarks of PPMS make it difficult to diagnose and currently impossible to efficiently treat. This study aimed to identify plasma metabolite profiles that allow diagnosis of PPMS and its differentiation from the relapsing-remitting subtype (RRMS), primary neurodegenerative disease (Parkinson’s disease, PD), and healthy controls (HCs) and that significantly change during the disease course and could serve as surrogate (...) markers of multiple sclerosis (MS)-associated neurodegeneration over time. We applied untargeted high-resolution metabolomics to plasma samples to identify PPMS-specific signatures, validated our findings in independent sex- and age-matched PPMS and HC cohorts and built discriminatory models by partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). This signature was compared to sex- and age-matched RRMS patients, to patients with PD and HC. Finally, we investigated these metabolites in a longitudinal cohort of PPMS patients over a 24-month period. PLS-DA yielded predictive models for classification along with a set of 20 PPMS-specific informative metabolite markers. These metabolites suggest disease-specific alterations in glycerophospholipid and linoleic acid pathways. Notably, the glycerophospholipid LysoPC(20:0) significantly decreased during the observation period. These findings show potential for diagnosis and disease course monitoring, and might serve as biomarkers to assess treatment efficacy in future clinical trials for neuroprotective MS therapies. (shrink)

This paper develops propositions on the added value for SMEs of normatively based, employee-oriented corporate social responsibility (CSR). We suggest that not only motives but also the skills of the owner/manager as an institutional entrepreneur are critical in dealing with institutional variance. Also, the transfer of employee-oriented CSR can have positive results for SMEs that could imply that globalisation is not only a race to the bottom.

The essays reflect the work of a broad spectrum of disciplines in humanities and cultural studies. They present a new vision of the early modern era, which attempts to register the diverse and contradictory nature of early modern culture, transcending unambiguous notions of development such as "modernization" or "secularization.".

Activation of resting T lymphocytes through the T cell antigen receptor complex is initiated by critical phosphorylation and dephosphorylation events that regulate the function and interaction of a number of signaling molecules. Key elements in these reactions are members of the Src, Syk and Csk families of protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) and the phosphotyrosine phosphatases (PTPases) that regulate and/or counteract them, such as CD45. The PTKs can autophosphorylate and phosphorylate each other at multiple sites and, as the result of these (...) interactions, they are induced to phosphorylate other cellular proteins. These phosphorylation events lead to modulation of enzymatic activities and/or serve as binding sites for other signaling molecules having phosphotyrosine‐binding Src homology 2 (SH2) domains. As a result, these proteins translocate to the receptor complexes and are juxtaposed to the kinases that phosphorylate them. Some of the SH2‐domain‐containing polypeptides lack enzymatic activities and, instead, serve as adapter molecules that couple the signal to downstream effectors, such as regulators of the Ras proteins, and further into serine/threonine‐specific protein kinase cascades. Through largely unknown steps these reactions lead to the transcription of previously silent genes, activation of lymphocyte effector functions, progression through the cell cycle and cell proliferation. (shrink)

Though educators often deal with stressful social conflicts, many face them ad hoc without much training. We studied if and how virtual agents can help University staff manage student-teacher conflicts. We explored educators' verbal, behavioral, and physiological reactions to a virtual agent that brought up a student-teacher conflict and held exit-interviews. Our qualitative analysis revealed that virtual agents for conflict training were positively received, but not for conflict mediation with cross-cultural differences. Those with non-Western backgrounds felt that an agent could (...) help “save face,” whereas Westerners preferred to resolve conflicts in person. In line with this, participants with a Western background rated the virtual agent to be less competent compared to those with non-Western backgrounds. While physiological measures only allow for limited conclusions, we found that participants who believed that the agent was controlled by a human had higher normalized hear rate variability than people who thought that the agent was autonomous. We discuss implications for implementing virtual agents for training purposes, the impact of physiological signals, and the need to consider cultural and individual differences. (shrink)

The maintenance of genetic integrity is of vital importance to all living organisms. However, DNA – the carrier of genetic information – is continuously subject to damage induced by numerous agents from the environment and endogenous cellular metabolites. To prevent the deleterious consequences of DNA injury, an intricate network of repair systems has evolved. The biological impact of these repair mechanisms is illustrated by a number of genetic diseases that are characterized by a defect in one of the repair machineries (...) and in general predispose individuals to cancer. This article intends to review our current understanding of the complex nucleotide excision repair pathway, a universal repair system with a broad lesion specificity. Emphasis will be on the recent advances in the genetic analysis of this process in mammalian cells. (shrink)