Background Research involves the systematic collection and analysis of data to enhance understanding of a particular phenomenon. Participation in medical research is crucial for advancing healthcare practices. However, there has been limited focus on understanding the factors that motivate medical students to engage in research. Additionally, in the era of e-learning, the easy accessibility of online resources has contributed to a widespread ‘copy-paste culture’ among digital-native students, which is recognized in academia as plagiarism. Existing studies suggest that a contributing factor (...) to the increasing prevalence of plagiarism is students’ limited understanding of this act. The purpose of this study was to assess medical students’ attitudes toward research and plagiarism, and to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Attitudes Toward Research (ATR) and Attitudes Toward Plagiarism (ATP) questionnaires. Methods This was a multicenter study conducted among medical undergraduate and postgraduate students attending the three medical universities who were involved in research. Students’ attitudes toward research and plagiarism were assessed using the ATR and ATP questionnaires. The research instruments underwent translation and cultural adaptation in accordance with internationally accepted methodology. The psychometric properties of the ATR and ATP, including validity and reliability, were assessed. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the model’s fit to the data. Results The ATR and ATP questionnaires were completed by 793 medical students who were involved in research (647 undergraduates and 146 PhD students). Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.917 and 0.822 indicated excellent and good scale reliability for the ATR and ATP questionnaires, respectively. The five-and three- factor structures of ATR and ATP have been validated with maximum likelihood confirmatory analysis, and the results demonstrated an adequate level of model fit (TLI = 0.930, CFI = 0.942 and TLI = 0.924, CFI = 0.943, respectively). Medical students showed a high degree of positive attitudes toward research and favorable scores across all three domains of attitudes toward plagiarism. In multivariate regression models, age was found to be positively associated with favorable attitudes of research usefulness, positive attitudes, relevance to life subscales and total ATR scale (p < 0.001), while PhD study level was related to research anxiety (p < 0.001) and favorable attitudes across all three ATP domains (p < 0.001). Conclusion Medical students who were involved in research showed a high degree of favorable attitudes toward research and plagiarism. Adjusting medical school curricula to include research courses would broaden the students’ interest in scientific research and maximize their impact on the full preservation of research ethics and integrity. (shrink)

Human nature, regardless of how we perceive it, whether from an ethical or psychological standpoint, is arguably such that it prevents the overwhelming majority of people from killing other humans....

In diesem Aufsatz wird betrachtet die Frage des Verhältnisses zwischen Natur und Menschen ausgehend vom alten unreflektierten Gebrauch des Ausdrucks Ethos im Sinne des gewöhnten Lebensortes, das von den es bewohnenden Lebewesen in bestimmten Ausmasse gestaltet wird. Diese Ausgangsposition wird weiter ausgearbeitet durch Begriffe des Heimortes bzw. der Heimwelt und Heimat. Verfasser vertritt die Auffassung, wonach dieser überlieferter Ethos-begriff den entsprechenden modernen Begriff nicht zu ersetzen vermag, er kann aber immerhin als seine zusätzliche Sinnbeilage verstanden werden. Die Letztere zeigt vielmehr (...) eine unerwartete Aktualität mit Rücksicht auf die gegenwärtige Problematik der Ökologie sowie Biodiversität. Hierbei wird vor allem die Frage geöffnet, welche Arten des Bewohnens als auch des Bodenkultivierens des jeweiligen Wohnortes sollen vorgezogen, und welche dagegen unterlassen werden. Als ein Imperativ hebt Verfasser die Notwendigkeit hervor eines umsichtigen Beziehens zu den anderen Lebewesen, zur Vegetation und natürlichen Umwelt mit denen wir das planetare Wohnort teilen, begleitet mit dem Respekt zur anderen, nicht-menschlichen Lebensformen sowie zu ihrem Wohlbefinden. (shrink)

It is generally claimed that there exist exceptional circumstances when taking human life may be approved and when such actions may be justified on moral grounds. Precise guidelines in the medical field for making such decisions concerning patients who are terminally ill or have irreparable injuries incompatible with a bearable life, are difficult to establish. Recommendations that take the particular logical form of a rule, such as "in dubio pro vita", "when in doubt favour life") have been suggested and in (...) some countries incorporated into legal texts (Germany). We claim here that such a rule is of no value since it is open-ended and always allows for doubt, and a decision to employ measures that would support human life could always be argued to be a valid choice. Preservation of this rule could be encouraged, but giving it the force of law may put physicians at risk, as they may be challenged for choosing to terminate life in otherwise ethically and medically uncontroversial circumstances. (shrink)

The paper gives an overview of recent doctrines of legal interpretation that can be subsumed under the common name “institutional turn” in theories of legal interpretation. Among the reviewed theoretical positions are the ones from Jeremy Wаldron, Victoria Nourse, Cass Sunstein, Adrian Vermeule, Scott Shapiro. It is concluded that the institutional turn in legal interpretation offers some significant insights into legal interpretation and interesting perspectives on the appropriate interpretative methodologies. The turn, however, does this by eschewing parts of traditional accounts (...) of legal interpretation that are arguably worth preserving in any theory of legal interpretation. (shrink)

John Dewey, one of the most important thinkers of pragmatism, elaborated a specific conception of law partially and gradually in the long course of his intellectual career. This part of his broader philosophical outlook is analyzed here through one of its most important segments - application of law - and interpreted in its historical, social and cultural background. The first part of the article concentrates on the 'objective' reasons for giving emphasis to the application of law in his legal philosophy. (...) This domination of the application of law in his legal thought is derived from the needs of a rapidly changing structure of the American society in the first half of the XX century, and theoretically has its place in an all around phenomenon in American intellectual history in general that Morton White terms antiformalism. The second part of the article analyses his legal conceptions and their connection with the general philosophical position of this pragmatist. Dewey formed his conception of application of law as an integral part of his broader philosophical standpoint, and especially on the basis of his radical reinterpretation of logic and truth. Since his understanding of the legal process has roots in his experimentalist conception of logic that encompasses the apprehension of the process of experimentation as the only warrant for the validity of propositions, he regards application as conditio sine qua non of the legality of norms in general. This leads us to the last part of the article that scathes possible lines of critical approach to Dewey's work in this field. The view that the legality of norms is derived from their application is in legal theory often regarded as sociologism, inasmuch as it disregards the normative aspects of the legal process and emphasizes the social ones to the point of making it void of the normative aspects in the totality of the process itself. The proper understanding of possible lines of criticism of Dewey's standpoints in legal philosophy guides us back again to confront his conceptions with their cultural background, with which the article begins. Autor se u clanku bavi koncepcijom primjene prava u filozofiji Dzona Djuija, pragmatiste bez presedana u obuhvatnosti i temeljnosti bavljenja filozofskim problemima, cije je misljenje na ovim prostorima rijetko bilo predmet razmatranja. Zamisljen kao uvodno ispitivanje filozofsko-pravne problematike u Djuijevoj filozofiji, clanak u prvom dijelu razmatra odnos njegove filozofije prava i americkog kulturnog konteksta. U drugom dijelu je izlozeno Djuijevo shvatanje primjene prava i konfrontirano je s njegovim opstim filozofskim tezama, u prvom redu s koncepcijom logike kao 'ispitivanja ispitivanja'. Konacno, autor pokusava da ocrta osnovne smjernice kritickog pristupa Djuijevim rjesenjima filozofsko-pravnih problema. (shrink)

Recent advances in the neuroscience of episodic memory provide a framework to integrate object relations theory, a psychoanalytic model of mind development, with potential neural mechanisms. Object relations are primordial cognitive-affective units of the mind derived from survival- and safety-level experiences with caretakers during phase-sensitive periods of infancy and toddlerhood. Because these are learning experiences, their neural substrate likely involves memory, here affect-enhanced episodic memory. Inaugural object relations are encoded by the hippocampus-amygdala synaptic plasticity, and systems-consolidated by medial prefrontal cortex (...) (mPFC). Self- and object-mental representations, extracted from these early experiences, are at first dichotomized by contradictory affects evoked by frustrating and rewarding interactions (“partial object relations”). Such affective dichotomization appears to be genetically hardwired the amygdala. Intrinsic propensity of mPFC to form schematic frameworks for episodic memories may pilot non-conscious integration of dichotomized mental representations in neonates and infants. With the emergence of working memory in toddlers, an activated self- and object-representation of a particular valence can be juxtaposed with its memorized opposites creating a balanced cognitive-affective frame (conscious “integration of object relations”). Specific events of object relations are forgotten but nevertheless profoundly influence the mental future of the individual, acting (i) as implicit schema-affect templates that regulate attentional priorities, relevance, and preferential assimilation of new information based on past experience, and (ii) as basic units of experience that are, under normal circumstances, integrated as attractors or “focal points” for interactive self-organization of functional brain networks that underlie the mind. A failure to achieve integrated object relations is predictive of poor adult emotional and social outcomes, including personality disorder. Cognitive, cellular-, and systems-neuroscience of episodic memory appear to support key postulates of object relations theory and help elucidate neural mechanisms of psychodynamic psychotherapy. Derived through the dual prism of psychoanalysis and neuroscience, the gained insights may offer new directions to enhance mental health and improve treatment of multiple forms of psychopathology. (shrink)

Not so long ago, a well institutionalized predatory journal exposed itself by publishing a hoax article that blew the whistle for its devastating influence on the academic affairs of a small country. This paper puts that experiment in context, gives all the important details and analyzes the results. The experiment was inspired by well-known cases of scientific activism and is in line with recent efforts against predatory publishers. The paper presents the evidence in detail and uses it to analyze the (...) publishing practices of the offending journal, using established criteria for assessing predatory publications. That journal somehow acquired an impact factor and charged money to publish thousands of “scientific” papers without any peer review. Since the impact factor is the major official evaluation criteria for scientists in Serbia, these papers disturbed the whole academic evaluation process. Credentials acquired by those publications form a strong obstacle to institutionalized reasoned efforts against such practices. This case warns the whole community of the long lasting damage when journals with low publishing ethics are taken seriously. (shrink)

In this paper, I will examine epistocracy as a form of limiting the political agency of some citizens (by removing their political rights) and offer an internal critique of it. I will argue that epistocracy runs into a number of logical and epistemic problems in trying to define who should be the members of an epistocratic polity. Furthermore, I will argue that the argument for epistocracy cannot ignore unjust background conditions. I will also suggest that some of the problems epistocracy (...) attempts to correct can be solved in a more just way, while preserving democracy. (shrink)

Ako je u antičkom polisu Platona brinulo što se građani samodovoljno oslanjaju na vlastita uvjerenja o vrlinama, ne tragajući za znanjem, današnjeg žitelja globalnog pseudopolisa opčinjavaju simulirane informacije, slike i uvjerenja koja nezamislivim bujanjem kreiraju društvenu svijest. U sjenci masmedijskih pećina uočavaju se obrisi transformirane demokracije koja je sve izloženija silovitim naletima megakorporativnih interesa, dominantnih geopolitičkih utjecaja, kulturnog determinizma i redefiniranog vjerskog fundamentalizma. Usamljenom pojedincu na Agori sve je teže formirati i sačuvati vlastito mišljenje, ideje i vrijednosti. Infoprostor je pokriven (...) globalnom mrežom informacija i podataka, dok čin razmjene simboličkih sadržaja od čovjeka preuzimaju strojevi! Sloboda izražavanja medija je kisik otvorenog, javnog komuniciranja, stup demokratskih građevina, ali problem je u činjenici što čuvari informacijskih ulaza i dalje stražare, ovoga puta pred cyberprostorima.If Plato was upset that people leaned on their own convictions about virtues, without seeking knowledge, present resident of global pseudopolis is obsessed by simulated information, pictures and convictions, which create social consciousness with their hyperproduction. In shadow of massmedia’s caves, contours of transformed democracy can be seen. This democracy is more and more exposed to the interests of megacorporations, dominant geopolitical influence, cultural determinism, and redefined fundamentalism. Under such circumstances, to some lonely individual, “in Athena’s Agora”, is even more difficult to form and keep his or her own opinion, ideas and values. Infospace is covered by global network of information and facts; the process of symbolic exchange is taken off humans by machines. Freedom of speech in media is the air of open, public communication, the pillar of democratic structures, but problem is that watchmen of “information gates” still standing guard, but this time in front of cyber spaces. (shrink)

In the first part of the paper, the author tackles the question of troubadour subjectivity. The subject of the poem announces the losing of oneself, abandonment of the existing state of affairs and self-surrender, but sees no tragedy in it, for a source of genuine joy. Love deserves sacrifice, it is worthy of all human desire, but it is not a conventional love, neither marital nor family love, rather, it is an ethereal and poetic love for Our Lady. For everything (...) that may be related to such love, we believe that a far more appropriate translation of gaya scienza is a joyful lesson, for it signifies far more to mark the troubadour point than the usual [Croatian/Serbian] translation cheerful doctrine. What is notably striking about the inherited solution is the complete misapprehension of the troubadour point, as the word science can only be associated with the troubadour wisdom if it is previously put in quotes. In short, the author concludes that a democratic scientist is happy and optimistic, while Nietzsche’s »joyful« scientist does not hesitate to show his anguished face publicly. The troubadour’s anguish for distant and unrealizable love is peculiarly close to Nietzsche’s suffering in a modern world that seems unable to live in a world of a distant and absent God. (shrink)

When teaching a novel mathematical concept, should we present learners with abstract or concrete examples? In this experiment, we conduct a critical replication and extension of a well‐known study that argued for the general advantage of abstract examples (Kaminski, Sloutsky, & Heckler, 2008a). We demonstrate that theoretically motivated yet minor modifications of the learning design put this argument in question. A key finding from this study is that participants who trained with improved concrete examples performed as well as, or better (...) than, participants who trained with abstract examples. We argue that the previously reported “advantage of abstract examples” manifested not because abstract examples are advantageous in general, but because the concrete condition employed suboptimal examples. (shrink)

The main goal of this work is to present the proof-theoretical and model-theoretical approaches to probabilistic logics which allow reasoning about independence and probabilistic support. We extend the existing formalisms [14] to obtain several variants of probabilistic logics by adding the operators for independence and confirmation to the syntax. We axiomatize these logics, provide corresponding semantics, prove that the axiomatizations are sound and strongly complete, and discuss decidability issues.

Optimization, in general, is regarded as the process of finding optimal values for the variables of a given problem in order to minimize or maximize one or more objective function(s). Brain storm optimization (BSO) algorithm solves a complex optimization problem by mimicking the human idea generating process, in which a group of people solves a problem together. The aim of this paper is to present hybrid BSO algorithm solutions in the past 5 years. This study could be divided into two (...) parts: strategies and applications. In the first part, different strategies for the hybrid BSO algorithms intended to improve the various ability of the original BSO algorithm are displayed. In the second part, the real-world applications in the past five years in optimization, prediction and feature selection processes are presented. (shrink)

ntroduction Since China’s gradualist reform started in the early 1980s, its governance record has been relatively successful. Despite a large number of severe challenges, the government in Beijing has managed outstanding economic performance and large-scale social transformation (Naughton 2007). Overall, the regime seems to enjoy relatively high levels of public support (Gilley 2006; Wang 2009), and a reform and state-building process controlled by the ruling Chinese Communist Party looks set to continue for the next ten to 20 years. One key (...) element of the Chinese political or governing system is management of its Party and government officials, or “cadres” in its own terminology. We argue that the Party-state’s personnel management features a meritocratic system that has so far largely evaded scholarly attention. This system retains strong influences from the Confucian scholar-official tradition of China’s imperial past, as well as the Leninist “vanguard party” tradition that was established in the revolutionary and Maoist eras. In recent years, however, this system has paid increasing attention to nurturing managerial competence for the purpose of administering a modern economy and a modern society. How the Party attempts to strike a balance between political loyalty and professional competence is the focus of this study. We will examine several aspects of the Chinese cadre management system. These include the formal rules, institutions, and actual practices regarding (1) recruitment, (2) development, and (3) promotion of officials. From this analysis we will understand how political loyalty and professional competence are defined and measured in the Party’s personnel regime, and how a balance is sought between the two. We will also look at the changes that are taking place in the relative importance, or weights, of these two criteria as the Party-state tries to build a modern governance machine. We find that while political reliability and commitment still feature prominently when the Party staffs the state and party bodies, rapid economic development and social changes have amplified the need for capable and competent managers and administrators, in order to deliver successful governance. Whereas in the past political loyalty played a crucial role for officials’ success within the state ranks, today professional competence has become more central. Whether this trend will continue, to a future state in which political loyalty becomes almost irrelevant, will be discussed toward the end of the chapter. (shrink)

The wider topic to which the content of this paper belongs is that of the relationship between formal logic and real argumentation. Of particular potential interest in this connection are held to be substantive arguments constructed by philosophers reputed equally as authorities in logical theory. A number of characteristics are tentatively indicated by the author as likely to be encountered in such arguments. The discussion centers afterwards, by way of specification, on a remarkable piece of argument quoted in Cicero’s dialog (...) On Divination and ascribed to Stoic thinkers. The Stoics’ formal theory of inference is summarily referred to in this context, with special emphasis on their basic deductive schemata (‘indemonstrables’), some of them recognizable as links in the overall structure of the quoted argument. The main lines of Cicero’s criticism of the Stoic argument are next commented upon, with emphasis on his implied view as to the requirements of a good argument. Towards the end of the paper, a few considerations are added on the changes in the prevailing style of argumentation conspicuous in the three famous Roman Stoics. (shrink)