This paper describes an Intelligent Tutoring System for helping users with ADO.NET called ADO-Tutor. The Intelligent Tutoring System was designed and developed using (ITSB) authoring tool for building intelligent educational systems. The user learns through the intelligent tutoring system ADO.NET, the technology used by Microsoft.NET to connect to databases. The material includes lessons, examples, and questions. Through the feedback provided by the intelligent tutoring system, the user's understanding of the material is assessed, and accordingly can be guided to different difficulty (...) level of exercises and/or the lessons. The Intelligent Tutoring System was evaluated by a group of users and the results were more than satisfactory in terms of the quality of the material and the design of the system. (shrink)

The general and sports psychology research is limited regarding the difference between the effects of verbal encouragement or compliment methods during high-intensity functional exercise testing. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of VE and compliments on the performance of the repeated change-of-direction sprint test. A total of 36 male students in secondary school participated voluntarily in the study. They were divided equally into three homogeneous groups [VE group, compliment group, and control group) and performed a standardized (...) one repetition RCOD. The RCOD test consisted of a 100°change in the direction at every 4 m. Outcomes included performance indices, rating of perceived exertion, and feeling scale scores. VE and the compliment increased the performance indices and RPE compared with the control group. In conclusion, VE during the exercise testing would be more beneficial for optimal performance and RPE compared with the compliment and control groups. However, the moods, during RCOD, reproduce more positively during compliment conditions than the VE and control groups. (shrink)

Robert Veatch was a notable and prolific author in a variety of areas in philosophy, health care practice, and policy. However, it is evident by the sheer number of case study in ethics books, eighteen editions of case collections in all, that this approach to teaching ethics in the health sciences was especially important to him. A few of these case study collections he wrote alone, but the majority were written with co-authors from nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, allied health, and medicine, (...) drawing on their respective areas of disciplinary expertise and experience as educators. The aim of this article is to focus on the pedagogy and framework Veatch developed to expose students to the rudiments of philosophical ethics so they could understand the conflicts between values, principles, and ethical theories. Authentic clinical cases, he believed, were a useful way to engage students. Putting the two ideas together, Veatch argued the best method of structuring cases is “bootlegging theory in a topical structure” (Veatch, Robert M., Case analysis in ethics instruction. In: Amy Haddad (ed) Teaching and learning strategies in pharmacy ethics, Creighton University, Omaha, 85–97, 1992). Veatch’s rationale for this carefully planned systematic arrangement between case topics and philosophical ethics content are presented. The influence and input of co-authors from different disciplines are explored regarding case development and commentary content. Finally, the impact of these interdisciplinary case study textbooks on ethics instruction in the health sciences is evaluated. (shrink)

This book places thermodynamics on a system-theoretic foundation so as to harmonize it with classical mechanics. Using the highest standards of exposition and rigor, the authors develop a novel formulation of thermodynamics that can be viewed as a moderate-sized system theory as compared to statistical thermodynamics. This middle-ground theory involves deterministic large-scale dynamical system models that bridge the gap between classical and statistical thermodynamics. The authors' theory is motivated by the fact that a discipline as cardinal as thermodynamics--entrusted with some (...) of the most perplexing secrets of our universe--demands far more than physical mathematics as its underpinning. Even though many great physicists, such as Archimedes, Newton, and Lagrange, have humbled us with their mathematically seamless eurekas over the centuries, this book suggests that a great many physicists and engineers who have developed the theory of thermodynamics seem to have forgotten that mathematics, when used rigorously, is the irrefutable pathway to truth. This book uses system theoretic ideas to bring coherence, clarity, and precision to an extremely important and poorly understood classical area of science. (shrink)

This article analyses the drama surrounding the activism of female imams in North America. The image of Muslim women presiding over mixed congregational prayers evokes dramatically divergent responses among different Muslim constituencies, highlighting the disputed nature of fundamental issues pertaining to identity, community and authority. Provocative questions are raised: Can Islamic texts and communities of interpreters accommodate female religious authorities? Is it in the interest of Muslim women to seek empowerment within a domain of communal life in which male authority (...) has traditionally been dominant in all Sunni and most Shi'ite denominations? Do efforts to advance women within such contexts promise to help bridge the gap between ‘Islam’ and the ‘West’, or merely underscore existing divisions and political motivations? In particular we explore two prominent figures, Amina Wadud and Asra Nomani, and each woman's understanding of basic textual debates, conception of Muslim women's needs, and perspective on themes pertaining to ‘Islamic—North American’ relations. Throughout this article, an attempt will also be made to clarify a central paradox of the North American imamah phenomenon: that it is both a highly contingent response to specific cultural and political circumstances and a manifestation of long-term negotiations within the larger Muslim community that favour the opening of new spaces for women within religious and social life. (shrink)

In the study of _Lawāmiʿ al-Naẓar_, Ibrahim Safri presents a history of rational sciences in the Maghribī tradition in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. He also presents a critical edition of the work, which can be considered as an introduction to post-Avicennian studies in North Africa.

In this paper an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model, for predicting the category of a tumor was developed and tested. Taking patients’ tests, a number of information gained that influence the classification of the tumor. Such information as age, sex, histologic-type, degree-of-diffe, status of bone, bone-marrow, lung, pleura, peritoneum, liver, brain, skin, neck, supraclavicular, axillar, mediastinum, and abdominal. They were used as input variables for the ANN model. A model based on the Multilayer Perceptron Topology was established and trained using (...) data set which its title is “primary tumor” and was obtained from the University Medical Centre, Institute of Oncology, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia Test data evaluation shows that the ANN model is able to correctly predict the tumor category with 76.67 % accuracy. (shrink)

This book is the culmination of over twenty years of work toward a pedagogical theory that promotes experiential learning of model-laden theory and inquiry in science.

This paper is an evaluation and expansion of William Hasker’s transcendental argument against determinism. Hasker’s argument attempts to show that determinism is logically incompatible with rationality and justified belief. Hasker claims this argument to be conclusive given two independent qualifications: first that the argument only applies to a specific form of determinism, and second that the argument rests on a specific conception of rationality. My aim in this paper will be to modify and expand Hasker’s argument such that it (1) (...) applies to the more general deterministic thesis (as defined below), and (2), rests on a modified epistemic conception of rationally unaffirmable beliefs. I will attempt to do (2) by modeling Hasker’s argument after one of Alvin Plantinga’s epistemological arguments against naturalism, and hope to show that such an argumentative model is superior for the conclusion Hasker wishes to bring out. I will begin by explicating Hasker’s argument, and then I will move to the modification and expansion of the argument. (shrink)

Often, semantic accounts of ethical statements wherein those statements have their truth-conditions linked in some capacity to the mental state of an agent face the difficulty of explaining how it is that moral agents and communities genuinely disagree. However, there are––I shall argue––such semantic theories of ethical statements we can construct that avoid this explanatory deficit, insofar as they are both absolute and dispositional theories. In this paper, I will (i) explore and analyze one such semantic theory, Roderick Firth (1952)’s (...) ‘ideal observer theory’, and its relation to the problem of genuine moral disagreement, and (ii) argue that the theory successfully accounts for genuine moral disagreement in virtue of its being absolute and dispositional. (shrink)

On philosophy of history and historiography.

The concept of downward causation is frequently used in an explanatory capacity in biology to account for certain regularities and processes. Some philosophers, however, argue that downward causation is metaphysically incoherent, providing three main objections. Underlying these objections is the assumption that entities are connected by compositional hierarchies of levels of organization. In this paper, I introduce the notions of weak and strong compositional relations using examples from evolutionary developmental biology. I argue that downward causation becomes unproblematic if we use (...) features of interventionist theories of causation to explain the causal relations between levels. I show that an interventionist account of downward causation successfully responds to the three central objections to downward causation in the philosophical literature and I clarify the explanatory usefulness of the concept in biology. As such, this paper provides an epistemic solution to demystify downward causation in the context of scientific practice. The solution proposed is compatible with how biologists seem to use a concept of downward causation fruitfully in their work. (shrink)

The role of reciprocal causation in Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) is controversial. Proponents of EES argue that reciprocal causation is a key innovation, underpinning the necessity of EES. Conversely, critics of the EES maintain that Standard Evolutionary Theory (SET) adequately encompasses the concept of reciprocal causation, challenging the need for EES. This skepticism is rooted in two primary critiques. First, the mischaracterization of causal dynamics within SET by EES advocates leads to a misrepresentation of SET. Second, the oversight of how (...) SET incorporates and acknowledges instances of reciprocal causation leads to claims about the empirical inaptness of SET. As a result, the debate has reached an impasse, with limited progress towards a constructive examination of reciprocal causation’s significance to evolutionary explanations. This paper introduces the scope argument, which examines reciprocal causation through timescales and grain of explanations. This approach revitalizes the debate in two ways. First, reframing the debate in terms of scope clarifies the role of reciprocal causation by allowing research programs to specify targets of explanation. Second, the elements of scope (timescales and grain) elucidate the epistemic advantage of reciprocal causation in the respective research programs in question. (shrink)

The principle of modal continuity has become an increasingly popular bit of modal epistemology, featuring prominently in debates about mereology, value, causation, and theism. It claims, roughly, that degreed properties are modally unified. So, if the property of being three inches tall is exemplifiable, so is the property of being four inches tall, and five inches tall, etc. Despite its plausibility, in this paper I show that there is a class of counterexamples to modal continuity: what I call ‘powered properties.’ (...) More surprisingly, I show that an instance of these powered properties is entailed by another widely popular family of modal principles: the Lewisian patchwork principles, also known as cut-and-paste, or recombination, principles. Thus, despite appearing to be similar, and motivated by plenitudinous intuitions about the nature of modality, it turns out that the continuity and recombination approaches to modality rely on crucially different pictures of plenitude. (shrink)

Formal teaching of ethics in health science programs at the entry level and postprofessional level in the United States and Canada has been documented in the professional literature for more than 30 years, yet there are significant differences in the way it is taught and how much time is devoted to the subject. Numerous teaching and evaluation methods have been used in ethics education, such as lectures, written examinations, debates, role-playing, small group discussion, and case study analysis. Most instruction in (...) ethics in the health sciences has been geared toward ethical analysis of case studies, that is, the student is asked to read a case or discuss a case with others, identify the ethical issues verbally or in writing, propose different resolutions supported by principles and theory, and select the best course of action. Yet, analysis of a case is an unlikely route to develop skills in coping with the uncertainty and emotional nature of ethical issues commonly encountered in clinical practice, nor does it give us an indication of what students would “really do” when they encounter an actual ethical problem. (shrink)

Maqasid al-Shariah based Islamic bioethics is an Islamic bioethics concept which uses the objectives of the Shariah as its approach in analysing and assessing bioethical issues. Analysis based on maqasid al-Shariah based Islamic bioethics will examine any bioethical issues from three main aspects namely intention, method, and output or final goal of the studied issues. Then, the evaluation will be analysed from human interest hierarchy, inclusivity, and degree of certainty. The Islamic bioethics concept is a manifestation of dynamic Islamic jurisprudence (...) which can overcome new complex and complicated bioethical issues such as tri-parent baby technology issues. Therefore, this article will introduce and explain the concept of maqasid al-Shariah based Islamic bioethics and outline a general guidance of maqasid al-Shariah based Islamic bioethics to determine a maqṣad based on standards of human good or well-being and harm. (shrink)

Depuis l'Antiquite, la philosophie occidentale tente de determiner si la morale peut et doit etre ancree dans une constellation theiste. Tenter de repondre a cette question constitue un defi d'autant plus grand dans un monde globalise, au sein duquel le theisme est non seulement remis en question par la tradition occidentale des Lumieres, mais aussi par des modeles de pensee qui promeuvent une maniere fondamentalement differente de se rapporter a la realite. Les reflexions proposees dans ce volume sur Dieu et (...) la morale invitent a examiner les difficultes suscitees par l'ancrage theiste de la morale et a interroger la contingence du cadre reflexif au sein duquel ces difficultes se deploient. (shrink)

Nosso trabalho procura descrever a escola cinica atraves de seu fundador; Antistenes de Atenas (444-355) , analisando o comportamento do homem cinico e suas contradiçõess, sua busca pela virtude e pelo agir correto. Mostramos o caminho que o homem cinico deve percorrer para chegar a seu objetivo : a autarquia. Ao mesmo tempo, revelamos seu repúdio a toda cultura estabelecida e a sua relaçáo com o corpo e o prazer. O cínico deve distanciarse da cidade, das atividades mundanas e da (...) politica. (shrink)

In view of the new forays from biology into the Humanities, this book aims not only to demonstrate the inconsistencies of the theory of evolution in addressing cultural dynamics, but also to offer an alternative that begins from a resumption of the dialogue between anthropology and historical materialism in which dialectics reintroduces itself to anthropology from different premises and the role of symbolic language within materialism is reevaluated.

: This article aims to promote mediation as an alternative disputeresolution mechanism to deal with interreligious skirmishes taking place inMalaysia. This is in view of the increasing statistics of interreligious disputesreported in the media. The reason for recommending interreligious mediationis due to its constructive nature in peacebuilding initiatives and its successfulstories across the globe. The article discusses the potential actors of religiousmediators and their requirements as well as the processes and conditions for asuccessful mediation. The article also highlights the need (...) for certified trainingto make a credible mediator. Using mainly textual research, the article managedto gather and analyse the meaning and concept, historical background and thestructure of mediation. Since mediation is new in Malaysia, the article foundthat the government’s role is crucial in its institutionalization; hence the articleproposes that the Ministry of National Unity leads the initiative. (shrink)

Viewing difficulty as an opportunity for learning runs counter to the common view of difficulty as a source of frustration and confusion. The aim of this article is to focus on the idea of difficulty as a stepping-off point for learning. The literature on difficulty in reading texts, and its impact on thinking and the interpretive process, serve as a foundation for the use of poetry in healthcare ethics education. Because of its complexity and strangeness compared to the usual scientific (...) and clinical texts health science students encounter, poetry is an excellent means to achieve the aim of thinking through difficulties in ethics. Specific examples of teaching and learning strategies for turning difficulty into opportunities for learning are presented, including the difficulty paper and the triple mark-up method. Both methods require students to examine their process of working through difficulties, reflect on how they make sense of difficult texts and then share their process and interpretations in a collaborative manner with peers. The importance of framing difficulties as a public, visible, collaborative process rather than a personal process is emphasized. Working together to hypothesize reasons for difficulty and map out plans to come to terms with difficulty are equally relevant for reading text as they are for reading complex ethical situations. Finally, I argue that transference of this kind of personal and collaborative learning about difficulties benefits interprofessional clinical practice, particularly when dealing with ethical issues. (shrink)

The study aims through a deductively descriptive method to focuson the influence of Arabic on the Malaysian culture. The most importantmilestones of Arabic in the Malaysian context and the most stand out Malaysiapublic and private institutions which made the most contributions in spreadingArabic in the Malay culture. The study begins with the arrival of Islam andArabic in the Archipelago as a precursor to uncover the depth of the influenceof Arabic in the minds and culture of the Malays. The influence of (...) Arabic onthe following aspects will also be discussed: the writing script of the Malay,the educational system in schools and universities, the mass media in additionto the public. (shrink)

In this paper, Taylor series is used to solve neutrosophic multi-objective programming problem (NMOPP). In the proposed approach, the truth membership, Indeterminacy membership, falsity membership functions associated with each objective of multi-objective programming problems are transformed into a single objective linear programming problem by using a first order Taylor polynomial series. Finally, to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method, a numerical experiment for supplier selection is given as an application of Taylor series method for solving neutrosophic multi-objective programming problem (...) at end of this paper. (shrink)