The function of the brain is intricately woven into the fabric of time. Functions such as (i) storing and accessing past memories, (ii) dealing with immediate sensorimotor needs in the present, and (iii) projecting into the future for goal-directed behavior are good examples of how key brain processes are integrated into time. Moreover, it can even seem that the brain generates time (in the psychological sense, not in the physical sense) since, without the brain, a living organism cannot have the (...) notion of past nor future. When combined with an evolutionary perspective, this seemingly straightforward idea that the brain enables the conceptualization of past and future can lead to deeper insights into the principles of brain function, including that of consciousness. In this paper, we systematically investigate, through simulated evolution of artificial neural networks, conditions for the emergence of past and future in simple neural architectures, and discuss the implications of our findings for consciousness and mind uploading. (shrink)

Purpose The debate about the end-of-life care decision is becoming a serious ethical and legal concern in the Far-Eastern countries of Korea, China and Japan. However, the issues regarding end-of-life care will reflect the cultural background, current medical practices and socioeconomic conditions of the countries, which are different from Western countries and between each other. Understanding the genuine thoughts of patients who are critically ill is the first step in confronting the issues, and a comparative descriptive study of these perspectives (...) was conducted by collaboration between researchers in all three countries. Methods Surveys using self-reporting paper questionnaire forms were conducted from December 2008 to April 2009 in Korea (six hospitals in two regions), China (five hospitals in four regions) and Japan (nine hospitals in one region). The subjects were patients who were critically ill who had been diagnosed as having cancer. A total of 235 participants (Korea, 91; China, 62; Japan, 52) were eventually recruited and statistically analysed. Results Most respondents had sometimes or often thought of their own death, mostly fear of ‘separation from loved ones’. They wanted to hear the news regarding their own condition directly and frankly from the physician. A quarter of them preferred making end-of-life care decisions by themselves, while many respondents favoured a ‘joint decision’ with their family members. The most favoured proxy decision maker was the spouse, followed by the children. Most admitted the necessity of ‘advance directives’ and agreed with artificial ventilation withdrawal in irreversible conditions. The most common reason was ‘artificial prolongation of life is unnecessary’. Most respondents agreed with the concept of active euthanasia; however, significant differences were sometimes observed in the responses according to variables such as patient's country of origin, age, gender and education level. Conclusion Patients in Far-Eastern countries gave various responses regarding end-of-life care decisions. Although familial input is still influential, most patients think of themselves as the major decision maker and accept the necessity of advance directives with Westernization of the society. Artificial ventilation withdrawal and even active euthanasia may be acceptable to them. (shrink)

Although corporate social responsibility appears to be mutually beneficial for companies and consumers, the modern marketplace has left both parties in vulnerable positions. Consumers are increasingly subjected to incongruent CSR messages such as greenwashing, while companies are trapped in a strategic positioning dilemma with regard to how to most effectively and ethically approach CSR communication. This has led some companies to instead adopt a strategically silent approach, such as greenhushing. To capture this CSR positioning dilemma and test the positioning effects (...) on consumers’ attributions, this study applies attribution theory to conceptualize four distinct CSR positions which reflect varying combinations of congruence or incongruence between a company’s external CSR communication and its actual internal CSR actions. Using an online experiment, the effects of the CSR positions on consumer attributions for intrinsic and extrinsic CSR motivations and purchase intentions were tested across three CSR domains: environmental; labor; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender inclusion. Overall, the findings attest to the significant effect of internal–external congruence-based CSR positioning on how consumers respond to CSR communication. Importantly, the results indicate that discreet positioning is perceived similarly to uniform positioning, while misleading and unethical tactics such as CSR-washing are sure to backfire. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. (shrink)

There is much recent development towards interferometric measurements of holographic quantum uncertainties in an emergent background space-time. Despite increasing promise for the target detection regime of Planckian strain power spectral density, the foundational insights of the motivating theories have not been connected to a phenomenological model of observables measured in a realistic experiment. This work proposes a candidate model, based on the central hypothesis that all horizons are universal boundaries of coherent quantum information — where the decoherence of space-time happens (...) for the observer. The prediction is inspired by ’t Hooft’s algebra for black hole information that gives coherent states on horizons, whose spatial correlations were shown by Verlinde and Zurek to also appear on holographic fluctuations of causal boundaries in flat space-time (conformal Killing horizons). Time-domain correlations are projected from Planckian jitters whose coherence scales match causal diamonds, motivated by Banks’ framework for the emergence of space-time and locality. The universality of this coherence on causal horizons compels a multimodal research program probing concordant signatures: An analysis of cosmological data to probe primordial correlations, motivated by Hogan’s interpretation of well-known CMB anomalies as coherent fluctuations on the inflationary horizon, and upcoming 3D interferometers to probe causal diamonds in flat space-time. Candidate interferometer geometries are presented, with a modeled frequency spectrum for each design. (shrink)

The main Theme of this paper is “subjectivity” as the fundamental form of every subject. The subjectivity is considered in this project as the capacity of the corporal subject to orient himself spatiotemporally and to produce his relation to world. The subject means the spatiotemporal realization (i.e. actus) of the subjectivity. This capacity is divided into its three sorts as the three aspects of the subjectivity: 1. the perceiving or conscious subjectivity, 2. the egocentric or self-conscious subjectivity and 3. the (...) inter-subjecting subjectivity. By analogy with the three aspects of the subjectivity we can find three types of world: 1. the objective, 2. the subjective and 3. the inter-subjective world. The subjects can develop by virtue of the subjectivity as his essential capacity all of the sciences, determine their will by autonomy and try to communicate and to live together with other sorts of subjects. Everything that may and should be regarded as a subject entails the subjectivity as his essence. It does not matter if the subject is human being, animal, robot, cyborg, angel, God and so on. (shrink)

May 11, 2023, marked the end of the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). During the PHE, regulatory flexibilities allowed telehealth to more effectively connect physicians providing care and patients seeking it. This paper discusses the implications of the end of the PHE on telehealth coverage, payment, reimbursement, and licensure, and exposes inconsistencies and inequities in extant state regulations.

In the present paper we shall see that the different ways of understanding mind between Confucianism and Enlightenment in the 18th century. In this study each of these two different traditions is regarded as the East Asian context of mind study or as the Western European context of mind study. This idea comes from a kind of constructivism and constructive realism. The former, which comes from ideas of Lev Vygotsky, stresses that human mind is constructed on its cultural context. The (...) latter insisted by Fridriech Wallner approves that every truth constructed on its cultural context can be an absolute truth depending on its cultural context. Due to these two viewpoints, we can see that the truth about human mind is not singular but plural and it should be an important theme of discussionhow to communicate between different understandings of mind and cultural context. Therefore three steps to approach the difference between Asian and European should be discussed in the following way: first, I will explain Confucian ways of understanding mind. It is Confucian cultural context as a social being that used to be the basis of cultural construction of East Asian’s mind. There were three types of Confucianism in 18th century Korea; second I will explain Western European way of understanding mind and the philosophy of Enlightenment as the basic context of cultural construction of mind; and third, I will conclude by comparing these two different ways of understanding mind and mind construction and by looking for a feasible way to communicate and understand each other. (shrink)

If overstatements were a symptom of the agency conflict, pay-for-performance sensitivities should have increased in response to the additional penalties for misreporting imposed by SOX. Our finding of their decrease is inconsistent with the view that overstatements were an unintended consequence of incentive pay prior to 2002. To corroborate our interpretation, we show that CEO pay-for-performance sensitivities are higher among firms whose shareholders stand to benefit from overstatements; this cross-sectional relationship weakens significantly after SOX; and the within-firm decrease in pay-for-performance (...) sensitivity is most pronounced among firms with high pre-SOX shareholder benefits from overstatements. (shrink)

Die Idee des «Gesamtkunstwerks» war schon längst vor Wagner gegenwärtig. In zahlreichen Schriften der deutschen Frühromantiker wird das Auseinandergehen der einzelnen Künste betrachtet, aber ihr Zusammenwirken als Utopie ersehnt. Die Verfasserin versucht, ausgehend von der Stellung der Musik in der Frühromantik, die Möglichkeit im Blick zu behalten, die Sehnsucht nach der Einheit der Künste, die zunächst im literarischen sowie im philosophischen Bereich rein theoretisch, daneben jedoch auch praktisch in der Poesie und Malerei ihren Ausdruck fand, in die musikalische Romantik zu (...) übertragen, sowohl in kompositorischer als auch in wirkungsästhetischer Hinsicht. Dadurch erscheint der Zusammenhang zwischen Musik innerhalb der Idee des «Gesamtkunstwerks» in der Romantik in neuem Licht. (shrink)

Background Nurses providing care to patients with end-of-life or terminal illnesses often encounter ethically challenging situations leading to moral distress. However, existing quantitative studies have examined moral distress using instruments that address general clinical situations rather than those specific to end-of-life care. Furthermore, qualitative studies have often been limited to participants from a single unit or those experiencing moral distress-induced circumstances. A comprehensive and integrated understanding of the overarching process of moral distress is vital to discern the unique circumstances surrounding (...) end-of-life care and its consequential impacts. Research objectives To explore the moral distress experiences of nurses who are frequently involved in caring for patients with end-of-life or terminal illnesses and apply it to two existing theories: the model of moral distress and the ecological model. Research design A qualitative descriptive approach was employed. Participants and research context Seven focus group interviews involving 30 nurses were performed. The subsequent transcriptions underwent rigorous content analysis. Ethical considerations We obtained Institutional Review Board approval from a university. Focus group interviews were conducted with nurses who agreed to participate and signed the consent form. Findings The moral distress-inducing factors and nurses’ perceived impact of moral distress were identified and categorized based on moral distress theories and ecological models. A total of 15 categories and 30 subcategories across the following 4 domains were derived: (1) intrapersonal, (2) interpersonal, (3) organizational, and (4) structural factors. Conclusions End-of-life-specific circumstances induced moral distress among nurses, with both negative and positive impacts identified. Effective organizational and policy support is essential to manage conflicts, form a healthy organizational culture, provide training, and prevent unnecessary expenses due to the negative consequences of moral distress. (shrink)

This article explores whether AI can be a human-like subject that can live together with humans. I argue that living together is conceptually different from being together or coexistence and symbiosis in an ecosystem. I propose three conditions for living together and consider as subjects only those beings that can live together in a cultural and inter-subjective way. And I try to define the subject as a being which can build its relationships with the world in three ways. Then the (...) conditions of living together will be combined with the concept of subject. The first condition is that the subject should be conscious of its relationship with others. The second condition is that the subject should form reciprocal relationships with others. The third condition is that the subjects should have the same representation of the relationship with others. This article attempts to examine whether AI can fulfill the three conditions of living together. Although AI seems to be able to think, express, act, feel, even be conscious and so on, it is very unlikely that AI can build the same world as the human world. Therefore, even if we cannot discern ourselves from AI, we humans can never enter its world and vice versa. The reason is very simple: humans are ontically different from AI. In society, humans and AI can be together, but they cannot live together. Even if AI could eventually have a consciousness, genuine social living together between humans and AI is impossible. We humans can recognize AI as a pseudo-subject. Nevertheless, such a subject is not one that can live together with humans. Even if AI were conscious and could pretend to be a human-like subject, it could not be a genuine subject unless it could live together with humans. Many people warn that AI could be dangerous to humans. These so-called threats might not come from AI itself, but from humans themselves. (shrink)

We investigate how two different types of conflict (task conflict and relationship conflict) at two different levels (individual-level and team-level) influence individual team commitment. The analysis was conducted using data we collected from 193 employees in 31 branch offices of a Korean commercial bank. The relationships at multiple levels were tested using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). The results showed that individual-level relationship conflict was negatively related to team commitment while individual-level task conflict was not. In addition, both team-level task and (...) relationship conflict were negatively associated with team commitment. Finally, only team-level relationship conflict significantly moderated the relationship between individual-level relationship conflict and team commitment. We further derive theoretical implications of these findings. (shrink)

The current methods in psychoanalytic studies of God images and representations have focused almost exclusively on individual, internal processes. This article examines how psychological anthropologists go about formulating symbolic representations of deity in their research, in comparison with the object relations method of God- representations. Drawing on Melford Spiro's integrative proposal for interpreting the mental and collective representations in religious symbol systems, this paper proposes that there is a need for a comprehensive model of the representational process in the Eastern (...) world in order to suit its cultural traditions. The author uses both theoretical and historical materials as well as personal narrative throughout its entirety to balance the two in a mutual and coherent flow of understanding. Noting the culturally patterned interactions with culturally postulated God-symbols, the object relations method of God- representations will be utilized to probe how God is both created and found on a collective level as well as individual level. (shrink)