Historically the emergence of a precise technical meaning for probability, as distinct from its vague popular useage, has taken time; and confusion still arises from the concept of probability having different meanings in different flelds of discourse. Its technical meaning and appropriate rules are surveyed in the flelds of logic , mathematics , and science , and the relation between these three aspects of probability theory discussed. ‐. M. S. B.

(No abstract is available for this citation).

The very claim of the historical instance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is increasingly being subjected to critical interrogation from a variety of cultural and ideological perspectives. From an Afrocentric theory of history, this questioning of the ontology of the 4IR is sharpened by Africa’s experience of the claimed progressive mutation of global industrial progress from the “first” to this “fourth” revolution. Africa experienced the first industrial revolution as a European revolution in the exploitation of her natural and human (...) resources, as well as the despoliation of her cultural-epistemic sovereignty. The challenge to fully engage in the theorisation of this 4IR, given the overwhelming and inexorable effects of its digital technologies on the personhood, sociality and geopolitical state of Africa has exposed the critical need for a set of rigorous Africanist analytical tools and epistemological approaches capable of guiding Africa’s appropriation of this techno-social revolution. This essay introduces the collection of research papers that have been selected for their endeavour to meet this challenge. It is highlighted that all of them move from a unique approach that asserts that technological progress is historical-cultural and socially embedded. Some of them address the question of the historico-ontological status of the 4IR innovatively with original African methodological tools, while others demonstrate how an African epistemology can be applied to issues such a digital virtual communities and robotics. This contribution to the bourgeoning field of African Philosophy of Technology is admired as work in progress. (shrink)

Apresentam-se os resultados clínicos principais de uma primeira investigação efectuada a familiares de doentes sob tratamento paliativo no domicílio da área de Lisboa, com o instrumento de medida da satisfação SERVQUAL Modificado. Dos 58 familiares/doentes que responderam ao questionário apenas uma minona estava insatisfeita (uma classe de 5 indivíduos mostra-se francamente insatisfeita), uma classe de 15 estava moderadamente satisfeita, havendo 38 individuos fortemente satisfeitos com a qualidade e prontidäo dos serviços prestados. Porém urna percentagem elevada de doentes, segundo a opinião (...) retrospectiva dos cuidadores, faleceu com sintomatologia agravada, nomeadamente dores (60%), obstipação (67%) e depressão/ansiedade (43%). Discute-se a consistência e validade do questionáno SERVQUAL Modificado, contextualizam-se os resultados no que é o standard da prática da MCP e integram-se na promoção da dignidade humana no fim da vida. We present the main clinical findings of research on palliative home care, carried out among relatives of patients in the Lisbon area. An adapted version of SERVQUAL was used. Of a total of 58 carers surveyed only a small number (5) was unsatisfied 15 were only moderately satisfied. 38 family carers were strongly satisfied with the services. Yet, a high percentage of patients, as viewed in retrospect by their relatives died with some aggravated symptoms: 60% with more pain, 67% constipation, and 43% anxiety/depression. We discuss the consistency and validity of this adapted SERVQUAL tool and the main results are contextualized beanng in mind the standard practice of palliative medicine and the pursuit of human dignity in death. (shrink)

The purpose of this article has been to show what social sciences can contribute to advance in the knowledge and understanding of personal and social problems derived from suffering from rare vision diseases. It concludes that the incorporation of data in the National Patient Registries is an opportunity to encourage research into the problems existing in our social and cultural context, in the search for solutions that will lead to improvements in treatment, health care, psycho-social care, education, employment, etc. and (...) in the evaluation of results. In short, in the conditions and quality of life of patients and their families. (shrink)

In this work we deal with a general class of spatially distributed periodic SIS epidemic models with two time scales. We let susceptible and infected individuals migrate between patches with periodic time dependent migration rates. The existence of two time scales in the system allows to describe certain features of the asymptotic behavior of its solutions with the help of a less dimensional, aggregated, system. We derive global reproduction numbers governing the general spatially distributed nonautonomous system through the aggregated system. (...) We apply this result when the mass action law and the frequency dependent transmission law are considered. Comparing these global reproductive numbers to their non spatially distributed counterparts yields the following: adequate periodic migration rates allow global persistence or eradication of epidemics where locally, in absence of migrations, the contrary is expected. (shrink)

The relatively plentiful sources for the year 346 pose several questions which have never been satisfactorily answered. Why did Philip insist on an alliance with Athens as a precondition of the peace? Did Demosthenes simply invent the promises of Philip which he claims Aeschines reported to the Athenian assembly in Skirophorion? Why were the Athenians frightened when Philip got control of Thermopylae? They had long expected him to settle the Sacred War, and such action surely required occupation of the pass. (...) The correct answer to these questions indicates that Philip had two alternative plans in 346. ‘Plan A’ was with the aid of the Athenians to turn on Thebes. By this move, he would reduce the power of the second greatest city in Greece and thus eliminate the possibility of a combination of Athens and Thebes, which might be sufficiently powerful to block his ambitions. (shrink)

Looks at the varied manifestations of postmodernism in an array of popular American films from the 1950s forward.

Lecture given Wednesday 27 October 1993 at a Physics - Computer Science Colloquium at the University of New Mexico. The lecture was videotaped; this is an edited transcript. It also incorporates remarks made at the Limits to Scientific Knowledge meeting held at the Santa Fe Institute 24-26 May 1994.

The judgment handed down in the case of Ms B confirms the right of the competent patient to refuse medical treatment even if the result is death. The case does, however, raise some interesting legal points. The facility for conscientious objection by doctors has not previously been explicitly recognised in case law. More importantly perhaps is that the detailed inquiry by the court into Ms B’s reasons for refusing treatment, apparently as a precondition for finding her competent, seems to contradict (...) earlier case law where it has been asserted that competent patients can refuse treatment for no reason at all. (shrink)

Infanticide is one of the typical examples used in many general evolutionary hypothesis on vertebrate evolution especially those based on sociobiology. We have shown that this phenomenon is very complicated and in no case can be interpreted as a support for sociobiological ideas. It is not so common a phenomenon in the primate societies as sociologists claim, and even in the “typical” primate species as anhuman langurs, has a very limited and different meaning. Furthermore, there are a lot of examples (...) where many sociobiological hypothesis are based on very superficial and overgeneralized interpretations of nonhuman primate infanticide. In human populations infanticide is usually connected with the cases when the carrying capacity of an ecosystem is no longer sufficient for the survival of a population. It is a conscious action based on longterm empirical knowledge. No negative emotions of even aggressiveness connected with infanticide is know in human groups. We try to demonstrate that the research of primate infanticide gives no consistent basis for its generalization in the framework of sociobiological hypothesis and in evolutionary theories in general. (shrink)