The article deals with the main ideas of the political philosophy of Abu Abdallah Ibn al-Azraq al-Garnati (1427-1491), a well-known Muslim statesman, supreme judge of Granada, lawyer, diplomat, supporter of Arab Muslim peripatetism, a student of the outstanding thinker of the Muslim Middle Ages Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406). In the history of the political philosophy of the Muslim East, a number of major transformations in the development of the Arab Caliphate from the Medina state of the prophet to the Sultanate in (...) the Abbasid period should be noted, which were reflected in the development of the theory of the Arab-Muslim state (caliphate). The main problem of the theory of the caliphate was connected with the question of the relationship between power and authority in the context of the moral foundations of the state. The creative heritage of Ibn al-Azraq is mainly known for his work in the genre of adab ("mirrors of princes") “Miracles on the way, or the Nature of dominion”. The treatise became a classic of the political philosophy of the Muslim Middle Ages, in which, under the influence of Aristotelian ideas, a special place was given to the moral foundations of power and the state, that is, ethics was considered as a political science. In the form of instructive parables, the rulers and heirs to the throne were explained the basics of state administration as part of their studies and education. His doctrine of the virtues can be viewed as ethical rationalism with a belief in the moral perfection of people in power and subjects of the state. Since morals are largely acquired and a person can control them, the task of purifying his own morals and curing them is entrusted to him. In addition, accordingly, it is possible and necessary to cultivate virtues in rulers, since the well-being of the state and the ummah depends on their morals. The moral foundations of power determine the strength of political authority. (shrink)

In this study, some new hypotheses and techniques are presented to obtain some new analytical solutions to the generalized Kawahara equation. As a particular case, some traveling wave solutions to both Kawahara equation and modified Kawahara equation are derived in detail. Periodic and soliton solutions to this family are obtained. The periodic solutions are expressed in terms of Weierstrass elliptic functions and Jacobian elliptic functions. For KE, some direct and indirect approaches are carried out to derive the periodic and localized (...) solutions. For mKE, two different hypotheses in the form of WSEFs are used to derive the periodic and localized solutions. Also, the cnoidal wave solutions in the form of JEFs are obtained. As a realistic physical application, the solutions obtained can be dedicated to studying many nonlinear waves that propagate in plasma. (shrink)

The concept of “Time” seems to play out differently at various phases of our lives: In our teens and twenties, we experience the luxury of youth; we may feel invincible or even indomitable. Generally, we feel our whole lives are ahead of us, and we “take” time to enjoy, explore and experience our world. Concurrently, our physiology also goes through the phases of childhood, adolescence, puberty and into adulthood, or the “reproductive years”; and ultimately (for women) through menopause and “ageing”, (...) or, the “non- reproductive years”. In this paper I will submit, on what I believe, is the obligation of the health care community to disseminate information early to their patients. This might ensure that the choices that people make in specific phases of their lives are educated and informed choices. Early education would be invaluable if backed up by the benefit of research that already exists, some of it presented in this paper. If this research was to be made available, say, on a patient’s first visit to a gynaecologist, (presumably in their late teens, early twenties), to start the education process, I believe many patients could benefit from it. (shrink)

This paper aims to provide insights into the Malaysian newspaper reports on apostasy cases in the country. Being a Muslim country with multi-religions, apostasy is highly sensitive hence any issues related to apostasy need to be carefully managed. Four keywords were used to identify newspaper reports for the analysis. Two newspaper reports met the selection criteria and were analysed using a discourse analysis approach focusing on Grammatical Analysis, Macrostructures, and Rhetorical Structures. The analysis reveals that the report in New Straits (...) Times, which is the right-wing newspaper, carries the voice of anti-apostate and disapproves the act of renouncing Islam. On the other hand, the report in The Malay Mail, which is the left-wing newspaper, carries the voice of pro-apostate. By deconstructing the newspaper reports, this paper contributes to the understanding of the agendas that have been subtly set in the news. This paper concludes that the two reports have been strategically constructed to serve the interests and promote the ideology of the two competing groups in the country, thus creating a balance in the multi-religious context. (shrink)

By examining evidence from India, where quotas for women in local government were introduced in 1993, this article argues that institutional reform can disturb hegemonic discourses sufficiently to open a window of opportunity where deliberative democratic norms take root and where, in addition to the politics of recognition, the politics of redistribution also operates.

Most prior research on figurative language has looked at the cognitive aspects of metaphoricity. The present research attempts at going beyond metaphor's cognitive impact and aims to view the social and discoursal aspects of metaphorical constructions in relation to people's identities and social realities. This article reports an analysis and discussion of figurative language used by Pakistani women while talking about their literacies and selfhood. The article makes two claims about figurative language: first, metaphorical constructions are cultural and therefore rooted (...) in social practices and discourses; second, figurative expressions are common to everyday talk, constrain and enable thinking processes and construct social reality. Methodologically too, the article offers an interesting departure from the traditional studies of metaphor as the data cited are `incidental' and natural, rather than elicited or experimental; the researcher `s aim was not to study figurative language but it turned out to be ubiquitous in women's everyday talk. Hence, the present data strengthen Tannen's and Carter's work that creativity and figurative language are not exclusive to literary discourse but are part of everyday discourses. (shrink)

This study investigates whether financial performance is affected by corporate violations of laws and regulations. In a sample of 128 publicly traded banks that were subject to enforcement actions by US regulatory authorities over a 20-year period, we observed a significant negative market reaction pursuant to the violations. However, the market reaction did not vary meaningfully in accordance with the severity or repetitiveness of the violation. The results of this study are in conformity with previous research on industries other than (...) banking, notably with regard to negative market reaction. This confirms that shareholders in the banking industry react in a manner considerably similar to their counterparts in other industries. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to know the relationship between student perception towards mathematics teacher with mathematics academic performace. The population of the study were all students of class VIII SMPN 8 Cirebon in the academic year 2014/2015, with the number of students 287 people. The sampling technique used proportional random sampling, and the sample size was 56 students. Data collection techniques used: 1) Questionnaire of Perceptions towards Mathematics teacher, and 2) The results of student mathematics learning test. The (...) result of correlation analysis show no significant correlation between students perception towards teacher and academic performance (r= .155, p= .254). (shrink)

This study was carried out to investigate the roles of epistemic beliefs and writing self-efficacy in predicting second language writing anxiety among learners of English as a foreign language. To this end, three validated scales were distributed among 240 EFL students. They were asked to complete the questionnaires during their regular courses. A structural equation modeling approach was utilized to analyze the hypothesized SEM model and the causal paths among the constructs. The direct and indirect path analyses of the hypothesized (...) model indicated that EBs and WSE accounted for 43% of the variance in L2WA. Although both constructs had a significant effect on L2WA, EBs turned out to be a robust predictor of increasing L2WA. Notably, it was revealed that learners’ EBs directly and significantly influenced their L2WA. Besides, the results indicated that WSE had a unique effect in reducing L2WA. More precisely, students who had a higher level of EBs seemed to have a greater L2WA, and those who had a higher level of WSE experienced less L2WA. The findings of this explanatory study suggest that L2 teachers and material developers should pay serious attention to the Students’ cognitive and affective variables as they were known to be significant factors in influencing L2WA. (shrink)

This paper engages Alex Dubilet’s _The Self-Emptying Subject: Kenosis and Immanence, Medieval to Modern_ and his account of immanence and kenosis as exhibited in his reading of Hegel’s concept of _Entäußerung_ [externalization]. Specifically, I focus on the “problematic of desubjectivation” that centers Dubilet’s critique of transcendence and its relationship to subjection and subjectivity. I reconsider the relationship made between this problematic, the ethics of kenosis, and the concept of immanence so as to demonstrate the ways in which Dubilet attempts to (...) depart from transcendence, subjectivity, and their concomitant ethics. In particular, I consider his reading of Hegel’s concept of _Entäußerung_ and its similarities to the Young Hegelians’ understanding of this concept. My reading of Dubilet suggests that while he seeks to depart from transcendence, he reintroduces transcendence through the “problematic of desubjectivation” and its relationship to kenosis. In conclusion, I question the philosophical import of immanence in contemporary critical inquiry and why its conceptualization is often positioned in opposition to transcendence. (shrink)

La "technologie" est au coeur de notre vie sans que souvent nous en ayons conscience. D'où la question de l'unité de cette technologie à travers de multiples disciplines. C'est à cette interrogation que tentent de répondre les échanges internationaux organisés par l'Université libano-française de Tripoli. Trois notions-clefs sont au coeur du débat : la reconnaissance de la sphère technique dans la culture ; l'existence de mécanismes de classification et normalisation d'un savoir et d'un langage spécifique grâce à la culture et (...) la validité d'un modèle "mondialiste" ou systématique contemporain. On s'interroge sur le Sens des parts mécanique, théorique et pratique de notre civilisation ainsi que sur les moyens dont elle dispose pour créer une nouveauté qui préserve les intérêts de tous. Tel est l'objet de cet ouvrage : aider un individu aujourd'hui et demain à mieux s'adapter à cet ordre "technologique" dont les implications culturelles sont immenses, abordées ici sans préjugés, de manière plurielle, rationnelle et démocratique. (shrink)

This study linked background TV and socioeconomic status to minority children’s Persian vocabulary development. To this end, 80 Iranian preschool children from two minority groups of Arabs and Turks were selected using stratified random sampling. They were simultaneous bilinguals, i.e., their mother tongue was either Arabic or Azari and their first language was Persian. Language sample analysis was used to measure vocabulary development through a 15-min interview by language experts. The LSA measures included total number of utterances, total number of (...) words, total number of new words, and mean length of utterance. A series of independent-samples t test, paired-samples t test, and repeated measures MANOVA tests were ran to examine data. Results showed significant improvements in children’s vocabulary scores from pretest to posttest for all children. In addition, high-SES children scored higher on the vocabulary measures in pretest and posttest. Moreover, background TV was associated with higher means in the TNW and the NDW in groups. The researchers concluded that background TV may be related to higher vocabulary scores in low-SES families as it may compensate for some linguistics gaps in these families including lower amount of child-parent interaction, play, and parents’ level of literacy. (shrink)

Islamic political thought has long been concerned with the abuses of tyranny. To contemporary Islamists, the tyrant is the ruler who adopts foreign ideas opposed to the original values of Islam. This sentiment is sometimes coupled with calls for revolutionary violence, a view popularized by the Egyptian Islamist Sayyid Qutb.1 While to some modern Islamists tyrannical rule signifies encroaching Western hegemony, its premodern use was less geographically specific. The Prophet Muhammad had simply stipulated that the "best struggle is a word (...) of truth [spoken] to a tyrannical [or unjust] ruler".2 This maxim alone does not describe the tyrant's cultural and religious... (shrink)

الملخّص يسعى هذا البحث إلى التعريف بالشخصيات وأبعادها الاجتماعية والنفسية في رواية ’يوم قُتِلَ الزعيم‘ للروائي نجيب محفوظ، لأنّ للشخصية أهمية مركزية في العمل الروائي من جهة؛ فهي أساس الرواية، والقوة الواعية التي تدور العناصر الروائية كلها في فلكها، والعنصر الوحيد الذي تتقاطع عنده هذه العناصر كافة. وبغية تسليط الضوء على الأساليب والطرق السردية التي استثمرها روائي ذو خبرة واسعة في بنائها وتقديمها، ليستفيد منها المتلقي من جهة ثانية. ولكي تكون هذه الشخصيّة الروائيّة قابلة للحياة في خيال المتلقّي لا بدّ (...) من معرفة مستواها الاجتماعي وما يرتبط به من حالة ماديّة وطبقة اجتماعية ومستوى علميّ، وغير ذلك، ومعرفة مستواها النفسي وما يرتبط به من إحساس برضًى أو سخطٍ أو قبول أو رفض أو كراهية أو حقد أو غير ذلك في المجتمع الروائي الذي تعيش فيه تلك الشخصيّة. ويتوزّع البحث على تسع جزئيات، هي: مقدّمة، وملخص مقتضب للرواية، وأنواع الشخصيات في هذه الرواية، وأساليب بناء الشخصيات، والعلامة اللغوية لها، والبعد الاجتماعي والنفسي للشخصيّات، وتحليل نقديّ، وخاتمة ونتائج عامة للبحث، ثم تحديد المصادر والمراجع. الكلمات المفتاحية: الشخصية، يوم قتل الزعيم، نجيب محفوظ، العناصر الروائية، تحليل نقديّ. Bu araştırmada, Necip Mahfuz'un “Yevmekatli'z-zaim” adlı romanını incelemeye aldık. İncelememizi iki ana tema üzerine kurduk. Birincisi temada romanın kahramanının karakteri ve tanıtımı yapılacaktır. Çünkü bu karakter romanın iskeletini oluşturduğundan çok önemlidir. Romanın merkezinde kahramanının karakteri bulunur ve romanın sanatsal bütün unsurları onun etrafında döner. İkinci ana tema ise, yazarın kahramana yüklediği karakteristik özelliklerin günlük hayatta karşılığının bulunabileceği varsayımı ile toplumsal yaşam tarzını sanatsal olarak nasıl dile getirdiği incelenmektir. Diğer bir yönüyle amacımız yazarın kullandığı nesir teknikleri ve eserinin takdimindeki maharetine bir ışık tutmaktır. Kahramanının karakteri, okuyucunun hayalinde yaşanabilir olmalıdır. Çünkü okuyucu gördüğü karakterle toplumun sosyal seviyesiyle ve maddi durumuyla, ilmî seviyesiyle bir bağ kurar. Böylece okuyucu psikolojik yapısıyla; kabul ve ret, kötü ve çirkin, hasetlik gibi duyguları romanın kahramanıyla birlikte hisseder ve yaşar. Araştırma dokuz kısma ayrılmıştır. Bunlar: Giriş, romanın çok kısa bir özeti, Karakter çeşitleri, Karakterlerin oluşturduğu üsluplar, Dil hususiyetleri, Karakterin sosyal ve psikolojik boyutu, Metin tenkidi, sonuç ve değerlendirmelerden oluşmaktadır. Son olarak ta kaynaklar verilmiştir. (shrink)

This article examines ḥikma as it was practiced by Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, or Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1640), in explaining the connection between the divine names and the attributes of God. This is done via a translation of the fourth part of his al-Maẓāhir al-ilāhiyya fī asrār al-ʿulūm al-kamāliyya [The loci of divine manifestations in the secrets of the knowledge of perfection]. Ḥikma, philosophy, as it is defined here, is the combination of rational demonstrations and spiritual unveiling. Shīrāzī’s philosophy is a (...) synthesis of Ibn ʿArabī’s school of metaphysical unveiling, the Ishrāqī school led by Suhrawardī, and the rational school of the Peripatetics. The text is translated here for the first time, and includes annotations. (shrink)

The present study used quantitative and qualitative measures to examine Iranian applied linguists’ (mis-) conceptions of ethical issues in research. For this purpose, one hundred and twelve applied linguists completed a research ethics questionnaire constructed and validated by the researchers. In the follow-up qualitative phase, 15 applied linguists who were faculty members participated in semi-instructed interviews. Data were analyzed using exploratory factors analyses for the first phase and theme analyses for the second phase. Quantitative results showed that the most important (...) misconceptions among Iranian applied linguists lingered on working with data (data collection and data analyses). For example, removing an outlier was a prevalent act conducted by applied linguists in the present study. Teachers using their students as participants of their own research as well as how they treated those students after a study were other controversial issues. The qualitative results revealed several themes including _lack of knowledge, conflict with real-world practices, a product-oriented approach to education and a publish or perish mentality_ as the reasons for misconceptions of ethics in applied linguistics among Iranian researchers. On general terms, there was an implicit agreement regarding the lack of training on research ethics among Iranian applied linguists. (shrink)

We sharpen Hájek’s Completeness Theorem for theories extending predicate product logic, \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\Pi\forall}$$\end{document}. By relating provability in this system to embedding properties of ordered abelian groups we construct a universal BL-chain L in the sense that a sentence is provable from \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\Pi\forall}$$\end{document} if and only if it is an L-tautology. As well we characterize the class of lexicographic sums that have this universality property.

Ethics & International Affairs, Volume 24, Issue 4, Page 435-437, Winter 2010.

Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, Volume 31, Issue 2, Page 398-418, April 2022.

The main objective of this paper was to examine the involuntary nature of music-evoked autobiographical memories. For this purpose, young adults, older adults, and patients with a clinical diagnosis of probable Alzheimer’s disease were asked to remember autobiographical events in two conditions: after being exposed to their own chosen music, and in silence. Compared to memories evoked in silence, memories evoked in the “Music” condition were found to be more specific, accompanied by more emotional content and impact on mood, and (...) retrieved faster. In addition, these memories engaged less executive processes. Thus, with all these characteristics and the fact that they are activated by a perceptual cue , music-evoked autobiographic memories have all the features to be considered as involuntary memories. Our paper reveals several characteristics of music-evoked autobiographical memories in AD patients and offers a theoretical background for this phenomenon. (shrink)

On literary works, art, and politics related to philosophy.

ABSTRACT Malaysia’s 13th general election in 2013 was the final election where the longest-serving elected government in the world, Barisan Nasional, regained power, before it was ousted after over six decades of authoritarian rule in 2018. In a country that practises parliamentary democracy but simultaneously observed close cooperation between the then ruling coalition and the mainstream press, this paper shows the micro-politics of the driving force of the coalition, United Malays National Organisation – specifically, how anxiety regarding the maintenance of (...) their privileged and empowered Malay position dominated the national narrative during the GE13 campaign. Focusing on editorial journalistic genres in four paid-for Malay-language newspapers, I illustrate the typical politics of fear that characterises much of Malaysian right-wing rhetoric – the ways in which racial and religion issues are provoked. The in-depth representational analysis, via the Discourse-historical Approach’s nomination and predication strategies, also suggests the normalisation of nationalistic and racist rhetoric, which primarily works with ‘fear’: fear of change, of loss of privilege, of the future, of other races; in principle, almost anything can be constructed as a threat to ‘Us’, an imagined homogenous people inside a well-protected territory through the discursive construction of such in-groups and out-groups. (shrink)

This study concerned validating academic integrity survey, a measure developed in 2010 to investigate academic integrity practices in a Malaysian university. It also examined the usefulness of the measure across gender and nationality of the participants. The sample size comprised 450 students selected via quota sampling technique. The findings supported the multidimensionality of academic dishonesty. Also, strong evidence of convergent and discriminant validity, and construct reliability were generated for the revised AIS. The testing of moderating effects yielded two outcomes. While (...) the gender invariant analysis produced evidence that the three-dimensional model was not moderated by gender; the nationality effect was inconclusive, probably due to a noticeable imbalance in respondent distribution for the nationality group. The significance of this study lies not only in the rigorous statistical methods deployed to validate the dimension and psychometric properties of the AIS; but establishing the gender invariance of the model. It is understood from the findings that although male and female students may vary in their academic misconducts, the underlying factors for these conducts are the same and can be addressed effectively using a non-discriminating approach. (shrink)

The analysis of courtroom trials has attracted considerable scholarly attention. However, studies performing SFL analysis of legal texts and speeches are rare. The up-to-date published studies handled criminal cases; yet, there is a lack of SFL studies examining civil cases like divorce and defamation. The present qualitative study utilized systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA) of the 2022 defamation trial sued by Johnny Depp’s lawyer (the plaintiff) against Amber Heard (the defendant). The SF-MDA of the transitivity system aimed to examine (...) and compare the experiential meaning in the speeches of the plaintiff and the defendant. The study aimed to answer the following research questions: (1) what are the differences in the plaintiff’s and defendant’s use of experiential meanings? (2) how can transitivity and multimodality aid in the experiential communicative meanings and the arrival of the final verdict in the courtroom? and (3) what were the language tactics that were manifested throughout the analysis? The plaintiff utilized material processes with the highest frequency, followed by relational and mental processes. However, the defendant made excessive use of the relational processes followed by mental and material processes. The speech of the plaintiff included more circumstances than the defendant. Some of the language techniques, used by the plaintiff and the defendant were detected. (shrink)

The corona pandemic altered many traditional and historical norms of society and law. COVID-19 created a humanitarian crisis in some parts of globe, while pandemic privacy and civil liberties were under threat all over world. To combat the deadly virus, individual liberty and equality were compromised. This paper focuses on how India’s health problem has compromised people’s right to privacy. It will highlight how strict executive policies led to the creation of a massive surveillance system in the name of combating (...) the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as how the absence of any policy or legal framework led to the exclusion of individuals and their families who were suspected of having the virus or caring for those who were infected with the deadly virus. The paper uses case studies and data collected from primary as well as secondary sources. The authors will also point out how the absence of privacy regulation puts millions of citizens’ private information at risk of being compromised or exploited against their will. (shrink)

In this article, we propose an initial formal model of computationalism based on mathematical relations between cognition and computation. More specifically, based on a set of cognitive constituents as a domain, and a set of computational implementations as a range, we define two relations of transformation over these sets. Moreover, we define the principles of implementability, describability, and phenomena correspondence, and we conjecture that full computationalism does not hold since these principles are not fulfilled. Particularly, many cognitively-tied phenomena fail to (...) respect the describability principle which is necessary for representing a cognitive state by a computational state. (shrink)

Dual-task paradigms encompass a broad range of approaches to measure cognitive load in instructional settings. As a common characteristic, an additional task is implemented alongside a learning task to capture the individual’s unengaged cognitive capacities during the learning process. Measures to determine these capacities are, for instance, reaction times and interval errors on the additional task, while the performance on the learning task is to be maintained. Opposite to retrospectively applied subjective ratings, the continuous assessment within a dual-task paradigm allows (...) to simultaneously monitor changes in the performance related to previously defined tasks. Following the Cognitive Load Theory, these changes in performance correspond to cognitive changes related to the establishment of permanently existing knowledge structures. Yet the current state of research indicates a clear lack of standardization of dual-task paradigms over study settings and task procedures. Typically, dual-task designs are adapted uniquely for each study, albeit with some similarities across different settings and task procedures. These similarities range from the type of modality to the frequency used for the additional task. This results in a lack of validity and comparability between studies due to arbitrarily chosen patterns of frequency without a sound scientific base, potentially confounding variables, or undecided adaptation potentials for future studies. In this paper, the lack of validity and comparability between dual-task settings will be presented, the current taxonomies compared and the future steps for a better standardization and implementation discussed. (shrink)

This study employed quantitative methodologies to investigate the impact of a 12-week mindfulness-based Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) program on lowering stress and improving mental well-being in a sample of 300 adolescents from Jordan. The study employed a stratified random sampling strategy to choose participants from diverse urban and rural populations. Data was collected utilizing the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The data evaluation involved the use of descriptive statistics, paired-sample t-tests, regression analysis, and (...) an Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The results indicate a significant decrease in stress levels and positive changes in mental health outcomes following the intervention. The regression analysis revealed that age was a likely predictor of changes in stress levels, indicating that older persons saw more significant declines. The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) indicated significant gender-specific discrepancies in the impacts of the intervention. Independent samples t-tests revealed statistically significant variations in the average rankings across specific age groups and school environments. Proposed measures include implementing mindfulness-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programs in school systems, tailoring treatments to suit different demographic groups, examining gender-specific factors, and advocating for policy integration. Performing a longitudinal study is typically advised to assess the long-term sustainability of intervention results. (shrink)

To establish the scientific-theoretical and philosophical- methodological foundations for the transition from classical set theory (Cantor set) to fuzzy set theory, the mathematical and ontological structures of the Cantor set are presented in a localized manner. This approach aligns with the research direction, incorporating philosophical reflections on the fundamental concepts of this theory, such as infinity, continuum, and the empty set. Particular emphasis is placed on infinity and infinite sets (countable and continuum), which are crucial to the development of set (...) theory as a scientific field and have been subjects of inquiry in both scientific and philosophical cognitive processes from ancient times to the present. In addition, a relatively concise explanation of the mathematical and ontological structures of both classical set theory and fuzzy set theory is provided. Through certain epistemological and cognitive approaches, the article identifies the scientific-theoretical and philosophical-methodological bases for the emergence of fuzzy set theory, framed within the context of the scientific-philosophical reflections on classical set theory and its core concepts. (shrink)

The Cold War has affected the communities around the world. Malaysia was no exception in being affected by the turmoil the international world, particularly after the World War 2, due to ideological conflicts. Based on the domino theory, the ups and downs of particular country in terms of its, strong ideology, brings about network impacts to each country in the world. Thus, a freedom of Malaya and the establishment of Malaysia came from the history of Cold War which influenced the (...) international scene. The establishment of Malaysia is seen as a mechanism to stop the influence of communism. The involvement leaders from Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak as well as Brunei Darussalam in the agenda to ‘build’ Malaysia with the approval from democratic countries showed a very strong cooperation that communism was a threat. This contributed to the creation of a new and bigger country. The wise Malaysian leaders in negotiating and being united in facing the global threats at that time, has shown that Malaysia’s ‘project’ in stopping the communist theory which is also known domino theory, was successfully carried out and maintained till today. Therefore, Malaysia as a case study, on how a country was ‘built’ on the basis of stopping the spread of communism in saving the Southeast Asia from falling into the hands of communists, is unique and its effectiveness should be studied. (shrink)

Providing ethically competent care requires nurses to reflect not only on nursing ethics, but also on their own ethical traditions. New challenges for nurse educators over the last decade have been the increasing globalization of the nursing workforce and the internationalization of nursing education. In New Zealand, there has been a large increase in numbers of Chinese students, both international and immigrant, already acculturated with ethical and cultural values derived from Chinese Confucian moral traditions. Recently, several incidents involving Chinese nursing (...) students in morally conflicting situations have led to one nursing faculty reflecting upon how moral philosophy is taught to non-European students and the support given to Chinese students in integrating the taught curriculum into real-life clinical practice settings. This article uses a case study involving a Chinese student to reflect on the challenges for both faculty members and students when encountering situations that present ethical dilemmas. (shrink)

This study examines the relationship between social and emotional abilities and standardized test results among elementary school students in Saudi Arabia. The data was collected using a purposive sampling strategy, with the Social and Emotional Learning Assessment Scale (SELAS) used to assess skills and actual educational material utilized to provide standardized test results. Data analysis involves the utilization of descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, regression assessment, ANCOVA, and subgroup analyses. The results indicate a robust and positive correlation between social and (...) emotional abilities and standardized test scores. The regression evaluation demonstrates the ability of these skills to accurately predict academic achievement. The ANCOVA method finds socio-economic variables as the primary moderators. The evident existence of disparities, principally influenced by gender and grade level, highlights the necessity for interventions that are specifically tailored to address these variances. Proposed approaches include integrating comprehensive social and emotional learning activities into educational curricula, implementing targeted interventions to address socio-economic disparities, and implementing strategies customized to individual genders. Maintaining continuous surveillance and assessment is crucial for fostering a comprehensive academic environment. (shrink)

This study empirically examines the relationship between wide-ranging board diversity and the quality of corporate social responsibility disclosure variables in Malaysia. We extend prior literature covering broader dimensions of board diversity and their impact on CSR after controlling for board and audit committee characteristics. Using 200 listed firms in Bursa Malaysia during 2009–2013 and applying both OLS and 2SLS instrumental variables approaches, we document significant positive effect of board education level and board tenure diversity on the quality of CSR disclosure. (...) Further analysis using robust regression also shows positive association between gender diversity and CSR disclosure. Our findings also demonstrate that the quality of CSR disclosure is significantly negatively associated with board age and nationality diversity. These results remain consistent with using alternative measures for board diversity, and characteristics for board of director and audit committees as well as split samples between large and small firms. Additional tests exhibit complementary relationship of education level and nationality with gender, while substitutive relationship of age and tenure with gender in influencing CSR. These findings provide useful insights into the policy makers in setting regulations in respect of board diversity in Malaysia and other emerging economies in the Asian region. Our evidence is also useful for listed companies in setting the criteria to identify directors who can support their strategic decisions. (shrink)