This paper examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance for Islamic banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council region over the period 2000–2014 by generating CSR-related data through disclosure analysis of the annual reports of the sampled banks. The findings of this study indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between CSR disclosure and the financial performance of Islamic banks in the GCC countries. The results also show a positive relationship between CSR disclosure and the future financial (...) performance of GCC Islamic banks, potentially indicating that current CSR activities carried out by Islamic banks in the GCC could have a long-term impact on their financial performance. Furthermore, despite demonstrating a significant positive relationship between the composite measure of the CSR disclosure index and financial performance, the findings show no statistically significant relationship between the individual dimensions of the CSR disclosure index and the current financial performance measure except for ‘mission and vision’ and ‘products and services’. Similarly, the empirical results detect a positive significant association only between ‘mission and vision’ dimension and future financial performance of the examined banks. (shrink)

The outburst of the fourth Industrial Revolution had a significant impact on many aspects of life. The discovery of new technologies in medicine has resulted in innovations: organ transplants. The introduction of three-dimensional (3D) organ printing technology promises improvements to the field. Organs such as the liver, kidneys, heart and others are printed to meet the needs of the actual organs. However, the production of prototype organs to replace the original organs is associated with the issue of changing the creation (...) of Allah. Accordingly, this study will analyse the issue of changing the creation of God in three-dimensional (3D) organ printing technology according to the perspective of Islamic law. Several appropriate methodologies in Islamic law (usul fiqh) are used such as legal reasoning through maqasid shariah perspective and analogical reasoning. The result shows that three-dimensional (3D) organ printing technology falls under the permissible category of changing the creation of Allah because it can save human lives. The production of organs through 3D printing involving changes included in the category of necessity (daruri) and need (hajiy) is permissible, but the category of desirable (tahsini) requires further specifications. (shrink)

Controversial taboo appeals as an executional cue in viral advertising have commonly been used by advertisers. In this context, the study investigates the role of medium context on the effectiveness of controversial taboo ads. By implementing a tightly controlled experiment which deals with controversial taboo ads embedded in a press article and in a viral context, the study finds that the viral medium context does not lead to a more positive attitude toward the embedded brand or to more positive purchase (...) intentions. In addition, a viral medium context triggers ‘unintended consequences’ that lead consumers to undermine the level of tabooness of the viral advertising and subjective norms. To increase the external validity of the research, the results were replicated for two kinds of controversial taboo appeals; one related to sexuality, and the other to death. The results provide useful implications for theory and practice. Extending viral advertising research, a different angle on controversial viral advertising has been taken, shifting from an advertiser and brand focus, to a societal and social one. The work leads to a better understanding of the ethics of controversial viral advertising, and demonstrates its role in the trivialization of taboo behaviors and imagery. The results confirm the need for more regulation of online buzz communication and encourage regulatory bodies to extend policies of viral advertising regulation. (shrink)

Divided into five parts, the book provides general background information on Biruni's time, his world, and his life. It includes the full names of the 183 books written by Biruni. The titles of these books are given in Arabic, Persian, transliteration of the Arabic title, and English, and they are all annotated and if available the number of folios is given for each one. A list of available references in English on Biruni, including articles, bibliographies, books, internet sites, a dissertation, (...) and even a film. A list of Persian reference sources is also included. (shrink)

The study contributes to building an understanding of the impact of political forces on the information environment of listed firms in a developing economy. Specifically, it investigates the tensions between politico-institutional factors and accounting regulation on the prolonged and incomplete implementation of the International Financial Reporting Standards in Bangladesh from 1998 to 2010. Two phases of interviews were conducted in 2010–2011 and IFRS-related enforcement documents from 1998 to 2010 were evaluated. The study contributes that IFRSs are being diffused to developing (...) countries like Bangladesh, but they invariably interact with local institutions, with variable outcomes. Coercive, normative and mimetic isomorphisms are low in Bangladesh. Notably, political forces have been undermining mimetic isomorphism because of the high level of government intervention and the high level of political lobbying. Political institutional pressures stand in the way of mimetic isomorphism and constitute negative forces that add further tension to accounting regulation in Bangladesh. Regarding the low level of normative isomorphism, there is evidence of a ‘blame culture’, with state institutions and professional accountancy institutions in the country blaming each other for the poor progress in IFRS implementation. Although the study focuses on Bangladesh, its results have implications for international policy makers, as well as the governments and regulators of other developing economies facing similar challenges in implementing IFRS. (shrink)

The cultural characteristics of any country generally give shape to the educational system. However, no country can assert its own educational system to be wholly indigenous. All the systems come into being as a synthesis of various ingredients of the home country and other countries. And it is quite natural to make use of the experiences and stock of knowledge of the others. This fact is indispensable especially when education is concerned. The curicial problem is to what extent the “borrowing (...) process” should be used. When the process of borrowing ideas become to take the form of “imitation” or “copy”, unexpected results and failure are unavoidable. (shrink)

This article discusses continuities and changes of educational institutions during the political transition from the Seljuq dynasty to the Ottoman sultanate. It diachronically examines elements of education which were transformed and adapted into a new political structure under the political regime, the Ottoman. This article will closely look at institutional transformation and educational curricula as to which the changing political regime affected contents and management of Islamic education. This article further argues that the political transformation from the Seljuq to the (...) Ottoman had generated a new educational system in which the Ottoman imposed the attempts to integrate Islam and modern sciences. At managerial level, the transformation has also invited the introduction of science in Islamic educational system. Western educational system reserved as an important reference for this transformation amid the changing regime from the Seljuq to the Ottoman. (shrink)

Background: Although human dignity is an unconditional value of every human being, it can be shattered by extrinsic factors. It is necessary to discover the authentic meaning of patients’ dignity preservation from different religious perspectives to provide professional cross-cultural care in a diverse setting. Research objective: This article identifies common experiences of Iranian Muslim and Armenian Christian patients regarding dignified care at the bedside. Research design: This is a qualitative study of participants’ experiences of dignified care elicited by individual in-depth (...) semi-structured interviews. Participants and research context: A purposeful sample of 10 participants (five Iranian Muslims and five Iranian Armenians) from various private and governmental hospital settings was chosen. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by the ethics committee of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All the participants were provided with information about the purpose and the nature of the study, the voluntary condition of their participation in this study, and the anonymous reporting of recorded interviews. Findings: The common experiences of Christian and Muslim patients regarding dignity preservation emerged as “exigency of respecting human nobility” and “providing person-centered care.” Discussion and conclusion: It is essential to recognize the humanness and individuality of each patient to preserve and promote human dignity in diverse cross-cultural settings. The findings support and expand current understanding about the objective and subjective nature of dignity preservation in cross-cultural nursing. (shrink)

This study provides evidence regarding the level of ethical cognition of business students at the entry to college as compared to a national norm. It also provides comparative evidence on the effects of group versus individual ethical cognition upon completion of a business ethics course. The Principled Score (P-score) from the Defining Issues Test (DIT) was used to measure the ethical cognition of a total sample of 301 business students (273 entering students plus 28 students in a business ethics course). (...) The results indicate that (1) business students are not significantly different from the national norms at entry to college and (2) group reasoning helps male students improve their P-scores significantly in the business ethics course at a loss of P-score (albeit not statistically significant) for female students. (shrink)

Background: Emergency care providers are frequently faces with situations in which they have to make decisions quickly in stressful situations. They face barriers to ethical decision-making and recognizing and finding solutions to these barriers helps them to make ethical decision. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify barriers of ethical decision-making in Iranian Emergency Medical Service personnel. Methods: In this qualitative research, the participants (n = 15) were selected using the purposive sampling method, and the data were collected (...) by deep and semi-structured interviews. Finally, the data are analyzed using the content analysis approach. Ethical considerations: Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. The objectives of the study were explained to the participants and written consent was received from them. Also, participants were assured that necessary measures were taken to protect their anonymity and confidentiality. Findings: The results of the analysis are classified in five main categories. It encompasses the following areas: perception of situation, patient-related factors, input and output imbalance, uncoordinated health system, and paradoxes. Conclusion: Emergency Medical Service personnel make ethical decisions every day. It is important that prehospital personnel know how to manage those decisions properly so that clients’ moral rights are respected. Hence, by identifying the dimensions and obstacles of ethical decision-making in Emergency Medical Service personnel, it is possible to enhance the moral judgment and ethical accountability of the personnel and develop the strategies necessary for ethical decision-making in them. (shrink)

Tefvîz meselesi ictihada başvurmaksızın ilkten hüküm koyma esasına dayanan girift bir meseledir. Şer’î ahkâmın kaynağı ya vahiy veya vahyin ışığında ictihaddır. Tefvîzde ise hüküm herhangi bir vahiy veya ictihada dayanmayıp, Allah tarafından daha önce verilen yetkiye dayanmaktadır. Tefvîzde ilkten ve re’sen bir hüküm koyma söz konusudur. Usulcüler arasında böyle bir yetkinin imkanı tartışılmış, mesele etrafında kabul ve red şeklinde temel iki görüş ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu ihtilafın temelinde hüsün ve kubuh etrafındaki kelamî tartışmaların önemli rol oynadığı anlaşılmaktadır. Tefvîzi kabul eden usulcüler (...) kendi içerisinde aklen cevaz verenler; hem aklen hem de fiilen mümkün görenler şeklinde ayrışmışlardır. Kabul eden usulcüler detayda da ihtilaf etmişler kimi usulcüler tefvîze peygamber, müctehid/âlim ve hatta âmmî bakımından cevaz verirken, kimisi sadece peygamber bakımından, kimisi hem peygamber hem de müctehidler bakımından cevazına hükmetmişlerdir. Çoğunluğu Mu‘tezile mensubu olan usulcüler ise ne aklen ne de fiilen gerçekleşmesini mümkün görmemişlerdir. Hem aklen hem de fiilen cevaz veren ve tefvîzi peygamber ve âlimlere teşmil eden usulcüler arasında Mu’tezilî âlim Müveys b. İmrân’ın adının ön plana çıktığı görülmektedir. İmam Şâfiî ve Şâfiî usulcüler de aynı grup içerisinde yer almış olmakla birlikte özellikle İmam Şâfiî’nin görüşü noktasında net bilgiler sunulamamıştır. Hem aklen hem de fiilen gerçekleştiğini kabul eden usulcüler görüşlerini aklî ve sem’î delillerle temellendirmeye çalışmışlardır Tefvîze cevaz veren usulcüler ayrıca tefvîzi şer’î hükmün kaynaklarından biri olarak kabul etmişlerdir. Tefvîze cevaz vermeyen ve çoğunluğunu fukahâ/Hanefî metoduna mensup alimlerin oluşturduğu usulcüler ise şer’î hüküm kaynaklarının vahiy ve ictihad olduğuna vurgu yaparak peygamber de olsa bunların dışında başka bir teşrî’ kaynağı bulunamayacağını iddia etmişler, onlar da iddiaların aklî ve naklî delillerle gerekçelendirmeye çalışmışlardır. Şîî usulcüler arasında tefvîzi temelden reddedenler olduğu gibi kabul ve red şeklinde sünnî usulcülerle benzer yaklaşımlar sergileyen alimler de bulunmaktadır. Bazı aşırı Şîa fırkaları arasında tekvînî tefvîz denen bir anlayış da bulunmaktadır. Bu anlayışa göre âlemin yaratılması, idare edilmesi, öldürme, diriltme, rızık verme, âhirette ceza ve mükâfat verme gibi hususlar Allah tarafından Hz. Peygamber, Hz. Ali ve imamlara havale edilmiştir. Fakat bu anlayış mutedil Şîa alimleri tarafından şiddetle reddedilerek bunu savunanların küfrüne hükmedilmiştir. Kimi usulcülerin ictihadla tefvîzi birbirine karıştırdıkları veya en azından tefvîzi de ictihad kapsamında gördükleri anlaşılmaktadır. Oysaki tefvîzin en temel özelliklerinden biri ictihada başvurmadan hüküm vermektir. Dolayısıyla böyle bir yaklaşım isabetli gözükmemektedir. (shrink)

Background: Moral distress is increasingly recognized as a problem affecting healthcare professionals, especially nurses. If not addressed, it may create job dissatisfaction, withdrawal from the moral dimensions of patient care, or even encourage one to leave the profession. Spiritual well-being is a concept which is considered when dealing with problems and stress relating to a variety of issues. Objective: This research aimed to examine the relationship between spiritual well-being and moral distress among a sample of Iranian nurses and also to (...) study the determinant factors of moral distress and spiritual well-being in nurses. Research design: A cross-sectional, correlational design was employed to collect data from 193 nurses using the Spiritual Well-Being Scale and the Moral Distress Scale-Revised. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by the Regional Committee of Medical Research Ethics. The ethical principles of voluntary participation, anonymity, and confidentiality were considered. Findings: Mean scores of spiritual well-being and moral distress were 94.73 ± 15.89 and 109.56 ± 58.70, respectively. There was no significant correlation between spiritual well-being and moral distress ( r = −.053, p =.462). Marital status and job satisfaction were found to be independent predictors of spiritual well-being. However, gender and educational levels were found to be independent predictors for moral distress. Age, working in rotation shifts, and a tendency to leave the current job also became significant after adjusting other factors for moral distress. Discussion and conclusion: This study could not support the relationship between spiritual well-being and moral distress. However, the results showed that moral distress is related to many elements including individual ideals and differences as well as organizational factors. Informing nurses about moral distress and its consequences, establishing periodic consultations, and making some organizational arrangement may play an important role in the identification and management of moral distress and spiritual well-being. (shrink)

Cause-related marketing, defined as a firm’s communication activities designed to promote a consumer good or service by including an offer to contribute a specified amount to a designated nonprofit cause, has become a preponderant practice. In tandem with the development of CrM activities, criticism of CrM has increased; critics note that some CrM claims mislead consumers regarding their purchases’ donative impact. Critics such as consumers and nonprofit advocates are using ad parodies, noncommercial messages that mimic an actual advertisement. In this (...) context, the study investigates how these ad parodies can result in a detrimental impact on consumers’ perceptual and behavioral evaluations of the sponsoring brand. By implementing a tightly controlled experiment comparing actual CrM campaigns and CrM parodies, the author shows that the detrimental effects of CrM parodies on brand attitude and word-of-mouth valence can be explained by greater skepticism toward the firm’s sincere and altruistic motivations. In addition, the author shows that a robust asymmetry emerges in which CrM ad parodies damage perceptual and behavioral evaluations of brands more than actual CrM campaigns improve them. The authors replicate the results for two kinds of critics and two types of brands. The results provide useful implications for theory and practice, documenting the backfire effect of poorly designed CrM, which may urge brands to move toward more self-regulation of CrM practices. (shrink)

Identity and culture as the main concepts of INPE '94 were analyzed from philosophical perspectives that questioned their implications for our era of globalization. The formation of identities in a cultural context and their relationships with education gave focus to discussion. In other words, the effects of culture upon the individual and the role of education in strengthening or degrading these effects afforded the main concerns of our topical group.

Decision-makers in governments, enterprises, businesses and agencies or individuals, typically, make decisions according to various regulations, guidelines and policies based on existing records stored in various databases, in particular, relational databases. To assist decision-makers, an expert system, encompasses interactive computer-based systems or subsystems to support the decision-making process. Typically, most expert systems are built on top of transaction systems, databases, and data models and restricted in decision-making to the analysis, processing and presenting data and information, and they do not provide (...) support for the normative layer. This paper will provide a solution to one specific problem that arises from this situation, namely the lack of tool/mechanism to demonstrate how an expert system is well-suited for supporting decision-making activities drawn from existing records and relevant legal requirements aligned existing records stored in various databases.We present a Rule-based reporting systems architecture, which is intended to integrate databases, in particular, relational databases, with a logic-based reasoner and rule engine to assist in decision-making or create reports according to legal norms. We argue that the resulting RuleRS provides an efficient and flexible solution to the problem at hand using defeasible inference. To this end, we have also conducted empirical evaluations of RuleRS performance. (shrink)

INTRODUCTION: BUILDING DEMOCRATIC STATES ON NATIONAL DIVERSITY Mohammad-Saïd Darviche & William Genieys Juan J. Linz is one of the most famous scholars in ...

According to a doctrine widely held by most medieval philosophers and theologians, whether in the Muslim or Christian world, there are no metaphysical distinctions in God whatsoever. As a result of the compendious theorizing that has been done on this issue, the doctrine, usually called the doctrine of divine simplicity, has been bestowed a prominent status in both Islamic and Christian philosophical theology. In Islamic philosophy some well-known philosophers, such as Ibn Sina (980–1037) and Mulla Sadra (1571–1640), developed this doctrine (...) through a metaphysical approach. In this paper, considering the historical order, I shall first concentrate on Ibn Sina’s view. Then I shall turn to the theory of divine simplicity of Thomas Aquinas (1225?–1274), as the most developed and comprehensive version of the medieval theories in Christian world. Finally, I will return to Islamic philosophy and explore the more complicated and mature account of the doctrine as it was introduced by Mulla Sadra according to his own philosophical principles. (shrink)

We present an axiomatization for Basic Propositional Calculus BPC and give a completeness theorem for the class of transitive Kripke structures. We present several refinements, including a completeness theorem for irreflexive trees. The class of intermediate logics includes two maximal nodes, one being Classical Propositional Calculus CPC, the other being E1, a theory axiomatized by T → ⊥. The intersection CPC ∩ E1 is axiomatizable by the Principle of the Excluded Middle A V ∨ ⌝A. If B is a formula (...) such that → B is not derivable, then the lattice of formulas built from one propositional variable p using only the binary connectives, is isomorphically preserved if B is substituted for p. A formula → B is derivable exactly when B is provably equivalent to a formula of the form → A) →. (shrink)

Boyer presents a compelling account of ownership as the outcome of interaction between two evolved cognitive systems. We integrate this model into current discussions of moral pluralism, suggesting that ownership meets the criteria to be a moral foundation. We caution against ignoring cultural variation in ownership norms and against explaining complex, contested moral phenomena using a monist approach.

Let ℒ and ? be propositional languages over Basic Propositional Calculus, and ℳ = ℒ∩?. Weprove two different but interrelated interpolation theorems. First, suppose that Π is a sequent theory over ℒ, and Σ∪ {C⇒C′} is a set of sequents over ?, such that Π,Σ⊢C⇒C′. Then there is a sequent theory Φ over ℳ such that Π⊢Φ and Φ, Σ⊢C⇒C′. Second, let A be a formula over ℒ, and C 1, C 2 be formulas over ?, such that A∧C 1⊢C (...) 2. Then there exists a formula B over ℳ such that A⊢B and B∧C 1⊢C 2. (shrink)

Abstract.Scientific achievements, especially in contemporary biology, have led and continue to lead to uncertainties for some believers with regard to their understanding of the role of God as the creator. This essay, avoiding philosophical jargon, expounds the stance of Islamic philosophy on this matter and argues that such anxiety and doubt are unfounded. Drawing upon the thousand‐year‐old distinction between two types of cause, real and preparatory, as formulated by Muslim philosophers, the argument demonstrates that seeing biological advances as rivaling God's (...) creation, as traditionally understood in the Abrahamic religions, is a premature judgment based on a faulty conflation. This comes to light most clearly through Mulla Sadra's analysis of causality, the far‐reaching implications of which are briefly mentioned. (shrink)

The detection of a human’s intended behavior is one of the most important skills that a social robot should have in order to become acceptable as a part of human society, because humans are used to understand the actions of other humans in a goal-directed manner and they will expect the social robot to behave similarly. A breakthrough in this area can advance several research branches related to social intelligence such as learning by imitation and mutual adaptation. To achieve this (...) goal the robot needs to integrate all possible evidence of intention and neglect the unintended behavior, and a complete solution should use low-level signal processing and high-level reasoning. This work explores the low-level signal processing part of the solution by proposing an interactive adaptive perception scheme that uses four important features of human behavior to amplify the signals originating from intended behavior with respect to signals originating from unintended behavior and other noise sources such as instrumental noise. This work follows the vision that intelligence is not only a function of a centralized sophisticated artificial brain, but can be presented in different forms in the entire robot including its perception and motion systems (the mind is not contained in the brain, but distributed in every cell in the body). A simple example of using the proposed scheme was implemented and the results of two experiments with it are also presented. (shrink)

This book fills the gap between theories and practices of corporate governance in emerging markets by providing the reader with an in-depth understanding of governance mechanisms, practices and cases in these markets. It is an invaluable resource not only for academic researchers and graduate students in law, economics, management and finance, but also for people practicing governance such as lawmakers, policymakers and international organizations promoting best governance practices in emerging countries. Investors can benefit from this book to better understand of (...) these markets and to make judicious investment decisions. (shrink)

Biometrics readers are deployed in many public sites and are used for user identification and verification. Nowadays, most biometrics readers can be connected to local area networks, and consequently, they are potential targets for network attacks. This article investigates the robustness of several fingerprint and iris readers against common denial of service attacks. This investigation has been conducted using a set of laboratory experiments and DoS attack generator tools. The experiments show clearly that the tested biometric readers are very vulnerable (...) to common DoS attacks, and their recognition performances deteriorate significantly once they are under DoS attacks. Finally, the article lists some security consideration that should be taken into consideration when designing secure biometrics readers. (shrink)

This book challenges the philosophical foundations of current trademark systems in the USA and the UK. It argues that the process of trademark creation should be transformed to the more practical and realistic proposition of "co-authorship" of trademarks by both the public and trademark owners. The book develops the "Economic-Social Planning justification", which departs from the economic argument that trademarks reduce consumer search costs, and then proposes that trademarks should be formulated in a manner which helps foster a just and (...) attractive culture. Trademarks are thus seen as source and origin identifiers, rather than quality identifiers. The book focuses on the often ignored role of the public and their rights in trademarks and calls for the adoption of the confusion rationale for trademark protection, not the dilution individualistic rationale. The two jurisdictions of this book prove adverse effects over the rights of the public in terms of using trademarks in cultural and expressive contexts, thereby threatening the principles of freedom of expression as a human fundamental right. (shrink)

This work underscores the importance of answering the question: who are organizational stakeholders? It argues that stakeholder theory is a normative management theory, and there is a need to differentiate between stakeholder and non-stakeholder firms. It further argues that the overall organizational stakeholder orientation indicates how narrowly or broadly organizations define their stakeholders. Therefore, this work attempts to provide a stakeholder salience scheme for stakeholder organizations, i.e., organizations with accommodative and proactive stakeholder orientations. In the process, this work reviews key (...) scholarly contributions and points out some potential weaknesses in these contributions with an aim to develop a new stakeholder typology. This work contributes to the existing literature by: introducing a contingent variable, i.e., organizational strategy, in a stakeholder typology scheme; reaffirming the normative aspect of stakeholder theory by placing normative considerations at the center of stakeholder salience typology; and improving the descriptive validity of stakeholder theory by adding a new stakeholder variable, i.e., organization, in the presented stakeholder salience typology scheme. (shrink)

Assuming the existence of suitable large cardinals, we show it is consistent that the Provability logic $\mathbf {GL}$ is complete with respect to the filter sequence of normal measures. This result answers a question of Andreas Blass from 1990 and a related question of Beklemishev and Joosten.

The world can be divided between atheism and theism, a division that also fuels its social conflicts, moral outlook, and social evolution. If not for the question of why God did not create everything in peace, harmony, and reconciliation, we might not have seen this division. Atheism thrives and lives on the consideration of a merciful God allowing suffering, hardship, and punishment while theism on the belief in divine tests practiced through higher values. However, the arguments for theism and atheism (...) are still ongoing while affecting humanity at large. Even though theism is not as strong globally as it was at some time in the past, it still has a considerable influence in many major areas of the world. Islamic theism is a major influence driving the politics and addressing social conflicts in the Middle East and many other parts of the world. This discussion analyses both Islamic theism and atheism comparatively arguing for Islamic theism and against atheism. As atheism has no authoritative sources like Islamic theism has in the Quran and Hadith the atheistic perspectives are largely dependent upon its leading proponents and history. The discussion finds atheism is great for those who have wealth, resources, and influence while theism is best suited to make positive changes for humanity as a whole. Atheism is then a luxury while theism is a necessity. The reader is strongly urged to consider the footnotes for greater understanding. (shrink)

A model called the “semiotic ladder,” which consists of “consecutive semiotic squares,” is proposed in this paper, through which the meanings of the deep structure of a narrative can be depicted as fluid and dynamic. It shows the stages of producing meanings in the narrative, from beginning to end. To see this, several narratives in the epic and mythological genres are analyzed in order to discover their abstract and deep structural meanings, and to prove the dynamic nature of meaning in (...) the semiotic ladder. According to the analysis, the process of the semiotic ladder depicts the displacement and fluidity of narrative meanings using consecutive semiotic squares, and this pattern can be applied to and implemented in all narratives. Also, the semiotic ladder allows us to clearly observe the pattern of movement of the narrative subject schema in the path of accomplishing the object. (shrink)

Background: Experiencing moral distress is traumatic for nurses. Ignoring moral distress can lead to job dissatisfaction, improper handling in the care of patients, or even leaving the job. Thus, it is crucial to use valid and reliable instruments to measure moral distress. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability and the validity of the Persian version of the Moral Distress Scale–Revised among a sample of Iranian nurses. Research design: In this methodological study, 310 nurses were recruited (...) from all hospitals affiliated with the Qazvin University of Medical Sciences from February 2014 to April 2015. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and the Moral Distress Scale–Revised. The construct validity of the Moral Distress Scale–Revised was evaluated using principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Internal consistency reliability was assessed with Cronbach’s alpha. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by the Regional Committee of Medical Research Ethics. The ethical principles of voluntary participation, anonymity, and confidentiality were considered. Findings: The construct validity of the scale showed four factors with eigenvalues greater than one. The model had a good fit ( χ2(162) = 307.561, χ2/ df = 1.899, goodness-of-fit index =.904, comparative fit index =.927, incremental fit index =.929, and root mean square error of approximation (90% confidence interval) =.049 (.040–.057)) with all factor loadings greater than.5 and statistically significant. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were.853,.686,.685, and.711for the four factors. Moreover, the model structure was invariant across different income groups. Discussion and conclusion: The Persian version of the Moral Distress Scale–Revised demonstrated suitable validity and reliability among nurses. The factor analysis also revealed that the Moral Distress Scale–Revised has a multidimensional structure. Regarding the proper psychometric characteristics, the validated scale can be used to further research about moral distress in this population. (shrink)