Amyloid beta precursor protein (APP) and prion protein (PrP) are cell membrane elements implicated in neurodegenerative diseases. Both proteins undergo endoproteolysis. Evidence is adduced from the literature hinting that the process in the two proteins could be related, their functions may overlap and their distributions coincide. It is proposed that PrP catalyses its own cleavage, the C-terminal fragment functions as an α secretase and the N-terminal segment chaperones the active site; the α secretase releases anticoagulant and neurotrophic ectodomains from APP. (...) The proposals explain some features of spongiform encephalopathies. BioEssays 23:456–462, 2001. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (shrink)

In this paper I argue that Robert Kane’s defense of event-causal libertarianism, as presented in Responsibility, Luck, and Chance: Reflections on Free Will and Indeterminism, fails because his event-causal reconstruction is incoherent. I focus on the notions of efforts and self-forming actions essential to his defense.

In this article, I developed the CSR-19 scale to assess the perceptions company executives have of CSR actions during the COVID-19 pandemic and to conceptualize the economic, legal, social, and environmental aspects of CSR actions as a high-order construct. This paper's findings suggest that the legal, environmental, and social aspects of CSR actions are being perceived to positively contribute to companies' CSR actions, but the economic aspect of CSR actions is deemed to contribute negatively to companies' CSR actions. The 16-item (...) CSR-19 scale shows strong evidence of reliability as well as content, convergent, and discriminant validity in a sample of 211 Jordanian companies. Managerial implications and suggestions for applying the CSR-19 scale in future research are presented. (shrink)

Kant’s investigations into so‐called a priori judgments of pure mathematics in the Critique of Pure Reason (KrV) are mainly confined to geometry and arithmetic both of which are grounded on our pure forms of intuition, space, and time. Nevertheless, as regards notions such as irrational numbers and continuous magnitudes, such a restricted account is crucially problematic. I argue that algebra can play a transcendental role with respect to the two pure intuitive sciences, arithmetic and geometry, as the condition of their (...) possibility. It follows that Kant’s schematism of the concept of magnitude ought to be quantitatively represented in algebraic formulas in general, and also undergo several modifications in order to suit continuities. (shrink)

By the slant of their aims, presidential candidates rely on their own rhetorical arsenal to win the acquiescence of the public. Hedges and boosters, two subcategories of metadiscourse markers, are among the rhetorical tropes which assist politicians to increase or decrease commitment, blur or sharpen the boundaries between good and evil, and bolster or emasculate solidarity. Despite the many functions hedges and boosters can play in political discourse, studies that address these devices in relation to their persuasive effect in televised (...) presidential debates cross-linguistically are tremendously scant. To this aim, the current study examined the hedging and boosting strategies used by the winners of American and Iranian presidential elections during one of their latest televised debates. A bottom–up method of analysis was adopted to analyze the debates in terms of hedges and boosters, and a functional model in light of what surfaced in the analysis along with awareness of the existing literature was proposed. The study showed that not only were the frequencies significantly different, but the functions these devices fulfilled were also varied cross-linguistically as the winners of both groups demonstrated diverse tendencies towards using hedges and boosters. (shrink)

The paper describes the design of an intelligent tutoring system for teaching Introduction to Computer Science-a compulsory curriculum in Al-Azhar University of Gaza to students who attend the university. The basic idea of this system is a systematic introduction into computer science. The system presents topics with examples. The system is dynamically checks student's individual progress. An initial evaluation study was done to investigate the effect of using the intelligent tutoring system on the performance of students enrolled in computer science (...) curriculum at Al-Azhar University, Gaza. The results showed a positive impact on the evaluators. (shrink)

We present a fully relativistic formulation of the theory of electron-nucleus Bremsstrahlung, within the context of self-field QED, as advanced recently by Barut and his co-workers. The Bremsstrahlung emission cross-section, reported here, is also shown to reduce to the standard correct nonrelativistic limit, in the dipole approximation.

Within the context of the time-reversed S-matrix approach to photoionization, and employing a recently proposed strong-field solution to the Schrödinger equation, analytic expressions for the atomic photoionization rates are obtained here without using the dipole approximation. We show that the absorbed photon momentum shows up as a forward-directed momentum component for the photoelectron. All the expressions reported in this work have the correct limits when the dipole approximation is used.

Lying is the deliberate act of conveying false information to deceive others using language. Examining the linguistic and content features of this act has been a point of interest for forensic linguists due to its potential significance in examining various legal contexts such as criminal investigations, accusations, eyewitness testimonies, allegations, and police interrogations. This article aimed to examine the content features of lying in Jordanian Colloquial Arabic and their social constraints. The study draws on the Reality Monitoring (RM) approach, a (...) forensic tool that has proven its effectiveness in lying detection. To achieve this aim, a corpus of 288 narratives, 144 lying and 144 truthful, was collected through face-to-face interviews with 48 speakers stratified by gender, age, and educational attainment. The findings of this study did not conform to the RM criteria. The study revealed that truthful accounts contain more cognitive details while lying accounts contain more spatial, temporal, affective, and perceptual details. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to propose and develop an intelligent e-learning system based on advanced document management techniques at Al-Quds Open University. In this article, we focus on a case using e-mail contents as supplement educational materials at QOU. We describe how the interactive classification system based on concept hierarchy can simplify this task. This system provides the functions to index, classify, and retrieve a collection of e-mail messages based on user profiles. By automatically indexing e-mail messages using (...) our E-mail Classification System for e-Learning, instructors and/or students can easily find their messages and find the topics. The test results of our system evaluation showed that a good classification quality has been achieved, with a precision of 77.4%, recall of 90%, and F-measure of 82.8. (shrink)

The Aesthetic Commonplace is a study of the everyday as a region of overlooked value in the work of William Wordsworth, George Eliot, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The Romantic poet, the realist novelist, and the modern philosopher are each separately associated with a commitment to the common, the ordinary, and the everyday as a vital resource for reflection on language, on feeling, on ethical insight, and social attunement. The Aesthetic Commonplace is the first study to draw substantive lines of connection between (...) Wittgenstein and the cultural and literary history of nineteenth century England. Tracing conceptual and formal affinities between the poet, the novelist, and the philosopher, the book brings to light significant links between the intellectual history of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth, making the case for a continuous cultural commitment to the aesthetic as a distinctive mode of investigating thought, feeling, and the everyday language upon which we depend for their articulation. Addressed to both literary studies and to philosophy, The Aesthetic Commonplace makes a compelling case for the interdependence of form, concept, and emotion in the history and interpretive practices of both disciplines. (shrink)

While individuals presented in central texts of the period are indeed often alone or separated from others, Yousef regards this isolation as a problem the texts attempt to illuminate, rather than a condition they construct as normative or ...

This paper explores the impact of ethical philosophies on developing an authentic leader’s internalized moral perspective. It builds on prior research on moral identity, proposing that ethical philosophies such as deontology, rule utilitarianism, and virtue can be internalized over time to form an authentic leader’s internalized moral identity. The paper argues that while virtues and altruism are discussed in the authentic leadership literature, the relevance of other ethical philosophies to authentic leadership has been largely overlooked. These ethical philosophies embedded in (...) business settings can be internalized and become integral to the content of a leader’s moral identity rather than merely being lenses for moral reasoning. Authentic leaders’ moral identities regulate their moral motivation and actions. In addition, the paper posits that internalized ethical philosophies can be activated by triggering events or changing the domain of moral issues. Authentic leaders with highly internalized moral identities are also encouraged to be morally modest, reflecting on different ethical philosophies when facing new challenges and internalizing them as needed while staying committed to their virtue-centric moral identity. This interdisciplinary paper proposes a framework and presents theoretical propositions to further understand the role of ethical philosophies in shaping an authentic leader’s internalized moral perspective. (shrink)

Quentin Meillassoux first book, After Finitude, argues that most of the post-Kantian philosophies, including phenomenology, are guilty of inconsistency, since none of them is able to give account of the ancestral phenomena. The incorrigible phenomenologist is accused to make it impossible to understand scientific statements about some ancient past, that would be prior to the emergence of life, and thus escaping from any kind of givenness. However, we think that this critic does not achieve its purpose, for four main reasons (...) : the fact that signitive intentions can remain meaningful without being fulfilled by intuitions ; the gifts of the imaginative intentions which, through the example of fiction, open up possibilities, for ancestral statements, of some quasi-fulfillment ; the « thematization », by most of Husserl’s disciples, of the diachronic nature of some events, the temporality of which differs tremendously with that of the inner perception’s one, the latter sustaining the intentional correlation ; its interest for an entirely different scientific field, to which phenomenology borrows some notions, and more generally its procedures : quantum physics. (shrink)

All geopolitical change represents the creation of a new order and this entails the alteration of the spatial conditions and, therefore, the modification of the way of understanding borders. Carl Schmitt, especially in his last stage, aimed at delineating a new international configuration made up of large spaces (Grossräume), once the time of sovereignties typical of the Ius publicum europaeum was over. The goal of this study is to analizy to which extent and how Schmitt 's analytical tools around borders (...) can be useful to understand the current state of globalization. Todo cambio geopolítico representa la creación de un nuevo orden y ello conlleva la alteración de las condiciones espaciales y, por tanto, la modificación de la manera de entender las fronteras. Carl Schmitt, especialmente en su última etapa, apuntó al delineamiento de una nueva configuración internacional conformada por grandes espacios (Grossräume), una vez que el tiempo de las soberanías propias del Ius publicum europaeum había terminado. El objetivo de este estudio es analizar hasta qué punto y de qué manera las herramientas analíticas de Schmitt en torno a las fronteras pueden ser útiles para comprender el estado actual de la globalización. (shrink)

This thesis explores how the problem of other minds arises in philosophy and literature of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The effort to imagine and establish the conditions, limits and possibilities of human knowledge of other human beings is common to works of empirical psychology, moral philosophy, political theory, autobiography and fiction. The ways in which literature, and specifically autobiographical writing, imagine the solitude and singularity of the human being are understood, in this dissertation, as contextualizations of the skeptical (...) moods which afflict the subjects of philosophical writing. The argument of the thesis, simply put, is that the human being and self conceived in this period is constructed in terms of dependence rather autonomy, and determined by the imagination of its relatedness to others, not its self-sufficiency. Rousseau's influence on English Romanticism provides a historical framework and principle of selection for the diverse set of texts brought together in the dissertation. Epistemological and ethical philosophies of the English Enlightenment serve as background for a study of the problems of human association that are central to all of Rousseau's work. The ineradicable doubts and insecurities which are constitutive of human relations in Rousseau are shown to be assimilated and transformed in the literature of English Romanticism. (shrink)

This chapter addresses the challenges of implementing reflective thinking in engineering ethics education (EEE). It examines existing methods for teaching ethical reflection in EEE and argues that pedagogical activities aiming to foster ethical reflection need to be infused with dialogical interactions and, at a deeper level, informed by dialogism. Dialogism is understood as a relational approach to inquiry in which interactions between moral agents enable them to develop their own understandings through the process of finding shared meanings with the others (...) in activities such as sharing reasons and deliberation. Drawing on pragmatism and phenomenology, the authors conceptualize reflection as a mode of thinking that enables us to monitor and question our assumptions and values – and to synthesize experiences and situations continuously and iteratively. Classroom reflection is a nuanced practice that can be captured through experiential, first-person accounts. Given the centrality of the dialogical experiences in reflection, the assessment methods should focus on evaluating the process rather than the learning outcomes, by emphasizing self-awareness, transformation, and spontaneity in class interactions. In creating opportunities for reflection, instructors need to purposefully consider their choice of specific cases and scenarios used in instruction. Students should be guided to recognize and engage in ethical situations by considering their full, diverse, and complex contextual reality, their own assumptions, values, and experiences, and by promoting dialogical practices in the classroom. (shrink)

Oocytes, eggs and blastomeres of the embryo are special cells that undergo rapid changes in structure and function at developmental transitions. These changes are frequently regulated by cytoplasmic signaling events, particularly at the developmental transition of fertilization, because the genome is largely inactivated at this time. Protein kinase C (PKC) is a signaling agent that acts after the sperm‐induced rise in calcium and has a central role in the remodeling of the structure of the egg into the zygote in many (...) species. PKC also acts during other developmental transitions. This kinase serves as a chronometer, which can choreograph the cell's remodeling events in both space and time. Several technical advancements discussed in this review have permitted a better understanding of the actions of PKC. (shrink)

Ambiguity affects decisions of people who exhibit a distaste of and require a premium for dealing with it. Do ambiguity-neutral subjects completely disregard ambiguity and react to any vague news? Online vending platforms often attempt to affect buyer’s decisions by messages like “20 people are looking at this item right now” or “The average score based on 567 reviews is 7.9/10”. We augment the two-color Ellsberg experiment with similarly worded signals about the unknown probability of success. All decision-makers, including ambiguity-neutral, (...) recognize and account for ambiguity; ambiguity-neutral subjects are less likely to respond to vague signals. The difference between decisions of ambiguity-neutral and non-neutral subjects vanishes for high precision signals; still less than 60% subjects choose the ambiguous urn, even for high communicated probabilities of success. We conjecture participants may discard information, if they see no contradiction between it and their prior beliefs, hence the latter are not updated. Higher confidence makes subjects more likely to discard the news, and empirically ambiguity-neutral subjects appear more confident than those ambiguity-averse. (shrink)

Medical paternalism has long been a common medical practice. However, patient autonomy in healthcare has been recently adopted by doctors and patients alike. This study explored whether doctors and patients in a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia preferred autonomy or paternalism in shared decision‐making. A total of 118 participants (51 patients requiring total knee replacement, owing to stages 3–4 of osteoarthritis, and 67 doctors) from the Eastern province, Saudi Arabia. responded to a 17‐question category‐based questionnaire involving four scales of (...) autonomy. Descriptive statistics and chi‐square test results revealed that in this hospital, patients preferred a paternalistic approach toward their medical care along with a full disclosure of the risks related to surgical procedures. We recommend health education regarding the specific autonomy subscales (doctor knows best, patient should decide, right to non‐participation, and obligatory risk information), and the implementation of protocols that protect patients' rights and enhance personal autonomy. (shrink)

Within the context of Barut's self-field approach to quantum electrodynamics, we show that the exact relativistic expression for the Einstein A-coefficient of atomic spontaneous emission reduces, in the long wavelength approximation, to a form containing electric- and magnetic-like multipole contributions related to the transition charge and current distributions of the relativistic electron. A number of interesting features of the expressions involved are discussed, and their generalization to interacting composite systems is also pointed out.

This multidisciplinary book brings the topics of rights, identity, and race together to examine what it means to be oppressed, how oppression works, and what we both as individuals and as a community can do about it, using the Iranian American community as a case study.

Preface -- Introduction -- 1. Muslim reformists and the transition to English rule -- 2. The making of the "Indian Arab" and the tale of Sayyid Fadl -- 3. Rahmatullah Kairanwi and the Muslim cosmopolis -- 4. Haji Imdadullah Makki in Mecca -- 5. Nawab Siddiq Hasan Khan and the Muslim cosmopolis -- 6. Maulana Jafer Thanesri and the Muslim ecumene -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index.

In his commentary on the Light Verse (Q. 24:35), the Andalusian mystic and Qurʾān exegete Abū al-Ḥakam Ibn Barrajān (d. 1141) presents the blessed tree (al-shajara al-mubāraka) not simply as a terrestrial olive tree in Syria or even as a mystical allegory, but as the ultimate locus of divine disclosure and the highest metaphysical entity in the cosmos that subsumes the world of creation. This article assesses the originality of Ibn Barrajān’s contribution to the heavenly tree motif by examining his (...) unique mystical and exegetical theories informing his ontological reading of the blessed tree, including the concept of the ‘reality upon which creation is created’ and the ‘universal servant’. In addition to analysing the internal logic of Ibn Barrajān’s discourse, this article explores the larger interpretive themes recurrent across exoteric, Sufi, and philosophical interpretations of the Light Verse up to the twelfth century that the author may have had access to in al-Andalus, including the treatises of the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān al-ṣafā) and Biblical sources. Finally, this article highlights how Ibn Barrajān weaves the Qurʾānic good tree (al-shajara al-ṭayyiba) and the lote tree of the furthest boundary (sidrat al-muntahā) into his overarching understanding of the blessed tree. It also considers how his reading may have contributed to later readings by Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240) and some of his intellectual heirs. (shrink)

Background: Moral distress is one of intensive care unit nurses’ major problems, which may happen due to various reasons, and has several consequences. Due to various moral distress outcomes in intensive care unit nurses, and their impact on nurses’ personal and professional practice, recognizing moral distress is very important. Research objective: The aim of this study was to determine correlation between moral distress with burnout and anticipated turnover in intensive care unit nurses. Research design: This study is a descriptive-correlation research. (...) Participants and research context: A total of 159 intensive care unit nurses were selected from medical sciences universities in Iran. Data collection instruments included “demographic questionnaire,” “ICU Nurses’ Moral Distress Scale,” “Copenhagen Burnout Inventory” and “Hinshaw and Atwood Turnover Scale.” Data analysis was done by using SPSS19. Ethical considerations: Informed consent from samples and research approval was obtained from Shahid Beheshti Medical Sciences University Research Ethics Board in Tehran. Findings: The findings showed intensive care unit nurses’ moral distress and anticipated turnover was high, but burnout was moderate. The results revealed that there was a positive statistical correlation between intensive care unit nurses’ age, their work experience and the fraction of nurses’ number to number of intensive care unit beds with their moral distress and burnout. However, there were no correlation between gender, marriage status, educational degree and work shift and moral distress. Discussion: Some of the findings of this research are consistent with other studies and some of them are inconsistent. Conclusion: Similarly, moral distress with burnout and anticipated turnover did not have statistical correlation. However, a positive correlation was found between burnout and anticipated turnover. The results showed that increase in the recruitment of young nurses, and nursing personnel, and diminishing intensive care unit nurses’ moral distress, burnout and their turnover intention are essential. (shrink)

The aim of this research was to set a proposed strategy for achieving institutional integrity in the University of Ha’il (UoH), Saudi Arabia, in the light of the National Centre of Assessment and Academic Accreditation (NCAAA) Standards. This was accomplished through acknowledging theoretical and philosophical frameworks of institutional integrity and their obstacles in university educational institutions and displaying the institutional standards of the National Centre of Assessment and Academic Accreditation. This research depended on the descriptive method and employed the (SWOT) (...) Analysis to examine the status of UoH. The research confirmed that UoH implemented policies to support institutional values and research integrity. Furthermore, the university has employed mechanisms and procedures for institutional values and mentorships and has a declared policy for disclosure of information and access of necessary information to all beneficiaries. The university needs to set some mechanisms in place to ensure fairness and equality in performance assessments or to implement integrity standards in processes of employment and recruitment. (shrink)

Los análisis sobre la filosofía política hobbesiana suelen girar alrededor del estudio del miedo y de cómo este es el factor fundamental para explicar el surgimiento de la soberanía. Este artículo tiene como objetivo ir más allá del concepto de temor como base articuladora de la política y centrar el análisis en un terreno fundamental sin el cual no se explica el Leviatán: la alteridad entendida como enemistad. Un análisis de la específica otredad que pone en juego Hobbes a través (...) de su perspectiva mecanicista permitirá entender los diferentes matices que esta visión incorpora, así como las consecuencias que derivan de una filosofía política basada en una concepción negativa de la compañía. El texto explorará las líneas de articulación del concepto de enemistad hobbesiana tanto desde el punto de vista del interior del Estado como desde una perspectiva interestatal. (shrink)

The experience of fear in the Contemporaneity is mostly determined by a type of enmity that, unlike that which prevailed in Modernity, shows itself untraceable, virtual, rarely visible, given the delocalization structures of globalization. All this refers to a specific epistemology, linked to the loss of the classic coordinates of finitude and to the opening of a paradigm where the lack of representation and the apparent depoliticization will turn adversaries and combatants into mere ghosts, thus increasing their terrifying effect. The (...) article tries to review these notions taking the dread that contemporary terrorism causes as a starting point to build a more global reflection that includes the specific type of gear generated in times of pandemic. La experiencia del miedo en la Contemporaneidad viene mayormente determinada por un tipo de enemistad que, a diferencia de la que imperaba en la Modernidad, se muestra ilocalizable, virtual, pocas veces visible, dadas las estructuras de deslocalización propias de la globalización. Todo ello remite a una epistemología concreta, ligada a la pérdida de las coordenadas clásicas de la finitud y a la apertura de un paradigma donde la falta de representacionalidad y su aparente despolitización convertirán a los adversarios y combatientes en meros fantasmas, aumentando así su efecto terrorífico. El artículo pretende revisar estas nociones tomando el pavor que ocasiona el terrorismo contemporáneo como punto de partida para construir una reflexión más global que incluye el específico tipo de miedo generado en tiempos de pandemia. (shrink)

Chemistry textbooks are the most popular teaching material in schools. They can contribute significantly to the attainment of scientific educational goals. Internationally, educational reforms in science subjects are adopting newer practices such as Engineering Design Processes for addressing real-world requirements. This study, conducted in Saudi Arabia, employed a qualitative and quantitative content analysis method to evaluate the level of the EDP incorporated in the tenth grade chemistry textbook and accompanying student’s experiments’ guidebook. The results found the inclusive mean for EDP (...) was 1.05, which indicated incorporation was found to be at level one. This inclusion EDP in chemistry textbooks has been rated as novice or deficient, which indicates that it does not fulfill the majority of the requirements for inclusion as suggested by NGSS. (shrink)

Muḥammad Bāqir ibn Muḥammad Dāmād, 1631?. Taqwim al- īmān - Criticism and interpretation; Islamic philosophy - Early works to 1800.