AimTo examine the views of Guinean lay people and healthcare providers regarding the acceptability of HCPs’ refusal to provide care to Ebola patients.MethodFrom October to December 2015, lay people and HCPs in Conakry, Guinea, were presented with 54 sample case scenarios depicting a HCP who refuses to provide care to Ebola patients and were instructed to rate the extent to which this HCP’s decision is morally acceptable. The scenarios were composed by systematically varying the levels of four factors: the risk (...) of getting infected, the HCP’s working conditions, the HCP’s family responsibilities and the HCP’s professional status.ResultsFive clusters were identified: 18% of the participants expressed the view that HCPs have an unlimited obligation to provide care to Ebola patients; 38% held that HCPs’ duty to care is a function of HCPs’ working conditions; 9% based their judgments on a combination of risk level, family responsibilities and working conditions; 23% considered that HCPs do not have an obligation to provide care and 12% did not take a position.ConclusionOnly a small minority of Guinean lay people and HCPs consider that HCPs’ refusal to provide care to Ebola patients is always unacceptable. The most commonly endorsed position is that HCPs’ duty to provide care to Ebola patients is linked to society’s reciprocal duty to provide them with the working conditions needed to fulfil their professional duty. (shrink)

Research into spirituality and its impact on the work environment has been bourgeoning. In an attempt to explore the role of Islamic spirituality in the workplace, this study examines the influence of Islamic spirituality on job satisfaction and organisational commitment through work ethics. Data are obtained by an online Likert-scaled questionnaire survey based on one thousand Muslim employees from various economic sectors in Indonesia and analysed through structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings demonstrate that Islamic spirituality positively influences job satisfaction (...) and organisational commitment as two dimensions of work attitudes and that work ethics mediate that influence. There is also evidence that job satisfaction positively influences organisational commitment, but work ethics does not moderate that influence. The findings related to the role of work ethics, which mediates the effect of Islamic spirituality on job satisfaction and organisational commitment, can be considered the contribution of this study. (shrink)

Lately, a number of referee decisions appear to have reignited the debate over the need to bring more in-game officiating technology into soccer. The fallacies behind the arguments for the inclusion of technology to aid game officials can be narrowed down to those behind current arguments for or against goal-line technology. Both the proponents and opponents of these arguments appear to overemphasise the role of referees to the point of claiming that if refereeing errors could be eliminated in goal-line situations, (...) then the most deserving team would most of the time be expected to win the contest. While we firmly believe that the game of soccer would benefit immensely from infallible officiating, we intend to show that these arguments are founded upon a number of inconspicuous assumptions. First, they assume that goal-line situations can be shown to affect the outcomes of games more than all other game situations. This can easily be shown to be a myth, since goals can be scored from all areas of the playing field. In addition, winning a soccer game, obviously, involves more than just scoring goals. Second, these arguments seem to support the view that referee decisions affect the outcomes of games more than decisions made by players, coaches and managers. This is merely a myth, since one can show that, in light of Cesar Torres's insights, referee involvement in game is limited to regulating situations that demand that the game be restored to its constitutive actualisation. Third, most arguments for goal-line technology tend to support the erroneous view that technology can actually eliminate most ?crucial? human mistakes from sport and, thus, ensure fairness of game outcomes. Such a myth can easily be refuted by reference to numerous cases of inconclusive slow-motion video replays in soccer. Therefore, this paper aims at arguing that, instead of reinforcing the scapegoating of referees and overemphasising the importance of isolated referee decisions to the point of attributing victory or defeat to these ?crucial? decisions, both sides of the goal-line technology debate need to put forth compelling arguments which go beyond the current misguided search for referee infallibility. (shrink)

The notion of competition depicted in sport literature appears to be inconsistent with the goals of current European soccer competitions. This paper examines two misconceptions of fair competition which are prevalent in these competitions. First, it aims at refuting the view that professional soccer only requires some basic equality of chances beyond the differences in players’ skills and managers’ knowledge of game strategy. In other words, it refutes the view that professional soccer only demands a notion of fair competition understood (...) as fair play. Second, the paper also aims at refuting the view that fair competition, in professional soccer, is simply a matter of financial viability. Hence, it calls for both genuine legal and ethical reforms, since professional soccer competition requires a notion of equality as both a goal and a right. Such a notion, we argue, must conceive of the differences in players’ skills and managers’ knowledge of game strategy as one of the primary factors in establishing a platform founded in fair competition. Therefore, this paper calls for a radical change of attitude toward or a radical approach to fair competition among European sport fans, policy-makers, and administrators. (shrink)

This paper discusses what it means to be a good sport. It offers an account of sportsmanship rooted in the proper understanding of the limited role each participant plays during a specific sporting contest. It aims at showing that, from a fallibilist perspective, although it may perhaps be logically possible for a single play to win or lose a sporting event, it makes epistemologically no sense to single out a particular game action, moment or decision as the crucial one which (...) determined victory or defeat. Our view, we shall argue, is consistent with the empirical nature of sporting activities. Since there can be no such a thing as a perfect game, and because no single known human mind is in a position to know with any degree of certainty how each act of game-playing relates to the outcome of a whole game, it makes almost no sense to assign whole-game success or failure to single acts of brilliance or failure. (shrink)

Les frontières sont aussi ontologiques. En modifiant les frontières ontologiques de la pensée cartésienne, Newton parvient à construire son propre système métaphysique, propédeutique à l'intégration de la loi de la gravitation en physique. Contre Descartes qui réduisait le corps à l'étendue, Newton trace une irréductible frontière entre l'espace et le corps : absolutisant le premier, déréalisant le second, et réhabilitant la notion de vide que Descartes avait rejetée, il neutralise ainsi deux problèmes fondamentaux qui sont d'une part, la relativité du (...) mouvement des corps, et, d'autre part, l'inconsistance ontologique de ces derniers. C'est ainsi qu'il esquisse un nouveau Cosmos, où la loi de la gravitation peut prendre sens. Ce problème travaillé des frontières permet de penser autrement la pensée contemporaine. (shrink)

Différents spécialistes (historiens de l'art, philosophes et linguistes) analysent et questionnent les rapports à l'image, au sens et à l'art, à partir d'un regard occidental tourné vers la Chine. Il s'agit notamment d'étudier les facteurs linguistiques et socioculturels déterminant les processus de mise en forme esthétique de l'oeuvre d'art. Parmi ces processus, la sensibilité, le langage, l'espace et le temps de l'oeuvre d'art sont traités selon différentes perspectives historiques et disciplinaires. En définitive, comment le langage artistique permet-il de représenter ce (...) qui n'a point de figure? (shrink)

For decades, African senior club and national soccer teams, involved in world competitions, have failed to perform beyond mere honorable appearances. In this paper, we explore two of the fundamental causes underlying these disappointing performances. First, we examine the dilemma which forces almost all the African federations to overlook the Africa-based players in favor of those based outside the continent. Second, we show that the roots of the poor performances of the African teams go far beyond this crippling dilemma. Indeed, (...) we argue, the persistent underperformances of African teams appear to be rather consistent with the fate of postcolonial Africa itself, a continent marred in an acute identity crisis. In fact, this crisis essentially stems from the relentless brain drain inflicted on the African soccer world which has so far dispersed its best talents all across Europe and beyond through the naturalization of its soccer diaspora. In addition, Africa has shown no ability to offer any type of attractive alternatives to the talented sons and daughters of its diaspora as well as to any other world class players. This ineptitude, coupled with Africa’s inability to leave behind its nostalgic Senghorian soccer essentialism, condemns the continent to perpetual poor performances. Therefore, we suggest that the African national federations and their respective governments move away from their deeply held soccer essentialism in order to begin to move toward some kind of soccer existentialism alongside such European countries as France, Germany, Switzerland, and The Netherlands which appear to acknowledge, perhaps reluctantly, the invaluable contributions made by the African diaspora to the success of not only their local and national leagues but also their national teams. (shrink)

Le recueil d'études Contempler l'infini invite le lecteur à étudier la fonction de l'acte contemplatif dans son rapport à l'espace et au temps, en s'interrogeant notamment sur la valeur et la portée épistémiques de cet acte (d'un point de vue mathématique, philosophique, phénoménologique, esthétique, artistique, linguistique et poétique) lorsqu'il se détermine en relation à une réalité représentée comme "infinie" (Dieu, âme, cosmos, etc.). Ce livre est conçu dans un contexte éminemment interdisciplinaire, l'objectif étant de comprendre comment cette articulation subtile des (...) deux concepts peut être abordée selon des méthodologies et des lexiques très différents mais bien souvent complémentaires sur le plan épistémologique. Le recueil regroupe les études et les réflexions des chercheurs français et hongrois de différentes spécialités (mathématiques, philosophie, esthétique. phénoménologie, théologie, linguistique et littérature). (shrink)

With the advance of COVID-19 in the world, it is necessary to reflect on how the different realities influence the processes of advancement and containment of the impacts generated from the pandemic. Guinea-Bissau, being a country that has been recording military coups since 1980, has become a vulnerable country in all respects. The vulnerability of the country is so great that structural reform has not been possible in the state apparatus since its independence from the yoke Portuguese in 1973; in (...) this way this Democratic Republic is economically dependent on its international partners even for the implementation of its general state budget. With cashew nuts as the main and almost only product that moves the economy, the country has seen the needs and demands of the population worsen with the arrival of the new coronavirus, thus having the increase in the expenses of families in acquiring food and hygiene products to cope with the disease, in view of the economic weakness of its citizens. This article aims to analyze the sociopolitical processes that influence the management of the pandemic in Guinea Bissau. Its work methodology is a review of literature obtained through scientific journals and portals. It was observed in this path the need for training of new professional staff and greater investment in the structure, both economic and health, so that we can manage moments of crisis as faced. This will only be possible through the alignment between state and civil society around a participatory and supportive development project. (shrink)

Memristor-based oscillators are of recent interest, and hence, in this paper, we introduce a new Wien bridge oscillator with a fractional-order memristor. The novelty of the proposed oscillator is the multistability feature and the wide range of fractional orders for which the system shows chaos. We have investigated the various dynamical properties of the proposed oscillator and have presented them in detail. The oscillator is then realized using off-the-shelf components, and the results are compared with that of the numerical results. (...) A combination synchronization scheme is proposed which uses more than one driver systems to synchronize with one response system. Indeed, we use two different techniques where the first one consists of splitting the transmitted signals into two parts where each part is loaded in different drive systems, while the second one consists of dividing time into different intervals and loading the signals in different drive systems. Such techniques improve the antiattack capability of the systems when used for secure communication. (shrink)

This paper is reporting on electronic implementation of a three-dimensional autonomous system with infinite equilibrium point belonging to a parabola. Performance analysis of an adaptive synchronization via relay coupling and a hybrid steganography chaos encryption application are provided. Besides striking parabolic equilibrium, the proposed three-dimensional autonomous system also exhibits hidden chaotic oscillations as well as hidden chaotic bursting oscillations. Electronic implementation of the hidden chaotic behaviors is done to confirm their physical existence. A good qualitative agreement is shown between numerical (...) simulations and OrCAD-PSpice results. Moreover, adaptive synchronization via relay coupling of three three-dimensional autonomous systems with a parabolic equilibrium is analysed by using time histories. Numerical results demonstrate that global synchronization is achieved between the three units. Finally, chaotic behavior found is exploited to provide a suitable text encryption scheme by hidden secret message inside an image using steganography and chaos encryption. (shrink)

The field programmable gate array implementation of the nonlinear resistor-capacitor-inductor shunted Josephson junction model and its application to sEMG signal encryption through image encrypted technique are reported in this study. Thanks to the numerical simulations and FPGA implementation of the NRCISJJ model, different shapes of chaotic attractors are revealed by varying the parameters. The chaotic behaviour found in the NRCISJJ model is used to encrypt the sEMG signal through image encryption technique. The results obtained are interesting and open up many (...) perspectives. (shrink)

Om människan någon gång kommer att få förmågan att skapa nya livsformer, hur kommer det att påverka livets värde? Detta är en fråga som kan vara en källa till oro när man diskuterar konstgjort liv, men är oron befogad? I ett försök att svara på den frågan kommer jag att gå igenom några möjliga skäl till varför förmågan att skapa konstgjort liv skulle hota livets värde, och se om de verkligen ger oss skäl att oroa oss.

Det er eit uttalt mål å gjøre grunnskulelærarutdanninga forskingsbasert. I det dominerande tankemønsteret i grunnskulelærarutdanninga er det konstruert ei motsetning mellom vitskapleg kunnskap og erfaringskunnskap. Vitskapleg kunnskap vert skildra som noko positivt, medan erfaringskunnskap får ei negativ omtale. Dette filosofiske essayet vil framskrive ei re-oppfatning av denne dikotomien. Målet med arbeidet er å redusere dikotomien mellom desse to kunnskapsformene og vise ei forståing som er meir jambyrdig, og som samlande kan bli kalla for lærarens levande kunnskap. Teorien om levande kunnskap (...) tar utgangpunkt i mennesket si heilskapande erkjenningsevne. Mennesket sin kognitive kapasitet inneheld både rasjonelle, etiske, emosjonelle og motoriske erkjenningar. Eit avgjørande aspekt med den levande kunnskapen er lærarens etiske- emosjonelle kunnskap og sensibilitet i tillegg til den logisk rasjonelle evna. (shrink)

Som de första vetenskapliga tidskrifterna brukar man räkna den franska Journal des Sça- vants och den engelska Philosophical Transactions, som båda började ges ut år 1665. Redan under dessa tidskrifters första årtionden skaffade sig redaktörerna vanan att ta hjälp av experter inom olika områden med att granska manuskript. Detta system har sedan dess kommit att utvecklas och systematiseras, och kallas med en svåröversättlig engelsk term ”peer review”. Termen anger att manuskripten granskas av experter inom sitt specialområde. Dessa experter, som (...) kallas ”referees” (referenter) är författarens kolleger inom respektive specialitet, men behöver inte alls vara mer kunniga eller erfarna än författaren själv. Systemet med referentgranskning har ofta kritiserats, men ingen har funnit något bättre sätt att kvalitetsgranska vetenskapliga arbeten än att lämna ut granskningen till experter inom respektive område. (shrink)

I sitt berömda bevis för tidens overklighet påstod McTaggart att det sätt händelser tycks skifta position i tiden från framtid till nutid och till förfluten tid, innebär en motsägelse. Vad McTaggart egentligen menade har varit föremål för en livlig debatt ända sedan beviset först publicerades 1908. Beviset består av två delar. I den första argumenterar McTaggart för att ingenting kan förändras förutom genom att övergå från framtid till förfluten tid. I den andra argumenterar han för att en sådan övergång innebär (...) en motsägelse och att det därför inte kan finnas någon förändring överhuvudtaget, vilket i sin tur innebär att det heller inte finns någon tid. De flesta filosofer är i dag eniga om att McTaggart har fel, men oeniga om på vilket sätt han har fel. Olika filosofer förkastar olika delar av beviset, beroende på om de har vad som kallas en A- eller B-uppfattning av tiden. De som har en A-uppfattning förnekar att tid förstådd som övergång från framtid till förfluten tid är motsägelsefull. De som har en B-uppfattning förnekar att en övergång från framtid till förfluten tid är nödvändig för förändring, men håller med om att sådan övergång är motsägelsefull. Det är min uppfattning att denna oenighet beror på att McTaggarts argument från första början blivit missuppfattat, av både A- och B-teoretiker. Av någon anledning har det alltid betraktats som ett självständigt argument, ett som är oberoende av det ontologiska system McTaggart förespråkade. Jag föreslår ett nytt sätt att förstå hur han menade att tiden är motsägelsefull. Ett sätt som tar hans ontologiska system som utgångspunkt. (shrink)

I denna artikel kommer jag att ge en översikt över olika argument som ger stöd för slutsatsen att biologisk mångfald per se är värdefullt och bör bevaras. Ett vanligt argument vilar på premissen att biologisk mångfald har egenvärde, men premissen är svår att göra rimlig och får lätt kontraintuitiva följder. Utöver det kommer jag även att kritiskt granska instrumentella värden, relationella värden, och vad som här kallas ’miljöspecifika’ värden. I den sistnämnda kategorin ingår begrepp som naturlighet och naturvärde. Dessa (...) definieras ofta med ’frånvaro av avsiktlig mänsklig påverkan’ som ett nödvändigt villkor. Det kan finnas goda skäl att nyansera såväl instrumentellt värde som definitionen av naturvärde för att tillåta mänsklig påverkan som främjar biologisk mångfald utan att en värdeminskning sker. (shrink)

Supercommentary on Anuvyākhyāna, verse commentary by Madhva, 13th cent., on Brahmasūtra by Bādarāyaṇa, representing Dvaita point of view; with twenty five supercommentaries : Nyāyasudhābindu by Vijayindratīrtha ; Parimaḷa by Rāghavendratīrtha ; Vāgvajra by Pādarājatīrtha ; Gurvarthadīpikā by Vādirājatīrtha ; Ṭippaṇī by Yadupatyācārya ; Vākyārthavivr̥ti by Vaṃśapallī Śrīnivāsācārya ; Ānanda by Galagalī Narasiṃhācārya ; Vivr̥ti by Kambālūru Rāmacandratīrtha ; Ṭippaṇī by Śrīnidhitīrtha ; Vākyārthacandrikā by Vidyādhīsatīrtha ; Śeṣavākyārthacandrikā by Pāṇḍuraṅgī Keśavācārya ; Vākyārtharatnamālā by Pāṇḍuraṅganarasiṃhācārya ; Sudhāvivr̥tti by Satyavrtatīrtha ; Rasakūlaṅkaṣa by (...) Kuṇḍalagiriācārya ; Durghaṭavākyārthavicāra by Satyanāthatīrtha ; Ṭippaṇī by Viṭṭhalabhaṭṭa ; Rasarañjanī by Viṣṇutīrtha ; Laghurasarañjanī by Aḍavī Kr̥ṣṇācārya ; Caṣaka by Mannārī Kr̥ṣṇācārya ; Upasparśa by Erī Bālācārya ; Kāśī ṭippaṇī by Kāśī Ācārya ; Guḍhakar̥trkā by Gudhakaratr̥kācārya ; Pradīpa by Pradīpakāra ; Ṭippaṇī by Pāndhrī Śrīnivāsācārya ; Huggi by Kallāpūra Satyādhirājācārya. (shrink)