We describe a prey–predator system incorporating constant prey refuge through provision of alternative food to predators. The proposed model deals with a problem of non-selective harvesting of a prey–predator system in which both the prey and the predator species obey logistic law of growth. The long-run sustainability of an exploited system is discussed through provision of alternative food to predators. We have analyzed the variability of the system in presence of constant prey refuge and examined the stabilizing effect on predator–prey (...) system. The steady states of the system are derived and dynamical behavior of the system is extensively analyzed around steady states. The optimal harvesting policy is formulated and solved with the help of Pontryagin’s maximal principle. Our objective is to maximize the monetary social benefit through protecting the predator species from extinction, keeping the ecological balance. Results finally illustrated with the help of numerical examples. (shrink)

After the initial surge in cases of coronavirus, the outbreak has been managed differently in different countries. In the USA, it has been managed in many different ways between states, cities and even counties. This disparity is slowly becoming more and more pronounced with the advent of antibody testing. Although many argue over the potential merits of antibody testing as an immunity passport to allow the economy to restart, there are other implications that stand at the heart of the bioethical (...) debate that are often overlooked. Particularly with COVID-19, there are many uncertainties and the discourse alone of antibodies presumes misinformation that may outweigh the epidemiological benefits of antibody testing. Although this paper does not seek to eliminate antibody testing, it does highlight the need for appropriate counselling both on a personal level with each patient but on a more global level. This moral standard of appropriate education is key to allowing the continued autonomy needed during this pandemic. (shrink)

Advance care planning allows patients to articulate preferences for their medical treatment, lifestyle, and surrogate decision-makers in order to anticipate and mitigate their potential loss of decision-making capacity. Written advance directives are often emphasized in this regard. While these directives contain important information, there are several barriers to consider: veracity and accuracy of surrogate decision-makers in making choices consistent with the substituted judgement standard, state-to-state variability in regulations, literacy issues, lack of access to legal resources, lack of understanding of medical (...) options, and cultural disparities. Given these issues, it is vital to increase the use of patient and healthcare provider conversations as an advance care planning tool and to increase integration of such discourse into advance care planning policy as adjuncts and complements to written advance directives. This paper reviews current legislation about written advance directives and dissects how documentation of spoken interactions might be integrated and considered. We discuss specific institutional policy changes required to facilitate implementation. Finally, we explore the ethical issues surrounding the increased usage and recognition of clinician–patient conversations in advance care planning. (shrink)

Past decades have witnessed the growing success of branding as a corporate activity as well as a rise in anti-brand activism. While appearing to be contradictory, both trends have emerged from common sources – the transition from industrial to post-industrial society, and the advent of globalization – the examination of which might lead to a socially grounded understanding of why brand success in the future is likely to demand more than superior product performance, placing increasing demand on corporations with regard (...) to a broader envelop of socially responsible behavior. Directions for strategic and managerial options are suggested. (shrink)

Corporate responsibility is considered the “epitome of corporate ethics.” In “the balanced concept of the firm,” a corporation is seen as a moral agent that has a balanced approach to managing three interrelated and equally important responsibilities viz. economic, social, and environmental. The case study aims to advance our understating of the “triple bottom line approach to CSR” by showing how a news media organization committed itself to dispensing its corporate responsibilities despite facing lawless situations. Through a detailed study of (...) organizational records and interviews with the top management of the organization, we found that Prabhat Khabar could reap rich benefits for its stakeholders by engaging in role-related work and following business practices that were innovative, contextually appropriate, and ethically correct. As Prabhat Khabar’s growth happened in a market that was adverse to business activities, we believe that its story would act as a role model function of corporate conduct in emerging economies. Moreover, it would help organizations understand how to commit themselves to corporate responsibilities in unfavourable circumstances. (shrink)

This study examined video game–playing aggression among graduate and undergraduate students at Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York. The following three research questions were posed: In the context of video game playing, what differences are there in levels of aggression in relation to sex? What differences are there in levels of aggression and type of video games played? Are aggression and length of video game playing related? A nonprobability sample of students (N = 175) was selected and electronically (...) surveyed. The Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire, a widely used self-reported measure, was used to assess aggression. No significant difference was found between men and women with regard to levels of aggression, and no statistically significant relationship was found between aggression and length of video game playing (r = −.05, p =.52). However, significant differences were found in levels of aggression between playing and nonplaying respondents of action role-playing (t = −1.48, df = 175, p =.01) and role-playing video games (t = −1.24, df = 175, p =.02). Players of role-playing games had lower levels of aggression than nonplayers. Since role-playing requires one to take the part of another person, empathy might play a role in reduced levels of aggression. Although exposure to violent video games has been related to decreased empathy, role-playing games show just the opposite. It is suggested that controversies regarding violent video games might best be explained by moral panic theory and that competitive games may attract more aggressive players. (shrink)

The nature of the product to be discovered guides the reasoning to discover it. Biologists and medical researchers often search for mechanisms. The "new mechanistic philosophy of science" provides resources about the nature of biological mechanisms that aid the discovery of mechanisms. Here, we apply these resources to the discovery of mechanisms in medicine. A new diagrammatic representation of a disease mechanism chain indicates both what is known and, most significantly, what is not known at a given time, thereby guiding (...) the researcher and collaborators in discovery. Mechanisms of genetic diseases provide the examples. (shrink)

ABSTRACT:The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the instrumental perspective on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in practice and theory by relying on sociological analyses of a well known organization: the Italian Mafia. Legal businesses might share features of the Mafia, such as the propensity to exploit a governance vacuum in society, a strong organizational identity that demarcates the inside from the outside, and an extreme profit motive. Instrumental CSR practices have the power to accelerate a firm's transition to (...) Mafia status through its own pathologies. The boundaries of such instrumentalism are explored and lessons for future CSR research derived, with specific emphasis on a firm's social and normative embeddedness, taking into account the inherent challenge of regulating corporate behaviour in the global economy. (shrink)

Platão, em seus diálogos de juventude, apresenta Sócrates recorrendo a uma prática de perguntas e respostas direcionada aos seus interlocutores que visa o teste das pretensões de conhecimento e de sabedoria dos membros da pólis. Essa prática é a refutação socrática, frequentemente associada ao termo grego élenkhos e seus cognatos. Embora se utilize dessa prática de forma frequente, nenhum diálogo a trata como elemento central. Entretanto, podemos encontrar comentários de Platão ao longo de sua obra que nos remetem essa reflexão (...) de cunho mais metodológico. Por conta disso, comentamos reflexões que Platão apresenta em um sentido metadialético acerca do élenkhos e refletimos sobre a refutação socrática a partir desses comentários. Palavras-chave: refutação socrática; élenkhos; Platão. (shrink)

The main aim of this paper is to articulate Politics of Development, constituted from the work of the Brazilian philosophers Álvaro Vieira Pinto and Roland Corbisier, with Politics of Liberation, as proposed by the Argentinean philosopher Enrique Dussel. The first step is the recompilation of the political theory related to Politics of Development, present in the work of the Brazilians, arguing favourably on the possibility of the conception of a Politics of Development as a branch of Philosophy of Development as (...) an autonomous philosophical discipline. Our main thesis is that Politics of Development has as one of its essential notes the nationalism with a liberating nature. Lastly, this subdiscipline is historically and geoepistemically situated in light of Politics of Liberation. As the concluding remarks of the paper, we highlight the new lines of research open by this investigation and the implications of the conception of this philosophical discipline as autonomous to the isebian studies. (shrink)

In a recent opinion paper, it was argued that individuals with multiple retractions or a record of academic misconduct should not serve as editors, including as editors-in-chief, on the editorial boards of scholarly or academic journals. As a first step towards appreciating how such a policy could be applied in practice, the presence of 30 individuals listed on the Retraction Watch Leaderboard on editorial boards was screened. Six cases are highlighted to gain an appreciation of the potential reputational risks that (...) journals and publishers might incur by including individuals with a tainted academic record on editorial boards. Given the reputational, legal and other risks associated with this type of assessment and decision, more formal positioning and guidance are needed by global ethics policy-related bodies such as COPE, the ICMJE, and the CSE, even more so in journals that claim to follow these organizations’ ethical guidelines. (shrink)

The main objective of the article is to understand the notion of power in Foucault as an action on action in a relationship of forces. In principle, the power of sovereignty and biopower in classical times are investigated. Where it is perceived that the former has negative and repressive connotations, while this one has positive and productive connotations of facts, happenings. Then, an analysis of Foucault's power is analyzed, where it is possible to verify that there is no construction of (...) a Theory of Power in Foucault, but only an ascending analysis of power, thus departing from specificity for general aspects. Finally, we will analyze the power relationship, seen as an action over action, in this action-reaction movement, there is its need, its becoming, its truth, which is the exercise of power, functioning. Thus, from the molecular to the complex composition, from the invisible to the visible, from the body to the population, power is understood, that is, power relations in the Foucaultian web. (shrink)

The fascination with the process inherent to understanding has always been something that has disturbed Philosophy with its question: what makes understanding possible? On the contrary, little attention has been paid to the use we make of this term. This took it out of its context and investigated it as related to a mental process, situated in the subject. This approach generated some questions, among them: if understanding and the processes involved in it take place in the mind, how can (...) one have access to them? How do you know what’s on the other’s mind? This text intends to present the role played, both by the verb meinen (to mean), in its disconnection with mental processes, in terms of its grammar, and by the expression lebensform (form of life), in Philosophical Investigations, as a condition in which, both the meinen has its most authentic use, as well as the background that makes it possible to understand the Investigations as a whole. (shrink)

Bottom of the Pyramid organizations are the ones that develop a set of capabilities that contribute to create short- and long-term sustainability values inside and outside the boundaries of BoP ecosystems. Capabilities have an important role in BoP organizations’ strategies that aim to solve BoP issues. Notwithstanding its developments, BoP research still lacks theoretical contributions for the analysis of organizations. We suggest special attention to the need of advancing knowledge on capabilities of BoP organizations because this field is scattered and (...) fragmented, misinterpreted, and still underdeveloped in the literature. We oriented our research formulating and seeking answers to our main question on what are the capabilities needed to enable organizations to create sustainability values in BoP ecosystems? We conducted an integrative review of BoP research for the period from 1998 to 2019, and we found 22 key capabilities of BoP organizations. We organized the capabilities into four major categories including BoP Responsible Consumption, BoP Responsible Business Model, BoP Responsible Management, and BoP Responsible Innovation. We advanced propositions and discussions regarding the capabilities and major categories’ popularity, interdependence and combination, short- and long-term temporal functions, sustainability roles, and effectiveness to address BoP issues. Our article organizes the field of capabilities of BoP organizations; advances contributions and implications for management, organizations, and policymaking; and opens fruitful avenues for future research. (shrink)

The purpose of the present paper is to consider the traditional interpretive problems of quantum mechanics from the viewpoint of a modal ontology of properties. In particular, we will try to delineate a quantum ontology that (i) is modal, because describes the structure of the realm of possibility, and (ii) lacks the ontological category of individual. The final goal is to supply an adequate account of quantum non-individuality on the basis of this ontology.

Desde o ano de 1643, Descartes (1596-1650) e a princesa Elizabeth (1618-1680) já trocavam cartas a respeito da geometria, da metafísica e até da física cartesiana. Todavia, no ano de 1645, por conta de um grave estado melancólico da princesa, houve uma intensa correspondência entre ambos. À princípio, o debate se mantinha em torno das condições especificas da princesa. O tema central girava em torno de questões fisiológicas e morais (ou psicofisiológicas). À medida, porém, em que a troca de correspondência (...) se intensificava, o debate ia tornando-se cada vez mais teórico, passando pela discussão da Vida Beata, de Sêneca, até forçar Descartes a apresentar os primeiros esboços de sua própria concepção moral. Dessa troca de correspondência, escolhemos duas cartas de setembro de 1645: uma do filósofo a Elizabeth (carta CDIII) e outra da princesa a Descartes carta (CDVI). (shrink)

We cannot simply observe that Emile Durkheim, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Pierre Bourdieu all received philosophical training and subsequently asserted, in surprisingly similar terms, that escaping from philosophy or breaking away from philosophical modes of thought was a necessary condition for any research in the human and social sciences, without considering whether there might be a direct relationship between the sociological ethos and a particular attitude towards philosophy. The "rupture" with philosophyis never complete: the sociologists' conception of sociology is, on the (...) contrary, heavily influenced by the negative image they have of philosophy, which they always invoke as something to be avoided or a specter that must be exorcised. The sociological perception of philosophy thus constitutes a system of oppositions, a set of likes and dislikes deeply ingrained in the minds of practitioners in the human and social sciences, and which, so to speak, form the very foundation of the discipline and its definition of its identity. By reconstructing it, this article proposes a sociological analysis of the genesis, structure, and function of the sociological unconscious. (shrink)

This paper explores that the topic of ethics dumping, its causes and potential remedies. In ED, the weaknesses or gaps in ethics policies and systems of lower income countries are intentionally exploited for intellectual or financial gains through research and publishing by higher income countries with a more stringent or complex ethical infrastructure in which such research and publishing practices would not be permitted. Several examples are provided. Possible ED needs to be evaluated before research takes place, and detected prior (...) to publication as an academic paper, because it might lead to a collaborative effort between a wealthier country with restrictive ethical policies and a less wealthy country with more permissive policies. Consequently, if that collaboration ultimately results in an academic paper, there are ethical ramifications of ED to scholarly communication. Institutional review board approval is central to avoid ED-based collaborations. Blind trust and goodwill alone cannot eliminate the exploitation of indigenous or “vulnerable” populations’ intellect and resources. Combining community-based participatory research using clear codes of research conduct and a simple but robust verification system in academic publishing may reduce the risks of ED-based research from being published. (shrink)

O artigo em questão se detém nas implicações epistemológicas da revolução copernicana de Immanuel Kant, cuja perspectiva, emergindo das fronteiras que inter-relacionam o racionalismo de Leibniz, o empirismo de Hume e a ciência positiva físico-matemática de Newton, instaura o horizonte do idealismo transcendental, estabelecendo a correlação fundamental envolvendo o sujeito e o objeto do conhecimento.

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)

Detendo-se na investigação dos dois grandes modelos que caracterizam o pensamento político, a saber, o modelo clássico e o modelo jusnaturalista, o artigo em questão, distinguindo no âmbito daquele as teorias idealistas e realistas, empreende uma abordagem que nas fronteiras deste último sublinha desde a questão que envolve Como nasceu o Estado?, proposta pela perspectiva historicista, que traz como fundamento o homem como animal político, até a leitura racionalista, que acena com o problema Por que existe o Estado?, identificando o (...) homem como um ser naturalmente antissocial, salientando que se o bem comum determina a visão platônico-aristotélica, a leitura hobbesiana instaura uma lógica que emerge através do contrato social e assinala a tendência natural da autopreservação como fundamento da ação humana, consistindo, em suma, na transição da ordem mecânica da matéria à ordem final da vontade. (shrink)

As part of a continuous process to explore the factors that might weaken or corrupt traditional peer review, in this paper, we query the ethics, fairness and validity of the request, by editors, of authors to suggest peer reviewers during the submission process. One of the reasons for the current crisis in science pertains to a loss in trust as a result of a flawed peer review which is by nature biased unless it is open peer review. As we indicate, (...) the fact that some editors and journals rely on authors’ suggestions in terms of who should peer review their paper already instills a potential way to abuse the trust of the submission and publishing system. An author-suggested peer reviewer choice might also tempt authors to seek reviewers who might be more receptive or sympathetic to the authors’ message or results, and thus favor the outcome of that paper. Authors should thus not be placed in such a potentially ethically compromising situation, especially as a mandatory condition for submission. However, the fact that they do not have an opt-out choice during the submission process—especially when using an online submission system that makes such a suggestion compulsory—may constitute a violation of authors’ rights. (shrink)

Busca-se neste artigo problematizar a manifestação da colonialidade nas práticas pedagógicas de uma instituição de educação infantil situada em contexto periférico a partir da percepção de professoras e famílias. A argumentação e análise teórica adotada partem dos estudos da infância e teoria decolonial/contracolonial. Serão analisadas as conversas estabelecidas com adultos participantes da pesquisa, sendo quatro entrevistas realizadas com professoras e mães de crianças de uma instituição de educação infantil de contexto periférico e negro, localizada no município de Betim – MG. (...) A partir dos sujeitos da pesquisa são apresentadas denúncias que configuram o que chamamos de colonialidade da educação infantil. A alimentação das crianças foi destacada, pelas professoras e mães, como um dos momentos da rotina pedagógica que gerava grande incômodo devido a práticas de violência com as crianças. Esta violência compõe o que se denomina como adultocentrismo, que existe para posicionar as crianças às margens do projeto civilizatório ocidental, sendo que nestes termos o adultocentrismo pode ser também compreendido como a peste branca produzida pela matriz eurocêntrica e colonial. Atuar contra a colonialidade e contra o adultocentrismo é defender uma experiência concreta e histórica para a educação infantil e não apenas teórica. Cada vez mais é preciso avançar na formação das professoras de forma conscientizadora quanto a emergência da contracolonização da educação infantil em articulação com o projeto de sociedade emancipatória para todos e todas. (shrink)

Objectives Older adults are considered one of the most vulnerable groups to COVID-19. However, previous studies on emotion and aging have found that older adults report better well-being than younger adults in global survey and daily report. To better understand older adults’ well-being during the COVID-19 outbreak, we examined age differences in daily affective experiences in this study. Method Two hundred and thirty-one participants from mainland China aged 18 to 85 were recruited to participate in the 14-day daily diary study, (...) after a pretest. Their trait affect and demographic information were measured in the pretest. Their daily affect and stress levels were measured in the daily assessments. Results We found that older adults reported lower perceived stress related to COVID-19 in daily life, compared to younger adults. The negative relationship between daily perceived stress and high arousal positive affect and the positive relationship between daily perceived stress and high arousal negative affect was weaker in older than younger adults. Discussion These results provide initial evidence of daily affective well-being across different age groups in adulthood during the COVID-19 outbreak. Such information is important for developing interventions to promote better well-being during the COVID-19 outbreak. (shrink)

Retractions of COVID-19 literature in both preprints and the peer-reviewed literature serve as a reminder that there are still challenging issues underlying the integrity of the biomedical literature. The risks to academia become larger when such retractions take place in high-ranking biomedical journals. In some cases, retractions result from unreliable or nonexistent data, an issue that could easily be avoided by having open data policies, but there have also been retractions due to oversight in peer review and editorial verification. As (...) COVID-19 continues to affect academics and societies around the world, failures in peer review might also constitute a public health risk. The effectiveness by which COVID-19 literature is corrected, including through retractions, depends on the stringency of measures in place to detect errors and to correct erroneous literature. It also relies on the stringent implementation of open data policies. (shrink)

Da Costa and French explore the consequences of adopting a 'pragmatic' notion of truth in the philosophy of science. Their framework sheds new light on issues to do with belief, theory acceptance, and the realism-antirealism debate, as well as the nature of scientific models and their heuristic development.

Sobrepondo uma concepção crítica envolvendo os fundamentos do saber às ontologias dogmáticas que se impõem ao trabalho que implica a apreensão das questões filosóficas, o projeto kantiano propõe o fim da filosofia como construção metafísica e a necessidade de se lhe atribuir uma tarefa teórica de caráter essencialmente genealógico e crítico, no sentido que encerra a legitimação do conhecimento racional através da análise das faculdades que se lhe estão atreladas, conforme assinala o artigo, que se detém nos direitos da razão (...) cuja legitimidade a lógica da verdade reconhece e cuja ilegitimidade a lógica da aparência denuncia, convergindo para as fronteiras que encerram a possibilidade da construção do conhecimento científico, à medida que, tornando o entendimento o legislador universal da natureza e circunscrevendo a utilização das categorias aos limites da experiência possível, propõe as condições necessárias para fundá-lo sobre os juízos sintéticos a priori. (shrink)

O presente ensaio tem como objetivo fazer uma reflexão acerca da educação e os desafios da ciência e da produção de conhecimento na busca de emancipação. Como trama de fundo, trazemos uma breve discussão sobre a produção de conhecimento na atualidade para além daquilo que Santos chama de “pensamento abissal”. Assim, num primeiro momento, pretende-se pensar a condição da educação na atualidade, isto é, discutir seus rumos em tempos de regressões políticas e econômicas. Em seguida, objetiva-se indicar a necessidade de (...) superação do pensamento abissal, refletindo até que ponto a educação funciona como recurso fundamental para a emancipação e até onde vão seus limites. As aproximações com as temáticas problematizadas ocorrem por meio da perspectiva teórico-metodológico-dialética do fenômeno analisado. Espera-se, com essas aproximações, contribuir com uma proposta inclusiva e emancipatória de valorização dos saberes das experiências, dando visibilidade aos valores e às representações estéticas dos diversos grupos, cujas vozes, muitas vezes, são excluídas e/ou silenciadas nos sistemas educativos, colocando em diálogo com a ciência e reconhecendo as culturas que foram excluídas ao longo dos séculos. Além disso, é preciso contrapor-se ao poder cego de todos os coletivos, fortalecendo a resistência diante dos mesmos por meio do esclarecimento do problema. A busca por uma racionalidade crítica, na produção de conhecimento, passa por tensões e fraturas da própria condição humana no capitalismo contemporâneo, mas isso não quer dizer, necessariamente, que se tenha que abandonar a própria razão, para dispor de uma condição adequada da vida humana para além do pensamento abissal. Palavras-chave: Educação. Emancipação. Produção de conhecimento. Pensamento abissal. (shrink)

Foucault coined the term biopolitics when thinking about political philosophy, this concept designates a double path: a) anatomo-politics (regulation of bodies) and b) biopolitics of the population (massification of behaviors). Among these notions, the police emerges: a device that is an apparatus of discipline and a state apparatus and characterizes modern political rationality as a “political technology of doctors” between the 17th and 18th centuries (Classical Era). This work, therefore, focuses on investigating the notion of police in Foucault’s writings from (...) the prism of a genealogy of the police as a bio-police and questioning whether this idea is born as 1) a device of repression, as one thinks, or 2) advocates a technique of improving state sovereignty and strengthening the state within the state. In this work we defend the second hypothesis. (shrink)