Introduction: find your way -- Orientations toward objects -- Sexual orientation -- The orient and other others -- Conclusion: disorientation and queer objects.

In What's the Use? Sara Ahmed continues the work she began in The Promise of Happiness and Willful Subjects by taking up a single word--in this case, use--and following it around. She shows how use became associated with life and strength in nineteenth century biological and social thought and considers how utilitarianism offered a set of educational techniques for shaping individuals by directing them toward useful ends. Ahmed also explores how spaces become restricted to some uses and users (...) with specific reference to universities. She notes, however, the potential for queer use: how things can be used in ways that were not intended or by those for whom they were not intended. Ahmed posits queer use as way of reanimating the project of diversity work as the ordinary and painstaking work of opening up institutions to those who have historically been excluded from them. (shrink)

This text examines the socio-professional guidance of Comorian migrants residing on La Réunion Island. It mainly questions the process whereby guidance is constructed as a professional situation. To apprehend the complexity of the process, we have drawn on an ethnographical procedure (Woods, 1990) based on a dual source of data—that of the guide and that of the guided—as well as a micro-sociological approach (Thomas, 1923 ; Goffman, 1993 ; Lapassade, 1997) allowing us to link the concepts of situation definition and (...) conflict in situation definition. Finally, the article mobilizes an intercultural approach (Abdallah-Pretceille, 2003 ; Clanet, 1990 ; Camilleri, 1993) which, in reference to a threefold subjectivist, interactionist and situational perspective, aims to shed light on the dimensions of guidance that are otherness and heterogeneity. Ce texte traite de l’accompagnement socioprofessionnel des migrants comoriens résidant dans l’île de La Réunion. Il questionne principalement le processus de construction de l’accompagnement en tant que situation professionnelle. Pour appréhender la complexité de ce processus, nous avons convoqué une démarche ethnographique (Woods, 1990) privilégiant une double entrée : celle de l’accompagnateur et celle de l’accompagné, une approche microsociologique (Thomas, 1923 ; Goffman, 1993 ; Lapassade, 1997) permettant d’articuler les concepts de définition de la situation et de conflit de définition de la situation et enfin une approche interculturelle (Abdallah-Pretceille, 2003 ; Clanet, 1990 ; Camilleri, 1993) visant à élucider, en référence à une triple perspective : subjectiviste, interactionniste et situationnelle, les dimensions altéritaire et hétérogène de l’accompagnement. (shrink)

Daria Trentini, At Ansha's: Life in the Spirit Mosque of a Healer in Mozambique (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2021), 246 pp., ISBN: 9781978806696 At Ansha's is a world that speaks for itself, a place-based ethnography that travels in and out of binaries of extension - spatial and idiomatic antonyms that converge in the making of history and the human. Trentini locates her main protagonist, Ansha, as a migrant from Mueda, Cabo Delgado in Nampula, and offers a rich (...) descriptive landscape that tells many stories; notably, Ansha's passage from being under the control of majini (spirits) to becoming a healer - a transition from illness to healing. The ethnography, through Ansha's memory, is situated at the conjuncture of Mozambique's socialist era, FRELIMO and RENAMO's confrontation, and the anti-colonial war. It recognises the aftermath of dispossession and state violence as an open wound. (shrink)

The main concern of this paper is to study the dynamic of a predator–prey system with diffusion. It incorporates the Holling-type-II and a modified Leslie–Gower functional responses under Robin boundary conditions. More concretely, we study the dissipativeness of the system by using the comparison principle, and we derive a criteria for permanence and for predator extinction.

This article revisits a reduced model of cardiac electro-physiology which was proposed to understand the genesis of unidirectional block pathology and of ectopic foci. We underline some specificities of the model from the viewpoint of dynamical systems and bifurcation theory. We point out that essentially the same properties are shared by a simpler system more accessible to analysis. With this simpler system, it becomes possible to give a new presentation of the phenomenon in a phase plane with time moving slow (...) manifolds. This presentation can be of interest both for cardiac electro-physiologists and for mathematicians. (shrink)

The present study examined how the pre-war debate of the US decision to invade Iraq (in March 2003) was discursively constructed in the US/British mainstream newspaper opinion/editorial (op/ed) argumentation. Drawing on theoretical insights from critical discourse analysis and argumentation theory, I problematised the fallacious discussion used in the pro-war op/eds to build up a ‘moral/legal case’ for war on Iraq based on adversarial (rather than dialogical) argumentation. The proponents of war deployed ‘instrumental rationality’ (ends-justify-means reasoning), ‘ethical necessity’ (Bush’s ‘Preemption Doctrine’) (...) and ‘humanitarian virtue’ (the bombing of Iraq to ‘save’ Iraqis from Saddam’s pestilent tyranny) to justify the pending invasion of Iraq. Their arguments intertextually resonated with Bush administration’s ‘war on terror’ rhetoric in a way that created a form of indexical association through ‘recontextualisation’. The type of arguments marshalled by the pro-war op/ed commentators uncritically bolstered the set of US official ‘truth claims’ and ‘presuppositions’. (shrink)

This article is devoted to the characterization of the basin of attraction of pattern solutions for some slow–fast reaction–diffusion systems with a symmetric property and an underlying oscillatory reaction part. We characterize some subsets of initial conditions that prevent the dynamical system to evolve asymptotically toward solutions which are homogeneous in space. We also perform numerical simulations that illustrate theoretical results and give rise to symmetric and non-symmetric pattern solutions. We obtain these last solutions by choosing particular random initial conditions.

Este artículo presente y analiza el legado de Abū Madyan cuyas bases van a quedar ilustrado perfectamente en el posterior desarrollo del sufismo andalusi-magrebi de origen šāḏilī y la doctrina de ibn ‘Arabī: traduccion española y estudio critico de las evidencias y cotejos textuales, ensenanzas y practicas espirituales y funcionalidad social.

In recent years, scholars have sought to investigate the impact that ethical leaders can have within organisations. Yet, only a few theoretical perspectives have been adopted to explain how ethical leaders influence subordinate outcomes. This study therefore draws on social rules theory (SRT) to extend our understanding of the mechanisms linking ethical leadership to employee attitudes. We argue that ethical leaders reduce disengagement, which in turn promotes higher levels of job satisfaction and organisational commitment, as well as lower turnover intentions. (...) Co-worker social undermining is examined as a moderator of the relationship between ethical leadership and disengagement, as we suggest that it is difficult for ethical leaders to be effective when co-worker undermining prevails. To test the proposed model, questionnaires were administered to 460 nurses in Romanian hospital settings over three time points separated by two-week intervals and the hypotheses were tested using generalised multilevel structural equation modeling (GSEM) with STATA. The findings revealed that ethical leadership has a beneficial effect on employee attitudes by reducing disengagement. However, the relationship between ethical leadership and disengagement was moderated by co-worker social undermining, such that when undermining was higher, the significance of the mediated relationships disappeared. These results suggest that while ethical leaders can promote positive employee attitudes, their effectiveness is reduced in situations where co-worker undermining exists. (shrink)

Buildings energy consumption is growing gradually and put away around 40% of total energy use. Predicting heating and cooling loads of a building in the initial phase of the design to find out optimal solutions amongst different designs is very important, as ell as in the operating phase after the building has been finished for efficient energy. In this study, an artificial neural network model was designed and developed for predicting heating and cooling loads of a building based on a (...) dataset for building energy performance. The main factors for input variables are: relative compactness, roof area, overall height, surface area, glazing are a, wall area, glazing area distribution of a building, orientation, and the output variables: heating and cooling loads of the building. The dataset used for training are the data published in the literature for various 768 residential buildings. The model was trained and validated, most important factors affecting heating load and cooling load are identified, and the accuracy for the validation was 99.60%. (shrink)

Dear editorOrgans transplantation is the solution for many end stage insufficiencies, but organ shortage is still matter of debate. As a consequence, organ procurement (OP) remains currently the best way to provide organs in western countries. Besides, the news of the death of a loved one, especially when he is young and dies in violent circumstances, can be a devastating event for families. In those conditions, the process of donation request from the coordinators may be difficult and requires experience and (...) “tact”. Despite these precautions, refusals are not rare.An 18 year-old-patient was transported in shock after a car accident to our hospital. Emergent laparotomy was performed for mesenteric and hepatic trauma requiring liver packing. She also presented a cervical and cerebral trauma with a fast deterioration of the neurological status. A tentorial herniation was quickly suspected. The family had been contacted and the severity of the situation explained without mentioning brain. (shrink)

This study investigates the association of a broad set of variables with the ethical decision making of management accountants in Libya. Adopting a cross-sectional methodology, a questionnaire including four different ethical scenarios was used to gather data from 229 participants. For each scenario, ethical decision making was examined in terms of the recognition, judgment and intention stages of Rest’s model. A significant relationship was found between ethical recognition and ethical judgment and also between ethical judgment and ethical intention, but ethical (...) recognition did not significantly predict ethical intention—thus providing support for Rest’s model. Organizational variables, age and educational level yielded few significant results. The lack of significance for codes of ethics might reflect their relative lack of development in Libya, in which case Libyan companies should pay attention to their content and how they are supported, especially in the light of the under-development of the accounting profession in Libya. Few significant results were also found for gender, but where they were found, males showed more ethical characteristics than females. This unusual result reinforces the dangers of gender stereotyping in business. Personal moral philosophy and moral intensity dimensions were generally found to be significant predictors of the three stages of ethical decision making studied. One implication of this is to give more attention to ethics in accounting education, making the connections between accounting practice and Islam. Overall, this study not only adds to the available empirical evidence on factors affecting ethical decision making, notably examining three stages of Rest’s model, but also offers rare insights into the ethical views of practising management accountants and provides a benchmark for future studies of ethical decision making in Muslim majority countries and other parts of the developing world. (shrink)

Abstract: Background: In spite of the fact that computers continue to improve in speed and functions operation, they remain complex to use. Problems frequently happen, and it is hard to resolve or find solutions for them. This paper outlines the significance and feasibility of building a desktop PC problems diagnosis system. The system gathers problem symptoms from users’ desktops, rather than the user describes his/her problems to primary search engines. It automatically searches global databases of problem symptoms and solutions, and (...) also allows ordinary users to contribute exact problem reports in a structured manner. Objectives: The main goal of this Knowledge Based System is to get the suitable problem desktop PC symptoms and the correct way to solve the errors. Methods: In this paper the design of the proposed Knowledge Based System which was produced to help users of desktop PC in knowing many of the problems and error such as : Power supply problems, CPU errors, RAM dumping error, hard disk errors and bad sectors and suddenly restarting PC. The proposed Knowledge Based System presents an overview about desktop PC hardware errors are given, the cause of fault are outlined and the solution to the problems whenever possible is given out. CLIPS Knowledge Based System language was used for designing and implementing the proposed expert system. Results: The proposed PC desktop troubleshooting Knowledge Based System was evaluated by IT students and they were satisfied with its performance. (shrink)

A new three-parameter extension of the generalized-exponential distribution, which has various hazard rates that can be increasing, decreasing, bathtub, or inverted tub, known as the Marshall-Olkin generalized-exponential distribution has been considered. So, this article addresses the problem of estimating the unknown parameters and survival characteristics of the three-parameter MOGE lifetime distribution when the sample is obtained from progressive type-II censoring via maximum likelihood and Bayesian approaches. Making use of the s-normality of classical estimators, two types of approximate confidence intervals are (...) constructed via the observed Fisher information matrix. Using gamma conjugate priors, the Bayes estimators against the squared-error and linear-exponential loss functions are derived. As expected, the Bayes estimates are not explicitly expressed, thus the Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques are implemented to approximate the Bayes point estimates and to construct the associated highest posterior density credible intervals. The performance of proposed estimators is evaluated via some numerical comparisons and some specific recommendations are also made. We further discuss the issue of determining the optimum progressive censoring plan among different competing censoring plans using three optimality criteria. Finally, two real-life datasets are analyzed to demonstrate how the proposed methods can be used in real-life scenarios. (shrink)

In this paper, an extension of first order logic is introduced. In such logics atomic formulas may have infinite lengths. An Omitting Types Theorem is proved.

The model of feminism as humanist in practice and postmodern in theory is inadequate. Feminist practice and theory directly inform each other to displace both humanist and postmodern conceptions of the subject. An examination of feminism's use of rights discourse suggests that feminist practice questions the humanist conception of the subject as a self-identity. Likewise, feminist theory undermines the postmodern emphasis on the constitutive instability and indeterminacy of the subject.

In their article, Friesen et al. (2023) discuss two challenging roles the IRBs are playing: protecting research participants from research-related risks and promoting inclusion of diverse populatio...

The market relationships are being contested. This can be seen in the increasing number of alternative social experiments in the ‘North’ and the ‘South’ which propose to think out the present market relationships in a different way, in particular in establishing exchange value and in facilitating access to trade. These practical alternatives are supported by trends in academic circles that over the past three decades have opposed neoliberal capitalism and individualism in today's commercialised society. Calling for greater solidarity and social (...) justice in economic relationships, in particular, partisans of social and solidarity economics, identifying with these trends, demand new forms of exchange. The objective of this article is to re-examine these demands. What exactly do the SSE mean by ‘solidarity’ and ‘solidarity-based economy'? We would like to trace the contours of this theoretical and political project and to assess the practicability of the proposed alternative to neoliberal capitalism. (shrink)

The best-known argument for Evidential Decision Theory (EDT) is the ‘Why ain’cha rich?’ challenge to rival Causal Decision Theory (CDT). The basis for this challenge is that in Newcomb-like situations, acts that conform to EDT may be known in advance to have the better return than acts that conform to CDT. Frank Arntzenius has recently proposed an ingenious counter argument, based on an example in which, he claims, it is predictable in advance that acts that conform to EDT will do (...) less well than acts that conform to CDT. We raise two objections to Arntzenius’s example. We argue, first, that the example is subtly incoherent, in a way that undermines its effectiveness against EDT; and, second, that the example relies on calculating the average return over an inappropriate population of acts. (shrink)

Sophisticated ‘tickle’-style defences of Evidential Decision Theory take your motivational state to screen off your act from any state that is causally independent of it, thus ensuring that EDT and CDT converge. That leads to unacceptable instability in cases in which the correct action is obvious. We need a more liberal conception of what the agent controls. It follows that an ordinary deliberator should sometimes consider the past and not only the future to be subject to her present choice.

Most philosophers agree that causal knowledge is essential to decision-making: agents should choose from the available options those that probably cause the outcomes that they want. This book argues against this theory and in favour of evidential or Bayesian decision theory, which emphasises the symptomatic value of options over their causal role. It examines a variety of settings, including economic theory, quantum mechanics and philosophical thought-experiments, where causal knowledge seems to make a practical difference. The arguments make novel use of (...) machinery from other areas of philosophical inquiry, including first-person epistemology and the free will debate. The book also illustrates the applicability of decision theory itself to questions about the direction of time and the special epistemic status of agents. (shrink)

A large class of the dynamical laws for causal sets described by a classical process of sequential growth yields a cyclic universe, whose cycles of expansion and contraction are punctuated by single ‘‘origin elements’’ of the causal set. We present evidence that the effective dynamics of the immediate future of one of these origin elements, within the context of the sequential growth dynamics, yields an initial period of de Sitter-like exponential expansion, and argue that the resulting picture has many attractive (...) features as a model of the early universe, with the potential to solve some of the standard model puzzles without any fine-tuning. (shrink)

(1996). Science and technology in the discourse of Sayyid Qutb. Social Epistemology: Vol. 10, Islamic Social Epistemology, pp. 289-304. doi: 10.1080/02691729608578820.

We describe the earliest occurrences of the Liar Paradox in the Arabic tradition. e early Mutakallimūn claim the Liar Sentence is both true and false; they also associate the Liar with problems concerning plural subjects, which is somewhat puzzling. Abharī (1200-1265) ascribes an unsatisfiable truth condition to the Liar Sentence—as he puts it, its being true is the conjunction of its being true and false—and so concludes that the sentence is not true. Tūsī (1201-1274) argues that self-referential sentences, like the (...) Liar, are not truth-apt, and defends this claim by appealing to a correspondence theory of truth. Translations of the texts are provided as an appendix. (shrink)

This conceptual article aims to shed light on the significance of human spiritual dimension in the process of human resource development (HRD). It suggests spiritual intelligence as the missing link in the process of human development that should be identified and considered as an important factor for developed and morally qualified human resources. Moreover, this article also uncovered the growing interest of spiritual intelligence and its implications for HRD. The interest in spiritual intelligence in the body of knowledge has been (...) established in depth which assures that SI embedded in the fabric of the fields of organizational behaviour and psychology. The article emphasizes the vital influence of SI on bottom line of the organization, whereby, human resources can meaningfully contribute towards organization with improved performance. The conventional strategy of organizations in flourishing their employees is more on enhancement of individual’s knowledge, skills, abilities (Intelligence Quotient) and emotions control (Emotional Quotient). However, despite this immense interest in human capital, organizations tend to fail to have holistic approach of human resource development which eventually affects their performance. Further, the article indicates that without considering spiritual development of employees, the logic (IQ) and emotions (EQ) could not be the only ample source for human beings to perform utmost standard performances. Therefore, based on this, we conclude that the emerging notion of human spiritual quotient and its multi-dimensions must be included in HRD initiatives in order to have holistic mechanism. (shrink)

We prove an Omitting Types Theorem for certain algebraizable extensions of first order logic without equality studied in [SAI 00] and [SAY 04]. This is done by proving a representation theorem preserving given countable sets of infinite meets for certain reducts of ?- dimensional polyadic algebras, the so-called G polyadic algebras (Theorem 5). Here G is a special subsemigroup of (?, ? o) that specifies the signature of the algebras in question. We state and prove an independence result connecting our (...) representation theorem to Martin's axiom (Theorem 6). Also we show that the countable atomic G polyadic algebras are completely representable (Corollary 16) contrasting results on cylindric algebras. Several related results are surveyed. (shrink)

RésuméL'objectif de cet article est de produire une étude complète et systématique de la doctrine avicennienne de la conscience de soi et de la connaissance chez les animaux. Dans la première partie, j'explique comment, selon Avicenne, la conscience de soi chez l'animal, contrairement à la conscience de soi chez l'homme, est considérée comme indirecte, mélangée et intermittente – la conscience animale étant, dans sa vision, issue de la faculté estimative. Aussi la seconde partie porte-t-elle sur la fonction cognitive de la (...) faculté estimative chez les animaux et sur la manière dont cette fonction se rapporte à la conscience de soi. Pour Avicenne, la faculté estimative sert à distinguer notre corps et ses parties des objets extérieurs, et a pour rôle de connecter le soi à ses activités perceptives. Il s'ensuit que la conscience de soi chez l'animal, contrairement à la conscience de soi chez l'homme, est essentiellement connectée au corps. Dans la troisième partie de l'article, je montre qu'Avicenne, tout en refusant aux animaux la conscience de leur conscience de soi, affirme expressément qu'ils sont capables de percevoir leur identité individuelle mais que, contrairement aux êtres humains, ils le font de façon accidentelle, cette conscience étant une partie de leur conscience perceptive. (shrink)

Looking at the operation of forming neat $\alpha $ -reducts as a functor, with $\alpha $ an infinite ordinal, we investigate when such a functor obtained by truncating $\omega $ dimensions, has a right adjoint. We show that the neat reduct functor for representable cylindric algebras does not have a right adjoint, while that of polyadic algebras is an equivalence. We relate this categorial result to several amalgamation properties for classes of representable algebras. We show that the variety of cylindric (...) algebras of infinite dimension, endowed with the merry go round identities, fails to have the amalgamation property answering a question of Németi’s. We also study two variants of the so-called cylindric polyadic algebras introduced by Ferenczi (all are reducts of polyadic equality algebras, that are also varieties). We show that one is more cylindric than polyadic, and that the other is more polyadic than cylindric. Our classification is determined by results on neat embeddings and amalgamation expressed from the point of view of category theory, thereby witnessing, and, indeed, further emphasizing, the dichotomy between the cylindric and polyadic paradigms. For example, the first class does not have the unique neat embedding property, fails to have the amalgamation property and the neat reduct functor does not have a right adjoint, while the second class has the unique neat emdedding property, the superamalgamation property and the neat reduct functor is strongly invertible. Other results, like first order definability of the class of neat reducts and the class of completely representable algebras, confirming our classification along these lines are presented. (shrink)

We revisit the flight-to-quality and flight-from-quality occurrences vis-à-vis the stock-bond nexus across differing investment time scales in the COVID-19 era, using a novel technique hinged on a denoised frequency-domain transfer entropy. Our findings divulge that flights, both FTQ and FFQ, could be attained during stress periods. Generally, in the intermediate term of the COVID-19 pandemic, both Islamic and conventional bonds could act as safe havens, diversifiers, and hedges for international equities, and the same could be observed for international equities. We (...) reiterate empirically that flights may improve the financial system’s stability and robustness by allowing diversity to be effective when it is most required. The findings have financial and portfolio implications for investors considering how to deploy their investments in the COVID-19 era. Our findings may impact policymakers’ responses to changes in various asset classes, allowing them to better monitor financial markets and adjust macroeconomic policies. (shrink)

El presente artículo empieza con una breve exposición de los datos más significativos sobre la vida y obra del sufí almeriense Ibn al-‘Arīf. A continuación se habla de su formación filosófica y sufí. Finalmente, se reúnen y traducen diversos pasajes de Miftāḥ al-sa‘āda que hacen referencia a la filosofía y la mística. Se contrastan a la vez sus opiniones con anteriores sufíes andalusíes como Ibn Masarra e Ibn Jamīs de Évora.

Mario Gómez-Torrente (2006) says that whilst theoretical identifications (e.g. 'All lightning is electrical discharge') do not entail their own necessitations, they do entail the necessitation of a weaker statement. And he claims that this weaker entailment serves Kripke's purposes as well as the stronger one would have. I argue that this is false. Section 1 says what the weaker entailment is; section 2 says why it matters. Section 3 argues that the entailment identified at section 1 does not meet the (...) purpose identified at section 2. Section 4 rejects two possible objections. The aim is to illustrate (not establish) the general claim that those 'modal facts' that are not entirely speculative are quite useless. (shrink)