We critically evaluate arguments in a recent Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics article by Svoboda, Adler, and Van Howe disputing the 2012 affirmative infant male circumcision policy recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics. We provide detailed evidence in explaining why the extensive claims by these opponents are not supported by the current strong scientific evidence. We furthermore show why their legal and ethical arguments are contradicted by a reasonable interpretation of current U.S. and international law and ethics. After (...) all considerations are taken into account it would be logical to conclude that failure to recommend male circumcision early in infancy may be viewed as akin to failure to recommend childhood vaccination to parents. In each case, parental consent is required and the intervention is not compulsory. Our evaluation leads us to dismiss the arguments by Svoboda et al. Instead, based on the evidence, infant male circumcision is both ethical and lawful. (shrink)

Healthcare ethics consultants in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) document consults in an enterprise-wide web-based database entitled IEWeb, serving as a system of record for healthcare ethics documentation at 1300 VA facilities. The need arose to evolve the database from an ethics process training resource into a more streamlined documentation repository that captures essential consult elements. A VHA National Center for Ethics in Health Care (NCEHC) Improvement Team convened for three tasks: (1) Specify and prioritize IEWeb changes (occurred via six (...) focus groups composed of “new user” and “super user” cohorts with analysis of existing documentation patterns); (2) Pilot the changes regionally (via regional communication, training, and reviews of pre-post use patterns); and (3) Measure the impact of national change implementation on user perspectives (via pre-and post-change implementation polls). Focus groups identified six implementable priority areas for ethics consult documentation improvement, including the development of a usable consult summary note for ready conversion from IEWeb fields into the electronic health record. Post-IEWeb updates showed an increased number of consults documented, a reduction in “time to consult documentation closure” by a mean of 4.5 days, and a clinically-meaningful improvement in the quality of documentation (78% of ethics questions scored “above-bar” on the validation tool pre- vs. 89% scored “above-bar” post-IEWeb changes, n = 140). According to national survey findings, the number of consultants documenting “all” consults in IEWeb increased, satisfaction increased, and perception of documentation difficulty decreased. IEWeb simplification enabled ethics consultants to re-focus their documentation completion efforts by decreasing perception of documentation burden while improving documentation frequency and quality in a clinically-meaningful way. (shrink)

To address growing concerns about academic integrity, college students (n?=?758) at honor system and non-honor system institutions were presented with eight scenarios to determine the influence of an honor system on their perceptions of and responses to academic dishonesty. Main effects for honor code status emerged. Students from traditional honor system schools considered the behaviors to be more dishonest, and were more likely to respond that they would report the incident when compared to students attending modified and non-honor system institutions. (...) Findings suggest traditional honor systems, with specific rules and regulations in place, are more effective at cultivating academic integrity among students; modified honor systems may not be as effective as previous research suggests. (shrink)

The key assumption is that of Leinaas and Myrheim and of Berry and Robbins, here specialized to spin zero: for n particles, the argument of the wave function should be the unordered multiplet {r 1,r 2,...,r n }. I also make use of the requirement that wave functions in the domain of the Hamiltonian must be continuous functions of the spatial variables. The new proof presented here has advantages of simplicity and transparency in comparison with earlier work based on the (...) same two principles and it uses weaker assumptions, especially avoiding the use of rotations of the relative coordinate of identical particles. (shrink)

L’auteur cherche à montrer cru’un appel à l’évidence intuitive pour fonder les mathématiques n’est ni rejetable, ni évitable,. Cet appel à l’intuition nécessite un fondement subjectif des mathématiques à côté du fondement objectif.

To promote ethical practices, healthcare managers must understand the ethical challenges encountered by key stakeholders. To characterize ethical challenges in Veterans Administration (VA) facilities from the perspectives of managers, clinicians, patients, and ethics consultants. We conducted focus groups with patients (n = 32) and managers (n = 38); semi-structured interviews with managers (n = 31), clinicians (n = 55), and ethics committee chairpersons (n = 21). Data were analyzed using content analysis. Managers reported that the greatest ethical challenge was fairly (...) distributing resources across programs and services, whereas clinicians identified the effect of resource constraints on patient care. Ethics committee chairpersons identified end-of-life care as the greatest ethical challenge, whereas patients identified obtaining fair, respectful, and caring treatment. Perspectives on ethical challenges varied depending on the respondent's role. Understanding these differences can help managers take practical steps to address these challenges. Further, ethics committees seemingly, are not addressing the range of ethical challenges within their institutions. (shrink)

Artikkelen er en analyse av to formaliserte etiske retningslinjer som skal gjelde i norske akademiske institusjoner. Den ene er utarbeidet for forvaltningen og den andre for forskningen. Analysen gjøres ved å sammenligne to dokumenter som inneholder etiske retningslinjer. Videre knyttes analysen til ulike «etos» som skiller forvaltningen og forskningen. Artikkelen går særlig inn på normene lydighet og frihet, som framstår som mest motsetningsfylte når de «møtes» i akademia. Det drøftes hvordan dette påvirker legitimiteten til akademia.Nøkkelord: akademia, byråkrati, etos, forskningsetikk, forvaltningsetikkEnglish (...) summary: Ethics on a collision course – when bureaucratic ethics and research ethics meetThe article is an analysis of two formal ethical guidelines for Norwegian academic institutions. One is prepared for the governmental bureaucracy and the other is research ethics. The analysis is done by comparing two documents containing the code of conduct for each field. Further analysis is related to the differing «ethos» that separates the bureaucracy from the research. The article dwells on the norms of obedience and freedom that emerge as the most contradictory. The closing discussion is on how this affects the legitimacy of academia. (shrink)

Research suggests that people with psychopathic traits experience fear-inducing stimuli differently from others, seeming to interpret fear as more positive and less negative. We expected that this reaction, termed fear enjoyment, would impact the effect of fear-inducing stimuli on self-report risk-taking behaviour. Risk-taking was measured before and after viewing excitement- and fear-inducing videos (N = 825). As expected from research showing that fear induction tends to reduce risk-taking tendencies, participants showed reduced risk-taking scores following a fear-inducing stimulus. Importantly, this relationship (...) was moderated by psychopathic traits. Participants who did not decrease their risk-taking tendencies following the video scored significantly higher on psychopathic traits. Also, some of the variance in the relationship between psychopathic traits and change in risk-taking was partly accounted for by fear enjoyment, suggesting that future research should examine whether fear enjoyment may play a role in the relationship between psychopathy and risk-taking. (shrink)

Objective:Prior research examining sexual and intimacy concerns among metastatic breast cancer patients and their intimate partners is limited. In this qualitative study, we explored MBC patients’ and partners’ experiences of sexual and intimacy-related changes and concerns, coping efforts, and information needs and intervention preferences, with a focus on identifying how the context of MBC shapes these experiences.Methods:We conducted 3 focus groups with partnered patients with MBC [N = 12; M age = 50.2; 92% White; 8% Black] and 6 interviews with (...) intimate partners [M age = 47.3; 83% White; 17% Black]. Participants were recruited through the Fox Chase Cancer Center Tumor Registry and the Cancer Support Community. Qualitative data were analyzed using the Framework Method and Dedoose software.Results:Qualitative analyses revealed several key themes reflecting ways in which MBC shapes experiences of sex/intimacy: the heavy disease/treatment burden leads to significant, long-term sexual concerns and consequent heightened emotional distress for both patients and partners ; viewing the relationship as having “an expiration date” influences patients’ and partners’ concerns related to sex/intimacy and complicates coping efforts; and information needs extend beyond managing sexual side effects to include emotional aspects of intimacy and the added strain of the life-limiting nature of the disease on the relationship. The heightened severity of sexual concerns faced by patients with MBC, compounded by the terminal nature of the disease, may place patients and partners at risk for significant adverse emotional and interpersonal consequences.Conclusion:Findings suggest unique ways in which sex and intimate relationships change after a diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer from both patients’ and partners’ perspectives. Consideration of the substantial physical and emotional burden of MBC and the broader context of the relationship and intimacy overall is important when developing a sexuality-focused intervention in this population. Addressing sexual concerns is a critical part of cancer care with important implications for patients’ health and quality of life. (shrink)

Within a weak system \ of intuitionistic analysis one may prove, using the Weak Fan Theorem as an additional axiom, a completeness theorem for intuitionistic first-order predicate logic relative to validity in generalized Beth models as well as a completeness theorem for classical first-order predicate logic relative to validity in intuitionistic structures. Conversely, each of these theorems implies over \ the Weak Fan Theorem.

When a quantified premise such as: Everyone loves anyone who loves someone, occurs with a premise such as: Anne loves Beth, it follows immediately that everyone loves Anne. It also follows that Carol loves Diane, where these two individuals are in the domain of discourse. According to the theory of mental models, this inference requires the quantified premise to be used again to update a model of specific individuals. The paper reports four experiments examining such iterative inferences. Experiment 1 (...) confirmed that they are harder than immediate inferences. Experiment 2 extended the finding to negative inferences, i.e., granted that Anne does not love Beth, it follows from the quantified premise that Carol does not love Diane. Experiment 3 established that intermediate steps referring to specific individuals are accepted more readily than intermediate steps referring to quantified variables. Experiment 4 showed that the participants' written justifications corroborated the model theory. (shrink)

We prove that if ℵα is uncountable and regular, then the Beth-closure of Lωω(Qα) is not a sublogic of L∞ω(Qn), where Qn is the class of all n-ary generalized quantifiers. In particular, B(Lωω(Qα)) is not a sublogic of any finitely generated logic; i.e., there does not exist a finite set Q of Lindstrom quantifiers such that B(Lωω(Qα)) ≤ Lωω(Q).

For T any completion of Peano Arithmetic and for n any positive integer, there is a model of T of size $\beth_n$ with no (n + 1)-length sequence of indiscernibles. Hence the Hanf number for omitting types over T, H(T), is at least $\beth_\omega$ . (Now, using an upper bound previously obtained by Julia Knight H (true arithmetic) is exactly $\beth_\omega$ ). If T ≠ true arithmetic, then $H(T) = \beth_{\omega1}$ . If $\delta \not\rightarrow (\rho)^{ , then any completion of (...) Peano Arithmetic has a model of size δ with no set of indiscernibles of size ρ. There are similar results for theories strongly resembling Peano Arithmetic, e.g., ZF + V = L. (shrink)

The biomedical industry relies on the skills of animal technologists to put laboratory animal welfare into practice. This is the first study to explore how this is achieved in relation to their participation in implementing refinement and reduction, two of the three key guiding ethical principles––the “3Rs”––of what is deemed to be humane animal experimentation. The interpretative approach contributes to emerging work within the social sciences and humanities exploring care and ethics in practice. Based on qualitative analysis of participant observation (...) within animal research facilities in UK universities, in-depth interviews with ATs, facility managers, and other stakeholders, and analysis of regulatory guidelines, we draw a contrast between the minimum required of ATs by law and how their care work not only meets but often exceeds these requirements. We outline how ATs constitute a key source of innovation and insight into the refinement of animal care and the reduction of animal use, hitherto not formally acknowledged. Exploring AT care work as an example of ethics in practice makes an original contribution to broader debates within health care and animal welfare about how technology, regulation, and behavior can foster and sustain a “culture of care”. (shrink)

Let M be a given model with similarity type L = L(M), and let L' be any fragment of L |L(M)| +, ω of cardinality |L(M)|. We call $N \prec M L'$ -relatively saturated $\operatorname{iff}$ for every $B \subseteq N$ of cardinality less than | N | every L'-type over B which is realized in M is realized in M is realized in N. We discuss the existence of such submodels. The following are corollaries of the existence theorems. (1) If (...) M is of cardinality at least $\beth_{\omega_1}$ , and fails to have the ω order property, then there exists $N \prec M$ which is relatively saturated in M of cardinality $\beth_{\omega_1}$ . (2) Assume GCH. Let ψ ∈ L_{ω_1, ω, and let $L' \subseteq L_{\omega 1, \omega$ be a countable fragment containing ψ. If $\exists \chi > \aleph_0$ such that $I(\chi, \psi) , then for every $M \models \psi$ and every cardinal $\lambda of uncountable cofinality, M has an L'-relatively saturated submodel of cardinality λ. (shrink)

In this paper we introduce the Wholeness Axiom , which asserts that there is a nontrivial elementary embedding from V to itself. We formalize the axiom in the language {∈, j } , adding to the usual axioms of ZFC all instances of Separation, but no instance of Replacement, for j -formulas, as well as axioms that ensure that j is a nontrivial elementary embedding from the universe to itself. We show that WA has consistency strength strictly between I 3 (...) and the existence of a cardinal that is super- n -huge for every n . ZFC + WA is used as a background theory for studying generalizations of Laver sequences. We define the notion of Laver sequence for general classes E consisting of elementary embeddings of the form i :V β → M , where M is transitive, and use five globally defined large cardinal notions – strong, supercompact, extendible, super-almost-huge, superhuge – for examples and special cases of the main results. Assuming WA at the beginning, and eventually refining the hypothesis as far as possible, we prove the existence of a strong form of Laver sequence for a broad range of classes E that include the five large cardinal types mentioned. We show that if κ is globally superstrong, if E is Laver-closed at beth fixed points, and if there are superstrong embeddings i with critical point κ and arbitrarily large targets such that E is weakly compatible with i , then our standard constructions are E -Laver at κ . , there is an extendible Laver sequence at κ .) In addition, in most cases our Laver sequences can be made special if E is upward λ -closed for sufficiently many λ. (shrink)

It was shown recently that epimorphisms need not be surjective in a variety K of Heyting algebras, but only one counter-example was exhibited in the literature until now. Here, a continuum of such examples is identified, viz. the variety generated by the Rieger-Nishimura lattice, and all of its (locally finite) subvarieties that contain the original counter-example K . It is known that, whenever a variety of Heyting algebras has finite depth, then it has surjective epimorphisms. In contrast, we show that (...) for every integer $n \geq 2$ , the variety of all Heyting algebras of width at most n has a non-surjective epimorphism. Within the so-called Kuznetsov-Gerčiu variety (i.e., the variety generated by finite linear sums of one-generated Heyting algebras), we describe exactly the subvarieties that have surjective epimorphisms. This yields new positive examples, and an alternative proof of epimorphism surjectivity for all varieties of Gödel algebras. The results settle natural questions about Beth-style definability for a range of intermediate logics. (shrink)

Deleuze’ün Spinozacı yaşam tahayyülünde ‘ne yapmalıyız?’ sorusuna normatif, ahlaki ya da siyasi bir yanıt bulamıyoruz ama varoluşu düşünmenin içkin bir olanağını keşfediyoruz. Düşünmeye 'dışarıdan' yani dünyadan başlamak insani (kurgusal) bir dünyaya değil, içinde yaşadığımız gerçek dünyaya inanmak demektir. İçkinliğin politik anlamı düşünceyi dünyaya getirmektir.

As someone diagnosed with severe chronic mental illness early in my adolescence, I have spent over half of my life feeling out of step with the rest of the world due to hospitalizations, treatment programs, and the disruptions caused by anxiety, anorexia, depression, and obsessive–compulsive disorder. The effect of my mental health conditions compounded by these treatment environments means I often feel that I experience time passing differently, which results in sensations of removal and isolation from those around me. The (...) global shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic seemed a way for normative bodies to experience the passing of time the way I always have. In this paper, I extend Dr. Sara Wasson’s analysis of the ways in which chronic pain resists narrative coherence to my own temporal experience of chronic mental illness, specifically my embodied experience of the pandemic. I use that embodied experience as a case study for examining how the reciprocal nature of time and narrativity, as outlined by Dr. Paul Ricoeur, can create isolation for those struggling with their temporality due to chronic mental illness. To acknowledge and grapple with the ramifications of discursive and material privilege involved in such situations, I include an analysis of Robert Desjarlais’s 1994 article “Struggling Along: The Possibilities for Experience among the Homeless Mentally Ill,” in which he investigates a similar phenomenon of being outside of structured sequential narrative time in the residents of a Boston shelter for the mentally ill. (shrink)

Philosophical aspects of belief and ancestor worship in Southern Vietnam.

English summary: This ambitious study proposes an analysis of intuition that will allow us to understand it cognitive role in the justification of our beliefs and philosophical and mathematical reasoning. The book first demonstrates that the cognitive function of intuition passes through a semiotic system before situating the semantic treatment of intuition in the context of classic problems in philosophy, logic, and mathematics. French description: Proposer une symptomatique de l'intuition nous permettant de comprendre son fonctionnement cognitif dans la justification de (...) nos croyances et de nos raisonnements philosophiques et mathematiques, tel est le defi releve dans ce livre. La premiere partie montre que la fonction cognitive de l'intuition dans la comprehension et la justification passe par l'utilisation d'un systeme semiotique. Un tel systeme est utilise intuitivement si, dans une action situee, les aspects significatifs et representatifs sont interdependants. Une demande de legitimation de ce qui est represente ne se place pas au meme niveau de reflexion que celui de l'intuition. Qu'elle puisse etre a la fois evidente et faillible n'a des lors rien de paradoxal. La deuxieme partie montre qu'envisager l'intuition dans une symptomatologie ne nous eloigne pas de la tradition philosophique. Au contraire, le traitement semantique de la question de l'intuition eclaire certains problemes classiques en philosophie, en logique et en mathematiques; et il permet de relire a nouveaux frais aussi bien Aristote, Descartes ou Kant, que Helmholtz, Poincare, Brouwer, Weyl, Beth et Cavailles. (shrink)