In this article, we examine the factors determining the representation of women on boards of directors by considering three main questions. The first question deals with the relationship between characteristics of ownership and governance on one side, and female directorship on the other. The second major question concerns the demographic attributes of women directors, such as nationality, foreign experience, educational level, business expertise, and connections to external sources. The third important question refers to women in senior positions on French boards (...) (e.g., as independent members or board subcommittee members) in relation to firm characteristics and women’s demographic attributes. Our study focuses on French large- and mid-capitalized companies belonging to the SBF120 stock market index during a 5-year period running from 2000 to 2004. First, our results give evidence that the appointment of women directors is strongly related to family ownership and board or firm size. Second, the appointment of women directors is related to their professional services, valuable skills, and network links. Furthermore, we show that women face a double glass-ceiling problem, and note that French firms rely more on the demographic attributes of their women directors when they are appointed to senior board positions. Our study sheds light on issues concerning the law that comes into force in 2016, which imposes quotas of women members on boards of directors in French companies. (shrink)

Michaël Crevoisier : Le thème du jeu traverse ton œuvre et revient dans ta philosophie la plus récente. Quelle place lui accordes-tu, quelle est sa fonction dans ton système? Mehdi Belhaj Kacem : Oui c’est vrai que ça reste intact. Et je peux récapituler aujourd’hui la manière dont cela fonctionne systématiquement. Tout d’abord, ce que j’appelle l’archi-transgression est le transcendantal de l’être humain, le fait pour l’être humain de s’être approprié les lois de la nature et de continuer...

Outlines the ten ways to achieve happiness, discusses the relationship between health and happinesss, and examines the importance of cultivating human values.

To adequately deal with unpredictable and dynamic environments, normative frameworks typically deployed in mechanisms for modifying the norms at runtime are crucial. We present the syntax and operational semantics of programming constructs to facilitate runtime norm modification, allowing a programmer to specify when and how the norms may be changed by external agents or by the normative mechanism. The norms take on the form of conditional obligations and prohibitions, instantiating obligations and prohibitions. We present rule-based constructs for runtime modification of (...) the norms and their instances, and a mechanism for automatically updating the instances when their underlying norms change. Moreover, we investigate a mechanism for avoiding norm conflicts. (shrink)

_The Logical Reconstruction of the World (Aufbau) is one of the major works of Rudolf Carnap in which he attempts to put an end to some of the traditional disputes in epistemology by using what he calls 'construction theory'. In this paper, I shall try to show that the traditional dualist-monist debates are among those disputes that the construction theory aims to get rid of. I will show that Carnap's position on the mind-body problem is really close to what Davidson (...) later termed as 'anomalous monism' and that this is why Carnap fails to complete his logical construction at a crucial step. (edited). (shrink)

Since current water governance patterns mandate cooperation and partnership within and between the actors in the hydrosystems, supplementary models are necessary to distinguish the roles and the rules of indoor actions which is why we extend a theory in the frameworks of philosophy of technology. This analysis is empirically grounded on the problematic hydrosystems of a river in central Iran, Zayandehrud. Following a modernist-holistic-based analysis, it illustrates how values in the water apportionment mechanisms are being reshaped. The article by using (...) the theory of normative practice has scrutinised the tasks and the rules of the old and new water-management systems, Mirab. Subsequently according to such philosophical theory, it has argued that the conflicts over the cases are due to interference of structural and directional norms within them. (shrink)

In spite of orientation of philosophy in the western philosophy after renaissance when the relation between religion and philosophy was weakened and broken, in the Islamic world in particular Iranian society the strong relation appeared between religion and philosophy. However this relationship alleviated diversity and audaciousness of philosophical thought, but it deepened and widened religious thoughts. In fact, entrance of philosophical discussions in the realm of religion causes the rational interpretation of religion and lessens fanaticism and dogmatism and it excludes (...) superstition from religious thoughts. Philosophers like Averroes, Avicenna and Mulla Sadra have discussed the interaction of religion and philosophy. Islamic philosophy is completely an intellectual knowledgewhich differs from theology is based on revelatory texts. The title of Islamic philosophy displays the relationship between religion and philosophy. (shrink)

To support the trustworthiness of AI systems, it is essential to have precise methods to determine what or who is to account for the behaviour, or the outcome, of AI systems. The assignment of responsibility to an AI system is closely related to the identification of individuals or elements that have caused the outcome of the AI system. In this work, we present an overview of approaches that aim at modelling responsibility of AI systems, discuss their advantages and shortcomings to (...) deal with various aspects of the notion of responsibility, and present research gaps and ways forward. (shrink)

Partnerships in education developed in schools in the 1990s to bring answers to new socio-educational problems. Nevertheless, for the teachers of the sandwich training, they establish for a long time the indispensable condition of a really professional co-op education program. By using the sociology of the actor-network and to the concept of social relationships, we would like to qualify this speech. From the analysis of two university co-op programs, we highlight that an almost fusional partnership with an occupational environment does (...) not guarantee necessarily a harmonious professional development, and that the absence of partnership is not still the synonym for an absence of professionalization. (shrink)

In this paper, the public view of nanotechnology and its applications in medicine, agriculture and industry is evaluated in the mega cities of Iran. Data from 683 individuals in public places provided the first civic perception of nanotechnology in Iran. Quantitative statistical analysis on positive or negative points of view demonstrated that Iranian people had general positive opinions on nanotechnology and its application in medicine. They believed that nanomedicine can significantly improve the current methods used in disease treatments, especially for (...) cancer therapy. In general, the responders believed that they would easily accept the use of nanotechnology products and would like increased financial support of the government on nanomedicine and nanotechnology research fields and they showed little anxiety about the possible risks. According to our statistical analysis, three individual characteristics age, education level and career had a direct correlation with the knowledge level of Iranian people on nanotechnology in the mega cities of Iran. (shrink)

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can self‐renew indefinitely and contribute to all tissue types of the adult organism. Stem cell‐based therapeutic approaches hold enormous promise for the cure of regenerative diseases. Over the last few years, several studies have attempted to decipher the important role of transcription factor networks and epigenetic regulatory signals in the maintenance of ESC pluripotency, but the exact underlying mechanisms have yet to be identified. Among the epigenetic factors, chromatin dynamics and (...) structure have been found to contribute greatly to maintenance of pluripotency and regulation of differentiation in ESCs. These modifications include: covalent histone acetylation and methylation, histone bivalents and chromatin remodeling, and DNA methylation. Studies in ESCs have shown that genes associated with early development are arranged within a bivalent chromatin structure. This is thought to be a “poised yet repressed” situation, which can be activated upon differentiation. The breakthrough of iPSCs has opened a new era in stem cell biology. During reprogramming, the chromatin state of differentiated cells is reset to an embryonic form via a largely unknown mechanism. In this review, the fundamental impact of chromatin dynamic in ESCs as well as its critical role in the generation of iPSCs is discussed. (shrink)

Is friendship a more important value than honesty?

The majority of studies on compliment response have investigated CR patterns and norms among different cultural groups and communities. The present study investigated the shifting of CR patterns across generations within the same speech community. To this end, 272 Persian speakers were chosen from among high school students and teachers. A discourse completion task with four complimenting situations was administered. The findings revealed that the new generation of Persian speakers, regardless of their gender, had shifted their CR patterns and overwhelmingly (...) accepted compliments. This change is attributed to the changing interpretations and conceptions of politeness and to the influx of English culture, through exposure to English media, internet, TV series, films, etc., among the new generation of Persian speakers. (shrink)

The spontaneous organization of collective activities in animal groups and societies has attracted a considerable amount of attention over the last decade. This kind of coordination often permits group‐living species to achieve collective tasks that are far beyond single individuals' capabilities. In particular, a key benefit lies in the integration of partial knowledge of the environment at the collective level. In this contribution, we discuss various self‐organization phenomena in animal swarms and human crowds from the point of view of information (...) exchange among individuals. In particular, we provide a general description of collective dynamics across species and introduce a classification of these dynamics not only with respect to the way information is transferred among individuals but also with regard to the knowledge processing at the collective level. Finally, we highlight the fact that the individual’s ability to learn from past experiences can have a feedback effect on the collective dynamics, as experienced with the development of behavioral conventions in pedestrian crowds. (shrink)

We evaluate the relationship between the appointment of women to CEO or Chair positions and firm performance, and shed light on the differences between family and nonfamily firms. By using a propensity score matching approach on a sample of 394 French firms over the period 2001–2010, we find major discordances between women’s leadership style and family business expectations relative to firm performance, as measured by return on assets and Tobin’s q. Notably, our results support the conjecture that family firms, which (...) are more conducive to transformational leadership, offer women a more appropriate climate for exercising the function of Chair than that of CEO. In contrast, women CEOs perform better in nonfamily firms. Our findings move away from the predominant focus on barriers and stereotypes images about the female leadership and support the contingency theory of leadership, which states that the effectiveness of a leadership style depends on the organization and culture in which leaders operate, and on task-related positions. (shrink)

It is demonstrated here that despite apparent differences and their adherence to two different schools of thought, Suhrawardī's epistemology is essentially Ibn Sīnian, and even his theory of "knowledge by Presence" ('ilm al-hudurī), which is considered to be uniquely his, is at least inspired by Ibn Sīnā. I argue that Ibn Sīnā's peripatetic orientation and Suhrawardī's ishrāqī perspective have both maintained and adhered to the same epistemological framework while the philosophical languages in which their respective epistemologies are discussed are different.

In this opinion piece, we present a synopsis of our findings from the last 2 years concerning cyber-attacks on web-based academia. We also present some of problems that we have faced and try to resolve any misunderstandings about our work. We are academic information security specialists, not hackers. Finally, we present a brief overview of our methods for detecting cyber fraud in an attempt to present general guidelines for researchers who would like to continue our work. We believe that our (...) work is necessary for protecting the integrity of scholarly publishing against emerging cybercrime. (shrink)

Invalid journals are recent challenges in the academic world and many researchers are unacquainted with the phenomenon. The number of victims appears to be accelerating. Researchers might be suspicious of predatory journals because they have unfamiliar names, but hijacked journals are imitations of well-known, reputable journals whose websites have been hijacked. Hijacked journals issue calls for papers via generally laudatory emails that delude researchers into paying exorbitant page charges for publication in a nonexistent journal. This paper presents a method for (...) detecting hijacked journals by using a classification algorithm. The number of published articles exposing hijacked journals is limited and most of them use simple techniques that are limited to specific journals. Hence we needed to amass Internet addresses and pertinent data for analyzing this type of attack. We inspected the websites of 104 scientific journals by using a classification algorithm that used criteria common to reputable journals. We then prepared a decision tree that we used to test five journals we knew were authentic and five we knew were hijacked. (shrink)

La réception problématique des Cultural, Gender et Postcolonial Studies dans le champ des études cinématographiques en France s’est longtemps traduite par leur rejet. Depuis la fin des années 2000, sous la pression de l’évolution générationnelle mais aussi de la recherche internationale, on observe une prise en compte partielle des Studies. Toutefois, celle-ci s’accompagne d’une neutralisation de leur dimension critique et politique, à savoir leur remise en cause des fondements mêmes des épistémologies occidentales. Longtemps organisée autour d’histoires nationales et des critères (...) de l’histoire de l’art, l’histoire du cinéma n’échappe pas aux reconfigurations contemporaines de l’historiographie. Cependant, une autre histoire du cinéma français reste à construire. L’analyse comparée de la construction discursive du « cinéma beur » (années 1980), des « films de banlieue » et du « jeune cinéma français » (années 1990) permet de mettre en évidence le discours dominant d’un cinéma français défini par sa blanchité. La critique cinématographique des années 1990 joue ainsi un rôle d’opérateur de la blanchité qui contribue à invisibiliser les composantes non-blanches (ici maghrébines) dans la constitution de la francité. (shrink)

Introduction By Charles Randall Paul Thank you very much. Thank you very much Reverend Kowalski. I will now introduce our panel. I'll make my own remarks I ...

This work compares medieval and modern Arabic sources relating to the Berber Empires (11th-13th centuries) with the way in which European studies have apprehended this topic against the backdrop of the emergence of orientalism and the expansion of France in the Maghreb. Indeed, the invocation and then the study of the Berber Empires served to characterize a great Other of proximity : the Maghreb at once so close and yet so different. Studying this past therefore amounted to giving perspectives to (...) this radical difference. In the context of the colonized and then newly independent Maghreb, this yet distant past never ceased to serve as a reference and as a framework for a "roman national" which aimed to give these States a solid foundation. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, EarlyView.

In this paper, we propose two HIV infection models with specific nonlinear incidence rate by including a class of infected cells in the eclipse phase. The first model is described by ordinary differential equations and generalizes a set of previously existing models and their results. The second model extends our ODE model by taking into account the diffusion of virus. Furthermore, the global stability of both models is investigated by constructing suitable Lyapunov functionals. Finally, we check our theoretical results with (...) numerical simulations. (shrink)

In the chapter in his Muqaddima1 that Ibn Khaldūn devoted to the refutation of astrology, there are numerous arguments that reveal not only his position vis-à-vis this discipline but also his general intellectual orientation. In the present essay, I shall study these arguments and show the presuppositions and the theoretical basis on which they rest. In doing so, I shall compare Ibn Khaldūn's criticism with what was written by other authors who also undertook to refute astrology and show its incoherence. (...) Indeed, debunking astrology was not a rare matter in Islamic culture, especially in the late period of classicism. Al-Fārābī2 and Ibn Sīnā3 were among the most famous philosophers to denounce the vanity of this... (shrink)

Our study examines whether gender-diverse engagement partners constrain unethical earnings management behavior in a French mandatory joint audit setting. The investigation of the joint audit setting, by raising concerns about audit team organization and management, provides new insights into how gender-diverse audit partners contribute to the effectiveness of audit decision-making, resulting in reduced earnings management. The need for effective collaboration and communication between joint auditors may foster a transformational leadership style on the part of audit engagement partners. In this regard, (...) we argue that better interaction between male and female lead audit partners confers a comparative advantage on gender-diverse audit partners compared to all-male audit partners. In line with our expectation, our empirical results show that gender-diverse audit partners are negatively associated with discretionary accruals of client firms. Gender-diverse audit partners are also found to constrain earnings management irrespective of whether clients hire one or two brand-name audit firms. Finally, we find that the pervasiveness of earnings management declines when client firms switch from all-male audit partners to gender-diverse audit partners. Our findings underline the importance of considering audit partner gender by policy makers in contexts where joint audits are required or in countries that are considering introducing joint audits. (shrink)

Religiosity has been linked with prosocial behavior and a preference for religious ingroups over outgroups. Yet, there are important differences in religious people’s beliefs, values, and practices. Fundamental and quest orientation toward religion may differentially predict intergroup bias in prosociality. Also, individualizing and binding moral foundations may have diverse effects on ingroup and outgroup bias in helping, as moral foundations theory suggests that individualizing and binding foundations differ in how much they focus on ingroup and outgroup moral considerations. In this (...) study, we examined the relationship between religious dimensions, moral foundations, prosocial behavior, and intergroup bias in helping. We found evidence for the effect of individualizing foundations, religious fundamentalism, and quest religion above and beyond demographics and other religious dimensions on intergroup bias in helping. Furthermore, there were independent positive effects of individualizing foundations, religious activity, and age, and independent negative effects of female gender and religious fundamentalism on prosocial behavior. This study provides a more nuanced understanding of the relations between religion, prosociality, and moral intuitions in a Muslim context. (shrink)