Moral judgment is a complex cognitive process that partly depends upon social and individual cultural values. There have been various efforts to categorize different aspects of moral judgment, but most studies depend upon rare dilemmas. We recruited 25 subjects from Tehran, Iran, to rate 150 everyday moral scenarios developed by Knutson et al. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), we observed that the same moral dimensions (except socialness dimension) were driven by the same moral cognitive factors (norm violation, intention, and social (...) affect) in Iranian vs. American studies. However, there were minor differences in the factor loadings between the two cultures. Furthermore, based on the EFA results, we developed a short form of the questionnaire by removing eleven of the fifteen scenarios from each of the ten categories. These results could be used in further studies to better understand the similarities and differences in moral judgment in everyday interactions across different cultures. (shrink)

This paper presents a comparative analysis of three American and three European corporate failures. The first part of the analysis is based on a theoretical framework including six areas of ethical climate; tone at the top; bubble economy and market pressure; fraudulent financial reporting; accountability, control, auditing, and governance; and management compensation. The second and third parts consider the analysis of these cases from fraud perspective and in terms of firm-specific characteristics and environmental context. The research analyses shed light on (...) the fact that, despite major differences between Europe and U.S. in terms of political institutions, laws and regulations as well as managerial practices, there are significant similarities between six groups. The analysis also demonstrates that, the ethical dilemma has been coupled with ineffective boards, inefficient corporate governance and control mechanisms, distorted incentive schemes, accounting irregularities, failure of auditors, dominant CEOs, dysfunctional management behavior and the lack of a sound ethical tone at the top. Significant similarities were also observed in the analysis from the fraud triangle perspective. However, there are several major differences between the six corporate failure cases particularly with regard to ownership structure, coverage in media, and legal, regulatory and governance frameworks. This research study may have several academic and practical contributions, particularly because of multidisciplinary, international features, and comparative analyses used in the paper. (shrink)

In the debate over the moral status of nonsentient organisms, biocentrists argue that all living things, including nonsentient ones, have interests of their own. They often defend this claim by arguing that living organisms are goal-directed, functionally organized systems. This argument for ascribing interests has faced a serious challenge that is sometimes called the Problem of Scope. Critics have argued that ascribing interests on the basis of functional organization would have implausible implications regarding the scope of the argument, such as (...) ascribing interests to inanimate artifacts and machines. In this paper, I argue that much of the recent discussion on the Problem of Scope is based on an uncharitable interpretation of the argument for ascribing interests, which presupposes a reductionist account of functions. I assess this version of the argument, and explain why it cannot succeed. I then consider an alternative interpretation of the argument, which appeals to a non-reductionist account of functions. I argue that this version of the argument avoids the Problem of Scope, while acknowledging that it has limitations of its own. (shrink)

Despite a plethora of empirical evidence on the potential role of senior management in the success of corporate social responsibility in Western-dominated organizational contexts, little attempt has been made to document the various managerial mindsets toward CSR in organizations in Muslim-dominated countries in the Middle East region. To address this existing lacuna of theoretical and empirical research in CSR management, this paper offers a qualitative case study of CSR in three manufacturing firms operating in Iran’s auto industry. Based on an (...) inductive analysis of the qualitative data, three types of managerial mindset toward CSR are identified: conformist, self-seeker, and satisfier. While it is evident that these different mindsets of Iranian managers seek to serve managerial ends and short-term self-interests, they fall short of core values of Islamic ethics and CSR. (shrink)

According to neo-Aristotelian ethical naturalism, moral goodness is an instance of natural goodness, a kind of normativity supposedly already present in nature in the biological realm of non-human living things. Proponents of this view appeal to Michael Thompson’s conception of a life-form--the form of a living organism--to give an account of natural goodness. However, although neo-Aristotelians call themselves naturalists, they hardly ever consult the science of biology to defend their commitments regarding biological organisms. This has led many critics to argue (...) that the neo-Aristotelian account of natural normativity is out of touch with the findings of modern evolutionary biology. One line of response to this objection, presented by John Hacker-Wright and Micah Lott, claims that the neo-Aristotelian concept of a living organism has to be presupposed in evolutionary biology as long as organisms are the subjects of evolutionary explanation. In this paper, I examine this response by tracing the concept of organism in modern evolutionary biology. I first argue that the Modern Synthesis theory of evolution, which understands evolution as change in gene frequencies within a population, does not presuppose the relevant concept of organism. I then explore an alternative view of evolution that has emerged in the past twenty years from advances in evolutionary developmental biology. I argue that this so called ‘evo-devo’ approach makes room for an explanatory concept of organism that can be reconciled with the neo-Aristotelian view. Moreover, I argue that although the explanatory role of the concept of organism in evolutionary biology is still contentious, the well-established role of this concept in developmental biology can be used to defend the biological commitments of neo-Aristotelian naturalism. (shrink)

Neo-Aristotelian ethical naturalism aims to place moral virtue in the natural world by showing that moral goodness is an instance of natural goodness—a kind of goodness supposedly also found in the biological realm of plants and non-human animals. One of the central issues facing neo-Aristotelian naturalists concerns their commitment to a kind of function ascription based on the concept of the flourishing of an organism that seems to have no place in modern biology. In this paper, I offer a novel (...) defense of this functional commitment by appealing to the organizational account of biological function. I argue that the flourishing-based concept of function that forms the basis of the neo-Aristotelian account of natural goodness is explanatorily indispensable to biology, and therefore essential to the understanding of living things. (shrink)

Neo-Aristotelian naturalism purports to explain morality in terms of human nature, while maintaining that the relevant aspects of human nature cannot be known scientifically. This has led some to conclude that neo-Aristotelian naturalism is not a form of ethical naturalism in the standard, metaphysical sense. In this paper, I argue that neo-Aristotelian naturalism is in fact a standard form of ethical naturalism that is committed to metaphysical naturalism about moral truths and presents a distinctive and underappreciated argument for it. I (...) reconstruct the neo-Aristotelian argument for ethical naturalism in terms of a continuity between the ethical domain and the natural domain of life. I argue that clarifying the meta-ethical import of neo-Aristotelian naturalism not only helps to situate it among other positions in meta-ethics, but also facilitates better critical engagement with the view. (shrink)

This paper addresses a question about the moral status of Artificial Intelligence (AI): will AIs ever become moral patients? I argue that, while it is in principle possible for an intelligent machine to be a moral patient, there is no good reason to believe this will in fact happen. I start from the plausible assumption that traditional artifacts do not meet a minimal necessary condition of moral patiency: having a good of one's own. I then argue that intelligent machines are (...) no different from traditional artifacts in this respect. To make this argument, I examine the feature of AIs that enables them to improve their intelligence, i.e., machine learning. I argue that there is no reason to believe that future advances in machine learning will take AIs closer to having a good of their own. I thus argue that concerns about the moral status of future AIs are unwarranted. Nothing about the nature of intelligent machines makes them a better candidate for acquiring moral patiency than the traditional artifacts whose moral status does not concern us. (shrink)

Organ donation is a life-saving process for patients suffering from an advanced organ failure. A disparity between donated organs and required organs for transplantation is one of the major problems in Iran. Since personal attitudes about organ donation is a main factor influencing willingness to donate organ, the present study sought to provide a deeper understanding of the attitudes of university students in Iran regarding organ donation. This qualitative study was conducted in 2016. Semi-structured interviews were held for collecting data (...) from eighty five students from various universities in Hamadan city, Iran. Using a purposive sampling method, the students were selected based on the maximum variation. The content analysis method was used for data analysis by the research team and criteria for the study’s rigor was considered. Overall, the students had positive attitudes toward organ donation by brain-dead patients. Nevertheless, not of them stated that they would become an organ donor. During the data analysis, 376 primary codes, 13 categories, and 6 themes were developed. Themes were “cognitive readiness”, “mediators of decision making”, “beliefs and motivations”, “interactions with the health system”, “dependency”, and “integrity of the body”. Also, thirteen sub-themes were developed. Many factors influence the students’ attitudes toward organ donation. Identification and explanation of these factors can help healthcare managers and policymakers for planning and improving the organ donation culture in the society. (shrink)

Neo-Aristotelian metaethical naturalism is a modern attempt at naturalizing ethics using ideas from Aristotle’s teleological metaphysics. Proponents of this view argue that moral virtue in human beings is an instance of natural goodness, a kind of goodness supposedly also found in the realm of non-human living things. Many critics question whether neo-Aristotelian naturalism is tenable in light of modern evolutionary biology. Two influential lines of objection have appealed to an evolutionary understanding of human nature and natural teleology to argue against (...) this view. In this paper, I offer a reconstruction of these two seemingly different lines of objection as raising instances of the same dilemma, giving neo-Aristotelians a choice between contradicting our considered moral judgment and abandoning metaethical naturalism. I argue that resolving the dilemma requires showing a particular kind of continuity between the norms of moral virtue and norms that are necessary for understanding non-human living things. I also argue that in order to show such a continuity, neo-Aristotelians need to revise the relationship they adopt with empirical science and acknowledge that the latter is relevant to assessing their central commitments regarding living things. Finally, I argue that to move this debate forward, both neo-Aristotelians and their critics should pay attention to recent work on the concept of organism in evolutionary and developmental biology. (shrink)

Neo‐Aristotelian ethical naturalism purports to show that moral evaluation of human action and character is an evaluation of natural goodness—a kind of evaluation that applies to living things in virtue of their nature and based on their form of life. The standard neo‐Aristotelian view defines natural goodness by way of generic statements describing the natural history, or the ‘characteristic’ life, of a species. In this paper, I argue that this conception of natural goodness commits the neo‐Aristotelian view to a problematic (...) anti‐individualism that results in the wrong assessment of individuals with uniquely adaptive adjustments. I then offer an alternative account of natural goodness that avoids this problem. Instead of relying on generic statements about a species, my account defines natural goodness based on counterfactual conditionals describing the modal properties of a single individual. I argue that this modal‐explanatory account gives a conception of natural goodness that is more intuitively plausible and better suited to capture the diversity and plasticity distinctive of life. (shrink)

Based on the analysis of 267 tokens derived from editorial columns primarily drawn from two Persian newspapers, following on earlier studies by Chafe, Jahani, Lazard, Dahl, Adel, and Dafouze, and inspired by a series of Hyland’s studies on metadiscourse signals, this study has aimed at investigating evidential markers in these columns. In order to come to grips with the types of evidentials, first, we classify them into two major types – inferential and reportative; the reportative evidentials are further classified into (...) four types. The reportative classification is based, in the first place, on whether the source of information comes from an individual or from a government body, hence institutional. The further classifications are based on their identifiability/specificity. Results show that inferential evidentials comprise about 15% of all the tokens. Among the four reportative types, those whose source is individual and identified/specified and those that are institutional and unidentified/unspecified, coded as TYPE 1 and TYPE 4, respectively, have the highest frequency. The results overall show that Persian editorials in these two papers feature a high frequency of attribution of information to identified sources when the source is individual, but to unidentified sources when the source is institutional. The results also support other authors who claim that the imperfective aspect marker mi-, which is frequent in Persian, is a marker worthy of consideration in evidentiality. (shrink)

BackgroundAcrophobia is a specific phobia characterized by a severe fear of heights. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of two therapies that may ameliorate symptoms of acrophobia and anxiety sensitivity, i.e., virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy with a Waiting List Control Condition (WLCC).MethodsWe applied a three-armed randomized controlled pre-post-test design with 45 female adolescent students. Students who met DSM-5 criteria for acrophobia were randomly assigned to either VRET (...) (N = 15;Mage = 17.26; SD = 1.32), EMDR (N = 15;Mage = 17.15; SD = 1.57), or a WLCC (N = 15;Mage = 17.50; SD = 1.26). The study groups were evaluated one week before the intervention and one week after the last intervention session regarding symptoms of acrophobia (Severity Measure for Acrophobia) and anxiety sensitivity (Anxiety Sensitivity Index).ResultsThe data showed that both the application of VRET and EMDR therapy were associated with significantly reduced symptoms of acrophobia (d = 1.03 for VRET and d = 1.08 for EMDR) and anxiety sensitivity (d = 1.15 for VRET and d = 1.13 for EMDR) in comparison to the Waiting List.LimitationsThe sample consisted only of adolescent women. Due to the recognizable differences between the two interventions, the therapists and the participants were not blind to the conditions.ConclusionThe results suggest that both VRET and EMDR are interventions that can significantly improve symptoms of acrophobia and anxiety sensitivity in female adolescents.Clinical Trial Registrationhttps://www.irct.ir/trial/57391, identifier: IRCT20210213050343N1. (shrink)

The present study, using a qualitative approach and interpretive phenomenological method, was conducted to examine the co-authorship experiences of faculty members as a visible aspect of scientific collaboration. Using purposive sampling and considering the theoretical saturation of the data, 15 faculty members participated in the present study. The required data were collected using a semi-structured interview and analyzed using Smith and Osborne’s method and MAXQDA 2020 software. The experiences of faculty members were interpreted in the form of two encouraging and (...) inhibiting factors in co-authorship. The encouraging factor, resulting from pleasant experiences of faculty members, was categorized as the theme of creating a scientific community and the inhibiting factor resulting from unpleasant experiences of co-authorship was categorized as the theme of reduced quality of research. The results of the study showed that co-authorship could develop the university and promote the level of social capital in the university. On the other hand, it was found that the level of co-authorships could be affected by the performance and feedback of the university which may weaken or strengthen it. The present study suggests that in order to promote co-authorship, cooperation in the university should be developed and the quality criteria in the research should be considered. (shrink)

ABSTRACTDistraction can reduce adults’ memory for emotion-eliciting information, whereas reappraisal can preserve or enhance it. Yet, when given instructions to use specific emotion regulation...

Similar to its old history, Japan has a rich traditional and ethical Architecture. Based on these tenets and ethics, different concepts and spaces are formed through the time, as now Japan's ethical and traditional design ideas has its standard principles. Linking the present and the past has always been a momentous criterion in the countries with an old rich Architecture. This fact is indeed important in Japan due to the blend of ethics and religions with peoples` life. Through this idea, (...) three Japanese Architects, Kenzo Tange, Fumihiko Maki and Tadao Ando-who are the only Japanese pritzker prize winners-have well, noticed the need for linking the country's traditional and ethical Architecture criteria with the contemporary Architecture. So, analyzing such projects of these architects prepares a good basis to find out the quality of how traditional and ethical design ideas crystallize in the works of contemporary Japanese architects. The research method for this article is a comparative analysis between the architects` particular projects and Japan's ethical and traditional design ideas, formed through the history of architecture in this country. The contents of this article rely heavily on three bases: 1) study of the historical documents concerning the ethical and traditional design concepts in Japan. 2) The consultancy of leading experts on Asian traditional constructions and ethical architecture specialists from Azad Universities in Tehran. 3) Comparative analysis between the ethical concepts applied in different contemporary works. The results show that the contemporary architects have had good bases for presenting the traditional design concepts as standard principles are all formed in the architecture of Japan today. Meanwhile, it seems that Maki and Ando are more likely to have a conceptual look at Japan's traditions while Tange has a more formal viewpoint. Chronological analysis of the architects` projects shows that despite, all the three architects were impressed by the works of le Corbusier, they were successful to keep contacts with Japan's traditional design concepts. (shrink)

Given the fundamental role of emotional intelligence in learning, especially in virtual learning contexts where individuals experience more stress and anxiety, the need to understand and recognize one's own feelings and the mutual feelings of peers has gained more importance. Flow as the ultimate state in harnessing emotions in the service of performance and learning has been introduced as the main reason for one's willingness to perform activities which are connected to no external motivation. In this regard, the present study (...) was conducted to first introduce a new educational program to enhance the EI level in the English as a foreign language online education environment and next to investigate the possibility of raising EFL learners' perceived flow. To achieve these goals, the study recruited a sample of 67 EFL learners who were next divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received the EI intervention over 10 weeks and the control group received the ordinary online EFL instruction. Data were collected through EI and flow questionnaires and semi-structured interviews which focused on learners' perception of the EI intervention and signs of enhanced flow. Statistical analysis of the data showed a positive effect of the program on the learners' EI and their perceived flow. The study emphasizes the role of applying positive emotions in making language learners more engaged in online classroom tasks. (shrink)

The Holocaust serves as a foundational critical resource in postwar philosophy. Interventions into the logic of its exemplarity tend to treat exemplarity as a matter of archival selection that ignores earlier histories of genocide and slavery. A recent example is Alexander Weheliye’s critique of Giorgio Agamben, which seeks to restitute racial slavery as a theoretically significant moment of biological precarity. In a continuation of this logic, this essay introduces the history of Indian Ocean slavery, which precedes transatlantic slavery but is (...) comparatively lesser known. In doing so, I suggest that complaints against archival selection do not go far enough, for they do not address the problem of a kind of event whose very nature is to destroy its own archive. Reading Jean-François Lyotard’s differend as a critique of the modern genre-supremacy of historiography, I argue that the very ground of historical examples demonstrates the regressive nature of exemplarity itself. (shrink)

In recent years, a scholarly movement has taken hold that is critical of work and organizational psychology (WOP). Referred to as critical work and organizational psychology (CWOP), this movement problematizes some of the foundational premises of WOP, including its lack of reflexivity on its own values and ethics. While bringing increased attention to reflexivity and ethics as vital to critical theorizing and praxis, CWOP has yet to concertedly engage with ethics. This conceptual paper has two aims. The first is to (...) outline existing ethical approaches in CWOP. Reviewing the literature, we suggest there are currently three tentative critical–ethical positions: (1) a critique of mainstream WOP for its ethical failures, (2) espousal of a radical humanist ethics, and (3) an ethics of ambiguity. The latter is embedded in CWOP literature, but not yet articulated as such. Our second aim is therefore to make an ethics of ambiguity a recognized and explicitly embraced form of ethics that is rooted in a sustained engagement with the conceptualization of subjectivity as such. To clarify the risks inherent to theorizing ethics without a sufficiently robust understanding of subjectivity, we juxtapose ‘blank subjectivity’ with ‘troubled subjectivity,’ two notions informed by psychoanalysis and psychosocial studies. We argue that a theory of subjectivity as troubled is at the heart of an ethics of ambiguity. The paper concludes by discussing the contribution of an ethics of ambiguity to CWOP, while also pointing to some convergences between the different critical–ethical positions. (shrink)

Neo-Aristotelian metaethical naturalism aims to naturalize ethical normativity by showing that it is continuous with natural normativity, a kind of normativity already present in nature among plants and animals. Opponents of this view argue that evolutionary biology rejects the neo-Aristotelian notion of natural normativity, while its proponents argue that the opponents’ appeal to evolutionary biology is misguided and misses the point of the metaethical project. In this paper, I first argue that evolutionary biology is in fact relevant for assessing the (...) naturalistic credentials of neo-Aristotelian naturalism, which raises the question what biology tells us about this view. I then argue that far from being obvious that evolutionary biology rejects this view, there is an understanding of evolution within philosophy of biology, which is congenial to the neo-Aristotelian notion of natural normativity. (shrink)

The ambiguity of August Strindberg’s approach to women has engendered varying interpretations, including accusations of misogyny. Among his allegedly misogynistic plays is the 1887 naturalistic masterpiece, The Father. Chronologically coinciding with the rise of the women’s movement in Sweden, The Father, rather than endorsing a misogynistic culture, allows for an alternative reading that contributes to the destabilisation of gender binaries and an understanding of gender identities as relational and performative. In its portrayal of a fierce struggle between a seemingly diabolic (...) wife and a supposedly tyrannical husband, the play delves deeply into the dynamics of gender and the subversion of normatively established orders. This article analyses Strindberg’s play in relation to Slavoj Žižek’s conception of the ‘femme fatale’ and Judith Butler’s account of gender performativity to illustrate how the play’s central characters performatively subvert the hegemonic norms by which they are constituted. (shrink)

Researchers should strictly consider the participants’ rights. They are required to document such protections as an ethical approval of the study proposal, the obtaining “informed consent”, the authors’ “conflict of interests”, and the source of “financial support” in the published articles. The purpose of this study was to assess the frequency of reporting ethical issues in human subject articles published in Iranian medical journals during 2009–2013. In this cross-sectional study, we randomly reviewed 1460 human subject articles published in Iranian medical (...) journals during 2009–2013 in two Persian and English language groups. Data collection was carried out by assessing articles, focusing on the documentation “ethics committee approval”, patients’ “informed consent”, “financial support”, “confidentiality”, and “conflict of interest”. Of 1460 evaluated articles, 443 reported “ethics committee approval”, 686 reported “informed consent”, 594 reported “financial support”, and 341 reported “conflict of interest”. 13% of the articles referred to patients’ confidentiality in their text. There was a significant association between these ethical documentations and the year of publication. Articles published in English language journals reported “ethics committee approval”, “financial support”, and “conflict of interest” significantly more than Persian language journals, but the frequency of “informed consent” was similar. Ethical documentation rate in Iranian medical journals is not up to the expected standards of reputable journals which might be related to a lack of awareness and the education of the authors and the journal’s editors. Precise reporting of ethical considerations in medical articles by authors are recommended. It is suggested journals and policymakers pay more attention to reporting this issue while providing standard guidelines in this regard. (shrink)

In this article, we argue that although Bohr's version of the Copenhagen interpretation is in line with several key elements of logical positivism, pragmatism is the closest approximation to a classification of the Copenhagen interpretation, whether or not pragmatists directly influenced the key figures of the interpretation. Pragmatism already encompasses important elements of operationalism and logical positivism, especially the liberalized Carnapian reading of logical positivism. We suggest that some elements of the Copenhagen interpretation, which are in line with logical positivism, (...) are also supported by pragmatism. Some of these elements are empirical realism, fallibilism, holism, and instrumentalism. However, pragmatism goes beyond logical positivism in espousing some other key elements of the Copenhagen interpretation, though imperfectly, such as the correspondence principle, complementarity, and indeterminism. (shrink)

In this book, the author presents an ontological discussion of whether our comprehension of what constitutes language use and language, should be based on what the speakers say or think, they do. T...

Strategies used in requestive speech act and their effects on compliance have been the focus of a number of studies. Previous research, however, has dealt mainly with perceptive data elicited from one of the interlocutors involved in the use of mitigation. A sociolinguistic study could explore the perception of both the requestor and the requestee with respect to using such strategies. This article aims to study the possible correlation between request compliance and the use of mitigation devices. The question is (...) what observable effects using mitigators have both on the requestor’s judgment of compliance and on prohibiting the requestee from rejecting the request. Four role-play interactions followed by stimulated recall procedures were used to collect the required data. The results obtained from the analysis of data revealed that, in similar situations, American requestors are comparably more certain than Iranians that the addressee would comply with their requests using fewer mitigation devices; while, as far as the requestees are concerned, Americans are more influenced by the use of mitigation devices on the part of requestors than Iranians. (shrink)

The aviation industry is one of the most widely used applications in transportation. Due to the limited capacity of aircraft, revenue management in this industry is of high significance. On the other hand, the hub location problem has been considered to facilitate the demands assignment to hubs. This paper presents an integrated p-hub location and revenue management problem under uncertain demand to maximize net revenue and minimize total cost, including hub establishment and transportation costs. A fuzzy programming model and a (...) genetic algorithm are developed to solve the proposed model with different sizes. The mining and petroleum industry is used for case studies. Results show that the proposed algorithm can obtain a suitable solution in a reasonable amount of time. (shrink)

The Harlem Renaissance espoused the modernist belief in radical new beginnings and the celebration of interventions into old certainties, while resisting the “monologism” of w...

Face perception is crucial in all social animals. Recent studies have shown that pre-stimulus oscillations of brain activity modulate the perceptual performance of face vs. non-face stimuli, specifically under challenging conditions. However, it is unclear if this effect also occurs during simple tasks, and if so in which brain regions. Here we used magnetoencephalography and a 1-back task in which participants decided if the two sequentially presented stimuli were the same or not in each trial. The aim of the study (...) was to explore the effect of pre-stimulus alpha oscillation on the perception of face and non-face stimuli. Our results showed that pre-stimulus activity in the left occipital face area modulated responses in the intra-parietal sulcus at around 170 ms after the presentation of human face stimuli. This effect was also found after participants were shown images of motorcycles. In this case, the IPS was modulated by pre-stimulus activity in the right OFA and the right fusiform face area. We conclude that pre-stimulus modulation of post-stimulus response also occurs during simple tasks and is therefore independent of behavioral responses. (shrink)

The contract review process can be a costly and time-consuming task for lawyers and clients alike, requiring significant effort to identify and evaluate the legal implications of individual clauses. To address this challenge, we propose the use of natural language processing techniques, specifically text classification based on deontic tags, to streamline the process. Our research question is whether natural language processing techniques, specifically dense vector embeddings, can help semi-automate the contract review process and reduce time and costs for legal professionals (...) reviewing deontic modalities in contracts. In this study, we create a domain-specific dataset and train both baseline and neural network models for contract sentence classification. This approach offers a more efficient and cost-effective solution for contract review, mimicking the work of a lawyer. Our approach achieves an accuracy of 0.90, showcasing its effectiveness in identifying and evaluating individual contract sentences. (shrink)

Spirituality in medical education is an abstract multifaceted concept, related to the healthcare system. As a significant dimension of health, the importance and promotion of this concept has received considerable attention all over the world. However, it is still an abstract concept and its use in different contexts leads to different perceptions, thereby causing challenges. In this regard, the study aimed to clarify the existing ambiguities of the concept of spirituality in medical education. Walker and Avant concept analysis eight-step approach (...) was used. After an extensive review of online national and international databases from 2000 to 2015, 180 articles and 3 books in English and Persian were retrieved for the purposes of the study. Analysis revealed that the defining attributes of spirituality in medical education are: teaching with all heart and soul, Life inspiring, ontological multidimensional connectedness, religious-secular spectrum, and socio-cultural intricacies. Moreover, innate wisdom, skillful treatment, transcendent education, and environmental requirements were antecedents to this concept, with the health of body and soul, intrapersonal development and elevation, and responsive treatment and education being its consequences. The defining attributes provided in this study can assist physicians, instructors, and professors to develop and implement evidence-based, health based and comprehensive education plans according to the guidelines of professional ethics and qualification of using spirituality in practice. The clarification of the noted concept facilitates further development of medical knowledge, research, and research instruments. (shrink)

Immersive virtual environments can produce a state of behaviour referred to as ‘presence’, during which the individual responds to the virtual environment as if it were real. Presence can be arranged to scientifically evaluate and affect our consciousness within a controlled virtual environment. This phenomenon makes the use of virtual environments amenable to existing and in-development forms of therapy for various conditions. Delirium in the intensive care unit (ICU) is one such condition for which virtual reality (VR) technology has not (...) been evaluated to date. We are currently assessing the feasibility and utility of a delirium prevention and treatment system, which implements VR to improve quality of sleep, reduce pain, lower usage of sedatives, and stimulate cognition. The proposed system will consist of 3-axis wearable accelerometers, 6-DOF position trackers, a VR system and apps designed to promote sleep quality and mindfulness. Our a priori hypothesis is that our VR therapy system would lower the occurrence of delirium in patients admitted to ICUs. (shrink)

Background Providing care to children with cancer is one of the most challenging areas of ethical care for nurses. Few studies have addressed nurses’ perception of the barriers to giving ethical care in oncology departments. Thus, it is essential that the ethical challenges in caregiving as perceived by oncology nurses be investigated. Objective The present study was conducted to investigate the ethical challenges as perceived by nurses in pediatric oncology units in the south of Iran. Research design The present study (...) is a qualitative work of research with a conventional content analysis design. Data were collected via individual semi-structured interviews. The collected data were analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method. Participants and research context The participants were 21 nurses from pediatric oncology units in state hospitals who were selected by purposeful sampling. Sampling continued until the data were saturated. The study lasted from April to October 2022. Findings Three main themes, promoting psychological safety in the children, respect for the dignity of the children, and expansion of support for families, and nine subthemes were extracted from the data. Ethical considerations The study’s protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Medical Sciences and ethical principles were followed throughout the study. Discussion and conclusion From the nurses’ perspective, the major ethical challenges in providing ethical care in pediatric oncology units were reducing tension toward promoting the patients’ psychological safety, showing respect for the identity and dignity of the children with cancer, and expanding support of the patients’ families. By creating the right cultural and professional context and establishing proper protocols, healthcare policymakers and administrators can take effective steps toward eliminating the barriers to providing ethical care. (shrink)

Background: Freezing of gait is a common symptom in Parkinson’s disease and can be difficult to treat with dopaminergic medications or with deep brain stimulation. Novel stimulation paradigms have been proposed to address suboptimal responses to conventional DBS programming methods. Burst-cycling deep brain stimulation delivers current in various frequencies of bursts, while maintaining an intra-burst frequency identical to conventional DBS.Objective: To evaluate the safety and tolerability of BCDBS in PD patients with FOG.Methods: Ten PD subjects with STN or GPi DBS (...) and complaints of FOG were recruited for this single center, single blinded within-subject crossover study. For each subject, we compared 4, 10, and 15 Hz BCDBS to conventional DBS during the PD medication-OFF state.Results: There were no serious adverse events with BCDBS. It was feasible and straightforward to program BCDBS in the clinic setting. The benefit was comparable to conventional DBS in measures of FOG, functional mobility and in PD motor symptoms. BCDBS had lower battery consumption when compared to conventional DBS.Conclusions: BCDBS was feasible, safe and well tolerated and it has potential to be a viable future DBS programming strategy. (shrink)

BackgroundMedical education is currently more considerate about the human dimension. The present qualitative study aimed to explain the experiences of clinical professors with regard to humanism in clinical education in Iran.MethodsThis mixed methods study had two phases, a quanitative phase of scientometrics and a qualitative phase of a content analysis. In the scientometrics phase, Ravar PreMap and VOSviewer software programs were utilized for plotting the conceptual networks. The networks were analyzed at the micro-level based on centrality indices. The conceptual network (...) was plotted and the prominent topics in clinical education were identified using co-word analysis. In the second qualitative phase on the topic, based on the scientometrics phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with clinical professors. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed.ResultsOn the basis of the analysis of titles, abstracts, and keywords of the retrieved articles on clinical education from ISI Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed, 1412 keywords were extracted. After the refining process, 356 keywords with 6741 relations remained. Upon plotting the conceptual network, 19 conceptual clusters related to clinical education were obtained. Then, micro-level network analysis indicated that the keyword humanism with the frequency of 137 had the highest rate, closeness, and betweenness. Moreover, from the interview data analysis, two themes of “intertwined nature of the human spirit in clinical education” and “humanistic behavior of professors in clinical education” were extracted.ConclusionAs a part of the educational culture, humanistic values must be intertwined with the medical education curriculum. In this regard, humanism and clinical reasoning are the two major clusters of clinical teaching; moreover, altruism and adherence to humanistic values, and scientific qualification are other main pillars that should be considered as the criteria for the selection of clinical professors and medical students. (shrink)

Sustainability has been one of architecture’s most significant trends over the last twenty years. The environmental consciousness of professionals has put sustainability at the heart of the architectural profession and has contributed to adopting and implementing sustainable designs on the scale of urban landscapes. A green roof or living roof, which is a sustainable solution in architecture, is a roof on the surface of which plants are grown. The roof is covered by plants, covering the waterproof layer beneath the vegetation. (...) However, various types of plants can be used in this scheme. Understanding the influencing factors in choosing the right plant species and the impact that utilizing green roofs has on the overall energy consumption of the building can tremendously help scientists and clarify the possible future research topics in this field. Hence, this article investigates energy optimization in the construction process of a green roof in sustainable architecture and its advantages and challenges. The results of this study show that budget limitations, managerial and organizational policies, legal issues, technical and scientific infrastructure, and cultural and geographical aspects are all affecting the widespread use of green roofs currently and need to be considered in future studies. (shrink)