Pharmaceutical supply chains are often highly complex with conflicting objectives of social welfare and profit maximization. Furthermore, there are various stakeholders including pharmaceutical manufacturer, distributors, retailers, patients, and the government. In this paper, we consider a two-stage supply chain consisting of one pharmaceutical manufacturer and a pharmacy with online and offline channels. We focus on four price cap models: no price cap regulation, pharmaceutical manufacturer’s price cap regulation, pharmacy price cap regulation, and linkage price cap regulation. We apply game theory, (...) investigate how the price cap regulations affect the firms’ pricing, and evaluate the economic performance and social welfare of the dual-channel pharmaceutical supply chain. Our findings show that first, like the single-channel pharmaceutical supply chain, the profit of the regulated firm always decreases and the profit of the unregulated firm always increases when they are under one-sided price cap regulations. Second, the impacts of the linkage price cap regulation on the supply chain are more complicated depending on the linkage coefficient and market share. Overall, our findings can provide theoretical and practical insights to help the government devise price cap regulations for complex modern pharmaceutical supply chains. (shrink)

Glowacki offers many new directions for understanding and even eliminating the problem of war, especially creating positive interdependencies with out-group members. We develop Glowacki's intriguing proposition that in-group dynamics provide a route to peace by describing a prosocial motivational system, the caregiving system, that aligns individual interests and eliminates the need to use coercion to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.

Bravo, F. La dialéctica en Teilhard de Chardin.--Carías, R. El conocimiento de Dios en Max Scheler.--Cappelletti, A. J. El fuego y el logos en la filosofía de Heráclito.--Li Carrillo, V. Estructuralismo y antihumanismo.--Rosales, A. Martín Heidegger y la crisis de la filosofía transcendental.--Rosales, A. La crítica de Heidegger al idealismo moderno.--Rosales, A. El giro del pensamiento de Heidegger.

Bioethical issues are perplexing, profound, and politically divisive. The Lanson Lectures in Bioethics Series was founded in the belief that philosophical elucidation can clarify the nature of these difficult issues, and can lead to their resolution. The present volume collects the first five previously unpublished lectures delivered by five preeminent moral philosophers between 2016 and 2022. Drawing a distinction between two concepts of dignity, Jonathan Glover brings the distinction to bear on the issues of assisted suicide, embryo research, and genetic (...) choices. F. M. Kamm argues that doctors are morally permitted to intentionally cause death, or assist in its being intentionally caused, when either death is imminent anyway and intentionally causing it can alone stop the pain, or if the patient has already decided—not unreasonably—that death is his least bad option. On the question whether smokers who contract lung cancer are entitled to state-supported healthcare, T. M. Scanlon argues that the reasons that individuals have for wanting to engage in risky activities need to be compared with the relevant costs society has to bear to provide healthcare for those who suffer illness or injury as a result of these activities. Contrary to P. F. Strawson’s view that a psychiatrist can only “treat” an insane patient, Victor Tadros argues that it is often right to reason with, and communicate to, (nonresponsible) mentally ill persons. Peter Singer discusses questions pertinent to pandemics: How to distribute scarce medical resources and vaccines ethically? Whether to relax the standard for volunteers willing to participate in vaccines research? How to compare the trade-off between saving lives and saving the economy regarding lockdowns? How to prevent pandemics in future? These lectures are followed by critical commentaries by Alastair Campbell, Chun-Yan Tse, Peter Chau, Derek Baker, and Alexandre Erler respectively. Each commentary (except the inaugural lecture) is followed by a rejoinder. This book shows how moral philosophy can be brought to bear on bioethical issues by some of the best philosophical minds of our times. (shrink)

Bioethical issues are practically urgent, politically divisive, and call for resolutions. They often involve questions that are perplexing, deep, and profound. To deal with them adequately requires philosophical tools and imagination. The Lanson Lectures in Bioethics were founded upon the belief that philosophical elucidation can clarify the nature of these difficult issues, and can lead to their resolution. The present volume collects the first five lectures delivered by five preeminent moral philosophers between 2016 and 2022. In the inaugural lecture, Jonathan (...) Glover draws a distinction between two conceptions of dignity, and brings it to bear on the issues of assisted suicide, embryo research, and genetic choices. F. M. Kamm argues that doctors are morally permitted to intentionally cause death, or assist in its being intentionally caused, when either death is imminent anyway and intentionally causing it can alone stop the pain, or if the patient has already decided—not unreasonably—that death is his least bad option. Are smokers who contract lung cancer entitled to state-supported healthcare? T. M. Scanlon argues that the reasons that individuals have for wanting to have the opportunity to engage in activities involving risks need to be compared with the costs society has to bear to provide healthcare for those who suffer illness or injury as a result of these activities. Rejecting Strawson’s view that a psychiatrist can only “treat” an insane patient, Victor Tadros argues that it is often right to reason with (nonresponsible) mentally ill persons because a psychiatrist needs to see things from their perspectives, and that we should communicate to nonresponsible agents that their wrongdoing is a problem for them and for their victims. Peter Singer proposes solutions to the following questions: How to distribute scarce medical resources and vaccines ethically? Whether to relax the standard for volunteers willing to participate in vaccines research? How to compare the trade-off between saving lives and saving the economy regarding lockdowns? How to prevent pandemics in future? Each lecture is followed by a critical commentary by a moral philosophers or physician in Asia. Each commentary (except the inaugural lecture) is followed by a rejoinder. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Constructive Criticism: The Human Sciences in the Age of TheoryWilliam BywaterConstructive Criticism: The Human Sciences in the Age of Theory, by Martin Kreiswirth and Thomas Carmichael; 223 pp. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995, $45.00 cloth, $17.95 paper.This book contains twelve essays based on papers presented at “The Human Sciences in the Age of Theory” conference sponsored by the Center for the Study of Theory and Criticism at (...) the University of Western Ontario and held at the University in 1993. Versions of six of the essays are published elsewhere.In After Virtue Alasdair MacIntyre offers the choice of Nietzsche or Aristotle. Authors in these essays offer a far greater variety. For Christopher Norris it’s Nietzsche or (late) Foucault, for Tilottama Rajan its Nietzsche and Lacan or Hegel, for Martin Kreiswirth and Gary Wihl (in separate essays) its Nietzsche or narrative, and for L. M. Findlay its Nietzsche or Ricoeur and narrative. This range of options reveals the extent to which these authors are attempting to escape the cul-de-sac created by the skeptical and nihilistic dimensions of Nietzsche which appear in deconstruction and postmodernism. “Constructive criticism” is an apt title for these essays. As a group they struggle to offer a way of understanding the complexities involved in resisting dominating discourses, while not giving in to despair or skepticism or nihilism.Diane Elam observes that “the age of theory begins when theories fail, when no single theoretical discourse is possible any longer.” The variety of alternatives to Nietzsche listed above is one manifestation of the truth of Elam’s claim. A second is the fact that none of these authors proposes wholesale adoption of the thinker who is being contrasted with Nietzsche. Each is selecting certain specific dimensions of the thinker’s position to be used to maintain contact with the complexity which they sense in the world around them.A third and more profound recognition is that these authors are not proposing their choices in the same spirit as MacIntyre [End Page 268] proposed his. The meaning of “either/or” is shifting. MacIntyre’s opposition between Nietzsche and Aristotle opposes two systems the latter of which represents a way to keep safe from the danger of moral chaos contained in the former. MacIntyre’s either/or contains this sense of opposition which is also a sense of salvation, of protection from having to grapple with things that are confusing, messy, dangerous. In the age of theory when theoretical discourse becomes impossible we can no longer be protected. “Either/or” shifts polarity. It no longer means my position will trump yours: it now means “either closed theoretical discourse or complexity and multiplicity.” The authors in Constructive Criticism choose complexity and multiplicity because to choose closed theoretical discourse is to choose insensitivity to all sorts of injustice.Heterogeneity is the watchword of all the authors in this volume and many of them see narrative as the mode of access to multiplicity. Kreiswirth argues that the meaningfulness of narrative depends on overdetermination and “complex accumulations and conjunctions of desire.” Little narratives, not master ones, are best able to show complexity. Findlay urges the use of metaphor to keep us in a place between the center and the margin. Wihl uses Rorty, Kundera and Nussbaum to underline “the moral significance of detailed, richly descriptive vocabularies” in contrast to the ascetic language of philosophy which does not permit the irony required for “perspicuity in the areas of ethical conflict and competing social agendas.” However, Victor Li is not at all happy about Rorty (or Habermas) both of whom, in criticizing others, appeal to “modernity’s own totalizing view of itself” instead of possessing, as they should, a sense of “the complex cultural logic of the in-between, of cultural hybridity and exchange.”However, there are two authors who—happily, I must say—make it clear that they do not want to throw theory out with the bath water. They are willing, it seems, to take the risk of both preserving what they do (theory) and maintaining a sense of the complexity of competing social agendas, overdetermination and cultural “hybridity.” John Fekete advocates both “utopia (radical... (shrink)

Anti-abortion proponents argue that a fetus holds the status of a person akin to healthy adult human beings. The fetus possesses inherent dignity and a fundamental right to life, which must be resp...

This study explores the capacity of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to revolutionize educational pedagogy, aiming to foster a more personalized and effective learning experience. Methodology: Through a bibliometric analysis of publications in Scopus and Web of Science, the research examines AI's impact on adaptive learning, personalized instruction, and effective teaching methods. It also evaluates AI's role in assessment, creation of simulated learning environments, and widening access to education, while addressing the integration challenges. Conclusions: The investigation demonstrates that AI has considerable potential (...) to improve teaching and learning. AI-driven tools like intelligent tutoring systems, machine learning algorithms, and virtual simulations can facilitate a learner-centric approach. Nonetheless, it also highlights the necessity to confront issues such as technological overdependence, privacy concerns, and the potential displacement of teachers. A thoughtful adoption of AI in education could lead to a more equitable and engaging learning system. The advent of this educational revolution demands a focus on augmenting human capabilities with AI and transforming pedagogical strategies to enhance student outcomes. The research advocates for further development of ethical standards and informed policies to guide AI integration in the educational sector. (shrink)

We show that plane hyperbolic geometry, expressed in terms of points and the ternary relation of collinearity alone, cannot be expressed by means of axioms of complexity at most ∀∃∀, but that there is an axiom system, all of whose axioms are ∀∃∀∃ sentences. This remains true for Klingenberg's generalized hyperbolic planes, with arbitrary ordered fields as coordinate fields.

A neural network is a model of the brain’s cognitive process, with a highly interconnected multiprocessor architecture. The neural network has incredible potential, in the view of these artificial neural networks inherently having good learning capabilities and the ability to learn different input features. Based on this, this paper proposes a new chaotic neuron model and a new chaotic neural network model. It includes a linear matrix, a sine function, and a chaotic neural network composed of three chaotic neurons. One (...) of the chaotic neurons is affected by the sine function. The network has rich chaotic dynamics and can produce multiscroll hidden chaotic attractors. This paper studied its dynamic behaviors, including bifurcation behavior, Lyapunov exponent, Poincaré surface of section, and basins of attraction. In the process of analyzing the bifurcation and the basins of attraction, it was found that the network demonstrated hidden bifurcation phenomena, and the relevant properties of the basins of attraction were obtained. Thereafter, a chaotic neural network was implemented by using FPGA, and the experiment proved that the theoretical analysis results and FPGA implementation were consistent with each other. Finally, an energy function was constructed to optimize the calculation based on the CNN in order to provide a new approach to solve the TSP problem. (shrink)

AbstractThis paper attempts to develop a comparative approach to the dream narratives of the Daoist philosopher Zhuang Zhou and the Austrian poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The analogous rhetorical function of the dream in their texts links the two authors from different cultures and traditions. As will be argued, in using dreams to stress a challenging and even deconstructive view of the so-called reality, both Zhuang and Hofmannsthal articulate their skepticism against substantial notions of human subjectivity and offer an imaginary life-world (...) which aims to remind us of the contingency of our being-forms. In so doing, they also shape an aesthetic way to keep oneself open to the perception and experience of the unbiased Dao or Being. Thus, their poetic texts can be read in the context of rethinking the boundary between our life and world. (shrink)

This essay explores a seeming mystery in the philosophy of Xunzi (荀子310-238 BCE), namely how goodness could have emerged in a world of people with only a bad human nature. I will examine existing interpretations and present a new reading of Xunzi. My purpose is to reconstruct a coherent view in Xunzi‟s philosophy as presented in the book of the Xunzi rather than defend the truth of his claims regarding human history.

Tow Philosophical book in one. written in Persian(Farsi) language. this book is describing the faces of Metaphysics like Idealism with all branches like Religions, Rationalism, Platoon, Rene Descartes and all other philosophers in group of Rationalism like Alexander Koere, Kant, Socrates, Kierkegaard, Wilhelm Leibniz etc... and their philosophy systems. Writer strongly believe that, the Metaphysics in different ways act against Humanity and all existence, so this book is telling the reader what is Metaphysics and why it's updating itself every minutes (...) against Human in whole of lands and even why it is against Existence? Descartes, Alexander Koyré and Wilhelm Leibniz are just 3 Philosophers in Rationalism group. But it's clear why Alexanders book is translated to Persian with more than 3000 copies in first edition in Iran! and in the same time the religious leader of Iran ordering to take the Philosophy out of Universities! This book can not be publish in Iran as the complete text is describing how and why freedom in Iran has no meaning and thinkers are being executing and terrorizing every day by hand of Metaphysics in this country. in this book we have complete reasons of Idealism with whole of its parts and Religions about existing of God and also philosophical reasons for non existence of God or Gods! possibility of the second Big Bang is one new theory and also another new theory in this book is reasons for that Mind is Material and why whole of Universe is Material and opposite of understanding of Lawrence M. Krauss, Universe came from something ( Material) not Nothing! and this is the exact subject of Sartre Philosopher too. (shrink)

本书对各种歪曲、攻击和否定马克思主义的思潮作了分析和批判,对马克思主义在当代实践中遇到的新情况、新问题、新挑战作出了科学的回答。.