Among the many forms of research misconduct, publishing fraudulent data is considered to be serious where the confidence and validity of the research is detrimentally undermined. In this study, the trend of 303 retracted publications from 44 authors (with more than three retracted publications each) was analysed. The results showed that only 6.60% of the retracted publications were single-authored and the discovery of fraudulent publications had reduced from 52.24 months (those published before the year 2000) to 33.23 months (those published (...) on the year 2000 and onwards). It appears that with the widely accessible public databases like PubMed, fraudulent publications can be detected more easily. The different approaches adopted by authors who had previous publications retracted are also discussed herein. (shrink)

The growing emphasis on the importance of publishing scientific findings in the academic world has led to increasing prevalence of potentially significant publications in which scientific and ethical rigour may be questioned. This has not only hindered research progress, but also eroded public trust in all scientific advances. In view of the increasing concern and the complexity of research misconduct, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) was established in 1997 to manage cases with ethical implications. In order to review the (...) outcomes of cases investigated by COPE, a total of 408 cases that had been managed by COPE were successfully extracted and analysed with respect to 7 distinct criteria. The results obtained indicate that the number of ethical implications per case has not changed significantly (p > 0.01) since the year COPE was instigated. Interestingly, the number of ethical cases, and to some extent, research misconduct, is not diminishing. Therefore, journal editors and publishers need to work closely together with COPE to inculcate adoption of appropriate research ethics and values in younger researchers while discouraging others from lowering standards. It is hoped that with a more concerted effort from the academic community and better public awareness, there will be fewer incidences of ethically and scientifically challenged publications. The ultimate aim being to enhance the quality of published works with concomittant public trust in the results. (shrink)

For academic research outcomes, there is an increasing emphasis on the bibliometric scorings like the journal impact factor and citations when the assessment of the scientific merits of research or researchers is required. Currently, no known study has been conducted to explore the bibliographical trends of the subject category of multidisciplinary sciences as indexed by the annual Journal Citation Reports of the Thomson Scientific. The effect of journal self-citations and intra-citing within a discipline to the bibliometric data computation can be (...) confounding. In this study, six journals were selected from the multidisciplinary sciences subject category where the trend of self-citations and intra-citing were analysed. These journals were chosen as they published more than 450 citable articles in the year 2007 and had available bibliometric data for a 10-year period. The results showed that self-citations rose as much as +23.98% while intra-citing declined up to −5.80% over the observed period. The retrospective impacts and influences of these observations were also discussed in this study. (shrink)

There is an increasing trend towards assessing the scientific performance of researchers and institutions of higher learning in the form of journal publications and the associated citations. Currently, the journal impact factor (JIF) value is the most widely used measure for any academic contents. However, there are growing concerns for the unethical practices adopted by journal editors to manipulate the JIF computations. Recently, a Swiss journal, Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica which has a JIF value of 0.655 in the year 2006 (...) registers a remarkable JIF increment (of 119%) to 1.439 in the year 2007. It is believed that the journal can achieve such a prominent JIF improvement by publishing a single editorial article that self-cited 66 of its own articles published either in the year 2005 or 2006. The journal has been revoked of any JIF value in the following year of 2008. Thus, it is interesting to review the possible alternative bibliographical trend for the journal should the self-cite event has been avoided, the circumstances leading to the decision by the editor to publish such an article and the possible ethical implications or lessons that can be derived from this incident. (shrink)

Medical devices have been long used for odiagnostic, therapeutic or rehabilitation purposes. Currently, they can range from a low-cost portable device that is often used for personal health monitoring to high-end sophisticated equipment that can only be operated by trained professionals. Depending on the functional purposes, there are different certification or compliance markings on the device when it is sold. One common certification marking is the Conformité Européenne affixation but this has a range of certification mark numbering for a variety (...) of functional purposes. While the regulators and medical device manufacturers understand the associated significance and clinical implications, these may not be apparent to the professionals and the general public. With portable healthcare devices and mobile applications gaining popularity, better awareness of certification marking will be needed. Particularly, there are differences in the allowed functional purposes and the associated cost derivations of devices with a seemingly similar nature. A preferred approach such as an easy-to-understand notation next to any certification marking on a device can aid in differentiation without the need to digest mountainous regulatory details. (shrink)

Respect for patient autonomy is paramount in resolving ethical tensions in end-of-life care. The concept of relational autonomy has contributed to this debate; however, scholars often use this concept in a fragmented manner. This leads to partial answers on ascertaining patients’ true wishes, meaningfully engaging patients’ significant others, balancing interests among patients and significant others, and determining clinicians’ obligations to change patients’ unconventional convictions to enhance patient autonomy. A satisfactory solution based on relational autonomy must incorporate patients’ competence (apart from (...) decisional capacity), authenticity (their true desires or beliefs) and the involvement level of their significant others. To that end, we argue that John Christman’s procedural approach to relational autonomy provides critical insights, such as the diachronic or socio-historical personhood, sustained critical reflection and his recent explication of the nature of asymmetrical relationships and helpful interlocutors. This study reviews Christman’s account, proposes minor modifications and advocates for an integrated three-dimensional model for medical decision-making. Clarifying the relationship among the three elements promotes an ethical framework with a coherent understanding of relational autonomy. This model not only provides a descriptive and normative framework for end-of-life care practice but also reconsiders the nature of the clinician–patient relationship and its normative implications. We further present a case study to illustrate the merits of our proposed model. Altogether, our proposal will help navigate complex medical decision-making, foster trust and negotiate shared values between patients and their significant others, particularly in end-of-life care. (shrink)

As more and more multi-national companies expand their operations globally, their responsibilities extend beyond not only the economic motive of profitability but also other social and environmental factors. The objective of this article is to examine the impact of national culture and geographic environment on firms’ corporate social performance (CSP). Empirical tests are based on a global CSP database of companies from 49 countries. Results show that the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are significantly associated with CSP. In addition, European companies are (...) found to out-perform other regions and countries in CSP. (shrink)

En este artículo queremos ofrecer un panorama distinto, incluyendo al filósofo panameño Ricaurte Soler y entendiendo a la filosofía de la liberación como un movimiento amplio y heterogéneo; pero, además, como una escuela de pensamiento filosófico con un compromiso político transformador. A lo largo de su propio desarrollo histórico se hace inmanente. Es un movimiento filosófico con actualidad, porque tiene algo para decir en estos tiempos de guerra y pandemia, en dónde la afirmación de la vida deviene como el principio (...) articulador para la praxis liberadora. (shrink)

Violence is one of the crucial issues that always dominates modern theological discourses. However, the discussion is not limited to theological discourses because violence is one of the most prominent problems for human beings today, religious and irreligious alike. Violence manifests itself in various forms, including the use of religious outlook for support. Perhaps this means that violence is pervasive in the nature of human being since it always occurs again and again in human history without any possibility to fully (...) eradicate it. Perhaps the best way that humans can do is to minimalize or restrain it.Among contemporary thinkers who have written on the problem of violence, René Girard’s understanding of... (shrink)

Possible-world semantics are provided for Parikh’s relevance-sensitive model for belief revision. Having Grove’s system-of-spheres construction as a base, we consider additional constraints on measuring distance between possible worlds, and we prove that, in the presence of the AGM postulates, these constraints characterize precisely Parikh’s axiom (P). These additional constraints essentially generalize a criterion of similarity that predates axiom (P) and was originally introduced in the context of Reasoning about Action. A by-product of our study is the identification of two possible (...) readings of Parikh’s axiom (P), which we call the strong and the weak versions of the axiom. An interesting feature of the strong version is that, unlike classical AGM belief revision, it makes associations between the revision policies of different theories. (shrink)

This paper extends the AGM theory of belief revision to accommodate infinitary belief change. We generalize both axiomatization and modeling of the AGM theory. We show that most properties of the AGM belief change operations are preserved by the generalized operations whereas the infinitary belief change operations have their special properties. We prove that the extended axiomatic system for the generalized belief change operators with a Limit Postulate properly specifies infinite belief change. This framework provides a basis for first-order belief (...) revision and the theory of revising a belief state by a belief state. (shrink)

The authors present a comprehensive synthesis and evaluation of the published scales measuring the components of the decision making process in ethical situations using the Hunt-Vitell (1993) theory of ethics as a framework to guide the research. Suggestions for future scale development are also provided.

Milner and Goodale have advanced a justly influential theory of the structure of the human visual system. In broad outline, Milner and Goodale hold that the ventral neural pathway is associated with recognition and experiential awareness, and with a kind of indirect control of action. And they hold that, by contrast, the dorsal neural stream is associated with the non-conscious, direct control of visually informed action. Most of the relevant empirical research has focused on the visual control of close-in, “personal (...) space,” reaching and/or grasping. While their view has not escaped controversy and debate, we think that Milner and Goodale have a compelling story to tell about the visual guidance of such close in, “personal space” action. However, the question of whether their scheme applies to behavior with visually specified targets that are outside of the space accessible by simply reaching and grasping is largely unstudied. And it should be studied, since this is the arena of much human behavior. We provide good reason to think that the Milner and Goodale scheme may well not apply to important classes of mid-range, ‘action space’ behavior. But the matter is in the end to be decided in the lab. We describe a research program to do this. (shrink)

How the formidable diversity of forms emerges from developmental and evolutionary processes is one of the most fascinating questions in biology. The homeodomain‐containing Hox proteins were recognized early on as major actors in diversifying animal body plans. The molecular mechanisms underlying how this transcription factor family controls a large array of context‐ and cell‐specific biological functions is, however, still poorly understood. Clues to functional diversity have emerged from studies exploring how Hox protein activity is controlled through interactions with PBC class (...) proteins, also evolutionary conserved HD‐containing proteins. Recent structural data and molecular dynamic simulations add further mechanistic insights into Hox protein mode of action, suggesting that flexible folding of protein motifs allows for plastic protein interaction. As we discuss in this review, these findings define a novel type of Hox‐PBC interaction, weak and dynamic instead of strong and static, hence providing novel clues to understanding Hox transcriptional specificity and diversity. (shrink)

Este artículo tiene dos partes, una plantear el tema de la necesidad del diálogo de la Teoría Crítica con la Filosofía de la Liberación, para aunar esfuerzos en la crítica al capitalismo. La otra, ver algunas relaciones que se dieron en el siglo XX con los pensadores de la Escuela de Frankfurt, que las nuevas generaciones tendrían que retomar. Para que esto sea real y también crítico es necesario que el diálogo sea analógico, que se respeten las diferencias.

The required professional and ethical pronouncements of accountants mean that auditors need to be competent and exercise due care and skill in the performance of their audits. In this study, we examine what happens when auditors take on more clients than they should, thus raising doubts about their ability to maintain competence and audit quality. Using 2803 observations of Malaysian companies from 2010 to 2013, we find that auditors with multiple clients are associated with lower earnings quality, proxied by total (...) accruals and discretionary accruals. Our results demonstrate that associating client firms’ reported discretionary accruals with individual auditors, rather than their firms or offices, is important in determining audit quality. Moreover, we demonstrate that the disclosure of auditors’ signatures on their reports is useful for assessing auditor quality at the individual level, thus contributing to the debate on the usefulness of having auditor identities on reports. (shrink)

The work on prototypes in ontologies pioneered by Rosch [10] and elaborated by Lakoff [8] and Freund [3] is related to vagueness in the sense that the more remote an instance is from a prototype the fewer people agree that it is an example of that prototype. An intuitive example is the prototypical “mother”, and it is observed that more specific instances like ”single mother”, “adoptive mother”, “surrogate mother”, etc., are less and less likely to be classified as “mothers” by (...) experimental subjects. From a different direction Gärdenfors [4] provided a persuasive account of natural predicates to resolve paradoxes of induction like Goodman’s “Grue” predicate [5]. Gärdenfors proposed that “quality dimensions” arising from human cognition and perception impose topologies on concepts such that the ones that appear “natural” to us are convex in these topologies. We show that these two cognitive principles — prototypes and predicate convexity — are equivalent to unimodal (convex) fuzzy characteristic functions for sets. Then we examine the case when the fuzzy set characteristic function is not convex, in particular when it is multi-modal. We argue that this is an indication that the fuzzy concept should really be regarded as a super concept in which the decomposed components are subconcepts in an ontological taxonomy. (shrink)

We believe that the task goal in voluntary movements provides meaning to existing information sources in the environment and determines, in a dynamic way, the use and relative importance of these different sources. This task-centered meaning bridges the apparent controversy between what information is available in principle (i.e., specification), and what information is perceived.

Postula el presente artículo que tras la invasión a Irak estamos en presencia de una carrera bélica de los Estados Unidos, con un trasfondo geopolítico. Señala que la actual administración estadounidense busca ejercer su dominación imperial desde el poder hegemónico, renunciando a la política y al multilateralismo, sabiéndose la única potencia emergente de la postguerra fría. Tras los atentados en Nueva York y Washington habría surgido un nuevo modelo de seguridad basado en una reconceptualización de enemigo, que combina las doctrinas (...) de la guerra total y la de guerras de baja intensidad contenidas en la Doctrina para la Seguridad Nacional. Con ello sostiene el autor que el mundo ha ingresado a una era marcada por la doctrina de la guerra perpetua cuyo autonominado gendarme global son los EUA. (shrink)

There are two well-developed formalizations of discrete time dynamic systems that evidently share many concerns but suffer from a lack of mutual awareness. One formalization is classical systems and automata theory. The other is the logic of actions in which the situation and event calculi are the strongest representatives. Researchers in artificial intelligence are likely to be familiar with the latter but not the former. This is unfortunate, for systems and automata theory have much to offer by way of insight (...) into problems raised in the logics of action. This paper is an outline of how the input-output view of systems and its associated solution of state realization may be applied to the formalization of dynamics that uses a situation calculus approach. In particular, because the latter usually admits incompletely specified dynamics, which induces a non-deterministic input-output system behavior, we first show that classical state realization can still be achieved if the behavior is causal. This is a novel systems-theoretic result. Then we proceed to indicate how situation calculi dynamic specifications can be understood in systems-theoretic terms, and how automata can be viewed as models of such specifications. As techniques for reasoning about automata are abundant, this will provide yet more tools for reasoning about actions. (shrink)

This paper distinguishes norms for corporate responsibility in developed and developing countries. In the former, corporate responsibility should reflect “ Third Way” values of restoring individual responsibility and social relationship, and these can be achieved through stakeholder engagement. Since stakeholder engagement often presumes an adequate level of individual rights and rule-governed behaviour, it is incompatible with the current political and cultural characteristics of developing countries. This paper suggests that the end of CR initiatives in developing countries is to promote stakeholder (...) rights and good governance, while the means is through stakeholder empowerment. (shrink)

This paper distinguishes norms for corporate responsibility in developed and developing countries. In the former, corporate responsibility should reflect “ Third Way” values of restoring individual responsibility and social relationship, and these can be achieved through stakeholder engagement. Since stakeholder engagement often presumes an adequate level of individual rights and rule-governed behaviour, it is incompatible with the current political and cultural characteristics of developing countries. This paper suggests that the end of CR initiatives in developing countries is to promote stakeholder (...) rights and good governance, while the means is through stakeholder empowerment. (shrink)

In this paper we propose a new approach to address the ramification problem in common-sense reasoning about action and change. We contrast the methods of McCain and Turner, Thielscher and Sandewall and, based on some of the limitations they encounter, we introduce a trajectory-based approach which keeps a history of the states through which a system evolves to characterise its dynamical state. We furnish an underlying state-transition semantics and a logic that admits an expressive, dynamical account of some typical scenarios (...) which encounter modelling difficulties in the other approaches mentioned. (shrink)

This paper provides a formal analysis on the solutions of the frame problem by using dynamic logic. We encode Pednault's syntax-based solution, Baker's state-minimization policy, and Gelfond & Lifchitz's Action Language A in the propositional dynamic logic (PDL). The formal relationships among these solutions are given. The results of the paper show that dynamic logic, as one of the formalisms for reasoning about dynamic domains, can be used as a formal tool for comparing, analyzing and unifying logics of action.

One way to evaluate and compare rival but potentially incompatible theories that account for the same set of observations is coherence. In this paper we take the quantitative notion of theory coherence as proposed by [Kwok, et.al. 98] and broaden its foundations. The generalisation will give a measure of the efficacy of a sub–theory as against single theory components. This also gives rise to notions of dependencies and couplings to account for how theory components interact with each other. Secondly we (...) wish to capture the fact that not all components within a theory are of equal importance. To do this we assign weights to theory components. This framework is applied to game theory and the performance of a coherentist player is investigated within the iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma. (shrink)