Various consequences of social networks in virtual space are expanding as a new phenomenon in Islamic societies in line with other societies. Social science thinkers point to the two-sided role of the Internet and virtual space in economic, cultural and religious development. Humans need to communicate collectively based on their inherent nature. The media and means of mass communication, which had a slow growth in the past, have faced significant changes in the present era, in such a way that the (...) present age is called the age of information and communication. At such a time when virtual space and social networks have turned the world into a small village and people with different cultures and beliefs are connected with each other, the issues of children’s education (especially in Islamic societies where the focus is on Islamic education) has faced the challenge, what is important for parents in this age is to get familiar with the basics of education and to pay attention to the educational challenges of social networks in the virtual space. One of the necessities of the era of information and communication in Islamic societies is the need for education in accordance with religious teachings that prepares people to face the changing and unpredictable challenges of life. New media are accused of creating new challenges in life from two perspectives. On the one hand, the media are competitors of educational activities in the field of education, and on the other hand, they are considered to be the foundation of many new challenges. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the religious teachings that form the basis of Islamic governments are the answer to all the problems of the human society and its requirements in every age. Contribution: This research presents the effectiveness of religious teachings (Qur’an, Sunnah and Hadiths) as the best sources of Islamic education, which can be used in the cultural policy of virtual space and raise the level of awareness of families and individuals in knowing the points of threat and opportunity in the virtual space. (shrink)

The influential stage of Internet of Things has reformed all fields of life in general but specifically with the emergence of artificial intelligence has drawn the attention of researchers into a new paradigm of life standard. This revolution has been accepted around the globe for making life easier with the use of intelligent devices such as smart sensors, actuators, and many other devices. AI-enabled devices are more intelligent and capable of doing a specific task which saves a lot of resources (...) and time. Different approaches are available in the existing literature to tackle diverse issues of real life based on AI and IoT systems. The role of decision-making has its own importance in the AI-enabled and IoT systems. In-depth knowledge of the existing literature is dire need of the research community to summarize the literature in effective way by which practitioners and researchers can benefit from the prevailing proofs and suggest new solutions for solving a particular problem of AI-enabled sensing and decision-making for the IoT system. To facilitate research community, the proposed study presents a systematic literature review of the existing literature, organizes the evidences in a systematic way, and then analyzes it for future research. The study reported the literature of the last 5 years based on the research questions, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and quality assessment of the selected study. Finally, derivations are drawn from the included paper for future research. (shrink)

The influential stage of Internet of Things has reformed all fields of life in general but specifically with the emergence of artificial intelligence has drawn the attention of researchers into a new paradigm of life standard. This revolution has been accepted around the globe for making life easier with the use of intelligent devices such as smart sensors, actuators, and many other devices. AI-enabled devices are more intelligent and capable of doing a specific task which saves a lot of resources (...) and time. Different approaches are available in the existing literature to tackle diverse issues of real life based on AI and IoT systems. The role of decision-making has its own importance in the AI-enabled and IoT systems. In-depth knowledge of the existing literature is dire need of the research community to summarize the literature in effective way by which practitioners and researchers can benefit from the prevailing proofs and suggest new solutions for solving a particular problem of AI-enabled sensing and decision-making for the IoT system. To facilitate research community, the proposed study presents a systematic literature review of the existing literature, organizes the evidences in a systematic way, and then analyzes it for future research. The study reported the literature of the last 5 years based on the research questions, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and quality assessment of the selected study. Finally, derivations are drawn from the included paper for future research. (shrink)

Internet of Things is expanding and evolves into all aspects of the society. Research and developments in the field of IoT have shown the possibility of producing huge volume of data and computation among different devices of the IoT. The data collected from IoT devices are transferred to a central server which can further be retrieved and accessed by the service providers for analyzing, processing, and using. Industrial Internet of Health Things is the expansion of the Internet of Health Things (...) which plays an important role in observing, consulting, monitoring, and treatment process of remote exchange data processes. The linkage of computation and interoperability are supported through various intelligent sensors, controllers, and actuators. The role of parallel computing for efficient and Intelligent Industrial Internet of Health Things is obvious to analyze and process different healthcare situations. A detailed overview of this existing literature is needed through which the research community will provide new solutions for efficient healthcare with the help of IoT based on parallel computing. Therefore, the current study presents a detailed overview of the existing literature for facilitating IIoHT. (shrink)

In this paper we ask whether liberal egalitarians can endorse workfare policies that require that welfare recipients should work in return for their welfare benefits. In particular, we focus on the fairness-based case for workfare, which holds that people should be responsible for their own welfare since they would otherwise impose unfair costs on others. Two versions of the fairness-based case are considered: The first defends workfare on the grounds that it would form part of an unemployment insurance scheme that (...) individuals would endorse under certain hypothetical conditions that are salient for the purposes of determining just public policy. The second appeals to the notion of reciprocity in order to justify the requirement that people work for their benefits. We cast doubt on both of these arguments for workfare. Neither argument shows that the unconditional provision of welfare benefits is unjust; hence, the fairness case for workfare is inconclusive. (shrink)

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect of two types of repeated reading on incidental vocabulary learning of Iranian English as a Foreign Language learners. In so doing, a sample of 45 intermediate EFL students from two intact classes of a language institute were selected as the participants. The two classes were randomly assigned to an unassisted group who were required to just read and an assisted group who were asked to read and listen to 24 (...) short texts several times. The assisted group employed their smartphones to listen to the audio files of the short stories. The data were gathered via a researcher-made vocabulary test and vocabulary learning self-efficacy scale. The results of ANCOVA revealed that although both types of repeated reading contributed to enhancing vocabulary learning of the participants, assisted repeated reading led to significantly greater EFL vocabulary gains. Additionally, the findings revealed that both assisted and unassisted repeated reading improved vocabulary learning self-efficacy of the participants and there was not a significant difference between the two types of interventions. The findings of the present study have implications for EFL researchers and practitioners. (shrink)

It is thought that determining which methods and techniques are used by teachers to teach concepts, which is one of the important dimensions of religious teaching, will contribute to the science of religious education and practice of religious teaching. In this context, the problematic of the study is based on the question of the methods preferred by the Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge teachers in their concept teaching activities. Therefore, the aim of the study is to try to reveal the (...) qualities of the methods preferred by the Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge teachers in the concept teaching process with a descriptive perspective. To serve this purpose, a case study was preferred as one of the qualitative research methods in the methodology of the study, and 20 Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge teachers were selected in the study group with maximum variation sampling, which is one of the purposeful sampling methods. Since the study focused on teachers' opinions, a semi-structured interview technique is used as a data collection tool, and descriptive analysis method, envisaging coding of the data according to the pre-determined themes and titles in the context of the problematic of the study, has been preferred. As a result of the study, it has been observed that teachers preferred that supporting teaching methods such as story and game, induction in line with the approach of reaching definition with students, deducting from the definition. In addition, despite the teachers' attempts to enrich the concept teaching process and increase the quality of the process, it has been found that their knowledge and skills regarding concept teaching methods and techniques were not sufficient. (shrink)

Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) is a method for exploring inner experience. DES subjects carry a random beeper in natural environments; when the beep sounds, they capture their inner experience, jot down notes about it, and report it to an investigator in a subsequent expositional interview. DES is a fundamentally idiographic method, describing faithfully the pristine inner experiences of persons. Subsequently, DES can be used in a nomothetic way to describe the characteristics of groups of people who share some common characteristic. (...) This paper describes DES and compares it to Petitmengin’s [Phenomenol Cogn Sci, this issue] second-person interview method. (shrink)

This article examines how a just society must address the needs of its imprudent members. I defend compulsory insurance as an answer to this question. It has been assumed that compulsory insurance can only be justified on paternalistic grounds. I argue that this assumption is incorrect, and defend non-paternalistic compulsory insurance. To display the merits of NPCI, I identify a trilemma that arises for views about how to address the needs of the imprudent, including libertarian and so-called ‘ luck -egalitarian’ (...) views. I then suggest that NPCI enables us to escape the trilemma. (shrink)

This important and comprehensive work of 18th-century Islamic religious thought written in Arabic by a pre-eminent South Asian scholar provides an extensive and detailed picture of Muslim theology and interpretive strategies on the eve of the modern period.

With a wealth of detail, this book traces the acceptance and rejection of Soren Kierkegaard's thought in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Engaging the reader with biographical sketches of Kierkegaard and his contemporaries, Habib Malik presents a fascinating historical narrative of the early reception of Kierkegaard's thought. At the center of this story is an exploration of how Kierkegaard's ideas moved from the relative obscurity of Copenhagen at the time of his death in 1855 to the center (...) of European intellectual culture in the mid-1920s. Receiving Soren Kierkegaard is the first serious attempt to chronicle the early "lost years" of Kierkegaard's intellectual legacy. It analyzes Kierkegaard's profound impact on the lives and thought of such figures as Orsted, Ibsen, Jacobsen, Brandes, Nietzsche, Dilthey, Unamuno, Joyce, Rilke, Kafka, Lukacs, and Kassner. (shrink)

Permaculture design seeks to create sustainable communities, and over time has established itself as a transnational community of practice. Based on original interviews with permaculture practitioners from around the world, and drawing on the three core elements of communities of practice - shared domain, communality and shared practices - as our analytical framework, this paper makes three arguments. First, the shared domain of permaculture as a body of knowledge, a system of ethics and set of practical design principles creates an (...) overarching teleological regime that anchors the globally dispersed collective activities of permaculture practitioners. Second, communality in the international permaculture community is centred around the permaculture design course, national and international permaculture convergences, and organisations and demonstration sites that act as hubs for practitioner interaction, linked across national borders by social media networks. Third, shared practices in the permaculture community centre on relationship-building and local-level community organisation. (shrink)

Do the various forms of literary theory - deconstruction, Marxism, new historicism, feminism, post-colonialism, and cultural/digital studies - have anything in common? If so, what are the fundamental principles of theory? What is its ideological orientation? Can it still be of use to us in understanding basic intellectual and ethical dilemmas of our time? These questions continue to perplex both students and teachers of literary theory. Habib finds the answers in theory's largely unacknowledged roots in the thought of German (...) philosopher Hegel. Hegel's insights continue to frame the very terms of theory to this day. Habib explains Hegel's complex ideas and how they have percolated through the intellectual history of the last century. This book will interest teachers and students of literature, literary theory and the history of ideas, illuminating how our modern world came into being, and how we can better understand the salient issues of our own time. (shrink)

This article develops the argument that the state must provide parental subsidies if, and to the extent that, individuals would, under certain specified hypothetical conditions, purchase ‘insurance cover’ that would provide the funds they need for adequate childrearing. I argue that most citizens would sign up to an insurance scheme, in which they receive a guarantee of a means-tested parental subsidy in return for an obligation to pay a progressive income tax to fund the scheme. This argument from insurance bolsters (...) the weaker case that proponents of parental subsidies might offer were they to rely exclusively on arguments from fair play and efficiency. (shrink)

This paper provides a critical examination of the strongest defenses of the pure lifetime view, according to which justice requires taking only people's whole lives as relevant when assessing and establishing their distributive entitlements and obligations. The paper proposes that we reject a pure lifetime view and replace it with an alternative view, on which some time-specific considerations--that is to say, considerations about how people fare at specific points in time--have nonderivative weight in determining what our obligations are to them.

While there has been much discussion of how the scientific establishment’s culture can engender research misconduct and scientific irreproducibility, this has been discussed much less frequently with respect to the medical profession. Here the authors posit that a lack of self-criticism, an encouragement of novel scientific research generated by the recruitment policies of the UK Royal Training Colleges along with insufficient training in the sciences are core reasons as to why research misconduct and dishonesty prevail within the medical community. Furthermore, (...) the UK General Medical Council’s own data demonstrates a historic inattentiveness to the ease with which doctors can engage in research misconduct. Suggestions are made as to how these issues can be investigated and alternative incentives for career advancement are adumbrated. (shrink)

"Hegel and the Foundations of Literary Theory: Do the various forms of literary theory - deconstruction, Marxism, new historicism, feminism, post-colonialism, and cultural/digital studies - have anything in common? If so, what are the fundamental principles of theory? What is its ideological orientation? Can it still be of use to us in understanding basic intellectual and ethical dilemmas of our time? These questions continue to perplex both students and teachers of literary theory. Habib finds the answers in theory's largely (...) unacknowledged roots in the thought of German philosopher Hegel. Hegel's insights continue to frame the very terms of theory to this day. Habib explains Hegel's complex ideas and how they have percolated through the intellectual history of the last century. This book will interest teachers and students of literature, literary theory and the history of ideas, illuminating how our modern world came into being, and how we can better understand the salient issues of our own time"--. (shrink)

According to Cécile Laborde, persons with religious commitments that are incidentally burdened by generally applicable laws should, under certain circumstances, be provided with an exemption from those laws. Labore’s justification for this view is that religious commitments are a type of commitment with which a person must comply if she is to maintain her integrity. I argue that Laborde´s account is insufficiently demanding in terms of the other-regarding attitudes it expects people to have before they can make claims to exemptions (...) based on their integrity. The reason for this is that Laborde’s account rests on what I call a ‘non-moralised’ view of integrity. I raise some criticisms of this view and defend an alternative, ‘moralised’ view of integrity, according to which a religious person’s integrity depends on whether the practice she wishes to perform complies with certain moral constraints. (shrink)

When skilled individuals emigrate from developing states to developed states, they leave a burdened state behind and bring their valuable human capital to a state that enjoys vast advantages by comparison. Most of the normative debate to date on this so-called ‘brain drain’ has focused on the duties that skilled emigrants owe to their home state after they emigrate. This article shifts the focus to the question of whether their host state acquires special duties toward their home state and argues (...) for an affirmative answer to that question. After identifying the conditions under which ‘exploitative free-riding’ can occur, the article shows that the brain drain is a case of exploitation that gives rise to special duties of compensation for developed host states. (shrink)

Based on empirical evidence and recent literature review, Stress has become an integral part of students’ academic life due to the various internal and external expectations placed upon their shoulders. It is therefore, becomes imperative to understand the sources and impact of academic stress in order to derive adequate and efficient intervention strategies. The five dimensions of sources such as Anxiety/stress, Student’s Academic stress, Financial Constraints, Cultural dynamics, Students Performance were analyzed. This research finding is based on the responses obtained (...) from 215 undergraduate students enrolled at a higher learning institution in Pakistan. This paper investigated the stressors, symptoms and effects that are likely to be experienced by undergraduate students in higher Studies. The data was collected through self-administered questionnaires that were randomly floated on social media during the time of COVID-19. Data obtained was analyzed using SPSS. (shrink)

This paper examines the moral case for a right to religious accommodation, which requires that religious conduct be free of any serious burdens placed on it by the state. Two different types of normative argument for this right are outlined and rejected. The first appeals to religion as a ‘basic good’, and the second to religion as an ‘intense preference’. In place of these, I suggest that a third type of argument has greater prospects of success. Religious accommodation is justified (...) on the grounds that religious conduct is a ‘derivative good’— that is, it derives its value from its being necessary for something else, namely, the integrity of the religious person. (shrink)

Journal of Human Values, Volume 28, Issue 3, Page 259-270, September 2022. Novel and history, despite technical differences, have something in common, which one can observe by examining fictional narrative as historical discourse without downplaying its symbolic ramifications. It is a fact that the novel is primarily concerned with individual existence, yet at the same time, it has not overlooked the condition of the people in general, as is reflected in the writings of some of the great writers. The article (...) attempts to take this perspective in order to re-read Fakir Mohan Senapati’s Six Acres and a Third beyond its historicity as a symbolic representation of the contemporary conditions of Indian farming community. It further aims to probe into the predicament of the farming community in India irrespective of historical and political changes. The argument is corroborated through historical parallels about the perpetual plight of farmers as shown in the text with the fear of destitution among farmers in general, and marginalized ones in particular, in the wake of recent legal promulgation. The study reveals that the plight of the people under feudalism represented by fictional characters in Senapati’s novel, which he has conscientiously explored by deploying a variety of artistic techniques, is analogous to the one faced by the contemporary farmers of independent India with neoliberal economic dispensation. (shrink)

Imāmiyya holds that the theory of imāmate must rely on scriptural evidence and designation and that the Imām, the successor to Muḥammad, is in charge of all political and religious issues. The authority of the Imām includes some religious and social duties such as executing the legal punishments, collecting almsgiving, sustaining social order and declaring holy war. The fulfillment of these duties requires actual leadership of the Imām or his deputy. With the beginning of the great occultation in 329/941, there (...) was an uncertainty among the Imāmiyya followers about who would uphold these responsibilities. In this period, Shīʿī ʿulamā began to undertake the duties of the Imām in order to overcome this uncertainty and to avoid the possible schism. In the beginning, this delegation of authority was limited to the religious sphere; but, later, its scope gradually became wider. This process of delegation of power, which covers a long process, needs to be examined in its various periods. In this study, this subject will be considered with special reference to the scholars of the fifth century of hijra (hijrī). An effort is made in this article to reveal how the issues of the Imām’s powers are discussed in the context of the problem of expanding or narrowing the authority of the scholars who played significant roles in systemization of Uṣūlī (rationalist) thought in the period after Shaykh al-Mufīd.Summary: In the issues of Imām/Caliphate which led to political division among Muslims after the Prophet Muḥammad, Imāmī Shīʿa opines that the Imāmate theory relies on scriptural evidence and designation. According to this theory, apart from scriptural evidence and designation, personal qualities such as immaculacy, knowledge, bravery, and vantage are found in Ali, Ḥasan, Ḥusayn and nine people from the lineage of Ḥusayn. The Imām as a successor to the Prophet Muḥammad is a person who has both religious and political power which includes implementation of punishments, collecting alms, ensuring justice, declaring holy war. For the Imāmī Shīʿa, there is a need for imām or his deputy who has absolute power to fulfill these duties.Imāmī Shīʿa, who held that the disappeared twelfth Imām would return back to restore justice in the world, had to confront various problems in finding solutions to some issues related to the existence of Imām himself, as well as theological issues during the period of great occultation. Particularly, the period of great occultation (329/941), in which the link with the Imām was severed completely, the Shīʿī community were uncertain on how to fulfill the responsibilities of the Imām probably due to the lack of religious sources. Shaykh al-Mufīd draws attention to the issue of khums (a one-fifth share of the spoils of war and of other specified forms of income). In this period of uncertainty, the Shiite scholars came into prominence in order to fill the gap and to prevent the social disorder. Referring to a tawqī‘ (rescript) from the Twelfth Imām, they claimed that they would take responsibility for the Twelfth Imām on his behalf. In the beginning, the delegation of the power was limited to the religious sphere. It was gradually extended to other spheres by the contribution of some scholars. It reached the largest dimension with the implementation of “wilāyat al-faqīh” theory.From that period until our times, the era when Sharīf al-Murtaḍā and his disciples lived can be considered as the beginning of this period. In the fifth century when Sharīf al-Murtaḍā and his disciples lived the delegation of power was limited to the religious sphere. In this article, how the scholars who played a role in the systematization of Uṣūlī thought dealt with the issue of the limits of the authority of Imām and how they defined the role of the Imāmī jurists (faqīh) will be examined.Sharīf al-Murtaḍā and his disciples were sometimes cautious on the issue of the delegation of the power of Imām. They, however, pointed out the role of the faqīh in the occultation period in order to overcome the uncertainty. As a matter of fact, Shaykh al-Ṭūsī and al-Qādī Ibn al-Barrāj made significant contributions to the issues of collection and distribution of khums. However, Sallār al-Daylamī’s contribution to the subject is more crucial. He considered khums as the grace of God and believed that it can be allocated by taking into account the share of the Imām. They put forward the views that explained in details the role of the faqīh in the collection and distribution of alms. Even Ibn al-Barrāj opined that in the absence of Imām and his deputy alms are to be allocated to the Faqihs on the ground that they know better how to distribute it. Therefore, in the absence of Imām and his deputy, by suggesting that faqīh must be in charge of collecting and distributing alms, they proposed a remedy in an early period.On the issue of leading the Friday prayer (ṣalāt al-jum‘a), which is one of the social duties of Imām, Sharīf al-Murtaḍā and his disciples considered the presence of the Imām or his deputy as a condition for a valid Friday prayer. In addition to this condition, Al-Ḥalabī, also added that a person who meets the necessary conditions can be also considered in leading Friday prayer. This addition by Ḥalabī was an important contribution to the solution of the problems encountered during the period of great occultation on both Friday prayer and delegation of Imām religious and political authorities to faqīh. On the other hand, Sallār, another disciple of Sharīf al-Murtaḍā, opposed the idea of the faqīh leading the Friday prayer in the absence of the Imām even when the necessary conditions are met. It can be said that this approach of Sallār led to the opinion of some Imāmis which considered Friday prayer unlawful in the absence of Imām. In the occultation period, Sharīf al-Murtaḍā and his disciples showed a cautious attitude about the implementation of the punishments. They argued that only Imām could implement the punishments. However, the major step was taken by Shaykh Ṭūsī on the issue of who implements the punishments in the occultation period. He argued that the Imām’s designated the faqihs to implement the punishments. In addition to this subject, Shiite scholars discussed the issue of whether a Shiite officer under the reigning rule in the occultation period implemented the punishments. On this issue, Sharīf al-Murtaḍā compiled a treaty untitled Mas’ala fi’l-‘amal ma‘a’al-sulṭan. For him, the main criteria are whether such person has necessary responsibilities and qualifications. Sharīf al-Murtaḍā and his disciples also continued their master’s conciliatory attitude. In the final analysis, the contribution of Sharīf al-Murtaḍā and his disciples on the issue of who will undertake the duties and responsibilities of the Imām is crucial in the systematization of the idea of transferal of the power of the Imām to faqīh including political one. In fact, Sharīf al-Murtaḍā’s advice to take part in the existing administrations has been considered a way out for the scholars who want to establish relations with the authorities in the later periods. (shrink)

Unsymbolized thinking—the experience of an explicit, differentiated thought that does not include the experience of words, images, or any other symbols—is a frequently occurring yet little known phenomenon. Unsymbolized thinking is a distinct phenomenon, not merely, for example, an incompletely formed inner speech or a vague image, and is one of the five most common features of inner experience . Despite its high frequency, many people, including many professional students of consciousness, believe that such an experience is impossible. However, because (...) the existence of unsymbolized thinking indicates that much experienced thinking takes place without any experience of words or other symbols, acknowledging the existence of unsymbolized thinking may have substantial theoretical import. (shrink)

Ethical consumerism has been dramatically increasing in recent decades, but in service sector, fewer research has been conducted especially in the fast-food industry. In this paper, we determined empirically the consumer perceived ethicality effects on repurchase intentions as well as on word of mouth through brand image partial mediation and customer expertise moderation in fast-food sector. The data were collected from 307 consumers of the fast-food restaurants through self-administered questionnaires. Common method variance and social desirability bias were measured before testing (...) hypotheses, and the data were investigated by SPSS and AMOS 21st version. The empirical results demonstrated that consumer perceived ethicality effects on repurchase intentions directly and through brand image partial mediation indirectly. Moreover, the direct and positive effects of repurchase intentions on word of mouth were experienced. This study generalized the results of previous studies of consumer perceived ethicality conducted in western culture in Pakistani fast-food sector. This study also proposed that firms should tackle ethical concerns at corporate and operational strategy levels to improve consumers’ behavioral intentions. (shrink)

Evolution of fintech services and the adoption of new emerging technology is what is seen in today’s world. Very few researchers have studies on the factors that affect the adoption of fintech services and how human behavior varies as technology changes. Apart from this, the advancement in mobile phones and the increase in the usage of them have increased the demand of the online financial services. In this paper we have considered and studied factors that have an impact of the (...) adoption of fintech services through convenient sampling. We have studied perceived ease of use, innovation, trust and government support. Through SPSS we have concluded that each of these factors have a positive impact on the adoption of fintech services. Our model is based on TAM and was adopted from our base article. The finding of this research can be used to make improvements in the existing fintech services and also in the development of new services. (shrink)

This experiment investigated the effect of format (line vs. bar), viewers’ familiarity with variables, and viewers’ graphicacy (graphical literacy) skills on the comprehension of multivariate (three variable) data presented in graphs. Fifty-five undergraduates provided written descriptions of data for a set of 14 line or bar graphs, half of which depicted variables familiar to the population and half of which depicted variables unfamiliar to the population. Participants then took a test of graphicacy skills. As predicted, the format influenced viewers’ interpretations (...) of data. Specifically, viewers were more likely to describe x–y interactions when viewing line graphs than when viewing bar graphs, and they were more likely to describe main effects and “z–y” (the variable in the legend) interactions when viewing bar graphs than when viewing line graphs. Familiarity of data presented and individuals’ graphicacy skills interacted with the influence of graph format. Specifically, viewers were most likely to generate inferences only when they had high graphicacy skills, the data were familiar and thus the information inferred was expected, and the format supported those inferences. Implications for multivariate data display are discussed. (shrink)

Caffeine, a known CNS stimulant is given as an adjunct component in most abused drugs which could be fatal with repeated administration in many circumstances. This paper presents a study to investigate the effect of repeated administration of caffeine at high dose on rat liver, and discusses ethical and policy issues of caffeine use. Long Evans rats were treated with pure caffeine solution in distilled water through intragastric route once daily for consecutive 56 days. Three groups of rats recognized as (...) low dose, high dose and control group received 6mg caffeine / kg BW, 12mg caffeine / kg BW and distilled water, respectively. Rat plasma was examined for liver transaminases and alkaline phosphatases concentrations which were significantly increased in plasma as compared to the control. Both rat plasma and liver homogenate were subjected to estimate malondialdehyde, advanced oxidation protein product, nitric oxide, antioxidant enzyme catalase, glutathione and superoxide dismutase activity. MDA, AOPP, NO levels increased and SOD activity decreased significantly in both plasma and liver as compared to those of control where as CAT and GSH activity remain unchanged. Rat liver tissues were studied histochemically with Hematoxylin and Eosin, and Picro Sirius Red staining. Significantly increased infiltration of inflammatory cells and progressive deposition of collagen fibre were visible in liver tissue of caffeine treated both dose groups as compared to the control. Long term administration of caffeine at higher dose, significantly contributes to liver inflammation and consequent fibrogenesis. This raises significant ethical and policy issues. (shrink)

Brain death, or the determination of death by neurological criteria, has been described as a legal fiction. Legal fictions are devices by which the law treats two analogous things (in this case, biological death and brain death) in the same way so that the law developed for one can also cover the other. Some scholars argue that brain death should be understood as a fiction for two reasons: the way brain death is determined does not actually satisfy legal criteria requiring (...) the permanent cessation of all brain function, and brain death is not consistent with the biological conception of death as involving the irreversible cessation of the functioning of an organism as a whole. Critics counter that the idea that brain death is a legal fiction is deceptive and undemocratic. I will argue that diagnosing brain death as a hidden legal fiction is a helpful way to understand its historical development and current status. For the legal‐fictions approach to be ethically justifiable, however, the fact that brain death is a legal fiction not aligned with the standard biological conception of death must be acknowledged and made transparent. (shrink)

How, exactly, must we strike the balance between security and equality? Must we insist, out of respect for the equality of persons, that the police refrain from using ethnic profiling and opt for some other strategy in their pursuit of terrorists, or must we allow the police to continue with this policy, which seems to sacrifice equality for the sake of security? This paper assesses the ethical status of ethnic profiling from the perspective of the ideal of equality. The paper (...) shows how the ethical status of ethnic profiling changes depending on how exactly we specify the egalitarian ideal. Furthermore, it argues that on a plausible interpretation of the ideal of equality, ethnic profiling is not in principle objectionable. (shrink)

The purpose of the study is to empirically examine moral ideology, ethical beliefs, and moral intensity in the context of Pakistan. Jones (Academy of Management Review, 16(2), 366–395, 1991) model and Muncy and Vitell (Journal of Business Research, 24, 297–311, 1992) have extensively been investigated and validated in west for examining ethical decision-making process. This study examines and validates these models in a collectivist cultural settings, i.e., Pakistan. A self-administered online survey technique using convenience sampling technique was used to gather (...) data from a sample of 1000 consumers in Pakistan. Final analysis was carried out on 338 valid responses. Data was analyzed using from descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and model estimation carried out AMOS. Cronbach’s α was used to test the reliability of the instrument. A majority of the consumers were high on idealism and low on relativism. Consumers dejected questionable activities that have harmful outcomes more than ones that have harmless outcomes. Both idealism and relativism are found to significant predict moral intensity. However, no relationship has been found between moral ideology and ethical beliefs. Consumer’s ethical beliefs are found to significantly affect moral intensity and behavioral intention. Social moral intensity is found to mediate the relationship of relativism and harmful ethical beliefs. The study is among the pioneer studies in Pakistan that examines the link of moral ideology, moral intensity, and ethical beliefs. The study provides an Urdu version of scales that can be utilized for further exploration and validation. (shrink)

Believing that p, assuming that p, and imagining that p involve regarding p as true—or, as we shall call it, accepting p. What distinguishes belief from the other modes of acceptance? We claim that conceiving of an attitude as a belief, rather than an assumption or an instance of imagining, entails conceiving of it as an acceptance that is regulated for truth, while also applying to it the standard of being correct if and only if it is true. We argue (...) that the second half of this claim, according to which the concept of belief includes a standard of correctness, is required to explain the fact that the deliberative question whether to believe that p is transparent to the question whether p. This argument raises various questions. Is there such a thing as deliberating whether to believe? Is the transparency of the deliberative question whether to believe that p the same as the transparency of the factual question whether I do believe that p? We will begin by answering these questions and then turn to a series of possible objections to our argument. (shrink)