Appearing in the “Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam” as an undefined referent for the limits on freedom of expression in Islam, Shariah is still to be chased as an indefinable referent which restricts freedom of the expression in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran’s Press Law as well as Constitution unveil Shariah’s referent to be a person: the Jurist-Ruler around whom a cult of personality is legalized in terms of “Imamate” and around whom all the limits on freedom (...) of expression revolve. Interpretation of Shariah is not a solution but part of the problem in Iran. Such problem can be dealt in terms of three modes of self-expression which were invented by the Iranian Reformists to avoid self-censorship. The notion of master-signifier can be the key to unraveling the problem of self-referentiality in freedom of expression and its Reformist solution in Iran’s legal system. (shrink)

A hidden isospin variable is coupled to the spin of particles observed in an EPR experiment. For spin-1/2 it is shown that isospin i≥3/2 is sufficient to ensure a locally realistic spin distribution. For spin-1, examples of violation of the Mermin-Schwarz inequalities in the case of i=0 are shown satisfied with isospin. The general feature of a softening of quantum nonlocality with isospin is suggested, as well as applications to quantum physics at high energy.

Freely falling point-like objects converge toward the center of the Earth. Hence the gravitational field of the Earth is inhomogeneous, and possesses a tidal component. The free fall of an extended quantum mechanical object such as a hydrogen atom prepared in a high principal-quantum-number state, i.e. a circular Rydberg atom, is predicted to fall more slowly than a classical point-like object, when both objects are dropped from the same height above the Earth’s surface. This indicates that, apart from transitions between (...) quantum states, the atom exhibits a kind of quantum mechanical incompressibility during free fall in inhomogeneous, tidal gravitational fields like those of the Earth.A superconducting ring-like system with a persistent current circulating around it behaves like the circular Rydberg atom during free fall. Like the electronic wavefunction of the freely falling atom, the Cooper-pair wavefunction is quantum mechanically incompressible. The ions in the lattice of the superconductor, however, are not incompressible, since they do not possess a globally coherent quantum phase. The resulting difference during free fall in the response of the nonlocalizable Cooper pairs of electrons and the localizable ions to inhomogeneous gravitational fields is predicted to lead to a charge separation effect, which in turn leads to a large Coulomb force that opposes the convergence caused by the tidal gravitational force on the superconducting system.A “Cavendish-like” experiment is proposed for observing the charge separation effect induced by inhomogeneous gravitational fields in a superconducting circuit. The charge separation effect is determined to be limited by a pair-breaking process that occurs when low frequency gravitational perturbations are present. (shrink)

In this paper Professor Calne pleads for a more informed approach to the problem of donor transplants, particularly in cases of kidney disease. He is concerned to inform both the medical profession and lay people. Establishing a computerized register of names and addresses of those who do not wish to have their organs used for transplantation after death would allow enquiries to be made immediately after death. The second point of emphasis is that death of the brain is the death (...) of the individual. A code of practice is suggested which should be followed in all transplantation centres and would allay the fears of the public and encourage the cooperation of doctors. (shrink)

Education is so strongly emphasized in the Chinese culture that academic success is widely regarded as the only indicator of success, while too much physical activity is often discouraged because it drains energy and affects academic concentration. This study investigated the relations among academic achievement, self?esteem, school conduct and physical activity level. The participants were 333 Chinese pre?adolescents (aged 8?12) in Hong Kong. Examination results and conduct grades were obtained from the school records. Global self?esteem was measured with the Physical (...) self?description questionnaire (PSDQ), while physical activity patterns of the children were assessed with the Physical activity questionnaire for children (PAQ?C). Results showed that high academic achievers consistently attained better school conduct marks. However, physical activity level was quite an independent entity that was related neither to academic achievement nor school conduct. Furthermore, regression analyses showed that only academically high?achieving boys and physically active boys had higher self?esteem. (shrink)

Starting from simple topological arguments due to Dirac on the classical rotational properties of extended rigid bodies, we abstract the concept of a finite-size spinor (FSS). The FSS is a concept distinct from both point spinors (e.g., electrons) and composite spinors (e.g., nuclei), and suggests a new model for baryons. The FSS offers a natural explanation of “threeness” for the quarks, excludes the existence of free quarks, denies the operational definition of quark spin statistics, and, moreover, leads to the dual (...) model of hadronic interactions. (shrink)

Societies are composed of groups that interact. Symbiotic groups are those in which agents complement each other in resources that they have in excess. Symbiotic groups are useful especially when the resources in an environment are distributed unevenly, because they enable agents to trade resources easily. However, for trading to happen successfully, agents in symbiotic groups need to cooperate, i.e., they should be willing to donate resources when appropriate. Similarly, if some agents in a symbiotic group are defectors, they should (...) be identified by others and eliminated from the group for the well-being of the remaining agents. Accordingly, we first study Edmonds’ tag-based model of symbiotic groups to understand the lifespan of symbiotic groups (e.g., why some groups live shorter than others). Then, we enhance Edmonds’ model by adding the capability of reciprocal interactions to agents, thus achieving a hybrid model. We capture reciprocity in three different models and study their effects on the elimination of defectors in symbiotic groups. Our experimental results show that the groups that are built with the proposed hybrid model can eliminate more defectors and earlier than tag-based models. Further, the hybrid approach can generate symbiotic groups more effectively and efficiently. (shrink)

The advance in Internet of Things technology has increased the opportunities for a healthcare system design, which is an urgent need owing to the growth in population among the older adults in many countries. This requires giving thought to the kind of innovative technological design methods that can find suitable solutions for home care. The application of Health Smart Homes by means of the technologies of the Internet of Things, can be used to support rehabilitation treatment and help the senior (...) citizens to understand the importance of taking measures to maintain a healthy standard of living that can meet their needs. The aim of this article is to develop and assess a design method for the following purposes: to determine and map out the physical and emotional state of the home care users, such as senior citizens; to implement a participatory design that includes the user within its social, psychological and therapeutic context; to explore the flexible method when applied to older users; to provide a way for the users to be “personalized” through a wide range of solutions that involve analyzing the behavioral patterns of different individuals in a standardized manner and to define a set of smart technologies for each problem and senior citizen. This article sets out a collaborative method called FlexPersonas, which is employed for the flexible mapping of users and to improve decision-making with the support of Internet of Things technologies. In this context, computing systems can identify the behavior of the user and issue warnings to the Carers about any abnormal event. Studies with an interdisciplinary team point out the potential and drawbacks of the method. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView.

Recent developments in the health care industry have precipitated a new wave of interest in expanding the scope of practice for nursing. This is because the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, broadly designed to increase access to health insurance, will inevitably result in increased demand for primary care providers. And with compensation for primary care physicians already lagging far behind that of specialists, the role of nurse practitioners is once again receiving increased attention as a viable means by which (...) to ease the pressure for access to health care.But the economics of this trade-off are controversial. On one hand, it sets primary care physicians at odds with specialists; namely, if the ultimate goal is to “bend the cost curve downward,” should specialist compensation be reduced in order to increase spending on primary care? (shrink)

The ideas of thinkers belonging to the subjective or existential understanding, including Pascal, or people with mystical orientation are presented in a way that is compatible with different periods of their lives. We can see this in Pascal's short life, from scientific research to society meetings and then to monastic life. Pascal, who was a mystic and initially opposed to living in a monastery, thought of the crisis he experienced in changing his life as a sign. Pascal's work Pensées is (...) considered as a source that leads to philosophical thoughts as well as religious ones. In his work, Pascal tried to reveal the relationship between God and human wills, including conceptual analysis. This situation is related to the period in which the work was written and the author was in. Therefore, without knowing Pascal's life periods, it cannot be fully understood what he was trying to express, especially in his late works. With his work, Pascal showed that it was possible for a person to be both an excellent mathematician, a profound scientist, and a humble believer. Pascal's next period includes the previous one; We saw that while he was a good mathematician, he was also interested in science, and while he was a religious person, he used the principles of mathematics and science. He did not separate the elements encompassed that his life in an intellectual sense, but continued by combining them and changing their places of importance. After all, the essence of what Pascal is looking for is to find out what motivates people or what makes people human. In this article, the mental, material and spiritual areas expressed as Pascal's life stages will be discussed and examined as dialectical stages of his life. As a result, the nature of the relationship between religion and science will be tried to be shown with the example of Pascal. (shrink)