Biobanking is a relatively new concept in Egypt. Building a good relationship with different stakeholders is essential for the social sustainability of biobanks. To establish this relationship, it is necessary to assess the attitude of different groups towards this concept. The objective of this work is to assess the knowledge, attitude, and opinions of Egyptian patients towards biobanking issues. We designed a structured survey to be administered to patients coming to the outpatient clinics in 3 university hospitals in Egypt. The (...) survey included questions estimating the level of knowledge about the term “Biobank”, together with questions about the attitudes and opinions about related issues. Two hundred and fifty-nine patients participated in the survey. Eighty-one percent of participants reported that they never heard about the term before. About 85% expressed that they would be willing to donate their samples for research and about 87% thought that sample donation did not contradict their religious beliefs. Fifty eight percent were willing to participate in a genetic research project, 27.8% supported sharing their sample with pharmaceutical companies, and 32.4% agreed to share their samples with institutions abroad. Although there is limited knowledge about biobanking among Egyptian patients, many had a positive attitude towards sample donation and didn’t show religious concerns against it. However, they showed concerns regarding participation in genetic research and with sharing their samples across borders or with pharmaceutical companies. Public education about biobanking is possible, taking into consideration the specific cultural and legal framework in Egypt. (shrink)

In Bertrand Russell’s "The Principles of Mathematics" and related works, the notion of a proposition plays an important role; it is by analyzing propositions,showing what kinds of constituents they have, that Russell arrives at his core logical concepts. At this time, his conception of proposition contains both a conventional and an unconventional part. The former is the view that propositions are the ultimate truth-bearers; the latter is the view that the constituents of propositions are “worldly” entities. In the latter respect, (...) Russellian propositions are akin to states-of-affairs on some robust understanding of these entities. The idea of Russellian propositions is well known, at least in outline. Not so well known is his treatment of truth, which nevertheless grows directly out of this notion of proposition. For the early Russell, the import of truth is primarily metaphysical, rather than semantic; reversing the usual direction of explanation, he holds that truth is explanatory of what is the case rather than vice versa. That is, what properties a thing has and what relations it bears to other things is determined, metaphysically speaking, by there being a suitable array of true and false propositions. In the present paper, this doctrine is examined for its content and motivation. To show that it plays a genuine role in Russell’s early metaphysics and logic, I examine its consequences for (1) the possibility of truth-definitions and (2) the problem of the unity of the proposition. I shall draw a few somewhat tentative conclusions about where Russell stood vis-à-vis his metaphysics of propositions, suggesting a possible source of dissatisfaction that may have played a role in his eventual rejection of his early notion of proposition. (shrink)

Drawing on social cognitive theory, this study extends our understanding of the relationship between ethical leadership and employee work engagement, by exploring self-efficacy as an important mediating variable. In addition, we propose that the quality of LMX moderates the relationships such that the direct and indirect relationships between ethical leadership, self-efficacy, and work engagement are stronger when the quality of LMX is high. Data collected in two-waves from 373 respondents working in different manufacturing organizations of Pakistan supported our hypothesized theoretical (...) model. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (shrink)

This book offers a resolution of the paradox posed by the pleasure of tragedy by returning to its earliest articulations in archaic Greek poetry and its subsequent emergence as a philosophical problem in Plato's Republic. Socrates' claim that tragic poetry satisfies our 'hunger for tears' hearkens back to archaic conceptions of both poetry and mourning that suggest a common source of pleasure in the human appetite for heightened forms of emotional distress. By unearthing a psychosomatic model of aesthetic engagement implicit (...) in archaic poetry and philosophically elaborated by Plato, this volume not only sheds new light on the Republic's notorious indictment of poetry, but also identifies rationally and ethically disinterested sources of value in our pursuit of aesthetic states. In doing so the book resolves an intractable paradox in aesthetic theory and human psychology: the appeal of painful emotions. (shrink)

The focus of this study is an examination of what it means to be a legal person and the role that the law plays in bestowing the legal status of being a person. This study highlights the underpinning rationalities and human interest that establish a hierarchy between person, defined as “human”, at a superior level to everything else, defined as “nonhuman”. In this respect, there is a core notion concerning human exceptionalism based on the rational sovereignty that justifies and consolidates (...) the mastery of nature. To understand the fundamental premises of legal personhood, it begins from the first usage of person in history and philosophy, since the concept of legal personhood has been established through historical and philosophical developments. Analysing the meaning of person through different conceptualisations can allow a deeper insight into the legal interpretation of personhood. As a result of such investigation, two main dualistic structures of legal personhood reveal: the person-property dualism and the human being-person dualism. Thus, legal personhood simultaneously includes personalisation and depersonalisation, and always operates in a hierarchical array. Although the division between persons and things in the concept of personhood is rigid, being a “person” or a “thing” is open to interpretation in different circumstances through legal practices of exclusion and inclusion. Recently, there have been an increasing number of court rulings and a tendency of legislation to recognise the legal personhood of natural entities as a legal way of conserving the environment. This leads to an interpretation that legal recognition is a matter of institutional interest and attempts. Nevertheless, legal practitioners mostly prefer to confer certain rights or the status of a legal person on nature without the consideration of legal personhood’s background as seen in the case discussed in this study - the Tierra Digna case in Colombia. While this study endeavours to demonstrate the anthropocentric standard view of legal personhood, its principal purpose is to indicate the malleable nature of legal personhood as a product of legal fiction. In this context, this study aims to conclude that law’s imaginary nature should be used for producing a new legal reasoning and for offering a real paradigm shift that is congruent with the plasticity of and the fluidity of nature. (shrink)

Mitter's study argues that until the late Qing, concepts of international order and justice were alien to China's imperial rulers. Subsequently, however, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, China perceived itself to be the victim in an unjust world of aggressive, powerful, Western states. Contemporary Chinese perceptions of a just international order have been shaped by such past experiences and encompass a strong element of restitution. Its justice claims start with the Chinese state itself rather than with the needs (...) of a broader global community. (shrink)

The correlation coefficient between two variables plays an important role in statistics. Also, the accuracy of relevance assessment depends on information from a set of discourses. The data collected from numerous statistical studies are full of exceptions. The Pythagorean fuzzy hypersoft set is a parameterized family that deals with the subattributes of the parameters and an appropriate extension of the Pythagorean fuzzy soft set. It is also the generalization of the intuitionistic fuzzy hypersoft set, which is used to accurately assess (...) insufficiency, anxiety, and uncertainties in decision-making. The PFHSS can accommodate more uncertainties compared to the IFHSS, and it is the most substantial methodology to describe fuzzy information in the decision-making process. The core objective of the this study is to develop the notion and features of the correlation coefficient and the weighted correlation coefficient for PFHSS and to introduce the aggregation operators such as Pythagorean fuzzy hypersoft weighted average and Pythagorean fuzzy hypersoft weighted geometric operators under the PFHSS scenario. A prioritization technique for order preference by similarity to the ideal solution under PFHSS based on correlation coefficients and weighted correlation coefficients is presented. Through the developed methodology, a technique for solving multiattribute group decision-making problem is planned. Also, the importance of the developed methodology and its application in indicating multipurpose antivirus mask throughout the COVID-19 pandemic period is presented. A brief comparative analysis is described with the advantages, effectiveness, and flexibility of numerous existing studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. (shrink)

Wittgenstein’s philosophical methods have had a wide influence in the fields of ethics and moral philosophy. The aim of the volume Ethics After Wittgenstein: Contemplation and Critique is to outlin...

This article examines the development of the ritual of mubāhala, a category of oaths and mutual self-cursing, during which two individuals seek to confirm the veracity of their creedal position by appealing to God’s curse upon them. Based on a prophetic precedent embedded in Q 3:61 and reported as a challenge purportedly employed by the Companions Ibn Masʿūd and Ibn ʿAbbās, I argue that the practice of resorting to mubāhala in the Sunni tradition goes through two main phases of reinvention (...) and legitimation before its reappearance in the contemporary Muslim world. The first phase belongs to the anti-Monist controversies of the seventh to ninth/thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, while the second appears among reformist scholars starting in the late eighteenth century. (shrink)

Research on human subjects is ethically justified when its anticipated results would ultimately benefit the society or public and not only the individuals participating in this research. Besides contributing to scientific knowledge, social benefits of scientific research may extend to all aspects of the public’s life including health, education, and security. In this paper, we aimed to discuss the social benefits principle as an ethical requirement for the conduct of scientific research in general and nursing research in particular. We critically (...) examined the current situation of nursing research in developing countries including its adherence to the social benefits principle and provided exemplars of both hindered and successful utilization of nursing research evidence in developing countries. We concluded that the utilization of nursing research evidence in clinical practice, education, and policy making is almost nonexistent and faces many challenges in most developing countries. Thus, most nursing research in developing countries are not currently meeting the social benefit principle of the ethical conduct of scientific research. We provided recommendations to promote the utilization of nursing research in evidence-based practice, nursing education, and health policy. (shrink)

The literature on Black youth culture, especially hip-hop culture, has focused primarily on the experiences of young men, with the experiences of Black girls being all but ignored. However, the recent appearance of Black women performers, songwriters, and producers in Black popular culture has called attention to the ways in which young Black women use popular culture to negotiate social existence and attempt to express independence, self-reliance, and agency. This article is an exploration of the representations of Black womanhood as (...) expressed in the music videos of Black women performers. The author first identifies themes that reflect controlling images of Black womanhood, then those that exemplify an expression of agency, and finally those appearing ambivalent and contradictory. Overall, the music videos express how young Black women must negotiate sexuality and womanhood in their everyday lives. (shrink)

The Druze movement originated at the beginning of the eleventh century and developed out of the Ismā'īlī faction of Shī'ī Islām. Founded by the Ismā'īlī Ḥamza ibn 'Alī, the Tawḥīd is a philosophical and spiritual path that incorporates the fundamentals of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism referred to in the Qur'ān, together with the ancient philosophies of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, and others. It is a synthesis and a unification of the most contradictory thoughts, a synthesis that leads to the real (...) Tawḥīd or "third course".The specificity of the Tawḥīd consists in establishing a bridge between monotheism and non-dualism. To say that God is One does not merely mean... (shrink)

A democratic ethics of biological technology must engage the public. This is not easy to do in a way that satisfies the demands of democratic ethics, or meets the pace of rapidly changing, complex technology. This paper describes a solution proposed by the University of British Columbia’s Norms Evolving in Response to Dilemmas interdisciplinary research group. The solution, the NERD web survey, has three distinct advantages over other methods: it is Deep—the survey provides deep data, particularly when compared to alternatives (...) such as polls and focus groups; Cheap—our survey is cost effective, which is important for a truly democratic tool; and Improvable—the NERD survey is a work in progress, improvable by design. (shrink)

This paper presents a profile of the welfare regime in Lebanon which is posited on the twin precepts of human ethics and welfare particularism. It highlights the key role that moral values play in the conceptualization and implementation of social policy, as well as in the measurement of welfare outcomes. This is marked by the dominance of duty, traditionalism and elitism in the ethics of religious welfare in Lebanon. The paper argues that the social welfare regime in Lebanon overlaps with (...) the debates on the ethics of care and on virtue ethics in Western moral philosophy. This is also linked in with contemporary conceptualizations of religious ethics in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The paper asserts that religious ethics is a valid endeavour in its own right and an ever more pertinent subject matter for the study of social welfare and social policy. This challenges the traditional dichotomy between reason and faith which has subdued the relevance of religion to public life. Indeed, religion, the nuclear family and clientelism networks are shown to play a critical role in Lebanese social welfare, such that, in spite of state incapacity, the welfare regime there cannot be considered rudimentary. The method adopted for this research was a large qualitative case study involving service providers and users at the Ministry of Social Affairs and five leading Christian and Muslim religious welfare organizations in Lebanon. (shrink)

This study aims to explore whether a discrepancy exists between the ideal and communicated ethical identity of Islamic banks in Asia and, further, whether there is any association of communicated ethical identity with financial performance. To achieve the objectives, the study analyses data derived from annual reports of Islamic banks in Asia for the period 2006–2010. The results suggest that out of the seven banks studied, three of them are above average and the rest suffer from disparity between the ideal (...) and communicated ethical identities. Further, the study shows that the disclosure of a vision and mission statement; board of directors and top management; zakah, charity, and benevolent loans; and Shari’ah supervisory boards are negatively associated with performance, while the disclosure of products and services and commitment toward employees are positively associated with performance. (shrink)

Machery's dismissive position on parsimony requires that we examine especially carefully the data he provides as evidence for his complex triple-system account. We use the prototype-exemplar debate as an example of empirical findings which may not, in fact, support a multiple-systems account. We discuss the importance of considering complexity in scientific theory.

carrington places race and racism at the center of his densely written analysis of science fiction, fantasy, utopia, and other forms of popular culture. He moves easily between a broad range of forms, which include memoirs, television series, comic books, novels, novelizations, fandom and fanzines, and short fiction and fiction circulated on the Internet. Popular culture helps us to construct notions of identity and race, and for carrington many constituent groups, notably fans, develop its key concepts and values.Speculative fiction is (...) for carrington a framework that links these various forms of popular culture. Here, SF is a genre different from literature, as it is situated closer to, and is more deeply... (shrink)