Actual Existence Research Articles

Author’s Response

Author’s Response

Liberal Utilitarianism-Yes, But for Whom?

In his important paper "Just Better Utilitarianism," Matti Häyry reminds his readers that liberal utilitarianism can offer a basis for moral and political choices in bioethics and thus could be helpful in decisionmaking.1 Although I agree with the general defense of Häyry's liberal utilitarianism, in this commentary, I urge Häyry to say more on who belongs to our moral community. I challenge Häyry's principle of actual or prospective existence. I also argue that Häyry should say more on human beings at the "margin of life" (such as fetuses and other mindless humans). I claim that debate over whether some form of utilitarianism is superior over other moral theories is not as important as answering the question underlying these issues: Who belongs to our moral community?

“Self” and “Other” in M. M. Bakhtin’s Philosophy and Modern Reality

Introduction. The key challenges of our time are caused by the expansion of the semantic space represented by the dual opposition “identical – other”. The scale of each side appeals to a new interpretation of the concept of M. M. Bakhtin, extrapolated to the actual existence of man. The purpose of the article is to discuss the problem of “Self” and “Other” in the philosophy of M. M. Bakhtin, understood from the perspective of modern reality. Materials and Methods. The methodology of the article is the dialectical idea of a critical analysis of significant socio-cultural phenomena that encourage the subject to master the objective reality that opposes him. The leading method of dual opposition in the study focuses on the analysis of the relationship between the whole and its significant parts. The solution of the research problem is also provided by the method of philosophical interpretation of social reality, allowing to remove the one-dimensionality of knowledge of the infinitely changing world. Results. The ambivalence of new socio-cultural meanings growth points that record differences between the standards of the domestic and the Western society, despite the widespread expansion of the latter, was revealed. The interpretation of M. M. Bakhtin’s approach in the context of modern reality leads to the conclusion that each person has his own model of the world, which he does not lose, by getting used to the personality of the “Other”. The manifestation of duality in the concept of “Self” significantly expands the semantic base of philosophical knowledge, fundamentally opposing the semantic representation of the “Other” in Western philosophy. Discussion and Conclusions. Studying the problem of “Self” and “Other”, in the works of M. M. Bakhtin, conditioned by the dynamics of the development of nonlinear modernity while preserving the traditional layer, allowed us to find two lines of building relations between them. The coexistence of various ethno-national and cosmopolitan attitudes in the modern world, which paradoxically lead to dialogue, testifies to an ambivalent trend of development – “forward”, from totalitarianism to democracy, then “backward”, from conditional democracy to a new totalitarianism. The preservation of the national culture from these positions and its development becomes fundamentally important for the Russian society.

Hagia Sophia as Mosque: Opinions and Perspectives

The article analyzes the discourse on changing the status of Hagia Sophia Museum (The Church of Hagia Sophia) in Istanbul. The research is based on a wide range of sources, including offi cial documents of international, public and religious organizations. The article presents the main participants’ positions in the discussion, refl ecting diff erent approaches to evaluating the transformation of Hagia Sophia Museum into a mosque. The author concludes that the important step towards a constructive dialogue is to seek opportunities for involving representatives of the world and international religious communities in the work of collegial platforms operating within the country. In the future, such initiatives will help to provide a wide and open fi eld for discussion of the actual existence and further development of Hagia Sophia in the new conditions.

SCHOOL - A TOOL OF CONSOLIDATION

In modern conditions of the world economy's monopolization, sanctions, the flow of external migration of the labor force is an urgent problem of the necessity at the state level to preserve the cohesion and unity of the multiethnic Russian society. The article examines the historical development of Russia, where the school as a social institution performs not only an educational function but also the role of consolidating the multiethnic composition of the state. Russian language and culture fulfill this role through the school. Russian is historically considered as the language of integration of nations who have passed their ethnoge- nesis on the territory of Russia, their spiritual and cultural rapprochement with the Russians by the method of N. I. Ilminsky while preserving the native languages of students. Performing the function of consolidation, the Russian language acted as an integrator of nations, not their assimilator, as evidenced by statistics on the actual existence of more than 230 languages and dialects of nations. The article notes that in Russian politics before the reconstruction period, the school, performing a conso-lidating function, was a tool for leveling the ethnic characteristics of students, through unitary language training, forming national-Russian bilingualism. The analysis of scientific sources shows that such conditions before the reconstruction period led to objective facts not manifestations of interethnic conflicts. Also, during the entire Soviet period, literary languages were created and developed, and dialects were preserved to some extent, but, unfortunately, the functions of native languages were narrowed in social spheres. Describing the post-soviet period, cultural and linguistic diversity is noted, which is a significant source of social conflicts and political discussions. Under these conditions, cultural and linguistic state homogeneity becomes a subject of dissatisfaction in the public life of speakers of minority languages. The problem arises as to how to guarantee the participation of each language group in the life of a multilingual society with their socio-cultural integration, without violating international human rights legislation.

Path Planning Under Malicious Injections and Removals of Perceived Obstacles: A Probabilistic Programming Approach

An autonomous mobile robot may encounter adversarial environments in which an attacker tries to influence its decisions. Through physical or software-level attacks, some of the robot's sensors might be compromised-a special concern for self-driving vehicles. Motivated by this scenario, this letter introduces and studies the problem of planning kinematically feasible (and possibly efficient) paths with bounded collision probability in adversarial settings where the obstacles perceived online by the robot display two layers of uncertainty. The first is the “usual” Gaussian uncertainty one would obtain from a standard object tracker (e.g., an Extended Kalman Filter); the second is an additional layer of uncertainty that captures possible sensor attacks and describes the actual existence of groups of obstacles in the environment. We study the complexity of the problem and propose a general sampling-based solution framework that uses the Sequential Probability Ratio Test (SPRT) to check collision probability constraints along the computed trajectory. We also show how probabilistic programming languages (PPLs) can simplify programming common algorithms (such as RRT and Hybrid A*) for mixed uncertainty. In addition to providing an easy-to-use programming framework, our approach is shown to plan safer paths compared to a Naive Monte Carlo baseline when both approaches are allowed to use at most the same given number of samples to perform collision checks.

Comparative characteristics of the proteolytic system (on the example of elastase) in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and pleural tuberculosis

Despite the expanded possibilities of antibacterial therapy with the use of very expensive drugs, the effectiveness of these measures has not yet yielded the desired results. Clarification of the role of pathogenesis, in our opinion, can expand both diagnostic possibilities and possibilities of pathogenetic treatment of various forms of tuberculosis, which, accordingly, will increase its effectiveness. Objective — to study the state of the proteolytic system on the example of serum elastase in various forms of tuberculosis.Materials and methods. Under our supervision there were 111 patients, who were divided into 3 groups. The first group consisted of 66 (59.5 %) persons with pulmonary tuberculosis. Group 2 included 13 (11.7 %) patients with tuberculous pleurisy. The third group consisted of 32 (28.8 %) patients with dual localization of the TB process (pulmonary tuberculosis and pleural tuberculosis).Results and discussion. In patients with tuberculous pleurisy, the level of elastase was (253.2 ± 16.7) nmol/min ⋅ ml, which was 1.4 times higher than when the pleurisy was combined with the pulmonary process (p < 0.01) and 2.5 times higher than in the pulmonary process. The level of leukocytes and neutrophils was highest in pulmonary tuberculosis and lowest in the combination of pulmonary tuberculosis and pleurisy.Conclusions. In pulmonary and extrapulmonary forms of tuberculosis (pulmonary tuberculosis and pleural tuberculosis), the proteolytic system is activated, in particular, the level of elastase. The content of the latter in the serum differs in pulmonary and extrapulmonary forms of tuberculosis, which, according to the authors, can be explained by the prevailing «use» of the enzyme in pulmonary processes. The dependence of the level of elastase on the content of leukocytes and neutrophils has not been established.The level of fluctuations in the content of elastase in pulmonary forms of tuberculosis can be attributed to the duration of the actual existence of pulmonary tuberculosis and its various forms.

Monumental Suspension

More than 25 years after it was unveiled, Eduardo Chillida’sMonument to Tolerancehas been neither built nor abandoned—it is, rather, suspended. From the outset, the project, which consists in digging a vast cubic cave inside the mountain of Tindaya (Fuerteventura, Canary Islands), has faced the opposition of environmental activists, who argue that it is incompatible with the mountain’s status as a protected site. Drawing from anthropological approaches to infrastructure and art, this article unpacks the Monument’s actual existence as an unrealized project that has been partly actualized through anticipatory practices such as exhibitions and economic aspirations. The article contributes to the theorization of suspension by combining a focus on the temporal multiplicity of anticipation with an attention to the materiality of unbuilt entities.

The July Effect for Total Joint Arthroplasty Procedures.

The "July effect" refers to the assumed increased risk of complications during the months when medical school graduates transition to residency programs. The actual existence of a July effect is controversial. With this study, the authors sought to determine whether evidence exists for the presence of a July effect among total joint arthroplasty (TJA) procedures. The 2013 and 2014 Nationwide Readmission Databases were combined and all index primary and revision arthroplasty procedures were identified, and then patients from December were excluded. Thirty-day readmission rates, time to readmission, and readmission costs were analyzed by index procedure month and index procedure type. A total of 1,193,034 procedures (index primary: n=1,107,657; revision arthroplasty: n=85,377) were identified. Among all procedure types, 46,674 (3.9%) 30-day readmissions were observed. Among all procedures, an index procedure with a discharge in July resulted in the highest monthly readmission rate of the year (4.2%), which was significantly higher than the mean annual readmission rate (P<.0001). This effect was most pronounced for primary total knee arthroplasty (3.9% vs 3.6%, P<.0001). When stratifying results into teaching vs nonteaching hospitals, the highest readmission rate occurred if the index procedure occurred at a nonteaching hospital in July (4.5%, P<.0001). These data provide evidence that a July effect appears to exist for TJA procedures and is most pronounced at nonteaching institutions. Based on published mean readmission costs, the total annualized cost variation attributable to the higher readmission rate for primary TJA procedures in July is approximately $18.6 million. [Orthopedics. 2020;43(6):e543-e548.].

Reviewing Energy Efficiency with the Development of Luminescent Solar Panels

As our fossil sources of electricity reduce consistently, then looking for alternative electricity solutions turns into crucial. Solar cells often made from expensive materials, which is why much research focused on finding cheaper materials to reduce the overall cost of solar energy. Another way to overcome this problem is to use a solar concentrator - a cheaper light-absorbing material that covers a large area, which absorbs, directs, and focuses the light to a smaller area that contains actual solar cells. The interest in exploiting solar electricity for photovoltaic energy has grown dramatically in the latest years, furthermore essential improvements inside the solar cells’ efficiency with luminescent up or down converters have currently anticipated theoretically. While solar cells are still expensive, fewer of them needed to produce a certain amount of electricity because they receive more sunlight. This paper gives, in short, evaluate the usage of luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) as opportunity electricity has low fees and comfortable as compared with photovoltaic solar panels, reviewing extra benefits in actual existence applications primarily in high structures home windows and displays of electronic devices.

Pseudocyesis as a healing mechanism for psychological trauma

Pseudocyesis, a rare condition characterized by clinical signs and symptoms of pregnancy except for the actual existence of a fetus, is a somatic symptom disorder associated with a variety of biological, psychological and social factors. The present report aims to present the case of a 45-year old patient with pseudocyesis from a psychodynamic perspective. According to a psychodynamic perspective and based on patient’s history, pseudocyesis functioned as a mental healing mechanismfor the trauma of long-standing infertility, the trauma of eight unsuccessful and painful in vitro fertilization attempts and above all, the trauma of finally giving birth to a non-healthy child.

Comparability of PD-L1 immunohistochemistry assays for non-small-cell lung cancer: a systematic review.

Programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD‐L1) immunohistochemistry is used to determine which patients with advanced non‐small‐cell lung cancer (NSCLC) respond best to treatment with PD‐L1 inhibitors. For each inhibitor, a unique immunohistochemical assay was developed. This systematic review gives an up‐to‐date insight into the comparability of standardised immunohistochemical assays and laboratory‐developed tests (LDTs), focusing specifically on tumour cell (TC) staining and scoring. A systematic search was performed identifying publications that assessed interassay, interobserver and/or interlaboratory concordance of PD‐L1 assays and LDTs in tissue of NSCLC patients. Of 4294 publications identified through the systematic search, 27 fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were of sufficient methodological quality. Studies assessing interassay concordance found high agreement between assays 22C3, 28‐8 and SP263 and properly validated LDTs, and lower concordance for comparisons involving SP142. A decrease in concordance, however, is seen with use of cut‐offs, which hampers interchangeability of PD‐L1 immunohistochemistry assays and LDTs. Studies assessing interobserver concordance found high agreement for all assays and LDTs, but lower agreement with use of a 1% cut‐off. This may be problematic in clinical practice, as discordance between pathologists at this cut‐off may result in some patients being denied valuable treatment options. Finally, five studies assessed interlaboratory concordance and found moderate to high agreement levels for various assays and LDTs. However, to assess the actual existence of interlaboratory variation in PD‐L1 testing and PD‐L1 positivity in clinical practice, studies using real‐world clinical pathology data are needed.

Population Distribution Information System in Tugumulyo District

Information on population data is quite important information for stakeholders. Information on population data is often used in various ways such as aiding, or government activities related to population data. The information that is often needed is related to the actual existence of the population in order to conduct a census or other social interests. For this reason, in this study the development of a population mapping information system in Tugumulyo sub-district was made as an effort to provide information to the public regarding population data. In the process of developing information systems, web engineering development methods are used. Web engineering method is a method used to develop a web-based information system. The results of the development in the form of a population distribution information system with the main features of population data information are presented in the form of tables, graphics and maps. In addition, the information displayed can be seen based on the sub-district and also the village or village in the sub-district

Causal Powers as Accidents: Thomas Aquinas’s View

I argue that Thomas Aquinas maintains the view that (created) powers are accidental to their bearers not because powers pertain to bearers with limited essences, but because their bearers have limited actual being. Power tracks not only the essence of something but also its actual existence. Things have powers that are causally relevant when these things exist, that is, the nature of a power is determined by a thing’s essence, but the actual being of the thing of that essence accounts for the limitations of this power and for the extent to which a power can have causal effects.

Straight running stability of automobiles: experiments with a driving simulator

The stability of the straight ahead running motion of automobiles is studied with proper theoretical tools pertaining to bifurcation theory. The study is both theoretical and experimental. Four theoretical models have been employed. They refer, respectively, to one simple car model, one simple driver model, one complex car model and one complex driver model. The existence of bifurcations, namely Hopf bifurcations, is found for both the simple car/simple driver model combination and for the complex car/complex driver model combination. The experimental study refers to the employment of a driving simulator in which a human driver controls the complex car model. At the driving simulator, bifurcations are found which correspond to the ones predicted either with the simple car/simple driver model combination or the complex car/complex driver model combination. At the driving simulator a chaotic motion is found, after a subcritical Hopf bifurcation has occurred. Apparently, for the first time in the sector of vehicle system dynamics, the actual existence of bifurcations and chaos has been shown for a real system with a human driver in-the-loop. The driving simulator does not seem introducing factors affecting sensibly bifurcations, so the bifurcations that have been found appear to be real, i.e. bifurcations could be found in an actual car running straight ahead.

COVID-19 pandemic as a challenge to constitutional legal order

The COVID-19 pandemic is certainly an emergency, it has affected almost all countries in the world and has a serious impact on the functioning of their authorities. In the current state of emergency, states have two strategies of action: to overcome it within the framework of the existing constitutional order and the current legal regulation, or to introduce a special legal regime. Today, the choice of these options for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic is being actively discussed by politicians and experts. Each of them has its pros and cons. In the event of a refusal to declare a state of emergency, the usual rules and procedures are used, which also allow the establishment of additional restrictions on human rights necessary in connection with the pandemic. This approach is attractive because it prevents the spread of panic and demonstrates that the state does not intend to resort to “draconian” measures. At the same time, a formal declaration of a state of emergency fosters awareness of the gravity of the situation and mobilizes society to combat it. Furthermore, this forces the state to openly declare what restrictions it is going to introduce, substantiate the actual existence of an emergency situation and the need for the measures used, and also indicate the time frame for this regime. This creates certain guarantees that the additional restrictions imposed on human rights will not apply to normal conditions. A state of emergency usually presupposes the concentration of public authority in the body (bodies) of executive power, often specially created for a given period, which in their activities largely replaces the parliament and regional authorities. However, in a pandemic, the “level of emergency” manifests itself differently in different regions of the country, which requires decentralization of governance, the involvement of regional authorities and civil society institutions. But the establishment of the necessary restrictive measures at the regional level very often contradicts the constitutional guarantees of human rights and freedoms, which cannot be corrected by the regional authorities, which “erodes” the constitutional order. The greatest danger is the abuse of emergency powers and their use for political purposes, as well as the preservation of certain emergency measures and the introduced legal regulation after the end of the emergency situation (actually existing or officially declared).

Automatic simulation model implementation of robotic production cells in a 3D manufacturing simulation environment

Abstract Due to the high demand placed on today’s production systems, such as high flexibility or low cost and time requirements, simulations tools continue to gain more importance. With the help of simulation tools, complex production systems can be designed as well as examined in terms of feasibility before their actual physical existence in order to make them controllable and to avoid possible cost-intensive errors. However, creating and implementing a simulation model manually takes a considerable amount of time and expert knowledge regarding the used simulation tool. A promising approach for this is to automate the implementation of simulation models using existing data about product, processes and resources (PPR-Triple). Therefore, the simulation model should represent the layout as well as the executed processes and workflows. For this purpose, the presented paper focuses on the automatic workflow and process transfer to the 3D simulation environment of Visual Components. For the representation of the imported layout and process data AutomationML (AML) is extended and utilized as a data exchange format.

The efficient Lamarckian spread of life in the cosmos.

In this Chapter we discuss the various mechanisms that are available for the possible transfer of cosmic microbial living systems from one cosmic habitat to another. With the 100 or so habitable planets that are now known to exist in our galaxy alone transfers of cometary dust carrying life including fragments of icy planetoids/asteroids would be expected to occur on a routine basis. It is thus easy to view the galaxy as a single connected “biosphere” of which our planet Earth is a minor component. The Hoyle–Wickramasinghe Panspermia paradigm provides a cogent biological rationale for the actual widespread existence of Lamarckian modes of inheritance in terrestrial systems (which we review here). Thus the Panspermia paradigm provides the raison d'etre for Lamarckian Inheritance. Under a terrestrially confined neoDarwinian viewpoint such an association may have been thought spurious in the past. Our aim here is to outline the main evidence for rapid terrestrial-based Lamarckian-based evolutionary hypermutation processes dependent on reverse transcription-coupled mechanisms among others. Such rapid adaptation mechanisms would be consistent with the effective cosmic spread of living systems. For example, a viable, or cryo-preserved, living system traveling through space in a protective matrix will of necessity need to adapt rapidly and proliferate on landing in a new cosmic niche. Lamarckian mechanisms thus come to the fore and supersede the slow (blind and random) genetic processes expected under neoDarwinian Earth centred theories.

René Ménil: Philosophy, Aesthetics, and the Antillean Subject

René Ménil (1907–2004) was a renowned Martinican essayist, critic, and philosopher who, along with Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, and Edouard Glissant, left an indelible mark on the Franco-Caribbean world of letters and intellectual thought. Ménil saw in surrealism a critical framework, a means to the specific end of exploring and expressing the specificities of the Martinican condition. Ménil assessed Martinique’s pre-war psychological condition through the telling metaphor of relative exoticism, pointing clearly to the typically unacknowledged fact that the exotic is a slippery signifier, dependent on perspective, distance and location. If the core of these conditions were to be recognized and contested, it would have to be addressed at its root, and here, there was no question for him but that colonialism was ultimately enabled by capitalism and its corollaries of avarice and accumulation. His editorship of the journal Tropiquesconstituted cultural combat. Ménil’s thought and writing were arguably aimed at achieving universality out of particularity, and so he eventually broke with Césaire—and more specifically with Senghor—over several key tenets in the Negritude platform, arguing for the actual existence of a Martinican culture. Marxism for Ménil offers a corrective to the perceived shortcomings of Negritude’s political aesthetics, namely its historical blind spots and its foregrounding of mythologized black unity at the expense of class struggle.

The Judicial Bookshelf

The Judicial Bookshelf DONALD GRIER STEPHENSON JR. Along with other horrific events, the year 2020 will remain haunting because of the covid-19 scourge with its widespread, upending, and enduring hardships and effects that, in reaching the Supreme Court, closed the building, caused the justices to announce decisions and opinions digitally, and in May for the first time necessitated oral arguments via tele-conferencing with real-time public audio streaming. Wholly unrelated to the virus, the nation had already witnessed an event akin to only three previous occasions in American history: the trial in the Sen­ ate chamber of a president of the United States following impeachment by the House of Representatives.1 The development called for application of one of the Constitution’s unequivocal provisions: “When the President ofthe United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside.”2 The single reference in the Constitution to the chief justice in the context of an impeachment trial offers a hint that while most of the Framers from the outset of the Convention of 1787 assumed the need for a national judiciary to correct what Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 12 described as a “circumstance which crowns the defects of the Confederation,” the document they crafted speaks only sparingly about the fed­ eral judiciary. As one finds in Articles I, II, and III, the words “supreme court” occur six times, “justice,” apart from “Chief Justice,” appears not once, and the word “judges” only three. Throughout their deliberations members of the convention seem nonetheless to have given some thought to the role a supreme judicial figure might play in the new political system. Even though neither the Virginia nor New Jersey plans—the two principal competing models introduced at the convention—specifically mentioned a chief justice, the former’s council of revision was to possess authority to invalidate state and national laws. That the council’s member­ ship included members of the national judi­ ciary suggested participation by a presiding judge.3 Furthermore, Connecticut delegate Oliver Ellsworth, who would have a large hand in drafting the Judiciary Act of 1789 and became the third chiefjustice, proposed that the new government contain a council consisting of department heads to assist the president, with the chiefjustice as a member. JUDICIAL BOOKSHELF 329 This, however, was an idea Elbridge Gerry opposed, believing that “[t]hese men will also be so taken up with other matters as to neglect their own proper duties.”4 The suggestion for what would be called a council of state reappeared in proposals by Pennsylvania’s Gouverneur Morris and South Carolina’s Charles Pinckney, with the chiefjustice being charged with recommending such alterations of and additions to the laws of the U.S. as may in his opinion be necessary to the due administration of Justice and such as may promote useful learning and inculcate sound morality throughout the Union.5 In their view, the chiefjustice would be the presiding officer of the council in the absence of the president. Yet their proposal failed to gain traction, thus eliminating what would have been a blending of the judicial with the executive function. Then some thir­ teen days before the convention adjourned, the Committee on Postponed Matters urged that the chief justice replace the vice presi­ dent (already designated as president of the Senate) in a situation where the president had been impeached and was on trial.6 After the title “chiefjustice” survived the final vote at the convention, the actual existence of the office awaited the discretion of Congress. Congress acted on September 24, 1789, declaring that “the supreme court of the United States shall consist of a chiefjustice and five associate justices,”7 and thereby shifting the initiative to the president who made his initial judicial nominations on the same day. Filling the Bench was a respon­ sibility George Washington took seriously, as he indicated three days later to Edmund Randolph,8 the first attorney general: “Im­ pressed with a conviction that the true ad­ ministration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government, I have considered the first arrangement of the judicial department as essential to the happiness of our country and the stability of its political system...