Notion Of Interest Research Articles

Commitment to public interest in audit – an imperative of strengthening trust in the profession

The auditing profession is based on serving the public interest and the exact knowledge regarding the public interest notion is a condition of its advancement. The professions’ commitment to support public interest is factual, a condition of its presence. The individual interest should not be predominant over the public interest and the reconciliation between them is conditional on the application of ethical and professional standards according to the public’s expectations. The ethical values promoted by the ethics code guide the auditors when a conflict arises. Thus, the Ethics Code of the profession protects as much the public interest as the private interest. The study conducted by IFAC in 2010 enables to analyse the position of member bodies in order to outline the significance of the public interest and its association with the auditing profession. The definition of the public interest confers homogeneity to a notion with a broad sense and its evaluation is done through three criteria among which the costs and benefits analysis is the main criterion. The statistical analysis performed, whose starting point was the IFAC study regarding the public interest framework, confirms the extensive meaning of the public interest significance as well as the evaluation criteria. Following the statistical analysis, the appreciation of the public interest definition as ‘too large’ does not meet consensus among the majority of participants to the study. At the same time, the mediation between criteria and their re-ranking represent the main elements of dissension. The authors conclude that the trust generated by defending the public interest is reflected upon strengthening the legitimacy of the profession.

A Path to a Countermovement? Forms of Integration in Polish Consumer Cooperatives

This paper discusses Polish consumer cooperatives in terms of the embedded economy as understood by Karl Polanyi. The author compares today‟s “new” cooperatives, or informal groups of consumers that have been emerging in Poland since 2010, with the “old” consumer cooperative movement that existed between 1906 and 1939, as represented mainly by the “Spolem” consumer cooperative union. Following Polanyi‟s understanding of the relationship between human economy and social institutions, I analyse reciprocity and redistribution as forms of economic integration in past and present cooperatives. Although the “new” cooperatives refer to the prewar cooperative traditions, their structure and economic operation differ vastly from the original model. I argue that the present structure of consumer cooperatives does not provide a base for symmetry and centricity – “supporting structures” for reciprocity and redistribution – although some of the new cooperatives do offer solutions for those deficits. This paper also discusses the nature of class barriers in the contemporary and historical consumer-cooperative movement, and relates this issue to Polanyian notions of countermovement and class interest.

Parameterized Games and Parameterized Automata

We introduce a way to parameterize automata and games on finite graphs with natural numbers. The parameters are accessed essentially by allowing counting down from the parameter value to 0 and branching depending on whether 0 has been reached. The main technical result is that in games, a player can win for some values of the parameters at all, if she can win for some values below an exponential bound. For many winning conditions, this implies decidability of any statements about a player being able to win with arbitrary quantification over the parameter values. While the result seems broadly applicable, a specific motivation comes from the study of chains of strategies in games. Chains of games were recently suggested as a means to define a rationality notion based on dominance that works well with quantitative games by Bassett, Jecker, P., Raskin and Van den Boogard. From the main result of this paper, we obtain generalizations of their decidability results with much simpler proofs. As both a core technical notion in the proof of the main result, and as a notion of potential independent interest, we look at boolean functions defined via graph game forms. Graph game forms have properties akin to monotone circuits, albeit are more concise. We raise some open questions regarding how concise they are exactly, which have a flavour similar to circuit complexity. Answers to these questions could improve the bounds in the main theorem.

The issue of interest (riba) in the Abrahamic religions

PurposeReligious scripts strongly encourage acts of philantrophy and benevolence that contribute to achievement of social harmony and similarly condemn interest out of money. The views paying attention to economic reasons fail to offer a plausible counter argument to this contradiction. Almost all studies since the inception of Islam have, rather than considering the dynamic social and economic realities of the time, attempted to justify the views on the ban. Thus, this study aims to provide clear aspect on Abrahamic religion’s approach on the issue.Design/methodology/approachThis paper seeks to analyze how the Abrahamic religions approach the issue of interest. For the sake chronology, the Judaic approach will be first analyzed, referring to the main arguments that served as basis for the lift of the ban. Subsequent to the rational arguments raised in the Christian tradition that justified the ban, the reasons for the removal of the ban that changed the attitude of the church will be examined. Finally, based on its original sources, the approach of Islam will be evaluated and the current popular arguments will be discussed.FindingsA review of the interest issue in the Abrahamic religions in a historical context reveals that there are visible similarities between the arguments that served as basis of the discussions. Christian scholars were able to justify the ban with reference to strong arguments; however, in reference to the conditions that the economy arguably dictated, the ban has been gradually lifted. A similar process has taken place among Islamic scholars as well. Those who adopt an economic perspective fail to consider the chief principles in Abrahamic religions that promote the practice of benevolence.Originality/valueThis paper seeks to analyze how the Abrahamic religions approach the issue of interest from a broader perspective. To this end, the authors offer a general framework of the notion of interest and present the approaches of Abrahamic religions to the concept through reference to popular arguments.

Context characteristics and their effects on students’ situational interest in chemistry

ABSTRACTMany studies in science education acknowledge the positive effects of context-based learning on students’ interest and attitudes. However, little is known about the design criteria of contextual situations generating these effects and how facets of students’ situational interest are affected while learning in a contextualised setting. This paper ties in with this initial situation and reports results of two projects analysing the influence of context characteristics on students’ situational interest, referring to contexts as task parameters in the first project and as learning activities in the second. In the first project, everyday related and unique contexts are compared, and the effects of different contextual topics on student learning are investigated. Particularly, regarding the feeling- and value-related valence of situational interest, the results of different studies will be compared and interpreted. The second project investigated structures of interest related to activities along an adapted version of the ‘RIASEC’-model for different content areas and age groups. The chosen contents were embedded in personal as well as societal and professional context settings. Finally, we summarise the relevance of the different models, results and instruments to better understand different notions of interest and outline implications for further studies about teaching that improves student learning.

The ethics of organ donation, donation after circulatory determination of death, and xenotransplantation from an Islamic perspective.

Donation after circulatory determination of death (DCDD) and xenotransplantation are advanced as possible solutions to the growing gap between the number of individuals in need of organ transplantation and the pool of donors. Investigating how various publics, including religious leaders, might view these "therapies" is essential for broad public and professional support and will be needed in order to make these solutions viable. This study, therefore, presents normative Islamic bioethical perspectives on donation after circulatory determination of death and xenotransplantation. First, we will discuss foundational Islamic ethico-legal debates regarding organ donation. These debates can be grouped into three broad positions, those who consider organ donation categorically impermissible as a violation of human dignity (ḥurma and karāma), those who agree that organ donation is impermissible in principle, but allow it conditionally on the basis of dire necessity (ḍarūra), and those who permit organ donation based on notions of public interest (maṣlaḥa). Next, we will reflect upon the additional ethical dimensions DCDD and xenotransplantation add to these debates. We contend that the condition of minimal harm to the donor and the definition of death need to be accounted for within Islamic perspectives on DCDD. Xenotransplantation, on the other hand, highlights concerns about using pigs for therapeutic purposes. We conclude by commenting on additional questions that remain to be addressed in the Islamic bioethical debate over these practices and with recommendations for further research.

Riba and interest in Islamic finance: semantic and terminological ıssue

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to argue analytically that interest and riba are not exactly the same and not an interchangeable terminology. There are similarities and differences between the two at the conceptual level.Design/methodology/approachTo support the argument, the paper shows that it is possible to prove cases where the riba is involved but the interest is not. Hence, there is a situation of the presence of riba without interest. Furthermore, it is also possible to prove cases where the interest is involved but the riba is not. Hence, there is a situation of the presence of interest without riba. The notion and concept of interest in finance are analysed critically in comparison with riba in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh Islami). So a comparative conceptual analysis is the main methodology of the paper.FindingsThe paper finally suggests that the correct expression should be that Islamic banking and finance is “a ribawi free of banking and finance” instead of “interest free of banking and finance” as it is popularised.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is conceptual in nature. No empirical analysis is pursued.Practical implicationsIslamic finance should not claim it self as interest-free finance, rather riba-free finance.Social implicationsIt is more truthful to the society to say that Islamic finance is riba-free finance.Originality/valueThe paper is expected to contribute in the conceptual level of Islamic banking and finance’s understanding by clearing up the basic confusion and misconception about riba and interest. This would consequently minimise or even eliminate the taken-for-granted tendency of denoting the semantic of riba and interest as an interchangeable term, especially when writing in English and addressing the finance’s students and scholars. The semantic clarification between interest and riba hopefully becomes the main contribution of this paper.

The interpretation of the notion of public interest in Polish public competition law according to the judgement of the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection of February 4, 2015 (XVII AmA 163/11)

Aim: The notion of a public interest in administrative law science and in the administration science occupies the central position in the notion chart. Consequently, it is also the main notion of public protection of competition. The legislator has not decided to present a definition of "the public interest" in the Competition and Consumer Protection Law Act. As a result, interpretation of the concept is largely dependent on the judicature. The aim of the paper is to analyse the notion of a public interest and its interpretation both in science and in practice of law application. Design / Research methods: The author's conclusions are based on analysing the pubic interest interpretation made by representatives of the doctrine and the judicature. Conclusions / findings: In consequence, the author is of very good opinion on how the notion of a public interest in the public protection of competition evolves, adapting to the current social and market condition and to the development of the competition law science. Originality / value of the article: Originality of the topic comes from the legal analysis of the controversial presentation of a correctly operating competition on the medicinal product sales market, unprecedented in the judicature, as a mechanism allowing patients to obtain health services in line with the current status of medical knowledge.

A Simpler Self-reduction Algorithm for Matroid Path-Width

The path-width of matroids naturally generalizes the better known parameter of path-width for graphs and is NP-hard by a reduction from the graph case. While the term matroid path-width was formally introduced in [J. Geelen, B. Gerards, and G. Whittle, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B, 96 (2006), pp. 405--425] in pure matroid theory, it was soon recognized in [N. Kashyap, SIAM J. Discrete Math., 22 (2008), pp. 256--272] that it is the same concept as the long-studied so-called trellis complexity in coding theory, later named trellis-width, and hence it is an interesting notion also from the algorithmic perspective. It follows from a result of Hliněný [P. Hliněný, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B, 96 (2006), pp. 325--351] that the decision problem---whether a given matroid over a finite field has path-width at most $t$---is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) in $t$, but this result does not give any clue about constructing a path-decomposition. The first constructive and rather complicated FPT algorithm for path-width of matroids over a finite field was given in [J. Jeong, E. J. Kim, and S. Oum, in Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, SIAM, 2016, pp. 1695--1704]. Here we propose a simpler “self-reduction” FPT algorithm for a path-decomposition. Precisely, we design an efficient routine that constructs an optimal path-decomposition of a matroid by calling any subroutine for testing whether the path-width of a matroid is at most $t$ (such as the aforementioned decision algorithm for matroid path-width).

Introduction

Introduction

Retractable Compact Directed Complete Poset (Acts)

Taking domains in the one hand and actions of a semigroup (automaton) on the other, as two crucial notions in mathematics as well as in computer science, we consider the notion of compact directed complete poset (acts), and investigate the interesting notion of absolute retractness for such ordered structures. As monomorphisms and embeddings for domain acts are different notions, we study absolute retractness with respect to both the class of monomorphisms and that of embeddings for compact directed complete poset (acts). We characterize the absolutely retract compact dcpos as complete compact chains. Also, we give some examples of compact directed complete poset acts which are (ε-)absolutely retract (with respect to embeddings) and show that completeness is not a sufficient condition for (ε-)absolute retractness.

Omniscience, Free Will, and Religious Belief

In this paper, I examine a standard foreknowledge argument and some interesting ways of handling it, along with some criticisms. I argue that there are philosophically interesting notions of free will that are compatible with determinism. These are the notions of free will that matter to ordinary life, and I argue that these generate a way for a philosophically interesting understanding of free will to be compatible with belief in God’s infallible foreknowledge. I discuss two key questions—the empirical question and the divine interference question—that are often neglected in the contemporary debate on foreknowledge and free will. Finally, I provide some answers to these questions that I hope can advance the debate.

Social Interest in The Polish Doctrine of Monument Preservation

The paper discusses a controversy surrounding the latest amendment to the text of the Polish Parliament Act Conservation and the Care of Monuments (2015). It is a common dictum that any edifice cannot exist without good foundations. In this particular case of the mentioned above Act, definition of monument appears to be such a basis. A social interest is one of the constituent elements of the definition mentioned above. In the first part of the paper the notion of the social interest expression has been discussed, particularly from national and international points of view. The second part of the paper comprises some examples from the Polish monument preservation experience with the use of comparison method supported by case study. Only three big Polish cities: Warsaw, Wroclaw and Szczecin are involved in the presented case study but it must be emphasized that many other places on Polish territory experienced the same. Basing on the faith of these cities, the results and discussion chapter proves fundamental discrepancy in social interest notion between national and international scopes using some analytical methods. Finally, in the discussion chapter some proposals for the future amendment of monument definition in the Act of Conservation and the Care of Monuments have been provided.

Exploring meanings of leisure among people with autism: “To have some fun on your own”

ABSTRACTThis article explores how meanings of leisure are formulated among people with autism in relation to different notions of autism and leisure. The analysis is based on a discursive psychological analysis of articles in the Swedish magazine Empowerment (2002–2009), which was produced by and aimed at adults with autism. In relation to deficit notions of autistic special interests, the articles in the magazine formulated an alternative discourse that stressed the possibilities for meaningful leisure for people with autism, enabled by the right support, and on the continuum of leisure activities of non-autistic people. Central in the formulation of this ideal of meaningful leisure is its conditionality; by being socially functional or productive; as both self-developing and socially constructive.

In Search of Monkey Girl: Disability, Child Welfare, and the Freak Show in Ontario in the 1970s

In this article, we examine the brief exhibition of and public debate over “The Monkey Girl” exhibit at the intersection of the freak show, disability, and child welfare in the 1960s and 1970s. The critical moment was triggered by the limited but powerful outcry against the exhibition of a five-year-old girl (identified only as Pookie) as The Monkey Girl at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in 1973. We argue that wider shifts in understandings of child welfare—particularly, the notion of the best interests of the child, a standard for the determination of child custody in divorce cases, which places emphasis on the well-being of children, not the rights of parents—as well as the emergence of poverty and disability rights movements provided the impetus to end the freak show at Canada’s largest exhibition. By the time of Pookie’s display in the early 1970s, calls for inclusion of people with what was then known as mental retardation had hit the national agenda, along with issues of poverty and child abuse.

Koniec tajnej polityki?

The modern definition of the state refers to the notion of sovereignty and to the related notion of the national interest, which is accompanied by secret politics. Niccolò Machiavelli was the first thinker to advocate for the primacy of the national interest. He drew inspiration from the classic concept of arcana imperii (secrets of state) and his writings can be used to explain why the concept of the national interest has taken on a modern form and is inextricably linked to the mysterious dimension of politics. Machiavelli pointed out that power is accompanied by enforcement power and indescribable hypocrisy, and actions taken at the state level (lo stato) are unique and require protection. However, we now witness the disappearance of the mysterious dimension of politics. Information leaks, tape recordings, eavesdropping and candid photos cause public debates and lead to numerous political changes. In this situation, the concept of the national interest must be discussed again. The public justification for the national interest and concrete political solutions and goals implemented by the state could reduce citizens’ suspicion, which is fed on further leaks.

Termination-of-Pregnancy Rights and Foetal Interests in Continued Existence in South Africa: The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act 92 of 1996

The aim of this article is to demonstrate that, although South Africa has permissive termination-of-pregnancy legislation, to the extent that women can terminate first- and second-trimester pregnancies on demand and for socio-economic reasons, foetal interests are in fact taken into account. The system of female reproductive rights progressively shelters foetal interests, albeit to a limited extent. South Africa is in the process of successfully balancing the conflicting notions of female reproductive rights and foetal interests. The article discusses the "right to terminate a pregnancy" with reference to the Constitution, the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act 92 of 1996 and relevant case law.
 
 On the topic of foetal interests, the article looks at the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act as legislative recognition of foetal interests since a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy is progressively limited as the pregnancy advances beyond the second trimester. The value of dignity justifies the recognition of foetal interests. Further, accepting that the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act limitedly protects foetal interests based on the value of dignity, the article questions why South Africa permits elective second trimester termination of pregnancies? Research indicates a need for second trimester terminations and the article discusses the position of a number of women seeking second trimester terminations.
 
 The article draws to an end by looking at the case of S v Mshumpa as an example of the balancing process that is needed when dealing with female reproductive rights and foetal interests. This article demonstrates the constitutional setting of women's termination-of-pregnancy rights on the one hand, and foetal interests on the other. Further, it illustrates that these conflicting positions, rather than being deepened, are in fact balanced by legislation and relevant case law.

Should neurotechnological treatments offered to offenders always be in their best interests?

The paper critically discusses the moral view that neurotechnological behavioural treatment for criminal offenders should only be offered if it is in their best interests. First, I show that it...

The politics of inclusivity

This article examines popular perceptions of communalism and apparent lack of political engagement among Muslims in Hyderabad’s Old City. The Old City is a notoriously poor, Muslim-majority district with social problems exacerbated by poor infrastructure and political neglect. Through an examination of everyday political participation, which I term civic conduct, I argue that Hyderabadi Muslims enact notions of public interest and civic virtue. Through ethnographic fieldwork conducted along networks of voluntary associations in the Old City, I argue that Hyderabadi Muslims contest the weight of historical exclusion and political negligence through expressions of civic engagement. Everyday accomplishments and aspirations perform a norm of civility in the Old City that constitutes a powerful claim to belonging. I suggest that civic conduct becomes both a means for accessing the rights of urban citizenship and a critique of exclusionary narratives.

Administrative Law Without Public Interest?

AbstractThe recent evolution of administrative law has shown a gradual abandonment of a few notions considered central in the traditional description of the subject matter. Among these the notion of public interest stands out in a particular way.