Opposite Opinions Research Articles

Vérité prophétique et vérité philosophique dans l’œuvre de Rabbi Josef Ibn Caspi

The aim of this article is to analyze the opinion of a Jewish Averroist Rabbi Josef Ibn Caspi (Provence and Spain 1260-1345) on the relation between prophetical and philosophical truth. In the beginning of the article, we will see that in some of his writings, R. Caspi claims the prophet’s knowledge to be superior to that of the philosopher. However, in the second part of the article, we will analyze his commentary on Maimonides Guide of the Perplexed. In this commentary R. Caspi also mentions the opposite opinion: that the knowledge of the prophet is only his knowledge as a philosopher and that even true prophets’ (Ezekiel and Zakary) can have a few false prophecies just as good philosophers may have a few wrong opinions. He thus equates the knowledge of a prophet to that of a philosopher. In the conclusion of the article we try to determine how one can distinguish between the texts that explain the true opinion of R. Caspi and the text that our author wrote only for political and pedagogical reasons.

P1.01-008 Knowledge, Attitudes, and Smoking Behaviors among Dental and Medical Students in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Tobacco use continues to be the leading cause of preventable disease and it is responsible for more than 5 million deaths each year worldwide. Despite this, there are still 650 million smokers in the world. The prevalence of smoking among adults accounts for approximately 25% deaths annually. smoking remains the main cause of mortality and morbidity in the developing nations. Healthcare professionals have an important role to play both as advisers influencing smoking cessation and as role models. However, many of them continue to smoke. Several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of smoking cessation programs and the importance of physician’s advice to their patients. The aims of the present study are as follows: (i) to evaluate smoking prevalence, knowledge and attitudes, and tobacco cessation training (ii) to examine the difference between smokers and nonsmokers. A structured questionnaire consisting of 14 questions related to tobacco/smoking habits, cessation training and role of health professionals in tobacco control were asked to the study population and their response was recorded. Random sampling method was used and data was collected from a cross-sectional survey. The survey was conducted between January and February 2015. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 17 and Logistic regression model was used to identify possible associations with tobacco smoking status. The level of significance was . A total of 259 answered the questionnaire of which 29% declared to be smokers. About 53% of the males have smoked at least once in their life and the age of cigarette initiation was 16-17 years for 28% of the sample.76% considered health professionals as behavioral models for patients, and 96% affirmed that health professionals have a role in giving advice or information about smoking cessation. Although 87% heard about smoking related issues during undergraduate courses, only 17% received specific smoking cessation training during specialization. 93% of the sample agreed that health professionals should receive specific training on smoking cessation according to while 6% were of the opposite opinion. The present study highlights the importance of focusing attention on smoking cessation training, given the high prevalence of smokers among physicians specializing in medicine and dentistry, their key role both as advisers and behavioral models, and the limited tobacco training offered in the curriculum. In the field of public health, tobacco screening, and intervention is one of the most effective clinical preventive services.

Clashes of Opinion at the Time of Drafting the Satversme of the Republic of Latvia

The article is dedicated to the 95th anniversary of the Satversme of the Republic of Latvia (hereinafter – the Satversme or basic law), adopted on 15 February 1922. According to constant jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia and Latvian legal doctrine, the Satversme must be interpreted as a basic law void of internal contradictions or as “a coherent whole”. This does not apply to the procedure of drafting and adopting the Satversme. Adoption of a number of Articles caused noteworthy debates and clashes of opposite opinions at the Constitutional Assembly (Satversmes Sapulce). In particular, these were Articles on the procedure for electing the President, guarantees for independence of the judicial power, as well as the freedom to strike. This research focuses upon analysis of these issues.

Preschoolers’ Trust in Social Consensus Varies by Context: Conventional vs. Moral Domains

<p><span style="font-family: 'Garamond',serif; font-size: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: ES; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: 'Garamond',serif; font-size: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: ES; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-GB">Do young children give priority to following personal beliefs over the testimony of a majority group of adults that approves of social exclusion? Following current research on children’s preference for non-dissenters when learning the names for novel objects, this study investigated children’s preference for consensus opinion in two contexts: Interracial social exclusion among peers and novel object labeling. The goal was to examine the generalizability of preference for the opinion of non-dissenters in a socially relevant context. This study was conducted with 90 preschool children from the Spanish ethnic majority group. The findings revealed that participants sided with the consensus significantly less often in the social exclusion context than in the novel object labeling context. Moreover, young children did not defer to the opinion of a numerical consensus in the socially meaningful context when a group condoned the exclusion of a peer from a group activity, even when the peer was from an outgroup social category. Instead, participants agreed with a dissenter who claimed that it was not okay to exclude someone, despite the opposite opinion of a numerical majority. These results provide new information regarding children’s social knowledge development.</span></span></p>

Follower Behavior Analysis via Influential Transmitters on Social Issues in Twitter

A follower can be divided into supporter, non-supporter, or neutral according to a follower’s intention to a target user. Even though a follower is identified as a supporter, an opinion may not be positive to the target user. In this paper, we propose a method to classify a follower as supporter, non-supporter or neutral. To expand information of a follower, influential transmitters who support a target user are detected by using a modified HITS algorithm. To detect a follower’s specific opinion, social issues are extracted based on tweets of influential transmitters. The thread tweets are clustered based on Latent Dirichlet Allocation for social issues. Then, sentiment analysis is conducted for the clusters of a follower. To see the effectiveness of our method, a Korean tweet collection is constructed. As a result, we found that lots of supporting followers show opposite opinions depending on particular issues.

Scienza e religione ne “La peste” di Camus

The article focuses on two main characters in Camus’ The plague, where illness transcends history, expressing the conflict between religion and science. This conflict is shown by the opposite opinions of Bernard Rieux, an atheistic doctor who represents science, and Paneloux, a Jesuit who symbolizes faith in the novel. In particular, the debate between Rieux and Paneloux summarizes the cultural stratification of biblical roots, that is arrived to the Western literatures through two often crossed traditions: the literary tradition and the polemic tradition, that is relative to the connection between illness and faith.

TEFL teachers’ and non-TEFL teachers’ perceptions on the relationship between SLA research and language pedagogy

Abstract This study explores TEFL teachers’ and non-TEFL teachers’ perceptions about the relationship between second language acquisition (SLA) research and language pedagogy with regard to familiarity, involvement, accessibility, consultation, relevance, and usefulness of SLA research in L2 pedagogy. To this end, 83 teachers, 40 TEFL teachers and 43 non-TEFL teachers, participated in this study. They filled out a questionnaire addressing their perceptions about SLA research and language pedagogy. The results revealed that the majority of TEFL teachers involved in doing research, at least as their educational term projects, while mostly no contribution was reported by non-TEFL teachers. In addition, TEFL teachers insisted that L2 teachers need to be involved in SLA research to be successful in their teaching career, while non-TEFL teachers were of the opposite opinion. Moreover, it was revealed that TEFL teachers considered the knowledge gained from research studies relevant and useful to their classroom actions, whereas non-TEFL teachers saw their experience more important for managing their classroom actions. Although both groups had contradictory perceptions of the relationship between SLA research and language pedagogy, they showed some common points in this regard. That is, both groups reported on their difficulty in having access to the research materials; they also expressed their willingness to do research.

Mewujudkan Keadilan, Kepastian dan Kemanfaatan Hukum dalam Qanun Bendera dan Lambang Aceh

Article 246 paragraph (2) of Law No. 11 Year 2006 concerning Aceh Government may stipulate that the Aceh government and the Aceh region determine the flag and emblem that reflects the privileges and specificity. It is indeed the opposite opinion with the provision of Article 6 (4) of Governement Regulation No. 77 Year 2007 on Regional Symbols which states that the logo design of regional flag should not have similarity in its essential part or in its entirety with logo design and the flag of the banned organization or association or institution or separatist movement in Indonesian. The above explanation makes the writer interested in aanalysing it further with existing legal theory. The research question is what is the position of the flag and emblem of Aceh in relation to legal justice. What is the influence of the flag and emblem of the province of Aceh in the effort to unite the people of Aceh towards legal certainty. How does the flag and emblem of Aceh influence legal order in Indonesia, and is there any legal utility. The method used is descriptive research analysis which is a study that aims to describe or illustrate systematically, factually and accurately a population or certain regions regarding the nature or certain factors. Research results show that the Qanun made should meet the elements of legal objectives in order to be more beneficial to the community at large.

A Study On Corporate Governance And Performance Effect Of Institutional Investors

Recently with rapid growth of China's institutional investors, they are gradually becoming the dominant force in capital market. At the same time they start exerting influence on corporate governance and affecting corporate performance. Many previous studies have shown institutional investors’ holdings are positively correlated to corporate performance. However there are still many studies holding opposite opinions. This article further studies how institutional investors influence corporate performance and whether they have effects on corporate governance. On the whole, we come to the conclusion that participation of institutional investors promotes the improvement of corporate performance. These conclusions provide theoretical and practical guidance to future development of institutional investors.

ANALYSIS OF APPLICATION OF DETENTION WITH REFERENCE TO THE PROSECUTION IN MACEDONIAN CRIMINAL LAW

In order to strengthen the role of the criminal justice system, especially in the prosecution of serious crime forms, including organ-ized crime, corruption, financial crime and human trafficking, detention plays an important role towards that goal though it is one of the cruelest ways of dealing with it which affects fundamental human rights. However it is also the most reliable element that the defendant will not hamper the proceedings. Detention as the strictest measure for ensuring the accused presence and successful conduct of criminal proceedings is provided with the Criminal Procedure Code and should be awarded in exceptional cases. As far as its legal identification is concerned, it is necessary to keep in mind the principle of individuality and evaluation of the specific circumstances related to the defendant and the crime he is charged with, to present argumented reasons for the award and imple-mentation of the detention. The purpose of this paper is the elaboration of the key role of detention through the study and analysis of detention in criminal proceedings and to provide guidance on its application within the law with respect of fundamental constitutional rights such as the right for freedom. Тhe purpose of the imposition of detention is to ensure the constant presence of the accused in the criminal proceedings and avoid complications unlike the opposite opinion that with this measure the accused is automatically rendered guilty.

User opinion classification in social media: A global consistency maximization approach

Social media is a major platform for opinion sharing. In order to better understand and exploit opinions on social media, we aim to classify users with opposite opinions on a topic for decision support. Rather than mining text content, we introduce a link-based classification model, named global consistency maximization (GCM) that partitions a social network into two classes of users with opposite opinions. Experiments on a Twitter data set show that: (1) our global approach achieves higher accuracy than two baseline approaches and (2) link-based classifiers are more robust to small training samples if selected properly.

The (Il)legitimacy of EU state building: local support and contention in Kosovo

This article investigates legitimacy of EU state building and conflict resolution as a continuous and collective process through which local stakeholders, as the direct bearers of EU policies, ascribe meaning and support for the EU actors and actions on the ground. Contrary to the static and narrow understanding of legitimacy in the EU literature, the article offers a dynamic framework of legitimacy based on two main aspects: (i) sources of legitimacy (input and output) and (ii) objects of legitimacy (diffuse and specific support) in order to trace the complicated relationship between the EU and different local groups (the government, parliamentary opposition, local NGOs and public opinion) in Kosovo. The main argument is that the EU fails to generate local consent and faces a worsening erosion of support in Kosovo due to the limited participation of local stakeholders into the EU-promoted political decision-making structures and the contested ability of the EU to foster outcomes that have salience for local actors.

Consensus versus persistence of disagreement in opinion formation: the role of zealots

We consider a general class of three-state models where individuals hold one of two opposite opinions, or are neutral, and exchange opinions in generic pairwise interactions. We show that when opinions spread in a population where a fraction of individuals (zealots) unshakably maintain their view, one of four qualitatively distinct kinds of collective dynamics arises, depending on the specific rules governing the social interactions. Unsurprisingly, when their density is high, zealots drive the whole population to consensus on their opinion. For low densities a rich phase diagram emerges: a finite population of dissenters can survive and be the only stationary state or may need a critical initial mass of dissenters to be sustained; the critical mass may vanish or not as the density is reduced; the transition to the high density regime can be smooth or abrupt, and shows interesting hysteretic effects. For each choice of the interaction rules we calculate the critical density of zealots above which diverse opinions cannot survive.

English

Aflatoxin contamination impinges on grain quality worldwide. The causative agent, Aspergillus spp. colonizes grain in the field down to postharvest stages in storage where they may produce toxins. Kenya has experienced recurring cases of aflatoxicosis in Eastern region especially during periods of maize grain deficit. The risk of chronic exposure has not been widely studied. Therefore, seasonal variation in abundance and species composition of toxigenic Aspergillus in maize and soils of Eastern Kenya was investigated. Samples were obtained from farmers, two months after the first (May) and second (December) harvest seasons. Aspergillus spp. were isolated from maize and soil samples by direct and dilution plate techniques respectively on Czapek Dox Agar (CZ) and thereafter sub-cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Positive identification was done using culture-morphological and microscopic characteristics in PDA media. The ammonium vapour test was used to screen for the putative toxigenic strains. A total of 229 Aspergillus spp. cultures were obtained (55% -maize, 45% -soil). Eleven Aspergillus sp. were identified: Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus clavatus, Aspergillus awamori, Aspergillus parasiticus, Aspergillus ochraceus, Aspergillus candidus, Aspergillus ustus, Aspergillus niveus, Aspergillus terreus and Aspergillus wentii. Of these 41 (18 %) were potentially toxigenic while the rest were putatively atoxigenic. Out of the 41 toxigenic isolates, 22 were from maize. The first season had 15 (68.2%) toxigenic maize isolates while 7 (31.8%) were from the second season. Generally, there were more fungal isolates in the first season (54.1%) than the second one (45.9%) while Aspergillus niger was the most abundant in both seasons. Such variation in fungal abundance supports the hypothesis that aflatoxin contamination of grain may vary seasonally but that remains to be unravelled and herein, a contrary opinion was presented. Key words: Aflatoxin, mycotoxin, Aspergillus, maize, soil.

НАУЧНЫЕ ВОЗЗРЕНИЯ НА ФЕНОМЕН ЧЕЛОВЕЧЕСКОГО КАПИТАЛА В РАКУРСЕ ИННОВАЦИОННОГО РАЗВИТИЯ ЭКОНОМИКИ ПОСТИНДУСТРИАЛЬНОГО ТИПА

The concept of a post-industrial economy is based on the new system of capital and the economy’s innovative development when the changes of the dominant capital and labor character are the features of the global economic transformation. It is proved, that the human capital – accumulated knowledge, productive capacity of the population used in the economic activity – turns out to be a form of the social capital. In these circumstances, the course direction of the Russian economic policy aimed at the innovative development can be implemented due to the accumulation of human capital. It is proved, that the developed labor potential is a prerequisite to the formation of the human capital phenomenon. Knowledge and human productive capacity in the sphere of labor potential problems are of the interest from the perspective of a possibility to implement the economic goals, and in the sphere of human capital problems – from the perspective of a possibility to make a profit to its owner. Human capital is a profitable economic asset. The essential comparison of the economic categories of “intellectual capital”, “intellectual property”, “human capital”, and “non-material assets” allowed discovering that these categories are the core of the world’s innovative development affecting each other and providing mutual development. Human capital is the main component of the intellectual capital. The authors formulated two opposite scientific opinions on the human capital phenomenon: the theory of human capital as the reflection of objective law of social development and the theory of human capital as the product of political direction based on the objective economic law, the reaction to the challenges of a new era of technological transformations when the knowledge is the most progressive productive power of humanity and the owner of production means becomes dependent on a person who owns professional knowledge and labor skills.

The force awakens: Birth of national surveillance state

University of Yale professor of Constitutional Law Jack Balkin convincingly declared emergence of a new sort of the state called 'national surveillance state'. Although the very name announces quite clearly an Orwellian scenario, Balkin is in doubt which path that kind of state will follow - the authoritarian or the democratic one. Nevertheless quite optimistic approaches of J. Balkin, O. Kerr and other authors considering democratic type of the national surveillance state the author of this paper holds the opposite opinion. Taking as a starting point an anthropological feature that 'passion warps the rule even of the best men' (Aristotle, 1287a), the author doubts in democratic character of the national surveillance state. He criticizes Balkin's explanations that the problem could be solved by 'control of the controllers' or 'observation of the observers'. One who has supreme right to dispose over information (no matter which state body could it be), can always, or most often will abuse that right having in mind some interest, particularly when the interest can be vested within socially and politically acceptable tune, like the fight against terrorism, national interest or similar. Proper and firm normative framework could contribute to successful balance between privacy and security of citizens and eventually diminish potential misuse of surveillance of citizens. However, many people provide information for the 'Big Brother' by sacrificing their own privacy voluntarily, forming their own 'digital database' through different social networking. Balkin's generous but native belief that democratic national surveillance state is possible could hardly survive the test of the coming time and challenges. It is quite evident that, particularly the most developed states, fairly fast incline towards repressive national surveillance state. Maybe the process could be only decelerated by activities of NGOs, by developing awareness of every single citizen of threatens for his privacy, by intervention of independent media, by strengthen social responsibility, etc. Lower technological level of less developed societies could appear as a temporary advantage but, generally speaking, in this moment it seems that the autocratic national surveillance state is irrepressible.

Contribution methodology of research of different attitudes of the users of Post of Serbia about socially responsible business

All companies can claim for themselves that they act socially responsibly. However, we often hear the opposite opinions. The intention of this work is to suggest continuous assessment of socially responsible behaviour by assessing the research of different attitudes of its users, first of all, and then by assessing the other participants in socially responsible business, the employed above all, but also by assessing the social community. The very proposal of the methodology of research of the attitudes of the users is given in the example of the Public Enterprise Post of Serbia. The final reflection is that it should be worked on the improvement of the users perception of socially responsible business, just like on creation, realisation and better promotion of socially responsible actions at Post of Serbia, pointing also at possible examples of successful postal operators.

Image of Šančiai as portrayed in Lithuanian press in 3 and 4 decades of the twentieth century

The aim of the article is to analyse images of Šančiai and related stereotypes that circulated in the Lithuanian press in 3–4 decades of the twentieth century. Images of Šančiai have not been studied yet, therefore are important to be revealed. Using periodical sources, the article focuses on the stereotypes of Šančiai people – the social and national stratification. The article mostly analyses the image of Šančiai that was related to the roads, pavements, lightning and general public order during the interwar period. Moreover, the research reveals the image of Šančiai formed by the Lithuanian press, describing leisure and cultural life of inhabitants of Šančiai. Lastly, the article discusses the way criminal offences influenced formation of the negative stereotypes of this suburb. Finally, it is worth mentioning that authors of the interwar articles preferred copying and repeating thoughts from each other rather than expressing the opposite opinion.

Notch Signaling in Pancreatic Development

The Notch signaling pathway plays a significant role in embryonic cell fate determination and adult tissue homeostasis. Various studies have demonstrated the deep involvement of Notch signaling in the development of the pancreas and the lateral inhibition of Notch signaling in pancreatic progenitor differentiation and maintenance. The targeted inactivation of the Notch pathway components promotes premature differentiation of the endocrine pancreas. However, there is still the contrary opinion that Notch signaling specifies the endocrine lineage. Here, we review the current knowledge of the Notch signaling pathway in pancreatic development and its crosstalk with the Wingless and INT-1 (Wnt) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) pathways.

Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery for stage IIIa and IIIb non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC): is it still justified?

For stage III non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), overall survival after surgery alone is quite poor, in the range of 5% to 10% at five years, mainly due to the high incidence of local and distant failures. Randomized trials and meta-analyses have shown a modest improvement in survival with neo-adjuvant chemotherapy, however the local and distant failure rates remain high. Numerous retrospective studies and phase II trials have been published on the potential added value of radiotherapy in the neoadjuvant setting and are reviewed here. These studies have shown that the addition of radiotherapy to chemotherapy is followed by a high rate of complete resection, an encouraging rate of complete pathologic response, a high mediastinal clearance in case of N2 disease, all of which represent potential surrogates for survival. Until recently, only small randomized trials have compared neoadjuvant chemoradiation to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and were not contributory. The recently published Swiss cooperative group (SAKK) phase III randomized trial is the only one to have accrued a sufficient number of patients for interpretation. It showed a superiority of neoadjuvant chemoradiation over neoadjuvant chemotherapy regarding overall response rate, complete resection rate and local control, with no increased haematologic toxicity or post-operative deaths. However there was no difference in the event-free survival (the primary endpoint) nor in overall survival between the two arms. Following the results of this trial, opposite opinions have been expressed regarding the possible causes of failures of this trial, and on the future role or not of radiotherapy associated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy before surgery. It is suggested that under certain conditions, in which the risk of local failures is quite high after surgery, studies on the role of neoadjuvant chemoradiation should be pursued, using novel radiotherapy techniques and schemes, and novel systemic treatments associated with radiotherapy.