Paradoxical Linkages Research Articles

The Pandemic: A Philosophical Diagnosis

The paper examines the event of the pandemic in three aspects: a metaphor of our age, an issue of ethics, a new phase of anthropogenesis. As the metaphor of the era, the pandemic stars as Belikov (A. Chekhov’s The Man in the Case): the form of bio-phobia and socio-phobia, the growing sterility of contacts, socializing over distances, closeness, and the priority of packaging (covers) before the procedures of openness, nudity, fusion. There appears a change in genres: the detective as a genre based on the revelation and removal of a shroud of mystery, the punishment of crime, gives way to the genre of the protectIva (from protegere: to shroud, to pull the veil, to shield). The protective is a genre to avert a catastrophe, protect against crime that has already become a norm, — the experience of survival on edge. There emerges homo tegens, “man who enclothes”, who pulls a veil over everything including himself. The pandemic as an issue of ethics poses a multitude of ethical challenges and choices (between utilitarianism and egalitarianism, the principles of "not doing bad things" and "doing good"). The pandemic as the dawn of a new phase of anthropogenesis demonstrates the transformation of a man climbing and walking upright into a man sitting (in front of the screen) — Homo Sedens. With the development of civilization and the transition to intellectual work and a sedentary lifestyle, sight and hearing gain superiority. These organs are of remote perception, and in this sense, they meet the requirements of social distance and self-isolation that favour the preservation of man as a species. Physical sensitivity and tactility in the culture of Late Modern times have a paradoxical linkage with a change in the concepts of tact and decorum, with the ability to keep a distance, not to impose their views on another person. The author expects the consequence of the pandemic to be the movement of the frontier of civilization deep into the virtual worlds. Globalization is moving from an extroverted stage to an introverted one. The author concludes that when faced with a common danger that does not make national, ethnic, or religious distinctions, humankind becomes a concrete reality that one used to feel vague.

Bioethical and legal perspectives on cell reprogramming technologies

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have been presented as a more ethical alternative to human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), which are surrounded by a significant ethical controversy. This article discusses some potential promises and perils of iPSCs for regenerative medicine. It also presents some ethical perspectives regarding the hypothetical use of iPSCs in reproductive applications. In particular, this article analyses whether iPSCs are a less problematic alternative to hESCs from an ethical viewpoint. In order to shed some light on this multidimensional question, the prospects of iPSCs for regenerative medicine will be discussed in light of the current scientific knowledge. In addition, paradoxical linkages between iPSC and hESC technologies will be analysed from a bioethical perspective. Finally, legal and ethical patentability considerations affecting the commercialization prospects of different pluripotent stem cell-based products will be discussed.

New 6-screw linkage with circular translation and its variants

The circular translation generated by a pseudo-planar parallelogram with four screw pairs having equal pitches and parallel axes is introduced and a special Delassus parallelogram producing the same motion is obtained through the addition of a second pseudo-planar parallelogram with another value of its equal pitches. A mechanical generator of spherical translation stemming from the circular translation generator is revealed. Combining a spherical translation generator and a pseudo-planar or special Delassus parallelogram leads to a new family of 6-screw (6H) paradoxical linkages with circular translation in a purely geometric way. Their architectural type belongs to the structural group with two alternate pairs of joint-axes parallel and one pair of opposite joint-axes parallel. Moreover, the one-degree-of-freedom (1-DoF) movability is conditioned by metric constraints. The already published 6R linkages having circular translation are special types of 6H with all screw-pitches zero. The parallel arrangement of three special 6R linkages produces a 3-UU parallel platform with circular translation (U denotes a universal joint with intersecting joint axes of revolute pairs). A more overconstrained m-UU case (m≥4) with special joint-axes arrangements is disclosed too.

Colombia's Drug Trafficking Subculture: Its Literary Representation in La Virgen de los sicarios and Rosario Tijeras

IntroductionVIOLENCE SEEMS TO FORM a central part of Latin American and Caribbean history. In fact, Latin America has not only suffered from colonial violence, which has condemned it to its peripheral position, but it has also experienced the violence inherent in the very constitution of the state and social order. In addition, the current era of globalisation has intensified this phenomenon, as it has deepened the state of dependency and the inequality which exist within and beyond national territories.The focus on Colombian violence and its literary representation may seem limiting, as this is a social problem that has spread throughout the continent, and the Caribbean.1 However, the increasing use of the term colombianisation within national and international borders to define a situation of extreme violence, illustrates the cultural and political significance this country has assumed on the global stage, in relation to violence. Indeed, Colombia has been subjected to multiple forms of violence, and this multiplicity has been completely infiltrated by the submerged economy of drug trafficking organisations.2Over the last twenty-five years this widespread violence has ceased to be a rural phenomenon and has taken on many urban features. This is due to the fact that the war between drug barons, guerrilla and paramilitary groups, and the high levels of unemployment in the countryside have forced people to abandon rural areas in large numbers. Thus, Colombian cities have experienced an uncontrolled expansion of outlying areas called comunas, labyrinthine territories excluded from the benefits of the city and which consequently do not abide by the rules established for the rest of the metropolis. Using the term coined by Carlos Monsivais,3 these cities have become 'rituals of chaos' where fear, as a common denominator, permeates social interactions, leading to the existence of multiple subcultures through which frustrations and conflicts affecting many social sectors are expressed. Although this situation has increased the fragmentation of the city and implied a dramatic rupture in the social order, it has not manifested itself as a catastrophe because it offers a variety of opportunities. Violence, far from being an ephemeral product, has turned into the financial base of many Colombian citizens,4 and the professionalisation of 'the violent' has become a part of the country's informal economy, giving rise to a society dominated by terror. This is what Susana Rotker has defined as 'the citizenship of fear',5 a market tendency in which the lack of trust between one citizen and another intensifies, marking the shift from citizen to potential victim.Bearing in mind the weakness of the state,6 membership in the criminal Colombian underworld seems to be a unique way out - often perceived as a magical solution - an escape not only from economic problems but also from social invisibility. In this context, the emergence of the drug trafficking subculture, while establishing a strong criticism of capitalism, suggests a criminal way out that constitutes a modus operandi in the anomic sectors. Indeed, drug trafficking offers an exhilarating route to enrichment and social recognition. In the analysis of any subculture it becomes difficult to determine if such a culture operates within or against the base of the hegemonic one, which, in this case, may be seen as a paradoxical linkage. The drug trafficking subculture, whilst implying a notion of difference from the dominant culture, imposing itself against the institutional juridical order and installing a set of special values, symbols and merchandising, is in fact, within certain parameters, constituted by this same hegemony, as fashion and consumerism.Youngsters inhabiting the marginal areas of the city, the comunas or urban ghettos, are the most vulnerable group within this world of crime and murder linked to drug trafficking. They have been trapped in a global system and a society that is existing within one of the strictest paradigms of neo-liberalism and capitalism operating during the last decades of the twentieth century. …

Synthesize new 5-bar paradoxical chains via the oblique circular cylinder

Abstract Based on the geometric properties of the oblique circular or elliptic cylinder and an invariant subset of translations, a family of related chains having a paradoxical mobility is systematically synthesized. First of all, vector calculation is used to describe the plane symmetry operation. The plane symmetry property of an oblique circular (OC) cylinder, which has circular directrices, is verified. Next, we introduce a mechanical generator of 2-DoF translation along the surface of an OC cylinder and derive a novel PaPPa paradoxical chain, where Pa denotes the composite joint of a 4-R hinged parallelogram with parallel axes. Then, we establish its corresponding RR ¯ P RR ¯ ¯ chain. The implementation of pseudo-planar and Delassus parallelograms leads to more general chains of type PHPPH, where PH designates the composite joint of a 4-H parallelogram with four parallel axes. The related HH ¯ P HH ¯ ¯ chain having two couples of H pairs with parallel axes and equal pitches separately is a new 1-DoF paradoxical linkage.

The antiphospholipid syndrome: clinical characteristics, laboratory features and pathogenesis

The antiphospholipid syndrome is characterized by the paradoxical linkage between thrombosis in vivo and prolongation of clotting times in vitro. Recent reports that are discussed in this overview have taught us that this inconsistency is not so incomprehensible after all. Only a subpopulation of the heterogeneous population of antiphospholipid antibodies is pathogenic. New hypotheses have been proposed to explain the thrombotic tendency in this syndrome. In contrast to what is generally thought, it seems that the increased risk of thrombotic complication is independent of chronic vascular disease. The latest developments could make it possible to define patients with the syndrome unambiguously. This is absolutely necessary to facilitate studies designed to test the current hypotheses on the pathophysiology of antiphospholipid syndrome.

On Mobility Analysis of Linkages Using Group Theory

This paper presents a generalization of Kutzbach-Gru¨bler criterion for mobility analysis of kinematic chains based on group theory. This new mobility criterion applies to exceptional linkages and reduces to a group theoretic representation of Kutzbach-Gru¨bler criterion for trivial linkages. Furthermore, it is shown that using sets and groups of Euclidean displacements, one can distinguish between trivial, exceptional, and paradoxical linkages. Using these concepts, formal definitions of trivial, exceptional, and paradoxical linkages are presented and it is shown that there are two classes of paradoxical linkages. This work builds upon and extends the work of Herve´ and Fanghella and Galletti in application of group theory to analysis of kinematic chains.

“Terrorism” as total violence?

This article defends the idea that terrorism, to which the term ‘total violence’ will be preferred, namely a deliberate strategy of blind violence against the civilian population accord‐ing to the principle of disjunction between victims (‘non‐combatants‘, ‘the innocent’) and target (a government or other authority), is the civilian version of the extreme violence that is in most cases used by states. It identifies three processes that go to explain the emergence of this new form of violence. First, the historical process of the ideologisation and mythification of warfare, which permitted a substantial unleashing of state violence during the twentieth century and its civil society counterpart, arbi‐trary murder. Second, due prominence must be given in the analysis of violence to the purely technological factor, namely the new military and communication resources that hugely increase human capacity for destruction and its resultant terror effects. Lastly, there is an anthropological dimension, which, in the aggressor's relationship with the victim, places total violence in the category of extreme violence, as the conclusion of an a priori paradoxical linkage between the terrifying instrumentalisation of victims and the near mystical exaltation of their sacrifice.

New Discourses and Modernity in Postrevolutionary Iran

Iran’s social and cultural climates seem to have undergone a relativerelaxation in recent years. The end of the Iran-Iraq war (1988), the deathof Ayatollah Khomeini (1989), and the emergence of Ali Akbar HashemiRafsanjani as president are some of the factors affecting this development.A cursory analysis of the level of literate intellectual culture-print media, film industry, literature, and music-reveals the range andnature of some cultural activities in post-1979 Iran. For example, between1981-91, the number of book titles published annually increased from3,500 to 8,600, periodicals from 100 to 501, and public libraries from 415to 550 units, while the number of people using libraries rose from 4 million(1981) to 14 million (1991). In the film industry, despite a vigilantcensor, Iranian cinema matured and acquired a new character, a developmentdescribed as “the most stimulating event in arts” over the lastdecade. More films were made by the local film industry and screened ininternational film festivals in 1990-91 than during any single year prior tothe 1979 revolution.A paradoxical linkage between constraints on cultural activities andthe flowering of creative potential also applies to music. DespiteKhomeini’s fatwa banishing music from the national radio and TV for atime,’ it is now claimed that the creative range of modem Persian musicis unmatched in the sixty years of its recorded history. In literature, theemergence of new writers, new experiments in form and technique, aswell as a phenomenal growth in the readership, sale, and publication ofworks by contemporary Iranian authors have enriched the cultural sceneconsiderably? With sales of each best-selling title running between15,000 to 35,000, together with the impressive quality of the works produced,the literary arena appears to be more buoyant than at any otherperiod of recent Iranian history.” ...

Churchill's Cognitive and Rhetorical Style: The Debates over Nazi Intentions and Self-Government for India

Many scholars view integratively complex reasoning as either cognitively or morally superior to integratively simple reasoning. This value is, however, too simple to capture the complex, subtle, and even paradoxical linkages between integrative complexity and good judgment in historical context. Our case studies add to the growing literature on this topic by assessing the integrative and cognitive complexity of policy statements that Winston Churchill and his political adversaries made during two key foreign policy debates of the 1930s-the appeasement of Nazi Germany (where contemporary opinion overwhelmingly favors Churchill) and the granting of self-government to India (where contemporary opinion overwhelmingly favors Churchill's opponents). In both private and public, Churchill expressed less integratively complex but more cognitively complex opinions than did his opponents on both Nazi Germany and self-government for India. The results illustrate (a) impressive consistency in Churchill's integrative but not cognitive complexity in both private and public communications over time and issue domains, and (b) the dependence of normative judgments of styles of thinking on speculative counterfactual reconstructions of history and on moral-political values. We close by arguing that, although integrative complexity can be maladaptive in specific decision-making settings, it can still be highly adaptive at the meta-decision-making level where leaders decide how to decide. Good requires the ability to shiftfrom simple to complex modes of processing in timely and appropriate ways.