Rational Considerations Research Articles

George Orwell on politics and war

AbstractGeorge Orwell is not generally remembered for his views on strategy. Nevertheless a careful reading of his written work reveals a coherent appreciation of war’s strategic dimension. For Orwell, war is a necessary adjunct to politics, and the utility of strategic action should be based on rational considerations of cost and benefit. He rejected pacifism and self-imposed restraints on warfare on the basis that such positions proceeded from unexamined emotional commitments, and were neither instrumentally nor morally sound. He also maintained that the enemy’s political values are an essential input into effective strategic calculations. On this latter basis he criticised the strategic prescriptions of H. G. Wells and B. H. Liddell Hart for limited war with Nazi Germany.

Reducing length of stay to improve Clostridium difficile-related health outcomes

Introduction: Patient length of stay (LOS) has long been linked with influencing transmission of Clostridium difficile infection. It has been hypothesised that the longer a patient stays in hospital, the greater their chances of infection. This study aimed to determine the extent to which C. difficile-related health outcomes could be improved by better management of inpatient LOS. Methods: A Markov model was constructed to compare five (5) different healthcare scenarios and measure the influence that these scenarios had on health outcomes such as; total number of infections avoided, number of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained and number of patients requiring care in the intensive care unit (ICU). Results: Reducing patient LOS across the hospital is likely to result in an improvement in health outcomes. Compared to the current environment, each scenario yielded gains in QALYs and reductions in the total number of Clostridium difficile infections per annum in Australia. The results also showed that the greatest improvement in C. difficile-related health outcomes was found when a LOS reduction was coupled with an existing infection control practice such as hand hygiene, antimicrobial stewardship or environmental cleaning. Conclusion: Clostridium difficile-related health outcomes could be significantly improved if the average LOS of all admitted patients was reduced. However, trying to implement a further reduction in average LOS on clinicians who are already encouraged to juggle high occupancy rates and high patient throughput is bound to be a difficult task, undoubtedly requiring further study and rational consideration.

‘Emptiness Makes Water Flow Uphill’: Eckhart, Justice, and Mercy in the Dominican Tradition

Meister Eckhart, the 13th Century Dominican preacher and mystic, was a master of paradox. Clearly one of the great mystical theologians of the Ground, Eckhart's teaching and preaching style was less focused on communicating theological information and truths and much more concerned with provoking in his listeners an encounter with God. That encounter, in typical Eckhartian style, was meant to turn the listener's world upside-down, leaving him or her face-to-face with Truth. Using paradox in a way similar to a Buddhist master's use of a koan, Eckhart intentionally leads his disciple away from rational considerations into the mystery of the living God. This essay, weaving together threads from Eckhart's Book of Divine Comfort and the story of the man born blind in the Gospel of John (9:1–41), intends to lead us into a discovery of our own inner river of divine life.

ANTIQUE PARADIGM OF TECHNOLOGY

The purpose is to find out the specifics of the ancient paradigm of technology. Task: to determine the ancient worldview universals that define ancient picture of the world; find out the meaning of the ancient concept of «techne». Methodology. To perform the tasks it was used the paradigm approach to the historical transformation technology, and was made historical reconstruction and explication of the production and development of technology in antiquity. Using a functional approach has revealed a close, the inextricable link between the constitution and functioning of ancient technology and ancient philosophical universals. The elements of scientific novelty is, first, the paradigm approach to historical transformation technology, and secondly, research technology within the ideological world view that is due to the domination of ancient philosophical wagon filled with new content, different from the archaic paradigm of technology and paradigms machinery Ancient East. Conclusions. Proved that historical transformation technology primarily due to dramatic changes philosophical Universal, which in turn lead to a new world and a new content and technology space in it. Proved that the development of technology and its inclusion in an ideological view of the world contributed to several factors: first, the ancient world view is no longer a purely mythological, woven natural-philosophical ideas about the universe; basis of ancient philosophy cosmocentrism with signs of logocentrism. Second, the ability to think through concepts, form them, allowing isolate rational considerations of practical everyday experience was the great achievement of ancient philosophy, the first attempt at scientific understanding of the world, the precondition and foundation of science as such. Thirdly, purely mechanical, technical model of the world that started the ancient Greek philosophers, initiated the transition to a scientific rational explanation of nature, unlike the previous one - irrational and mystical. Fourth, despite the fact that ancient man was still dependent on the nature of space needed, he was sufficiently autonomous from traditional models of life and behaviour in the implementation of his career. Fifthly, the principle of creative development, production of the new, which was characteristic of the macrocosm, nature, spread his microcosm - man.

Mathematical model of tumor–immune surveillance

We present a novel mathematical model involving various immune cell populations and tumor cell populations. The model describes how tumor cells evolve and survive the brief encounter with the immune system mediated by natural killer (NK) cells and the activated CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). The model is composed of ordinary differential equations describing the interactions between these important immune lymphocytes and various tumor cell populations. Based on up-to-date knowledge of immune evasion and rational considerations, the model is designed to illustrate how tumors evade both arms of host immunity (i.e. innate and adaptive immunity). The model predicts that (a) an influx of an external source of NK cells might play a crucial role in enhancing NK-cell immune surveillance; (b) the host immune system alone is not fully effective against progression of tumor cells; (c) the development of immunoresistance by tumor cells is inevitable in tumor immune surveillance. Our model also supports the importance of infiltrating NK cells in tumor immune surveillance, which can be enhanced by NK cell-based immunotherapeutic approaches.

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS IN DEVELOPMENT OF RUSSIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

The essence of the state educational policy is to optimize the development process of the reproduction of the educational cycle taking into account the influence of environmental factors. These factors include: the cyclical nature of economic development (global economic crisis), the globalization of educational activities (in particular, in the form of the Bologna process), the accelerated development of the world's scientific and technological progress (massive use of telecommunications information and educational systems), changes in climatic conditions management (due to the limited human biological ability to effectively adapt to their changes), international military and political situation (global confrontation, the isolationist policy of the Western countries). A rational consideration of strategic factors of the environment of the national educational system is the basis of the synchronization strategies for the development of all market participants of educational services, including nongovernmental educational organization with a longterm state policy in the sphere of education. The perspective is becoming oligopolistic educational policy based on a multipolar international system of education, including higher education. This requires the return of the Russian Federation, the higher education sector to national technology training of specialists, the return of leadership among countries with similar economic development model, leadership in developed markets of educational services.

Professionals’ critical positionings of women as help-seekers: Finnish women’s narratives of help-seeking during post-separation stalking

The study explores how women victims of post-separation stalking perceive the positions ascribed to them in the help-seeking process by social workers and other professionals. Applying positioning theory, the research identifies ‘critical’ positionings, namely, those hindering the women in seeking help. The ultimate aim of the inquiry is to inform professional practices by identifying how professionals position victims of stalking and the risks of misinterpretation this process entails. The data comprise narratives of 15 Finnish female victims of stalking, who were interviewed either individually or together with a professional (social worker, shelter worker or therapist) who had worked with them. A total of five such professionals participated in conducting the interviews. The analysis of the women’s perceptions posits four critical positionings: Professionals viewed them as (1) alienating parents, (2) unprotective mothers, (3) overcautious women and/or (4) implausible victims. These determinations are seen as rooted in considerations of morality, accountability, rationality and agency. The findings indicate that the complex nature of stalking, women’s reactions to it and the ambivalent appearance of their strategies for dealing with stalking may pose obstacles to professionals in positioning them as help-seekers. This in turn may hinder women in their efforts to receive adequate help or even victimise them further. The study highlights that client–professional interaction in the context of post-separation stalking needs to be more victim-sensitive. It suggests that when analysing women’s situations and providing help, professionals should be more mindful of women’s own understandings and valorise their sensitive experiences.

A Conflict Between Divine texts and Human Legal Needs?

This paper presents excerpted translations from a longer text by the Moroccan jurist, Ahmad al-Raysuni, which highlight a key facet of contemporaneous Muslim legal debates about law and religion. They especially focus on the thorny question of whether textual sources are liable to conflict with pure rational legal considerations and hence must be sidestepped to protect personal or public interests. In these excerpts Raysuni defends his position, and that of many of the so-called ‘moderate’ Islamists, who–while decry the rigid literalism of other traditionalists—maintain that explicit textual injunctions could never conflict with rationality. They believe, as Raysuni asserts here, that any conceived contradiction between texts and rationality is either a misconception of rationality or a misunderstanding of texts.

Pulling Leviathan's Teeth The Political Economy of Death Penalty Abolition

It is not immediately apparent why a state would willingly abolish the death penalty and thereby lose a powerful political instrument. The fact that some states abolish capital punishment while others retain it has thus far been explained by systematic differences in the values of politicians or citizens. An explanation of different behavior based on different preferences for such behavior is, however, largely tautological and not of much use to social science. This article proposes and empirically tests a political economy model in which rational politicians are more likely to abolish the death penalty when it is of no political use to them and if the process of abolition serves as a self-commitment in periods of transition. The results of estimating stratified Cox regression models show that the death penalty tends to be abolished particularly during periods of democratization and transitions to peace, but also that independence of the judiciary can encourage abolition. In contrast, military dictatorships are significantly more likely to retain capital punishment, as are countries with a common law legal system and those that are strongly politically influenced by Islam. These findings support the view that the abolition of capital punishment is at least partly motivated by rational political considerations.

Prediction of water vapour sorption isotherms and microstructure of hardened Portland cement pastes

Water vapour sorption isotherms of cementitious materials reflect the multi-scale physical microstructure through its interaction with moisture. Our ability to understand and predict adsorption and desorption behaviour is essential in the application of modern performance-based approaches to durability analysis, along with many other areas of hygro-mechanical and hygro-chemo-mechanical behaviour. In this paper, a new physically based model for predicting water vapour sorption isotherms of arbitrary hardened Portland cement pastes is presented. Established thermodynamic principles, applied to a microstructure model that develops with hydration, provide a rational basis for predictions. Closed-form differentiable equations, along with a rational consideration of hysteresis and scanning phenomena, makes the model suitable for use in numerical moisture simulations. The microstructure model is reconciled with recently published 1H NMR and mercury intrusion porosimetry results.

Caught between intending and doing: older people ideating on a self-chosen death

ObjectivesThe aim of this paper is to provide insight into what it means to live with the intention to end life at a self-chosen moment from an insider perspective.SettingParticipants who...

Home country image and ethnocentrism among young consumers in a developing country

This study's main objective is to examine the effect of young consumers' home country image and the level of ethnocentrism on those consumers' behaviour in a developing country, i.e., Indonesia. The literature has primarily explained consumer behaviour towards imported products and the image of the source country. This study measured the home country image using cognitive and affective components. Consumer behaviour was evaluated in fashion and electronic product categories. The empirical findings indicate that the effect of a home country image and consumer ethnocentrism on product belief and willingness to buy is similar for the two product categories. Interestingly, the findings demonstrate that home country image and consumer ethnocentrism have a contrary effect on product belief and willingness to buy. Young consumers in a developing country may still have rational considerations while evaluating products, but they have a willingness to support domestic products and, thus, the domestic economy.

Ion-exchange chromatography of proteins: the inside story

Despite its inherent inefficiencies, chromatography remains the workhorse for protein purification in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, with ion exchange the most widely used mode. Many aspects of a chromatographic process are still optimized empirically, but modeling is increasingly used to aid in scale-up and optimization. An overview is presented here of the needs that remain for greater insights that can inform truly predictive modeling of preparative protein separations by ion-exchange chromatography as well as guiding rational design considerations and effective heuristics. These needs can be addressed by a more complete mechanistic understanding of the relation between adsorbent and protein structure and the values of key functional parameters describing adsorption and transport. A principal focus is on specialized experimental and modeling approaches to obtain such insights; these include molecular-level models, various modes of microscopy, and chromatographic and other methods for inferring intracolumn and intraparticle behavior. The principal findings revolve around the critical role for fundamental principles of classical chemical engineering, albeit specialized for the peculiar physicochemical properties of protein solutions.

Perilaku Politik Pemilih Perempuan Kota Mojokerto Pada Pemilu Legislatif 2014

The presence of democratization and the role of the mass media have an impact on the behavior of women voters. This research used a descriptive quantitative approach with the aim to identifying the role of institutions of socialization and media information on the legislative elections 2014, and to know the preferences of women’s voter in determining their political choice and to know the exposure of mass media and the appeal of political advertising from political parties. The results indicate that the institution of socialization and information media on the legislative elections 2014 was instrumental in disseminating information and introduce the candidates to the voters. The preferences of women’s voter in determining their political choices from the sociological side is more considering the religious background, professional organizations, origin of place, family information, and intellectuality of the candidates. From the psychological side, most women tend to consider the emotional closeness, similarity of political parties, the integrity, the same interest. The political preferences of rational considerations tend to the issue of the candidate experience and success in leading the organization, whether it locally or nationally, intellectuality and the quality of candidates, campaign issues, vision and mission, programs, credibility, commitment, personality, modest, good performance, good capability, clean image and performance, and closeness with ordinary people.

Do people feel more of a duty to vote in some elections?

Prior research on civic duty has focused on national elections, believed to be the most salient. Evidence on turnout gaps between election levels suggests that it is relevant to inquire whether people feel that they have the same duty to vote in national, subnational, and supranational elections. The article investigates this phenomenon, comparing citizens’ attitudes towards national, European, and regional elections in ten regions from four countries. About one-quarter of European citizens demonstrate a lesser degree of duty towards European rather than in national elections. Differences in duty levels for national and regional elections are infrequent and concentrated in regions with nationalist movements. Both rational and identity considerations explain why some individuals feel less obliged to vote in a particular election than in another, but the latter matter more.

Makna Manajemen Bagi Pengembangan Pesantren Nurul Yaqin

Managing any concept of pesantren is not an easy job, it must be remembered that there is no absolute rational concept, and most afdhal applied in pesantren. Both because of its unique growth history and because of the lack of pesantren from other social institutions in the freezing of technical activities, pesantren has not been able to manage, let alone in the matter of implementing the concept that is based on rational considerations. However systematic and methodical a concept is, at least for present generation, all such concepts will confront tremendous obstacles in its implementation.

Tolerancia, autonomía y principio de daño

Gracias a la tradición heredada de la Modernidad, existe una fuerte relaciónentre tolerancia y autonomía racional. A través del examen de ejemplos,demuestro que en ocasiones las personas guían sus vidas por concepciones debien que van más allá de consideraciones racionales y, por tanto, no cumplencon el criterio de autonomía racional; pero aun así sus concepciones sonlegítimas y deberían ser toleradas. Concluyo sosteniendo que la toleranciano puede depender exclusivamente del concepto de autonomía, en vez deeso propongo basar la tolerancia en el principio de daño: no podemosrealizar acciones que afecten significativamente a otros, impidiéndoles vivirde acuerdo a concepciones de bien que son profundamente significativaspara ellos.

Shared Intention and Reasons for Action

Most theories of intentional action agree that if acting for a reason is a necessary condition for the action in question to be an intentional action, the reason need not genuinely justify it. The same should hold for shared intentional action, toward which philosophers of action have recently turned their attention. I argue that some of the necessary conditions proposed for shared intention turn out to require that we deny this claim. They entail that shared intention is possible only if the participating agents form their intentions on the grounds of genuinely rational considerations. Thus, they “over-rationalize,” as I call it, shared intention.

Neutrophil dynamics during concurrent chemotherapy and G-CSF administration: Mathematical modelling guides dose optimisation to minimise neutropenia

The choice of chemotherapy regimens is often constrained by the patient's tolerance to the side effects of chemotherapeutic agents. This dose-limiting issue is a major concern in dose regimen design, which is typically focused on maximising drug benefits. Chemotherapy-induced neutropenia is one of the most prevalent toxic effects patients experience and frequently threatens the efficient use of chemotherapy. In response, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) is co-administered during chemotherapy to stimulate neutrophil production, increase neutrophil counts, and hopefully avoid neutropenia. Its clinical use is, however, largely dictated by trial and error processes. Based on up-to-date knowledge and rational considerations, we develop a physiologically realistic model to mathematically characterise the neutrophil production in the bone marrow which we then integrate with pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PKPD) models of a chemotherapeutic agent and an exogenous form of G-CSF (recombinant human G-CSF, or rhG-CSF). In this work, model parameters represent the average values for a general patient and are extracted from the literature or estimated from available data. The dose effect predicted by the model is confirmed through previously published data. Using our model, we were able to determine clinically relevant dosing regimens that advantageously reduce the number of rhG-CSF administrations compared to original studies while significantly improving the neutropenia status. More particularly, we determine that it could be beneficial to delay the first administration of rhG-CSF to day seven post-chemotherapy and reduce the number of administrations from ten to three or four for a patient undergoing 14-day periodic chemotherapy.

Knightian Uncertainty and Stock-Price Movements: Why the REH Present-Value Model Failed Empirically

AbstractMacroeconomic models that are based on either the rational expectations hypothesis (REH) or behavioral considerations share a core premise: All future market outcomes can be characterized ex ante with a single overarching probability distribution. This paper assesses the empirical relevance of this premise using a novel data set. The authors find that Knightian uncertainty, which cannot be reduced to a probability distribution, underpins outcomes in the stock market. This finding reveals the full implications of Robert Shiller’s ground-breaking rejection of the class of REH present-value models that rely on the consumption-based specification of the risk premium. The relevance of Knightian uncertainty is inconsistent with all REH models, regardless of how they specify the market’s risk premium. The authors’ evidence is also inconsistent with bubble accounts of REH models’ empirical difficulties. They consider a present-value model based on a New Rational Expectations Hypothesis, which recognizes the relevance of Knightian uncertainty in driving outcomes in real-world markets. Their novel data is supportive of the model’s implications that rational forecasting relies on both fundamental and psychological factors.