Superficial Reasons Research Articles

The impact of central bank digital currency issuance on the international monetary system - taking China and other countries as examples

As the current international monetary system is increasingly unstable and unbalanced, even more countries have begun to study and implement digital currency and put forward the concept of super-sovereign currency. The inherent defects of the international monetary system dominated by the US dollar provide space for the generation and development of super-sovereign digital currencies. Based on the superficial reasons for the issuance of decentralized digital currencies by various countries and the current policy situation, this paper proposes the impact of future super-sovereign digital currencies on the international monetary system. Taking the issuance of digital currencies by the People’s Bank of China as the starting point, this paper combines the data of the Federal Reserve and the Bureau of Economic Analysis from general to special. It is concluded that the super-sovereign digital currency may fundamentally reshape the international monetary system and the pattern of international trade. Developing countries, such as China, may hold the upper hand of the upcoming changes in the international monetary system by promoting the internationalization of the digital yuan with its leading position in the field of central bank digital currency and its important position in world trade.

Review of the Researches on China􀆳s Ecological Environment Governance from the Perspective of Political Economics

The issue of ecology and environment is not only a technical and economic issue, but also a political one. The literature on environmental governance from the perspective of political economy can be divided into four categories: the perspective of governance capabilities of local government, the perspective of local government competition, the perspective of “government-enterprise collusion”, and the perspective of power balance. These four types of literature generally show a change from the benevolent government hypothesis to a self-interested government, from a holistic methodology that takes local governments as the unit of analysis to an individualist methodology that takes individual officials as the object of research, a change from a focus on the superficial reasons such as the government's ability to governance and the effectiveness of the policy to deep-seated reasons such as the power structure of the pluralistic subjects of society. This paper argues that ecological environmental protection involves the interests of multiple subjects, but the imbalance in the distribution of power and the pattern of interests among the subjects, and the excessive power of local government to speak and the insufficient ability of the public to participate in society, has led to the distortion of the environmental protection system in its implementation. This is why there local government has been behind all the major environmental pollution incidents in the country in recent years, and why almost all environmental pollution problems are obvious violations of existing laws and regulations, rather than a lack of institutions. The “interest-power-institution” equilibrium perspective provides a powerful theoretical framework for a comprehensive understanding of the prevention and control of ecological damage.

Specific Processes of Intelligence and Relationships in Academic Learning (SPIRAL)

We live in an age of cancel culture. Things are canceled sometimes for important reasons and sometimes for superficial reasons. Over 100 years since its inception, the concept of IQ still lingers. Here, I make the argument that IQ should be canceled. I conclude with the proposition of a new theory, Specific Processes of Intelligence and Relationships in Academic Learning (SPIRAL), which can be used to guide future research on cognition and achievement.

V. Propp Analysis of the 80s Short Prose Poetics in Albanian Literature

The article explored thorugh the lense of tale poetics, to find out wether there wasan outline of the theory on the poetics of the tale in Albanian historiography or in the literary critical thought of the 80's, based on the structural morphological analysis of V. Propp. The choosen proze was among albanian prose writers of the 80s, such as: V. Koreshi, N. Lera, Z. Çela, N. Prifti, K. Kosta, E. Kadare, S. Spasse etc. The methodology used within the article is based on the qualitative approach of the study, specifically on Propp's structuralist methodology has been used to categorize the functions and characters included within the short prose of the 80sAlbanian authors. The study fundings concluded that the cognition function is seen to have a special feature, both from the frequent use, as well as from the increased drama of the passages when this function occurs within the prose of the 80s literature in Albanian proze. Here we can say that the authors of socialist realism, have inadvertently followed a tradition or are strongly attached to the motive of recognition. Another important element is the transfiguration, which in the classical structure of the tale on which Propp has based his analysis, is totally physical, and for the most part is associated with a good change in the appearance of the hero, such as the removal of rags and wearing new clothes before taking the throne. In the case of the works analyzed in this paper, we have major changes that occur to the characters, both physically and in character development, but these changes occur with causes predetermined by the author, and do not occur for superficial reasons, as this was against the ideology of the time.

Gravity Changes Before and After the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan Earthquake at Pixian Absolute Gravity Station in More Than a Decade

Absolute gravity repeated measurements at Pixian station, about 35 km away from the epicenter of the 2008 Wenchuan Mw 7.9 earthquake, have been carried out over more than a decade. Four pre-earthquake measurements at the Pixian station show ~ 30 μGals increase from 2002 to 2008, but 13 measurements since 2008 shows that the trend of gravity increase ended after the Wenchuan earthquake. We analyzed the gravity effects from ground vertical motions using data from continuous GPS stations collocated with the Pixian absolute gravimetry station, and surficial and hydrological processes using local hydrological data. We found that these effects are much smaller than the observed gravity increase before the earthquakes, the continuously gravity increase before the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake cannot be explained by the groundwater level change and vertical deformation and related superficial reasons. All absolute gravity was measured by the FG-5 gravimeter. In this study, the high-precision gravity change revealed that the pre-earthquake gravity increase may be caused by strain and mass (fluid) transfer in broad seismogenic source regions. Further studies are needed to validate such pre-earthquake gravity changes, which however are difficult to be resolved from space-based gravity models.

A study on ITZ percolation threshold in mortar with ellipsoidal aggregate particles

The percolation of interfacial transition zone (ITZ) in cementitious materials is of great importance to the transport properties and durability issues. This paper presents numerical simulation research on the ITZ percolation threshold of mortar specimens at meso-scale. To simulate the meso-scale model of mortar as realistically as possible, the aggregates are simplified as ellipsoids with arbitrary orientations. Major and minor aspect ratios are defined to represent the global shape characteristics of aggregates. Some algorithms such as the burning algorithm, Dijkstra\'s algorithm and Connected-Component Labeling (CCL) algorithm are adopted for identification of connected ITZ clusters and percolation detection. The effects of gradation and aspect ratios of aggregates on ITZ percolation threshold are quantitatively studied. The results show that (1) the ITZ percolation threshold is mainly affected by the specific surface area (SSA) of aggregates and shows a global decreasing tendency with an increasing SSA; (2) elongated ellipsoidal particles can effectively bridge isolated ITZ clusters and thus lower the ITZ percolation threshold; (3) as ITZ volume fraction increases, the bridging effect of elongated particles will be less significant, and has only a minor effect on ITZ percolation threshold; (4) it is the ITZ connectivity that is essentially responsible for ITZ percolation threshold, while other factors such as SSA and ITZ volume fraction are only the superficial reasons.

Analyzing effects of interfaces on recovery rates of shape memory composites from the perspective of molecular motions

Over recent years, researchers have noticed that recovery rates of shape memory composites (SMCs) would vary due to the addition of fillers. So far, although several superficial reasons are discussed, a thorough analysis has not been presented yet probably due to the absence of a microscopic mechanism of SMCs. Here, a molecular mechanism of SMCs is clarified by identifying the differences lying in molecular motions of shape memory polymers and SMCs. On the basis of the molecular mechanism of SMCs, both a positive effect and a negative effect of fillers on recovery rates are revealed. Because interfaces between fillers and matrices play a decisive role in the two effects of fillers, several experiments are designed to verify the role of interfaces. The experimental results prove that the interfaces are benefit and harmful for recovery rates at the same time. Moreover, the results are able to qualitatively predict that the recovery rates of SMCs would increase or decrease with more addition of fillers.

Understanding the futility of countries' obligations for health rights: realising justice for the global poor.

BackgroundAlthough health is a right of all individuals without any distinction, the realisation of this right has remained very difficult for the marginalised populations of poor countries. Inequitable distribution of health opportunities globally is a major factor in explaining why this is the case. Whereas the Protection, Promotion and Fulfilment of the health rights of poor country citizens are a joint responsibility of both domestic and external governments, most governments flout their obligations. So far disproportionate effort has been dedicated to reaffirming and interpreting these obligations as opposed to investigating the fundamental question regarding why these obligations have nevertheless remained largely unfulfilled. Further the normative question regarding what ought to be done about the shortcomings of current obligations has been largely ignored.MethodsWe conduct a critical content analysis of existing literature on efforts towards the realisation of the health rights of marginalised populations in our attempt to ascertain their capacity to guarantee basic health opportunities to marginalised populations. In our analysis we treat issues of ‘health rights’ and ‘justice in global health’ as having unity of purpose – guaranteeing basic health opportunities to the marginalised populations.ResultsWe identify two sets of reasons for the failure of present obligations for global distributive justice in general: a set of ‘superficial reasons’ and a set of ‘fundamental reasons’ which account for the superficial reasons.DiscussionIn order to overcome these reasons we propose a strategy which consists in specifying a number of minimum and less-demanding obligations for both external and domestic governments to guarantee to all individuals a certain threshold of health goods and services. We argue that these minimum obligations can be freely accepted and fully complied with or enforced with “a thin system of enforcement” without significant threat to national sovereignty and autonomy.ConclusionThe futility of countries’ obligations for the health rights of the global poor as is the case with global distributive injustice is because of lack of political will to specify and enforce such obligations. Minimum obligations should be specified and enforced with a “thin system” which is consistent with principles of national sovereignty and autonomy.

REMITTING OF A CASE TO THE TRIAL COURT AND THE DUTY TO TAKE STEPS TO OBTAIN EVIDENCE TO DETERMINE THE EXISTENCE OF SUBSTANTIAL AND COMPELLING CIRCUMSTANCES Calvin v The State (962/2013) [2014] ZASCA 145 (26 September 2014)

It has been a while since the minimum-sentencing legislation introduced a new approach to sentencing in the South African courts. After the initial resistance and considerable diversity in the different courts’ approach to the legislation, it can now be said that the courts have given adequate clarity to the sentencing regime and how it should be approached. In S v Malgas (2001 (2) SA 1222 (SCA)), the court outlined the principles and the procedure that are appropriate in dealing with this sentencing regime. In S v Dodo (2001 (3) SA 382 (CC)), the Constitutional Court solidified the approach adopted in Malgas and, since then, there appears to be clarity regarding the sentencing approach. In sum, the courts are obliged to impose the specified minimum sentences unless there are substantial and compelling circumstances. In the absence of such substantial and compelling circumstances, the court has no option but to impose the prescribed minimum sentence. Schoeman AJA, in Calvin v The State ((962/2013) [2014] ZASCA 145) − the focus of this case note − aptly summarised the approach as follows: “The minimum sentence has been set as a benchmark prescribing the sentence to be ordinarily imposed for specific crimes and should not be departed from for superficial reasons” (par 8).However, there are still situations in which the courts impose minimum sentences without adequately inquiring into the existence or otherwise of substantial and compelling circumstances. Such was the case in Calvin v The State, where the appeal court found that the trial court had misdirected itself in not taking steps to obtain evidence which would enable it to make a proper assessment as to whether substantial and compelling circumstances existed. This note deals with the importance and necessity of such proper assessment for sentencing purposes and highlights that, despite the provision in section 274(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act (51 of 1977) bestowing discretion on the trial court, the Supreme Court of Appeal has proclaimed such assessment as a duty, as will be argued later herein.Further, it is argued that the interests of justice would have been better served if the case had been referred to the trial court for a proper sentencing process to take place. What is questioned, in a nutshell, is the decision by the appeal court to assume the role of the sentencing court in the circumstances of this case.

Still an outlier: Italy in a Southern European comparative perspective1

There are many superficial reasons to believe that the Italian political system does not work in a satisfactory way. In this paper, we explore three different areas: parties and the party system; the governments; and the satisfaction of Italian citizens with their politics and their personal life. We utilize a variety of data to illustrate the most important points and we do so comparing Italy with Greece, Portugal and Spain. Practically, on all measures and indicators Italy remains quite different from the other three Southern European countries. Though there have been some improvements, especially when we compare two rather different phases of the Italian Republic: 1945–93 and 1994 up to now, not only are there still unsolved problems, but the most important changes do not appear to be stabilized and could quite easily be reversed as we explain rather succinctly. In sum, Italy remains an outlier and the explanation for the persistent difficulties must still be looked for and can be found in the fragmentation of the party system and in the instability of the coalition governments. Hence, the dissatisfaction of Italian citizens with the working of their political system appears to be fully justified, even more so when seen in a Southern European comparative perspective.

Happiness and despair on the catwalk: Need satisfaction, well-being, and personality adjustment among fashion models

According to self-determination theory, well-being and healthy personality development depend on the fulfillment of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, relatedness, and competence. However, various contextual features can interfere with need satisfaction and undermine well-being. We hypothesized that fashion models, who are often valued for superficial reasons (i.e., their looks) and who may not have regular opportunities to cultivate deep relationships or exercise personal control on the job, might experience lower psychological need satisfaction, less well-being, and less optimal personality adjustment. Two studies were conducted in which professional fashion models (N = 56 in Study 1; N = 35 in Study 2) were compared to approximately equally large groups of non-models. Fashion models reported slightly lower need satisfaction and well-being but greater personality maladjustment (personality disorder features). Mediation analyses in Study 1 suggested that the lower well-being among models was explained via unfulfilled basic needs. These findings further substantiate the importance of basic need satisfaction for well-being and optimal adjustment.

When reasons matter: Quality of support affects reactions to increasing and consistent agreement

Evidence indicates that moving from a minority to a majority position has little impact on group identification. The present study investigated how reactions of former minorities and stable minorities to the group as a whole and their own faction were moderated by the quality of support they received for their position (genuine vs. superficial vs. unexplained). Former minorities identified more strongly with the group when others converted to their position for genuine than for superficial (or unexplained) reasons. The group identification of stable minorities did not vary as a function of the quality of support. Both former minorities and stable minorities identified more with their own faction when they received genuine than superficial (or unexplained) support. These findings clarify the important role of quality of support in group and faction identification. Moreover, they show that former minorities do identify with the group when they receive support they can trust.

Is it Ethical to Have a Child to Save a Child?

Source: Sheldon S, Wilkinson S. Should selecting saviour siblings be banned? J Med Ethics. 2004;30:533–537.Human leucocyte antigen (HLA) typing can be combined with preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to identify a human embryo for implantation that is HLA-matched to a sibling, and therefore capable of donating life-saving tissue to that sibling. The creation of “savior siblings” raises several ethical concerns. Arguments against the procedure fall into 3 categories. First, savior siblings may be treated as commodities or, in Kantian terms, as a means rather than an end in themselves. Second, a slippery slope argument suggests that allowing this technology may lead to the creation of “designer babies” with traits chosen for superficial reasons. Third, a child welfare concern about the possible physical or psychological harm to the savior sibling exists. The authors address these 3 arguments and offer the following 3 counter-arguments. First, Kant’s dictum prohibits treating others “solely as a means to an end,” and while savior siblings do serve an end, they are not used solely as a means to that end, but are recognized as important beyond their ability to donate tissue. Second, the slippery slope concern can be met by limiting the use of selection to non-trivial purposes. Finally, there is no reason to assume that savior siblings will, on average, have worse lives than other children undergoing PGD. The authors conclude that this therapy should not be banned, at least in cases in which only umbilical cord tissue is needed.Dr. Silber has disclosed no financial relationships relevant to this commentary.Unless one is opposed to preimplantation genetic diagnosis, the scenario discussed by these authors is not only ethically permissible, but it even raises the issue of whether physicians have a duty to educate parents who have a child with cancer about the existence of this possibility. A “savior child,” as the name denotes, will always have a special place in the family mythology. A child that comes into the world with such awesome gifts is not likely to be looked upon as a commodity by the family. Parents that demonstrate such loyalty to one of their children that they prepare to pursue a cure through this new technology are also likely to be parents who will prove just as loyal to their newborn. When one life can be saved by bringing into the world another life that will be loved, what is there not to like?Despite the support by these authors and the commentator, the ultimate benefits versus risks of savior sibling therapy remain to be seen. Siblings of children with chronic illness and disabilities who were brought into the world expressly to save an ill sibling may suffer psychologically in families attuned to the demands of the physically ill child. Future evidence-based studies of this practice are needed before we can conclude that the answer is in.

Can Google's PageRank be used to find the most important academic Web pages?

Google's PageRank is an influential algorithm that uses a model of Web use that is dominated by its link structure in order to rank pages by their estimated value to the Web community. This paper reports on the outcome of applying the algorithm to the Web sites of three national university systems in order to test whether it is capable of identifying the most important Web pages. The results are also compared with simple inlink counts. It was discovered that the highest inlinked pages do not always have the highest PageRank, indicating that the two metrics are genuinely different, even for the top pages. More significantly, however, internal links dominated external links for the high ranks in either method and superficial reasons accounted for high scores in both cases. It is concluded that PageRank is not useful for identifying the top pages in a site and that it must be combined with a powerful text matching techniques in order to get the quality of information retrieval results provided by Google.

Equal Opportunity and the Education System in Pakistan

Introduction The educational system in Pakistan is beset with multiple dilemmas and constraints. Some are underlying and deep-rooted, while others are rooted in immediate, superficial reasons. Understandably all are inter linked and each affects the other. One that pervades as an under current is the issue of lack of Equal Opportunity (EO) which takes myriad forms when translated into practice. This paper delineates the various forms the absence or imbalanced prevalence of EO takes within the context of the education system of the country, and primary education in particular.

Obstacles to regular dental care related to extrinsic and intrinsic motivation

The aim of this study was to test factors preventing regular dental care as put forward by persons who are extrinsically or intrinsically motivated in relation to dental care. The series consisted of 390 randomly selected young and middle-aged patients, 207 women and 183 men, visiting two occupational health centers in Oulu, Finland. Logistic regression analysis showed that the probability of being extrinsically motivated was greater among those who mentioned the purposelessness of brushing their teeth, lack of time, lack of interest, expense, laziness and failure to appreciate the seriousness of dental care as factors hindering regular dental care very much or somewhat. Thus extrinsically motivated persons seemed to propose superficial reasons and reasons related to non-appreciation of dental care more often than intrinsically motivated persons.

Everything You Need To Know About Career Development You Already Know

Before we begin, we want you to dig deeply into your own career and focus on your feelings about it. No, no, not like that—we mean dig really deeply, beyond the superficial reasons and into those early dreams, hopes, and aspirations. That's right, look way down there, where all of those private feelings lie, feelings about what you wanted to do and what you've actually done with your life. These are feelings that you probably do not share with your closest friends or with your parents or with anyone for that matter. All that you need to know to understand a student or an advisee is embedded in those personal experiences you probably acknowledge only rarely.

‘Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son’: The problem of the Filioque

The doctrine of the ‘double Procession’ of the Holy Spirit, in spite of all the controversy it has caused in the past, is today probably regarded as one of the more trivial elements in our Western theological heritage—slightly more important perhaps than the conclusions reached in the medieval arguments over the number of angels who could stand on the point of a pin, but still of no great intrinsic significance. Yet this doctrine was a major factor in the schism between East and West, and it has since then remained an obstacle to all attempts to reconcile the Eastern and Western Churches. Western theologians have clearly felt that something of importance was being affirmed in the ‘Filioque’ clause in the Nicene Creed, while their Eastern counterparts have been equally convinced that what the ‘Filioque’ affirms is wrong, even blasphemous. The questions of what it is that the ‘Filioque’ is intended to affirm, and of whether what is affirmed should be affirmed, are therefore of some importance, particularly in an age of ecumenical dialogue. On these grounds alone, the doctrine demands to be seriously examined: we are not entitled simply to ignore it, or—what is worse—to cast around for superficial reasons for getting rid of it in the hope of thereby reaching an agreement with Eastern theologians.

The Platonic Theory of Inspiration

THE PLATONIC THEORY OF INSPIRATION T HIS essay makes no attempt to locate, describe or evaluate an aesthetic along Platonic lines. Many qualified men have done this adequately-in fact, exceedingly well, considering that they have generally read an integrated and extensive aesthetic where there were, at most, but indications from Plato himself. The contributions made by Plato towards an aesthetic are three-fold. He suggestively treated (1) the character or make-up of art, (fl) its moral consequences and (3) the inspiration of art. It is well known that for Plato artistic production is but an imitation of an imitation, a product thriceremoved from reality. From this it is easy to see how and why the censorship of Homer and all other poets came about in the tenth book of the Republic. The core of this development, the premise underlying the logic of Plato's dicta, is to be found in the theory of inspiration. This essay reports what Plato said about this last element of a complete aesthetic: the nature of inspiration. Of the three main topics of aesthetic importance in Plato, it has remained the least commented upon. There are two probable reasons for past neglect of the theory 'Of inspiration. In the first place, the theory had not been accorded a sufficient importance ; and secondly, there is very little available material from Plato himself with which to work. The basic issues in this study are not what attitudes were adopted by Plato, but why; not what are the superficial reasons given for his attitudes, but what valid and more satisfactory explanations may be found and what more pertinent connections may be made with the more acceptable aspects of Platonic philosophy. The answers lie in the theory of inspiration. My approach to the subject is from the primary sources, 466 THE PLATONIC THEORY OF INSPIRATION 467 with some research in the Greek language to trace the literal and metaphorical usages of certain key words. All the textual references are to the Random House edition,1 following the Stephanus pagination. 1. FUNCTION OF INSPIRATION The function of a thing is the criterion of its usefulness. The function of the theory of inspiration should, in some adequate way, explain Plato's statements about it. Prima facie, of course, this theory serves to explain how artistic creation is possible. If all human endeavor were philosophic, then there could be no such question. If all human endeavor followed the logic of the Sophist or the systematic process of inquiry illustrated in the Theaetetus and the Parmenides~ then there would be no artistic creation possible, nor any problem concerning its method. But Plato fully realized that such was not the case; that productions which did not follow the long and careful and difficult path of intellectual inquiry and dialectic did come into being. It became a matter of some importance for him to account for their existence. It would be the easy thing simply to say that Plato refutes the validity of artistic creations: that one could successfully document Sully's thesis: In spite of his lofty theory of the origin and nature of beauty, Plato seems to have imperfectly appreciated the worth of art as an independent end in human life and culture. He found the end of art in imitation ... , but estimated the creative activity of art as a clever knack, a little higher in intellectual value than the tricks of a juggler. He tended to regard the effects of art as devoid of all serious value, and as promoting indolence and the supremacy of the sensual elements of human nature.2 In the sections that are to follow, Plato's own words on the subject of inspiration are brought together. They are few and 1 The Dialogues of Plato. Tr. Benjamin Jowett, 2 vols. (New York: Random House, 1987.) •James Sully. "Aesthetics," in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica. 9th ed. (Chicago: R. S. Peale Co., 1892.) 468 ARTHUR E. VASSILION not too specific; but they are very suggestive of things which do not quite enter into the strict survey of the area of inspira-·tion. It may be profitable, nevertheless, to correlate these suggestions into the evaluation of the theory of...

My Conception of a Professional Course

A BACKGROUND of four years of college seems to me to be a requisite for a nursing course which is not too advanced or ideal for this day and age. The maturity implied in that requirement is the allimportant factor. In turn, the implications of that maturity are varied. The general background and poise thereby gained are of inestimable value. After spending four years in college a girl who decides to come into nursing is more likely to be doing so with a steadfast and deep purpose and is less likely to be attracted for any superficial reasons. She has a better comprehension of what is implied by her acceptance of this particular profession. She has learned to make adjustments more easily and satisfactorily than a younger girl. By bringing more into her professional life, she is going to profit more by her course and in turn will be able to give back more to her profession thereby ensuring its steady advance toward higher and broader levels. That contribution is what any profession needs for its continuity, growth, and development. Immediately some one will say that by such a requirement many potentially fine people will be excluded and therefore it should not be made. The first part of that argument is true but the conclusion does not follow. There