Arguments In Support Research Articles

Approximations that matter: virtual particles as carriers of interactions

In this paper we aim to develop an indispensability argument in support of the existence of virtual particles in scattering processes. In order to avoid the Paradox of Infinite Limits, which allegedly poses a challenge to scientific realism, one needs to de-idealize the fictitious systems introduced by the two limiting procedures employed in the perturbation scheme, namely the infinite expansion in Dyson series and the limits for negative and positive infinite times associated with the assumption of free particles. We show that these limits do not introduce essential idealizations, in agreement with scientific realism. What is more, according to our argument, unobservable virtual particles arise as essential approximations and they should be interpreted as propagators of the interaction responsible for subatomic scattering. As such, their existence is based on the use of approximations that matter.

Does audience motive matter? Understanding social endorsement effects in correcting climate change misbeliefs

ABSTRACT This study explores how social endorsement effects are conditioned by audience motives in correcting misbeliefs and promoting pro-climate policy support. In a 2 (social endorsement: low vs. high) × 3 (motive: accuracy vs. impression vs. control) between-subjects experiment with 374 participants skeptical of anthropogenic climate change, high social endorsement cues (likes, comments, and shares) reduced pro-climate policy support in no-motive control condition. However, when participants were primed to seek accurate information, social endorsement positively influenced pro-climate policy support. This effect was explained by normative perceptions, supportive arguments, and message persuasiveness. Participants primed to focus on social impressions indicated greater policy support responding to high social endorsement than the no-motive control. Yet, within the impression-motive condition, high and low social endorsement did not make a significant difference. The study advances understanding of social endorsement effects, offering practical suggestions for combatting climate change misbeliefs.

Chain splitting of insulin: an underlying mechanism of insulin resistance?

Despite decades of intense research, the mechanisms underlying insulin resistance are still poorly understood. What if one of the major causes of insulin resistance is not related to defects in the target tissues and/or insulin receptor signaling, but rather to a reduced survival of endogenously secreted insulin on its way to activating the receptor on the cell surface of the target tissues? Here, we present data and lay out arguments in support of this novel hypothesis, which is fundamentally different from the common view that insulin resistance is caused by the body’s cells becoming less sensitive to insulin.

The Crisis of Race-Based Affirmative Action Policy in the US Higher Education

The article is devoted to the study of one of the manifestations of the so-called affirmative action phenomenon - the policy of racial preferences in the field of higher education, which is followed by a significant number of American universities and colleges. The paper examines the formation of the affirmative action practices in the 1960s, as well as the emergence of legal opposition to the spread of politics of racial preferences in subsequent decades. Particular emphasis is placed on the consideration of the main arguments of supporters and opponents of considering race as of the factors influencing admission to postsecondary institutions in the USA, as well as on consideration of the peculiarities of American public opinion on this issue. Finally, the article analyzes the change in the position of the US Supreme Court regarding affirmative actions, which led to the recognition of the policy of racial preferences in admission to American universities and colleges as a violation of the US Constitution in June 2023.

Where Preservation Meets Land Use Regulation: Historic Districts in Los Angeles

Problem, research strategy, and findings Local historic districts function as a zoning overlay regulating the urban form, yet limited empirical analysis has considered how historic districts may interact with broader land use regulations. We conducted a comparative case study of the designation process in two Los Angeles (CA) neighborhoods, combining archival research and building permit data analysis. We examined land use regulations, development patterns, and the arguments of supporters and opponents to understand the intended purposes of the historic districts and the factors that contributed to either adoption or withdrawal. We found interactions between historic districts and other land use and zoning regulations substantially shaped the designation process and outcome. The designation process also has the potential to foster diverse community coalitions organized around a wide range of concerns, from anti-development to anti-displacement. Because our analysis focused on comparing two neighborhoods in Los Angeles, different factors could shape designation processes in other localized contexts. Still, we have identified lessons with transferability to planning in other cities. Takeaway for practice Planners should more explicitly attend to the potential conflicts between neighborhood-level historic district designation versus broader housing density and affordability goals. We recommend changes to the historic preservation plan-making process that would include explicit considerations of how the designation could affect housing production and rental affordability to more tightly link to the housing element of the general plan and relevant community plans. Incorporating these considerations into the historic district designation process would allow for better balancing of preservation and development goals.

Review of Different Assessment Methods Used by Online Inquiry-Based Learning Systems That Support Argumentation

Review of Different Assessment Methods Used by Online Inquiry-Based Learning Systems That Support Argumentation

In Defense of "Physician-Assisted Suicide": Toward (and Back to) a Transparent, Destigmatizing Debate.

Many bioethicists have recently shifted from using "physician-assisted suicide" (PAS) to "medical aid-in-dying" (MAID) to refer to the act of voluntarily hastening one's death with the assistance of a medical provider. This shift was made to obscure the practice's connection to "suicide." However, as the charge of "suicide" is fundamental to arguments against the practice, "MAID" can only be used by its proponents. The result has been the fragmentation of the bioethical debate. By highlighting the role of human agency-as opposed to natural processes-in causing death, the term "PAS" makes it easier both to perceive potential risks to vulnerable populations and to affirm suicide as a potentially autonomous choice. As such, "PAS" thus more transparently expresses the arguments of both supporters and opponents of the "right to die," while avoiding the unnecessary stigmatization of suicide and suicidal people which is a result of the usage of "MAID."

Utilization Digital Health: Opportunities and Challenges in Enhancing Tuberculosis Treatment

Digital health interventions hold promise for patient-centered care, as they enable remote monitoring of patients and can be used to easily remind patients to take their medications. This study used a literature review technique with research collecting 30 research publications related to the use, opportunities and challenges of digital health in the treatment of tuberculosis. The literature review technique aims to evaluate and analyze previous research to provide context, show gaps in research, and support arguments for the research to be conducted. Several conclusions from this literature review research include: (1) Digital health has a significant role as an intervention in the management of tuberculosis patients. (2) Digital health offers great opportunities to improve the management and treatment of tuberculosis patients. The opportunity for digital health as an intervention for tuberculosis patients is very promising and can have a significant impact on various aspects of managing this disease. (3) Although digital health offers many opportunities for managing tuberculosis, there are also various challenges that must be faced in its implementation, including: challenges of technology access, patient compliance and engagement, data security and privacy, integration with traditional health systems, costs and funding, quality content and information as well as cultural and language barriers.

Existential import and Peirce’s early realism about universals: the True Gorgias

ABSTRACT Peirce’s True Gorgias is a brief dialogue from his essay “Grounds of Validity of the Laws of Logic”, published in 1869. The True Gorgias exposes the fallacy of existential import. It has received no sustained attention in the secondary literature, perhaps because the fallacy is now familiar. Peirce’s assessment of the fallacy involved in the reasoning, however, changes between 1865 and 1869, and he only arrives at the contemporary account of existential import in 1880. Moreover, a careful examination of the context in which the True Gorgias appears reveals it provides an argument in support of Peirce’s early Aristotelian realism about universals in contradistinction to non-Aristotelian varieties of realism advocated by W.T. Harris, editor of the journal in which the True Gorgias was published.

Criminal Liability of Legal Entities in the Kyrgyz Republic and the Specifics of the Application of Criminal Law Terms

The article examines the dynamics of the development of the doctrinal concept of criminal liability of a legal entity, examines the points of view of leading scientists of criminal and criminal procedure law on existing and promising areas of development of the institution of criminal liability of legal entities in Kyrgyzstan and other countries. The appearance of quasi-criminal liability of legal entities in the criminal legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic seems justified. The article provides a number of arguments in support of the innovations introduced into the criminal legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic regarding the criminal liability of legal entities. In this scientific article, the author reveals the content and dynamics of the development of modern doctrinal discussions on the key problems of the institution of criminal liability of legal entities in the criminal legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic and the positions of the main scientific schools of Kyrgyzstan, Russia and abroad on theoretical issues of criminal liability. legal entities; to identify the main scientific doctrines concerning the understanding of criminal liability of legal entities; to consider the prevailing points of view on the category of the subject of criminal liability. The article also used traditional general scientific research methods such as the dialectical method of cognition, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, etc., as well as private scientific legal methods, including formal legal, the method of legal interpretation, etc. The main sources of information are electronic versions of official publications of normative legal acts of the Kyrgyz Republic, special literature on the research topic. The article also substantiates the conclusion that in the theory of criminal law, the category of “legal entity as a subject of criminal liability” is by far the most controversial.

Feynman diagrams: visualization of phenomena and diagrammatic representation

AbstractI will argue that the development of Feynman diagrams came from the physicist’s capacity of visualizing phenomena and that such visualization-skill contributed to the forming of a narrative explanation in the sense of Wise (2011) and Morgan (2001). The second part of the paper explores the extent to which Feynman diagrams can be considered as weak representations of quantum phenomena. I will review some of the most common arguments in support of the instrumentalist view and I will suggest that a form of weak representation that does not imply ontological commitment can be applied to the diagrams. Such a form of weak representation will be characterized as non-denotative, intentional, and as conveying a physical interpretation through narrative explanations.

Stranger things: on the novel buccopharyngeal anatomy and functional morphology of ‘sand-eating’ Malagasy tadpoles (Anura: Mantellidae: Mantidactylus)

Abstract Anuran larvae are characterized by an extensive array of specialized oral structures that allow them to both graze on substrates and suspension feed with great efficiency. Diversity in these feeding structures accounts for significant diversity of anurans. Herein we describe an astonishing novel buccopharyngeal morphology in six larvae of ‘sand-eating’ tadpoles of the Mantellidae genus Mantidactylus. The buccopharyngeal cavity of these tadpoles is characterized by the presence of ruffled ridges not seen previously in any other anuran larva. Extensive review of the literature and of new empirical data demonstrates the uniqueness of this morphology. We present both CT scans and ergonomic arguments in support of the hypothesis that the ruffled ridges are employed as scrubbing pads, allowing these tadpoles to remove food particles from sand grains. In addition, we explore how the ridges may have developed and evolved.

Civic-military schools in Brazil: Feminist lenses to uncover a patriarchal, white supremacist, and queerphobic project

This article examines the rise of conservative policies in Brazilian education, particularly since 2014 when teachers became targets of accusations related to "ideological indoctrination" and "gender ideology." The Non-Partisan Schools Movement has significantly contributed to fostering a climate of distrust and the militarisation of education has gained momentum under Jair Bolsonaro's presidency (2019–2022). Focusing on the Civic-Military Schools Program (PECIM), the article employs relational and feminist lenses to analyse the arguments of conservative supporters. Although the policy does not overtly promote anti-gender or anti-feminist rhetoric, its documents and implementation reveal underlying biases. While militarisation is framed as a means to improve educational quality, results indicate a dangerous initiative involving untrained military personnel, abusive behaviours, and practices that undermine the self-esteem of girls, queer and Black students. An intersectional feminist perspective, therefore, is fundamental to highlighting contradictions in conservative discourse and interrupting their policies.

The Democratizing Influence of Intervention

Participation-based arguments in support of courts adopting a large and liberal attitude on intervention were persuasive at the outset of the Charter era. Due to the newness of the document at the time, a compelling case could be made that public participation in Charter challenges was a vital component of developing that document in a way that aligned with the core democratic commitments of the Canadian state. But the persuasiveness of such arguments has waned over time. If one accepts a common law approach to constitutional interpretation – where judicial activism is held in check by way of established precedent – arguments based on the participatory rights belonging to those potentially impacted by court decisions appear to be past their due date. This does not mean, however, that courts no longer have any democratic responsibilities concerning the practice of intervention. The positive contribution this article makes is to establish two alternative bases that can account for that responsibility — one inspired by the role intervention plays in encouraging public deliberation; and a second on the increased confidence the practice instills in judicial decision-making. In both cases, the ground of the responsibility is rather weak and can thus be easily defeated. Nevertheless, that courts have this responsibility at all offers a better explanation for why, even in times when an intervening party might not satisfy the strict criteria pertaining to the practice, there is reason to allow that intervention to proceed.

The traversal of the infinite: considering a beginning for an infinite past

This paper offers a critical assessment of the Successive Addition Argument (SAA) in support of past finitism, i.e., the thesis that the past of the universe is finite in duration. This old philosophical argument, re-popularized by William Lane Craig in modern times, contends that the universe’s past cannot be infinite because an infinite series cannot be formed by successive addition. I first address a recently popular objection to the argument, namely the Zeno Objection, showing that it can be easily dismissed once each addition is taken to have the same duration. Nevertheless, I contend that the onus of the proof lies on those who propose the SAA, and that their main argumentative strategies fail. Indeed, many of their arguments are based on the supposedly uncontroversial claim that one cannot traverse the infinite by starting somewhere. I argue that a complete traversal of the infinite, with a beginning infinitely far from its end, is logically and metaphysically possible. Other popular arguments against traversed infinities are based on thought experiments such as the backward counter or the Tristram Shandy thought experiments. I argue that, once infinitely far beginnings are granted, none of the arguments based on such thought experiments prove effective, so that the SAA must be rejected.

On the justification for World Rugby’s ban on trans women: assessing key arguments in the debate

ABSTRACT This paper examines the philosophical justification for World Rugby’s ban of trans women athletes from the ‘Women’s’ category at elite level. It is argued that Pike’s lexical priority argument in support of this ban is flawed; that Burke’s partially concessive response to Pike leads Burke to endorse an incoherent position; and that by rejecting Pike’s lexical priority argument, Burke’s view can both be made consistent and can be defended against the two criticisms levelled to it by Imbrišević. A stronger justification for WR’s ban is identified and discussed, and a diagnosis for the debate’s intractability is proposed.

The subject of proof in the criminal process of Ukraine

The article claims that the process of proving is the main content of criminal procedural activity. It is thanks to this process that the tasks of criminal procedure are fulfilled and the objective truth is established in criminal justice. The subject of proof in criminal proceedings is one of the key categories related to the process of proving. Establishing all the circumstances that characterize such a subject contribute to a full pre-trial investigation and trial. A conclusion has been formulated, according to which evidence in a criminal procedure should be understood as the activity of the subjects of criminal justice in relation to the collection, verification and evaluation of evidence and their procedural sources, as well as the formulation of a certain thesis (accusatory or exculpatory) on this basis and the submission of arguments in support of it. This activity is retrospective in nature. The purpose of cognition in criminal proceedings is to establish a certain set of circumstances of a criminal offense, which have been called “the subject of proof in a criminal procedure.” The list of such circumstances is defined in Art. 91 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP) of Ukraine. The subject of proof in a criminal proceeding is the list of circumstances provided for by the Criminal Procedure Law of Ukraine, which must be established in each criminal proceeding and ensure the adoption of a corresponding procedural decision. The list of circumstances to be ascertained in criminal proceedings regarding criminal offenses committed by minors should be considered as a supplementary, clarifying subject of proof in relation to the general subject of proof. Circumstances to be established during criminal proceedings regarding the application of coercive measures of an breeding nature in relation to minors who have not reached the age of criminal responsibility, and regarding the use of coercive measures of a medical nature constitute a separate, independent subject of proof in a criminal process, determined by the characteristics of a person who has committed a socially-dangerous act, and the specifics of the criminal procedural form.

Two birds, one story: Identifying the Exagoge’s mysterious bird

In the Hellenistic poem known as the Exagoge, Moses’ scouts, after discussing the oasis of Elim, describe a resplendent avian creature that is understood by most scholars today as the mythical Phoenix. A closer look at the arguments underpinning this identification reveals, however, numerous holes. This article presents a two-part argument, first to reveal the weaknesses of the arguments in support of the Phoenix, and then to propose an alternate solution to the identification: the bird known as the ortygometra (often erroneously identified simply as a quail). In the first half, the arguments of Howard Jacobson, who most vigorously defends the Phoenix identity, are evaluated, drawing mostly upon the work of an underappreciated article by Ben Zion Wacholder and Samuel Bowman. Once the weakness of these arguments is established and the alternative theory of the ortygometra proposed, the second half of the paper looks first at the history of the term “ortygometra” in Greek and Latin, from Aristotle through Augustine, revealing that the term was either collapsed into a synonym for “quail” or its identity was kept distinct. Following this is an analysis of the biblical quail narratives (in the MT, LXX, and Vulgate) and a selection of exegeses, which ultimately exposes the fluidity with which the story is treated by subsequent writings. In particular, the explanations found in the Wisdom of Solomon and the Pseudo-Augustinian text De mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae demonstrate that the ortygometra had gathered more than a few “mythical” characteristics in its journey through tradition. Returning to the Exagoge with these insights yields a more satisfactory identity for the bird and potential witnesses to an early form of the “legendary ortygometra” tradition found in Wisdom and De mirabilibus.

Application of a cost-effective methodology for the refurbishment of DOCOMOMO buildings. A case study in Northern Spain

The energy rehabilitation of listed buildings guaranteeing heritage values but allowing a use that contributes to their conservation, supposes a challenge with the need of a holistic approach. Buildings of the Modern Movement, many of which are registered as DOCOMOMO (DOcumentation and COnservation of buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the MOdern Movement), are a particular case since many of them are not yet listed or are under unclear requirements. This paper explores the inclusion of a cost-effective methodology as part of the decision-making in the energy rehabilitation of these DOCOMOMO buildings, applying it to the case study of an office building located in the north of Spain. Different scenarios were studied balancing cost-effectiveness, energy efficiency and rehabilitation requirements. In this case study, the analysis may allow policymakers to have supportive arguments to subsidize certain elements (as e.g., steel frames), or allow the use of alternative options with similar aesthetic characteristics, but at a much lower cost. This second option will constitute the unique cost-effective scenario, with energy savings of between 25.36 % and 38.8 %. The inclusion of a cost-effective methodology as part of the mechanics for decision-making in the energy refurbishment of DOCOMOMO buildings permits the optimisation of the intervention guaranteeing their use and the conservation of heritage values.

Model Pemberdayaan Berbasis Pemanfaatan Sumberdaya Alam Berkelanjutan: Studi pada Program Energi Terbarukan di Kabupaten Jombang

The concept of economic development that is based on villages so far still causes debate. Supporting arguments say that village empowerment is the key to the success of inclusive economic development. The aim is to create sustainable economic development based on creating high economic value. Based on this, the main objective of this research is to examine how much impact the new and renewable energy program in Jombang has had on the empowerment of rural communities. Based on the Cluster Analysis method, the new and renewable energy program is proven to have implications for the empowerment of rural communities as indicated through two things, namely: (i) an increase in income especially the poor; and (ii) local communities are able to develop village development planning and implementation. This proves that the new and renewable energy program has been able to realize the independence of the village. Therefore, this program is expected to be a proliferation of empowerment models that are based on sustainable use of natural resources.