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This document, titled "The Centrality of Trust in Academic Publishing Lies with the Corresponding Author," discusses the role of the corresponding author (CA) in academic publishing and the potential for authorship abuses. The author explores a proposal to assign fractional values to authors based on their contribution, as a way to reduce abuses such as gift or guest authorship. However, the author also acknowledges the potential for abuse and power struggles within author teams. The document highlights the importance of the CA in transmitting information to journals and assumes a leadership role in confirming the accuracy of authorship claims. The author raises concerns about the ability to independently verify authorship contributions and suggests that trust in science may erode if fraudulent practices go undetected. [Extracted from the article]

The most important Public policy debates today surround the use of euthanasia to end the sufferings of terminally ill patients. This debate revolves around one of the most important aspects which is, the right to a dignified life, and it is the central concern for one and all. This research paper is an attempt to analyze the legal issues involved in legalizing euthanasia and the consequences thereof. The research paper will also focus on the role played by the judiciary in India related to euthanasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By aligning Saudi Vision 2030 with the UN's SDGs, this study highlights the significant role of integrating sustainable environmental design knowledge into architectural education in Saudi Arabia. Viewing this integration as a moral obligation, it emphasizes equipping future architects with the skills to create environmentally responsible and resource-efficient buildings, fostering a sustainable and resilient built environment. This paper aims to examine the degree of integration of sustainability knowledge and assess the structural models incorporated into the architectural programs of six Saudi Arabian universities. Adopting a quantitative approach with qualitative insights, this research focuses on universities certified by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) or accredited by recognized national and international bodies. This study is limited to the meso-level (curricular management) and includes structural models, course descriptions, learning outcomes, course sequences, and alignment with program visions and missions. A comprehensive review was conducted on all courses related to sustainability, collecting data from program websites. The main variables analyzed included sustainable environmental knowledge, total contact hours dedicated to sustainability courses, distribution across various course types, and patterns over a 5-year period. The units of analysis encompass program plans, vision and mission statements, learning outcomes, course syllabi, and descriptions. The findings reveal significant disparities in sustainability emphasis among programs, with Imam Abdul Rahman Al-Faisal University dedicating 42% of contact hours to sustainability, compared to 25 to 11% at other universities. This study highlights the need for integrating sustainability across design studio levels to provide students with practical skills across disciplines. Most programs use a "linear/parallel" or "partially integrated" model, requiring sustainability principles in graduation projects. However, elective sustainability courses are unpopular and do not adequately address curriculum gaps. This study highlights the necessity of further investigating the effectiveness of incorporating sustainability knowledge in architectural programs. Exploring specific areas for future research to enhance the integration of sustainability in architectural education is also recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theological discussions about visits to the Prophet's grave in Madina are the focus of this paper. The relevant question in this context relates to the idea of a postmortem life of the Prophet and its accessibility for believers after his death. The idea of a spiritual presence of the Prophet in this world is found in the description of religious visits to Madina, namely in the traditional Sunni books of Fiqh (describing the normative rules concerning the Prophet's grave), as well as in some books of Tafsir. These ideas have been challenged by the Wahhabi movement, in which the idea of becoming connected to the Prophet's presence is refused and the visit to Madina is seen to be focused on the mosque, not the grave of the Prophet. This reinterpretation is examined in this article on the basis of various textual references. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of REICE. Ibero-American Journal on Quality, Effectiveness & Change in Education / REICE. Revista Iberoamericana Sobre Calidad, Eficacia y Cambio en Educación is the property of Red Iberoamericana de Investigacion sobre Cambio y Eficacia en Educacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Water resources are under pressure, which poses serious challenges for our society. Persuading individuals to conserve water is difficult, especially when they have the impression that they already conserve water. This is identified as the cognitive bias of self-assessment, where a lack of information can lead to misperceiving one's performance. This means that people misperceive their actual performance and have the self-perception of behaving "good enough", or "better" than others while this is not the case. This paper explores the magnitude of these misperceptions, their impact on water conservation intentions and linkages to personal and situational factors. An online survey (n = 1013) explored whether individuals under-/over-/correctly estimated their own water conservation performance in comparison with others and examines if personality traits (i.e. intentions to conserve water, moral obligation to conserve water, personal values) and situational factors (i.e. social influence, exposure to media content) can explain the tendency of the individuals' misperceptions of their self-assessment. The results revealed that people do have misperceptions about water conservation (with at least half of the sample misperceiving to perform better or even worse than the norm). Results also demonstrated that a combination of personal and situational factors is related to the incorrect self-assessment of water conservation performance. The work reveals tendencies and potential explanations for misperceptions, but also potential barriers to promote water conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Derechos y Libertades is the property of Dykinson SL and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Drawing on an in-depth study of physicians facing the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy in 2020, we advance theory on how professionals in their workplace respond to knowledge disruptions associated with complex societal challenges that undermine the adequacy of their knowledge base to solve professional problems. We show that, in the context of uncertainty generated by the knowledge disruption and the inability to mitigate this uncertainty through typical knowledge-based strategies, professionals experience a trail of negative epistemic emotions. Despite these negative epistemic emotions, and motivated by a heightened sense of moral duty, professionals engage in service-oriented practices of collegial and humanistic work that depart from the knowledge-centric practices of their usual work. We detail how the repeated development of positive moral emotions when performing such practices leads professionals to ultimately consolidate and embed service-oriented practices in their professional work. Our study contributes to the literature on professions and organizations by theorizing the distinctive category of knowledge disruptions of unmitigable uncertainty and by uncovering the microlevel dynamics and mechanisms that sustain professionals' responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two step-down converters with a high reduction ratio based on the concept of switched inductors and switched capacitors are analyzed, modeled, and controlled. These topologies can achieve a high-voltage step-down ratio compared to a conventional buck converter. The proposed topologies have the same conversion ratio in terms of the duty cycle, however, they have different operating principles, and thus, different design, modeling, and control strategies must be followed. Therefore, the guidelines for the design of these types of converters are proposed here. Furthermore, to show the benefits of selected topologies, a comparison between them and other topologies with similar voltage ratios is presented. The comparison is made regarding the number of semiconductors, number of passive elements, and switch electrical stress. Besides, model-based control strategies are proposed for both converters. The modeling process yields a second-order system for the switched inductor-based converter structure and a fourth-order system for the switched capacitor-based converter. Based on these models, control laws are designed resulting in multi-loop controllers, formed by inner and outer control loops. These control schemes are aimed to guarantee output voltage regulation and, therefore, zero steady-state error of the states in each system. Finally, the performance of the proposed control strategies and converters is evaluated on an experimental setup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dehumanization refers to the act of likening others to objects or animals. This, in turn, mitigates feelings of conscience, guilt, and moral obligation in the face of behaviors such as violence, mistreatment, or discrimination against the dehumanized individuals. The aim of this study is to determine the extent of which women with mismatching vocal tone, occupation and appearance to their gender expectations are dehumanized by others. To achieve this, we conducted a between-groups factorial design experiment. In the experiment, participants looked at the photo and listened to the voice of a target woman with either a gender congruent or incongruent vocal tone, occupation, or appearance. Participants indicated the extent to which human attributes were appropriate for this individual. The results revealed that the main effects of vocal tone and occupation were significant for both mechanistic and animalistic dehumanization. A target woman with a mismatched vocal tone and occupation was more dehumanized compared to those with a matched vocal tone and occupation. However, the interaction effect of vocal tone, occupation type, and appearance was found to be significant only for mechanistic dehumanization. Our study provides evidence to recent concerns that women may experience dehumanization due to their vocal tone and occupation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizen science, where non-specialists collaborate with scientists, has surged in popularity. While it offers an innovative approach to research involvement, the domain of agri-environmental research participation, particularly in terms of citizen recruitment and retention, remains relatively unexplored. To investigate how what factors influence initial and sustained participation in an agronomic citizen science project, we performed a large survey during the case-study "Soy in 1000 Gardens". We obtained data on citizens motivations, general values, environmental concern, prior citizen science experience, and knowledge regarding sustainable food consumption and garden management and applied a two-step selection model to correct for potential self-selection bias on our participation outcomes. Initially, citizen scientists appear to be mostly motivated by gaining knowledge, having fun social interactions and environmental concern with regards to the effects on others, while the desire for enhancing or protecting their ego is less prominent. They also display higher knowledge and self-transcending values. Sustained participants however, are significantly older and share a stronger sense of moral obligation than their dropped-out counterparts. Moreover, prior experience seems to positively influence the length of their participation, while higher knowledge has a positive impact on the amount of data contributed. These insights offer strategies for tailored engagement that should emphasize collective impact, align with intrinsic values, and foster a sense of moral duty, with potential to enhance agri-environmental citizen science initiatives' effectiveness in addressing environmental challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laura Valentini's novel theory, the Agency-Respect View, says that we have a fundamental moral duty to honor other people's convictions, at least pro tanto and under certain conditions. I raise doubts that such a duty exists indeed and that informative conditions have been specified. The questions that Valentini faces here have a parallel in Kant's moral philosophy, viz. the question of why one has a duty to value the other's humanity and the question of how to specify the maxim of one's action. Additionally, I discuss the concept of a social convention and Valentini's use of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Morality and Socially Constructed Norms, Laura Valentini argues that moral obligations to respect social norms can be explained without invoking the concept of 'joint commitment.' Her resulting account is, in one important sense, individualistic, and therefore struggles to account for widely held intuitions about the normative significance of social norms. I argue that we can rescue the notion of joint commitment from Valentini's objections, and incorporate it into a version of her account that preserves its insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we focus on the scholarly and policy debate on autonomous weapon systems (AWS) and particularly on the objections to the use of these weapons which rest on jus ad bellum principles of proportionality and last resort. Both objections rest on the idea that AWS may increase the incidence of war by reducing the costs for going to war (proportionality) or by providing a propagandistic value (last resort). We argue that whilst these objections offer pressing concerns in their own right, they suffer from important limitations: they overlook the difficulties of calculating ad bellum proportionality; confuse the concept of proportionality of effects with the precision of weapon systems; disregard the ever-changing nature of war and of its ethical implications; mistake the moral obligation imposed by the principle of last resort with the impact that AWS may have on political decision to resort to war. Our analysis does not entail that AWS are acceptable or justifiable, but it shows that ad bellum principles are not the best set of ethical principles for tackling the ethical problems raised by AWS; and that developing adequate understanding of the transformations that the use of AWS poses to the nature of war itself is a necessary, preliminary requirement to any ethical analysis of the use of these weapons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implementing litter and plastic pollution prevention strategies is essential for cities of developing countries, mainly due to the prevailing high incidence of littering and the urgent need to realize the adverse per capita environmental impact target of the sustainable development goals. In this article, we report the use of the prominent reasoned action approach—in its original state and an extended model with moral norms—for exploring the critical socio-cognitive determinants of individuals’ litter prevention intentions in Ghana. By analyzing the valid answers of 447 participants to a structured questionnaire on litter prevention, we found attitudes (β = 0.35, SE= 0.014, p < 0.001) and moral norms (β = 0.57, SE= 0.099, p < 0.001) as the most influencing determinants to individual intentions in the original and the extended models, respectively. The analysis suggests that individuals will stop littering their environments if environmentally friendly interventions are implemented to elicit self-responsibility and moral obligation. Campaigns that demonstrate the effects of littering on drain blockage, flooding, and disease outbreaks may improve individual litter prevention attitudes. Installing waste receptacles in public spaces and communicating persuasive messages may facilitate personal antilittering intentions. Apart from contributing to the implementation of a litter management strategy to reduce the flood risk and enhance the resilience of the Greater Accra region of Ghana, this research helps to close the literature gaps in litter prevention behavior in developing countries, as well as support the implementation of the sustainable development goals and the global plastic action partnership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Espiga is the property of Revista Espiga and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Derecho Politico is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although the use of the cluster randomized trial (CRT) design to evaluate vaccines, public health interventions or health systems is increasing, the ethical issues posed by the design are not adequately addressed, especially in low- and middle-income country settings (LMICs). To help reveal ethical challenges, qualitative interviews were conducted with key stakeholders experienced in designing and conducting two selected CRTs in Malawi. The 18 interviewed stakeholders included investigators, clinicians, nurses, data management personnel and community workers who were invited to share their experiences related to implementation of CRTs. Data analysis revealed five major themes with ethical implications: (1) The moral obligation for health care providers to participate in health research and its compensation; (2) Suboptimal care services compromising the integrity of CRT; (3) Ensuring scientific validity and withholding care service; (4) Obtaining valid consent and permission for waiver of consent; and (5) Inadequate risk assessment for trial participation. Understanding key ethical issues posed by CRTs in Malawi could improve ethical review and research oversight of this particular study design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Italy, the migratory phenomenon has also had an impact on the school system, becoming an interesting potential field for intercultural and inter-religious encounters. As regards, for instance, the presence of pupils and students and their families of Islamic faith, very frequently, emphasis is placed almost exclusively on specific issues and requests, such as exemption from the teaching of the Catholic religion or specific diet. On the other hand, we rarely discuss how the presence of diverse faiths can create a unique opportunity for mutual knowledge to spread and promote the "culture of encounter". In fact, engagement with religious others is an unavoidable duty, both pedagogical and civic. Therefore, starting from an analysis of pedagogical-educational aspects of the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, the aim of this article is to outline a rethinking of the concept of intercultural/inter-religious dialogue, above all as a pedagogical challenge and a preventive measure against extremism, within the broad framework of inclusive citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a response to Roger Bissell's argument about the differences between Individualistic Perfectionism (IP) and Objectivist Ethics (OE). The authors address Bissell's claims about metaethics and the possibility of actions being considered good even if they are not performed. They also discuss the concept of "grades of actuality" and its relation to Rand's views on human good. The authors clarify their stance on the relationship between choice and obligation in IP and OE, arguing that moral obligation is based on human good and that conflict can arise due to the individualized nature of human flourishing. The text explores different arguments and perspectives on conflict in ethics, including incompatible goals and values, acting in self-interest versus benefiting others, and the concept of natural teleology in ethical theories. [Extracted from the article]