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As of February 8, 2021, 59.3 million doses of vaccines to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had been distributed in the United States, and 31.6 million persons had received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine (1). However, national polls conducted before vaccine distribution began suggested that many persons were hesitant to receive COVID-19 vaccination (2). To examine perceptions toward COVID-19 vaccine and intentions to be vaccinated, in September and December 2020, CDC conducted household panel surveys among a representative sample of U.S. adults. From September to December, vaccination intent (defined as being absolutely certain or very likely to be vaccinated) increased overall (from 39.4% to 49.1%); the largest increase occurred among adults aged ≥65 years. If defined as being absolutely certain, very likely, or somewhat likely to be vaccinated, vaccination intent increased overall from September (61.9%) to December (68.0%). Vaccination nonintent (defined as not intending to receive a COVID-19 vaccination) decreased among all adults (from 38.1% to 32.1%) and among most sociodemographic groups. Younger adults, women, non-Hispanic Black (Black) persons, adults living in nonmetropolitan areas, and adults with lower educational attainment, with lower income, and without health insurance were most likely to report lack of intent to receive COVID-19 vaccine. Intent to receive COVID-19 vaccine increased among adults aged ≥65 years by 17.1 percentage points (from 49.1% to 66.2%), among essential workers by 8.8 points (from 37.1% to 45.9%), and among adults aged 18-64 years with underlying medical conditions by 5.3 points (from 36.5% to 41.8%). Although confidence in COVID-19 vaccines increased during September-December 2020 in the United States, additional efforts to tailor messages and implement strategies to further increase the public's confidence, overall and within specific subpopulations, are needed. Ensuring high and equitable vaccination coverage across all populations is important to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

Why would a country like Malaysia relinquish a glamorous spot in the Formula-1 Grand Prix calendar? Doesn't this popular sport attract tourists? Previous research has examined the impact of large sporting events like the Olympics and the football World Cup on tourism inflows, but research on whether international sporting events held annually in the same city/country also attract significant number of tourists is limited. In this article we examine the above questions empirically and find that the hosting of a Formula-1 event indeed attracts tourists, an increase of about 6%, on average. We also find that street races, on the margin, attract more tourists. Our findings call policy makers to be absolutely certain before they give up their spot in the F1 calendar.

Introduction It is common practice to obtain follow-up radiographs of non-operatively treated isolated greater tuberosity (GT) fractures 1 to 2 weeks after trauma. However, the majority of non-operatively treated GT fractures remain stable and do not require reconsideration of the initial treatment decision. Radiological follow-up therefore might be unnecessary. Our primary objective was to study whether radiological folow-up changes the initial treatment recommendation, hypothesizing no change. Materials and methods Radiographs of 25 patients diagnosed with an isolated GT fracture were selected from our hospital database and presented on a web-based platform. Sixty-eight trauma- and orthopedic surgeons evaluated these radiographs. First the radiographs directly post-trauma and then, in random order, the radiographs 5-14 days post-trauma alongside the first radiographs. Each observer evaluated each set of radiographs once. The observers answered which treatment they would recommend (non-operative/operative), and how certain they were about their advice (absolutely certain, certain, some doubt, very uncertain). Recommendation-consistency and inter-observer agreement are presented as percentages and intra class correlation coefficients (ICC). Results Overall, 84% (95% CI 82.1–85.8) of treatment recommendations was unchanged after evaluation of the second radiograph. Agreement within each observer ranged from 60 to 98%. The mean proportion of patients about whom the observers were (absolutely) certain of their recommendation increased from 70% at the first evaluation to 83% at the second evaluation (12.8; 95% CI 9.8–15.9). Furthermore, the ICC between the surgeons improved from 0.37 (95% CI 0.26–0.54) for the first evaluation to 0.60 (95% CI 0.47–0.74) for the second. Conclusion In 16% of the patients the treatment recommendation for an isolated GT fracture changed after the evaluation of radiographs 1 to 2 weeks post-trauma. In addition, surgeons were more certain about their recommendation and there was less inter-observer variation. Radiological follow-up of a non-operatively treated isolated GT fracture therefore seems justifiable. Level of evidence III, diagnostic study.

Rationale and Objectives Magnetic resonance thoracic ductography (MRTD) with balanced turbo field echo (bTFE) can visualize both the thoracic duct and its surrounding vessels. This study aimed to investigate the visibility of the terminal thoracic duct into the venous system in the subclavian region using MRTD with bTFE. Materials and Methods MRTD was performed with bTFE as a preoperative workup comprising respiratory gating on a 1.5-T magnetic resonance system for patients with esophageal cancer. The portion and the number of terminal thoracic ducts into the venous system and preterminal branching in the left subclavian region were assessed using MRTD in 132 patients. The confidence level of the visibility using MRTD was also evaluated. Results The most frequent terminal portion of the thoracic duct was the jugulovenous angle (92 patients, 69.7%), followed by the subclavian vein (27 patients, 20.5%) and the internal jugular vein (8 patients, 6.1%). Four patients also exhibited double entry of the thoracic duct into the venous system. The preterminal branching was single in 96 patients (72.7%) and multiple in 36 patients (27.3%). The confidence level of the visibility of the thoracic duct using MRTD was absolutely certain in 112 patients (84.8%) and was somewhat certain in 20 patients (15.2%). Conclusions MRTD with bTFE is a robust imaging modality to visualize the terminal portion of the thoracic duct into the venous system in the subclavian region.

Background Previous studies have found that parents of children with cancer desire more prognostic information than is often given even when prognosis is poor. We explored in audio-recorded consultations the kinds of information they seek. Methods Ethnographic study including observation and audio recording of consultations at diagnosis. Consultations were transcribed and analyzed using an interactionist perspective including tools drawn from conversation and discourse analysis. Results Enrolled 21 parents and 12 clinicians in 13 cases of children diagnosed with a high-risk brain tumor (HRBT) over 20 months at a tertiary pediatric oncology center. Clinicians presented prognostic information in all cases. Through their questions, parents revealed what further information they desired. Clinicians made clear that no one could be absolutely certain what the future held for an individual child. Explicit communication about prognosis did not satisfy parents' desire for information about their own child. Parents tried to personalize prognostic information and to apply it to their own situation. Parents moved beyond prognostic information presented and drew conclusions, which could change over time. Parents who were present in the same consultations could form different views of their child's prognosis. Conclusion Population level prognostic information left parents uncertain about their child's future. The need parents revealed was not for more such information but rather how to use the information given and how to apply it to their child in the face of such uncertainty. Further research is needed on how best to help parents deal with uncertainty and make prognostic information actionable.

Introduction It is common practice to obtain follow-up radiographs of non-operatively treated isolated greater tuberosity (GT) fractures 1 to 2 weeks after trauma. However, the majority of non-operatively treated GT fractures remain stable and do not require reconsideration of the initial treatment decision. Radiological follow-up therefore might be unnecessary. Our primary objective was to study whether radiological follow-up changes the initial treatment recommendation, hypothesizing no change. Materials and methods Radiographs of 25 patients diagnosed with an isolated GT fracture were selected from our hospital database and presented on a web-based platform. Sixty-eight trauma- and orthopedic surgeons evaluated these radiographs. First, the radiographs directly post-trauma and then, in random order, the radiographs 5–14 days post-trauma alongside the first radiographs. Each observer evaluated each set of radiographs once. The observers answered which treatment they would recommend (non-operative/operative), and how certain they were about their advice (absolutely certain, certain, some doubt, very uncertain). Recommendation-consistency and inter-observer agreement are presented as percentages and intra class correlation coefficients (ICC). Results Overall, 84 % (95 % CI 82.1–85.8) of treatment recommendations was unchanged after evaluation of the second radiograph. Agreement within each observer ranged from 60 to 98 %. The mean proportion of patients about whom the observers were (absolutely) certain of their recommendation increased from 70 % at the first evaluation to 83 % at the second evaluation (12.8; 95 % CI 9.8–15.9). Furthermore, the ICC between the surgeons improved from 0.37 (95 % CI 0.26–0.54) for the first evaluation to 0.60 (95 % CI 0.47–0.74) for the second. Conclusion In 16 % of the patients, the treatment recommendation for an isolated GT fracture changed after the evaluation of radiographs 1 to 2 weeks post-trauma. In addition, surgeons were more certain about their recommendation and there was less inter-observer variation. Radiological follow-up of a non-operatively treated isolated GT fracture therefore seems justifiable. Level of evidence III, diagnostic study.

Mathematics enjoys a special status above all other sciences for one reason: The propositions of mathematics are absolutely certain and indisputable, while those of all other sciences are to some extent controversial and always in danger of being revised by newly discovered facts. This is how the German philosopher Carl Gustav Hempel (1905-1997) describes it.

An archaeological field school based on excavation of pig burials provides many advantages to both students and instructors. Students conduct a surface survey to find the burials and excavate complex features utilizing all the standard techniques of field Because the burials are interpreted as unnatural deaths, students must follow many lines of evidence to answer the questions “What can we deduce about the identity of the victim?” and “What might have been the manner and cause of death?” Instructors are not absolutely certain what students will find, as some “evidence” may not have been preserved, but know that many bones will come back to the lab for cleaning and analysis.

The aim of this study is to investigate whether there are structural differences between psychological spaces of men and women under the simplest possible model of analysis of these differences, i.e. based on comparing configurations of vectors of cognitive and conative functions. On a sample of 2664 participants (1332 males and 1332 females) aged 18 years who were described by three tests of the efficiency of cognitive processors, six tests of disorders of conative regulators, four tests of disorders of socialization process, a factor of the intensity of manifest aberrant behavior and academic achievement, structural differences between the sexes were analyzed using the methods of least squares, (maximum likelihood). These and many numerically smaller but still significant differences in the configurations of the analyzed variables show that it is almost absolutely certain that male and female participants of this age live in different psychological spaces, which is confirmed by the results of previously conducted analyses of structural differences in cognitive and conative spaces between men and women.

In this case study, we illustrate the great potential of experimental mathematics and symbolic computation, by rederiving, ab initio, Onsager's celebrated solution of the twodimensional Ising model in zero magnetic field. Onsager's derivation is extremely complicated and ad hoc, as are all the subsequent proofs. Unlike Onsager's, our derivation is not rigorous, yet it is absolutely certain (even if Onsager did not do it before), and should have been acceptable to physicists who do not share mathematicians' fanatical (and often misplaced) insistence on rigor.

Echoes of pragmatism have long been noted in the Cold War era and, specifically, Norbert Wiener's cybernetics, which comes from the Greek kybernetes or “steersman,” and offers a science of feedback, human behavior, and information. Increasingly, Wiener's work is revisited in the pursuit of “big data” in education. Yet, scholars ignore the influence of pragmatism-and John Dewey, in particularon cybernetics and its reach into education. This paper reveals how Dewey played a role in Wiener's philosophical underpinning and views on education. With the research methods of textual analysis and archival material, it enables a demonstration that pragmatism made for a humanizing effect on Wiener's efforts and, ultimately, his ongoing and increasing impact in technology and education.

Interest in the role of vitamin D in the human body has greatly increased in the last decade. Many scientific studiesprovide the evidence of vitamin D deficiency, which is considered to be one of the most serious health problems inchildren, young people as well as those middle-aged and older people. The effects of vitamin D deficiency in theprenatally period can affect the health condition at later age, and can be related to diseases of chronic and progressive nature. Nowadays, vitamin D is seen rather as a hormone and is said to have pleiotropic effect. Apart from itsclassical effect on calcium and phosphate metabolism, vitamin D is also applied in the prophylaxis and treatmentof the cardiovascular system and metabolic diseases, cancer or autoimmune diseases. Taking into account scientificreports on certain diseases of the nervous system, there is an indication regarding a relationship between their occurrence and the deficit of vitamin D. Therefore, this vitamin can be seen as a potential “candidate” to support theprevention as well as treatment of these diseases. It should be emphasized however, that not everything in thismatter is absolutely certain and clear; further studies are still required in this area. (JNNN 2015;4(2):85–90)

Iam certain that I have no special wisdom about selecting mentors, but I am absolutely certain of the importance of mentorship in career development. In every profession and vocation, guidance by an experienced hand is an important key to and downs, the good times and disappointments that are inevitable in any career. The mentor should be an effective communicator—for you. There should be an effective meshing of personality and lifestyle that enables comfortable, open communication. The ideal mentor will have some track record with prior mentees; effective mentorship requires experience as a mentor. There are several potential types of mentors, and most trainees and junior faculty need more than one.

This chapter considers the relations of knowledge to objectivity, certainty, intuition, deduction, and rigour. It argues that knowledge cannot be objective in the sense of being totally independent of any subject, but only in the sense of being as independent as possible of any particular human subject; that knowledge cannot be absolutely certain, since it can only be plausible; that knowledge is not obtained by intuition, not even fallible intuition; that knowledge cannot be obtained merely by deduction, but requires non-deductive reasoning; and that knowledge cannot be obtained by sticking to an abstract ideal of rigour, since what is important is not rigour but fruitfulness, hence the concept of rigour is better replaced with that of fruitfulness.

The heuristic view of philosophy is opposed to the foundationalist view, according to which philosophy does not aim at knowledge and methods to acquire knowledge, but only at justifying already obtained knowledge, by providing a foundation for it. The foundationalist view assumes, first, that there is immediately justified knowledge and all other knowledge is deduced from it, and, secondly, that immediately justified knowledge is absolutely certain, being based on intuition. This chapter argues that both these assumptions are unjustified. One might think of replacing the foundationalist view with a milder version, the weak foundationalist view, according to which immediately justified knowledge, while not being absolutely certain, has at least some intrinsic credibility. But the chapter argues that the weak foundationalist view also is based on some unjustified assumptions.

Programming the PushBot: The PushBot has a lot to do! Because of this, I want to be absolutely certain that my program works, and I’ll be testing it often. To make it easier on myself, I’m going to break down the program into three sections. The first section covers getting the bot to the proper location in front of the first figurine. The second section covers the programming blocks used to put the first three figurines into their proper locations. And the final section is devoted to pushing the last figurine up the ramp and onto the Mayan sarcophagus.

Taman looked down, inched up his parka over his sweater, woolen shirt, T-shirt to make absolutely certain his geocoder – which would, otherwise, have provided a precise GPS position – was turned off.

To investigate if the Swedish entry rules for pets to prevent the introduction of Echinococcus multilocularis (EM) are proportional (i.e. that their costs do not exceed the value of their benefits), a dichotomous-choice contingent valuation study was conducted. The study was performed before the first case of EM was detected in Sweden in February 2011. About 5000, randomly selected, Swedish citizens were invited to participate and 2192 of them (44%) accepted to do so. Missing information on whether or not one would accept to pay for keeping the rules for 143 respondents resulted in 2049 observations (41%) available for the estimation of willingness to pay (WTP), and missing information on personal characteristics for another 274 respondents reduced the number of observations available for sensitivity analysis to 1775 (36%). Annual expected WTP for keeping the rules ranged between € 54.3 and € 99.0 depending on assumptions about compensations demanded by respondents not willing to pay. The estimates are conservative since only answers from respondents that were absolutely certain they would pay the suggested bid were regarded as yes-responses. That WTP is positive implies that Swedish citizens perceived the benefits of the rules to be larger than their costs.

Spinoza scholars have claimed that we are faced with a dilemma: either Spinoza's definitions in his Ethics are real, in spite of indications to the contrary, or the definitions are nominal and the propositions derived from them are false. I argue that Spinoza did not recognize the distinction between real and nominal definitions. Rather, Spinoza classified definitions according to whether they require a priori or a posteriori justification, which is a classification distinct from either the real/nominal or the intensional/extensional classification. I argue that Spinoza uses both a priori and a posteriori definitions in the Ethics and that recognizing both types of definitions allows us to understand Spinoza's geometric method in a new way. We can now understand the geometric method as two methods, one resulting in propositions that Spinoza considers to be absolutely certain and another resulting in propositions that Spinoza does not consider certain. The latter method makes use of a posteriori definition...

In 1956, Fraisse, et al. reported subjects judged that lines were longer when voluntary attention was focused on the lines than when attention was distracted from the lines. In the many attempts to repeat these results, none has ascertained whether attention on reported line length was a phenomenal effect. In the present study, 46 subjects were shown as stimuli pairs of horizontal or vertical briefly flashed lines with a fixation cross placed equidistant between the lines but far from each one. A change in color of one arm of the cross was used as a cue to focus subjects' voluntary attention on one line. Analysis showed attention increased the judged length of attended lines. Since this effect of attention also occurred when subjects were absolutely certain they saw the stimulus lines differed in length, this effect indicates that attention increased the phenomenal length of the attended lines. This lengthening was quite small: it involved a maximum mean increase of about .15 in the probability of the comparative response that the attended line was longer. This effect occurred in the horizontal dimension and was almost absent in the vertical dimension. In agreement with data indicating that flashed lines expand phenomenally by activating motion detectors and that focused attention makes neural motion responses increase in amplitude, the present results suggest that focused attention makes attended lines look longer because it makes these lines expand phenomenally more rapidly.

Jurors are instructed to render a guilty verdict if they feel the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury is often told that this does not mean an absolute certainty of guilt and that even if it were possible to imagine a scenario in which the defendant is innocent, a guilty verdict may still be appropriate. Here, participants read a case summary. They were either told to say that the defendant was guilty if they believed in guilt beyond a reasonable doubt or were given more detailed instruction stressing that they did not have to be absolutely certain of guilt to give a guilty verdict. In Experiment 1, participants provided “think-aloud” protocols. Content analysis revealed that those who were given this instruction often used the phrase reasonable doubt to justify their guilty verdicts by saying that although they were not certain of the defendant's guilt, their belief exceeded the reasonable doubt threshold. None of the participants in the control group did this. Experiment 2 was design...

) in several states and provinces. The disease causes abnormalbehavior, emaciation, and death in all infected animals (Williams, Miller, Kreeger, Kahn,& Thorne, 2002). There is no evidence that CWD is transmissible to humans or causeshuman health problems (Belay et al., 2004). Researchers and agency officials are quick topoint out, however, that they are not absolutely certain that it is safe to eat meat frominfected animals (Salman, 2003).Extensive research has examined the pathology, epidemiology, transmission, andclinical signs of CWD (see Williams et al., 2002 for a review). Research on the humandimensions of CWD, however, is limited and has primarily addressed economic impactsof CWD and hunters’ behavior and acceptance of management actions in response to thedisease (e.g., Bishop, 2004; Needham, Vaske, & Manfredo, 2004; Vaske, Needham,Newman, Manfredo, & Petchenik, 2006). Little empirical attention has focused ondescribing hunters’ and non-hunters’ current beliefs about CWD and the extent to whichthese beliefs are consistent across multiple states, years, and interest groups. This findingsabstract helps to address these knowledge gaps.Data were obtained from mail surveys of: (a) residents and non-residents who hunteddeer with a gun in 2003 in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota,Utah, Wisconsin, or Wyoming; (b) residents and nonresidents who hunted elk with a gunin 2003 in Colorado, Utah, or Wyoming; (c) residents and nonresidents who hunted deeror elk with a gun in 2004 in Colorado; and (d) hunters and non-hunters residing inWisconsin’s southwest CWD eradication zone (i.e., 1,351 mi

Research on student teachers' expectations regarding teaching as a career may help explain the reasons underlying problems of teacher recruitment and teacher retention which are causing concern in many countries. This study explores the expectations held by a group of student teachers in York, England and Stavanger, Norway. Questionnaires were completed by 121 York PGCE students and 75 Stavanger B.Ed. students. A majority of students in both groups were absolutely certain that they will be doing a socially worthwhile job, will be happy with the amount of holiday, and will feel elated by pupil achievement. However, only a low percentage in both groups were absolutely certain they will have enough time to do a good job. A majority of student teachers in both groups also regard teaching pupils as more important than their specialist subject, expect a proportion of the job to involve bad times (most often between 11 and 25% of the time), expect to be involved in management within a few years, and expect to st...

Contrary to Block, the synthetic a priori has little to do with our dispute. My critique of the Austrians is not that their methods are “unscientific,” but that their most distinctive positions are false or overstated. Yet Block’s latest reply does inadvertently make Austrian economics more reasonable. If synthetic a priori claims vary in degree of probability, they can no longer be treated as scientifically superior to empirical claims. Furthermore, while empirically testing absolutely certain synthetic a priori claims is pointless, empirically testing uncertain synthetic a priori claims is not.

The question constantly arises, of a proportionate response to suffering. Or of an acknowledgement of suffering as disproportionate and incommensurable. On the day on which I write this paragraph, 29 March 2003, viewers of BBC World have been invited to co-construct the sadness and solemnity of the return to Britain from Iraq, in coffins draped in flags and accompanied by Handel and Elgar, of ten named, killed soldiers, and to attend to the words of an officer who tells us how hard a whole regiment may be hit by such a loss. Also today, on the same channel, with a measure of implicit concern but at more than one remove, we are shown a desperate gathering up of unnamed corpses in a market in Baghdad which has been hit by someone or other's ordinance with the loss of fifty or sixty civilian lives. And also today the BBC relays to us, without much commentary, the Pentagon's monochrome film of the obliteration of a building which is said to have contained 200 of Saddam Hussein's committed supporters, none of whom emerged. Perhaps it is easy for some to say exactly how distressed (or glad) it is appropriate to feel about each of these various cases. But for anyone who is not absolutely certain of the nature and extent of all the rights and wrongs involved, the mathematics are baffling. What are we supposed to do with these statistics? How much attention do we give to the ten, the 60, or the 200 especially when it is asserted, again on the same channel, and on

The existence of the atmosphere of Mars has been rendered absolutely certain by the totality of the observations. The evidence is of varied nature and strength.

Compliance in endoscope reprocessing is unsatisfactory worldwide. The success of the reprocessing procedure relies upon both disinfection and cleaning. Products for instrument disinfection have to be tested accordingly. However, there is still no accepted standard against which to test the result of the cleaning procedure. Different strategies for endoscope reprocessing are possible: one- or two-step procedures. The decision for the method chosen strongly depends on the possibilities in individual hospitals. Products based on glutaraldehyde should not be used if it is not absolutely certain that instruments are already clean. There has to be an awareness that instruments are not designed for easy cleaning. A one-step procedure with products based on aliphatic amines could be an alternative. Methods of assessing such a procedure are suggested.

To reconstruct the past, oral historians are concerned with the depths of memory as a potential source of information, evidence and meaning at their disposal. Unfortunately, memory can never be absolutely certain, wherein lies its weakness as a source of knowledge of the past. The researcher has the important task of implementing historical interpretation and principles of historical critique in searching for authenticity in sources. Taking into account the nature of memory and the factors that may negatively affect its objectivity, the article will examine which reliable techniques and methods may be implemented by the oral historian to minimise problems and inaccuracies, as well as examine oral evidence for factual credibility.

Since the discovery of the Neandertal bones 1856 (cfr Toussaint, 1996), the extremely old, fragmentary fossil remains of hundreds of man-like bodies have been discovered in Europe, Asia, and Africa (cfr Bonjean, 1996). Even the oldest ones – usually the most incomplete – look man-like and „un-apish”, even to a layman, if compared with a modern apish and human correlate. Sometimes, in the vicinity of these remains, primitive stone tools or the evidence of their production have been found. At present, it seems absolutely certain – within the limits of our present physical and biological knowledge – that at least four million years ago, in Africa, some creatures resembling modern man were living, and that at least two and half million years ago, in Africa, stone tools were produced. In contrast with the fi rm, scientifi cally-arguable belief that all modern human tribes – however diff erent they are – belong to a single species (cfr Littlefi eld et al., 1982; Marks, 1995), in paleoanthropology an equally fi rm scientifi c belief is maintained that the extinct man-like forms belong to several diff erent, „presapient”, „prehuman”, more ape-like species (cfr Wood, 1996). No philosopher ignores the theoretical consequences of this situation.  ere is, however, a big epistemological paradox hidden at the bottom of it.  ere is

In industrial practice, the decision to accept or reject an inspected item is usually made on the basis of measurement information. Since this information is rarely complete, it is not possible in general to be absolutely certain about the value of the measurand. As a consequence, incorrect decisions may be made. In this paper, formulae for the probabilities of improperly accepting or rejecting an item are derived. Bayesian statistics provides the theoretical framework, and use is made of the Principle of Maximum Entropy. Applications to the inspection of workpieces and to the verification of measuring instruments are considered and examples are given. The conventional, frequency-based approach is also discussed.

Take Phobus Levine at the Rockefeller Institute. He was absolutely certain that DNA was a boring irrelevant molecule containing random sequences of those four letters, ACGT. He dismissed it, and then, in that peculiar human way, it became a matter of faith with him, deep faith. What he knew, he knew, and the molecule was insignificant.Ian McEwan, Enduring Love (1997)

THE development of internal fixation techniques and better hospital facilities have significantly improved the success of fracture repair in horses. A practitioner, therefore, has an obligation to be prepared to administer adequate splinting in fracture cases unless he or she is absolutely certain that the injury is irreparable and warrants euthanasia. Properly applied initial first aid for the fracture case can be critical to the success of any subsequent repair, while poorly applied first aid can wreck the chance of treatment. Effective splinting does not require specialist equipment, but knowledge of the basic principles is important.

[Figure][1] It doesn't quite yet fall into the category of an “empirical generalization,” but it's absolutely certain that neuroscience will be an integral part of the future of marketing research. Not only will it open new doors to academic research, but it also will provide new sets of

Research suggests that although confidence–accuracy (C–A) relationships are typically low, investigative interviewing with hypnosis may have a particularly adverse influence on C–A relationships. However, it is possible that researchers may have paid insufficient attention to the issue of item difficulty. To address this issue an experiment was conducted which measured recall of information seen in a video film. Questions were constructed to range in difficulty and no misleading post-event information and/or leading questions were presented. Subjects' were assigned to either a hypnosis condition or one of two control conditions. Higher C–A correlations than have been usually reported were found, regardless of interview condition. Also, when subjects were ‘absolutely certain’ that a piece of information was correct they almost invariably were accurate, and again interview condition did not influence this. Some practical implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 1997 British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis

Research indicates that the confidence eyewitnesses express in information heavily influences both the investigative process and the credence which jurors give to eyewitness testimony. However, studies in this area suggest that there is either no relationship or only a small positive relationship between eyewitness confidence and accuracy. Nevertheless, it is argued here that researchers may have paid insufficient attention to the issue of item difficulty, and have used statistical procedures that fail to consider highly accurate responses with low variance. In an attempt to address these issues, two experiments were conducted which measured confidence–accuracy in response to information seen in video films. In each case questions were used that ranged in difficulty. Higher confidence–accuracy correlations than are usually reported were found in both experiments. Furthermore, when participants were ‘absolutely certain’ that a piece of information was correct, they almost invariably were accurate.

Geitodoris sticta new species is described and illustrated. This is the first time that a Geitodoris species has been recorded for New Zealand waters. The history of the use and classification of the genus Geitodoris Bergh, 1892 is reviewed, specially emphasising its separation from the obviously closely related Discodons Bergh, 1877. Geitodoris is maintained on the presence of a definite set of spatulate marginal radular teeth, contrary to Discodoris which is characterised by a gradual change in the size and shape of the teeth, the outer ones being hook-, blade- or needle-like. In terms of Ortea and Balles-teros' (1981) subgeneric arrangement of ten of the sixteen presently recognised Geitodoris spp., clearly the new species would stand alongside G. bonosi Ortea & Ballesteros, 1981 in their subgenus Vernllia. The new species is distinguished from G bonosi in having ill-defined patches of brown pigment on the mantle (not definite spots) and marginal teeth of one kind, spatulate (no needle-like outer ones), and lacking a vestibular (?penial) gland. A comparison is made with twelve other species, eight recognised Geitodoris spp. (two mentioned but not assigned to a subgenus and six not considered by Ortea and Ballesteros, two of these species having been described after their review), and four Discodoris spp. with a Geitodoris-like radula. The new species is separable from all of them. It is closest to G. bacalladoi Ortea, 1990, differing in having indefinite patches of brown pigment, flattened tubercles of two sizes, tripinnate gills, trapezium-shaped jaws with rod-like elements and asymmetrical marginal teeth (side view). In two cases the distinction is not absolutely certain because the descriptions are inadequate.

If there is an issue about which UK businesses can be absolutely certain over the next few years it is that the pressure on companies to comply with legislation and to limit their impact on the environment will grow. International concern, increasing public awareness and tougher legislation will keep the issue high on the business agenda. Today, the environment is no longer the preserve of just a few enlightened industrialists. The roll-call of companies committed to change and to better management of resources is extensive. Those who fail to understand the issues or to read the signals face increasing isolation in a business environment where improving corporate environmental performance is not just about threats and the costs of compliance. Increasingly, the focus is on better management, controlling costs and making the best use of the available resources. Copyright © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment

Errol Harris talks about a crypto-dialectic method that lies behind the geometrical disguise of Spinoza'sEthics.Spinoza's method, he argues, is not the linear formal deduction of traditional logic but a crypto-dialectical development of the structural implications of a systematic whole. Substance differentiates itself into infinite attributes and infinite modes. Each attribute is self-differentiated into a hierarchy of modes ranging from the most complex to the simplest. Harris calls this a dialectical scale or a crypto-dialectical development of the structural implications of a systematic whole. The self-specification of the whole into attributes and modes provides the framework for a dialectical system. Spinoza's hypotheses (propositions) are implications dialectically derived from his concept of substance, a concept of a whole which differentiates itself into infinite attributes and modes. Substance is not a hypothesis but is a postulate which s i absolutely certain. Everything follows from substance with dialectical necessity. Substance is the origin of all things and ideas.

According to evolutionary explanations men hardly ever are absolutely certain about their biological fatherhood therefore they must seek various sources of information to subjectively establish whether they are the genetic fathers of the children they raise. Apicella and Marlowe (2004) showed that fathers who perceived greater similarity between their children and themselves were willing to invest more resources (e.g., time, money, care) in their offspring presumably because the perceived resemblance indicated to the fathers their genetic relatedness with their children. The present study extended the design of Apicella and Marlowe's original study and included both fathers and mothers as participants. Parents were recruited by a female confederate at the airport and at the railway station in Wroclaw (Poland). Multiple regression analyses showed that perceived resemblance predicted parental investment in the child for both men and women. The fact that mothers' declarations of investment in their children also depended on the perceived resemblance factor is not consistent with evolutionary formulations delineated by Apicella and Marlowe (2004; 2007). Future studies must resolve the issue of whether the resemblance-investment relation in fathers results from men relaying on child's resemblance to themselves as an indicator of their own biological paternity, or whether it results from the more parsimonious phenomenon that people in general are attracted more to other people who are similar to them.

In 1694, Mary Astell (1666–1731) published A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, in which she advocates establishing a “Monastery” or “Religious Retirement” for women to provide them with a “convenient and blissful recess from the noise and hurry of the World” (73).1 In 1697, she published A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, Part II, subtitled, “Wherein a Method is offer’d for the improvement of their Minds.” As various scholars have noted, this “method” has much in common with the method advocated by Descartes, as well as by Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole in their 1693 Logic or the Art of Thinking, which itself follows a Cartesian path.2 And it is not just in her epistemology that Astell seems Cartesian; she also endorses Descartes’ dualism of mind and body. Like Descartes, Astell links this dualistic ontology with a conception of method in which a thinker seeks certain knowledge by eschewing the information provided by the senses (what Descartes calls “adventitious ideas”), focusing instead on the deliverances of reason alone. Descartes calls this absolutely certain knowledge “scientia,” while Astell calls it “science.”3

Personal view p 372 Gastrostomy feeding has been withdrawn from around 20 people diagnosed as being in the permanent vegetative state in the United Kingdom, inevitably resulting in their death from dehydration. The clinical diagnosis is confirmed by healthcare professionals and legality is conferred by the courts, but the ethical position is not formally considered. This article outlines some specific ethical issues. #### Summary points The diagnosis of the permanent vegetative state cannot be absolutely certain There is no standard test of awareness and data on prognosis are limited Patients in the permanent vegetative state raise ethical issues concerning the nature of consciousness, quality of life, the value society attributes to life, and handling of uncertainty In an era of increasing demands on healthcare resources decisions have to be made about allocation of limited resources and how quality of life is to be judged The permanent vegetative state is diagnosed when a patient is unaware of himself or herself and his or her environment and there is no prospect of any change in this state by any means. The clinical characteristics and diagnosis of the condition have been established (box).1–6 Nevertheless, the clinical diagnosis is not always easy because there is a spectrum from the vegetative state to full awareness. The border between these two states is referred to as the low awareness state.1 No absolute definition exists for low awareness state. Generally, however, the patient behaves in a way that implies that at times he or she may be able to extract meaning from a stimulus and may be able to respond in a goal directed way. Usually the state is intermittent, with only vegetative responses being present at other times. Rarely, it may be possible to establish some form of rudimentary communication. We do not know if …

The account in Genesis 22 of Abraham's offering up his beloved son Isaac as a sacrifice is a frightening story. Kant makes the interesting statement that Abraham should have replied as follows: "The fact that I should not kill my good son is absolutely certain. But that you who appear to me are God, I am not certain and can never become certain". After Kierkegaard, Jaques Derrida is the only philosopher to publish his reflections on Genesis 22 in a monograph. This chapter focuses on the philosophical line of interpretation of the sacrifice of Isaac narrative, beginning with Kant and then continuing through Kierkegaard, Buber, Levinas, and Derrida. The chapter discusses how Nishida's logic of topos understands God. Surely some will treat this as philosophical speculation in the negative sense and, objecting to deductive interpretation of the text, insist that one reach an understanding of God through inductive interpretation. Keywords: Abraham; Buber; Derrida; Isaac; Kant; Kierkegaard; Nishida

According to the programme I am to speak to you about Online in Poland, but I am afraid that since this is my first visit to your country I will have to admit that my factual knowledge of this topic is somewhat limited, not about online, but online in Poland. Most of all I know I just learnt in this congress what I am absolutely certain of — going online here is possible. I know because we have a stand in the exhibition in the next room and we are online giving demonstrations of our databases. The other thing is that the online information that we provide is available to you and can be found.

As a general practitioner working in the poor suburbs of Yemen, the “bread and butter” of my work is treating infectious diseases. You can never predict, however, what the next patient on the list will bring into consultation. One particular example stands out in my memory. A young man arrived at my clinic. He was very reserved and seemed a very quiet person. His complaints were nonspecific: pains and aches in his lower abdomen, chest, axilla. He said he got a headache — whenever he scratched his head. In my long years of practice, I have gotten used to these sorts of funny and odd complaints, that often can't be pinpointed or sorted out. He seemed completely normal, if somewhat detached and uncooperative. I finished my brief examination and started to reassure him that there was nothing wrong. But I offered to do some tests just to make absolutely certain that all was right. There was a brief moment of silence and then he said: “Doctor, I know that there is nothing wrong with me, except for one thing.” I listened carefully. He continued: “I am 20 years old now and my penis is like that of a 3-year-old child!” So that was that. His other symptoms were a fiction designed to help him overcome his fear of relating his real problem. When I examined his genitalia, everything seemed perfectly normal —except, of course, for his really small-sized organ. I confess that, at that moment, I thought of the dozens of spam emails that I had received about penis enlargement. And I genuinely wished that I could offer him a pharmaceutical solution. But I had no clue where such therapies are sold in Yemen. So, I concluded the consultation by providing my sincere assurance that, as long as “it is working fine, there is nothing to worry about.” He left the clinic. I could see that he was not satisfied. And I thought later, even in the poorest settings, where thousands of people die annually as a result of infectious diseases, some concerns are universal. — Dr. Yasir Hameed, Taiz, Yemen. Figure. In every country, there will also be men who think that size matters. Image by: Photos.com

Children with mild developmental delay without dysmorphic features do not often have identifiable underlying aetiological factors. We report on a 5-year-old girl with mild developmental delay and dysmorphic features which were previously unrecognized. She was found to have supernumerary ring chromosome 19 mosaicism which was the likely cause of her clinical problems. Her parents' chromosomes were normal. A careful examination for dysmorphic features should be done in all children with developmental delay. However, these may not be readily apparent in babies and very young children. Chromosomal analysis to identify a genetic cause and to offer genetic counselling should be considered in all such children unless the clinician is absolutely certain that there are no dysmorphic features.

I first met Todd in 1961. We were both graduate students in the Psychology Department at the University of Washington. I was in the clinical program, and Todd was a student in the developmental program working with Sidney Bijou and Donald Baer at the Institute for Child Development (later the Developmental Psychology Laboratory). The Institute for Child Development was where the behaviorists and the behaviorists-in-training hung out. It was across the campus from Denny Hall, the building where most of the psychology department was located. I was never sure whether this was systematically planned or a simple happenstance of where room for several preschools and laboratory space was available. Whatever was the case, the separation created a unique culture where graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty were mixed together in a way that generated frequent interactions, discussions, heated arguments, and productive collaborative research. Everyone knew what research everyone else was doing. We knew it because we brought our graphs with the latest data to lunch gatherings, we argued about the meaning and importance of the results, and we suggested better ways of doing the study, whatever the topic of research was. In short, it was an exciting and energetic atmosphere that paradoxically generated both intense competition and lifelong collaboration. We all appreciated and encouraged each other's work. At the same time, all of us were absolutely certain that we knew a better way to conduct the research or to analyze the data, and we were not at all reluctant to describe, at great length, how to improve each other's research. It was, in short, an ideal situation for graduate education. A large part, no doubt, was due to the participants, among whom were the staff and faculty members, Sidney Bijou, Don Baer, Bill Hopkins, Eileen Allen, and Jay Birnbrauer; research associates and postdoctoral fellows, Mont Wolf, Bob Wahler, Bud Wexler, Barbara Etzel, Bob Orlando, and Ivar Lovaas; and graduate students, Todd, Warren Steinman, Vance Hall, Rob Hawkins, Bob Peterson, and me.

Jerzy Ossolinski's letters show that the Polish ambassador was absolutely certain that his mission to England would be a success. His boundless optimism, hardly becoming of a diplomat, however, did have some foundation. It was not only James's recent diplomatic intervention in favour of the Commonwealth and his predecessors' efforts that made Ossolinski assuredly believe his embassy would be effective, but also what he knew about the king's conception of English foreign policy. King James would have enjoyed a little comfort if he had known that just as his Christendom was in a piecemeal fashion becoming a relic of the past, so was the power of the Ottoman Empire. The old enemy of Christianity after that for all intents and purposes stopped being a serious threat to Europe. The victory was won with the significant participation of the Poland he had once attempted to help. Keywords: Britain; Jerzy Ossolinski; King James; Ottoman Turks; Poland

This paper is an attempt to place the dispute about early man in South America in historical context and to review the most convincing and important evidence that has been put forward. Essentially no skeletal remains–either in North or South America–have survived recent scrutiny and direct dating by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and small CO2counters. Only a handful of North American sites still are considered likely to be pre-Clovis, but the concept of an earlier, generalized hunting-and-gathering adaptation remains popular. In South America the pre-Paleoindian sites of the 1960s and 1970s are reevaluated and found to present only weak or negative indications of early occupation. Recently discovered sites in Brazil and Chile are examined critically, and the evidence is questioned. The results of this survey and evaluation suggest that we still lack the absolutely certain case that would be necessary to support the hypothesis of glacial-age occupation. Moreover, the probability of demonstration is seen to decrease, rather than increase, as the Paleoindian horizon increasingly is defined with more certainty while only equivocal cases are marshalled for an Archaic-like pre-Paleoindian stage. In summarizing prehistory, archaeologists should depend more on unambiguous and replicated cases, rather than on regional exceptions. More interpretive caution is needed, especially where there are possibilities of mixture and secondary deposition. Natural processes often mimic cultural patterns, confusing the positive identification of informal hearths and simple artifacts.

In his catalogue of Hebrew and Samaritan manuscripts in the National Library of France, Hermann Zotenberg gave a very summary description of the manuscript B.N. h´ebreu 80. John Revell was the only one who bothered to check whether paragraphing in such Tibero-Palestinian manuscripts is in accordance with the Palestinian fragments. In Palestinian manuscripts paragraphing is often different from that of Leningrad Codex (LC). It is absolutely certain that the scribe of BN was acquainted with the Tiberian Masoretic tradition. Therefore it is not right to claim the term 'Proto-Tiberian' or 'Pre-Masoretic' for this category of manuscripts. Like other Palestinian and Tibero-Palestinian codices BN is a carelessly written manuscript, probably only intended for personal study. This introductory chapter compares the differences between the paragraphing in the Book of Isaiah according to LC and BN with that in a number of other medieval Hebrew manuscripts.Keywords: Book of Isaiah; Hebrew Bible; John Revell; Leningrad Codex (LC); Paragraphing; Prophets; Samaritan manuscripts; Tibero-Palestinian codices; Tibero-Palestinian Manuscript; Writings

King John is a provocatively problematic play. In terms of its provenance alone, there have been keenly debated exchanges about its genealogical relationship to its main source, with editors of scholarly editions arguing on either side for Shakespeare's play as a source for the anonymous The Troublesome Reign of John King of England and for the latter as a source for the former. While the majority prefer to see Troublesome Reign as the source, and the most recent accounts of this have been quite dismissive of the opposite camp, the debate in its entirety has led to useful close readings of the anonymous play. Discussion concerning other known sources (Holinshed, Foxe, Hall) and an analogue, Radulph of Coggeshall's English Chronicle (written in Latin), has been somewhat less heated, and there are far fewer arguments for a direct use of its other dramatic analogue, Bale's King Johan . But there are resonances, if not replications, between Bale's and Shakespeare's plays that, if properly investigated, might reinforce some of the more recent scholarly excursions on Shakespeare's behalf, and there is a strong temptation to imagine, if not actually believe, that Shakespeare 'worked with the old play in his head, if not in his hand'. With Nathan Drake, ‘we are well aware, that, to many of our readers, the chronological discussion incident to a new arrangement, will be lamented as tedious and uninteresting; the more so, as nothing absolutely certain can be expected as the result’.