Talking About a Universalist World

The paper defends a combination of perdurantism with mereological universalism by developing semantics of temporary predications of the sort ’some P is/was/will be (a) Q’. We argue that, in addition to the usual application of causal and other restrictions on sortals, the grammatical form of such statements allows for rather different regimentations along three separate dimensions, according to: (a) whether ‘P’ and ‘Q’ are being used as phase or substance sortal terms, (b) whether ‘is’, ‘was’, and ‘will be’ are the ‘is’, ‘was’, ‘will be’ of identity or of constitution, and (c) whether ‘Q’ is being used as a subject or predicate term. We conclude that this latitude is beneficial, as it conforms with linguistic reality (i.e., the multiple uses actually in place) and also enables one to turn what is ordinarily perceived as a problem for universalist perdurantism viz., a commitment to all sorts of weird and gerrymandered temporally extended entities, into an advantage, for the richness in questions allows us to make sense of the many different readings of sentences of the same grammatical form.     

Sex Biases in Subject Selection: A Survey of Articles Published in American Medical Journals

This study discusses the results of a survey of 1,800 articles published in American medical journals from 1985--1996. The study finds 9% of these articles reported research that uses only male subjects to examine medical conditions that affect both sexes; the ratio of research on female to male conditions among these articles was greater than 5:1; but 76.5% of the articles reported research that includes both male and female subjects. The study also discusses evidence that sex biases against women (and men) are decreasing. This study also offers some possible psychological, institutional, medical, and economic explanations of the sex biases in medical research published in American journals, and discusses some policy implications of sex biases in medical research. The study concludes by urging others to conduct more empirical research on sex biases in medical research.     

今、帛、竹书《周易》卦爻辞补释

出土简帛易学文献,为今人探索卦爻辞之本义提供了宝贵的资料.本文即以马王堆帛书《周易》、上海博物馆藏战国楚竹书《周易》与今本《周易》相对比,选取坤、蒙、比、履等十五卦中的诸本差异较大的辞句予以训释疏证,辨析其异同,间亦涉及帛本流传等学术问题.     

论宏观经济调控和管理中的若干伦理问题

宏观经济调控和管理中的伦理问题,是一个不可忽视的领域。中国是一个发展中国家,正处在从传统经济向现代市场经济转型,政府的宏观调控不可或缺;同时政府作为经济活动的主体,其行为也必须遵守适应市场经济运作的规则。     

论新时期医学院校人文学科建设

加强医学人文学科建设是全面推进素质教育、培养创新精神的重要内容,也是深化医学教育改革步伐的重要举措.医学院校开展医学人文教育教学真正目的是进一步优化高等医学院校人才培养模式,使医学人文学科知识内化为医学生的人文思想和人文精神.     

Nonparametric IRT: Testing the bi-isotonicity of isotonic probabilistic models (ISOP)

Nonparametric tests for testing the validity of polytomous ISOP-models (unidimensional ordinal probabilistic polytomous IRT-models) are presented. Since the ISOP-model is a very general nonparametric unidimensional rating scale model the test statistics apply to a great multitude of latent trait models. A test for the comonotonicity of item sets of two or more items is suggested. Procedures for testing the comonotonicity of two item sets and for item selection are developed. The tests are based on Goodman-Kruskal's gamma index of ordinal association and are generalizations thereof. It is an essential advantage of polytomous ISOP-models within probabilistic IRT-models that the tests of validity of the model can be performed before and without the model being fitted to the data. The new test statistics have the further advantage that no prior order of items or subjects needs to be known.     

Self-Monitoring negative statements

We examined the effects of a self-monitoring program on reducing the frequency of negative statements of a student with mild mental retardation who was enrolled in a self-contained classroom at a middle school. A changing criterion design was used within a multiple baseline design across two classroom periods. Additionally, the frequency of positive statements was reported. The results showed a decrease in the number of negative statements, and an increase in the number of positive statements. Maintenance data collected up to 8 weeks after the program ended indicated that the student continued to emit positive rather than negative statements. The use of this procedure to decelerate undesirable behavior is discussed.     

龟卜筮占的递兴与《易》卦符号的性质

先民信奉的术数有天启与人为之別。天启是消极被动地等待"天垂象,示吉凶",人为则是以卜筮"决嫌疑,定犹豫"。龟卜繁难,筮占简易。殷人尚卜与周人用筮,实为不同民族的稽疑习惯。周人受封于商,殷周始有文化往来,而周人迁岐之后,殷人之龟卜乃行于周邦,但周人仍以筮占为主。周朝开国立基,依其传统的稽疑之法编纂筮书,称之为《易》,其命名之朔,正是着眼于龟卜的繁难与筮占的简易。而《周易》卦爻辞乃旧有之象占、星占及筮占甚至龟卜之辞的鸠合与改编,具有相当程度的加工与润色。六十四卦卦画符号的原初功能就是"纪数"与"检索"。内"贞"外"悔"的爻辞顺序,也是针对六十四卦卦画绝大多数皆可"表里视之,遂成两卦"所作的规定。因此,《易》之所以名"易",一是相对龟卜而言,筮占简单容易;二是筮书编成之后,卦画符号具有方便的检索功能。而各种不同的筮法,皆可视为筮书的不同检索方式。     

MUSLIM PERSPECTIVES ON STEM CELL RESEARCH AND CLONING

In Islam, the acquisition of knowledge is a form of worship. But human achievement must be exercised in conformity with God's will. Warnings against feelings of superiority often are coupled with the command to remain within the confines of God's laws and limits. Because of the fear of arrogance and disregard of the balance created by God, any new knowledge or discovery must be applied with careful consideration to maintaining balance in the creation. Knowledge must be applied to ascertain equity and justice for all of humanity. Research in Islam must be linked to the broad ethical base set forth in the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Whether embryonic stem cell research or cloning is ethically acceptable in Islam depends on the benefits derived from such applications. What is most important for the scholars is to adhere to the concepts of compassion, mercy, and benefit to everyone.