Hasil untuk "Religions of the world"

F. Rubino, D. Nathan, R. Eckel et al.

P. Liang, Irene Z Li, Emily Zheng et al.

As natural language processing methods are increasingly deployed in real-world scenarios such as healthcare, legal systems, and social science, it becomes necessary to recognize the role they potentially play in shaping social biases and stereotypes. Previous work has revealed the presence of social biases in widely used word embeddings involving gender, race, religion, and other social constructs. While some methods were proposed to debias these word-level embeddings, there is a need to perform debiasing at the sentence-level given the recent shift towards new contextualized sentence representations such as ELMo and BERT. In this paper, we investigate the presence of social biases in sentence-level representations and propose a new method, Sent-Debias, to reduce these biases. We show that Sent-Debias is effective in removing biases, and at the same time, preserves performance on sentence-level downstream tasks such as sentiment analysis, linguistic acceptability, and natural language understanding. We hope that our work will inspire future research on characterizing and removing social biases from widely adopted sentence representations for fairer NLP.

Kiesha Prem, K. Zandvoort, P. Klepac et al.

Mathematical models have played a key role in understanding the spread of directly-transmissible infectious diseases such as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), as well as the effectiveness of public health responses. As the risk of contracting directly-transmitted infections depends on who interacts with whom, mathematical models often use contact matrices to characterise the spread of infectious pathogens. These contact matrices are usually generated from diary-based contact surveys. However, the majority of places in the world do not have representative empirical contact studies, so synthetic contact matrices have been constructed using more widely available setting-specific survey data on household, school, classroom, and workplace composition combined with empirical data on contact patterns in Europe. In 2017, the largest set of synthetic contact matrices to date were published for 152 geographical locations. In this study, we update these matrices with the most recent data and extend our analysis to 177 geographical locations. Due to the observed geographic differences within countries, we also quantify contact patterns in rural and urban settings where data is available. Further, we compare both the 2017 and 2020 synthetic matrices to out-of-sample empirically-constructed contact matrices, and explore the effects of using both the empirical and synthetic contact matrices when modelling physical distancing interventions for the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that the synthetic contact matrices reproduce the main traits of the contact patterns in the empirically-constructed contact matrices. Models parameterised with the empirical and synthetic matrices generated similar findings with few differences observed in age groups where the empirical matrices have missing or aggregated age groups. This finding means that synthetic contact matrices may be used in modelling outbreaks in settings for which empirical studies have yet to be conducted.

E. Marzetti, R. Calvani, M. Tosato et al.

Ferry Hartono

There is a prolonged discussion about the unity and the historicity of Mark 10: 17-31. Some scholars believe it consists of three distinct units. Others propose its unity, yet always with notes. For example, many scholars suggest Mark 10:17–31 a coherent narrative unit within the Gospel’s larger section on the journey to Jerusalem (Mark 8:22–10:52). The author introduces the rich man in the first section (vv. 17-22). This character leaves the scene altogether in v. 22. Although Jesus still maintains the theme of riches, it clearly relates it to the rich man in the first scene, while the style of conversation in the second scene is different. The third scene is even more detached story-wise, especially the problematic floating logion in v. 31. The purpose of this paper is to affirm the coherent unity of Mark 10: 17-31, not only in a literary sense, but also historically. While some scholars tend to believe in loose connection between the three scenes, this paper suggests that the text was intentionally, or even forcefully, unified by the author. The unified theme and meticulous choices of words make this notion is more plausible so as to see the three scenes as a coherent story unit. The vocabularies make it possible to produce a concentric structure of the passages. At the same time, it emphasizes the contrast between the failed rich man and the successful disciples in answering Christ’s calling. The text should have been put together intentionally by the author since the beginning of its composition. The methodological approach used in this paper is a narrative analysis, concentrating on the metonymies and the composition of the three scenes in question.

Faiz Albar Nasution, Heribertus Binsasi, Handrianus Nino

This article provides a thorough examination of Franz Magnis-Suseno’s theological and philosophical perspectives on interreligious dialogue and tolerance set against the multicultural backdrop of Indonesia. Operating as a philosopher, theologian, and public intellectual, formulates a well-founded ethical paradigm for sustaining social coexistence in the face of radicalism and the politicisation of faith. Employing qualitative analytical techniques, the study collates his major texts alongside existing scholarly articles to construct a unified evaluation of his thought. The investigation discloses three interdependent pillars underlying contribution: first, a humanistic Christian theological core asserting the inviolable dignity of human beings as the imago Dei and articulating the universal duty of the law of love; second, a philosophical elaboration of Javanese ethical precepts, especially the notions of rukun (harmony) and hormat (respect), which provide a concrete, culturally resonant basis for non-violent coexistence; and third, a critical dialogue with Western normative philosophy—foremost the categorical imperative of Immanuel Kant and the discourse ethics of Jürgen Habermas—that formulates equitable procedural standards for public deliberation. The practice of intellectual inculturation, local knowledge, religious customs, and philosophical insights aims to shape public discourse aimed at addressing intolerance and advancing democracy in Indonesia.

Rita Roque Bravo, Ana Carolina Faria, A. M. Brito-da-Costa et al.

Cocaine is one of the most consumed stimulants throughout the world, as official sources report. It is a naturally occurring sympathomimetic tropane alkaloid derived from the leaves of Erythroxylon coca, which has been used by South American locals for millennia. Cocaine can usually be found in two forms, cocaine hydrochloride, a white powder, or ‘crack’ cocaine, the free base. While the first is commonly administered by insufflation (‘snorting’) or intravenously, the second is adapted for inhalation (smoking). Cocaine can exert local anaesthetic action by inhibiting voltage-gated sodium channels, thus halting electrical impulse propagation; cocaine also impacts neurotransmission by hindering monoamine reuptake, particularly dopamine, from the synaptic cleft. The excess of available dopamine for postsynaptic activation mediates the pleasurable effects reported by users and contributes to the addictive potential and toxic effects of the drug. Cocaine is metabolised (mostly hepatically) into two main metabolites, ecgonine methyl ester and benzoylecgonine. Other metabolites include, for example, norcocaine and cocaethylene, both displaying pharmacological action, and the last one constituting a biomarker for co-consumption of cocaine with alcohol. This review provides a brief overview of cocaine’s prevalence and patterns of use, its physical-chemical properties and methods for analysis, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and multi-level toxicity.

Christopher Zoccali

N. Hani Herlina, Ahmad Nabil Atoillah, Sumadi et al.

This study seeks to explore the French sociologist and philosopher Jean Baudrillard's (1929- 2007) propositions regarding religious education. Baudrillard's postmodern concepts of simulacra (false facades), and hyperreality are utilized to examine the practice of religious education. Simulacra and hyperreality greatly influenced literary theory and philosophy, and more especially in the United States, and gradually entered into popular culture. The study employs critical reflection, a subjective method for assessing and interrogating the fundamental assumptions of religious education in the context of postmodern culture. The findings indicate that while Baudrillard offers a grim depiction of a world ensnared in simulation and hyperreality, his concepts might provide a foundation for analyzing the impact of modern culture on the perception of spirituality and religious beliefs. Religious education must offer a profound and contextualized methodology in a society increasingly governed by simulation, where pictures and symbols supplant genuine meaning. Although religious education can leverage technology to broaden the dissemination of religious teachings, it must consistently maintain the integrity of spiritual experiences to prevent entrapment in illusions or symbolic manipulation. Embracing Baudrillard’s critical perspective on social and cultural realities, religious education ought to promote learners' critical analysis of media and symbolism’s impact on daily life. This method will likely assist learners in transcending superficial appearances and redirecting their attention to profound spiritual principles that cannot be commodified or trivialized. Despite the seemingly negative nature of Baudrillard’s viewpoints, they challenge religious education to maintain truth and holiness amidst the escalating influences of mass culture.

S. Hercberg, M. Touvier, J. Salas‐Salvadó et al.

Nutri-Score is a front-of-pack nutrition label with summary graded colour-coding, which aims to inform consumers, in a simple and understandable way, of the overall nutritional value of foods, in order to help them to make healthier choices at the point of purchase and to encourage manufacturers to improve the nutritional quality of their products. It is based on a five-colour scale (from dark green to dark orange) associated with letters, from A to E, to optimize logo accessibility and understanding by the consumer. Nutri-Score does not merely characterize foods as "healthy" or "unhealthy". Rather, the graded logo provides semi-quantitative information, depending on the colour/ letter, of the relative overall nutritional composition of a food product compared to other similar products as to whether it is more or less favourable to health. Nutri-Score is the only proposed labelling scheme that adheres entirely to the concepts and processes that were published by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Europe concerning the validation studies that are required to select and evaluate a front-of-pack nutrition label. The aim of the present paper is to present the scientific basis for the design of the Nutri-Score and to summarize the various studies to validate its calculation method and its graphic format. We explore its effectiveness and superiority compared to other labelling schemes that have been implemented in other countries or supported by pressure groups. The necessity for objective, impartial consideration of how best to use Nutri-Score and avoid misunderstandings is highlighted.

A. Tan, Rafael S. Gonçalves, William Yuan et al.

Objective: Integrating EHR data with other resources is essential in rare disease research due to low disease prevalence. Such integration is dependent on the alignment of ontologies used for data annotation. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is used to annotate clinical diagnoses; the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) to annotate phenotypes. Although these ontologies overlap in biomedical entities described, the extent to which they are interoperable is unknown. We investigate how well aligned these ontologies are and whether such alignments facilitate EHR data integration. Materials and Methods: We conducted an empirical analysis of the coverage of mappings between ICD and HPO. We interpret this mapping coverage as a proxy for how easily clinical data can be integrated with research ontologies such as HPO. We quantify how exhaustively ICD codes are mapped to HPO by analyzing mappings in the UMLS Metathesaurus. We analyze the proportion of ICD codes mapped to HPO within a real-world EHR dataset. Results and Discussion: Our analysis revealed that only 2.2% of ICD codes have direct mappings to HPO in UMLS. Within our EHR dataset, less than 50% of ICD codes have mappings to HPO terms. ICD codes that are used frequently in EHR data tend to have mappings to HPO; ICD codes that represent rarer medical conditions are seldom mapped. Conclusion: We find that interoperability between ICD and HPO via UMLS is limited. While other mapping sources could be incorporated, there are no established conventions for what resources should be used to complement UMLS.

Michal Abrahamowicz, M. Beauchamp, A. Boulesteix et al.

Abstract Quantitative bias analysis (QBA) permits assessment of the expected impact of various imperfections of the available data on the results and conclusions of a particular real-world study. This article extends QBA methodology to multivariable time-to-event analyses with right-censored endpoints, possibly including time-varying exposures or covariates. The proposed approach employs data-driven simulations, which preserve important features of the data at hand while offering flexibility in controlling the parameters and assumptions that may affect the results. First, the steps required to perform data-driven simulations are described, and then two examples of real-world time-to-event analyses illustrate their implementation and the insights they may offer. The first example focuses on the omission of an important time-invariant predictor of the outcome in a prognostic study of cancer mortality, and permits separating the expected impact of confounding bias from noncollapsibility. The second example assesses how imprecise timing of an interval-censored event—ascertained only at sparse times of clinic visits—affects its estimated association with a time-varying drug exposure. The simulation results also provide a basis for comparing the performance of two alternative strategies for imputing the unknown event times in this setting. The R scripts that permit the reproduction of our examples are provided.

P. Boboc, On behalf of the NA62 collaboration

Experiment NA62 at CERN collected the world’s largest dataset of charged Kaons, the main goal being the measurement of the B (K+ → π+vv- ). New results from the analyses of rare kaon and pion decays using data samples collected in 2017–2018 are presented. A sample of K+ → π+γγ decays was collected using a minimum-bias trigger and measurement of the branching ratio, study of the di-photon mass spectrum, and the first search for production and prompt decay of an axion-like particle with gluon coupling in the process K+ → π+A, A → γγ are reported. Additionally, a sample of π0 → e+e- decays was collected, using a dedicated scaled down di-electron trigger, and preliminary results for the branching ratio are reported.

The Board of SEPLA, Spain

After the Second World War and between 1945 and 1975, capitalism had managed to overcome all the pitfalls, and he was able to multiply loaves and fish by magic art. It was referred to as the Thirty Glory Years, in which, together with the objective of profit, the workers and popular struggle started improvements in income and working and living conditions of the population worker. That class struggle throughout the world and the bipolarity built between 1945 and 1991 established limits to the impunity of capital projects. In that frame, the reality and the law of value enunciated by Marx revealed the dynamic recurring of the crisis of capital, with a downward trend in profit rate in the 60s/70s in the 20th century and an accelerated capitalist offensive response with the fall of “real socialism” in Eastern Europe and the advanced liberalizing until the crisis of 2007/09 that lasts in our time.

A. King, Feyisayo A Odunitan-Wayas, M. Chaudhury et al.

Growing socioeconomic and structural disparities within and between nations have created unprecedented health inequities that have been felt most keenly among the world’s youth. While policy approaches can help to mitigate such inequities, they are often challenging to enact in under-resourced and marginalized communities. Community-engaged participatory action research provides an alternative or complementary means for addressing the physical and social environmental contexts that can impact health inequities. The purpose of this article is to describe the application of a particular form of technology-enabled participatory action research, called the Our Voice citizen science research model, with youth. An overview of 20 Our Voice studies occurring across five continents indicates that youth and young adults from varied backgrounds and with interests in diverse issues affecting their communities can participate successfully in multiple contributory research processes, including those representing the full scientific endeavor. These activities can, in turn, lead to changes in physical and social environments of relevance to health, wellbeing, and, at times, climate stabilization. The article ends with future directions for the advancement of this type of community-engaged citizen science among young people across the socioeconomic spectrum.

Subaidi, Ahmad Tantowi, Nur Cholid et al.

Dr. Salome Thilivhali Sigida (PhD), Prof Tholene Sodi

Accepting the ancestral calling to healing and undergoing the training to become a traditional healer in southern Africa is seen as a process of identity formation which is constructed by the knowledge acquired throughout the process. The researcher embarked on a journey with traditional health practitioners to understand their lived experiences and explored the psychological meanings of Vhavenḓa ancestral calling with a view to identifying and documenting the psychological meanings embedded in this culturally entrenched practice. A qualitative research method located within the interpretative paradigm was used. A descriptive phenomenological research design was adopted to explore the lived experiences of traditional health practitioners who have gone through the process of ancestral calling. Both snowball and purposive sampling methods were used to recruit 17 participants until saturation was researched in the findings. The findings of the study revealed that there are several symptoms that are indicative that one has an ancestral calling. These symptoms are often misunderstood and misdiagnosed when interpreted from the Western and Eurocentric perspectives. However, accepting the ancestral calling and going through training is linked with identity formation. The findings also revealed that ancestral calling is a life-transforming and therapeutic experience and a journey of self-realisation.

Andrzej Persidok

The starting point of the article is the „argument from meaning” used in fundamental theology. The authors referring to it argue that only religion can give meaning to human life and the world. A man who does not want to run away from ultimate questions is faced with an alternative: faith in God or nihilism. Among religions, however, there is one that rejects belief in God and in any transcendence, and yet claims to be a source of meaning in life for its adepts. This religion is Buddhism. In this study, an attempt was made to confront the theological argumentation "from the meaning of life and the world" with the Buddhist worldview. The aim of such a confrontation is to locate potential weak points of this type of argumentation, which can help refine it so that it is also convincing for people outside Western culture.    

Odey, Elizabeth Akpanke, Asuquo, Offiong Offiong, Amokaha, Gabriel Salemkaan et al.

Tiv religion is a traditional religion of the people of Benue State, located in the middle belt of the North Central region of Nigeria. This religion is a unique religion because the religion and the people of this region are exclusively peculiar only to the region. Symbols are basic phenomena in the Tiv religion. Tiv people religion, culture and symbols are synonymous and characteristically outstanding in the Nigerian culture. Symbolism is thus a special feature of its religion for it put them on the world map of culture, religion and tradition. Therefore, symbols play a pivotal role in the transmission, interaction, information dissemination and the interplay between the Tiv people and culture, and it culminates in physical and the spiritual world interaction. In other words, it is the thought process of communication between the physical and metaphysical realms. It creates a link between the finite and the infinite. It serves as a character molding agent, and is an agent of supernatural policing and enforcement of punishment. It also guarantees moral conduct and ethos in the society in which it operates. Its various symbolic arts and expressions symbolizes the present and offer some evidence of divine agencies. It therefore connotes an intertwining of both the spirit and physical realms. It is the evidence of the expression of divine injunctions, codes and ethics, and a mode to reprimand actions as well as serving as an agent of deterrence in the society. The role of the Tiv religion and philosophy cannot be over emphasized. The paper employed a literary descriptive method since the research is qualitative in nature.

Zühal Ölmez, Aysima Mirsultan

In the second half of the 19th century, East Turkistan (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) was a place where many religions and cultures coexisted and attracted the interest of travelers from all around the world. These travelers were motivated by the desire to delve into the unexplored language and culture of the Silk Road. One classic example of the efforts of Eastern scholars involved the four German (Prussian) Turfan expeditions known from 1902-1914. The primary goal of these expeditions was to obtain Buddhist artifacts as well as other cultural relics and written records from pre-Islamic Central Asia. Albert von Le Coq (1860-1930) led the second and fourth expeditions and acquired many friends in the region. Among the notable figures in the local aristocracy was Emin Khwāja Wang (1885-1933) from Lukchun, Turfan. The manuscript this article evaluates delves into the genealogy of the Wang family in Turfan, spanning from Feridun Wang to Emin Wang. This manuscript, referred to as Manuscript Arab 4, is currently housed in the Turfan Room of the Oriental Department at the Berlin State Library (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin). It had likely been brought to Berlin during the German Turfan expeditions. This study provides an introduction tothe Wang family in Turfan and presents additional sources related to their history, a copy of the manuscript, and insights into its linguistic characteristics. It also includes a transcription of the text into Turkish and an index/glossary of select words. This primary source document from the period allows valuable information to be gained about Wang’s empire in Turfan.