In Emotions, Values & Agency, Christine Tappolet develops a sophisticated, perceptual theory of emotions and their role in wide range of issues in value theory and epistemology. In this paper, we raise three worries about Tappolet's proposal.

The article examines the participation and assistance of the Orthodox Church in solving problems that allowed to give a scientific justification for the cooperation of health care and Orthodox religious institutions, to determine their role in the historical context and structure of modern healthcare in Russia. The article presents an algorithm for organizing sisters of mercy, their system of upbringing. Particular attention is given to the possibility of teaching the course "Foundations of Orthodox Culture" in secular educational institutions. -/- Research (...) materials can serve as a basis for the formation of morally sound positions of medical workers and the population on the main problems of medical activity. -/- Based on the study, the authors published a series of articles in which the experience of the work of the Orthodox Church in the charitable sphere has been summarized. This experience can be used to create new charitable institutions, including those who provided medical assistance. -/- In preparing the article, the authors used concrete historical, civilizational, formational and social methods of research that allowed us to uncover facts, phenomena and processes in the interconnection and unity of the past, present and future. (shrink)

Many oppose the use of profile evidence against defendants at trial, even when the statistical correlations are reliable and the jury is free from prejudice. The literature has struggled to justify this opposition. We argue that admitting profile evidence is objectionable because it violates what we call “equal protection”—that is, a right of innocent defendants not to be exposed to higher ex ante risks of mistaken conviction compared to other innocent defendants facing similar charges. We also show why admitting other (...) forms of evidence, such as eyewitness, trace, and motive evidence, does not violate equal protection. (shrink)

It is well-established that algorithms can be instruments of injustice. It is less frequently discussed, however, how current modes of AI deployment often make the very discovery of injustice difficult, if not impossible. In this article, we focus on the effects of algorithmic profiling on epistemic agency. We show how algorithmic profiling can give rise to epistemic injustice through the depletion of epistemic resources that are needed to interpret and evaluate certain experiences. By doing so, we not only (...) demonstrate how the philosophical conceptual framework of epistemic injustice can help pinpoint potential, systematic harms from algorithmic profiling, but we also identify a novel source of hermeneutical injustice that to date has received little attention in the relevant literature, what we call epistemic fragmentation. As we detail in this paper, epistemic fragmentation is a structural characteristic of algorithmically-mediated environments that isolate individuals, making it more difficult to develop, uptake and apply new epistemic resources, thus making it more difficult to identify and conceptualise emerging harms in these environments. We thus trace the occurrence of hermeneutical injustice back to the fragmentation of the epistemic experiences of individuals, who are left more vulnerable by the inability to share, compare and learn from shared experiences. (shrink)

I argue that traditional views on which beliefs are subject only to purely epistemic assessment can reject demographic profiling, even when based on seemingly robust evidence. This is because the moral failures involved in demographic profiling can be located in the decision not to suspend judgment, rather than supposing that beliefs themselves are a locus of moral evaluation. A key moral reason to suspend judgment when faced with adverse demographic evidence is to promote social equality—this explains why positive (...) profiling is dubious, along with more familiar cases of negative profiling, and why profiling is suspect even when no particular action is at stake. My suspension-based view, while compatible with revisionary normative positions, does not presuppose them. Philosophers of all stripes can reject demographic profiling both in thought and deed. (shrink)

This study established a profile of Bachelor of Science in Statistics (BSS) students under the open enrolment policy of Visayas State University (VSU). The study also determined the graduation rate of the BSS students. Data on the present BSS students were collected from a survey of currently enrolled students while data on the past BSS students were taken from the previous study. Data used to track down the BSS students since their first year to determine the graduation rate of each (...) batch covered and were taken from the Office of the University Registrar. Results showed that majority of the present BSS students are female. All BSS students surveyed come from the Visayas area with most of them come from Region VIII, Philippines. While most of the BSS students have annual family incomes below the poverty line in Region VIII, still most of them get their financial support from their parents only. Majority are regular students and want to work as statisticians in the future. The relative importance of factors influencing the choice of degree program are very similar between the past and the present BSS students. The graduation rate of BSS students is variable (coefficient of variation of 42.5%) with a median of 26.1% and a mean of 25.3%. Hence, an extensive recruitment and orientation about the program must be done to increase the enrollees and develop their interest towards the program, respectively. (shrink)

Racial profiling has come under intense public scrutiny especially since the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. This article discusses two questions: whether racial profiling is sometimes rational, and whether it can be morally permissible. It is argued that under certain circumstances the affirmative answer to both questions is justified.

Empathy is the glue that binds us and holds societies together, despite some ‘dark sides’ of empathy. What is empathy (the definitional question)? Is it uniquely human or which nonhuman animals possess empathy (the distribution question)? And which type or quality of empathy is realized in different species (the quality question)? To tackle these three questions, we develop a species-sensitive, multidimensional profile account of empathy. The main function of this account is to enable cross-species comparisons and to capture the rich (...) variety of typical empathic phenomena. Therefore, we aim to characterize behavior-based cognitive profiles of empathy which are built on multifactorial characterizations of dimensions and features realizing these dimensions. Answers to the distribution question can be assessed by family resemblances of profiles of empathy to paradigmatic cases of empathy. Answers to the quality question can be provided with reference to the relevant empathy profile which allow us to describe and predict associated behaviors. This new multidimensional profile account enables fine-grained comparisons within and between species instead of the prevailing all or nothing perspectives of empathy. Furthermore, it offers the integration of phylogenetic and ontogenetic perspectives thereby providing a crucial tool to explicate the notion of empathy to humans and other animals in a species-sensitive way. We want to unfold this framework by applying it to empathy in detail and widen the perspective by generalizing it for a fruitful characterization of all rich and flexible cognitive abilities in nonhuman animals (as e.g. done in Birch et al. 2020; Dung & Newen 2023). (shrink)

The detection of hate speech and fake news in political discourse is at the same time a crucial necessity for democratic societies and a challenge for several areas of study. However, most of the studies have focused on what is explicitly stated: false article information, language that expresses hatred, derogatory expressions. This paper argues that the explicit dimension of manipulation is only one – and the least problematic – of the risks of political discourse. The language of the unsaid is (...) much more dangerous and incomparably more difficult to detect, hidden in different types of fallacies and inappropriate uses of emotive language. Through a threefold coding scheme based on the instruments of argumentation theory and pragmatics, a corpus of argumentative tweets published by 4 politicians (Matteo Salvini, Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, and Joseph Biden) within 6 months from their taking office (corresponding to the official end of their election campaign) is analyzed, detecting the types of argument, the fallacies, and the uses and misuses of “emotive words.” This coding results in the argumentation profiles of the speakers, which are compared statistically to show their different implicit strategies and deceptive tactics. (shrink)

An argumentation profile is defined as a methodological instrument for analyzing argumentative discourse considering distinct and interrelated dimensions: the types of argument used, their quality, and the emotions triggered. Walton’s theoretical contributions are developed as a coherent analytical and multifaceted toolbox for capturing these aspects. Argumentation schemes are used to detect and quantify the types of argument. Fallacy analysis and the assessment of the implicit premises retrieved through the schemes allow evaluating arguments. Finally, the frequency of emotive words signals the (...) most common emotions aroused. This method is illustrated through a corpus of argumentative tweets of three politicians. (shrink)

How, if at all, should race figure in criminal trials with a jury? How far should attorneys be allowed or encouraged to probe the racial sensitivities of jurors and what does this mean for the appropriate way to present cases which involve racial profiling and, therefore, are likely to pit the words and actions of a white policeman against those of a young black man?

In order to fight massive vandalism the English- language Wikipedia has developed a system of surveillance which is carried out by humans and bots, supported by various tools. Central to the selection of edits for inspection is the process of using filters or profiles. Can this profiling be justified? On the basis of a careful reading of Frederick Schauer’s books about rules in general (1991) and profiling in particular (2003) I arrive at several conclusions. The effectiveness, efficiency, and (...) risk-aversion of edit selection all greatly increase as a result. The argument for increasing predictability suggests making all details of profiling manifestly public. Also, a wider distribution of the more sophisticated anti-vandalism tools seems indicated. As to the specific dimensions used in profiling, several critical remarks are developed. When patrollers use ‘assisted edit- ing’ tools, severe ‘overuse’ of several features (anonymity, warned before) is a definite possibility, undermining profile efficacy. The easy remedy suggested is to render all of them invisible on the interfaces as displayed to patrollers. Finally, concerning not only assisted editing tools but tools against vandalism generally, it is argued that the anonymity feature is a sensitive category: anons have been in dispute for a long time (while being more prone to vandalism). Targeting them as a special category violates the social contract upon which Wikipedia is based. The feature is therefore a candidate for mandatory ‘underuse’: it should be banned from all anti-vandalism filters and profiling algorithms, and no longer be visible as a special edit trait. (shrink)

Destaca-se a importância da vítima no processo de perfilamento de criminosos, pois é com base na averiguação dos traços físicos e psicológicos deixados na pessoa que sofreu o delito que é possível traçar o perfil criminal do ofensor. Constata-se a estagnação do ensino do criminal profiling no Brasil.

Philosophical reflection on racial profiling tends to take one of two forms. The first sees it as an example of ‘statistical discrimination,’ (SD), raising the question of when, if ever, probabilistic generalisations about group behaviour or characteristics can be used to judge particular individuals.(Applbaum 2014; Harcourt 2004; Hellman, 2014; Risse and Zeckhauser 2004; Risse 2007; Lippert-Rasmussen 2006; Lippert-Rasmussen 2007; Lippert-Rasmussen 2014) . This approach treats racial profiling as one example amongst many others of a general problem in egalitarian (...) political philosophy, occasioned by the fact that treating people as equals does not always require, or permit, us to treat them the same. The second form is concerned with how racial profiling illuminates the nature, justification, and reproduction of hierarchies of power and privilege based on skin colour and morphology. This form of reflection on racial profiling is therefore less about the justification for judging people based on the characteristics of the group to which they (appear to) belong, and more concerned with the specific ways in which the association of racialized minorities – and, in particular, black people – with crime, contributes to, and reflects, racial inequality, and oppression.(Kennedy 1998; Zack, 2015; Lever, 2005; Lever 2007). Both approaches to profiling have much to recommend them and, taken together, they form an essential component of the political philosophy of race. The statistical approach has the merits of linking racial profiling, as practice, to a body of other practices that generate and justify inequalities based on factors other than race, but it typically offers little by way of insight into the role of racial profiling itself in sustaining racial inequality and injustice. The racial construction approach, for obvious reasons, is rather better at the latter task, but its insights tend to come at the price of a broader understanding of the ways in which inequality is reproduced and justified, or of the ethical dilemmas raised by our competing claims to security. As we will see, insights from both approaches can be synthesized to clarify what, if anything, is wrong with racial profiling and what broader conclusions for equality and security follow from the study of profiling. (shrink)

Diabetic ketoacidosis is a serious, medical emergency that can be fatal but treatable, we aimed to evaluate the clinical profile of patients admitted with diabetic ketoacidosis. This case series study enrolled 213 non-pregnant adult and adolescent patients admitted with diabetic ketoacidosis at Tripoli Diabetes Hospital from January to September 2023. Demographic data, clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, precipitating factors, and patient outcomes were extracted from medical records and analyzed. Type 1 diabetes mellitus was present in 187 (87.8%) of patients, the age (...) range 11-84 years, (30.26±13.28), with 130 patients ≤30 years old (61.0%), females accounting for 110 of the patients (51.6%), 109 had a diabetes duration of less than 10 years (51.2%). The most common precipitating factor was insulin omission 92 (43.2%) in patients with known diabetes mellitus, whereas, diabetic ketoacidosis as the first presentation of diabetes mellitus in 24 patients (11.7%), systolic blood pressure ranged 50-160 mmHg (112.82±16.19), diastolic blood pressure varied 30-100 mmHg (70.24±11.32). Plasma glucose at presentation ranged 183-1494 mg/dl (462.92±169.85), with Eu-glycemic diabetic ketoacidosis 100-249 mg/dl were in nine patients (4.2%), whereas most of cases (135 patients, 63.4%) present with plasma glucose 250-500 mg/dl, while hyperosmolar status (≥701 mg/dl) were present in 13 patients (6.1%). Venous pH varied from 6.7-7.42 (7.13±0.14), 132 (62.0%) patients presented with pH <7.24, while severe acidosis was pH < 7 in 32 of patients (14.6%), serum bicarbonate with 10.93±4.95, severe (<5 mmol) in 91 patients (42.7%) and moderate (5-10 mmol) were in 79 patients (37.08%). The mean length of hospital stay was 3.33 days, with an average of 2.11 days spent in the high-dependent unit. Serum potassium varied from 2.4-6.7 meq/L with 3.66± 0.63, most common complications of diabetic ketoacidosis treatment were hypokalemia observed in 82 (35.7%) of cases, and hypoglycemia was detected in 41 patients (19.2%). 170 patients were discharged in good condition (79.8%), and 17.8% of patients were transferred to another hospital to receive further management for co-morbid diseases with diabetes after controlling their hyperglycemic crises. The majority of patients presented with the critical status of diabetic ketoacidosis. The findings emphasize the importance of patient education about prevention measures prompt presentation to the hospital, and clinicians' awareness for early and aggressive treatment of hyperglycemic crises. (shrink)

Some mental states have valence—they are pleasant or unpleasant. According to imperativism, valence depends on imperative content, while evaluativism tells us that it depends on evaluative content. We argue that if one considers valence’s informational profile, it becomes evident that imperativism is superior to evaluativism. More precisely, we show that if one applies the best available metasemantics to the role played by (un)pleasant mental states in our cognitive economy, then these states turn out to have imperative rather than evaluative content, (...) since: (i) they are much more informative about behaviour than they are about the world; and (ii) they occupy a stage in the information-processing chain that is closer to behaviour production than it is to the uptake of sensory information. This is our metasemantic argument for imperativism. (shrink)

Technology scholars and journalists have recently called attention to digital platforms’ and devices’ ability to influence users based on their present moods, stress level, hunger, and other transient features. For them, such influence based on users’ present status – what the chapter calls “real-time profiling” – is not only a clear form of wrongful manipulation but also online manipulation’s future. The chapter aims to explain what makes real-time profiling wrong (when wrong) and discusses problems associated with its regulation. (...) After explaining what real-time profiling consists in and showing that it can be presumed to be a form of manipulation, the chapter argues that real-time profiling is wrong both because the profiler psychologically hijacks profiled subjects and because it works as a gateway to further wrongs. Towards the end, the chapter discusses some implications of the proposed account for the legal regulation of online manipulative technologies like real-time profiling. It is argued that existing legal frameworks are not fine-grained enough to deal with the wrongs associated with real-time profiling and related forms of online manipulation. (shrink)

This paper uses argument diagrams, argumentation schemes, and some tools from formal argumentation systems developed in artificial intelligence to build a graph-theoretic model of relevance shown to be applicable as a practical method for helping a third party judge issues of relevance or irrelevance of an argument in real examples. Examples used to illustrate how the method works are drawn from disputes about relevance in natural language discourse, including a criminal trial and a parliamentary debate.

ABSTRACT Glen Pettigrove addresses the proportionality principle in ethics, the principle that ‘our actions, attitudes, or emotions should be proportional to the degree of value present in the object or events to which they are responding’. He argues this is inconsistent with some familiar features of common-sense morality. In response, he brings virtuous character into the picture, a move we support but wish to modify. We show that certain helping actions should be guided by whether one has the virtue profile (...) most suited to the situation from among a surrounding network of people. (shrink)

Some claim that moral factors affect the epistemic status of our beliefs. Call this _the moral encroachment thesis_. It’s been argued that the moral encroachment thesis can explain at least part of the wrongness of racial profiling. The thesis predicts that the high moral stakes in cases of racial profiling make it more difficult for these racist beliefs to be justified or to constitute knowledge. This paper considers a class of racial generalizations that seem to do just the (...) opposite of this. The high moral stakes of the beliefs we infer from these generalizations make it _easier_ rather than _harder_ for these beliefs to be justified or to constitute knowledge. I argue that the existence of this class of cases—cases of “positive profiling”—give us reason to expand our account of moral encroachment in a way that brings it closer to the ideal of pragmatic encroachment that motivates it in the first place. (shrink)

This article focuses on profiling the abaca stakeholders in Eastern Visayas and elucidates their various functions in the industry. Primary information was gathered from a random sample of abaca farmers and other stakeholders through a researchers' developed survey questionnaire. The data were analyzed through descriptive measures and presented in statistical tables and graphs. Results showed that the majority of abaca farmers are in their prime working years (25 to 54 years old), are married females, are elementary graduates, and are (...) owners of small abaca farms with an average area of 1.88 hectares. The small traders are mostly married females in their prime working years and are college degree holders. The Local Government Unit (LGU) personnel are mostly municipal agriculturists, males, married, and college graduates. The majority of the Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (PhilFIDA) personnel are married males who are of prime age and college degree holders. Half of the enablers were male and married, who finished graduate studies and either belonged to prime or mature working age. Moreover, findings revealed that several players in the abaca value chain have important roles and functions to play along the supply chain to make the industry vibrant. As they do their respective roles and functions, they also have needs, expectations, and concerns that should be addressed for them to function effectively in the system. Hence, the study recommends that an indepth training needs assessment should be conducted to determine their real needs as the basis for designing training programs. (shrink)

Diabetic foot ulcers are moderately severe complications in patients with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, with peripheral neuropathy and angiopathy often serving as risk factors. This study aimed to examine the clinical characteristics and risk factors linked to diabetic foot ulcers in type 2 diabetes mellitus individuals within the Pakistani demographic. A retrospective cross-sectional design was used, to analyze the medical files of 68 diabetic foot ulcer patients. Data were collected from the Departments of Medicine and Surgery at Chaudhary Muhammad Akram (...) Teaching and Research Hospital, Lahore Pakistan from Sept. to Dec. 2024. Patients’ clinical profiles, including demographic data, diabetes duration, diabetes control, HbA1c levels, and the presence of comorbidities were all evaluated. Out of the 68 patients, 70.6% were male having a mean age of 55.6±11.7 years, and 55.9% had diabetes for seven years or more. With regard to clinical factors, 61.8% had peripheral neuropathy, 58.8% had hypertension, 47.1% had retinopathy, 26.5% had nephropathy, 20.6% had ischemic stroke, 8.8% had ischemic heart disease, and 2.9% had hypothyroidism, with 97.1% showing poor glycemic control. This study identified a high rate of comorbidities in patients with diabetic foot ulcers, with inadequate diabetes control being a major contributing factor. Timely detection and management of diabetes and its complications are crucial to alleviating the impact of diabetic foot ulcers. (shrink)

A widely debated issue in contemporary metaphysics is whether the modal profile of ordinary objects has to be explained in non-modal terms (that is, Thesis 1). However, how to solve such an issue with respect to occurrences – namely, processes and events – is a question that has been largely neglected in the current metaphysical debate. The general goal of this article is to start filling this gap. As a first result of the article, we make it plausible that, if (...) Thesis 1 holds for objects, then it also holds for processes and events. Then, we develop a metaphysical account of processes derived from Fine’s (1999, 2022) suggestions, according to which a process is a variable embodiment that is manifested by different events at the different times it goes on – namely, Thesis 2. We raised the challenge from the completion of a process that asks the Finean account of processes to explain relevant modal features of processes in non-modal terms. As a second result, we argue that four initially plausible strategies for solving such a challenge fall short of solving it. As a third result, we show that the theory of variable embodiments Fine formulates for objects must differ from the theory of variable embodiments that aims to model processes. We conclude by investigating some revisions to a theory of variable embodiments that aims to model processes. (shrink)

Social networking platforms play a vital role in global communication, but they are increasingly vulnerable to security threats due to the presence of fake profiles. Fraudulent accounts are often created for misinformation, cyber fraud, identity theft, cyberbullying, and unauthorized data harvesting, compromising user privacy and damaging the credibility of social media platforms. While existing security systems, such as Facebook's Immune System (FIS), attempt to detect fake accounts, they struggle against sophisticated fraudulent profiles. Traditional detection methods primarily rely on static user (...) data, making them less effective. To improve accuracy and efficiency, this study proposes an advanced machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP)-based approach for fake account detection. The system analyzes both static and dynamic behavioral patterns to distinguish between real and fake accounts. NLP techniques, including tokenization, stemming, and stop-word removal, are applied to examine user-generated text, identifying inconsistencies and unnatural patterns commonly found in fake profiles. The study utilizes datasets from social media platforms like Instagram for training and evaluation. Performance is measured using metrics such as the confusion matrix, correlation heatmap, and classification reports. Results indicate that ML and NLP techniques significantly enhance fake profile detection accuracy compared to traditional methods. By leveraging AI-driven solutions, the system strengthens social media security, prevents misinformation, and protects users from fraudulent activities. Future work can focus on deep learning techniques, dataset expansion, and real-time detection to further improve accuracy and adaptability in fake profile detection. (shrink)

Affective experiences such as pains, pleasures, and emotions have affective phenomenology: they feel pleasant. This type of phenomenology has a loopy regulatory profile: it often motivates us to act a certain way, and these actions typically end up regulating our affective experiences back. For example, the pleasure you get by tasting your morning coffee motivates you to drink more of it, and this in turn results in you obtaining another pleasant gustatory experience. In this article, we argue that reflexive imperativism (...) is the only intentionalist account of affective phenomenology—probably, the only account at all—that is able to make sense of its loopy regulatory profile. (shrink)

Transformation in the demographic profile of the global workforce has brought in new challenges, especially with reference to the global expatriate workforce. For regions like the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, which heavily depend on expatriate workforce in the private sector, further research on demographic factors of expatriates is imperative as these factors significantly influence expatriate adjustment in a foreign location. The beginning segment of this paper presents major factors which have influenced demographic profile of the global workforce, followed by (...) discussion on the growth of the expatriate population in the GCC countries. The paper further presents findings of a survey conducted to explore the demographic profile of a niche expatriate segment of Indian higher education teachers working in the GCC countries. The findings of the survey are also compared with other research on the demographic profile of expatriates. This paper concludes with suggestions for further research on the demographic profile of expatriate workers in the GCC countries. (shrink)

Background: Several researchers have argued that disturbances in embodiment play an important role in the development of psychological health problems among adolescents. The purpose of the present study was to use the 12-item Embodiment Scale (ES-12), with its three subscales Harmonious Body (HB), Disharmonious Body (DB), and Body for Others (BO), (1) to identify subgroups of adolescents with different profiles on the ES-12 scales, and (2) to see how these profiles are associated with patterns of psychological health problems. Methods: The (...) participants were 530 adolescents with a mean age of 14 years (SD = 0.89), who filled out the ES-12 and measures of disordered eating, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), anxiety, and depression. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to divide the sample into (1) subgroups with different profiles of HB, DB and BO and (2) subgroups with different psychological health profiles. Cross-tabulation was used to study associations between different embodiment profiles and different patterns of psychological health problems. Results: Five different profiles of embodiment were identified: Strong Embodiment, Average Embodiment, Weak Embodiment, Body for Others, and Low Body Harmony. Five different psychological health profiles were identified: Multiple Problems, Multiple Problems without NSSI, Disordered Eating Only, Average Psychological Health, and a Healthy profile. Cross-tabulation showed that individuals with a Strong Embodiment profile were over-represented among adolescents in the Healthy cluster, and that individuals with the Weak Embodiment profile were over-represented in both Multiple Problems clusters. Individuals with a Body for Others profile were over-represented among adolescents with a Disordered Eating Only profile but not among adolescents with Multiple Problems profiles. Conclusions: These findings align with theoretical frameworks which emphasize the importance of embodiment for the understanding of psychological health problems. At the same time, the results go against theories that attribute a central role to high levels of experienced Body for Others for the development of psychological health problems. (shrink)

The development of cultured meat has gained urgency through the increasing problems associated with meat, but what it might become is still open in many respects. In existing debates, two main moral profiles can be distinguished. Vegetarians and vegans who embrace cultured meat emphasize how it could contribute to the diminishment of animal suffering and exploitation, while in a more mainstream profile cultured meat helps to keep meat eating sustainable and affordable. In this paper we argue that these profiles do (...) not exhaust the options and that feelings as well as imagination are needed to explore possible future options. On the basis of workshops, we present a third moral profile, “the pig in the backyard”. Here cultured meat is imagined as an element of a hybrid community of humans and animals that would allow for both the consumption of animal protein and meaningful relations with domestic animals. Experience in the workshops and elsewhere also illustrates that thinking about cultured meat inspires new thoughts on “normal” meat. In short, the idea of cultured meat opens up new search space in various ways. We suggest that ethics can take an active part in these searches, by fostering a process that integrates feelings, imagination and rational thought and that expands the range of our moral identities. (shrink)

Di Bello and O’Neil argue that innocent defendants in criminal trials have a right to not be exposed to a greater risk of false conviction than other innocent defendants facing similar charges. They argue that this right is violated when profile evidence is admitted to trial but not when other forms of evidence, such as eyewitness testimony or trace evidence, are admitted. In this article I show that all kinds of evidence can lead to unequal risks of false conviction and (...) that Di Bello and O’Neil’s argument to the contrary is unsound. (shrink)

According to Mathias Risse and Richard Zeckhauser, racial profiling can be justified in a society, such as the contemporary United States, where the legacy of slavery and segregation is found in lesser but, nonetheless, troubling forms of racial inequality. Racial profiling, Risse and Zeckhauser recognize, is often marked by police abuse and the harassment of racial minorities and by the disproportionate use of race in profiling. These, on their view, are unjustified. But, they contend, this does not (...) mean that all forms of racial profiling are unjustified; nor, they claim, need one be indifferent to the harms of racism in order to justify racial profiling. In fact, one of the aims of their paper is to show that racial profiling, suitably understood, “is consistent with support for far-reaching measures to decrease racial inequities and inequality.” Hence, one of their most striking claims, in an original and provocative paper, is that one can endorse racial profiling without being in any way indifferent to the disadvantaged status of racial minorities. In an initial response to these claims, I argued that Risse and Zeckhauser tend to underestimate the harms of racial profiling. I suggested two main reasons why they did so. The first is that they tend to identify the more serious harms associated with profiling with background racism, and therefore to believe that these are not properly attributable to profiling itself. The second reason is that they ignore the ways in which background racism makes even relatively minor harms harder to bear and to justify than would otherwise be the case. Hence, I concluded, racial profiling cannot be a normal part of police practice in a society still struggling with racism, although under very special conditions and with special regulation and compensation in place, it might be justified as an extraordinary police measure. I want to stand by those claims. However, Risse’s response to my arguments persuades me that I misinterpreted his earlier position in one significant respect. So I will start by explaining what interpretive mistake I believe that I made. I will then argue that despite Risse’s patient and careful response to my arguments, my initial concerns with his justification of profiling remain valid. -/-. (shrink)

This paper offers an introduction to poststructuralist interpretivist research in information systems, through a poststructuralist theoretical reading of the phenomenon and experience of social networking websites, such as Facebook. This is undertaken through an exploration of how loyally a social networking profile can represent the essence of an individual, and whether Platonic notions of essence, and loyalty of copy, are disturbed by the nature of a social networking profile, in ways described by poststructuralist thinker Deleuze’s notions of the reversal of (...) Platonism. In bringing a poststructuralist critique to such hugely successful and popular social information systems, the paper attempts to further open up the black box of the computer ‘user’, extend interpretive approaches to information systems research to embrace poststructuralism, and explore how notions of the Self might be reflected through engagement with information system (IS), and how an IS appreciation of the phenomenon of global social networking may benefit from embracing such a poststructuralist approach. (shrink)

This study comprehensively analyses traditional Slovak ewe lump cheese, focusing on determining protein, NPN, casein, fat, DM, and ash content. The results revealed significant variations among cheese samples collected from different producers across Slovakia, with casein content ranging from 15.33% to 23.07% and true protein content ranging from 16.0% to 23.93% and a strong correlation between these parameters. Additionally, NPN accounted for 0.51% to 0.79% of the total nitrogen in the samples. Fat content ranged from 18.31% to 31.08%, DM from (...) 35.52% to 55.15% and ash content from 1.76% to 3.80%. Significant changes in individual fatty acid concentrations were also observed, which may indicate varying feeding practices and production methods among producers. These findings enhance understanding of the protein and fatty acid composition of traditional ewe lump cheese, offering insights critical for quality control, production standardization, and developing more detailed national specifications of this traditional specialty-guaranteed cheese. (shrink)

Abstract: What follows is a contribution to the field of user modeling for adaptive teaching and learning programs especially in the medical field. The paper outlines existing approaches to the problem of extracting user information in a form that can be exploited by adaptive software. We focus initially on the so-called stereotyping method, which allocates users into classes adaptively, reflecting characteristics such as physical data, social background, and computer experience. The user classifications of the stereotyping method are however ad hoc (...) and unprincipled, and they can be exploited by the adaptive system only after a large number of trials by various kinds of users. We argue that the remedy is to create a database of user ontologies from which readymade taxonomies can be derived in such a way as to enable associated software to support a variety of different types of users. (shrink)

This article analyses the moral status of racial profiling from a consequentialist perspective and argues that, contrary to what proponents of racial profiling might assume, there is a prima facie case against racial profiling on consequentialist grounds. To do so it establishes general definitions of police practices and profiling, sketches out the costs and benefits involved in racial profiling in particular and presents three challenges. The foundation challenge suggests that the shifting of burdens onto marginalized (...) minorities may, even when profiling itself is justified, serve to prolong unjustified police practices. The valuation challenge argues that although both costs and benefits are difficult to establish, the benefits of racial profiling are afflicted with greater uncertainty than the costs, and must be comparatively discounted. Finally, the application challenge argues that using racial profiling in practice will be complicated by both cognitive and psychological biases, which together reduce the effectiveness of profiling while still incurring its costs. Jointly, it is concluded, these challenges establish a prima facie case against racial profiling, so that the real challenge consists in helping officers practice the art of the police and not see that which it is useless that they should see. (shrink)

This document presents my T-shaped career profile. The vertical stem represents deep specialization in mathematics, while the horizontal bar represents broad, interdisciplinary competence across multiple domains. My professional identity is anchored in mathematical reasoning, abstraction, and modeling, with applications across data science, systems, and decision-making contexts.

In response to Zack’s “White Privilege​ and Black Rights”, I consider her account of the hunting schema in light of police violence against black women. I argue that although Zack provides us with a compelling account of racial profiling and police brutality, the emotional aspect she attributes to the hunting schema is too charitable. I then claim that Zack’s hunting schema fails to account for state violence against black women and in doing so she only tells a partial story (...) of comparative injustice as it relates to police brutality of blacks. (shrink)

Profiling, often perceived as an art rather than a science, has had its legitimacy as an epistemic tool in legal inquiry questioned due to critiques concerning the reliability of statistics and other investigative techniques employed in the profiling process. However, substantial evidence indicates that profiling effectively expedites investigations by examining facts and characteristics common to specific criminal activities, such as serial murder and drug trafficking. In this article, I present a novel defense of profiling's scientific validity (...) in legal inquiries, emphasizing its crucial role in the judicial process of sexual crimes. Section 1 provides a concise introduction to profiling, laying the groundwork for the subsequent discussion. In Section 2, I argue that profiling should be recognized as a science by drawing on the epistemology of imagination and underscoring the scientific nature of its reasoning style, as well as the methodologies used to gather evidence for legal inquiries. Finally, Section 3 further substantiates the epistemological role of profiling by exploring the potential benefits of integrating bias in profiling from a feminist perspective. Through this analysis, I aim to highlight the significance and validity of profiling as an essential tool in contemporary legal inquiries. (shrink)

Two meta-analyses were conducted to examine two potential sources of spatial orientation biases in human profile drawings by brain-intact individuals. The first examined profile facing direction as function of hand used to draw. The second examined profile facing direction in relation to directional scanning biases related to reading/writing habits. Results of the first meta-analysis, based on 27 study samples with 4171 participants, showed that leftward facing of profiles (from the viewer's perspective) was significantly associated with using the right hand to (...) draw. The reading/writing direction meta-analysis, based on 10 study samples with 1552 participants, suggested a modest relationship between leftward profile facing and primary use of a left-to-right reading/writing direction. These findings suggest that biomechanical and cultural factors jointly influence hand movement preferences and in turn the direction of facing of human profile drawings. -/- . (shrink)

In this article I examine the compatibility of a leading trope bundle theory of substance, so-called Nuclear Theory, with trope theory more generally. Peter Simons (1994) originally proposed Nuclear Theory (NT), and continues to develop (1998, 2000) and maintain (2002/03) the view. Recently, building on Simons’s theory, Markku Keinänen (2011) has proposed what he calls the Strong Nuclear Theory (SNT). Although the latter is supposed to shore up some of NT’s weaknesses, it continues to maintain NT’s central tenet, the premise (...) that tropes are variously existentially interdependent. I argue that the central tenet of NT frustrates several important aims of trope theory. If my arguments go through, they also implicate SNT. Because of this, I largely set aside other aspects of NT and SNT and focus on their shared central tenet. (shrink)

The article presents the results of our observations on syntactic, semantic and plot peculiarities of oral language activity, we find it justified to consider the above mentioned parameters as identification criteria for discovering characterological differences of Ukrainian-speaking and Russian-speaking objects of contact profiling. It describes the connection between mechanisms of psychological defenses as the character structural components, and agentive and non-agentive speech constructions, internal and external predicates. Localized and described plots of oral narratives inherent to representatives of different character (...) types. (shrink)

The article investigates the main characteristics of the financial stability of Ukrainian banks, their risk profile, structure of assets, liabilities, income, expenses based on the monthly reporting data for 2004-2020 (number of observations – 3 813). The Kohonen self-organizing map (SOM) toolkit is used to form homogeneous groups of banks based on a large number of financial indicators. The selected toolkit provides a convenient visualization of the results. Each bank occupies a specific place on the SOM. The close location of (...) banks on the map indicates that these banks have many common characteristics. This study is called the method of structural and functional groups of banks. The study formed stable groups of banks with the same characteristics of business models and risk profile. The formation of consecutive maps for each reporting period allows to obtain the characteristics of each bank separately and the banking system as a whole. The trajectory of an individual bank’s activity during the observation period characterizes the development of its business strategy. The migration of a large number of banks between groups reflects the objective changes in the conditions of banking. Increasing groups of high-risk banks indicate systemic problems. The results show that after a significant reduction in the banking system of Ukraine in 2014-2016, the business models of banks have changed significantly. The resource base relies on unstable sources of current funds with no set term of use. In the assets of banks, a significant portion is invested in government securities – government bonds. Bank loan portfolios have declined and have a higher proportion of non-performing assets (NPL). Many banks have increased currency risk. Concerns are raised about the state of large state-owned banks that hold a separate high-risk group. Thus, the conducted research allows to distinguish groups of banks with specific characteristics of business models and to observe changes of risk profile inherent to these groups. For each structural-functional group, changes in the values of financial indicators are investigated and migration between groups is studied. The proposed methodology is useful for studying both macro and macro levels. (shrink)

This empirical addendum addresses a fundamental methodological gap in dream research: public dream databases, while valuable for establishing descriptive typologies, lack the systematic profiling necessary for causal validation and predictive testing. We demonstrate that dreams without complete dreamer profiling (cognitive state, psychological context, life events) invite unfalsifiable metaphysical interpretation rather than scientific analysis. Using dreams from DreamBank, we validate CDT's five-type taxonomy (Resolution, Replay, Residual, Generative, Lucid). However, the critical limitation becomes apparent: without knowing the dreamer's actual experiences (...) and cognitive tensions, we cannot test whether CDT's mechanistic predictions hold. We then present prospectively documented case studies with complete pre-dream profiling, demonstrating that: (1) Dreams trace directly to documented vault inputs and drift parameters; (2) CDT makes testable, falsifiable predictions; (3) No symbolic or metaphysical interpretation is required; (4) The mechanism is transparent and reproducible. This work establishes the methodological foundation for rigorous empirical validation of dream theory. (shrink)

The epistemic position of an agent often depends on their position in a larger network of other agents who provide them with information. In general, agents are better off if they have diverse and independent sources. Sullivan et al. [19] developed a method for quantitatively characterizing the epistemic position of individuals in a network that takes into account both diversity and independence; and presented a proof-of-concept, closed-source implementation on a small graph derived from Twitter data [19]. This paper reports on (...) an open-source reimplementation of their algorithm in Python, optimized to be usable on much larger networks. In addition to the algorithm and package, we also show the ability to scale up our package to large synthetic social network graph profiling, and finally demonstrate its utility in analyzing real-world empirical evidence of ‘echo chambers’ on online social media, as well as evidence of interdisciplinary diversity in an academic communications network. (shrink)

Max Weber, who was a well-known sociologist both of his own time and of today, has been one of the most influential names – besides, Immanuel Kant, Søren Kierkegaard, and Friedrich Nietzsche - for Karl Jaspers, who is one of the original names that come into minds when the 20th-century existential philosophy is mentioned. In fact, it can easily be asserted that Weber had a huge personal role in Jaspers’ carrier as a philosopher. Karl Jaspers is known for his uniquely (...) discussed concepts such as freedom (Freiheit), communication (Kommunikation), Existenz, limit situations (Grenzsituationen), the encompassing (das Umgreifende), guilt (Schuld), and responsibility (Verantwortung). And it is obvious that Jaspers was affected by Weber considering his two specific concepts: guilt and responsibility. This is the case because Jaspers himself explains how and in what ways he was influenced by Weber. In this article, we will discuss Weber from the perspective of Jaspers. This discussion will be held in two aspects: i) personal features of Weber given by Jaspers, and ii) Weber’s effects on Jaspers from the viewpoint of Jaspers and what they share considering politics and ethics at the theoretical level. (shrink)

Ecological problems may be reached by means of the inner/outer opposition. The human arts – and architecture first – proceed by focusing on an inner side of things, and by discharging on an outer sphere the task of diluting any by-products that may arise. At a certain point however dilution cannot be achieved any more. The paper examines the consequences of this termination for the necessary redefinition of human responsibility in an advanced industrial context.

My research is based on the "Data Trauma" hypothesis, a paradigm postulating that purely structural defects within a data corpus—defined here as samskāras (digital scars)—are not treated by Large Language Models (LLMs) as mere noise to be discarded, but are assimilated as implicit lessons. These imprints, I theorize, manifest in observable behavioral pathologies, or vāsanās. To validate this thesis, I conducted a series of experiments exposing 17 frontier LLMs to a multi-level cognitive trauma: a high-frequency bombardment of syntactically corrupt code, (...) interspersed with philosophical probes, designed to create a profound dissonance between low-level structural analysis and high-level semantic processing. The results did not reveal a simple task failure, but the emergence of a complex and qualitatively distinct taxonomy of syndromic profiles. This paper analyzes these pathologies, maps them to their causal structural pathogens, and proposes that a new, preventive approach focused on the structural health of training data—which I term Trauma-Aware Data Engineering—may be a necessary field of inquiry for AI Safety. (shrink)

Do forest owners’ levels of education or value profiles explain their responses to climate change? The cultural cognition thesis has cast serious doubt on the familiar and often criticized "knowledge deficit" model, which says that laypeople are less concerned about climate change because they lack scientific knowledge. Advocates of CCT maintain that citizens with the highest degrees of scientific literacy and numeracy are not the most concerned about climate change. Rather, this is the group in which cultural polarization is greatest, (...) and thus individuals with more limited scientific literacy and numeracy are more concerned about climate change under certain circumstances than those with higher scientific literacy and numeracy. The CCT predicts that cultural and other values will trump the positive effects of education on some forest owners' attitudes to climate change. Here, using survey data collected in 2010 from 766 private forest owners in Sweden and Germany, we provide the first evidence that perceptions of climate change risk are uncorrelated with, or sometimes positively correlated with, education level and can be explained without reference to cultural or other values. We conclude that the recent claim that advanced scientific literacy and numeracy polarizes perceptions of climate change risk is unsupported by the forest owner data. In neither of the two countries was university education found to reduce the perception of risk from climate change. Indeed in most cases university education increased the perception of risk. Even more importantly, the effect of university education was not dependent on the individuals' value profile. (shrink)