Polar Models of Culture-Regressivism Versus Progressivism

The culture wars that simmer within any nation may have been escalating recently;but regardless of their national settings or milieus,many of these wars are informed by two opposing paradigms of culture.This paper analyzes two of these leading paradigms,designated here as Regressivism and Progressivism.Other theorists have long chronicled the differing strengths and weaknesses of these paradigms,taking the former as expressing more conservative,traditional,and nationalistic values,and the latter as expressing more liberal,pluralistic,and cosmopolitan values.Going beyond these perennial distinctions,I argue that Progressivism is more benign and beneficial than the former-by meeting basic human needs better and supporting more effective adaptation to changing exigencies.I also argue that Progressivism does not express merely subjective or relativistic preferences and values,but objectively preferable and quantifiable ones,that benefit not only our personal lives more but also our global village and communal lives more.

Can Religious Pluralism Influence Governance and Societal Cohesion?

This analysis uncovers the complex interplay of religion,politics,and society in Israel,revealing the intricate dynamics of secular and religious ideologies.The study explores the deep ideological rift between secular and religious communities,a divide that profoundly impacts political stability and policymaking.This division often leads to political crises and reshuffling,with the political system characterized by unstable coalition governments.The research is grounded in the divisions over the state’s spiritual ideology,with significant Orthodox influence shaping policy on education,family law,and cultural affairs.The research shows the profound influence of religious parties on Israeli politics,significantly shaping the country’s policies and ideological direction.Influenced by external factors such as security threats and diplomatic challenges,the dynamic interaction between politics and religion shapes Israeli politics since religious parties advocate for policies that align with their interpretation of Jewish religious law,thereby impacting the role of religion in public policy.The influence of religious politics has led to a discernible shift toward greater religious orthodoxy in public life,driven by the political power of religious parties that prioritize religious values above secular democratic principles.The state’s endorsement of religious education and institutions shapes public policy and societal norms.The analysis examines the influence of religious values in public policy and the dynamic interaction between religious and political spheres,aimed to ensure that religion remains dominant in shaping societal norms and governance.This complex relationship demonstrates the ongoing challenges in balancing religious orthodoxy with secular principles,which poses difficulties and has implications for the stability and cohesion of Israeli society.The urgency and complexity of this task cannot be overstated,as it is crucial for the future of Israeli politics and religious dynamics.

Lung Cancer Segmentation with Three-Parameter Logistic Type Distribution Model

Lung cancer is the leading cause of mortality in the world affectingboth men and women equally.When a radiologist just focuses on the patient’sbody, it increases the amount of strain on the radiologist and the likelihoodof missing pathological information such as abnormalities are increased.One of the primary objectives of this research work is to develop computerassisteddiagnosis and detection of lung cancer. It also intends to make iteasier for radiologists to identify and diagnose lung cancer accurately. Theproposed strategy which was based on a unique image feature, took intoconsideration the spatial interaction of voxels that were next to one another.Using the U-NET+Three parameter logistic distribution-based technique, wewere able to replicate the situation. The proposed technique had an averageDice co-efficient (DSC) of 97.3%, a sensitivity of 96.5% and a specificity of94.1% when tested on the Luna-16 dataset. This research investigates howdiverse lung segmentation, juxta pleural nodule inclusion, and pulmonarynodule segmentation approaches may be applied to create Computer AidedDiagnosis (CAD) systems. When we compared our approach to four otherlung segmentation methods, we discovered that ours was the most successful.We employed 40 patients from Luna-16 datasets to evaluate this. In termsof DSC performance, the findings demonstrate that the suggested techniqueoutperforms the other strategies by a significant margin.

The Contribution Margin due to a Limiting Factor in the Presence of Several Sales Options: Actuality Is Not Always As It Appears at the Beginning of the Analysis

The analysis of company data useful for economic decisions,if not interpreted in an overall view of the company situation,can lead to wrong conclusions.This is the case when a company has to choose between several sales options for one or more products in the presence of a limiting factor.The continuation of the investigation often denies the initial analysis.Not everything is as it appears,therefore,at the beginning of the deepening of the data useful for economic decisions.As it is well known,the choices of profitability concerning the planning of the sale of company products take place,at least in the majority of cases,through the determination of the contribution margin,i.e.the profitability margin connected to the individual goods/services sold by the companies(selling price net of variable costs).The contribution margin can be determined with four objectives:(1)Determination of the yield of the single product,net of variable costs only.In this case,the margin defines unitary,from net product yield to unitary contribution margin.(2)Determination of the return on total sales of an individual product,net of variable costs.In this hypothesis,reference is made to the first level(or gross)contribution margin.(3)Determination of the ability of the individual product to contribute to the coverage of fixed costs common to the company.This margin is determined net of special product variable and fixed costs.This aggregate is defined as a Level II(or semi-gross)margin.(4)Determination of the useful value in the planning choices in case of presence of scarce productive factors.In this case,it must identify the so-called unitary margin for low factor.Here we will only deal with the problem of the use of the contribution margin in the presence of rare factors.To complete the analysis,below are some very brief considerations regarding,respectively,the unitary,level I,and level II contribution margin in order to better understand where the problem of the most convenient choice of income is located in the event of the presence of rare production factors,especially in an environment characterized by a plurality of sales options.

Research on Innovative Training of Localized STEM Teachers Grounded in Shared Commitment

The high-quality development of a country driven by talent necessitates comprehensive and practical STEM(Science,Technology,Engineering,and Mathematics)education.The goal of localizing STEM education is to cultivate comprehensive innovative technology talents that meet the needs of the new era.STEM teachers play a core role in this concept,and the quality of teacher training directly determines the development trend of STEM education and the quality of future talents in the country.Therefore,based on the current situation and existing problems in STEM teacher training,the shared commitment to“high-quality STEM teacher training”is employed as a guiding principle,highlighting the role of various elements in the STEM teacher training process.The practical path for STEM teacher training is proposed from four aspects:top-level design goal orientation,resource integration to solve supply imbalance,curriculum construction to improve the teaching system,and sustainable development to enhance professional ability.This study hopes to provide guidelines for innovative training of localized STEM teachers in China.

Early Practice of Chinese Europeanized Grammar-Take the Plural of the First-Person Pronoun in The Pilgrim’s Progress in Mandarin as an Example

The Pilgrim’s Progress in Mandarin translated by the British missionary William Chalmers Burns in the 1860s is regarded as one of the typical representatives of the early Europeanized vernacular texts.Compared with the ancient vernacular,the frequency of the inclusive usage of“wǒmen”has increased significantly,which is directly influenced by the plural usage of first-person pronoun in English.Tracking back the origin of Chinese Europeanized grammar is an important part of the study of modern Chinese grammar,which not only is helpful to have a clear understanding of the characteristic of Europeanized grammar in the pre-development stage of modern Chinese,but also can lay a certain foundation for the comparative study of Europeanized grammar in different periods.In addition,this study can also provide linguistic basis for investigating the influence of western missionaries’Chinese translation on the formation of new literature.

美国WASP主流文化存亡探析——移民之融合与威胁

美国核心文化—WASP文化面临诸多挑战和威胁,其中以移民影响最为突出。欧洲移民比例的下降,拉美裔、亚裔移民比例的增加引起美国社会结构发生巨大变化、美国社会"变色"—拉美化。本文从移民的同化、融合、多元共存角度出发,总结出"同化"论终究要被"多元文化论"代替。因此在全球化背景下,双语主义的流行,美国将成为多种文化共存的多元文化的移民国家。

The Plural in the Singular, Cities and Disciplinary Batallions？ -- Interdisciplinary Approaches Facing Nowadays Environmental Challenges

Towns＇ and cities＇ stories show their multidisciplinary richness and their complexity between professional skills and ways of life and residence of inhabitants by the analysis of the towns＇ changes. Through two protocols of research, during ten years from 2003 to 2012 and so on, of metropolitan changes in Bordeaux and travels in French and European cities, Christian Sallenave shows that： When everyone can write, tell and recognize his own story of town＇s changes, the cities know the best conditions for their sustainable development; Neither particular, nor general, but both in their specific dialectic; Neither panoptical and sovereign disciplines nor judgmental dopes, but both in their coming and goings and their ＂patriotic＂ property and register. The towns＇ stories are always written and marked in the same time in plural and singular, of arts, sciences and knowledge and pragmatic ways of life and residence.

What Are We Speaking About When We Speak About Gender?Gender as a Continuum

This article shows how,using the figure of the continuum,gender pluralities can be captured in their actually existing diversity and thus be detached from a still powerful and often stereotyping binary constructedness.Gender as a continuum encompasses the four dimensions physical,psychological,social and sexual or:body,feeling,behavior,and desire.It will be demonstrated that all of these dimensions are not clearly separable within themselves and from each other.In the second part of the article,concrete everyday examples and legal debates are discussed from the perspective of the continuum.Thus,we are free to consider differences and similarities between and within the different gender groups in all their diverse shapes and manifestations.The question of what we are speaking about when we are speaking about gender will be answered with a clear“We are speaking about us as individuals and us as a society”.The simple reversion of this correlation will lead to the question:“Do we have to speak about gender when we are speaking about ourselves?”.This question will be answered with a clear“No”,if the normality of plurality and diversity also includes the negation,the absence of gender.

Metropolises and World Music in Globalization： Towns, Melting Pot Works, and Jazz Classics in Memories

Metropolises in the globalization call nowadays Towns＇ of jazzmen, jazzwomen and jazz lovers, in a way from which we citizens. Christian Sallenave, sociologist with musical academic and Cities＇ into question. Jazz answers with stories and memories can learn a lesson for the future of towns, metropolises and their background, shows through examples of stories of jazz in New Orleans, New York, Paris, Bordeaux and Rome, how this nomad, notable and crossbreeding music contributes to the history of jazz, and world music, and listeners＇ memories, in ＂their own way＂ as towns, cities and their memories can contribute to the prosperity of the metropolises in globalization, through original melting pot works.

Metropolis or City?Metropoles and Cities with Their Citizens

Through the specific examples of two very different metropoles,not compared but evoked,New York City and Bordeaux Métropole,since globalization from mid-19th and to the beginning of the 21st century,we can observe how metropolitan flows acceleration change cities and citizens heritages.How can we achieve metropolization and globalization of our cities?

The Reflection of Pluralism—Comment on Smuggling Sex Through the Gates:Race,Sexuality,and the Politics of Space in Second Wave Feminism

American studies succeeded in becoming a discipline only after 1920s after overcoming a series of barriers.Not until in the late 1960s did the so-called subcultures,the cultures of the formerly ignored groups or the culture of the minority get the chance to step on the stage of American studies.This article- Smuggling Sex Through the Gates:Race,Sexuality,and the Politics of Space in Second Wave Feminism is a good illustration,or a reflection of the transferring of the subjects for American studies from one-centered to many-faceted.

Institutions and water governance in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

The goals of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) can be achieved by embracing the principles of distributive governance, which places both customary and statutory water institutions on the same pedestal in the governance of water resources. As culture and traditions constitute intangible aspects of water resources management in rural Africa, the recognition of water governance systems grounded in local norms, which correspond better with the aspirations of local water users as against the expert-knowledge systems is desirable. Following the introduction of the statutory institutions in postcolonial Africa, customary institutions, which were once effective in regulating water resources became relegated to the background in those countries, including Botswana . Adopting a critical literature review approach, this article employs the concept of legal pluralism to analyze the institutional factors that create the disharmony between cultural and statutory water governance and management institutions. Findings indicate that water has been abstracted from its social nature and transformed into a tradable economic good. Ultimately, the local meanings and images encoded in water as a nature-given resource are overlooked, thus generating conflicts in water governance. The paper recommends the adoptions of legal pluralism under which water institutions need to embrace both customary and statutory institutions.

Muslim Fundamentalism: Psychological Orientations and Counter-Narratives

The current study attempted to formulate a conceptualization of Muslim fundamentalism as well as its counter-narratives as grounded in religious experience of Pakistani Muslims.Open ended interviews were conducted with 133 Pakistani Muslim men and women of prominent local religious affiliations.Analysis revealed a grounded theory model of Muslim fundamentalism highlighting cognitive,and social psychological processes involved.Participants saw their religion as a complete code of conduct and inferred various meanings from completeness of Islam as finalized,closed to inquiry as well as rejecting of other cultures and religious traditions.The major inter-related themes of the model were totalitarianism,closed mindedness,binary thinking,hyper-exotericism,ambiguity intolerance,authoritarianism,punitive approach,violent tendencies,labelling,diversity intolerance and paranoia or threat perceiving attitude.The interplay of these factors is discussed in the light of earlier research on fundamentalism.The research also revealed strong counter narratives to fundamentalist stance which formulated the major themes of esoteric religiosity,open mindedness,pluralism,and Islam and civil society.The study carries implications for religious education of Muslims and their socialization with believers of other religious traditions.

Media Governance, state Subsidies and Impacts on Regional Press and Radio

Similarly to what happens in other European countries, Portugal has been feeling the need to rethink its public state subsidy scheme to media. In this context, this paper presents an analysis of the impacts arising from the provision of such subventions in local and regional media, questioning if the state support system is adequate to the business reality and contributing to improving it. Hence, this work reflects regional realities in the national context, being also, in a greater scale, a mirror of the models prevalent in Europe, a continent marked by significant state intervention. This study also establishes a diverse set of information, including an intensive collection of empirical data on the impact of direct incentives on the companies＇ performance, product quality, market competitiveness and pluralism of voices in the regional and local information market, based on a case study on the Portuguese state support system and the analysis of 21 local and regional media companies. In fact, the results of this research point out that, although these incentives are considered by the affected media companies as very important, having positive impacts regarding the improvement of journalistic products （such as online presence on the Intemet）, maintaining human resources and promoting the pluralism of voices; they do not seem to be adequately efficient to provide a sustainable growth in local and regional media.

The Figure of the Continuum:Discussed in Relation to the Quantum Logic and Exemplified for the Categories“Sex/Gender”and“Migration”

This article shows,on the one hand,how the figure of the Continuum can describe pluralities not only in the realm of sex/gender,but also in that of migration,using the four dimensions of the Continuum:physical/body/matter―psychological/feeling/experience―social/behavior―sexual/desire.The figure of the Continuum can resolve binary and bipolar orders by overcoming the virulent power of the poles“male-female”which are still considered to frame the gender order to this days.In the same way,the bipolar,antagonistic,and dichotomous juxtaposition between migrant and non-migrant will be released from a binary constriction using the figure of the Continuum,as well as the diametric opposition within different forms,different trajectories of,and different reasons for migration.On the other hand,the article shows how natural such de-binarizations are or how pluralizations are if one looks to quantum logic and explains how the“as well as”,the end of the exclusionary opposition of“0:1”,superpositions and overlays as well as repetitions are of central significance for quantum physics.Thus,the article can come to the conclusion that,just as in the quantum logic of physics,the figure of the Continuum contains a chance for a new and broader humanism,which considers the human as a human,with all their diversities,potentialities,and the inviolability of human dignity.

Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist as a Postmodern Text

Literature has witnessed the appearance of many movements and approaches throughout the history.After World War II,particularly in the 1960s,postmodernism has come to surface and as an up-to-date movement,many eminent critics and cultural historians have turned their concerns and attention to it.This study examines the concept of postmodernism and it explores its main characteristics that appear in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist(1986).

The Portuguese Newspapers Market Between Consolidation and Concentration Strategies

The main objective of this research is to assess the existence （or lack） of media concentration in the Portuguese dailies newspaper sector, and to evaluate the extension to which this situation may be compromising fundamental society values： freedom of speech and right of access to information. Authors resorted to market indicators, namely total average circulation,number of copies per issue, business volume and advertising investments. These indicators are found to be complementary： some indicators evaluate group position in the readers＇ market, whereas other evaluates group position in the general market and the advertising market in particular. Based in this market information, we used quantitative models （HII, CR4 and Noan） to measure de concentration in the newspaper segment. Additionally we tried to demonstrate that to analyze the dailies newspaper concentration situation in Portugal a holist perspective of the media market is needed, using a country context to understand some local characteristics and market structure and political, economic, social and technological dynamics. Additionally, there are evidences that existing concentration indexes are not conclusive because of potential replacement effects in the Portuguese media sector.

The Current Metamorphosis of Instrumental Rationality

In the first part, the concept of instrumental reason is defended. Although we live in the age of pluralism, in which a tendency prevails to put all types of rationality on the same plane, there is a rationality that has a unique position： the instrumental rationality. The article then examines Luk^ics＇s roots of this concept and its elaboration by Adomo and Horkheimer. The second part refers to the current transformation of instrumental reason that these authors could not register. Instrumental reason changes so that it can connect several seemingly incoherent elements： postmodern non-objectivity, social and ecological normativity, and reified imperatives of capitalism. This formation is here called over-instrumental instrumental reason. In conclusion, the article deals with the question of how its non-instrumental component to exempt from its instrumental ones.

Interpreting Kuhn＇s Incommensurability-Thesis： Its Different Meanings and Epistemological Consequences

Kuhn＇s incommensurability-thesis is crucial for consequences for the pursuit of epistemology. A interpreting his views on the development of science and their commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the publication of the original version of Kuhn＇s epoch-making book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions （henceforth： SSR） should thus provide a thorough reflection on this thesis. However, this thesis is not easy to interpret. It is not only complex in itself but has also undergone a historical development--in Kuhn＇s own hands and in those of his interpreters. In this article, I sort out the different interpretations of it, in particular, in Part A. In Part B, I demonstrate their epistemological consequences. Under closer scrutiny, Kuhn＇s incommensurability-thesis contains several sub-theses Different senses of ＂incommensurability＂ thus need to be distinguished. However, the way in which those distinctions are drawn in Kuhn-scholarship differs. In paragraph I of Part A, I provide an overview of the reception of the incommensurability-thesis in Kuhn-scholarship. In Paragraph II, I trace its development in Kuhn＇s later writings： given its importance and contested nature, Kuhn later clarifies his original thesis. Those later clarifications＇ main function consists in domesticating the most radically relativistic aspects his original incommensurability-thesis had, at least, in the eyes of his interpreters. The upshot of Part A （Paragraphs I and II） is to provide a coherent interpretation of Kuhn＇s incommensurability-thesis. To that end, I distinguish in line with much of Kuhn-scholarship a semantic from a methodological sense of incommensurability. In part B, the question is raised： What sort of epistemological consequences follow from both senses of incommensurability？ In particular, what consequences follow for the issues of reference, subjectivity （objectivity）, pluralism, and realism？ The underlying question is to what extent Kuhnian incommensurability caters to a relativistic understanding of those issues. This question is answered in Paragraph Ill with the help of the analyses of a currently leading Kuhn-scholar, C. H. Sankey. His answers are taken as a vantage point for my concluding evaluation of the consequences of Kuhnian incommensurability in Paragraph IV.