When hyping technology is a crime

The rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes, former chief executive officer (CEO) of the high-flying, privately held, American medical diagnostics company Theranos, has riveted the public for years. A bestseller, a documentary, and a seemingly endless stream of news stories have chronicled the drama, which came to a climax last week when a jury decided that Holmes committed fraud. Although a verdict has been rendered, it’s worth examining how the culture of science innovation contributed to the problem. For too long, fledging companies promoting technological and scientific advances have relied too much on style and not enough on substance.

Business Ethics in a Digital World

This chapter will highlight the importance of transforming our conceptualization of business ethics in the digital era and the opportunities related to an optimal design of sustainable digital business ethics programs in this new hyper-connected, hyper-automated digital world. The complex issues of this revised business ethics model will be addressed from three perspectives: corporate governance, leadership, and society. The sections related to corporate governance will highlight the operational challenges when aiming to incorporate ethics into the boardroom's DNA and will emphasize the sustainability imperative ethical business leaders are facing in this digital era. This chapter will also posit that by adopting a design thinking approach for business ethics in this digital era, we can leverage all the benefits offered by emerging technologies and scientific advances while maintaining a human-centric stance.

Experience and Knowledge in the Learning Process Management Perspective in the Time of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Technological progress is something that cannot be avoided in this life, because technological progress will run in accordance with scientific advances. This cannot be separated from the role of education. Thus, as a very important component for humans in living life and social interaction, of course education needs to be carried out consciously and planned, both by stakeholders and education providers, especially teachers and lecturers. Education must continue in any form and condition, as long as the activities of human life in social interaction continue. This condition will certainly also occur during the Covid-19 pandemic. All education providers are required to act more quickly in responding to the existing conditions. Perceptions about the length of interaction with the implementation of education (experience), especially for teachers and lecturers are not the main benchmark for ensuring the success of managing the learning process during the Covid-19 pandemic. A wise effort is to make peace with any conditions and respond wisely to the existing conditions so that wisdom and humility will emerge. In the end, education providers, especially teachers and lecturers, will try to collaborate between experience and knowledge.

Stem cell therapy in vascular diseases

Despite scientific advances, vascular diseases are responsible for one third of deaths. Understanding the biology of stem cells and cell therapy can mean an important advance in reducing this mortality.

Time in Music and Philosophy

The kind of sense music makes, is bound up with how forms of meaning, including in verbal language, are connected to time. Traditional cyclical, epic, and goal-oriented senses of time all play a role in modern musical forms, even though the mythical, religious, and metaphysical content of these forms is hollowed out by scientific advances. The chapter considers aspects of the work of Descartes, Rousseau, Kant, Schelling, Friedrich Schlegel, Dewey, Hegel, Merleau-Ponty, Bergson, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, focusing particularly on the relations between self-consciousness, time, and rhythm, and on how these contribute to the constitution of meaning. The chapter argues that it may make more sense for philosophy to attend to what music reveals about time which can only be grasped by active participation in music, than to seek a comprehensive explanatory account of music and time.

Expression of Selected microRNAs in Migraine: A New Class of Possible Biomarkers of Disease?

Preliminary but convergent findings suggest a role for microRNAs (miRNAs) in the generation and maintenance of chronic pain and migraine. Initial observations showed that serum levels of miR-382-5p and miR-34a-5p expression were increased in serum during the migraine attack, with miR-382-5p increasing in the interictal phase as well. By contrast, miR-30a-5p levels were lower in migraine patients compared to healthy controls. Of note, antimigraine treatments proved to be capable of influencing the expression of these miRNAs. Altogether, these observations suggest that miRNAs may represent migraine biomarkers, but several points are yet to be elucidated. A major concern is that these miRNAs are altered in a broad spectrum of painful and non-painful conditions, and thus it is not possible to consider them as truly “migraine-specific” biomarkers. We feel that these miRNAs may represent useful tools to uncover and define different phenotypes across the migraine spectrum with different treatment susceptibilities and clinical features, although further studies are needed to confirm our hypothesis. In this narrative review we provide an update and a critical analysis of available data on miRNAs and migraines in order to propose possible interpretations. Our main objective is to stimulate research in an area that holds promise when it comes to providing reliable biomarkers for theoretical and practical scientific advances.

Celebrating Outstanding Science at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology’s 30th Anniversary Congress

THE ANNIVERSARY edition of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology’s (EADV) 30th Congress was held between 29th September and 2nd October 2021. As COVID-19 remains a barrier to global travel, the EADV’s 30th Anniversary Congress was staged virtually, providing access to the latest research, breakthroughs, and scientific advances to dermato-venereology professionals.

Science vs. Sophistry—A historical debate on bipolar fuzzy sets and equilibrium-based mathematics for AI&QI

The road from bipolar fuzzy sets to equilibrium-based mathematical abstraction is surveyed. A continuing historical debate on bipolarity and isomorphism is outlined. Related literatures are critically reviewed to counter plagiarism, distortion, renaming, and sophistry. Based on the debate, the term “isomorphistry” is coined. It is concluded that if isomorphism is used correctly it can be helpful in mathematics. If abused it may become isomorphistry—a kind of historical, socially constructed, entrenched, and “noble” hypocrisy hindering major scientific advances. It is shown that isomorphistry can be motivated by “denying” the originality of bipolar fuzzy sets and aimed at “justifying” plagiarism and distortion. Thus, isomorphistry is sophistry on isomorphism . Some (-,+)-bipolar isomorphistry behaviors are critiqued. YinYang vs. YangYin are distinguished. The geometrical and logical basis of equilibrium-based AI&QI computing machinery is introduced as a new computing paradigm with logically definable causality for mind-body unity. A philosophical joke on sophistry is appended.

USING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AS A SOCIOSCIENTIFIC ISSUE TO SUPPORT THE SCIENTIFIC HABITS OF MIND

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all people without discriminating any border, country, race, ethnicity and so forth (Arroio, 2020). Thus, it has acted as a new playmaker in recognizing the importance of education and social justice. As stated by Usak et al. (2020), we, as educators, should pay more attention to the development of students’ awareness and scientific attitudes. Thus, they are able to think, understand, decide and make an action about any urgent event or "forced" transition, i.e., the pandemic process (Rodgríguez et al., 2021). Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have generated a climate of fear for scientific advances and mass vaccination as well as regulations on lockdown, socialization, and hygiene.