Introduction

In the Introduction, the author defines epistemic rationality by contrasting it with practical rationality: epistemic rationality is aimed at truth, while practical rationality is aimed at other goals. To more clearly explain this definition, the author uses a science fiction dialogue with a philosophical anthropologist from a planet orbiting one of the Alpha Centauri stars to dramatize Western epistemology’s susceptibility to intellectual pathologies. The author resolves to recapitulate the history of Western epistemology to try to diagnose its susceptibility to these pathologies and to find a cure. His stated goal for this book is not to refute other approaches to epistemology, but to articulate a new vision and a new pathway for addressing issues in epistemology. The Introduction ends with an overview of the book.

To the problem of responsible parenthood: results of theoretical analysis and experimental research

The article presents the results of the study related to the problem of responsible parenthood, which was carried out by means of comparative analysis of the concepts «responsible parenthood» and «conscious parenthood». The theoretical analysis is based on the work of domestic researchers, who showed that the concept «conscious parenthood» is significantly justified and is represented by a larger number of scientific works compared to the concept «responsible parenthood». At that time, the concept «responsible parenthood» was understood as implicit in international documents and domestic legislation and regulations. It is noted that in many sources, the authors present considerations from the standpoint of the desired/«ideal form» of the content of the two concepts under study. According to the results of theoretical analysis, in the existing works of domestic scientists, a number of contradictions relevant to the present time have been identified, and the author’s opinions on them are presented. In the context of the stated problem and practical provision of the stated goal and objectives, an experimental study was conducted regarding Ukrainians’ attitude to the problem of responsible parenthood and the establishment of semantic differences in their understanding/perception of «responsible parenthood» and «conscious parenthood». The experimental study was implemented through a number of stages; the method of interviewing was chosen as the key one. The generalized results of the experimental study showed that Ukrainians understand the concept «conscious parenthood» as a conscious/planned desire to give birth to a child and raise him / her; and «responsible parenthood» as understanding and maintaining responsibility for the life and upbringing of a child (even if the birth was not planned), implying parents’ responsibility for their children. However, we do not mind parents’ responsibility to themselves. Based on the results of theoretical analysis and experimental research, the author’s definition of the concept «responsible parenthood» has been formulated.

Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) has either low specificity or low sensitivity

Objective: To assess the ability of Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) to achieve its originally stated goal to detect if a condition is necessary but not sufficient for an outcome as well as its more recently stated goal to detect non-randomness in the association between two variables. The performance of NCA was compared with the performance of ordinary linear regression analysis. Results: For its originally stated goal, NCA exhibited low specificity. For its more recently stated goal, NCA displayed low sensitivity. Ordinary linear regression analysis is superior to NCA for detecting non-random associations. There does not seem to exist any compelling reasons to use the significance test in NCA rather than ordinary linear regression analysis.

Environmental Protection or Environmental Protectionism? Evidence from Tail Pipe Emission Standards in China

Under the stated goal of improving air quality, many cities in China restricted the import of used vehicles from other cities based on tail pipe emission standards. Using detailed data on new and used vehicle registration, we examine the impact of the policy by leveraging the staggered removal of the restriction during 2016-2018. We find that restriction removal led to a sharp increase in cross-city flow of used vehicles but had no significant impact on local air quality. Unilateral removal of the restriction could reduce new vehicle sales in home cities, but universal removal would boost new vehicle sales nationwide.

Army R-22 refrigerant phase-out strategy

R-22 (also known as HCFC-22) is one of the most widely used refrigerants in U.S. Army air-conditioning and refrigeration (AC&R) systems since the phase-out of R-12 refrigerant in 1995. The need to phase out R-22 is attributed to its global warming potential and high ozone-depleting capability. The U.S. Army has tens of thousands of aging AC&R systems that will remain dependent on R-22, or one of the recently developed substitutes for R-22, until they reach the end of their operational life. This project conducted a survey to understand the current R-22 usage and types of R-22 AC&R equipment that are in use across U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM) installations. This study describes several methods to remove or retrofit R-22 from typical AC&R equipment and implementation strategies to meet the stated goal of eliminating R-22 from IMCOM installations. The scope of this project included the review of BUILDER SMS data for IMCOM installations, which included data on 13,000 pieces of comfort cooling equipment for 31 installations. The report also provides an analysis of several R-22 alternatives and their physical properties and compatibility. Mission critical tactical cooling that uses R-22 refrigerant was not within the scope of this project.

MOVEMENT WITHOUT SUPPORT: FROM IDEA TO IMPLEMENTATION

The question of the possibility of movement without support, movement at the expense of internal forces has long been of concern to mankind. Let us assume that such a movement is feasible; what prospects would open up before us? This is the freedom of movement in all environments: earth, air, water, including space. There are many ideas in achieving this goal. Here is one of them: when a body accelerates and decelerates, the forces applied to it are directed in opposite directions, as if we somehow managed to direct these forces in one direction. The solution of this problem will lead us to achieve the stated goal, to move without support.

Pearls of wisdom: Israeli elderly reflect on their lives and make suggestions for future generations

Reminiscing by older adults can facilitate beneficial outcomes through the preparation for the end of life, the cohesiveness of life narratives, and creation of life meanings. Given this, and the historical challenges of communication between generations, the objective of this study was two-fold: (1) to harness the beneficial role reminiscence can play in the mental health of older adults; (2) to facilitate generational learning by documenting and thematically analyzing the experiences and knowledge of older adults. We hypothesized that our interviews, which had the stated goal of helping younger people navigate life challenges, would not only act as catalyst for the participants to reminisce but also create a corpus of knowledge which could be later distilled into accessible “pearls of wisdom”. The interviews were conducted in Israel with 102 participants who were between 60 and 93 years of age with six questions constructed to promote further commentary. Through the interviews we were successful in producing a large representation of the older adults’ experiences and what they believed would be beneficial for the younger generation. Due to the potential benefits for participants and larger communities we recommend this approach be adopted for future studies.

Tracking the Japanese ship:the Rescue Route of Smyrna’s Armenians and Greeks

The purpose of the research is to comprehensively present the rescue process of the Armenians and Greeks exiled from Smyrna, tracking the example of a Japanese ship. To achieve the stated goal, the history of the Smyrna fire and the extermination of the Armenian and Greek populations of the local Christian districts have been studied, the details of the Japanese ship’s arrival and the passage of the survivors to the Greek shores has been explored according to the verificated data by eyewitness-survivors. The relevance of the research topic is conditioned by the “originality” and importance of the rescue operation performed by the Japanese ship. Voicing out about such realities nowadays will contribute educating a righteous and unbiased society.

Forecasting the effectiveness of the DeWorm3 trial in interrupting the transmission of soil-transmitted helminths in three study sites in Benin, India and Malawi

Background The DeWorm3 project is an ongoing cluster-randomised trial assessing the feasibility of interrupting the transmission of soil-transmitted helminths (STH) through mass drug administration (MDA) using study sites in India, Malawi and Benin. In this article, we describe an approach which uses a combination of statistical and mathematical methods to forecast the outcome of the trial with respect to its stated goal of reducing the prevalence of infection to below 2%. Methods Our approach is first to define the local patterns of transmission within each study site, which is achieved by statistical inference of key epidemiological parameters using the baseline epidemiological measures of age-related prevalence and intensity of STH infection which have been collected by the DeWorm3 trials team. We use these inferred parameters to calibrate an individual-based stochastic simulation of the trial at the cluster and study site level, which is subsequently run to forecast the future prevalence of STH infections. The simulator takes into account both the uncertainties in parameter estimation and the variability inherent in epidemiological and demographic processes in the simulator. We interpret the forecast results from our simulation with reference to the stated goal of the DeWorm3 trial, to achieve a target of $$\le 2\%$$ ≤ 2 % prevalence at a point 24 months post-cessation of MDA. Results Simulated output predicts that the two arms will be distinguishable from each other in all three country sites at the study end point. In India and Malawi, measured prevalence in the intervention arm is below the threshold with a high probability (90% and 95%, respectively), but in Benin the heterogeneity between clusters prevents the arm prevalence from being reduced below the threshold value. At the level of individual study arms within each site, heterogeneity among clusters leads to a very low probability of achieving complete elimination in an intervention arm, yielding a post-study scenario with widespread elimination but a few ‘hot spot’ areas of persisting STH transmission. Conclusions Our results suggest that geographical heterogeneities in transmission intensity and worm aggregation have a large impact on the effect of MDA. It is important to accurately assess cluster-level, or even smaller scale, heterogeneities in factors which influence transmission and aggregation for a clearer perspective on projecting the outcomes of MDA control of STH and other neglected tropical diseases.

Forecasting the effectiveness of the DeWorm3 trial in interrupting the transmission of soil-transmitted helminths in three study sites in Benin, India and Malawi

Background The DeWorm3 project is an ongoing cluster-randomised trial assessing the feasibility of interrupting the transmission of soil-transmitted helminths (STH) through mass drug administration (MDA) using study sites in India, Malawi and Benin. In this paper, we describe an approach which uses a combination of statistical and mathematical methods to forecast the outcome of the trial with respect to its stated goal of reducing the prevalence of infection to below 2%. Methods Our approach is firstly to define the local patterns of transmission within each study site, which is achieved by statistical inference of key epidemiological parameters using the baseline epidemiological measures of age-related prevalence and intensity of STH infection which have been collected by the DeWorm3 trials team. We use these inferred parameters to calibrate an individual-based stochastic simulation of the trial at the cluster and study site level which is subsequently run to forecast the future prevalence of STH infections. The simulator takes into account both the uncertainties in parameter estimation and the variability inherent in epidemiological and demographic processes in the simulator. We interpret the forecast results from our simulation with reference to the stated goal of the DeWorm3 trial, to achieve a target of ≤ 2% prevalence at a point 24 months post-cessation of MDA. Results Simulated output predicts that the two arms will be distinguishable from each other in all three country sites at the study endpoint. In India and Malawi, measured prevalence in the intervention arm is below the threshold with a high probability (90% and 95%, respectively), but that in Benin the heterogeneity between clusters prevents the arm prevalence being reduced below the threshold value. At the level of individual study arms within each site, heterogeneity among clusters leads to a very low probability of achieving complete elimination in an intervention arm, yielding a post-study scenario with widespread elimination but a few `hot spot' areas of persisting STH transmission.Conclusions Our results suggest that geographical heterogeneities in transmission intensity and worm aggregation have a large impact on the effect of MDA. It is important to accurately assessing cluster-level, or even smaller scale, heterogeneities in factors which influence transmission and aggregation for a clearer perspective on projecting the outcomes of MDA control of STH and other neglected tropical diseases.