Is God’s Benevolence Impartial?

In this paper I consider the intuitive idea that God is fair and does not play favorites. This belief appears to be held by many theists. I will call it the Principle of Impartial Benevolence (PIB) and put it as follows: As much as possible, for all persons, God equally promotes the good and equally prevents the bad. I begin with the conviction that there is a prima facie tension between PIB and the disparity of human suffering. My aim in what follows is to clarify this tension and show that it runs deep. More specifically, I will argue that PIB imposes stringent demands—including a patient-centered theodicy—on the sorts of reasons that would justify God in permitting suffering, and, that the historical disparity of suffering indicates that these demands are not met. I conclude that theists should disavow PIB or at least consider it sub judice

On bialgebras associated with paths and essential paths on ADE graphs

We define a graded multiplication on the vector space of essential paths on a graph $G$ (a tree) and show that it is associative. In most interesting applications, this tree is an ADE Dynkin diagram. The vector space of length preserving endomorphisms of essential paths has a grading obtained from the length of paths and possesses several interesting bialgebra structures. One of these, the Double Triangle Algebra (DTA) of A. Ocneanu, is a particular kind of quantum groupoid (a weak Hopf algebra) and was studied elsewhere; its coproduct gives a filtrated convolution product on the dual vector space. Another bialgebra structure is obtained by replacing this filtered convolution product by a graded associative product.It can be obtained from the former by projection on a subspace of maximal grade, but it is interesting to define it directly, without using the DTA. What is obtained is a weak bialgebra, not a weak Hopf algebra

Connections of the Mesencephalic Locomotor Region (MLR) in the Cat

The cat entopeduncular nucleus (EN), which is the main output of the basal ganglia, is known to project to the mesencephalic tegmentum. We have been able to elicit antidromic responses in single EN neurons from the region of the mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR), then transect (precollicular-postmamillary) the brainstem and elicit rhythmic movements of the limbs by stimulation of the same site in the same animal. Injections of the fluorescent dye 2,4 diamidino phenylindole 2 HCL (DAPI) into this area induces retrograde labeling of cell bodies in EN and motor cortex. Injections of a tritiated amino acid (leucine) into the motor cortex induce terminal labeling in the area of the MLR. These studies describe convergent projections from EN and motor cortex to the MLR. These connections may be involved in the sequencing and ordering of voluntary movements in which locomotion is necessary

Partial orders on partial isometries

This paper studies three natural pre-orders of increasing generality on the set of all completely non-unitary partial isometries with equal defect indices. We show that the problem of determining when one partial isometry is less than another with respect to these pre-orders is equivalent to the existence of a bounded (or isometric) multiplier between two natural reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces of analytic functions. For large classes of partial isometries these spaces can be realized as the well-known model subspaces and deBranges-Rovnyak spaces. This characterization is applied to investigate properties of these pre-orders and the equivalence classes they generate.Comment: 30 pages. To appear in Journal of Operator Theor

THE USE OF MEAN-VARIANCE FOR COMMODITY FUTURES AND OPTIONS HEDGING DECISIONS

This study provides additional evidence of the usefulness of mean-variance procedures in the presence of options which can truncate and skew the returns distribution. Using a simulation analysis, price hedging decisions are examined for hog producers when options are available. Mean-variance results are contrasted with optimal decisions based on negative exponential and Cox-Rubinstein utility functions over 56 ending price scenarios and two levels of risk aversion. The findings from our simulation, which considers discrete contracts, basis risk, lognormality in prices, transactions costs, and alternative utility specifications, affirm the usefulness of mean-variance framework.Marketing,

Geometric Morphometrics of Gary Dart Points from the Davy Crockett National Forest

Three-dimensional scans of Gary dart points recovered from the Davy Crockett National Forest are employed in tests of basal morphology by site, size (allometry), and asymmetry. Variability in basal morphology for Gary points from sites on the Davy Crockett National Forest is presented and compared to specimens from the published type books. The hypothesis that Gary basal morphology differs between sites containing Woodland-era sand temped ceramics and those where no sand tempered ceramics were recovered is then tested and the results discussed

Examining dimensions of patient satisfaction with telemedicine

During the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) medical institutions and practitioners have drastically increased their adoption of telemedicine. The proliferation of telemedicine systems has sparked renewed interest among IS researchers in evaluating its usage. One of the main indicators used to measure the success of telemedicine services is patient satisfaction. Yet several problems exist with current methods used to evaluate telemedicine satisfaction. Patient satisfaction with telemedicine is frequently evaluated using either single question items or handmade instruments that are seldom assessed for validity. While telemedicine satisfaction is typically evaluated through single measures, satisfaction is considered a complex and multidimensional concept. Because of the lack of insight that satisfaction measures provide it may be difficult to interpret or act upon the results of evaluations. The goal of this study is to examine and evaluate the dimensionality of telemedicine satisfaction and its perceived value. This study achieves this by following a novel multi-phased mixed methods approach. This approach includes exploratory, confirmatory and evaluatory phases that are used to: 1) identify telemedicine satisfaction dimensions and their relationship to satisfaction; 2) develop and confirm a model of patient satisfaction with telemedicine and 3) evaluate the value of the results in practice. The results demonstrate a model of satisfaction informed by system quality, information quality, health service quality, usefulness, and additional intention measures. Additional findings demonstrate the challenges with subjective interpretations of satisfaction’s meaning by providers. Results show that interpretations can vary between single-item measures and dimensional views of satisfaction. Implications and recommendations are discussed