Infusing Autopoietic and Cognitive Behaviors into Digital Automata to Improve Their Sentience, Resilience, and Intelligence

All living beings use autopoiesis and cognition to manage their “life” processes from birth through death. Autopoiesis enables them to use the specification in their genomes to instantiate themselves using matter and energy transformations. They reproduce, replicate, and manage their stability. Cognition allows them to process information into knowledge and use it to manage its interactions between various constituent parts within the system and its interaction with the environment. Currently, various attempts are underway to make modern computers mimic the resilience and intelligence of living beings using symbolic and sub-symbolic computing. We discuss here the limitations of classical computer science for implementing autopoietic and cognitive behaviors in digital machines. We propose a new architecture applying the general theory of information (GTI) and pave the path to make digital automata mimic living organisms by exhibiting autopoiesis and cognitive behaviors. The new science, based on GTI, asserts that information is a fundamental constituent of the physical world and that living beings convert information into knowledge using physical structures that use matter and energy. Our proposal uses the tools derived from GTI to provide a common knowledge representation from existing symbolic and sub-symbolic computing structures to implement autopoiesis and cognitive behaviors.

Eric Voegelin e i simboli del politico

The article deals with Eric Voegelin’s analysis of the symbolic dimension of politics and history. It focuses at first on the analysis of the relationship between religion, politics and totalitarianism in the essay on “political religions” and outlines some aspects of the context in which this essay was written. Some characteristics of Voegelin's methodological reflections on the idea of a “new science” of politics are then presented and it is then shown how the attempt to understand the relationship between ideas and symbols opens a new horizon of research, in which the relationship between symbol and representation, and that between symbol, history and being, around which the monumental, and unfinished work Order and History moves, are the main axes.

Universal Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah and Their Modern Application: Towards Ensuring a Peaceful and Secured Environment

The maqāṣid theory is a popular trend in Islamic legal theories. Contemporary scholars view it as a valid method of interpreting the revealed text and as a valuable instrument for solving contemporary issues because it helps reform Islamic thought and civilization. Indeed, the idea of maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah has been widely studied and expanded by modern scholars of Islamic legal theory. Chiefly, Ibn ͑Ashur and contemporary MaqÉsid scholars renewed the scholarly discourse and ensured its proliferation and wide acceptance in legal studies. It has emerged as a new science that connects with all other legal disciplines. Thus, scholars firmly assert that the maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah constitute the most important intellectual means and methodologies for Islamic reform today. Consequently, the researchers aim to examine the modern discourse of Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah and the latest developments beyond the universal MaqÉÎid. Mainly, the researchers scrutinize the two objectives namely the preservation of the environment via the protection of life and wealth. Accordingly, this article follows the qualitative method of data collection and analysis. Among the findings of the research is that the latest developments of Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah, open the door of ijtihād widely to create ample areas for jurists to regulate the affairs of the Muslim ummah. Further, the maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah do not reflect only the objectives of Islamic law; their role goes beyond and is used to formulate basic principles and values related to global peace and human welfare. Hence, they have greatly contributed to the revival of Islamic thought and have opened a wider space for the application of Islamic law pertaining to peaceful environment.

Open science and the academic profession

Open science is considered a new science paradigm to make research accessible, accountable, and effective. Open science is already changing the academic profession starting from micro-practices to professional relations with epistemic communities and stakeholders, with implications that we are not yet able to predict. The article delves first into literature and official documentation to unfold the discursive regimes which sustain the spread of open science. A specific focus is then devoted to the professional transition, highlighting the role of funding organizations in setting the new science environment and the subjective experience of academics. The article is completed by a case study in the field of Research Data Management where the misalignment among incumbent/changing processes can be more apparent. Finally, a research agenda that focuses on how academic micro-practices are affecting organizations and science structures is proposed. This article aims at beginning to plow the ground for new research directions to emerge.

The Three-Talk Model: Getting Both Evidence and Preferences into a Pre-Service Teacher Health Workshop

We describe a pre-service teacher workshop about sustainable health decisions in school. This one-week workshop had two goals: to improve the ability of students to cope with health and illness as teachers in daily school life, and to improve scientific literacy in health contexts. In this way, the workshop aimed at creating a situation of mutual benefit between science education and health education, as it is suggested in the new science pedagogy called Science|Environment|Health. To reach this aim, the workshop was structured by the evidence-preference approach and the three-talk model, both originally developed for shared-decision making in medicine. In the evidence-preference approach, the experts (the physician, here the teacher) provide the best evidence available, while the laypersons (the patient, here the teacher students) bring in their preferences and, together with the experts, find their personal standpoint. This process is structured by the three-talk model, which is conceived as a characteristic succession of choice talk, option talk, and decision talk. We describe how the pre-service teacher workshop embraced this new approach, compare it to a scientific literacy point of view, and suggest how it could be applied in many other educational contexts, particularly in many issues of education for sustainability.

Nanotechnology in Periodontics Revisited: A Review

Nanotechnology is the study of materials, devices, and systems that display features that are distinct from those found in larger systems. It is no surprise that medical and dental researchers have taken notice of this rapid advancement in technology, which has piqued their curiosity about how it may be used to cure and prevent disease. It is a relatively new science that deals with the manipulation of matter at the molecular level, including the manipulation of individual molecules and their relationships. High-level control of position and chemical characteristics are the primary goals of this method. Nanotechnology has become one of the most promising and significant areas of scientific research as a result, thanks to an increased interest in interpreting matter's property at this dimension. Nanotechnology has been used in dentistry to produce new materials and procedures for diagnosing, preventing, treating, and regenerating periodontal disease, which is the subject of this article. Cargoes and materials such polymeric nanoparticles, non-porous nanogels, nanotube scaffold matrices, and nanofibers have shown promise effectiveness, and their functions in disease treatment are of significant interest. The purpose of this review paper is to offer thorough recent updates on the numerous nanotechnology-based methods to periodontal disease treatment.