مطالب

Scientific scepticism, fundamentally, questions the veracity and epistemic value of claims not supported by scientific evidence. Motivated by the assumption that only the empirical investigation of reality leads to the truth, the scientific sceptics often maintain that only scientific method is best suited for this purpose. Claims found to be wanting in scientific evidence are considered untrue, and of little or no epistemic consequence. Using the analytical and critical methods, this paper interrogates this epistemic criterion of justification of scientific scepticism. It shows the inherent epistemic deficits in this criterion of the scientific sceptics, and how absolutizing its demands in such a manner as to undermine the veracity and epistemic significance of claims outside the mainstream discipline of science is not only to entrap themselves in many epistemic burdens, but also to sink under the unsavoury weight of criteriological egocentrism, detrimental to cognitive progress. As a credible alternative, this paper explores the epistemic fecundity of contextualistic pluralism – the pluralism of contextually underwritten cognitive positions – in truth and knowledge justification. It concludes with the relevance of this approach in epistemic justification as evident in its inclusive nature as well as its shift of the focus of philosophical thinking from identity to diversity in an interculturality society.  

Nature has aesthetics of its own, what can provoke the human mind into better recognizing the concept of beauty via mental perception. As such, human mind can interact with the nonverbal expressions of nature only to better his/her primitive aesthetic knowledge and reach a more novel recognition of aestheticism via the practice of interpretative deduction. This article has been the result of a series of discussions and dialogues between the authors on the nature of aesthetic geotouring and exploring the natural phenomena based on the Dialectical Method of Socrates and modelled after the Platonic dialogues. The outcome of this dialectic study brings to light the fact that touring in nature through providing the due opportunity for mental perception of aesthetic phenomena can provide a clearer definition of ‘beauty’ in its rich variety. Aesthetic search as such will culminate in forming a more illuminated mental concept of beauty in mind, what can influence human rationale for aesthetic judgment and enrich even more the texture of human aesthetic creation. Such aesthetico-interpretative endeavor might lead to a higher potential for creating more original works of literature and art and culminate in a better judgment about such aesthetic creations.        

Teacher factors encompass the teachers’ cognitive and affective characteristics that are likely to affect their instructional efficacy. Language teacher immunity is one of the affective factors that determines the teachers’ psychological well-being in their settings. The present study strived to itemize the factors in novice and experienced EFL instructors’ teacher immunity philosophy. To this end, first, the researchers used convenience sampling for selecting 62 EFL teachers including 38 novice and 24 experienced teachers at ten prominent language institutes in Tabriz (Iran) as the participants. Second, they conducted 30-minute interviews with the participants for determining the factors that influenced their TI philosophy using a researcher-developed semi-structured interview protocol. Lastly, they used thematic analysis in order to particularize the main factors in their teacher immunity philosophy. The findings of the study indicated that while the novice teachers considered external support as the main factor in their philosophy, the experienced teachers regarded their internal strength as the decisive factor that influenced their teacher immunity philosophy. The findings may have practical implications for teacher education courses in foreign language contexts.

Background: Observational learning is an effective pedagogical approach that can be used as a method to improve motor skill acquisition and also a useful instrument to promote psychological variables such as self-efficacy by emphasizing the motivational aspect. Although, little research is known about the model type and the observation conditions which will optimize learning. Aim: This study aimed to clarify the effect of using a combination of ideal model-observation and self-observation on self-efficacy and learning the forehand service of table tennis. Materials and Methods: Forty females were assigned to one of four experimental groups. All groups received the same instructions concerning how to perform the task, filled out a self-efficacy questionnaire, and then performed 10 pre-test trials. The acquisition phase included six sessions. The retention test was done 72 hours after the last acquisition session. Mixed ANOVA with repeated measures and Bonferroni post hoc tests were conducted, and one-way ANOVA was used to determine group significant differences. Results: The results indicated that observing the combination of skilled and learning models led to the highest self-efficacy for learning, compare with other experimental models. Also, significant learning of the task was shown in the acquisition phase in which the performance of all three experimental groups was clearly superior to the control group. Although in this phase there was no significant difference between the performances of two groups of combined skilled-learning and skilled. The results of the delayed retention test indicated that the performance scores of the combined skilled-learning group were significantly higher than the other three groups. Also, in this phase, the difference between the combined skilled self-observation and control or skilled groups was not significant. Conclusion: Demonstrating a skilled model is the most popular type of observational learning among the instructors and physical education teachers, it is suggested that adding a learning model to that leads to better performance and enhancing the self-efficacy.

Background : There are conflicting findings regarding the effect of various training modalities on the cardiovascular disease mechanisms induced by undesirable modifications in extracellular matrix (ECM) factors such as MMP-9 and TIMP-1. Aim: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of different training protocols on the MMP-9 and TIMP-1 gene expression in the myocardium of Wistar male rats. Materials and Methods: Forty-eight adult Wistar male rats (aged: 8 weeks) were randomly allocated into two control (Con8w/base, n=8; and Con16w/end control, n=8) and four training groups (MICT, n=8; PICT, n=8; HIIT, n=8; and MIST, n=8). The training protocols consisted of 8 weeks (5 days/week) of Moderate-Intensity, Continuous Training (MICT: 37 min running with 65% vVO 2 max), Moderate-Intensity, Swimming Training (MIST: 30 min free-swimming), Progressive-Intensity, Continuous Training (PICT: 28 min running with a progressive increase in the incline of the treadmill by 2% per week), and High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT: four running bouts 4 min with 90 to 100% vVO 2 max + 3 min with 50-65% vVO 2 max). Myocardial samples were isolated 24 hours after the last training session. Gene expression was determined using the real-time PCR method. All data (M±SD) were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and Tukey's post-hoc tests at α ≤0.05. Results : There were significant differences between MMP-9 and TIMP-1 expression in the animals myocardium after different exercise training protocols ( P <0.01). The lowest and highest MMP-9/TIMP-1 ratios were in the HIIT and MICT protocols, respectively. Conclusion: According to our findings, the HIIT protocol may play a more influential role in enhancing myocardial ECM-remodeling and fibrosis indicators during lifespan than the other exercise protocols.

Background : Cold sprays (CS) are widely used in sport competitions as an effective, simple, and high available treatment. Aim: The aim of present study was to investigate immediate and longtime effects of CS application onto the knee joint anterior-medial area of dominant leg on timing and activation pattern of selected muscles during one-leg landing. Materials and Methods: Thirty (15 control and 15 experimental) able-bodied male participated in this study. Electromyography activity of vastus medialis, rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, biceps femoris, semiendineus and medial gastrocnemius were recorded during one-leg landing tests (with dominant leg) for each of three conditions including before CS application (pre-test), immediately after (post-test 1), and 20 min later (post-test 2). To determine the effect of group and time on each dependent variable, three independent 2×2 multivariate repeated measures analyses of variance were performed (α < 0.05). Results : The results showed following trends rather than significant differences: the muscles in the experimental group had lower activity level and later onset immediately after CS application compared to before application, and they had higher activity level and sooner onset after 20 min from removing CScompared to immediate application. No significant interaction was found for normalized peak activation and time to peak activation ( P > 0.05). However, decrease in skin temperature after cold spray application was observed. Conclusion : These results show short-time cold application, which is so practical after many injuries for returning athletes to sport environment, may not predispose individuals to risk of re-injury or failed landing mechanism.