The Death of Art evaluates the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno's ideas on music, visual arts, and literature and their relevance to today's mass culture. This book is a comprehensive and clear overview of Adorno's cultural theories and their impact.

Religion is an important cultural and individual difference variable. Yet, despite its obvious importance in consumers’ lives, religion in the United States has been under-researched. This study addresses that gap in the literature and investigates the influence of consumer religion in the buyer–seller dyad. Specifically, this study examines the influence of consumer religious commitment and a Christian consumer’s conservative beliefs in the United States on store loyalty when retailers make business decisions which are potentially reli- gious objectionable. This study uses (...) structural equation modeling and applies Anderson and Gerbing’s :411–423, 1988 ) two-step approach to exam- ine data obtained from a national sample of 531 consumers. The results from this study suggest that consumers evaluate seller’s actions and form ethical judgments. These judgments are a major explanatory variable in consumer store loyalty intentions. (shrink)

Festschrift volume in honour of Mohd. Sabir Hussain, b. 1935.

Amit Sharma, Rajesh Ramanathan, Marc Posner, Robert A Fisher Hume-Lee Transplant Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA: Pediatric kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment for children with end-stage renal disease. The most common indications for transplantation in children are renal developmental anomalies, obstructive uropathy, and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. Living donor kidney transplants are often performed pre-emptively and offer excellent graft function. Policy changes in deceased-donor kidney allocation have increased the proportion of such transplants in pediatric recipients. Adequate pretransplant (...) workup along with evaluation of urologic abnormalities is imperative in achieving good outcomes. Overall, patient and graft outcomes after kidney transplantation have improved, with five-year deceased donor and living donor graft survivals of 78.8% and 84.3%, respectively. Improvements in induction and maintenance immunosuppression have contributed to the gradual improvement in outcomes. Unique challenges in pediatric recipients include increased graft thrombosis, adverse growth, and abnormal development relating to immunosuppression, increased rejection due to nonadherence, increased susceptibility to opportunistic infections, and post-transplant malignancy. This review focuses on the current practices and outcomes in pediatric kidney transplantation in North America. We discuss the indications for transplantation, the evaluation process, some key surgical and immunologic considerations, and the common risk factors for graft dysfunction. Keywords: pediatric kidney transplantation, end-stage renal disease, dialysis, organ donors, immunosuppression. (shrink)

It Is A 2 Volume Set. Volume I: Covers History, Archaeology And Jaina Architecture, Jain Tradition Of Indo-Aryan Lnguage And Literature And Jaina Religion And Its Tenets. Vol. Ii: Covers Jaina Thought In Modern Science, Shiaman Traditions And Commandrates Dr. Hira Lal Jain. Some Articles In English And Some In Hindi.

Festschrift honoring Daya Krishna, b. 1924, professor of philosophy; comprises contributed articles.

The impact of multichannel electronic media is assuming a varied effect on the India population as there is a vast cultural and social diversity in the country. While metropolitans had already been influenced by Western culture, the suburbs and rural areas were relatively free from it. This segment of Indian society, ingrained with orthodox values, was not ready for the invasion by Western culture, which is being propa gated by the multichannel electronic media.

Since the very emergence of the syncretic, sentient human species, it has been handicapped by numerous incipient, continuing and new limitations. Thus, we have not yet quite escaped the overwhelming tyranny of biological evolution with its constraining strait jacket of natural selection. At this threshold of knowledge and awareness, the mantle falls on the Homo sapiens of planet Earth to at least dream of, and formulate prescriptions for Utopias without the inane internecine conflicts, and physical as well as spiritual carnages (...) which continue unabated from the dawn of history to date, and which could now well aggravate towards inexorable total extinction. Channelisation of accumulated, collective wisdom, scienctific insights and technological skills towards universal humanistic rationality, emanicpation, and empowerment must be the primary edict of humankind. An equation incorporating Life, the human species, and various variables affecting these, is presented as a prescription for continuance and flowering of Life in the Universe. (shrink)

The genesis of God in human culture seems to be undeniably linked to fear of uncontrollable forces of Nature, and uncertanitity of individual destiny, which have been innate to the human ethos ever since the very emergence of modern man. Two opposite concepts of poly and monotheism, exemplified by Hinduism and Christianity, are analysed. Search for enduring and universal values and truisms through history of the two systems is deployed to identify commonalities. How far is plurality fissiparous, and partisan singularity (...) unifying, is also compared. It is argued that progressive transcension must form the goal of all spiritual systems irrespective of regional or ethnic backrounds. Realities of the one world concept dictated by the inescapable Space ship Earth paradigm unequivocally lead to one species, one people, and one kind, hosowever anamolous the current trends. This inevitability must necessarily entail a unifying, single ethicality, with or without notion of Godhead. In essence, all spirituality stems from the need for individual or personal salvation and satisfaction. Group or species obligations come next, although it may be expected that with further human evolution these may supersede the selfish propensities predominant hitherto. It is emphasized that the evolutionarily transcendent human must suscribe to a universal ethical force which must necessarily belong to the genre of a singularity embracing the whole human kind. This could be called UNIETHICS, the epithet denoting the universal, the unitary and the unifying. Global consensus are tentatively emerging in several area, dictated by survival needs. Inviolable edicts of the now imperative UES or Uniethics have been spelled out, as also desiderata for achieving them. (shrink)

Arvind Sharma seeks to place this debate with particular reference to the work of such writers as William James, F.R. Tennant, Paul Tillich, J.H. Randall, R.B. Braithwaite, D.Z. Phillips, R.M. Harre, Basil Mitchell, John Hick, W.A. Christian, and W.C. Smith, in the Buddhist context.