On the compatibility of Vedanta philosophy with Marxism; a Marxist interpretation.

Foreign language learning anxiety has been the target of many studies in the field of applied linguistics, but, with the dynamics turn in the field, attempts have been recently made to uncover the dynamics of anxiety English as a foreign language learners go through, especially within the moments of their conversational interactions. Within these interactions, dynamics of anxiety might emerge in different patterns under the influence of the status of the participants’ interlocutors and their familiarity with them. This study explores (...) the dynamics of EFL learners’ anxiety while interacting with different interlocutors from an idiodynamic perspective. The participants of this case study were two female freshman students, taking a speaking and listening university course, who were interviewed by four interlocutors with different status and level of familiarity. Following an idiodynamic method, they self-rated their anxiety fluctuations under the influence of each interlocutor throughout each conversation followed by stimulated recall interviews regarding the explanations of the changes in their anxiety during the conversations. The results showed both change and stability in the participants’ anxiety under the influence of the interlocutors’ familiarity with the participants and their status as well their verbal and nonverbal feedback. The explanation of these changes based on the main properties of complex dynamic system theory is discussed. (shrink)

This qualitative study describes ethical challenges faced by Iranian nurses in the process of pain management in surgical units. To address this issue, semistructured interviews were conducted with 26 nurses working in surgery units in three large university hospitals in Tehran. An analysis of the transcripts revealed three main categories: institutional limitations; nurses' proximity to and involvement with pain and suffering; and nurses' fallibility. Specific themes identified within the categories were: insufficient resources, medical hierarchy; difficulties with believing patients' complaints regarding (...) pain and suffering; and experiencing the consequences of poor judgments. Our findings lead us to conclude that, as nurses are much closer to patients' pain and suffering than other health professionals, being aware of their ethical problems, and being able to reflect on them and discuss and learn from them, will reduce the burden of the ethical challenges faced. The findings will help nurses in other countries to devise suitable ways to reduce the ethical burdens they bear in their daily practice. (shrink)

This article presents normative information for the Defining Issue Test Version 2 (DIT2) schema scores and most common summary scores based on secondary data from the last 10 years DIT2 database (N = 73740, Mage = 23.11, SD = 7.87, the age range in year = 12–95) maintained by the University of Alabama’s Center for the Study of Ethical Development from 2011 to 2020. More specifically, the study provides (1) norms by education; (2) norms by gender and education; and (3) (...) norms by gender and age for the DIT2. The norms indicate a general but not consistent trend that moral reasoning scores increase by education level. Additionally, the Personal Interest and Maintain Norms scores are higher for males than females for all education levels and age groups while Postconventional, N2, and Type indicator scores are higher for females than males for all education levels and age groups. (shrink)

Respect for human dignity is a basic and crucial component of nursing care. Illness with restricted physical ability and being confined to bed can compromise the dignity of patients. The views of adolescents regarding dignity in care have not previously been researched. This article details a descriptive-analytic study in which survey data was collected from all nurses and compared with a convenience sample of 180 hospitalized adolescents in two hospitals in Iran. The data was analyzed with SPSS software. A significant (...) difference between nurses and hospitalized ill adolescents’ perceptions was identified in relation to: understanding the importance of privacy (p < 0.001); observance of privacy (p < 0.001); importance of interaction between nurses and patients (p = 0.019); and the observance of interaction between nurses and patients (p < 0.001). Attention to adolescents’ views about dignity can help nurses to improve quality of care for this group. (shrink)

Margaret Atwood’s novels are usually celebrated for their blunt feminism. However, in Moral Disorder—a series of interconnected stories that forms a novel—feminist concerns are replaced with worries about territory and survival. The protagonist is an insider whose sole concern is to survive and to protect her territory. The confrontation between the narrator as the insider and the outsiders does not occur directly but could be inferred by her cruelty toward other characters and her violence against the animals under her care. (...) The present study argues that this cruelty, which abounds in the novel, could be viewed as a substitute for violence against the outsiders. The narrator’s gaze at the Indian boy who entered the protagonist’s territory manifests a garrison mentality. The frequent references to axes in the novel are compared to the use of axes in “Wilderness Tips,” a short story by Atwood in which axes also have a metaphoric significance. The beheading and dismemberment of domestic animals could be the punishment awaiting the intruder. The novel establishes a division between the insider/outsider, here/there, self/other and civilized/barbaric to call for action and awareness about the importance of protecting one’s territory. (shrink)

From the very beginning of civilization, children are made the subject matter of many social and clinical researches. Due to the vulnerabilities of physical frailty and mental immaturity, children’s interests and rights need to be protected from the risks associated with any kind of research. Recently, there has been increased global concern towards the involvement of children in research for the protection of their rights by the ethical research practice. It emphasizes upon the ongoing nature of ethical considerations that ethical (...) issues need to be considered throughout the research process and even the post research ethical issues are equally significant. The study explores some of the major ethical issues that arise in research involving children during and after the research in terms of the best interests of the children.Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics 2015 Vol.6 (1): 6-10. (shrink)

Reform of child justice system has started with enactment of the Children Act 2013 in Bangladesh. The Act adopted a number of institutional setup for child friendly justice i.e. child help desks in the police station, separate children’s court, child development centres, national child welfare board etc. These all are inter-linked and the responsibilities of concerned authorities have been focused in the law. In practice, most of the children are deprived from their fair justice in different phases i.e. police arrest, (...) prosecution, court hearing and correctional treatment as there are lack of professional ethics of concerned personnel. Ethical approach, skill and knowledge of personnel are major challenges for treatment of offender children. Thus code of ethics are important for professionals to provide value-based justice for the best interest of the children. The study focuses on the legal and ethical responsibility towards child justice system in the country to protect child rights and their childhood. (shrink)

This book offers a unique and insightful analysis of Western and Middle Eastern concepts of dignity and illustrates them with examples of everyday life. Dignity in the 21st Century - Middle East and West is unique and insightful for a range of reasons. First, the book is co-authored by scholars from two different cultures (Middle East and West). As a result, the interpretations of dignity covered are broader than those in most Western publications. Second, the ambition of the book is (...) to use examples from everyday life and fiction to debate a range of dignity interpretations supplemented by philosophical and theological theories. Thus, the book is designed to be accessible to a general readership, which is further facilitated because it is published with full open access. Third, the book does not defend one superior theory of dignity, but instead presents six Western approaches and one based on the Koran and then asks whether a common essence can be detected. -/- The answer to the question whether a common essence can be detected between the Koranic interpretation of dignity and the main Western theories (virtue, Kant) is YES. The essence can be seen in dignity as a sense of self-worth, which persons have a duty to develop and respect in themselves and a duty to protect in others. The book ends with two recommendations. First, given the 7 concepts of dignity introduced in the book, meaningful dialogue can only be achieved if conversation partners clarify which variation they are using. Second, future collaborations between philosophers and psychologists might be helpful in moving theoretical knowledge on dignity as a sense of self-worth into practical action. The “scourges” of a sense of self-worth and dignity are identified by psychologists as violence, humiliation, disregard and embarrassment. To know more about how these can be avoided from psychologists, is helpful when protecting a sense of self-worth in others. (shrink)

And while globalisation has ushered in many benefits for companies and consumers alike, this book posits that it is the fierce competition of global market-places which drives the largely unopposed belief that firms exist solely to enhance ...

The impact of Online Social Networks on human lives is foreseen to be very large with unprecedented amount of data and users. OSN users share their ideas, photos, daily life events, feelings and news. Since OSNs’ security and privacy challenges are more potential than ever before, it is necessary to enhance the protection and filtering approaches of OSNs contents. This paper explores OSNs’ threats and challenges, and categorize them into: account-based, URL-based and content-based threats. In addition, we analyze the existing (...) protection methods and highlight their limitations and weaknesses. Based on that, we propose a comprehensive, user-level, proactive and real-time OSNs’ protection system, called Hybrid Real-time Social Networks Protector. HRSP has three components; a user-level security protocol and two classification models. The protocol defines a structure for OSN’s cryptographic services, including encryption, access control and users’ authentication. The classification models employ machine learning, black lists, white lists and users’ feedback, in order to classify URLs into: Benign, Risk and Inappropriate classes, and contents into: Benign, Hate speech and Inappropriate classes. We constructed two data sets of 150,000 URLs and 22,000 tweets to build and test the two classification models. Results show an overall accuracy of 93.2% for the URL model and 84.4% for the content model, while the protocol implementation produces compatible size and time overhead. The components of HRSP are integrated and have compatible design with OSN platforms. (shrink)

Main Response Topics ? Introduction ? Open display and public evaluation ? Publicity versus patient privacy ? Facial tissue donation ? Validity of Louisville Instrument for Risk Acceptance ? Patients' understanding of risk ? Face versus hand transplantation ? Rejection rates/risks ? Patient compliance ? Exit strategy ? Functional recovery ? Societietal implications ? Psychological implications ? Conclusion: Uncertainty likely to persist.

Possible effects of interaction (cross-talk) between signaling pathways is studied in a system of Reaction–Diffusion (RD) equations. Furthermore, the relevance of spontaneous neurite symmetry breaking and Turing instability has been examined through numerical simulations. The interaction between Retinoic Acid (RA) and Notch signaling pathways is considered as a perturbation to RD system of axon-forming potential for N2a neuroblastoma cells. The present work suggests that large increases to the level of RA–Notch interaction can possibly have substantial impacts on neurite outgrowth and (...) on the process of axon formation. This can be observed by the numerical study of the homogeneous system showing that in the absence of RA–Notch interaction the unperturbed homogeneous system may exhibit different saddle-node bifurcations that are robust under small perturbations by low levels of RA–Notch interactions, while large increases in the level of RA–Notch interaction result in a number of transitions of saddle-node bifurcations into Hopf bifurcations. It is speculated that near a Hopf bifurcation, the regulations between the positive and negative feedbacks change in such a way that spontaneous symmetry breaking takes place only when transport of activated Notch protein takes place at a faster rate. (shrink)

Background:Despite their negative consequences, evidence shows that futile medical treatments are still being provided, particularly to terminally ill patients. Uncovering the reasons behind providing such treatments in different religious and sociocultural contexts can create a better understanding of medical futility and help manage it effectively.Research objectives:This study was undertaken to explore Iranian nurses’ and physicians’ perceptions of the reasons behind providing futile medical treatments.Research design:This was a qualitative exploratory study. Study data were gathered through conducting in-depth semi-structured personal interviews and (...) analyzed using the conventional content analysis method.Participants and research context:Twenty-one nurses and nine medical specialists were recruited purposively from four teaching hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences.Ethical considerations:This study was approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Research Center and the Research Ethics Committee of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All participants gave informed consent for the research and that their anonymity was preserved.Findings:The main theme of the study was “having an obligation to provide medical treatments despite knowing their futility.” This theme consisted of three main categories including patients’ and family members’ request for continuing life-sustaining treatments, healthcare professionals’ personal motives, and organizational atmosphere and structure.Discussion and conclusion:Different personal and organizational factors contribute to providing futile medical treatments. Promoting the structure and the function of hospital ethics committees, establishing and developing home care facilities, increasing the number of palliative care centers and hospices, and educating healthcare professionals, patients, and family members about the services and the benefits of such centers can facilitate making wise decisions about continuing or discontinuing treatments which have been labeled as futile. (shrink)

Background The emerging working conditions triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic have imposed numerous ethical challenges on the nurses, which, in turn, can negatively impact the nurses’ physical and mental health, and thus their work performance through intensifying negative emotions and psychological pressures. Aim The purpose of this study was to highlight the nurses’ perceptions of the ethical challenges that they faced regarding their self-care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research design A qualitative, descriptive study with a content analysis approach. Participants and (...) research context The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 19 nurses working in the COVID-19 wards of two university-affiliated hospitals. These nurses were selected using a purposive sampling method and the data were analyzed using a content analysis approach. Ethical considerations The study was approved by the TUMS Research Council Ethics Committee under the code: IR.TUMS.VCR.REC.1399.594. In addition, it is based on the participants’ informed consent and confidentiality. Findings Two themes and five sub-themes were identified, including ethical conflicts (the conflict between self-care and comprehensive patient care, prioritization of life, and inadequate care) and inequalities (intra- and inter-professional inequalities). Conclusion The findings demonstrated that the nurses’ care is a prerequisite for the patients’ care. Considering that the ethical challenges faced by nurses are related to unacceptable working conditions, organizational support, and lack of access to facilities such as personal protective equipment, it seems essential to support nurses and provide adequate working conditions to provide patients with quality care. (shrink)

BackgroundProfessional ethics refers to the use of logical and consistent communication, knowledge, clinical skills, emotions and values in nursing practice. This study aimed to explore and describe factors that affect professional ethics in nursing practice in Iran.MethodsThis qualitative study was conducted using conventional content analysis approach. Thirty nurses with at least 5 years of experience participated in the study; they were selected using purposive sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis.ResultsAfter encoding and classifying the data, (...) five major categories were identified: individual character and responsibility, communication challenges, organizational preconditions, support systems, educational and cultural development.ConclusionsAwareness of professional ethics and its contributing factors could help nurses and healthcare professionals provide better services for patients. At the same time, such understanding would be valuable for educational administrators for effective planning and management. (shrink)

Transplantation continues to push the frontiers of medicine into domains that summon forth troublesome ethical questions. Looming on the frontier today is human facial transplantation. We develop criteria that, we maintain, must be satisfied in order to ethically undertake this as-yet-untried transplant procedure. We draw on the criteria advanced by Dr. Francis Moore in the late 1980s for introducing innovative procedures in transplant surgery. In addition to these we also insist that human face transplantation must meet all the ethical requirements (...) usually applied to health care research. We summarize the achievements of transplant surgery to date, focusing in particular on the safety and efficacy of immunosuppressive medications. We also emphasize the importance of risk/benefit assessments that take into account the physical, aesthetic, psychological, and social dimensions of facial disfiguration, reconstruction, and transplantation. Finally, we maintain that the time has come to move facial transplantation research into the clinical phase. (shrink)

Given the adverse consequences of destructive leadership at work, we examine leader favoritism prevalent in contemporary organizations. Our study builds on previous research on unethical leadership behaviors and extends social exchange theory by assessing whether leader favoritism contributes to employee psychological withdrawal behavior at work and whether perceived unfairness explains this link, addressing a gap in the literature on this topic. In addition, we investigate the condition of perceived employability to seek whether the influence of perceived unfairness due to leader (...) favoritism on psychological withdrawal behavior at work is strengthened when employees think they can secure alternative employment elsewhere. The study utilizes a two-wave data collection approach to gather responses from 206 front end customer service employees working in the hospitality and tourism firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study findings offer empirical support for the proposed mediated moderation model. Specifically, the results demonstrate that leader favoritism directly, indirectly (via perceived unfairness), and positively influence employee withdrawal behaviors. This influence is stronger among employees who believe they can easily find alternative employment options. Our findings highlight the relevance of incorporating social exchange theory into the unethical leadership behaviors and withdrawal behaviors literature and provide valuable insights for managers into how to mitigate the practice of leader favoritism because of its adverse consequences on employees' work attitudes and behavior. (shrink)

In _Susceptible to the Sacred_, Bani Shorter, a well-known Jungian analyst, examines the psychological experience of ritual in contemporary life and how this promotes awareness of the individual's natural potential. Basing her book on live material, she investigates, with great sensitivity, how people perceive the sacred and use ritual in their search for purpose, motivation and transformation.

Background:Personal values influence nursing students’ development of professional values, which affect professional outcomes, and how nursing students react to different situations. Personal values can be shaped by different factors, including culture, gender, and age.Aims:To explore personal values held by nursing students, and to verify if and how gender and year of study affect nursing students’ personal values.Research design:A multicenter, cross-sectional study was used.Participants and research context:The whole population of nursing undergraduate students available at the time was recruited from eight centers (...) of two Universities, composing a sample of 947 students. Demographic data were collected and it was administered the Portrait Values Questionnaire.Ethical considerations:Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Boards of the University of the participating centers.Findings:The study sample was mainly composed of young (92.6%, n = 877), female (77.3%, n = 732), Italian (95.8%, n = 907), and unmarried (98.6%, n = 934) nursing students. The most important value for nursing students, consistently through the years of nursing school, was Self-transcendence, which has the motivational emphasis on helping others and selflessness. Then, we found that male students had higher levels of Power (p < 0.001) and Achievement (p = 0.031), while female students outscored male students in Benevolence (p = 0.005) and Security (p = 0.006). Year of study showed no statistically significant difference.Discussion:Nursing students express high levels in hetero-directed values. Male nursing students, although they choose a stereotypically feminine profession, outscored females in stereotypical masculine values such as dominance and success. This is the first study that describes the personal value profile of undergraduate nursing students, according to the Theory of Basic Human Values, and it is a starting point for future research.Conclusion:Nursing educators might want to consider the findings from this study while guiding students in developing awareness for their personal values. (shrink)

Background Professional misconduct undermines safe and quality care; however, little is known about its nature and influential factors. Aim This study aimed to explain the factors influencing professional misconduct in nurses. Research Design This qualitative study was conducted using the conventional content analysis method. Participants and Research Context Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 19 nurses working in the hospital selected through a purposeful method and analyzed by Graneheim and Lundman approach. Ethical Considerations The ethics committee of Tehran University (...) of Medical Sciences approved this study with the ethics code IR.TUMS.FNM.REC.1400.187. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. Participants were assured of confidentiality. Findings Factors influencing professional misconduct by nurses were categorized into three main categories: human factors (nurses’ professional characteristics, personal characteristics of nurses and patient/companion, patient’s clinical condition), procedural factors (procedural conditions, possibility of proving misconduct), and organizational factors (recruitment process, conditions of resources, managing misconduct, bureaucracy, and ward characteristics). Conclusion This study assists in explaining the factors influencing professional misconduct by nurses. Therefore this study’s results can help managers and planners develop interventions to prevent and correct factors that contribute to misconduct and strengthen factors that prevent misconduct in order to ensure quality and safe patient care. (shrink)

Background Decision making regarding the treatment of neonates with poor prognoses is difficult for healthcare staff working in the neonatal intensive care unit. This study aimed to investigate the attitudes of physicians and nurses about the value of life and ethical decision making when encountering neonates with poor prognosis in the NICU. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in five NICUs of five hospitals in Tehran city, Iran. The attitudes of 144 pediatricians, gynecologists and nurses were assessed using the questionnaire (...) of attitude toward the value of life and agreement on intensive care management based on three hypothetical case scenarios of neonates with poor prognosis. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics via the SPSS software. Results The negative agreement on the no initiation of intensive care measures and the discontinuation of resuscitation in neonates with poor prognosis was more than the positive agreement. Also, various factors influenced the participants’ decision making for the provision of care to neonates. Regarding the case scenarios, the participants agreed on the provision of aggressive, conservative, and palliative care with various frequencies. This study confirms the importance of healthcare providers’ perspectives and their impacts on ethical decision making. The participants favored the value or sacredness of life and agreed on the use of all therapeutic measures for saving the lives of neonates with poor prognosis. Conclusion More studies are required to improve our understandings of factors influencing ethical decision making by healthcare providers when encountering neonates with poor prognosis in NICUs. (shrink)

The investigation of users' satisfactions and intentions in using the services provided by commercial banks needs to be focused on internet banking, since this is the widely used banking service. This paper analyzed the satisfactions and behavioral intentions of Malaysian customers in using Internet Banking, applying the Information System Success Model by the integration of adoption and application technology theory. Some criteria, which were taken into consideration, are as follows: perceived Risk, facilitating Conditions, Price, Performance expectancy, Information Quality, Service Quality, (...) and System Quality. These aspects are important to measure customers' satisfaction and behavior toward Internet and Online Banking. A sample of 362 valid responses, consisting of Malaysian customers who used E-Banking, was used for the purpose of data collection. The relationship between customers' satisfaction and factors influencing their contentment in using Online Banking was investigated. In order to evaluate this, a model called “Structural Equation Model ” was developed and used. Findings showed that most of the Online Banking users were satisfied with the system. Hence, it proves that Online Banking System was generally accepted in the Malaysian community. However, this current research is solely focused on the Malaysian community. Therefore, it may provide the necessary grounds for the study of internet banking accreditation, some useful information for the practitioners, policy makers, and the researchers to improve the system of online banking in Malaysia only. For a future study, a more well-structured research, which can accommodate the global need, would be required. (shrink)

Currently, most studies are moving towards Big Data Analytics because they are important in research, and this is becoming increasingly important as Internet and Web 2.0 technologies become increasingly popular and how to handle this massive data. Moreover, this proliferation of the Internet and social media has revolutionized the search process. With this Big Data of data generated by users using social media or electronic platforms, the use of these details and daily activities is integrated with tools designed for analysis. (...) The topic of analyzing big social media will be discussed and an intensive explanation will be given to the topic of Big Data. This paper compares Big Data analysis techniques using several methods of analysis, the first technique using neural networks and the second technique using data clustering. The purpose of this study is to infer the ages that use social media and what are their interests in writing and in the end, who are the most widely used social media males or females. (shrink)

Biotechnology is the use of living systems and organisms to develop or make products, or any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives to make or modify products or processes for specific use. Biotechnology is a constantly evolving field of modern science. New tools and products developed by biotechnologists are useful in research, agriculture, industry and healthcare. Although it has many benefits including lowering our environmental footprint, and helping in diagnosis and treatment of diseases, it comes with (...) its all-possible disadvantages. The four main societal concerns revolve around are ethical, safety, bioterrorism and environmental issues. This paper aims to describe those societal concerns raised by applications of biotechnology and possible regulations related to biotech innovations and policy implementation. (shrink)

El artículo analiza la cuestión sobre la predicción científica desde algunas categorías de la epistemología de la gerencia en contextos disruptivos. La historia de las ciencias sociales muestra que la predicción ha sido siempre su problema central, por lo que en este trabajo presentamos una interpretación de las predicciones científicas en clave filosófica y epistemológica respecto de entornos organizacionales inciertos. Para ello se analiza de forma particular, mediante metodología fenomenológico-hermenéutica (Heidegger, 2002; 2022; Villalobos, 2017),la teoría de la impredictibilidad de Macintyre (...) (1985), desde sus cuatro perspectivas de impredicción, en el marco de la llamada sociedad digital; esta se describe como contexto caótico y complejo, considerando las “redes digitales”, las cuales implican desafíos de futuro, según nuestra interpretación. La realidad estudiada se ejemplifica desde lo que se ha denominado Entornos BANI, en especial como desafío para las organizaciones, caracterizándose como sistemas inestables: son frágiles, impregnados de temores, se manifiestan en ambientes desconocidos y muchas veces incomprensibles; ello se debe a la abundante información que reciben del contexto, trayendo como consecuencia una cierta paralización de la acción en virtud de las amenazas, debido, además, a los impactos que recibe de entornos disruptores producto de las innovaciones tecnológicas. Se concluye que los sistemas de innovación que emergen como respuesta a estos sistemas caóticos que caracteriza a los Entornos BANI, pueden asumir criterios de interpretación derivados de la epistemología de la complejidad, y de la llamada Sistemología Interpretativa, herramientas con las cuales se pueden aliviar las tensiones internas y externas de las organizaciones frente al fenómeno sistémico descrito. (shrink)