Biobanks and biospecimen collections are becoming a primary means of delivering personalized diagnostics and tailoring individualized therapeutics. This shift towards precision medicine requires interactions among a variety of stakeholders, including the public, patients, healthcare providers, government, and donors. Very few studies have investigated the role of healthcare students in biobanking and biospecimen donations. The main aims of this study were to evaluate the knowledge of senior healthcare students about biobanks and to assess the students’ willingness to donate biospecimens and the (...) factors influencing their attitudes. A cross-sectional study was conducted among senior healthcare students at King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. The data were obtained using a self-administered questionnaire in English. In addition to the respondents’ biographical data section, the questionnaire assessed the respondents’ general knowledge about biobanking, the factors influencing their willingness to donate biospecimens to biobanks and their general attitudes towards biomedical research. A total of 597 senior healthcare students were included in the study. The general knowledge score was 3.2 out of 7. Only approximately 44% and 27% of students were aware of the terms “Human Genome Project” and “biobank,” respectively. The majority of the students were willing to donate biospecimens to biobanks. Multiple factors were significantly associated with their willingness to donate, including their perceived general health, past experience with both tissue testing and tissue donation, biobanking knowledge score and biomedical research attitude score. The main reasons for students’ willingness to donate were advancement of medical research and societal benefits, whereas misuse of biospecimens and confidentiality breaches were the main reasons for a reluctance to donate. Despite their strong willingness to donate biospecimens, students exhibited a notable lack of knowledge about biobanking and the HGP. To expedite the transition towards PM, it is highly recommended to enhance healthcare curricula by including more educational and awareness programmes to familiarize students with OMICs technologies in addition to the scope of research and clinical applications. (shrink)

Organized by the Mind and Life Institute, this discussion addresses some of the most troublesome questions that have driven a wedge between Western science and religion. Where Buddhism Meets Neuroscience resulted from meetings of the Dalai Lama and a group of eminent neuroscientists and psychiatrists. Is the mind an ephemeral side effect of the brain's physical processes? Are there forms of consciousness so subtle that science has not yet identified them? How does consciousness happen? The Dalai Lama's incisive, (...) open-minded approach both challenges and offers inspiration to Western scientists. The book consists primarily of dialogue and intense, frank conversations between the Dalai Lama and participants. Questions of perception, dualism, categories of consciousness, memory, dreams, the nature of mental illness, and the mind during and after death are all explored. (shrink)

The second volume in the Dalai Lama’s definitive and comprehensive series on the stages of the Buddhist path, The Library of Wisdom and Compassion. Volume 1, Approaching the Buddhist Path, contained introductory material that set the context for Buddhist practice. This second volume, The Foundation of Buddhist Practice, contains the important teachings that will help us establish a flourishing Dharma practice. The Foundation of Buddhist Practice begins with the four seals shared by all Buddhist philosophies, and moves on to (...) an explanation of the reliable cognition that allows us to evaluate the veracity of the Buddha’s teachings. The book provides many other essential Buddhist teachings, including: the relationship of a spiritual mentor and student, clarifying misunderstandings about this topic and showing how to properly rely on a spiritual mentor in a healthy, appropriate, and beneficial manner; how to structure a meditation session; dying and rebirth, unpacking the often difficult-to-understand topic of multiple lives and explaining how to prepare for death and aid someone who is dying; a fruitful explanation of karma and its results; and much more. His Holiness’s illumination of key Buddhist ideas will support Western and contemporary Asian students in engaging with this rich tradition. (shrink)

La ética ambiental se enfoca en la responsabilidad humana hacia el entorno, especialmente debido al abuso de los recursos naturales en la actualidad. Esta relación ha causado impactos graves en el medio ambiente y en la vida humana, señalando la necesidad de un cambio genuino y práctico para que la humanidad asuma su responsabilidad en la preservación del entorno. Al considerar los puntos de vista teológicofilosóficos presentados por el papa Francisco y la propuesta ética de Hans Jonas para la era (...) tecnológica, se busca en este estudio fusionar ambas ideas para lograr que fomenten la biodiversidad. Esto implica reconocer el papel del ser humano como administrador responsable, promoviendo una ética que oriente hacia el futuro, manteniendo el respeto por la posición del ser humano como guardián del ecosistema y su diversidad biológica. (shrink)

For the Dalai Lama it is kindness that makes the world go round. Kindness at the heart of human nature, and it is kindness that is the essential component to developing healthy bodies, minds, and spirits. It is the glue that holds society together. Its absence results in isolation, dislocation, and suffering."--back cover.

This eloquent, impassioned manifesto is possibly the most important message the Dalai Lama can give us about the future of our world. It's his rallying cry, full of solutions for our chaotic, aggressive, divided times: no less than a call for revolution. Are we ready to hear it? Are we ready to act?"--Publisher annotation.

Simple and accessible wisdom from His Holiness the Dalai Lama on how we stay in the moment in the midst of the demands and stresses of everyday life. Be Here includes discussions of the Buddhist concepts of attachment, emptiness, compassion, love, and resentment and how our sense of the past and the future affect our ability to be in the present. Many Buddhist practices and meditations focus on "being in the present moment." But what does that really mean? What (...) does it mean to be here now? Attachment. Emptiness. Compassion. You will hear the Dalai Lama present these three words again and again in this book of wisdom designed to move us toward the goal of "being here." He speaks of attachment - to things, to people, to memory, to feelings of anger and resentment, to future goals. Being attached means we are not here now; we are living through wherever our attachment takes us. Does emptiness mean we let go of everything? Even the present thoughts in our minds? How does understanding emptiness help us to be here now? The Dalai Lama is clear: if we are not educated about past history and if we have no sense of the future, then how can be possibly have a "present"? When we are here, we can practice compassion in the present moment and focus on social justice now. When we are here, we are no longer attached to our past, no longer stressed about the future, no longer tethered to suffering. Being here means we find happiness, peace, and the fullness of life. (shrink)

Herbert Marcuse examined the subjective and material conditions of radical social change and developed the "Great Refusal," a radical concept of "the protest against that which is." The editors and contributors to the exciting new volume The Great Refusal provide an analysis of contemporary social movements around the world with particular reference to Marcuse's revolutionary concept. The book also engages-and puts Marcuse in critical dialogue with-major theorists including Slavoj Žižek and Michel Foucault, among others. The chapters in this book analyze (...) different elements and locations of the contemporary wave of struggle, drawing on the work and vision of Marcuse in order to reveal, with a historical perspective, the present moment of resistance. Essays seek to understand recent uprisings-such as the Zapatistas in Mexico, the Arab Spring, and the Occupy movement-in the context of Marcuse's powerful conceptual apparatus. The Great Refusal also charts contemporary social movements against global warming, mass incarceration, police brutality, white supremacy, militarization, technological development, and more, to provide insights that advance our understanding of resistance today. Contributors include: Kevin B. Anderson, Stanley Aronowitz, Joan Braune, Jenny Chan, Angela Y. Davis, Arnold L. Farr, Andrew Feenberg, Michael Forman, Christian Fuchs, Stefan Gandler, Christian Garland, Toorjo Ghose, Imaculada Kangussu, George Katsiaficas, Douglas Kellner, Sarah Lynn Kleeb, Filip Kovacevic, Lauren Langman, Heather Love, Peter Marcuse, Martin J. Beck Matuštík, Russell Rockwell, AK Thompson, Marcelo Vieta, and the editors. (shrink)

Articles on Islamic philosophy and science.

In the real world, exploitation exists. In the real world, there is a huge and unjust gap between rich and poor. The question, from a Buddhist perspective, is how should we deal with inequality and social injustice? His Holiness the Dalai Lama teaches that it is wrong for a spiritual person to remain indifferent; we must struggle to solve these problems. These problems are brought to our consciousness because they anger us, and this little book teaches us how to (...) deal with that anger. (shrink)

Healing Emotions is the record of an extraordinary series of encounters between the Dalai Lama and prominent Western psychologists, physicians, and meditation teachers that sheds new light on the mind-body connection. Edited by Pulitzer Prize nominee and best-selling author Daniel Goleman.

El presente artículo se propone identificar los fundamentos de la teoría de la comunicabilidad de la Obra de Arte que se puede extraer de los escritos de Edith Stein. Tras presentar el problema de la empatía y la base antropológica que afecta a los sujetos y objetos del mundo del arte, además de los posibles problemas en la transmisión de dicho mensaje artístico, se ahonda en las implicaciones de la consideración del arte como objeto y sujeto de empatía y el (...) sistema comunicativo que se puede establecer en el mundo del arte. (shrink)

Many caricaturists get the idea for their caricature from current issues of society. The philosophy of the caricature lies in the opinion it presents, which discusses society’s goals, culture, and crises, and it is represented in an ironic way to deliver its visual message. The fight for women’s rights, inequality, and discrimination are examples of issues concerning Saudi women that have been represented by several caricaturists. Hence, the aim of this paper is to investigate female and male caricaturists’ linguistic and (...) semiotic representation of Saudi women’s challenging issues. Following (Kress and Van Leeuwen. 2006. Reading images: The grammar of visual design, 2nd edn. London: Routledge), a social semiotic multimodal approach to the analysis is adopted in this study, which is drawn from Halliday’s social semiotic theory. Twenty caricatures were carefully selected based on the content and the issues that are being discussed in the caricatures with a consideration of their relation to the aim of the study. The present study contributes to enriching Saudi women’s rights in relation to Saudi Vision 2030. The research is significant in that, in examining women/male caricaturists’ representations of the challenges and opportunities of Saudi women empowerment prior/after Saudi Vision 2030 in the workplace, social life, it contributes to understanding the supportive caricature discourse, basic social values for Saudi women, the pressures they undergo, and the success they have achieved so far in attaining their rights. The study findings show that both the semiotic and verbal elements of the caricatures were significant in delivering the messages for women’s rights in the new Saudi. (shrink)

The European project European and Latin American Systems of Ethics Regulation of Biomedical Research Project (EULABOR) has carried out the first comparative analysis of ethics regulation systems for biomedical research in seven countries in Europe and Latin America, evaluating their roles in the protection of human subjects. We developed a conceptual and methodological framework defining ‘ethics regulation system for biomedical research’ as a set of actors, institutions, codes and laws involved in overseeing the ethics of biomedical research on humans. This (...) framework allowed us to develop comprehensive national reports by conducting semi-structured interviews to key informants. These reports were summarised and analysed in a comparative analysis. The study showed that the regulatory framework for clinical research in these countries differ in scope. It showed that despite the different political contexts, actors involved and motivations for creating the regulation, in most of the studied countries it was the government who took the lead in setting up the system. The study also showed that Europe and Latin America are similar regarding national bodies and research ethics committees, but the Brazilian system has strong and noteworthy specificities. (shrink)

In this article, we examine the shifting roles played by non-state actors in governing areas of limited statehood. In particular, we focus on the emergence of voluntary grassroots organizations in Palestine and describe how regimes of international development aid transformed these organizations into professional nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that created new forms of colonial control. Based on in-depth interviews with 145 NGO members and key stakeholders and a historical analysis of limited statehood in Palestine, we found that social relations became disembedded (...) from the local context and re-embedded in new relations with international donor organizations resulting in a depoliticized public sphere. NGOization of the economy also resulted in new forms of exclusion and inclusion as well as contestations between a new class of urban middle-class professionals working in NGOs and the older generation of activists who were involved in grassroots organizations. Our findings have implications for business and human rights and governance in areas of limited statehood, in particular how private actors such as NGOs are able to exercise power in the economy. (shrink)

Este trabajo muestra cómo una modificación en el sentido del término caracter adquirido llevó a rechazar la hipótesis de la herencia de esos caracteres. Se considerará el ejemplo del experimento llevado a cabo por Weismann que fue tomado como un caso paradigmático en los libros de textos y en la bibliografía especializada para refutar esa hipótesis. Ese diseño experimental fue aceptado por la comunidad como una refutación, a pesar de que los caracteres a los que hacía referencia no cumplían con (...) ninguna de las condiciones necesarias para poder ser considerado un carácter adquirido. Así, quedó establecida la premisa de que sólo las células germinales podían heredarse fundándose lo que se conoció como la barrera de Weismann. Este caso pretende poner en consideración cómo la enseñanza y reproducción de los términos científicos y de sus indicadores puede llevar a limitar el desarrollo de las teorías. Se concluye acerca de la necesidad de reflexionar sobre la manera en que se citan y enseñan las teorías científicas a fin de evitar barreras en el desarrollo de los campos disciplinares. (shrink)

This is the introductory essay for the first of two special issues of Radical Philosophy Review marking the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of one of the twentieth century’s most provocative, subversive, and widely read works of radical theory—Herbert Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man, which we now reassess in an effort to contribute to the critical theory of our time. What are the possibilities and limits of our current situation? What are the prospects for moving beyond one-dimensionality? A summary (...) of each of the articles featured in this special issue is also provided. (shrink)

Sarat Colling's Animal Resistance in the Global Capitalist Era confronts an issue vastly disregarded by activists and animal advocates, an issue that ultimately leads to the constant reaffirmation of logocentrism and human exceptionalism. Assuming that other-than-human animals do not have their own voices and a main role in their struggles for liberation constitutes what Colling names "savior narratives," a very common discourse even among those who care for the more-than-human world. In fact, other-than-human animals are seen, not rarely, as beings (...) without a language of their own, which places them in a misleading position of dependency in relation to humans. Against this background, Colling's book lucidly... (shrink)

This new and moving translation of the Brahma's Net Sutra also includes translations of ancillary materials not previously available. Translated and introduced by the well-known teacher and author Martine Batchelor, this should become a classic for all those who aspire to the compassion of the Buddha. "The Buddha gave clear instructions about how a boddhisattva should preserve and nurture the altruistic aspiration to enlightenment that are contained in the scriptures of the various Mahayana traditions. The Boddhisattva Precepts found in the (...) Brahma's Net Sutra of the Chinese and Korean traditions have laid the foundation of an ethical way of life and the essential ground to a life of compassion for many Buddhists in East Asia since ancient times. We live in an era in which I believe it is extremely important to foster harmony and respect among all religious traditions. Therefore, I believe it is significant that such a seminal text be made more widely in an English translation and I congratulate the translator, the International Sacred Literature Trust and AltaMira Press for making this book, _The Path of Compassion_, available. Readers, whether or not they are Buddhist, will find that these precepts encourage us, in a very practical way, to protect life in all its forms and work towards a more peaceful and understanding world; goals that we all can admire." —from the foreword by H. H. The Dalai Lama. (shrink)

Traditionally, in Spain bullfighting represents an ancient and well-respected tradition and a combined brand of sport, art and national identity. However, bullfighting has received considerable criticism from various segments of society, with the concomitant rise of the animal rights movement. The paper reports a survey of the Spanish citizens using a face-to-face survey during January 2016 with a total sample of 2522 citizens. The survey asked about degree of liking and approving; culture, art and national identity; socio-economic aspects; emotional perception (...) and animal welfare. The hypothesis proposed that the perception of bullfights may be affected by gender, age, occupation, origin and nationality of the persons surveyed. The hypothesis was confirmed. The majority of citizens surveyed do not like bullfights and great majorities do not attend or watch such events. Two extreme clusters were described: one representing favorable attitude towards bullfighting and other against bullfighting. The proportion of indifferent persons was important. Women and young people showed a more favorable attitude towards animal welfare issues associated with these events. Rural people were more accepting bullfights than urban people. Students were more anti-bullfight than those in other occupations. Additionally, technical economic factors made people favor more bullfights. The growth of claim against bullfights establishes an element of a far more multifaceted phenomenon that animal cruelty per se and support of a new paradigm called social change in countries as Spain. (shrink)

Teachers always try to give their best to educate all students that have been entrusted to them! Knowing that everybody has the right to learn and be well educated, the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology after the war took considerable actions in an effort to promote inclusive education in the Kosovo education system. However, teachers are facing different challenges while trying to teach students with mild or moderate specific learning difficulties together with those who don’t have learning difficulties. Understanding (...) specific learning difficulties may not be hard but handling it is a great challenge. So what are specific learning difficulties? This research studies specific areas of inclusive education based on the difficulties students have while learning English Language, how to deal with these difficulties, how can inclusive practices within the school help, what practical teaching approaches can be used, what teaching methods are used or can be used in the inclusive classes in order to come to a conclusion of what can be done more about inclusiveness and understand the importance of inclusive education not only in the centers where the work is done but throughout Kosovo. Remember: Students with specific learning difficulties are just like you and me, they just have a different learning style! (shrink)

The mexican democracy faces challenges as how to assimilate reclaims of specific groups such as feminism. Feminist movement used to have a “revolutionary” ideology, and has difficulties to adapt itself to a new political environment in Mexico.

"Maintenir hors de l'oubli des noms qui ont marqué une époque et joué un rôle dans la vie culturelle, littéraire ou intellectuelle. Dévoiler l'étendue d'une oeuvre et permettre d'apprécier l'influence que celle-ci a pu exercer".

Anthropology of Consciousness, EarlyView.