The neutrality of the art and architecture of courtrooms and courthouses has dominated the public perception in the Indian context. The courtroom design and the visual artistic elements present within these judicial places have very often been considered to be insignificant to the notions of law and justice that they reflect. As art and architecture present certain historical narratives, reflect political allegories and have significant impact on the perceptions of their viewers, they have critical socio-political ramifications. This makes it pertinent (...) to explore them and investigate the paradox of their deployment and interpretation in today’s increasingly mediatized world. Through an ethnographic study of the Supreme Court of India, this paper interprets its art and architecture, and, the symbolism and semiotics reflected through them. Arguing against their neutrality and insignificance, the paper demonstrates how they reflect nationalism, certain ideologies and power-space dynamics. It further argues that they act as evidence of political metaphors related to justice, power and democracy. With a conversation between law, architecture and semiotics, the paper investigates the historical and spatial dimensions of its architecture and artistic elements. Mapping the Court’s architectural elements, I examine how the visual representation of ‘justice as virtue’ finds translation in its design through transfer of certain images, including the image of the ‘scales of justice’, into it, while absenting the notion of ‘justice as struggle’—to contemplate on how legal architecture gives evidence to the vexed relationship between law and justice and also of the break from the colonial past. (shrink)

The Indian philosophical schools divide the types of cognitions mainly as recollection and non-recollection. The set of non-recollections is termed as experiential cognitions ( anubhava ). Two issues about recollection and experience are discussed in this paper. One is defining recollection and distinguishing a recollection from similar types of cognitions. The second one is the validity of recollection. With regard to the validity of recollection, views of three philosophers namely Prabhākara, Gaṅgeśa and Udayana, are discussed and compared. All the three (...) consider recollection as not valid although the reasons put forth by them for such a consideration differs. While briefly analyzing these views, the paper shows that somehow the concept of validity is relevant only in case of experiential cognitions. In this process, the paper puts an effort to pin down a particular feature present in all the experiential cognitions that can account for the distinction of the experience from a recollection and can justify the invalidity of recollection. (shrink)

This study examined the impact of gender on perceptions of various business practices by male and female Russian managers. Female managers considered various activities such as doing personal business on company time, falsifying time/quality/quantity reports, padding an expense account more than 10 percent, calling in sick to take a day off, and pilfering organization materials and supplies more unethical than male managers. Female managers also perceived the acceptance of gifts and favors in exchange for preferential treatment more unethical than male (...) managers. (shrink)

This study investigated employee perceptions of ethical climates in a sample of Russian organizations and the relationship between ethical climate and behaviors believed to characterize successful managers. A survey of managerial employees in Russia (n = 136) indicates that "rules" was the most reported and "independence" was the least reported ethical climate type. Those who perceived a strong link between success and ethical behavior report high levels of a "caring" climate and low levels of an "instrumental" climate. Implications for practitioners (...) and researchers are discussed. (shrink)

This study examines factors impacting ethical behavior of 103 hospital nurses. The level of emotional intelligence and ethical behavior of peers had a significant impact on ethical behavior of nurses. Independence climate had a significant impact on ethical behavior of nurses. Other ethical climate types such as professional, caring, rules, instrumental, and efficiency did not impact ethical behavior of respondents. Implications of this study for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

Maswood and Rajaram examine the transmission of false memories across small and larger networks. While the spread of false memories is not inherently beneficial, Maswood & Rajaram argued that a better understanding of the formation and propagation of false memories has practical and societal implications. For example, by better understanding how false memories transmit across groups, we might be better equipped to prevent detrimental behaviors that arise as a result of “fake news.”.

This study examines factors impacting ethical behavior of 203 hospital employees in Midwestern and Northwestern United States. Ethical behavior of peers had the most significant impact on ethical behavior. Ethical behavior of successful managers, professional education in ethics and sex of the respondents also significantly impacted ethical behavior. Nurses were significantly more ethical than other employees. Race of the respondent did not impact ethical behavior. Overclaiming scales indicated that social desirability bias did not significantly impact the results of our study. (...) Implications of this study for researchers and practitioners are discussed. (shrink)

This research investigates the impact of various factors on ethical behavior of 180 not-for-profit hospital employees. Ethical behavior of peers, ethical behavior of successful managers, and emotional intelligence had a significant positive impact on ethical behavior of respondents. Physicians and hospital employees with political connections within the organization were significantly less ethical than other employees. The results have many implications for researchers and healthcare practitioners.

Considerations of justice and concern for well-being support conducting mental health research and addressing ethical concerns specific to mental health research are critical. We discuss these concerns, provide recommendations to enable the ethical conduct of mental health research, and argue that participants’ interests should be given primary weight in resolving apparent dilemmas. We also comment on provisions of two legislative actions in India relevant to mental health research: Rights of Persons with Disability Act 2016 and the Mental Health Care Act (...) 2017. Both conform to the 2006 United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities of which India is a signatory. Both provide protections and enumerate rights relevant to people with mental health conditions but with differing focus. The commonalities and differences between the three are discussed in the background of international literature on research in mental health conditions. Studies involving deception and future directions for ethical requirements regarding genetic research are discussed. (shrink)

This study examines perceptions of ethical climate and ethical practices of 118 successful Chinese managers among business students and managen in the Zhejiang province of China. The impact of different ethical climate types on perceived ethical practices of successful managers was also investigated. The "rules'* was the most reported, and '' independence'' was the least reported, among the various climate types. A majority of the respondents perceive successful managers as ethical. In addition, those who believed that their organization had a (...) "rules" climate perceived a strong positive link between success and ethical behavior. None of the other climate types had an impact on the link between success and ethical behavior. (shrink)

This study explores if managerial dependencies and organizational independence impact ethical behavior of employees. Survey data was collected from 203 employees working for three hospitals in Midwestern and Northwestern United States. Managerial dependencies like specialized expertise, political connections, and performance visibility significantly impacted ethical behavior. Organizational independence and ethical behavior of peers also had a significant impact on ethical behavior. Implications of this study for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

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

This study examines the impact of ethical climate types (professionalism, caring, rules, instrumental, efficiency, and independence) on various facets of job satisfaction (pay, promotions, co-workers, supervisors, and work itself) in a large non-profit organization. Professionalism was the most reported and efficiency was the least reported ethical climate type in the organization. Among various facets of job satisfaction, respondents were most satisfied with their work and least satisfied with their pay. None of the climate types significantly influenced satisfaction with pay. A (...) professional climate significantly influenced satisfaction with promotions, supervisors, and work. It also significantly influenced overall job satisfaction. Those respondents who believed that their organization had caring climate were more satisfied with their supervisors. An instrumental climate had a significant negative influence on overall job satisfaction and satisfaction with promotions, co-workers, and supervisors. Rules, efficiency, and independence climate types did not significantly affect any facets of job satisfaction. (shrink)

This study examines the ethical climate and ethical practices of successful managers (n=206 managers) of a large non-profit organization. The influence of different dimensions of ethical climate on perceived ethical practices of successful managers were also investigated. Results show that a majority of the respondents perceive successful managers as ethical. Compared to previous research, managers in our sample were less optimistic about the relationship between success and ethical behavior. Those who believed that their organization had a caring climate perceived a (...) strong positive link between success and ethical behavior. Those who believed that their organization had an instrumental climate perceived a strong negative link between success and ethical behavior. (shrink)

Farmers in developed countries have established various tillage practices for crop production. These include plowing, disking, subsoiling, harrowing, field cultivating, rotary hoeing, and row-crop cultivating. But these conventional tillage practices necessitate the use of heavy equipment that often causes soil compaction, impairs soil physical conditions, and creates conditions leading to soil erosion. Many Western countries, studying their conventional tillage systems through the new perspective of sustainable approaches to agriculture, are developing new tillage practices, called conservation tillage, which limit tillage to (...) essential operations and prevent damage to soil. The majority of the small-scale farmers in developing countries use indigenous tillage systems. These are low-cost, locally adapted technologies that reflect considerable knowledge of sustainable agriculture. Ironically, the new conservation tillage systems currently being developed in the West have many characteristics of indigenous tillage systems. This paper compares conventional, conservation, and indigenous tillage practices, using examples from the United States and India, and concludes that, for sustainable food production, indigenous tillage practices in developing countries should continue to be used. (shrink)

Resilience may be referred to as the capacity for positive adaptation and to quickly recover from difficulties and significant adversity. After examining operational definitions of related concepts, the article discusses resilience building exercises for functional fitness at the individual soldier level, to include among others, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, self-reinforcement, emotional regulation exercises, mindfulness training, relaxation and grounding exercises and importance of maintaining discipline and routine in the military. Using an acronym CARRIES, the article examines efforts to enhance resilience building through empirically (...) validated cognitive, behavioural and intrapersonal skills originating from best practices learned in the military. (shrink)

This study examines factors impacting organizational commitment of 214 employees working at a Chinese state-owned steel company. Ethical behavior of peers and ethical behavior of successful managers had a significant impact on organizational commitment. The four facets of job satisfaction (pay, coworker, supervision, and work itself) had a significant impact on organizational commitment. Respondent’s age also significantly impacted organizational commitment. Perceptions of ethical behavior of successful managers, satisfaction with work, and gender were significantly correlated with social desirability bias.

ABSTRACTIn earlier work we showed that individuals learn the spatial regularities within contexts and use this knowledge to guide detection of threatening targets embedded in these contexts. While it is highly adaptive for humans to use contextual learning to detect threats, it is equally adaptive for individuals to flexibly readjust behaviour when contexts once associated with threatening stimuli begin to be associated with benign stimuli, and vice versa. Here, we presented face targets varying in salience in new or old spatial (...) configurations and changed the target salience halfway through the experiment to examine if contextual learning changes with the change in target salience. Detection of threatening targets was faster in old than new configurations and this learning persisted even after the target changed to non-threatening. However, the same pattern was not seen when the targets changed from non-threatening... (shrink)

Festschrift in honor of 60th birtha anniversary of Ganesh Umakant Thite, Sanskritist; comprises contributed articles on various aspects of Vedic literature, Hinduism and Indic philosophy.

This study examined the impact of sex, age, and level of education on the perception of various business practices by managers of a large non-profit organization. Female managers perceived the acceptance of gifts and favors in exchange for preferential treatment significantly more unethical than male managers. Older managers (40 plus) perceived five practices significantly more unethical than younger managers (giving gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment, divulging confidential information, concealing ones error, falsifying reports, and calling in sick to take a (...) day off). The practice of padding expense account by over 10% was reported to be significantly more unethical by managers with a graduate degree. (shrink)

It is hypothesised that threatening stimuli are detected better due to their salience or physical properties. However, these stimuli are typically embedded in a rich context, motivating the question whether threat detection is facilitated via learning of contexts in which threat stimuli appear. To address this question, we presented threatening face targets in new or old spatial configurations consisting of schematic faces and found that detection of threatening targets was faster in old configurations. This indicates that individuals are able to (...) learn regularities within visual contexts and use this contextual information to guide detection of threatening targets. Next, we presented threatening and non-threatening face targets embedded in new or old spatial configurations. Detection of threatening targets was facilitated in old configurations, and this effect was reversed for non-threatening targets. Present findings show that detection of threatening targets is driven not only by stimulus properties as theorised traditionally but also by learning of contexts in which threatening stimuli appear. Further, results show that context learning for threatening targets obstructs context learning for non-threatening targets. Overall, in addition to typically emphasised bottom-up factors, our findings highlight the importance of top-down factors such as context and learning in detection of salient, threatening stimuli. (shrink)

Although the target article provides strong evidence against the locationist view, evidence for the constructionist view is inconclusive, because co-activation of brain regions does not necessarily imply connectivity between them. We propose a rigorous approach wherein connectivity between co-activated regions is first modeled using exploratory Granger causality, and then confirmed using dynamic causal modeling or Bayesian modeling.