A training physician has his first interaction with a pharmaceutical representative during medical school. Medical students are often provided with small gifts such as pens, calendars and books, as well as free lunches as part of drug promotion offers. Ethical impact of these transactions as perceived by young medical students has not been investigated in Pakistan before. This study aimed to assess the association of socio-demographic variables with the attitudes of medical students towards pharmaceutical companies and their incentives.

Social entrepreneurship orientation is a behavioral construct of social entrepreneurship ; therefore, we examined the influence of SEO of the organization on social and financial performance. A random sample of 810 employees was drawn from social enterprises of Pakistan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although increasing research focuses on SE, the discipline continues to disintegrate, and this has led to appeals for a careful investigation of the associations of firms’ SE. In the recent decade, “social entrepreneurship” has earned its importance as (...) a segment of entrepreneurship. Instead of mixed activity, firms are more likely to engage in either for-profit or non-profit activities. The causes for and consequences of this conduct has been mainly studied using objective measures of SEO, social performance, and financial performance, with little attention paid to the subjective experiences of social enterprises. We rely on the theory of stakeholder and mixed structuring to postulate that social performance intermediates the SEO-financial performance relation. By assessing a sample of 810 employees from active enterprises, we discover that social performance mediates positively and partially between SEO and financial performance, and both direct and indirect paths are in the same direction and significant. Our findings exhibit that social performance variance explained 74% of the mediating role, and the remaining 26% of the effect is because of SEO. We consider the functions by which an SEO influences enterprise performance and delivers more prominent understanding into multiple spectrums of performance. We discuss the prospective suggestions of our research and foster an encouraging pathway for more enquiry on the SEO paradigm. The study adds contribution to the literature, which has not been testified before on hybrid firms. SEO is a newly defined construct and requires more prospective research. This research gives the researchers/scholars new directions to address related disciplines and further explore this domain. (shrink)

Academic dishonesty that involves the use of any prohibited means for gaining unfair advantage academically has become a global problem in educational institutions. Limited studies have been conducted to explore the significance of personality with reference to academic misconduct. The present study was conducted to find out the different personality correlates as well as predictors of Academic Dishonesty. For this purpose 232 students of undergraduate and graduate courses from different faculties of University of Karachi, Pakistan, with ages ranging between 18-35 (...) years participated in the study. Big Five Inventory 1 was used to measure personality and English version of Academic Dishonesty Tendency Scale2 was used to measure academic dishonesty. Also five questions were developed to measure one more dimension of academic dishonesty which has been observed in local universities i.e., the tendency towards influencing teachers. For statistical analysis, correlation and regression analysis were conducted. Some personality types were found to be associated, and predictors of different dimensions of academic dishonesty. (shrink)

Metabolic pathways underlying brain function remain largely unexplored during neurodevelopment, predominantly due to the lack of feasible techniques for use with awake infants. Broadband near-infrared spectroscopy provides the opportunity to explore the relationship between cerebral energy metabolism and blood oxygenation/haemodynamics through the measurement of changes in the oxidation state of mitochondrial respiratory chain enzyme cytochrome-c-oxidase alongside haemodynamic changes. We used a bNIRS system to measure ΔoxCCO and haemodynamics during functional activation in a group of 42 typically developing infants aged between (...) 4 and 7 months. bNIRS measurements were made over the right hemisphere over temporal, parietal and central cortical regions, in response to social and non-social visual and auditory stimuli. Both ΔoxCCO and Δ[HbO2] displayed larger activation for the social condition in comparison to the non-social condition. Integration of haemodynamic and metabolic signals revealed networks of stimulus-selective cortical regions that were not apparent from analysis of the individual bNIRS signals. These results provide the first spatially resolved measures of cerebral metabolic activity alongside haemodynamics during functional activation in infants. Measuring synchronised changes in metabolism and haemodynamics have the potential for uncovering the development of cortical specialisation in early infancy. (shrink)

Topological indices are numeric parameters which portray the topology of a subatomic structure. In QSAR/QSPR analysis, topological descriptors play a vital role to examine the topology of a network. An interconnection network is a structure whose components are connected physically according to some pattern. In this paper, an interconnection network, ternary hypertree, which is a structural combination of complete ternary tree and hypertree, is introduced. We have evaluated the topological descriptors grounded on the distances for the ternary hypertree. The analytical (...) expressions for Wiener, different types of Szeged, and Mostar indices are determined. (shrink)

This study aimed to assess the integration, ethical considerations, and governance of artificial intelligence (AI) within the PhD programs at Midocean University. It specifically sought to understand PhD researchers' perceptions and attitudes towards AI and identify areas for enhancement in AI-related policies and educational initiatives. A descriptive analytical approach was adopted, utilizing an electronic questionnaire distributed to 105 PhD researchers, with 54 completing the survey. The questionnaire was designed to measure various aspects of AI usage, ethical concerns, and governance practices. (...) Statistical analysis was conducted to evaluate the relationships between AI awareness, ethical application, and governance perceptions. The findings revealed diverse perceptions of AI among researchers, indicating both opportunities and challenges in AI integration. The statistical analysis confirmed significant correlations between AI awareness and positive perceptions of ethical AI usage. However, the response rate and sample size posed limitations on the generalizability of the results. The study highlights the need for Midocean University to strengthen its AI governance frameworks and expand ethical guidelines to keep pace with technological advancements. Recommendations include enhancing AI-related educational programs, updating AI policies regularly, and promoting interdisciplinary research to foster an informed and ethically aware research community. (shrink)

Formalised knowledge systems, including universities and research institutes, are important for contemporary societies. They are, however, also arguably failing humanity when their impact is measured against the level of progress being made in stimulating the societal changes needed to address challenges like climate change. In this research we used a novel futures-oriented and participatory approach that asked what future envisioned knowledge systems might need to look like and how we might get there. Findings suggest that envisioned future systems will need (...) to be much more collaborative, open, diverse, egalitarian, and able to work with values and systemic issues. They will also need to go beyond producing knowledge about our world to generating wisdom about how to act within it. To get to envisioned systems we will need to rapidly scale methodological innovations, connect innovators, and creatively accelerate learning about working with intractable challenges. We will also need to create new funding schemes, a global knowledge commons, and challenge deeply held assumptions. To genuinely be a creative force in supporting longevity of human and non-human life on our planet, the shift in knowledge systems will probably need to be at the scale of the enlightenment and speed of the scientific and technological revolution accompanying the second World War. This will require bold and strategic action from governments, scientists, civic society and sustained transformational intent. (shrink)

Formalised knowledge systems, including universities and research institutes, are important for contemporary societies. They are, however, also arguably failing humanity when their impact is measured against the level of progress being made in stimulating the societal changes needed to address challenges like climate change. In this research we used a novel futures-oriented and participatory approach that asked what future envisioned knowledge systems might need to look like and how we might get there. Findings suggest that envisioned future systems will need (...) to be much more collaborative, open, diverse, egalitarian, and able to work with values and systemic issues. They will also need to go beyond producing knowledge about our world to generating wisdom about how to act within it. To get to envisioned systems we will need to rapidly scale methodological innovations, connect innovators, and creatively accelerate learning about working with intractable challenges. We will also need to create new funding schemes, a global knowledge commons, and challenge deeply held assumptions. To genuinely be a creative force in supporting longevity of human and non-human life on our planet, the shift in knowledge systems will probably need to be at the scale of the enlightenment and speed of the scientific and technological revolution accompanying the second World War. This will require bold and strategic action from governments, scientists, civic society and sustained transformational intent. (shrink)

My commentary focuses on Khalidi's defense of episodic memory as a cognitive kind. His argument relies on merging two distinct accounts of episodic memory—the phenomenal and the etiological. I suggest that Khalidi's framework can be used to carve the contemporary memory literature differently. On this view, the phenomenal account supports constructive episodic simulation as a cognitive kind, the etiological account supports event memory as a cognitive kind, and episodic memory ceases to be. The question for Khalidi is, then, how to (...) evaluate this alternative proposal—and more broadly how to adjudicate between competing and overlapping accounts of cognitive kinds. (shrink)

Background Informed consent is considered to be the standard method for respecting the autonomy of individual participants in research and practices and is thought to be based on several conditions: (1) providing information on the purpose of the research or a specific treatment, what it will entail, (2) the participants being mentally competent to understand the information and weigh it in the balance, and (3) the participants to be free from coercion. While there are studies of informed consent in other (...) countries, especially Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), this study explored the experiences of clinicians regarding the process of obtaining informed consent to participate in a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) in particular and treatment in general in healthcare settings, both general and mental health, specifically focusing on the tension between individualistic concept of autonomy and collectivist values in cultures such as Pakistan. Methods Qualitative interviews with 20 clinicians from healthcare settings in Pakistan who also served as recruiters in a suicide prevention RCT in Pakistan. The interviews were guided by semi-structured topic guide. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Results The interviews revealed that shared decision making was more morally important than individual autonomy, the role of the family played a dominant part in the consent-taking procedure, the decision of the elder and/or family patriarch took prominence, and that clinician-researchers encountered significant challenges in consent process in Pakistan, while recruiting patients into the trial as well as during routine treatment processes in healthcare settings. Four distinct themes emerged which were (1) Family deciding for patients, (2) Benefits of involving family in consent process, (3) Gender disparity in consent process, (4) Challenges experienced by clinician-researchers during consent process in Pakistan. Conclusions The concept of consent is generally considered important in many cultures, however, there are two strands of understanding. There seems to be consensus that participant agreement is necessary to protect the participant but with regards to autonomy there are significant cultural differences whether it is the right for autonomy of the individual (individualistic concept) or family, community, or expert authority in other cultures. In Pakistan clinician-researchers sometimes preferred one approach and sometimes the other as they appreciated the interests of the patient to be. (shrink)

According to foundationalism, some beliefs are justified but do not depend for their justification on any other beliefs. According to access internalism, a subject is justified in believing some proposition only if that subject is aware of or has access to some reason to think that the proposition is true or probable. In this paper I discusses a fundamental challenge to internalist foundationalism often referred to as the Sellarsian dilemma. I consider three attempts to respond to the dilemma – phenomenal (...) conservatism, BonJour’s classical foundationalism, and Fumerton’s classical foundationalism. I argue that, of these three, only the last seems to avoid getting impaled on one or the other horn of the dilemma. I end by responding to some concerns with Fumerton’s account. (shrink)

Kur’ân-ı Kerim, Allah’u Teâlâ tarafından Peygamber Efendimiz aracılığı ile insanlığa iletilmiş olan bir hidayet kaynağıdır. Okunmasıyla ibadet edilen Kur’ân-ı Kerim’in insanlar tarafından anlaşılması onun tefsiri ile mümkündür. Bununla birlikte Kırâat İlmi de Kur’ân’ın anlaşılması için bilinmesi gereken ve âyetlerin tefsirinde kullanılması gereken önemli ilimlerden birisidir. Kur’ân-ı Kerim kelimelerindeki telaffuz değişikliklerini konu edinen kırâat ilminin tefsir ilmi ile irtibatlı olduğu aşikârdır. Bundan dolayı Kur’ân-ı Kerim’i açıklayan tefsir kitapları ve tefsir âlimleri, kırâatlerden destek almışlar ve âyetlere mana verirken farklı kırâatleri göz önünde (...) bulundurarak anlam zenginliğini sağlamışlardır. Sahih olan kırâatlerin yanında sahih olmayan kırâatler de âyetlerin anlaşılmasında yardımcı olarak kullanılmıştır. Kur’ân kelimelerinde söz konusu olan bu değişiklikler tefsir eserlerinde farklı şekillerde ele alınmış ve incelenmiştir. Kur’ân’ın anlaşılması için kaleme alınan tefsirlerden birisi olan Celâleyn Tefsiri de; kısa, öz, anlaşılır ve çokça istifade edilen bir eserdir. Celâleyn tefsiri aynı zamanda âyetler anlaşılmaya çalışırken kırâatlerin de incelendiği, farklı şekillerde ele alındığı önemli bir tefsir eseridir. Bu ve benzeri nedenlerden dolayı Celâleyn tefsirinin kırâatler açısından incelenmesi, kırâat ve tefsir ilimleri açısından önem arz etmektedir. Bu çalışmada, Celâleyn Tefsirinde kırâatlerin nasıl kullanıldığı, kırâatlere değinilirken onların nasıl zikredildiği, hangi yönler ile kırâatlere yaklaşıldığı gibi konular değerlendirilmeye çalışılacaktır. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that the supposition of divine omnipotence entails a contradiction: omnipotence both must and must not be intrinsic to God. Hence, traditional theism must be rejected. To begin, I separate out some theoretical distinctions needed to inform the discussion. I then advance two different arguments for the conclusion that omnipotence must be intrinsic to God; these utilise the notions of essence and aseity. Next, I argue that some necessary conditions on being omnipotent are extrinsic, and that (...) this means omnipotence cannot be intrinsic to God. I consider three different ways of resolving this conflict, but contend that each is unsuccessful. Before concluding, I explain why the type of strategy used to resolve the traditional paradoxes of omnipotence cannot be successfully employed against the paradox presented here. (shrink)

Due to developments in positive psychology, the theme of forgiveness has increasingly been observed in psychological studies in recent years. Forgiveness has now become one of positive psychology’s favourite topics. It is conceived as an element of religiosity and hence studies focus on the relation between forgiveness and religiosity. This study is carried out to determine the relation between the propensity to forgive and socio-demographic variables and religiosity in the case of the Turkish-Muslim sample. Furthermore, this article aims to describe (...) the relation between forgiveness, humility and pride. In order to investigate these relations, the Interpersonal Forgiveness Scale and Brief Islamic Religiosity Measure have been developed and applied to a sample of 321 people from different parts of Istanbul, Turkey. The findings show that religiosity is positively related to the propensity to forgive and negatively related to feelings of revenge. Furthermore, forgiveness is correlated positively with humility and negatively with pride. (shrink)

“Ambivalence” is the key word in much of this book; “comic” [is the book’s] most obscure and I think absolutely without use value. I don’t know what B[urke] means by “comic,” as a matter of fact. I wonder if he does, and could define it briefly. Readers of Kenneth Burke are well aware of the importance of comedy and its associated cluster of concepts in his work: comic, comic frame, comic attitude, comic corrective. This cluster of terms figures prominently in (...) his 1937 book Attitudes Toward History, most notably in two key passages that scholars turn to time and again. In the first, from the “Poetic Categories” section of the book, Burke explains how different genres serve as guides for how to act in the... (shrink)

This article examines how migration impacts power dynamics and gender norms for women left behind living in rural Southern Punjab, Pakistan, a site where patriarchal customs and religion are interwoven to confine women’s mobility and agency. Based on qualitative interviews and focus groups with women left behind from 2015 through 2018, this article explores how local rural-to-urban male migration patterns impact the decision-making powers of women who are left behind and must make sense of the family structure and gender dynamics (...) in their homes after their husbands’ exit. This study finds that in the absence of her migrant husband, a woman left behind is still subject to patriarchal norms and surveillance by the remaining in-laws, including other women. Citing specific examples from the field, I explain why women left behind remain close to the very families that confine and monitor their movement, and why, in some cases, women left behind turn a blind eye toward their husband’s second or third marriage. Through an examination of behind-the-scenes negotiations that women left behind make, I argue that women maintain for themselves at surface level the gendered expectations that patriarchy sets for them, but given the opportunity, they can negotiate and bargain their positionality in subtle ways without disrupting the status quo that could otherwise jeopardize their physical safety and social reputation. (shrink)

In this paper I propose a framework to understand the transition in Foucault’s work from the disciplinary model to the governmentality model. Foucault’s work on power emerges within the general context of an expression of capitalist rationality and the nature of freedom and power within it. I argue that, thus understood, Foucault’s transition to the governmentality model can be seen simultaneously as a deepening recognition of what capitalism is and how it works, but also as a recognition of the changing (...) historical nature of the actually existing capitalisms and their specifically situated historical needs. I then argue that the disciplinary model should be understood as a contingent response to the demands of early capitalism, and argue that with the maturation of the capitalist enterprise many of those responses are no longer necessary. New realities require new responses; although this does not necessarily result in the abandonment of the earlier disciplinary model, it does require their reconfiguration according to the changed situation and the new imperatives following from it. (shrink)

An action plan for a globally equitable sociology.

The best life is realized when all existents are in such harmony with one another that all can play their assigned roles. Suffering always comes from disharmony. The vital harmony of life is harmony between creatures and Creator; and the way in which a creature fits with the existence of the Creator is a necessary condition for the creature's survival. Among all creatures, human beings are able to have comprehensive knowledge of God and achieve an active harmony with God in (...) all aspects. The earth is a testing ground in which humans can prepare themselves epistemically and then practically to contribute actively to harmony with God. Since a laboratory has its own rules, we should not expect an ideal life in the earthly laboratory. After the laboratorial role that one plays in the present world, one still is on the watch and can share in the experiences of living people and develop epistemically so that one receives an epistemic safe point that is necessary for harmony with God. (shrink)

Reviewed by: Sarah Sorial, Faculty of Law/Faculty of Arts (Philosophy), The University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. E-mail: [email protected].

Discussion of the role which religious experience can play in warranting theistic belief has received a great deal of attention within contemporary philosophy of religion. By contrast, the relationship between experience and atheistic belief has received relatively little focus. Our aim in this paper is to begin to remedy that neglect. In particular, we focus on the hitherto under-discussed question of whether experiences of God’s absence can provide positive epistemic status for a belief in God’s nonexistence. We argue that there (...) is good reason to accept an epistemic parity between experiences of God’s presence and experiences of God’s absence. (shrink)

Purpose Existing algorithms for predicting suicide risk rely solely on data from electronic health records, but such models could be improved through the incorporation of publicly available socioeconomic data – such as financial, legal, life event and sociodemographic data. The purpose of this study is to understand the complex ethical and privacy implications of incorporating sociodemographic data within the health context. This paper presents results from a survey exploring what the general public’s knowledge and concerns are about such publicly available (...) data and the appropriateness of using it in suicide risk prediction algorithms. Design/methodology/approach A survey was developed to measure public opinion about privacy concerns with using socioeconomic data across different contexts. This paper presented respondents with multiple vignettes that described scenarios situated in medical, private business and social media contexts, and asked participants to rate their level of concern over the context and what factor contributed most to their level of concern. Specific to suicide prediction, this paper presented respondents with various data attributes that could potentially be used in the context of a suicide risk algorithm and asked participants to rate how concerned they would be if each attribute was used for this purpose. Findings The authors found considerable concern across the various contexts represented in their vignettes, with greatest concern in vignettes that focused on the use of personal information within the medical context. Specific to the question of incorporating socioeconomic data within suicide risk prediction models, the results of this study show a clear concern from all participants in data attributes related to income, crime and court records, and assets. Data about one’s household were also particularly concerns for the respondents, suggesting that even if one might be comfortable with their own being used for risk modeling, data about other household members is more problematic. Originality/value Previous studies on the privacy concerns that arise when integrating data pertaining to various contexts of people’s lives into algorithmic and related computational models have approached these questions from individual contexts. This study differs in that it captured the variation in privacy concerns across multiple contexts. Also, this study specifically assessed the ethical concerns related to a suicide prediction model and determining people’s awareness of the publicness of select data attributes, as well as which of these data attributes generated the most concern in such a context. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to pursue this question. (shrink)

Language and culture endow humans with access to conceptual information that far exceeds any which could be accessed by a non-human animal. Yet, it is possible that, even without language or specific experiences, non-human animals represent and infer some aspects of similarity relations between objects in the same way as humans. Here, we show that monkeys’ discrimination sensitivity when identifying images of animals is predicted by established measures of semantic similarity derived from human conceptual judgments. We used metrics from computer (...) vision and computational neuroscience to show that monkeys’ and humans’ performance cannot be explained by low-level visual similarity alone. The results demonstrate that at least some of the underlying structure of object representations in humans is shared with non-human primates, at an abstract level that extends beyond low-level visual similarity. Because the monkeys had no experience with the objects we tested, the results suggest that monkeys and humans share a primitive representation of object similarity that is independent of formal knowledge and cultural experience, and likely derived from common evolutionary constraints on object representation. (shrink)

Radical generosity and the origins of cosmopolitanism -- Radical generosity as unconditional ethics -- The practice of radical generosity -- The possibility of cosmopolitanism n the realm of political institutions.

In 1987, the philosophies of a U.S. grounded in political liberalism and a Soviet Union grounded in economic redistribution were at odds. Mazrui argues that each superpower's actions ultimately supported the other's philosophy.

In this paper, I propose to look closely at certain crucial aspects of the logic of Rawls' argument in Political Liberalism and related subsequent writings. Rawls' argument builds on the notion of comprehensiveness, whereby a doctrine encompasses the full spectrum of the life of its adherents. In order to show the mutual conflict and irreconcilability of comprehensive doctrines, Rawls needs to emphasise the comprehensiveness of doctrines, as their irreconcilability to a large extent emanates from that comprehensiveness. On the other hand, (...) in order to show the possibility and plausibility of the political liberal solution he needs to emphasise that most of these doctrines are reasonable: i.e., they are willing to cede a portion of their authority to political liberalism for the right reasons. Yet, if they are willing to cede a portion of their authority to a political conception they cannot be as comprehensive as we initially thought they were. All these elements highlight the tension in the argument itself. I suggest that many of these tensions can be removed by making Rawls' account more flexible. In this context I propose certain amendments to Rawls' account, which may overcome some of the tensions mentioned above. (shrink)

Rawls in his later philosophy claims that it is sufficient to accept political conception as true or right, depending on what one's worldview allows, on the basis of whatever reasons one can muster, given one's worldview (doctrine). What political liberalism is interested in is a practical agreement on the political conception and not in our reasons for accepting it. There are deep issues (regarding deep values, purpose of life, metaphysics etc.) which cannot be resolved through invoking common reasons (this is (...) the fact of free reason itself), and trying to resolve them would involve us in interminable debates and would hamper the practical task of agreement on the political conception. Given the absolute necessity of a political society which is stable and enduring, it is thus wise to avoid these issues in founding a political society and choosing its basic principles - this is the pragmatic part of Rawls's position. In this paper I argue that this strategy leads Rawls into a paradox: (i) although the intention is to stay independent of comprehensive doctrines, the political conception is in fact totally (and precariously) dependent on comprehensive doctrines (not just on one doctrine but on each and every major doctrine in society). It is dependent on them: for its conceptualisation as an independent idea, for its justification, for the check of its reasonability in relation to the external world, for the formation of identities and value inculcation and hence for the formation of its model citizen; (ii) the very search for independence makes the political conception more dependent on comprehensive doctrines, and by extension makes it potentially more prone to intervention in and tampering with comprehensive doctrines (it is enough to show that it is a strong conceptual possibility to cast doubt on the whole strategy). Thus, for example, the political conception relies on the hope that “firmly held convictions gradually change” and that it would “in fact . . . have the capacity to shape those doctrines toward itself”. The purpose of the Rawlsian conjecture is to give these “hopes” a concrete, practical form by giving advice to proponents of the comprehensive doctrine on how they can do all this and “try to show them that, despite what they might think, they can still endorse a reasonable political conception”. I further argue that this paradox can be overcome by making the core of political liberalism more flexible. (shrink)

Studies on surrogate motherhood have mostly explored paid arrangements through the lens of a contract model, as clinical work or as a maternal identity-building project. Turning to the under-examined case of unpaid, so-called altruistic surrogate motherhood and based on an analysis of interviews with women who had been unpaid surrogate mothers in a full gestational surrogacy with a friend or relative in Canada, the United States or Australia, this article explores altruistic surrogate motherhood as relational work. It argues that this (...) form of surrogate motherhood within close interpersonal relations can be conceptualised through the relational work involved in hosting a child for the intended parents. The article explores how relational work in this context implies an embodied, asymmetrical and far-reaching sense of responsibility that surrogate mothers describe as characteristic of their surrogacy experience. In this way, the article sheds light on feminist concerns about surrogacy as an embodied and objectifying work of women while at the same time illuminating how surrogate mothers respond to the intended parents in light of their pre-surrogacy relationship, how meanings are negotiated by them and how relationships are managed during the pregnancy. (shrink)