In educational organizations, digital resource management refers to the organization and enhancement of electronic resources, including databases, libraries, and digital instructional materials. Excellent administration ensures optimal utilization, improves accessibility, and advances learning objectives. To achieve better institutional results, this approach entails incorporating digital tools, handling issues like data security and user training, and adjusting to new technological developments. Using an emphasis on the integration of digital libraries, e-learning platforms, and research databases, this study investigates the technologies and approaches used in (...) maintaining digital resources within higher education circumstances. Through the use of a survey research design, this study employed a quantitative research methodology. Data gathered from a sample of 250 undergraduate students was utilized in this investigation. This study looks at the connections between teaching profile (TP), technology competence (TC), digital technology awareness (DTA), utility perception (UP), and usage motivation (UM). SPSS was utilized statistically to obtain the outcomes. Descriptive, correlation, and regression analysis were used to obtain the results utilizing data gathered from a sample of university participants. Significant of both conceptual and actual consequences have resulted from the findings.According to the study's findings, efficient use of digital resources in academic institutions greatly improves accessibility and resource utilization, both of which contribute to better learning outcomes. (shrink)

Sometimes, people sulk when their partners refuse sex. For instance, they might angrily pout, initiate the silent treatment, or manifest some other form of conspicuous, blame-laden withdrawal. To avoid this sulking, those on the receiving end sometimes submit to sex that they do not want. Such sex seems wrongful, as does the sulking that induces it. But what explains this intuition? I offer a two-part answer, drawing from real stories. First, I argue that even attempting to sulk someone into sex (...) often imposes wrongful blame. Second, I argue that succeeding at sulking someone into sex often renders that sex nonconsensual because coerced—a wrong that should be morally but not always criminally sanctioned. These conclusions extend to numerous other sexual and nonsexual pressures while avoiding the implication that all sexual pressures are consent-undermining. In this way, my arguments cut against the current literature on consent. More broadly, my arguments challenge the literature’s focus on overt sexual pressures—like threats of violence—as well as its methodological tendency towards abstraction. One major upshot is that we should attend more closely to subtle sexual pressures like sulking, especially within the distinctive dynamic of close relationships. (shrink)

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to identify factors motivating women to take part in endometriosis research and to determine if these factors differ for women participating in clinical versus basic science studies. METHODS: A consecutive series of 24 women volunteering for participation in endometriosis‐related research were asked to indicate, in their own words, why they chose to volunteer. In addition, the women were asked to rate, on a scale of 0 to 10, sixteen potentially motivating factors. The (...) information was gathered in the form of an anonymous self‐administered questionnaire. RESULTS: Strong motivating factors (mean score >8) included potential benefit to other women's health, improvement to one's own condition, and participation in scientific advancement. Weak motivating factors (mean score <3) included financial compensation, making one's doctor happy, and use of ‘natural’ products. No difference was detected between clinical and basic science study participants. CONCLUSION: This study is the first study to specifically investigate the factors that motivate women to take part in endometriosis research. Understanding why women choose to take part in such research is important to the integrity of the informed consent process. The factors most strongly motivating women to participate in endometriosis research related to improving personal or public health; the weakest, to financial compensation and pleasing the doctor. (shrink)

In ‘Theorizing resistance: Foucault, cross-cultural psychiatry and the user/survivor movement,’ Swerdfager develops a rich argument about the relationship between user/survivor voices, cross-cultural psychiatry, and the emerging discipline of global mental health. The paper questions the future directions of cross-cultural psychiatry in the era of GMH, and discusses the implications for user/survivor voices. This commentary engages with Swerdfager, focusing on the historical development of cross-cultural psychiatry and the discipline’s evolving relationship with GMH, concluding with a brief discussion of recent developments with (...) potential to open up new spaces for user/survivor voices as mental health... (shrink)

Recent advances in genomic and imaging techniques have revealed the complex manner of organizing billions of base pairs of DNA necessary for maintaining their functionality and ensuring the proper expression of genetic information. The SMC proteins and cohesin complex primarily contribute to forming higher‐order chromatin structures, such as chromosomal territories, compartments, topologically associating domains (TADs) and chromatin loops anchored by CCCTC‐binding factor (CTCF) protein or other genome organizers. Cohesin plays a fundamental role in chromatin organization, gene expression and regulation. This (...) review aims to describe the current understanding of the dynamic nature of the cohesin‐DNA complex and its dependence on cohesin for genome maintenance. We discuss the current 3C technique and numerous bioinformatics pipelines used to comprehend structural genomics and epigenetics focusing on the analysis of Cohesin‐centred interactions. We also incorporate our present comprehension of Loop Extrusion (LE) and insights from stochastic modelling. (shrink)

An important factor that leads governments to engage in public service contracts with nonprofit organizations is the belief that they share similar ethical and value orientations that will allow governments to reduce monitoring costs. However the notion of the existence of similarities in ethical climate has not been systematically examined. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ethical climate in government and nonprofit sectors and to determine the extent to which similarities (and differences) exist in ethical climate dimensions. (...) Using survey data and structural equation modeling technique, the factor structure equivalence and measurement invariance of the ethical climate in the two sectors are tested. Results indicate that while there is a significant overlap in shared perception of ethical climate dimensions, there are also key differences between the two sectors. The outcome of this research provides important preliminary insights for public policy makers in government to better understand the implications of using the nonprofit sector for service delivery. (shrink)

Meaning and Purpose of Life are perhaps the most thought about, if not talked about, issues on the planet since human beings have walked on earth. This book is another attempt to understand the Meaning and Purpose of Life using ideas of Vedanta in Indian philosophy, and of mainstream economics. Starting from first principles, Dr Agarwal explores the core concept of Brahman in Vedanta, and builds an axiomatic foundation for understanding the meaning and purpose of life using the fundamental (...) ideas of the Prasthana Traya, and in particular of The Bhagavad Gita and The Principal Upanishads. Dr Agarwal adheres to the philosophy of Karma Yoga as his chosen area of interest for the exploration of meaning and purpose, which allows him to seek linkages between the concepts of social welfare in Vedanta and economics. Ideas of lokasamgraha in Indian Philosophy and of externalities in economics provide a clear common ground between the two apparently disparate disciplines. Throughout the book, he emphasizes simple practical approaches for making life more meaningful and happier, while relying fundamentally on the basic ideas of Vedanta. (shrink)

Comatose survivors of cardiac arrest may die following withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy (WLST) due to poor neurologic prognosis. Family members, acting as surrogate decision makers, are frequently asked to decide whether the patient should continue to receive ongoing life-sustaining therapy such as mechanical ventilation in this context of risk of death following removal. Sometimes, physicians and family members disagree about what is in the patient's best interest, and this conflict causes distress for both families and medical personnel. This article examines (...) themes recorded in the medical records of 24 cardiac arrest patients at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) whose families chose to pursue continued life support despite physician recommendations for withdrawal. In documented conversations between patients' families and their providers, the most prominent themes included faith in miracles, the inappropriateness of "playing God," the value of more time with the patient, and differences in how providers and family members perceived the patient's status. (shrink)

An important factor that leads governments to engage in public service contracts with nonprofit organizations is the belief that they share similar ethical and value orientations that will allow governments to reduce monitoring costs. However the notion of the existence of similarities in ethical climate has not been systematically examined. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ethical climate in government and nonprofit sectors and to determine the extent to which similarities (and differences) exist in ethical climate dimensions. (...) Using survey data and structural equation modeling technique, the factor structure equivalence and measurement invariance of the ethical climate in the two sectors are tested. Results indicate that while there is a significant overlap in shared perception of ethical climate dimensions, there are also key differences between the two sectors. The outcome of this research provides important preliminary insights for public policy makers in government to better understand the implications of using the nonprofit sector for service delivery. (shrink)

In multiple robot systems, the problem of allocation of complex tasks to heterogeneous teams of robots, also known as the multiple robot coalition formation problem, has begun to receive considerable attention. Efforts to address the problem range from heuristics based approaches that search the subspaces of the coalition structure to evolutionary learning approaches. Conventional approaches typically strive to optimize a single objective function such as the number of tasks executed or the time required to execute all tasks, or a weighted (...) function of such objectives. In real world applications, objectives such as minimizing distance traveled and maximizing the number of tasks completed are often conflicting in nature. The coalition formation problem thus naturally lends itself to a multi-objective optimization approach based on evolutionary learning. In this paper, we formulate the problem of mapping coalitions of robots to a set of tasks as a multi-objective optimization problem and propose a variant of non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm to arrive at trade-off solutions. Additionally, we extend the solution to domains where robot resources are non-additive. Simulations demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach in generating the set of Pareto-optimal solutions. (shrink)

To evaluate how study characteristics and methodological aspects compare based on presence or absence of industry funding, Hughes et al. conducted a systematic survey of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in three major medical journals. The authors found industry-funded RCTs were more likely to be blinded, post results on a clinical trials registration database (ClinicalTrials.gov), and accrue high citation counts.1 Conversely, industry-funded trials had smaller sample sizes and more frequently used placebo as the comparator, used a surrogate as their primary (...) outcome, and had positive results. (shrink)

With an increasing number of individuals living with chronic illness and pain, integrative approaches offering self-management support are needed. This book proposes a multi-layered framework integrating the body/self/environment that cultivates wholeness as an authentic embodied presence in alignment with a reflexive self.

This paper is an attempt to address the limited amount of research in the realm of organizational ethical climate in the not-for-profit sector. The paper draws from Victor and Cullen's (1988) theoretical framework which, combines the constructs of cognitive moral development, ethical theory, and locus of analysis. However, as a point of departure from Victor and Cullen's work, the authors propose an alternative methodology to extract ethical climate dimensions based on theoretical considerations. Using the Ethical Climate Questionnaire (ECQ), an exploratory (...) factor analysis is conducted followed by a confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL. The resulting five dimensions are labelled as: individual caring, machiavellianism, independence, social caring, and law and code. Findings provide a somewhat disparate perspective of the ethical climates in a not-for-profit context. First, there is a more discriminating perception of benevolent climate than its for-profit counterpart. Second, the dimensions are polarized between the individual and the cosmopolitan loci of analysis. These findings are then discussed with implications and direction for future research. (shrink)

Management scholars have paid close attention to the construct of organizational or corporate reputation, particularly in the applied business ethics and corporate social responsibility fields. Extant research demonstrates that CR is one of the key mediators between CSR and important organizational outcomes, which ultimately improve organizational performance. Yet, hitherto the research focused on CR construct has been plagued by multiple definitions, conflicting conceptualizations, and unclear operationalizations. The purpose of this article is to provide theoretical ground for positioning of CR as (...) an assessment construct that is modeled as a second-order factor affecting individual first-order dimensions, and to provide methodological and empirical support toward such conceptualization. We assert that intangible, socially complex, and causally ambiguous CR can be accurately estimated through its individual measurable dimensions. Using survey data from Peru, we empirically test the hypothesized second-order reflective model within a hierarchy of nested and non-nested models, and compare its model fit and predictive power with alternative conceptualizations. Modeling CR as a second-order reflective construct relies on a set of theoretical propositions and yields several methodological advantages, including strong conceptual interpretability and parsimony when tested within a nomological context. We explicitly demonstrate positive organizational outcomes of CR: customer trust, corporate identification, in-role behavior, and extra-role behavior. Then, we demonstrate that the shorter scales of CR can be used as a good proxy for the full construct measure. The paper concludes by highlighting theoretical insights, and methodological and managerial implications of the findings. (shrink)

This paper presents an integrated model of ethical decision‐making in business that incorporates teleological, deontological and existential theory. Existentialism has been curiously overlooked by many scholars in the field despite the fact that it is so fundamentally a theory of choice. We argue that it is possible to seek good organisational ends (teleology), through the use of right means (deontology), and enable the decision‐maker to do so authentically (existentialism). More specifically, we provide a framework that will enable the decision‐maker to (...) integrate the various ethical schools of thought available to them and to apply this framework in the ethical decision‐making process. The model presented makes explicit the existential position of choice and takes into account other contextual moderating factors. Negative Option Marketing is used as a running application to illustrate the role of existentialism in the decision‐making process. (shrink)

Within the corporate social responsibility research field, the construct of organizational reputation has been extensively scrutinized as a crucial mediator between the firm CSR engagement and valuable organizational outcomes. Yet, the existing literature on organizational reputation suffers from substantive divergence between the studies in terms of defining the construct’s domain, dimensional structure, and the methodological operationalization. The current study aims to refine the organizational reputation construct by reconciling varying theoretical perspectives within the construct’s definitional landscape, suggesting a holistic but parsimonious (...) triadic view on the organizational reputation construct for customer stakeholders. Based on commonly used extant organizational reputation measures, we theoretically and empirically develop the customer-based triadic organizational reputation scale and position it as a superordinate multidimensional construct influencing three distinct first-order dimensions: product and service efficacy, societal ethicality, and market prominence. Results show that the proposed triadic conceptualization of organizational reputation is theoretically defensible, and the resulting scale is cross-culturally generalizable and performs well compared with existing, longer measures of organizational reputation. Together, the organizational reputation model developed here suggests that, for cognitive economy and functional efficiency, customers will access a second-order reflective model of organizational reputation as the default implicit attitude, which in turn will activate reflections of the implicit attitude in the form of first-order dimensions. (shrink)

Plant‐specific NAC transcription factors (TFs) evolve during the transition from aquatic to terrestrial plant life and are amplified to become one of the biggest TF families. This is because they regulate genes involved in water conductance and cell support. They also control flower and fruit formation. The review presented here focuses on various properties, regulatory intricacies, and developmental roles of NAC family members. Processes controlled by NACs depend majorly on their transcriptional properties. NACs can function as both activators and/or repressors. (...) Additionally, their homo/hetero dimerization abilities can also affect DNA binding and activation properties. The active protein levels are dependent on the regulatory cascades. Because NACs regulate both development and stress responses in plants, in‐depth knowledge about them has the potential to help guide future crop improvement studies. (shrink)

To assess the effectiveness of Visual Thinking Strategies in medical education curricula, a pretest–posttest experimental study design was used to evaluate the impact of participating in VTS workshops on first-year medical students. A total of forty-one intervention and sixty comparative students completed the study which included the analysis of clinical images followed by a measurement of word count, length of time analyzing images, and quality of written observations of clinical images. VTS training increased the total number of words used to (...) describe clinical images, the time spent analyzing the images, and the number of clinically relevant observations. (shrink)

Humankind is at the threshold of a global crisis, confronting dire consequences. Worldwide economies are scuffling with anomalous threats traversing social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Global warming, climate change, financial crisis and mental traumas are engulfing mankind. Sustainability is the need of the hour. Sustainability has accumulated extensive discourse in the Indian scriptures. Classical Indian wisdom is also referred to as Sanaātana Dharma wherein Sanaātana means that its relevance transcends the boundaries of space and time and is omnipresent (...) in its scope and application. Therefore, the ancient Indian ethos can assist modern businesses to fabricate a sustainable model of management. Conventional Indian wisdom puts forth a holistic approach wherein scriptures such as the Vedas, the Buddhist texts, and Kautilya’s Arthshashtra established the principles of sustainability centuries ago. Bhagavad Gita, which is regarded as the quintessence of the Vedas, highlights numerous lessons on sustainability that can help businesses tackle the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. This article is an attempt to delve into our rich heritage to discover the business sustainability lessons embedded in our age-old scriptures, particularly the Bhagavad Gita, so that businesses can refer to it and develop some authentic responses to the critical modern-day problems faced them. (shrink)

Digital evolution in the banking sector refers to the integration and development of digital innovations, such as internet banking, mobile applications, AI, and data analytics in banking operations and customer service measures. The research examines the influence of digital development on customer interaction strategies in the banking sector. As banks increasingly adopt digital tools to meet customer expectations for convenience and personalized services, the dynamics of customer relationships are changing. The study purpose is to understand how digital transformation influences customer (...) engagement, satisfaction, loyalty and challenges banks face in maintaining personalized interactions in a digital environment. The study looks into a number of factors, including digital engagement, customer satisfaction, service personalization, customer loyalty, service accessibility, trust and security. The study involves 600 banking customers filling out a questionnaire after being informed about the purpose of the survey. SPSS was employed to conduct various statistics tests such as, pearson correlation, chi square, and t-test the obtain data and variables. The result indicates a positive correlation between the adoption of digital banking solutions and increased customer engagement. Research results underscore the importance of continued investment in a digital technologies to maintain a competitive edge in the banking industry. Banks that effectively integrate digital tools into their customer relationship management practices are better positioned to evolving requirement of customers, leading to improved satisfaction and loyalty. (shrink)

I present the current experimental and theoretical work on interference in complementary spaces. These ideas are applicable to both light and matter waves. I give a detailed treatment for classical light beams in frequency and time domains. I also present a description which gives the totality of interferences.