The selling environment is becoming more and more competitive and organizations are trying to gain edge over the other companies. Producing quality goods is not enough. In such a scenario, organizations are trying to make improvements in their salesforce which can be made by making them more ethical. Therefore, it becomes important for the organization to know the factors affecting salesforce ethical behavior. This paper makes an attempt in this regard and explores the organizational antecedents of salesforce ethical behavior. The (...) findings of the review reveal that there are various organizational factors which have an impact on salesforce ethical behavior such as compensation plan, quota, top management, code of ethics, salesforce control system, ethical climate, and ethics training. Based on the findings, the implications and directions for future research are stated. (shrink)

Research involving migrant youth involves navigating and negotiating complex challenges in order to uphold their rights and dignity, but also all while maintaining scientific rigour. COVID-19 has changed the global landscape within many domains and has increasingly highlighted inequities that exist. With restrictions focusing on maintaining physical distancing set in place to curb the spread of the virus, conducting in-person research becomes complicated. This article reflects on the ethical and methodological challenges encountered when conducting qualitative research during the pandemic with (...) Syrian migrant youth who are resettled in Canada. The three areas discussed from the study are recruitment, informed consent and managing the interviews. Special attention to culture as being part of the study’s methodology as an active reflexive process is also highlighted. The goal of this article is to contribute to the growing understanding of complexities of conducting research during COVID-19 with populations which have layered vulnerabilities, such as migrant youth. This article hopes that the reflections may help future researchers in conducting their research during this pandemic by being cognizant of both the ethical and methodological challenges discussed. (shrink)

O psicanalista húngaro Sándor Ferenczi elaborou uma teoria sobre a transição do princípio do prazer ao princípio de realidade, que permite complementar e aprofundar as hipóteses freudianas sobre esses princípios. De acordo com a sua teoria, esse processo envolve uma série de estágios, ao longo dos quais, gradualmente, a diferenciação entre o eu e o mundo externo é estabelecida e o sentimento de onipotência é abandonado. Freud e Ferenczi, contudo, não focaram a questão da maneira como o desenvolvimento da linguagem (...) verbal acompanha esse processo de transição entre os dois princípios, questão essa abordada pela psicanalista russa Sabina Spielrein. Esta autora complementa as teorias de Freud e Ferenczi, ao abordar o fenômeno em questão a partir de uma perspectiva diferente, ou seja, daquela do desenvolvimento da linguagem. Apesar da originalidade e da importância da contribuição de suas teorias para a compreensão do funcionamento mental, Ferenczi e, sobretudo, Spielrein são autores ainda pouco estudados, que merecem maior atenção e reconhecimento, o que justifica o resgate de suas teorias. Nesse artigo, abordamos algumas das hipóteses dos dois autores que permitem uma melhor compreensão do processo de diferenciação entre o eu e o mundo externo e de transição do princípio de prazer ao princípio de realidade. Nos baseamos na análise do texto de Ferenczi O Desenvolvimento do Sentido de Realidade e seus Estágios, de 1913, e nos textos de Spielrein O surgimento e o desenvolvimento da fala articulada e A origem das palavras infantis papai e mamãe, publicados, respectivamente, em 1920 e 1922. (shrink)

Nous manquons, aujourd'hui en Europe, d'un projet écologiste capable de résister aux politiques d'étouffement, dans un monde de plus en plus irrespirable. D'un projet initié dans les quartiers populaires, qui y articulerait en? n l'ancrage dans la terre et la liberté de circuler. D'un projet dont le regard serait tourné vers l'Afrique et qui viserait à établir un large front internationaliste contre le réchauffement climatique et la destruction du vivant. D'un projet qui ferait de la Méditerranée un espace autonome et (...) un point de ralliement des mutineries du Nord comme du Sud. D'un projet se donnant comme horizon à la fois la libération des terres, la libération animale et l'égale dignité humaine, fondamentalement liées. D'un projet assumant la sécession face à des forces d'extrême droite toujours plus menaçantes. D'un projet permettant de prendre le large en quête du One Piece, le fameux trésor du manga éponyme, devenu symbole, dans les quartiers populaires, de la soif de liberté qui y gronde. D'un projet qui se mettrait à hauteur d'enfants et chercherait leur bien-être et leur libération. Ce projet, c'est celui de l'écologie pirate. (shrink)

In this narrative, Fatima examines the interplay of critical consciousness, relational dynamics, and patriarchy within social-geographical spaces. Drawing on personal experiences, the chapter explores how patriarchal norms, internalized and perpetuated within intimate relationships and community networks, shape gendered expectations and limit agency from childhood through adulthood. While acknowledging the harms inflicted by these norms, it highlights the dual role of these spaces in fostering both oppression and connection. The essay looks at why simplistic solutions like geographic escape ignore the (...) interdependence and cultural norms intrinsic to relational spaces. Instead, it advocates for a nuanced understanding of the challenges and complexities of addressing patriarchy within these contexts. Ultimately, Fatima emphasizes that the feminist struggle lies not in abandoning these spaces but in fostering critical consciousness and collective efforts to undo patriarchal systems while paying attention to the nuances of social-geographical spaces. (shrink)

Background: The castor bean is a large grassy or semi-wooden shrub or small tree. Any part of the castor plant parts can suffering from a disease that weakens the ability to grow and eliminates its production. Therefore, in this paper will identify the pests and diseases present in castor culture and detect the symptoms in each disease. Also images is showing the symptom form in this disease. Objectives: The main objective of this expert system is to obtain appropriate diagnosis of (...) the disease. Methods: In this paper, the expert system is designed for the ability of agricultural engineers to detect and diagnose disease of castor like as: seeding blight, alternaria blight, cercospora leaf spot, powdery mildew and wilt. This system presents the disease symptoms, survival and spread, favorable conditions and image for each disease. Clips and Delphi expert system languages are used for designing and implementing the proposed expert system. Results: The expert system in the diagnosis of castor diseases was assessed by farmers and agricultural engineers and they were satisfied and accepted with its quality of performance. Conclusions: The expert system is easy for farmers and people have experience in the plant of castor to detect and diagnosis the symptoms that may face this plant from several disease. (shrink)

The precise nature of microaggression purposely obscures the exploration of the intentionality of perpetrator and the quantification of the harm committed. The act fits neatly into a system that privileges some and validates their reality to themselves and to us. This paper explores microaggression and recommends strategies for avoiding its harms.

RESUMO Este artigo procura mostrar como a linguagem e o estilo empregados por Dostoiévski já em seu romance de estreia, Gente pobre, contribuíram para a grande inovação realizada por ele na forma literária. Ao tomar como objeto de representação a realidade prática de camadas inferiores da sociedade e adotar em sua obra uma linguagem também considerada de nível inferior, própria à maneira de se expressar dessas camadas sociais, Dostoiévski não só transcende todas as regras literárias estabelecidas como também as já (...) transgredidas até então, porque ele leva a sério não só a realidade cotidiana como a linguagem, o nível de estilo próprio a elas. Com isso ele se aproxima da representação séria e elevada da realidade cotidiana sem mudar as regras de estilo, como fizeram os franceses. O que ele muda é o ponto de vista, o foco narrativo, de um modo que não encontra precedente nem mesmo na literatura Ocidental. ABSTRACT This article seeks to show how the language and style employed by Dostoevsky since his debut novel, Poor Folk, contributed to the great innovation that he introduced into literary form. By adopting the practical reality of the lower strata of society as his object of representation and, accordingly, a low-style language, Dostoevsky transcended all established literary rules, as well as others that were already being transgressed. He took seriously both the reality of everyday life and its language, the style level proper to it. In so doing, he approached the serious and elevated representation of everyday reality without changing the rules of style, as the French did. What he changed is the point of view, the narrative focus, and he did so in a way that had no precedent even in Western literature. (shrink)

In The Piano Tuner of EarthQuakes, the Quay Brothers' second feature, the sensual form and the meta-artistic content are truly interweaved, and the siblings' staple animated materials become part of the theme itself. Using Michel Serres's argument in Les cinq sens, I address the relationship between the Quays intermedial animation and the way the art forms of music, painting, theatre and sculpture are used to captivate the film viewer's sensorium in the same way that some of the characters are fascinated (...) by the evil Droz, a scientist and failed composer who manipulates machines and people alike, among them Felisberto, a meek piano tuner with the ability to stir the natural elements. I further proceed to posit the entire film as an intended allegory of animation on the Quays part. Their haptic construction of a three-dimensional world which they control artistically is replicated in the film in Droz's and Felisberto's activities vis-à-vis Malvina van Stille, an abducted opera diva who is kept in a suspended animation state and several hydraulic automata with musical resounding properties, some of them made up of an uncanny assortment of body parts. The artificial life of these creatures is contrasted, in two ways, with their physical reality as beings that exist in the world: first, via Serres's sensorial strategy to transform a body into a conscious entity, an embodiment I call 'Corpo-Reality', and second, by resorting to Deleuze and Guattari's theory of the body without organs in its advocacy of 'hard' nature and the rejection of a rigid assortment of body parts. The paradoxical organic objectivity of the 'marionettized' Malvina is pitted against the seemingly subjective doings of the mechanical automata, especially an android woodcutter. However, just as in the story things are not what they seem, and the automata actually reflect the 'real' world of Felisberto's tuning of them, so the film itself can be a 'crystal-image', offering itself to the senses of the spectator. (shrink)

This paper is a critique of the present mode of capitalist democracy from the ethico-moral viewpoint. The crisis of values is identified as the great bane of free market-led globalization. This trend has aggravated worldwide inequality, promoted terrorism and violence, created psychological anomie and triggered eco logical disasters. Only a few business interests in the wealthier economies are gaining at the expense of humankind. The moral dimension of the government's role has been undermined by such profit-making free market gospel. The (...) author contends that more than beingjust secular, democracy is a pre-social moral force and, as such, is perceived more proximately in the religious temper of a non-industrial society than in a mass industrial society. In the latter democracy is almost a farce with the periodic ritual of public voting as its main act. The paper castigates the global economy and global media which cleverly mastermind our lives, and pleads for a change of values which will make humans self-conscious and will restore their autonomy. (shrink)

Neste texto pretendo dizer alguma coisa sobre a criação, referida por Porchat como uma epopeia, e consolidação do CLE e do Programa de pós-graduação em Filosofia da UNICAMP. O Prof. Porchat chegou à UNICAMP, em 1975, e trouxe consigo um pequeno projeto, que submeteu ao então reitor da Unicamp, Prof. Zeferino Vaz. A proposta contemplava a implantação de um Centro de estudos e pesquisas nas áreas de Lógica, Epistemologia e História da Ciência bem como a criação de um programa de (...) pós-graduação em Lógica e Filosofia da Ciência. Tal projeto, além de preencher uma grande lacuna, converteria a Unicamp, na década de setenta, num local privilegiado de encontro e diálogo entre filósofos, lógicos, historiadores, sociólogos, matemáticos, físicos, psicanalistas até então dispersos nos vários centros universitários do país. O Prof. Zeferino entusiasmou-se com a ideia já na primeira reunião e meses depois uma dezena de filósofos já havia sido contratada para a implantação do CLE e também do Curso de Pós-Graduação em Lógica e Filosofia da Ciência junto ao Departamento de Filosofia. A marca que o Prof. Porchat imprimiu neste programa, neste período, e que o caracterizava era a atmosfera de debate e de discussão que se instalou ali. (shrink)

How do we know that what has happened to us is a microaggression? I claim in this chapter that our understanding about how we perceive microaggression is grounded in the cultivation and critical reflection about experiences of people who occupy marginalized social locations. My aim is to explore the nature of epistemic harms of microaggression in order to highlight how they diminish the microaggressed’s ability to generate and participate in making knowledge claims. I differentiate between the primary (direct) harm of (...) microaggressive acts, and the secondary epistemic harms that occur in the aftermath of the microaggression, particularly when the microaggressed attempts to convey their experience to others. I conclude with an analysis of the two secondary harms in hopes that it helps us explore a possible avenue of resistance to the epistemic harms of microaggression. (shrink)

O presente artigo propõe refletir sobre a vivência ético-política-afetiva na comunidade. Discute-se três pontos principais: 1. Como se dá a ética, a política e os afetos em uma comunidade a partir da Filosofia de Espinosa. 2. Partindo-se da compreensão da dinâmica dos afetos como se pode compreender a liberdade e a servidão na vivência comunitária. Como a comunidade age ou não de tal forma que a liberdade ou a servidão, respectivamente, passam a ser vivenciadas no ambiente comunitário? O que poderá (...) favorecer a liberdade ou a servidão? 3. Proposta de uma ação compartilhada dos profissionais. O objetivo dessa análise é revisitar a reflexão sobre ética, política e afetos na comunidade e, a partir de Baruch de Espinosa, proporcionar uma análise que reatualize o que seja comunidade na perspectiva essa revisitação. O conceito de comunidade que esse artigo se refere diz respeito ao conjunto de pessoas que convivem no mesmo território ou no mesmo bairro e que, no quotidiano, vivenciam diversas experiências. Tem-se como reflexões principais que, mediante a compreensão da dinâmica instável dos afetos, os profissionais que ‘atuam’ em comunidades, poderão ter uma visão mais ampla sobre suas práticas e se as mesmas fomentam ou aumentam estados de servidão ou se, ao contrário, contribuem para a liberdade da comunidade e dos indivíduos. (shrink)

This essay is an autobiographical journey through my intellectual career. It is a reflection on how my mother tongue Berber and my identity as a woman have impacted my career to the extent that they are interlocked in my research agenda. My Berber identity inspired my graduate theses and subsequent linguistics work, and my identity as a woman inspired my endeavors to help create the first Studies and Research on Women Center and the first graduate Gender Studies Program in my (...) university. These two academic structures spearheaded the creation of similar centers and programs in Morocco and North Africa. The combination of my two identities is behind my introduction of the Language and Gender discipline in Morocco and North Africa and made of me a Berber feminist linguist. (shrink)

An area agency on aging is a public or private nonprofit organization designated by the state to address the needs and concerns of all older persons at the regional and local levels in the United States 2019). AAAs have a successful history of developing, coordinating, and implementing comprehensive networks of services and programs that enrich communities and the lives of older adults. AAAs were established through a provision of the Older Americans Act, which was signed into law by President Lyndon (...) B. Johnson. Specifically, AAAs were created with the 1973 reauthorization of the OAA. AAAs create the infrastructure to execute comprehensive long-term support services that ensure the independence of older adults. (shrink)

The research on the dark side of leadership is still in its infancy. We have contributed to this line of research by proposing that work alienation acts as an underlying mechanism through which aversive leadership results in reduced job performance. We further propose that psychological capital acts as an important personal resource that reduces the negative effects of aversive leadership in the form of work alienation. The proposed model gets its support from the conversation of resources theory given by Hobfoll (...) (1981) which suggests that stressful situation like an aversive leadership results in the loss of employee resources as a result of that he/she indulges in work alienation and shows poor job performance to retain back the lost resources. People with better personal resources in the form of psychological capital are better able to cope-up with the aversive leader behavior and make them able to avoid work alienation. It is a time-lagged study. The data for the current study was collected from 321 employees working in the service sector organizations, particularly universities, banks and telecom organizations, through personally administered questionnaires. The results supported the mediation and moderation hypothesis. Limitations and future research along with theoretical and practical implications are given at the end. (shrink)

My aim in this paper is to carve out a political understanding of the Muslim identity. The Muslim identity is shaped within a religious mold. Inseparable from this religious understanding is a political one that is valuable in its own right in order to secure any sustainable possibility of participating politically as Muslims within a democratic liberal democracy, such as the United States. Here I explore not the historical or theological formation of the Muslim identity, rather a metaphysical understanding of (...) it, in order to mobilize politically while avoiding the traps of essentialism. I begin with a brief overview of the early understandings of the term “identity politics” in the United States. Moving beyond interest-based movements I explore María Lugones' particular understanding of the self as multiplicitous. I then offer examples of the Muslim identity within the context of a social movement and individualist claims, in order to draw out the political aspects of the Muslim identity. In the final section I argue that the theological criteria that define “who counts as a Muslim” is a crucial aspect of how many Muslims may understand their identity as Muslims. However, I claim that in order to avoid the traps of marginalization of Muslim minorities, one must understand oneself as a multiplicitous political agent and that, furthermore, such an understanding is not at odds with Islam or one's own understanding of their identity as Muslim. (shrink)

The study assessed the role of childhood religiosity in adult religiosity and learning motivation in university participants. Participants were 338 university students (mean age = 20.42, SD = 1.53, 47% men) selected from Islamic (50%) and general universities (50%). The findings showed that participants from Islamic university compared to those from general universities scored higher on religious altruism among religiosity outcomes and on self-efficacy and active learning strategies among learning motivation outcomes. The hypothesized associations between childhood religiosity, religious altruism, religious (...) practice, and specific learning motivation outcomes were significant. Childhood religiosity predicted two learning motivation outcomes, self-efficacy and active learning strategies, and only religious altruism in the presence of religious practice mediated these associations. In addition, university status moderated these mediated associations with stronger indirect effects for participants from Islamic universities compared to those from general universities. (shrink)

There are a lot of research studies that look at "fake news" from an Arabic online source, but they don't look at what makes those fake news spread. The threat grows, and at some point, it gets out of hand. That's why this paper is trying to figure out how to predict the features that make Arabic online fake news spread. It's using Naive Bayes, Logistic Regression, and Random forest of Machine Learning to do this. Online news stories that were (...) made up were used. They are found by using Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency. The best partition for testing and validating the prediction was chosen at random and used in the analysis. So, all three machine learning classifications for predicting fake news in Arabic online were done. The results of the experiment show that Random Forest Classifier outperformed the other two algorithms. It had the best TF-IDF with an accuracy of 86 percent. Naive Bayes had an accuracy rate of 84%, and Logistic Regression had an accuracy rate of 85%, so they all did well. As such, the model shows that the features in TF-IDF are the most essential point about the content of an online Arabic fake news. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This article presents an overview of the Portuguese transposition of the European Directive on Good Clinical Practice (2001/20/e) concerning scientific and academic debates on bioethics and clinical investigation. Since the Directive was transposed into Portuguese law by its National Assembly, the bureaucracy of clinical trials has been ever more complex. Despite demands for swift application processes by the Pharmaceutical industry, supported by the European Parliament, the Directive's transcription to the national law has not always delivered the expected outcome. However, (...) this has led to an increased number of applications for clinical trials in Portuguese hospitals. In this article I revise bioethical publications and decree‐laws enabling an informed appraisal of the anxieties and prospects for the implementation of the clinical trials Directive in Portugal. This article also places the European Directive in the field of sociology of bioethics, arguing that Portuguese bioethical institutions differ from those of the US, and also from Northern European counterparts. The main divergence is that those people in Portugal who claim expertise in ‘legal’ bioethics do not dominate either the bureaucratic structure of research or ethics committees for health. Even experts in the applied ethics field now claim that ‘professional bioethicists do not exist’. The recent creation of a national Ethics Committee for Clinical Investigation (CEIC) in line with the European Directive on Good Clinical Practice (GCP) will not change the present imbalance between different professional jurisdictions in the national bioethical debate in Portugal. (shrink)

As a new praxis emerges, in Access to Information in Africa for the first time African scholars and practitioners reflect on recent advances on the continent, as well as the obstacles that must still be overcome if greater public access to information is to make a distinctive contribution to Africa's democratic and socio-economic future.

In 2016, the term utopia was appropriated by a variety of discourses in disparate fields to commemorate the human capacity to imagine alternatives to the present and devise strategies for overcoming the most pressing problems. This section of Utopian Studies offers a review of the events held throughout that year in six European countries—Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Ireland—describing the main topics and examining the way they contributed to the promotion of utopian hopes, views, and strategies.The article (...) on utopian events is followed by five texts offering an overview of the books published in 2016 and the first semester of 2017 in those countries, revealing the diversity of approaches... (shrink)

Dans cet article nous proposons une définition de l’éthique de la gestion et nous en identifions les conditions à travers une revue de la littérature. Nous postulons par la suite que l’éthique de la gestion diffère selon qu’il s’agit d’organisations publiques ou d’organisations privées. Nous montrons en effet que pour l’organisation privée, l’éthique est un engagement subjectif qui permet de pallier les lacunes d’une gestion instrumentale sans remettre en question les finalités premières de l’organisation. Tandis que pour l’organisation publique, l’éthique (...) a une essence positive et se trouve orientée vers la recherche de compromis sur les finalités mêmes de l’organisation. (shrink)

This study examines the dynamics of interfaith communication in modern-day Europe, emphasizing the obstacles to and opportunities presented by religious heterogeneity. The religious landscape of Europe is heterogeneous, with followers of many religions living side by side. But this variety also brings difficulties, like bias, political unrest, and resentment from the past, which can obstruct attempts to foster mutual understanding and collaboration across religious communities. Interfaith communication is essential for advancing religious freedom and social cohesiveness despite these obstacles. The research (...) was based on primary data analysis to determine whether the research used smart PLS software. It generated results that included descriptive correlation and presented a smart PLS Algorithm model between them. The research study determines interfaith communication's value, its challenges, and possible routes to religious diversity. Based on case studies and previous research, it emphasizes practical interfaith efforts and makes recommendations for legislators, religious leaders, and civil society organizations. The research found that significant interreligious Dialogue in contemporary Europe relates to religious pluralism. This article supports continuing efforts to foster tolerance, understanding, and mutual respect among Europe's varied religious groups by addressing the difficulties of interfaith interactions. (shrink)

This piece contextualizes a discussion by liminal feminists on the identifiers ‘women of color’ and ‘Third World women’ that emerged from some uncomfortable and constructive conversations at the 2015 FEAST conference. I focus on concerns of marginalization and gatekeeping that are far too often reiterated within the uneasy racial dynamics among feminist philosophers.

This paper argues that one of the most valuable insights that Muslim-Americans ought to bring into the political arena is our affective response to the government of the United States' internal and foreign policies regarding Muslims. I posit the concept of empathy as one such response that ought to inform our foreign policy in a manner inclusive of Muslim-Americans. The scope of our epistemic privilege encompasses the affective response that crosses borders of the nation-state in virtue of our propinquity to (...) the narratives of Muslims globally. Such an affective response is crucial to our selves remaining multiplicitous and whole. Furthermore, I argue that we ought to access and assess those aspects of our identity that make us subject to suspicions of disloyalty, because it is precisely those aspects that can inform our social and political discourse in a more morally adequate and responsive way. (shrink)

Research's basic purpose is to determine religion's role in promoting social justice. Religion focuses on providing the people with all the rights they own. The religious faith makes people work to improve their country and state religious enforcement provides basic civil rights to the members of civil societies. In any society, people with firm religious beliefs and morals provide all the necessities to the lower-class members as they provide to the higher-class members. Providing social equality is the basic teaching of (...) all religions. All religions violate any kind of gender inequality and injustice. Only equal and fair rights provided to every member of society is the duty of every social rights-providing organization and social member. The research was based on primary data analysis to determine the use of Smart PLS software, and the run result included descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients, and the smart PLS Algorithm model between them. The social right-providing agencies and members of social rights institutes work side by side to ensure that people of all age groups receive an equal share of rights in society. One main benefit of having religious faith is that people refrain from doing bad actions. Religions provide people with knowledge related to hell and heaven. The teaching of religion that good deeds will bring them to heaven and bad deeds will eventually bring them to hell makes people quit bad deeds.in most societies, people indulge themselves in bad actions like gambling and robberies. Overall, the result found a significant role of religion in promoting social justice. By teaching such people about the outcomes of their bad deeds, such individuals will surely refrain from doing inappropriate activities. (shrink)

In this paper I bring up some ideas on how to search for religious healing through criticism to the concepts of "belief" and "symbolic efficiency". With this purpose, its presented a brief overview of the imbrication between cure and religion in the Brazilian religious field, indicating the vitality of this relationship in the contemporary context, followed by two episodes of healing narrative in which I was personally involved. In the end, I argue that contrary to what the concept of belief (...) might suggest, therapeutic efficacy does not constitute “a discourse on" intervention on the bodies and on the world, but on the practical conditions for mobilizing the truth. The concept of belief does not constitute a good tool for understanding the diversity of implicated mediators of assemblages of healing, nor enables us to understand the intricacies of religious-therapeutic effectiveness. In anthropology, similar critique has also been made to the concept of symbolic efficacy as a conceptual tool for understanding transformations not only of "souls," but also of bodies. (shrink)

Restorativeness is defined as the potential of the environment to re-establish certain cognitive capacities related to human information processing. The most frequently used instrument for evaluating the restorativeness of places is the Perceived Restorativeness Scale, proposed by Hartig and colleagues (1991). Later on, shorter versions of the Perceived Restorativeness Scale were proposed. The aim of this work is to evaluate the discriminatory capacity of the original and of a shorter Spanish version of the PRS, considering urban settings previously selected for (...) having different level of restorativeness, according to expert’s criteria. The study involved 244 students and used a 3 x 2 mixed experimental design, with two independent variables: Restorativeness of a place (between-subjects), which was manipulated by showing pictures of settings selected with varying levels of restorativeness (high, medium, low), and length of the scale (within-subjects), which was manipulated by asking subjects to fill in both the original and a shorter version of the PRS. The order of presentation of the two scales was counterbalanced. Results show an appropriate reliability for both version of the scale. Items of being-away, fascination, and coherence of the shorter scale correlate more strongly with the corresponding factor of the original scale, compared to the others factors. Both scales produce similar values for the perceived restorativeness of the different places, except for places with low restorativeness. (shrink)

One distinguishing feature of vertebrate oocyte meiosis is its discontinuity; oocytes are released from their prophase I arrest, usually by hormonal stimulation, only to again halt at metaphase II, where they await fertilization. The product of the c‐mos proto‐oncogene, Mos, is a key regulator of this maturation process. Mos is a serine‐threonine kinase that activates and/or stabilizes maturation‐promoting factor (MPF), the master cell cycle switch, through a pathway that involves the mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade. Oocytes arrested at prophase I (...) lack detectable levels of Mos, which must be synthesized from a pool of maternal mRNAs for proper maturation. While Mos is necessary throughout maturation in Xenopus, it seems to be required only for meiosis II in the mouse. The translational activation of c‐mos mRNA at specific times during meiosis requires cytoplasmic polyadenylation. Cis‐ and trans‐acting factors for polyadenylation are, therefore, essential elements of maturation. (shrink)

The political posture often encouraged in liberatory movements is that of urgency. Urgency is based on the idea that if oppressed peoples do not act “now,” then their fate is forever sealed as subordinates within social and political power hierarchies. This paper focuses on a contrasting political posture, termed presence of mind, motivated by the current political atmosphere of distrust and disenfranchisement in which some Muslim-Americans find themselves. Presence of mind is defined as the ability to critically unpack visceral affective (...) responses to injustice—giving special consideration to power structures, one’s social location, and relationships—and then to asses an appropriate response in virtue of that consideration that best upholds our commitments. This paper argues that cultivating presence of mind acknowledges the complexities of the Muslim-Americans’ identity while providing a posture that allows the resistor to best represent their political commitments. (shrink)

By expanding on Hans-George Gadamer’s critique of contemporary formalist approaches to art, wherein the artist pursues an artwork with a “disinterested” self, this paper endeavors to underline the transformative aspect of aesthetic experience. Even though it acknowledges the epistemological difference between Gadamer’s phenomenological approach and the Arab-Islamic one, particularly Ibn Sīnā’s treatment of arts and aesthetics, it nonetheless discovers some subtle similarities between the two. Consequently, it articulates artistic endeavor as an act of askesis (spiritual exercise) aimed at theosis (becoming (...) like God). (shrink)

Turiel and colleagues divided norms into two kinds: Moral norms and conventional norms. Moral norms are universal, concerned with welfare, justice, fairness, equality and/or rights, and rule/authority independent. Conventional norms are local, rule/authority dependent, and concerned with maintaining social coordination, preserving tradition, and avoiding punishment. This account has been challenged, and the existence of a crisp distinction remains debatable. In this paper, I defend a version of the moral/conventional distinction on the basis that people generally judge norms concerned with welfare (...) violations as moral, and that they distinguish between the morality of the action and that of the agent. I argue that we can make sense of the mixed data because people differ in how they perceive harm. Harm perception, rather than “objective” harm, is the relevant variable in knowing how people judge norms. To illustrate this, I explore why people perceive norms differently and how the moral/conventional distinction is reflected not only between cultures, but within them too. This should prompt us to reimagine the moral/conventional distinction to account for this diversity in perceptions. Doing away with the distinction risks misrepresenting both inter- and intra-cultural diversity in perceptions of harm. (shrink)