Moving forward rapidly in the clinical research phase, uterus transplantation may be a future treatment option for women with uterine factor infertility, which accounts for three per cent of all infertility in women. This new method of treatment would allow women, who currently rely on gestational surrogacy or adoption, to gestate and birth their own genetic offspring. Since uterus transplantation carries significant risk when compared with surrogacy and adoption as well as when compared with other organ transplants, it requires greater (...) justification because its goals are quality of life, not life-saving, in their scope. It is important to address questions regarding the physical, psychosocial and ethical risks and benefits of uterus transplantation for all three parties involved—the patient, the donor and the potential child—as well as discuss the regulatory implications as research on uterus transplantations moves forward. (shrink)

This article considers the issue of racial difference in the Goddess movement, using the mythological figure of Arachne, a skilful weaver whom the goddess Athena transformed into a spider, to explore the unequal relational dynamics between white Goddess feminists and women of colour. Bringing Goddess spirituality and thealogical metaphors of webs and weaving into dialogue with postcolonial and black feminist perspectives on the politics of voice, marginality and representation, the article points to some of the ways in which colonial narratives (...) weave through Goddess feminism, including practices of silencing and the romanticization of racial difference. Ultimately, I argue that feminist spirituality must recognize and address structural inequality between white women and women of colour, or in other words, listen to Arachne’s voice. (shrink)

The paper highlights entrepreneurial skills of Indian farmers, informal channels of communications in the socio-cultural setting of the village, tacit knowledge and factors responsible for the adoption of floriculture in open field conditions. It illustrates that the diffusion of new technology in a farming community is dependent on culture-based communication and the tacit knowledge-driven entrepreneurial spirit of a few.

In this paper we investigate the effect of level of understanding revealed by feedback in the form of clarification requests from a route follower on a route giver’s spatial perspective choice in their response in route instruction dialogues. In an experiment varying the level of understanding displayed by route follower clarification requests (the independent variable), route giver perspective switching in response to this feedback is investigated. Three levels of understanding displayed by feedback are investigated: (1) low-level clarification requests indicating that (...) the instruction was not processed, (2) semantic-level clarification requests indicating that the spatial direction given in the instruction could not be resolved as the speaker of the clarification request could not interpret which perspective was intended, and (3) high-level feedback which indicates that the route giver’s instruction was understood but which note an obstacle to following the instruction. Results show that perspective choice, which is a conceptual feature of language use, is sensitive to perceived level of addressee understanding. We found that route givers consistently switch perspectives in responding to semantic-level clarification requests but not in response to low-level ones, and also that switching occurs more for high-level feedback than for low-level feedback. We address how dialogue systems can take advantage of these findings by modelling our results in an Information State model of dialogue, presenting update rules for response generation which account for our findings and also update rules which enable generation of the feedback themselves. (shrink)

In this paper we investigate the effect of level of understanding revealed by feedback in the form of clarification requests from a route follower on a route giver’s spatial perspective choice in their response in route instruction dialogues. In an experiment varying the level of understanding displayed by route follower clarification requests, route giver perspective switching in response to this feedback is investigated. Three levels of understanding displayed by feedback are investigated: low-level clarification requests indicating that the instruction was not (...) processed, semantic-level clarification requests indicating that the spatial direction given in the instruction could not be resolved as the speaker of the clarification request could not interpret which perspective was intended, and high-level feedback which indicates that the route giver’s instruction was understood but which note an obstacle to following the instruction. Results show that perspective choice, which is a conceptual feature of language use, is sensitive to perceived level of addressee understanding. We found that route givers consistently switch perspectives in responding to semantic-level clarification requests but not in response to low-level ones, and also that switching occurs more for high-level feedback than for low-level feedback. We address how dialogue systems can take advantage of these findings by modelling our results in an Information State model of dialogue, presenting update rules for response generation which account for our findings and also update rules which enable generation of the feedback themselves. (shrink)

Mind-body interactions have been the subject of debate for many generations. However, it is only in recent years that these interactions have become the subject of rigorous scientific enquiry. In recent years there have been major advances in our understanding of the stress process, the endocrine and immune systems, and the methodologies used to investigate these phenomena. As a result, we have witnessed an explosion of research activity in the field known as psychoneuroimmunology - the study of psychological processes and (...) their interaction with the nervous and immune systems. This book presents an up to date account of the human evidence in this field. The first three chapters introduce the reader to the biological systems at the heart of mind/body interactions and the methods used to investigate them. Thereafter, each chapter deals with a separate clinical entity; examining the theoretical basis for mind/body interactions; the associated empirical evidence and directions for future research. With each chapter written by international experts in the field, it provides the reader with an up to date account of the research evidence in the rapidly evolving field of psychoneuroimmunology. (shrink)

_The education system of Pakistan has always remained a cause of concern mainly for the educators, stakeholders, ruling political parties, students and parents’ community. A lot of effort has been put to upgrade the education system, increase the literacy rate and maintain the interest and motivation of the learner. One of the main reasons lies in the manner, in which the students are assessed, as assessments are considered to be the means of betterment and improvement. The main aim of the (...) study was to identify the views of university students of Karachi, towards the enhancement of motivation, through assessments. It was a quantitative research, in-person survey was conducted to investigate the role assessment plays in enhancing motivation of students. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was constructed, to collect the data from two hundred and fifteen, randomly selected university students of Karachi. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22. The Psychometric Scale exhibited a positive perception of the construct amongst the respondents. The reliability=.76, with the highest M=4.44, regarding teachers’ attitudes and M=4.44 revealing teachers’ remarks have a deep effect on students’ motivation. Conflicts in the family play a vital role in university students' academic motivation with M=4.34._. (shrink)

Study of Yatīndramatadīpikā, treatise on Viśiṣṭādvaita metaphysics and epistemology by Śrīnivāsācārya, Son of Govindācārya, active 17th century.

Discrimination and violence against women in India often tend to be discussed, framed and explained in cultural terms alone. It is a commonplace assumption that Indian cultural norms are responsible for women's oppression in India and that India's moves to open up the economy to globalisation will usher in modernity and empower women. Another similar assumption is that gendered violence and patriarchal oppression are produced and located primarily in the (Indian traditional) family and community, and that women's entry into the (...) globalised workforce will empower and help them confront and overcome such violence and oppression. This paper attempts to challenge this false binary between ‘family/community/tradition/culture’ and ‘modern political economy’. It looks at the methods used across various sites—household/family, college/university and factory—to subject women's labour and sexuality to a regime of surveillance and gendered discipline. It also looks at the ways in which this regime is disrupted and challenged repeatedly by women's protests. (shrink)

This paper argues that the type of conscience claims made in last decade’s spate of cases involving pharmacists’ objections to filling birth control prescriptions and cases such as Ms. Means and Mercy Health Partners of Michigan, and even the Affordable Care Act and the Little Sisters of the Poor, as different as they appear to be from each other, share a common element that ties them together and makes them fundamentally different in kind from traditional claims of conscience about which (...) a practical consensus emerged in the 1980s and 1990s. This difference in kind is profoundly significant; so much so, we contend, that it puts them at odds with the normative basis for protecting conscience claims in United States health care settings in the first place, making them illegitimate. Finally, we argue that, given the illegitimacy of these contemporary claims of conscience, physicians and other health professionals must honor their well-established standing obligations to provide informed consent and refer or transfer care even if the service requested or needed is at odds with their own core moral beliefs—a requirement that is in line with the aforementioned practical consensus on traditional claims of conscience. (shrink)

Our concern in this paper lies with a common argument from racial discrimination to realism about races: some people are discriminated against for being members of a particular race (i.e., racial discrimination exists), so some people must be members of that race (i.e., races exist). Error theorists have long responded that we can explain racial discrimination in terms of racial attitudes alone, so we need not explain it in terms of race itself. But to date there has been little detailed (...) discussion of whether it is better to explain racial discrimination in terms of race or in terms of racial attitudes alone. Our goal is to offer a novel and detailed argument in defense of explaining racial discrimination in terms of racial attitudes alone, by attending to the neglected phenomenon of misperception discrimination, which involves differential treatment due to misperceived race. We argue that the discriminatory action in misperception cases must be explained in the same way as cases where (according to the realist) the victim’s race is accurately perceived. Thus, the victim’s actual race cannot provide the best explanation. The main upshot of our argument is that explanatory arguments from racial discrimination to realism about race fail. (shrink)

Women with opioid use disorder (OUD) face unique challenges meeting their reproductive goals. Because the rate of unintended pregnancy in this population is almost 80 percent, there has been a push to increase the use of contraceptives among reproductive-aged women with OUD.1 The patient-level ethical issues of such initiatives, however, are often overlooked. This review discusses the ethical issues in two realms: obtaining contraception when it is desired and avoiding contraceptive coercion when contraception is not desired. It is important that (...) access to reproductive education and care be improved to ensure autonomous decision making by women with OUD. It is also necessary to be mindful of the history of oppressive and coercive contraception and sterilization policies in the United States. These policies have left a legacy of mistrust and continue to be manifested in the form of more subtly oppressive policies in contemporary medical practice. Such policies point to the ongoing stigmatization of, and implicit biases held against, women with OUD. Based on these ethical issues, solutions are suggested at the clinical, systemic, and societal levels. (shrink)

A philosopher whose name has become almost synonymous with religious pluralism is John Hick. He justifies his position by borrowing insights and concepts from Immanuel Kant and Ludwig Wittgenstein. We argue that Kantian and Wittgensteinian frameworks are inadequate to explain and defend religious pluralism of the kind he advocates. We critically analyze the concepts of religious experience and religious language and then proceed to discuss Yoga school of Indian philosophy as a limiting case against his enterprise.

Research teams have made considerable progress in treating absolute uterine factor infertility through uterus transplantation, though studies have differed on the choice of either deceased or living donors. While researchers continue to analyze the medical feasibility of both approaches, little attention has been paid to the ethics of using deceased versus living donors as well as the protections that must be in place for each. Both types of uterus donation also pose unique regulatory challenges, including how to allocate donated organs; (...) whether the donor / donor's family has any rights to the uterus and resulting child; how to manage contact between the donor / donor's family, recipient, and resulting child; and how to track outcomes moving forward. (shrink)

Opponents of male circumcision have increasingly used human rights positions to articulate their viewpoint. We characterize the meaning of the term “human rights.” We discuss these human rights arguments with special attention to the claims of rights to an open future and to bodily integrity. We offer a three-part test under which a parental decision might be considered an unacceptable violation of a child's right. The test considers the impact of the practice on society, the impact of the practice on (...) the individual, and the likelihood of adverse impact. Infant circumcision is permissible under this test. We conclude that infant circumcision may be proscribed as violating local norms, even though it does not violate human rights. (shrink)

Study of the works of Śrīrāma Śarmā Ācārya, 1911-1990, Hindu philosopher.

Healthcare in the United States is most often described and experienced as an immense, convoluted industry with a sum greater than its parts. However, it is important to remember that these parts are distinct, autonomous individuals and entities with their own beliefs, customs, and viewpoints. Moral issues surface abundantly in healthcare due to its interconnectedness with human life with enhanced proximity during life’s beginning and end. Therefore, these individual beliefs are prone to clashing as seen in three key relationships: between (...) patient and provider, between providers, and between industry and providers. While this is both to be expected and respected, it is important to remember that all individuals and entities involved in healthcare do have one major duty in common – the welfare of the patient. Unfortunately, legislature at both the state and federal levels and organizational policies have been too willing to endanger the welfare of patients for the sake of balancing the individual consciences involved. (shrink)

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, Issue 7, Page 58-59, July 2012.

This book incorporates seven 'Introductions' that Hegel wrote for each of his major works: the Phenomenology, Logic, Philosophy of Right, History, Fine Art, Religion and History of Philosophy, and includes an Introduction and Epilogue by the Editors, serving to introduce Hegel to the reader and to situate him and his works into their wider context.

Infertile women in the developing world face an additional layer of vulnerability compared to their counterparts in the developed world due to social, cultural, political, and socioeconomic factors that truly render their infertility a disability. After exploring how infertility in the developing world fits the World Health Organization’s biopsychosocial model of disability, we will argue that feminists and disability rights proponents should jointly articulate and advocate for change.

Congenitally infertile woman such as those with Turner syndrome or Mayer Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome have available the technologies of oocyte harvestation, cryropreservation, in-vitro fertilization, and gestational surrogacy in order to have genetically related offspring. Since congenital infertility results in a variety of experiences that impacts on nearly every aspect of a person’s life, in the future it is possible that these women might desire a congenitally infertile child through the use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis so as to share this common bond. (...) While infertility results in a relatively normal quality of life, it is morally wrong to necessitate the future use of infertility services with its variable success rate on a child. Also, whereas the woman has fundamental reproductive autonomy, she lacks the substantive autonomy regarding the specific characteristics of her child. Finally, the infertile community does exhibit a strong presence, but it lacks characteristics that define it as a culture. (shrink)

Bhakti is a remarkable existential tendency that shows itself in the rich expanse of the tradition originating from the Vedas. Recognized as a prize possession of the religions, philosophies, and culture of India, it has often won fascination and admiration from students of Eastern heritage. However, its nature, role, and history remain misunderstood and have not received all the attention they deserve. Its role as a gatherer of life, love, thought, and the divine is missed in its partial characterizations as (...) “Hindu devotion” or “divine love” or “theism implicit in polytheism.” Its status as a perennial thematic concept of the Indian civilization is missed when its pervasiveness is overlooked by the cultural historians preoccupied primarily with its periodic eruptions. Furthermore, the philosophical role of bhakti is missed when it is deemed as an alternative to jnana (knowledge) rather than “the living of jnana.”. (shrink)

We study the question of how to decompose Hilbert space into a preferred tensor-product factorization without any pre-existing structure other than a Hamiltonian operator, in particular the case of a bipartite decomposition into "system" and "environment." Such a decomposition can be defined by looking for subsystems that exhibit quasi-classical behavior. The correct decomposition is one in which pointer states of the system are relatively robust against environmental monitoring (their entanglement with the environment does not continually and dramatically increase) and remain (...) localized around approximately-classical trajectories. We present an in-principle algorithm for finding such a decomposition by minimizing a combination of entanglement growth and internal spreading of the system. Both of these properties are related to locality in different ways. This formalism could be relevant to the emergence of spacetime from quantum entanglement. (shrink)

This study investigated the immediate effect of slow yoga breathing at 6 breaths per minute simultaneously on working memory performance and heart rate variability in yoga practitioners. A total of 40 healthy male volunteers performed a working memory task, ‘n-back’, consisting of three levels of difficulty, 0-back, 1-back, and 2-back, separately, before and after three SYB sessions on different days. The SYB sessions included alternate nostril breathing, right nostril breathing, and breath awareness. Repeated measures analysis of variance showed a significant (...) reduction in reaction time in 2-back condition immediately after ANB, RNB and BAW practices. Similarly, the accuracy was improved in the 0-back condition after RNB, and in the 2-back condition after ANB and RNB practices. These results suggest that SYB practice enhances cognitive abilities related to memory load and improves the functioning of cardiac autonomic activity, which is required for the successful completion of mental tasks.Trial registered in the Clinical Trials Registry of India. (shrink)

India has witnessed an unprecedented rise in the production of movies around the theme of rape, especially after the 2012 BBC report of the horrific Gang-Rape of Nirbhaya in Delhi that shook the en...

The aim of this article is to return to the concept of bricolage as theorized in 1962 by the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss and examine its presence and utility in the art and architectural history of the twentieth century. While Lévi-Strauss was the first theorist to present bricolage as an analogy for the creation of mythical thought among indigenous cultures, the concept has seen a wide range of conceptual, methodological and practical applications across different fields, including design, visual arts, urban (...) planning and the built environment. This article will examine the applicability of bricolage as a technical metaphor for the creative process and its relevance to artistic creation by tracing its trajectory over the course of the twentieth century. It will evaluate the significance of objects and events of ‘everyday life’ in the creative practices of contemporary artists, and draw attention to the emerging role of the architect as bricoleur or improviser, to conclude that it was the art of the ‘ordinary’ that gave creative inspiration to twentieth-century artists and architects to engage with the materiality and past experiences of the world. (shrink)

The Present Book Contains The Philosophy Of Organism Associated With The Teachings Of Prof. An Whitehead With Comparative Reference To Indian Philosophical Doctrines And Chinese Philosophy Of Change. In Part I The Author Deals With Sage Philosopher'S Conc.

The Present Book Contains The Philosophy Of Organism Associated With The Teachings Of Prof. An Whitehead With Comparative Reference To Indian Philosophical Doctrines And Chinese Philosophy Of Change. In Part I The Author Deals With Sage Philosopher'S Conc.