Institutions are the formal or informal 'rules of the game' that facilitate economic, social, and political interactions. These include such things as legal rules, property rights, constitutions, political structures, and norms and customs. The main theoretical insights from Austrian economics regarding private property rights and prices, entrepreneurship, and spontaneous order mechanisms play a key role in advancing institutional economics. The Austrian economics framework provides an understanding for which institutions matter for growth, how they matter, and how they emerge and can (...) change over time. Specifically, Austrians have contributed significantly to the areas of institutional stickiness and informal institutions, self-governance and self-enforcing contracts, institutional entrepreneurship, and the political infrastructure for development. (shrink)

Asian American women demonstrate higher rates of disordered eating than other women of color and comparable rates to European American women. Research suggests that leading sociocultural predictors, namely pressures for thinness and thin-ideal internalization, are predictive of disordered eating in Asian American women; however, no known studies have tested the intersection of sociocultural and culture-specific variables (e.g., ethnic identity, biculturalism, acculturative stress) to further elucidate disordered eating risk in this vulnerable, understudied group. Accordingly, this project used path analysis to simultaneously (...) examine the role of sociocultural and culture-specific effects on disordered eating in Asian American college women (N = 430). Self-report measures assessing disordered eating, sociocultural (pressures for thinness; thin-ideal internalization) and culture-specific (ethnic identity, biculturalism, acculturative stress) variables revealed that a number of sociocultural and culture-specific factors are predictive of disordered eating. Consistent with prior research, heightened perceived pressures for thinness and thin-ideal internalization were predictive of disordered eating, and thin-ideal internalization partially mediated the relationship between pressures for thinness and disordered eating. Acculturative stress predicted disordered eating and fully accounted for the inverse relationship between biculturalism and disordered eating. Overall, findings highlighted the salience of sociocultural predictors for disordered eating in Asian American women and identified biculturalism and acculturative stress as culture-specific contributors that may uniquely impact vulnerability to disordered eating in Asian American women. Thus, the combined consideration of sociocultural and culture-specific factors may be important in disordered eating research and in the development of individualized treatment plans for Asian American women. (shrink)

Background:Africa is increasingly becoming an important region for health research, mainly due to its heavy burden of disease, socioeconomic challenges, and inadequate health facilities. Regulatory...

Critical study on Advaitatattvasudhā by N. S. Anantakrishna Sastri, work on Advaita Philosophy.

In the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic has become highly politicized and highly moralized. The current study explored whether participants’ endorsements of binding versus individualizing moral foundations explained partisan differences in views and behaviors regarding COVID-19. Participants completed the Moral Foundations Questionnaire before they indicated how morally permissible they thought it was to violate COVID-19 mandates, report others’ violations, or not get vaccinated. Additionally, they indicated their own prevention behaviors. Results show that endorsement of both individualizing and binding foundations explain (...) partisan differences in moral permissibility ratings. Political conservatism predicted greater endorsement of binding foundations which in turn predicted seeing COVID-19 violations and not getting vaccinated as more morally permissible, and predicted fewer self-reported prevention behaviors. Endorsement of individualizing foundations predicted seeing violations as less morally permissible and reporting others’ violations as more morally permissible. (shrink)

ObjectiveThe buffering role of the hijab as a protective factor against eating pathology has been questioned in countries where wearing the hijab is compulsory, such as Iran; and, cross-cultural comparisons of body image in Iranian and Western women are sparse. Consequently, we examined sociocultural correlates of eating pathology in US and Iranian women.MethodCollege women from the US and Iran completed the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire and the Sociocultural Attitude Toward to Appearance Questionnaire-4. Prior to examining main hypotheses, we evaluated whether the (...) scales perform similarly by culture.ResultsThe EDE-Q and SATAQ-4 were not invariant by culture indicating that the scales performed differently across groups, so separate analyses were conducted in each sample. Thin-ideal internalization and pressures for thinness were significant positive predictors of eating pathology in both US and Iranian women.ConclusionBoth pressures for thinness and thin-ideal internalization appear to be relevant to eating pathology in women from both cultures. However, there may be important cross-cultural differences in the interpretation or experience of these constructs. Further understanding of this measurement non-invariance and the ways in which Iranian women may be uniquely impacted by Western values of appearance is a critical next step. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on mental health interact with preexisting health risks and disparities to impact varying populations differently. This study explored the relationship between demographic variables, distress and mental health, and vulnerability factors for COVID-19. An online cross-sectional study was conducted from 18 June to 17 July 2020, reflecting the impact of early phase COVID-19 pandemic and related shelter-in-place measures in the United States. Participants were adults residing in the United States, with substantial subsamples of American Indian, Asian American, (...) African-American, and Hispanic and/or Latinx participants, as well as people with disabilities and sexual minorities. Outcomes measured were depression, hopelessness, somatic complaints, anxiety-related disorders, locus of control, and a novel measure of pandemic-related distress. Data were analyzed using analyses of covariance, chi-square test, and correlation coefficients. Generally, younger individuals, and those with less financial power—across all identities—suffered more distress. When controlling for age, lower financial power was associated with higher scores on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-Revised, Beck Hopelessness Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-15, Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders for Adults Panic Disorder, SCARED-A generalized anxiety disorder, SCARED-A obsessive–compulsive disorder, and the COVID-19 Pandemic Distress restriction/disconnection scale. In addition, disparities were found, in general, for marginalized identities by gender, sexual orientation, and disability status. Importantly, each ethnicity subsample showed a unique pattern of relationships between COVID-19 risk variables and mental health symptoms. The results support the hypothesis that any pandemic may amplify preexisting social and financial disparities. Overall, interventions at the clinical, governmental, or health equity level should take into consideration the needs of vulnerable groups. (shrink)

Analytical study of the aesthetics; includes views of western philosophers.

On examplary life in sufism according to the teachings of Islam.

Philosophical study of the aesthetics in the light of the Koran; includes a critical study of the western philosophers.

Ubûdî, who is known to had lived in Egypt at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, is one of the Gulsheni dervish poets. What is known about the life of this secluded poet, whose name is not mentioned in the tazkiras and biographical sources, is due to his work called Menâkıb-ı Ev-liyâ-yı Mısr (Legends of Egyptian Saints). He has another 359 couplet mathnawi on the virtue of knowledge and action, and the ugliness of (...) ignorance and laziness. This masnavi, which will be introduced by presen-ting its text here, has been brought into being with quotations and translations from verses and hadiths. In the masnavi, which has the integrity of the subject, it is mentioned about the virtues of studying science and acting by avoiding ignorance and laziness as a religious obligation. In this article, after briefly menti-oning the life, works and poems of Ubûdî-i Gülşenî, his mathnawi about wisdom and the virtue of action is introduced and evaluations are made about its language, form and content features. In this mathnawi, which was written in a religious-didactic style, the wisdom and virtues of learning are mentioned and advice is given from time to time. In the last part of the article, the text of Ubûdî's masnavi on the virtue of knowledge and action and the ugliness of ignorance and laziness is given, and the translations and sour-ces of the quotations made from the verses and hadiths in the text are presented and the poet's references and references are revealed. (shrink)