This article provides a preliminary exploration into the relationship between the bodily senses and race. Seeking insight into what Merleau-Ponty called a body-subject—a lived, knowing body that is aware and reflective of its perceptual experience and actively participates in the construction of reality—it explores the role of the bodily senses in constituting the ideological universe of race. Approaching the body as an anchor of sensory apparatus that is cultivated to confirm and uphold the social and ideological existence of race, it (...) explores how we cultivate, activate, and materialize the historically specific bodies that actively perceive race as difference and participate in the social reality organized by race. Examples of colorblind ideology and racialized pain are used to substantiate the claim that our sensory participation in reality is integral to maintaining what we call race. (shrink)

We provide evidence of the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance (CFP) in Palestine, a highly unstable political context. Annual reports of all firms listed on the Palestine Exchange (PEX) for the period 2016-2019 were manually content analysed. A checklist of reported CSR items is summarised into four areas: environmental information, human resources, community involvement, and product and customer service quality. Results indicate a robust positive connection between each of the four dimensions and the composite CSR (...) index with three performance indicators: ROA, ROE, and Tobins Q. Results also find better performing companies with a higher degree of community involvement being greatly appealing, while the environmental dimension was the least resilient. We discuss the significance of community engagement for an unstable context like Palestine from a community cohesion standpoint. (shrink)

The educational process undergoes continuous evolution each year. These methods and tools have yielded positive outcomes, complementing the modern teaching practices being implemented in post-war Kosovo. It is noteworthy that our country has dedicated special attention to the field of education, actively seeking the best teaching methods that effectively bridge theory and practice. Consequently, the purpose of this research is to analyze the influence of auditory tools on the recognition of new vocabulary during English language classes. Additionally, this paper sheds (...) light on the impact of auditory tools in motivating students to enhance their English vocabulary. This small-scale research employed both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative approach involved ten English language teachers, while the quantitative method encompassed one hundred students. The Likert scale was utilized, consisting of ten questions, to gather responses from fifth-grade students. The researcher aimed to include both high and low English proficiency students to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the results regarding the use of auditory tools for English vocabulary acquisition. In conclusion, the final results indicate that English teachers utilize auditory tools to teach English vocabulary to a certain extent, highlighting the need for increased investment in supplying the targeted schools with such tools. (shrink)

Psychotherapists and counsellors confront several ethical dilemmas as they tend to provide effective services. There has been much debate among psychotherapists and counsellors alike around the utility of therapeutic contracts. Some view contracts as being restrictive to the therapeutic process and often hindering the work done in sessions. In contrast, many counsellors and psychotherapists use those agreements to revisit specific therapeutic topics and establish the guidelines necessary for this professional arrangement. No matter the opinion or preference of contracts, the development (...) of written and/or verbal consent of specific topics in psychotherapy remains essential. This remains one of the formal features of the arrangement and starting relationship in current counselling and psychotherapy practice. This paper aims to discuss the necessity and ethical demand of therapeutic contract in counselling and psychotherapy practice. (shrink)

Managing a company or organization in today’s market is a challenge that each leader has to face. Companies have to adapt and embrace challenges, or they will be left behind by the competitors in the market. The leadership of a company has to be creative in order to fulfill the needs of the customers, the market, and its employees. The same rules apply for language teaching organizations, which have to follow the rapid changes in the field of education, technology and (...) marketing all the same. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to acquire knowledge of key aspects of instructional leadership in private and public schools, to find the parameters that make an organization successful, and to compare key management decisions taken by organizations over the years. In focus of this paper is a case study with two primary schools in Kosovo, one public and one private, how they operate, how are they managed and the possible ways of further development. Interviews with the leaders of the schools have been conducted, and the findings have been compared and supported with contemporary literature review. The paper starts provides an introduction, the literature review, the framework used, an interpretation and critical discussion of the data collected, and it ends with the conclusion on instructional leadership. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In this brief article, we examine the document entitled Universal Draft Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, published by UNESCO in June 2005. We examine it in terms of its content and its appropriate role in global bioethics movements in the future. We make clear our view on the Declaration: the Declaration, despite a variety of serious problems, remains a valuable bioethical document and can contribute in substantial ways to the happiness of people throughout the world.

ABSTRACT In this brief article, we examine the document entitled Universal Draft Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, published by UNESCO in June 2005. We examine it in terms of its content and its appropriate role in global bioethics movements in the future. We make clear our view on the Declaration: the Declaration, despite a variety of serious problems, remains a valuable bioethical document and can contribute in substantial ways to the happiness of people throughout the world.

ABSTRACT In this brief article, we examine the document entitled Universal Draft Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, published by UNESCO in June 2005. We examine it in terms of its content and its appropriate role in global bioethics movements in the future. We make clear our view on the Declaration: the Declaration, despite a variety of serious problems, remains a valuable bioethical document and can contribute in substantial ways to the happiness of people throughout the world.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses experienced tremendous dilemmas including the need to perform their duties in caring for patients while they have concerns about contracting the disease. This study described the moral distress of nurses in-charge of handling COVID-19 patients which can be used as baseline data for intervention programs in overcoming moral distress among nurses. This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with nurses in-charge of handling COVID-19 treatment rooms. Before conducting the survey, ethical approval was obtained from the Medical (...) Faculty of Universitas Hasanuddin. Questionnaires on moral distress for clinical nurses and the demographic data questionnaire were distributed to 128 respondents. These nurses experienced relatively low levels of moral distress despite the fact that they were generally exposed to morally stressful situations. Education background appeared as a factor influencing this condition, in which higher moral distress was mostly experienced by nurses with undergraduate education. (shrink)

To investigate whether people with social anxiety have less actual and “anticipatory” anxiety when interacting with a robot compared to interacting with a person, we conducted a 2 × 2 psychological experiment with two factors: social anxiety and interaction partner. The experiment was conducted in a counseling setting where a participant played the role of a client and the robot or the confederate played the role of a counselor. First, we measured the participants’ social anxiety using the Social Avoidance and (...) Distress Scale, after which, we measured their anxiety at two specific moments: “anticipatory anxiety” was measured after they knew that they would be interacting with a robot or a human confederate, and actual anxiety was measured after they actually interacted with the robot or confederate. Measurements were performed using the Profile of Mood States and the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory. The results indicated that participants with higher social anxiety tended to feel less “anticipatory anxiety” and tension when they knew that they would be interacting with robots compared with humans. Moreover, we found that interaction with a robot elicited less tension compared with interaction with a person regardless of the level of social anxiety. (shrink)

We found that children sometimes abused a social robot placed in a shopping mall hallway. They verbally abused the robot, repeatedly obstructed its path, and sometimes even kicked and punched the robot. To investigate the reasons for the abuse, we conducted a field study in which we interviewed visiting children who exhibited serious abusive behaviors, including physical contact. We analyzed interview contents to determine whether the children perceived the robot as human-like, why they abused it, and whether they thought that (...) the robot would suffer from their abusive behavior. We obtained valid interviews from 23 children over 13 days of observations. We found that 1) the majority of the children engaged in abuse because they were curious about the robot’s reactions or enjoyed abusing it and considered it human-like, and 2) about half of them believed the robot was capable of perceiving their abusive behaviors. (shrink)

Histone post‐translational modifications (PTMs) alter the chromatin architecture, generating “open” and “closed” states, and these structural changes can modulate gene expression under specific cellular conditions. While methylation and acetylation are the best‐characterized histone PTMs, citrullination by the protein arginine deiminases (PADs) represents another important player in this process. In addition to “fine tuning” chromatin structure at specific loci, histone citrullination can also promote rapid global chromatin decondensation during the formation of extracellular traps (ETs) in immune cells. Recent studies now show (...) that PAD4‐mediated citrullination of histone H1 at promoter elements can also promote localized chromatin decondensation in stem cells, thus regulating the pluripotent state. These observations suggest that PAD‐mediated histone deimination profoundly affects chromatin structure, possibly above and beyond that of other PTMs. Additionally, these recent findings further enhance our understanding of PAD biology and the important contributions that these enzymes play in development, health, and disease. (shrink)

Improving public understanding and acceptance are critical for promoting coronavirus vaccination. However, how to promote COVID-19 vaccine programs remains controversial due to various ethical issues. This study, thus, aimed to survey the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines among Japanese citizens and discuss relevant ethical issues. A cross-sectional survey was conducted via an online platform. An anonymous, quantitative, self-administered online questionnaire was sent to 6965 registered Japanese residents, which included questions regarding the respondent’s general knowledge, experience, and opinions of vaccines, vaccine development, (...) COVID-19, and COVID-19 vaccines. Of the 1569 respondents, 730 and 839 were categorized into the younger and older groups, respectively. Most of the respondents possessed general knowledge of COVID-19 vaccines and their features. Of the respondents, 57.8% definitely agreed or somewhat agreed to receive COVID-19 vaccines. The older group showed significantly greater willingness to receive vaccines and higher literacy regarding vaccines in general. Possible reasons for the older group’s greater willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccines are a high risk of severe COVID-19 infection and their past accumulated experience of receiving various vaccinations. Although active public intervention could increase vaccination rates, most of the respondents did not agree with mandatory vaccination. Furthermore, a gap between the participants in the COVID-19 vaccine trials and the prioritized population in real-world vaccination should be adjusted in future vaccine development. (shrink)