Learning in college often extends beyond classrooms and formal instruction. Various forms of student organisings can allow for learning beyond institutional curricula. In this paper, using two examples of collective mobilisations, I argue for paying keener attention to the informal within formal education spaces. Both the instances under discussion occur around the space of the hostel - located within the formal educational institution and yet, away from the formalised processes of learning and teaching. In varied ways, however, the forms of (...) conversation that marks the coming together of students, has pedagogic significance. Specifically, conceiving students mobilising as an instance of anti-caste assertion or against implicitly accepted gender norms, I argue, provides students newer ways of thinking about the world - and must thus be conceptualised as learning. Not only are these informal learning spaces significant for the varied ways they could impact students; they are also important in holding the possibility to question hegemonic practices in educational institutions, and society at large. (shrink)

Farmer participatory approaches were used to identify problems and needs as perceived by local people and to develop strategies to achieve fodder security in south Indian villages. Indigenous knowledge systems as they relate to agroforestry were explored. The farmer participatory approaches have laid the foundations for selecting appropriate agroforestry technologies and developing suitable fodder security policy options. Potential benefits and risks as a result of implementing agroforestry projects were also discussed.

Philosophers have established that certain ethically important val- ues are modally robust in the sense that they systematically deliver correlative benefits across a range of counterfactual scenarios. In this paper, we contend that recourse – the systematic process of reversing unfavorable decisions by algorithms and bureaucracies across a range of counterfactual scenarios – is such a modally ro- bust good. In particular, we argue that two essential components of a good life – temporally extended agency and trust – are under- (...) written by recourse. We critique existing approaches to the conceptualization, op- erationalization and implementation of recourse. Based on these criticisms, we suggest a revised approach to recourse and give ex- amples of how it might be implemented – especially for those who are least well off. (shrink)

Shows that executive integrity is not merely a moral trait but a dynamic process of making empathetic, responsible, and sound decisions. Describes key features of executive integrity including effective social interaction, open dialogue, and responsive leadershipand explains how integrity can be developed and practiced in today's organizations.

In this paper a theoretical framework is proposed for how the brain processes the information necessary for us to achieve the understanding of others that we experience in our social worlds. Our framework attempts to expand several previous approaches to more fully account for the various data on interpersonal understanding and to respond to theoretical critiques in this area. Specifically, we propose that social understanding must be achieved by at least two mechanisms in the brain that are capable of parallel (...) information processing. The first mechanism, based on research into mirror matching systems in the brain, suggests that representations of others are mapped onto an observer's representations of these same schemas in order to understand them. The second mechanism requires semantic analysis of a given social situation in order to understand the actions of others and most likely involves conscious processes. We suggest that experimental correlates of these systems should be dissociable using both behavioral and neuroimaging techniques. (shrink)

Gogineni, Babu Ravulapally village in Nalgonda District of Andhra Pradesh was enrolled in the 'Adopt a Dalit Village project' as it received generous support from the Council of Australian Humanist Societies in 2012.

Gogineni, Babu I asked Mr Salve, 'What exactly happened, and what gave you the strength to fight your case? Your job as an English teacher was at risk, and your own colleagues shunned you. You are from the Dalit community, and you live in Maharashtra state where militant religion has frequently silenced dissenters - how could you hold out for 7 years?'.

Purpose This study aims to explore the potential of mobile assistive technology as a vocational tool for blind workers. Specifically, it investigates: Can MAT-enabled BW to perform better at the workplace and will insight into MAT-enabled capabilities impact employer perception regarding BW employability. Design/methodology/approach Exploratory case study which draws on theories of fit to analyze observational and interview data at an organization familiar with employing, training and referring BW. Findings MAT can increase blind worker job fit, positively impacting their performance, (...) self-reliance and managerial perceptions regarding their employability. Research limitations/implications A conceptual framework is articulated which expands current literature on fit to better account for the assistive potential of mobile technology for differently abled workers. Practical implications The positive impact of MAT on managerial perceptions of BW fit and employability can inform the regimes of employers, job skills trainers, vocational rehabilitation specialists and policy makers. Social implications Insights on the use of MAT as a vocational tool can reduce the systemic workplace disenfranchisement of blind people. Originality/value This paper presents novel theory which accounts for the impact of MAT on the job fit of differently abled workers. (shrink)

This essay will discuss the hegemonic role that texts have come to play in the historiography of subcontinental mathematical traditions. It will argue that texts need to be studied as records of practices of people's working lives, grounded in social hierarchies. We will take particular mathematical texts to show how different occupational registers have come to shape practices that defy the binaries of concrete and abstract, high and low mathematics or the pure and applied conundrum. Measuring, counting and accounting practices (...) as part of the routine work of practitioners performing their caste occupations then provide us with a spectrum of the computational activities that controlled and regulated the lives of people in the past. In the process the act of computing itself gained certain political values such as cunning and manipulation, identified with professions of village accountant and merchant, for example. Drawn from my earlier work on these records, I discuss the occupational role of the accountant as a political functionary who assessed and authenticated the measurements of land and produce in the village, making values of the labor performed by others, and creating avenues for his own proficiency as a mathematical practitioner. (shrink)

Emphasizes The Integration Aspects And The Spiritual Foundations Of Music.

In this paper, a fresh method is offered regarding training of particular neural networks. This technique is a combination of the adaptive genetic (AG) and cuckoo search (CS) algorithms, called the AGCS method. The intention of training a particular artificial neural network (ANN) is to obtain the finest weight load. With this protocol, a particular weight is taken into account as feedback, which is optimized by means of the hybrid AGCS protocol. In the beginning, a collection of weights is initialized (...) and the similar miscalculation is discovered. Finally, during training of an ANN, we can easily overcome the training complications involving ANNs and also gain the finest overall performance with training of the ANN. We have implemented the proposed system in MATLAB, and the overall accuracy is about 93%, which is much better than that of the genetic algorithm (86%) and CS (88%) algorithm. (shrink)

Krishnachandra's re-articulation of Kant's transcendental system challenges Kant's conceptualization of 'apperceptive self' conceived as a logical function which is as well the precondition of all our knowledge claims. In Kant's framework, though this "unity of consciousness" is projected as a principle, which undertakes a foundational role as 'apperceptive I', it is capacitated with merely a logical function. Krishnachandra disagrees with Kant's reduction of function of the "self" to a logical process. This reduction would render knowledge of the "self" to be (...) an inferential knowledge, thus making this derivation analogous to the proofs of the transcendental conditions of understanding and sensibility through the logical process of deductions. Krishnachandra's question is: whether this equation established between logical function of 'apperception' and the "self" will suffice to establish the "certitude" of knowledge claims. This is the first task Krishnachandra addresses in his work, Studies in Kant which is elucidated in the following section of this paper. Further, we will see how Krishnachandra’s exploration into the dynamics of this problem leads him to alternatively foreground the "unity", which is much sought by Kantian scholars, between the theoretical and the practical domains of Reason. (shrink)

CSR in India is mandated through Section 135 of the Companies Act (2013), covering the practice and reporting of social responsibility projects. This paper examines India's CSR framework and reports findings on governance, planning, and implementation from a survey of and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Overall findings reveal several positive aspects and inform us of the challenges that companies and NGOs consider essential. First, an overwhelming majority of companies focused on three investment areas: health, education, and the environment. Second, 88% of (...) companies undertook long-term continuing projects, a positive signal from a social development perspective. Third, 68% reported that their CSR strategy was aligned with their core business strategy. Fourth, a significant majority of the companies have established the required structure for policy development, planning, and periodic monitoring from a governance perspective. Finally, findings on NGOs indicate several elements of preparedness; however, the retention of talented employees is a continual challenge. (shrink)

The primary argument against Rachlin's act-versus-pattern analysis of self-control is that it is wrong to think of a temptation as a solitary act while the alternative is conceived of as an element of a pattern. Either both are solitary acts or both are members of patterns, however different the patterns may be in their complexity and abstractness.

This monograph deals with the controversy about determinism versus freedom of will. The book is addressed to scholars, especially in the areas of philosophy and psychology, and also to thinking and serious-minded laypersons who are interested in the implications of being human. The book attempts to help the reader understand and resolve the dilemma of determinism. The solution offered by this book has not been previously offered by any other book, even though the literature on this topic is vast. The (...) deterministic position is that all events are effects of previous events and causes of future events, in inexorable cause-effect sequences, which leave no room for intervention of anything outside of the stream of causal relationships, such as free will, thus rendering moral responsibility meaningless. Libertarians believe in freedom of will which is, for them, indispensable for moral responsibility. This controversy can be resolved only by making a clear distinction between two kinds of freedom. In common parlance, freedom means freedom from constraint or compulsion, which can be designated as contra-constraintual freedom. The second meaning of freedom is freedom from causation, which has been referred to as contra-causal freedom, and this is the meaning that is inherent in the concept of freedom of will. If we have contra-causal freedom, we can choose or decide to act irrespective of antecedent conditions including our own past. The distinction between contra-causal freedom and contra-constraintual freedom is the key to the resolution of the controversy between determinism and libertarianism. The absence of contra-causal freedom prevails at the theoretical, conceptual, objective, abstract, or as-is level, whereas contra-constraintual freedom functions at the practical, behavioral, subjective, concrete, or as-if level. All we need for moral responsibility is contra-constraintual freedom, and not contra-causal freedom. At the as-is level, there is neither freedom nor dignity, neither morality nor accountability, and neither purpose nor meaning for human existence. It is only at the as-if level that these terms make any sense at all. In theory there is no choice from alternative courses of action in light of the absence of contra-causal freedom; in practice there is, in direct proportion to contra-constraintual freedom. (shrink)

As is generally known, Newton’s notion of universal gravitation surpassed various theories of particular gravities in the early modern age, as represented mainly by Kepler and Hooke. In his seminal work “Hooke and the Law of Universal Gravitation: A Reappraisal of a Reappraisal” Richard S. Westfall argues that Hooke could not reach beyond the concept of spatially bounded particular gravities, as he deployed the method of analogy between the material principle of congruity and incongruity and the extension of gravitational spheres (...) and their action at a distance. However, the doctrine of universal gravitation does not exclude the nature of particular gravities; it is predicated on the notion of an infinite expansion of individual-gravitational spheres and their uniform nature, namely the mutual and centripetal attraction. In my treatise I attempt to reinvestigate the nature and structure of gravitation, as established historically in the framework of Newtonian Classical Mechanics, by a method of structural intuition. It examines how the structural intuition, as represented in the celestial-mechanical intuitions of Hooke and Kepler, could unfold into an innovative process within the context of early modern mechanical philosophy, attaining thus a historical significance and legitimacy as against the prevailing Newtonian method of geometric-mathematical axiomatization of mechanical principles. It also explores the actual demonstrative features of the tidal phenomenon with regard to its lunar- and solar-gravitational causation, which has been considered to date to be an important piece of empirical evidence for the theory of universal gravitation. (shrink)

In medical research involving human participants, investigators follow procedures specified in the study protocol. This differs from the patient-provider relationship where individualized decisions...

Standalone corporate social responsibility reports vary considerably in the content of information released due to their voluntary nature. In this study, we develop a disclosure score based on the tone, readability, length, and the numerical and horizon content of CSR report narratives, and examine the relationship between the CSR disclosure scores and analyst forecasts. We find that CSR reporters with high disclosure scores are associated with more accurate forecasts, whereas low score CSR reporters are not associated with more accurate forecasts (...) than firms who do not issue CSR reports. The findings are robust to controlling for firm characteristics including CSR activity ratings and financial narratives. The findings are driven by experienced CSR reporters rather than first-time CSR reporters. Together, our findings suggest that the content of CSR reports helps to improve analyst forecast accuracy, and this relationship is more pronounced for CSR reports with more substantial content. (shrink)

Recognition of sarcastic statements has been a challenge in the process of sentiment analysis. A sarcastic sentence contains only positive words conveying a negative sentiment. Therefore, it is tough for any automated machine to identify the exact sentiment of the text in the presence of sarcasm. The existing systems for sarcastic sentiment detection are limited to the text scripted in English. Nowadays, researchers have shown greater interest in low resourced languages such as Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Indonesian, etc. (...) To analyse these low resource languages, the biggest challenge is the lack of available resources, especially in the context of Indian languages. Indian languages are very rich in morphology which pose a greater challenge for the automated machines. Telugu is one of the most popular languages after Hindi among Indian languages. In this article, we have collected and annotated a corpus of Telugu conversation sentences in the form of a question followed by a reply for sarcasm detection. Further, a set of algorithms are proposed for the analysis of sarcasm in the corpus of Telugu conversation sentences. The proposed algorithms are based on hyperbolic features namely, Interjection, Intensifier, Question mark and Exclamation symbol. The achieved accuracy is 94%. (shrink)

Background: A large number of nurse researchers do not adhere to ethical standards while performing the research. Moreover, there is far less data on knowledge of existing national ethical guidelines. This study was, therefore, done to assess awareness and adherence to current national ethical guidelines among nursing students and faculty members. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was done among nursing faculty members and theses carried out by postgraduate nursing students between 2012 and 2017. Using the convenience sampling technique, seven states (...) of North India were selected. In each of the selected seven states, one government and one private nursing college was selected. Thus, a sample of 14 nursing colleges was selected. Then, using simple random sampling, a total of 140 nursing faculty members and 280 postgraduate nursing theses were selected from all the chosen institutes to be part of the study. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics. Ethical considerations: The study has been approved by the institutional ethical committee. In addition, written permission from the head of each nursing institute was obtained before conducting the study. After participants read the Participation Information Sheet, they were asked for written informed consent before data collection. Confidentiality of the information and anonymity of the participants were maintained throughout the study. Results: The majority of the participants were females. It was found that compared to private nurses, government college nurses were more adhered to the research guidelines on research project approval, informed consent guidelines, providing patient information sheets, maintaining information confidentiality, maintaining anonymity and obtaining custodian permission. It was also shown that nurses were more aware of the informed consent process domain followed by the general ethical principles domain. Conclusion: Government college nurses adhered more to the research guidelines as compared to those employed in private settings. Most of the faculty members were not part of any clinical trials and had no research ethics training at all. Therefore, it is needed to provide an instructional programme to raise awareness of the research ethical standards. (shrink)

Der tranzendentale Status der Sinnlichkeit -- Die Analogizität der Sinnlichkeit -- Die Ausdehnung der Sinnlichkeit -- Vom Subjekt zum Objekt.

Die Wissenschaften entstehen und entfalten sich innerhalb von historischen Kontexten. Dabei vollzieht sich die Kontextualisierung einzelner Wissenschaftsdisziplinen durch die historisch-kontextuale Ausweitung und Abgrenzung gegenuber anderen Wissenschaftsdisziplinen. Die vorliegende Abhandlung ist ein Versuch, in der Entwicklungsgeschichte einiger fruhneuzeitlicher Wissenschaftsdisziplinen eine zweifache Wurzel der Kontextualitat festzustellen: Einen internen bzw. einen der Wissenschaftsdisziplin innewohnenden Prozess der Kontextualisierung kann man aus ihrer Entwicklungsgeschichte herleiten. Diesen gilt es von einem externen, durch aussere Faktoren und neue Erkenntnisse auf anderen Feldern bedingten Prozess der Kontextualisierung abzugrenzen. Aus (...) diesem kontextualen Wechselspiel heraus lassen sich etliche Paradigmenwechsel in der fruhen Neuzeit besser verstehen. Die Untersuchung geht von Fallstudien aus, wie sie in mechanischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Schriften von Descartes, Kepler, Galilei, Newton, Hooke und Boyle zu finden sind. (shrink)

Cloud computing deals with voluminous heterogeneous data, and there is a need to effectively distribute the load across clusters of nodes to achieve optimal performance in terms of resource usage, throughput, response time, reliability, fault tolerance, and so on. The swarm intelligence methodologies use artificial intelligence to solve computationally challenging problems like load balancing, scheduling, and resource allocation at finite time intervals. In literature, sufficient works are being carried out to address load balancing problem in the cloud using traditional swarm (...) intelligence techniques like ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization, cuckoo search, bat optimization, and so on. But the traditional swarm intelligence techniques have issues with respect to convergence rate, arriving at the global optimum solution, complexity in implementation and scalability, which limits the applicability of such techniques in cloud domain. In this paper, we look into performance modeling aspects of some of the recent competitive swarm artificial intelligence based techniques like the whale, spider, dragonfly, and raven which are used for load balancing in the cloud. The results and analysis are presented over performance metrics such as total execution time, response time, resource utilization rate, and throughput achieved, and it is found that the performance of the raven roosting algorithm is high compared to other techniques. (shrink)