Our primary goal was to develop and validate a task that could provide evidence about how humans learn praxis gestures, such as those involving the use of tools. To that end, we created a video-based task in which subjects view a model performing novel, meaningless one-handed actions with kinematics similar to praxis gestures. Subjects then imitated the movements with their right hand. Trials were repeated 6 times to examine practice effects. EEG was recorded during the task. As a control, subjects (...) watched videos of a model performing a well-established (over learned) tool-use gesture. These gestures were also imitated 6 times. Demonstrating convergent validity, EEG measures of task-related cortical activation were similar in topography and frequency between the novel gesture task and the overlearned, praxis gesture task. As in studies assessing motor skill learning with simpler tasks, cortical activation during novel gesture learning decreased as the same gestures were repeated. In the control condition, repetition of overlearned tool-use gestures were also associated with reductions in activation, though to a lesser degree. Given that even overlearned, praxis gestures show constriction of EEG activity with repetition, it is possible that that attentional effects drive some of the repetition effects seen in EEG measures of activation during novel gesture repetition. (shrink)

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are thought to result in part from altered cortical excitatory-inhibitory balance; this pathophysiology may impact the generation of oscillations on EEG. We investigated premotor-parietal cortical physiology associated with praxis, which has strong theoretical and empirical associations with ASD symptomatology. 25 children with high-functioning ASD (HFA) and 33 controls performed a praxis task involving the pantomiming of tool use, while EEG was recorded. We assessed task-related modulation of signal power in alpha and beta frequency bands. Compared with (...) controls, subjects with HFA showed 27% less left central (motor/premotor) beta (18-22 Hz) event-related desynchronization (ERD) (p = 0.030), as well as 24% less left parietal alpha (7-13 Hz) ERD (p = 0.046). Within the HFA group, blunting of central ERD attenuation was associated with impairments in clinical measures of praxis imitation (r = -0.4; p = 0.04) and increased autism severity (r = 0.48; p = 0.016). The modulation of central beta activity is associated, among other things, with motor imagery, which may be necessary for imitation. Impaired imitation has been associated with core features of ASD. Altered modulation of oscillatory activity may be mechanistically involved in those aspects of motor network function that relate to the core symptoms of ASD. (shrink)

This paper examines whether bank capital ratios and default risk are associated with the gender of the bank’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson of the board. Given the documented gender-based differences in conservatism and risk tolerance, we postulate that female CEOs and board Chairs should assess risks more conservatively, and thereby hold higher levels of equity capital and reduce the likelihood of bank failure during periods of market stress. Using a large panel of U.S. commercial banks, we document that banks (...) with female CEOs hold more conservative levels of capital after controlling for the bank’s asset risk and other attributes. Furthermore, while neither CEO nor Chair gender is related to bank failure in general, we find strong evidence that smaller banks with female CEOs and board Chairs were less likely to fail during the financial crisis. Overall, our findings are consistent with the view that gender-based behavioral differences may affect corporate decisions. (shrink)

Infertility specialists may be confronted with the ethical dilemma of whether to disclose misattributed paternity (MP). Physicians should be prepared for instances when an assumed father’s evaluation reveals a condition known for lifelong infertility, for example, congenital bilateral absence of vas deferens (CBAVD). When there is doubt regarding a patient’s comprehension of his diagnosis, physicians must consider whether further disclosure is warranted. This article describes a case of MP with ethics analysis that concludes that limited nondisclosure is most consistent with (...) a physician’s principled duties to inform, to respect patients’ autonomy, and to employ nonmaleficence (including the avoidance of psychosocial harms). (shrink)

The origins of U.S. corporate taxation are often associated with the 1909 corporate excise tax. Scholars who have investigated the beginnings of this levy have mainly focused on the legislative history of the 1909 corporate tax to argue that it was either an expression of the Progressive Era impulse to regulate large-scale corporations or an attempt to use corporations as remittance devices to collect taxes aimed at wealthy shareholders. This Article broadens the conventional historical accounts of the emergence of American (...) corporate taxation by revisiting the 1909 U.S. corporate tax from a comparative perspective. The aim is to look both below and beyond the American nation-state to determine how and why U.S. state governments and other Western industrialized nations tried to tax corporations at the turn of the twentieth century. This Article investigates a small slice of subnational and transnational comparative examples: corporate tax laws and policies in a few representative nineteenth-century industrializing American states, and in turn-of-the-century England and Germany. Building on the well-known insights of comparative business history, this Article contends that historically-determined political interests, social ideas, and cultural beliefs help explain the American obsession with disciplining large-scale business corporations through the use of nominally punitive tax laws and policies. Comparative-historical analysis shows how differences in the organizational structures of big businesses across place and time have led to variations in political economy that were ultimately expressed in the legal ideas and cultural attitudes toward corporate capitalism. These variations, in turn, shaped the transnational distinctions in corporate tax law and policies. Greater attention to the comparative-historical development of law and political economy may help us understand the stubborn persistence of American corporate taxation, particularly in the face of recent global changes and the relentless economic critiques of the double taxation of corporate income. (shrink)

A personal view made in light of the recent news article regarding a husband wanting to sue Addenbrooke's hospital over a Do Not Attempt Resuscitation decision. This article aims to highlight how the rolling out of cross boundary palliative care registers may be more at risk of infringing human rights.

Flavin‐containing monooxygenases (FMOs), traditionally known for detoxifying xenobiotics, are now recognized for their involvement in endogenous metabolism. We recently discovered that an isoform of FMO, fmo‐2 in Caenorhabditis elegans, alters endogenous metabolism to impact longevity and stress tolerance. Increased expression of fmo‐2 in C. elegans modifies the flux through the key pathway known as One Carbon Metabolism (OCM). This modified flux results in a decrease in the ratio of S‐adenosyl‐methionine (SAM) to S‐adenosyl‐homocysteine (SAH), consequently diminishing methylation capacity. Here we discuss (...) how FMO‐2‐mediated formate production during tryptophan metabolism may serve as a trigger for changing the flux in OCM. We suggest formate bridges tryptophan and OCM, altering metabolic flux away from methylation during fmo‐2 overexpression. Additionally, we highlight how these metabolic results intersect with the mTOR and AMPK pathways, in addition to mitochondrial metabolism. In conclusion, the goal of this essay is to bring attention to the central role of FMO enzymes but lack of understanding of their mechanisms. We justify a call for a deeper understanding of FMO enzyme's role in metabolic rewiring through tryptophan/formate or other yet unidentified substrates. Additionally, we emphasize the identification of novel drugs and microbes to induce FMO activity and extend lifespan. (shrink)

Although today Appayya Dīkṣīta enjoys a reputation as the preeminent Śaiva polemicist of the sixteenth century, it must be remembered that he also wrote works from a distinctively Vaiṣṇava perspective, in which Viṣṇu is extolled as the paramount god rather than Śiva. This paper examines one of those works, the Varadarājastava and its autocommentary. It places special emphasis on how the poem is patterned on the Varadarājapañcāśat of the fourteenth-century Śrīvaiṣṇava poet and philosopher, Vedānta Deśika, with close attention to the (...) Varadarājastava’s use of the Vaiṣṇava imagery of the dahara-vidyā or meditation on brahman as the small space within the lotus-shaped heart. While this meditation was the central devotional practice for Appayya Dīkṣita and for his Śaiva predecessor Śrīkaṇṭha, in the Varadarājastava, Appayya is able to develop a more overtly Advaita dahara-vidyā, unfettered by hermeneutic fidelity to Śrīkaṇṭha’s Śaiva approach. The paper also considers the anomaly of Appayya writing as a Vaiṣṇava in the context of the institutional conflicts that took place between Śaivas and Vaiṣṇavas at sites close to where Appayya received patronage. (shrink)

Trust is a key component in delivering quality and respectful care within health care systems. However, a growing lack of confidence in health care, particularly among specific subgroups of the population in the United States, could further widen health disparities. In this essay, we explore one approach to building trust and reaching diverse communities to promote health: engaging community‐based organizations (CBOs) as trusted community messengers. We present case studies of partnerships in health promotion, community education, and outreach that showcase how (...) CBOs’ programs build and leverage trust in health care systems through their workforce, services, and engagement with the community. (shrink)

Does colonialism have long-term effects on political stability? This question is addressed in a study of India’s Naxalite insurgency, a Maoist rebellion characterized by its left-wing proponents as having roots in the colonial period. The article highlights three mechanisms linking colonialism with contemporary Naxalite violence—land inequality, discriminatory policies toward low-caste and tribal groups, and upper-caste-dominated administrative institutions. It analyzes how the degree of British influence relates to Naxalite conflict in 589 districts from 1980 to 2011. A positive association is found (...) between British influence and the strength of the Naxalite rebellion across all of India, within both the “Red Corridor” region and former princely states. The results are robust to a coarsened exact matching analysis and a wide array of robustness checks. The findings call into question whether the supposedly beneficial administrative and institutional legacies of colonialism can be evaluated without reference to their social costs. (shrink)

This article examines mixed ℋ -infinity and passivity synchronization of Markovian jumping neutral-type complex dynamical network models with randomly occurring coupling delays and actuator faults. The randomly occurring coupling delays are considered to design the complex dynamical networks in practice. These delays complied with certain Bernoulli distributed white noise sequences. The relevant data including limits of actuator faults, bounds of the nonlinear terms, and external disturbances are available for designing the controller structure. Novel Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional is constructed to verify the (...) stability of the error model and performance level. Jensen’s inequality and a new integral inequality are applied to derive the outcomes. Sufficient conditions for the synchronization error system are given in terms of linear matrix inequalities, which can be analyzed easily by utilizing general numerical programming. Numerical illustrations are given to exhibit the usefulness of the obtained results. (shrink)

This essay will suggest that Gandhi’s true/real politics can be best understood in terms of the integrity of his ideas. This integrity refers to the fact that Gandhi was a man of integrity but more importantly to the fact that there was an integrity between his ideas and practice and between his ideas themselves. The continuities that we read in Gandhi—between politics and religion, politics religion and morality, the human being and nature and the past and present—can best be unpacked (...) if one were to understand this integrity. This essay will argue that one way to understand it would be to see that Gandhi’s arguments in economics, politics, religion, and even aesthetics drew from his fundamental moral convictions. Accordingly, the first part of this essay will suggest that Gandhi’s politics was premised on his integrity, i.e. on the idea that a human being ought to live an undivided life integrated around and by a commitment to his/her fundamental moral beliefs. The second part of the essay will argue then that a truly meaningful philosophical critique of Gandhi’s politics would only be one which could demonstrate how and where Gandhi’s politics failed to remain integrated with his fundamental moral convictions, i.e. which demonstrated how the integrity between Gandhi’s ideas themselves and between his ideas and practice broke so to say. In this context, the second section of the essay will bring in and philosophically examine Ajay Skaria’s, (Skaria, 2016) argument that satyagraha as a religion of the question (always seeking the truth which the satyagrahi did not know) involved the use of force and the imposition of the thekana/proper on the other. The essay will discuss this critique with a view to examine if it demonstrates that Gandhi’s practice disrupted his integrity both of his character and that between his ideas. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Ambedkar-Gandhi Debate: On Identity, Community and Justice by Bindu PuriMeena Dhanda (bio)The Ambedkar-Gandhi Debate: On Identity, Community and Justice. By Bindu Puri. Singapore: Springer, 2022. Pp. xv + 266, Paper $119.90, ISBN 978-981-16-8685-6.Written from a philosophical perspective, this ambitious book by Professor Bindu Puri draws attention to an old and well know opposition between two great minds of the last century. The distance between Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (...) (1869--1948) and Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar (1891--1956) surfaced in the political domain when both were engaged in challenging British colonial rule in their respective, unique, and often opposing ways. Faced with a common enemy from whom political independence was sought, both Indian leaders battled with each other to define the meaning of that independence for the masses they represented. How would independence from the British bring freedom and equality to the most underprivileged? Both drew on their understanding of India’s past: Gandhi at pains to revise, reform, and rewrite his complex inheritance with an eye to continuity, and Ambedkar labouring to extract and underline the undeniable, inescapable core, the scourge of caste, which the republic of India would have to break from if genuine freedom and equality were to become attainable goals.Puri’s book addresses these conflicting notions of the past and builds two incommensurable world views underpinning their political positions, thus presenting the political and intellectual rivalry between Gandhi and Ambedkar as ultimately irreconcilable. Their world views are distilled by defining the relationship between underlying conceptions of the self, community and justice. These form the foci of five chapters, each elaborating the difference between the two thinkers. A broad framework of a binary opposition between the “modern” (Ambedkar) and the “Indic” (Gandhi), inspired by authors like D.R. Nagraj and Ashish Nandy, is followed, occasionally allowing for seepage of common elements from one to the other. It is a significant feature of their life histories that both Gandhi and Ambedkar were trained as lawyers, both studied outside British India, and both returned to practice law in British India. In my view, their “modern” training shaped the argumentative methods deployed by both, albeit, when writing in the vernacular, Ambedkar (in Marathi) and Gandhi (in Gujarati), both used appeals to “native” intelligence in dissimilar ways. Ambedkar did not spare the sphere of the “sacred” from critical scrutiny, whereas Gandhi was careful to protect the “sacred” from criticism. [End Page 1]The book makes extensive use of a distinction between “itihaas” and history, borrowed from an essay by Ajay Skaria (2010), “The Strange Violence of Satyagraha: Gandhi, Itihaas, and History.” Both notions are meant to encapsulate the “past,” but apparently in different ways. This crucial distinction, stressing on the meaning of “itihaas” as “it so happened” introduced in Chapter 1 (p. 2) is followed by its extensive deployment in Chapter 2 (pp. 25-53), where Skaria’s essay is first referenced (p. 33). Many of the key references to Gandhi’s writings in this chapter are strikingly identical with those used by Skaria (2010). He, however, has used his own translations of the original Gujarati text of Hind Swaraj into English, carefully explaining the differences between his and Gandhi’s translations into English, but Puri has relied on either the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi or Hind Swaraj and Other Writings (ed. Anthony Parel). A long quotation from Veyne (1984) seems to be taken from Skaria’s essay—all the ellipses are exactly where Skaria placed them. The interlinkages between key Gandhian concepts—e.g., between satyagraha and atmabal; the importance of “singularity” for itihaas; khaas lakshan and humanity; unilateral obligation (ekpakshi farj); ownmost orientation (swabhava)—are all found in Skaria (2010). The reliance on Ajay Skaria’s interpretations of Gandhi’s idea of samadarshan (seeing things with an equal eye), especially in the context of the Bhagwad Gita continues in chapter 4 (pp. 152-160), in her discussion of “absolute equality,” only this time it is with reference to Skaria’s (2016) Unconditional Equality: Gandhi’s Religion of Resistance.The comparison of Gandhi’s reading of the Gita with orthodox readings by Tilak and Ramanujan (apparently also derived from... (shrink)

The contribution of this research lies in its dual approach to the question of physical activity (PA) among adolescents, combining objective measurement of PA by teenagers and a comparison of psychological satisfaction through physical activities involving differing degrees of autonomy (i.e., organized or unstructured). Using the conceptual framework of Self-Determination Theory, the analysis also examines the relationship between levels of PA among adolescents and physical self-concept and satisfaction of basic psychological needs during exercise. The study surveyed 129 first-year higher secondary (...) education students from schools in the city of A Coruña. Satisfaction of basic psychological needs during organized and unstructured physical activities was measured using the Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale. PA levels were assessed based on step count per day for a week as measured by an accelerometer. The results show that the daily step average recorded by students (7,400) is below the minimum recommended levels of PA for this age group, that students are more active on weekdays than at the weekend, and that there is no significant difference in PA levels between male and female subjects ( T = 0.23, p d = 0.04). Findings from the comparative analysis of the three basic psychological needs show greater satisfaction of the need for autonomy during unstructured activities ( T = 6.15, p d = 0.68), and greater satisfaction of the need for competence during organized activities ( T = −2.50, p d = 0.27). No variation in terms of sex was found in relation to satisfaction of the need for autonomy or relatedness from unstructured activities; however, girls showed notably lower satisfaction than boys in relation to the need for competence ( T = −2.62, p d = 0.49). Self-esteem was found to play an important mediating role and observed to be strongly related to sex ( T = −5.16, p d = 0.90). Organized PA was found to provide greater need satisfaction among boys than girls across all categories. The study showed no relationship between psychological variables and objectively measured PA (Pillai’s trace: F = 0.86, p > 0.05, η 2 = 0.08, observed power = 0.66). Basic psychological needs show significant positive interrelation between them and a significant positive relationship between them and physical self-concept, as expected based on previous literature. (shrink)

This book aims to give a coherent interpretation of the whole dialogue, paying particular attention to these etymologies.The book discusses the rival theories ...

Demiryolu yük taşımacılığı, yurtiçi ve yurtdışı ekonomik işlemlerin gerçekleştirilmesi bakımından büyük öneme sahiptir. Bu taşımacılık türü ihracatçılara, ara malı tedariki ve tamamlanmış ürünlerin ihraç edilmesinde masrafların azalmasına ve daha fazla mal ihracı sağlaması açısından önemli katkılar sağlamaktadır. Bu olumlu katkılar ise ekonomik büyümenin artmasını sağlayabilmektedir. Türkiye’ de demiryolu taşımacılığında en başarılı gelişmeler Cumhuriyetin ilanından sonraki kalkınma yıllarında yaşanmıştır. Demiryolu taşımacılığının kullanımı, tarihsel süreçte sanayi sektörünün, ekonomik ve sosyal yapının gelişmesine katkı sağlamıştır. Bu çalışmada Türkiye için demiryolu yük taşımacılığının ekonomik büyüme (...) üzerindeki etkileri 1960-2021 dönemi için ARDL sınır testi ekonometrik tekniğiyle analiz edilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Çalışma sonucuna göre demiryolu yük taşımacılığı hem uzun hem de kısa dönemde ekonomik büyüme üzerinde pozitif etki oluşturmuştur. Buna göre uzun dönemde demiryolu yük taşımacılığındaki %1’lik artış ekonomik büyümenin %1,95 oranında artmasını sağlamıştır. Bu noktadan hareketle demiryolu sektörüne yapılması muhtemel yatırımların ekonominin büyümesine ve gelişmesine katkı sunacağı tahmin edilmektedir. (shrink)

Collingwood’s “Libellus de Generatione: An Essay in Absolute Empiricism” was a tract of strenuous philosophical revisionism; never published, perhaps unpublishable, supposedly destroyed, it survived. He begins by stressing his obligations to David Hume; he offers his thematic: “absolute denial of any such concept as substance and the resolution of all reality into the reality of experience.” “The reality of mind is the process of its experience, its life, and nothing else”. Or, “the mind is a mirror... whose being is solely (...) the activity of reflecting”; it has no “substance of its own of which this activity is only a reflection”. Collingwood’s entire career as student and teacher... (shrink)

We considered the question of how corporate social responsibility differs between Canada and the U.S. Prior research has identified that national institutional differences exist between the two countries [Freeman and Hasnaoui, J Business Ethics 100:419–443, 2011], which may be associated with variations in their respective CSR practices. Matten and Moon [Acad Manag Rev 33:404–424, 2008] suggested that cross-national differences in firms’ CSR are depicted by an implicit–explicit conceptual framework: explicit CSR practices are deliberate and more strategic than implicit CSR practices. (...) We compared Canada and U.S. CSR and examined how CSR strategic alliances, CSR reporting, and CSR performance in the two countries correspond to implicit versus explicit CSR practices, which we link to stakeholder and signaling perspectives. We relied upon a new database, the Sustainalytics Global Platform, and we found a positive association exists between CSR strategic alliances and the number of years that firms have issued standalone CSR reports in both countries. Moreover, we found that CSR scores mediated this association in the U.S., as U.S. firms with high CSR scores typically engage in more CSR strategic alliances. In Canada, we did not find this mediating effect. Our findings suggest that U.S. firms engage in signaling activities that are more strategic and explicit than their Canadian counterparts. This paper closes with implications for practice and theory. (shrink)

Not everyone agreed with Barker when he wrote those words. Few students of the Politics would agree with him today. Disagreement comes from different sides. On one hand--the "rights" hand, one might call it--Karl Popper argued in 1945 in The Open Society and its Enemies that Aristotle's essentialism was less interesting than Platonism but equally congenial to modern totalitarianism. On the other hand--call it the "anti-rights" hand --scholars such as Alasdair MacIntyre and the legal historian Michel Villey would have it (...) that the whole modern conception of rights, especially human or natural rights, is a pernicious fabrication of the Enlightenment, with roots going back no further than the similarly pernicious nominalism of William of Ockham. As far as the current consensus is concerned, then, whether one favors rights or not, and whether one admires Aristotle or not, there are no rights--or at least no individual natural rights--in Aristotle. (shrink)

Many familial and cultural traditions rely on animals for their fulfillment - think of Christmas ham, Rosh Hashannah chicken soup, Fourth of July barbeques, and so forth. Though philosophers writing in animal ethics often dismiss interests in certain foods as trivial, these food-based traditions pose a significant moral problem for those who take animals’ lives and interests seriously. One must either turn one’s back on one’s community or on the animals. In this paper, I consider the under-theorized area of intra-cultural (...) critique. My focus is how we should think about and seek to resolve inter-animal conflicts of interest that arise within our own communities and cultural or religious groups. How should a theory that takes animals seriously approach a conflict between animals’ interests and culturally important human interests in the context of one’s own cultural, ethnic, or religious group? How, for example, should we think about the person staring down at a bowl of her grandmother’s chicken soup while recognizing the moral impermissibility of slaughtering chickens for human consumption? In contrast to traditional approaches that fail to take these robust, food-based, interests into account, I offer an ecofeminist approach that highlights the importance of respecting animals’ interests while also undertaking the work of moral repair to address damage done to relationships of love and care in the process. (shrink)