This paper demonstrates the political perspective of corporate social responsibility disclosures and, drawing on Weber’s notion of traditionalism, seeks to explain what motivates companies to make such disclosures in a traditional setting. Annual reports of 23 banking companies in Bangladesh are analysed over the period 2009–2012. This is supplemented by a review of documentary evidence on the political and social activities of corporations and reports published in national and international newspapers. We found that, in the banking companies over the period (...) of study, apparently neutral, corporate, philanthropic activities disclosed and promoted in CSR reports are inextricably linked to powerful leaders’ personal projects and the ruling party’s agendas. We have demonstrated elements of traditional societies, including personal loyalty and the public display of loyalty, the master–servant relationship, and obedience to personal rather than formal authority, provide an understanding of why banks have employed politically charged CSR disclosure strategies. The paper contributes to disclosure studies where political motivations of corporate disclosure rarely discussed. The paper extends the debate on political CSR by demonstrating that the role of family and familial values at the organisational and national levels may be much more important when it comes to CSR disclosure and activities. (shrink)

The article extends the critique of structuration theory from a critical realist perspective, in particular by demonstrating how its theoretical shortcomings are manifest in management accounting research. Examining of one of the most cited structuration-based accounting studies and other more recent structuration-based accounting studies, the article highlights what accounting researchers who have embraced a structuration lens may have ignored. It also demonstrates why accounting researchers could not get a better theoretical purchase out of structuration. We find that a critical realist (...) account provides a far more in-depth account of budgeting changes and is likely to avoid the problems encountered in using a structuration theoretical lens. The article has important implications for accounting researchers as it demonstrates that analytical dualism instead of duality has much better potential to offer deeper understanding of accounting changes. (shrink)

Despite the fact that Islam is one of the major religions, the frameworks of this faith are yet to be fully understood. As a consequence, it is being confused with activities contrary to its teachings. Islam has an elaborate treatment for almost every aspect of life including the affairs of business. Business is an acceptable and dignified occupation, which has to be conducted within the given frameworks. Islam encourages the creation, acquisition and consumption of wealth, and the fulfilling of certain (...) conditions in so doing. Wealth is held in trust as a gift from God. The terms of reference of this trust are to be complied with. Ethical principles do play a major role in shaping the behavior of a Muslim, in or out of business. In an era of globalization, the need for a better understanding of the premises of Islamic faith cannot be overemphasized. (shrink)

Over the past several years, the study of self-related cognition has garnered increasing interest amongst psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists. Concomitantly, lesion and neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the importance of intact cortico-cortical and cortico-subcortical connections for supporting high-level cognitive functions. Commissurotomy or “split-brain” patients provide unique insights into the role of the cerebral commissures in maintaining an individual’s sense of self, as well as into the unique self-representation capabilities of each cerebral hemisphere. Here we review empirical work examining the integrity of (...) self-related processes in patients with various disconnection syndromes, focusing on studies of self-recognition, ownership, and agency. Taken together, this body of work suggests that an intact corpus callosum enabling interhemispheric transfer is necessary for some, but not all types of self-representations. (shrink)

Deviant workplace behaviors (DWB) cause enormous costs to organizations, sparking considerable interest among researchers and practitioners to identify factors that may prevent such behavior. Drawing on the theory of moral development, we examine the role of ethics-oriented human resource management (HRM) systems in mitigating DWB, as well as mechanisms that may mediate and moderate this relationship. Based on 232 employee-supervisor matched responses generated through a multi-source and multi-wave survey of 84 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan, our multilevel analysis (...) found that ethics-oriented HRM systems relate negatively to employee DWB via the mediation of perceptual and reflective moral attentiveness. This indirect relationship is further moderated by two societal-inequality induced factors – employee gender and income level – such that the indirect effects of ethics-oriented HRM systems on DWB through perceptual and reflective moral attentiveness are stronger among women and lower-income employees. (shrink)

This study adapts the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980) to the behavior of fraudulent reporting on financial statements so as to examine the effects of moral reasoning and self-monitoring on intention to report fraudulently, using structural equation modeling. The paper seeks to investigate two of the red flags for financial statement fraud identified in Loebbecke et al.'s (1989) paper: client management displays a significant lack of moral fiber and client personnel exhibit strong personality anomalies. As expected, high (...) moral reasoners are more influenced than low moral reasoners by their own attitude towards the behavior. Contrary to prior research, low self-monitors are found to be more influenced than high self-monitors by subjective norms. Future research is recommended to investigate the counter-intuitive results for self-monitors, to consider the implications of group decision making as regards the promulgation of fraudulent financial statements, and to examine additional red flags for financial statement fraud. (shrink)

Organizational scholars tend to view justice and compassion as incompatible. While both have important functions in organizational life, compassion's affective elements appear difficult to synthesize with the reasoning and impartiality that underlie the concept of justice. We draw on theoretical arguments from the sensemaking perspective to argue that we can integrate organizational compassion and organizational justice conceptually because both are inherently dynamic processes that rely on emotional and cognitive components, and both are shaped by the social context of the organization. (...) Based on this integrative conceptualization, we propose a construct we call ‘compassionate organizational justice’, in which compassion becomes an integral element of an organization's justice requirements and members’ fairness perceptions, and that those justice perceptions in turn inform future instances of organizational compassion. (shrink)

This study aims to identify artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that are applied in climate-smart agricultural practices and address ethical concerns of deploying those technologies from legal perspectives. As climate-smart agricultural AI, the study considers those AI-based technologies that are used for precision agriculture, monitoring peat lands, deforestation tracking, and improved forest management. The study utilized a systematic literature review approach to identify and analyze AI technologies employed in climate-smart agriculture and associated ethical and legal concerns. The study findings indicate several (...) ethical concerns for deploying AI in climate-smart agricultural practices pertaining to data inaccuracy, other technical errors based on wrong recommendations or wrongful acts, data ownership and intellectual property issues, and economic issues resulting in digital division and privacy and security related issues. In this study, the ethical concerns were further examined based on criminal law, tort law, privacy and data protection law, and intellectual property law. In this regard, the study finds that the current tort law pattern is more suitable than the criminal law pattern to address some major ethical concerns, such as data inaccuracy and other technical errors based on wrong recommendations or wrongful acts. Finally, the study recommends that at the global level, all countries need to fill up the current gap of international law on climate-smart agriculture through agreeing on a standard set of legal provisions and enhancing collaboration in innovation and deployment of climate-smart agricultural AI. It further recommends that at the local level, countries need to adopt suitable regulations addressing multi-stakeholders’ interests associated with the deployment of climate-smart agricultural AIs. (shrink)

To assess the ability of the disconnected cerebral hemispheres to recognize images of the self, a split-brain patient was tested using morphed self-face images presented to one visual hemifield at a time while making “self/other” judgments. The performance of the right and left hemispheres of this patient as assessed by a signal detection method was not significantly different, though a measure of bias did reveal hemispheric differences. The right and left hemispheres of this patient independently and equally possessed the ability (...) to self-recognize, but only the right hemisphere could successfully recognize familiar others. This supports a modular concept of self-recognition and other-recognition, separately present in each cerebral hemisphere. (shrink)

Health care professionals experience moral distress due to challenging ethical decision-making during patient care. Self-awareness can be associated with moral distress. This study determined the levels of and relationship between moral distress and self-awareness of health care professionals. A convenience sample of physicians and nurses was recruited. Data were collected using the Moral Distress and Self-Awareness Scales. In total, 168 physicians and 201 nurses participated with a mean age of 30.54 ± 7.87 and clinical experience of 6.40 ± 6.22 years. (...) Moderate levels of moral distress (127.07 ± 71.90) and high levels of self-awareness (70.20 ± 11.37) were found. A weak positive correlation was found between self-awareness and moral distress (r = 0.21, p < 0.001) and weak negative correlation between moral distress (r = − 0.115, p = 0.03) and age. Nurses were more self-aware, but no differences were observed in moral distress based on sex and clinical settings. A weak correlation between self-awareness and moral distress may suggest that self-awareness can increase intrapersonal tensions, contributing to distress. Further research is needed to support any conclusive relationship between moral distress and self-awareness. (shrink)

Employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is an important determinant of organizational effectiveness; hence, scholars and practitioners are particularly interested in the factors, mechanisms, and conditions that promote such behaviors. Guided by the ability–motivation–opportunity framework, we draw on the social cognitive theory of moral thought and action to conceptualize a model that delineates the role of ethics-oriented human resource management (HRM) systems in promoting OCBs through the mediating role of employees’ moral attentiveness. We also refer to the job demands–resources theory to (...) describe the moderating role of work-family balance in the indirect relationship between HRM systems and OCBs. The findings of an experiment involving 157 working adults (Study 1) and a three-wave field survey of 328 employees (Study 2) converge to support the hypothesized direct and indirect (via moral attentiveness) relationships between ethics-oriented HRM systems and OCBs as well as the first-stage moderating role of work-family balance. (shrink)

Using data collected through semi-structured open-ended interviews and archival material, we examined the transience of stakeholders’ salience in the organisational field going through institutional change process. We found strong support for the dominant institutional logic-stakeholder salience relationship. More importantly, the results of our study reveal that changes in stakeholders’ salience are directly related to changes in stakeholders’ attributes. Moreover, we uncover mutual associations among various types of salience attributes and show that the degree of mutual association of various types of (...) attributes depends upon the stage the organisation has reached during the process of institutional change. (shrink)

Bullying behaviour among adolescents is a prevalent concern all over the world as it holds significant implications for their mental health and social life. Similarly, bullying has emerged as a grave concern in high schools in Pakistan. However, very limited literature has covered the dynamics of religious education and bullying behaviour among high school students in Pakistan. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the impact of religious beliefs and practices on the prevalence of abuse and bullying among high school students (...) in Pakistan. The study has adopted a qualitative research design to fulfil this objective. The primary qualitative data for the study was collected by interviewing high school students from three prominent high schools in Pakistan. The data was analysed with the help of thematic analysis. The findings of this study indicate that religious education can help promote compassion, empathy, and respect among students. Thus, the study holds significant implications regarding the role of the community and teachers in taking a stand against bullying. (shrink)

This article extends Georg Lukács’s theorization pertaining to historical fiction by considering a novel written in response to colonial conditions. It treats Abdulhalim Sharar’s Urdu Malik al-‘Aziz and Virginia (1888) as a case where a fictional version of the encounter between Muslims and Christians during the crusades in the twelfth century is used to counter the colonial Indian present in the nineteenth century. I suggest that novels such as Sharar’s exemplify a vein of global thought since the nineteenth century that (...) resisted historicism but without abandoning the notion that the past was real. Deploying a genre that came to the fore in colonial conditions, Sharar imagines an alternative future by narrating the past otherwise via fiction. (shrink)

This article aims to respond to the long-lived perceived incompatibility between care and compassion and justice in organizational literature. It is argued that principles of care and compassion and principles of justice are compatible with each other and can be integrated in organizations in such a way that both will supplement each other. Previous researches tend to view concepts of care and compassion and justice either as competing or inheriting some fundamental trade-offs. This article argues that the highlighted incompatibility between (...) care and compassion and justice is mainly due to the limited understanding about the nature of organizational justice. Care and compassion carry elements of subjectivity and are dynamic in nature, whereas literature on organizational justice has described justice as an objective, static and linear construct due to which an incompatibility between these two very important phenomena is prevailing. This incompatibility can be removed by changing the way of looking at organizational justice and by exploring its dynamic nature. (shrink)

In today’s complex selling environment, it is challenging for sales leaders to enhance the effectiveness of their sales teams. The aim of this study is to observe the impact of authentic leadership on salespersons’ internal and external behaviors under B2B selling context [i.e., transactive memory system, innovative work behavior, and customer-directed OCB] and their consequences in team selling performance. Respondents of our survey included salespersons and managers working in the sales departments of pharmaceutical companies. By using structural equation modeling, the (...) dyad responses from 348 matched salespeople–managers were analyzed. The findings disclose that authentic leadership behavior has a stronger relationship with the TMS, innovative work behavior, and customer-directed OCB. Our results also indicate that innovative work behavior and customer-directed OCB are potentially mediated between authentic leadership and team selling performance relationship. The theoretical implication of these results for managerial practice is also discussed. (shrink)

The aim of this research is to investigate the mediating role of relationship quality in the relationship between relational benefits and customer citizenship behavior. Data were gathered through a systematic sampling from 334 passengers. A Survey technique was used to collect the data from respondents from multiple airports. Data were analyzed through partial least square structural equation modeling using SmartPLS 3.3. The results of the study reveal that altruistic benefits, confidence, and self-expression benefits have a positive relationship with relationship quality (...) while socialization benefits have a non-significant relationship with relationship quality. Similarly, relationship quality mediates the relationship between altruistic benefits, confidence and self-expression benefits, and customer citizenship behavior while relationship quality does not mediate the relationship between socialization benefits and customer citizenship behavior. This study uncovers the relational benefits and its role in the generation of customer citizenship behavior in the aviation sector and the role of relationship quality that could help managers to cultivate the benefits of customer citizenship behaviors. (shrink)

We examine the role of managers in controlling the positive impact of stakeholder management (SM) on firm financial performance (FP) in the long term. We develop and test competing hypotheses on whether managers act as “good citizens” or engage in “self‐dealing” when allowed greater discretion. We test our assertions using dynamic panel data analysis of a sample of 806 U.S. public firms operating in 34 industries over 5 years (2005–2009). Our results indicate a nuanced influence of managerial discretion contexts on (...) the SM‐FP relationship. We infer that given more latitude in decision making, as long as the “going is good” managers act as good citizens, but otherwise they revert to managerial self‐dealing. In light of our results, firms designing governance mechanisms to encourage managers to balance the needs of both shareholders and stakeholders must remain cognizant of contextual contingencies. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The notion of ‘playing God’ frequently comes to fore in discussions of bioethics, especially in religious contexts. The phrase has always been analyzed and discussed from Christian and secular standpoints. Two interpretations exist in the literature. The first one takes ‘God’ seriously and playing ‘playfully’. It argues that this concept does state a principle but invokes a perspective on the world. The second takes both terms playfully. In the Islamic Intellectual tradition, the Sufi concept of ‘adopting divine character traits’ (...) provides a legitimate paradigm for ‘playing God’. This paradigm is interesting because here we take both terms ‘God’ and ‘playing’ seriously. It is significant for the development of biomedical ethics in contemporary Islamic societies as it can open new vistas for viewing biotechnological developments. (shrink)

The novel coronavirus is an infectious disease that spread across the world, bringing with it serious mental health problems for men and women. Women in Pakistan are infected with COVID-19 at a much lower rate than men, yet report worse mental health. To explain this paradox, we surveyed 190 participants shortly following the country lockdown, focusing on perceptions of the COVID-19 impact and positive adjustment. Measures used in this study included the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale and Distress Tolerance Scale. Factor (...) analysis revealed five distinct areas related to COVID-19, which did not differ by sex. However, men reported higher levels of both distress tolerance and well-being than women. High endorsement of actions to protect against COVID-19 was related to lower distress tolerance scores, but in different ways for men and women. Men, but not women, who endorsed more protective measures to stop the pandemic reported higher DTS absorption scores, and therefore being more consumed by distress; women who endorsed more protective measures to stop the pandemic reported less acceptance of distress than men, as reflected in DTS appraisal scores. An in-depth analysis of women’s beliefs and behaviors related to COVID-19 is warranted to understand why Pakistani women who are infected with COVID-19 at lower rates than men show more mental health symptoms. (shrink)

This study investigated the role of entrepreneurial passion in recognition of opportunity, developing entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial intention, in the shaping of entrepreneurial actions in the presence of proactive personality. This study applied partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses on a sample of 346 university students from Jiangsu province, China. The output of the study showed that entrepreneurial passion positively and significantly influenced entrepreneurial alertness, entrepreneurial self-efficacy to entrepreneurial intention, and entrepreneurial behavior. The findings also showed (...) that a proactive personality positively and significantly moderated the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior. (shrink)

The means by which social environmental exposures influence risk of mental disorders is a persistent and still open question. A key candidate mechanism for the biologic mediation of environmental effects involves epigenetic factors, which regulate gene function without altering underlying DNA sequence. Recent work has shown that environmental exposures such as childhood abuse, family history of mental disorder, and low socioeconomic status (SES) associate with differential DNA methylation (5mC) – a relatively stable, but modifiable, epigenetic factor. However, the longitudinal relation (...) among SES, 5mC, brain function, and risk of depression remains to be elucidated. Here, we briefly review literature relevant to these associations and discuss recent findings that, for the first time, prospectively demonstrate sequential links between low SES, changes in 5mC, changes in brain function, and risk of depression in a cohort of adolescents. (shrink)

In the area of machine learning, different techniques are used to train machines and perform different tasks like computer vision, data analysis, natural language processing, and speech recognition. Computer vision is one of the main branches where machine learning and deep learning techniques are being applied. Optical character recognition is the ability of a machine to recognize the character of a language. Pashto is one of the most ancient and historical languages of the world, spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan. OCR (...) application has been developed for various cursive languages like Urdu, Chinese, and Japanese, but very little work is done for the recognition of the Pashto language. When it comes to handwritten character recognition, it becomes more difficult for OCR to recognize the characters as every handwritten character’s shape is influenced by the writer’s hand motion dynamics. The reason for the lack of research in Pashto handwritten character data as compared to other languages is because there is no benchmark dataset available for experimental purposes. This study focuses on the creation of such a dataset, and then for the evaluation purpose, a machine is trained to correctly recognize unseen Pashto handwritten characters. To achieve this objective, a dataset of 43000 images was created. Three Feed Forward Neural Network models with backpropagation algorithm using different Rectified Linear Unit layer configurations were trained and tested with this dataset. The simulation shows that Model 1 achieved accuracy up to 87.6% on unseen data while Model 2 achieved an accuracy of 81.60% and 3% accuracy, respectively. Similarly, loss was the lowest for Model 1 with 0.15 and 3.17 for training and testing, followed by Model 2 with 0.7 and 4.2 for training and testing, while Model 3 was the last with loss values of 6.4 and 3.69. The precision, recall, and f-measure values of Model 1 were better than those of both Model 2 and Model 3. Based on results, Model 1 is found to be the most efficient as compared to the other two models in terms of accuracy to recognize Pashto handwritten characters. (shrink)

The disability viewpoint is the fundamental for understanding social justice in a given population. Disability rights need to be obeyed in the inclusive preparedness and response to all the disasters or during the crisis period including COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 pandemic jeopardized the health and rehabilitation services globally. The impact is much more in low resource developing countries like Bangladesh. In general, people with disability (PWD) suffer from multiple medical and rehabilitation complications and they need frequent rehabilitation consultations or hospital admissions (...) in comparison to people without disability. As a developing country, Bangladesh has poor ratios of doctors, nurses and technologists of 1:0.4:0.24 (WHO: 1:3:5) to face the COVID-19 challenge. Rehabilitation services have been disrupted in almost two-thirds (63%) of countries of the world. Even though rehabilitation is the key to recovery following severe illness from COVID-19. There are many concerns and debates about the preparedness, response and mitigation the process of COVID-19 on the part of the national government. According to recent study reports, the lives of about 100% of PWD have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 National Technical Advisory Committee is working for strategic planning, response and mitigation process but omission of a representative of PWD or a rehabilitation physician in the committee has created much dissatisfaction. The difficult COVID-19 testing process due to country wide shutdown of rehabilitation essential services and central pulling of rehabilitation physicians have side lined the PWD inclusiveness. It is expected that the rehabilitation preparedness, response and mitigation of the pandemic should be based on an ethics driven process. (shrink)

This paper is about human rights and policing in Bangladesh, with special focus on the role of National Human Rights Commission. The protection and promotion of human rights in Bangladesh has become difficult as the law enforcement agencies, particularly the police and the Rapid Action Battalion, are involved in human rights violations. An overall culture of impunity for human rights violations exists in Bangladesh. The National Human Rights Commission appears to have failed to break the culture of impunity in Bangladeshi (...) politics. This paper explains the reasons why the National Human Rights Commission in Bangladesh largely fails to make the political system in particular law enforcement agencies accountable. (shrink)

Three inevitable realities instigate this study. Primarily, the goal of security in the region will most likely be accomplished just if as a minimum some level of cooperation is achieved between the major countries of the region. Second, Afghanistan cannot advance economically or enhance its security and administration independently without some cooperation from India and Pakistan. Third, although many strategists view the idea of Pak-India cooperation with distrust, there are many common grounds where both can gain considerable security, governance, and (...) economic advantages. Most of the existing studies are focused on the assumptions that how peace in the region will come. First view is about involvement of USA and European countries on one side and stake holders in Afghanistan on the other. Some believe in a trilateral pattern i.e. Western World, Afghan stake holders and Pakistan. Many also highlight the importance of support from neighboring countries like Iran, the Central Asian Republics, and China. This study highlights the significance of a trilateral solution in Afghanistan and the steps forward from this particular aspect. The possible answer to security dilemma of Pakistan in the context of Afghanistan is a solution within the region. (shrink)

We examine the framing mechanisms used to maintain a cross-sector partnership that was created to address a complex long-term social issue. We study the first 8 years of existence of an XSP that aims to create a market for recycled phosphorus, a nutrient that is critical to crop growth but whose natural reserves have dwindled significantly. Drawing on 27 interviews and over 3000 internal documents, we study the evolution of different frames used by diverse actors in an XSP. We demonstrate (...) the role of framing in helping actors to avoid some of the common pitfalls for an XSP, such as debilitating conflict, and in creating sufficient common ground to sustain collaboration. As opposed to a commonly held assumption in the XSP literature, we find that collaboration in a partnership does not have to result in a unanimous agreement around a single or convergent frame regarding a contentious issue. Rather, successful collaboration between diverse partners can also be achieved by maintaining a productive tension between different frames through “optimal” frame plurality—not excessive frame variety that may prevent agreements from emerging, but the retention of a select few frames and the deletion of others toward achieving a narrowing frame bandwidth. One managerial implication is that resources need not be focussed on reaching a unanimous agreement among all partners on a single mega-frame vis-à-vis a contentious issue, but can instead be used to kindle a sense of unity in diversity that allows sufficient common ground to emerge, despite the variety of actors and their positions. (shrink)

The vast majority of extant empirical research examining the relationship between corporate social performance and financial performance selects samples of only those firms which are observed engaging in CSP. In this study, the authors assert that firms’ efforts to pursue CSP and subsequently their appearance in social-choice investment advisory firms’ ranking databases are non-random. Studying the CSP–FP link using selected samples of only those firms whose social performance is ranked by SIA firms introduces a sample-selection bias which limits generalization of (...) results to a population of all firms, and at worst provides alternate explanations for observed relationships. The authors test these assertions on a large sample of public corporations in the United States over 6 years and find a sample-selection bias. Upon correction of this bias, this study confirms the positive impact of CSP on FP. (shrink)

In today's global marketplace, the Philippines provide a unique example of an Asian culture with established economic ties to the West. In this study, Philippine and United States undergraduate business students responded to 13 vignettes describing questionable ethical actions in business situations. Results reveal significant differences between groups for 9 of the 13 vignettes. For 4 vignettes, Philippine participants were more disapproving of the actions, and for another 5, United States participants were more disapproving. The study suggests that cultural differences (...) continue and the implications of these differences should be considered in today's global economy. (shrink)

Considering the current global trend in the digital economy, Facebook commerce is an indispensable component of today’s digital commerce. The purpose of this research is to test the proposed model to validate current theories that evaluate the relationships between online trust and customer f-commerce usage intentions. It has also been proposed to improve usage intention by integrating the relationship between perceived value and trust in electronic commerce. The data was gathered using a structured questionnaire and analyzed with structural equation modeling. (...) In this study, gender has been discussed as a moderating factor. The findings describe the positive relationships that exist between antecedents of trust and user intentions toward f-commerce. Furthermore, according to the findings of the study, females are more concerned than males about developing their intentions to utilize f-commerce for online shopping. Theoretical and practical implications are also presented in this study. (shrink)

Background: Transgender individuals experience discrimination, stigmatization, and unethical and insensitive attitudes in healthcare settings. Therefore, healthcare professionals must be knowledgeable about the ways to deliver ethical and culturally competent care. Ethical considerations: No formal ethical approval was required. Aim: To synthesize the literature and identify gaps about approaches to the provision of ethical and culturally competent care to transgender populations. Design: A Scoping Review Literature Search: Literature was searched within CINAHL, Science Direct, PubMed, Google Scholar, EMBASE, and Scopus databases using (...) indexed keywords such as “transgender,” “gender non-conforming,” “ethically sensitive care,” and “culturally sensitive care.” In total, 30 articles, which included transgender patients and their families and nurses, doctors, and health professionals who provided care to transgender patients, were selected for review. Data were extracted and synthesized using tabular and narrative summaries and thematic synthesis. Findings: Of 30 articles, 23 were discussion papers, 5 research articles, and 1 each case study and an integrative review. This indicates an apparent dearth of literature about ethical and culturally sensitive care of transgender individuals. The review identified that healthcare professionals should educate themselves about sensitive issues, become more self-aware, put transgender individual in charge during care interactions, and adhere to the principles of advocacy, confidentiality, autonomy, respect, and disclosure. Conclusions: The review identified broad approaches for the provision of ethical and culturally competent care. The identified approaches could be used as the baseline, and further research is warranted to develop and assess organizational and individual-level approaches. (shrink)

This paper aims to introduce a robust framework for forecasting demand, including data preprocessing, data transformation and standardization, feature selection, cross-validation, and regression ensemble framework. Bagging ), boosting and extreme gradient boosting regression ), and stacking are employed as ensemble models. Different machine learning approaches, including support vector regression, extreme learning machine, and multilayer perceptron neural network, are adopted as reference models. In order to maximize the determination coefficient value and reduce the root mean square error, hyperparameters are set using (...) the grid search method. Using a steel industry dataset, all tests are carried out under identical experimental conditions. In this context, STACK1 and STACK2 models provided better performance than other models. The highest accuracies of R2 of 0.97 and 0.97 are obtained using STACK1 and STACK2, respectively. Moreover, the rank according to performances is STACK1, STACK2, XGBR, GBR, RFR, MLP, ELM, and SVR. As it improves the performance of models and reduces the risk of decision-making, the ensemble method can be used to forecast the demand in a steel industry one month ahead. (shrink)

The fight to find effective, long-lasting treatments for cancer has led many researchers to consider protein degrading entities. Recent developments in PROteolysis TArgeting Chimeras (PROTACs) have signified their potential as possible cancer therapies. PROTACs are small molecule, protein degraders that function by hijacking the built-in Ubiquitin-Proteasome pathway. This review mainly focuses on the general design and functioning of PROTACs as well as current advancements in the development of PROTACs as anticancer therapies. Particular emphasis is given to PROTACs designed against various (...) types of Leukemia/Blood malignancies. (shrink)