My avatar,my self: Virtual harm and attachment

Multi-user online environments involve millions of participants world-wide. In these online communities participants can use their online personas – avatars – to chat, fight, make friends, have sex, kill monsters and even get married. Unfortunately participants can also use their avatars to stalk, kill, sexually assault, steal from and torture each other. Despite attempts to minimise the likelihood of interpersonal virtual harm, programmers cannot remove all possibility of online deviant behaviour. Participants are often greatly distressed when their avatars are harmed by other participants’ malicious actions, yet there is a tendency in the literature on this topic to dismiss such distress as evidence of too great an involvement in and identification with the online character. In this paper I argue that this dismissal of virtual harm is based on a set of false assumptions about the nature of avatar attachment and its relation to genuine moral harm. I argue that we cannot dismiss avatar attachment as morally insignificant without being forced to also dismiss other, more acceptable, forms of attachment such as attachment to possessions, people and cultural objects and communities. Arguments against according moral significance to virtual harm fail because they do not reflect participants’ and programmers’ experiences and expectations of virtual communities and they have the unintended consequence of failing to grant significance to attachments that we take for granted, morally speaking. Avatar attachment is expressive of identity and self-conception and should therefore be accorded the moral significance we give to real-life attachments that play a similar role. A shorter version of this paper was presented at the Cyberspace 2005 Conference at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic     

Knowledge sharing in a multi-cultural setting: a case study

Organizational culture has been shown to influence the success of knowledge management practices. Hofstede's theory specifies that organizational culture is not independent of national culture. A case study of an international subsidiary was conducted to explore the extent to which knowledge sharing is dependent on national culture. Results indicate that language differences can create knowledge blocks, and cross-cultural differences can explain the direction of knowledge flows.     

元极学发展了传统的天人合一观

论述了元极学的人天整体观是对传统的天人合一观的发展和元极图是人天运化的全息模型。     

Exploring knowledge management implementation in large-sized service organizations – Saudi Arabia as a case

Whereas there is a growing literature that investigates knowledge management (KM) in service corporates, yet the overview and understanding of KM in large-sized service organisations is yet limited and sparse. Transitional economies, like of Saudi Arabia, are highly motivated to establish a knowledge based structure both economically and socially. There is an urgent need for exploring the current situation of KM tools usage and of perspectives on knowledge and knowledge management, as a start by large sized service organisations. Towards further understanding in this regard, this paper explores the status and potentials of KM implementation scoped to Saudi large-sized service organisations. The paper triangulated an interviewer-administrated questionnaire and focus groups to gather the data. The results indicate that although the weighted average of KM tools/methods deployment (being deployed or can possibly be deployed) reaches 79%; however, the written comments in front of each tool indicates that the participants’ understanding of what KM seems distorted, which is confirmed in the coding of their definitions of the term ‘Knowledge’. The participants identified leadership and strategy formulation as the top two critical success factors. A number of other results are presented and several issues were identified for future research.     

Bancroftian filariasis in south east Madhya Pradesh: Pre-control epidemilogical observations

Lymphatic filariasis caused byWuchereria bancrofti is a major health problem next only to malaria. A study had been conducted to estimate the prevalence of microfilaraemia in a rural endemic community near Raipur. The incidence of microfilaramia in the community was found to be about 14% when studied by night finger prick method. The incidence appears to be more in males as compared to females. The infection rate in vector population i.e.,Culex quinquefasciatus was recorded at a rate of 10%. No relationship could be drawn between the rates of vector and human filarial infections or between the density of vector population and the rate of vector/human infection(s). Prior health education is essential before taking up control and preventive measures in given endemic zone.     

Hyperhomocysteinemia,MMPs and Cochlear Function: A Short Review

Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHCY) has been demonstrated to affect cochlear microvasculature as well as cochlear epithelial cells directly, with a resultant alteration of the expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their inhibitors, tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs). Hence, ascertaining the optimum concentration of MMPs and TIMPs in the cochlea could help to inhibit hearing loss due to HHCY by the administration of appropriate MMP inhibitors, Since infections/inflammations as well as ototoxic antibiotics have a similar mechanism of otic pathology, the cochlear damage they cause could also be similarly prevented.     

Privacy,speech, and values: what we have no business knowing

In the United States the ascendancy of speech protection is due to an expansive and unjustified view of the value or primacy of free expression and access to information. This is perhaps understandable, given that privacy has been understood as a mere interest, whereas speech rights have been seen as more fundamental. I have argued elsewhere that the “mere interest” view of privacy is false. Privacy, properly defined, is a necessary condition for human well-being or flourishing. The opening section of this article will provide an overview of this theory. Next, after a few remarks on speech absolutism, privacy absolutism, and balancing theories, I will sketch several of the dominant argument strands that have been offered in support of presumptively weighty speech rights. While these arguments, taken together, establish that free speech is important, they do not support the view that speech should nearly always trump privacy. In final section I will present and defend a way to balance free speech and privacy claims.     

Superoxide dismutase and catalase activities and their correlation with malondialdehyde in schizophrenic patients

Free radical mediated pathological processes may have a role in schizophrenia. Free radicals (oxy radicals, such as superoxide, hydroxyl ions and nitric oxide) cause cell injury, when they are generated in excess or when the antioxidant defense is impaired. Both these processes seem to be affected in schizophrenia. In this study we investigated erythrocyte superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities as antioxidant enzymes, malondialdehyde (MDA) as a sign of lipid peroxidation in schizophrenic patients. Activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase and malondialdehyde were greater in patients compared with the control group which may reflect increased oxidative stress in the brain tissue of schizophrenics. In the patient group erythrocyte SOD and CAT activities were weakly negative correlated with MDA concentration. These data reveal that antioxidant defense mechanisms might be impaired in schizophrenic patients. These findings also provide a theoretical basis for the development of novel therapeutic strategies, such as antioxidant supplementation.