5 research outputs found
Hindu students in a further education college : an ethographic enquiry
No full textThis is an ethnographic study of a sample of Hindu students in a Further Education
college. The students are all following a course leading to the Certificate of Pre-
Vocational Education. The data consists of transcripts of informal interviews and of
classroom teaching situations; and is analysed from the perspective of an interpretive
paradigm. The purpose of the study is to reveal the methods used by the students in
reaching an understanding of their own social world. The study seeks to construct a
series of world views which reflect the ways in which the students perceive their own
sense of reality. The research attempts to explore the views of students on several areas
including religion and culture, their feelings about the education system, and their
aspirations for employment and a career.
Generally speaking, research studies in the sociology of education tend to focus on the
schools sector, and it is the intention of this research to redress the balance somewhat in
the direction of Further Education. Moreover, studies in multicultural education often
describe their samples in non-specific ways such as "Asian students" or "ethnic
minorities", and place little emphasis upon the social influences of specific religion and
culture. By investigating a particular religious group it is hoped to encourage more
studies which place an emphasis upon the importance of religion in defining the social life
of Asian people.
The study of this sample of Hindu students suggests that there exists a specifically Hindu
perception of the world, and that the maintenance of this is of importance to the
students. The students appeared to have a profound desire to succeed in the educational
system, and to apply that success to particular vocational contexts. An apparently
strong motivation to achieve something of value in life was sustained in part by a sense
of parental support and interest. The students did not appear to be preoccupied with the
racism which they encountered in society. It was also noted that the female students
tended to reject firmly the traditional Hindu gender roles. Generally there was a tendency
for these young people to develop considerably greater proficiency in spoken rather than
written English. The thesis concludes with a reflexive account which seeks to describe
the particular perspectives and approaches of the author in arriving at an understanding
of the data
The Science of Meditation: From Mysticism to Mainstream Western Psychology
No full textPsychological applications of meditative practice have become the ‘third-wave’ tools in the psychology clinician’s therapeutic tool kit. Meditation techniques for numerous psychological disorders, as well as the psychological impacts of chronic medical conditions, are being used by a growing number of mainstream clinicians in Western healthcare contexts, which were previously the domain of alternative practitioners, and formerly the sometimes secretive and mysterious domain of the orthodox and esoteric spiritual traditions. Many questions arise regarding how this conversion has taken place and why.
This thesis explores some of the issues surrounding the adoption, reduction, and application of meditation practices from the Eastern and Western origins and transmission to mainstream Western healthcare contexts. By tracing the history of the rise in popularity of meditation in the mainstream Western health sciences, particularly within the mental health sector over the past century or so, it is intended to contribute to an answer to, in part, the question of ‘why’ and, in part, the question of ‘how’.
A further question of whether sufficient cognizance has been taken of the subjective experiences and understandings of long-term meditation practitioners and what they can contribute to Western psychological understanding of meditation—its application potentials and pitfalls—is explored. Why is this important? At present, being intelligent, and highly trained, as most clinicians have come to believe they are, it has become somewhat taken for granted that reading journal articles or books on meditation, and attending a workshop or two, perhaps even a week-long residential training retreat, qualifies one to begin using meditation processes with clients. However, is clinician training and competency in the use of meditation currently sufficient to ensure its safe and appropriate use, particularly for psychologically impaired clients, given the phenomena reported by long-term meditators and the judicious preparatory processes required by teachers in the wisdom traditions of origin?
Using qualitative methodology and a social constructionist viewing lens, I elucidate whether Western psychology’s reductive approach may create barriers to the growth of a knowledge-field of the potential of meditation for personal and collective development and wellbeing—which has existed since antiquity, but which current psychological interest indicates is by no means antiquated.
Twenty three semi-guided indepth interviews were conducted with 18 long-term meditators from diverse backgrounds and nationalities, to explore their subjective experiences—the phenomena they encountered and the meanings they ascribed to their meditation practices. What became apparent through the course of this research was the divergence that exists between the positivist Western scientific literature on meditation and the experiences and understandings of this sample of meditators.
The implications that arise from a paradigm clash between the fundamental premises of a positivist approach to a Western science of meditation for the healthcare sector and those of the wisdom traditions of origin are discussed. Finally, potential paths of resolution to enable contributions to the development of a knowledge-field of meditation for Western healthcare contexts from the understandings and technologies of both ways of knowing are mooted
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A living organoid biobank of patients with Crohn’s disease reveals molecular subtypes for personalized therapeutics
Get PDFCrohn's disease (CD) is a complex and heterogeneous condition with no perfect preclinical model or cure. To address this, we explore adult stem cell-derived organoids that retain their tissue identity and disease-driving traits. We prospectively create a biobank of CD patient-derived organoid cultures (PDOs) from colonic biopsies of 53 subjects across all clinical subtypes and healthy subjects. Gene expression analyses enabled benchmarking of PDOs as tools for modeling the colonic epithelium in active disease and identified two major molecular subtypes: immune-deficient infectious CD (IDICD) and stress and senescence-induced fibrostenotic CD (S2FCD). Each subtype shows internal consistency in the transcriptome, genome, and phenome. The spectrum of morphometric, phenotypic, and functional changes within the "living biobank" reveals distinct differences between the molecular subtypes. Drug screens reverse subtype-specific phenotypes, suggesting phenotyped-genotyped CD PDOs can bridge basic biology and patient trials by enabling preclinical phase "0" human trials for personalized therapeutics
Abstracts of National Conference on Biological, Biochemical, Biomedical, Bioenergy, and Environmental Biotechnology
Get PDFThis book contains the abstracts of the papers presented at the National Conference on Biological, Biochemical, Biomedical, Bioenergy, and Environmental Biotechnology (NCB4EBT-2021) Organized by the Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology Warangal, India held on 29–30 January 2021. This conference is the first of its kind organized by NIT-W which covered an array of interesting topics in biotechnology. This makes it a bit special as it brings together researchers from different disciplines of biotechnology, which in turn will also open new research and cooperation fields for them.
Conference Title: National Conference on Biological, Biochemical, Biomedical, Bioenergy, and Environmental BiotechnologyConference Acronym: NCB4EBT-2021Conference Date: 29–30 January 2021Conference Location: Online (Virtual Mode)Conference Organizer: Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Indi
