Envisioning a Democratic Culture of Difference:Feminist Ethics and the Politics of Dissent in Social Movements

Using two contemporary cases of the global #MeToo movement and UK-based collective Sisters Uncut, this paper argues that a more in-depth and critical concern with gendered difference is necessary for understanding radical democratic ethics, one that advances and develops current understandings of business ethics. It draws on practices of social activism and dissent through the context of Irigaray’s later writing on democratic politics and Ziarek’s analysis of dissensus and democracy that proceeds from an emphasis on alterity as the capacity to transform nonappropriative self-other relations. Therefore, the aims of the paper are: (i) to develop a deeper understanding of a culture of difference and to consider sexual difference as central to the development of a practical democratic ethics and politics of organizations; (ii) to explore two key cases of contemporary feminist social movements that demonstrate connected yet contrasting examples of how feminist politics develops through an appreciation of embodied, intercorporeal differences; and (iii) to extend insights from Irigaray and Ziarek to examine ways in which a practical democratic politics proceeding from an embodied ethics of difference forms an important advancement to theorising the connection between ethics, dissent and democracy

Always different? Exploring the monstrous-feminine and maternal embodiment in organisation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to problematise the notion of woman-as-monster and draws together a conceptual analysis of the monstrous-feminine and its relation to maternal and monstrous bodies including its implications for equality and inclusion in the workplace. Design/methodology/approach – Whilst exploring how female monsters are inextricably tied to their sexual difference, the author draws on social and psychoanalytic perspectives to suggest how such monstrosity is expressed through ambivalence to the maternal. The author analyses two “faces” of the monstrous-feminine in particular: the archaic mother and the monstrous womb (Creed, 1993) and develop this discussion in relation to the potential for a feminist monstrous politics of organisation. Findings – First, the author exposes the basis on which the monstrous-feminine articulates and disarticulates femininity, that is to say, how a feminist analysis of monsters may enable but also foreclose a positive articulation of disruption, disorder and disorganisation central to the conceptualisation of monsters. This is done through a reading of the maternal-feminine and literature on motherhood in organisation studies. Second, the author locates the monstrous-feminine in the body and explores how maternal bodies are constructed and experienced as monstrous as they disrupt the self/other relationship. This analysis suggests that embodying the monster comes with risks and that different configurations of the monstrous maternal are necessary for equality and inclusion in the workplace. Originality/value – The paper identifies and contributes to growing research on the ambivalence of monsters and expands a neglected area of the feminine and maternal aspects of these relationships and what this means for workplace relations. </jats:sec

An Empirical Evidence of Effectiveness of Executives' Skill with and Without Formal Management Education and Training

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Investigations on mixed valent manganites

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A PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF MICROBIOLOGICAL CULTURES ON ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIBING PATTERN IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Objective: Antibiotics are frequently prescribed because of clinical suspicion of infection, while the results of the microbiological analysis are still awaited. This study was undertaken to assess the impact of microbiological culture results on the antibiotic prescribing pattern. Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted on 400 patients of either sex and any age with positive microbiological culture results. Empirical antibiotic therapy details were recorded and change in empirical antibiotic therapy after positive culture results was also recorded. Assessment of sensitivity resistance pattern of microorganisms was also performed. Results: In the study, male: female ratio was 1.01:1. The majority of patients i.e. 94 (24.50%) were in the 46 y to 60 y of age group. Definitive antibiotic therapy was initiated in 103 patients (25.75%) out of 400 patients. The highest number of changes in antibiotic therapy was done in urinary tract infections (63.95%) and septicemia (32.61%) cases. Klebsiella (34.25%), E. coli (32%) and Staphylococcus aureus (14.75%) were commonly isolated microorganisms. Cephalosporins (77.75%) and aminoglycosides (47%) were commonly used in empirical antibiotic therapy, while nitrofurantoin (47.57%) and penicillins (22.33%) were commonly used in definitive antibiotic therapy. Definitive antibiotic therapy was associated with a reduced duration of hospital stay as compared to empirical antibiotic therapy (p&lt;0.0001). Conclusion: Antibiotic prescribing is infrequently influenced by microbiological culture results. Adjustment of the antimicrobial therapy according to microbiological culture results can decrease the duration of hospital stay as well as can decrease the spread of antimicrobial resistance

Self-navigation in crowds: An invariant set-based approach

Self-navigation in non-coordinating crowded environments is formidably challenging within multi-agent systems consisting of non-holonomic robots operating through local sensing. Our primary objective is the development of a novel, rapid, sensor-driven, self-navigation controller that directly computes control commands to enable safe maneuvering while coexisting with other agents. We propose an input-constrained feedback controller meticulously crafted for non-holonomic mobile robots and the characterization of associated invariant sets. The invariant sets are the key to maintaining stability and safety amidst the non-cooperating agents. We then propose a planning strategy that strategically guides the generation of invariant sets toward the agent's intended target. This enables the agents to directly compute theoretically safe control inputs without explicitly requiring pre-planned paths/trajectories to reliably navigate through crowded multi-agent environments. The practicality of our technique is demonstrated through hardware experiments, and the ability to parallelize computations to shorten computational durations for synthesizing safe control commands. The proposed approach finds potential applications in crowded multi-agent scenarios that require rapid control computations based on perceived safety bounds during run-time

Plug-in for visualizing 3D tool tracking from videos of Minimally Invasive Surgeries

This paper tackles instrument tracking and 3D visualization challenges in minimally invasive surgery (MIS), crucial for computer-assisted interventions. Conventional and robot-assisted MIS encounter issues with limited 2D camera projections and minimal hardware integration. The objective is to track and visualize the entire surgical instrument, including shaft and metallic clasper, enabling safe navigation within the surgical environment. The proposed method involves 2D tracking based on segmentation maps, facilitating creation of labeled dataset without extensive ground-truth knowledge. Geometric changes in 2D intervals express motion, and kinematics based algorithms process results into 3D tracking information. Synthesized and experimental results in 2D and 3D motion estimates demonstrate negligible errors, validating the method for labeling and motion tracking of instruments in MIS videos. The conclusion underscores the proposed 2D segmentation technique's simplicity and computational efficiency, emphasizing its potential as direct plug-in for 3D visualization in instrument tracking and MIS practices