Buddhism and Soteriology

Today, the exponential growth of technology usage in education, via such applications of distance education, Internet access, simulations, and educational games, has raised substantially the focus and importance of educational technology research. In this paper, we examine the past and present research trends, with emphasis on the role and contribution of research evidence for informing instructional practices and policies to improve learning in schools. Specific topics addressed include: (a) varied conceptions of “effective” technology uses in classroom instruction as topics for research, (b) historical trends in research approaches and topics of inquiry; (c) alternative research designs for balancing internal (rigor) and external (relevance) validity; and (d) suggested directions for future research. Attention is devoted to describing varied experimental designs as options for achieving appropriate rigor and relevance of research evidence, and using mixed-methods research for investigating and understanding technology applications in complex real-life settings.

The methodology used to obtain data and information to explore the research questions and themes of inquiry is elaborated. The rationale for using a case study approach is outlined as is the importance of Indonesia, a fast-growing country with the fourth largest population in the world. Indonesia is one of the economic ‘powerhouses’ of Asia, predicted to be among the world’s leading countries in the next decade in terms of economic growth, development and international affairs. The geography and history of administration in Jayapura is reviewed, shifting from Dutch colonial occupation to a strongly controlled province under Indonesia’s hierarchical system of government administration. Population, land use, land tenure, socio-cultural and ethnic aspects and the urban economy are assessed, noting much growth has occurred since Papua was designated an autonomous administrative region in 1993, and Jayapura now being an important strategic border city. The chapter concludes by focusing on the unique characteristics of urbanization as emerging in Jayapura, including informal settlements continuing to flourish alongside formal development.

This paper discusses qualitative research into young people's views of independent children's advocacy services in Wales. We conducted focus groups and semi-structured individual interviews with over 80 children who had used advocacy or whose circumstances suggested them as potential users of advocacy. Our topics of enquiry were structured by research themes drawn from requirements and principles contained in recently introduced National Standards in Advocacy. Through these methods and themes we explored children's perceptions of advocacy in order to delineate characteristics of an effective service and to identify where they think services may need to improve.

Digital innovation enables new forms of cyber-physical innovation based on digital business ecosystems. However, the realization of the opportunities arising from such innovation substantially hinges on interoperability, that is, the ability of two or more systems to exchange information and understand that exchanged information. While interoperability is a long-standing topic in research and practice alike and a valuable knowledge base exists, digital innovation poses novel challenges that might not be covered by conventional wisdom. Accordingly, we review the literature and, first, propose an organizing framework for existing interoperability knowledge involving the contextual conditions of low interoperability, the mechanisms to increase interoperability, and the associated outcomes. Second, we use the framework to identify previous research foci in the scholarly discourse about interoperability and to discuss the potential limitations of this past work in light of digital innovation. Third, we propose a research agenda that enables information systems (IS) research to address the identified limitations—involving conceptual, scoping, and methodological issues—and provide specific recommendations on how to address the identified issues in future IS research. Finally, we propose five major research topics for further inquiry by combining the challenges identified in current knowledge with the current shift toward hyper-connected ecosystems underlying digital innovation.

This book articulates and defends Descartes's dual key project: the separation of human mind and body as distinct substances and their integration into a single human being. The central challenge faced by Descartes's dualism is the prove too much/prove too little dilemma: too keen a separation of mind and body gets in the way of reuniting them into a full bloodied real human subject, whereas emphasizing the primality of the full human being is not enough to preserve the distinctness of mind and body as separate complete substances. The book approaches the Cartesian project in two stages. The first stage concerns the nature of the real distinction between mind and body. The first chapter examines the conceivability arguments that give Descartes's dualism its epistemological bite. The arguments from possibility, conceivability and whatness (or essence) deploy structurally similar considerations to establish the numerical and existential distinction of mind and body. Throughout this book it is assumed that mind and body necessarily coexist. The reconstruction of the real distinction between mind and body respects the assumption of modal inseparability by representing a sense of separate existence weaker than the genuine possibility of disjointed existence. The quest is for conceivable coherent stories depicting the existence of mind without body that, though not really possible, are nevertheless consistent with what the mind is. Conceivability and possibility are mediated by essence, which is responsible for providing the conceptual ‘fix’ on the entity that survives through conceivability scenarios. Essence is understood in conceivability‐free terms: it takes precedence over what is genuinely conceivable of a given item. At the second stage of the Cartesian conception of man, the challenge posed by the mind/body integration into a single human being is to preserve the four major assumptions that emerge out of the discussion of real distinction: (i) complete subjecthood, (ii) modal inseparability, (iii) conceivable existential separability, (iv) whatness (essence) separability. The question concerns the embedding of the mind and body into the real human being whose mind and body they are. Satisfying the demands of the second stage requires changing the conception of essence in (iv) whatness separability from generic essence (mind as ‘thinking thing’, body as ‘extended thing’) to robust essence (the mind's essence consists of being the mind of a man, similarly for body). This is done by contrasting a classical, separatist dualist reading of Descartes's project with an integrationist dualist interpretation. The merits of integrationist dualism over the eventually rejected separatist dualism concern its ability to deal with the problem of real subjecthood, endurance and change in time. The core of the integrationist approach is the primacy of the human being, in terms of which both the existence/identity conditions and the essence of mind/body are given. A categorical conception of substance is sketched, in contrast to an existential conception of substance as ability to exist on its own. By the end of the second chapter, the conception of generic essence has been scrapped. The operative conception is one of robust essences, weaved around the specific human being to whom mind and body belong by their nature. This move recommends the revisiting of the ‘real distinction’ presented in the first chapter. According to that conception, whatness‐consistency is the basis for conceivability claims about mind/body distinctness. The robust notion of essence answers to the problem of ‘conceivability illusions’ such as the apparent conceiving of disembodied minds and mind‐man swaps. This perspective allows the appraisal of the ability of integrative dualism to handle the prove too much/prove too little dilemma. It is argued that integrative dualism safeguards the interdependence of mind, body, and man without levelling over the status of mind and body as distinct complete substances. The dilemma is thus rendered innocuous. The book concludes with a final look at Descartes’d primal question (‘what am I?’) and raises the question of the logical form of such what‐am‐I assertions. Beyond the question of Descartes, this book argues for a particular kind of metaphysics dealing in full bloodied enduring objects rather than ontological abstractions sub species aeternitate. Existence in time and resistance to reduction/definition are the marks of the real subject of metaphysics. Properly conducted metaphysical enquiry should explore the nature, essence, and being though time of unstinted real entities antecedently given in the ordinary world. The order of investigation dictates the blueprints for conceivability: the question of what may be conceived of each real subject is subsequent to the determination of what the real subject is.

Researchers across disciplines have explored the degree to which gender has influenced medical and scientific experimentation. Broad topics of inquiry include whether medicine and science construct and perpetuate norms of femininity and masculinity, the influence of gender on how society constructs the institution of medicine and science, as well as whether gender has an influence on particular aspects of medical and scientific experimentation. Specific research topics include but are not limited to whether the ideals of scientific experimentation are fundamentally masculine and exclusionary, whether gender plays a role for those pursuing careers in science or medicine, which projects are publicly funded in medicine and science, which methodologies are used to investigate and test hypotheses, which populations are perceived to be acceptable research subjects, how a researcher interprets outcomes, or how outcomes shape policies in a way that disproportionately affects one gender rather than others.