Unknowing the known : a heuristic study of J Krishnamurti’s notion of insight to explore the purpose of education from a nondual philosophical perspective

This study explores J Krishnamurti’s notion of insight, based on his personal inquiry into the nature of the human mind. Since this conceptualization of insight was explored by the physicist David Bohm, this study includes Bohm’s inquiry into the system of thought to understand insight. Clark Moustakas’ heuristic inquiry to explore the phenomenon of insight was found to be an appropriate methodology for this study, as this methodology does not place the researcher outside of the process unfolding but rather as an integral part of the investigation. Through the course of the inquiry, the understanding of insight underwent gradual change until a connection was formed between what Krishnamurti referred to as total insight into the human mind and the notion of nonduality. Nonduality is a concept that has been mentioned in religious and spiritual texts but is also considered by both ancient and contemporary thinkers to be the fundamental essence of human existence. It considers all beings to be interconnected and part of a larger whole, further claiming that the boundaries between self and the world are illusory. It sees the divisive nature of thought to be that which makes the illusions appear to be real and is epistemologically rooted in direct experience in order to see reality for what it is. Finding this notion to be a reflection of Krishnamurti’s insight and seeing how this philosophical orientation could have an impact on one’s way of being and relating to what is experienced, this study focuses on understanding the implications of this worldview on educational practices. Bohmian Dialogue was employed as a means of data generation and dialogues with five teachers from the Krishnamurti schools were included for this study. The understanding of the notion of total insight was initially explored, followed by a further inquiry into how the coresearchers’ understanding of nonduality has influenced their views on the purpose of education. Five themes were identified from the dialogues and various other paradoxes were drawn out from the themes in order to explore what a curriculum based on nonduality as a philosophical orientation would entail

SpartanDark: Anonymity Model Integration with a Blockchain Network using SpartanGold

Demand for blockchain ecosystems has seen exponential growth in recent times due to its decentralized nature and trustless verification process for the transactions involved. However, transaction data needs to be leveraged for verification, which coupled with the transparent nature of the blockchain ledger, provides sufficient data for malicious entities to reveal identities and even financial history of users. Data masking techniques have been employed over the years to make blockchain transactions anonymous, making them resistant to identity analysis, a key set of methods being zero-knowledge proof (zk-proof) protocols that guarantee zero data leak. In this research, we develop SpartanDark, a fork of SpartanGold that integrates a zk-proof protocol, Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-interactive Argument of Knowledge (zk-SNARK) for transaction verification. SpartanDark provides a Decentralized Anonymous Payment scheme (DAP) with anonymity guarantees, akin to the privacy transaction model in Zerocash. Our analysis shows that this transaction model presents a high degree of data privacy when compared to traditional blockchain models, carrying zero identifying information about the transaction across the blockchain, making it implausible for other entities to profile any user and thus reestablishing one of the core tenets of blockchain: privacy

Unknowing the known:a heuristic study of J Krishnamurti’s notion of insight to explore the purpose of education from a nondual philosophical perspective

Abstract. This study explores J Krishnamurti’s notion of insight, based on his personal inquiry into the nature of the human mind. Since this conceptualization of insight was explored by the physicist David Bohm, this study includes Bohm’s inquiry into the system of thought to understand insight. Clark Moustakas’ heuristic inquiry to explore the phenomenon of insight was found to be an appropriate methodology for this study, as this methodology does not place the researcher outside of the process unfolding but rather as an integral part of the investigation. Through the course of the inquiry, the understanding of insight underwent gradual change until a connection was formed between what Krishnamurti referred to as total insight into the human mind and the notion of nonduality. Nonduality is a concept that has been mentioned in religious and spiritual texts but is also considered by both ancient and contemporary thinkers to be the fundamental essence of human existence. It considers all beings to be interconnected and part of a larger whole, further claiming that the boundaries between self and the world are illusory. It sees the divisive nature of thought to be that which makes the illusions appear to be real and is epistemologically rooted in direct experience in order to see reality for what it is. Finding this notion to be a reflection of Krishnamurti’s insight and seeing how this philosophical orientation could have an impact on one’s way of being and relating to what is experienced, this study focuses on understanding the implications of this worldview on educational practices. Bohmian Dialogue was employed as a means of data generation and dialogues with five teachers from the Krishnamurti schools were included for this study. The understanding of the notion of total insight was initially explored, followed by a further inquiry into how the coresearchers’ understanding of nonduality has influenced their views on the purpose of education. Five themes were identified from the dialogues and various other paradoxes were drawn out from the themes in order to explore what a curriculum based on nonduality as a philosophical orientation would entail

iRewards

The present disclosure relates to providing a single platform (107) to communicate offers/promotions to users (101). The platform receives payment cards details and associated issuer information from a user (101). The platform further receives information related to at least one merchant (105) and favorite brand of the user (101). The information related to the merchant or brand may be a name or an identity number. The platform (107) uses machine learning and/or data analytics and dynamically fetches current offers/promotions associated with the cards that can be availed at the at least one merchant (105) and favorite brand of the user (101). Finally, the platform (107) displays the fetched offers/promotions associated with the cards on a display of a user device

The Growth of the Automobile Industry : Toyota’s Dominance in United States

During the last decade, the advancement in production and management systems has revolutionized the automobile industry. The industry has witnessed the opening up and growth of several emerging markets. The automotive industry is now facing new and pressing challenges. Globalization, digitalization and increasing competition in the market are changing the face of the industry. Size of the organization is no longer a guarantee of success. Only those companies that find new innovative techniques to create value can prosper in the future. The purpose of this paper is to present a short overview of the automotive industry today and highlight challenges that are faced the industry. We are also going to overview Toyota’s dominance in the US market, strategies used by them and how they were able to overcome the challenges and competition they faced in a foreign market, and how upcoming automobile companies can use Toyota’s strategies to grow in the current market

Retroviruses use CD169-mediated trans-infection of permissive lymphocytes to establish infection

Dendritic cells can capture and transfer retroviruses in vitro across synaptic cell-cell contacts to uninfected cells, a process called trans-infection. Whether trans-infection contributes to retroviral spread in vivo remains unknown. Here, we visualize how retroviruses disseminate in secondary lymphoid tissues of living mice. We demonstrate that murine leukemia virus (MLV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are first captured by sinus-lining macrophages. CD169/Siglec-1, an I-type lectin that recognizes gangliosides, captures the virus. MLV-laden macrophages then form long-lived synaptic contacts to trans-infect B-1 cells. Infected B-1 cells subsequently migrate into the lymph node to spread the infection through virological synapses. Robust infection in lymph nodes and spleen requires CD169, suggesting that a combination of fluid-based movement followed by CD169-dependent trans-infection can contribute to viral spread

Phylogeography of Japanese encephalitis virus:genotype is associated with climate

The circulation of vector-borne zoonotic viruses is largely determined by the overlap in the geographical distributions of virus-competent vectors and reservoir hosts. What is less clear are the factors influencing the distribution of virus-specific lineages. Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is the most important etiologic agent of epidemic encephalitis worldwide, and is primarily maintained between vertebrate reservoir hosts (avian and swine) and culicine mosquitoes. There are five genotypes of JEV: GI-V. In recent years, GI has displaced GIII as the dominant JEV genotype and GV has re-emerged after almost 60 years of undetected virus circulation. JEV is found throughout most of Asia, extending from maritime Siberia in the north to Australia in the south, and as far as Pakistan to the west and Saipan to the east. Transmission of JEV in temperate zones is epidemic with the majority of cases occurring in summer months, while transmission in tropical zones is endemic and occurs year-round at lower rates. To test the hypothesis that viruses circulating in these two geographical zones are genetically distinct, we applied Bayesian phylogeographic, categorical data analysis and phylogeny-trait association test techniques to the largest JEV dataset compiled to date, representing the envelope (E) gene of 487 isolates collected from 12 countries over 75 years. We demonstrated that GIII and the recently emerged GI-b are temperate genotypes likely maintained year-round in northern latitudes, while GI-a and GII are tropical genotypes likely maintained primarily through mosquito-avian and mosquito-swine transmission cycles. This study represents a new paradigm directly linking viral molecular evolution and climate

TRIM5 retroviral restriction activity correlates with the ability to induce innate immune signaling

Host restriction factor TRIM5 inhibits retroviral transduction in a species-specific manner by binding to and destabilizing the retroviral capsid lattice before reverse transcription is completed. But the restriction mechanism may not be that simple since TRIM5 E3 ubiquitin ligase activity, the proteasome, autophagy, and TAK1-dependent AP-1 signaling have been suggested to contribute to restriction. Here we show that, among a panel of seven primate and Carnivora TRIM5 orthologues, each of which has potential for potent retroviral restriction activity, all activated AP-1 signaling. In contrast, TRIM family paralogues most closely related to TRIM5 did not. While each primate species has a single TRIM5 gene, mice have at least seven TRIM5 homologues that cluster into two groups, Trim12a, b, and c, and Trim30a, b, c, and d. The three Trim12 proteins activated innate immune signaling, while the Trim30 proteins did not, though none of the murine Trim5 homologues restricted any of a panel of cloned retroviruses. To determine if any mouse TRIM5 homologues had potential for restriction activity each was fused to the HIV-1 CA binding protein cyclophilin A (CypA). The three Trim12-CypA fusions all activated AP-1 and restricted HIV-1 transduction, whereas the Trim30-CypA fusions did neither. AP-1 activation and HIV-1 restriction by the Trim12-CypA fusions was inhibited by disruption of TAK1. Overall then, these experiments demonstrate that there is a strong correlation between TRIM5 retroviral restriction activity and the ability to activate TAK1-dependent innate immune signaling. IMPORTANCE: The importance of retroviruses for the evolution of susceptible host organisms cannot be overestimated. 8% of the human genome is retrovirus sequence, fixed in the germline during past infection. Understanding how metazoa protect their genomes from mutagenic retrovirus infection is therefore of fundamental importance to biology. TRIM5 is a cellular protein that protects host genome integrity by disrupting the retroviral capsid as it transports viral nucleic acid to the host cell nucleus. Previous data suggest that innate immune signaling contributes to TRIM5-mediated restriction. Here we show that activation of innate immune signaling is conserved among primate and carnivore TRIM5 orthologues, and among 3 of the 7 mouse Trim5 homologues, and that such activity is required for TRIM5-mediated restriction activity