This paper proposes a nonlinear autoregressive neural network method for the investment performance evaluation of state-owned enterprises. It is different from the traditional method based on machine learning, such as linear regression, structural equation, clustering, and principal component analysis; this paper uses a regression prediction method to analyze investment efficiency. In this paper, we firstly analyze the relationship between diversified ownership reform, corporate debt leverage, and the investment efficiency of state-owned enterprises. Secondly, a set of investment efficiency evaluation (...) index system for SOE was constructed, and a nonlinear autoregressive neural network approach was used for verification. The data of A-share state-owned listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2009 to 2018 are taken as a sample. The experimental results show that the output value from the NARNET is highly fitted to the actual data. Based on the neural network model regression analysis, this paper conducts a descriptive statistical analysis of the main variables and control variables of the evaluation indicators. It verifies the direct impact of diversified ownership reform on the investment efficiency of SOE and the indirect impact on the investment efficiency of SOE through corporate debt leverage. (shrink)

In the era of the global village, crowd sourcing as a new model of service outsourcing is increasingly being valued by all walks of life. This study uses the data envelopment analysis method to explain the crowd sourcing competitiveness of service outsourcing base cities by using input-output efficiency. The crowd sourcing competitiveness among crowd sourcing base cities is organized and analyzed by collating and analyzing the data of 21 service outsourcing base cities in China from 2016 to 2019. The results (...) show that there is no significant difference in the competitiveness of 21 service outsourcing, the overall trend is that the competitiveness of crowd sourcing is not strong, the match between input and output is not high. Comparatively speaking, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Wuxi are more competitive in crowd sourcing. Combining with the reality of China's economic development, taking the road of crowd sourcing with Chinese characteristics is a good choice for the development of China's crowd sourcing industry. (shrink)

Systematic ethics support in community health services in Norway is in the initial phase. There are few evaluation studies about the significance of ethics reflection on care. The aim of this study was to evaluate systematic ethics reflection in groups in community health , - from the perspectives of employees participating in the groups, the group facilitators and the service managers. The reflection groups were implemented as part of a research and development project.

The trend of active urban design appeared in the year 2005, and as a result of the increasing factors encouraging inactivity and lack of physical activity, cities began to move towards active urban design to make physical activity part of daily practices in the urban environment, which supports the health of its residents. The research dealt with the concept of active urban design, its principles, and the most important influences on human behaviour that encourage active practice in the urban environment. (...) Then the history of physical activity in the city of Basra and inherited popular sports was reviewed, then the extent to which the urban development processes that took place in Corniche Shatt Al-Arab Street and the surrounding area were achieved was measured. Due to its historical, social and economic importance and the conclusions that accompanied the measurement process related to the most important obstacles facing the city in its path towards a sustainable urban design that preserves the health of its residents. (shrink)

How evaluative are legal texts? Do legal scholars and jurists speak a more descriptive or perhaps a more evaluative language? In this paper, we present the results of a corpus study in which we examined the use of evaluative language in both the legal domain as well as public discourse. For this purpose, we created two corpora. Our legal professional corpus is based on court opinions from the U.S. Courts of Appeals. We compared this professional corpus to a public corpus, (...) which is based on blog discussions on the internet forum Reddit. While many linguistic phenomena can give insights into evaluativity, we investigated the use of a wide selection of evaluative adjectives (more specifically, thick adjectives) to gain a more comprehensive picture of the degree of evaluativity in the legal domain. Our analysis shows that legal professionals use thick terms less evaluatively than laypeople, which suggests that legal texts are less evaluative than ordinary discussions. This result, more generally, supports the philosophical idea that thick concepts may vary in their evaluative intensity. (shrink)

Doctors are increasingly enjoined by their professional organisations to involve themselves in supraclinical advocacy, which embraces activities focused on changing practice and the system in order to address the social determinants of health. The moral basis for doctors’ decisions on whether or not to do so has been the subject of little empirical research. This opportunistic qualitative study of the values of medical graduates associated with the Sydney Medical School explores the processes that contribute to doctors’ decisions about taking up (...) the advocate role. Our findings show that personal ideals were more important than professional commitments in shaping doctors’ decisions on engagement in advocacy. Experiences in early life and during training, including exposure to power and powerlessness, significantly influenced their role choices. Doctors included supraclinical advocacy in their mature practices if it satisfied their desire to achieve excellence. These findings suggest that common approaches to promoting and facilitating advocacy as an individual professional obligation are not fully congruent with the experiences and values of doctors that are significant in creating the advocate. It would seem important to understand better the moral commitments inherent in advocacy to inform future developments in codes of medical ethics and medical education programs. (shrink)

While several recent evaluation studies have shown the efficacy of parent training programs for children with neurodevelopmental disorders, manual-based training in German is still scarce. To address this gap, we developed a specific modularized training program for parents of children from preschool to pre-adolescent age with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The overarching purpose of the FETASS intervention is to enhance social communication behavior and quality of life of the child by coaching parents. As a proximal target, the FETASS training (...) aims to provide families with behavior management and communication strategies. The development of the training was influenced by published behavioral parent trainings and autism-specific interventions. The training comprises eight weekly sessions and targets families whose children have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder without intellectual and language impairments. As a preliminary pilot study, the purpose was to evaluate the acceptability of the training. Furthermore, the study aimed at initially evaluating social communication behavior, quality of life of the child, parental stress level, and parenting after training in comparison to a treatment as usual group. Exploratively, long-term effects were investigated after 6 months of training as well. In total, 57 families participated. Questionnaires about social communication behavior and quality of life of the child, parental stress, and parenting were administered at three time points. Primary outcome measures were the social communication behavior of the child and the parent’s proxy report on quality of life of the child. Secondary outcome measures were changes in parental stress and parenting behavior. Acceptability of the training was very high and we had almost no dropouts during training. Results for the primary outcome measure of social communication behavior, overall quality of life of the child, and long-term effects on social communication behavior were not significant. While long-term findings for parent stress reduction and for the quality of life of the child are promising, further research has to be done in a future randomized controlled trial. (shrink)

A dam is a complex and important water-retaining structure. Once the dam is broken, the flood will cause immeasurable damage to the lives and properties of the downstream people, so it is particularly important to have the dam risk management. Since the dam-break flood is a severe-consequence low-frequency event, the corresponding fatalities caused by it are difficult to estimate due to the lack of relevant data and poor data continuity. This paper analyzes the direct and indirect factors affecting the risk (...) of life loss in dam failures and studies the characteristics, distribution rules, and membership functions of each factor. An adaptive differential evolution method is constructed through an optimization of the mutation factors and cross factors of the differential evolution method. This proposed evaluation method also combines with the fuzzy clustering iterative method that is capable of evaluating the similarity of life loss in dam accidents. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by 16 dam-break case studies. (shrink)

Developing critical thinking ability is one of the main goals of medical education, in part because it enhances clinical reasoning, a vital competence in clinical practice. However, there is limited evidence suggesting ways to effectively teach critical thinking in the classroom. Here, we describe the use of a drama-based critical thinking classroom scenario. The study used a mixed-methods approach with both quantitative and qualitative analysis of questionnaire responses. Ninety-one medical students in Colombia were asked to identify and evaluate arguments regarding (...) a dilemma between ethics, social responsibility and scientific work presented in the play Should’ve by the Nobel laureate Roald Hoffmann. Chi square analyses of responses to closed-ended questions showed that the drama-based classroom scenario provided learners with opportunities to make decisions, and to identify and evaluate arguments from the play. Qualitative analysis of responses to open-ended questions confirmed these findings and illustrated the processes underlying the decisions. Students were able to evaluate arguments in an impartial way. Our findings support the use of drama-based scenarios in the classroom as an approach to fostering medical students’ critical thinking. This approach could contribute to a classroom pedagogy in which all students have an active role in responding to controversial questions, evaluating arguments and critically responding. This would support the development of critical thinking and promote deeper understanding of the dilemmas involved in scientific work. (shrink)

BackgroundPatients have the right to equal, respectful treatment. Nowadays, one third of patient complaints concern health care staff’s behavior towards patients. Ethically safe care requires ethical competence, which has been addressed as a core competence in physiotherapy. It has been defined in terms of character strength, ethical awareness, moral judgment skills in decision-making, and willingness to do good. The purpose of this study was to analyze the ethical competence of practicing physiotherapists.MethodA self-evaluation instrument (Physiotherapist’s Ethical Competence Evaluation Tool) (...) based on an analysis of a concept “ethical competence” was constructed in 2016 and physiotherapists (n = 839), working in public health services or private practice responded to the questionnaire.ResultsBased on the results, most of the physiotherapists evaluated themselves highly ethically competent in all areas of ethical competence, subscales being Strength, Awareness, Skills and Will. Willingness to do good was evaluated as highest, while character strength, including the strength to support ethical processes and speak on behalf of the patient, was evaluated the lowest. Physiotherapists most commonly consult a colleague when encountering an ethical problem. Other methods for problem solving are not very familiar, neither are the international or national ethical codes of conduct.ConclusionsThis was the first attempt to assess all aspects of ethical competence empirically in a clinical environment in physiotherapy, using a novel self-evaluation instrument. Even if physiotherapists evaluate themselves as competent in ethics, further exploration is needed for ethical awareness. Also the patients’ viewpoints about ethically competent care should be considered, to better ensure ethical safety of the patient. (shrink)

Thick terms and concepts, such as honesty and cruelty, are at the heart of a variety of debates in philosophy of language and metaethics. Central to these debates is the question of how the descriptive and evaluative components of thick concepts are related and whether they can be separated from each other. So far, no empirical data on how thick terms are used in ordinary language has been collected to inform these debates. In this paper, we present the first empirical (...) study, designed to investigate whether the evaluative component of thick concepts is communicated as part of the semantic meaning or by means of conversational implicatures. While neither the semantic nor the pragmatic view can fully account for the use of thick terms in ordinary language, our results do favour the semanticist interpretation: the evaluation of a thick concept is only slightly easier to cancel than semantically entailed content. We further discovered a polarity effect, demonstrating that how easily an evaluation can be cancelled depends on whether the thick term is of positive or negative polarity. (shrink)

The growing prevalence of health care ethics consultation (HCEC) services in the U.S. has been accompanied by an increase in calls for accountability and quality assurance, and for the debates surrounding why and how HCEC is evaluated. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of HCEC as indicated by several novel outcome measurements in East Asian medical encounters.

Clinical ethics committees have existed in Norway since 1996. By now all hospital trusts have one. An evaluation of these committees’ work was started in 2004. This paper presents results from an interview study of eight clinicians who evaluated six committees’ deliberations on 10 clinical cases. The study indicates that the clinicians found the clinical ethics consultations useful and worth while doing. However, a systematic approach to case consultations is vital. Procedures and mandate of the committees should be known (...) to clinicians in advance to ensure that they know what to expect. Equally important is bringing all relevant facts, medical as well as psychosocial, into the discussion. A written report from the deliberation is also important for the committees to be taken seriously by the clinicians. This study indicates that the clinicians want to be included in the deliberation, and not only in the preparation or follow-up. Obstacles for referring a case to the committee are the medical culture’s conflict aversion and its anxiety of being judged by outsiders. The committees were described as a court by some of the clinicians. This is a challenge for the committees in their attempt to balance support and critique in their consultation services. (shrink)

This article notes that much case study research focusing on educational inequalities is evaluative in character, in the sense that it draws value conclusions. Moreover, the evaluative character of these conclusions is often implicit. We argue that practical evaluation of this kind is inappropriate in research reports. We then discuss the legitimate role that values can play in case study research, notably in providing the basis for identifying important topics for inquiry and in selecting explanations from among causal factors. (...) We outline the obligations associated with this role: that the non-evaluative character of the conclusions of the research must be emphasised, and that the value assumptions used to frame descriptions and explanations must be made explicit. We conclude by briefly examining the implications of our argument for educational evaluation, for action research, and for the notion of internal critique that is central to critical research. (shrink)

It is essential to run a continuous improvement system for the Plan-Do- Check-Action cycle to be achieved and sustained. It is inevitable to consult stakeholder opinions to determine the improvable aspects of the activities carried out in the quality process. Student opinions, the main subject of educational activities, are one of the most critical data sources for continuous improvement. It is recommended to consult students’ views in all processes from the planning to the output of courses, which are the cornerstones (...) of education programs. When the field is examined, it is seen that the number of studies in which students’ opinions are sought to evaluate the quality of the courses is quite limited. This study, built around the main problem “How to design a lesson effectively in all processes, from planning to assessment and evaluation?” is a scale development study. It is thought that a lesson plan designed with the data obtained based on student opinions will increase the quality of the lesson. It is known that the programs which carry out the quality and accreditation process use different questionnaires in the continuous improvement mechanism to measure the quality of courses. 636 students from Hitit University participated in this study in 2022. The scale's validity was evaluated using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The scale has a four-component structure with 24 items, according to the results of the exploratory factor analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the fit indices were within a reasonable range. The reliability coefficients the factors were 0.93, 0.91, 0.86, and 0.93, respectively, with a Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient for the full scale of 0.94. This finding indicated that the scale items had a high degree of internal consistency and that the scale was made up of objects with a strong tie. According to the correlation study, all of the scale’s variables had a tangible link. It can be said that the “Course Evaluation Scale (CES),” which was developed as a result of all these analyses, is a valid and reliable measurement tool consisting of 24 items that can be used to measure the effectiveness of a course taught in higher education, according to student opinions. (shrink)

Background: Care ethical theories provide an excellent opening for evaluation of healthcare practices since searching for (moments of) good care from a moral perspective is central to care ethics. However, a fruitful way to translate care ethical insights into measurable criteria and how to measure these criteria has as yet been unexplored: this study describes one of the first attempts. Objective: To investigate whether the emotional touchpoint method is suitable for evaluating care from a care ethical perspective. Research design: (...) An adapted version of the emotional touchpoint interview method was used. Touchpoints represent the key moments to the experience of receiving care, where the patient recalls being touched emotionally or cognitively. Participants and research context: Interviews were conducted at three different care settings: a hospital, mental healthcare institution and care facility for older people. A total of 31 participants (29 patients and 2 relatives) took part in the study. Ethical considerations: The research was found not to be subject to the (Dutch) Medical Research Involving Human Subjects Act. Findings: A three-step care ethical evaluation model was developed and described using two touchpoints as examples. A focus group meeting showed that the method was considered of great value for partaking institutions in comparison with existing methods. Reflection and discussion: Considering existing methods to evaluate quality of care, the touchpoint method belongs to the category of instruments which evaluate the patient experience. The touchpoint method distinguishes itself because no pre-defined categories are used but the values of patients are followed, which is an essential issue from a care ethical perspective. The method portrays the insider perspective of patients and thereby contributes to humanizing care. Conclusion: The touchpoint method is a valuable instrument for evaluating care; it generates evaluation data about the core care ethical principle of responsiveness. (shrink)

This paper investigates the evaluation of ritual frame indicating expressions (RFIEs) in two groups of L2 learners: British English learners of Chinese and Mainland Chinese learners of English. RFIEs are expressions by means of which speakers confirm their awareness of rights and obligations in a particular standard situation. Previous research in applied linguistics has largely ignored the production and evaluation of such forms, despite the fact that they are pragmatically-loaded and, as such, are very important for the development (...) of the (meta)pragmatic competence of L2 learners. In our study, we have conducted an experiment in which we exposed our learners to both authentic and constructed uses of RFIEs. The evaluation of their (meta)pragmatic competence has revealed notable linguacultural differences between the two groups of L2 learners. (shrink)

Introduction: Schools have become a primary setting for providing mental health care to youths in the U.S. School-based interventions have proliferated, but their effects on mental health and academic outcomes remain understudied. In this study we will implement and evaluate the effects of a flexible multidiagnostic treatment called Modular Approach to Therapy for Children with Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, or Conduct Problems on students' mental health and academic outcomes.Methods and Analysis: This is an assessor-blind randomized controlled effectiveness trial conducted across five (...) school districts. School clinicians are randomized to either MATCH or usual care treatment conditions. The target sample includes 168 youths referred for mental health services and presenting with elevated symptoms of anxiety, depression, trauma, and/or conduct problems. Clinicians randomly assigned to MATCH or UC treat the youths who are assigned to them through normal school referral procedures. The project will evaluate the effectiveness of MATCH compared to UC on youths' mental health and school related outcomes and assess whether changes in school outcomes are mediated by changes in youth mental health.Ethics and Dissemination: This study was approved by the Harvard University Institutional Review Board. We plan to publish the findings in peer-reviewed journals and present them at academic conferences.Clinical Trial Registration:ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02877875. Registered on August 24, 2016. (shrink)

The writers of the Huainanzi 淮南子 show that emotions are based on resonance. In this ancient Chinese text, emotional expressions are considered natural phenomena; however, at the same time, they are sometimes evaluated negatively. It states that sometimes, not only emotions stemming from desires but also emotional expressions in daily lives must be controlled. This is due to the following prescriptions stemming from the art of rulership: (1) a ruler must clearly and distinctly recognize a situation. Emotional expressions lose the (...) Quintessential Spirit (jingshen 精神), which mediates the recognition of the situation; and (2) the intention must not be revealed to the ruler’s vassals. The concept of heart (xin 心) in the Huainanzi, on the foundation called the “theory of cultivation” of Daoism, is influenced by the art of rulership from Legalism. (shrink)

A great need for systematic evaluation of ethics training programs exists. Those tasked with developing an ethics training program may be quick to dismiss the value of training evaluation in continuous process improvement. In the present effort, we use a case study approach to delineate how to leverage formative and summative evaluation measures to create a high-quality ethics education program. With regard to formative evaluation, information bearing on trainee reactions, qualitative data from the comments of trainees, (...) in addition to empirical findings, can ensure that the training program operates smoothly. Regarding summative evaluation, measures examining trainee cognition, behavior, and organization-level results provide information about how much trainees have changed as a result of taking the ethics training. The implications of effective training program evaluation are discussed. (shrink)

(2000). Expanding Study Support Nationally: Implications from an evaluation of the East Middlesborough Education Action Zone's programme. Educational Studies: Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 503-515.

Moral case deliberation as a form of clinical ethics support is usually implemented in health care institutions and educational programs. While there is no previous research on the use of clinical ethics...

Background: Moral distress is a kind of suffering that nurses may experience when they act in ways that are considered inconsistent with moral values, leading to a perceived compromise of moral integrity. Consequences are mostly negative and include physical and psychological symptoms, in addition to organizational implications. Objective: To psychometrically test the Moral Distress Risk Scale. Research design: A methodological study was realized. Data were submitted to exploratory factorial analysis through the SPSS statistical program. Participants and research context: In total, (...) 268 nurses from hospitals and primary healthcare settings participated in this research during the period of March to June of 2016. Ethical considerations: This research has ethics committee approval. Findings: The Moral Distress Risk Scale is composed of 7 factors and 30 items; it shows evidence of acceptable reliability and validity with a Cronbach’s α = 0.913, a total variance explained of 59%, a Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin = 0.896, and a significant Bartlett <0.001. Discussion: Concerns about moral distress should be beyond acute care settings, and a tool to help clarify critical points in other healthcare contexts may add value to moral distress speech. Conclusion: Psychometric results reveal that the Moral Distress Risk Scale can be applied in different healthcare contexts. (shrink)

Background Pharmacists are often faced with scenarios in practice that require application of ethical reasoning and decision-making skills. There is limited research on the ethical decision-making processes of hospital pharmacists. Pharmacists who are compassionate and put the interests of their patients first are thought to positively impact on patient care, but there are often complex health-care system pressures in the hospital setting that cause pharmacists to behave in ways that may conflict with professional values and behaviours. This multisite study aimed (...) to evaluate an interactive education workshop on hospital pharmacists’ ethical reasoning skills and explore the need for ongoing training and support. Methods This mixed-methods study was carried out across two health services including three hospitals. It incorporated a pre-workshop survey, a feedback survey immediately post-workshop and a third survey four weeks after the workshop. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with hospital pharmacists at least four weeks after the ethics workshop. Results In total, 32 participants completed the pre-workshop survey, nominating peers/colleagues as the most common source of support they would consult to inform ethical decision-making (17/118 sources of support). Almost all (n = 31/33; 94%) strongly agreed/agreed that the education session provided them with ethical reasoning skills and a process/framework which they could use when faced with an ethical issue. Pre- and post-survey responses showed increased self-confidence in identifying the regulatory frameworks applicable to pharmacy privacy requirements (p = 0.011) and ethical issues applicable to pharmacy privacy requirements (p = 0.002), as well as applying ethical reasoning to scenarios that involve pharmacy privacy dilemmas/issues (p = 0.004). Participants’ self confidence in knowing where to find support when faced with clinical and non-clinical ethics questions was improved (p = 0.002 and p = 0.003 respectively). Participants supported the introduction of quarterly ethics cafes after the workshop, compared to before the workshop (p = 0.001). Conclusion Hospital pharmacists rely on discussions with colleagues to brainstorm how to address ethical issues. This study showed that a targeted interactive education workshop facilitated familiarity with ethics resources and decision-making processes. It also demonstrated that this approach could be used to enhance hospital pharmacists’ readiness, confidence, and capabilities to recognise and respond to challenging ethical issues. (shrink)

Urban space is the spatial projection of various social and economic activities. Given the complexity of urban functions and the ongoing expansion of urban areas, the spatial differentiation of various economic activities within cities tends to become more and more clear; moreover, there tends to be spatial inequalities in resource allocation. Taking Beijing as an example, this study develops a spatial accessibility model at the town level by integrating the spatial distribution of economic activities with the transport system and evaluating (...) the accessibility to various economic activities. The equality of the residents’ economic-related travel activity is also evaluated in line with the population distribution. The results show that the accessibility to economic activities generally decreases in going from the urban center to the peripheral suburbs, and this “core to edge” difference is readily apparent. In general, residents tend to choose areas to settle in which have a high degree of accessibility, however, the attractiveness of accessibility is constrained within certain limits, as evidenced by a reduction of population in the center of Beijing. Additionally, there are inequalities with respect to traveling experiences. For instance, 27.8% of residents experience very convenient travel conditions, mostly in the Xicheng, Dongcheng, and Haidian districts, and this equates to a high level of accessibility; about half of the residents in Beijing live in areas ranked as being of medium accessibility and where the distribution of economic activities and transportation facilities are insufficient. Residents living in the outlying Changping, Mentougou, Shunyi, and Fangshan districts have relatively poor access to transportation indicating a low level of accessibility. Overall, the evaluation method for spatial equality considers comprehensively the distribution of economic activities, transportation, and population distribution and can provide a reference framework for optimization of the urban spatial structure to improve urban spatial equality. (shrink)

A considerable group of contemporary philosophers and theologians—including those engaged in the science-theology dialogue, such as Barbour, Clayton, Davies, and Peacocke—supports panentheism, i.e., a theistic position which assumes that the world is in God, who is yet greater than everything he created. They see it as a balanced middle ground between the positions of classical theism and pantheism. In this article, I offer a presentation and a critical evaluation of the most fundamental principles of panentheism from the point of (...) view of classical theism. First, I list six main species of panentheism and the motivations of those who support it. In the second part, I analyze the three main difficulties concerning its ontological and theological principles, i.e., (1) the meaning of the preposition ‘in’ (_en_) in ‘pan_en_theism’; (2) the accuracy of panentheistic definition of divine immanence, and (3) the question of whether panentheism is successful in protecting God’s transcendence. I conclude that panentheism fails as a Christian theistic position. Nevertheless, it might still be valuable and play an important role in addressing the cognitive drama of the modern human beings, often seduced by secular (scientific) or spiritual naturalism, or pantheism. (shrink)

ABSTRACTRecently, Cognition and Emotion published an article demonstrating that age cues affect the speed and accuracy of emotion recognition. The authors claimed that the observed effect of target age on emotion recognition is better explained by evaluative than stereotype associations. Although we agree with their conclusion, we believe that with the research method the authors employed, it was impossible to detect a stereotype effect to begin with. In the current research, we successfully replicate previous findings. Furthermore, by changing the comparative (...) context, Study 2 provides a first test of age-stereotypes affecting emotions recognition. We discuss recommendations for future studies in the domain of social categorisation and emotion recognition. (shrink)

Protests that target firms’ socially irresponsible behavior are increasingly organized via digital media. This study uses two methods to investigate the effects that online protests and mitigating firm responses have on shareholders’ and consumers’ evaluation. The first method is a financial analysis that includes an event study which measures the effect of online protests on the target firm’s share price, as well as an investigation of the boundary effects of protest characteristics. The second method is an online experiment that (...) assesses the effect of an online protest campaign on consumers’ perception and purchase intention, as well as any mitigating effects that a firm’s response may have. Contrary to recent studies suggesting that participation in online protests is only token support without any substantive effects, our results show that online protests do hurt. Firms can expect to suffer financial, reputational, and sales damage when an online protest campaign mobilizes consumers successfully. We also show that online protests are more likely to take firms by surprise than offline protests. Firms can exacerbate or reduce the damage by their response. We find that although firms may repair the damage to consumers’ purchase intentions, the negative effects on a brand’s image are harder to rectify. The results have valuable implications for protest organizers and managers faced with the task of responding. (shrink)

Corporate social responsibility is gaining momentum not only in developed nations but also in developing nations. In India, CSR has evolved over the years and has taken different dimensions during such evolution. Many studies have focussed on CSR initiatives of different organizations world over, and evaluation of those initiatives is sparingly done. This study is one such attempt wherein the researcher has evaluated a CSR initiative ‘Thalir Thiran Thittam’ from a stakeholder’s perspective. Aparajitha Corporate Services dispenses TTT, a (...) life skills education programme to the government school students in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. This study tries to evaluate this initiative from the perspective of the teachers who are responsible for implementing the programme in their respective schools. A structured questionnaire was administered to solicit responses from the teachers on the challenges faced in implementation of TTT and the impact created by TTT on their students. (shrink)

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of AI in Endodontics and implantology education among dental professionals' and dental students in Endodontics and implantology education at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Materials and methods: The present study is a descriptive cross-sectional online survey that was carried out among dental students and dental professionals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A self-structured, close-ended questionnaire that was administered that consisted of 17 questions was included. (...) The questionnaire validity and reliability were evaluated for vetting and remarks. The questions were circulated through Google Forms, and it was circulated among the study participants through online mode. The data were collected systematically, and SPSS Statistics version 26.0 was used for data analysis. Results: There were 805 responses, (443 dental students and 362 dental professionals') participated in the study through Google Forms. Among these, 435 (54%) were females and 370 (46%) were males. In the study group, 491 (61.0%) were aware of AI, and 314 (39.0 %) were not aware (p-value 0.000). Among the 17 questions used to assess the KAP, 12 questions were significant with a p-value less than 0.05. More than 73 % prefer to use artificial intelligence in endodontics and implantology education. About 120 (14.9%) agreed that AI will replace the role of dentists in the future. There were no significant results in comparing dental students and dental professionals. Conclusion: The current study contributes valuable insights into knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions related to artificial intelligence among dental student and professionals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Despite some reservations, the majority show a positive view towards the role of AI in the endodontic education, which indicates fertile ground for further exploration and integration of AI technologies into endodontic education. There is a need for continued future research to explore strategies to improve the potential of AI while test their reliability and relevance in endodontic and implantology education. (shrink)

The way metrologists conceive of measurement has undergone a major shift in the last two decades. This shift can in great part be traced to a change in the statistical methods used to deal with the expression of measurement results, and, more particularly, with the calculation of measurement uncertainties. Indeed, as we show, the incapacity of the frequentist approach to the calculus of uncertainty to deal with systematic errors has prompted the replacement of the customary frequentist methods by fully Bayesian (...) procedures. The epistemological ramifications of the Bayesian approach merge with a deep empiricist mood tantamount to an “epistemic turn”: measurement results are analysed in terms of degrees of belief, and central concepts such as error and accuracy are called into question. We challenge the perspective entailed by this epistemic turn: we insist on the centrality of the concepts of error and accuracy by underlining the intentional character of measurement that is intimately linked to the process of correction of experimental data. We further circumvent the difficulties posed by the classical analysis of measurement by stressing the social rather than the epistemic dimension of measurement activities. (shrink)

Public education in museums has the interdisciplinary nature of STEAM education contemporary learning. In the contemporary learning process of the public, digital museums can rely on mobile terminals to provide people with opportunities for mobile learning. Especially since the global outbreak of COVID-19, many offline museums have been forced to close their doors or impose restrictions. How to use digital museums to better carry out the learning experience of visitors is a problem worthy of attention. Effective dissemination of visual information (...) can help digital museums conduct educational activities more efficiently. The purpose of this study was to explore a research method for visual evaluation of visitors’ learning experiences in digital museums. The visual evaluation of visitors in the digital museum learning experience involves the layout of exhibition content, the form of exhibition space, and the way of display of exhibits. Through eye-tracking engineering experiments, we obtain and analyze the visual data of visitors during the educational experience of the digital museum to form an accurate evaluation. This method can be used to assess the visual satisfaction of visitors with the educational experience of a digital museum in mobile learning. This kind of evaluation research can provide strong data support and design optimization direction guidance for the development of digital museum public education. (shrink)

Introduction: It is essential to detect sacroiliitis earlier to decrease morbidity and unwanted complications such as ankylosing of sacroiliac joints. In recent studies, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) serves as a key diagnostic tool for identifying sacroiliitis and is now included in the diagnostic criteria. We aim to detect the utility of diffusion-weighted imaging on the MRI in diagnosing sacroiliitis and measure ADC values for the response to treatment in future studies. Materials -methods: There were 39 patients (16 male, (...) 20 female). A 1.5 Tesla MR device with a pelvic coil was used. The sequences were T1 (before and after intravenous contrast administration of gadolinium), T2-weighted fast field echo, short tau inversion recovery (STIR), diffusion-weighted (DW) images, and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) mapping. Sacroiliac joints were divided into four quadrants, and two radiologists interpreted all the sequences by giving scores from 0 to 3 depending on bone marrow edema from none to severe. The concordance of scores assigned to STIR, T1-weighted gadolinium-enhanced images, ADC mapping, and diffusion-weighted MR images was evaluated by calculating intraclass correlation coefficients. Results: A statistically significant positive correlation was observed between the activity scores derived from short tau inversion recovery (STIR) and other magnetic resonance (MR) sequences, namely T1-weighted gadolinium-enhanced images, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) mapping, and diffusion-weighted MR images. Conclusion: Active bone marrow abnormalities were identified with comparable efficacy using STIR imaging and other MR sequences (T1W-Gad, ADC mapping, DW-MR). In our study, we tried to emphasize the role of the diffusion-weighted images near the other sequences. Diffusion is a fast, easy-applied sequence. After increased experience in the diffusion-weighted images, routine application of this sequence will increase, and even becoming one of the diagnostic criteria will be inevitable. The difference in DWI from the other sequences is that it is measurable. The response to treatment may be followed up by ADC values. (shrink)

The majority of Muslim countries, classified as low or middleincome groups, suffer from poverty and face severe challenges in economicdevelopment. International development reports attribute the economicproblems of Muslim countries to similar factors as those existing in otherdeveloping countries. However, some secular studies have analyzed theimpact of Islamic culture on the economic variables in the Muslim World, andconsequently on its economic development. This paper reviews and evaluatessome of these studies. Secular works which are selected and examined inthis article can (...) be classified into two main groups. The first group makes nodistinction between authentic Islamic culture and contemporary culture whichis prevailing in Muslim countries and builds its analysis and conclusion uponthis misconception. The second group, however, raises objections towardssome specific Islamic laws and traditional rules, considering them amongfactors which have hindered economic development in the Muslim world. (shrink)

Adaptationism has for decades been the topic of sophisticated debates in philosophy of biology but methodological adaptationism has not received as much attention as the empirical and explanatory issues. In addition, adaptationism has mainly been discussed in the context of evolutionary biology and not in fields such as zoophysiology and systems biology where this heuristic is also used in design analyses of physiological traits and molecular structures. This paper draws on case studies from these fields to discuss the productive (...) and problematic aspects of this heuristic in different research practices, in functional as well as evolutionary studies on different levels of biological organization. Gould and Lewontin’s Spandrels-paper famously criticized adaptationist methodology for implying the risk of generating ‘blind spots’ with respect to non-selective effects on evolution. Some have claimed that this bias can be accommodated through the testing of evolutionary hypotheses. Although this is an important aspect of overcoming naïve adaptationism, I argue that the issue of methodological biases is broader than the question of testability. I demonstrate the productivity of adaptationist heuristics but also discuss the deeper problematic aspects associated with the methodological imperialism that is part of the strong adaptationist position. (shrink)

Objectives: There are indications that institutional review board members do not find it easy to assess the risks and benefits in medical experiments, although this is their principal duty. This study examined how IRB members assessed the risk/benefit ratio of a specific phase II breast cancer clinical trial.Participants and methods: The trial was evaluated by means of a questionnaire administered to 43 members of IRBs at six academic hospitals and specialised cancer centres in the Netherlands. The questionnaire addressed: identification and (...) estimation of inconvenience, toxicity, psychosocial distress, and benefits of trial participation to patients; identification and estimation of benefits to future patients and medical science; assessment of the trial’s RBR; and assessment of its ethical acceptability.Results: Most IRB members expected trial participation to involve fairly or very serious inconvenience, fairly severe to sometimes life-threatening toxicity, and serious psychological and social consequences. Conversely, the perceived likelihood of benefits to patients was modest. Most regarded the study as important, and the balance between risks and benefits to be favourable, and believed that the protocol should be approved. The IRB members’ final judgement on the trial’s ethical acceptability was significantly correlated with their RBR assessment of the protocol.Conclusions: Because most patients who participate in clinical trials hope this will prolong their lives, it is suggested that patient information should better describe the anticipated benefits—for example, the likelihood of prolonging life. This would allow patients to make decisions regarding participation based on realistic expectations. (shrink)

The generation of evidence is integral to the work of public health and health service providers. Traditionally, ethics has been addressed differently in research projects, compared with other forms of evidence generation, such as quality improvement, program evaluation, and surveillance, with review of non-research activities falling outside the purview of the research ethics board. However, the boundaries between research and these other evaluative activities are not distinct. Efforts to delineate a boundary – whether on grounds of primary purpose, temporality, (...) underlying legal authority, departure from usual practice, or direct benefits to participants – have been unsatisfactory. (shrink)

The objective of this research has been to evaluate the effect of the integration of Artificial Intelligence on the motivation of students, in the area of Chemistry of tenth grade of the Adventist School of Ibagué. To this end, a methodology with a qualitative approach and a Participatory Action Research design with four phases were used: planning, action, observation and reflection. The information was collected through observation and interview techniques for which field diaries and structured script were used as research (...) instruments. This information was analyzed with the Atlas.ti 23 software, the resulting codes allowed the definition of the categories: experience in the use of artificial intelligence, motivation and commitment, meaningful learning and perceptions about teaching and learning. The results obtained reflect an increase in student motivation and engagement, as well as a favorable impact on meaningful learning. They highlight the pedagogical potential of this resource, to diversify and enrich didactics in the teaching of chemistry. A positive perception by students towards the implementation of AI in the classroom was identified. It is concluded that the use of AI mediated with the design of pedagogical strategies to create learning environments and situations can improve the motivation of students, generating a space for knowledge and meaningful learning. However, challenges were also identified, such as the need for teacher and student training in the management and proper use of technological resources. In addition, the importance of not considering artificial intelligence as a total replacement for the role of the teacher, but as a complementary tool that requires an adequate pedagogical approach, is highlighted. (shrink)