Situated Action Research Articles

The Legal Framework for Ethical Principles Governing the Conduct of Journalists

Ethical principles refer to a system that guides and dictates journalistic work, media laws and legislation, which determines actions in a particular situation. It is based on personal, professional, social and ethical values and investment in building a system of ethical principles aimed at protecting the integrity of journalists is an investment of great importance. It can contribute to improving the image of journalists and contribute to increasing the chances of success of their press institutions and increase public respect for the profession. At the same time, these standards define the legal responsibilities and duties imposed on journalists, because the purpose of journalism is to achieve respect for human dignity of persons with full and responsible respect for their values, diversity and privacy, and respect for all the requirements of protecting public order. On the other hand, national legislation requires a journalist to adhere to the ethical principles governing the conduct of journalists, and it is obvious that these principles are behaviors that characterize a journalist

Mental model for information processing and decision-making in emergency care.

BackgroundUncertainty and time pressure in emergency departments add a challenge to the rational decision-making process, specifically when encountering a critical patient who requires a prompt response. However, there has been little attempt to develop a mental structure model to understand the thought processes and identify cognitive weaknesses points in nurses’ decision-making. A better understanding can inform changes in both practice learning strategies and decision-making in emergency department. This study aims to better understand how newly employed nurses process information and initiate actions in emergency situations characterized by time constraints and uncertainty.MethodParticipants worked under time pressure and uncertainty to solve a simulated shock case by establishing an assumption of what type of shock the simulated patient might have and its cause. An 8-minute window was available to initiate action. Following the simulation, a retrospective think-aloud interview was conducted.FindingsParticipants’ ability to identify the category of shock was better than their ability to identify the underlaying cause of the shock. This influenced their ability to intervene correctly. Participants’ thinking process in an emergency situation can be organized using ABCDE acronym as follows: (1) awareness of the situation, followed by, an instant (2) generation of beliefs (presumption), (3) controlling the consequence (first-line management action), (4) involvement in deliberate thinking and, finally (5) execution, actions (second-line management action). The cognitive weakness was mainly noticed during the first-line management action when participants were involved in immediate lifesaving activities.ConclusionClassification of the steps involved in decision-making when encountering emergency situations may provide insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the thought process at different stages. Further studies are required.

The significance of clinical and instrumental methods for the diagnosis of multiple injuries in road accidents at an early hospital stage

BACKGROUND: By reason of the high urbanization of the population the mortality rate in combined injury cases remains stably high, despite the CT-scans have appeared in the arsenal of many hospitals. There are a lot of questions: how to reduce the time of diagnosis in favor of therapeutic measures, determine the sequence of actions in different situations?
 AIM: To determine the degree of informativeness of clinical and instrumental methods for diagnosing combined injuries in an accident.
 MATERIALS AND METHODS: Were done a retrospective analysis of the results of treatment of 517 patients with combined trauma delivered to the emergency department of the Omsk City Clinical Hospital and the V.P. Demikhovs City Clinical Hospital of the Moscow for 20172019. All patients were examined by a multidisciplinary team using modern diagnostic methods including laparoscopic examination, CT according to the whole body program.
 RESULTS: The results of the data analysis showed that clinical examination, radiography and ultrasound do not allow the diagnosis to be carried out in full, revealing up to 80% of all injuries.
 CONCLUSION: FAST protocol has a high degree of informativeness at the early hospital stage (efficiency 83%, reliability 81%). When using modern computed tomographs with subsequent digital analysis of reconstructions, the value of performing radiographs in an urgent situation decreases. MSCT is the gold standard in the diagnosis of combined trauma, has a high diagnostic efficiency compared to other methods of radiation diagnostics.

Moral Correspondence, Moral Conflict, and Minor Rule-Breaking in a Randomized Visual Scenario Study: Lessons Learned from a Partial Test of Situational Action Theory

The present study focuses on the principle of the conditional relevance of controls in the person–environment interaction, one of the key propositions of Situational Action Theory (SAT). In a visual randomized scenario study, this principle is tested on a minor form of rule-breaking, theft by taking. Multiple groups comparison based on structural equation modeling is utilized to simultaneously test the effects of self-control ability and perceived deterrence in a region-wide convenience sample (N = 3591). Six different person–environment subgroups of respondents were created based on self-reported levels of personal morality and random exposure to one of two manipulated scenario conditions representing exposure to respectively weak and strong setting criminogeneity. Overall, the findings suggest partial support to the notion of conditional relevance of controls in the likelihood of a minor instance of rule-breaking. The effects of both control variables, self-control ability and perceived deterrence, are especially strong in a subgroup characterized by weak personal morality and strong setting criminogeneity—a condition of moral correspondence—which is not fully in line with SAT’s predictions. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to SAT.

SCHOOLS AS INFORMATION CHANNEL TO REDUCE ALCOHOL USAGE HABITS AMONG ADOLESCENTS

The purchase of alcohol and the use of such substances among adolescence is prohibited in Latvia by the legal system of rights. Despite the legal ban alcohol consumption is widespread among Latvian adolescence and starts at very early age. Recent studies show that most of 15-year-olds have consumed alcohol in Latvia. In order to proactively inform and reduce alcohol consumption among young people, a number of information and education programmes have been implemented, mainly in the school environment. Most of these programmes lack an assessment. Consequently, there is a lack of data on the programme effectivity and the link of programme with young people’s knowledge and confidence in their alcohol consumption-related behaviour. The purpose of the study is to identify information channels where adolescence are most frequently gain information, to assess the level of knowledge of grade 9 pupils and its relevance to potential action in alcohol consumption situations. The empirical data of this study is based on a survey with grade 9 pupils. The results of the study show that the school environment is important information channel, but it is essential to offer a diverse information content, involving a number of experts to provide information. High levels of knowledge have a positive impact on young people’s confidence in alcohol consumption-related situations, but do not have a significant impact on alcohol trying rates.

Repurposing and the Impact of New Facilities on the Potential Presentation of Industrial Heritage

Industrial heritage combines historical, architectural and cultural values of the context in which it is located. In order for the spatial and architectural potential of these buildings to be used even after the loss of their initial purpose, the previous plants become the hub of new activity through repurposing and adjustment. This study is focused on the interpolation of hotel and business/trade activities within the previous industrial complex Belgrade “Steam Mill” where the practical issues related to the implementation of this entire process have been presented by means of a detailed analysis (case study). Repurposing of the old plant has been accepted as an evolutionary model of integrative protection. This paper names the shifts in the social and economic context of ex-Yugoslavia and adoption of new economic and cultural patterns as one of the causes for the abandonment of the Mill and its fall into disrepair. Accordingly, the contribution of this paper is based on an overview of a potential identification of a specific model for future actions in similar situations and in relation to the industrial heritage of the Republic of Serbia. The critical analysis of the results of Steam Mill repurposing presented in this paper implies the reviewing of both positive and negative aspects of the said process with the aim of understanding the significance of appropriate planning and use of future facilities in relation to the protection and promotion of cultural heritage values of general interest.

The association between child maltreatment and juvenile delinquency in the context of Situational Action Theory: Crime propensity and criminogenic exposure as mediators in a sample of European youth?  

The association between child maltreatment and juvenile delinquency in the context of Situational Action Theory: Crime propensity and criminogenic exposure as mediators in a sample of European youth?  

From structural time use to situational rule-breaking: Analysing adolescents’ time use and the person-setting interaction

While unsupervised and unstructured socialising with peers is associated with delinquency, less is known about to what extent it fits within adolescents’ daily routine activities; that is, their general, structural time use. Furthermore, research informed by the situational action theory shows that unstructured socialising increases the probability of rule-breaking acts more for individuals with higher crime propensity. Hence, structural time use might explain patterns of unstructured socialising, and crime propensity might explain why some are at an increased risk of committing rule-breaking acts during such situations. The present study aims to connect these three aspects and examine: (i) how adolescents tend to structure their time use, (ii) if their structural time use differentially places them in unstructured socialising, and (iii) whether some adolescents during unstructured socialising run an elevated risk of committing rule-breaking acts due to their morality (as part of their crime propensity) while also taking their structural time use into account. Using a sample of 512 adolescents (age 16) in Sweden, time use and morality are analysed using latent class analysis based on space-time budget data and a self-report questionnaire. Multilevel linear probability models are utilised to examine how rule-breaking acts result from an interaction between an individual’s morality and unstructured socialising, also taking structural time use into account. Results show that the likelihood of unstructured socialising in private but not in public is different across identified latent classes. Adolescents, in general, run an elevated risk of rule-breaking acts during unstructured socialising, irrespective of structural time use. In this study, these acts consist mainly of alcohol consumption. However, the risk is higher for adolescents with lower morality. Adolescents’ time use may account for a general pattern of delinquency, but accounting for rule-breaking acts requires knowledge of the interaction between person and setting.

Humanitarian access in armed conflicts: current challenges

Humanitarian access is a crucial element of humanitarian action in situations of armed conflict since it is impossible to provide direct humanitarian assistance without it. The right of access to victims of armed conflict is a fundamental element of humanitarian action since it allows humanitarian aid organizations to make an independent assessment of needs, ensure the effectiveness of their activities and monitor the fair distribution of such aid. However, gaining and maintaining access to the population to provide humanitarian assistance is difficult for humanitarian organizations. The provision of such access may be limited by armed conflict and the fact that humanitarian access is usually considered ad hoc, so there are often no established methods or rules for granting such access. Although humanitarian access is not a new issue in international law, there are several challenges today in securing and maintaining such access in situations of armed conflict. The article will consider the problems of understanding the term "humanitarian access," the rights and responsibilities of participants in armed conflicts regarding such access, obligations, and restrictions on humanitarian organizations themselves, criteria for granting humanitarian access in various situations, the interaction of international humanitarian missions with combatant parties, challenges related to the accreditation of humanitarian missions, the coordination of the system of humanitarian assistance, and legislative, regulatory gaps. The article will suggest possible ways to solve the problems.

The role of symptoms of psychopathy in persistent violence over the criminal career into full adulthood

Purpose: The extant criminal career literature supports the assertion that risk factors for violent and non-violent offending are the same. However, such studies have not examined the role of psychopathic personality disturbance (PPD) in the development of persistent violence across the life course. A situational action theory perspective was used to help illustrate the utility of PPD in explaining persistent violent offending. Methods: Convictions for violent offense and non-violent offenses were measured for Canadian male (n = 262) and female (n = 64) offenders at each year between ages 12 and 28. Semi-parametric group-based modeling was used to identify joint trajectories of violent and non-violent offending. Symptoms of adolescent PPD and other criminogenic risk factors were also measured. Results: Through the joint trajectory model, five violent and five non-violent trajectories were identified. PPD emerged as a strong predictor of membership in the trajectory associated with chronic violent offending but lower levels of non-violent offending. Conclusions: Contrary to earlier criminal career research, the most persistent violent offenders were not also involved in the highest rate of general offending. Theories that help explain why individuals are involved in persistent violence are needed. Incorporating PPD into such a theoretical framework appears necessary.

Variants of drill as preparations for responding to surprising events

PurposeThis paper aims to contribute to research on management training and development by exploring the impact of extensive training labeled as drill on coping with critical situations. More specifically, it inquires into conditions and supplements for drill to move from mere adaptation to exaptation, relating to the transfer of drilled procedures to serve novel requirements, in events involving different types of surprise.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts an interpretive research approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with members of the Austrian Military on cases of resilient field action in manifold situations of surprise.FindingsThe paper reveals that two different kinds of drill lead to properties that are essential for recovery from shock during critical events: the pure drill and the preaptative drill. Pure drill enables automatized action in situations when time or emotional pressure is too high for reflection or consideration of different options. Preaptative drill, pertaining to drill enhanced with background knowledge, leads to adaption or even exaptation of automatized action through reflection.Originality/valueThe present paper is the first to show the potential impact of drill on the ability to deal with specific kinds of surprise. It suggests that incorporating explanatory background knowledge about why and how rules and learned behaviors that were created into training programs can be of vital importance for dealing with surprise successfully.

The problem of humanitarian access in armed conflicts

Humanitarian access is an essential factor in humanitarian action in situations of armed conflict since it is impossible to provide direct humanitarian assistance without it. Unfortunately, the imposition of prohibitions and barriers to humanitarian aid by the warring parties has become a trend in modern armed conflicts worldwide, particularly in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America.
 The right of access to victims of armed conflict is a fundamental element of humanitarian action since it allows humanitarian aid organizations to make independent needs assessments, ensure their effectiveness and monitor the fair distribution of such aid. However, gaining and maintaining access to the population to provide humanitarian assistance is difficult for humanitarian organizations. The provision of such access may be limited by the very fact of armed conflict and the fact that humanitarian access is usually considered ad hoc, so there are often no established methods or rules for granting such access.
 Although humanitarian access is not a new issue in international law, there are several challenges today in ensuring and maintaining such access in situations of armed conflict, including the understanding of the term "humanitarian access," the rights and responsibilities of participants in armed conflict, obligations, and restrictions on humanitarian organizations themselves, criteria for granting humanitarian access in various situations, etc.
 This article will consider the most common problems in gaining humanitarian access during armed conflicts and suggest possible ways to solve them.

Driving Behavior and Decision Mechanisms in Emergency Conditions

In this article we used simulator experiments to explore the intelligent mechanisms of human decision-making. Three types of typical emergency scenarios were used in the experiment, in which Scenario 1 was used to analyze the driver’s choice to protect themselves or to protect pedestrians in emergency situations. Scenario 2 was compared with Scenario 1 to verify whether the driver’s avoidance behavior to protect pedestrians was instinctive or selective. Scenario 3 was to verify whether the driver would follow the principle of damage minimization. The driver’s decisions and actions in emergency situations, from the cumulative frequency of time to collision (TTC) to the maximum steering wheel angle rate during the experiments, were recorded. The results show that the driver was not just instinctively avoiding the immediate obstacle, but more selectively protecting pedestrians. At the same time, the time taken up by the driver’s instinctive avoidance response also had a negative impact on decision-making. The actual decisions of the driver were analyzed to provide a basis for building up the ethical decision-making of autonomous vehicles.

Preventing What for Whom?: EU Conflict Prevention Efforts in Pursuit of Autonomy

Conflict prevention has formed an integral part of the European Union’s (EU’s) Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) since the early 2000s, with investments in civilian peacebuilding and conflict prevention competences suiting well with the Union’s ‘civilian’ or ‘normative’ power role. The transforming international order is, however, changing the strategic environment also for the Union’s and its Member States’ conflict prevention and peacebuilding efforts. This article analyses the implications of the evolving strategic autonomy debate for the EU’s role conception and concrete action in the realm of conflict prevention. While the search for a more capable EU in security and defence does not automatically counter the Union’s selfconception as a conflict preventor and peacebuilder, it does appear to introduce meaningful shifts in the core objectives and values guiding its external action in conflict situations. An analysis of the EU’s rhetoric and concrete uses of its institutional conflict prevention and peacebuilding tools in recent years in Africa suggests a growing centralization of security and geopolitical considerations at the expense of the core ethos of conflict prevention. EU, Conflict prevention, Strategic autonomy, CFSP- Arica, Instrument contributing to stability and peace (IcSP)

Model Kepemimpinan Lembaga Pendidikan Di Masa Pandem

In order to prevent the spread of the Corona virus, in Indonesia itself, a Large-Scale Social Restriction (PSBB) policy was implemented to suppress the spread of this virus, including in terms of education. Education applies social distancing which limits space and time to all routine activities in the learning system, the role of leaders is needed in directing, providing guidance, setting strategies or policies in an organization especially when in a pandemic emergency, a leadership model is needed in solving every problem especially in a pandemic emergency. The method used in this research is library research. The right leadership model in educational institutions during this pandemic is a situational leadership model, where this leadership model expresses how a manager's actions in certain situations his leadership can be effective.

Mezi jazykovou politikou a žitou zkušeností aneb Mnohojazyčnost, která (ne)existuje

The article examines managing language diversity at four urban schools in the Czech Republic, particularly it focuses on the contradictoriness between real-life experiences with languages and language policy. Czech language education is characterized by pursuing the European policy so-called “Mother Tongue + 2” and by maintaining national ideology at school. As result is that the language monitoring system provides data, that perceive languages as discreet entities, that are hierarchized in order to Mother Tongue + 2 ideology. The aim of the study was to explore how three schools focusing on languages perceive languages present in their space in comparison to how these languages are perceived by selected pupils. The study was carried out in a qualitative design, which included three interviews with school headmasters (representing the perspective of three selected schools) and an analysis of six language profiles (representing the perspective of pupils). Based on qualitative empirical approach, which includes three interviews with headmasters, is in this article argued, that real-live experiences with languages differ from the perception of languages by language policy (especially in categories foreign languages, Czech for foreigners and pupils-foreigners), but it follows frames of language policy. The analysis of the language profiles suggests a pupil’s understanding of languages (home languages, school languages, friends’ languages, and languages they wish to know or like) that is based on the use of languages in social interaction with different actors in different places and situations. Based on our results it can be assumed that the increasing language diversity at schools calls for reconceptualization of the Czech language policy (top-down and bottom-up) toward flexible approaches to multilingualism, derived from current linguistic and pedagogical findings based on lived experiences with languages.

Accounting practices and professional power dynamics during a crisis

This paper examines how changes in accounting practices during a crisis can affect organisational dynamics between hospital managers and clinicians. Our theoretical framework applies a multi-dimensional concept of power (Hardy, 1996) – which distinguishes power over resources, processes and meaning – to a longitudinal case study of a public university hospital during a budgetary crisis. Based on interviews with managers and clinicians, three successive time intervals with distinct power constellations are identified. Initially, we identify a pre-crisis phase where management formally controls resources, which seems to have limited effects on clinician dominance because managers lack ‘processual power’ and ‘power of meaning’. Next, an implantation phase emerges whereby the introduction of mandated budget cuts triggers shifts in the distribution of power, such that managers acquire power by securing the collaboration of clinicians – a phenomenon which has tangible benefits in terms of enabling budget compliance and increased service provision. Finally, the third phase may be conceptualized as a fiscal pressure regimen whereby, when budgetary pressures intensify further, management's newly gained ‘power of meaning’ is eroded because management are now seen to pursue unrealistic demands. Drawing on research insights gleaned during each phase, our analysis contributes to extant literature in at least three ways. First, we present novel findings regarding the impact of crises-related applications of accounting practices on intra-organisational power constellations. Second, our work highlights how accounting practices help shape the understanding of crisis, which, in turn, impacts the distribution of organizational power and influences intra-organizational patterns of collaboration. Third, we find that awareness of the meaning power of accounting practices can help shape strategic action in crisis situations.

Laypersons' Psychological Barriers Against Rescue Actions in Emergency Situations - A Questionnaire Survey.

Although bystanders' performance is important to improve outcomes of patients after cardiac arrests, few studies have investigated the barriers of bystanders, including those who could not perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation or any other rescue actions in emergency situations. This study aimed to assess the relationship between the psychological barriers of laypersons who encountered emergency situations and their rescue actions. A questionnaire survey was conducted and this included laypersons who had encountered emergency situations during the last 5 years. Six questions were about the psychological barriers and 8 questions were about the laypersons' rescue actions. The primary outcome was any rescue actions performed by laypersons in an actual emergency situation. Overall, 7,827 (92.8%) of 8,430 laypersons responded; of them, 1,361 (16.1%) had encountered emergency situations during the last 5 years, and 1,220 (14.5%) were eligible for inclusion in the analyses. Of the 6 psychological barriers, "fear of approaching a collapsed person" (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 0.50; 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.32-0.79) and "difficulties in judging whether to perform any rescue action" (AOR 0.63; 95% CI 0.40-0.99) were significantly associated with performing any rescue actions. The fear of approaching a collapsed person and difficulties in judging whether to take any actions were identified as the psychological barriers in performing any rescue actions by laypersons who encountered emergency situations.

Picking out the Impurities: Attention-based Push-Grasping in Dense Clutter

Abstract“Picking out the impurities” is a typical scenario in production line which is both time consuming and laborious. In this article, we propose a target-oriented robotic push-grasping system which is able to actively discover and pick the impurities in dense environments with the synergies between pushing and grasping actions. First, we propose an attention module, which includes target saliency detection and density-based occluded-region inference. Without the necessity of expensive labeling of semantic segmentation, our attention module can quickly locate the targets in the view or predict the candidate regions where the targets are most likely to be occluded. Second, we propose a push–grasp synergy framework to sequentially select proper actions in different situations until all targets are picked out. Moreover, we introduce an active pushing mechanism based on a novel metric, namely Target-Centric Dispersion Degree (TCDD) for better grasping. TCDD describes whether the targets are isolated from the surrounding objects. With this metric, the robot becomes more focused on the actions around the targets and push irrelevant objects away. Experimental results on both simulated environment and real-world environment show that our proposed system outperforms several baseline approaches,which also has the capability to be generalized to new scenarios.

Simulation Technologies in the Cycle of Professional Retraining in the Specialty «Functional Diagnostics»

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of stimulation techniques in teaching medical personnel the skills of providing emergency medical care. The simulation module “Emergency medical care” n the amount of 36hours has been introduced into the program of professional retraining in the specialty “Functional diagnostics”. In simulated conditions, a functionalist doctor acquires a certain algorithm of actions in an emergency situation in the workplace and selfconfidence, develops teamwork skills without risk to the patient and stress for the doctor.