Rational Assessment Research Articles

INTERCULTURAL STEREOTYPES AND THE ROLE OF CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING IN OVERCOMING THEM

Intercultural stereotypes often lead to misunderstandings or even cultural conflicts in communication, as they interfere with the rational assessment of individuals from one national culture and the products, perspectives and practices associated with them. Although there is a considerable literature on stereotypes in general and on intercultural stereotypes in particular, there is clearly insufficient scholarly works to provide concrete and conceptual insights into how to minimise or overcome stereotypical attitudes in practice. For example, the role of critical and creative thinking in the process of devisualisation of stereotypes has not been adequately assessed in the academic literature. Researchers have so far paid little attention for it in their works. This work aims to fill the aforementioned gaps in the scientific discourse. The object of this article is intercultural stereotypes in the context of the link between critical and creative thinking. The aim of the article is to analyse the theoretical aspects of intercultural stereotypes and the role of critical and creative thinking in overcoming them. The work first analyses the theoretical aspects of stereotypes in the context of intercultural communication, and then examines the nuances of the role of critical and creative thinking in overcoming intercultural stereotypes. The role of critical and creative thinking in the process of overcoming intercultural stereotypes is explored by discussing the link between critical and creative thinking, as well as the importance of the application of teaching methods for critical and creative thinking skills in the process of devisualisation of stereotypes. The following research methods are used in order to implement the aim of the article: analysis and synthesis of scientific literature.

Context in augmented reality marketing: Does the place of use matter?

AbstractAugmented reality (AR) integrates virtual content into a consumer's perception of the real world. While academic interest in AR is growing, most prior research has focused on consumer evaluations of AR content and neglected the physical context in which AR content is consumed. Addressing this research gap, two experimental studies showed that context (e.g., experiencing a virtual sofa at home vs. in a university classroom) impacts consumer judgments and evaluations. The results reveal two primary effects of context. First, contexts in which virtual objects meet users' personal and cultural expectations associated with a specific location (e.g., a sofa in a living room) increase plausibility. However, such functionally appropriate contexts (counterintuitively) decrease local presence (i.e., the perception that the virtual product is “here”). Study 2 extends this model by showing that plausibility (a rational and deliberate assessment of AR content) and local presence both impact utilitarian benefits, whereas local presence has a stronger effect on perceived physical tangibility. The findings extend prior theory on the psychological mechanisms impacting judgment and presence in AR, and they provide managers with important insights regarding the influence of context on downstream variables in their AR and metaverse marketing strategies.

Moving on to surgical stage of glaucoma treatment

Making a decision about the need for surgical intervention in glaucoma patients is not easy, and the rationale for it involves a balanced approach based on numerous objective, as well as, unfortunately, subjective factors. Therapeutic approaches in modern glaucomatology have temporarily, and as it seems, for quite some time, have shifted towards active observational therapeutic strategy, which brought negative results expressed in deteriorating outcomes of surgical treatment. At the same time, it is obvious that not all indications for surgical treatment have the same "weight", which also determines the need for a differentiated approach. The discussion about the decisionmaking time for transition to surgical tactics of glaucoma treatment has been repeatedly discussed, is being discussed, and will continue to be discussed in the professional circles, with new arguments arising due to clarification of the pathophysiology of glaucomatous optic neuropathy, active use of interdisciplinary approaches, emergence of new tools, devices and technologies, coupled with improvement of surgical skills, increase in the life expectancy of the population, as well as the need for rational assessment of socio-economic resources of the state and the individual. This review describes the generalized experience and the authors' own point of view on this problem.

The metabolism and dissipation behavior of tolfenpyrad in tea: A comprehensive risk assessment from field to cup

The metabolites of pesticides usually require rational risk assessment. In the present study, the metabolites of tolfenpyrad (TFP) in tea plants were identified using UPLC-QToF/MS analysis, and the transfer of TFP and its metabolites from tea bushes to consumption was studied for a comprehensive risk assessment. Four metabolites, PT-CA, PT-OH, OH-T-CA, and CA-T-CA, were identified, and PT-CA and PT-OH were detected along with dissipation of the parent TFP under field conditions. During processing, 3.11–50.00 % of TFP was further eliminated. Both PT-CA and PT-OH presented a downward trend (7.97–57.89 %) during green tea processing but an upward trend (34.48–124.17 %) during black tea manufacturing. The leaching rate (LR) of PT-CA (63.04–101.03 %) from dry tea to infusion was much higher than that of TFP (3.06–6.14 %). As PT-OH was no longer detected in tea infusions after 1 d of TFP application, TFP and PT-CA were taken into account in the comprehensive risk assessment. The risk quotient (RQ) assessment indicated a negligible health risk, but PT-CA posed a greater potential risk than TFP to tea consumers. Therefore, this study provides guidance for rational TFP application and suggests the sum of TFP and PT-CA residues as the maximum residual limit (MRL) in tea.

Emergy synthesis of decoupling and recoupling crop-livestock systems under unified system boundary and modified indices

Sustainability assessment of integrated crop-livestock system was crucial for regulating and improving the complex agricultural system. Emergy synthesis (ES) is a suitable tool to assess the sustainability of integrated crop-livestock systems. However, the inconsistent system boundaries and limited assessment indicators caused to subjective and misleading results when comparing the recoupling and decoupling croplivestock models. Therefore, this study defined the rational system boundary of emergy accounting for the comparison of recoupling and decoupling crop-livestock complex systems. Meanwhile, the study designed an emergy-based indices system based on “3R” principles of circular economy. An integrated crop-livestock system including sweet maize cultivation and cow dairy farm in South China was selected as the case to compare sustainability of recoupling and decoupling models under the unified system boundary and modified indices. Results showed that the new ES framework could provide more rational assessment results when comparing the recoupling and decoupling crop-livestock systems. In addition, this study illustrated, through scenario simulation, that the recoupling maize-cow model could be further optimized by regulating the material flow between subsystems and adjusting the system structure. This study would promote the application of ES method in the field of agricultural circular economy.

A Novel Psychological Decision-Making Approach for Healthcare Digital Transformation Benchmarking in ASEAN

In recent years, digital transformation is seen as a mandatory and urgent requirement in the process of modernizing countries. The effectiveness of the digital transformation process in the field of public management directly affects the social life and operations of businesses. This study aims to paint an overall picture of the healthcare digital transformation of a rapidly growing region, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), through a bounded rational multi-criteria assessment method. The novel proposed method is developed in light of the psychological behavior theories and the strengths of multi-criteria decision-making methods, which are based on distance computation and statistical parameters. Therefore, it can not only determine the weight of the criteria objectively through distance correlations, but also deeply describe the subjective psychology of the decision maker. In addition to theoretical contributions with a novel approach, the findings in the benchmarking process reveal important indicators and practical lessons from the digital transformation successes in ASEAN.

Evapotranspiration in Semi-Arid Climate: Remote Sensing vs. Soil Water Simulation

Estimating crop evapotranspiration (ETa) is an important requirement for a rational assessment and management of water resources. The various remote sensing products allow the determination of crops' biophysical variables integrated in the evaluation of ETa by using surface energy balance (SEB) models. This study compares ETa estimated by the simplified surface energy balance index (S-SEBI) using Landsat 8 optical and thermal infra-red spectral bands and transit model HYDRUS-1D. In semi-arid Tunisia, real time measurements of soil water content (θ) and pore electrical conductivity (ECp) were made in the crop root zone using capacitive sensors (5TE) for rainfed and drip irrigated crops (barley and potato). Results show that HYDRUS model is a fast and cost-effective assessment tool for water flow and salt movement in the crop root layer. ETa estimated by S-SEBI varies according to the available energy resulting from the difference between the net radiation and soil flux G0, and more specifically according to the assessed G0 from remote sensing. Compared to HYDRUS, the ETa from S-SEBI was estimated to have an R2 of 0.86 and 0.70 for barley and potato, respectively. The S-SEBI performed better for rainfed barley (RMSE between 0.35 and 0.46 mm·d-1) than for drip irrigated potato (RMSE between 1.5 and 1.9 mm·d-1).

Seismic fragility curves for shallow buried subway station using pushover-based method

Numerical methods are widely used to establish seismic fragility curves in the performance-based seismic design for buildings. However, non-linear dynamic analyses for large soil-structure systems are computationally demanding and alternative methods are sought to establish seismic fragility curves for buried structures. This paper proposes a simplified pushover method to calculate the non-linear response of underground structure. The pushover-based fragility analysis method can establish the conditional probability of the structure relevant to certain limits states by conducting a series of free-filed response analyses and one pushover static analysis. To verify the applicability of the method, two different subway stations designed for static loads only are used as examples for vulnerability assessment using the proposed method as well as the conventional incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) method. The structure capacity limits are associated with the inter-story drift ratio and the earthquake intensity measure is represented by the earthquake peak ground acceleration (PGA). The fragility curves predicted employing the pushover-based method are compared with those obtained from the IDA method. The comparison indicated that the probabilistic approach integrated with pushover-based strategies is an effective tool for rational and quantitative seismic fragility assessment of underground structures.

Managing Svalbard Tourism: Inconsistencies and Conflicts of Interest

The Svalbard Archipelago has experienced a rapid increase in tourism-related activities over the past few decades. The Norwegian Government’s ambition to develop the Archipelago’s tourism industry offers multiple socio-economic opportunities. The development and scope of these tourism activities is affected by a complex governance system that entails strict environmental regulation and preparedness considerations. To understand the balance of goals across the national and international policy levels, we have mapped, reviewed, and analyzed the national and international regulations and agreements that affect tourism activities on Svalbard. The document analysis reveals the framework of natural and environmental consideration, access to areas and passage, requirements for organized outdoor activities, and regulatory tools. We discovered conflicts and internal inconsistencies in the way that Svalbard tourism has developed. It has been shaped by both economic growth and environmental preservation, without any specific business development objectives and goals or acceptable limits of environmental and social change in place. For tourism stakeholders, this might complicate any rational assessment of the balance between economic development and environmental status. The challenges we have identified are specific to Svalbard, but are likely to be similar in many other Arctic locations involved in tourism.

Rational Assessment of Physico-Chemical Parameters of Agricultural Soil from Selected Places of Banepa, Nepal

Physico-chemical parameters are among the basic attributes for the study of soil as they play a critical role in the assessment of soil health. In the present study, an attempt was made to study the physicochemical parameters in soil samples collected from six places of Banepa (Sinagal, Budole, Janagal, Chandeswori, Nayabasti, and Dhaneswor). The soil characterization was carried out for parameters like moisture content (%), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), chloride (Cl-), sulphate (SO42-), and phosphate (PO43-) ions. Chloride and sulphate were analyzed by argentometric titration and gravimetric method. The molybdenum blue method was employed for analysis of phosphate. In the present study, the pH of different soil samples ranged from 4.02-6.46 indicating a strongly to slightly acidic nature. EC values ranged from 0.05-0.45 mS/cm which showed that all soil samples were non-saline. The concentration of Cl-, SO42- and PO43- were in the range of 10142-16904 ppm, 1440-3907 ppm, and 1.8-3.8 ppm, respectively. Analysis of these parameters helps to determine the nature, fertility status of soil which is important for agricultural chemists for plant growth and soil management. Such studies provide the necessary information required to maintain optimum fertility year after year.

Соотношение аналитических и аффективных оценок при виртуальном выборе товара потребителем

<p>One of the controversial issues in modern behavioral economics is associated with the role of emotional and rational criteria for the consumer's choice of goods for purchase. Until recently, the economic theories of such a choice were dominated by an intellectualistic approach, in which the decisive role was attributed to the rational criterion. Recently, both the opposite point of view and the recognition of the role of the interaction of both criteria in making a decision by the buyer have appeared. This article presents the results of a pilot experiment in which the subjects evaluated the images of a pair of cars and made a decision about the possible purchase of one of them. The assessments were made in two ways: either on a 7-point “like-dislike” scale (global emotional assessment), or on four specified criteria (rational assessment). The main issue of the experiment was to determine the predictive power of one or another type of assessment in the final choice of the purchased car. From the data obtained in the experiment, the main conclusions follow: 1) affective estimates are inferior in predictive power to total analytical estimates if the choice of an object is made immediately after its analytical estimates, but they are not significantly inferior in the condition when the choice is made when it is postponed; 2) affective assessments are inferior in the success of election predictions to analytical assessments in the younger age group (subjects under 40), but do not differ significantly in this in the older age group; 3) affective assessments are most closely related to analytical assessments of car design, which, in turn, are the closest in terms of the success of election predictions to the total analytical assessments. All this suggests that there is no absolute advantage of any strategy (rational or emotional) choice in the presence of several alternatives.</p>

Geopolitical and geostrategic situation of Lithuania in the context of the foreign policy of the Russian Federation - with an outlook to 2019

ObjectivesThis paper discusses the problems faced by Lithuania in its current geopolitical and geostrategic situation, as a post-Soviet state that has fairly recently joined the structures of the European Union and NATO. As one of the Baltic States with a relatively small territory and without significant natural resources, it must rely on cooperation with other states and the trade exchange, mainly with the Russian Federation. Lithuania is a small state, which - seemingly - would be capable of pursuing only regional politics, not geopolitics in the strategic sense.Methodsanalysys, inference, reductive reasoning, SWOT analysisResultsThe conducted analysis and rational assessment of Lithuania's geopolitical and geostrategic problems shows that it is increasingly difficult to predict the direction in which the broadly defined policy and strategy of the country will develop in the 21st century and in the far future.ConclusionsBased on the consideration presented in this paper, it can be concluded that Lithuania, as a member of the European Union and NATO, does not have its own geopolitics and geostrategy, as it is still dependent on the policy of the Russian Federation. This dependence is, to a large extent, due to its geographical location in the Baltic region, through which important communication and transport routes from the Russian Federation to Central and Western Europe run. In addition, almost 6 per cent of Lithuania's population are Russians, in relation to whom the Russian government pursues its own demographic policy by indoctrinating them in Russian schools and universities.

Individual (Non) Resilience of University Students to Digital Media Manipulation after COVID-19 (Case Study of Slovak Initiatives).

The starting point of this theoretical article is the presentation of the issue of media manipulation in the contemporary digital media environment. The theoretical part is followed by a description and analysis of selected factors that create a belief of the individual's resilience to digital media manipulative elements. Among the seven researched factors of an individual's (non) resilience to digital media manipulation, we include: media illiteracy/literacy, thought activity/laziness, searching/not searching for "consensus" in the media, not emphasizing/emphasizing emotions, non-reliance/reliance on own intuition, non-credibility/credibility in the opinion of celebrities and automatic distrust/trust of recipients in the information presented in the media and others. We do not see the presence of manipulative elements in digital media as the main danger (manipulation is always in a sense part of the media message), nor the fact that manipulative elements have an effect on individuals (media-manipulative and non-manipulative-effects cannot be doubted). In our opinion, the very significant risk is the fact that the media message is followed by a false belief of the recipient's own "immunity" against (covert and overt) media manipulation. The result of this false notion is the individual's belief that manipulation in digital media content does not "affect" him ("I can easily recognize media manipulation") and does not "touch" him ("It can't happen to me"). Such a person then resembles a "house on the sand", as his opinions, arguments or beliefs quickly collapse under the onslaught of five skills: challenges in the context of media literacy, critical thinking, strategies for verifying the credibility of information sources, the rational assessment of issues and reflection of reality. This original research article is a qualitative analysis of the legacy of ten Slovak educational initiatives focused on the issue of education in the context of media manipulation. The analysis focuses on the role of individual risk factors associated with resilience. The conclusion of the analysis is the elaboration of a positive proposal for the researched issue.

Management of diabetes mellitus in people living with HIV: A single-center experience.

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is more common in people living with HIV (PLWH) than in HIV-negative patients. Here we aimed to describe the response of PLWH with DM to glucose-lowering therapies in a reference hospital of northern Italy. Setting: 200 PLWH and DM were identified from the database of our clinic. Methods: Good control of DM was defined as having fasting glucose <130mg/dl or HbA1c < 53mmol/mol. The distribution of glucose-lowering therapies in PLWH was compared with that of HIV-negative patients with DM. Results: Mean total fasting glucose and HbA1C were 143 ± 50mg/dl (51% exceeding the 130mg/dl cutoff) and 51 ± 16mmol/mol (30% exceeding the 53mmol/mol cutoff), respectively. PLWH were less treated with dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (1.7% versus 9.6%, p < 0.01) and sulfonylureas (3.3% versus 13.2%, p < 0.01), being conversely more frequently treated with metformin (53.8% versus 37.7%, p < 0.01), glifozins plus metformin (7.1% versus 2.0%, p < 0.05) or insulin plus other glucose-lowering agents (5.5% versus 0.5%, p < 0.01). Conclusion: An underuse of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors was found which was, however, counterbalanced by a higher use of combination of drugs (including glifozins). A rational assessment of drug-drug interactions would contribute to a better selection of the best glucose lowering agent for each antiretroviral therapy.

The effects of knowledge mechanisms on employees' information security threat construal

AbstractOrganisations implement a variety of knowledge mechanisms such as information security education, training and awareness (SETA) programs and information security policies, to influence employees' secure behaviour. Despite increased efforts to provide information systems (IS) security knowledge to employees, data breaches and other security incidents resulting from insider behaviour continue. Recent IS security research, primarily grounded on assumptions of employees' rational assessment of numerous factors, has yielded inconsistent results. Challenging this paradigm, we model secure behaviour on security knowledge mechanisms, which focuses on the multidimensional nature of security knowledge breadth, depth and finesse to represent the full array of managerial levers. We further draw on construal level theory to conceptualise users' perceptual judgements of security messages. Two studies support our model, with the second building on the first. Study 1, an experiment with 312 participants, focused on validating the treatments. Study 2, a survey with 219 participants, validated the entire model. Results showed that our model has significantly more explanatory and predictive power than the orthodox paradigm. Our results have practical implications for optimising the organisation of knowledge mechanisms by emphasising the personal relevance of threats and defining the factors that lead to secure behaviour. We also contribute to the discourse on information security research and provide a template for integrating theories, thus opening new avenues for future research.

Mapping and evaluating global urban entities (2000–2020): A novel perspective to delineate urban entities based on consistent nighttime light data

ABSTRACT The differences in the definition of urban areas lead to our contrasting or inconsistent understanding of global urban development and their corresponding socioeconomic and environmental impacts. The existing urban areas were widely identified by the boundaries of built-environment or social-connections, rather than urban entities that are essentially the spatial extents of human activity agglomerations. Thus, this study has attempted to map and evaluate global urban entities (2000–2020) from a perspective of an updated urban concept of urban entities based on the consistent remotely sensed nighttime light data. First, a K-means algorithm was developed to cluster urban and non-urban pixels automatically in consideration of global region division. Then, a post-processing was conducted to enhance the temporal and logical consistency of urban entities during the study period. Rationality assessment indicates that urban entities derived from remotely sensed nighttime light data more effectively reflect the spatial agglomeration extents of human activities than those of physical urban areas. Global urban entities increased from 157,733 km2 in 2000 to 470,632 km2 in 2020 accompanied by a differentiated urban expansion at global, continental, and national levels. Our study provides long-time series and fine-resolution datasets (500 m) and new research avenues for spatiotemporal analysis of global urban entity expansion with the improvement of the understanding of urbanization and the emergence of effective urban mapping theories and approaches.

Ukraine Conflict as a Case of the Political Contradictions of Contemporary Imperialism

ABSTRACT The article examines the role of politics and ideology in post-Cold War imperialism, focusing on the current conflict between Russia, Ukraine, the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the European Union. The article argues that primary causes are not economic but primarily political and ideological. While there are clear raisons d’etat that explain all sides’ decisions, the article claims that there is a contradiction between the raisons d’etat and an objectively rational assessment of the stated goals and the actors’ ability to attain them. The article concludes that while the Marxist understanding of imperialism includes a focus on both its political and economic dynamics, they can sometimes over-emphasize the economic and objective rationality of political decisions. The current conflict in Ukraine, the article will argue, is a paradigm example of raisons d’etat becoming unhinged from objectively rational strategies and economically rational capitalist motives.

Zwischen Emotionalität und Rationalität: die Hellespont-Brücken 480 v. Chr.

In 480 BC, the Persian Great King Xerxes ordered the construction of ship bridges across the Hellespont to enable his army to cross from Asia to Europe. A storm destroyed the first construction, so Xerxes had the sea insulted and flogged. The campaign ended with a victory for the Greeks. Both Aeschylus’ drama « The Persians » and Herodotus’ « Histories » contain references to the perception of the technical achievement of the 1,2 km long bridge construction. The article deals with the different perceptions, the emotional as well as rational assessments of such a technical intervention in nature.

Rational Clinical Pathology Assessment in Intensive Care Unit (RCPA-ICU): Follow-up study.

Rational Clinical Pathology Assessment in Intensive Care Unit (RCPA-ICU): Follow-up study.

GIS-based Ecological Risk Assessment on Land Use In Chongqing City, China

Ecological risk assessment (ERA) is a process of predicting the possibility of harmful effects of environmental pollutants on an entire or part of the ecosystem, which is closely connected with the early human health risk assessment. A rational assessment of ecological risks in an urban area can provide great significance for urban landscape pattern optimization, urban ecological risk warning mechanism establishment, and urban ecological environment risk reduction. This study is based on GIS system to assess the ecological risk of land use in Chongqing in 2020, according to the basic theoretical framework and method system of ecological risk assessment. The main process is using remote sensing image data to construct the Ecological Risk Index (ERI) from the perspective of landscape patterns to reflect the potential impact of resource-based urban land use on the ecological environment. In addition, the ArcGIS spatial analysis method was used to evaluate Chongqing's ecological risk. As a result, high-risk area close to the water body just occupied a small part of Chongqing City (around 5%) and this area should be taken into protective measures urgently.