Contextual Backgrounds Research Articles

Family Involvement in Routine Services for Individuals With Severe Mental Illness: Scoping Review of Barriers and Strategies.

The authors investigated barriers to practices that promote family involvement in mental health services, focusing on individuals with severe mental illness, their families, and mental health providers. Additionally, the authors sought to identify strategies to facilitate family involvement in mental health provision to highlight the engagement process in routine practice and propose future directions for organizations to establish a family-friendly environment. Systematic searches for literature published from January 1990 to March 2023 were conducted in PsycInfo, PubMed, CINAHL, Sociological Abstracts, and Scopus databases. Gray literature searches and backward and forward snowballing strategies were also used. Forty-six articles were reviewed, revealing contextual backgrounds and engagement practices that hindered family involvement. Inconsistencies in family involvement stemmed from organizational culture, societal attitudes, and providers' negating of family expertise. Uncertainty regarding confidentiality policies and the absence of practice guidelines posed challenges for providers. Negative experiences of families within the mental health system along with variable commitment also hampered involvement. Some service users declined family involvement because of privacy concerns and differing expectations regarding the extent of involvement. Promoting a shared culture of family work, integrating practice standards, and engaging in professional development activities emerged as key strategies. A gap exists between implementing policies and practices for family involvement in mental health treatment. Without cultural and organizational shifts in support of working with families, the uptake of family involvement practices will remain inadequate. Each stakeholder has different perceptions of the barriers to family involvement, and family involvement will remain elusive without a shared agreement on its importance.

Pragmatic Acts in Characters’ Utterances in Femi Osofisan’s Women of Owu

Studies on Femi Osofisan’s Women of Owu have examined the use of lexical choices and discourse markers in the drama text neglecting the choice of meaning negotiation in characters’ utterances. This paper, therefore, undertook a pragmatic investigation of how meanings and actions are generated in a play text using Femi Osofisan’s Women of Owu. Mey’s (2001) Pragmatic Act theory was used alongside implicature and presupposition as elements of pragmatics to analyse five (5) purposively selected extracts from the play. This is done to critically bring to the fore the practs performed in the utterances, the maxims obeyed and those flouted and the type of presupposition made. Findings revealed that the practs of informing, explaining, stating, naming, and influencing were used in the text unveil the thought pattern of the audience. The paper also revealed that the pivotal role context plays in decoding the exact meaning(s) conveyed in each of the extracted utterances. Context is instrumental to the performance of certain acts. From this, the paper concludes that in order to do things with words and to use characters to communicate effectively in any given context, especially in tradition based plays like Women of Owu, a writer needs to have the knowledge of grammar as well as the knowledge of how to use language from a functional perspective in the contextual and traditional backgrounds.

Core Palliative Care Competencies for Undergraduate Nursing Education: International Multisite Research Using Online Nominal Group Technique.

Background: Nurses should have appropriate education and required competencies to provide high-quality palliative care. The aim of this international multisite study was to list and evaluate core palliative care competencies that European nurses need to achieve in their education to provide palliative care. Methods: The Nominal Group Technique (NGT) was used as a data collection method. NGT meetings were organized in four European countries. Targeted groups of palliative care professionals with diverse contextual and professional backgrounds participated in the NGTs. The research question was: "What are the core competencies in palliative care that need to be achieved during undergraduate nursing education?" Data analysis was done in two stages: grouping the top 10 answers based on similarities and thematic synthesis based on all the ideas produced during the NGTs. Results: Palliative care core competencies based on the research were (1) competence in the characteristics of palliative care; (2) competence in decision-making and enabling palliative care; (3) symptom management competence in palliative care; (4) competence in holistic support in palliative care; (5) active person- and family-centered communication competence in palliative care; (6) competence in empathy in palliative care; (7) spiritual competence in palliative care; (8) competence in ethical and legal issues in palliative care; (9) teamwork competence in palliative care; and (10) self-awareness and self-reflection competence in palliative care. Conclusions: It was possible to find differences and similarities in the top 10 palliative care core competencies from different countries. Thematic synthesis of all the data showed that there were various competencies needed for nursing students to provide quality palliative care.

GravityNet for end-to-end small lesion detection

This paper introduces a novel one-stage end-to-end detector specifically designed to detect small lesions in medical images. Precise localization of small lesions presents challenges due to their appearance and the diverse contextual backgrounds in which they are found. To address this, our approach introduces a new type of pixel-based anchor that dynamically moves towards the targeted lesion for detection. We refer to this new architecture as GravityNet, and the novel anchors as gravity points since they appear to be “attracted” by the lesions. We conducted experiments on two well-established medical problems involving small lesions to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach: microcalcifications detection in digital mammograms and microaneurysms detection in digital fundus images. Our method demonstrates promising results in effectively detecting small lesions in these medical imaging tasks.

예비중등음악교사의 국악지식 형성배경이 국악 수업 설계에 미치는 영향

Objectives The purpose of this study was to specify the relationship between variables related to Korean Traditional Music Class Design, such as pre-service teachers’ Background of Traditional Korean Music Knowledge Formation, and their general characteristics of demographic.
 Methods For this purpose, an online survey was conducted on 80 students majoring in music education at graduate schools of education located across the country to measure the general characteristics of the research subjects, the Background of Korean Traditional Music Knowledge Formation and Pedagogical Content Knowledge(PCK) shown in Korean traditional music class design. First, an independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA were conducted to confirm differences in Pedagogical Content Knowledge according to general characteristics such as gender, marital status, and number of graduate schools attended, etc. Next, the sub-factors of general characteristics that showed significant differences as a result of the independent sample t-test and one-way analysis were set as control variables, and each sub-factors of the background of Korean traditional music knowledge formation(KTM); intra-personal formation background, contextual formation background) was set as an independent variable. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to confirm the influence of variables on the design of Korean traditional music classes.We surveyed 80 graduate students majoring in music education located across the country and measured their general characteristics of demographic, PCK(the teaching content knowledge) that appear in the design of Korean traditional music classes, the Background of Korean Taditional Music Knowledge Formation, Statistical analysis, correlation analysis, independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Hierarchical regression analysis were performed.
 Results First, in terms of differences in the level of Korean traditional music class design according to the general characteristics of prospective secondary music teachers, the experience of taking Korean traditional music courses and Korean traditional music training experience, which were mentioned as important in previous studies, did not appear statistically significant. Second, this study examined the effects of pre-secondary music teachers' backgrounds on the design of Korean music lessons and found that among the sub-factors of teaching content knowledge measured through lesson design, the effects of contextual backgrounds on curriculum knowledge and intrapersonal backgrounds on content knowledge were statistically significant.
 Conclusions The results showed that there was a difference in scores among the sub-elements (pedagogical knowledge, curriculum knowledge, and content knowledge) of the Korean traditional music class design designed by prospective secondary music teachers, and it was confirmed through research that the background of Korean traditional music knowledge formation had an influence on the Korean traditional music class design.

Acculturating again: Taiwanese migrants' enduring COVID-19 coping paradox in the UK

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe challenges to ethnic minorities in the UK. While the experiences of migrants are both complex and varied depending on individuals' social class, race, cultural proximity to the host country and acculturation levels, more in-depth studies are necessary to fully understand how COVID-19 affects specific migrant groups and their health. Taiwanese migrants were selected because they are an understudied group. Also, there were widespread differences in pandemic management between the UK and Taiwan, making this group an ideal case for understanding how their acculturation journey can be disrupted by a crisis.Design/methodology/approachQualitative data were collected at two different time points, at the start of the UK pandemic (March/April 2020) and six months on (October/November 2020), to explore migrant coping experiences over time. Theoretically, the authors apply acculturation theory through the lens of coping, while discussing health-consumption practices, as empirical evidence.FindingsBefore the outbreak of the pandemic, participants worked hard to achieve high levels of integration in the UK. The pandemic changed this; participants faced unexpected changes in the UK’s sociocultural structures. They were forced to exercise the layered and complex “coping with coping” in a hostile host environment that signalled their new marginalised status. They faced impossible choices, from catching a life-threatening disease to being seen as overly cautious. Such experience, over time, challenged their integration to the host country, resulting in a loss of faith in the UK’s health system, consequently increasing separation from the host culture and society.Research limitations/implicationsIt is important to note that the Taiwanese sample recruited through Facebook community groups is biased and has a high level of homogeneity. These participants were well-integrated, middle-class migrants who were highly educated, relatively resourceful and active on social media. More studies are needed to fully understand the impact on well-being and acculturation of migrants from different cultural, contextual and social backgrounds. This being the case, the authors can speculate that migrants with less resource are likely to have found the pandemic experience even more challenging. More studies are needed to fully understand migrant experience from different backgrounds.Practical implicationsPublic health policymakers are advised to dedicate more resources to understand migrants' experiences in the host country. In particular, this paper has shown how separation, especially if embraced temporarily, is not necessarily a negative outcome to be corrected with specific policies. It can be strategically adopted by migrants as a way of defending their health and well-being from an increasingly hostile environment. Migrants' home country experience provides vicarious learning opportunities to acquire good practices. Their voices should be encouraged rather than in favour of a surprising orthodox and rather singular approach in the discussion of public health management.Social implicationsThe paper has clear public health policy implications. Firstly, public health policymakers are advised to dedicate more resources to understand migrants' experiences in the host country. Acknowledging migrants' voice is a critical first step to contribute to the development of a fair and inclusive society. Secondly, to retain skilful migrants and avoid a future brain-drain, policymakers are advised to advance existing infrastructure to provide more incentives to support and retain migrant talents in the post-pandemic recovery phase.Originality/valueThis paper reveals how a group of previously well-integrated migrants had to exercise “coping with coping” during the COVID crisis. This experience, over time, challenged their integration to the host country, resulting in a loss of faith in the UK’s health system, consequently increasing separation from the host culture and society. It contributes to the understanding of acculturation by showing how a such crisis can significantly disrupt migrants' acculturation journey, challenging them to re-acculturate and reconsider their identity stance. It shows how separation was indeed a good option for migrants for protecting their well-being from a newly hostile host environment.

Priorities for the sustainability criteria of biomass supply chains for energy

The sustainability of biomass supply chains is a topic of significant debate, given its importance in the emerging bioeconomic context. This study aims to identify the criteria perceived to have the highest preference when evaluating the sustainability of biomass supply chains. The data includes the assessments of 122 international experts providing their evaluations through a questionnaire distributed between November 2019 and February 2020. The questionnaire presents pairwise comparisons of 12 sustainability sub-criteria organised into economic, social, and environmental categories. The results are analysed using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in combination with kernel methods to identify consensus regions in the experts’ assessments. The responses showed that a large majority of experts belong to two distinct priority groups: an environmental oriented group (N = 78) and an economic oriented group (N = 21). The environmental-priority provided average weights of 22% to economic criteria, 22% to social criteria, and 56% to environmental criteria (highest priority); whereas the economic-priority group of experts assigned weights of 64% to economic criteria (highest priority), 13% to social criteria, and 23% to environmental criteria. Variations in the priorities were explained by the experts' contextual factors and backgrounds. In both groups, however, there was a consensus to prioritize the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions among environmental criteria, and revitalization of rural areas among social criteria. The results and methods proposed have broad applications in policy making, particularly in the comprehensive assessment of biomass feedstocks and supply chains, providing valuable insights for sustainable decision-making.

Lack of educational access, women's empowerment and spatial education inequality for the Eastern and Western Africa regions

Space, beyond standard urban/rural divisions, plays a leading role in the diffusion of educational access. In this paper, using geo-localisation and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) we analyse spatial inequality in educational access (primary, lower secondary and upper secondary levels) for 13,000 communities from 22 countries in the Eastern and Western African regions. We find that: (i) space matters for educational access after accounting for communities’ contextual backgrounds in spatial econometric models, (ii) the extent of spatial inequality in educational access is higher in countries with lower levels of women’s empowerment, and (iii) spatial educational inequality operate more powerfully in marginalised communities. Educational policies aimed at boosting educational access should consider space-based interventions, looking beyond the traditional rural-urban or regional boundaries.

Landscape management and planning as a spatial organization method connecting CES supply-demand assessment and sustainable tourism development

Evaluating the balance between the supply and demand of Cultural Ecosystem Service (CES) in space is the key to linking ecosystem services to human well-being. However, due to its invisibility, it is difficult to quantify and is often ignored in ecosystem service evaluation. Based on social media photos, by integrating multisource data and using a clustering algorithm and the MaxEnt model, this paper maps and evaluates the supply-demand balance of three CES of aesthetic, historical and cultural, and leisure services in Suzhou, China. The result shows a widespread imbalance between supply and demand in Suzhou, among which the cultural heritage CES imbalance area as high as 48.1% accounts for the largest proportion, and the aesthetic imbalance area accounts for 38.4%, while the recreation imbalance area accounts for 37%. Building upon the assessment of supply and demand balance at the urban scale, we further identified the supply-demand imbalance at the scenic area scale by integrating local tourism development policies in Suzhou and selecting a typical scenic area, Xishan Island. Based on the urban and scenic area supply-demand assessment results, this paper proposes a multiscale CES supply-demand allocation strategy. This comprehensive approach not only furnishes valuable guidance for local decision-making and management within the realm of sustainable tourism but also holds potential for wider applicability to diverse urban areas worldwide that share analogous contextual backgrounds. Management implicationsCES supply and demand assessment can help identify the CES supply-demand imbalance areas of tourist destinations. Landscape management and planning is a spatial organization method to balance CES supply-demand mismatches in tourist destinations. Optimizing landscape structure at multiple scales will be of instructional significance for the protection and development of tourist destinations. A ‘CES assessment and mapping – landscape management and planning – tourism protection and development’ system is beneficial to achieve the sustainable development of tourism.

Interpreters as Spin Doctors: The Interactional Role of Interpreters in China’s Political Press Conferences

China’s political press conferences have received increasing academic attention as they provide a revealing window into the workings of the political communication system in the authoritarian context. However, the interactional role that interpreters play in these cross-linguistic press conferences remains underexamined. Taking a conversational analytic approach, this qualitative study empirically examines the interactional import of government interpreters’ practices at the Chinese Premier’s Press Conferences (CPPCs) from 2007 to 2023. The analysis reveals that interpreters consistently transform journalists’ questions with respect to (1) word choices, (2) contextual backgrounds, and (3) question forms. These transformative practices work to soften the critical messages that these questions would otherwise convey while also enabling politicians to more easily address these questions without having to deal with the negative consequences that might otherwise follow. I argue that government interpreters in CPPCs actively intervene in substantive ways consistent with a spin doctor role within press conference exchanges.

From Serendipity to Sustainability: Exploring the Content Creation and Sharing Experiences of Local Travel Influencers in China

The study explored content creation and sharing experiences of local travel influencers in Meishan City, China. A qualitative phenomenological methodology was used to conduct in-depth interviews with 15 local travel influencers based on social exchange theory and its reciprocal principles. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse data. Study findings showed that being a local travel influencer was an emerging occupation requiring comprehensive competence in specific contextual and cultural backgrounds. Although travel influencers’ initial rise to popularity was often serendipitous, supportive policies from the local tourism community could assist travel influencers in achieving sustainable tourism. Local travel influencers face several challenges including staying authentic, monetizing content, dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, avoiding homogenous content, and managing work load. Local travel influencers could serve as a significant liaison between tourists and the local tourism community by collaborating with local tourism stakeholders, building a local multi-layer media matrix, co-creating promotional content, and live-streaming e-commerce. Study findings have theoretical and practical implications for tourism stakeholders in integrating regional tourism community development with local influencer networks.

Create the best first glance: The cross-cultural effect of image background on purchase intention

As globalization drives more firms toward cross-border e-commerce (CBEC), a well-designed decision support system becomes crucial to gain a competitive edge in the international market. Product images, a vital aspect of the system interface, play a significant role in shaping users' first impressions, facilitating seller-buyer information interaction, and ultimately enhancing users' decisions making in the system. Across a series of studies, this research investigates the effect of cultural differences (thinking style: holistic vs. analytic) on image background and reveals the underlying mechanism. Results show that online consumers from cultures characterized by holistic thinking style (Chinese sample) are more prone to purchase products presented with contextual backgrounds than those with white backgrounds, while this effect is absent for online consumers from cultures that tend to think in an analytic way (American sample). This effect is also observed when the thinking style is primed within the culture in separate samples from the United States and China. Study 3 employs eye-tracking technology and shows that holistic thinking, compared to analytic thinking, results in an asymmetry in cognitive effort to purchase the same products framed with contextual and white background images. Specifically, contextual (vs. white) background information greatly assists holistic thinking consumers in understanding the product, enabling them to spend less cognitive effort on product information processing. Instead, the cognitive effort that analytic thinking consumers spare in the product information is not affected by the background. Finally, we discuss theoretical contributions and practical insights for CBEC retailers and system designers that the findings indicate.

An Invitation to Discomfort in Pursuit of Diversity, Inclusion, and Excellence

An Invitation to Discomfort in Pursuit of Diversity, Inclusion, and Excellence

SELF DISCLOSURE ANAK BROKEN HOME PADA MEDIA SOSIAL TIKTOK (STUDI DESKRIPTIF FOLLOWERS TIKTOK DI HALAMAN KOMENTAR PADA KONTEN @AKUISANN)


 ABSTRACT
 The purpose of this study is to find out how the self- disclosure process is carried out by TikTok followers on the comments page on @akuisann content. This study uses qualitative methods, descriptive studies, interpretive paradigms, triangulation of sources and in-depth interviews with 5 informants who were selected based on the characteristics or criteria determined by the researcher (Purposeful Sampling). The results of the study reveal that self-disclosure carried out by informants through the comments page on @akuisann content based on the Johari Window Theory belongs to two areas, namely open areas and hidden areas. @akuisann's content for commenting is that there is a dyadic effect where informants do self-disclosure because they see many people doing the same thing. In addition, the results of the description of the informants have a desire to motivate each other. The benefits that result is a feeling of relief because he has conveyed what he experienced to others who have a similar fate. Meanwhile, the communication privacy management process is carried out with culture contextual, motivational, and risky backgrounds.

Comparison of Neural Correlates of Reactive Inhibition in Cocaine, Heroin, and Polydrug Users through a Contextual Go/No-Go Task Using Event-Related Potentials.

Simple SummaryWitnessing the current increase in the use of substances in society and considering the associated pervasive relapse rate, the management of addictions remains a significant challenge. The identification of biomarkers that are linked to specific profiles of consumption would allow a more targeted, and therefore, more effective care. In this view, the present study evaluates and compares the cognitive performance usually associated with substance use disorder—inhibitory control, attentional bias, and error detection—of heroin, cocaine, and polydrug users to matched healthy controls. Simultaneously, the addition of measurement of the modulation of brain activity during the task (event-related potentials technique) offers a reliable representation of the neuronal mechanisms underlying cognitive functioning. The results reveal substance-specific neural patterns of response, notably a more deleterious impact on polydrug use, and, despite nonsignificant results, suggest a more drastically affected cognitive functioning in cocaine users. Such evidence refines our knowledge of the specific mode of action of each substance. Ultimately, knowing their neural signature will lead to the implementation of more targeted interventions, thereby allowing specific needs to be addressed.Recent global data indicates a worldwide increase in polydrug use associated with a shift from recreational to productive habits of consumption. Such non-responsible abuse of substances (alcohol, cocaine, heroin, etc.) is likely to lead to addictive disorders that are characterized by various neuropsychopharmacological effects. A main cognitive function involved in the onset and long-term maintenance of addiction is reactive inhibition, i.e., the ability to withhold a prepotent motor dominant response. In the present study, 63 (poly)drug user patients who were undergoing a detoxification program, in addition to 19 healthy controls matched for gender, age, and education, were subjected to a “contextual Go/No-Go task” with concomitant electroencephalography. Stimuli were superimposed on three contextual backgrounds: control (black screen), drug-unrelated (neutral pictures), or drug-related (pictures related to drug consumption). Of these patients, 23 were cocaine users (CU), 21 were heroin users (HU), and 19 were polydrug users (PDU). The main results showed that (1) at the behavioral level, more commission errors occurred with the PDU patients compared to the healthy controls; (2) at the neurophysiological level, specific alterations were found on classical event-related potentials that index reactive inhibition. Indeed, the higher rate of errors in the PDU group was subtended by both reduced amplitude and latency on the ∆N2 component and increased ∆P3 latency compared to controls. These data clearly suggest a more deleterious impact of polydrug use on inhibitory functions. In addition, our results provide evidence of reduced ERN amplitude in cocaine users, suggesting that impaired performance monitoring and error-processing may support impaired awareness, thereby preventing these patients from changing their behaviors.

Pragmatic Analysis on Political Text in Posters, Slogans and Jingles in Davao Del Norte, Philippines

Elections in the Philippines covered with a lot of controversies. Among those recognized political parties, two were most coveted for a position. These are the Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) and Partido Demokratiko Pilipino – Lakas ng Bayan (PDP – Laban). Meanwhile, due to the same interest of both parties, they fought one another for a position using striking, deceiving, and powerful words to convince the people. The purpose of this study is to identify the pragmatic acts on the political text in posters, slogans, and jingles. Employing a qualitative content analysis approach, the corpora were retrieved and purposively identified across Davao del Norte Philippines. Data were analyzed by identifying the pragmatic acts. Results revealed that the political paraphernalia used by the aspirant politicians that are based on the pragmeme consist of activity part or also known as interactants and textual part or context. In the context parts, it identified the pragmatic features such as Reference (REF), Inference (IR), Relevance (REL), Voice (VC), Shared Situation Knowledge (SSK), Metaphor (M), and Shared Cultural Knowledge (SCK). Also, the politician employed different contextual backgrounds to ‘pract’ declaring, comparing, emphasizing, offering, claiming, committing, and predicting. Thus, it is recommended to explore the features in the linguistics aspects to deepen the understanding of the language used by the political candidates for a specific position. Also, widen the scope of the study to pragmatize the language.

Self Disclosure Anak Broken Home Melalui Media Sosial TikTok

The purpose of this study is to find out how the self- disclosure process is carried out by TikTok followers on the comments page on @akuisann content. This study uses qualitative methods, descriptive studies, interpretive paradigms, triangulation of sources and in-depth interviews with 5 informants who were selected based on the characteristics or criteria determined by the researcher (Purposeful Sampling). The results of the study reveal that self-disclosure carried out by informants through the comments page on @akuisann content based on the Johari Window Theory belongs to two areas, namely open areas and hidden areas. @akuisann's content for commenting is that there is a dyadic effect where informants do self-disclosure because they see many people doing the same thing. In addition, the results of the description of the informants have a desire to motivate each other. The benefits that result is a feeling of relief because he has conveyed what he experienced to others who have a similar fate. Meanwhile, the communication privacy management process is carried out
 with culture contextual, motivational, and risky backgrounds.
 Keywords : Self Disclosure, TikTok, Social Media, Johari Window Theory, Teori Communication Privacy Management (CPM)

Exploring students' learning management system acceptance patterns: Antecedents and consequences of profile membership

Although numerous studies have revealed various mechanisms involved in users' technology acceptance behaviors, the literature lacks insights about distinct profiles of teenagers' e-learning technology acceptance and how these profiles are associated with teenagers' contextual backgrounds and continued technology use. This study fills this gap by unpacking teenagers' learning management system (LMS) acceptance patterns through three-step latent profile analysis (LPA). The results of LPA on a survey of 1180 junior secondary students from 25 Hong Kong school identified three profiles, namely: Reluctant Pattern (8%), Embracing Pattern (61%), and Affirmative Pattern (31%), with ascending acceptance of LMS. A number of contextual factors were identified as antecedents of LMS acceptance, including school factors (i.e., school banding), family factors (i.e., family socio-economic status (SES), family environment, and both parents' parenting styles), and personal factors (i.e., gender, experience, conceptions of learning, and ICT literacy). All the antecedents were significantly associated with profile membership, except for family SES and experience. In addition, the three acceptance patterns also affected consequences of LMS acceptance, represented by LMS continued use and use satisfaction. Students from Affirmative Pattern had higher satisfaction and more intensive LMS use than other acceptance patterns. The findings of this study not only contribute to theory through the development of teenagers' different latent profiles of LMS acceptance and relating these profiles to teenagers' contextual characteristics and LMS continued use, but also provide strong implications for future research on teenagers’ e-learning technology use and for practitioners to improve LMS implementation and LMS use among teenagers.

Pragmatic Analysis on Political Text in Posters, Slogans and Jingles in Davao Del Norte, Philippines

Elections in the Philippines covered with a lot of controversies. Among those recognized political parties, two were most coveted for a position. These are the Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) and Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban). Meanwhile, due to the same interest of both parties, they fought one another for a position using striking, deceiving, and powerful words to convince the people. The purpose of this study is to identify the pragmatic acts on the political text in posters, slogans, and jingles. Employing a qualitative content analysis approach, the corpora were retrieved and purposively identified across Davao del Norte Philippines. Data were analyzed by identifying the pragmatic acts. Results revealed that the political paraphernalia used by the aspirant politicians that are based on the pragmeme consist of activity part or also known as interactants and textual part or context. In the context parts, it identified the pragmatic features such as Reference (REF), Inference (IR), Relevance (REL), Voice (VC), Shared Situation Knowledge (SSK), Metaphor (M), and Shared Cultural Knowledge (SCK). Also, the politician employed different contextual backgrounds to ‘pract’ declaring, comparing, emphasizing, offering, claiming, committing, and predicting. Thus, it is recommended to explore the features in the linguistics aspects to deepen the understanding of the language used by the political candidates for a specific position. Also, widen the scope of the study to pragmatize the language

First findings from the Balkan Homicide Study

The aim of the paper is to introduce a genuine violence classification system. The system has been created using an innovative empirical rather than a mainstream normative approach. It aims to test the possibilities and benefits of conceptualising and understanding violence regardless of its normative constructs which have been created on the basis of legal, abstract, and non-empirical grounds. With a specific focus on physical violence, the here proposed classification system has been designed by using original empirical data from case file analysis, obtained through the Balkan Homicide Study (BHS). Using a qualitative method, 2073 finally adjudicated attempted and completed homicide cases were analysed. As a result, the genuine violence classification system includes 20 types of violence primarily determined by the various contextual backgrounds of the offences and their main triggers, occasionally also considering the location of the offence, the offender’s motive and the victim-offender relationship. The ultimate purpose of the introduced genuine violence classification system is to provide a new and innovative approach to violence research, one that might prove to be a useful tool for minimising the impact of differences due to changing legal frameworks through time (e.g., reforms) and amongst different countries. In this sense, it should facilitate and upgrade future (comparative) criminological violence research. The basic terms and types of violence are defined primarily for the purpose of the BHS and should not be understood as axioms generally applicable outside the framework of the study, at least not without further testing and adjustment of the classification system.