Distinct Opinions Research Articles

The historical continuum of Jerusalem: the inseparability of time and space, past and present, history and politics

Over the long centuries and nowadays the historical concept and political status of Jerusalem remain the most acute problem of relations between the peoples and states of the Middle East, Arabs and Jews, Israel and the Arab Palestinian state. The poignancy of the problem, the arguments of the opposing sides, are mainly rooted in conflicting interpretations of the history of Jerusalem and its holy places. The article presents a view of the history of Jerusalem as a process that began before the formation of the historical consciousness of the Arabs and Jews but used to continuously influence its shaping during the struggle for the city between powerful political forces standing behind the claims of various congregations. The article examines the written evidence of the shrines of Jerusalem that existed before the construction of the First Temple; selected archaeological data are used for additional verification of written sources. Recent proposals for a solution to the political status of Jerusalem are placed in the context of ideas about its cultural and historical significance. Particular attention is paid to the importance of Jerusalem in the history of the formation of religious doctrine and ritualism in Islam; a distinctive opinion is substantiated by the author concerning the reasons of the initial orientation of the Muslim prayer ritual towards Jerusalem; the existence of perceptions of the shrines of Jerusalem as sacred objects, recognized in the religious and ritual traditions of the Semitic peoples – the ancestors of Jews and Arabs – is established. On the ground of research findings the inseparability of history, culture, spatial limits and political status of the city of Jerusalem as an organic whole and a system is argued, the breach of the balance of which is claimed to inevitably destroy the integrity of the characteristics of Jerusalem in the history of the region, various peoples and all of humanity. The search for a solution to the Jerusalem problem is seen as interaction and the development of a model that recognizes and balances three factors of influence: 1) ideas about the importance of Jerusalem in the national historical narrative of Arabs and Jews; 2) the concept that asserted the consideration of the beginning of the cultural history of Jerusalem as a common Middle Eastern religious centre; and 3) the range of various political solutions proposed for the settlement of the problems of disputed territories in international relations with the assumption of the feasibility of fundamentally new models of solution.

A new geographical information system approach based on best worst method and analytic hierarchy process for site suitability and technical potential evaluation for large-scale CSP on-grid plant: An application for Algeria territory

For future energy planning and sustainable development, the share of renewable energy in the national power production must be increased. For this reason, energy managers and deciders would impose models and strategies for future renewable energy planning development. The site selection of new renewable energy projects constitutes a huge challenge, due to the contributions of several factors in the decision-making process. This study has two main objectives, the first is to develop an alternative framework for site selection of large-scale parabolic trough concentrating solar power on-grid plants as an essential future solar power in Algeria. A Geographic Information System (GIS) based analysis combined with Multi Criteria Decision Making techniques to develop a high-resolution map that identify and classify the suitable locations for setting up these projects. Several criteria are used in GIS analysis process, a map of direct normal solar irradiation and sunshine duration were developed with high resolution of (92×92 m/pixel) and grid power map was presented in its updatable form. The prioritization degree of the available siting zones is presented through three scenarios where distinct opinions of different energy related groups are considered by using different weighting methods; EQual Weighted (EQW), Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP) and Best Worst Method (BWM).Second, the paper assesses the theoretical and technical potential of energy generation using concentrating solar power plants. A sensitivity analysis is applied for the suitable lands and finally, the results show that approximately 11% of the study area is considered as available lands for concentrating solar power energy generation with yearly electricity generation 34,453 TWh. The provinces of Bechar, Naama, Elbayadh, Laghouat, Gherdaïa, and Ouargla presenting the large lands of most suitable class (approximately 15,384.73 km2 and 15,986.34 km2 in AHP and BWM scenario respectively. Where the energy generation can reach more than 2,100 TWh/year, which can cover 38 time the national electricity demand.

Adaptive network approach for emergence of societal bubbles

Far beyond its relevance for commercial and political marketings, opinion formation and decision making processes are central for representative democracy, government functioning, and state organization. In the present report, a stochastic agent-based model is investigated. The model assumes that bounded confidence and homophily mechanisms drive both opinion dynamics and social network evolution through either rewiring or breakage of social contacts. In addition to the classical transition from global consensus to opinion polarization, our main findings are (i) a cascade of fragmentation of the social network into echo chambers (modules) holding distinct opinions and rupture of the bridges interconnecting these modules as the tolerance for opinion differences increases. There are multiple surviving opinions associated to these modules within which consensus is formed; and (ii) the adaptive social network exhibits a hysteresis-like behavior characterized by irreversible changes in its topology as the opinion tolerance cycles from radicalization towards consensus and backward to radicalization.

What Is a Sustainable Coworking Space?

Coworking is a trend that is becoming increasingly popular and is often associated with sustainability. However, a lack of consensus exists on what a sustainable coworking space is. This study addresses this by investigating what is currently understood by a sustainable coworking space. Q-methodology is used to analyze 27 participants’ subjective ideas about what a sustainable coworking space is, resulting in four distinct perspectives. The four perspectives are identified as follows: 1. “New Work”, 2. “Resourceful Society”, 3. “Incubator, and 4. “Environmental”. These perspectives have distinct opinions on what important sustainability aspects in the context of coworking spaces are. Whilst some prioritize environmental and community factors, others have a mixed focus. Additionally, the four perspectives share some common beliefs. All of them believe in the importance of sustainable mobility, as well as in the moderate importance of encouraging their members to be socially responsible. These findings offer insight into the different understandings of coworking space sustainability. This is important because currently this field is under-researched, and a more systematic approach to sustainability in this field is needed. This research lays the foundation to do so and helps work toward a better understanding of coworking in a sustainability and innovative context.

Diagramming Sabbateanism

Abstract Scholars have only recently started to study ilanot (lit., “trees”), the cosmographic genre constituted by the wedding of kabbalistic diagrams—the trees of the metonymic name—and large parchment sheets. Differences of kabbalistic opinion naturally found expression in these “maps of God.” The Sabbatean messianic movement of the 1660s and its prolonged and impactful afterlife produced, among other things, a number of distinctive kabbalistic opinions. For the most part, these innovations were tightly integrated with the speculations associated with “Lurianic” Kabbalah based on the teachings of R. Isaac Luria (1534–1572). The great Lurianic ilanot were designed and circulated in the second third of the seventeenth century, not long before the emergence of Sabbateanism, but their golden age was “the long eighteenth century”—a British coinage for roughly 1660–1830—and thus coincided with the profound and pervasive absorption of Sabbatean elements in precisely those sectors that produced and consumed these artifacts, including nascent Hasidism. The deceptively simple question at the heart of this article is this: What would it mean to diagram Sabbateanism? Or to put it another way, what would constitute a Sabbatean ilan? How might distinctive Sabbatean ideas have found diagrammatic expression in this genre? Once identified as such, what do Sabbatean ilanot tell us about the meanings of Sabbateanism in the contexts within which they were produced?

Free associations of citizens and scientists with economic and green growth: A computational-linguistics analysis

The debate about the relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability triggers a range of associations. Here we analyze open-ended textual responses of citizens and scientists concerning their associations with the terms “economic growth” and “green growth”. We derive from the responses a number of topics and examine how associations differ across distinct opinion segments of people, namely supporters of Green growth, Agrowth and Degrowth. The results indicate that the general public is more critical of the notion of economic growth than academic researchers. Citizens stress problems of corruption, social inequality, unemployment and poverty, with less variation among the three opinion segments compared to scientists. The latter more strongly emphasize the environmental consequences of economic growth. Concerning associations of scientists with the term “green growth”, we find topics questioning its feasibility to be more likely expressed by Degrowth supporters, while topics stressing the possibility of sustainable economic growth by Green growth supporters. We find that topic polarization is stronger for scientists than citizens. Our results provide further validation for opinion clusters identified in previous studies and uncover additional insights about related views on growth and sustainability.

Talking to the Dead in the Classroom: How a Supposedly Psychic Event Impacts Beliefs and Feelings.

Paranormal beliefs (PBs) are common in adults. There are numerous psychological correlates of PBs and associated theories, yet, we do not know whether such correlates reinforce or result from PBs. To understand causality, we developed an experimental design in which participants experience supposedly paranormal events. Thus, we can test an event's impact on PBs and PB-associated correlates. Here, 419 naïve students saw a performer making contact with a confederate's deceased kin. We tested participants' opinions and feelings about this performance, and whether these predicted how participants explain the performance. We assessed participants' PBs and repetition avoidance (PB related cognitive correlate) before and after the performance. Afterwards, participants rated explanations of the event and described their opinions and feelings (open-ended question). Overall, 65% of participants reported having witnessed a genuine paranormal event. The open-ended question revealed distinct opinion and affect groups, with reactions commonly characterized by doubt and mixed feelings. Importantly, paranormal explanations were more likely when participants reported their feelings than when not reported. Beyond these results, we replicated that 1) higher pre-existing PBs were associated with more psychic explanations (confirmation bias), and 2) PBs and repetition avoidance did not change from before to after the performance. Yet, PBs reminiscent of the actual performance (spiritualism) increased. Results showed that young adults easily endorse PBs and paranormal explanations for events, and that their affective reactions matter. Future studies should use participants' subjective experiences to target PBs in causal designs (e.g., adding control conditions).

The Big Q: Is Q‐methodology valid for evaluating a large‐scale, cross‐disciplinary anatomy and physiology course?

IntroductionCourse evaluations are an important tool to gather feedback on the structure of a course, instructor effectiveness, and the overall learning experience. Critically, the Likert scale approach used by most institutions lacks course specificity and the difference between responses cannot be assumed equal (eg. “strongly agree – agree” vs. “agree – neutral”). This makes evaluating the effectiveness of a course and identifying areas that need improvement difficult. Q‐methodology is a technique that mitigates these issues by polling students for qualitative feedback statements that represent prevalent opinions of the course, then asking them to rank the statements relative to each other. Students are then clustered by shared opinions, values, and preferences.MethodsThis study uses Q‐methodology to assess student opinions on an undergraduate anatomy and physiology course (850 students). Specifically, students across five disciplines (midwifery, bachelor of health sciences, engineering, nursing, and integrated biomedical sciences) enrolled in the same second‐year undergraduate anatomy and physiology course were recruited into the study. All students experienced the same lecture and laboratory components as well as discipline‐specific tutorials. Students were asked to rank 37 statements relative to each other using an online platform. A by‐person factor analysis was completed using the qfactor program in Stata. Overall, the goal of this study was to validate Q‐methodology as an assessment modality across different populations experiencing the same course.Results143 students participated in the study (70.6% female, 25.2% male, 4.2% rather not specify; median age: 19, range: 18 – 38). The by‐person factor analysis classified students into three significantly different groups (22 students unassigned) representing 1) students who greatly appreciated the use of cadaveric specimens (n = 55), 2) students who were extremely dissatisfied by the means of evaluation (n = 40), and finally 3) students who despised the virtual reality (VR) supplementary resource (n = 26). Group 1 expected a significantly higher grade than the other two groups (p<0.05). No demographic data correlated with the groups, nor did discipline. All three groups agreed upon six consensus statements.ConclusionCritically, this study uncovered three distinct opinion patterns spanning all five academic disciplines within the course. The study provided guidance for course reform and suggested that discipline does not predict course evaluations. The study supports the use of Q‐methodology analyses for assessing student opinions on a large scale. Future work looks to re‐assess student course evaluations in the same course to determine how Q‐methodology outcomes change in response to “Q”‐directed course reform.

Geographical Divides in Protectionism: The Social Context Approach

Previous studies on public opinion of trade liberalization have looked at factors such as individuals' socioeconomic status and sociotropic economic evaluations. However, they overlook one important factor: social geography. In this paper, we argue that people in different areas are exposed to (i) social networks of different characteristics and (ii) distinct news coverage from local media, which lead to distinct opinions on international trade. We examine these hypotheses using public opinion surveys and media data in Japan. First, we demonstrate that individuals in rural areas are less likely to support trade liberalization and Japan's membership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Next, we investigate the mechanisms, showing that (a) an individual whose communication network involves people working for the primary sector, which is considered to be vulnerable to trade liberalization in Japan, tends to oppose free trade regardless of the industry they work for and that (b) newspapers circulated in rural and urban places tend to cover TPP differently, which also impacts people's attitudes toward the agreement.

Volunteer translators as ‘committed individuals’ or ‘providers of free labor’? The discursive construction of ‘volunteer translators’ in a commercial online learning platform translation controversy

This study explores the ways in which volunteer translation in a commercial context is discursively constructed. It focuses on volunteer translation at Coursera, one of the world’s largest MOOC providers, and its volunteer translator community, launched in 2014 to offer online learning in multiple languages. This move to mobilize volunteer translators by Coursera, a for-profit company, became controversial as different parties voiced distinct opinions regarding a commercial company’s recruitment of volunteer translators. Using the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework and drawing on the notion of digital labor, this paper argues that volunteer translation is described by Coursera mostly in terms of a mission and a learner-initiated and community-building activity. This contrasts with the view of many social critics who tend to emphasize profit-making strategies, labor exploitation, and the degradation of the translation profession in their discursive construction of volunteer translation. This study shows that Coursera’s foregrounding of a moral rationale and of philanthropic and non-profit discourses blurs the boundary between for-profit and non-profit contexts and does the ideological work of naturalizing translation without financial compensation in the context of a commercial company.

Assessing the molecular diversity of Hildaea (Poaceae, Panicoideae): reaching a compromise between the splitter and the lumper

AbstractThe taxonomy of some groups of plants is challenging, and the strict use of morphological characters may not be enough to solve problems of species delimitation. Hildaea, a genus of tropical grasses recently segregated from Ichnanthus section Foveolatus, is mostly composed of species with obscure boundaries. This group was revised by two authors, Rogers and Stieber, with distinct opinions. The former recognized > 30 taxa, whereas the latter reduced this number to six. In the present study, we re-evaluate current and previous classifications through a comprehensively sampled phylogenetic analysis using plastid (ndhF) and nuclear data (ETS and ITS). Our results demonstrate that the diversity in Hildaea is a middle ground between the splitter and the lumper, indicating that several taxa currently treated as synonyms should be reinstated. Old World Hildaea were found to belong to two clades, one including species from Asia and Oceania, and another including species from the Neotropics and from western Africa. Topological incongruences suggest that hybridization may be a possible cause for the morphological variation observed and also an important evolutionary driver.

Multi-Modal Curriculum Learning over Graphs

Curriculum Learning (CL) is a recently proposed learning paradigm that aims to achieve satisfactory performance by properly organizing the learning sequence from simple curriculum examples to more difficult ones. Up to now, few works have been done to explore CL for the data with graph structure. Therefore, this article proposes a novel CL algorithm that can be utilized to guide the Label Propagation (LP) over graphs, of which the target is to “learn” the labels of unlabeled examples on the graphs. Specifically, we assume that different unlabeled examples have different levels of difficulty for propagation, and their label learning should follow a simple-to-difficult sequence with the updated curricula. Furthermore, considering that the practical data are often characterized by multiple modalities, every modality in our method is associated with a “teacher” that not only evaluates the difficulties of examples from its own viewpoint, but also cooperates with other teachers to generate the overall simplest curriculum examples for propagation. By taking the curriculums suggested by the teachers as a whole, the common preference (i.e., commonality) of teachers on selecting the simplest examples can be discovered by a row-sparse matrix, and their distinct opinions (i.e., individuality) are captured by a sparse noise matrix. As a result, an accurate curriculum sequence can be established and the propagation quality can thus be improved. Theoretically, we prove that the propagation risk bound is closely related to the examples’ difficulty information, and empirically, we show that our method can generate higher accuracy than the state-of-the-art CL approach and LP algorithms on various multi-modal tasks.

Dêixis temporal e pessoal na construção da argumentatividade em artigos de opinião

À luz da teoria da argumentação na língua (DUCROT, 1987; ANSCOMBRE; DUCROT, 1988; FIORIN, 2016; CABRAL, 2017) e da referenciação (KOCH; MARCUSCHI, 1998; MONDADA; DUBOIS, 2003; CIULLA; SILVA, 2008), o presente trabalho objetivou apontar como os processos dêiticos (BENVENISTE, 1976; MAALEJ, 2003; CASTILHO, 2010; SANTOS; MORAIS, 2017) temporal e pessoal são importantes elementos constitutivos na construção de distintos artigos de opinião, revelando objetivos argumentativos de seus respectivos enunciadores. Dessa maneira, avaliando as diferentes escolhas lexicais que se realizam no projeto de dizer, constatamos que a referenciação, por meio da dêixis, serve como um importante meio para revelar marcas argumentativas, incutindo posicionamentos axiológicos.

Sustainable siting of solar power installations in Mediterranean using a GIS/AHP approach

This study aims to present and test a methodology for clarifying and prioritizing, the most suitable locations for siting solar power installations. By employing Geographical Information Systems and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), the recommended sustainable siting areas for solar power generation farms siting are identified, allowing the application of a spatial multi-criteria decision-making approach. The methodology identifies the available areas for solar farms siting, based on exclusion criteria defined from the current legislation. Furthermore, the available siting areas are evaluated and ranked through a multi-criteria analysis, considering also the relative importance of the selected criteria, through the AHP implementation performed by involved energy-related groups. The developed methodology employs different types of criteria, such as techno-economic and socio-environmental, it takes into account the distinct opinions of different stakeholders and it enables the evaluation of different scenarios. Finally, the methodology was applied for the case study of the Regional Unit of Rethymno, where the results, in terms of the potential maximum power that can be produced from the highest priority areas are 530 MWp for photovoltaics and 30 MW for Concentrated Solar Power systems.

Evolution of opinions in the growth-vs-environment debate: Extended replicator dynamics

The evolution of opinions in the long-standing debate on growth-versus-environment may affect support for important sustainability policies, in areas such as biodiversity loss, climate change, deforestation and freshwater scarcity. In order to understand this evolution, we develop a model describing the dynamics of four distinct opinions as identified in recent surveys, namely growth-at-all-cost, green growth, agrowth and degrowth. The model is based on modifying standard replicator dynamics to match a multi-group structure. Individuals are influenced by local or global interactions with others, based on adjacent opinion groups and exposure to information about environmental change. Psychological resistance to opinion change is also accounted for. The model is calibrated with recent survey data. Numerical analysis shows which opinions survive under particular conditions. We find, among others, that under local interactions, ultimate outcomes are characterized by lack of consensus, i.e. survival of multiple opinions. In addition, equal impacts of environmental change on opinions do not always translate in joint survival of associated opinions. Under worsening environmental conditions while continuing economic growth, opinions shift from green growth to agrowth and degrowth. Fostering global interactions among individuals, causing them to be influenced by a broad spectrum of opinions, makes consensus more likely. We also consider model dynamics if feedback from opinions to policy to environmental change and back is included. This confirms robustness of the results. It should be noted that the model is not meant to predict but to explore the consequences of combinations of assumptions about social networks, psychological mechanisms, environmental dynamics, and connections between opinion distribution and environmental policy. The study represents the first analysis of opinion dynamics in the growth-vs-environment debate and suggests a number of routes for further investigation.

Criteria for asymptotic clustering of opinion dynamics towards bimodal consensus

By using the recently introduced framework of unilateral agents interactions, we provide tight graph-theoretical conditions ensuring asymptotic convergence of opinions in finite networks of cooperative agents towards equilibrium configurations where at most 2 distinct opinions persist. Such conditions extend previously known results on asymptotic agreement (or consensus).

Effect of Corporate Governance on Institutional Investors’ Preferences: An Empirical Investigation in Taiwan

This study discusses the institutional investors’ shareholding base on corporate governance system in Taiwan. The sample was 4760 Taiwanese companies from 2005 to 2012. Then, this study established six hypotheses to investigate the effects of corporate governance on institutional investors’ shareholdings. The panel data regression model and piecewise regression model were adopted to determine whether six hypotheses are supported. For sensitive analysis, additional consideration was given on the basis of industrial category (electronics or nonelectronics), and the 2008–2010 global financial crises. This study discovered that a nonlinear relationship exists between the domestic institutional investors’ shareholdings. The managerial ownership ratio and blockholder ownership ratio have positive effects both on domestic and foreign institutional investors. However, domestic and foreign institutional investors have distinct opinions regarding independent director ratios. Finally, the corporate governance did not improve institutional investors’ shareholdings during financial crisis periods; instead, they paid more attention to firm profits or other characteristics.

Identity, Beliefs, and Political Conflict

We present a theory of identity politics that builds on two ideas. First, voters identify with the social group whose interests are closest to theirs and that features the strongest policy conflict with outgroups. Second, identification causes voters to slant their beliefs toward the group's distinctive opinion. The theory yields two main implications: i) voters' beliefs are polarized and distorted along group boundaries; ii) economic shocks that induce new cleavages to emerge also bring about large changes in beliefs and preferences across many policy issues. In particular, exposure to globalization or cultural changes may induce voters to switch identities, dampening their demand for redistribution and exacerbating conflicts in other social dimensions. We show that survey evidence is consistent with these implications.

Safety and quality in surgery: surgeons' perception in Brazil.

to evaluate the perception of surgeons, members of the Brazilian College of Surgeons (CBC), on safety and quality issues in surgery, based on projects of Brazilian Ministry of Health (MS), CBC, World Health Organization (WHO), and American College of Surgeons (ACS). a questionnaire based on WHO, CBC, and ACS initiatives was sent to all active and non-active CBC members, using Survey Monkey, in March 2018. out of 7,100 members, 171 professionals answered the questionnaire. Out of these, the majority (63.2%) declared to perform general surgery, 88.9% indicated knowing the project called Safe Surgery developed by MS, 73.1%, the CBC manual, and 14.6%, the ACS Strong for Surgery. Among those who indicated knowing the MS project, 73.1% said that they were accustomed to use it as a routine, and, among those who indicated knowing the CBC manual, 46.2% said that they were accustomed to use it. Most of the surgeons (81.3%) indicated that they had experienced severe surgical failures, being failures related to surgical material (49.7%) and presence of foreign bodies (8.2%) the most common ones. There were distinct opinions on who was responsible for checking over the checklist. the importance of safety and quality in surgery is well known by surgeons, but the practice is varied. Serious adverse events had been experienced by many surgeons, mainly related to surgical material and foreign bodies. The concept of interdisciplinarity did not seem to be common practice. Data indicated the need to develop education projects and the obligation of audits.

PMD88 - Coverage and Reviews of Medical Devices, Genomic and Diagnostic Testing by US Health Plans

To understand how United States health plans review and approve medical devices, lab and diagnostic tests Online interactive survey of US health plan officers on: respondant+plan information; reviews of medical devices and tests. Topics included: officer+plan information, involvement and components in reviews, and types of tests covered. The survey was completed by 77 respondents, 57% were MDs and 43% were the senior officer,19% were payor specific, 9.9% regional,1.3% therapeutic area specific. 40.5% of respondents worked for health plans, 11.4% for PBMs,8.9% for IDNs,3.8% for PPOs/IPAs,1.3% for Government. Plans were National=39.2%, regional=27.5% or local=33.3%. Plans cover multiple types of members: commercial (68.8%=FFS, 76.5%=HMO/PPO), Medicaid (Traditional=36.4%, HMO/PPO=67.9%), Medicare (71.2%, PDP-only=50%), Employer/Self-funded=77.1%,and IDN (47.7%,3 40B=43.5%). Only 37.5% of plans required test ordering through an EMR. Genomic tests for Oncology were covered by 87.7% of plans, OB/GYN tests 57.9%, Cardiovascular tests 50.9% and "other" tests 19.3%. Genetic conditions tests are largely covered, either in all cases 63.6% or if under a price threshold 23.6%. Disease markers tests were covered in all cases 71.4% or is under a threshold 19.6%. Therapy responses tests were covered 73.2% all cases, and 19.6% if under a threshold. Respondents involvement in decisions for medical devices (All=34.5%, some=58.2%), Genetic tests (All=26.3%,some=57.9%) and diagnostic tests (All=22.8%, some=64.9%). Dossiers were not required in 67.5% of device reviews and >70% of tests, however the reviews used budget impact models for: medical devices (All=10.2%, some=71.4%), genetic tests (All=4.1%, some=73.5%) and diagnostic tests (All=4.1%, some=69.4%). The managed care decision-making process goes beyond pharmaceuticals and is undergoing a series of changes. Medical and pharmacy directors, who commonly regulate utilization, have distinct opinions as to how to manage their plan’s expenditures and outcomes.