Explanation Of Action Research Articles

Assessing the well-being of partners of people found guilty of perpetrating genocide in Rwanda.

This article draws upon 89 in-person surveys with Rwandan women (ages 26-75) whose partners were incarcerated for genocide and examines how these women explain participation in the violence. We first engage in exploratory factor analysis of reasons cited for perpetrating genocide, which reveals (1) a factor comprised of internal reasons for participation, including greed and hatred; (2) a factor of external reasons, such as peer pressure or coercion, and (3) a factor driven by alcohol use. Next, we analyze how these factors are associated with the women's psychosocial wellbeing as measured by the World Health Organization's Self-Reporting Questionnaire. This quantitative analysis finds that, net of relevant control variables, accounts of participation in genocide that emphasize external reasons for participation are associated with better psychosocial wellbeing, while accounts of participation that emphasize internal reasons are associated with worse psychosocial wellbeing. We conclude by addressing the link between explanations for actions and wellbeing.

Provision and evaluation of explanations within an automated planning-based approach to solving the multimorbidity problem

The multimorbidity problem involves the identification and mitigation of adverse interactions that occur when multiple computer interpretable guidelines are applied concurrently to develop a treatment plan for a patient diagnosed with multiple diseases. Solving this problem requires decision support approaches which are difficult to comprehend for physicians. As such, the rationale for treatment plans generated by these approaches needs to be provided. Objective:To develop an explainability component for an automated planning-based approach to the multimorbidity problem, and to assess the fidelity and interpretability of generated explanations using a clinical case study. Methods:The explainability component leverages the task-network model for representing computer interpretable guidelines. It generates post-hoc explanations composed of three aspects that answer why specific clinical actions are in a treatment plan, why specific revisions were applied, and how factors like medication cost, patient’s adherence, etc. influence the selection of specific actions. The explainability component is implemented as part of MitPlan, where we revised our planning-based approach to support explainability. We developed an evaluation instrument based on the system causability scale and other vetted surveys to evaluate the fidelity and interpretability of its explanations using a two dimensional comparison study design. Results:The explainability component was implemented for MitPlan and tested in the context of a clinical case study. The fidelity and interpretability of the generated explanations were assessed using a physician-focused evaluation study involving 21 participants from two different specialties and two levels of experience. Results show that explanations provided by the explainability component in MitPlan are of acceptable fidelity and interpretability, and that the clinical justification of the actions in a treatment plan is important to physicians. Conclusion:We created an explainability component that enriches an automated planning-based approach to solving the multimorbidity problem with meaningful explanations for actions in a treatment plan. This component relies on the task-network model to represent computer interpretable guidelines and as such can be ported to other approaches that also use the task-network model representation. Our evaluation study demonstrated that explanations that support a physician’s understanding of the clinical reasons for the actions in a treatment plan are useful and important.

On the move: Autocratic leaders, security, and capital relocations

Why do some countries make the costly decision to relocate their capital city? Existing research offers four general explanations for this momentous action: administrative functionality, economic development, environmental degradation, and national integration. We offer a less sanguine, political explanation: capital relocations offer autocratic leaders a way to mitigate different security threats, including coups, popular protests, and foreign interventions. Using original data on capital relocations in 202 polities after 1789, we test several implications of our argument, at different levels of analysis. First, we show that autocracies are much more likely to relocate their capitals than democracies. Second, using different indicators of internal and external threats, we find that autocracies more likely relocate their capitals when breakdown is looming. Third, running subnational analyses, we find evidence that capitals are relocated to smaller cities and areas less susceptible to urban development.

Reasons and ‘because’*

ABSTRACT The paper argues that action explanations of the form ‘because p’ do not indicate that reasons are non-psychological facts or propositions. ‘Because p’ has two different uses: In the explanatory use, ‘because’ operates on the alleged fact that p. In the reason-giving use, however, ‘because’ operates not on p, but on the agent’s belief that p: she does not describe but express her reason. I conclude that a proper analysis of reason-giving ‘because’-utterances suggests that reasons are mental states.

Greening the hospitality industry: examining institutional influences and perceived benefits of EMS in Malaysian SME hotels

PurposeThe majority of Malaysian firms are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the hospitality industry is no exception. However, a study on environmental management systems (EMS) reveals that relatively few studies have observed EMS implementation in small and medium-sized enterprises hotels (SMEHs). Hence, this study aims to determine the link between institutional influences and mediating effects of top managers' perceived benefits toward EMS implementation by Malaysian SMEHs.Design/methodology/approachThe results of a questionnaire survey of 252 SMEHs managerial-level professionals using Smart-PLS software provide some explanation for the marginal action taken by these SMEHs to improve their environmental performance.FindingsBased on the findings, five variables might stimulate the implementation of an EMS: regulatory influences, customer influences, competitor influences, employee influences and manager attributes influences.Research limitations/implicationsThis study significantly advances understanding of EMS and SMEHs, offering a replicable research framework applicable across industries and countries. Scholars can leverage the framework for further exploration, while managers should recognize institutional influences on EMS implementation.Originality/valueGiven that this study is one of the few that investigates the institutional influences and perceived benefits of EMS implementation, it may provide valuable information for future research on the hospitality industry and the SMEHs among researchers and practitioners.

Directive Illocutionary Act Used by The Main Character in “The End of the F***ing World”

The purpose of this study is to analyzedirective illocutionary act, spesifically about how action can occur only with the use of language spoken by the main characters in The End of the F***ing World series.Theory by Halliday and Hasan (1985) was applied to analyse the situational context which refers to the place, topic of the conversation, participants’s relationship, and how language is used in the conversation. There is also theory by Yule (1996) about the explanation of action that performed just by utterance called directive illocutionary act and divided into command, order, request and suggestion. This study used a descriptive qualitative method... The results found all types of directive illocutionary act used by the main characters in their daily life to make someone do something, where the success rate in using directive illocutionary act is related with the situational context.. This study used formal and informal methods in its presentation.

Acting on reasons: Synchronic executive control

AbstractThere is a wide variety of cases of alienation, including (a) when an agent is alienated from her own motivational states and (b) deviant causal cases when an agent's motivational states cause her intended actions but via a deviant causal pathway. Reflecting on the variety of kinds of alienation reveals that action explanation still needs to account for the positive role that agents play in non‐alienated actions in general. To fill this gap, this paper identifies a sui generis but crucial notion of control, what I call “synchronic executive control,” where agents act on their reasons, which must be distinguished from (a) endorsing one's reasons as reasonable or as the reasons for action (from the autonomy literature), and (b) other, diachronic notions of executive control such as competence, skills‐based control, planning‐based control, and counterfactual control generally (from especially the deviant causation literature). The presence of such executive control is crucial for explaining the role of agents in non‐alienated actions, and its absence explains the lack of agency in alienation cases. The result is the identification of a relationship agents have with their reasons which unifies the variety of non‐alienated actions in a novel way.

Anthropogenic Impact of Flora and Fauna

This research paper aims to provide a thorough examination of the anthropogenic impact on flora and fauna, exploring the consequences of human activities on the world's ecosystems. The paper synthesizes current scientific knowledge and research findings to analyze the multifaceted ways in which human actions affect plant and animal life. Key topics include habitat destruction, pollution, climate change, and the direct exploitation of natural resources. The research area's geographical specificity restricts the generalizability of findings. Seasonal data collection could lead to potential gaps in understanding environmental dynamics. The study also acknowledges its limitations in providing in-depth mechanistic explanations of herbal drugs' actions, as well as the absence of advanced scientific and technological approaches in certain analyses

Turning the Tables: How Neuroscience Supports Interactive Dualism

Physicalists typically believe that neurophysiology has refuted the thesis that non-physical minds can interact with the brain. In this paper, I argue that it is precisely a closer look at the neurophysiology of volitional actions that suggests otherwise. I start with a clarification of how the present inquiry relates to the main argument for physicalism, and how the most common alternative views relate to the findings of my study. I then give a brief overview of the neurophysiological research about volitional actions, finding that there is no research specifically directed at the pertinent question. I proceed by pointing out what it would take for a complete physical explanation of volitional actions to be true: namely a complete physical explanation of the increase in the firing rate of the neurons with which the sequence leading up to volitional actions starts. Since no dedicated research about this question is available, I offer a study of the known mechanisms of neuronal excitation as a substitute, finding that there is no plausible biochemical or physical mechanism that could explain the causal initiation of volitional actions ‐ at least none that upholds energy conservation. But non-conservation is precisely what interactive dualism, in its most plausible version, predicts. Thus, rather than buttressing physicalism, our empirical knowledge of volitional actions points toward interactive dualism

Action-Evaluator: A Visualization Approach for Player Action Evaluation in Soccer.

In soccer, player action evaluation provides a fine-grained method to analyze player performance and plays an important role in improving winning chances in future matches. However, previous studies on action evaluation only provide a score for each action, and hardly support inspecting and comparing player actions integrated with complex match context information such as team tactics and player locations. In this work, we collaborate with soccer analysts and coaches to characterize the domain problems of evaluating player performance based on action scores. We design a tailored visualization of soccer player actions that places the action choice together with the tactic it belongs to as well as the player locations in the same view. Based on the design, we introduce a visual analytics system, Action-Evaluator, to facilitate a comprehensive player action evaluation through player navigation, action investigation, and action explanation. With the system, analysts can find players to be analyzed efficiently, learn how they performed under various match situations, and obtain valuable insights to improve their action choices. The usefulness and effectiveness of this work are demonstrated by two case studies on a real-world dataset and an expert interview.

Mask-Attention A3C: Visual Explanation of Action–State Value in Deep Reinforcement Learning

Mask-Attention A3C: Visual Explanation of Action–State Value in Deep Reinforcement Learning

Spirit Possession among the Shakers of Pleasant Hill

Abstract As a conceptual tool, effervescence offers a nuanced and complex explanation of forces for social change. Yet, it can be challenging to identify subject matter that spans the full implications of effervescence from embodied feeling to changes in social action over time. This study joins theories of effervescence with a unique set of primary historical records from a nineteenth-century religious utopian community in the United States to investigate whether effervescence might have a role in the creation, maintenance or decay of social ideals. As an explanation for social action, findings suggest that effervescence points to a link between embodied feeling, social ideals and institutional control – aspects of effervescence that offer avenues for future theoretical and empirical research.

Some vices of vice epistemology

AbstractThe actual or potential epistemic vices of a given discipline or field of study are its disciplinary vices. This paper identifies three actual or potential disciplinary vices of vice epistemology. Vice epistemology explains people's epistemic misconduct by reference to their supposed epistemic vices. Such vice explanations are contrasted with attempts to achieve Verstehen of people's epistemic conduct and understand it from their point of view. Although vice explanations do not preclude Verstehen, vice epistemology is in danger of overlooking alternatives to its preferred mode of explanation. In some cases, Verstehen calls into question the assumption that a person is guilty of epistemic misconduct. Vice explanations also risk attaching insufficient weight to politico‐strategic factors in the explanation of political action. Care needs to be taken by vice epistemologists to avoid intellectual myopia, political naivety, and overconfidence in attributing vices.

Female characters in Hanna Barvinok’s prose: a system of spiritual values

In contemporary literary studies, the problems of studying the typology of characters are becoming more and more relevant. These characters demonstrate national priorities in mentality, habits and beliefs that have been inherent in the Ukrainian nation for centuries, transforming into original examples of integrity and the ability to resist external and internal circumstances. They serve as a guideline for Ukrainians who find themselves in difficult life situations today and are looking for a way out.The creativity of Hanna Barvinok is an interesting example for analyzing and understanding of the typological picture of characterology in Ukrainian women’s prose of the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The writer started the theme of a woman with a strong moral core in literature. The author demonstrates her mastery of characterization by offering a variety of situations in which her heroines find themselves: from the problems of ordinary everyday life in a respectful family, to scenes where a woman finds herself the victim of a tyrant husband, a woman as a single mother (pokrytka), a lonely woman experiencing emotional drama, to a woman as an artist, and a woman as a fighter who, contrary to social norms, achieves recognition due to her determination and active vitality. Hanna Barvinok’s woman does not remain inert, her character and actions are determined by the logic of the «philosophy of the heart», which was widespread in the philosophical and literary thought of this era. It originates from the Bible, the works of Hryhorii Skovoroda, Panteleimon Kulish, and Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko. The idea of victory is heard where there is harmony, love, and respect, where God is. Christian morality and humility become decisive for the actions of the heroines who find themselves in a crisis situation.The problem of studying the Ukrainian mentality, the Ukrainian soul, has become widespread in the works of philosophers, psychologists, and cultural scientists who find explanations for specific actions of people in different historical epochs. The works of Viktoriia Khramova, Oksana Kis, and Iryna Kryvonos contributed to a better understanding of the actions and characters of the heroines in Hanna Barvinok’s prose.

Association between NTRK2 Polymorphisms, Hippocampal Volumes and Treatment Resistance in Major Depressive Disorder.

Despite the increasing availability of antidepressant drugs, a high rate of patients with major depression (MDD) does not respond to pharmacological treatments. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)-tyrosine receptor kinase B (TrkB) signaling is thought to influence antidepressant efficacy and hippocampal volumes, robust predictors of treatment resistance. We therefore hypothesized the possible role of BDNF and neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinase 2 (NTRK2)-related polymorphisms in affecting both hippocampal volumes and treatment resistance in MDD. A total of 121 MDD inpatients underwent 3T structural MRI scanning and blood sampling to obtain genotype information. General linear models and binary logistic regressions were employed to test the effect of genetic variations related to BDNF and NTRK2 on bilateral hippocampal volumes and treatment resistance, respectively. Finally, the possible mediating role of hippocampal volumes on the relationship between genetic markers and treatment response was investigated. A significant association between one NTRK2 polymorphism with hippocampal volumes and antidepressant response was found, with significant indirect effects. Our results highlight a possible mechanistic explanation of antidepressant action, possibly contributing to the understanding of MDD pathophysiology.

Virtue, Self-Narratives, and the Causes of Action

Virtues can be considered to play a causal role in the production of behaviour and so too can our self-narratives. We identify a point of connection between the two cases and draw a parallel between them. But, those folk psychological notions, virtues and self-narratives, fail to reduce smoothly to the underlying human physiology. As a first step towards handling that failure to connect with the scientific framework that is the familiar grounding for our understanding of causation, we consider the causal theory of action, a leading theory of action, which shows how reasons, understood as an appropriate pair of beliefs and desires, can be treated as causes of action. Davidson’s picture is based on cause as a relation between events, which can have both a description in scientific terms and in folk psychological terms. The character of both virtues and self-narratives is not that of events, even extended ones, so we need to refer to examples of scientific explanation that incorporate structural properties of objects. While we retain the spirit of the causal theory, we wish to guard against any unwarranted optimism that an explicitly scientific explanation for human action lies in our future, drawing on Chomsky’s view that a causal explanation of human actions is likely to remain beyond human science forming capacities. We take a mild-realist view of virtues and self-narratives, in the style of Dennett. We argue that, in spite of that limited form of realism, underlined by Chomsky’s mysterian position in this domain, we still need to frame our explanations of behaviour based on virtues and self-narratives in causal terms.

Female Affective Perception of Mainstream and Paraphilic Pornography: Associations with Sexual and Psychological Intrapersonal Variables

Understanding affective perceptual processes can further contribute to the explanation of motivation and actions, as well as sexual risk behaviors. Pornography can be considered salient emotional content and is popular, also among females. Yet, the female perspective on pornography has often been overlooked and it remains unclear how individual variables may be associated with the affective perception of pornography and could provide a risk profile. Possible associations between several sexual and psychological intrapersonal variables and the affective perception of various forms of pornography were analyzed from the female perspective. A sample of 231 females (M = 21.87 years; SD = 3.9 years) provided ratings of affective valence, arousal, disgust, and moral and ethical acceptance for mainstream pornographic and paraphilic images of dominance, submission, or sexual violence. Paraphilic pornography was perceived as less pleasant, arousing, and moral and ethically acceptable, but more disgusting compared to mainstream pornography. This was more pronounced among females who had never consumed pornography. Results further suggest that the female affective perception of pornography was associated with the following sexual intrapersonal variables: sexual sensation seeking for physical sensations, erotophilia, lack of sexual control, problematic pornography consumption, and sexual disgust sensitivity. Of the assessed psychological intrapersonal variables, only anxiety was negatively associated with disgust for paraphilic pornography. It is important to further analyze the female affective perception of pornography and associated variables to include them in strategies for prevention and for addressing problematic consequences of the acceptance of specific sexual content and behaviors, especially related to sexualized violence.

Hobbes on the Cause of Action: How to Rethink Practical Reasoning

Abstract In the free-will discussion between Hobbes and Bramhall, Hobbes’s principle that actions are necessary is not immediately action-theoretic. The fundamental theoretical context of Hobbes’s explanation of action lies in an understanding of causation more generally. However, Hobbes’s action theory is not simply modeled after the account of cause and effect in his First Philosophy. It introduces a temporal qualification which ranks necessitarianism higher than First Philosophy does: not only a voluntary action, but also the determinate moment when the mental act of volition is formed, is necessitated. My paper argues that this strengthening of causal necessity is due to the Hobbesian scheme of deliberation, which must be analyzed in terms of one distinctive kind of ‘mental discourse’ and practical reasoning, not merely in terms of a series of passions. For Hobbes, the impossibility of a direct representation of the future requires the mediation of a mental construction.

The Infomóvel—An information system for managing HIV/AIDS patients in rural areas of Mozambique

BackgroundMobile health is gradually revolutionizing the way medical care is delivered worldwide. In Mozambique, a country with a high human immunodeficiency virus prevalence, where antiretroviral treatment coverage is 77% accompanied by a 67% of retention rate, the use of mobile health technology may boost the antiretroviral treatment, by delivering care beyond health facilities and reaching underrepresented groups. Leveraging new technologies is crucial to reach the 95–95-95 United Nations target by 2030. The design, development, implementation, and evaluation of a mobile health platform called Infomóvel were covered in this article. Its intended use involves collaboration with community health workers and aims to increase human immunodeficiency virus patient access, adherence, and retention to care.MethodsUsing the Design Science Research Methodology, Infomóvel was created, as well as this publication. The explanation of various actions includes everything from problem description to observational study and goal-following for a solution, which results in the design and development of a platform proposal. Before the utility assessment of Infomóvel was conducted to make adjustments, a demonstration phase was conducted in one region of Mozambique.ResultsThe initial subjects of the Infomóvel flowchart and physical process design were patients receiving antiretroviral medication who were enrolled in the patients tracking system and who had consented to home visits. The case manager examines the file before importing it into the Infomóvel database stored on a cloud server using the website www.commcarehq.org. The case manager application synchronises with the Infomóvel server database, enabling the import of latest data and access to the lists of new patients and community health workers. The community health worker uses his phone to access his application, which allows him to record the geographic coordinates and sort the list of patients by priority and type of visit.ConclusionResults from Infomóvel add to the growing body of data showing that mobile health techniques are beneficial for managing stable individuals with chronic conditions in Mozambique. These approaches can be scaled up and better utilised. However, additional studies should be conducted to quantify the resources needed to implement on a larger scale.

Practical understanding

AbstractWell‐functioning agents ordinarily have an excellent epistemic relationship to their intentional actions. This phenomenon is often characterized as knowledge of what one is doing and labeled “practical knowledge”. But when we examine it carefully, it seems to require a particular kind of understanding ‐ understanding of the normative structure of one's action. Three lines of argument are offered to support this Necessity of Understanding thesis. The first appeals to the nature of intentional action and the second to our everyday reasons explanation of action. The final line of argument draws on a practical amnesia case in which an agent forgets her overall goal while acting. Implications of the Necessity of Understanding thesis for the widely endorsed non‐observational view of practical knowledge are briefly discussed. It is argued that support for the non‐observational view is weaker than has been appreciated.