Explanatory Elements Research Articles

Assessment of the Effect of Implementing an Obesity Center of Integrated Responsibility on Hospital Performance in Portugal

The continuous increase in the prevalence of obesity has generated growing concern, having become an important challenge at a global level in economic and public health terms. In Portugal, the treatment of obesity presents significant problems in access to health services. In this context, there is a need to implement new management models that offer more effective responses. Centers of integrated responsibility, already implemented in this area, are a cutting-edge approach, and it is important to evaluate their performance and identify recommendations for improving the model. The main objective of this study is to assess the impact of implementing an obesity center of integrated responsibility on hospital performance. This study was conducted using a comprehensive multiple-case study approach, which was predominantly descriptive but also included explanatory elements. The methodological approach is a well-balanced mix of quantitative and qualitative analyses. The study evaluates various hospital performance indicators, encompassing the dimensions of access, production, efficiency, quality, and economic-financial, both before and after the implementation of the new model. The overall results indicate that the implementation of an obesity center of integrated responsibility led to improvements in hospital performance, particularly in the dimensions of access, production, and efficiency. While these findings are promising, the study also identifies areas for potential improvement in the model, such as organizational, functional, and legal aspects, including the method of granting incentives and the funding process. In the analyzed cases, this new organizational model proved to be a solution for improving hospital performance, particularly around obesity. These units can play a fundamental strategic role in the National Health System, contributing to access to specialized treatments, retention of professionals and financial sustainability.

Analysis of Changes in Ecological Environment Quality and Influencing Factors in Chongqing Based on a Remote-Sensing Ecological Index Mode

Chongqing is a large municipality in southwestern China, having the characteristics of a vast jurisdiction, complex topography, and a prominent dual urban–rural structure. It is vitally important to optimize the spatial layout of land and efficiency of natural resource allocation, achieve sustainable development, and conduct influence assessment and causation analysis in this region. Here, using the Google Earth Engine platform, we selected Landsat remote-sensing (RS) images from the period 2000–2020 and constructed a remote-sensing ecological index (RSEI) model. Considering the urban spatial pattern division in Chongqing, the Sen + Mann–Kendall analytical approach was employed to assess the fluctuating quality of the ecological environment in different sectors of Chongqing. Subsequently, single-factor and interaction detectors in the Geodetector software tool were used to conduct causation analysis on the RSEI, with the use of eight elements: elevation, slope, aspect, precipitation, temperature, population, land use, and nighttime lighting. Findings indicate that, over the course of the investigation period, the eco-quality in Chongqing displayed a pattern of degradation, succeeded by amelioration. The RSEI decreased from 0.700 in 2000 to 0.590 in 2007, and then gradually recovered to 0.716 in 2018. Overall, the eco-environment quality of Chongqing improved. Spatially, changes in the RSEI were consistent with the planning and positioning of the urban spatial pattern. The main new urban area and periphery of the central urban area showed a slight deterioration, while other regions showed marked improvement. The combined effect of any two elements enhanced the explanatory power of a single factor, with elevation, temperature, and land use being the strongest explanatory elements of eco-quality in Chongqing. The most influential factor explaining the spatial variation of the RSEI was determined to be the combined impact of elevation and land use. At the temporal scale, elements related to human activities showed the most evident trend in explanatory power.

Use of Music Pedagogy Experiences in Improving the Professional Skills of Music Teachers of General Secondary Schools

This scientific article was published on the basis of the principles of using music pedagogy experiences in improving the professional skills of music teachers of general secondary schools at the end of the dissertation work. This study investigates the diverse impacts of music on human life, emphasizing its role in shaping emotions and behaviors. It underscores the significance of music pedagogy in developing effective teaching strategies and approaches. The methodology combines descriptive and explanatory elements, incorporating a literature review and practical examples. Results emphasize the importance of constant self-education for music educators. The study explores various teaching approaches, including integrative, active music playing, constructivist, cultural, and individual methods. It recognizes the value of both individual and group lessons, along with the integration of modern technologies in music education. The organization of the educational process is highlighted, focusing on goal-setting, regular practice, constructive feedback, and creating a supportive learning environment. Overall, the study offers insights into impactful music teaching strategies and methodologies.

Diagnosis of the behavior of socio-productive enterprises and their impact on the development of the La Maná Canton

This study examined the impact of socio-productive enterprises on the development of Cantón La Maná. A non-experimental methodology with a mixed approach combining descriptive and explanatory elements was used. In the descriptive phase, surveys were conducted with 281 socio-productive entrepreneurs, collecting quantitative data on aspects such as size, sector of activity, employment generated, and perceptions of challenges and opportunities. This provided a detailed view of the entrepreneurial landscape in the area. The explanatory phase included in-depth interviews with three members of the Cantonal Council of the Decentralized Autonomous Government of Canton La Maná. These interviews provided qualitative information on the local government's perception and approach to socio-productive entrepreneurship, exploring issues such as support policies and the strategic vision for local economic development. It was concluded that effective partnership between entrepreneurs and government can lead to more informed and effective solutions. Lack of access to finance was identified as an obstacle to growth, limiting investment in technology and infrastructure. The importance of the role of government and financial institutions in providing access to affordable financing through loans, grants or other mechanisms to foster entrepreneurial growth was highlighted.

A study of Tang poetry translation from the perspective of cognitive poetics

Tang poetry, renowned for its profound cultural significance and artistic expression, presents a unique set of difficulties when rendered into different languages due to its reliance on intricate imagery, rhyme, and rhythm. The study emphasizes the necessity of employing cognitive poetics as a guiding perspective for translators, enabling them to navigate the intricacies of Tang poetry's imagery, rhyme, and rhythm, and suggests to utilize modern translation tools to better convey the emotional depth of the original works, while also providing cultural context to enhance readers' understanding. The cross-cultural communication aspect of Tang poetry translation is explored, as it transcends linguistic boundaries to become a channel for cultural exchange. Translators are challenged to strike a balance between faithfulness to the original poem and adaptability to the target culture's sensibilities. This balance is crucial in preserving the cognitive elements of the original work. To ensure the effective cross-cultural communication of Tang poetry, it is essential to retain the unique imagery that carries profound cultural connotations. The study culminates in offering a set of strategies and suggestions for optimizing Tang poetry translation, including maintaining cultural background, preserving rhyme and rhythm, adding explanatory elements, respecting the poet's style, and ensuring proper literariness in the translation.

Person‐OrientedOntologies Analysis for Digital Humanities Collections from a Metadata Crosswalk Perspective

ABSTRACTMapping between different representations of similar data is a common challenge in digital humanities (DH). In practical DH collections, the ‘person’ is an essential and centric unit and other parts could link to the ‘person’ to form the knowledge base. However, there is still no general and useful person‐oriented ontology in DH community. Many practical DH projects have developed their own ontologies by DH experts, but these ontologies are not interoperable. Therefore, it is important to explore existing biographical ontologies and develop a comprehensive person‐oriented ontology for DH.Using the metadata crosswalk method, we examined the ontologies provided for persons in three DH collections to analyze how they map onto standard ontologies such as FOAF (friend of a friend). This paper uncovers a significant and consistent gap between standard biographical ontologies and those used in practical DH collections, arriving at a set of heterogeneous problems, including different granularities of metadata. Consequently, we propose three key person‐oriented ontological types of elements, drawing on this metadata crosswalk: basic biographical elements, relational elements, and explanatory elements (such as career, connected with role and time). This metadata crosswalk provides a foundation for future matching between person‐oriented ontologies and facilitates semantic interoperability between DH collections.

Factors related to information and communication technologies adoption in small businesses in Colombia

This study is an analysis of how a set of factors influenced the decision to adopt information and communication technologies (ICTs) in small businesses in Colombia; for this purpose, a logistic modeling is applied, wherein the explained variable represents the companies’ decision to adopt ICTs. The main explanatory elements include demographic aspects of the owner, the company characteristics, and the legal practice of the company and its social capital. Data from the Microbusiness Survey 2019 conducted by the National Administrative Department of Statistics of Colombia were employed. The results show that traits such as owner age and gender affect adoption. Furthermore, variables such as the age and size of the company, the amount of computer equipment, business formalization practices, and social capital influence the use of these technologies. Therefore, it follows that the individual features of business owners are also determinants of technology adoption, and their inclusion becomes essential to supplement the analysis of these issues. In addition, the study supports the evidence that the acceptance of these technologies is positively related to the business size and infrastructure. By exploring, for example, the business formalization factor, a positive effect is obtained; consequently, the implementation of legal practices is linked to the ICT use. Thus, some of the areas for policy implementation would be, on one hand, the endowment of computer equipment, since it is a critical aspect in these small businesses, for which a subsidy policy for the acquisition of devices would be useful. In addition, the promotion of business formalization practices could lead to an improvement in the firm’s culture of technology use.

A new standardized methodology for analyzing cartographic information on old maps

This article presents a new methodology for analyzing old maps that was used to identify and interpret cartographic symbols on selected maps. It analyzes fifty-eight maps, originating from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries and showing the territory of Slovenia. The basic criteria for selecting the maps were authorship, scale, and the territory depicted. The study included maps at a medium scale of 1:200,000 to 1:900,000. Approximately eighty entries were made for each map, and several thousand pieces of data were obtained, which then required a uniform and systematic examination of all cartographic symbols on the maps selected. Before the nineteenth century, changes in symbols for vegetation, relief, transport networks, and explanatory elements were the most evident. The article concludes by highlighting the reliability of cartographic content as a source for research. The new method for examining maps makes it easier to determine the cause-and-effect relationship of cartographic elements to map content.

Public Value Creation by the Catholic Church in Brazil: Analysis Based on Its Outputs and Outcomes

Public value theory has introduced an alternative understanding of public and nonprofit organizations' performance. However, there is an academic consensus that the advancement of this theory requires more solid empirical foundations. This research empirically identifies factors of outputs (products, goods or services) and outcomes (impacts, benefits or consequences) offered by a nonprofit organization (NPO) that are perceived by society as creating public value. The Catholic Church in Brazil was the empirical setting, due to the important social role of churches and religious organizations in developing countries. A survey was administered in the Archdiocese of Curitiba geographic area. The data were examined using factor analysis and multiple linear regression. The results show that religious outputs, social outputs, and outcomes can explain the Catholic Church's public value creation. The public believes that the Catholic Church in Brazil creates public value mainly through its social outputs, of which social service and social assistance activities stand out. The perceived public value can be explained mainly by its outcomes. The findings bring academic impacts by empirically evidencing that outputs and outcomes are independent explanatory elements of public value, in addition to the prominence of outcomes as an explanatory element of perceived public value. In practice, the methodological path applied here can help managers to identify and monitor the impacts that NPOs (particularly religious organizations) have on society from a public value perspective. The results for the Catholic Church in Brazil are also noteworthy considering the unfavorable public perception about its social outcomes.

Legends of the dashboard: an empirical evaluation of split and joint layout designs for geovisual analytics interfaces

ABSTRACT Geodashboards are often designed with explanatory elements guiding users. These elements (e.g. legends or annotations) need to be carefully designed to mitigate split attention or information integration issues. In this paper, we report expert interviews followed by a controlled experiment where we compare two interface designs with a focus on the split attention effect: (1) a multiple-legend layout with explanatory elements located next to each view, and (2) a single-legend layout with all explanatory elements gathered in one place. Different legend layouts did not affect the performance, but affected user satisfaction. 75% of the participants preferred the multiple-legend layout, and rated it with a higher usability score, mainly attributing this preference to the proximity of legend elements to the view of interest. Eye tracking data strongly and clearly verifies that participants indeed make use of the proximity: With the single-legend, the majority of eye-movement transitions were between the single-legend and the closest view to the legend, whereas with multiple-legend participants have shorter and more frequent legend visits, as well as more transitions between legends and views. Taken together, the design lesson we learned from this experiment can be summarized as ‘split the legend elements, but make it close to the explained elements’.

STRATEGIES AND THOUGHTS OF NICKY HARMAN IN DIALECT TRANSLATION —— A CASE STUDY OF BROKEN WINGS

Based on the analysis of some typical examples with Shaanxi dialect’s characteristics in the Broken Wings, which are divided into three categories: dialect verbs with obvious local characteristics, nouns with Chinese cultural elements and Chinese proverbs, this paper probes into Nicky Harman's translation strategies and translation thoughts on dialects and local cultures. The results show that Nicky Harman adheres to the strategy of literal translation, focusing on accurate understanding and good expression, and at the same time, makes up for cultural incomprehension and differences by supplementing explanatory elements, which uncover the reader-oriented translation thought on the basis of being faithful to the original text. Nicky Harman plays an important role in the cross-cultural communication of contemporary literature in China.

An Intersectional Reading of Women's Access to Rural Land Ownership in Côte d'Ivoire

Women's access to land ownership in Côte d'Ivoire remains a challenge despite a multitude of legal and institutional arsenal favouring their access to land ownership. Moreover, Article 12 of the Ivorian Constitution reaffirms equal access to property for women and men. However, it is clear that the above-mentioned difficulties persist. What are the explanatory elements of land insecurity in rural areas for women? The legal and institutional elements alone are not sufficient to understand this work. Beyond the usual explanatory factors, a reading based on intersectionality allows for an in-depth analysis. In fact, this work first highlights the modes of land tenure and their recompositions, the modes of access and their recompositions, and the organisation of society structures access to land and agrarian practices. Since these elements alone are not sufficient to explain the existence of structural gaps and inequalities of access between women, the theory of intersectionality through the concepts of ethnicity, gender and class (social position and social capital that engenders mobilisable economic, social and political resources). The content analysis enabled the categorisation of women and highlighted the positionalities that facilitate or hinder their access to land ownership. In the end, this study showed that there are inequalities between women in access to land ownership insofar as those with low social capital cannot benefit from full access to their land rights, which confirms our central hypothesis that women's access to land ownership is a function of patrilineal and matrilineal societies and modes of land tenure and their recomposition, associated with the intersection of women's economic, social and political resources in Côte d'Ivoire.

Factors Related to Activation in Chinese Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study.

Improving patient activation can lead to better health outcomes among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, no studies have focused on the issue of activation in patients with COPD in China. This study was designed to explore the status of activation in patients with COPD in China and explicate the significant influencing factors. One hundred seventy patients with COPD were recruited using a convenience sampling method from eight tertiary and secondary hospitals in Nanjing, China. Sociodemographic, clinical, and patient-reported factor data were collected. Univariate analysis and multivariate linear regression were performed. Only 10.6% of the patients were identified as activated for self-management. Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed four explanatory elements as significantly associated with patient activation, including social support (β = .463, p < .001), free medical insurance (β = .173, p = .007), smoking status (β = -.195, p = .002), and health status (β = -.139, p = .04). The findings of this study indicate that a minority of patients with COPD are activated for self-management in China. Having a higher level of patient activation was associated with having better social support, having free medical insurance, being a nonsmoker, and having a better health status. Creating a supportive environment, promoting smoking cessation, and improving medical security and health status may be considered as potential strategies to activate patients into better self-management.

Evolution of the biomechanical dimension of the professional gestures of grinders when using a collaborative robot

ABSTRACT Using a cobot could relieve workers of strenuous and repetitive tasks while preserving their expertise. To understand the consequences of using a cobot on the occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), within a theoretical framework based on activity-centred ergonomics, an example cobot used in grinding activities in a real work situation is studied. This article analyses the evolution of the biomechanical dimension of the professional gestures of grinders when using the cobot. Effort linked to tool carrying and the vibrations perceived were reduced. Repetitiveness decreased but workers did not accomplish the entirety of their task. The work postures did improve for different joints but not for all, which shows the advantage of varying the contexts of using a cobot and taking into account workers’ strategy diversity. To investigate other explanatory elements of the effects on MSDs, these results must be linked to the evolution of the other dimensions of professional gestures.

No Laughing Matter: Armin Laschet and the Photographic Exposé

On July 17, 2021, the CDU's chancellor candidate Armin Laschet was photographed laughing during a speech by the German Federal President in the flood-stricken city of Erftstadt. The photographic images caused an uproar and contributed to the CDU's defeat in the September 23 election. The paper analyzes why these images resonated with such damaging effects. Theoretically, it sets the analysis on the background of the moralization and personalization of politics and argues that photography, with its ability to capture behavior at a distance, plays a prominent role in these processes. While this condition explains why an image of a laughing politician can generate such indignation in the first place, the paper discusses how this effect was amplified in the case of Laschet by a range of contextual features: (a) the timing of the images in the middle of an election period where politicians come under intense scrutiny; (b) their appearance in a crisis situation (the German flooding disaster) where politicians are surrounded by other role expectations than in routine periods; (3) Laschet's new, insecure position as leader of the CDU; (d) his history of scandals and poor political judgment; and (e) the frivolous and boisterous manner of his laughter. At a general theoretical level, the paper's insights caution us to avoid prima facie conclusions about the autonomous power of photographs. Instead, they encourage analytical sensitivity to the importance of timing and context as explanatory elements in our understanding of photographic exposés.

Pragmatism, critical realism and the study of value

ABSTRACT This paper examines the relationship between pragmatism and critical realism, first as alternative philosophies for the social sciences in general, and second, as an illustration, in the social study of monetary valuation. The paper argues that both traditions are internally diverse. Hence, the relations between the two are complex, with both substantial overlaps and real differences revealed in encounters between them. Perhaps the most significant difference is pragmatism’s distrust of invocations of structural power in social explanations, whereas realism encourages them, in interaction with other explanatory elements. The paper problematizes claims that recent work in the study of value is predominantly pragmatist. Nevertheless, it argues that pragmatist influence has encouraged valuation studies to focus on the micro level at the expense of the macro. From a realist perspective, however, there is much to be gained from an approach that embraces both micro and macro levels and the relations between them.

Let's frame it differently – analysis of instructors’ mechanistic explanations

Research in Organic Chemistry education has revealed students’ challenges in mechanistic reasoning. When solving mechanistic tasks, students tend to focus on explicit surface features, apply fragmented conceptual knowledge, rely on rote-memorization and, hence, often struggle to build well-grounded causal explanations. When taking a resource perspective as a lens, students’ difficulties may arise from either an unproductive or a missing activation of cognitive resources. Instructors’ explanations and their guidance in teaching situations could serve as a lynchpin to activate these resources. Compared to students’ challenges in building mechanistic explanations in Organic Chemistry, little is known about instructors’ explanations when solving mechanistic tasks and how they shape their targeted explanations for students in terms of the construction and embedding of cause–effect rationales. This qualitative study aims to contribute to the growing research on mechanistic reasoning by exploring instructors’ explanatory approaches. Therefore, we made use of the framing construct, intended to trigger certain frames with explicit instruction. Ten Organic Chemistry instructors (university professors and lecturers) were asked to solve case comparison tasks while being prompted in two scenarios: an expert frame and a teaching frame. Our analysis shows that there is a shift from instructors’ mechanistic explanations in the expert frame towards more elaborated explanations in the teaching frame. In the teaching frame, contrary to what might be expected, complete cause–effect relationships were not always established and instructors differed in how they shaped their explanations. Additional explanatory elements were identified in both frames and their shift in use is discussed. Comparing approaches between frames sheds light on how instructors communicate mechanistic explanations and allows us to derive implications for teaching Organic Chemistry.

In whose best interests? Regulating childcare environments in Australia

This conceptual model paper uses systems theory to explain how key elements in the Australian policy and regulatory context lead to three issues of concern in childcare centre physical environments: siting of centres on busy roads; lack of outdoor space; and, emergency evacuation in high-rise buildings. Drawing on evidence from prior studies and policy documents through desktop research, as well as childcare centre visits and communications with stakeholders and experts, we confirmed these issues as threats to children’s health, safety, development and well-being. Adapting Goekler’s ‘iceberg model’ of systems theory, we identified a dominance of commercial childcare property interests and complex and conflicting policy and regulatory structures, as explanatory elements leading to outcomes that conflict with children’s best interests.

Toward an integrated theory of computer-mediated social interaction

PurposeThis paper aims to describe an integration of the media naturalness theory, the continuum model of impression formation and the social identity model of deindividuation effects. The goal is to determine the compatibility of the central tenets and propositions of the two theories and reconcile their effects under a unified model that can be used to explain and predict changes in perceptions, attitudes and behaviors arising in computer-mediated interaction.Design/methodology/approachA review of the literature was used to determine whether the two theories were compatible. The reconciliation comes by way of a third theory, the motivated tactician theory, which focuses on the effects of cognitive effort on schema use, particularly on those schemas used in social categorization processes.FindingsIt was determined that the two models of focus could be combined via the tenets of the third. The combined model is expected to provide explanatory and predictive capabilities that exceed those of the individual theories and should prove to be relevant in the study of computed-supported collaboration, in the design of collaborative environments and in the analysis of individual and group behaviors in computer-mediated communication.Research limitations/implicationsThe current effort describes the main effects derived from the integration and offers four propositions that describe moderating factors that are derived from each of the three theories. The main effects must be tested and validated and, given support, must be extended to determine the validity of the moderating effects predicted by the propositions. Additionally, media naturalness theory is a relatively recent addition to theories of technology and so needs further empirical support for its propositions. As to the behavioral implications, the social identity model of deindividuation effects has yet to be tested with the specific intention of discovering how media characteristics affect self-concept.Practical implicationsThe model can be used to inform information system designs that favor desirable behavioral outcomes or to prevent undesirable effects from occurring. For example, emphasis can place on media attributes and system features that individuate decision-makers within group decision support environments when consensus is a primary goal as a means to avoid group thinks and polarization. Conversely, attributes and features that are supportive of social categorization processes and deindividuation effects might be used to emphasize group membership, shared effort and to minimize social loafing or the frequency and intensity of inappropriate disparagement of ideas and contributions.Social implicationsThe combined model is principally useful in explaining and predicting human behavior in relation to computer-supported collaborative work such as distributed workgroups and online learning environments. For example, the explanatory elements of the combined theory can be used by managers as a diagnostic tool in problem situations within virtual teams. A specific instance would be to determine why a change to existing systems created a change in work habits. In a more proactive move, managers might use the predicted social categorization effects and subsequent depersonalization, to instill a group identity in an otherwise diverse workgroup.Originality/valueThe combined model is expected to provide explanatory and predictive capabilities that exceed those of the individual theories and should prove to be relevant in the study of computed-supported collaboration, in the design of collaborative environments and in the analysis of individual and group behaviors in computer-mediated communication.

Afterword. The Consumer’s Society in the Era of the Post Globalization

The article tries a general overview of the contemporary changes in the global economy. First proposes a characterization of the present period of history, advancing some of his main explanatory elements. Next, summarizes the great economic, social, political and cultural changes, discussed on the long way of more than twenty years of research at an international level. Third, it remarks some concrete changes at an urban scale. Finally, suggests the possibilities of some differential urbanization processes, on the way of the planetary urbanization.