Good Intentions Research Articles

Malady of the Mind: Mapping Dimensions of Mental Disorder through Narratological Lens in Jonathan Rosen’s The Best Minds

This paper proffers mapping Mental Disorders by employing a narratological lens in Jonathan Rosen's The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions focusing on the volatility of emotions, malady of mental disorder through the spectrum of narratology and positing conundrum to the mind. It emphasizes how the mechanism of storytelling mirrors the intricacies of mental disorders in myriad ways. The study involves interdisciplinary techniques combining the psychological theories of Marsha Linehan and Otto Kernberg with relation to literary analysis embodying narratological elements. A narratology is an imperative tool in Literature for shaping psychological representations. It analyzes how the mental disorder is intertwined into the narrative depicting the thematic undertones, structure of plot development, and shaping the identities of the characters. The research encompasses a broader discourse to bridge the gap between the psychological underpinnings of mental disorders and their literary insights.

Understanding Therapeutic Lying In The Care Of A Person with Dementia: An Evolutionary Concept Analysis

Abstract Background Therapeutic lying, described as any verbal or non-verbal behaviour or communication that involves the manipulation of information has been shown to be pervasive in dementia care. However, its theoretical foundation is difficult to underpin and appears to have evolved through practice without a clear definition. The aim of this study is to establish conceptual clarity around the concept of therapeutic lying in the care of a person with dementia. Methods Rodgers’ evolutionary concept analysis was used to focus on the contextual qualities of therapeutic lying. This dispositional view recognises that concepts are fluid in nature. The analysis involves deconstructing the concept into surrogate terms, attributes, antecedents, consequences and related terms to generate a greater understanding of its innate features. A systematic search relating to “therapeutic lying” and “dementia” was undertaken. The final study sample consisted of 37 papers. Results This analysis revealed therapeutic lying’s surrogate terms, attributes, antecedents, consequences and related terms in the care of a person with dementia. This study highlighted this concept is intended to be used in the person's best interests, for the purpose of doing good. However, its subjective nature makes it an extremely difficult concept to grasp collectively. Conclusion Therapeutic lying is highly dependent on individual interpretation and the caregiver’s moral compass. It can potentially damage trust in a caring relationship and may contribute to the “othering” of a person with dementia. The negative consequences surrounding this concept must be studied comprehensively before it is considered in practice. Therapeutic lying should be used only as a last resort when a person with dementia is exhibiting truth related distress. As the therapeutic effect of a therapeutic lie cannot be guaranteed, the term “well intentioned lying” is proposed as a potential alternative for the concept as this term highlights the caregiver’s good intention behind incorporating a lie during care.

Ethical and Transformative Scholarly Public Engagement: Pitfalls, Possibilities and Promises.

At its core, public engagement is geared toward transformative ends - to change the world for the better. Yet, the means are also critical. Scholars who engage communities and public processes should do so ethically, in ways that comport with core values. Despite good intentions, however, researchers seeking to engage the public face substantial challenges. This paper highlights the pitfalls and perils associated with scholarly public engagement and points to the promise of ethical and transformative engagement - that is, engagement for sound reasons carried out in effective ways. I make the case that ethical and transformative public engagement requires that researchers remain aware of their position, attentive to who is being engaged and discerning about how to engage.

Perlindungan Hukum Hak Cipta Terhadap Pemutaran Lagu dalam Live Music Performance Perspektif Undang-Undang Hak Cipta dan Hifz Al-Mal di Kafe Purwokerto

Purwokerto has several cafes that use live music to attract customers. In live music, the performers present other people's songs in public with commercial purposes or to seek profit from the song. On the other hand, there are regulations governing the use of other people's creative works. The purpose of this study is to determine the procedure for playing songs at live music performances in cafes in Purwokerto and how the legal protection for playing songs in live music in cafes in Purwokerto is from the perspective of Copyrights Act and hifz al-mal. This study uses an empirical legal approach to analyze the cafe's compliance with economic rights in copyright. The type of research is field research. The results of the study indicate that copyright infringement is more relevant and serious in the context of large concerts that have a significant financial impact, where the use of songs without permission can substantially harm the copyright owner. In contrast, live music performed in cafes with minimal income and driven by humanitarian intentions to entertain or support the community is not considered a significant copyright infringement from a humanitarian perspective and the principle of hifz al-mal. This is due to its small financial impact and underlying good intentions, however, efforts are still needed to respect copyright in the long term in accordance with the principles of justice and protection of property in Copyrights act and hifz al-mal.

Good Intentions, Risky Inventions: A Method for Assessing the Risks and Benefits of AI in Mobile and Wearable Uses

Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into mobile and wearables offers numerous benefits at individual, societal, and environmental levels. Yet, it also spotlights concerns over emerging risks. Traditional assessments of risks and benefits have been sporadic, and often require costly expert analysis. We developed a semi-automatic method that leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) to identify AI uses in mobile and wearables, classify their risks based on the EU AI Act, and determine their benefits that align with globally recognized long-term sustainable development goals; a manual validation of our method by two experts in mobile and wearable technologies, a legal and compliance expert, and a cohort of nine individuals with legal backgrounds who were recruited from Prolific, confirmed its accuracy to be over 85%. We uncovered that specific applications of mobile computing hold significant potential in improving well-being, safety, and social equality. However, these promising uses are linked to risks involving sensitive data, vulnerable groups, and automated decision-making. To avoid rejecting these risky yet impactful mobile and wearable uses, we propose a risk assessment checklist for the Mobile HCI community.

Towards Sustainable Strategies: Uncovering the Impact of Environmental Policies on Innovation Activities of Czech Firms

In recent years, there has been an increased emphasis on sustainable development worldwide, which has prompted governments to adopt environmental policies aimed at mitigating the adverse environmental impacts of economic activities. Among these strategies, the implementation of environmental policies has emerged as a key tool for promoting sustainable development. However, although these policies are created with good intentions, their impact on firms' innovation activities remains a matter of debate and research. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of environmental policies on the innovation activities of Czech firms, with a particular focus on how these policies shape firms' strategies towards sustainable development. Given the growing emphasis on sustainability and environmental issues, it is necessary to examine how environmental policies can influence firms' overall innovation activities. 412 firms of different sizes were surveyed. And EU emissions trading and energy consumption emerged as the most influential variables with a positive impact.

Climate-conscious pharmacy practice: An exploratory study of community pharmacists in Ontario.

Climate change remains a significant challenge to global health. The health care system is a major contributor of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While pharmacists are aware of climate change as an important societal issue, there is little known about the level of implementation of climate-conscious practices in community pharmacies throughout Ontario. An interview-based system was developed to gather insights from pharmacists regarding their perspectives on climate change and identify strategies to involve them in sustainable practices. Convenience and snowball sampling techniques were used to recruit pharmacists. Interviews were conducted by phone or Zoom, and transcripts were developed and analyzed for common themes using a qualitative method. Twenty-four community pharmacists were interviewed. Three overarching themes emerged: 1) there is a knowledge and awareness gap in the pharmacy profession; 2) before pharmacists can prioritize sustainable practices, they must first address more immediate concerns in the pharmacy; 3) sustainable practice integration requires employment and regulatory changes as relying solely or extensively on the good intentions of frontline pharmacists is insufficient. While pharmacists show concern about the environmental impacts of their work, sustainable practice integration is very limited in community pharmacies across Ontario. There are many challenges and barriers to address. This includes closing the knowledge and awareness gap by incorporating climate-related topics into pharmacy curricula and providing educational seminars and resources for practicing pharmacists. In addition, improving workflow, changing standard operating procedures at a corporate level and providing incentives for implementing eco-friendly practices are crucial steps to address time and financial limitations. To manage patient safety concerns, providing resources that consider climate considerations as a secondary objective, when clinically appropriate for the patient, is the right approach to engage pharmacists. Lastly, advocating for employment and regulatory changes will be necessary for large-scale, durable changes to pharmacy practice.

The hefty price of good intention: ‘Thoppumpady incident’

The hefty price of good intention: ‘Thoppumpady incident’

City Branding to Solve Social Problems? – The Eigendynamik of management concepts

It is well know that management concepts tend to spread from corporate to public organizations. Branding is an example of such a concept, with suggestions that it can address not only economic but also social issues, often referred to as “inclusive branding.” This ethnographic study explores how branding is received and spreads in a Swedish city, and analyzes efforts to use branding to tackle inequality and segregation. Our findings reveal that the initial focus on social problems was glossed over in favor of following corporate branding ideals, but also that city communicators expressed critique, confusion, and doubt regarding the relevance of branding to their work. Surprisingly, this did not slow down but rather energized the branding process. Through an interactionist analysis, we suggest that rather than addressing social problems, branding in cities may give rise to an Eigendynamik, signifying a self-energizing inner dynamic fueled by a tension between “frames,” specifically between the branding frame and the civic frame of the city. This theorization lays the groundwork for contributions to the understanding of inclusive branding: it can start with good intentions to address civic issues but may get swept up in corporate branding concepts and activities that are ill equipped to deal with social issues. More generally, complementing established notions of translation and colonization, our study provides a novel understanding of how management concepts migrate from corporate to public organizations through what we call frame-induced Eigendynamik. Overall, we contribute by shedding light on the role of self-energizing processes as reasons why organizational members engage with management concepts even when they struggle to see their relevance to their work.

Good intentions, wrong tooling? A review of onshore wind energy auctions in Germany from 2017 to 2021

Good intentions, wrong tooling? A review of onshore wind energy auctions in Germany from 2017 to 2021

If a fish comes out of the river and speaks, we should believe it: South African perspective on fish kills

AbstractIn South Africa, fish kill events are increasing in frequency because of multiple stressors associated with managing natural resources. Despite the ecosystem services associated with fish, South Africa's progressive legislation towards environmental protection seems to negate the management of fish kills. In this study, we provide an overview of reports and regulations associated with acute pollution spills resulting in fish kill events in South Africa. In addition, we highlight the implication of these using a fish kill event from 2019 on the Msunduzi River, South Africa, as a case study. The fish kill on the Msunduzi River showed a decline in relative abundance by up to 41%, and its ecological condition was already impaired by poor management. The poor condition of the Msunduzi River has jeopardised the recovery of the fish populations, and intervention is needed to restore the fish population that includes species red‐listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. We found that despite the severity of fish kills and the detriment to the fish fauna, including near‐threatened species, there is a general apathy, incapacity and lack of knowledge on managing fish kills in South Africa. In addition, although several legislated Acts have good intentions for protecting nature, they do not align and show that a fish kill is an afterthought rather than a need to prevent. Poor management practices have exacerbated this in an already stressed state from excessive use of environmental water. As a way forward, the alignment of the various Acts associated with various ministerial departments in South Africa is needed so that better protection of the environment may occur. Finally, we argue that the African proverb ‘If the fish comes out of the river to tell you that the crocodile has one eye, you should believe it’ is not considered when managing water resources and that with the present ecological state and water resource use there may be no fish to ‘come out of the water’ warning us that our water is unsafe even for human consumption and use.

The Role of the New Media in Spreading the Culture of Volunteering in the Iraqi Society: Facebook as a Model

Volunteering is considered and continues to be the cornerstone of building society, spreading love, and fostering social cohesion among its members. This practice varies from time to time and from one community to another. Sometimes it decreases, and other times it increases. It can take the form of monetary donations or other charitable deeds. Volunteering is a humanitarian act closely tied to all the meanings of goodness and pure, righteous deeds for the sake of Allah. It is connected to the religious aspect, as Allah says: 'So whoever volunteers good, it is better for him. So volunteering has become a necessity among life's necessities due to its social message aimed at participation in building, developing, and strengthening the foundations of society. Consequently, the culture of volunteering has become an integral part of the cultures of developed societies, representing a system of principles, ethics, standards, and practices that encourage initiative and positive actions that benefit others (1). At the global level, volunteering has received increasing attention from the United Nations through its programs and institutions that provide assistance to the poor, marginalized, afflicted, and refugees. December 5th has been designated as International Volunteer Day as a tribute by the international organization to the significant role that volunteering can play in all areas of humanitarian and developmental work (2). In this research, the study indicates a significant increase in the number of donors among both young and adult individuals. The study seeks to shed light on the role of new media in promoting a culture of volunteering within Iraqi society, especially among the audience in Thi Qar province. The aim of promoting the culture of volunteering through new media platforms is to instill positive values of volunteering, encourage active participation in volunteer programs at the individual, institutional, and community levels, and extend this to regional and international levels. It emphasizes that volunteering is not merely about good intentions; rather, it has evolved into a professionally performed activity that employs new skills in management, finance, service delivery, and communication with others. The study emphasizes the importance of setting performance standards and evaluation criteria to develop, renew, and innovate new mechanisms for volunteering (3).

Pengaruh E-Service Quality Dan Consumer Trust Terhadap Repurchase Intention Pada Pengguna E-Commerce Lazada Di Kota Bandung

The rapid development of technology in the current era of digitalization is driving increasingly tighter business competition. Producers are required to be more critical in innovating and developing their business following trends occurring in society. Online stores are one of the impacts of the rapid development of technology in the current era of digitalization. Various products can be purchased online via e-commerce, ranging from food, clothing, household necessities, to vehicles. This trend has led to the continued increase in e-commerce users in Indonesia and is even projected to continue to increase until 2029. However, this is not in accordance with what is happening with Lazada e-commerce which continues to experience a negative trend from 2019-2022 with a decreasing index. in the top brand award released by the top brand index, the increase in 2023 is considered not significant so it is necessary to analyze the factors that could influence the decline in the Lazada e-commerce index. One of the indicators in assessing the index for the top brand award is future intention, where in this indicator there is repurchase intention, so it can be interpreted that the decline in the index is due to a decrease in interest in repurchasing Lazada customers after carrying out transaction activities on Lazada e-commerce. Therefore, it is indicated that the e-service quality and consumer trust factors can influence the repurchase intention of Lazada e-commerce customers, so these factors need to be tested to find out the true influence on repurchase intention. The population in this study is respondents aged 17-45 years who have made transactions at least twice a year on Lazada e-commerce. With judgment sampling as a sampling technique, 110 respondents were obtained. Descriptive analysis techniques were used to describe the data that had been collected and after that multiple regression analysis was carried out with the help of SPSS version 26 software to answer the problems in the research. The results of statistical tests found that there is a positive influence of both variables on repurchase intention and they also have a simultaneous influence, which indicates that these two factors need attention to obtain good repurchase intention.

Overcoming Poverty Through Social Programs: Evaluation of Effectiveness and Implementation

Poverty is a complex and multidimensional social issue that requires special attention in efforts to overcome it. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of various social programs designed to reduce poverty. This study focuses on the analysis of various social programs in several developing and developed countries, as well as assessing the extent to which these programs are successful in achieving their goals. The research method used is a qualitative approach with literature study and library research. Data sources consist of program evaluation reports, journal articles, books, and relevant policy documents. Through an in-depth analysis of these documents, this study identifies key factors that affect the effectiveness of social programs, including planning, implementation, and evaluation of outcomes. The results show that although many social programs have good intentions and have been implemented with adequate resources, there is significant variation in their effectiveness. Factors such as community engagement, adaptation to local contexts, and coordination between institutions have proven to play a crucial role in determining the success of the program. The study also found that consistent implementation and ongoing assessment are essential to ensure a positive and sustainable impact.

Legal Problems in Organizing Sick Leave for Workers under Jordanian Law

Sick leave is considered one of the essential types of leave that an employee may require during their service with an employer. Sick leave has received attention in numerous legislations in different countries, with provisions and considerations to ensure a balanced relationship between the worker and the employer. In the Jordanian context, the legislator has granted workers the right to sick leave if certain conditions are met. This raises the question of how well the Jordanian legislator considers the interests of both the worker and the employer and strives to create a balance between them. The worker is allowed to benefit from sick leave if specific conditions are met, which reflects the legislator's good intention to provide procedures that guarantee a fair balance between the interests of the worker and the employer. The worker is required to provide medical proof substantiating their need for sick leave. In this context, the role of the designated physician is crucial in assessing the health condition and the necessity of the leave. Despite these positive aspects, there may be potential challenges in implementing this system. The worker may encounter difficulties in obtaining medical reports within a short period, and the system may require more transparency and controls to ensure its fair and balanced utilization by all parties involved. Therefore, it is preferable to consider more details on how the law regulates sick leave and how it impacts the employment relationship. Additionally, it is important to address the specifics of implementing current laws and their effectiveness in protecting the rights of workers and the interests of employers.

Multimodal Massage Localization Algorithm for Human Acupoints

As the aging population issue worsens, people are experiencing increasing life pressures, and the elderly are unable to receive sufficient care, intensifying the demand for home-based intelligent massage healthcare robots. Addressing the challenges faced by users in expressing preferences for specific areas like the back through gestures or voice during the use of massage robots, and the issue of elderly individuals expressing imprecisely, which hinders effective communication of the desired massage target location to the robot, this paper proposes a new human-machine interaction mode for massage robots. The main innovations include: achieving precise control of the massage area through the representation of a virtual human body on the screen; proposing a virtual-to-real mapping algorithm based on human acupoints to address the consistency issue in human virtual-to-real mapping; introducing a multimodal intent understanding algorithm based on dynamic information entropy to address the current limitations of a single interaction mode and low intent comprehension rates in massage robot interactions. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed multimodal massage localization algorithm achieves good massage intent recognition effects. By combining natural human-machine interaction with intent understanding, it not only accurately captures user massage intentions and assists in completing massage tasks but also reduces user psychological and cognitive loads, leading to more desirable interaction outcomes.

Good intentions gone awry: Rail lines and inner‐city development

AbstractThis study explored the impact of transportation systems in urban areas on economic activity. We examined the effect of traditional Chinese railway construction fencing on urban spatial development using nighttime luminance and railway data from prefecture‐level cities. The study found that the fencing effect exacerbated uneven development on either side of the railway, especially in economically underdeveloped areas. These results were supported by different measures of development and a placebo test. The fencing effect was also found to affect the location of newly registered firms and the total factor productivity of industrial firms, leading to unbalanced growth on either side of the railway.

Children’s rights, human development and play – rejecting performance-orientated youth sport

ABSTRACT This commentary is distinctly personal for us. We think it should be likewise for all scholars, leaders and organisers involved in youth sport. This is because, to our minds, at the core of most people’s ways of approaching and promoting these supposedly healthy activities to children and young adults, is an apparent well-meaningness which centres on wanting the best for current and future generations. Unfortunately, while we accept such good intentions are present, they do not negate the empirical reality that critical scholars of sport have been pointing towards for over five decades – that is, professional and performance focused sports are often socially, politically and ethically questionable enterprises. If central features of our argument in this direction are accepted, several problems in terms of children’s rights, health, and wellbeing become apparent as quite fundamental to the model of sport which is currently dominant in the Western imagination. To offer a path forward we outlined a focus on human development as the foundation upon which we build a series of clear recommendations. We conclude with the purposely pithy, populist and powerful statement that encouraging players to play, rather than thinking of sport as akin to work, should not be understood as some impossible task, but rather, a return to the ways that many of us were first drawn to the amazing potentials embedded in ‘sport’. We compel scholars to reflect deeply on their place in the subcultures we critique, and if after doing so, they find themselves complicit in maintaining a world of sport that damages young people, contributes to them dropping out, and otherwise reduces the fun, enjoyment and positive development they gain from physical activity, we hope they will join us in being part of the solution rather than continuing to be central to the problem.

Why your help is unhelpful: A multistage mediation model exploring mechanisms linking unhelpful workplace social support to work engagement.

Recent occupational health research has begun exploring unhelpful workplace social support (UWSS). UWSS refers to actions taken by a colleague that the recipient believes are intended to be helpful but are perceived as ineffective. For example, a colleague may provide help that is not wanted or do something incorrectly while providing aid. Despite the perceived good intentions of UWSS providers, empirical research suggests that UWSS is a potent workplace demand negatively associated with occupational well-being. The mechanisms that link UWSS and reduced occupational well-being, however, have yet to receive empirical examination. We integrate the job demands-resources model, conservation of resources theory, and basic needs theory to construct a multistage model linking UWSS to reduced work engagement via the frustration of basic psychological needs and the consequent experiencing of negative emotions. We test this model across two studies-a three-wave weekly study (NLevel 1 = 960, NLevel 2 = 320) and a 5-day daily diary study (NLevel 1 = 1,680, NLevel 2 = 336)-and find several significant direct and indirect effects. Across both studies (though at different levels of analysis), partial support was linked to reduced work engagement via the frustration of both the need for competence and relatedness and the experiencing of negative affect, while in Study 2, a daily link between undependable support and work engagement through relatedness frustration and the experiencing of negative affect was found. Implications for research and practice are discussed, and future research directions are offered. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Keep or Break: The Biblical Basis for Tithing in Medieval Europe

The biblical teaching is that, on a practical level, tithing embodies an ideal division of labor with distinct responsibilities. By tithing to the Church, Christians provide the clergy with the necessities of life, enabling them to concentrate on the sacraments without having to worry about worldly matters, and at the same time, offer material support for the holy ministries of the Church, helping to improve the financial situation of the Church. On the level of faith, tithing is an expression of faith in God. The voluntary and full payment of the tithe is a great manifestation of one's faith in God. It maintains the harmonious relationship between God and man, which brings God's abundant blessings to man. The Church in Medieval Europe collected tithes based on the clear and strong scriptural basis of the Bible. However, in practice, the Church abused the tithe to enrich itself and ignored the poor lives of the people, which was destructive to God's good intention in the establishment of the tithe and was not in accordance with the teachings of the Bible.