Instrumental Value Research Articles

Would emphasizing the instrumental value of learning help unmotivated students? Large-scale cross-cultural comparisons

Would emphasizing the instrumental value of learning help unmotivated students? Large-scale cross-cultural comparisons

Financial Health of Private Equity-Backed Groups: Perspectives From Eye Care.

In private equity (PE) buyouts of medical practices, it is common for the PE firm to raise significant levels of debt in order to finance the purchase. This debt is subsequently shouldered by the acquired practice(s). There remains a scarcity of literature quantifying the effect of PE acquisition on the subsequent financial performance of eye care practices. We aim to identify and characterize debt valuations of ophthalmology and optometry private equity-backed group (OPEG) practices, which serve as an indicator of practice financial performance. A cross-sectional study from March 2017 to March 2022 was conducted using business development company (BDC) quarterly/annual filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The 2021 BDC Report was used to identify all BDCs actively filing annual reports (Form 10-Ks) and quarterly reports (Form 10-Qs) in the United States in 2021. The public filings of BDCs lending to OPEGs were searched from the inception of the OPEG's debt instrument in a BDC's portfolio and the amortized cost and fair value of each debt instrument were tabulated. A panel linear regression was used to evaluate temporal changes in OPEG valuations. A total of 2,997 practice locations affiliated with 14 unique OPEGs and 17 BDCs were identified over the study period. Debt valuations of OPEGs decreased by 0.46% per quarter over the study period (95% CI: -0.88 to -0.03, P = 0.036). In the COVID-19 pre-vaccine period (March 2020 to December 2020), there was an excess (additional) 4.93% decrease in debt valuations (95% CI: -8.63 to -1.24, P = 0.010) when compared to pre-pandemic debt valuations (March 2017 to December 2019). Effects of COVID-19 on valuations stabilized during the pandemic post-vaccine period (February 2021 to March 2022), with no change in excess debt valuation compared to pre-pandemic baseline (0.60, 95% CI: -4.59 to 5.78, P = 0.822). There was an increase in practices that reported average discounted debt valuations from 20 practices (1.6%) associated with one OPEG to 1,213 practices (40.5%) associated with nine OPEGs (including 100% of newly acquired practices), despite the stabilization of COVID-19-related excess (additional) debt. Debt valuations of eye care practices have declined significantly post-PE investment from March 2017 to March 2022, suggesting that the financial health of these groups is volatile and vulnerable to economic contractions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Eye care practice owners must consider long-term financial risks and impacts of subsequent patient care when selling their practice to a private equity group. Future research should assess the impact of secondary transactions of OPEGs on the financial health of practices, practitioner lifestyle, and patient outcomes.

Public voices on tie-breaking criteria and underlying values in COVID-19 triage protocols to access critical care: a scoping review

BackgroundTo reduce the arbitrariness in the allocation of rare resources in intensive care units (ICU) in the context of the pandemic, tiebreakers were considered in some COVID-19 triage algorithms. They were also contemplated to facilitate the tragic decisions of healthcare workers when faced with two patients with similar prognosis and only one ICU bed available. Little is known about the public's perspective on tiebreakers.ObjectivesTo consolidate the available scientific literature on public consultations, particularly on tiebreakers and their underlying values. Also, to obtain an overview of the key arguments presented by the participating public and to identify potential gaps related to this topic.MethodsThe steps described by Arksey and O’Malley was the preferred method to our approach. Seven electronic databases were searched from January 2020 to April 2022, using keywords for each database: PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, Web of Science, PsycINFO, EBM reviews, CINAHL complete. We also searched in Google and Google Scholar, and in the references of the articles found. Our analysis was mainly qualitative. A thematic analysis was performed to consider the public’s perspectives on tiebreakers and their underlying values, according to these studies.ResultsOf 477 publications found, 20 were selected. They carried out public consultations through various methods: surveys (80%), interviews (20%), deliberative processes (15%) and others (5%) in various countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, and United States. Five themes emerged from our analysis. The public favored the life cycle (50%) and absolute age (45%) as a tiebreaker. Other values considered important were reciprocity, solidarity, equality, instrumental value, patient merit, efficiency, and stewardship. Among the new findings were a preference for patient nationality and those affected by COVID-19.ConclusionsThere is a preference for favoring younger patients over older patients when there is a tie between similar patients, with a slight tendency to favor intergenerational equity. Variability was found in the public’s perspectives on tiebreakers and their values. This variability was related to socio-cultural and religious factors. More studies are needed to understand the public's perspective on tiebreakers.

Economic analyses of repugnant market transactions: a modest typology

AbstractEconomic accounts of repugnance concern two broad questions: the rationalisation of sentiments of repugnance (do emotional and visceral reactions of repugnance track valid reasons for not engaging in or condemning certain (trans)actions?) and institutional design (how to institute, regulate, or restrict markets in response to reasonable objections). If repugnance expresses valid practical reasons for regulating or limiting markets, our institutions should acknowledge and express these. If attitudes of repugnance are not rationalisable in the sense of instrumental or moral values, we should disregard or eventually counteract or reduce them. Focusing on a special case of repugnance, when commodification, i.e., the sale of goods or services for money meets societal disapproval, this paper identifies three characteristic ways to combine conceptual, empirical, and normative arguments and map repugnance into a disciplinary ‘epistemic frame’ of economics: repugnance as taste; repugnance as proxy for market failures or moral reasons; repugnance as hypocrisy or contingent cultural fact. Correspondingly, economists advise to (1) work around; (2) make sense of; and (3) explain away people's sentiments of repugnance.

Can Purpose Foster Stakeholder Trust in Corporations?

As part of institutional changes toward more responsible capitalism, firms increasingly articulate a purpose beyond simply profit as a central tenet of their governance. Management scholarship has noted the potential advantages of such purpose-focus for stakeholder trust. However, some consumers, employees, and shareholders have expressed skepticism about the veracity of firms’ purpose claims and raised concerns about purpose-washing. We propose two distinct influence pathways—one cognitive, one affect-based—by which corporate purpose can influence stakeholder trust. First, purpose constitutes a signal of firm intent and quality that expresses a firm’s public, enduring commitments. It fosters cognitive trust by providing clarity and assurance regarding the firm’s future conduct, allowing stakeholders to better calculate relational and reputational risk and the instrumental value of exchange—even when they do not share the firm’s prosocial mission, principles for stakeholder relations, or its conception of virtues. Second, purpose presents a moral appeal to stakeholders. This appeal can stimulate positive affective responses, activate stakeholders’ hedonic and eudaemonic motives tied to their moral identity, and thus provide intuitive cues to trust the firm. By sharply delineating the pathways by which purpose can shape interorganizational trust, we not only illuminate how purpose can yield trust benefits but also when it is ineffectual and causes stakeholder backlash. This clarifies the role of purpose in shaping relational governance and multistakeholder cooperation and contributes to research on strategic and moral commitments as foundations of interorganizational trust.History: This paper has been accepted for the Strategy Science Special Issue on Corporate Purpose.

Carcass and meat quality attributes of native sheep in Bangladesh: A review

Three native sheep breeds like Jamuna basin, Barind tract and Coastal belt that used to rear in semi-intensive systems in three agro-ecological zones of Bangladesh. The quality of meat is a multifactorial trait dependent on the perspective and goals of the link in the production chain. In this review an attempt has been made to present detail carcass traits and meat quality attributes of native sheep in relation to other sheep breeds. Some factors that influence carcass traits and the quality of lamb meat namely proximate component, physicochemical traits, sensory attributes and instrumental color values were considered in this review.

Pertentangan Rasionalitas Instrumental dan Nilai di Era Covid-19

This article discusses the conflict between instrumental rationality and value rationality. The purpose of the article is to re-examine what the differences are between the two and what are the causes of the conflict. The finding shows that contradictory actions would not have occurred if there were no people who had a tendency to place more importance on the dominant rules and were accompanied by the awareness to implement them. The only way to stop it is to "understand" what is behind it to take an action and analyze it from the stability of reality and worldview. Whether reality must be in accordance with the worldview or a worldview that adapts to reality so that there is no mismatch between the two. When reality can no longer be explained by the prevailing worldview. Then the worldview will be reinterpreted so that it can explain reality or vice versa, the reality that must be changed to follow the worldview. Back at this time, the Bukittinggi City Government has unwittingly relaxed the 3M policy (although this rule is still being encouraged in the community) by prioritizing the mandatory wearing of masks and launching the covid-19 vaccination as a new step to stop the spread of the covid-19 outbreak.

Protecting peatlands requires understanding stakeholder perceptions and relational values: A case study of peatlands in the Yorkshire Dales

Sustainable peatland management is a global environmental governance challenge given peat’s carbon storage. Peatlands worldwide are sites of contested demands between stakeholders with distinct management priorities. In the United Kingdom, peatland management is a focus of political interest for nature-based solutions (NBS), causing tensions with land managers who feel their traditional knowledge is undervalued. Using Q-method (a semi-quantitative method for clarifying distinct viewpoints) with estate managers, gamekeepers, farmers, and employees of land-owning organisations, we explored perceptions around changing upland management in the Yorkshire Dales. Land managers hold strong values of ownership, aesthetics, and stewardship. The prospect of changing management causes fears of losing these relational values alongside instrumental values. Yorkshire Dales stakeholders agreed on NBS aims (reducing flooding, limiting wildfires, protecting wild birds), but disagreed on methods to achieve these. Our research supports engaging local stakeholders at all stages of peatland protection schemes to minimise resentment towards top-down management.

Rising China and rising Chinese: An investigation into African international students’ language beliefs

Chinese has been the fastest growing modern foreign language in African societies in the last decade, due largely to the perceived rise of China as a global superpower and its recent explosion in investment in Africa. This paper focuses on how African youths’ language beliefs and motivation to learn Chinese as a global language have been affected by an ever-increasing complicated nexus of political and economic engagement between Africa and China. Based on conversations with 59 African international students in Chinese higher education, I unpack and highlight the prevalence of beliefs that Chinese is a critical and global language. The instrumental value of Chinese, both to the continent, to nation-states and to individuals, is also found to be a common refrain among research participants, which motivates them to pursue Chinese as linguistic capital. This study contributes to the wider discussions of language ideology, motivations and aspirations of language learning, while encouraging us to reflect on the changing hierarchical ordering of languages in the world linguistic system. Pedagogical and curriculum design implications are discussed at the end of the article.

Performance on Cognitive Screening Tests and Long-Term Substance Use Outcomes in Patients with Polysubstance Use Disorder

Introduction: Cognitive impairments among patients with substance use disorders are prevalent and associated with adverse treatment outcomes. However, knowledge of the predictive value of broad cognitive screening instruments on long-term treatment outcomes is limited. The present study aimed to examine the predictive value of measures from the Montreal Cognitive Assessment® (MoCA®), Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI), and the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function – Adult version (BRIEF-A) on self-reported long-term substance use and abstinence in patients with polysubstance use disorders (pSUD). Methods: A cohort (N = 164) of patients with pSUD who started a new treatment sequence in the Stavanger University Hospital catchment area were recruited and followed prospectively for 5 years. Participants completed neurocognitive testing with the MoCA®, WASI, and BRIEF-A at inclusion and were categorized as cognitively impaired or non-impaired according to recommended cut-off values. The sum score of the items from the Drug Use Disorders Identification Test Consumption scale (DUDIT-C) was used as a measure of substance use outcome 1 and 5 years after inclusion. We defined substance abstinence (DUDIT-C = 0) and heavy substance use (DUDIT-C ≥7) to determine whether cognitive impairments measured by the respective instruments were associated with and could predict abstinence and heavy substance use 1 and 5 years after baseline. Results: At the 1-year follow-up, 54% of the total sample reported total abstinence from substances. Conversely, 31% presented heavy substance use. At 5 years, 64% of the total sample reported abstinence from substances, while 25% presented heavy substance use. The results showed a statistically significant association between cognitive impairment defined from MoCA® and higher continuous scores on DUDIT-C at 1-year follow-up. There were no differences in substance abstinence or heavy substance use between patients with and without cognitive impairment at the 1- and 5-year follow-ups. Furthermore, cognitive impairment did not explain substance abstinence or heavy substance use at the 1- and 5-year follow-ups. Conclusion: Generally, individuals with pSUD may be burdened and lack psychosocial resources to such an extent that cognitive functioning plays a subordinate role in long-term recovery. The present study suggests that results on screening tools assessing broad cognitive domains at treatment initiation have limited clinical value in predicting long-term substance use outcomes. There is a need to establish clinically viable instruments to assess cognitive functions with well-established clinical and ecological validity in the SUD population.

Argumentative Representation and Democracy: A Critique of Alexy's Defense of Judicial Review of Legislation

AbstractRobert Alexy has argued that the democratic objection to judicial review of legislation can be successfully addressed by assuming that judges exercise a special form of argumentative representation. In this article we argue that Alexy does not explain (as he should) under what circumstances judicial review tends to produce better decisions than parliamentary procedure, nor does he explain how judicial review can have a greater intrinsic value than parliamentary procedure. Subsequently, we argue that the intrinsic value of argumentative representation depends on the promotion of citizen deliberation, whereas its instrumental value depends on judges being committed to the rights of discrete and insular minorities in the face of hostile majorities.

Fatty acid and oxidative shelf-life profiles of meat from lambs fed finisher diets containing Acacia mearnsii leaf-meal

Five diets containing Acacia mearnsii leaf-meal (AMLM; 0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 g/kg DM) substituted for Triticum aestivum bran were fed to lambs for 42 days. The effect of diet and retail display period on meat fatty acid (FA) composition (day 1); colour, antioxidant activity, myoglobin and lipid oxidation (day 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9); protein oxidation (1, 3 and 7 d) and instrumental tenderness (day 1, 5 and 10) were evaluated. Dietary AMLM linearly decreased (P ≤ 0.05) individual (14:0, 16:0, 18:0) and total saturated FA and increased (P ≤ 0.05) trans(t)-monounsaturated FA (MUFA) mainly t10/t11–18:1, individual and total conjugated linoleic acids, n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) contents. The contents of cis(c)-MUFA, mainly c9–18:1, exhibited a quadratic response reaching a minimum at 50 g/kg AMLM (P ≤ 0.05). Meat antioxidant on day 9 was higher (P ≤ 0.05) for diets containing ≥100 g/kg DM AMLM compared to the other diet × retail display period interactions. Relative to the other interactions, meat redness values were lowest on day 7 and 9 for AMLM diets containing ≥150 g/kg DM (P ≤ 0.05). Dietary addition of AMLM increased (P ≤ 0.05) meat lightness and oxymyoglobin, and reduced (P ≤ 0.05) TBARS and instrumental tenderness values. However, oxymyoglobin values declined (P ≤ 0.05) over the retail display period, while lightness, metmyoglobin, TBARS and carbonyls increased (P ≤ 0.05). Results indicate that AMLM up to 200 g/kg DM in lamb finisher diets, improves meat fatty acid composition, tenderness, and lipid shelf-life.

What matters for child participation - The role of valuation-based dialogical participation for children living in kinship care in England

According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child a child has the right to be heard and included in all matters that affect them. Child participation in child welfare research, policy and practice also has instrumental and intrinsic value. However, participation and voice, especially with children, remain contested in how they are applied and theorised. This paper is an extract from research on what matters to 19 children living in kinship care in England. It focusses on the children’s reflections on what child participation means for research, for child welfare services, and for family life. This was the first study to combine a dialogical participative approach with critical realism. Multiple methods such as child-led tours, photo-elicitation, and visual methods were used to capture the children's valuations of their lives and participation. Theory-building alongside the child participants provided empirical certainty with an interpretivist awareness of subjectivities. Analysis of the children’s reflections reveal that voice and agency must be theorised as relational. Furthermore, the children desire inter-generational dialogical spaces to contemplate different views, explore what matters, and out their inner conversations. The children wish for discussions that listen to tensions rather than try to resolve them. Also, appropriate discussions that acknowledged interdependence aligned with the children feeling safe and cared for.

Fundamentalisme Pendidikan Islam dan Eksistensinya Dalam Dunia Pendidikan : Studi Pemikiran Kh. M. Hasyim Asy�ari Dan Kh. Imam Zarkasy

Fundamentalism of the leadership of an educational institution will continue to give birth to new generations based on the basic concepts of education and teaching. Two well-known figures in Islamic education, KH M. Hasyim Asy'ari and KH Imam Zarkasyi, have brought major changes to education in Indonesia. This can be seen and tested from the quality of alumni. Therefore this study is important to find out the basic concept of Islamic education leadership that it applies, as well as its relevance in maintaining its existence in the world of education. The research approach uses a qualitative descriptive approach. This type of research is library research with data collection methods obtained from books, journals, research results and others. This research resulted in the concept of Islamic education leadership according to KH M. Hasyim Asy'ari and KH Imam Zarkasyi which refers to the values of Islamic boarding schools, including essential and instrumental values. Each of these essential values and instrumental values has different points that are tailored to the goals of each educational institution.

Perception of Scientific and Social Values in the Sustainable Development of National Innovation Systems

National innovation systems (NIS) are generally perceived as a set of interconnected organizations (or structures) that domestically produce and commercially implement scientific knowledge and technology. The development of any national innovation system is the key element for shaping up the scientific values in every country. Our paper identifies the trends in global innovation and technological scope associated with the formation of global economic relations, global investment, the flow of knowledge, technology, increased internationalization of R&D, and the formation of global innovation networks. In addition, it attempts to trace the relationship between instrumental values associated with the perception of science and technology and the development of NIS within the context of sustainable economic development using a case study from Russia. The paper carries out the analysis of values on the basis of the World Values Survey (WVS), as well as statistical indicators characterizing the development of the national innovation system. The obtained quantitative results stemming from our empirical model are further refined with the help of qualitative research, including the narrative economics approaches. Our results might be beneficial for the stakeholders and policymakers working with innovation policies and approaches in business, economics, and education.

The Instrumentality of Ceremonial Habits of Thought

This article problematizes the Veblenian Dichotomy, highlighting the instrumental aspects of ceremonial habits of thought. The Veblenian Dichotomy is a key tool of analysis among Institutional economists, but devolves into a dualism, when used to define progress. This is evident in the identification of progress with increasing instrumental value, implying ceremonial institutions are antithetical to progress. This led to debate among Institutionalists in the 1980s and 1990s, between those following in the tradition of Clarence Ayres, identifying progress with a universal social value principle, and those asserting ceremonial institutions as more than “imbecile”: the Wendell Gordon-Anne Mayhew camp. This debate never reached a conclusion, yet a large literature emerged animated by the ideas stemming from the former group, with little work expanding on the arguments of the latter. This article reopens these debates, building off the arguments of the Gordon-Mayhew side. It is asserted that using the dichotomy in defining progress turns it into a dualism antithetical to evolutionary analysis. Furthermore, it inhibits our ability to complexly analyze ceremonial habits of thought, not allowing us to recognize their inherently instrumental aspects. This problematizes the dichotomy itself. Considering these arguments, the role of the academic as myth debunker is asserted as a way forward.

Formation of resistance to the personality of students in the conditions of modern educational environment

Introduction. In the conditions of modernization of the education system, the problem of the formation of personality resistance in the educational environment becomes relevant. On the basis of domestic research on the psychology of the environment, an analysis was made of the characteristics, criteria, conditions, approaches to the requirements for the modern educational environment, which will contribute to the formation of psychological determinants of personality resistance. The formation of personal resistance in the educational environment is possible in an innovative personality-developing environment, which should be psychologically safe, humanitarian - based on humanistic and moral values. A system of psychological support is presented, which is based on the principles of trust, using a polysubjective approach. The analysis and comparison of the results of the ascertaining and forming experiment was carried out in order to determine the effectiveness of the activity of the personality-developing environment on a group of students of 1-2 courses of the socionomic profile. Materials and Methods. The work used a diagnostic complex, which makes it possible to determine the component structure in order to study the manifestation of personality resistance in the subjects, and also carried out a meaningful analysis and comparison of the results of the ascertaining and forming experiment with the aim of the effectiveness of the program of the forming experiment. Results. As a result of the implementation of the formative program, students are dominated by a high level of development of all components of the psychological structure of resistance, which is characterized by a wide range of knowledge about behavior strategies in various situations. A tendency was found to increase the choice of terminal values in comparison with instrumental ones. A more detailed analysis showed that among the terminal values among the groups of subjects, the indicators of long-term goals, which ensure self-development and predicting behavior strategies in various situations, increased. According to the analysis of the content characteristics of instrumental values, the following can be noted: the students' indicators for ethical and business values increased, as well as the indicators for self-affirmation values and, which is especially interesting, for altruistic values. All this, in our opinion, testifies to the assimilation of a wide range of social actions by all subjects in the process of practice (especially in volunteer activities). In the group of students, the values of business and the values of self-affirmation prevail, the values of communication are much less pronounced. It should also be noted that altruistic values are quite clearly represented among students, which indicates an increase in the stability of the individual. An interesting fact, from the point of view of our study, is the lack of individualistic and conformist values among students. It should be noted that the personal position of the subjects has changed significantly in terms of deepening subjectivity, more balanced indicators are observed. Discussion and Conclusions. The study was aimed at testing the system of psychological support in the process of formation of resistance as a personality trait in the subjects – students showed its effectiveness. As a result of the implementation of the formative program, a high level of development of the presented components of the psychological structure of resistance prevails.

Animal Resistance in the Global Capitalist Era

Animal Resistance in the Global Capitalist Era

More Is Required of Us: Complicating an Ontology of Experience at the Heart of Community-Based Research

More Is Required of Us: Complicating an Ontology of Experience at the Heart of Community-Based Research

The Second Revolution of Moral Fictionalism

If our moral beliefs rest on a mistake, as moral error theorists claim, what should we do with them? According to Richard Joyce’s revolutionary moral fictionalism, error theorists should pretend to believe moral propositions in order to keep the benefits moral thinking has for their preference satisfaction. This, he claims, frees error theory from radical practical implications. In response, I argue that implementing fictionalism would not preserve our moral practices, but disrupt them. The change from moral belief to make-belief yields an unintended second revolution: a revolution in the content of morality. I show that fictionalism necessarily relies on a similar justification of moral practices as David Gauthier’s contractarianism, and consequently has similar implications for moral content. Because fictionalists engage in moral thinking purely for its instrumental value, they should only accept moral obligations that are useful to them into their fiction. This restriction is important: the most useful moral fiction departs substantially from conventional moral views. Revolutionary moral fictionalism is therefore more radical than it is promised to be.