Practical Matter Research Articles

Digital Services Act: Anticipating Challenges in Regulatory Implementation

The current article examines the legal aspects and challenges anticipated during the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) into national regulatory frameworks. As the DSA represents a ground-breaking legislative initiative aimed at governing digital services within the European Union, this article explores some practical matters in terms of its implementation, the choices of the Member States countries concerning a Digital Services Coordinator (DSC), as well as potential hurdles faced by national regulatory authorities (NRA) in the implementation process, taking into account the right to freedom of expression, access to information, and the principle of liability exemption for intermediaries. The research explores the legal implementation of the DSA across EU Member States, with a focus on the harmonisation of the act and the challenges posed by differing legal traditions and regulatory approaches, emphasising the importance of the European Commission in the regulation of very large online platforms (VLOPS) and very large online search engines (VLOSE), the current practices and the future tendencies in this regard. In addition, the article also examines some complex, specific tasks related to the enforcement of the DSA’s provisions. The NRAs face specific technical and logistical challenges regarding their new monitoring competencies, which the article also addresses.

Between Rules and Implementation: The Difficulty in Relying on International Law in Military Courts in Criminal Law

Abstract The West Bank, also referred to as Judea and Samaria, has been subject to belligerent occupation since 1967, and its legal framework is grounded primarily in international law. This legal foundation of belligerent occupation emanates from the international law of occupation, which regulates the legislative, judicial and executive powers of the occupying state in the occupied territory. However, the utilisation of international law in adjudicating criminal matters within military courts in this region is sporadic. The underlying reasons for this practice call for inquiry and prompt a reconsideration of the optimal configuration of the legal regime. This article contends that despite a recent uptake in integrating international law into military court decisions, its effectiveness in addressing criminal issues within these courts is limited. Moreover, in most cases presented before military courts, international law lags behind domestic legal doctrines, including Israeli criminal law. Despite its overarching authority, international law falls short of providing a pragmatic solution to the challenges confronted by military courts. Consequently, these courts are compelled to turn to alternative legal sources. The article proposes an integrated model, advocating reliance on international law for fundamental, constitutional-level issues while deferring to the Israeli criminal justice system for specific practical criminal matters.

Against the Phrase “Aggressive Care”

Abstract Language is the primary technology clinical ethicists use as they offer guidance about norms. Like any other piece of technology, to use the technology well requires attention, intention, skill, and knowledge. Word choice becomes a matter of professional practice. The Brief Report offers clinical ethicists several reasons for rejecting the phrase “aggressive care.” Instead, ethicists should consider replacing “aggressive care” with the adjacent concept of a “recovery-focused path.” The virtues of this neologism include: the opportunity to set aside the emotion of “aggression,” the phrase’s accuracy when capturing the intention of the patient or their representative, and an unappreciated rhetorical force—and transparent logic—that arises when the patient’s recovery is unlikely.

Penggunaan Media Youtube dalam Pembelajaran PAI di Sekolah

This study aims to analyze the use of YouTube in Islamic Religious Education (IRE) learning in schools. The results indicate that the use of YouTube enhances students' interest, facilitates the understanding of abstract material, and develops critical thinking and digital skills. Videos presented through YouTube help students understand IRE content in a more engaging and practical way, particularly in matters of theology, worship practices, and Islamic history. Despite the many benefits, the use of YouTube also faces challenges such as the selection of appropriate content, limitations in technological infrastructure, risk of distractions, and more complex time management. Therefore, strict supervision, careful content selection, and effective classroom management by teachers are necessary to optimize the use of YouTube in IRE learning. This study recommends the proper integration of YouTube into the learning process, supported by improved infrastructure and teacher training.

‘A knife with two sides’: naturalization and the ambivalent value of citizenship for Syrians in Turkey

ABSTRACT Different legal citizenships and passports are associated with different sets of status, rights and identities. Through naturalization into a higher-value citizenship, former migrants can improve economic opportunities, transnational mobility, and ease relationships. Building on growing research that questions the migrant-citizen binary, this paper asks how citizenship matters in practice through an exploration of naturalization amongst displaced Syrians in Turkey. Drawing on qualitative research with Syrians, some of whom held temporary protection status while others had naturalized, the paper argues that the rights and status associated with Turkish citizenship are ambivalent, simultaneously beneficial and costly. Naturalization provided some economic and social rights and spatial mobility compared to temporary protection status. But Turkish citizenship also reinforced class-based distinctions and racial discrimination, and shaped new forms of exclusion: Syrians forewent certain mobility and economic strategies that they accessed as refugees. The paper argues to conceive naturalization as a technology of territorialization that fixes people onto a certain territory and forces migrants to make difficult choices when negotiating state practices of bordering and mobility control. Paying attention to the simultaneously mobilizing and territorializing effects of naturalization helps to question linear assumptions of citizenship and status hierarchies.

Performance of chatbots in queries concerning fundamental concepts in photochemistry.

The advent of chatbots raises the possibility of a paradigm shift across society including the most technical of fields with regard to access to information, generation of knowledge, and dissemination of education and training. Photochemistry is a scientific endeavor with roots in chemistry and physics and branches that encompass diverse disciplines ranging from astronomy to zoology. Here, five chatbots have each been challenged with 13 photochemically relevant queries. The chatbots included ChatGPT 3.5, ChatGPT 4.0, Copilot, Gemini Advanced, and Meta AI. The queries encompassed fundamental concepts (e.g., "Why is the fluorescence spectrum typically the mirror image of the absorption spectrum?"), practical matters (e.g., "What is the inner filter effect and how to avoid it?"), philosophical matters ("Please create the most important photochemistry questions."), and specific molecular features (e.g., "Why are azo dyes non-fluorescent?"). The chatbots were moderately effective in answering queries concerning fundamental concepts in photochemistry but were glaringly deficient in specialized queries for dyes and fluorophores. In some instances, a correct response was embedded in verbose scientific nonsense whereas in others the entire response, while grammatically correct, was utterly meaningless. The unreliable accuracy makes present chatbots poorly suited for unaided educational purposes and highlights the importance of domain experts.

Auditing students’ perceptions of online assessments and e-proctoring systems

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the implementation of online assessments at an unprecedented pace. The pandemic required most higher education institutions worldwide to implement online assessments almost overnight. The study aimed to gain an understanding of auditing students’ perceptions of online assessments and e-proctoring systems during the pandemic. A web-based questionnaire was administered to postgraduate auditing students who had taken part in remote online assessments at an open distance and e-learning university in South Africa, invigilated via e-proctoring software, which was introduced in the 2020 academic year. A total of 238 students participated in the study. Factor analysis, using principal component factor analysis, was performed to identify the factors or components that possibly caused the variation in these auditing students’ perceptions of online assessments and e-proctoring. Varimax with Kaiser normalisation was used as a rotation method. This process revealed five main components that explained variations in participants’ perceptions, namely: Component 1—emotions (assessments), appropriateness (assessments), fairness (assessments), monetary aspects, and time; Component 2—practical IT matters, academic integrity (e-proctoring) and cheating (e-proctoring); Component 3—practical IT matters (e-proctoring) and emotions (e-proctoring); Component 4—practical IT matters (assessments) and time (assessments); and Component 5—cheating (assessments). Implications of the findings for educators are offered, along with recommendations for future research.

Resource-rational contractualism: A triple theory of moral cognition.

It is widely agreed upon that morality guides people with conflicting interests towards agreements of mutual benefit. We therefore might expect numerous proposals for organizing human moral cognition around the logic of bargaining, negotiation, and agreement. Yet, while "contractualist" ideas play an important role in moral philosophy, they are starkly underrepresented in the field of moral psychology. From a contractualist perspective, ideal moral judgments are those that would be agreed to by rational bargaining agents-an idea with wide-spread support in philosophy, psychology, economics, biology, and cultural evolution. As a practical matter, however, investing time and effort in negotiating every interpersonal interaction is unfeasible. Instead, we propose, people use abstractions and heuristics to efficiently identify mutually beneficial arrangements. We argue that many well-studied elements of our moral minds, such as reasoning about others' utilities ("consequentialist" reasoning) or evaluating intrinsic ethical properties of certain actions ("deontological" reasoning), can be naturally understood as resource-rational approximations of a contractualist ideal. Moreover, this view explains the flexibility of our moral minds-how our moral rules and standards get created, updated and overridden and how we deal with novel cases we have never seen before. Thus, the apparently fragmentary nature of our moral psychology-commonly described in terms of systems in conflict-can be largely unified around the principle of finding mutually beneficial agreements under resource constraint. Our resulting "triple theory" of moral cognition naturally integrates contractualist, consequentialist and deontological concerns.

Humans: An integrative review exploring dehumanisation in advanced dementia.

Background: People living with advanced dementia risk being seen as someone without personhood in contemporary societies, an understanding that has been described and challenged for decades in dementia scholarly literature. Such perception can be characterised as forms of existential dehumanisation, which still asserts itself in dementia care practices, adversely affecting the ethical and caring aspects of such care.Aim: To challenge dehumanisation in dementia care, we must first learn to recognise what foster it in caring relations. Thus, the aim of our study is to identify existing perceptions of care recipients living with advanced dementia, which elicit dehumanising attitudes among formal caregivers.Research design: We conducted an integrative review based on Whittemore and Knafl's updated methodology. This allowed us to identify and analyse 26 articles incorporating both qualitative- and quantitative studies as well as theoretical- and grey literature all describing perceptions of care recipients living with dementia that lead to dehumanisation.Ethical considerations: Studying the darker sides in caring relations was to be beneficial in improving dementia care practices.Findings: Through an analytical process five themes that can sprout dehumanising attitudes in caring relations were identified, which include perceiving people living with advanced dementia as (1) absurd, (2) shadow, (3) perilous, (4) void, or (5) repugnant. We argue that these perceptions can be seen as unintentional and stem from a misled embodied perception, which caregivers should learn to recognise and consequently be able to resist through virtue ethics.Conclusion: Our study indicates that challenging dehumanisation is a practical matter of identifying and reacting in a timely way to ones misled embodied perceptions. We suggest the five themes offer a potential means to warn formal caregivers of impending dehumanising attitudes and help them to review how they ethically are thinking and perceiving the person living with advanced dementia.

Feeling like owners: the impact of high-performance work practices and psychological ownership on employee outcomes in employee-owned companies

ABSTRACT A central finding of scholarship on employee ownership (EO) is that EO has the strongest impacts on employee outcomes when implemented with other management practices that are typically associated with high-performance work systems (HPWS). However, our explanations for why these complementary practices matter remain underdeveloped. In this paper, we examine whether the extent to which employees feel like owners, using the construct of psychological ownership (PO), mediates the impact of three HPWS practices on four employee outcomes in a dataset of 881 employees in nine companies with employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) in the United States. Our findings support our core argument that these practices make it more likely that employees will feel like owners, which in turn leads to positive impacts on employee outcomes. More specifically, we find that the extent to which employees perceive that they have influence, are engaged as owners through information sharing and business literacy training, and receive high quality communications about EO are positively associated with PO, and that PO is positively associated with organizational commitment, turnover intention, voice behavior, and helping behavior. We discuss the theoretical, management, and policy implications of our analysis and findings.

Can Mindful Politics Be Meaningful Politics? Socially Engaged Buddhism as a Political Project within a Liberal Political Order

Throughout the Western political world, and particularly in the United States, contemporary Buddhist political thought has largely become synonymous with the movement of mindful politics, also known as Socially Engaged Buddhism. Focusing primarily on issues of social, economic, and environmental justice, mindful politics has found a natural ally in Western left-wing and progressive movements to the degree that Buddhist political thought in the United States is now seemingly indistinguishable from these Western political positions as a practical matter. While the practical alliance of Socially Engaged Buddhism and progressivism is well established, what is less clear is what the movement of mindful politics brings to this relationship beyond its Buddhist veneer. By basing its political project on the secularization of Buddhist compassion (karuṇā), mindful politics fails in creating a political project which can be compelling to those outside of the confines of Buddhist religious belief and practice. While the mindful politics movement and contemporary liberal progressivism share an overlap in policy commitments, the religious roots of Buddhist mindful politics ultimately preclude it from properly aligning with the pluralistic requirements of the prevailing liberal political order. This article will examine the foundations of Socially Engaged Buddhism and explore the standing of the possibility of Socially Engaged Buddhism as the foundation for a political project within the confines of a liberal political order.

War vs pandemic—investigating the type of extreme context as a moderator of extreme-context perception effects on work alienation and its organisational outcomes

With many organisations operating in challenging circumstances such as military conflicts and pandemics, a growing body of research has investigated the effects of extreme-context perceptions on job attitudes and organisational outcomes. While prior investigations focused on specific extreme contexts like warzones or pandemics, research has yet to examine whether different extreme contexts would have different intensities regarding shaping job attitudes and organisational outcomes. This study takes a unique approach to address this gap in the existing literature by exploring whether the type of extreme context (war vs pandemic) moderates extreme-context-perception effects on work alienation and subsequent job attitudes and organisational outcomes. Specifically, this study investigates the consequences of differentiated extreme contexts by using 668 valid responses from two samples: Sample 1 (N = 449), collected via snowball sampling during the Syrian civil war (2016-2019), and Sample 2 (N = 219), recruited using systematic random sampling from the Middle East during COVID-19 in 2021. Employing t-tests, Sample 1 in the wartime crisis reported higher levels of extreme-context perception, yet not quite as much worsened job satisfaction, but they had lower levels of alienation and job insecurity than those in health-crisis contexts. Using PLS-SEM, we found extreme-context perception heightened alienation, leading to increased job insecurity, decreased job satisfaction, and lower organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) outcomes. Interestingly, some of these relationships were moderated by the extreme context type. Specifically, while no significant differences were found between the two contexts regarding the relationship between extreme context perception and alienation and between alienation and job insecurity, we found that extreme-context-driven alienation is more likely to damage job satisfaction and OCB in war zones than in pandemic contexts. These findings contribute to important matters of both theory and practice. They specifically expand existing theory by illustrating differentiated consequences of distinct types of extreme contexts to organisational and employee-related concerns. They also demonstrate the need to develop customised organisational strategies as well as policy responses to mitigate and/or capitalise on the effects of differentiated extreme contexts.

It looks like nature - a phenomenological study of the built environment in psychotherapy from psychologists’ and psychiatrists’ perspective

ABSTRACT Introduction The study aims to examine psychologists’ and psychiatrists’ experiences of built environments, indoors and outdoors, in providing psychotherapy. The research explores how the environment matters in clinical practice from the perspective of psychologists and psychiatrists and seeks to comprehend the significance of the facilities where psychotherapy takes place. Methods This study design is explorative and qualitative. Data is generated by eight in-depth interviews with six clinical psychologists and two psychiatrists and was analyzed using an interpretative phenomenological approach. Results Our findings revealed that the built environment matters in clinical practice as it appears to be closely linked to fostering a more comprehensive approach and facilitating various associations and themes in psychotherapy. Three superordinate themes emerged from the data: Design as therapeutic tool, Nature as a co-therapist, and lastly, Expanding the therapeutic space, highlights the participants’ perspective on the transformative potential of the built environment to become therapeutic. Conclusion The findings reveal how built environments can be actively utilized as tools in psychotherapy. Environments are not to be considered merely as neutral and passive spaces for conducting and receiving psychotherapy rather than experienced as places that may regulate and impact both therapists and patients, the relationship between them.

해상적하보험계약상 피보험이익에 관한 판례연구: 영국법원의 Quadra v XL사건을 중심으로

Purpose: Recently, the United Kingdom’s court handed down an important judgement in Quadra v XL on whether an insured buyer, as a victim of fraud perpetrated by the seller, has an insurable interest in the goods (in this case, grain). This study analyzes the court’s ruling in Quadra v XL and derives some implications Research design, data, and methodology: This study uses textbooks, articles, statutory law, and common law of the U.K. Results: The court in Quadra v XL ruled that the insured did have an insurable interest in the unascertained goods, considering that the insured paid the seller for some or all of the goods, and also had a right to possession of the goods, even though neither the property nor the risk had passed to the insured. Therefore, this case provides some clarity as to the requirement of a valid, insurable interest in goods under marine cargo insurance. Conclusions: This case recognized and reaffirmed the trend whereby courts in the U.K. always lean in favor of an insurable interest. As a practical matter, this case further suggests it is important to conduct proper inspection at the warehouse, and to keep the inspection results, considering that the court places the most reliance on inspection reports when deciding that the goods corresponding to the warehouse receipts were in the warehouse.

Temperature Dependence of the Pre-Chromatographic ‘Lawrence’ Method for Bivalves Contaminated with Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning Toxins

Saxitoxins are potent neurotoxins originating the acute human neurological syndrome of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) via bivalve vectors. The official testing method in the European Union, commonly known as the ‘Lawrence method’, involves pre-column oxidation steps. The Portuguese monitoring adopted the hydrogen peroxide oxidation screening approach for bivalves contaminated with Gymnodinium catenatum toxins, which can quantify chromatographically at once 6 out of 10 analogues commonly found in bivalves. Seasonal fluctuation in the fluorescence yield of calibration curves was observed across years in a consistent manner. It correlated with fluctuations in average monthly air temperature in Lisbon, highlighting the importance of recording the room temperature during the oxidation steps as a matter of routine practice. Incubation experiments also showed an increase in fluorescence yield with temperature, more pronounced for the 11-hydroxysulphate analogues (dcGTX2 + 3, C1 + 2, GTX2 + 3) than for the 11-H toxins (dcSTX, GTX5[B1], STX). Temperature can be exploited to increase fluorescence yield, assisting in spectral confirmation, but must not exceed 40–50 °C to avoid toxin decomposition or production of extra oxidation products.

Hermann Heller’s critique of liberalism

ABSTRACT Hermann Heller’s critique of liberalism was both theoretical and conjunctural. He derided liberalism’s erosion of the concept of sovereignty and lamented liberalism’s complicity with the substantive inequality of his time. It its place, he argued for a restoration of the concept of popular sovereignty, as a dialectical formation of political unity and material equality through the democratic process. As a matter of political practice and strategy, however, Heller equivocated in his stance on the constitutional politics of the Weimar Republic. He initially tolerated the abrogation of parliamentary democracy due to his faith in the neutrality of the state, before diagnosing the regime as a form of authoritarian liberalism determined by the capitalist economy. This article examines Heller’s theoretical and political critique of liberalism. It outlines Heller’s conception of popular sovereignty against both Kelsen’s legal rationalism and Schmitt’s political decisionism. It also examines the significance of the interwar conjuncture, highlighting that the turn of the bourgeoisie to authoritarianism and ultimately to fascism represented a continuity of the liberal elision of the principle of popular sovereignty.

‘It’s like Central Park’: conceptualising teacher residencies as a democratic hub

ABSTRACT In this conceptual paper, we offer a framework to examine how residency programmes can critically reflect upon their existence and presence as a democratic hub. As a model of teacher preparation that blends theory and university coursework with practice, residency programmes are designed to prepare and diversify the teacher workforce for a context-specific setting that calls upon universities to partner closely with local districts. We see the need for a reflective conceptualisation of residencies to offer a tool for considering how and why residencies are created. In conceptualising teacher residency programmes as democratic hubs rather than institutional programmes, we draw on the metaphor of Central Park in New York City to discuss the permeability of boundaries and accessibility to all. We centre our framework on three pillars: a) decentralising knowledge; b) historicising knowledge; and c) co-creating knowledge. This study has implications for addressing a central and longstanding problem in teacher education: the disconnect between academic coursework and fieldwork or the lack of collaboration between schools and universities often referred to as the theory-practice divide. We offer this tool to conceptualise teachers’ residencies so that teacher education can be designed to matter in practice, not only in institutions but for the public good.

Networking among deputy superintendents – Window dressing or navigating complexity?

External networks among deputy superintendents seem to be an increasing phenomenon in a sector that faces a rapid change and a high working load. Is this the new way to learn and improve the organization or just a social gathering with little value? In this study, the significance of networking among deputy superintendents is explored. This group of middle managers is less studied compared to superintendents. The following questions have guided the study: How are their networks designed? What themes and issues do they focus on? What networks are considered relevant? The data for this study were collected through a survey of participants in a seminar series arranged by the Swedish National Professional Association for Superintendents. Networking appears to blend operational, personal, and strategic issues, intertwining practical matters with personal and professional growth to address present challenges and future requirements. Even if networking is seen as less formal it requires individual engagement as it is embedded in a process to become a professional space that benefits both the individual and the school organization. Networks appear to provide essential resources for navigating the complexities embedded in tangled logics and the frequently unpredictable processes that follow.

Training, networking, and support infrastructure for ombudspersons for good research practice: A survey of the status quo in the Berlin research area

ABSTRACT Recent developments in the German academic landscape have seen a shifting approach to promoting research integrity. In 2019, the German Research Foundation (DFG) incentivized all research and higher education institutions to appoint ombudspersons who advise members of their institution in matters of good research practice or suspected research misconduct. These ombudspersons for good research practice, usually professors who act in this function on a voluntary basis, need institutional support to be prepared for and fulfill their diverse duties. The Ombuds-Modelle@BUA (2020) and OBUA – Ombudswesen@BUA (2021–2023) projects worked to advance the professionalization of ombudspersons in the Berlin research area by first investigating the current situation and then offering a meta-level of support in training, networking, and knowledge exchange. Furthermore, the OBUA project engaged in meta-research, investigating the status quo of local ombuds systems and demands for support. The project findings, discussed in this contribution, show that the professionalization of local ombuds systems has been evolving in past years, especially in the areas of training and networking. Infrastructural support measures, however, remain largely underdeveloped.

Impact of credit rating downgrades and tightness of accounting standards on earnings management in listed SMES

Due to its nature, funding remains the main problem for listed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) globally. To overcome such a problem, there is a trend of using credit rating as the benchmark to appraise funding opportunities and applications in listed SMEs. As credit rating levels vary across time, subject to the performance of the listed SMEs, changes in the credit rating levels might trigger attention from listed SMEs, and actions might then be taken by the management to ensure that the credit rating is at the desired level. Since the literature in this strand of study is limited, this study aimed to examine the effect of credit rating downgrade and tightness of accounting standards on earnings management in listed SMEs. Employing a 2x3 between-subjects experiment manipulating credit rating downgrades (category or notch) and tightness of accounting standards (less tight, moderately tight, tight), it is evidenced that credit rating downgrades, especially notch downgrades, lead to more earnings management behaviors in the presence of a tight and less tight set of accounting standards. Different classifications of credit rating downgrades – notches and categories – will have different implications for earnings management based on the extent to which they are subject to external monitoring. As a practical matter, it is recommended that regulators exercise equal monitoring regardless of whether credit rating downgrades occur by category or notch.