Action Paradigm Research Articles

The history of Huawei in Italy through the lens of corporate nationality

This article aims to provide a historical dimension of the Italian public opinion on Huawei, and vice versa of the Chinese perception of Huawei’s role in Italy. Through a qualitative content analysis, the author examines Italian newspapers framing on Huawei as well as Chinese newspapers framing on the Italian telecommunication market before and after and after the signature of China—Italy memorandum of understanding in 2019. The research provides a periodization of three stages that highlights the evolution of the Chinese company in Italy and examines to what extent its activities can fit within the paradigm of imperialist actions. Based on a historical perspective, this contribution examines the perception of China’s digital infrastructure outside the Chinese borders, while also focusing on policy imaginaries through the corporate nationality theory and analyzing the rhetoric of “nationality” applied to a specific organizational behavior in the aggregation of different communities.

Towards more trusted virtual physicians: the combinative effects of healthcare chatbot design cues and threat perception on health information trust

ABSTRACT Although virtual healthcare assistants have been extensively adopted in the healthcare industry, users still question their reliability. Based on the Computers are Social Actor (CASA) paradigm, the current study conducted an experiment to examine how different chatbot design cues (Chatbot vs. Layperson vs. Doctor) affect users’ trust towards virtual healthcare assistants. Results indicate that the doctor-like design cues and bot-like design cues (vs. layperson-like design cues) elicited significantly greater perceived chatbot expertise, which enhanced users’ trust in health information. This study further found the significant moderating effects of users’ perceived threat on chatbot expertise and privacy concerns. Positive effects of the doctor-like design cue and the bot-like design cue on perceived expertise were found to be significant only for those whose perceived threat was high. Interestingly, the doctor-like design cues led to greater (less) privacy concerns when the perceived threat level was low (high). The findings provide human–computer interaction researchers and chatbot UX/UI designers with important theoretical and practical implications.

Ergonomics management model based on good practices of large industrial companies: Structured elements through the fuzzy set theory.

Most organizations perceive the concept of ergonomics actions as a local tool used to improve workplace issues. Ergonomics however is not included in global management systems. The paradigm of ergonomics action in large organizations proposed by this study is that of management systems whose primary objective is the pressing need for continuous performance improvement, acquisition of excellence, and integration into all aspects of the business. The general objective of this work is to draw a frame presenting a model of ergonomics management based on good practices in managing this discipline in large industrial companies. In this study, we describe a strategy based on the fuzzy set theory to aggregate a group of good practices expressed by experienced ergonomists attached to large industrial companies for handling the lack of ergonomics in an organization. A set of good practices was compiled as a basis for application in ergonomics in large companies. This study shows that ergonomics should not be considered an isolated phenomenon but in a strategic, proactive, integrated, and perennial way as one of the management subjects.

Functional Water Channels Within the TSH Receptor - a new paradigm for TSH action with disease implications.

The TSH receptor (TSHR) transmembrane domain (TMD) lives in the plasma membrane consisting of lipids and water molecules. To understand the role of TSHR-associated water molecules we used molecular dynamic simulations of the TMD and identified a network of putative receptor associated transmembrane water channels. This result was confirmed with extended simulations of the full length TSHR with and without TSH ligand binding. While the transport time observed in the simulations via the TSHR protein was slower than via the lipid bilayer itself we found that significantly more waters traversed via the TSHR than via the lipid bilayer which more than doubled with the binding of TSH. Using rat thyroid cells (FRTL-5) and a calcein fluorescence technique we measured cell volumes after blockade of aquaporins 1 and 4, the major thyroid cell water transporters. TSH showed a dose-dependent ability to influence water transport and similar effects were observed with stimulating TSHR autoantibodies. Small molecule TSHR agonists, which are allosteric activators of the TMD, also enhanced water transport illustrating the role of the TMD in this phenomenon. Furthermore, the water channel pathway was also mapped across two activation motifs within the TSHR TMD suggesting how water movement may influence activation of the receptor. In pathophysiological conditions such as hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism where TSH concentrations are highly variable this action of TSH may greatly influence water movement in thyroid cells and many other extrathyroidal sites where the TSHR is expressed thus affecting normal cellular function.

The Spectrality of Shame in Plato’s Menexenus

The article addresses the theme of spectrality, the givenness of the other who remains here after departure as a ghost. It explores how this spectrality functions in Plato’s funeral oratory in the Menexenus dialogue. In the first part, the article discusses J. Patočka’s account of the specific givenness of the departed, which is experienced as a privation of a former intersubjectively intertwined life. The deceased other causes a twofold crisis. On the one hand, with the death of the other also comes the withering of part of myself, for I am unable to realise possibilities dependent on his or her presence. On the other hand, the meaning of the other’s project, which becomes institutionalised through participation in the events and re-formation of the world, is endangered if no one is willing to take on and realise this meaning as one’s own. The second part of the article discusses how Socrates’ oratory addresses this crisis through specific temporality of the speech, one in which the past provides the present with a paradigm for appropriate civic action which is to be imitated in the future. In this context, he creatively uses the concept of shame to induce an attitude of responsibility for the polis, whose greatness is grounded in the virtuous deeds of spectrally present ancestry.

Sacred suffering and the construction of political spirituality in the Iranian Shiism discourse

This article tries to discuss this claim that Shia or as Henry Corbin puts it, “Iranian Islam,” is a discourse of political spirituality based on sacred suffering and governmentality (in Foucault's terms). The author aims to answer these questions: What do sacred suffering and governmentality mean in Shia discourse? How does sacred suffering articulate and give meaning to concepts related to political spirituality? To answer these questions, the author applied Laclau and Mouffe's discourse analysis, arguing that the sacred suffering constructs Shia antagonistic approach and plays a key role in constructing these discursive moments: the Karbala paradigm as a paradigm of both spirituality and political action, oppression, and martyrdom (as the holy death with spiritual-political goals). Moreover, in this discourse, the suffering of awaiting the Twelfth Imam during his absence becomes an opportunity to restore Shia governmentality through the establishment of a political government by Shia clerics in Iran.

Hybrid Entrepreneurs as the Neoteric Driver of Skill Variety and Economic Prosperity

Nearly a quarter of all global start-ups are founded by hybrid entrepreneurs, that is, individuals that engage in self-employment activity while simultaneously holding a primary job in wage or remuneration work. This study is the first of its kind to examine hybrid entrepreneurship in Australia using five pragmatic and embedded hybrid entrepreneur mini case studies. Aligning with human capital and skill variety theory, we adopted an interpretivist philosophical paradigm of emergent enquiry action and exploratory research. The paper explores characteristics and antecedents in the forms of the benefits and challenges associated with this increasingly prevalent form of entrepreneurship, including contextual and theoretical foundations. We provide policy and pragmatic research recommendations to enhance the development of this form of employment not only as a steppingstone to full-time self-employment but also as a driver of economic and social benefit to global societies. Furthermore, we provide inferences for future scientific studies within this domain.

Navigating the Carceral State: The Experience of Citizens With Criminal Backgrounds After Finding Stable Housing.

A pilot project demonstrating the importance of access to stable housing for people with criminal backgrounds and experiencing homelessness produced exploratory qualitative findings that illuminate the experience of folks who must navigate the carceral state of supervision. Principles of a participatory action paradigm guided development and implementation of the pilot project. Grounded Theory and narrative research principles guided data collection and analysis in the 3-year study. A convenience sample of 27 participants was obtained by the organization's staff recruiting each of the individuals on behalf of the researchers as they entered the pilot program during the 3 years of pilot activity. Qualitative data collection was carried out during the 3 years of program implementation. A semi-structured open-ended interview script was utilized by the research team as a guide to ensure focus on the experience of participants. Current extreme challenges included living with a criminal background and carrying the weight of a troubled past. Great strength was evidenced in their navigation of their worlds. Essential resources for successful navigation were identified including the use of prayer, religion and spirituality, persistent hopefulness, recognition of personal change, and the use of supportive relationships. Getting stable housing and employment, while important, was not seen as enough in itself to ensure successful reentry. Therefore, relationships that recognize strengths and help navigating inevitable disappointments and challenges must also be incorporated into the available housing, educational, mental health, employment programs, and other services. The findings of this study suggest that practice approaches, services, and policies that are intended to help people with criminal backgrounds must incorporate and emphasize the lived experiences of returning citizens as they navigate the challenging tasks of living in a carceral state.

О ситуации неопределенности в современном казахстанском обществеСоциально-философский анализ

Modern Kazakhstani society, like the whole world, is in a state of acute civilizational tension, in alarming conditions of the absence of traditional stability and sustainability, an unprecedented increase in the factor of uncertainty, unpredictability in the political, economic, social and spiritual fields. This is an obvious and in-disputable fact. Yesterday's picture of social life has lost its effectiveness and relevance. We are facing new serious global challenges of our time, as stated by the program documents of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev spoke about the need to search for a new paradigm of social action in his Address to the people of Kazakhstan (September 1, 2020, March 16, 2022). Modern Kazakh society is in a situation of a potentially dangerous politicalsituation, in the process of searching for new security struc-tures, new economic routes to the global market, new strategies for the development of the social sphere, ed-ucation, and new spiritual guidelines. The situation is extremely aggravated by the current dangerous military clash between Russia and Ukraine, which has become a heavy burden and test for the entire civilized world and, first of all, for the Kazakh society, historically closely connected with the Russian one. Geographically, the territoryof Kazakhstan is located between Western and Eastern civilizations, at the crossroads of diverse moral values and foundations, at the intersection of tradition and innovation, which even more actualizes the uncertain situation of choosing and getting out of this political impasse.

Form Habermas’s Communicative Paradigm to Honneth’s Recognition Paradigm

From Huberman’s Communicative Paradigm to Honneth’s Recognition Paradigm Habermas, through the communicative action paradigm, which is relying on a linguistic structure and intersubjective principle, trying to provide a solution for oppression and suffering in the social life. He thinks dialogue ethic and linguistic communications are suitable mechanisms for solving the social oppression and injustice. The main question of this research is; Is recognition an appropriate theory for the treatment of social oppression and can it open our eyes to social oppression more clearly?, Axel Honneth, as a third generation of Frankfurt school, criticizes Habermas’s paradigm and constitute a recognition paradigm. He thinks, if individual experience recognition, through socialization process and in three spheres and three forms of (love, right and solidarity), so he makes a good self-relation and world-relations. But if in three spheres experience three forms of (hate, denial of rights and neglecting), then he experiences a deep oppression and collapse his relation with himself and world, and this collapse it is a social oppression. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to introduce confession as an appropriate theory for the treatment of social oppression and an appropriate social life and present the scope and forms of confession. Finally, the study reached several conclusions, the most important of which are: The deprivation of the individual of the right to self-realization is a profound social oppression, which can be recognized in three important spheres (such as family, state and society). Provide a more favorable environment for self-realization. Therefore, both the experience of recognition and the experience of non-recognition have an impact on one's identity and personality.

Responding to loss and damage in food systems

‘Loss and damage’ is seen as a new paradigm for international climate action, but has long affected the operational realities of institutions that keep responding to climate-induced food system breakdowns. Without stronger systems for climate prediction and protection, escalating humanitarian needs risk crowding out the financial space for loss and damage prevention.

Женские протесты как форма гражданской активности: опыт Ирана 2022 года

The article discusses the theoretical foundations of protest civic engagement, as well as modern forms that have received the most widespread in the 21st century. Particular attention is paid to the paradigm of collective action. The experience of Iran in 2022 is analyzed, namely, women's protests that shocked and swept the whole country. The purpose of the article is to consider the women's protests in Iran, namely, their impact on the current policy of the state. It is concluded that even small shifts in government achieved during women's protests are a significant result, which in the future can become the basis for further transformations of the state and society.

Pathways to reimagining commercial health insurance in India.

In this paper we explore how India's growing commercial health insurance (CHI) segment can be reformed to deliver adequate financial protection and good health outcomes. We lay out key issues in the demand- and supply-sides of the insurance market that need to be addressed for CHI to be more aligned toward universal health coverage (UHC). On the demand side, we identify a consumer who strays far from the rational actor paradigm and therefore one whose needs require a fundamentally different approach than the one that commercial health insurance in India has so far taken. We lay out precisely the different stages involved in bringing a consumer to the insurance market and the conditions under which that consumer is likely to purchase insurance. On the supply side, we describe the many concerns that a new entrant into the commercial health insurance market must grapple with. We conclude with a set of pathways that brings the two sides of the market together to shed light on possible pathways for reform in the commercial health insurance sector in India. Despite the many challenges that this sector faces in India, we believe that there is room for optimism, and with the right amount of regulatory foresight, even room for radical transformation.

Breathing is coupled with voluntary initiation of mental imagery

Previous research has suggested that bodily signals from internal organs are associated with diverse cortical and subcortical processes involved in sensory-motor functions, beyond homeostatic reflexes. For instance, a recent study demonstrated that the preparation and execution of voluntary actions, as well as its underlying neural activity, are coupled with the breathing cycle. In the current study, we investigated whether such breathing-action coupling is limited to voluntary motor action or whether it is also present for mental actions not involving any overt bodily movement. To answer this question, we recorded electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), and respiratory signals while participants were conducting a voluntary action paradigm including self-initiated motor execution (ME), motor imagery (MI), and visual imagery (VI) tasks. We observed that the voluntary initiation of ME, MI, and VI are similarly coupled with the respiration phase. In addition, EEG analysis revealed the existence of readiness potential (RP) waveforms in all three tasks (i.e., ME, MI, VI), as well as a coupling between the RP amplitude and the respiratory phase. Our findings show that the voluntary initiation of both imagined and overt action is coupled with respiration, and further suggest that the breathing system is involved in preparatory processes of voluntary action by contributing to the temporal decision of when to initiate the action plan, regardless of whether this culminates in overt movements.

Practices in transitions: Review, reflections, and research directions for a Practice Innovation System PIS approach

Social Practice Theories (SPT) can contribute to transition studies by deepening our understanding of the key social mechanisms and dynamics underpinning transitions in everyday life and the role of agency and collective action in processes of social change. Several studies have applied SPTs with concepts from transition studies, and these connections merit attention. The review presented here shows five ways how SPT are applied in studies of system change in transition studies by (i) considering change and continuity in practice elements, niches and regimes, (ii) connecting consumption and production, (iii) going beyond user practices, (iv) mapping diffusions of innovations in daily life and (v) examining policy implications and interventions. Reflecting on this, I argue that the studies in the review show promises of using SPT for transition studies to study system change by linking consumption and production, normality and novelty, stability and instability, micro and macro change, social and technical change, and flat and hierarchal levels. Based on this and a discussion of the need for a practice paradigm of local actions in the MLP, I propose concretising the connections between SPTs, MLP and innovation systems approaches to form a Practice Innovation System framework for future research directions.

OAM: An Option-Action Reinforcement Learning Framework for Universal Multi-Intersection Control

Efficient traffic signal control is an important means to alleviate urban traffic congestion. Reinforcement learning (RL) has shown great potentials in devising optimal signal plans that can adapt to dynamic traffic congestion. However, several challenges still need to be overcome. Firstly, a paradigm of state, action, and reward design is needed, especially for an optimality-guaranteed reward function. Secondly, the generalization of the RL algorithms is hindered by the varied topologies and physical properties of intersections. Lastly, enhancing the cooperation between intersections is needed for large network applications. To address these issues, the Option-Action RL framework for universal Multi-intersection control (OAM) is proposed. Based on the well-known cell transmission model, we first define a lane-cell-level state to better model the traffic flow propagation. Based on this physical queuing dynamics, we propose a regularized delay as the reward to facilitate temporal credit assignment while maintaining the equivalence with minimizing the average travel time. We then recapitulate the phase actions as the constrained combinations of lane options and design a universal neural network structure to realize model generalization to any intersection with any phase definition. The multiple-intersection cooperation is then rigorously discussed using the potential game theory. We test the OAM algorithm under four networks with different settings, including a city-level scenario with 2,048 intersections using synthetic and real-world datasets. The results show that the OAM can outperform the state-of-the-art controllers in reducing the average travel time.

Community Empowerment Program in Jepara Regency Perceived by Social Capital and Islamic Values

Social capital has an important role that influencing social dynamics in agroup and functions as external work and internal power that influencedthe success of the program. Likewise, social capital affects the success ofan existing empowerment program in the community. The purpose of thispaper is to examine the empowerment program in Sumber Rejo CattleGroup through social capital and Islamic values and perspective. This studyused a qualitative method with data sampling from an informant whocomes as a member of the Sumber Rejo Cattle group and the governmentas stakeholders in this program. The result showed that the conception ofsocial capital as a resource for action is one way of introducing socialstructure into the rational action paradigm. Three forms of social capitalare examined: obligations and expectations, information channels, andsocial norms. Despite, low social capital caused by violations of cooperationagreements, lack of communication, and anomalies in the formation ofother groups caused the program being stagnated. On the other hand, Islamprovides solutions to prevent the stagnation of this program, by proceededinclusive moral values, establishing friendships, and maintaining trust inthe all of members.

Reconstruction of the Paradigm of Other Actions and Police Discretion to Minimize Potential Disparities in Fair Law Enforcement

This study aims to analyze the reconstruction of other paradigms of action and police discretion in order to minimize potential disparities in law enforcement with justice. This study uses a normative juridical method, to link the relationship between norms and the situation in question. Researchers use a philosophical approach, a conceptual approach, and a sociological approach in the sense that several cases are studied for reference to a legal issue, and a statutory approach. The results of this study require an effort to reconstruct the paradigm through refining the norms regarding Other Actions and Discretion, so that the philosophical, social, and juridical objectives of existence and being given the authority to carry out Other Actions and Discretion are right on target.

Active and Passive Sustainability: Measuring the Anti-Fragility of Territories

Sustainability is a paradigm of generative action if combined with the principle of antifragility. This contribution, adhering to a transdisciplinary approach, proposes a reinterpretation of the principles of the 2030 Agenda, orienting them towards a community-building model. Sustainability can be seen as passive (care) and active (custody), determining paths to be activated at the territorial level. Sustainability is a communitarian learning path measured by one’s antifragility capacity. The effectiveness of the Agenda is linked to the dissemination and accountability of the challenges contained in the 17 objectives. The local scale is perhaps the most suitable for activating this process. However, this requires a strengthening of the anti-fragility of communities and organizations, which must be more capable of recognizing and reducing vulnerabilities and weaknesses. A promising field of application is that of impact assessment, to be reworked in the light of the antifragility approach.

A Multicriteria Methodology to Evaluate Climate Neutrality Claims—A Case Study with Spanish Firms

Net-zero pledges have become a paradigm of ambitious climate change action for companies, governments, and other organisations. However, there is no international standard or criteria to assess whether those commitments are feasible or truly represent a landmark in low carbon performance. In this paper, a methodology is proposed against which those statements can be quantified and assessed. The methodology was applied to Spanish companies that report to the Carbon Disclosure Project and showed that the biggest areas for improvement are the design of action plans, calculation, and offsetting. From a sectoral perspective, the energy sector, finance, and other services stood out as those with the highest scores. The food, beverages and tobacco, industry, and the entertainment industry obtained the lowest results. From a technical standpoint, strategy and commitment, calculation and scope, and communication are the areas where companies had the highest average scores. On the contrary, offsetting and action plans are the areas with the greatest room for improvement. Still, actual commitments are not enough to meet international climate neutrality objectives in the long-term and companies should continue to work in this direction. An enabling regulatory framework would be very useful to align private and public action in this area.