Positive Connotations Research Articles

Morality and the nation: Was the birth of the European nation an immoral deviation?

Abstract The author points out that the moral condemnation of “nationalism” that is common in contemporary Anglo-Saxon literature does not hold up once we subject it to historical and, by extension, sociolinguistic criticism. This term, originally nebulous and confusing, has become meaningless as a result of forgetting that it is the designation of the relationship of an individual (or social group) to the entity of a nation, an entity that is the result of the empirically well grasped historical process of nation formation under conditions that were specifically European. This circumstance is especially important in the case of the category “small nation”, by which the author means those nations whose formation took place in the form of a national movement – a purposeful effort to acquire all relevant attributes of a nation for one’s own ethnic community. This movement, in its scholarly and agitational phase, was based on a selfless effort to develop and ennoble the nation as an abstract community of cultural values and should be designated by the term “patriotism” and possibly its translations into (some) central European languages, which were and are used with a morally positive connotation. The pejorative label “nationalism” is justified only where the national movement has progressed to its mass phase, when a substantial part, if not most, of the members of the ethnic group have identified with the nation. Since then, it has been necessary to talk about the nation in a dual position. Not only in the position of an abstract community of values but also in the position of “sociological fact”, where it also acquired the morally ambivalent nature of the struggle for power. This ambivalence – the tension between altruism and egoism – is still preserved today even where the national interest is discussed.

“If you are in the search of eternity—live in the present, live in love”: intersubjectivity and its relation to religion and spirituality in self-help literature

ABSTRACT Our era is marked by ‘therapeutic culture’, referring to the increasing prevalence of therapeutic concepts and psychological knowledge in the way people understand and make sense of their lives. A marked part of therapeutic culture is self-help literature. It comprises a wide array of items that centre around managing everyday life issues, self-development, and psychological growth. Existing research portrays self-help books as deeply individualistic. However, there is little knowledge about the spiritual and religious dimensions of the genre. The aim of this article is to explore human intersubjectivity, and its religious dimensions, in self-help literature. Drawing on a content analysis of eleven self-help books, we address the issues of whether, how, and to what extent self-help books represent humans as relational beings and how the notions of religion and spirituality underlying the books relate to these issues. The findings illustrate the centrality of intersubjectivity in the genre. The conclusions on religion are multifaceted: spirituality in the books has positive connotations, while institutional religion is seen as negative, or even as a threat, to well-being and intersubjectivity.

“Holy Moly!” Positive and Negative Connotations of Swear Words in A Popular Western Animated Movie

The use of swear words is common and even popular in movies for adult viewers. However, misunderstanding and ignorance of the intended viewers can cause younger viewers to be exposed to movies with various profanities. The Simpsons, an animated movie, is a good example of this phenomenon. This animated movie is known to contain obscene language expressions which can be mistakenly assumed to be intended for younger viewers. This study sought to identify the kinds and purposes of expletives used in The Simpsons. The current study used Hughes’ framework to analyze the types of swear words, and Andersson and Trudgill's framework was used to analyze their functions. Data were gathered from seven episodes drawn from different seasons of the animated series. Of 102 swear words found in the dialogues of the episodes, seven types of swear words were identified, including anatomical insult, excrement, sexual intercourse, personal background, mental illness, animal term, and religious oath. Additionally, four swearing meanings and functions were discovered abusive, auxiliary, expletive, and humorous. Therefore, it is expected that general readers will express themselves more thoughtfully, be able to identify the target audience for movies, and make more informed decisions when choosing movies for younger audiences.

Noninvasive stimulation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex modulates rationality of human decision-making

The framing-effect is a bias that affects decision-making depending on whether the available options are presented with positive or negative connotations. Even when the outcome of two choices is equivalent, people have a strong tendency to avoid the negatively framed option. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is crucial for rational decision-making, and dysfunctions in this region have been linked to cognitive biases, impulsive behavior and gambling addiction. Using a financial decision-making task in combination with magnetoencephalographic neuroimaging, we show that excitatory compared to inhibitory non-invasive transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the vmPFC reduces framing-effects while improving the assessment of loss-probabilities, ultimately leading to increased overall gains. Behavioral and neural data consistently suggest that this improvement in rational decision-making is predominately due to an attenuation of biases towards negative affect (loss-aversion and risk-aversion). These findings recommend further research towards clinical applications of vmPFC-tDCS as in addictive disorders.

ONTOLOGICAL FEATURES OF ENGLISH MAGICAL DISCOURSE

The given research is carried out within the framework of modern discourse analysis. The aim of the work is to highlight the ontological features of the English magical discourse. The material of the study was specialized websites presented on the Internet. The work uses such research methods as descriptive and contextual-interpretative. Magic discourse is a part of occult discourse which can be considered in three aspects: ontological, epistemological, and axiological. There are numerous web pages dedicated to various theoretical and applied aspects of magic on the Internet. The target audience is both professionals engaged in magic, and the general public of readers who, with the help of the instructions, can perform a certain ritual, cast a spell, etc. on their own. They are divided into thematic blocks, for example, witchcraft, crystals, divination, tarot, which mostly have a manipulative nature and are built according to the principle of typical instructional texts on the Internet using lexical units with positive connotations: best, peace, love, joy, great. Spells presented on the site are built on different stylistic devices that create the necessary atmosphere.

Determination against all odds? A story from Waste4Change

Learning outcomes This case aims to help students achieve the following learning objectives: ■ to apply the Emergence of Social Enterprise in Europe (Emergence des Enterprises Sociales en Europe – EMES) Network definitional framework to the case, and in doing so, have a useful framework to define social enterprises in emerging markets; ■ to identify the factors that can play important role in making strategic decisions in social enterprises; ■ to evaluate the sustainability of a social enterprise; and ■ to address the unique funding and financial challenges faced by social enterprises. Case overview/synopsis This case study discusses the dilemmas related to business expansion faced by Waste4Change (W4C), a waste management organization based in Bekasi, Jakarta, Indonesia. W4C was founded in 2014 by a group of young men who shared the idealism of changing the world by doing the right things. This principally involved protecting the environment and educating communities while maintaining economic profitability. However, idealism can sometimes create dilemmas within decision-making as an organization attempts to prevent market logic from dictating its direction. This case examines two different types of decision: the problem of securing a waste management contract when a permit had not been granted by the local government; and the problem of selecting the appropriate funding sources to enable the organization to grow. The first decision occurred in the context of a dilemma in 2017 when W4C expanded their waste management services to several regions in Indonesia but without having succeeded in securing a permit from the local government to provide such services. Attempts to provide such services without a formal legal permit would have been considered a violation of the law, even though the clients needed them (be it residents or companies) and the nature of the service in question had a positive connotation (i.e. maintaining the cleanliness of the city through waste management).The second decision concerned W4C’s plan to go public around 10 years from now. The CEO, Mohamad Bijaksana Junerosano, also known as Sano, has been considering this option since 2020 in a bid to grow the social enterprise. W4C differed from other startups; however, in the sense that while many startups will approach a plan to go public as an exit strategy, Sano wanted to preserve the idealism that had been a cornerstone of the enterprise since its inception. In other words, for W4C, going public was not just a means to an end. Complexity academic level Undergraduate as well as graduate courses that focus on sustainability, accounting, financing and strategy. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

Global health-based virtual exchange to improve intercultural competency in students: Long-lasting impacts and areas for improvement.

As public health expands its role in global settings, the need to develop intercultural competency for public health students also grows. One initiative being applied to promote global awareness is the use of virtual exchange (VE) programs. VE programs promote collaborative online international learning (COIL) and allow students from different countries to connect and work together on projects related to their field of study; however, there is little research around the long-term impacts of these programs. Undergraduate pre-health students from the United States who participated in a VE program a year prior were interviewed about their experiences engaging with undergraduate medical students in Egypt. They were asked if the experience impacted their current behaviors, skills, or knowledge, and what improvements could be made to the program. Mezirow's Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) served as the theoretical framework, grounding interview instrument development and directed content analysis procedures. Researchers also engaged in inductive analysis to capture other salient themes. Ten students were interviewed with a majority engaging in either of the two final stages of Mezirow's TLT: "building of self-confidence and self-competence" (60%) and "reintegration" (50%). Other salient themes found were intercultural interactions, VE appreciation, and VE improvements. When describing their experience in one word, students overwhelmingly provided words with positive connotations (80%), with the negative responses being explained by the structure and presentation of the VE. Students were able to apply lessons they learned during the VE within a 1-year follow-up period. This is beneficial, as health professionals require intercultural competency to promote and provide improved health outcomes. Results from this study indicate the need for structure when conducting a VE, addressing the need to increase the number of direct interactions and thereby promoting more intercultural exchanges. Likewise, the interviews demonstrated that changes in course instruction need to be implemented gradually to allow for students to adjust to unfamiliar teaching methods.

The ambiguous role of science and technology in Marvel superhero comics: From their ‘Golden Age’ to the present-day

Science and Technology (S&T) is a key aspect of superhero comic books. Comics reach a vast audience and are rife with scientific references. They represent a valuable resource for communicating the value of science in popular culture. The Marvel universe has evolved exponentially since its birth in 1939, breaking into the cinema industry and reaching new audiences. However, a glance at some popular Marvel characters raises some concern about the part played by S&T in superhero stories and the debatable effects of S&T on superhero characters. In this paper, we analyse the use of S&T in the Marvel universe (1632 identified characters), to investigate whether comics books favour or impede the diffusion of S&T and to determine whether S&T has a positive or negative connotation in comics. In line with the existing literature, we argue that comics' use of science can influence public perception of and acceptability of scientific discoveries.

Perceptions of Death Among Patients with Advanced Cancer Receiving Early Palliative Care and Their Caregivers: Results from a Mixed-Method Analysis.

Oncologists are often concerned that talking about death with patients may hinder their relationship. However, the views of death held by patients have not been thoroughly investigated. This study aimed to describe the perception of death among patients with advanced cancer receiving early palliative care (EPC) and their caregivers. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed on 2 databases: (a) transcripts of open-ended questionnaires administered to 130 cancer patients receiving EPC with a mean age of 68.4 years and to 115 primary caregivers of patients on EPC with a mean age of 56.8; (b) texts collected from an Italian forum, containing instances of web-mediated interactions between patients and their caregivers. Quantitative analysis shows that: (a) patients and caregivers are not afraid of speaking about death; (b) patients and caregivers on EPC use the word "death" significantly more than patients on standard oncology care (SOC) and their caregivers (P < .0001). For both participants on EPC and SOC, the adjectives and verbs associated with the word "death" have positive connotations; however, these associations are significantly more frequent for participants on EPC (verbs, Ps < .0001; adjectives, Ps < .003). Qualitative analysis reveals that these positive connotations refer to an actual, positive experience of the end of life in the EPC group and a wish or a negated event in the SOC group. EPC interventions, along with proper physician-patient communication, may be associated with an increased acceptance of death in patients with advanced cancer and their caregivers.

Living-Learning Communities in the First-year Engineering Experience

This exploratory study investigates the design and impacts of a curated Living-Learning Community (LLC) piloted at a large student residence for a large (1000+ student) first-year engineering design course. Alongside the live-in Faculty-in-Residence (FiR), the research includes surveying first-year engineering students participating in this program and understanding the impacts on the lived student experience, and student motivation. The first-year engineering design, teamwork, and communication course is central to engineering education at this large institution. The course offers opportunities for students to work in multidisciplinary teams, applying term knowledge to authentic engineering applications, in a problem-based learning environment. The goal of the LLC is to create opportunities for interaction and scaffolded connection between like-minded students taking similar courses and inspire learning within the students living environment; an entire floor of the Residence is assigned to be an LLC for the 2022 academic year, with support from the Don, ResLife Office, and the Faculty-in-Residence (an engineering faculty member). The purpose of this study is to observe and report on the student experience throughout the duration of the course. We aim to learn how participating in the Living-Learning community can affect the perception of confidence in students’ learning of course concepts, and inter-team relations. In order to do so, students will be surveyed at multiple check points throughout the semester. Furthermore, additional relevant information will be gathered from the Living-Learning Community Don, teaching assistants, and the course instructors. The outcome of this analysis has the potential to educate us on the positive and negative connotations that come along with close-quarters learning. The applications of the results found with this study can be vast, from influencing future residence programs and the first-year engineering education experience. This study focuses on the student’s perception of their experience. Understanding how the perception of manageability of workload [1] can affect student mental health leads the curiosity of how close-quarters learning can affect the student experience, to what degree, and how this understanding can help influence future programming. A positive experience that improves student confidence of understanding and course material has the potential to positively improve mental health and engagement in education; we hope that this research brings together the academic and lived-experiences of students through this work.

‘&amp; Not the Least Wit’: Jane Austen’s Use of ‘Wit’

Jane Austen is celebrated for her wit and wittiness. She famously defended novels in Northanger Abbey, for example, on the basis that they display ‘the liveliest effusions of wit’. Critics have long been occupied with detailing the implications of Austen’s wit, but without due attention to Austen’s own explicit deployment of the word within her writing. Offering a re-evaluation of Austen’s use of ‘wit’, this article provides a much-needed examination of how the term is implemented by Austen in her fiction (from her juvenilia, and through her six major novels), contextualises wit’s meaning through its seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century senses, and reveals that ‘wit’ did not necessarily have the positive connotations often presumed in modern suppositions. It transpires that, seemingly paradoxically, Austen routinely adopts the label ‘wit’ ironically to expose an absence of true wit, whilst concurrently avoiding the application of the word in moments displaying true wit. This article argues for the need to understand the crucial distinction between wit and true wit in Austen’s fiction.

Supporter attitudes towards league governance in emerging football markets: evidence from fans of the Chinese Super League

ABSTRACT Purpose/rationale Chinese football governance has dramatically changed during the last decade. Consequently, the organisation of the top-tiered Chinese Super League (CSL) developed from a rigid communist, state-governed model to a commercialised market, though still under governmental influence. Football fans became a key stakeholder group following this organisational change. Therefore, this study examines supporters’ attitudes towards the governance of their domestic league. Design/methodology/approach Active fans of the CSL (N = 453) were surveyed via clustered intercept sampling outside the stadium gates at five matches with ten different teams involved to ensure the reliability, validity and variance of responses. The data were analysed by (ordered) logit regressions with respect to attitudes towards the commercialisation of the CSL with nearly fifty explanatory variables. Findings A key finding is that supporters tend to appreciate commercialisation as evidence of progress of the Chinese professional football. This attitude can be attributed largely to past governance failures of the CSL and the positive connotation of increased market orientation as a counterbalance to governmental control. Regression analyses, however, reveal the emerging characteristics of the Chinese fan culture and provide evidence of contradictions in the attitude patterns as well as a likely increase in fans’ resentment of more commercialisation. Research contribution The empirical insights into Chinese fan culture extend the understanding of the governance and commercialisation of professional football beyond the more researched European markets.

How puzzles are shaping our understanding of biodiversity: A call for more research into biodiversity representation in educational games

Games as a didactic tool (e. g., puzzles) are gaining recognition in environmental education to promote skill development, but also to develop a specific understanding of the natural world. However, a children’s puzzle containing representations of nature may unwillingly lead to “misconceptions” of biodiversity themes and processes, and an over-simplification of the relationship between people and nature. To solve this problem, positive connotations of biodiversity may prompt a conceptual change to a more nuanced, multifaceted conception of biodiversity.

Public Debt, Fiscal Space, and Industrial Sector Performance in Nigeria

There has been a surge in the public debt profile of Nigeria in recent years. This paper examines the usefulness of deficit financing plans based on public debt in driving industrial sector output performance in an economy with sufficient borrowing space. The paper utilizes the ARDL cointegration technique to investigate both the short-run dynamics of the hypothesized relationship as well as the long-run dimension of the relationship among public debt, fiscal space, and industrial sector performance in Nigeria. Two variables, total debt stock and the debt service over exports ratio, proved statistically significant in the long run in explaining industrial output performance in Nigeria. Two variables, fiscal balance and the debt service over exports ratio were statistically significant and satisfactorily explain industrial output performance in Nigeria over the short-run period. These findings, in effect, confirm the applicability of the Keynesian general theory, which assigns a positive connotation to public indebtedness, whether in the attempt to design demand-side fiscal policy or to stimulate an economy in recession onto the path of balanced economic growth. One piece of emerging evidence from this study on Nigeria is that an increase in the debt service over exports ratio, which is a key measure of debt-related risks, does not provide evidence of any long-run damage to industrial output performance.

Violence, crime, and psychiatry in the Spanish punk imaginary; General portrait

Previous findings suggest that the mass media depictions of people with mental disorders emphasize violence and criminality, unpredictable behaviour, and social incompetence. Our overall objective was to draw a general portrait of subcultural representations of criminal and violent behavior in the context of psychiatry. The content analysis of 190 song lyrics from a sample of 7777 outlined the elements composing the depictions of crime and violence and their connections with mental disorders in Spanish punk music (1981–2010). Two approaches were identified: one group of songs emphasized descriptions of violent and criminal behavior, while the other focused on psychiatric symptoms, syndromes, or diagnoses (appearing the violent or criminal behavior as epiphenomena of mental health problems). Quantitatively, songs with themes alluding to homicidal behavior predominated, with multiple homicide being widely portrayed. Regarding psychiatric disorders, substance use prevailed and, to a lesser extent, antisocial personality traits and psychotic symptoms. The depictions found are closely related to the connotations expected in the general population. Thus, we found a predilection for violent crimes and frequent allusions to the perpetrator as ‘mentally disturbed.’ It is consistent with the greater frequency of descriptions of violent crime in the media, despite its relative infrequency to other types of crime. Likewise, it coincides with the cultural interest in homicide and how it nourishes the current entertainment industry. However, some distinctive features in punk music included positive connotations for social deviance, and even antisocial traits, as a form of identity affirmation and opposition to the social order. On the other hand, violence and crime serve fundamentally punk provocativeness rather than a mythification or aesthetic enjoyment of crime. The portrayal of crime in the punk narratives was constructed around different non-exclusive sources whose contribution varied between compositions. It included the contents learned from and transmitted through the mass media, mainly the press, films, and television. These media provide both factual and fictional content (intertextuality). Other artistic manifestations can equally contribute to the interdiscursive ambit. The influence of crime news from abroad was relevant in depictions of mass murder (particularly, mass shootings), the same as intertextuality (mainly based on non-Spanish productions) for the subcultural portrayals of serial killers. Generally, the medical and criminological sciences have limited influence on the opinions of the general population, which continue to rely mostly on biased reports from mass media. This is a pending task for the scientific, academic, and clinical fields, hence the relevance of a dialogue between art, culture, media, and psychiatry.

Концепт мировоззрения в публичном дискурсе кризисного общества

The subject of the article is the peculiarities of the formation of the worldview of Russians in a crisis society and their reflection in public discourse. The method used was content analysis of newspaper and journalistic texts from 2012 to June 30, 2022 using the information and analytical system "Medialogia". The study confirmed the increase in the volume of positive connotations of the "worldview-ideology" dichotomy in publications. At the same time, traditional values, as well as trust in the authorities, manifested in the "Crimean" and "Donbass" consensuses, are beginning to occupy an increasing place in the worldview. This feature is the subject of acute controversy between the authors of the liberal and conservative positions. The article offers a conceptual explanation of this discussion. Despite ideological differences, both points of view exaggerate the role of ideology in the construction of ideological discourses. The authors of the article propose a concept of interpretation of the relationship between ideology and worldview. The uniqueness of human consciousness makes the concept of "common values" a convention. But this is a necessary convention that sets the community, without which the worldview is impossible. And the essence of ideology, interpreted as the ability to form universal judgments, lies in the creation of such a convention. The commonality of these judgments is ensured by the similarity of the position in the social space, in the system of public relations. The specifics of the social environment explains such features of the worldview as conservatism and support for the authorities. The theoretical contribution consists in clarifying the semantic content of the concept "worldview", its epistemological scope and relationship with the category "ideology". The practical contribution lies in the inclusion of a scientific circulation of the results of an empirical study of public discourse, which makes it possible to draw analytical conclusions and build predictive models in the strategy and tactics of political management.

Mothers, milk and mourning: The meanings of breast milk after loss of an infant.

Breast milk is a highly valued substance, immunologically and nutritionally, which also signifies maternal care and love for the infant. This intersection of biological and cultural qualities confers breast milk with complex meanings, which necessarily shape the experience of breastfeeding. Our research, investigating the experience of lactation after the loss of an infant, casts a novel light on these meanings. This article analyses the experience of 17 Australian bereaved mothers and 114 health professionals charged with their care. We find that while all the mothers found post-loss lactation emotionally painful, many also found redemptive meaning in their milk-production, as a bond with the lost child, as confirmation of their maternal competence and as a life giving substance that they could donate to other needy infants. These complex meanings and positive connotations were at odds with hospital cultures that regard post-loss lactation as valueless and best dealt with through medical suppression, despite the more complex insights of individual health-care professions.

A sustainable ecosystem: building a learning community to facilitate transdisciplinary collaboration in packaging development

Sustainability‐related developments become a differentiating factor in development processes. An area with a strong focus on sustainability‐related issues is packaging. In current packaging development processes, stakeholders focus on solving sustainability issues within their own boundaries. However, the complexities surrounding circular packaging can only be overcome by transdisciplinary collaboration. ‘Traditional’ collaboration shows to be incapable of overcoming packaging‐specific complexities. Therefore, we launch Packalicious, a research initiative aiming to establish transdisciplinary innovation as a collaborative learning ecosystem.In the initial research phase, a core stakeholder group developed the framework in which Packalicious operates. In the second (current) phase, the developed Packalicious framework is tested and improved. This design iteration builds on a transdisciplinary group‐based case study, where real‐life packaging challenges are tackled by diverse stakeholders.In this paper, we define and measure the efficacy of collaborative learning within Packalicious by means of three innovation indicators. The first results indicate that the approach yields more diverse solutions, and a positive connotation with on‐the‐spot transdisciplinary collaboration. However, it also exposes the differences in discipline‐related language and jargon. This paper contributes to academic insights by the establishment of a self‐sustaining transdisciplinary learning ecosystem, and the ways in which this bridges gaps between disciplines and stakeholders.

Содержание концепта TREUE в немецкой лингвокультуре

The aim of the research is to identify trends and dynamics of the content of the TREUE concept. Scientific novelty of the research lies in conducting a comprehensive study of the concept, comparing experimental data of a free associative experiment and data from the German language corpus DWDS. The research findings have shown that the content of the TREUE concept changes dramatically. Represented by lexical units with a positive connotation in the nominative field and in the associative field of 2019, the content of the concept under study acquires properties with a negative connotation in the associative field of 2021. Respondents associate fidelity with the fear of losing a loved one, think about the consequences of infidelity.

Gothic leiþu, “strong drink; fruit wine?” and its Cognates in the Germanic Languages

Gothic <i>leiþu</i>, “strong drink; fruit wine?” and its Cognates in the Germanic Languages