Practical Problems Research Articles

Retainer Bias: Ethical and Practical Considerations for the Forensic Neuropsychologist.

How is it that practicing forensic neuropsychologists occasionally see substandard work from other colleagues, or more fundamentally, have such disparate opinions on the same case? One answer might be that in every profession, competence varies. Another possibility has little to do with competence, but professional conduct. In this paper we discuss the process by which retainer bias may occur. Retainer bias is a form of confirmatory bias, i.e., in assessment, the tendency to seek, favor, and interpret data and make judgments and decisions that support a predetermined expectation or hypothesis, ignoring or dismissing data that challenge that hypothesis ( Nickerson, 1998). The tendency to interpret data in support of the retaining attorney's position of advocacy may be intentional - that is, within conscious awareness and explicit, or it may be unintentional, outside of one's awareness, representing implicit bias. While some practitioners accept referrals from both sides in litigation, numerous uncontrollable factors converge in such a manner that one's practice may nevertheless become associated with one side. Such imbalance is not a reliable index of bias. With brief hypothetical scenarios, in this paper we discuss contextual factors that increase risk for retainer bias and problematic practice approaches that may be used to support one side in litigation, violating ethical principles, codes of conduct and guidelines for engaging in forensic work. We also discuss debiasing techniques recommended within the empirical literature and call on the subspecialty field of forensic neuropsychology to conduct research into retainer bias and other sources of opinion variability.

“Other(ed)” Ocean Knowledges: Unlearning Integration in Ocean Governance for Recognitional Justice

There is an increasing call for the need to “integrate” Indigenous and local knowledge systems in ocean governance processes, on national and global scales. However, the knowledge systems, epistemes, and practices of different Indigenous and local coastal communities, whose stewardship of the planet sustains and protects marine ecosystems, pre‐date the institutionalised ocean sciences and governance with which they are meant to be integrated. The concept of integration often perpetuates othering and devaluation of various ocean knowledges that should not be subject to these problematic practices. Much of the current knowledge informing ocean governance is underpinned by colonial, military, and financial projects, in direct juxtaposition to epistemes and practices that are deeply interconnected with marine life. Writing from a marine social sciences perspective, we explore the inherent problems and limitations of integration approaches and propose reversing how we frame “knowledge” and its othering by suggesting that our scientific and governance practices are, in fact, “other” to longstanding ways of coexisting with the ocean. Without attempting to represent Indigenous knowledge systems or categorise these as unaware of scientific developments, we argue that researchers and scientists need to actively unlearn what is taught in prominent ocean sciences. By focusing on global governance through the International Seabed Authority and national ocean governance in South Africa, respectively, we explore knowledge othering and the process of unlearning what ocean governance teaches as knowledge integration to better critically consider how the ocean is, has been, and should be valued.

Data management practice of health extension workers and associated factors in Central Gondar Zone, northwest Ethiopia.

Generating quality data for decision-making at all levels of a health system is a global imperative. The assessment of the Ethiopian National Health Information System revealed that health information system resources, data management, dissemination, and their use were rated as "not adequate" among the six major components of the health system. Health extension workers are the frontline health workforce where baseline health data are generated in theEthiopian health system. However, the data collected, compiled, and reported by health extension workers are unreliable and of low quality. Despite huge problems in data management practices, there is a lack of sound evidence on how to overcome these health data management challenges, particularly among health extension workers. Thus, this study aimed to assess data management practices and their associated factors among health extension workers in theCentral Gondar Zone. An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 383 health extension workers. A simple random sampling method was used to select districts, all health extension workers were surveyed in the selected districts, and a structured self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. The data was entered using EpiData version 4.6 and analyzed using STATA, version 16. Bivariable and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were executed. An odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval and a p-value of <0.05 was calculated to determine the strength of theassociation and to evaluate statistical significance, respectively. Of the 383 health extension workers enrolled, all responded to the questionnaire with a response rate of 100%. Furthermore, 54.7% ofthe respondents had good data management practices. In the multivariable logistic regression analysis, being a married woman, having good data management knowledge, having agood attitude toward data management, having 1-5 years of working experience, and havingasalary ranging from 5,358 to 8,013 Ethiopian Birr were the factors significantly associated with good data management practices among health extension workers. The overall data management practice was poor with only five health extension workers out of ten having good data management practices.

What works in global health partnerships? Reflections on a Nigerian-German project collaboration

Abstract Background Global health partnerships for project implementation is a frequent way to address health challenges. Bringing stakeholders from different disciplines, professions, settings and countries together provides opportunity to look at health challenges from different perspectives, develop suitable ideas to tackle them and leverage diverse capacities. Problem In such diverse partnerships, cultural norms, practical realities and institutional practices create challenges for the development of good and equitable relationships. Methods In our project collaboration between the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and the German Robert Koch Institute on developing and implementing trainings in infection prevention and control, we demonstrated how a partnership can function. The collaboration followed a participatory approach and was informed by the following principles: - Plan, revise, adapt and implement all project activities as well as its contents participatorily; - A well-coordinated teamwork is key to facilitate operational performance; - Consider everyone as expert in its own domain of influence; - Constant and inclusive communication: maintaining transparency on all aspects and steps both in contents and organization and applying non-violent communication and active listening; - Provide space for reflection on roles and functions and for open discussion on needs and misunderstandings; - Appreciate team work as constantly evolving process of interaction and learning. Results We built a strong resilient team and could leverage team diversity to deliver on project objectives with exceptional quality, adaptability in a highly complex and frequently changing implementation setting. Lessons Working across cultures, disciplines, professions and countries means to develop a joint communication language and an understanding of the other. It is challenging and dynamic, requires additional space/time and attention, but offers personal growth and self-realization. Key messages • Using a participatory approach in teams can leverage team diversity to deliver on project objectives and bring about a high professional and personal self-realization. • There are concrete implementable ways of teamwork in international interdisciplinary global health collaborations that enhance quality of results in complex implementation settings.

Show and slow codes: A historical analysis of clinicians' adaptations to ethical overreach.

After briefly reviewing the historical development and ethical regulation of resuscitative technologies, this study probes why clinicians engage in the morally problematic practice of show and slow coding and why hospitals tolerate it? Studies conducted in 1995 and 2020 indicate that conscientious clinicians engage in these practices to protect their patients from abusive or futile resuscitation. And hospitals' clinical cultures tolerate these practices to protect conscientious clinicians from censure, dismissal, delicensing, or legal prosecution for withholding or withdrawing abusive or futile resuscitative technologies without prior patient or surrogate consent. Show and slow coding evolved in American clinical cultures in the second half of the 20th century when closed-chest cardiac massage, defibrillators, ventilators, and other resuscitative technologies raised seemingly novel ethical questions. To address these questions, bioethics commissions, healthcare societies, lawmakers, and a Roman Catholic Pope developed ethics standards requiring clinicians to obtain patient or surrogate consent before withholding or withdrawing resuscitative technologies. They thus conferred on patients an implicit right of resuscitation even if it was abusive and/or futile. Conscientious clinicians circumvented this implicit right by show and slow coding to protect patients from abusive resuscitation. Recognizing clinicians' benign intent, hospitals' clinical cultures tolerate show and slow coding as acts of conscience, akin to civil disobedience. Thus, rescinding ethics standards and laws requiring prior patient/surrogate consent for non-resuscitation or for cessation of resuscitative technologies decisions should end show/slow coding. Such a reform should also recognize clinicians' right of conscientious refusal to perform CPR.

What Do We Mean by ‘Representation’? Towards a Systematic Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis of First Nations People(s) in Australian Print News

Given the enduring influence of news media on public awareness and opinion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people(s) and related issues, systematic analysis of how these communities are represented in news media remains socially significant. However, what analysts mean when they use the term ‘representation’ shows considerable variation across the literature, from the amount of coverage relevant stories are afforded, to the inclusion of First Nations sources, to the narratives that a given version of events constructs. Moreover, while language is central to the discursive construction of these matters, few linguistic studies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander media representations exist. To begin to address these gaps, this study first maps the forms of representation identified in previous research, before analysing three of the four types (visibility, naming strategies and portrayal) via a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of news articles about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people(s) and issues. It finds that, by and large, how First Nations people(s) are represented is inconsistent—while in some areas, representation broadly aligns with expectations expressed by First Nations communities (i.e. for increased coverage, respectful terms of reference and strengths-based discourses), problematic practices persist. Importantly, however, the analysis also illuminates a range of journalistic practices that can be implemented to improve representation in areas currently lacking.

Composting modernity

We have reached the logical end of modernity as it lays waste to the natural world, discards people, and reveals its inherent and thus continual violence. Withdrawing our energy from and breaking down the constellation of modern beliefs, we can repattern ourselves and our communities for a life-giving future. In its structure and content, this article demonstrates a relationality approach to sustainability and climate education that undertakes practices to emplace humans back within the living world. Indigenous philosophies of place as well as posthumanism offer relational notions of time, space, place, and land to consider. Pedagogy-rich, the article provides practices for: restoring the history of modernity as a decolonial counternarrative; composting the most problematic beliefs and practices of modernity; providing tracings of and for possible futures; deriving pedagogical entry points of relevance to learners; and nurturing ways of being that can build a rooted, more life-giving way of being.

From Motivating to Manipulative: The Use of Deceptive Design in a Game's Free-to-Play Transition

Over the last decade, the free-to-play (F2P) game business model has gained popularity in the games industry. We examine the role of deceptive design during a game's transition to F2P and its impacts on players. Our analysis focuses on game mechanics and a Reddit analysis of the Overwatch (OW) series after it transitioned to an F2P model. Our study identifies nine game mechanics that use deceptive design patterns. We also identify factors contributing to a negative gameplay experience. Business model transitions in games present possibilities for problematic practices. Our findings identify the need for game developers and publishers to balance player investments and fairness of rewards. A game's successful transition depends on maintaining fundamental components of player motivation and ensuring transparent communication. Compared to existing taxonomies in other media, games need a comprehensive classification of deceptive design. We emphasize the importance of understanding player perceptions and the impact of deceptive practices in future research.

The Problem of Subjectivity in Algorithmic Creativity Organisation

The aim of the article is to study the issue of determining subjectivity, authorship and uniqueness of the results of producing the creative process, organised by the use of algorithmic calculations. Results. The article clarifies the possibility of organising the artistic and creative process using mathematical calculations, and automating the reproduction of certain manipulations, additionally, it reveals signs of the uniqueness of the corresponding generation results, and grounds the degree of automating the cultural process. The scientific novelty of the article is revealed in the process of highlighting technical assets of modern art, which, although slowly, nevertheless quite demonstratively show the potential of algorithmic computing as a stimulator of creative innovations. Among the methods used in the process of analysing the issues which are raised in the article, first of all, the analytical method has to be singled out, that is based on both historical and philosophical processes, as well as modern cultural activity. Conclusions. It is revealed that algorithmic creativity is actually a kind of mechanised production process, organised in accordance with the features of machine training, and the identified signs of stylistic imitation of traditional practices. Two types of practices for organising the corresponding creative process are established according to the degree of interaction of artists with robotic systems: practices where robotic mechanisms become “subjects of creativity”, that is they are able to produce content for organizing artistic processes; practices involving the equal interaction of robotic mechanisms and artists (for instance, in theatrical performances). The cultural process automation leads to the decrease in the artist’s participation, and weakening of his authorship, but he still has an absolute advantage in the thinking orientation. Interpretation of meaningful content is a critical problem in relevant practices. The usage of algorithms in creating art products challenges traditional methods of artistic cultural creation, as the artist’s meaning and intentions are not always clear. Evaluating further prospects for the artistic culture development requires taking into account these aspects, and recognising potential consequences of forming algorithmic creativity for the further cultural development of humanity.

Impact of Ethical Frameworks in Clinical Care on Prescription Practices and Patient Outcomes

The ethical decision-making process in a clinical setting is vital in improving patient care. Yet, many a time, the quality of the physician’s prescriptions is broken by outside forces like polypharmacy, private hospitals, and pathological laboratories. The research looks into the closely-knit workings of doctors and medical institutions, and how pharmaceutical companies reward strategies such as sponsored luncheons and conferences in order to sway health care policy. These become a problem because they lead to unnecessary treatment, higher costs of health care and even pain to the patients. Drawing on the analysis of the ethical problems created by such conflicts of interest, this essay seeks to highlight the need to incorporate rule utilitarianism in clinical decision making. Rule utilitarianism, which calls for adherence to core principles of ethics to enhance social good, is a solution to the problem of unscrupulous practices in medicine. The study suggests measures such as limiting the engagement of pharmaceutical marketers and adopting the use of Electronic Health Records (EHR) to enhance the quality of prescriptions. It has also proposed setting up an automated Prescription Quality Assessment System (APQAS) to monitor and maintain the quality of clinical prescriptions within and between healthcare facilities. Professional codes of ethics are seen as essential tools in upholding standard practices, especially for developing countries like Bangladesh and India, which have a poorly enforced regulatory environment and a culture of unethical behaviors. There is hope, that due conflicts of interest could be reduced with the use of ethical decision-making systems and modern health systems technologies such as emphasis on patients care.

The uncomfortable truths of adaptive reuse: faith-to-faith conversion of religious heritage buildings in conflict environments

ABSTRACT Despite being regarded as a sustainable conservation strategy for safeguarding the material fabric of disused built heritage, adaptive reuse is an ethically problematic practice when considering faith-to-faith conversions of defunct religious buildings in politically complex environments. This paper aims to explore the scope of the spatial transformations and symbolic representations involved in such conversions, as well as their ramifications on the pre-existing memory and identity of the place. Theoretical explorations are illustrated with empirical data from fieldwork on church-to-mosque conversions in northern Cyprus. The paper argues that faith-to-faith adaptive heritage reuse undoubtedly aids in the protection of the architectural fabric of disused structures from ruination and preserves their original architectural expressions. However, the practice becomes contentious when former users continue to claim rights to the religious site, as the theological principles and power politics shaping the conversion can potentially ignore their religious values and material culture. But more importantly, when sacred and secular merges and nationalist representations emerge on the religious heritage sites, it radically transforms the identity and pre-existing memory of the landscape, aggravating the tension regarding the former and current users’ rights to these sites.

The Parenting and Family Adjustment Scales (PAFAS) questionnaire: psychometric qualities of the parenting scale in two large Brazilian birth cohorts.

Analyse the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the PAFAS (Parenting and Family Adjustment Scales) parenting scale, using data from two large Brazilian birth cohorts. The original PAFAS parenting scale, which consists of 18 items (parental inconsistency 5 items, coercive parenting 5 items, positive encouragement 3 items, and parent-child relationship 5 items) was applied in two Brazilian birth cohorts in Pelotas (ages 4 [n = 4010] and 6-7 [n = 3867]) and Rio Grande (age 3 [n = 992]). Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted, and internal consistency assessed, as well as construct validity in relation to maternal depression measured on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. The model with a structure of 4 subscales showed that the global scale of parenting on the PAFAS had a good fit, but certain items did not fit well on sub-scales and were removed (2 items from parental inconsistency, 1 from coercive parenting, and 1 from positive encouragement). The original form of the parent-child relationship sub-scale was maintained. Considering the total PAFAS parenting score, we found that mothers with maternal depression had a higher likelihood of more problematic parental practices than mothers without depression. A revised 14-item PAFAS parenting scale has good psychometric properties and we encourage its use in Brazilian populations.

Design of railway simulation training system based on WebGL

Abstract In order to solve the problems of poor interaction with students and insufficient practicality in the previous railway freight station operation training, this article developed a training system based on WebGL technology that can interact with students and truly display the operation situation of the freight yard. This system is based on the Unity3D engine and WebGL technology. It imports 3D models to build large map scenes, and introduces functions such as cargo bundling and map roaming. The complete designed system is published to the Web through WebGL technology. After experimental analysis, the parking lot training system has solved the problems of poor practicality, little interaction, low efficiency, and narrow coverage in previous teaching. It has promoted the standardization and standardization of training students’ future work, and has effectively improved the professionalism of parking lot managers.

Analyzing Real Estate Agency Practices: A comparative study and path ahead

The summary briefly overviews the changes and problems in real estate agency practices in Malaysia from 1981 onwards. It emphasizes ethical issues, technological developments, and regulatory focus areas. The abstract also explains a comparative research study about how real estate is done in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, and Hong Kong to find similarities and areas needing improvement. The study discovers likenesses in controlling frameworks but indicates improvements relating to qualification standards, education levels for practitioners, and, their tactics of enforcement, and monitoring through comparing analysis.

Cleaning Like Crazy: How Resistance Processes Lock in Problematic Practices and Damaging Overconsumption

This study focuses on mundane consumption behavior from a practice theoretical perspective, and in particular, on household cleaning. Cleaning is an unquestioned part of everyday domestic life, usually carried out unreflexively. Over time, cleaning practices have become increasingly resource-intensive, contributing to overconsumption of water, and pollution through damaging chemicals. A critical ethnography of 10 Malaysian Chinese families unpacks the pre-formation, formation and lock-in of damaging cleaning practices, enriching understanding of how problematic practices are shaped by consumer culture and market forces. Three practice evolution drivers were identified: Diseases and paranoia (meanings), socio-cultural modernization (competencies), and technology modernization (materials). In response to perceptions of existential threat and aspirations to modernity, consumers both resisted and submitted to market forces; becoming locked in to repeating cycles of recontamination, resetting, and reinforcement. Reflecting wider social tensions, cleaning practices both co-constituted and challenged a toxic system, as the households continuously negotiated imagined boundaries of ‘safe’ and ‘dangerous’ inside and outside the home. Based on these insights, the study challenges accepted logics of policy intervention, calling for more ethical and situated responses to wicked problems.

Methodologic procedure of beer competitions eliminating the problematic practices and based on the probabilistic approach

In beer competitions, there are some common problematic practices which ruin the final results, i.e. inappropriate distribution of samples into individual groups, inappropriate scoring of samples, comparison of results obtained from different sub-groups selecting better samples, inappropriate method of handling tied scores, and inappropriate numerical evaluation. To avoid these, the presented study aims to propose a methodologic procedure which eliminates these problematic practices and is based on the probabilistic approach. Further, it wishes to test and evaluate it by the Monte Carlo simulation. The procedure is based on a sensory evaluation of beer samples by assessors through ranking tests. Beer samples and assessors are randomly divided into groups in the lowest round of the competition. Data evaluation, which determines advancing samples or winners, is based on the application of the probability theory, namely the Bayesian theorem, so that the best-evaluated samples could be identified. This procedure achieves a higher probabilitiy of accurately recognised best-evaluated samples in comparison to the procedures involving the aforementioned problematic practices.

‘Are you still watching?’ – A study on the predictors of the problematic practice of binge-watching

By implementing innovative ways of accessing the media, video-on-demand services have renewed the concept of watching television, leading to the growth and popularity of social behavior of content consumption in the form of marathons, known as binge-watching. There is an increase in literature discussions about potential adverse outcomes that can arise from the excess of these marathons. It is because the adversities of its excessive use can affect its users in the social, physical, and mental spheres. Given the relevance of this social problem, this research aims to understand the main determining predictors of the problematic practice of binge-watching. The research sample consisted of binge-watching practitioners (n=467). The linear and multivariate methods used Structural Equation Modeling by Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) and Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA). As a result, the study showed that the practice, associated with the psychological predisposition of individuals, can lead to the development of negative symptoms similar to addiction to various technologies, compromising the individual’s life both physically and psychologically. This phenomenon intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic when binge-watching was used for distractions, entertainment, and the management of negative sensations arising from the pandemic. Finally, this research contributes to the proposition of an original theoretical model on the problematic practice of binge-watching. It brings elements to reflect from the ESG point of view, as companies must commit to their social governance, thinking of strategies to optimize the obtaining profits, in the present study, subscriptions, without compromising the health of individuals.

Distributed Neurodynamics-Based Backstepping Optimal Control for Robust Constrained Consensus of Underactuated Underwater Vehicles Fleet.

Robust constrained formation tracking control of underactuated underwater vehicles (UUVs) fleet in 3-D space is a challenging but practical problem. To address this problem, this article develops a novel consensus-based optimal coordination protocol and a robust controller, which adopts a hierarchical architecture. On the top layer, the spherical coordinate transform is introduced to tackle the nonholonomic constraint, and then a distributed optimal motion coordination strategy is developed. As a result, the optimal formation tracking of UUVs fleet can be achieved, and the constraints are fulfilled. To realize the generated optimal commands better and, meanwhile, deal with the underactuation, at the lower-level control loop a neurodynamics-based robust backstepping controller is designed, and in particular, the issue of "explosion of terms" appearing in conventional backstepping-based controllers is avoided and control activities are improved. The stability of the overall UUVs formation system is established to ensure that all the states of the UUVs are uniformly ultimately bounded in the presence of unknown disturbances. Finally, extensive simulation comparisons are made to illustrate the superiority and effectiveness of the derived optimal formation tracking protocol.

Inventing the Spring and Autumn Period

This article proposes that the invention of the concept of Spring and Autumn (Chunqiu; ca. 722–481 BCE), the only Chinese historical period named after a text, was neither early nor inevitable. A diachronic analysis of the word chunqiu shows that it began to denote the Chunqiu period in late Western Han (ca. 48 BCE–9 CE). An eschatological prediction in the first century BCE was instrumental in generating this temporal sensibility. Many used the time frame of 242 years with 12 reigns from the Chunqiu, a canonical text purportedly composed by Confucius, to predict that the Han dynasty would soon come to an end. Wang Mang, who overthrew the Han and fulfilled the prophecy, intensified this sensibility. Just as the Western Han was born as a historical period, so was Chunqiu as its historical analogue. Subsequently, historians artificially extended the length of the former to align it with the latter. The emergence of Chunqiu is thus a story about how numerology shaped the interaction between visions of the future and of history, textuality, temporality, political action, classical studies, and historiography in ancient China. The telling of this story complicates our understanding of the history of periodization, a problematic yet essential practice that concerns every historian.

Cumulative Capacitated Colored Traveling Salesman Problem.

A colored traveling salesman problem (CTSP) is a generalization of the well-known multiple traveling salesman problem, which introduces colors to distinguish the accessibility of its cities to salesmen. This work proposes a city/customer-centric model called cumulative capacitated CTSP (C2-CTSP) to tackle some practical problems with fast response requirements. Its hypergraph and mathematical programming formulations are developed for the first time. A general variable neighborhood search (GVNS) metaheuristic is designed to solve it. Specifically, greedy backtracking is proposed to initialize a solution taking into account the cumulative cost and two constraints including colors and capacities. Next, 2-swap, reinsertion, and double-bridge operations are randomly selected and carried out to execute the perturbation. Moreover, neighborhood-list-2-opt, relocation move, and generalized partition crossover are organized as variable neighborhood descent to constitute the local search for better solutions. Extensive experiments are conducted to compare the proposed GVNS with four genetic algorithms, two hybrid ant colony systems, two variable neighborhood search methods, and a perturb-based local search in 20 regular and random cases. The statistical results demonstrate that GVNS is superior to all competitors tuned by irace package in terms of both search ability and convergence rate. In addition, the study of six GVNS variants lacking different operators validates the significant role of each corresponding operator in GVNS's outstanding performance.