Real Life Research Articles

Supported decision-making with persons with dementia: a scoping review protocol in partnership with lived experts

IntroductionThe United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities asserts that all persons with disabilities have the right to receive the support they require to participate in decisions...

The Pope of the Rain: The Extraordinary Solitude in the Media

The COVID-19 pandemic produced substantial and sudden changes in the reality of everyday life and in the collective construction of meaning. Questions arose: how should events occurring within an empty reality be broadcast? And, even before that, what structure is needed to make these events transmissible and interpretable, coping with the fact that they happen within a framework of lack of relationships and absolute silence? By analysing the worldwide live recording broadcast on 27 March 2020, commonly known as “the pope alone in Saint Peter’s Square during the pandemic”, this paper identifies a series of communicative solutions adopted by television. These range from making visible what should be hidden, to variously filling the emptiness by modifying the spatial colocation of the event, to an even more extreme solution, in which the emptiness remains as it is, and a rare semantic case occurs in which the sign coincides with its meaning. The latter is what I label the “pope of the rain” solution.

Control or coexist with urban baboons: Exploring residents' views and values in Cape Town

AbstractHumans and wildlife increasingly share urban space, which elevates the risk of negative interactions. Management efforts conventionally focus on controlling species that are considered problematic, but polarization in affected communities' perceptions and values may pose a greater problem for management in cities where ideas about preferred human–wildlife interactions vary greatly. This study uses Q‐method to investigate what type of human‐baboon relations are desirable among residents from seven areas in Cape Town regularly visited by chacma baboons. Two main perspectives emerged, each is motivated by a distinct set of values: 'Live with Baboons' is focused on positive outcomes for nature and society, recognizing humans' responsibility to mitigate negative interactions; whereas 'Control and Manage Baboons' views nature as something that should be controlled in order to maintain a stable and safe human society. Despite differences, the two perspectives also agree in rejecting abusive language toward baboons, recognizing that contexts differ and require different solutions, and acknowledging that resolving conflict requires collaboration. This has important bearing for recent public engagement processes led by local authorities to review management strategies. Residents' values and perceptions are manifestations of different lived realities and actively engaging with them can help to nuance dichotomies in the baboon discourse.

Innovatsioonid idaudmurtide preesterkonnas

This paper, based on the author’s field materials, focuses on the current state of the priesthood of the Trans-Kama (Eastern) Udmurts. It is shown that since the 1990s, with the revival of religious traditions, significant changes have taken place in the organization of the priests’ activities, dictated by the modern realities of life. The main criterion for their choice was the presence of positive moral qualities, in some cases their belonging to the “priestly family”.

Artistic Autoethnography in Human Resource Development: Deepening Empathy and Affective Understanding to Forward Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice in the Workplace

Artistic ethnography is growing in prevalence across the social sciences and has been used to explore daily lived experiences with marginalization powerfully. This approach, however, has received very little attention in Adult Education and HRD literature. Artistic approaches to autoethnography engage with aesthetics, feelings, and embodied experiences while pushing researchers to consider ways they can work outside of standard social scientific prose style writing and numerical abstraction when creating representations of lived reality. Artistic approaches to autoethnography can enhance all areas of HRD research and practice but hold salience for critical HRD, as its leading proponents have called for an emphasis on “relating,” engagement with the affective domain of workplace injustice, and “radical vulnerability” as we work to imagine and create more just organizations. The purpose of this article is to explore how artistic autoethnography can advance the critical work of HRD by carving out a nurturing space where those living with the daily discomfort of marginalization can finally share their feelings and explore insights that stretch beyond the limitations of standard academic prose.

Importance application discipline Yāma and Nyāma for yoga trainer in Bali

Background: Application discipline Yāma and Nyāma hold roles crucial for yoga trainers in Bali, good in development personal or professional. Yāma, which includes principles of ethics like ahimsa (without violence), satya (honesty), asteya (no stealing), brahmacharya (control self), and aparigraha (no greedy), purposeful For form moral character and integrity a yoga trainer . On the other hand , Nyāma, which consists from saucha (cleanliness), santosha (satisfaction), tapas (discipline), svadhyaya (study self), and Ishvara pranidhana (surrender to God), focuses on spiritual development and well-being inner. Practicing yoga trainer second principle This in a way consistent. Not only capable of creating an environment practice that is harmonious and conducive, but also plays a role as an example for his students. Method: This qualitative study examines how yoga trainers in Bali apply Yāma and Nyāma. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 25 trainers, participatory observations, and documentation. Thematic analysis was used to identify and interpret key themes related to the application of these principles in teaching and personal development. Findings: Discipline Yāma and Nyāma help coach in controlling emotions, increase concentration, and maintain mental balance, which in turn increase quality yoga teaching. Additionally, implementation​ discipline also supports coaches in undergoing a healthy and sustainable, which is essential in maintaining stamina and energy positive . In Bali, it is known as a spiritual and cultural center, and applications to Yāma and Nyāma become more significant. Culture local rich with spiritual values are in line with the principles of yoga, so it makes it easier to coach For integrate discipline This in life daily. Conclusion: With internalization of Yāma and Nyāma, yoga trainers in Bali can enrich their spiritual experience, enhance professionalism, and deliver a more positive impact to the yoga community. Application discipline This Not only as moral rules, but as road comprehensive, reflective life​ harmony between body, mind, and soul. Novelty/Originality in this Study: This study crosses the line between ancient tradition and modern practice, revealing how the principles of Yama and Nyama translate into the lived realities of yoga instructors in Bali. By investigating the unique intersection of yoga philosophy, Balinese culture, and the global wellness industry, this study provides valuable insights into the adaptation and relevance of spiritual teachings in a contemporary context.

Children health learning through Project Based Learning (PBL) in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah Malaysia

Children who learn through Project-Based Learning (PBL) in preschool can be an environment that gives children the opportunity to gain wider knowledge to understand the reality of life and how to deal with it. This study aims to see the effect of the Project Based Learning (PBL) method on the development level of preschool children's health learning. This study used an action research design involving three boys and three-year-old girls from a preschool in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Data from observations, interviews and related documents were collected and analyzed narratively before and after the implementation of PBL. The results of the study found that the development level of children's health learning increased after being directly involved in the implementation of PBL. Findings also show positive behavioral changes. In addition, the study successfully gave positive implications to the need for preschool teachers to be exposed to the skills of the PBL method in order to create more effective teaching methods.

Violence and hegemonic masculinities in Timor-Leste – on the challenges of using theoretical frameworks in conflict-affected societies

ABSTRACT Research on men, masculinities, and of men’s violences has multiplied recently, as have violence-prevention initiatives, especially in conflict-affected societies. Drawing on my experiences of working on violence prevention as well as of conducting research with men in violence-prone groups in post-conflict Timor-Leste, I reflect on the practical and conceptual challenges of this work. Key concepts from Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities (CSMM) were helpful in part but were challenged by the lived realities and narratives of the men I interviewed. Common conflations of violence and hegemonic masculinity proved less-than straightforward. Perhaps inevitably, this work carried with it an element of epistemic violence, of outside concepts being imposed by a privileged me upon my research subjects through my interpretation of their lives. Given how central engaging with ‘violent masculinities’ should be to gender-transformative peacebuilding, these challenges speak to broader questions of the possibilities of social change and ethical questions involved.

Two unsuccessful bites at the legal parenthood cherry – really in the child’s best interests?

ABSTRACT This case review considers Theis J’s judgment in Re Z (Surrogacy: Step-parent Adoption) [2024] EWFC 20, in which she refused a step-parent adoption order but made several other orders in relation to contact and the exercise of parental responsibility between the three adults involved. I posit that while the judgment probably represents the best possible outcome all round – especially the best interests of the child at its heart – it does not reflect the lived reality of most surrogacy agreements entered into in this country, or the experiences of those involved. It does, however, indicate that proposed reforms as recommended by the Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission in 2023 would be welcome, especially as the intention behind them is precisely to protect against breakdowns in surrogacy arrangements such as sadly happened in this case.

Iran, Religious Agents, and the People: Voices from Khuzestan

ABSTRACT This article explores the significance of popular religious agents in Iran, focusing on the maddāḥān (eulogists) and their role in the Ashura processions, in the context of Iran’s ethnic minorities, looking into the unique case-study of Khuzestan. To comprehend the contemporary relevance of Ashura, this study utilizes social media, employing a hermeneutical approach to videography. The maddāḥān played a pivotal role in promoting a unifying Shiʿi and revolutionary ethos through their meticulously crafted videos and their widespread dissemination, fostering a sense of solidarity with the Islamic republic and its message of resilience. Their contribution was significant among ethnic minorities, given their numerous grievances toward the regime. The maddāḥān also played a vital role in creating space for local expressions of mourning, enhancing a unique Khuzestani identity deeply tied to its Arab tradition, but also open to multiple influences. Their emotionally charged sessions and direct engagement with the people contributed to a strong sense of connections between the maddāḥān and their extensive online audience. This popular appeal complements the established clerical authority structure but also poses a significant challenge to the formal religious hierarchy, as the maddāḥān’s approach resonates more closely with the lived experiences and cultural realities of their followers.

Exploring continued usage of an AI teaching assistant among university students: A temporal distance perspective

Although technological developments have made AI chatbot teaching assistants a lived reality, limited insights exist indicating how students perceive and use these new technologies. Recognizing that technology usage research adopts a static view that overlooks the role of temporal distance, we draw on temporal construal theory to examine user intentions and actual usage behavior over time by re-approaching the same set of participants after developing and deploying an AI chatbot in the educational setting. Our results highlight the significance of temporal distance in shaping user perceptions of the technology, with the need for interaction level to play a moderating role.

Walking cities that are (un)walkable: exploring everyday lived realities in low-income neighbourhoods in Accra

Walking cities that are (un)walkable: exploring everyday lived realities in low-income neighbourhoods in Accra

Conceptualizing transgender experiences in psychology: Do we have a 'true' gender?

Psychological research has acknowledged that the commonly accepted definitions of 'transgender', 'sex' and 'gender' within psychological research have resulted in limitations in accounting for the lived realities of transgender individuals. Such limitations include, but are not limited to, the continued pathologization of transgender experiences through idealizing sex and gender congruence and incapacity to account for non-normative and non-binary transition pathways. This paper provides a review of these limitations to first demonstrate how the incongruence definition of 'transgender' is reliant on the idea of a 'true' gender, and next suggest that problematising the idea of a 'true' gender allows new conceptions of transgender experiences to be advanced. To undertake this problematization, the work of Judith Butler and Sara Ahmed is used to consider how gender could be conceptualized otherwise in psychology and then applied to transgender experiences. In all, this paper theorizes transgender experiences without a reliance on the assertion of a true gender, to suggest instead a focus on contextualized transgender experiences. Last, the limitations and implications of this definition of transgender are briefly discussed. Overall, transgender experiences are conceptualized as those experiences that run counter to the dominant (re)production of binary sexed gender.

Expected Versus Experienced Liveability for Amenity Migrants in Cairns, Australia: The Grass is not Always Greener in the Tropics

ABSTRACT This study explores Australian amenity migrants' experiences in Cairns, comparing expectations of a tropical paradise with lived realities. Using episodic narrative interviews and Importance-Performance Analysis of liveability indicators, it uncovers discrepancies between idealised imaginaries and actual experiences. Key concerns include housing, safety, jobs, living costs, and challenges in building community connections. The findings highlight the gap between the tropical paradise image attracting migrants and liveability challenges of a regional city. This mixed-methods approach offers a transferable tool for examining expectation-experience gaps in amenity destinations, providing insights for policymakers to address liveability issues and build communities that meet diverse residents' aspirations.

Swarming Bees and Floating Signifiers in Margaret Cavendish’s Poems and Fancies

ABSTRACT Margaret Cavendish’s seventeenth-century poem, “The Head of Man Compared to a Hive of Bees,” calls attention to the position of honeybees as floating signifiers in literature. In her short poem, she creates simile after simile, comparing bees to physiological, political, social, and literary concerns. Bees appear to be mere similes, divorced from their “real,” natural state, but Cavendish’s poem in fact reveals the fraught nature of bee similes. The lived reality of honeybees is a secondary concern to poets, Cavendish’s poem implies, for bees are more important as recognizable and polysemous symbols than as creatures with their own experiences and needs.

ОСВІТНІЙ ПРОЄКТ «ЦІКАВА НАУКА ОНЛАЙН» ЯК ШЛЯХ КОМПЕНСАЦІЇОСВІТНІХ ВТРАТ В УМОВАХ ВІЙНИ В УКРАЇНІ

The article highlights the experience of implementing educational projects in the conditions of the transformation of education in Ukraine, which was caused by the war. Research conducted by the State Education Quality Service of Ukraine showed that compensation for the loss of study time most often occurs through providing students with educational materials and tasks for independent study. Group and individual consultations, additional training classes are held less frequently. The study notes that it is too difficult to assess how often these measures are implemented, given that most teachers complain of a lack of conditions and opportunities. Research conducted by us in the Ukrainian educational hubs of JRS Romania in Bucharest confirmed the feasibility of creating educational hubs as an effective form of non-formal education aimed at overcoming educational losses caused by martial law. The results of research and the search for possible ways to reduce the level of educational losses determined the need to introduce new forms of educational activity and more appropriate forms of pedagogical education. In the context of the mentioned problems, the training of natural science teachers in higher education institutions should correspond to the realities of life, the social order and be oriented towards the organization of the educational process online. The implementation of educational projects conducted online based on the STEM-oriented approach, as the experience described in the article has shown, is one of the possible ways to overcome existing educational challenges and ensures that the training of future teachers meets the modern demands of the market of educational services. An example of the implementation of the above ideas is the "Interesting Science Online" project. The idea of the project is to combine the efforts of forms, methods and technologies of formal and informal education to compensate for educational losses in emergency situations. The project's online studios were developed by us depending on the value orientations and preferences of the project participants. The studios of scientific rap, scientific TikTok, the studio "Know How" and "Battle of the Worlds" are actively working in the project. All online studios work under the leadership of students - masters of interesting science. Educational products created in the studios are presented during the work of the studios and in social networks on the project pages. The article presents an innovative form of pedagogical education, online university studios, which improve the quality of training future teachers to carry out educational activities online and demonstrate the possibilities of compensating for educational losses in wartime conditions.

“I wanted to show the faces of these migrant workers, their struggles to breathe, and their undignified deaths”: In conversation with Puja Changoiwala

ABSTRACT Journalist and author Puja Changoiwala has been critically acclaimed for her passionate writings on crime and social issues across India, such as gender discrimination and poverty. Her debut novel, Homebound (2021), details the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Indian society, which saw the largest exodus of people since Partition, the majority of whom were from India’s poorest regions. In the book, Changoiwala tells the stories of Indian migrant labourers, showing how years of exploitation converged in a single moment of humanitarian crisis and homelessness. In this interview, Changoiwala talks about her experience as a journalist and an author in unveiling the atrocious realities of migrant life in front of a largely complacent nation and world. The discussion highlights Changoiwala’s reflections upon the conveniently neglected history of oppression that has contributed to the silencing of these marginalized populations, and her call for an awareness of such discrimination through her fiction.

“Everyone has their own problems and realities so the religious community cannot judge someone.” Contraception motivations and perceived consequences among young contraceptive users who practice a religion in Burkina Faso

BackgroundNumerous factors at the individual, interpersonal, and societal levels are related to contraceptive use (or non-use) among adolescents and youth. Little is known about the role of religion as an individual and community-level influencer of contraceptive use among young women.MethodsUsing in-depth interviews with 24 young contraceptive users ages 18–24 who practice their Catholic, Protestant or Muslim religion in two cities in Burkina Faso, this study examines motivations and perceived consequences of contraceptive use. By including users of modern contraception who were both single and married, a range of perspectives are provided.ResultsGenerally, the young women interviewed who practice their religion and use contraception perceived that their religion was not supportive of contraceptive use. A few exceptions were provided, including perceived acceptance of use of some methods for married women for spacing purposes; this was specifically identified as acceptable among Muslim respondents. Sexual activity and contraceptive use were not acceptable by any of the religions for unmarried young women. That said, young women, both married and unmarried, reported their motivations for use that often related to their and their children’s health and the realities of life. Contraceptive use was considered a private matter which meant that the religious community would not find out about women’s use.ConclusionsRecognizing that some women are willing and able to use contraception even without the perceived support of their religious communities might help to push social norms to change and be more accepting of contraceptive use that meets young women’s and families’ circumstances.

Neural Network With a Preference Sampling Paradigm for Imbalanced Data Classification.

Most data in real life are characterized by imbalance problems. One of the classic models for dealing with imbalanced data is neural networks. However, the data imbalance problem often causes the neural network to display negative class preference behavior. Using an undersampling strategy to reconstruct a balanced dataset is one of the methods to alleviate the data imbalance problem. However, most existing undersampling methods focus more on the data or aim to preserve the overall structural characteristics of the negative class through potential energy estimation, while the problems of gradient inundation and insufficient empirical representation of positive samples have not been well considered. Therefore, a new paradigm for solving the data imbalance problem is proposed. Specifically, to solve the problem of gradient inundation, an informative undersampling strategy is derived from the performance degradation and used to restore the ability of neural networks to work under imbalanced data. In addition, to alleviate the problem of insufficient empirical representation of positive samples, a boundary expansion strategy with linear interpolation and the prediction consistency constraint is considered. We tested the proposed paradigm on 34 imbalanced datasets with imbalance ratios ranging from 16.90 to 100.14. The test results show that our paradigm obtained the best area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) on 26 datasets.

‘You Want Drama? Go to the Opera!’

This article addresses the role played by opera in fiction film by drawing attention to the action film Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie, 2015). Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot (1926) is treated here in a way that makes it appear as something more than a diegetic background and energy reinforcement for action scenes. By taking into consideration Daniel Yacavone’s (2012; 2014) view of film as a combination of a construction and a known world, I argue that the use of opera displays a stretching of the boundaries between fiction and real life, which in turn has implications for how the film can be regarded as an opera–film encounter. The film makes the opera emerge as significant in its own right through an intricate interaction between fictional denotation and engagement with the lived reality of the film viewer. Ultimately, I suggest that Rogue Nation provides an opportunity not only to reconsider a common way of approaching intersections between opera and fiction film, but also to extend and refine Yacavone’s theory.