Response Strategies Research Articles

Digital Propaganda in South Asia: An Analytical Perspective

This article examines the existing response strategies of Pakistan to Indian digital propaganda on the Kashmir Issue. By analyzing key propaganda strategies on X (formerly Twitter), state-sponsored X accounts, media reports, and academic scholarship, the researcher has identified a number of deficiencies in the prevalent approach and offers policy recommendations for better practices. Overall, this article recommends that Pakistan should articulate a response strategy that has clear objectives, is powered by algorithms and computational techniques, should include news actors, and utilize the void created by India's state-backed digital propaganda machinery.

Influence of Cultural Background on Language Comprehension in Philippines

Purpose: The aim of the study was to analyze the influence of cultural background on language comprehension in Philippines. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: Research on the influence of cultural background on language comprehension in the Philippines reveals significant disparities in reading proficiency among students from diverse cultural contexts. Studies indicate that students who identify strongly with their cultural heritage often demonstrate better comprehension of texts that resonate with their cultural experiences, while those encountering unfamiliar cultural references face challenges in understanding materials. Factors such as socio-economic status, access to educational resources, and the prevalence of multilingualism also impact comprehension outcomes. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Cultural-historical activity theory, sociocultural theory & intercultural communication theory may be used to anchor future studies on the influence of cultural background on language comprehension in Philippines. Educators should implement culturally responsive teaching strategies that acknowledge and leverage students' cultural backgrounds in language instruction. Educational policymakers should prioritize the inclusion of cultural diversity in language education frameworks and curricula.

정책담화모형(NPF)을 활용한 A지방중소도시 고교평준화 정책 추진 과정 분석

This study analyzes the process of implementing the high school equalization policy in a local small city, city A, using the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF). The research examines how the discourse surrounding the equalization policy is formed and developed through press releases and related materials published from March 1, 2017 to December 31, 2023. The results show that proponents emphasized the elimination of high school rankings and the equality of educational opportunities, while opponents raised concerns about the potential decline in academic standards and the outflow of talented students. Additionally, political events, such as the replacement of the superintendent of education, significantly influenced the direction of the discourse. This analysis is expected to contribute to identifying potential challenges and issues in advance when introducing equalization policies and to developing effective response strategies through the case of City A.

Conceptual Model for Managing Sources of Danger in the Event of an Earthquake

Safety is defined as a state in which human activities are conducted in such a way that the realization of potential dangers is excluded with a certain probability. However, there is an established axiom: all human activities inherently carry some degree of danger. The criterion for assessing this danger is risk, which provides a quantitative measure of potential threats. Experience has shown that the previous concept of safety, which sought to eliminate all risks entirely (known as the "zero risk" concept), is not practical. Today, the prevailing safety approach is the concept of justified risk—the idea that certain levels of risk are deemed acceptable, based on current economic capabilities and social conditions, for the average citizen. This study presents the development of a conceptual model—a model of communication channels—created through system analysis. This model captures the dynamics of information flows regarding the status of danger sources within a potential earthquake zone. The conceptual model is composed of functional operators: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, and B7. One key area of this research is the mathematical modeling of emergencies and the forecasting of their potential consequences. Such modeling is crucial for enhancing the effectiveness of protective measures and improving disaster response strategies.

Disaster management training for environmental health: A narrative literature review.

The review suggests that with proper basic training for disaster responders, more lives can be saved during and after disasters. It highlights the insufficiency of current training programmes and emphasises the need for advanced role-specific training for environmental health practitioners. The review emphasises the need for advanced role-specific training, community assessment skills and focused disaster response strategies to enhance environmental health practitioners' ability to respond to disasters and improve public health resilience. Enhanced training, capacity building and collaboration are necessary to improve the competencies, skills and knowledge of environmental health practitioners in disaster risk management and public health emergencies.

Harnessing the power of mobile and messaging apps for risk communication and intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons from the Western Pacific.

The spread of mis- and disinformation on mobile and messaging apps during the COVID-19 pandemic not only fuelled anxieties and mistrust in health authorities but also undermined the effectiveness of the overall public health response. Mobile and messaging apps help users stay informed and connected to their families, friends, colleagues and communities. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, these apps were also one of the primary channels where mis- and disinformation were circulated. Recognizing the importance of including mobile and messaging apps in risk communication and emergency response strategies, the World Health Organization (WHO) and some countries in the WHO Western Pacific Region independently piloted initiatives to reach messaging app users, meet their evolving information needs, and streamline health ministry communication. The enhanced use of mobile and messaging apps enabled consistent and timely communication and improved coordination during the COVID-19 pandemic. Leveraging their features also helped identify and potentially fill crucial information gaps, mitigating the harms of mis- and disinformation and fostering stronger trust in health authorities. The findings from the work carried out by WHO and countries in the Western Pacific Region identified some promising innovative communication interventions using mobile and messaging apps. While these interventions should be further explored and evaluated, they have demonstrated that interventions need to be proactive, flexible, and able to adapt to changes in mis- and disinformation content being shared through messaging apps.

A Dual Role for the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) in Auditory Deviance Detection.

In the oddball paradigm, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is often associated with active cognitive responses, such as maintaining information in working memory or adapting response strategies. While some evidence points to the DLPFC's role in passive auditory deviance perception, a detailed understanding of the spatiotemporal neurodynamics involved remains unclear. In this study, event-related optical signals (EROS) and event-related potentials (ERPs) were simultaneously recorded for the first time over the prefrontal cortex using a 64-channel electroencephalography (EEG) system, during passive auditory deviance perception in 12 right-handed young adults (7 women and 5 men). In this oddball paradigm, deviant stimuli (a 1500 Hz pure tone) elicited a negative shift in the N1 ERP component, related to mismatch negativity (MMN), and a significant positive deflection associated with the P300, compared to standard stimuli (a 1000 Hz tone). We hypothesize that the DLPFC not only participates in active tasks but also plays a critical role in processing deviant stimuli in passive conditions, shifting from pre-attentive to attentive processing. We detected enhanced neural activity in the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG), at the same timing of the MMN component, followed by later activation at the timing of the P3a ERP component in the right MFG. Understanding these dynamics will provide deeper insights into the DLPFC's role in evaluating the novelty or unexpectedness of the deviant stimulus, updating its cognitive value, and adjusting future predictions accordingly. However, the small number of subjects could limit the generalizability of the observations, in particular with respect to the effect of handedness, and additional studies with larger and more diverse samples are necessary to validate our conclusions.

Conducting fieldwork amidst earthquakes in Nepal: insights from a tourism researcher

This study presents a comprehensive account of the first-hand experiences encountered by a doctoral researcher during fieldwork conducted in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 2015, where two significant earthquakes struck. While existing literature extensively examines the vulnerability of participants, little attention has been given to the challenges faced by researchers themselves within such disaster settings. To address this gap, this study employs an autoethnographic approach to provide a personal and experiential narrative of the researcher’s time in the field. The results of this study shed insight on the difficulties that individual researchers face when working in disaster-affected areas, which is a major contribution to the field of tourism and disaster research. Moreover, it unveils the interplay between individual experiences, logistical intricacies and psychological well-being. This study delves into the practical implications associated with conducting research amidst volatile and uncertain conditions, emphasizing the pivotal role of robust disaster preparedness and response strategies in regions affected by calamities.

Evaluating flood early warning system and public preparedness and knowledge in urban and semi-urban areas of Johor, Malaysia: Challenges and opportunities

Flood Early Warning System (FEWS) play a crucial role in mitigating the impacts of floods by providing timely information to the public, which is particularly important for flood-prone areas in the Malaysian State of Johor that have suffer significant damages and disruptions almost every year. This research presents an assessment into the current state of FEWS through expert interviews and consultations with the concerned department to understand the management and institutional status and challenges in employing FEWS. In addition, a total of 106 structured questionnaires were administered as part of the survey research to a sample of residents in urban Johor Bahru and semi-urban Kota Tinggi, two regions vulnerable to floods, to collect data on their level of preparedness and knowledge, and their perceived effectiveness of FEWS. The analysis revealed that 69.8 % of the respondents did not have any knowledge on the FEWS in their place, and 60.5 % respondents turn to social media to gain information on flood warning, occurrence and forecast. This study also evaluates the opportunity for the messaging application as an additional support system for FEWS. The research highlights and identifies the challenges and barriers to accessing and utilising FEWS. The study calls for the incorporation of messaging application, preferable WhatsApp to transmit early warnings to the end-users and to use their feedback in designing/redesigning the FEWS. The findings can inform policy and decision-making processes aimed at improving flood preparedness and response strategies, and contribute to the existing literature on FEWS in Malaysia and other similar regions.

Biotransformations of arsenic in marine sediments across marginal slope to hadal zone

Arsenic compounds are accumulating in deep ocean, but their ecological impacts on deep-sea ecosystem remain elusive. We studied 32 sediment cores (101 layers for metagenomes, along with 41 global reference sediment metagenomes) collected from the South China Sea and the Mariana Trench (MT), characterized with high arsenic accumulation in MT. In these metagenomes we revealed a significantly positive correlation between relative abundance of arsenite methyltransferase gene (arsM) and sampling depth, which suggests that arsenic methylation is the most prevalent arsenic biotransformation process in the deep sea. Lower relative abundance of arsenic efflux gene, compared with arsM, indicates that microbes in deep-sea sediments were prone to methylate arsenite and retain it rather than efflux it. Phylogenetic analysis identified seven clades of ArsM proteins, including two new clades derived primarily from deep-sea microorganisms. Five metagenome-assembled genomes containing aioA for arsenite oxidation also harbor carbon fixation genes in the deep-sea sediment layers, suggesting previously unnoticed contribution of arsenite-oxidizing autotrophic bacteria to the carbon cycle. Therefore, deep-sea microorganisms adopt different detoxification and transformation strategies in response to arsenic compounds, which renews our understanding of arsenic in their ecological impacts and potential contribution in deep ocean.

Locus coeruleus modulation of prefrontal dynamics and encoding of flexible rule switching.

Behavioral flexibility, the ability to adjust behavioral strategies in response to changing environmental contingencies and internal demands, is fundamental to cognitive functions. Despite a large body of pharmacology and lesion studies, the underlying neurophysiological correlates and mechanisms that support flexible rule switching are under active investigation. To address this question, we trained mice to distinguish complex sensory cues comprising different perceptual dimensions (set shifting). Endoscopic calcium imaging revealed that medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) neurons exhibited pronounced dynamic changes during rule switching. Notably, prominent encoding capacity in the mPFC was associated with switching across, but not within perceptual dimensions. We then showed the functional importance of the ascending input from the locus coeruleus (LC), as LC inhibition impaired rule switching behavior and impeded mPFC dynamic processes and encoding. Our results highlight the pivotal role of the mPFC in set shifting processes and demonstrate the profound impact of ascending neuromodulation on shaping prefrontal neural dynamics and behavioral flexibility.

Analysis of Financial Performance of Yunnan Baiyao Group Co.

Yunnan Baiyao Group Co., Ltd. has been actively expanding its business territory and product lines, led by its diversification strategy, thus achieving remarkable financial results. The company has also used scientific asset management strategies to optimize the allocation of resources and enhance the efficiency of asset utilization, while efficient operations have provided solid support for its diversified growth. However, the implementation of a diversification strategy also introduces specific financial risks and challenges. Increasing financial pressure and intensifying market competition have gradually emerged, which require Yunnan Baiyao Group Co., Ltd. to continuously improve its financial structure and strengthen risk management to ensure the durability and profitability of its strategy. This article not only comprehensively analyzes the financial performance of Yunnan Baiyao Group Co., Ltd. in implementing its diversification strategy, but also deeply discusses the challenges faced by the group and its corresponding response strategies, which provides valuable reference and far-reaching insights for other enterprises in adopting similar strategies.

Longitudinal bi-criteria framework for assessing national healthcare responses to pandemic outbreaks

Pandemics like COVID-19 have illuminated the significant disparities in the performance of national healthcare systems (NHCSs) during rapidly evolving crises. The challenge of comparing NHCS performance has been a difficult topic in the literature. To address this gap, our study introduces a bi-criteria longitudinal algorithm that merges fuzzy clustering with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This new approach provides a comprehensive and dynamic assessment of NHCS performance and efficiency during the early phase of the pandemic. By categorizing each NHCS as an efficient performer, inefficient performer, efficient underperformer, or inefficient underperformer, our analysis vividly represents performance dynamics, clearly identifying the top and bottom performers within each cluster of countries. Our methodology offers valuable insights for performance evaluation and benchmarking, with significant implications for enhancing pandemic response strategies. The study’s findings are discussed from theoretical and practical perspectives, offering guidance for future health system assessments and policy-making.

Sorry Not Sorry: Presentational strategies and the electoral punishment of corruption

A growing literature has explored various factors that hamper the electoral punishment of corruption. Most studies have focused on how voters react to a corruption allegation, but this focus leaves out an important, common aspect of corruption allegations that voters also encounter: politicians' blame avoidance strategies. This study examines how politicians' presentational strategies in response to corruption allegations affect voter sanctioning. Employing an online survey experiment on a sample of 3531 U.S. citizens, we find that politicians' action-oriented strategies, such as denying allegations, acknowledging a problem but denying responsibility, or acknowledging a problem and taking responsibility, are more effective than passive non-response. These three active strategies do not differ in their effectiveness. This result is robust to heterogenous levels of state-level corruption, partisan bias, and political knowledge. Our findings suggest that politicians’ presentational strategies may undermine political accountability for corruption, although they do not fully counteract the effect of corruption on voting intentions.

The effect of hydrocarbon prices and CO2 emission taxes on drainage strategies

Secondary recovery methods, such as water and gas injection, are effective and cost-efficient techniques for enhancing hydrocarbon recovery; however, they are highly energy-intensive, leading to a large environmental footprint. This study provides insights into the challenge of balancing high hydrocarbon demand with the imperative to reduce CO2 emissions from production by estimating how drainage strategies change under varying economic parameters and CO2 tax levels. An operator’s choice of drainage strategy is assumed to be the drainage strategy yielding the highest net present value (NPV). This paper simulates the drainage strategy of an under-saturated oil reservoir, utilizing reservoir simulations and incorporating a mathematical model that represents the production processing plant. This yields hydrocarbon production, the energy required, and the resulting CO2 emissions, all incorporated into an NPV based on hydrocarbon prices and CO2 emission taxes. The drainage strategy is then optimized to maximize NPV for various hydrocarbon prices and several levels of CO2 tax on associated emissions. The findings of this study indicate that increasing gas prices favor reducing reservoir pressure below the bubble point pressure, thereby releasing solution gas and leaving oil in the reservoir. Although lower reservoir pressure reduces the energy required for injection, the resulting increase in gas production necessitates more energy for gas compression, ultimately leading to higher emissions when gas prices rise relative to oil prices. Additionally, this study reveals that for facilities well designed for the present injection and production volumes (greenfield scenarios), the impact of CO2 tax is limited, leading to a single optimal drainage strategy. In contrast, less energy-efficient facilities (brownfield scenarios) exhibit a more pronounced need to optimize drainage strategies in response to variation in CO2 tax, and oil and gas prices. This study indicates that for fields with efficient production facilities, the ratio of gas to oil prices is more important for the drainage strategy than CO2 tax levels, as income from production tends to dominate emission taxes. This implies that hydrocarbon prices are more important for CO2 intensity than CO2 taxes, e.g., a gas price increase relative to oil price promotes higher CO2 intensity due to a shift towards more energy-intensive gas production whereas realistic tax levels for CO2 emissions have only a minor impact. Thus, increasing CO2 tax levels is mainly a measure impacting emissions from fields with inefficient production facilities.

Fee structure and equity fund manager’s optimal locking in profits strategy

We study the effects of fee structures on fund managers’ strategies for locking in profits. Utilizing the optimal stopping time method, we identify two critical portfolio value thresholds that signal when a manager will choose to lock in profits. Fee components such as management fees, self-investment ratios, and high-water marks significantly influence these decisions. Specifically, higher management fees are associated with increased risk aversion, leading to a narrower continuation region, indicating a preference for lower risk. Conversely, performance fees encourage greater risk-taking. We use the S&P 500 Index and NASDAQ Composite index as representatives of managers’ portfolios and apply our model to illustrate how managers adjust their profit-locking strategies in response to their desired rewards.

Examining the association among adolescents' emotional clarity, emotion differentiation, and the regulation of negative and positive affect using a daily diary approach.

Emotional clarity and emotion differentiation (ED) are two core aspects of the application of emotional knowledge. During adolescence, novel emotional experiences result in temporary decreases of differentiation and clarity. These temporary difficulties might profoundly impact choices of regulatory strategies. And indeed, prior research has shown that lower emotional clarity and emotion differentiation are each associated with higher use of putatively maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in youth. The two constructs, however, are rarely examined together, and it remains unclear how they are associated in daily life, particularly in children and adolescents. In addition, previous studies have focused on the regulation of negative but not positive affect. To address these gaps, the present study used an intensive longitudinal design in youth. Between June 2021 and March 2022, 172 children and adolescents (M = 12.99 years) completed a 28-day diary (> 3,500 entries in total) reporting daily affect, emotional clarity, and the use of five emotion regulation strategies in response to negative and positive affect (i.e., rumination, dampening, behavioral avoidance, negative and positive suppression). As predicted, on both between- and within-person levels, higher emotional clarity was associated with decreased use of all maladaptive emotion regulation strategies after adjusting for mean affect intensity. Results for emotion differentiation were mostly nonsignificant. Only higher daily positive emotion differentiation was associated with decreased rumination. In sum, this innovative study explores multiple aspects of emotional knowledge usage and regulation during a critical developmental stage and emphasizes the role of emotional clarity in the regulation of negative and positive affect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Frequency response coefficient optimal allocation strategy for multi-stacks alkaline water electrolyzer plant

Currently, power discrepancies between stacks are often overlooked when developing frequency response (FR) strategies for multi-stack alkaline water electrolyzer plants (AWEPs), which limits the full utilization of the plant’s FR potential. To address this issue, this paper introduces a stack-level FR coefficient allocation strategy aimed at minimizing post-contingency frequency deviation. Specifically, the quantitative relationship between the operating power of alkaline water electrolyzer (AWE) stacks and steady-state frequency deviation is first derived, followed by the formulation of an optimal FR problem. The solution to this problem is an FR strategy based on the principle of equal frequency deviation, which optimally allocates FR coefficients among AWE stacks according to their operating power, thereby maximizing the plant’s FR support capacity. Equivalent circuit model-based case study demonstrates that, compared to existing strategies, the proposed approach achieves a more balanced power distribution among the stacks during the FR process. This even power allocation not only reduces post-contingency frequency deviation but also enhances productivity and streamlines production management in the AWEP, thereby increasing the plant owner’s willingness to participate in FR. Specifically, the proposed strategy results in a 29.3% reduction in post-contingency frequency deviation, a 1.8% improvement in production efficiency under a 10 MW power imbalance, a 2.3% increase in hydrogen production rate under a 4 MW power imbalance, and more stable operation under a 16 MW power imbalance.

ABA-regulated MAPK signaling pathway promotes hormesis in sugar beet under cadmium exposure

Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) shows potential as an energy crop for cadmium (Cd) phytoremediation. To elucidate its in vivo response strategy to Cd exposure, seedlings were treated with 1, 3, and 5 mmol/L CdCl2 (Cd-1, Cd-3, and Cd-5) for 6 h, using 0 mmol/L CdCl2 (Cd-0) as the control. The results showed that Cd-3 promoted a unique “hormesis” effect, leading to superior growth performance, increased levels of chlorophyll, soluble protein, and SOD activity, and reduced MDA content in sugar beet, compared to Cd-1, Cd-5, and even Cd-0. GO and KEGG enrichments and PPI networks of transcriptomic analysis revealed that the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were primarily involved in lipid metabolism, cellular protein catabolism, and photosynthesis. Notably, the MAPK signaling pathway was significantly enriched only under Cd-3, with the up-regulation of ABA-related core gene BvPYL9 and an increase in ABA content after 6 h of Cd exposure. Furthermore, overexpression of BvPYL9 in Arabidopsis thaliana (OE-1 and OE-2) resulted in enhanced growth (fresh weight, dry weight, and root length), as well as higher ABA and soluble protein contents under different Cd treatments. Cd-induced transcriptional responses of BvPYL9 were also evident in OE-1 and OE-2, especially at 10 µmol/L, indicated by qRT-PCR. These findings suggest that ABA-mediated MAPK signaling pathway is activated in response to Cd toxicity, with BvPYL9 being a key factor in the cascade effects for the Cd-induced hormesis in sugar beet.

Enhancing natural disaster image classification: an ensemble learning approach with inception and CNN models

The core problem of this research is the rapid and accurate classification of natural disasters, which is essential for effective response and mitigation strategies. Existing detection methods are often time-consuming and costly. The purpose of this research is to introduce an innovative approach to the multi-class classification of natural disasters using image data from a Kaggle dataset encompassing Cyclone, Wildfire, Flood, and Earthquake incidents. The method used is an ensemble learning model that combines the strengths of the InceptionV3 model and a custom Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). The result of this study is an ensemble model that achieves a commendable accuracy of 92.79%, surpassing individual models and demonstrating the efficacy of combining diverse features extracted by InceptionV3 and CNN architectures. Additionally, a standalone CNN model is implemented, achieving an accuracy of 88.76%. The research concludes that the ensemble model’s superior performance makes it a valuable tool for the multi-class classification of natural disaster images.