Subjective Preference Research Articles

How Late Nights Influence Brain Cortical Structures: Distinct Neuroanatomical Measures Associated With Late Chronotype in Young Adults.

Chronotype is an inherent physiological trait reflecting an individual's subjective preference for their sleep awakening time, exerting a substantial influence on both physical and mental well-being. While existing research has established a close relationship between chronotype and individual brain structure, prior studies have predominantly focused on individual measurements of brain structural scales, thereby limiting the exploration of the underlying mechanisms of structural changes. This study seeks to validate previous research findings and enhance our understanding of the correlation between circadian rhythm preference and diverse cortical indicators in healthy young individuals. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and chronotype assessments were conducted once for all participants, comprising 49 late chronotype (LC) young adults and 49 matched early chronotype young adults. The Chronotype Questionnaire was utilized to assess morningness and eveningness preferences. Surface-based analysis of structural MRI data revealed that LC young adults exhibited thinner cortical thickness of left pars orbitalis and lower cortical mean curve of right paracentral gyrus. Overall, this study represents a significant advancement in elucidating the connection between brain structure and function within the context of chronotypes.

THE INDICATOR APPROACH TO ASSESSING THE ECONOMIC SECURITY OF ENTERPRISES

In the conditions of market instability, competitive pressure, financial crises and other external and internal challenges, an important component of the stability and development of the enterprise is economic security, which is the subject of research in the article. It was found that the assessment of economic security helps to adapt to the existing conditions and gives the ability to quickly eliminate various threats, which ensures the stable operation of the enterprise. The study of literature sources revealed that there are many methods for assessing the economic security of enterprises, but one of the most effective is the indicator approach. This approach is based on the analysis and interpretation of a number of key indicators that allow determining the state of various areas of the enterprise. The indicator approach is a systematic approach to assessing economic security by analyzing a set of indicators that reflect the state of the enterprise in key areas of its activity. Indicators are quantitative indicators that characterize the state of individual spheres of the enterprise's functioning and allow to evaluate them as a whole. The indicator approach is universal and can be adapted to the specifics of various industries and enterprises. This makes it an effective tool for a wide range of enterprises, regardless of their size, structure or field of activity. The assessment of economic security through indicators allows enterprise managers to make more accurate and well-founded management decisions, which contributes to strengthening their resistance to external and internal challenges. The application of the indicator approach not only increases the sustainability of the enterprise in the short term, but also contributes to the development of long-term strategies that take into account both current and future risks. The indicator approach allows for a comprehensive and systematic assessment of the state of economic security and covers key aspects of the enterprise's activity - financial, production, personnel, legal and other areas. This provides a deep understanding of the current state of the enterprise and its vulnerabilities. Depending on the significance of the threats and the subjective preferences of the authors and the specifics of the industry, the choice and method of grouping indicators for assessing the level of economic security of the enterprise differ significantly.

Research on optimal configuration of mobile energy storage in distribution networks considering various energy utilization efficiencies

The increasing integration of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar into the distribution grid introduces new complexities and instabilities to traditional electrical grids. This study tackles these challenges by optimizing the configurations of Modular Mobile Battery Energy Storage (MMBES) in urban distribution grids, particularly focusing on capacity-limited areas. Our method investigates five core attributes of energy storage configurations and develops a model capable of adapting to the uncertainties presented by extreme scenarios. This approach not only enhances the adaptability of energy storage systems but also equips decision-makers with proactive and flexible tools for decision-making in complex environments. Empirical evidence from the study shows that modular mobile energy storage significantly improves distribution grid performance by effectively managing the challenges posed by renewable integration. Furthermore, the research confirms that optimizing decision-makers’ cognitive parameters to align with subjective preferences ensures economic viability and enhances grid resilience. This study offers a new perspective and methodology for configuring energy storage, contributing to more flexible and reliable grid operations amidst widespread renewable integration.

Consumer Behavior in the Digital Marketplace: A Fuzzy Evaluation Approach

With the growing prevalence of the internet and the development of logistics, consumers face increasingly complex choices when shopping online. Therefore, this article introduces fuzzy comprehensive evaluation to address these shopping issues. In analyzing consumers' purchase decision-making problems for online shopping, it is essential to subjectively evaluate products, such as price, quality, and reputation. By constructing fuzzy relationships and assigning weights, this method effectively handles the ambiguity and uncertainty of evaluation information, reflecting consumers' subjective preferences in actual shopping decisions. This study concludes that quality is the dominant factor among numerous commodity factors,and it also established a shopping decision model, which aids consumers in making the best decisions during their shopping, thereby enhancing shopping efficiency and satisfaction. The results indicate that compared to traditional methods, this method can more accurately focus on consumer purchase intention and improve the understanding of shopping decisions. The paper summarizes the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation of its application value in shopping problems, pointing out that it can better simulate human fuzzy decision-making processes and provide a more practical shopping decision assistance tool. This study not only enriches the application of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation theory in consumer behavior research, but also provides consumers with a scientific and practical shopping decision support method.

On the influence of AVAS directivity on electric vehicle speed perception

Electric vehicles (EVs) typically produce minimal noise at low driving speeds, increasing the risk of accidents for pedestrians and other vulnerable road users. Therefore, regulations require EVs to use acoustic vehicle alerting systems (AVAS) that emit artificial warning sounds. Investigating the human response to these AVAS sounds requires laboratory listening experiments, often based on auralizations. One of the challenges when auralizing electric vehicles is to include AVAS radiation directivity. However, it is currently unknown how this directivity affects the perception of a vehicle passing by and whether an accurate reproduction is necessary for auralizations. We present a study on the influence of AVAS directivity on perceived vehicle speed, comparing different radiation patterns in combination with narrowband and tonal AVAS signals in a paired comparison listening experiment with 31 participants. The results show that AVAS radiation directivity can significantly influence the perception of vehicle pass-by speed, with a tendency for omnidirectional patterns to be perceived slower than more directional patterns. Additionally, most participants consistently rated either the tonal or the narrowband noise AVAS signal as faster throughout most comparisons. This indicates that AVAS signal type can affect vehicle speed perception with a subjective preference between tonal and narrowband noise AVAS.

Assessing Thermal Comfort in Hot and Humid (Tropical) Climates: Urban Outdoor and Semi-outdoor Conditions in Waiting Areas of Railway Stations

The global phenomenon of global warming has intensified thermal discomfort in tropical metropolitan areas, where rising temperatures and the urban heat island significantly impact outdoor and semi-outdoor environments. These effects are particularly pronounced in tropical metropolitan areas, where the hot and humid climate exacerbates thermal stress. Despite the critical need to understand thermal comfort in such settings, existing research remains limited. This study addresses the research gap by examining how global warming affects thermal comfort in outdoor and semi-outdoor urban spaces, providing insights into the unique challenges these environments present. The study sought to assess both objective physical data and subjective Thermal Sensation Votes (TSV) and preferences. The results suggest that the temperature neutrality needed for thermal comfort is 29.02°C (R2 = 0.95), and a temperature comfortable range of 23.84–30.79°C (R2 = 0.84) is within the acceptable comfort level. This range surpasses the current averages, emphasizing the importance of environmental enhancements for better thermal comfort. The regression analysis indicates that operational temperature (To), mean radiant temperature (Tmrt), and body mass index (BMI) are significant variables that may accurately predict thermal sensation. Furthermore, results indicate that individuals with a higher BMI often have a reduced ability to withstand elevated temperatures. This study emphasizes the need of considering both environmental and human factors in order to improve the human comfort level and quality of life.

An interactive iteration consensus based social network large-scale group decision making method and its application in zero-waste city evaluation

The construction of zero-waste (ZW) cities receives increasing attention from the Chinese government. The evaluation is essential to make policy variations according to the actual situation in each place. Previous assessments of ZW cities have primarily relied on historical data, which fails to account for the subjective preferences of various stakeholders. For example, it is challenging to capture residents' subjective opinions about the development of a ZW city. This paper presents a social network large-scale group decision-making method for evaluating the construction of ZW city. First, experts' evaluation opinions and trust relations are used to develop an improved clustering method. The weights of the clusters are then determined using internal-external cohesion indices and the number of experts, with experts' weights defined by their similarity-trust degree. An optimization model based on interactive iteration consensus is formulated, considering the fairness and rationality of allocation schemes. Additionally, a new social network large-scale group decision-making method is presented. Finally, the proposed method is illustrated with a case study of selecting a national-level ZW city in Jiangsu Province.

Tanulási zavarral küzdő tanulók érdemjegyei és tantárgyaik kedveltsége

In the study, based on the 2017 6th grade National Competence Measurement (NCM), we examine the average of the end-of-semester and end-of-the-year subject marks, as well as the diligence and behavior marks of children with learning disorder. In the research, we also discuss how children like different subjects depending on the existence of each learning disorders. In the research, we created seven categories (dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, dyslexia-dysgraphia, dyslexia-dyscalculia, dysgraphia-dyscalculia, and all three together) depending on how much and what kind of learning disorder the child suffers from. Based on our results depending on the learning disorders, there is indeed a difference in the child's subject performance as well as in his/her liking of the subject, so treating the learning disorders themselves in this way in a uniform manner based on the above-mentioned is not necessarily lucky. In relation to subject preferences, the majority of children do not like those subjects in which the particular learning disorder causes problems for them.

Subjective performance assessment protocol for visual explanations-based face verification explainability

The integration of Face Verification (FV) systems into multiple critical moments of daily life has become increasingly prevalent, raising concerns regarding the transparency and reliability of these systems. Consequently, there is a growing need for FV explainability tools to provide insights into the behavior of these systems. FV explainability tools that generate visual explanations, e.g., saliency maps, heatmaps, contour-based visualization maps, and face segmentation maps, show promise in enhancing FV transparency by highlighting the contributions of different face regions to the FV decision-making process. However, evaluating the performance of such explainability tools remains challenging due to the lack of standardized assessment metrics and protocols. In this context, this paper proposes a subjective performance assessment protocol for evaluating the explainability performance of visual explanation-based FV explainability tools through pairwise comparisons of their explanation outputs. The proposed protocol encompasses a set of key specifications designed to efficiently collect the subjects’ preferences and estimate explainability performance scores, facilitating the relative assessment of the explainability tools. This protocol aims to address the current gap in evaluating the effectiveness of visual explanation-based FV explainability tools, providing a structured approach for assessing their performance and comparing with alternative tools. The proposed protocol is exercised and validated through an experiment conducted using two distinct heatmap-based FV explainability tools, notably FV-RISE and CorrRISE, taken as examples of visual explanation-based explainability tools, considering the various types of FV decisions, i.e., True Acceptance (TA), False Acceptance (FA), True Rejection (TR), and False Rejection (FR). A group of subjects with variety in age, gender, and ethnicity was tasked to express their preferences regarding the heatmap-based explanations generated by the two selected explainability tools. The subject preferences were collected and statistically processed to derive quantifiable scores, expressing the relative explainability performance of the assessed tools. The experimental results revealed that both assessed explainability tools exhibit comparable explainability performance for FA, TR, and FR decisions with CorrRISE performing slightly better than FV-RISE for TA decisions.

Physical effort precrastination determines preference in an isometric task.

How the brain decides when to invest effort is a central question in neuroscience. When asked to walk a mile to a destination, would you choose a path with a hill at the beginning or the end? The traditional view of effort suggests we should be indifferent-all joules are equal so long as it does not interfere with accomplishing the goal. Yet, when total joules are equal across movement decisions, the brain's sensitivity to the temporal profile of effort investment remains poorly understood. Here, we sought to parse the interaction of time and physical effort by comparing subjective preferences in an isometric arm-pushing task that varied the duration and timing of high and low effort. Subjects were presented with a series of two-alternative forced choices, where they chose the force profile they would rather complete. Subjects preferred earlier physical effort (i.e., to precrastinate) but were idiosyncratic about preference for task timing. A model of subjective utility that includes physical effort costs, task costs, and independent temporal sensitivity factors described subject preferences best. Interestingly, deliberation time and response vigor covary with the same subjective utility model for preference, suggesting a utility that underlies both decision making and motor control. These results suggest physical effort costs are temporally sensitive, with earlier investment of effort preferred to later investment, and that the representation of effort is based on not only the total energy required but also when it is required to invest that energy.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We use a novel paradigm that differentiates physical effort costs, task costs, and time, where subjects choose between isometric arm-pushing tasks. Subjects prefer high physical effort earlier than later. They also decide faster and respond more vigorously the greater their preference. We find a generalizable subjective utility model that includes independent time-sensitivity of physical effort and task costs. Together, we demonstrate that subjective effort includes not only the total effort invested but also its timing.

Kairos positive airway pressure (KPAP) equals continuous PAP in effectiveness, and offers superior comfort for obstructive sleep apnea treatment

Study objectivesA recent study challenged the prevailing clinical view that maintaining inspiratory positive airway pressure (IPAP) is necessary for upper airway patency, demonstrating no differences in apnea hypopnea index (AHI) between continuous PAP (CPAP) with and without a resistor to reduce IPAP. In this study, we assessed the effect of Kairos PAP (KPAP), a new algorithm which features multiple drops in IPAP, only returning to therapeutic pressure near the end expiration, on sleep apnea severity and subjective comfort. MethodsTwo randomized clinical trials were conducted. In the Efficacy trial, the effect of KPAP vs. CPAP on AHI in PAP-treated OSA patients was examined using a split-night design, adjusting for period, sequence and fraction of supine sleep (mixed models). Unintentional leak differences between treatments were also examined. Exploratory analyses assessed the effect of KPAP vs. CPAP on key polysomnography outcomes. In the Comfort trial, we tested subjective preference for KPAP vs. CPAP at 9 and 13 cmH2O in PAP-naïve OSA patients. ResultsIn the Efficacy trial (N = 48), KPAP reduced AHI more than CPAP (mean difference [95%CI]: −0.5 [−0.8, −0.2] events/h, P = 0.007). Unintentional leak was also reduced by over 50 % (−2.5 [−3.2, −1.7] L/min, P < 0.001). No significant change was observed in the exploratory variables assessed. In the Comfort trial (N = 150), 69 [61, 77] % and 84 [77, 89] % of participants preferred KPAP over CPAP at 9 and 13 cmH2O, respectively (P < 0.001). ConclusionsKPAP is as effective as CPAP in reducing respiratory events, but is more comfortable and potentially better tolerated.

"It's Different for Girls!" The Role of Anxiety, Physiological Arousal, and Subject Preferences in Primary School Children's Math and Mental Rotation Performance.

(1) Background: This study examines the role of subjective anxiety (mathematics and spatial anxiety), along with physiological responses, in mathematics or math and mental rotation performance in 131 German primary school students (65 girls, 66 boys; Mean age = 8.73 years). (2) Method: Students' preference for math vs. German and their subjective anxiety were assessed using standardized questionnaires. Emotional reactivity was measured using the Galvanic Skin Response (GSR). Math performance was evaluated via percentage scored and completion times on number line estimation, word problems, and missing terms tasks. Spatial skills were assessed using a novel mental rotation task (nMRT) incorporating gender-congruent and -neutral stimuli. (3) Results: Girls outperformed boys on percentage scored on the math task but took longer to complete this. No gender differences were found in performance on the nMRT. Girls demonstrated higher math anxiety and were less likely to prefer math over German. Math anxiety predicted math scores and accuracy on the nMRT while gender predicted math performance and mental rotation response time. Subject preference was associated with longer completion times and emotional reactivity with longer response times. Girls' preference for math and lower emotional reactivity was linked to shorter completion times, while lower math anxiety predicted higher scores. In contrast, these factors did not affect boys' math performance. Additionally, subjective anxiety, emotional reactivity, or subject preference did not impact spatial performance for either gender. (4) Conclusions: Supporting mathematical self-efficacy and emotional regulation, especially in girls, is crucial for enhancing STEM outcomes in primary education. Gender-fair assessment in mental rotation reveals equitable spatial performance and reduces the impact of anxiety.

Effects of Self-Learning and Exploration for XR-based Interactions

This research explores the overtime learning trends of multimodal gaze-based interactions in tasks involving the movement of augmented objects within extended reality (XR) environments. This study employs three interactions, including two multimodal gaze-based approaches, and compares them with an unimodal hand-based interaction. The underlying hypothesis posits that gaze-based interactions outperform other modalities, promising improved performance, lower learnability rates, and enhanced efficiency. These assertions serve as the foundation for investigating the dynamics of self-learning and exploration within XR-based environments. To this end, the study addresses questions related to the temporal evolution of learnability, post-learning efficiency, and users’ subjective preferences regarding these interaction modalities. This research shows that gaze-based interactions enhance performance, exhibit a lower learnability rate, and demonstrate higher efficiency compared to an unimodal hand-based interaction. Our results contribute to the design and refinement of more effective, user-friendly, and adaptive XR user interfaces.

The choice of optimal therapy for ER+ HER2-metastatic breast cancer (PROMETHEUS): all-Russian analysis of physicians’ preferences – updated survey results

Cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitors (iCDK4/6) are the generally accepted standard of care for the treatment of luminal HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer (ER+HER2- mBC). Data from randomized and observational studies have proven the high effectiveness of the combination of iCDK4/6 and endocrine therapy (ET) both in the 1st and in subsequent lines. The use of new drugs in real clinical practice is determined by a number of factors, including the awareness of doctors, their personal experience and subjective preferences, as well as financial support and availability in a particular region. To assess the frequency of prescription of CDK4/6, as well as other types of treatment in the 1st‑2nd line of therapy for ER+ HER2- mBC in real clinical practice in Russia, as well as to determine the factors and preferences of doctors influencing their choice, the National Association of Oncomammologists (NAOM) conducted a survey “Prometheus” of oncology specialists. From February 15 to August 30, 2023, a web survey of healthcare professionals who treat patients with mBC was conducted on the website anketolog.ru. An invitation to survey was sent out through the NAOM database, 112 questionnaires were received and processed. Earlier, in 2020, the “Prometheus” survey was conducted on the territory of the Russian Federation for a similar purpose. In this paper, we present the results of an updated and expanded survey and evaluate changes that have occurred over the past 3 years in actual clinical practice. The results of a 2023 survey conducted in the Russian Federation on the choice of early-line therapy for ER+HER2- mBC showed that, compared with the 2020 survey, the level of “trust” in iCDK4/6 has increased among practicing physicians, and the indications for their use have expanded, including visceral metastases (and even pending visceral crisis), the indications for prescribing chemotherapy in the 1st line have narrowed. When using monoET in the 1st line, the majority of respondents prescribe iCDK4/6 in the 2nd line. Obviously, the wider use of iCDK4/6 is associated not only with the accumulation of clinical knowledge and experience in the use of drugs, but also with improved drug supply. However, the main limitations to the use of iCDK4/6 are still insufficient funding and organizational difficulties. However, it should be noted that 1/5 of the respondents do not face any restrictions and widely prescribe combination therapy.

Does Blacklight Illumination Improve Speed and Accuracy of Foot Pedal Activation in the Low-Light Operating Room?

Background: Urologists frequently activate foot pedals in a low-light operating room (OR). Pedal activation in low-light conditions poses the potential for incorrect pedal activation, potentially leading to increased radiation exposure, patient burns, or OR fires. This study compares speed, accuracy, dark adaptation, and surgeon preference for pedal activation in 4 lighting conditions. Materials and Methods: During a simulated percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), pedals for C-arm, laser, and ultrasonic lithotripter (USL) were randomized to 3 different positions. Urology attendings, residents, and medical students activated pedals in a randomized order in 4 settings: a dark OR with no illumination, an OR with overhead illumination, a dark OR with glowstick illumination, and a dark OR with blacklight illumination. Endpoints included pedal activation time; number of attempted, incomplete, and incorrect activations; dark adaptation; and subjective pedal preference. ANOVA was used for analysis with p < 0.05 considered significant. Results: In our study with 20 participants, the mean pedal activation times were significantly faster when using glowstick illumination (6.77 seconds) and blacklight illumination (5.34 seconds) compared with the no illumination arm (8.47 seconds, p < 0.001). Additionally, individual pedal activations for the C-arm, laser, and USL were significantly faster with glowstick and blacklight illumination compared with a dark OR (p < 0.001 for all). The blacklight illumination arm demonstrated decreased attempted (0.30 vs. 3.45, p < 0.001), incomplete (1.25 vs. 7.75, p < 0.001), and incorrect activations (0.35 vs. 1.25, p < 0.001) compared with the dark setting, while demonstrating no difference compared with having room lights on. Dark adaptation was significantly improved with blacklight illumination compared with having the room lights on (134.5 vs. 140.5 luminance, p < 0.001). All participants (100%) preferred illuminated pedals compared with the dark OR, with 90% favoring the blacklight illumination. Conclusions: During a simulated PCNL, blacklight illumination significantly improved accuracy and efficiency of pedal activation compared with the conventional dark OR, while maintaining the surgeon's dark adaptation.

Perceived Quality in the Automotive Industry: Do Car Exterior and Interior Color Combinations Have an Impact?

Since in the automotive field colors play an important role, the present study tried to answer the following questions: is the perceived quality (PQ) of the vehicle interior color different after visually exploring the car body color? If so, how? Here, exploiting immersive virtual reality simulations and eye-tracking technology, participants were asked to visually explore an unbranded car in different exterior/interior color combinations and rate its PQ. Fixation duration (time eyes are fixed on a target) was considered as an implicit measure of visual attention allocation while PQ evaluations were considered as explicit measures of individual preferences for car colors. As for eye-tracking data, the results showed that white and red car exteriors affected the attention to interiors with the fixation duration being longer for gray than black interiors. Moreover, the subjective evaluations of car PQ predicted eye-tracking patterns: as the negative evaluation increased, the fixation duration on car interiors also increased. Overall, these preliminary results suggested the need to further explore the relationship between PQ and attentional/motivational processing as well as the role of subjective aesthetic preferences for color combinations in the automotive field.

Sectoral recommendation system for medium term investment using technical indicators

Stocks of different companies are generally categorized into various industrial sectors based on the domain they operate. Individual stock prices are much more difficult to predict, and an investment bears a significant risk of unanticipated failure while thematic investment allows diversification within a sector and hence avoids the risk of failure of a single stock. In thematic investment, a user identifies one or more industrial sectors based on thematic preference and then distributes the corpus among various stocks from those sectors. If sectors are chosen wisely then it is possible to have a positive return even with the sudden downfall of some stock. To identify the sectors that will yield a positive return in the medium term, we have selected ten technical indicators (TI), and designed backpropagation neural networks (BPNN) with scaled conjugate gradient learning. We have evaluated the BPNN models with 12 sectoral index price history from NSE and achieved a comparable accuracy of 81.05% in prediction. In the next step, we have predicted sectoral index movement for one month to six months in the future, and based on the predicted gains we ranked the sectors. Based on the given investment horizon, top-k(=4) sectors are recommended to an investor. We validated our strategy on NSE sectoral data and achieved a recommendation accuracy of 87.5%.

Латентные социальные группы: феномен, эволюция, перспективы исследования

&lt;p style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Purpose of the study: to study and describe the phenomenon of LSG (latent social groups). Hypotheses: 1) The basis for the emergence of LSG as pre-forms are the subjective preferences of a person (&amp;ldquo;deep&amp;rdquo; personal formations formed by the conditions of the internal and external environment). 2) A person&amp;rsquo;s subjective preferences are factors that predetermine the possibility, likelihood and closeness of his connections with other people in the processes of formation and evolution of social groups. Methods: category-theoretic analysis, study of literary sources; author&amp;rsquo;s methodology (questionnaire &amp;ldquo;Dynamics of professional life style&amp;rdquo;: respondents assessed the role of social environmental conditions as &amp;ldquo;factors of professionalism&amp;rdquo;, the dynamics of their professionalism from 20 to 65 years old. 482 men and women aged 30-50 years were interviewed (M=39.9; SD=7.6; 132 civil servants, 129 engineers, 221 managers). The sample was divided into groups by gender, job position of the subjects, subjective significance of environmental conditions as &amp;ldquo;factors of professionalism.&amp;rdquo; The results of the study confirm the working hypotheses. Features of the formation of LSG in the continuum are highlighted successive spheres of human life; the definition.&lt;/p&gt;

Nursing students' perspectives on peer assessment in basic nursing procedures: A qualitative study

BackgroundTraditionally, the assessment of student nursing skills relies heavily on lecturer evaluations. However, lecturers, as the primary evaluators, may be influenced by their individual subjective preferences, experience, and knowledge background. This limitation needs thorough consideration to improve students' assessment skills and ensure that assessment tasks are more objective and accurate. Peer assessment appears to take it into account. Currently, improving the quality of peer assessment in Basic Nursing skills remains a challenge for educators. AimTo assess the effectiveness of peer assessment as applied to the basic nursing skills examination process and suggestions for improvement, to understand nursing students' perceptions of it, and to explore the feasibility of peer assessment as an alternative to single faculty assessment as perceived by nursing students. DesignQualitative research. SettingsConducted in a clinical skills simulation laboratory at a university in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China. Participants23 Second-year nursing students applying peer assessment to Basic Nursing course exams. MethodsUsed face-to-face, semi-structured interviews, and thematic analysis to analyze data. ResultsThree major themes and nine subthemes were identified: (1) Positive sentiments towards peer evaluation (e.g., enhancing the learning capacity, increasing emotional intelligence, and improving the objectivity and fairness of nursing skills assessment); (2) Challenges encountered in the peer evaluation process (e.g., inconsistent scoring criteria, exacerbate anxiety, and triggering team conflict); (3) Suggestions for improving peer evaluation (e.g., applying the design of peer assessment exam content, incorporation of lecturer evaluation, and refinement and materialization of marking criteria). ConclusionsIn this study, while the positive impact is evident, the challenges faced by nursing students and future recommendations for peer assessment application are critical. This study provides valuable insights into the potential of peer assessment to enhance nursing education and provides recommendations for optimizing peer assessment strategies for meaningful integration into Nursing Education practice.

The influence of externality in the graph model for conflict resolution under fuzzy preferences

The Graph Model for Conflict Resolution (GMCR) is a flexible and comprehensive methodology for systematically investigating strategic conflicts. However, most existing studies solely focus on internal conflicts among decision makers (DMs), often disregarding the influence of external stakeholders (ESs) on DMs’ preferences. Consequently, this leads to insufficient stability in equilibrium outcomes. The objective of this study is to address the conflict issue faced by DMs with subjective uncertain preferences who are influenced by externality. Building upon the framework of GMCR, this study proposes the graph model for conflict resolution with fuzzy preference based on externality (FEGMCR) which introduces fuzzy numbers to measure both uncertain preferences of DMs and uncertain expectations of ESs. Furthermore, four forms of stability are extended-- Fuzzy Nash Stability based on externality (FER), Fuzzy General Metarationality based on externality (FEGMR), Fuzzy Symmetric Metarationality based on externality (FESMR), and Fuzzy Sequential Stability based on externality (FESEQ). The optimal equilibrium is achieved by dynamically adjusting the weight of the impact of externalities. Finally, the method is applied to the case of plastic ban in Hainan. It is found that the expectations of ESs do change the preferences of DMs and affect the final equilibrium, which provides a sustainable solution for the issue.