Today's Complex World Research Articles

A research paper on software design patterns

This article affords another exhaustive examination of software design patterns, discussing their importance, the classification system, and the influence on software architecture and design. It looks at how existing practices handle predictable problems, make things more easily serviceable, and increase developer collaboration. The article goes further and explains the use of design patterns and elaborates on real-life examples of design patterns and the difficulties and drawbacks of using them. Further, it expands on future possibilities, such as applying design patterns for cloud-new architectures, AI incorporation, serverless, and Agile/DevOps. From these trends, the article lays down the argument that design patterns are not insulated from change but are continually being adapted to fit into the software development processes of today's complex and sophisticated world and that to be relevant in the designing of today's complex, large and intelligent software-based systems, developers should be familiar with both the recognized and emergent design patterns.

Enriching coaching ethics with philosophical ethics and interculturalism

Abstract: While recognizing that current coaching codes of ethics offer useful guidance, this article calls for a deeper ethical reflection in the face of planetary challenges. It advocates for the integration of philosophical ethics and interculturalism, encouraging coaches to challenge assumptions and broaden their perspectives. The exploration includes deontological and teleological ethical theories, referring notably to the pioneering contributions of Immanuel Kant, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and Aristotle. This article argues that coaching cannot be ethical without being engaged toward sustainable development (spelled out in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). Furthermore, it introduces intercultural coaching, proposing the Cultural Orientations Framework (COF) to navigate cultural variations, which are often ignored in current coaching ethics. Ultimately, it asserts that a comprehensive approach, incorporating diverse ethical perspectives and cultural considerations, and a commitment to sustainability, is crucial for ethical coaching in today's complex and turbulent world.

Geopolitical Dynamics in the 21st Century: Revisiting the Heartland Theory's Relevance

In today's complex world of global geopolitics, the enduring ideas of the Heartland Theory by Sir Halford Mackinder have provoked a critical examination of its relevance. This research paper explores how these ideas fit into today's changing world. The Heartland Theory suggests that the big piece of land in Eurasia can give country lots of power. This paper looks closely at this idea and how it started when different countries were competing for power in the past. But now, the world's geopolitical arenas have changed a lot including technological revolutions, economic interdependence, and the ascent of new power players. These changes challenge what the Heartland Theory first said. The study also looks at real-life examples to see where the Heartland Theory fits with today's events and where it might not fit well. It also underscores the challenges posed by non-state actors, globalization, and evolving power structures. In conclusion, while the Heartland Theory remains a crucial landmark in geopolitical thought, its interpretation in the 21st century demands adaptation to encompass the intricate interplay of economic, technological, and non-territorial factors shaping global affairs.

Navigating moral minefields in a VUCA world: the contribution of moral foundations theory to strategic communication research and practice

PurposeIn today's volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world, organizations deal with fragmented publics in contested public spheres. At the core, public opinion is not so much divided by issues per se but by deeply rooted moral concerns. Hence, while normative perspectives on morality prevail in strategic communication research, understanding the moral motives of stakeholders and publics from a descriptive standpoint becomes vital. In this light, the present conceptual paper discusses the implications of moral foundations theory (MFT), as an influential evolutionary-anthropological approach to morality, for strategic communication research and practice.Design/methodology/approachAdopting micro-, meso- and macro-perspectives, MFT's potential contribution to strategic communication research is explored regarding three foci: (1) moral framing, (2) narratives and (3) public discourse dynamics.FindingsThe paper concludes that frames and more complex narratives in strategic communication allude to MFT's five foundations – care, fairness, loyalty, authority and purity – in diverse ways and are given different readings by stakeholders and publics. Building on MFT, novel empirical tools are available to access and understand the complex web of moral meaning infused in public discourses.Originality/valueFor the first time, MFT is discussed systematically and in detail in the context of strategic communication research. The theory contributes to deepening the understanding of the conditions, e.g. for issues management and strategic mobilization. On broader view, this paper adds to the discussion on evolutionary perspectives in strategic communication research.

How does the modern home environment impact children's mathematics knowledge? Evidence from Canadian elementary children's digital home numeracy practice (DHNP)

AbstractBackgroundA strong knowledge of mathematics, beginning at the elementary level, is critical for participation in today's complex world. The home may be one way to facilitate individualized mathematics instruction, given that children spend more time at home than in an academic institution. Therefore, researchers are interested to see whether the home numeracy environment (HNE) can provide a solid foundation for children's mathematics understanding. Further, children's digital mathematics exploration at home is increasingly common (e.g., using math apps).ObjectivesThe present study evaluates the digital home numeracy practice (DHNP) model and explores its effect on children's mathematics knowledge across five domains (numeration, number operation, pattern recognition, spatial sense, and applied problem‐solving).MethodsTo conduct this study, 117 Canadian parents and their children from Grade 1 through 5 completed a DHNP survey and a range of in‐person mathematics measures.Results and ConclusionsThe results identified significant relations between parents and children's implicit mathematics factors (e.g., math anxiety, motivation). Children's mathematics anxiety and parents' academic estimations and expectations for their children positively predicted children's mathematics knowledge. In terms of DHNP components, parental involvement in DHNP predicted children's numeration and applied problem‐solving knowledge.ImplicationsTaken together, the results detail the contribution of parental and child factors to children's mathematics knowledge and suggest that parents adjust their role in DHNP according to their children's mathematics ability.

Analysis of the Causes and Countermeasures of the Escalation of Sino-US Trade Friction

Since 2018, the United States has ignored international trade rules on the grounds of trade deficits and other reasons, implemented protectionism and unilateralism, provoked Sino-US trade frictions, and caused widespread international concern. In today's complex and changing world economic landscape, the trend from one super-multi-strong situation to multi-polarization is gradually deepening, and the hegemonic position of the United States is gradually threatened. By studying the U.S. intention to launch a trade war against China, the causes of the escalation of trade frictions, and coping strategies, this article discusses how China will do under the situation that the United States has rashly violated the WTO rules, launched a Sino-US trade war, and forced China to fight back To protect their own interests and promote mutual benefit and win-win development, the two countries have proposed corresponding countermeasures and countermeasures, with a view to providing a valuable reference for countries seeking to peacefully develop trade exchanges to maximize their benefits.

Applications of deep learning into supply chain management: a systematic literature review and a framework for future research.

In today’s complex and ever-changing world, Supply Chain Management (SCM) is increasingly becoming a cornerstone to any company to reckon with in this global era for all industries. The rapidly growing interest in the application of Deep Learning (a class of machine learning algorithms) in SCM, has urged the need for an up-to-date systematic review on the research development. The main purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive vision by reviewing a set of 43 papers about applications of Deep Learning (DL) methods to the SCM, as well as the trends, perspectives, and potential research gaps. This review uses content analysis to answer three research questions namely: 1- What SCM problems have been solved by the use of DL techniques? 2- What DL algorithms have been used to solve these problems? 3- What alternative algorithms have been used to tackle the same problems? And do DL outperform these methods and through which evaluation metrics? This review also responds to this call by developing a conceptual framework in a value-adding perspective that provides a full picture of areas on where and how DL can be applied within the SCM context. This makes it easier to identify potential applications to corporations, in addition to potential future research areas to science. It might also provide businesses a competitive advantage over their competitors by allowing them to add value to their data by analyzing it quickly and precisely.

The Relevance of Critical Thinking from the Perspective of Professional Training

In today's complex world, influenced by information bombardment and rapid technological development, professional training cannot remain limited to the idea of passing knowledge. There is a need to shift the students’ view towards the true spirit of research, which targets the scientific thought on certain social phenomena, and to form critical thinking skills to produce effective individuals in the current labour market, who not only receive information, but go further and analyze problems in the workplace, presenting solutions to identified problems and applying these solutions in concrete situations. For this reason, critical thinking is considered a top skill, being highly appreciated by the business world and organizations. But to think critically is a capacity that does not develop by itself, it must be practiced and encouraged in a correct learning environment. Critical thinking has become one of the most important educational goals, which must be achieved by the different educational institutions through all the programs studied by students in the different educational cycles, but also by students in the university environment. Starting from this, this article analyses the types of specific actions which target the introduction of the abilities of critical thinking in the training activities in Romania, and in society in its entirety, by identifying the setbacks encountered, and the limits of such an endeavour.

Computational Intelligence Equipment Improves Economic Science Using Methods And Tools

In a globalised world and in knowledge-based economies, every authentic person needs very specialised skills in economics. A special situation arises for entrepreneurs, because they have to face new demands when doing business. Mainstream economics is untrue in terms of the scientific needs of methodological and ontological approaches, also their fragmentation of the economies in question ignoring their integrity and their implicit order, using only a simple mechanical world view. Primary endosomatic economic knowledge produced in universities and research institutes can be explicated and recorded using ICT and CI for easier distribution and dissemination in a community of broad-based contemporary potential users. However, this is not sufficient for the effective survival of a national economic organism in today's complex world. The most difficult problem is to achieve rapid, high quality and efficient secondary endosomatic knowledge creation by all potential users, i.e. current users and certified experts together. This paper provides a framework for understanding the very important task of creating new economic knowledge for competitive success in a highly challenging environment, while demonstrating, through several examples, possible ways and methods for implementing fast and high quality and efficient devices, tools and methods to achieve these goals. Specifically, the author focuses general attention on devices, tools, and methods that provide advanced computational intelligence results. In this article, we do not explore the creation of new knowledge in the education system, but focus our attention on the contemporary selfcreation of new knowledge by authentic persons, aided by new emerging devices and methods primarily using ICT, the Internet, specialized software, simple computational intelligence products and services, and cognitive science tools for these purposes.

A Hybrid Group Weighting Method based on the Borda and the Group Best Worst Method with application for digital development indicators

Group decision-making is one of the most important topics in decision-making theory. In today's complex world, when there are a large number of conflicting criteria, it is difficult for a decision maker (DM) to make decisions considering all aspects of a problem. The quality of the decision is determined by the level of knowledge and experience of the DM. In order to incorporate as much experience and knowledge as possible, it was passed from the decision made by one DM to a decision made by a group of DMs. This passage has increased the complexity of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methods that use groups of DMs. In the present paper a Hybrid Group Weighting Method (HGWM) based on the Borda Method and the Group Best Worst Method (GBWM) for determining weights of a set of criteria is proposed. For the choice of the best and the weakest criteria, by a group of experts/DMs, Borda Method is applied. These criteria (best and worst) are used in GBWM, by every expert from the group, to calculate the individual criteria weights. The final criteria weights are computed as a combination of the individual criteria weights. An application of the HGWM is made for obtaining the weights of indicators from a set of Digital Development Indicators (DDIs). The proposed hybrid method may provide support for group decision making in multi-criteria problems.

Why 4-Year College Graduates are Not Reflecting the Best Ethical and Moral Leadership Behavior

In today's complex and ever-changing world, ethical and moral leadership is crucial for the development and progress of society. However, it has become increasingly evident that many 4-year college graduates are not reflecting the best ethical and moral leadership behavior. This article explores the reasons behind this phenomenon, including the shortcomings of the traditional college education system, the influence of external factors, and the lack of emphasis on character development. The conventional college education system often prioritizes technical skills over ethical development, leading to a gap in ethical leadership abilities among graduates. Moreover, external influences such as cultural and societal norms, media, and corporate impact on education can shape individuals' values and behaviors, potentially undermining ethical leadership qualities. Additionally, the limited exposure to real-world ethical challenges during college further hinders the development of ethical decision-making skills and moral reasoning abilities. To address these issues, the need for comprehensive reform in the college education system. This includes incorporating ethics education and character development programs into the curriculum, providing experiential learning opportunities that expose students to real-world ethical dilemmas, and promoting ethical role modeling and mentorship. Institutions should evaluate and assess the effectiveness of their ethical leadership development initiatives to ensure continuous improvement. The article also suggested strengthening ethical leadership development, equipping individuals with the necessary skills, knowledge, and values to navigate complex ethical challenges. This, in turn, will contribute to cultivating a new generation of ethical leaders who inspire trust, promote integrity, and foster a more honest and morally conscious world.

Mengelola Konflik di Tempat Kerja: Apa dan Bagaimana?

An organization cannot avoid conflict. Individual characteristics and the types and pressures of work can lead to conflict in organizations. Conflict occurs when the desires of two or more people are incompatible. Likewise, the will of one organization that is different from another can also lead to conflict. Some individuals or groups can benefit from confrontation if it is appropriately resolved. Conflict management refers to handling disputes or disagreements constructively and effectively. Conflict management aims to minimize negative consequences and maximize positive outcomes for all parties involved. Effective conflict management involves identifying the root causes of conflict, fostering open communication, and implementing strategies to deal with the problems. Successful conflict management can lead to improved relationships, increased productivity, and increased organizational performance. However, ineffective conflict management can lead to prolonged conflicts, damaged relationships, and reduced morale. Therefore, understanding and practicing practical conflict management skills is essential for individuals and organizations to succeed in today's complex and interconnected world.

The Forum Landscape, Alps, Parks (FoLAP)

Science-based decision-making—even if not favored by all political forces—is a must in finding sustainable solutions in today's complex world. But how can this process be made more effective? We at the Forum Landscape, Alps, Parks (FoLAP) believe that science-based decision-making is successful only if it is embedded in a well-mediated dialogue between science and practice. In addition, when land use decisions are at stake, “landscape” seems to be the relevant spatial dimension to engage people in a dialogue about their living environment and to achieve sustainable land use solutions.

Flexible leadership – the key to a successful practice

Exceptional leadership is key to the long‐term sustainability of the veterinary sector, yet there is still little understanding of the skills and behaviours required for effective leadership within the profession. The increasing levels of burnout, stress and depression within the profession combined with the effects of the Covid‐19 pandemic and the challenges thrown up by today's volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world means that many veterinary businesses are left with a toxic cocktail of issues to overcome. This article, the second in a series on leadership, highlights what is required of successful leaders in the veterinary profession.

FUNCTIONAL AND PLANNING ORGANIZATION OF SPORT AND EDUCATIONAL COMPLEXES

In today's dynamic and complex world, as never before, the design of multifunctional complexes is relevant in architectural activities. Their multifunctionality determine the development of new typological structures. Accordingly, there was a need to design a new type of multifunctional complexes, namely sports and educational complexes, which would combine training and sports in one building or group of buildings.
 The analysis of foreign and domestic experience of designing typologically similar complexes showed that sports and educational complexes are conditionally divided into two groups: complexes with a dominant educational function and complexes with a dominant sports function.
 On the basis of the comparative analysis of designed complexes it is possible to draw conclusions about existence of certain common and different receptions of the functional-planning organization depending on whether the sports or educational function dominates.
 There are several types of locking schemes for different functional zones:
 - blocked complexes with adjacent arrangement of different functional blocks (either horizontally or at different levels);
 - location of functional blocks in separately located buildings;
 - mixed type.
 The modern sports and educational complex should be designed taking into account the needs of young people, as well as complex economic circumstances, which in turn involves the application of the principles of compactness, functional flexibility and versatility. Foreign experience in designing such facilities shows that cultural and business components are also involved in sports and educational functions, which will ensure the profitability of such a public institution and the possibility of its location in valuable areas in the city center.

Concepts affecting cultural development with a focus on creating creative classes in children and adolescents from the elite university professors and educational managers working in the Ministry of Education in the first half of the academic year 2016-2017 (Case study: Ministry of Education)

In today's complex world where we see intense competition from different societies to acquire the latest technology and resources, intelligent creative class and highly intelligent and creative teachers and new thinkers and divergent thinking as the most valuable assets have a very high and valuable position. The aim of the present study is to investigate the concepts affecting cultural development with a focus on creating creative classes in children and adolescents. For this purpose, in this development-applied research, the mentioned concepts were extracted and then agreed by delphi phase method and this consensus was reached with the presence of 11 elite university professors and educational managers working in the Ministry of Education in the first half of the academic year 2016-2017. 48 main concepts - derived from the literature of the subject - with two rounds of polls, finally with 29 concepts / variables as the final components of cultural development with a focus on creating creative class in children and adolescents reached the consensus of Delphi panel members. The findings confirm that for Delphi panel members, among the components of cultural development, the highest priority is the component of preserving cultural values and the component of cultural management at the international, national and local levels is the lowest average, and among the components of the creative class, the highest priority is given to the component of talent and creative thinking and the component of ontology is the lowest average.

An Optimization Model for Closed-Loop Supply Chain Scheduling Problem

In today's complex world and in order to increase competitiveness, planners in the manufacturing systems have focused on product distribution and collection of used products. In this paper, the closed-loop supply chain scheduling problem is investigated for the first time. A comprehensive and integrated model is presented for production scheduling, delivering products to retailers using limited-capacity vehicles, and pick-upping end of life products in order to recycle and reuse in supply chain. The aim of this problem is to minimize maximum tardiness. Due to the fact that this problem is NP-hard, a genetic algorithm is presented to solve the large-size instances by obtaining near-optimal solutions. To illustrate the importance of the problem under consideration, a case study of the motor oil supply chain is presented.

Peer Tutoring as A Best Practice of Accounting Learning in Vocational Education

This study attempts to investigate the use of peer tutoring and to assest the effectiveness of peer tutoring in accounting learning, State Polytechnic of Malang. A descriptive research approach with case study was employed in this research. The information gathered by documentation, observation and in depth interview. The accounting learning was done by the author with apllying same age peer tutoring (co-peer). The findings revealed that peer tutoring is a very effective learning strategy both to tutors and tutees. Tutors feels happy, proud, and satisfied when the lecturers trust them to give the material in front of their friends. Whereas the tutees feel more comfortable because the learning activities has become more relaxed and not strained, the students have been brave to ask more question. Peer tutoring has improve the academic achievement, communication skill, responsibilities, patience, empathy, sympathy, and strengthening the social skills both to tutors and tutees. As we know that these all skills were very needed in the world life. The author suggest that it should be utilized within the premises of the educational institutions. It is a must for polytechnic students to be equipped with such ability given that it has a great impact towards their future career development. The graduates are believed to be able to perform productively in the society with this ability, notwithstanding what contexts they are in. This is to assure that they would be able to function in line with the complex world of today.

Personal Development Planning of the UK Students: Implementation Models

The aim of the article is to show the ways of the UK students’ personal development as one of the higher school answers to the challenges of the complex world of today, whose only certainty is constant change. The programme of personal development is aimed at preparing students for their future life and profession, ensuring their adaptation to the constantly changing conditions. On the basis of the analysis and comparison of the experience of three different British universities, three main implementation models of students’ personal development plans are defined. They are characterized by the type of the dominant orientation: professional, employment or academic. The professional model type was strongly influenced by the requirements of professional bodies such as health care professional bodies, and statutory bodies. The second model type, which is focused on employment, included a general orientation to graduate employment as well as specific work placement during the process of study. This model was associated with such areas as: management and business, sport and leisure, as well as those areas of applied science and engineering where the course focus was mainly towards employment rather than the discipline itself. The third – academic – model was focused on the student’s academic development. Its realization facilitated the development of metacognitive skills and the skills related to the specific subject discipline. The models presented in the article may serve as an instrument for the analysis of higher education individualization practices, and for the designing of flexible learning programmes, which take into account students’ individual abilities and learning needs.

Creating a Recommender System to Support Higher Education Students in the Subject Enrollment Decision

Higher Education plays a principal role in the changing and complex world of today, and there has been rapid growth in the scientific literature dedicated to predicting students' academic success or risk of dropout thanks to advances in Data Mining techniques. Degrees such as Computer Science in particular are in ever greater demand. Although the number of students has increased, the number graduating is still not enough to provide society with as many as it requires. This study contributes to reversing this situation by introducing an approach that not only predicts the dropout risk or students' performance but takes action to help both students and educational institutions. The focus is on maximizing graduation rates by constructing a Recommender System to assist students with their selection of subjects. In particular, the challenge is addressed of constructing reliable Recommender Systems on the basis of data which are both sparse and few in quantity, imbalanced, and anonymized, and which might have been stored under imperfect conditions. This approach is successfully applied to create a Recommender System using a real-world dataset from a public Spanish university containing performance data of a Computer Science degree course, demonstrating its successful application in real environments. The construction of a support system based on that approach is described, its results are evaluated, and its implications for students' academic achievement, and for institutions' graduation rates are discussed. Through the construction of this decision support system for students, we intend to increase the graduation rates and lower the dropout rate.