Unpredictable Situations Research Articles

Role of personality, coping and mindfulness in adaptation to complex or unpredictable situations in special forces

Les opérations militaires se déroulent dans des contextes dont la complexité et l’imprévisibilité ne cessent d’augmenter. Elles confrontent les opérateurs militaires aux limites de leurs capacités d’adaptation. Cette étude vise à identifier le rôle des facteurs de personnalité, des styles de coping et des dispositions à la pleine conscience dans la gestion des situations imprévisibles. La performance adaptative de 72 candidats au GIGN (Groupement d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale) a été évaluée par les instructeurs de cette unité d’élite pendant le stage de sélection, durant lequel ces candidats étaient confrontés à diverses situations imprévisibles. Les facteurs conatifs ont été mesurés à l’aide de questionnaires. De faibles niveaux de névrosisme et de coping orienté vers les émotions, ainsi qu’un haut niveau de disposition à la pleine conscience multiplient par 5 à 9 les chances de réussite à la sélection. Les résultats confirment l’intérêt d’étudier le rôle des facteurs conatifs, notamment des dispositions de pensée dans la performance adaptative. Le développement de nouveaux programmes de formation visant à renforcer les capacités d’adaptation des opérateurs militaires confrontés à des situations imprévisibles est discuté.

Team communication patterns during real and simulated trauma resuscitation—a social network analysis

In trauma teams, coordination can be established through a centralised leader. The team can also use a decentralised strategy. In this descriptive study of video-recorded trauma resuscitations, using quantification of qualitative data, Social Network analysis of all real-time communications of eight in-real-life (IRL) and simulated trauma teams explained team social structure. The communication network structures in the simulated scenarios were more centralised using individually directed speech and had a high proportion of communication to update all team members. Such a structure might be the result of work performed in a complexity-stripped simulation environment where simplified task-executions required less interactions, or from work revolving around a deteriorating patient, imposing high demands on rapid decision-making and taskwork. Communication IRL was mostly decentralised, with more variability between cases, possibly due to unpredictability of the IRL case. The flexibility to act in a decentralised manner potentiates adaptability and seems beneficial in rapidly changing situations. Practitioner summary: Efficient collaboration in trauma teams is essential. Communication in in-real-life and simulated trauma teams was analysed using social network analysis. The simulation teams were overall more centralised compared to the IRL teams. The flexibility to act decentralised seems beneficial for emergency teams as it enables adaptability in unpredictable situations.

Behavioral adjustment moderates the effect of neuroticism on brain volume relative to intracranial volume.

The present study examined whether the effect of neuroticism on brain structure is moderated by behavioral adjustment. Neuroticism is widely thought to be harmful to health. However, recent work using proinflammatory biomarkers showed that this effect depends on behavioral adjustment, the willingness and ability to adjust and cope with environmental contingencies, such as different opinions of others or unpredictable life situations. Here, we sought to extend this observation to "brain health" by testing total brain volume (TBV). Using a community sample of 125 Americans, we examined structural magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and quantified TBV. We tested whether the effect of neuroticism on TBV was moderated by behavioral adjustment, net of intracranial volume, age, sex, educational achievement, and race. Behavioral adjustment significantly moderated the effect of neuroticism on TBV, such that neuroticism was associated with lower TBV only when behavioral adjustment was low. There was no such effect when behavioral adjustment was high. The present findings suggest that neuroticism is not debilitating to those who constructively cope with stress. Implications are further discussed.

Becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable: The tale of adaptability.

With the ever-changing healthcare environment and impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on tertiary education, healthcare students need to constantly adapt their approach to learning, clinical practice and well-being. Adaptive performance is therefore vital. To investigate the adaptive performance of final year physiotherapy students at the University of the Free State. A quantitative descriptive study was performed. All consenting final year undergraduate physiotherapy students registered at the University of the Free State in 2021 were approached for inclusion. The short 55-item I-ADAPT measurement was distributed electronically to all possible participants. The response rate was 28.5% (n = 8). Descriptive statistics, namely frequencies and percentages for categorical data and medians and percentages for numerical data were calculated. The dimensions related to handling work stress (50%), uncertainty (62.2%) and creativity (64.0%) scored the lowest. Emotional response to stress (62.5%) and frustration in response to unpredictable situations (62.5%) was reported. Uncertainty and unpredictability are inevitable for healthcare students. Stress management and emotional intelligence development are advised for inclusion in undergraduate physiotherapy programmes. A need for curricular evaluation to ensure students are equipped with stress management and emotional intelligence skills is proposed.

Rainfall Variability and Agricultural Potential of the Baiboho in the Urban Commune of Miandrivazo, Menabe Region, Central-West Madagascar

Global food supply is currently a major concern of the FAO due to the increasing demand from the world population. It has been observed that the crop system is affected by climate change, and this is also the case for the Mahajilo alluvial plain in Miandrivazo. The area is subjected annually to unpredictable situations because the rainfall during the rainy season determines the availability of land for cultivation and water resources. This study is based on field observations and relates the collected information to the annual rainfall pattern. The limitations of this study are the lack of hydrological data and knowledge of the erosion phenomenon in the Mahajilo basin.

Factors affecting the self-efficacy of medical teachers during a health crisis – a qualitative study on the example of the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundThe diversity of tasks entrusted to medical teachers with their simultaneous responsibility for the safety of patients and the effective education of future healthcare professionals requires maintaining a skillful balance between their teaching, scientific and clinical activities. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the work of both healthcare facilities and medical universities, forcing already overworked medical teachers to establish a new balance. One’s ability to perform effectively in new, ambiguous, or unpredictable situations was described by Albert Bandura as a self-efficacy concept. Consequently, this study aimed to identify factors affecting the self-efficacy of medical teachers and the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on them.MethodsTwenty-five semi-structured interviews with medical teachers were conducted using a flexible thematic guide. They were transcribed and analyzed by two independent researchers (researcher triangulation) with phenomenology as the qualitative approach.ResultsIdentified themes demonstrate a process of the evolvement of clinical teachers’ self-efficacy in response to the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, namely the decline of self-efficacy in the first phase of the crisis, followed by building task-specific self-efficacy and the development of general self-efficacy.ConclusionsThe study shows the significance of providing care and support for medical teachers during a health crisis. Crisis management decision-makers at educational and healthcare institutions should consider the different roles of medical teachers and the possibility of overburden associated with the cumulation of the excessive number of patient, didactic, and research duties. Moreover, faculty development initiatives and teamwork should become a vital part of the organizational culture of medical universities. A dedicated tool acknowledging the specificity and context of medical teachers’ work seems necessary to quantitatively evaluate their sense of self-efficacy.

Viruses don't need a passport to affect labor markets – findings from a Polish-German study on combating unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic

Labor markets have been strongly affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Much empirical evidence exists on how they operated since the COVID-19 outbreak, illustrated predominantly by public statistics. However, there is limited primary research on labor market stakeholders who experienced significant changes in border regions. The aim of this study is to explore the perceptions and experiences of labor market experts, especially entrepreneurs, regarding labor market functioning in border regions of Poland and Germany after the COVID-19 outbreak. The main focus has been put on examining how the COVID-19 crisis affected enterprises in terms of employment and how the labor market stakeholders assessed mitigation measures undertaken in the border regions. The study utilizes a mix-method approach. Primary data have been gathered through an online questionnaire targeted at entrepreneurs and labor officers in Germany. Next, a qualitative descriptive study design has been developed, involving one-on-one interviews and focused discussions. The analysis revealed several positive and negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the functioning of the labor market in border regions. The study explored differences in the management of the unemployment crisis in Poland and Germany in measures undertaken to mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic. Crucial issues, such as cross-border cooperation and communication have also been discussed. The study highlights the role of labor market stakeholders’ perceptions and experiences in defining future cross-border joint preparatory plans and strategies to combat potential threats and unpredictable situations. The findings of the study revealed that there is a strong need to establish cross-border cooperation in terms of tackling unemployment. It has also been indicated that border regions need an approach to combating crises such as pandemics that differs from that of other interior regions. That highlights the importance of joint security policy adaptations and the need to develop joint

РОЗРОБКА МОБІЛЬНОЇ КІБЕРФІЗИЧНОЇ СИСТЕМИ ІНТЕЛЕКТУАЛЬНОГО МОНІТОРИНГУ КЛІМАТИЧНИХ ПАРАМЕТРІВ

The development of Mobile Cyber-Physical Systems (MCPS) is a promising research and development direction for many industries, such as manufacturing, healthcare, home automation, and many others. That is why a prototype MCPS based on a smartphone has been developed to collect, process, and transmit data from various devices and sensors in real-time, anywhere. The architecture of a mobile cyber-physical system for monitoring climatic parameters with telegram notifications has been designed. An algorithm for intelligent analysis and optimization of data transmission processes has been proposed for the developed MCPS prototype. The advantage of the developed system is the ability to determine the priority of monitoring parameters, which allows for a quick response to critical temperature changes at the object where the measurements are taken. Additionally, a unique method for measuring end-to-end data transmission delay using a timestamp in the packet header metadata has been implemented. This method enables the determination of the processing time of each component of the MCPS and, in case of exceeding the norms, automatically notifies about the necessary control decisions. Supporting such a method in MCPS is a particularly effective solution for monitoring the quality of real-time service delivery in critical infrastructure objects. Based on the conducted research, it has been established that the proposed algorithm for intelligent data analysis and optimization has reduced the number of messages by 3 times and the amount of transmitted information by 2.3 times. In the future, the developed system, in combination with artificial intelligence, will ensure reliable and high-quality data transmission even in unpredictable situations, making it a promising solution for improving the quality of life and the efficiency of smart infrastructures in various fields.

The Military Organization – A Culture of Innovation

Abstract In general, the culture of an organization is a complex and dynamic entity shaped by a variety of factors, which plays a critical role in defining the way the organization operates and interacts with its stakeholders and can have a significant impact on its overall success and effectiveness. Innovative culture is essential to the success of organizations in today’s ever-changing world. In recent decades, the military has had a significant impact on the development of technology and innovation in areas such as robots, drones, communications, information systems and artificial intelligence. The army has also used innovation to improve the training of soldiers and officers, develop new tactics and improve communication and collaboration between units. Moreover, the army is often recognized for its ability to adapt to difficult and unpredictable situations, such as wars or natural disasters. This requires innovation and creativity in finding solutions and adapting quickly to change. The paper presents the military organization as being concerned with creating and maintaining a culture of innovation, which requires a sustained commitment and effort from leaders and all those involved in the organization. It identifies within the organization the barriers to the cultivation of the innovative spirit and outlines measures for developing an innovative culture.

Why we need complexity: A conversation with AI

Complexity theory provides a framework for understanding intricate systems and their interactions. Its use in media and communication is relatively recent and has been used for examining, for instance, the spread of online communication, the formation of public opinions and the development of misinformation. Building on the concept of VUCA, this article outlines the emerging field of ‘complexity communication’. In a light-hearted experiment, we turned to the lately introduced artificial intelligence (AI) agent, ChatGPT, to ask what it knew about complexity thinking in contemporary communication practice. We found that the AI accepted the global environment was characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, and these had transformed the field of communication, both for academics and professionals. It identified a range of complexity-based concepts relevant to communication but not specifically designed for communication situations. It struggled to find any extant practical strategies for complexity communication. This relative lack of bespoke concepts and applied knowledge on managing unpredictable situations indicates an urgent need for the development of complexity thinking in communication.

Preface

Considering the unpredictable situation of COVID-19, as well as the health and safety of our participants and members of our research community is of top priority to the organizing committee. 2023 3rd International Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Computing Technology (EECT 2023) planned to be held from March 24th-26th, 2023 in Sanya, China was changed to be held virtually through Zoom software.EECT 2023 is dedicated to addressing the challenges in the areas of Electrical, Electronics and Computing Technology as well as its applications, presenting the latest scientific research results related to these topics. EECT 2023 looks forward to bringing together researchers and practitioners from academia and industries to focus on related topics and establishing new collaboration in these areas.The conference was divided into three sessions, including keynote speeches, oral presentations, and poster presentations. In the keynote presentation’s part, we have 3 renowned professors present their insightful speeches. Each speaker allocated 50 minutes including 5min for Q&A to hold their speeches. Prof. Jizhong Zhu from South China University of Technology, Prof. Witod Pedrycz from University of Alberta, Prof. Fushuan Wen from Zhejiang University. For oral presentations, authors were given approximately 10-15 minutes to perform their oral presentations one by one.List of Conference Committee are available in this pdf.

SOLVING OF SENSE PROBLEMS IN THE LIFE COMPETENCE OF PERSONALITY

The purpose of the article: to show that the personality life competence is determined by the development of the personality ability to pose and solve sense problems that arise in complex, unpredictable life situations. Life competence is interpreted as a personality property that provides a productive solution of life problems. Those problems arise before a person throughout his life. It requires interpretation, analysis and comprehension of situations in which a person finds himself. First of all, we are talking about critical, traumatic and unpredictable situations. This leads to an awareness of the situations problematic nature and the transformation of certain problem situations into a problem, first of all, a sense problem. One of the important prerequisites for a person independent formulation of a sense life problem is the creation of a psychological situation, that is, the transfer of the external situation into the internal plan by means of its analysis, interpretation and understanding. The most typical problems that appear before a person, causing the emergence of certain psychological situations, are the problem of the life sense and life perspective, which causes the emergence of an existential situation; a personality problem and, accordingly, a personality psychological situation and a situation of interaction with others, which prompts the emergence of a social situation. The specified problems appear in the form of external and internal obstacles that complicate the activity, prevent the achievement of the goal, satisfaction of needs, etc. The stages of transformation of a problematic situation into a problem itself are characterized - from a problematization to a solution, even if the solution is not completely effective and requires from a person to continue to analyze the situation and to pose independently new life problems.

Improved Leakage Detection Generalization Ability for Multiscenes Deployment in Industry

In the unattended industrial environment, the piping leakage detection algorithm based on the combination of image detection and machine learning has the advantages of high sensitivity and reliability. However, there are some problems in the practical application, such as a large number of industrial leakage scenes to be detected, a big spatial feature gap between the deployed scenes and the undeployed scenes and the unpredictable actual leakage situation. These cause a significant decrease in the accuracy and reliability of vision-based piping leakage detection models during large-scale multi-scenes industrial deployment. To solve the above problems, we propose a piping leakage detection method with domain generalization (DG) capability. First, we use the adaptive color recovery multi-scale Retinex (AMSRCR) to enhance the spatial features and improve the image quality of leakage liquid which is colorless and transparent. Based on the idea of DG we design the structure of DCM-DenseNet121, which can improve the generalization ability of the model by learning the domain invariant features of the leakage liquid and solve the problem of decreasing accuracy in large-scale multi-scenes deployment. The experiment results show that the leakage detection balanced accuracy achieve 99.7% when inferring on three target scenes. Furthermore, our model achieves efficient detection, maintains a relatively lightweight when performing in extra-domain target scenes and satisfies the industrial field bandwidth limitations.

Individual differences in contextual threat generalisation and uncertainty: The role of intolerance of uncertainty.

Threat generalisation is an adaptive process that is essential for individual survival. In contrast, over-generalisation is a pathological process that underlies the development of anxiety disorders. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is an individual characteristic known to influence threat generalisation by altering the responses to threat in uncertain situations. However, how it affects contextual threat generalisation remains unclear. Here, we used a novel paradigm to investigate whether contextual threat generalisation varied between individuals depending on their IU level (high or low) and the predictability of a situation (predictable or unpredictable). We analysed shock expectancy in 82 participants (age: 18-27 years) during threat acquisition and generalisation. Results showed that compared with the low IU group, the high IU group exhibited increased contextual threat generalisation to threat-related cues in unpredictable situation. These findings suggest that IU could be a marker for anxiety disorder susceptibility, as well as a target for anxiety treatment.

Feds Monetary Policy and Dynamic Changes in Stock Prices of Large Supermarket Chain

The U.S. is experiencing the highest inflation in 40 years, and prices have been rising. The Fed adjusts this rate to achieve one goal - to maintain maximum employment and price stability in the United States. But the Fed's sharp rate hikes also raise the risk of a sharp slowdown, especially as new challenges emerge, such as Russia's war with Ukraine and China's capacity problems due to Covid lockdowns. This article assesses the impact of Fed rate hikes on the supermarket stock market. This paper builds a VAR model and an ARMA-GARCH model to analyze changes in stock prices from the perspective of value and volatility. This paper finds that Fed rate hikes unsurprisingly negatively impacted stock returns and increased their volatility, leaving stock prices in an unpredictable situation. The research paper can give the Fed a reference data. When the Fed decides to raise interest rates, it needs to consider the current world economic situation. For example, flu and war will affect the world economy, and will also have some impact when the Fed raises interest rates.

Off-Script, Online: Virtual Medical Improv Pilot Program for Enhancing Well-being and Clinical Skills among Psychiatry Residents.

Clinical interactions demand a balance of structure and flexibility in response to unpredictable situations. Medical improv is a form of experiential learning that applies techniques from improvisational theater to the healthcare setting, deliberately targeting clinical skills of communication, teamwork, and cognitive abilities. Psychiatry Education through Play and Talk (PEP Talks) is a novel medical improv program designed specifically for psychiatry residents with the goal of improving communication, teamwork, and conflict resolution skills, as well as enhancing residents' well-being and capacity for self-reflection. PEP Talks was delivered virtually by an experienced medical improv facilitator in spring 2021 to a self-selected group of psychiatry residents at a Canadian university. Aligned with the context-input-process-product (CIPP) evaluation model, outcomes were assessed through mixed methods surveys, recorded debriefings, and a focus group. PEP Talks enhanced residents' self-reported well-being, reflective capacity, and communication skills. Participants made qualitative connections between PEP Talks and their well-being, inter- and intra-personal skills, and clinical experiences in psychiatry. Processes in PEP Talks that led to these outcomes included the following: joy, building community, personal reflection and discovery, going off-script, immersion, and virtual engagement. Virtual medical improv offers an innovative solution to the pedagogical challenges of training psychiatrists to be proficient communicators, collaborators, and professionals capable of reflective practice. Additionally, this innovation demonstrates that medical improv can be delivered in a virtual format and may offer a unique solution to support resident well-being and foster connection amid remote learning during a global pandemic.

Understanding the Impact of Covid-19 on MSMEs in India: Lessons for Resilient and Sustained Growth of Small Firms

The pandemic has raised an issue of survival for most of the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) because of their vulnerability in terms of size, limited financial resources, and inefficiency to deal with unpredicted situations. Therefore, the present study has adopted the contingency theory in times of change and uncertainties caused by COVID-19 on MSMEs and found out the ways to enhance its resilience and sustained the growth of this sector. This study has applied descriptive statistics and probit regression analysis to estimate the resilience and sustained growth of the firms through a change in the variables like turnover, labour employed, investment, and age of the firm. Based on the survey of 225 firms, the study observed that around 90 percent of surveyed firms realized a decline in their turnover with a 25 percent reduction in employment that mostly occur in the informal category. Interestingly, there was some increase in formal employment in around 50 percent of firms because of the business commitment of firms, shortage of informal workers, and availability of workers at lower wages. Smaller and younger firms in terms of employment and investment have a higher possibility to be affected by the external shocks indicating that the firm agility increases with firm age and size. Support measures by the government during the pandemic were found to be insufficient and have limited relevance to the MSME sector in its revival. For enhancing the resilience and sustainability of MSMEs, the study suggests small firms should be encouraged to financial planning against business uncertainties and proposes financial security measures viz. Uncertainty Corpus Fund for Small Businesses and Small Business Insurance.

Analysis of the probability of crisis events as a determinant of the financial security of food industry enterprises

Analysis of the probability of crisis events as a determinant of the financial security of food industry enterprises

SPIRITUAL EDUCATION OF STUDENTS OF THE NEW UKRAINIAN SCHOOL IN WARTIME

The article analyzes the peculiarities of spiritual education of students in wartime within the framework of the New Ukrainian School. Taking into account the unpredictable challenges and stressful situations that manifest themselves in wartime, the methods and approaches aimed at forming spiritual resilience, patriotism and humanistic values among students are explored. The study emphasizes the importance of cooperation between school teachers, parents, and the public in shaping positive spiritual values of students during the war, which is of great importance for the future of Ukraine. The impact of the military conflict on the psychological state of students and their general well-being is analyzed. The article highlights the issues of incorporating modern technologies and interactive methods into the educational process, which improves the quality of spiritual education in the context of military conflict. In summary, the article offers a comprehensive approach to the spiritual education of students of the New Ukrainian School in wartime, taking into account the needs and characteristics of the modern school environment. Its results can be useful for teachers, administrative educational institutions, and all those interested in spiritual education and upbringing of young people in the context of military conflict.

A Hybrid Deep Reinforcement Learning and Optimal Control Architecture for Autonomous Highway Driving

Autonomous vehicles in highway driving scenarios are expected to become a reality in the next few years. Decision-making and motion planning algorithms, which allow autonomous vehicles to predict and tackle unpredictable road traffic situations, play a crucial role. Indeed, finding the optimal driving decision in all the different driving scenarios is a challenging task due to the large and complex variability of highway traffic scenarios. In this context, the aim of this work is to design an effective hybrid two-layer path planning architecture that, by exploiting the powerful tools offered by the emerging Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) in combination with model-based approaches, lets the autonomous vehicles properly behave in different highway traffic conditions and, accordingly, to determine the lateral and longitudinal control commands. Specifically, the DRL-based high-level planner is responsible for training the vehicle to choose tactical behaviors according to the surrounding environment, while the low-level control converts these choices into the lateral and longitudinal vehicle control actions to be imposed through an optimization problem based on Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) approach, thus enforcing continuous constraints. The effectiveness of the proposed hierarchical architecture is hence evaluated via an integrated vehicular platform that combines the MATLAB environment with the SUMO (Simulation of Urban MObility) traffic simulator. The exhaustive simulation analysis, carried out on different non-trivial highway traffic scenarios, confirms the capability of the proposed strategy in driving the autonomous vehicles in different traffic scenarios.