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The legal structure of an inheritance contract introduced into the system of Russian civil law on June 1, 2019, caused an ambiguous evaluation in the doctrine of inheritance law. Analyzing various points of views of scholars and legal prescriptions, the author expresses her opinion on this legal structure highlighting in particular an imbalance in the legal status of the parties to the inheritance contract, expressed in the possibility of unilateral refusal to execute it by only one of the parties, in the absence of legal protection of the testator's counterparty when the latter alienates the property specified in the inheritance contract. This makes this legal structure practically non-binding for the testator and reduces its relevance. The author substantiates that the legal prohibition of concluding an inheritance contract through a representative applies only to the testator. The assumption is made that the reference to a third party acquiring the right of inheritance does not turn this agreement into a contract made in favor of the third party. The paper focuses on the controversial issue of the limits of the discretion of the testator and the essential conditions of the inheritance contract. The author differntiates the gaps in the law in the regulation of a number of issues related to the conclusion and execution of an inheritance contract, some wordings of Art. 1118 and 1140.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and suggests proposals that improve rules under consideration. The author comes to the conclusion that the legal structure of inheritance law raises many questions caused by faulty legal formulations and insufficient completeness of legal regulation, which can give rise not only to doctrinal discussions, but also to contradictory law enforcement practice.

The present research focuses on help-seeking process among perpetrators and co-victims of filicides committed in the province of Quebec. This study draws a portrait of help-seeking behaviors among perpetrators and co-victims of a filicide and presents two clinical vignettes to illustrate the help-seeking process. The 28 cases of filicides (14 paternal and 14 maternal filicides) committed in Quebec between 2007 and 2012 were analyzed using the Grille d’analyse multidimensionnelle de l’homicide intrafamilial. One-third of filicide perpetrators consulted a professional or a support service in their lifetime. The requests for assistance tend to decrease in the year prior to the homicide. A small percentage of requests for help are observed among co-victims of filicide. The results allow to describe a complete portrait of help-seeking from perpetrators and co-victims of filicide and help raise the importance of understanding the phenomenon with a robust and responsive theoretical framework. This study highlights the relevance of developing and maintaining specific services for men and women in crisis and at risk of violent behavior. Informing and raising the awareness of the population as well as the professionals working with this clientele could be one more step towards better prevention.

This study constitutes an identification of the protagonist’s struggle in H. G. Wells’ novel The Island of Doctor Moreau. This study discusses the story of an English shipwreck survivor named Edward Prendick who is rescued from an accident and taken to an unnamed island to be mended by Montgomery. He is a man of science who works for Doctor Moreau in the island. The story deals with Prendick’s struggle to maintain his sanity due to Doctor Moreau terrifyingly peculiar works of vivisection practices. This study focuses on Doctor Moreau through Prendick’s point of view. Prendick, as the protagonist, experiences both internal and external struggle. He has to choose between saving his life or to obey Dr. Moreau to do his evil bidding. Otherwise, he has to keep his composure to blend with the island people. This study adopts descriptive qualitative method to characterise the mental struggle experienced by the protagonist. The study concludes that the protagonist experiences significant amount of both internal and external struggle throughout the story. The recommendation of this story is a moral lesson. The lesson is to face struggle head-on so you can defeat it. Hopefully, this study can be of relevance in future studies regarding the topic discussed in this study.

The article considers the collection of evidence by the prosecution, because it is in this order that the evidence base of criminal proceedings is most often formed. Thus, the prosecutor, investigator (investigator) acting under Articles 36, 40, 401 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, as well as an employee of the operational unit pursuant to Article 41 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine on behalf of the investigator or prosecutor have the right to collect evidence. The purpose of the article is to study the affiliation of the subjects of evidence collection as part of the procedural form of the criminal process of Ukraine, taking into account the analysis of court decisions, namely the assessment of the evidence base as a basis for deciding on the merits of criminal proceedings. Cases of involvement of an improper subject in the pre-trial investigation, which are common and typical, are systematized. There are two types of improper subjects within the investigative (search) or procedural actions, namely the subject: 1) is not appointed in the manner prescribed by law, although according to current legislation according to the list of its powers may be appropriate; 2) does not have the authority under the law to make a specific decision or to conduct investigative (search) or procedural actions. An analysis of court decisions according to which courts provide an assessment of the procedural activities of the subjects of evidence collection in criminal proceedings at the stage of pre-trial investigation, including their relevance and admissibility. Thus, attention is paid to the assessment of courts on the legality of the presence of persons during investigative (investigative) or procedural actions; the correctness of fixing such a presence. In addition, the situations of appointment of relevant subjects in criminal proceedings to fulfill their powers are considered. It is proposed to supplement the first part of Article 236 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine with a provision that clarifies the grounds for the stay and authority of the employee of the operational and investigative service during the search.

When science contradicts people’s experiences, they often deny the science. Psychological science may be particularly prone to denialism because of its relatively high relevance to people’s lives. In two sets of studies ( N = 637 from university students and Mechanical Turk workers), we tested whether perceived and actual incongruence between one’s personality and scientific findings predict psychological discomfort and science denialism. Participants rated the incongruence (subjective incongruence) between their own personality responses and science, as well as their comfort and denial of the science. Those who experienced more subjective incongruence experienced greater discomfort and reported more science denialism. Those whose personality characteristics were objectively incongruent with the science also experienced greater subjective incongruence (all studies), discomfort (Studies 1A, 1B, and 1C), and science denialism (Studies 1A, 1C, and 2B) compared with those with congruent characteristics. Implications regarding denialism of psychological science, and science more broadly, are discussed.

Age-related decline in theory of mind (ToM) may be due to waning executive control, which is necessary for resolving conflict when reasoning about other individuals’ mental states. We assessed how older ( n = 50) and younger ( n = 50) adults were affected by three theoretically relevant sources of conflict within ToM: competing self-other perspectives, competing cued locations, and outcome knowledge. We examined which best accounted for age-related difficulty with ToM. Our data show unexpected similarity between age groups when people are representing a belief incongruent with their own. Individual differences in attention and response speed best explained the degree of conflict experienced through incompatible self-other perspectives. However, older adults were disproportionately affected by managing conflict between cued locations. Age and spatial working memory were most relevant for predicting the magnitude of conflict elicited by conflicting cued locations. We suggest that previous studies may have underestimated older adults’ ToM proficiency by including unnecessary conflict in ToM tasks.

This article examines the organisation of VOX, a new radical right party in Spain. It shows that the party has taken early and uneven steps to build a mass organisation and initially opted for open membership recruitment with participatory organisational elements. Also, the party’s rapid growth and quick entrance into political institutions at different state levels led the party leadership to establish more centralised control and limit members’ prerogatives, though recruitment continued. Centralisation in part responds to organisational needs given the party’s quickly acquired political relevance, but also to the desire of the central party leadership to forestall the articulation of territorial interests, or prevent them from escaping their control. Today, VOX exhibits elements of mass party organisation and highly centralised decision-making in the hands of national party leaders.

El estudio del emprendimiento femenino en países en desarrollo es relevante por su potencial económico e impacto en el empoderamiento de las mujeres. La revisión de la literatura muestra, además de la evolución del estudio del emprendimiento liderado por mujeres, la pertinencia de abordar el comportamiento emprendedor de ellas desde la perspectiva psicosocial; una perspectiva que supera la aproximación binaria oportunidad-necesidad y destaca la incidencia de la autoconfianza en dicha acción. La aplicación de ese enfoque al caso boliviano permite observar que la conducta emprendedora se manifiesta en particular entre mujeres jóvenes con cierto respaldo económico y con altos niveles de autoconfianza; esta última característica psicológica que expresa determinación y constancia para lograr un objetivo por encima del riesgo y la incertidumbre en mercados altamente competitivos. La autoconfianza emprendedora en las mujeres bolivianas convoca a valorar los incentivos psicosociales en la construcción de políticas públicas.

In a globalized world with high international factor mobility, crises often spread quickly over large parts of the world. Politicians carry a vital interest in keeping crises as small and short as possible. Against this background we study whether the type of company of owner-managed SMEs, in Germany well-known as Mittelstand firms, helps increasing an economy’s crisis resistance. We study this issue at the example of the Great Recession of the years 2008/2009. Using micro panel data from the ifo Business Survey, we study the comparative performance of Mittelstand enterprises and find supporting evidence for the hypothesis that Mittelstand firms performed more stable throughout the Great Recession than non-Mittelstand firms. We also show that owner-managed SMEs performed significantly better than SMEs and owner-managed large enterprises. Thus, it is rather the combination of firm size and owner-management that leads to more crisis resistance. The German Mittelstand is economically more successful compared to SMEs and large enterprises because of its combination of owner-management and firm size. The German Mittelstand is always seen as the “backbone” of the German economy and made responsible for Germany’s ability to cope with large external shocks such as the 2008/2009 global recession. To date, this suggestion is not backed by empirical evidence as common data sources do not incorporate information on the ownership structure of German firms. We enrich the micro panel data from the largest monthly business survey in Germany by two questions on the ownership structure of the interviewed firm and can confirm this suggestion. It turns out that it is not firm size or owner-management alone that leads to a higher crisis resistance but rather the combination of both criteria. Our results have practical and political implications as it is possible with our approach to separate the German Mittelstand from the pool of small- and medium-sized enterprises. The information on the ownership structure in our data can initiate future research activities and shed more light on the relevance of owner-management for the economic success of firms.

Introduction Professional development contributes to new graduate health professionals' transition into the workplace. Current literature indicates that new graduate physiotherapists are often underprepared to work within private practice settings, however little is known of their professional development needs to facilitate their transition. Objectives This study aimed to understand new graduate physiotherapists' perceived needs and decision-making for professional development within private practice settings. Methods This study used a qualitative interpretative phenomenological approach. A sample of new graduate physiotherapists employed within private practice settings (n = 14) participated in semi-structured telephone interviews, after being selected through convenience and randomized sampling. Interview data was subject to thematic analysis. Results Four key themes emerged from the data: 1) practical and commercial relevance; 2) influence of self and others in decision-making; 3) professional development as a social construct; and 4) access is critical. Conclusion New graduate physiotherapists expressed needs for practically and clinically relevant professional development within formal and informal settings, and this extended to non-clinical skills specific to private practice. Their decision-making was shaped by social influences and perceived barriers to access. This study has identified implications for employers and professional development providers to support and cater to new graduate physiotherapists' perceived needs for professional development, which may facilitate their transition into private practice.

Many schools attempt to address the needs of “English-language learners,” who usually are Spanish-dominant Latinxs, by offering dual-language (DL) bilingual education. While undertaking a larger ethnographic study of one such secondary-level dual-language program, I examined how dual-language teachers understood the program as equitable for Latinxs. I found that teachers believed DL met Latinxs’ needs by providing Spanish-language/biliteracy schooling, which deemphasized the need for explicitly enhancing youths’ critical consciousness. This teacher ideology of assuming DL is “inherently culturally relevant” led to significant issues. For example, teachers believed DL would improve Latinxs’ academic achievement, but when teachers perceived Latinx achievement was not on par with White dual-language students’ outcomes, teachers made sense of Latinxs’ underperformance in DL through racist explanations and did not interrogate the program’s cultural relevance. Specifically, teachers pointed to the program not providing Latinxs the needed Spanish input even though the Latinx students self-identified as bilingual and were the “Spanish-dominant” students, and teachers pointed to Latinxs’ cultural and familial deficits. I argue teachers overlooked critical-racial consciousness as an important component of an equitable education. Implications include for teachers to cultivate their critical-racial consciousness, interrogate raciolinguistic ideologies, and define an equitable DL as centering critical-racial consciousness.

The participation of the accused at the stage of preliminary investigation presupposes the possibility of exercising his right to defense. However, in cases of being in a territory significantly remote from the location of the preliminary investigation body, including outside Russia, the impossibility of personal participation in investigative and other procedural actions, one of the ways of interaction between the accused and law enforcement agencies may be remote participation through electronic interaction systems, and video conferencing. Draft laws on the amendment into the RF Criminal Procedure Code on conducting investigative actions through video-conference communication were pending at the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in 2015 and 2018, but were not finalized and adopted. The provisions of the Second Additional Protocol to the European Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, providing for the simplification and acceleration of the procedure for providing mutual legal assistance in terms of the possibility of interrogating the accused (suspect) via videoconference, Russia, upon ratification of the protocol in 2019, did not allow to apply. In criminal cases of an economic nature, which reverberate in society and raise many questions about the activities of law enforcement agencies, large entrepreneurs often leave Russia, unable to remotely take part in investigative actions, present evidence in their defense, and get acquainted with procedural decisions in a criminal case. This leads to an increase in the number of suspended criminal cases, according to art. 208, part 1, clauses 1-3 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. In 2019, the total number of economic criminal cases increased by 37% compared to 2018, while the number of suspended criminal cases under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation increased by 15.83%, under Art. 159.1-159.6 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — by 86.93%. The relevance of the topic is also due to the coronavirus pandemic, which limited the freedom of movement of Russian citizens both within the country and abroad. In this regard, the use of video-conferencing in the investigation of criminal cases is becoming a vital necessity, the imperative of the times.

Nursing requires empathic engagement, within therapeutic relationships, to ensure the delivery of compassionate care. Empathic engagement with people who have experienced trauma is known to potentially lead to experiences of vicarious trauma occurring in the caregiver. However, relatively little is known about the implications of vicarious trauma for nurses. This integrative review aimed to explore what is known about vicarious trauma and consider its implications for nursing. Twenty-two articles were included in the review, with findings considering how vicarious trauma is conceptualized and applied to nursing in the literature, what implications of vicarious trauma, specific to nursing, are identified in the literature, and what vicarious trauma interventions are identified to apply to nursing. The findings highlight clear articulation of the concept of vicarious trauma and its relevance to nursing, including its pervasive and significant personal and professional effects. Vicarious trauma was identified to be a workplace hazard for nurses working across settings, which also impacts upon organizations. The review highlighted that at individual, team, organizational, and social levels, awareness and preventative approaches are recommended. These approaches require systemic supports that foster individual coping mechanisms, self-care and support networks for nurses, education about vicarious trauma, screening for vicarious trauma, and formalized access to clinical supervision and peer support for all nurses. With increasing awareness of trauma across health care settings, and a move towards the delivery of 'trauma informed care', recognition of vicarious trauma amongst nurses as a likely 'cost' of the delivery of compassionate care to trauma survivors, is essential.

This essay offers a framework for broader community involvement as a means of increasing the relevance and usefulness of evidence developed. This essay begins by defining key concepts related to democratizing the development of evidence. The sections that follow outline a logic model that calls for a bidirectional, iterative set of core activities to draw on insights from practitioners, community stakeholders, and researchers to generate a learning agenda, analysis plans, and findings that can be used to develop or refine policies and practices. The essay concludes with implications for advocates of democratizing the development of evidence and for researchers.

The article deals with the conceptual foundations of the institutional balance in criminal proceedings. The purpose of the article and scientific novelty is to extrapolate the theory of institutional balance in the field of criminal proceedings in order to create a methodological basis for further discussions of reform in this area. The article consists of two parts. The first part considers the implementation of institutionalism in the field of criminal proceedings. The second part is devoted to the content of the concept of “institutional balance” in the field of criminal proceedings. It is proved that the institutional theme is actively studied in the economic field, social sphere, management and other fields of scientific knowledge, but this theory has not been conceptualized at the level of criminal procedural science. It is emphasized that the relevance and importance of this study is due to the following factors: the importance of the purpose of criminal proceedings; high potential for specific measures of procedural repression and risks of restricting constitutional human rights; finally high public expectations for the quality of law enforcement and judicial practice, especially today, when our society is in a “crisis of justice” situation. The institutional balance in criminal proceedings is considered as a normatively regulated agreement on the functions and powers of various public authorities for effective interaction between them in order to achieve the tasks of criminal proceedings. Institutional balance is possible when there is a clear division of responsibilities between government agencies; their independence is guaranteed; there is no duplication of functions and powers, unreasonable interference in the sphere of functions and powers or transfer of functions and powers from one institution to another. The author’s next publications will focus on the structure of the institutional environment, the assessment of the current situation of the institutional infrastructure of criminal proceedings in Ukraine and the study of the risks of institutional imbalance, including practical examples of inter-institutional conflicts.

The herbal preparation ayahuasca has been an important part of ritual and healing practices, deployed to access invisible worlds in several indigenous groups in the Amazon basin and among mestizo populations of South America. The preparation is usually known to be composed of two main plants, Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis, which produce both hallucinogenic and potent purging and emetic effects; currently, these are considered its major pharmacological activities. In recent decades, the psychoactive and visionary effect of ayahuasca has been highly sought after by the shamanic tourism community, which led to the popularization of ayahuasca use globally and to a cultural distancing from its traditional cosmological meanings, including that of purging and emesis. Further, the field of ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology has also produced relatively limited data linking the phytochemical diversity of ayahuasca with the different degrees of its purging and emetic versus psychoactive effects. Similarly, scientific interest has also principally addressed the psychological and mental health effects of ayahuasca, overlooking the cultural and pharmacological importance of the purging and emetic activity. The aim of this review is therefore to shed light on the understudied purging and emetic effect of ayahuasca herbal preparation. It firstly focuses on reviewing the cultural relevance of emesis and purging in the context of Amazonian traditions. Secondly, on the basis of the main known phytochemicals described in the ayahuasca formula, a comprehensive pharmacological evaluation of their emetic and purging properties is presented.

Background of the study: Library human resource management is a very important part of the continuity and development of librarians. The librarian must have a constructive and dynamic concept of thinking so that the role that is raised is the result of a structured implementation. Through his work, Lasa HS has succeeded in formulating this theory in his book "Library Human Resource Management" which has close analysis with Richard E. Rubin's "Human Resource Management in Libraries Theory and Practice". Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the perspective of human resource management in the Lasa HSlibrary on one of Richard E Rubin's works entitled Human Resource Management in Libraries Theory and Practice. Method: Through a library research approach (library research) which is supported by interviews Findings: Research results show that there is a relevance of the theory proposed by Lasa HS to the work of Richard. E Rubin in the aspect of measuring the performance of human resources. Conclusion: It can be concluded that through the books that have been written, both have explained the theory in a structured manner with the dynamics of different cultural approaches so that they complement each other in providing reviews on library human resource management.

Considering middle powers’ potential to address new demands worldwide and their propensity to contribute to new forms of institution-building in global governance, arrangements between them consist of interesting opportunities to promote sustainable development. However, some have shown to be more effective than others in this regard. When observing two of these partnerships’ outcomes between 2015 and 2018, India, Brazil, and South Africa (IBSA) Trilateral Forum has demonstrated more effectiveness than Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey, and Australia (MIKTA) New Innovative Partnership. To understand why, this study analyses specialized literature, with special attention to Koenig-Archibugi’s (2002) framework on global governance arrangements’ effectiveness. Arguing that middle power arrangements that address sustainable development are more effective when benefiting from greater functional specialization and that diversified power access also plays a role, this study raises awareness about middle powers’ relevance in addressing new global demands. The study points out the nascent research on these informal partnerships and the causal relations between these arrangements’ structures and effectiveness.

It is increasingly recognized that stakeholder views can be essential to ascertain the credibility of those entrusted with protection of the public and workers against radiation risks, the robustness of the approaches to protection and the relevance of research underpinning radiation protection. The CONCERT European Joint Programme of radiation protection research included consideration of stakeholder views. These were surveyed by means of a publicly available survey that was made available in fifteen languages to help encourage responses from a wide range of European countries. The survey ran in 2017 and received some 1961 responses over many countries, though response rates varied widely between countries. The survey respondents were largely highly educated with many having a professional connection to radiation protection or the use of radiation in medicine or industry. Survey results indicated a high level of scientific/technical knowledge relevant to radiation protection and indicated a general trust of most actors involved in the radiation protection field, perhaps unsurprisingly given the nature of the sampled population. Most expressed a reasonable level of satisfaction with the information available to them on radiation risk, but there is clearly room for improvement. Additionally, the survey identified potential training needs amongst the groups responding. It is concluded that, while the survey results are limited by the non-representativeness of the respondents by comparison with the EU population as a whole, it has been successful in gaining insights into areas where communication could be improved, where professional training gaps are present and where research could help to build wider trust in radiation protection.

This short article responds to, and interprets, two epistemic claims made by Mark Wynn concerning truth and Christian ethics. The first claim concerns how the body knows something prior to an operation of reason. The second claim concerns the relationship between narrative and metaphysics, particularly when considering the eucharist. The article interprets these claims by drawing upon Wynn's previous work in religious epistemology, and it points to its moral and doctrinal relevance for Christian ethicists today.

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Die Bedeutung der Versorgung älterer Personen in der hausärztlichen Praxis erfordert die Vermittlung von Handlungs- und Begründungswissen zur Durchführung eines geriatrischen Basisassessments (GBa) bereits im Medizinstudium. Handlungsbedarf zeigt sich dabei insbesondere im Hinblick auf eine realistische Wahrnehmung altersbedingter Einschränkungen durch Studierende. Der Beitrag beschreibt anhand eines Filmprojekts an der Medizinischen Hochschule Hannover (MHH), wie die hausärztliche Versorgungssituation für Studierende authentisch vermittelt werden kann. Methodik Verschiedene filmische Mittel zur Herstellung von Authentizität wurden angewendet. Im Lehrmodul Allgemeinmedizin an der MHH wurde der Film eingesetzt. Die studentische Evaluation untersuchte die emotionale Wirkung des Filmgeschehens auf die Studierenden, und ob die Darstellung des GBa als authentisch wahrgenommen wird. Ergebnisse Die Authentizität der filmischen Darstellung hat die Mehrheit der Studierenden emotional berührt. Die Vermittlung der Komplexität der Behandlung älterer Menschen und die Darstellung der besonderen hausärztlichen Funktion in der geriatrischen Versorgung sind durch den Lehrfilm gut gelungen. Diskussion Die Studierenden erkannten die Notwendigkeit des GBa und fanden die Darstellung überwiegend realistisch. Individuelle filmische Rezeptionsweisen und Vorerfahrungen beeinflussen auch die Wahrnehmung der filmischen Gestaltungsform im Hinblick auf Realitätsdarstellung.

James W. Fowler's theory of faith development plays a role in seeing the growth of human faith in God. In this case, Fowler formulated several stages in developing one's faith, including the steps of the faith development of several people who have different beliefs. This study raises the thoughts of James Fowler and its relevance to Christian Religious Education today so that this research results in an understanding that in the context of Christian Religious Education, the development of faith needs to be instilled in students from an early age by educators. The method used in this paper is the literature study method.

Basing on the previous and early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, this article analysis the main determinants of citizens’ trust in the prime minister over that period. Prior research on the political effects of the pandemic has mostly focused on identifying a rally around the flag effect, and little is known about other reasons behind the increase in trust after the outbreak of the pandemic. Based on survey data from February to July 2020 for Spanish citizens, we argue that the reasons for the increased trust in the prime minister following the pandemic outbreak are due more to performance evaluations than to emotional-related factors regarding COVID-19 health issues. We also argue that among performance evaluations, the assessment of policy performance in fighting the COVID-19 crisis is of preeminent relevance in explaining trust in the prime minister during the pandemic period. Findings widely support our argument. By comparing the effects of conventional to emotional-related factors, we extend scholarship on political trust in the context of an exogenous crisis.

This paper aims to analyse a dense passage of De ira by Seneca (III, 2) that, considering its structural and thematic relevance in the architecture of the tractate, gives rise to interesting and valuable considerations to understand more deeply the nature of the work. First, the extract under examination is crucial since enables to identify the dossographic sources that the author drew on to develop the therapeutic strategy adopted for the treatment of anger in the third book of the work. Furthermore, an overall interpretation of the essay, based on a passage so rich in literary and philosophical implications, will be provided. Eventually, we will deal with the therapeutic approach selected by the philosopher and its analogies with the ancient Cynic-Stoic ἐπιλογισμός and the modern cognitive-behavioral paradigm. Il presente articolo si propone di esaminare un passo del De ira di Seneca (III, 2) che, in virtù della sua rilevanza strutturale e tematica all’interno dell’architettura dell’opera, si presta a sviluppare una serie di interessanti considerazioni, senz’altro utili per comprendere più a fondo la natura complessiva del trattato. Il passaggio in questione si rivela anzitutto cruciale poiché consente di tracciare le fonti dossografiche a cui l’autore si è ispirato per mettere a punto la strategia terapeutica adottata per la cura dell’ira, accuratamente illustrata proprio nel terzo libro dell’opuscolo. Sulla scorta inoltre di un passo così denso di implicazioni filosofico-letterarie, si avanzerà una proposta di interpretazione complessiva dell’opera e degli intenti che la sostenziano . Infine, si passerà ad analizzare l’approccio terapeutico prescelto dal filosofo, e si mostrerà come esso si collochi al confine fra l’antico ἐπιλογισμός cinico-stoico e il moderno paradigma cognitivo-comportamentale.

PurposeThis study explores the relevance of social capital resources generated through networks to address the marketing challenges of startups. It looks into the marketing issues faced by startup firms in emerging markets and examines how they leverage their social capital to reach out to their customers and other stakeholders for marketing their products and services.Design/methodology/approachThe case study analysis using the abduction method, semi-structured interview and content analysis were used for answering the research questions.FindingsThis study finds the importance of developing social capital by startups for marketing activities. Social capital also acts as a strategic advantage that the competitors cannot easily emulate. Findings show that the development of social capital happens through the network of startup entrepreneurs and social connections involving customers, dealers and suppliers, among others.Originality/valueThis study is a novel attempt to emphasize the potential of social capital for marketing activities in a startup firm. This study expands the literature on social capital with a marketing perspective in an emerging economy context. The academic and managerial implications have also been highlighted in the study.

This paper aims to offer gendered insights on Malaysian Muslim tourist views of hotel choices. This study was designed to look at possible gender disparities in the perceived relevance of hotel attributes in developing emotional bonds with the hotel, that was enhanced by the brand credibility. The signaling theory were utilised to evaluate the relationships among the constructs. To validate the research model and hypotheses, the study used a partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique, and 474 Malaysian tourists were recruited to test the assumptions. The empirical results reveal that gender does not moderates the relationship between hotel attributes, brand credibility and brand attachment. Therefore, indicating that there were no differences observed between female and male Muslim tourists in their decision-making style. However, both male and female exhibited disparities in terms of strength on each construct. The findings of this study further provide a valuable implications and reference in terms of theoretical and practical perspective in the tourism destinations context, especially in Malaysia.

This article describes the socio-psychological effects of school closure on school-going urban girls in Dhaka, Bangladesh, during the Covid-19 pandemic. It illustrates the life of urban students in Bangladesh during the school-closing time and relates it to their previous normal life. It asserts that the strengths of traditional schools have important relevance to socialization, which was significantly disturbed during the pandemic due to home confinement. Based on both qualitative and quantitative data, the following components led to an understanding of the schools' role in the socialization of urban female students in Bangladesh: emotional attachments, interpersonal interactions, and physical activity. During confinement, the absence of these components put the students' socialization process at risk, resulting in socio-psychological changes in activities and behavioral patterns. Finally, the article recommends not considering online classes as the "new normal"; working toward vaccination and obtaining suitable health equipment for the reopening of traditional schools will do more to ensure the socio-psychological health of future generations.

In recent years, the value and relevance of humanities-based teaching in medical education have become more widely acknowledged. In many medical schools this has prompted additions to curricula that allow students to explore the gray-as opposed to the black and white-areas of medicine through arts, humanities, and social sciences. As curricula have expanded and diversified in this way, both medical educators and students have begun to ask: what is the best way to teach medical humanities?In this article, five current medical students reflect on their experiences of medical humanities teaching through intercalated BSc programmes in the UK. What follows is a broad exploration of how the incorporation of medical humanities into students' time at university can improve clinical practice where the more rigid, objective-driven, model of medicine falls short.This article reinforces the merit of moving beyond a purely biomedical model of medical education. Using the student voice as a vector for critique and discussion, we provide a starting point for uncovering the path toward true integration of humanities-style teaching into medical school curricula.

La reconstrucción de las relaciones interculturales ibéricas a lo largo de la historia debe contemplar a los agentes de mediación que, como el liberal español José de Urcullu (fallecido en 1852), conforman los “ninguéns” o “quase-alguéns” (Magalhães, 2007) empeñados en promover tal comunicación entre culturas y literaturas, incluyendo la establecida por la vía de la traducción. Pese a su relevancia e interés como mediador, y pese al capital sociocultural y político que llegó a acumular este exiliado español afincado en Oporto, resulta la de Urcullu una figura desconocida, o al menos insuficientemente conocida en la actualidad. A intentar rescatarlo de ese olvido que lo hace hoy invisible se destinará el presente trabajo. Para ello, se señalarán algunas actividades en las que Urcullu estuvo implicado como mediador intercultural ibérico y, tratando de indagar cuáles fueron sus motivaciones, se intentará reconstituir su itinerario biográfico, dándose a conocer los resultados de una investigación inédita en torno a este polifacético autor y (auto)traductor., A reconstrução das relações interculturais ibéricas ao longo da história deve contemplar os agentes de mediação que, como o liberal espanhol José de Urcullu (falecido em 1852), conformam os “ninguéns” ou “quase-alguéns” (Magalhães, 2007) empenhados em promover tal comunicação entre culturas e literaturas, nomeadamente a estabelecida pela via da tradução. Pese a sua relevância e interesse como mediador, e pese o capital sociocultural e político de que chegou a ser detentor este exilado espanhol radicado no Porto, Urcullu continua a ser uma figura desconhecida, ou pelo menos insuficientemente conhecida, nos nossos dias. O presente trabalho destina-se a tentar resgatá-lo desse esquecimento que o torna hoje invisível. Com esse objetivo, serão reveladas algumas atividades em que se envolveu enquanto mediador intercultural ibérico e, interrogando-nos sobre as suas motivações, tentar-se-á reconstituir o itinerário biográfico de Urcullu, dando a conhecer os resultados de uma investigação inédita à volta deste multifacetado autor e (auto)tradutor., The reconstruction of Iberian intercultural relations throughout history must contemplate agents who, like the Spanish liberal José de Urcullu (deceased in 1852), make up the ranks of “nobodies” or “quasi-someone” (Magalhães, 2007) engaged in promoting that communication between cultures and literatures, namely through translation. Notwithstanding his relevance and interest as a mediator, as well as the socio-cultural and political roles of this Spanish exile settled in Porto, Urcullu is currently an unknown figure – or at least an unsatisfactorily known figure. The aim of this paper is, precisely, to try and rescue Urcullu from that oblivion which makes him invisible nowadays. In order to do so, different activities in which he became involved as an Iberian intercultural mediator will be brought to light while, questioning his motivations, his biography will be unveiled – so the results of an unprecedented piece of research around this manifold author and (self )translator will be offered.

Background. The publication presents a scientific analysis of the results of domestic and foreign literature describing the current risk factors for the development of cancer pathology among various sex-age groups of the population, regional features of cancer prevalence, and the provision of medical care to cancer patients, their changes in the world and in Ukraine, in particular. The purpose of writing the work was to publicize the results of the study of dynamics and main statistic figures, risk factors of cancer pathology development, and the peculiarities of providing medical care to patients with malignant neoplasms in the world and in Ukraine, in particular. Materials and methods. Research materials were the results of scientific research, published in the domestic and world scientific content during the last 5 years. The research used bibliosemantic analytical and synthetic methods of scientific analysis. Results. According to his results, the main cancer risk factors, the impact of which proved, trends in the incidence of malignant neoplasms and their regional peculiarities in the world, including all-Ukrainian ones, were investigated. The relevance of further studying the dynamics of the identified regional features in the regions of Ukraine is substantiated, which could be a significant informational basis for the formation of regional programs for improving the organization of providing assistance to this contingent of patients with an emphasis on strengthening its preventive direction. Conclusions. The study of regional features of organization of providing of medicare to the patients with oncologic pathology at the years is not lost to the actuality, modern risk of development of chasse factors appear, that requires the effective forming of high-risk for upgrading of providing of prophylactic constituent to medicare to the population of Ukraine groups.

PurposeTechnological regimes define the environment in which innovative and learning activities take place in each sector of the economy. In this paper, the authors argue that technological regimes must be interpreted and elaborated by each organisation operating within a sector in order to be implemented rationally, which leads us to the concept of perceived technological regimes.Design/methodology/approachThe authors tested the relevance of firms' perceptions of different technological regimes on a sample of wine companies in Italy. The authors run a questionnaire survey and obtained 334 clean responses. Data drawn from questionnaires were analysed via econometric analysis.FindingsThe authors present empirical evidence that this perception tends to vary across different wine technologies. Additionally, the authors find evidence that firms' technology adoption, absorptive capacity and external knowledge sourcing have a strong impact on their perceptions of the relevance of a given wine-making technology.Originality/valueWhile individual technological regimes are characterised by systematic differences in the distribution of heterogeneous firm types, previous empirical studies have not explored whether the technological environment defining a given industry is differently interpreted and elaborated by each firm operating in it.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To explore the phenomenon of workarounds in clinical practice through the nurses' perspective and identify which factors according to their experience contribute to activities carried forth non-compliantly to procedures, protocols and rules defined by an Institution. BACKGROUND A workaround in clinical practice is a non-compliance and a violation of an organisation's defined procedures, regulations or rules that may prevent adverse events. Its increasing recurrence in the workplace calls for a deeper analysis of the phenomenon. DESIGN A phenomenological descriptive design, following Colaizzi's analysis. METHODS In-depth interviews were conducted with 16 nurses about their experience of workarounds. The interviews were digitally audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Two researchers conducted data analysis independently and followed three phases: extracting significant statements, creating formulated meanings and aggregating them into themes. The process employed NVivo 12 software. COREQ checklist was used for reporting. RESULTS Data analysis identified 17 sub-themes falling into the four macro-themes: (i) living the profession in saved times; (ii) Perceiving contingencies as a guide to action; (iii) sense of personal responsibility; and (iv) emotional aspects. CONCLUSIONS From a nurses' perspective, a workaround is often triggered by the need to overcome problems interfering with efficient and timely patient care in everyday clinical practice. This will of undertaking responsibilities favouring gained efficiency is closely linked to their confidence acquired over years of experience in the field. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE The results of this study can help clinical leadership to acknowledge workaround, understand the underlying triggers and work towards reconciling official procedures with real-world situations. They can help nurses working in clinical practice to reflect and understand how to reconcile the needs related to the demands of organisations with the need to live their profession, which is more patient-oriented.

BACKGROUND Past research has indicated that individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may demonstrate increased sensitivity to stress exposure following onset of the disorder. Thus, having PTSD may amplify the effects of subsequent stressors. This has been found to be relevant in some forms of substance use but relationships between PTSD, new stress and opioid use specifically has not been examined. AIMS To explore interactions between PTSD, new victimisation and opioid use and test the hypothesis that PTSD will moderate any victimisation-opioid use relationship. METHODS The pathways to desistance data were used in analyses. A series of logistic regression models were used to test both direct effects of victimisation and PTSD on opioid use and interactions between them. RESULTS The sample was comprised of a male majority (male N = 1,170; female N = 184). Results indicated that neither PTSD nor victimisation were significant predictors of opioid use. PTSD was found to moderate the relationship between victimisation and opioid use in the hypothesised manner. CONCLUSIONS There may be clinical implications of these results relating to both inpatient and outpatient treatment. Regular trauma screening, additional victims' services and trauma-informed care may help to reduce the risk of opioid use among individuals suffering from PTSD.

Amid a crisis in biblical interpretation brought to a head by the Church Struggle in Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer delivered an address in August 1935 to a group of Confessing Church pastors entitled “Contemporizing New Testament Texts.” Bonhoeffer sounded a clarion call for the retrieval of a thoroughly theological hermeneutic that would liberate preachers for the bold proclamation of the Gospel within a culturally compromised church. This paper will present a reading of Bonhoeffer's daring address that seeks to both situate it within its unique historical context and attend to the ways that it calls into question many of the cherished hermeneutical and homiletical assumptions that dominate contemporary preaching for the sake of a more faithful proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Recent court decisions have revealed how the law is frequently under pressure to adjust to novel digital technologies. As legal practice is blind to the factual particularities of the relationship between law and technology, the courts’ efforts to re-stabilize normative expectations of Internet users, in the face of sociotechnical changes caused by computer networks, lack an adequate theoretical classification. Science and technology studies (STS) provide refined knowledge on the interaction between technology and society. Yet, the law and normative structures have remained a stepchild of that branch of interdisciplinary theorizing within the social sciences. Within the legal discipline, media-based theories about the law in the digital environment have conceived computer networks as hybrid sociotechnical constructs. This approach aptly shows how digital media have changed the way individuals experience the world and interact with one another and how the capacity to adjust cognitive behavioral expectations to new developments has become crucial. While the learning of individuals takes center stage, this perspective belittles the relevance of normative expectations and overlooks the law’s learning. How is the law capable of learning under conditions of computer networks and responding to the sociopolitical changes caused by the new technologies? This paper’s aim is to propose a perspective on the law in the digital society that combines STS with legal sociology. An approach based on technical affordances explains how normative behavioral expectations can adjust to changes in the networked environment and how the law learns in the digital society.

Using practical examples, the paper examines the relevance of Thomas Homer-Dixons Environmental Conflict Theory within an African context. It outlines that Homer-Dixon’s Environmental Conflict Theory is to some extent valid, but it suffers significant shortfalls that make its applicability and generalizability questionable. The paper has shown that the abundance of resources in Africa contributes more to violent conflicts than their scarcity. Resources in Africa are vast, and so are environmental conflicts. The paper underscores factors that aggravate environmental conflicts such as depletion, degradation, social cleavages, population growth and environmental scarcity and recommend solutions on how they can be redressed.

A bűnmegelőzés elsődlegesen állami feladat. Vannak azonban olyan speciális területek, ahol az állam nem képes önállóan hatékonyan ellátni ezt a feladatot, a felderítési nehézség pedig az adott bűncselekmények fokozott látenciáját eredményezi. A csekély felderítési eredményesség a deliktumok elkövetésének folytatására motivál akkor is, ha az adott magatartás elkövetése esetére a jogalkotó magas szankciókat helyez kilátásba. A krudélis mértékű szankciók csak akkor jelentenének visszatartó erőt, ha a bűncselekmény elkövetője a cselekmény magas felderítési potenciálja miatt a feltétlen felelősségre vonástól alappal tarthat. Ennek hiányában azonban a szankciónövelés nem optimális eszköze a látencia csökkentésének, így a bűnmegelőzésnek sem. Ilyen felderítési kihívást jelentő terület a szervezeten belüli bűnelkövetés is, hiszen a szervezet zárt, hierarchikus felépítése miatt alkalmas arra, hogy az annak keretei között kifejtésre kerülő jogellenes magatartásokat a külvilág, és így a bűnüldöző hatóságok előtt is leplezze. Elemi állami érdek ezért a szervezetek ösztönzése arra, hogy a kereteik között történő visszaélések megvalósulását megakadályozzák akkor is, ha azok egyébként a szervezet érdekeit szolgálják. Az integritásszemlélet a szervezet, illetve az annak részét képező egyének morálisan tiszta működését segíti elő, ezáltal alkalmas eszközrendszer arra is, hogy a szervezeten belül elkövetett, tipikusan látens gazdasági, valamint korrupciós bűncselekményeket megakadályozza. A tanulmány a szervezeti integritással foglalkozik kriminológiai, szűkebben bűnmegelőzési megközelítésben. Az integritás jelentésének kriminológiai szempontból is használható megfogalmazását követően foglalkozik az integritás és a compliance viszonyrendszerével, majd azzal a kérdéssel, hogy a szervezet milyen motivációs tényezők miatt válik egyáltalán veszélyforrássá, kriminogén közeggé, valamint ezeket a tényezőket miképpen lehet kiküszöbölni. A tanulmány utolsó fejezete az integritásmenedzsment eszközök bűnmegelőzési relevanciájával foglalkozik.

This article engages Herbert Marcuse’s work from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s (his New Left period and just after) and puts it into dialogue with current radical democratic political theorists who have reflected on how the systemic dysfunctions of neoliberalism have enabled the rise of populist authoritarianism within existing liberal democracies. Revisiting the way Marcuse struggled with critical issues in theory and practice can illuminate both possibilities for, and difficulties with, liberation that remain relevant for critiques of neoliberalism today. After revisiting Marcuse I then briefly take up affinities between his analysis of how liberal democracies can become authoritarian, and recent critiques of neoliberalism in the thought of Sheldon Wolin, Wendy Brown and John Keane. These theorists have implicitly or explicitly taken up aspects of Marcuse’s analysis of authoritarianism and domination in their own critiques of neoliberalism today.

La pandemia Covid-19 constituye un desafío para el género humano. Esta se ha convertido en un catalizador excepcional de los debates en torno a la ética de la investigación biomédica que precisa acompañar a los procesos científico-investigativos, indispensables hoy, en la búsqueda de soluciones al estado de catástrofe epidemiológica vivenciado por la humanidad. Para los países de Nuestra América, estos debates adquieren la mayor relevancia/especificidad, pues en no pocas ocasiones, urgencias menos globales y auténticas han dado lugar a la implementación de investigaciones biomédicas internacionales, unilaterales y abusivas. Es en este contexto donde sorprende que la Organización Panamericana de la Salud haya emitido un instrumento regulatorio como Orientación para la supervisión ética de las investigaciones sobre COVID-19 ante la generación de nueva evidencia (2020), profundamente principalista. El presente artículo se propone como objetivo: analizar la ¿pertinencia? del principalismo para la ética de la investigación biomédica regional en tiempos de la actual pandemia. Arriba al reconocimiento del valor que para este campo y contexto tienen: la protección de la vulnerabilidad social, la oposición a un doble estándar ético para evaluar la validez moral de ensayos clínicos controlados, la responsabilidad moral de los patrocinadores para con los sujetos de pesquisa una vez concluido el estudio, y la centralidad de la solidaridad para la investigación con “cooperación” extranjera; cuatro preceptos, no en balde, ya identificados en Pautas CIOMS-OMS (2002).

Skin conditions can have profound negative symptomatic and psychological effects. Failure to address these effects can lead to poor treatment adherence and/or patient dissatisfaction. Despite patient-reported outcome (PRO) use being highly recommended, real-world adoption has been slow. To assess clinicians’ perceived facilitators and barriers to using PROs in daily practice. We conducted in-person semi-structured interviews with 19 clinicians and thematic analysis of transcripts. Three main themes emerged: (1) clinicians’ attitudes about the value of Skindex-16 in daily practice, (2) patient attitudes influencing clinicians’ use of Skindex-16, and (3) clinicians’ perceptions of their ability to use PROs successfully for clinical care. Clinicians recognized benefits to using Skindex-16, such as revealing patients’ hidden concerns and highlighting discrepancies with the clinician’s severity assessments. Conversely, clinicians also identified limitations, such as time constraints and lack of relevance for some skin conditions. Patient complaints about PRO relevance have influenced clinicians’ use of Skindex-16 negatively. Finally, some clinicians recognized the need for more training in score interpretation and implementation strategies for optimal clinical flow. While most clinicians believed PROs like Skindex-16 can be useful for patient care, barriers need to be addressed to make PROs more practical for routine clinical care.

Retirement is a psycho social process. It refers to the phase of life when a person leaves his job and withdraws from active working life. Proper optimization of retirement is only possible when a person has pre planned his life with proper finances and saving or the government is providing him with a lot of social security benefits. However, such conditions rarely occur as a person is preoccupied in his pre retirement phases. But proper optimization of retirement can also take place when a person has high social intelligence which affects physical and mental health. Hence, this paper is an endeavor to look into the relevance of social intelligence which helps the people in their retirement process in the people. Thus, a survey was done to find the level of Social Intelligence in the people who are ageing and are going to be retired soon. Around 252 people between 55 to 70 years were studied from Delhi and NCR. The result indicated that middle aged and just retired people had high social intelligence as compared to older adults and the former were also able to optimize their retirement effectively for successful ageing. The older adults were not able to cope up with the various issues of retirement due to low social intelligence. Hence, further studies can be carried out to design proper training for enhancement of social intelligence in aged people for their effective optimization of retirement.

In the past few years, the ethical ramifications of AI technologies (in particular data science) have been at the center of intense debates. Considerable attention has been devoted to understanding how a morally responsible practice of data science can be promoted and which values have to shape it. In this context, ethics and moral responsibility have been mainly conceptualized as compliance to widely shared principles. However, several scholars have highlighted the limitations of such a principled approach. Drawing from microethics and the virtue theory tradition, in this paper, we formulate a different approach to ethics in data science which is based on a different conception of “being ethical” and, ultimately, of what it means to promote a morally responsible data science. First, we develop the idea that, rather than only compliance, ethical decision-making consists in using certain moral abilities (e.g., virtues), which are cultivated by practicing and exercising them in the data science process. An aspect of virtue development that we discuss here is moral attention, which is the ability of data scientists to identify the ethical relevance of their own technical decisions in data science activities. Next, by elaborating on the capability approach, we define a technical act as ethically relevant when it impacts one or more of the basic human capabilities of data subjects. Therefore, rather than “applying ethics” (which can be mindless), data scientists should cultivate ethics as a form of reflection on how technical choices and ethical impacts shape one another. Finally, we show how this microethical framework concretely works, by dissecting the ethical dimension of the technical procedures involved in data understanding and preparation of electronic health records.

Background Low-dose chest CT screening for lung cancer has become a standard of care in the United States, in large part because of the results of the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). Additional evidence supporting the net benefit of low-dose chest CT screening for lung cancer, and increased experience in minimizing the potential harms, has accumulated since the prior iteration of these guidelines. Here, we update the evidence base for the benefit, harms, and implementation of low-dose chest CT screening. We use the updated evidence base to provide recommendations where the evidence allows, and statements based on experience and expert consensus where it does not. Methods Approved panelists reviewed previously developed key questions using the Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome format to address the benefit and harms of low-dose CT screening, and key areas of program implementation. A systematic literature review was conducted using MEDLINE via PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library on a quarterly basis since the time of the previous guideline publication. Reference lists from relevant retrievals were searched, and additional papers were added. Retrieved references were reviewed for relevance by two panel members. The quality of the evidence was assessed for each critical or important outcome of interest using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach. Meta-analyses were performed where appropriate. Important clinical questions were addressed based on the evidence developed from the systematic literature review. Graded recommendations and ungraded statements were drafted, voted on, and revised until consensus was reached. Results The systematic literature review identified 75 additional studies that informed the response to the 12 key questions that were developed. Additional clinical questions were addressed resulting in seven graded recommendations and nine ungraded consensus statements. Conclusions Evidence suggests that low-dose CT screening for lung cancer can result in a favorable balance of benefit and harms. The selection of screen-eligible individuals, the quality of imaging and image interpretation, the management of screen-detected findings, and the effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions can impact this balance.

Economists have long recognized that the effect of move order on outcomes is non-negligible in sequential contests. We study tiebreak mechanisms used in team sports and known as penalty shootouts through a dynamic model. We characterize all order-independent mechanisms where two balanced teams have equal chances to win the shootout whenever they are tied after equal numbers of attempts; thus, move order has no relevance for winning chances. In most sports, such as football and hockey, teams take penalties in a fixed order, known as ABAB, while some tournaments adopted the alternating-order variant, ABBA. We find that these and all other exogenous-order mechanisms – with one exception – are order-dependent in regular rounds. Although ABBA is order independent in sudden-death rounds, ABAB is not. Our theory supports empirical studies linking ABAB to unfair outcomes and multiple equilibria in terms of winning chances of the first- vs. second-kicking teams in different football traditions.

At the end of the 19th century, renowned Russian writer Leo Tolstoy published The kingdom of God is within you in which he defends his main proposals for society based on his vision of Christianity. At times when Christianity appears in society as being used to support the defense of the hardening of punishments against crime, such as the death penalty, the use of weapons to defend itself and even wars and social exclusions worldwide, the Tolstoy’s proposal to free mankind from evil, based on non-violent resistance to all forms of violence, gains relevance. Based on the method of sociological analysis and historical contextualization in The Kingdom of God is in You, of Tolstoi, it is evident his defense that Christ freed all people, and they can then decide between good and evil, rejecting violence and seeking to establish the kingdom of God in every human being so that they might come to an understanding of the truth. Thus, the author builds his work, proposing a break with violence in society, based on a rereading of the gospels, to point out ways to be followed in order to affirm non-violence, as something that should be experienced and defended by all Christians.

The process of news consumption has undergone great changes over the past decade: Information is now available in an ever-increasing amount from a plethora of sources. Recent work suggests that most people would favor algorithmic solutions over human editors. This stands in contrast to public and scholarly debate about the pitfalls of algorithmic news selection—i.e., the so-called “filter bubbles.” This study therefore investigates reasons and motivations which might lead people to prefer algorithmic gatekeepers over human ones. We expect that people have more algorithmic appreciation when consuming news to pass time, entertain oneself, or out of escapism than when using news to keep up-to-date with politics (H1). Secondly, we hypothesize the extent to which people are confident in their own cognitive abilities to moderate that relationship: When people are overconfident in their own capabilities to estimate the relevance of information, they are more likely to have higher levels of algorithmic appreciation, due to the third person effect (H2). For testing those two pre-registered hypotheses, we conducted an online survey with a sample of 268 US participants and replicated our study using a sample of 384 Dutch participants. The results show that the first hypothesis cannot be supported by our data. However, a positive interaction between overconfidence and algorithmic appreciation for the gratification of surveillance (i.e., gaining information about the world, society, and politics) was found in both samples. Thereby, our study contributes to our understanding of the underlying reasons people have for choosing different forms of gatekeeping when selecting news.

Background Evidence from previous studies is often used relatively informally in the design of clinical trials: for example, a systematic review to indicate whether a gap in the current evidence base justifies a new trial. External evidence can be used more formally in both trial design and analysis, by explicitly incorporating a synthesis of it in a Bayesian framework. However, it is unclear how common this is in practice or the extent to which it is considered controversial. In this qualitative study, we explored attitudes towards, and experiences of, trialists in incorporating synthesised external evidence through the Bayesian design or analysis of a trial. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 trialists: 13 statisticians and three clinicians. Participants were recruited across several universities and trials units in the United Kingdom using snowball and purposeful sampling. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and techniques of constant comparison. Results Trialists used existing evidence in many ways in trial design, for example, to justify a gap in the evidence base and inform parameters in sample size calculations. However, no one in our sample reported using such evidence in a Bayesian framework. Participants tended to equate Bayesian analysis with the incorporation of prior information on the intervention effect and were less aware of the potential to incorporate data on other parameters. When introduced to the concepts, many trialists felt they could be making more use of existing data to inform the design and analysis of a trial in particular scenarios. For example, some felt existing data could be used more formally to inform background adverse event rates, rather than relying on clinical opinion as to whether there are potential safety concerns. However, several barriers to implementing these methods in practice were identified, including concerns about the relevance of external data, acceptability of Bayesian methods, lack of confidence in Bayesian methods and software, and practical issues, such as difficulties accessing relevant data. Conclusions Despite trialists recognising that more formal use of external evidence could be advantageous over current approaches in some areas and useful as sensitivity analyses, there are still barriers to such use in practice.

The Lisbon Treaty introduced key institutional changes to increase the relevance of elections to the European Parliament (EP). Among these was the ‘Spitzenkandidaten process’, which was introduced with the aim to increase the visibility of the EP elections and mobilise more citizens to turnout to vote. This article investigates the effect that the debates among the Lead Candidates had on voters’ perceptions about candidates and policy issues. To do this, we administered a two-wave panel online survey to a sample of students from different European universities prior to the Spitzenkandidaten debates and directly after them, following the logic of a quasi-experimental research design. Following a difference-in-differences approach, we gauge the extent to which those respondents who were exposed to the debates increased their degree of information about the candidates and changed their perceptions about the candidates and their policy positions. The findings reveal that respondents who followed the debate felt significantly more informed to make up their minds about the candidates as well as to make their vote decisions, and show that the debate slightly improved their perceptions of the policy positions of those candidates who they had intended to vote for.

In this article, we examine what the role of the private sector in times of crises is and whether the private sector is, and can be held to be, accountable. COVID-19 has amplified the difficulties with public–private partnerships and this article addresses several aspects concerning business enterprises, in particular transnational corporations, human rights and health sector activities, highlighting the key aspects to understand and address accountability issues. The article also explores accountability for the private sector, the processes to ensure accountability, and the relevance of regulation and self-regulation.