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Analyzing published and unpublished sources, the paper aims to determine to what extent the crisis in the Balkan Peninsula influenced the dynamics and stages of the negotiations in Lausanne between the Italian and Turkish delegations to end the Italo-Turkish War. The analysis spans from mid-July to the signing of the First Treaty of Lausanne (Treaty of Ouchy) and the entry of Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece in the war against Turkey on 18 October 1912. Italy tried to end its conflict with Turkey and prevent the Balkan countries in their aspiration to disrupt the status quo in the Balkan Peninsula. Italian diplomacy used the friction between the Balkan countries and Turkey to conclude as favorable a treaty as possible, directly pressuring the Turkish delegation at Ouchy and using the great powers’ pressure on Turkey. The practical results of signing the Treaty of Lausanne were the establishment of direct Italian rule in Libya and retaining temporary control of the Aegean islands.

A lack of aggregate analysis concerning energy communities exists in the academic literature. The authors utilized a combination of literature reviews and desk research to fill this gap. The existing debate on the classification of energy communities was summarized and aligned. Discovered classifications were used to analyze the status quo of the sector. The authors found nearly 4000 energy communities with 900,000 members in the European Union. On average, there are 844 members per one energy community. Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the United Kingdom are at the forefront of the movement. Different countries have different primary sources of renewable energy utilized by energy communities, and membership structures vary based on the energy source and corporate purpose of the energy community together with the sector's maturity in a certain country. Predominantly, hydro and biomass are used by energy communities in Alpine countries, solar energy is used in Germany, Spain, and France, wind in the Netherlands and Denmark, and different renewables in the United Kingdom. More members have joined the hydro, biomass, and wind communities than solar communities. Each country has national and regional associations of energy communities. In addition, intermediary actors, researchers, and consultancy agencies have shown a growing interest in the deployment of the movement. Achieving a conformity of business models Europe-wide would probably be impossible and pointless. Distinct geographical, institutional, and policy context-specific conditions stimulate diversity rather than conformity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a theory that considers important differences in competition in the political arena based on whether firms are attempting to maintain or alter the status quo. Particularly, we argue that although investing resources and time to build relationships with politicians and government officials fosters trust, solidarity, and reciprocity, likely producing desired outcomes for both firms attempting to maintain the status quo and those trying to alter it, such relationships are more strongly positive for firms maintaining the status quo. As the effectiveness of relational strategies may differ based on firms' political strategies and firm characteristics, we then theorize that the effects of a more relational approach on "winning" these desired outcomes for firms seeking to maintain or alter the status quo will be moderated by (1) prior targeting in the political arena where the competition unfolds and (2) a firm's social reputation. Specifically, we argue that knowledge and relationships from prior targeting in a political domain where competition unfolds, and a firm's better social reputation will strengthen the effect of a more relational approach on securing desired outcomes for both firms seeking to maintain and alter the status quo. We expect the moderating effect for a firm's targeting and social reputation will be stronger for firms seeking to maintain the status quo compared with firms seeking to alter the status quo. Our study contributes to corporate political activity literature and notably to the research on political markets by advancing a more nuanced but realistic understanding of interfirm rivalry for governmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic response of flexible multi-body large wind turbines has been quickly growing in recent years. With the new normal economic policy, the economy of China is developing innovatively and stably. New energy development and utilization is an important strategy for people's lives and economic development around the world. It is feasible to analyze from a broad perspective. In particular, the development and application of wind power is affecting the economic development of industry to a certain extent. Persistent and significant large wind turbines have cast concern over the prospects of wind power technology, and a comprehensive development potential of wind power technology has been analyzed its potential use in the future. The multi-body dynamics method can better analyze and describe the impact of flexible blade elastic deformation on motion characteristics and provides a practical analysis method for the aeroelastic stability analysis and control system design of wind turbines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the persistence of the status quo concerning the conflict's solution on the island of Cyprus. It draws attention to the phenomena that the long-term unsuccessful process of negotiations, talks, and plans' creation brings. After analysing many resources and various strategies, the author compares different views and suggests the reasons for the persistence of unresolved conflict. The Cyprus conflict can be resolved in the form of several scenarios. The currently induced state's persistence can be considered a plan that is only a forced state and only delays the required solution. However, this situation is likely to persist for a long time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forms of status quo critique that current approaches to realist political theory enable are unsatisfactory. They either formulate standards of constructive critique, but remain uncritical of a great range of political situations, or they offer means for criticising basically all political situations, but neglect constructive critique. As part of the endeavour to develop a status quo critique that is potentially radical and constructive, realists might consider possibilities to use non-standard social practices – social practices that function differently than stipulated by existing political forms – as resources for critique. The article shows how the capacity of non-standard social practices to serve as resources for critique might be exploited. It also defends the proposed procedure against the likely objection that it relies on moralist argumentation. The evaluation of the status quo and the selection of social practices need normative argumentation, but such argumentation can be grounded in the actual to an extent that safeguards its realist nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Har HaMenuhot, the cemetery in western Jerusalem, was founded in 1949, but its first two decades were rife with disagreement and neglect. In the decades that preceded the founding of the state, burial societies that were affiliated with different communities had acted with no supervision on the Mount of Olives. Hostilities in the 1940s and the War of Independence meant a search for new burial sites in safer locations. With the birth of the state, a permanent site was found in Givat Shaul, and the government hoped to impose order and oversight over burial through its local executive arm, the community council. However, conflicts between religious agents and the nascent state's executive bodies led to a vacuum in the management of Har HaMenuhot. Ultimately, and against the wishes of the state, the cemetery saw a return to pre-state conditions, with a variety of burial societies active on the mount. The young country's struggle to define the place of its religious institutions in its governing framework ultimately strengthened today's burial societies, whose abundant activities are a result of an earlier reluctance to come to a resolution on the national level within the framework of the status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legacy of the sub‐continent has led to a complex geopolitical rivalry in the Brahmaputra River Basin, shared by China, India, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. Each riparian state has a varying interest and development agenda, hindering the identification of common interests for water cooperation. This article presents the intertwining of regional geopolitics with the basin hydropolitics, restraining positive interaction, thus, leading to a status quo in the BRB. While maintaining a purposeful status quo seems to be a prudent move by the riparians, the local communities continue to suffer due to the impasse. This article is categorized under:Human Water > Water GovernanceScience of Water > Water and Environmental ChangeHuman Water > Value of Water [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photo by 234988805© Niall Wiggan on Dreamstime INTRODUCTION This short essay explores the plausible wisdom of status quo bias and questions the attempt by Bostrom and Ord to negate its influence. Assuming that the standard role of reason in judgment-formation is only second to affect, I propose that attempts to study and counter cognitive biases should focus on the underlying emotional dispositions. With or without rational descriptions, such innate inclinations of our cognition likely contain some enduring adaptive value. Cognitive biases are deviations from reason-based judgment-formation. They are largely due to conflicts between our subjective image of the world and objective reality. Attaining an exhaustive comprehension of the complex interactions of natural and social worlds is impossible, so we have evolved to operate by relying on a built-in navigation system. Most of our choices we do not base on precise rational modeling but on a far more ancient response mechanism. Sense-making and decision making follow the order of their evolutionary emergence: intuition first, strategic reasoning second. According to Jonathan Haidt, even our moral reasoning mainly functions as a post-hoc confirmation of the preceding affective judgments.[1] The constructed rationalizations are our attempt to understand and unravel the mystery of our intuition and its pragmatic insights. I. Disposition to Resist Change Dispositions are enduring patterns of mental processing. As our inherent qualities, they direct our reactions toward changes transpiring around us. Rather than being an instance of dissonance within the cognitive system, influences like the status quo bias originate outside of it. Therefore, shifting the emphasis from cognitive to affective level gives us a better starting point for evaluating the basis and merit of each identified deviation pattern. Affective responses may appear irrational, yet these have in time become established for solid evolutionary reasons. This might not make them ethically or scientifically appropriate, but nonetheless, we should acknowledge the extensive contribution of these patterns to the success of our species. In his well-known bioethical writing on repugnance, Leon Kass defended the value of disgust that is experienced over perceived violations against nature.[2] He argued that this emotional impulse is an expression of nature’s wisdom, a deeper understanding of the world that human reason is unable to fully articulate. From the evolutionary standpoint, the importance of such intrinsic dispositions and the resulting affective judgments are indeed easy to defend.[3] Humans can attain a significant fitness advantage through reliable collaboration, which requires people to operate according to shared rules. The experienced revulsion toward norm violators gave us a built-in advocate for doing the right thing – even in the absence of authorities. Affect-based moral dispositions enacted a prosocial force over our ancestors, who later articulated and codified this acted-out morality. Therefore, our emotional impulses can be rich in pragmatic ethical wisdom. The intuition to resist change has a similar evolutionary origin. In the absence of a sufficient understanding of the indirect and extended consequences of an alteration, it is generally more advantageous to preserve the status quo. The emotional tendency to experience unease when deviating from conventions can manifest itself in a variety of contexts from politics to healthcare. Forms of affective sway over individual or societal attempts to be logical probably stem from the same roots as our moral sense. The resistance to violating the status quo is indeed often flavored with moral outrage toward the change. Psychologically, maintaining the status quo requires less effort, intention, and awareness.[4] This clearly makes it our standard setting and a considerable cognitive bias. In a sense, this psychological distaste for novelty safeguards against divergent and untested solutions to recurring problems. In the language of Kass, this predisposition is an expression of rarely articulated conventional wisdom.[5] The likelihood of triggering a catastrophe is minimal when following a long-ago-established tradition or pattern of behavior. On the contrary, unprecedented actions always carry unforeseeable consequences. It is likely that many yet-unidentified tendencies have indispensably influenced human decision making. In aggregate, the impact of each established sway must have proven advantageous, even if outcomes in isolated instances would not invariably be optimal or even beneficial. Such features of our cognitive processing can therefore contain adaptive value or natural wisdom, even if we have not identified them or defined their precise function. Therefore, an inability to articulate a rationale for an omission that seeks to maintain the status quo should not be considered indisputable evidence of a misstep. II. Detecting and Eliminating Irrational Stances In a paper that introduced the Reversal Test, Bostrom and Ord argued that it is improbable that the current state of affairs is the best possible one regarding any single parameter that could either be increased or decreased.[6] They suggest this proposed improbability justifies shifting the burden of proof to those in favor of preserving the status quo. According to their example, if someone is opposed to increasing as well as decreasing the average human intelligence, they need a good reason for why the current level is optimal. This thinking suggests that the present state of nature is incidental and has no wisdom or justificatory standing. The authors acknowledged the counterargument based on evolutionary adaptation but questioned the present adaptive value of the evolved human traits and tendencies. The undeniable advantage of reason-based decision making is its universal applicability, while intuitions are context specific. We did not evolve to perform in macroeconomics or quantum physics. Reliance on anything except systematic and rational decision making is therefore inappropriate when studying them, even if we would generally recognize our emotional responses to convey useful insights. Have the instincts that were shaped by a now vanished world become a handicap for scientific and ethical inquiry within our ultra-modern circumstance? III. Enduring Wisdom We can contend with this uncertainty over present adaptive value by either relying on the established patterns of judgment-formation before maladaptiveness is demonstrated or by insisting on fully rational conduct without any mental shortcuts or filtering of information. For me, it is not obvious where the onus to provide evidence on the enduring value of each deviation resides. Humans themselves have not fundamentally changed, so many of our social instincts may hold and there is a plausible pragmatic wisdom in suspicion toward societal change. Besides, human culture has built upon our evolved dispositions and adjusted them for new purposes. The value of an established deviation may remain unclear when an identified bias is interrogated only in relation to a specific parameter. Variables of psychology, society, and nature are not independent but intricately interconnected. The wisdom of our intuition might not reveal itself case by case – rather it resides in its broad undefined influence over humanity. Depending on the context, this influence should be protected against or granted an opportunity to protect us. CONCLUSION Reasons behind established conventions and practices may not become evident until some innovation alters the status quo. It may then be too late to prevent the unexpected downsides, downstream from the change. Similarly, the pragmatic value of natural tendencies that have shaped and defined our mental patterns can remain concealed until a disruption. Arguably, a stance or disposition contains wisdom if it accounts for the overarching pattern, even if its applicability in individual cases is questionable. Therefore, the bias toward preserving the status quo is like a natural caution to favor slow change over rapid. The psychological preference for the established pattern introduces a little inertia to the ever-changing parameters of our world. Rather than reasoning ourselves to a sensible midpoint between societal stagnation and upheaval, arriving there may partially depend on following our collective instinctive navigation system. - [1] Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: a social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological review, 108(4), 814–834. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.108.4.814 [2] Kass, L. (1998). The Wisdom of Repugnance: Why We Should Ban the Cloning of Humans. Val. U. L. Rev. 32(2), 679–705. https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr/vol32/iss2/12 [3] Mameli, M. (2013). Meat made us moral: a hypothesis on the nature and evolution of moral judgment. Biol Philos 28, 903–931. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-013-9401-3 [4] Eidelman, S., & Crandall, C., 'CHAPTER 4 A Psychological Advantage for the Status Quo' (pp. 85–106), in Jost, J., Kay, A., and Thorisdottir H. (eds), Social and Psychological Bases of Ideology and System Justification (New York, 2009; online edn, Oxford Academic, 1 May 2009). https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195320916.003.004 [5] Kass, L. (1998). The Wisdom of Repugnance: Why We Should Ban the Cloning of Humans. Val. U. L. Rev. 32(2), 679–705. https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr/vol32/iss2/12 [6] Bostrom, N., & Ord, T. (2006). The Reversal Test: Eliminating Status Quo Bias in Applied Ethics. In Ethics 116(4), 656–679. University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.1086/505233

In recent years, Lu’an City has vigorously developed the agricultural product processing industry under the call of the implementation of the “rural revitalization” strategy. This article starts with the development status of the agricultural product processing industry in Lu’ an City, analyzes its existing problems, and puts forward its own views on how to develop the agricultural product processing industry, hoping to provide a certain reference for the development of the agricultural product processing industry in Lu’an City. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book, 'Debating Business School Legitimacy,' is not primarily a debate book. In the introduction, the publisher apologizes for the absence of a comprehensive debate on the subject. However, the book offers a broad collection of reflections on the topic, with voices that are often more concerned than critical. Despite the apology, the book contains several contributions that undoubtedly contribute to the debate and engage the reader in a critical discussion.

OBJECTIVE: The aging society and the empty nest of the elderly have become issues that cannot be ignored by the Chinese government. Not only does the physical function of the empty-nest elderly (ENE) decline, and the incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases increase significantly, but they are also more likely to have loneliness, low life satisfaction, mental health problems, and even a much greater possibility of suffering from depression than the nonempty-nest elderly, besides the possibility of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) which is also greatly increased. This paper aims to evaluate the status quo of dilemma and determinants of a vast sample of subjects based on the national level. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Data were obtained from the latest 2018's data of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Under the guidance of Andersen's model of health services utilization, this study clarified the overall and different demographic characteristics and prevalence of CHE among ENE and further built the Logit and Tobit model to explore the determinants of CHE occurrence and its intensity. RESULTS: A total of 7,602 ENE were included in the analysis, and the overall incidence of CHE among them was 21.20%. Poor self-reported health status (OR=2.03, 95% CI: 1.71-2.35), suffering from three or more chronic diseases simultaneously (OR=1.79, 95% CI: 1.42-2.15), low life satisfaction (OR=1.44, 95% CI: 1.20-1.68) and advanced age played the leading role in accounting for its high risk, and its intensity increased 0.0311 (SE=0.005), 0.0234 (SE=0.007), and 0.0178 (SE=0.005), respectively. In contrast, the leading drop in the probability of CHE among ENE was those whose monthly income was over 20,000 CNY (OR=0.46, 95% CI: 0.38-0.55), whose intensity declined 0.0399 (SE=0.005), whose monthly income was between 2,000 and 20,000 CNY (OR=0.78, 95% CI: 0.66-0.90) and whose intensity declined 0.021 (SE=0.005), and who were married during the survey period (OR=0.82, 95% CI: 0.70-0.94). Simultaneously, rural ENE showed more vulnerability and higher risk of CHE when confronted with these factors compared with the urban ones. CONCLUSIONS: More attention should be paid for ENE in China. The priority, including the relevant health insurance or social security measurements, should be further strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many employees want to either retain their jobs or attain promotion. In doing so, they remain silent and conform to all the decisions taken by the top management. Most studies have treated the causes of this silence as unobserved intervening mechanisms and named them black boxes. The current study therefore, aims to explore those unobserved psychological characteristics of employees. More specifically, it examines the employee’s psychological ideology, namely liberalism and conservatism in affecting commitment to status quo mediated by employee silence and moderated by social dominance. This study proposes that employee ideologies (liberalism and conservatism) affect their voicing behaviour and ultimately their resistance or acceptance to the status quo. Data from 219 faculty members from different universities in Karachi, Pakistan was gathered. The study hypothesised that liberals will tend to voice their opinions and resist the managements status quo while conservatives tend not to voice their opinions and endorse status quo, and they accept management’s decision and will not question their actions. The results showed that liberals have an indirect relationship with silence, namely they do not remain silent. Additionally, silence had an indirect relationship with status quo. Even though they are silent it does not mean they endorse status quo. Further, it was found that silence mediates the relationship between liberals and commitment to status quo. t was also found that conservatives also endorsed status quo but there was no relationship between conservatives and silence. Further, silence did not mediate the relationship between conservatives and status quo. Moreover, social dominance orientation strengthens or moderates the relationship between silence and status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence and widespread adoption of biotechnology have had a profound impact on various aspects of human life, including the educational technology environment. This paper examines the impact of bio-commercial technology on modern educational technology environment, exploring the ways in which biotech has influenced teaching and learning practices, curriculum development, and education administration. The paper also considers the ethical and societal implications of the integration of biotech into education, highlighting the need for responsible and informed decision-making. The study draws on a review of relevant literature and case studies to provide a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between bio-commercial technology and modern educational technology environment. The findings suggest that biotech has the potential to enhance educational technology, providing opportunities for new learning experiences, skills development, and research collaborations. However, it also poses challenges related to privacy, equity, and safety. Therefore, it is crucial for educators, policymakers, and stakeholders to engage in a critical dialogue on the integration of bio-commercial technology into the educational technology environment, ensuring that it is used ethically, responsibly, and for the benefit of all learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Negative organizations, where powerful people manage to keep a negative strategy in place, one which does not benefit the firm but perpetuates their power, is a reality discussed herein. Positive organizations, led by positive leaders who do not feel threatened by brilliant employees who have brilliant ideas, may be less prominent than we think and should not be taken for granted. Following thirty years of working in organizations, both large and small, the author has come to realize that the status quo tends to be very strong, and that innovating and disrupting that balance is not only dangerous but seldom succeeds. More research is necessary in this field to prove this theory right. This article aims to point readers and researchers in the right direction and to challenge one to think just how negative organizations may be. The article is based on the experience of the author; on a look at the case of Nokia (the former handheld mobile phone division), seen to be a negative organization; as well as on in-depth personal interviews with three experts (a purposive sample) on the topic of positive versus negative organizations; and, finally, the results of two surveys (n = 116—millennials; and n = 115—Generation Z) are shared. A total of 94.8% of the Generation Z respondents (109 respondents in total) believe negative organizations to exist (where the status quo may prevail over innovative individuals and innovation to the detriment of the global organizational strategy), which is seen to be very encouraging for this research study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leadership is central to understanding social continuity and change, though rarely features in the study of collective action. Across three experiments (total N = 687), we examine how followers' support for pro‐change leaders (Experiments 1–3) and pro‐status quo leaders (Experiments 1–2) varies as a function of leader alignment with group normative trajectory, the presence (vs. absence) of competing leaders, and shared group membership with followers. When pro‐change leaders were aligned with the normative trajectory of the group, they elicited higher collective action and voting intentions compared to pro‐status quo leaders (Experiments 1–2). When change leaders were non‐aligned, participants instead supported the pro‐status quo alternative (Experiment 1–2). Finally, the presence of leadership contests with aligned change leaders (Experiment 2) and pro‐status quo leaders (Experiments 2–3) reduced collective action and support for non‐aligned change leaders or those facing a polarised followership. Implications for research at the nexus of leadership and collective action are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial systemic risk has an impact on the real economy and may trigger a chain reaction in the whole economic system leading to the financial crisis. Many scholars focus on financial systemic risk, but few of them are bibliometric analyses. Therefore, this paper explores the status quo, emerging trends, and transition trajectory through the above analysis method in the research field from 1990 to 2020. Based on the above analysis, we find the following conclusions: (1) The basic conclusions of the most productive countries, institutions, journals, authors, status quo, and the change of hotspots in this research field are presented. (2) The emerging trends in this research field are 'credit risk', 'capital shortfall', 'spill-over', 'spread', 'financial market', 'interconnectedness', 'transmission' in the last three years. (3) The research field of financial systemic risk presents an S-shaped transition trajectory through the local forward, the local backward, the global standard, and the global key-route main path analysis. (4) We find that the most cited authors are not always at the core of the trajectory of financial systemic risk research. The emerging trend 'credit risk' is also recently a core research direction in this research field's transition trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AIM: To investigate the current quality of life in children with amblyopia and its influencing factors.METHODS: Cross-sectional study. Using random sampling method, 178 children with amblyopia were selected as the research objects, and the Chinese version of the Universal Core Scale of Children's Quality of Life was used to investigate the research objects. The impact of amblyopia on children's quality of life was analyzed. RESULTS:The quality of life score of children with amblyopia was(77.23±15.52)points. The results of multiple linear regression showed that parental education, left eye best-corrected visual acuity, right eye corrected visual acuity, coverage, premature delivery, hypoxia at birth and delivery way were the main factors affecting the quality of life of amblyopic children. It can explain 38.6% of the variance in the quality of life of children with amblyopia(F=15.242, P

This AuNTIe paper calls for better ways of being and doing in academe than the status quo practices across universities. Mad Native Auntie sits you down for a class in understanding why Indigenous ways of knowing are not tools like interview or survey for academics to colonize as free-for-all methodological use. Auntie addresses the demoralization that occurs when the Indigenous “other” is made teacher of pan-Indigenous epistemology. I discuss my understanding of duty-of-care through research, taking precautions to predict what could be happening for others when applied to the understanding of performance ethnography as course work.

Abstract Pandemię COVID-19 wywołaną wirusem SARS-CoV-2 można już dziś uznać za jedną z trudniejszych sytuacji z jaką przyszło się zmagać społeczeństwom na przestrzeni ostatnich dwóch lat. W prezentowanym artykule przedstawiono ilościową analizę oceny i doświadczeń okresu pandemii z perspektywy osób dorosłych, prowadzących samodzielne gospodarstwo domowe, podopiecznych Miejskich Ośrodków Pomocy Społecznej w Katowicach oraz w Częstochowie. W badaniach własnych wykorzystano metodę sondażu diagnostycznego, z zastosowaniem kwestionariusza ankiety. Główne cele analizy skoncentrowano wokół kwestii związanej z utrzymaniem status quo wśród „samotnych” beneficjentów w okresie trwania pandemii COVID-19, przede wszystkim czasu dwóch pierwszych lockdownów. Tekst zamyka dyskusja, w której autorki dokonują próby podsumowania i interpretacji wyników badań w kontekście założeń Analizy Transakcyjnej. Inspirację do podjęcia prezentowanych tu badań własnych stanowiły wyniki, jakie uzyskano w ramach projektu badawczego, realizowanego przez powołany w Instytucie Pedagogiki na Wydziale Nauk Społecznych Uniwersytetu Śląskiego w Katowicach zespół badawczy ds. badań i uwarunkowań życia i pracy w czasie pandemii COVID-19, którego autorki niniejszego opracowania były członkiniami. Zespół na przełomie 2020 oraz 2021 roku prowadził badania dotyczące „Wyzwań, kontekstów i uwarunkowań życia podopiecznych oraz pracy pracowników MOPS w czasie pandemii COVID-19”. Uzyskane przez zespół w wyniku przeprowadzonych badań wnioski, zostały przedstawione w dwóch raportach: Pomoc społeczna w trakcie pandemii COVID-19. Raport z badań przeprowadzonych na terenie miasta Katowice oraz Pomoc społeczna w trakcie pandemii COVID-19. Raport z badań przeprowadzonych na terenie miasta Częstochowa. Niniejsze badania stanowią ilościowe pogłębienie i uszczegółowienie rezultatów badawczych opracowanych w ramach wspomnianych raportów.

The goal of this research is to critically analyze and uncover the ideologies contained in the 2018 mottoes of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front coalition parties (EPRDF). The texts of the mottoes developed and used by the EPRDF coalition parties were the type of data used in this study. A critical examination of the data revealed that presupposition was used as the primary discursive strategy in the presentation of the mottoes, and the status quo versus the reformist ideologies were discovered to be the two polarized ideologies that can also be referred to as competing discourses. Some parties portrayed themselves as pro-reformists in their mottoes, while others portrayed themselves as anti-reformists. Thus, the study’s findings show that, while coalition parties are expected to plan and work toward a common goal, EPRDF coalition parties have been found with polarized ideologies that are realized as pro reformists versus pro status quo, as portrayed in the parties’ 2018 annual congress mottoes.

New technology invariably provokes concerns over potential societal impacts. Even as risks often fail to materialize, the fear continues. The current research explored the psychological underpinnings of this pattern. Across four studies (N = 2,454 adults recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk), we found evidence for the role of status quo thinking in evaluating technology. In Study 1, we experimentally manipulated the reported age of unfamiliar technology and found that people evaluate it more favorably when it is described as originating before (vs. after) their birth. In Studies 2 through 4, participants' age at the time of invention strongly predicts attitudes toward a wide range of real-world technologies. Finally, we found that individual differences in status-quo-based decision-making moderated evaluations of technology. These studies provide insight into how people respond to the rapidly changing technological landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the issue of frozen conflicts in the post-Soviet space. According to the author, conflicts are a product of the disintegration of the USSR, the declaration of the independence of the former union republics, and the adoption of the direction of foreign policies for European integration. In most cases, the conflicts are artificial, because the ex-Soviet space is considered the sphere of interest of the Russian Federation, and the secessionist regions are interested in maintaining subordination to Moscow. Failure to resolve conflicts leads to the consolidation of the status quo in the territories. Resolving the Transnistrian conflict, but also other conflicts in the ex-Soviet space requires the internationalization of the process by actively attracting G-7 states, UN structures, the EU and the internationalization of peacekeeping missions. An important requirement for the Republic of Moldova is the change of the political class, which will want to solve the problem of territorial integrity.

Tras el desmembramiento de la República Federativa Socialista de Yugoslavia y de la disolución definitiva de su sucesora, la República Federal de Yugoslavia (Unión Estatal de Serbia y Montenegro) en 1991 y 2006 respectivamente, se constituyeron seis Estados, los cuales no lograron su reconocimiento internacional de forma inmediata, sino de modo gradual. Paralelamente, dio la pauta para que otros territorios internamente discutieran y tomaran acciones con el fin de cambiar su condición jurídica, siendo un caso emblemático, Kosovo, puesto que en el año 2008 impulsó de forma unilateral su autoproclamación como país independiente de la mano con el Órgano Legislativo. Sin embargo, no ha consolidado su cometido en el sistema internacional, principalmente por la renuencia de la República de Serbia para ser considerado como Estado soberano, debido a razones históricas y políticas, lo que ha ocasionado una división entre los actores interestatales en apoyar su causa y que, hasta la fecha, no se haya culminado el conflicto de forma pacífica entre las partes. Por tanto, el propósito de este escrito es analizar el estatus de la República de Kosovo en el sistema internacional, iniciando con un estudio de su autonomía adquirida durante el Estado eslavo unificado hasta el hecho del acto declarativo, donde se compara con el Derecho Internacional la viabilidad de sus pretensiones, y cómo esto ha influido en el comportamiento de los Estados respecto a esta cuestión. Por tal motivo, resulta imprescindible su desarrollo, con la finalidad de comprender la situación y dinámica actual del conflicto.

Realist political theory is often confronted with the objection that it is biased towards the status quo. Although this criticism overlooks the fact that realist political theories contain various resources for critique, a realist approach that is strong in status quo critique and contributes, constructively, to the theorising of alternatives to the status quo is a desideratum. The article argues that contextual realism, which sources its normativity from particular contexts, harbours an underexploited potential to establish such a form of political theorising. By drawing on ideas and principles that have guided critical engagements with social and political forms in a particular context, and on widely shared views of need for reform, realists can identify deficits of the status quo and contribute to a debate on how these deficits might be addressed. This article describes and illustrates the idea of a transformative contextual realism, and defends it against some potential objections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A core element of the sustainable approach to global living quality improvement can now become the intensive and organized usage of underground space. There is a growing interest in underground building and growth worldwide. The reduced consumption of electricity, effective preservation of green land, sustainable wastewater and sewage treatment, efficient reverse degradation of the urban environment, and reliable critical infrastructure management can improve the quality of life. At the same time, technological innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing (CC), the internet of things (IoT), and big data analytics (BDA) play a significant role in improved quality of life. Hence, this study aims to integrate the technological innovations in urban underground engineering to ensure a high quality of life. Thus, this study uses big data analytics to carry out the status quo of foundation treatment and proposes a conceptual framework named the BDA with IoT on urban underground engineering (BI0T-UUE). This framework connects hidden features with various high-level sensing sources and practical predictive model characterization to lower building costs, productive infrastructure management, preparedness for disasters, and modern community smart services. The IoT integration gives an optimum opportunity to work towards the functionality of "digital doubles" of secret infrastructure, both economical and scalable, with the increasing sophistication and tooling of the underworld. The simulation analysis ensures the highest efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the underground engineering with a value of 96.54% and 97.46%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Biological invasion is one of the major threats to global biodiversity attracting a primary focus of scientific attention. During the past decades, due to the diversity and peculiarity of species, coupled with the vulnerable ecosystem, karst areas have received more and more attention. Numerous investigations and studies have confirmed that the karst areas in Southwest China are suffering from biological invasions under the intensified human activities and the climate change they caused. Despite some fundamental research on invasive species that has been conducted to understand the species and distribution in the karst areas, the mechanism of biological invasions and the response of karst ecosystem are still lack sufficient knowledge. In this paper, we summarized the habitat characteristics and invasion status of karst areas to biological invasions. This paper comprehensively analyzed the research results on biological invasions in karst areas to understand the status and development trends of biological invasions in the karst of China, so as to promote the relevant research on biological invasions in the karst areas. We found that the biological invasions in the karst areas were increasing with years. We also revealed the possible mechanism including competition, mutualism, allelopathy and phenotypic plasticity of biological invasion in karst by summarizing the relevant research results of in the karst areas. Moreover, the response of karst to biological invasion was described from the aspects of ecosystem, community, species and genetic levels, etc. By comparing the characteristics of invasive species that have been found in karst area, we analyzed the common characteristics including strong fecundity and rapid growth rate, strong environmental adaptability, strong phenotypic plasticity and high genetic diversity of the existing invasive species, we simulated and predicted the habitat of invasive species. Overall, we found three areas with high habitat suitability covering Chinese southwest Karst ecosystem, which include the southern Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, foothill area on the Min-Yue-Gui and foothill area of southern Yunnan. It is also worth noting that the Sichuan Basin has a higher invasive risk compared to its surrounding Karst ecosystem, mainly because of the high habitat suitability of some invasive species. Therefore, we suggest that a general survey of alien invasive species in the karst areas of Southwest China should be carried out as soon as possible, focusing on the survey of the suitable areas of alien species for early warning. In addition, to establish a database of invasive alien species in the karst areas of southwest China, strengthen the monitoring of alien species, and evaluate the impact of invasive species in key areas on the biodiversity and ecosystem in the karst areas of Southwest China, so as to maintain the stability of cave biodiversity and the fragile ecosystem.

The detection and prevention strategies for drug control have gained significant attention from the drug control committees globally and need the researchers’ attention to improve these strategies worldwide. Hence, this research investigates the impact of the status quo (SQ) and resistance to the innovative nature of the drug control committee on the failure of detection and prevention strategies (FDPS) in Malaysia. This article also analyzes the mediating role of poor team performance (PTP) among the SQ and resistance to the innovative nature of the drug control committee and the FDPS in Malaysia. This study has employed the primary data collection ways such as questionnaires to gather the data from selected respondents. The researchers also applied the SPSS-AMOS to check the association among variables and testing of hypotheses. The results revealed that the SQ and resistance to the innovative nature of the drug control committee have a positive association with the FDPS in Malaysia. The findings have also exposed that PTP significantly mediates between the SQ and resistance to the innovative nature of the drug control committee and the FDPS in Malaysia. This study guides the policymakers that they should develop the policies that eliminate the SQ nature and motivate the committee to adopt innovations that enhance the team performance and success of detection and prevention strategies in Malaysia.

While the United States has long dominated the international system, that dominance is being challenged currently by China’s emergence as a new power. While considerable attention has been focused on China’s recent launch of the One Belt One Road (or Belt and Road) policy, less discussed are the digital dimensions of that policy, despite recognition of technology’s importance in the country’s policies. In this paper, the authors show the contribution of the digital aspects of the Belt and Road policy to China’s efforts to establish its position in the international system. Applying Power Transition Theory as pioneered by A.F.K. Organski, the authors show that while China has not fully dislodged the United States from its position in the system, its Digital Belt and Road has succeeded in eroding US’ dominance.

目的了解京津冀地区人类辅助生殖技术服务机构(以下简称"辅助生殖机构")配置现状和地理可及性， 为国家下一轮配置规划提供参考依据。方法 首先运用地图慧软件了解京津冀地区的60家辅助生殖机构的地理位 置，其次对辅助生殖机构分省、分技术类别进行描述性分析，最后利用百度地图计算采用驾驶机动车方式各县(县 级市、区)到京津冀地区辅助生殖机构的最短距离和最短时间并用最小值、最大值、均数土标准差等进行描述性 分析。结果京津冀地区共有辅助生殖机构60家，其中北京共18家、天津共11家、河北共31家。京津冀地区各县 到人类辅助生殖技术(assisted reproductive technology, ART)/夫精人工授精(artificial insemination-husband semen, AIH )、供精人工授精(artificial insemination-donor semen, AID )、体外受精(in vitro fertilization, IVF)/ 卵质内单精 子注射(intracytoplasmic sperm injection, ICSI 植入前胚胎遗传学诊断(preimplantation genetic diagnosis, PGD) 机构最短距离的均数分别为44.6 km、151.2 km、75.5 km、210.9 km,其中最短距离小于90.0 km的县的比例分别 为92.4%、24.2%、76.7%、19.7% ;京津冀地区各县到ART/AIH、AID、IVF-ET/ICSI、PGD机构最短时间的均数 分别为50.9 min、136.0 min、75.4 min、185.8 min,其中最短时间小于90.0min的县的比例分别为91.9%、23.3%、 76.2%、17.5%。结论京津冀地区辅助生殖机构配置的总体地理可及性较好，但也应采取有效措施弥补河北少部 分县地理可及性的不足，并结合患者需求逐步改善AID、PGD机构的地理可及性。. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]