7627 research outputs found
Sort by
Interpreting value changes across countries using archetypes as anchor points : individual and country level perspectives
No full textSchwartz\u27s seminal psychological theory on human values (Schwartz, 1992, 2012) explains differences among individuals and countries. His instruments are robust, showing similar value structures across nations despite varying priorities. Our study examines value changes over time from both individual-level and country-level perspectives. For the individual level perspective, we use archetype analysis. This method identifies extreme observations representing specific value combinations, which are stable over time and useful for monitoring group changes. Country scores are averages of individual scores. Using European Social Survey data across 29 countries over a 20-year period, we identify three archetypes: Growth-focus, Self-focus, and Social-focus, all fitting Schwartz\u27s theory. Changes in value priorities over time are observed between countries, with Growth-focus prevalence influenced by political and economic conditions. Wealthier and more democratic countries have a larger number of growth-focused individuals. For the country level perspective, we start with country-level value scores as input in the archetype analysis. We explain various results, emphasizing that values are individual level constructs based on survey responses. We argue that valid comparisons over time require equivalence of constructs across countries. The discussion focusses on the need for integrating the two perspectives with a plea for a strong theoretical basis of population-level constructs
江門市「平安通」安老模式成效研究報告
Full text link江門市是廣東省老齡化程度較高的城市。江門市政府於2015年通過購買服務，啟動江門市養老助殘平安通項目，該項目運用資訊科技，為有困難的長者群體提供各類服務，以幫助他們居家安老。本次研究旨在瞭解該項目的成效，和探索服務使用長者的感受。
本研究利用深度訪談 (indepth-interview) 的方法，於2024年1月訪問了40名年齡60歲以上的平安通服務使用者，瞭解他們使用平安通服務的原因、情況、感受和建議。
研究發現，長者申請平安通的原因主要是親人和社區人士介紹、求安心、煤氣優惠和覺得平安通服務有用。長者使用的服務種類主要包括：訂購煤氣、維修家電設備、天氣提醒、電話問候、聘請保姆、打掃清潔、預約叫車、預防緊急事故、緊急需要和落樓服務。
研究發現一些長者對平安通設備的使用不熟悉，認為設備不方便攜帶，以及使用有困難。亦有長者表示智慧AI監測裝置作用不大。在平安通服務評價方面，一些長者認為平安通提供的居家安老服務有助於長者居家養老，但另一些則認為提供的服務存在問題，例如轉介服務質量參差不齊，服務缺乏個性化設計。一些長者較少使用平安通服務，主要原因是不想麻煩他人、身體狀況較好而不需要和不瞭解平安通新增服務。長者希望從幾方面改進平安通，包括降低收費、完善資源轉介服務、優化和增加日常協助及居家養老服務，以及改善居家養老環境。
本研究提出幾方面點建議以改善和完善平安通項目：（1）優化平安通設備及手錶服務、（2）宣傳平安通的使用方法及服務、（3）完善長者資訊並定製服務、（4）增加服務站點和擴大服務覆蓋面、（5）降低轉介服務收費並提高質量、（6）改善居家養老環境及建設長者活動場所
How might Al help the global clinician workforce?
No full textThere is a global healthcare crisis with issues in affordability, access, and quality. Despite increased technology use, expected benefits have not been realized due to the complexity of care and poor design and implementation. Moreover, the healthcare workforce is stretched thin, over-worked, and has degraded wellbeing. Burnout rates of clinicians are alarming in most countries. The factors contributing to clinician burnout are multifactorial, complex and vary by country. In the US, a key contributor to clinician burnout is the increasing burden of computer use.
Al has the potential to improve healthcare quality, safety, clinician well-being, and reduce costs. However, poorly designed To reduce clinician burnout, Al must be Al can worsen patient safety and clinician designed with human-centered design well-being. Improper design of Al user (HCD) focusing on the needs of clinicians interfaces may lead to unintended errors and patients. Social scientists and human and patient harm, particularly during factors professionals are crucial in this human-Al interactions in time-sensitive, high-risk settings. Al models can contain systemic biases, resulting in care inequities. Over-reliance on Al can cause deskilling and misplaced trust, leading to serious errors. Automation bias has already caused adverse events in aviation and driving, with similar emerging issues in healthcare. Additionally, Al accuracy can deteriorate over time due to changes in patient populations, policies, and data capture methods. process. Key design elements include enhanced trust and transparency, clear communication of Al uncertainty, support for clinician and patient autonomy, and robust infrastructure to address Al technical, social, and ethical issues
Rational tactical nuclear first use in asymmetric dyads and the states\u27 calculus of costs in an era of interdependence : a game-theoretical approach
No full textClassical nuclear deterrence theory suggests that nuclear powers could be tempted to strike first in asymmetric dyads (dyads in which only one side is a nuclear power). However, in the Ukraine war, a nuclear-armed Russia has not deployed tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield, even at times when its military struggles on the ground with unfavorable balance. Why has Russia not used its nuclear weapons, especially after repeated threats of using them? What conditions make it rational for states to cross the nuclear threshold in asymmetric dyads? What discourages them from using nuclear weapons while possessing nuclear monopoly?
Expected utility models of war and nuclear deterrence, which flourished during the Cold War, are largely logically equivalent to realism. Both approaches focus on states’ military power and tend to neglect states’ interdependence. While this focus may be able to explain states’ decision-making during the Cold War, the lack of systematic exploration of the impact of interdependence on states reduces the contemporary explanatory power of war models that are built on the expected utility theory. In particular, existing formal models assume that the cost incurred from the (conventional and nuclear) military balance is the major parameter influencing states’ decision-making regarding (nuclear) escalation. Consequently, these models tend to inaccurately expect a rational use of tactical nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine. To fill the gap, this thesis investigates the role of interdependence in the Ukraine war from the perspective of third-party states’ economic influence over the nuclear power––that is, the nuclear power’s economic calculations. This research is guided by a formal game-theoretic model and tested using qualitative methodologies, including process tracing and an analysis of observable implications.
This thesis shows that the threatened economic sanctions by third-party states very likely served as a cost that disincentivized Russia’s nuclear use and seemed to have significant weight in states’ decision- making. In addition, the conflict dynamic of the case generally fits with the description of the model proposed in this thesis and hence demonstrates the coherence of the model. Firstly, evidence suggests that the balance of conventional power on the ground shaped Russia’s risk attitude and thus its evaluation of costs and inclination toward nuclear escalation. Secondly, third-party states have attempted to resolve the information problem in order to raise the expected cost of nuclear detonation for Russia
Beyong fledging and balancing : middle power\u27s dual-track approcah to China\u27s rise
No full textThis thesis explores the evolving dynamics of power transitions in the Asia-Pacific region, the rise of China, and its impact on other states’ threat perceptions and corresponding strategic choices, with a particular focus on how regional middle powers, such as Japan, Australia, and Taiwan, respond to China amid their changing threat perceptions of China’s rise from a theoretical perspective. The anarchic international system forces states to respond to power shifts to ensure security. However, how middle powers choose their strategies is a subject of academic debate.
While hedging and the structural realist balancing insights have been the primary perspectives in explaining states’ responses to power shifts, particularly in the context of China’s rise, this thesis argues, however, that hedging is no longer a useful perspective to explain Japan, Australia, and Taiwan’s China policies, despite their current responses toward China exhibiting superficial behavioral similarities with the hedging approach, such as the co-presence of balancing and cooperation. Their clear threat perception of China contradicts the theoretical underpinning of hedging, which requires states’ uncertainty about the threats posed by rising powers. However, many have mistakenly believed that hedging still defines their China policies due to the co-presence of balancing and cooperation.
This thesis also critiques the structural realist insight as it fails to explain the continued economic cooperation of these regional countries with China. According to Kenneth Waltz, when states adopt hard balancing to deter threats posed by rising powers, they are also compelled to seek economic decoupling from one another to minimize their security vulnerabilities. Clearly, Japan, Australia, and Taiwan’s continued economic ties with China directly refute structural realist insight on states’ economic behaviors toward their security rivals.
To fill the void left by both the hedging approach and structural realism in explaining Japan, Australia, and Taiwan’s responses to China’s rise, this thesis proposes a new dualtrack approach to explain how states respond to a rising power in contemporary international politics. It posits that states can simultaneously pursue hard balancing and profit-driven economic cooperation toward rising powers even after establishing threat certainty. While hard balancing is used to deter threats, gains from economic cooperation enhance the aggregate power of states and their long-term defense capabilities. This is a strategically coherent policy with no conflict between the balancing and cooperation elements of states in responding to threatening rising powers.
The findings of this thesis demonstrate that after abandoning hedging due to the certainty of the threat posed by a rising power, a pure balancing posture is not the only policy alternative. Instead, a dual-track approach, characterized by both hard balancing and profitdriven economic cooperation, now defines the policies of middle powers toward China, as shown by Japan, Australia, and Taiwan. This dual-track approach has been overlooked by academic studies in recent years.
To conclude, this thesis advances realist international relations theory by offering a dual-track approach to explain how middle powers respond to rising powers in contemporary power transitions
Curing the peasant\u27s disease : Frank Oldt’s work and research on hookworm disease in South China, 1905-1926
No full textWhile current scholarship on “hygienic modernity” in China focuses on the construction of urban health systems and institutional infrastructures, this study proposes an alternative analytical lens by foregrounding the domain of agricultural health. It aims to investigate how early twentieth-century medical researchers uncovered public health models grounded in China’s agrarian conditions. Taking the case of Frank Oldt (1879–1976), a medical missionary living in Guangdong between 1905 and 1926, this research examines how he identified, interpreted, and sought to mitigate the problem of hookworm disease—a parasitic condition intricately linked to China’s farming practices and rural environmental conditions.
Specifically, this thesis aims to address the following questions: How did an American missionary initially promoting on evangelism transform himself into a scientist in the urban context? In what ways did this transformation influence his research agenda, setting him apart from other Western scientists in China? And how did he draw upon China’s agricultural traditions to conceptualize an innovative public health model for the treatment and prevention of hookworm disease? This thesis argues that Frank Oldt’s contributions to local public health in China can be understood on three interrelated levels. First, as a missionary with limited formal medical training, Oldt diverged from the prevailing surgical orientation of early twentieth-century medicine and instead concentrated on public health problems endemic to rural China. Second, informed by his field experience and familiarity with farming practices in Guangdong, he took part in the global discourse on hookworm disease by investigating its transmission pathways within the specific environmental and labor conditions of South China. Third, by aligning his research with the practical exigencies of the local context, he formulated a systematic and empirically grounded methodology for developing a agricultural health model tailored to the conditions of rural southern China.
Oldt’s career exemplifies a unique model of local hygienic modernity: rather than transplanting global health paradigms, he imagined China’s agricultural health from local knowledge and scientific networks, proposed a concept that balanced economic efficiency with peasants’ well-being. This study highlights that not only Chinese, but also Western scientists can contribute to the localization of China’s hygienic modernization. Furthermore, Oldt’s public health model not only impacted on later Chinese scientists’ research in agricultural health but also predicted the principles of the Patriotic Health Campaign launched in the People’s Republic of China after 1950s
謝靈運《辨宗論》融合儒釋及其思想史意義
No full text謝靈運《辨宗論》的“求宗”本體論與融合儒釋方法都與慧遠有濶源關係。慧遠認爲雖然儒之名教與釋之道法最終的趨向是相同的，但道法幽微則是堯孔所未曾闡述的。這是强調佛教的獨特價值及真理性，其闡述本體的立場仍在佛教。謝靈運雖然説自己的理論是折中於儒釋雙方，但實際上將真理問題的討論重心更大幅度地移向了儒家。他提出儒家的聖道無階級可達之論，以此來闡釋真理的完全性，闡明竺道生的求宗唯在頓悟的學説。謝靈運的基本思想，是以頓悟屬儒，而以漸悟屬釋，認爲儒釋雖然同歸，但儒家明真理而釋家重教化。因此，《辨宗論》更具有普遍的哲學本體論的性質。其在學術上的意義，是仿照實相、涅槃等佛教本體論建立起儒家的道論，其思想在儒家的原典是可以找到依據的。謝靈運還從華、夷民性之不同，即華民難於受教而易於覺理、夷人難於覺理而易於受教來説明儒、佛立教頓漸的不同。這觸及中國思想傳统的問題，即頓悟之説實是中土接受佛教或説佛教中國化過程中產生的問題。這一思想史的事實，需要進一步討論。竺道生的“一闡提人皆得成佛”説與其頓悟説相關，謝靈運應慧遠之請所作的《佛影銘》中“闡提獲自援之路”正是呼應道生之説。這一點似未被論者所注意。《佛影銘》比《辨宗論》早十年寫作。由此也可推論謝氏接受道生的頓悟及一闡提成佛之説的大致時間。
Xie Lingyun’s Bianzong Lun (On Distinguishing Ultimate Truth) [《辨宗論》] inherits its ontological framework of ‘‘apprehending philosophical truth” (求宗) and its syncretic methodology of reconciling Confucianism and Buddhism from Huiyuan. While Huiyuan asserted that Confucian teachings and Buddhist Dharma ultimately converge, he emphasized Buddhism’s unique metaphysical profundity, which surpassed the insights of Yao and Confucius, thereby affirming Buddhism’s distinct truth and ontological grounding. Although Xie Lingyun claimed to mediate between Confucianism and Buddhism, he subtly shifted the discourse on truth toward Confucianism. By proposing the Confucian notion of the “sagely path” as an ungraded, immediate realization of complete truth, he reinterpreted Zhu Daosheng’s doctrine of “apprehending philosophical truth” only by “sudden enlightenment” to align with Confucian ideals. Xie’s framework assigns sudden enlightenment to Confucianism and gradual cultivation to Buddhism, positing that while both traditions share the same goal, Confucianism illuminates ultimate truth while Buddhism prioritizes pedagogical cultivation. Thus, Bianzong Lun assumes a broader philosophical ontology, reconstructing Confucian Dao theory (道論) through the lens of Buddhist concepts like shixiang (實相. ultimate reality) and nirvana. This synthesis finds roots in classical Confucian texts. Xie further distinguishes the u sudden- gradual” divide by contrasting the “Chinese” disposition (華民), deemed resistant to instruction but receptive to intuitive truth, with “foreigners” (夷人), who supposedly lack such intuitive capacity but accept teachings readily. This analysis engages the Sinicization of Buddhism, highlighting how sudden enlightenment emerged as a uniquely Chinese response to Buddhist assimilation. This intellectual-historical fact necessitates further scholarly investigation. Notably, Zhu Daosheng’s doctrine of ‘‘icchantikas attaining Buddhahood”, (一闡提成佛説) correlates with his sudden enlightenment theory. Xie’s Foying Ming (Icription on the Buddha’s Shadow) [《佛影銘》], composed a decade before Bianzong Lun at Huiyuan’s request, references “icchantikas gaining the path of self-salvation” （闡提獲自援之路）, directly echoing Zhu’s ideas — a connection previously overlooked. This timeline suggests Xie’s adoption of Zhu’s doctrines occurred earlier than commonly assumed
The enigmatic effects of telework on work-family conflict: Investigating boundary conditions
No full textTelework has been widely used after the COVID-19 pandemic, making work away from the office possible. Although telework has potential beneficial effects due to the compatibility, it can also interfere with nonwork lives. Indeed, previous studies have showed mixed effects of telework on work-family conflict. To clarify the ambiguity, we conducted two studies on the boundary conditions of the relationship between telework and work-family conflict. In the first study conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2022), we examined environmental characteristics called permeability and flexibility as the moderators, proposed by the work-home border theory, among 219 Korean employees who teleworked at least once a week. In the second study, we added individual differences regarding segmentation preference as the moderator and tested three-way interactions among telework, work-home border characteristics (permeability or flexibility), and segmentation preference in explaining work-family conflict. The data were collected from 310 Korean employees who responded after the COVID-19 pandemic (August 2024). The results demonstrated that the effect of telework could depend on personal characteristics concerning individual preference as well as environmental characteristics concerning the border between work and home
The dual-edged relationship between social media features and online social anxiety: the mediating role of negative beliefs in online social interaction
No full textAs a vital complement to face-to-face social interactions, social media has become an indispensable part of people\u27s daily lives. Numerous studies have observed that individuals with social anxiety tend to prefer online interactions, believing that online socializing provides a more comfortable experience and helps them avoid the potential awkwardness of in-person encounters. Although existing research has revealed both positive and negative effects of social media on social anxiety, most studies focus on exploring different mechanisms rather than delving into the complex features of social media itself. In this research, we take a media-centric approach, employing qualitative and quantitative research methods to cross-examine the dual-edged impact of social media features on social anxiety. Additionally, we investigate the mediating role of negative beliefs in this context.
To explore the relationship between social media features and social anxiety, Study One conducted interviews with 31 college students experiencing social anxiety. Thematic analysis found five advantageous features that mitigate social anxiety, including availability, anonymity, diversity, controllability, and reduced cues, and five problematic features that exacerbate online social anxiety, encompassing asynchronicity, monotony, permanence, ambiguity, and information overload.
Study Two developed Beliefs in Online Social Interaction Scale (BOSS) with 367 samples. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the scale comprises three dimensions: Negative Evaluation, Social Mishaps and Costs, and Privacy Exposure. A second wave of 497 samples confirmed the scale\u27s reliability and validity using confirmatory factor analysis.
Study Three used a cross-sectional design with 584 samples to validate the relationship between social media features and online social anxiety, examining the mediating role of negative beliefs. Results showed that asynchronicity and missing cues increased online social anxiety, while controllability decreased it. Negative beliefs in online social interaction also significantly positively predicted online social anxiety. These negative beliefs partially mediated the relationship between cues absence and controllability, and fully mediated the relationship between availability, anonymity, and online social anxiety.
This research concludes that different social media features impact online social anxiety differently. Additionally, negative beliefs in online social interactions play a mediating role in social anxiety