This study took on a qualitative approach with a multiple case study design. The researchers gathered and analyzed data on the psychological issues of the victims after being ghosted which requires deeper knowledge about the event. Multiple case study was the best fit to fulfill this research because the design will serve as an avenue to capture different profiles of victims and perspectives of the experiences of the victims after being ghosted in a romantic relationship to explain the mental and emotional struggles, psychological issues, and coping strategies of victims. Examining the narratives of the five (5) young adult victims of ghosting through Thematic Analysis, it was found that these narratives encompass the three themes that emerged in the study, namely The Masala Effect, The Matcha Effect, and The Lapsang Effect, which illustrate the issues faced by the victims in their ghosting experiences. These themes serve as the guidelines that will promote societal awareness and further understanding of the actual gravity of the phenomenon with studies conducted by Freedman et al. (2022) and Pancani et al. (2022) confirming that victims of ghosting experienced more of a threat to their fundamental psychological needs, and with Holmes (2022) acknowledging the boom of technology generated new human experiences like being ghosted makes the end of a romantic relationship even more difficult, stressing that it is important to seek understanding of this phenomenon sooner than later to understand the future of romantic relationships and society at a whole.. This paper also supplements past studies which failed to focus on the emotional and psychological impact of ghosting on its victims. The findings of this study also provided an eye-opener for the general public that ghosting exists and compromises the emotional and psychological stability of the victims in the aftermath of being ghosted. With increased understanding of this phenomenon, individuals, mental health professionals, and organizations can help recognize and address the issue more effectively. This research on the psychological issues faced by victims of ghosting can promote prevention efforts by increasing awareness of the issue and its potential negative impacts. This could lead to increased efforts to prevent ghosting, both at the individual level (e.g., through education and communication about healthy relationship communication) and at the organizational level (e.g., through policies and practices that discourage ghosting in the workplace). Along with that, this research supplements the need for data in the Southeast Asian context of dating culture, specifically in the Philippines.

Germán Bernácer, a Spanish economist of the early 20th century, proposed in his 1925 book Interés del capital. El problema de sus orígenes that the interest rate’s origin is external to the regular functioning of the economic system. He attributed it to the income generated by “income goods.” This study examines the plausibility of Bernácer’s hypothesis using up-to-date data from the Spanish economy.

Evaluators are interested in capturing how things causally influence one another. They are also interested in capturing how stakeholders think things causally influence one another. Causal mapping, the collection, coding and visualisation of interconnected causal claims, has been used widely for several decades across many disciplines for this purpose. It makes the provenance or source of such claims explicit and provides tools for gathering and dealing with this kind of data, and for managing its Janus-like double-life: on the one hand providing information about what people believe causes what and on the other hand preparing this information for possible evaluative judgements about what actually causes what. Specific reference to causal mapping in the evaluation literature is sparse, which we aim to redress here. In particular we address the Janus dilemma by suggesting that causal maps can be understood neither as models of beliefs about causal pathways nor as models of causal pathways per se but as repositories of evidence for those pathways.

Over the years, reports of overcrowding, unsanitary circumstances, and inhumane treatment towards detainees have been increasing. In the Philippines, specific reports on poor inmate living conditions and violence are prominent. Moreover, the incarcerated are placed in life-altering circumstances when the prison cells are overcrowded, resulting in varied prison crowding experiences. This phenomenology study aims to understand how the detainees give meaning to their crowding experiences. Ten (10) male and female Filipino young adult (20–35 years old) detainees from the Legazpi City Jail were interviewed, excluding any participants under solitary confinement or isolation due to precautionary health measures. The participants’ narratives were examined through within- and cross-case analysis, and four (4) themes: Kulong sa kapungawan (longing and yearning), Kulong sa kapanahunan (sentiments over a period of time), Kulong sa pag-asa (experiences that instill hope), and Kulong sa oportunidad (forced opportunities and routine-based life) were rendered via repertory gridding. These contextualized the prison crowding experiences of Filipino detainees specific to family and community concepts in a Bicolano culture. The findings of this research may contribute to intersectionality studies, especially in clinical, rehabilitation, and community psychology. The findings can also be substantial as a springboard for implementing culture-specific programs for the incarcerated.

The purpose of this study was to investigate physical education teachers’ competencies in virtual classroom management. The study was designed as a cross-sectional study using quantitative research methods and included 726 physical education teachers working in different secondary schools and high schools in Turkey. The data of the study were collected using the “Teachers’ Virtual Classroom Management Competence Scale”. The research found that physical education teachers were undecided about their competence in managing relationships with students in the virtual classroom, but they were competent in the dimensions of virtual classroom activities and virtual classroom management. Further research analyzed the effects of some socio-demographic variables on teachers’ competencies in the transition from traditional classroom management to virtual classroom management. The analysis showed that gender and work experience had a medium effect, virtual classroom had a large effect, and school level had a weak effect on teachers’ virtual classroom competencies. The educational level variable had no significant effect on teachers’ virtual classroom management competencies. In conclusion, in modern classrooms where there is a shift from traditional classrooms to virtual classrooms, physical education teachers are expected to be more effective in their relationships with students in virtual classrooms.

This research study highlights the critical significance of ethical leadership within organizations and business institutions, particularly considering the increasing number of scandals that have occurred across various sectors. The researcher’s motivation to investigate the need for ethical leadership stems from the widespread concerns surrounding unethical leadership, which has garnered significant attention due to scandals in both business organizations and religious institutions. Numerous studies have concluded that ethical leaders are characterized by their fairness, balanced decision-making, honesty, kindness, and principled behaviour. These leaders not only establish clear ethical standards but also utilize incentives and punishments to foster compliance. Moreover, ethical leaders consistently engage their followers in discussions about ethics.

In the era of advancing neurotechnology, the emergence of brain-brain interfaces (BBIs) has opened up new frontiers in human communication and connectivity. BBIs are direct communication pathways between the brain of one subject and the brain of another subject that allow the users to extract and exchange information. Compared to traditional biomedical devices, brain-brain interfaces were originally more invasive between only two people; however, emerging research paves the way for new non-invasive interfaces between two or more brains. As this technology continues to grow with no current regulatory framework and cognitive connections between individuals become a tangible reality, a crucial question arises: What are the ethical implications of this remarkable technology? In this paper, we embark on a journey of ethical reflections, delving into the intricate considerations and moral dilemmas surrounding BBIs. We examine the fundamental values at stake, such as autonomy, privacy, and the potential for misuse, while drawing insights from established ethical frameworks. Analyzing the risks of this technology presents similar results, where we observe risks of safety from invasive neurosurgery, in addition to privacy-related risks upon the misuse of such an information network. Through a comprehensive analysis, we seek to shed light on the complex interplay between cognitive connections and ethical responsibilities, paving the way for informed decision-making and responsible development of this groundbreaking field.  Since the maliciousness of this interface highly depends on its uses, we conclude that its uses should be currently restricted to the medical field, where it is needed the most. We also provide additional recommendations and future work aiming to pave the way to referenceable standards and frameworks that prevent the exploitation of BBI users and protect their privacy.

This study examines the developmental relationship between L2 Chinese oral fluency and self-repair in Dutch students learning Chinese. In this study, 76 junior Dutch students were split into two different groups based on level, and were tested at two time periods (T1 and T2) for L2 Chinese fluency, which included the control variables of repetition repair, expansion, grammar, and phonological repair. The latent growth model was utilized to analyze the data. The predictive effects of the initial level and development rate of L2 oral fluency on self-repair were investigated after controlling for relevant variables. We also used diversity analysis to explore oral fluency. The univariate latent growth model was employed to examine the direction of influence among L2 Chinese oral fluency as well as the four types of self-repair variables, and the autoregression control model was utilized to analyze the beginner level. Grey relational analysis was used to explore the relationship among the above variables for the more advanced level group. Based on our results, the regression model performed best for predicting the relationship between the variables in the first oral fluency test as well the second. The results showed that the grammar repair skills seen in the first assessment can positively predict oral fluency (B=0.373, P=0.001 <0.05) in the second; the first expansion repair (B= -0.250, P=0.025 <0.05) can negatively predict oral fluency in the second test. Specifically, by analyzing the relationship between self-repair types and second language oral fluency, our study can enrich the theories related to conversational repair. At the same time, our study is helpful to improve learners’ oral communicative competence, teachers’ adjustment of teaching strategies, and learners’ efficient acquisition of Chinese.

This study discusses an estimation framework of spatial interactions at the local (urban) scale - the so-called spatial weights matrix (W). It develops an application to the Portuguese’s Aveiro and Ílhavo municipalities. The work was based on a housing dataset retrieved from the Portuguese real estate portal CASA SAPO (https://casa.sapo.pt/). The dataset was provided by the research project from the University of Aveiro “Fatores Determinantes da Procura de Habitação”, which, after preprocessing, includes a set of basic intrinsic housing attributes (area, time on market, and preservation), the published (asking) price and locational information (real estate market experts’ zones/neighborhoods). The dataset comprises 7288 houses covering the time period from 2005 to 2010.

This study aimed to explore the immediate effects of smartphone-based social media use on table tennis performance variables such as reaction speed, stroke execution accuracy, and focus. A total of 14 young athletes, consisting of 7 males and 7 females (10.86 ± 1.83 years; 2.43 ± 0.65 years of experience in table tennis) participated in a randomized and counterbalanced quasi-experimental study divided into two groups: (a) social media group (SMG) and (b) table-tennis videos group (TTVG). The study assessed four variables: Stroop Test, reaction speed, a specific table tennis test, and focus (Toulouse-Piéron Test). The results indicated significant pre- and post-differences in hits, errors, and total points for both groups (p< .01), with no significant differences between groups in the three field tests. In conclusion, a 30-minute exposure to either game-related videos or social media stimuli in children led to improved scores, hits, and errors in the Stroop Test. These results suggest that acute exposure to virtual stimuli, regardless of type, enhances inhibitory control and attention abilities

In this qualitative exploratory single-case study, data were collected primarily through interviews with five consenting JROTC instructors and two JROTC administrators chosen through purposive and snowball sampling. The study adhered to all ethical standards and received approval through the site and the University of Phoenix Institutional Review Board. Data were coded and categorized using NVivo12® qualitative analysis software yielding 11 emergent themes, and analysis resulted in implications and recommendations for practice and future research.

This article presents an applied-theoretical research, based on a quantitative and qualitative methodology, regarding the institutional transformations produced at the level of a representative sample of local public authorities in Romania, in the context of the armed conflict in Ukraine. Furthermore, this paper highlights the difficulties of meeting the functional requirements (human resources, logistics, etc.) for the proper provision of public services and proposes a set of recommendations for increasing the administrative capacity of local public authorities in crisis situations in order to ensure their organizational resilience and the sustainability of responses offered to the communities they represent. The article was based on the assumption that the war in Ukraine had a significant impact on the current activities of local public institutions, local budgets, investments, public procurement procedures, and aims to identify the transformations that occurred in the past year at the level of local public institutions, as well as the nature and the size of the impact. The limitations of the study are given by the fact that each country in the vicinity of Ukraine was affected differently by the armed conflict, allocated different resources, so the results of the study are not necessarily applicable to every state in the vicinity of the conflict. Furthermore, each state has a different administrative structure. The study provides an image of the transformations that have taken place at the level of public administration in the past year as a result of the armed conflict in Ukraine and proposes a model of the measures to be applied by local public institutions in order to meet the new challenges and ensure the resilience and sustainability of local communities.

Heidegger discusses his own beliefs in relation to realism and idealism in section 43 of Being and Time. This viewpoint is based on a traditional Cartesian analysis wherein people are subjects, and the outside world is an object. In spite of the fact that Heidegger is neither an idealist nor a realist, this essay will contend that he tries to preserve the kernel of genuine inquiry present in each perspective by finding a hint of compatibility in both realism and idealism by examining Dasein as being-in-the-world.

Situated in the context of prolific continuous professional development interventions across international higher education, this paper reports on digital micro learning and lecturer identities. While digital micro learning has been heralded as offering a nonintrusive, granular and engaging approach to continuing professional development, there is a paucity of qualitative studies in this domain. Seeking to bridge this gap, semi-structured, visual elicitation interviews with lecturers in a United Arab Emirates’ college and a document analysis yielded a rich description of the situated learning experiences of the participants. Applying a socio-cultural identity lens, the thematic analysis revealed the avenues for identity reification and the barriers which trigger marginalised identities. Course accessibility advantages, small batch learning and meaningful reflexive opportunities were drivers to engagement, learning and imagining future professional selves. Meanwhile, impediments to digital micro learning which constrained identity negotiation were forced compliance with mandatory courses and perfunctory, ineffective digital peer collaboration.

A major purpose of the National Grand Challenges for Social Work (GCSW) Initiative is to transform social work education at all levels. Thus, the GCSW Leadership Group has undertaken two national surveys of social work training programs to determine how the GCSW are being incorporated into curricula. This paper reports the results from a second survey conducted in the fall of 2019 to assess the degree to which the GCSW are being incorporated into social work curricula and identifies interdisciplinary collaborations that are taking place to address the GCSW. The data collected and referenced within this article strengthen the call to action for the importance and relevance of additional expansion of the GCSW.

Through critical race theory (CRT) in education, this critical content analysis examines three textbooks used in an early childhood teacher education program. Findings illustrate how the textbooks propagate notions of white superiority and the normalcy of mainstream white, middle-class values through six distinct, yet intersecting forms of racial and cultural biases—presumption of deficit, selective xenophobia, assumption of privilege, coded language/invisible words, statistical violence, and cultural shaming. In discussion, the authors encourage teacher educators to 1) engage in critical reflection toward unlearning whiteness; 2) offer diverse perspectives in their instructional material; and 3) empower teacher candidates to critique the curricular material provided toward dismantling white supremacy in early childhood teacher preparation.

Facebook functions as an intermediary for the art-related communicative action. If earlier the publicity of art has been controlled by institutions, now on social media the institutional art world and the outsider of the institutional recognition, the art life activity, function more equally. The users have possibilities for professional participation and action without the steering systems. I have proved in my doctoral thesis, Art Life as Communicative Action on Facebook (2022), that social media has possibilities to build the new public spheres. In this Crosscurrents article, I am interested in how the development could help the Finnish art and cultural policy to aim towards a more democratic and open system. This demands that institutional actors of state recognize the possibilities and also, the right providers for the services.

Creative writing has assumed an unprecedented challenge with the introduction of various story-telling platforms hitherto unheard of, and with the introduction of the smartphone with various Apps and facilities. Teaching of languages and linguistics must therefore consider these new challenges in the field of literature. Add to that the rising demand for suitable reading materials that has increased manifold. Added to that has emerged the AI-driven or AI-based writing boards where one could order a ChatBot to write in a certain manner. While there was once a lamentation for loss of readers, there are giant industries that have come up on the art and science of reading and finding –an address, a long-lost friend, or even a forgotten author or a text. Considering the ‘Demand-and-Supply’ of creative endeavours of all kinds, our ‘Need’ has been the driving force for good writing, grand theatre, soothing music or great piece of art until the 19th century. The 20th Century saw grand collapses, where ‘Want’ became the main economic driver. Writing turned into luxury goods, the consequence is that they must satisfy the requirements of the Age of Want now. The publishers would now be looking for expansion of their market bases by identifying the potential buyers in bulk. In an Information Age, the mechanism or ability to hit upon what is ‘right’ is the biggest challenge – the right quote, or the right direction, or the right step, including the right adjective and expression – all of which will lead to better marketing of writing. The paper also looks at the emergence and spread of texts in ancient Indian tradition in comparison. Lastly, the readers today like to feel a reverberation as they read a text – a sort of partial familiarity with the story or narrative style to feel as if the story is ‘owned’ by them – it was their story being told by an author.  The paper discusses some of these issues that will determine what the literature of the future will be, or what the future of literature is.