Violence, Its Roots, and How to Stop It

The Essay opens with the claim that personal Aggression, Violence and Hostility became permanent visitors in our place. This sad situation was the main reason for writing this paper. Along a short historical review, the Author explains the difference between the former well-organized 20th Century and the current Chaotic world perception of the 21st Century. The Author further reminds that the 20th Century contained two World Wars, that killed tens million people and the Cold War, that had divided the world into two large blocs. Further, the essay explains that in this regard the current century is different. No-more big world-wide armed conflicts, but many end-less small disturbing disorders, violent and terror cases. The difference referred also to the personal prominence of the leaders of the wars. The eminence Winston Churchill—the great outstanding leader of the West, Joseph Stalin—the sadist Communist Dictator who killed tenths millions, and Adolf Hitler—the mentally-ill Tyrant of the Nazi regime who was a horrendous, barbaric and murderer of millions. Comparing to these leaders the nowadays villains and terrorists are sick, confused and weak persons who seek recognition. Abstract cut. The Author assumes that criminal Violence and Terror expand at present as result of three reasons: (1) The termination of political debates due to the political parties’ deterioration, (2) A wrong understanding of today’s developments, and (3) an erroneous feeling, about equality that causes much frustrations and lead to wrong expectations. The Author supports countries’ current initiative for fighting against present terrorists by establishing special Polce and Military units, which know the job, professionally and effectively.  However, for (a cut) improving the treatment of this sick phenomenon at the future, the Author emphasizes the need to collect reliable information about the relevant population and its personal weaknesses. At the end a six steps therapeutic program is proposed: (a cut), 1) Revealing and Building the Individual’s Inner-self, 2) Pursuing the “Meaning for life” as Life’s Goal, 3) Endorsing Collaboration and Togetherness, 4) Developing and Empowering the Self-esteem, 5) Recognizing and Accepting Social Heterogeneity, and 6) Sharing actively Social Rights and Commitments. Violence and Terrorism are like Malaria mosquitos, small, unseen but very dangerous. Decisiveness, Consistency and Determination are required for successfully eradicate them

Business in the 2020s—Between Theory and Practice

The article discusses how Business, in general, should proceed between economic theory and the daily practice of the 21st century’s chaotic conditions. It has, first, to realize that this is the situation, secondly, both, economists and business men and women, should prepare and get themselves ready to act within this convoluted reality. The author follows G, Shaw’s idea on “unreasonable men that bring progress” divides normal societies into similar two population groups; the majority–the Squares and the minority-the Stars. Further, the Author checks several economic undertakings and tries to understand what is the proper mix or mission for them. Further, the Author claims, while resting on the historical neglected Emotional Intelligence’ teaching, that the form and the nature of future activities should change. They should be more people-oriented, more opened-minds and more creative, resourceful and flexible. The Author inquires ten major economic indicators and find out that both the traditional Capitalism and Socialism movements lost their relevancy at present. Thus, time comes to launch new sets of rules and regulations for, assisting people and organizations in their struggle to survive, prosper and flourish. In sum, the Author foresees that in the future, in parallel to the technological advancement, or together with it, public or private organizations and individuals, would be required to act and be more sensitive and more attuned to the individuals, communities and the universe’s demands

Organisational culture, national culture and performance in international joint ventures based in Israel.

International Joint Ventures (IJV) capitalise on localised skills, knowledge and capabilities. Moreover, the internationalisation of markets offers scope to innovate, develop and market new products benefiting from international collaborations. Nonetheless, some IJV fail and many do not achieve satisfactory performance. One reason proposed is cultural differences, most often the differences in partners' national cultures or differences between corporate. We examine 66 Israeli IJV to establish the impact of national and organisational cultures. We found that neither organisational nor national culture had much impact on performance or the perception of performance. However, trust seems to play an important mediating role

Long-Term Outcomes of Prolonged Exposure and Naltrexone for Patients with Comorbid Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Alcohol Dependence

A growing body of research is examining effective treatment(s) for individuals with comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol dependence (AD). However, treatments for this comorbid population have been inadequately studied in the longer term. This study represents a long-term follow-up assessment of a randomized controlled trial that compared combined therapy (prolonged exposure + naltrexone) with monotherapies (prolonged exposure or naltrexone) for patients with PTSD and AD (see Foa, Yusko, McLean et al., 2013). Attempts were made to contact 120 participants 5-10 years after the original trial to assess the maintenance of treatment gains. Nineteen individuals were located and agreed to participate. A series of mixed ANCOVAs were conducted with PTSD symptom severity and percentage of days drinking and heavy drinking as the dependent variables. Findings revealed that reductions in PTSD symptoms and drinking behaviors generally were maintained 5-10 years after treatment. There was some relapse in heavy drinking days, and combination treatment was most effective for long-term PTSD outcomes. Challenges of conducting follow-up research with this population, implications and limitations of the present findings, and directions for future research are discussed

How the current fourth industrial revolution effecting the leadership?

Innovation leadership is critical in enhancing a firm’s success in today’s changing markets. This research investigates the changes in entrepreneurial leadership attributes amid the fourth industrial revolution and the fast pace of technological advancement. This study helps to understand how leadership traits may help entrepreneurs fully exploit the advantages of this revolution and gain a competitive advantage. The content analysis method used for this research utilized written data regarding 23 leaders from 20 companies from the latest 19th century during the first industrial revolution until the current fourth industrial revolution. Results reveal noticeable leadership attributes emphasized in the fourth industrial revolution, such as communication, coaching, innovation, forecasting future, team-builder, and more. Those attributes are in tight correlation with the current novel digital leadership paradigm and the known effects of the fourth industrial revolution on the firms and leaders. Results reveal that current entrepreneurs tend to be open-minded while avoiding rejecting innovation from other firms and are willing to share the experience with the adjacent technology ecosystem

The Influence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the Entrepreneur Leadership Attributes

Innovation, and especially innovation leadership, is a critical factor in enhancing a firm’s success in today’s changing markets. This research investigates changes in the entrepreneurial leadership attributes amid the fourth industrial revolution and how these changes relate to the fast pace of technology advancement. As part of the fourth industrial revolution, the barrier to introducing innovative technology has decreased due to the accessibility of high-end commercial capabilities, such as cloud computing, big-data capacities, open-source codes, and more, which reduce their need for in-house development. This research taps into the current academic knowledge gap and aims to understand how leadership traits (or attributes) may help fully exploit this significant revolution’s advantages and gain a competitive advantage over rivals. This paper also contributes to the knowledge of innovation study and entrepreneur leadership study. The research utilizes automated techniques of content analysis of published interviews and entrepreneurs’ biographies from recent years and the distant past. The results reveal that current entrepreneurs tend to be open-minded while avoiding rejecting innovation from other firms (avoiding “the not invented here” concept) and are willing to share the experience with the adjacent technology eco-system. The main conclusion of the research is that the entrepreneur in the current era should utilize the open innovation eco-system and gather the ingredients for innovation initiatives, and also have the ability to accurately seek the best offthe- shelf solution to use and integrate it while avoiding time- and budget-consuming development procedures

The Alliance-Outcome Association in CBT and Usual Care for Youth Depression Delivered in Community Settings

The child-therapist alliance is believed to be a critical ingredient of successful psychotherapy for youth depression. However, only a few studies have examined the association between the alliance and clinical outcomes in the treatment of youth depression. The present thesis examined the alliance-outcome association in two treatments for youth depression: cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and usual clinical care (UC). Data were from an effectiveness trial conducted in six community clinics (see Weisz et al., 2009). Forty-one youth were randomly assigned to receive CBT or UC from community clinicians. The observed early alliance, alliance shifts, and self-reported alliance did not significantly predict child- or parent-reported depression outcome. However, the direction and strength of the alliance-outcome associations differed across alliance methodology (self- and observer-report) and condition (CBT and UC). Early child alliance did significantly predict treatment satisfaction. Implications and limitations of the results are discussed

Adapting to dynamic stimulus-response values: differential contributions of inferior frontal, dorsomedial, and dorsolateral regions of prefrontal cortex to decision making.

Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) have all been implicated in resolving decision conflict whether this conflict is generated by having to select between responses of similar value or by making selections following a reversal in reinforcement contingencies. However, work distinguishing their individual functional contributions remains preliminary. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to delineate the functional role of these systems with regard to both forms of decision conflict. Within dmPFC and dlPFC, blood oxygen level-dependent responses increased in response to decision conflict regardless of whether the conflict occurred in the context of a reduction in the difference in relative value between objects, or an error following a reversal of reinforcement contingencies. Conjunction analysis confirmed that overlapping regions of dmPFC and dlPFC were activated by both forms of decision conflict. Unlike these regions, however, activity in IFG was not modulated by reductions in the relative value of available options. Moreover, although all three regions of prefrontal cortex showed enhanced activity to reversal errors, only dmPFC and dlPFC were also modulated by the magnitude of value change during the reversal. These data are interpreted with reference to models of dmPFC, dlPFC, and IFG functioning