The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Nationalist Emulation during the COVID-19 Pandemic

As COVID-19 rapidly spread across the globe, every government in the world has been forced to enact policies to slow the spread of the virus. While leaders often claim responses are based on the best available advice from scientists and public health experts, recent policy diffusion research suggests that countries are emulating the COVID-19 policies of their neighbors instead of responding to domestic conditions. Political and geographic considerations play a role in determining which countries imitate one another, but even among countries that are politically or geographically distant, nationalist regimes seem to favor certain approaches towards the pandemic. We investigate why this is the case by examining whether countries that embrace a nationalist ideology are more likely to emulate the COVID-19 policies of similarly nationalist regimes. We demonstrate that, even after controlling for domestic circumstances and linguistic, trade, geographic, and political connections, nationalist countries are emulating each other’s responses. These results are robust and shed light not only on new mechanisms of policy diffusion but also on the growing international cooperation of nationalist regimes and leaders

METODE PEMBINAAN AKHLAK SISWA DI SD NEGERI 2 JEMBANGAN KECAMATAN PUNGGELAN KABUPATEN BANJARNEGARA TAHUN PELAJARAN 2013/2014

Pembentukan akhlak merupakan hal yang sangat penting bagi manusia sebagai penuntun untuk menjalani kehidupan yang sesuai dengan ajaran Islam, seprti penelitian yang dilaksanakan merupakan penelitian yang membahas mengenai pembinaan akhlak yang di fokuskan pada metode cara penyampainya. Penelitian yang dilaksanakan bertujuan untuk mengetahui penerapan metode dalam pembinaan akhlak siswa di SD Negeri 2 Jembangan Kecamatan Punggelan Kabupaten Banjarnegara Berdasarkan tujuan penelitian yang telah di kemukakan di atas, peneliti menggunakan jenis penelitian kualitatif., yaitu sebagai prosedur penelitian yang menghasilkan data deskriptif berupa kata-kata, tulisan atau lisan dari perilaku orangorang yang diamati, Metode pengumpulan datanya menggunakan observasi, interview dan dokumentasi. Sementara teknik analisis datanya menggunakan deskriptif kualitatif dengan tiga tahapan, yaitu reduksi data, penyajian data, dan penarikan kesimpulan. Hasil penelitian yang telah dilaksanakan adalah, bahwa metode yang digunakan dalam pembinaan akhlak di SD Negeri 2 Jembangan menggunakan metode seperti, metode cerita, meode keteladanan, metode pembiasaan, metode demonstrasi dan metode targhib dan tarhib. Dengan metode metode yang diterapkan, tercermin dalam tingkah laku sehari-hari dan mampu mengamalkan perbuatan yang baik dan menjauhi perbuatan yang buruk. Hasil yang dicapai dalam penerapan metode pembelajaran dikatakan bagus, hal tersebut dapat dilihat dari perilaku siswa yang menunjukan sopan santun terhadap guru dan berakhlak baik, memperhatikan pelajaran pada saat kegiatan belajar mengajar ketika sedang berlangsung, serta dapat dilihat ketika ada tamu yang datang, mereka menunjukan akhlak baik mereka dengan cara berjabat tangan. Kata Kunci : Metode, Pembinaan akhla

Current Challenges for the Early Detection of Alzheimer's Disease: Brain Imaging and CSF Studies

The development of prevention therapies for Alzheimer's disease (AD) would greatly benefit from biomarkers that are sensitive to the subtle brain changes that occur in the preclinical stage of the disease. Reductions in the cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (CMRglc), a measure of neuronal function, have proven to be a promising tool in the early diagnosis of AD. In vivo brain 2-[18F]fluoro-2-Deoxy-D-glucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) imaging demonstrates consistent and progressive CMRglc reductions in AD patients, the extent and topography of which correlate with symptom severity. There is increasing evidence that hypometabolism appears during the preclinical stages of AD and can predict decline years before the onset of symptoms. This review will give an overview of FDG-PET results in individuals at risk for developing dementia, including: presymptomatic individuals carrying mutations responsible for early-onset familial AD; patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), often a prodrome to late-onset sporadic AD; non-demented carriers of the Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) ε4 allele, a strong genetic risk factor for late-onset AD; cognitively normal subjects with a family history of AD; subjects with subjective memory complaints; and normal elderly followed longitudinally until they expressed the clinical symptoms and received post-mortem confirmation of AD. Finally, we will discuss the potential to combine different PET tracers and CSF markers of pathology to improve the early detection of AD

Promoting novelty, rigor, and style in energy social science: towards codes of practice for appropriate methods and research design

A series of weaknesses in creativity, research design, and quality of writing continue to handicap energy social science. Many studies ask uninteresting research questions, make only marginal contributions, and lack innovative methods or application to theory. Many studies also have no explicit research design, lack rigor, or suffer from mangled structure and poor quality of writing. To help remedy these shortcomings, this Review offers suggestions for how to construct research questions; thoughtfully engage with concepts; state objectives; and appropriately select research methods. Then, the Review offers suggestions for enhancing theoretical, methodological, and empirical novelty. In terms of rigor, codes of practice are presented across seven method categories: experiments, literature reviews, data collection, data analysis, quantitative energy modeling, qualitative analysis, and case studies. We also recommend that researchers beware of hierarchies of evidence utilized in some disciplines, and that researchers place more emphasis on balance and appropriateness in research design. In terms of style, we offer tips regarding macro and microstructure and analysis, as well as coherent writing. Our hope is that this Review will inspire more interesting, robust, multi-method, comparative, interdisciplinary and impactful research that will accelerate the contribution that energy social science can make to both theory and practice

For the birds: Researching theory and practice in environmental conservation policy processes

This dissertation explores how policy processes and decision-making structures influence environmental management in public agencies. It contributes to our understanding of how traditional bureaucratic systems of organization overlap and integrate with collaborative management structures in both theory and practice. First, it investigates the potential for Adaptive Management to take place within a bureaucratic system by examining a public agency’s response to a pair of unforeseen environmental shocks as two endangered species of bat were discovered. Using a mixed-methods analysis, it qualitatively examines the agency’s adaptive processes and extends the Adaptive Management model to describe mediating actors in the management process, then quantitatively tests the impact of this process using OLS regression, demonstrating that it significantly improves project outcomes at the agency. Next, it examines how stakeholder engagement impacts management capacity and organizational decision-making at a public agency focused on sea turtle conservation. It examines the extent to which engaging local stakeholders increases the agency’s ability to perform, the level of alignment between volunteer and professional managers’ motivations, and the impact their motivations have on the decision-making process using a qualitative comparative case-study analysis. This study demonstrates that stakeholder engagement provides integral support to agency initiatives at the functional level and is critical to managerial ability, but that it introduces goal misalignment within the agency and can bias managers’ decision-making through target fixation. Finally, this dissertation investigates policy diffusion through the spread of state birdwatching trail programs across the US. This study challenges incumbent policy diffusion theory explaining diffusion through regional proximity and introduces a time-variant, micro-level mechanism to describe the spread of policy adoption. It tests this mechanism using fixed effects regression and demonstrates that special-interest group movement can more accurately model policy diffusion at a micro level. This work contributes to our theoretical understanding of environmental policy and can be used by researchers investigating the process of administration of environmental services. Furthermore, it provides useful evidence that can inform practitioners tasked with designing or running environmental management programs in the field.Ph.D

Testing the effectiveness of antiscuffing fluids used during the transport of bottles on conveyors

Podczas transportu butelek szklanych na przenośnikach powierzchnie ich ulegają uszkodzeniu w miejscach styku. Powstają ślady zużycia w postaci pierścieni na obwodzie. Przeciwdziałanie temu procesowi polega między innymi na stosowaniu cieczy antyscuffingowych. W artykule przedstawiono oryginalną metodę badania skuteczności działania takich cieczy oraz zamieszczono wyniki badań porównawczych dla kilku z nich. Wykazano przydatność zaprojektowanego stanowiska do badania zużycia. Stanowisko to nazwano "aparatem czterobutelkowym".During transport on conveyor, glass bottle surfaces are damaged on their surface of contact. Wear traces in the form of rings arise. Counteracting this process involves, in particular, the use of antiscuffing fluids. The paper presents an original method for testing the effectiveness of such fluids, and provides the results of comparative tests for several of them. The research also demonstrated the usefulness of designed test bench, which has been called "four-bottle test apparatus"

Toward human-centric urban infrastructure: Text mining for social media data to identify the public perception of COVID-19 policy in transportation hubs

The COVID-19 pandemic has made transportation hubs vulnerable to public health risks. In response, policies using nonpharmaceutical interventions have been implemented, changing the way individuals interact within these facilities. However, the impact of building design and operation on policy efficacy is not fully discovered, making it critical to investigate how these policies are perceived and complied in different building spaces. Therefore, we investigate the spatial drivers of user perceptions and policy compliance in airports. Using text mining, we analyze 103,428 Google Maps reviews of 64 major hub airports in the US to identify representative topics of passenger concerns in airports (i.e., Staff, Shop, Space, and Service). Our results show that passengers express having positive experiences with Staff and Shop, but neutral or negative experiences with Service and Space, which indicates how building design has impacted policy compliance and the vulnerability of health crises. Furthermore, we discuss the actual review comments with respect to 1) spatial design and planning, 2) gate assignment and operation, 3) airport service policy, and 4) building maintenance, which will construct the foundational knowledge to improve the resilience of transportation hubs to future health crises

Spiritual Decline as a Predictor of Posttraumatic Stress

Many college students in the United States arrive on campus with exposure to both traumatic events and typical negative life events, as well as varying levels of emotional wellness. One way that students may seek out help is through spiritually supportive wellness programming. The current study examines the prevalence of and relationship between traumatic life events, typical negative life events, and spiritual growth and decline as predictors of posttraumatic stress in a sample of undergraduates (N = 88) seeking spiritually supportive wellness. Traumatic and typical negative life events and spiritual decline were predictive of posttraumatic stress. Furthermore, a moderation effect was found such that while participants with high trauma exposure and high spiritual decline reported the highest posttraumatic stress, those with high trauma exposure and low spiritual decline reported lower posttraumatic stress, similar to those with low trauma exposure. These results have implications for the role of spiritual decline in the etiology of PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) within emerging adult populations who identify as spiritual that warrant further study