scholarly journals Parliamentary Informatics Projects – Who Are their Users and What Is Their Impact?

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alina Ostling
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Underrepresented Groups ◽  
The Past ◽  
Aggregate Information ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
User Friendly

The past decade has brought a boom of online initiatives that monitor performance of parliaments – a practice commonly referred to as ‘parliamentary informatics’. A recent survey identified 191 organisations monitoring over 80 parliaments worldwide; many of these use digital tools to aggregate information and facilitate citizens’ involvement in parliamentary activity (Mandelbaum 2011). At the same time, little is actually known about who uses these platforms and whether they increase the quality of democracy. This paper aims to fill this gap by assessing parliamentary informatics projects in three European countries from the point of view of key democratic dimensions: equality, accountability, and political responsiveness. In particular, the paper shows that parliamentary informatics projects achieve mixed results in terms of democratic quality. Many of the traditionally underrepresented groups in politics have even more limited presence on these online platforms. The accountability - including access to user-friendly, close to real-time, and objective political information that help ordinary citizen to hold their representative accountable - turns out to be the strongpoint of this type of projects. However, users do not consider transparency of information to be enough. Many participants build up significant expectations about political effects of their engagement. Yet, their expectations are generally disappointed by lack of impact.

The Hunger of Martha Nussbaum

2002 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Galt Harpham
Keyword(s):  
Developing Nations ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Martha Nussbaum ◽  
Literary Critic ◽  
Central Idea ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Academic Philosopher

The immediate problem confronted by readers of Martha Nussbaum's early work is that, from a professional point of view, the quality of mind behind the arguments seems far superior to the arguments themselves. From the point of view of the academic philosopher, Nussbaum is far too heavily invested in literature; while, from the point of view of the professional literary critic, she is far too deeply committed to a principle of realism, even to an affective relationship with literary characters, that is incompatible with academic norms. The central idea in her early work is not in fact conceptual or critical at all, but rather moral: a fundamental transformation of life based on a relinquishing of mastery,a submission of the mind to emotion, especially erotic emotion. Nussbaum has commented on the formative impact of an adolescent reading of Plato's Phaedrus, in which she identified herself with the younger partner of the Platonic homosexual couple, the apprentice learner bound to the master by erotic and intellectual ties, and we can see in Nussbaum'searly work residues of this identification. In ''phase two'' of Nussbaum'swork, we can, however,trace a further conversion, in which Nussbaum positions herself not as the apprentice but as the master. In most of the work she has produced since the late 1980s, the values and orientations of her early work are precisely inverted: emotions are now checked or carefully contained, an emphasis on erotic passion is transformed into a zeal for social and educational reform, the personal gives way to the cosmopolitan and even the universal; Stoic or Kantian reason becomes the dominant emphasis as Nussbaum attempts to articulate a general account of ''the human.'' Nussbaum's public disputes over the past decade reveal, in addition to the differences that continue to separate her from her contemporaries, a complex attempt to negotiate the differences that divide her from herself. The most characteristic gesture of the work of the past ten years is an often-revised ''List of Human Capabilities'' that she proposes as a way of guiding quality-of-life assessments, especially in developing nations. The conception behind such a list may represent, as her critics charge, a grossly unprofessional failure of professionalism, as well as moral arrogance; but it may also, perhaps, actually be useful.

scholarly journals Mulching in grape plantations

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Némethy ◽  
J. Májer ◽  
P. Varga ◽  
Cs. Németh ◽  
L. Fenyvesi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Soil Nutrients ◽  
Soil Structure ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Plant Residue ◽  
Nutrient Distribution ◽  
The Past ◽  
Growing Seasons ◽  
Positive Effect

In continuous studies regarding the conservation of the advantageous condition of the soil structure, the highland plantations that are surrounded by living waters have major importance where the erosion of the soil, nutrients and chemicals endangers the quality of the water and the living world of the waters. At the same time the extreme weather and dry summers of the past years have made it important to look for soil cultivation solutions and technologies that are capable of decreasing the evaporation of the soil, for enhanced conservation of soil moisture and to improve the soil structure that is required for the growth of healthy roots. In our experiment we have studied soil mulching with organic plant residue, by sods and the effect of the mechanical cultivation on the soil and on the grape through two growing seasons. From the studied treatments, the mulching with organic plant wastage showed the most efficient results from the point of view of the nutrient distribution in the grape and yield. It also had a positive effect on the soil structure and humidity.

Theoretical aspects of forming the economic potential of a territorial community: a synergetic approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-9
Author(s):  
I. B. Kovtun ◽  
T. V. Tereshchenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Functional Integral ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Economic Potential ◽  
The Past ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
Instability Constant

The article is devoted to highlighting the author’s views on the theoretical aspects of the application of a synergetic approach to the formation of the economic potential of the modern territorial community. It is established that the potential of the territorial community characterizes many opportunities for its development in terms of using the full range of its resources, features of the past, current and planned structure of its economy, geographical location and other factors. Systematic, reproductive and resource approaches to determining the content of economic potential are described. Particular attention is paid to the system approach, which allows to reveal such aspects to the interpretation of the content of economic potential as elemental, structural, functional, integral and historical. The content and elements of the economic potential of the territorial community are proposed to be considered from the point of view of its resource provision; ability to structure and readiness to carry out socio-economic transformations; formation of the market environment; level and quality of community life; areas of implementation. It is established that since the economic potential of a territorial community is a complex heterogeneous system, synergetics should be applied to its study, which allows to explain the complexity and diversity of social relations and processes occurring in the territorial community, as well as to substantiate the content and logic of its economic potential. The formation of the economic potential of the territory should take into account the systemic principles of the synergetic concept, namely: self-organization; self-reproduction; subordination; openness; resonant influence; instability; constant fluctuations; bifurcation of development; multivariate development; dynamic hierarchy; nonlinearity; interconnection, interaction and interchangeability of system elements.

Decision Support Systems in the Process of Improving Patient Safety

2013 ◽  
pp. 1113-1125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Kalina ◽  
Jana Zvárová
Keyword(s):  
Patient Safety ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Decision Support Systems ◽  
Support Systems ◽  
Healthcare Facility ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Genetics Research ◽  
User Friendly

The chapter presents decision support systems in medicine, their basic principles, and structure. From the point of view of patient safety, the decision support systems can bring new unexpected sources of errors, which must be anticipated at the design, implementation, and validation stages. Nevertheless, a safe and easy-to-use system can greatly improve the quality of determining the diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy in healthcare. The authors of this chapter concentrate on the contribution of decision support systems to patient safety and on their potential to future contributions. A decision support system requires a user-friendly interface with the electronic health record and information system within the healthcare facility. The authors also present two examples of decision support systems from the genetics research.

scholarly journals Elementy transmisji protokulturowej w społeczeństwie konsumpcyjnym

2011 ◽  
Vol 55 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 209-228
Author(s):  
Tomasz Kozłowski
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Psychological Processes ◽  
Industry Development ◽  
The Past ◽  
Culture Transmission

The article aims at focusing attention at selected aspects of pop culture which may, from the point of view of evolutionary psychologists, be deemed approximate to animal proto-cultures and social systems observed among the three-year-olds, i.e. — people who have not yet developed a psychological skill called “theory of mind”. The Author tries to point out that elements of proto-culture in the time of pop -industry development gain on dominance, as a result of which the quality of culture creating processes as well as culture transmission processes may be different than, let’s say, fifty years ago. It is not only about the mass media, but it is most of all about deep psychological processes which are the basis for understanding the essence of culture and participation in culture. In other words, the author tries to argue that norms, ideas and values, i.e. what culture is made of in general — are understood and disseminated in ways which are different in quality from the ones prevailing in the past.

scholarly journals Modern trends on quality of experience assessment and future work

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Woojae Kim ◽  
Sewoong Ahn ◽  
Anh-Duc Nguyen ◽  
Jinwoo Kim ◽  
Jaekyung Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Experience ◽  
Video Quality ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Head Mounted Display ◽  
The Past ◽  
Important Research Topic ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Perceptual Factors

Over the past 20 years, research on quality of experience (QoE) has been actively expanded even to cover aesthetic, emotional and psychological experiences. QoE has been an important research topic in determining the perceptual factors that are essential to users in keeping with the emergence of new display technologies. In this paper, we provide in-depth reviews of recent assessment studies in this field. Compared to previous reviews, our research examines the human factors observed over various recent displays and their associated assessment methods. In this study, we first provide a comprehensive QoE analysis on 2D display including image/video quality assessment (I/VQA), visual preference, and human visual system-related studies. Second, we analyze stereoscopic 3D (S3D) QoE research on the topics of I/VQA and visual discomfort from the human perception point of view on S3D display. Third, we investigate QoE in a head-mounted display-based virtual reality (VR) environment, and deal with VR sickness and 360 I/VQA with their individual approach. All of our reviews are analyzed through comparison of benchmark models. Furthermore, we layout QoE works on future display and modern deep-learning applications.

scholarly journals Fintech developmental trends: the role and influence of sustainable digital logistics

2021 ◽  
Vol 258 ◽  
pp. 02019
Author(s):  
Anna Svirina ◽  
Natalia Appalonova ◽  
Dmitry Garanin ◽  
Nikita Lukashevich ◽  
Igor Koshkin
Keyword(s):  
International Business ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Business Networks ◽  
Information Flows ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
The Past ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Service Optimization

The paper analyzes the current trends of fintech companies’ development in relation to the quality of digital logistics. By using the data from fintech companies’ CEO interviews, we assess the key trends in fintech companies’ development over the past 3 years, reveal key technologies used by these companies and their evolution, and state the importance and relevance of digital logistics issues for fintech companies clients’ satisfaction. The research indicates that for fintech company client the ease of getting through the service (optimization of information flows) appears to be more important than other characteristics of the offered product. From the theoretical point of view, our research indicates, that besides key growth driving factors, outlined in existing literature, such as strategy, prerequisites for rapid growth, business model choice, international business networks, entrepreneur’s characteristics, product development or theoretical frameworks for development, especially within the international market, the quality of digital logistics performance of fintech companies seem to matter.

scholarly journals Populism and Democracy: An Ambiguous Relationship

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMMANOUIL MAVROZACHARAKIS
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Positive Aspect ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The People ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Dividing Line

The question of the link between populism and democracy is a crucial one and for this purpose this paper will attempt to illustrate the relationship between the two phenomena. Firstly, populism and democracy will be approached from the point of political theory. Secondly, there will be an attempt to present the ambiguity of populism through a conceptual analysis. In the scientific research on the phenomenon of populism, there is still a lack of consensus on the way that populism should ultimately be evaluated from a democratic point of view. However, on the contrary to the negative notion of populism, democracy is associated with clearly positive attitudes. In this sense, the problem of populism is linked to political science with more disreputable manifestations of the political phenomenon. But the dividing line between populism and legitimate democratic confrontation is simply too vague. Populism affects democracy and vice versa. It is not easy to design an absolute dividing line between the two phenomena. However, the reference to the people plays an important role in the controversial form of expression of populism. From this point of view, in this paper there will be an attempt to analyze the fundamental distinctions between democracy and populism, by studying the characteristics of populism that have an actual positive impact on democracy as well as the opportunities and useful corrective elements it offers to it. On the contrary, criticism will be attempted to the arguments that consider populism as a corrective element in the quality of democracy, considering that it facilitates the inclusion of marginalized social groups, as well as side-by-side arguments that consider populism as a tool which can be considered as a positive aspect for democracy.

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