Crafting Blindness: Its Organizational Construction in a First Grade School

This article is based on a case study conducted in an Italian primary school where the interactions between a sightless girl (named Jasmine, aged 8) and her classmates were extensively observed. The initial aim was to understand and describe the problems encountered by the sightless pupil, who acted in a social, organizational and physical environment which was not designed for handicapped people. However, other theoretical issues emerged during the research. The main finding was that sightlessness seems socially and organizationally constructed before it becomes a biological/physical handicap. The organizational processes through which the blindness is slowly and routinely constructed were extensively described.

Supervisor-Subordinate Age Dissimilarity and Its Impact on Supervisory Ratings of Employability: Does Supportive Learning Context Make a Difference?

Status incongruence resulting from a supervisor who is younger than their subordinate potentially leads to age stereotyping of employees. This article investigates the relationship between age difference and supervisory ratings of five competence-based measures of subordinate employability (Occupational Expertise, Anticipation/Optimisation, Personal Flexibility, Corporate Sense, and Balance). In addition, we consider the buffering role of a supportive learning context which allows older workers access to learning resources. Learning context is represented by duration of the supervisory relationship, perceived organizational learning climate and participation in, and application of, training and development. Using 295 dyads of employees and their direct supervisors in a Dutch building company, findings show that age dissimilarity reflecting status incongruence was related to lower supervisory ratings of Occupational Expertise (job-related competence) and Corporate Sense (social/organizational competence) regardless of learning context. Longer duration relationships exacerbated, rather than buffered, the age difference effect on some types of supervisory ratings. The implications of these findings for age stereotyping with regard to employability are considered.

A proposed learning environment framework for virtual care

The way in which health care is delivered has rapidly changed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a rapid increase in virtual delivery of clinical care. As a result, the learning environment (LE) in health professions education, which has traditionally been situated in the bricks-and-mortar clinical context, now also requires attention to the virtual space. As a frequently examined topic in the health professions literature, the LE is a critical component in the development and training of future healthcare professionals. Based on a published conceptual framework for the LE from Gruppen et al. in 2019, a conceptual framework for how the LE can manifest through virtual care space is presented here. The four components of personal, social, organizational, physical/virtual spaces are explored, with a discussion of how they can be integrated into virtual care. The authors provide suggestions that health professions educators can consider when adapting their LE to the virtual environment and highlight aspects of its integration that require further research and investigation.

Resilience in Water Infrastructures: A Review of Challenges and Adoption Strategies

An increase in the number and strength of natural catastrophes experienced over the past few decades has accelerated the damage sustained by infrastructures. Drinking water and wastewater infrastructure systems are critical aspects of a healthy environment, and their ability to withstand disasters is vital for effective disaster response and recovery. Although numerous studies have been conducted to determine the challenges that natural disasters render to water infrastructures, few extensive examinations of these challenges have been conducted. The goal of this study, therefore, was to identify and categorize the challenges related to the resilience of drinking water and wastewater infrastructures, and to determine the strategies that most effectively minimize their unintended consequences. A comprehensive evaluation of the existing literature was conducted, and 537 publications were collected. After extensive screening, 222 publications were selected for rigorous evaluation and analysis based on the data collection methods and other criteria. A total of fifty-one (51) challenges were determined and classified, within the following five categories: environmental, technical and infrastructure, social, organizational, and financial and economic. The challenges were then ranked within each category according to their frequency of occurrence in previous research. The results reveal that climate change, aging infrastructure, lack of infrastructure capital, population growth, improper maintenance of water infrastructure, and rapid urbanization are the most frequently cited challenges. Next, 30 strategies and approaches were identified and categorized into either preventive or corrective actions, according to their implementation time. The findings of this study will help decision- and policymakers properly allocate their limited funding to enhance the robustness of their water infrastructures before, during, and after natural hazards.

Contributions to Critical Care from Psychological Science and Practice

In this chapter we highlight findings and practices from Psychology that can be applied to mitigate the impact of critical illness and the ICU environment on patients, families and staff. The substantial accumulating evidence for detrimental health effects of traumatic stress is highly relevant for the care of patients on the ICU, who are potentially traumatized by the experience and who may bring a history of trauma with them. The fields of trauma psychology and rehabilitation psychology share foundational principles to guide patient-centered and systemic changes to ICU care, and these principles guided our selection and presentation of material. Our discussion of how to implement these principles within a healthcare system is informed by selected findings from social, organizational and behavioral psychology, which also are summarized.

Emotional potential in the children's team

Introduction. Increased interest in the study various groups that perform joint activities in social, organizational, economic, sports psychology and work psychology nowadays. The urgency is: the fast changing forms of work organization based on the high economic interest and responsibility all members of the group; relative production-economic and organizational-managerial independence of labor collectives, which contributes to the self-organization development and self-government forms improvement; the team fitness issue is becoming more and more relevant. Purpose. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the group psychological work influence on the children emotional intelligence development and the processes of psychological stability and cohesion in a sport team. Methodology. We used the comprehensive diagnosis of the child's personality and status in the group (n=622). The main accent was made on the level of emotional intelligence (EQ) and sociometric status of the child. The main hypothesis: the higher the child`s EQ level, the higher its sociometric status. The standard PASW Statistics method was used to process the statistics. Results. Sociometric tests: 223 children had a low sociometric status (36%); 242 - satisfactory and within the norm limits (39%), 75 - above the average (12%), and only 81 had a high sociometric status (13%). The EQ level indicators (integrative level): 317 respondents had a low EQ level (51%); 218 - the average level (35%) and only 87 respondents had a high EI level (14%). Conclusions. After the implementation of the author's program for adaptation and the child emotional intelligence development, we have results: Sociometric test: only 56 children have lower sociometric status (9%); 144 - satisfactory and average (23%); 223 - above average (36%) and 199 - high sociometric status (32%). EQ level (integrative level), we also have positive changes: only 111 respondents remained with a low level of emotional intelligence (18%); 386 developed the level of emotional intelligence to the average (62%) and 125 had a high level of emotional intelligence (20%)

The spatiotemporal evolution of ancient cities from the late Yangshao to Xia and Shang Dynasties in the Central Plains, China

The Central Plains has a long history, rich culture, unique geographical advantages, and profound cultural heritage. The occurrence of ancient cities in the Central Plains marks the formation of Chinese state-level societies. The number, size, and distribution of ancient cities have changed greatly from the late Yangshao to the Xia and Shang Dynasties, which reflects the evolution of settlement and social organization. In this study, Geographic Information System (GIS) spatial database technology was used to establish a spatiotemporal database of ancient cities in the late Yangshao, Longshan, as well as Xia and Shang Dynasties in the Central Plains. This paper uses GIS spatial analysis technology to analyze the relationship between the ancient city distribution and the geographical environment, as well as the evolution of ancient city's shapes and sizes. Furthermore, by using the method of the nearest neighbor distance and gravity center analysis, this paper discusses the agglomeration characteristics and gravity center evolution of ancient cities. The results show that: (1) Most of the ancient cities were distributed in areas below 500 m and within 3 km from the river during the time interval from the late Yangshao to Xia and Shang Dynasties; (2) The shape of the ancient cities gradually changed from circles to squares in the Central Plains, which became a unified model for the later ancient city design; (3) The sizes of the 18 ancient cities in the Yangshao period shared high similarity, with an average area of 20 hectares. The sizes of 24 ancient cities in the Longshan period increased significantly, with an average of 39 hectares. During the Xia and Shang Dynasties, there were 22 ancient cities with an average size of 340 hectares, and the grade of sizes became obvious, marking the entrance into Chinese state-level societies; (4) Cities were scattered in the decentralized pattern during the late Yangshao and Longshan periods, whereas they became agglomerative in Xia and Shang Dynasties. This reflects the evolution of the spatial scopes and social organizational forms; and (5) From the late Yangshao to Xia and Shang Dynasties, the gravity center of ancient cities moved around the Songshan Mountain from the northwest to the southeast and again to the northeast.

The role of legal (juridical) dictation in identifying the level of legal literacy and legal education

Introduction. Confirmation of the importance of legal education, the need to overcome legal nihilism and increase the level of legal culture was reflected at the official level in regulatory legal acts, primarily in the Fundamentals of State Policy of the Russian Federation in the development of legal literacy and legal awareness of citizens. Currently, cooperation with non-governmental organizations in this direction is actively developing, which opens up new facets. So, for example, the Association of Lawyers of Russia has initiated the All-Russian Legal Dictation since 2017, the scale of which increases significantly every year. Theoretical analysis. The following problems that hinder the high efficiency of educational activities in legal domain are identified: 1) lack of consistency and proper methodological support; 2) risks of social, organizational, financial, economic and regulatory nature; 3) the absence of maps of obstacles to legal education, indicating all possible risks and ways to minimize and overcome them. Results. The main obstacles to legal education, the associated risks, that can be minimized to increase the efficiency of legal education and the level of legal literacy of the population, are highlighted. Recommendations are given to improve such an action as the All-Russian Legal Dictation, as well as to conduct such actions separately by professional communities. One should not neglect the optional objectives, which can also be achieved when carrying out activities of a law-enlightening nature. For example, tasks of the formation and development of the information and communication culture of citizens, which are now at the initial stage of formation, are no less important.

Understanding the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and containment measures: An empirical model of stress

Epidemics such as COVID-19 and corresponding containment measures are assumed to cause psychological stress. In a survey during the lockdown in Switzerland (n = 1565), we found substantially increased levels of stress in the population. In particular, individuals who did not agree with the containment measures, as well as those who saw nothing positive in the crisis, experienced high levels of stress. In contrast, individuals who are part of a risk group or who are working in healthcare or in essential shops experienced similar stress levels as the general public. The psychological mechanisms that determine stress, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and containment measures, are not yet clear. Thus, we conducted a path analysis to gain a deeper understanding of the psychological mechanisms that lead to stress. Experiencing fear of the disease is a key driver for being worried. Our model further shows that worries about the individual, social, and economic consequences of the crisis, strongly boost stress. The infection rate in the canton (i.e., state) of residence also contributes to stress. Positive thinking and perceived social, organizational, and governmental support mitigate worries and stress. Our findings indicate that containment measures increase worries and stress, especially for those who feel that these measures either are not sufficient or go too far. Thus, highlighting positive aspects of the crisis and convincing people of the effectiveness and necessity of mitigation measures can, not only promote compliance, but also reduce stress. Our model suggests that people who feel protected by the authorities have fewer worries, which can, in turn, limit the negative impact of the crisis on mental health.