Perception of security of a tourist destination on the case of the Czech Republic in the year preceding the COVID-19 pandemic

The study aimed to determine what security concerns are taken into account during the selection of a tourist destination. The research data were collected in 2019 from respondents belonging to various age groups (N = 2,065) in the Czech Republic, using online and paper questionnaires. The analysis of answers resulted in the formation of 84 individual concepts, which were subsequently summed into nine categories. They include acute threats, country, economic and political state of the country, environmental characteristics, health and hygiene, personal reasons, religion, social situation in the country and travelling preferences. The results provide an insight into people's perceptions of travel destinations in terms of security and show which issues deter visitors from entering a given country. Such opinions are important to many security agencies that deal with threats against tourists, as well as to those involved in promoting security among tourists.

Challenging the theoretical framework of the totalitarian syndrome

The article is of methodological nature and aims to evaluate the content validity of Carl Joachim Friedrich and Zbigniew K. Brzezinski’s totalitarian syndrome, that is, the extent to which this theoretical framework accurately represents the social phenomena to which it refers. It introduces the critical analysis of the individual concepts extracted from the totalitarian syndrome as the indicators of totalitarianism and the model as a whole as a research tool for measuring political regimes. The paper begins with the discussion on an alternative concept of totalitarianism formulated by Nicholas Timasheff to illustrate the context in which the authors of the theoretical categories of totalitarianism created them. Then, the article goes on to analyze the nature and major characteristics of Friedrich and Brzezinski’s totalitarian syndrome as well as these reviews of Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy, which addressed the validity of the model. Social scientists have widely criticized Friedrich and Brzezinski’s totalitarian syndrome. The most serious objection concerns the non-specific essential features collected and combined to define totalitarianism. The taxonomic nature of the model has allowed researchers, who blindly adopted the framework, to classify discretionarily political regimes of numerous states as totalitarian. Friedrich and Brzezinski failed to advance any clear criteria for coding. They did not establish a line between meeting and not meeting the listed essential features. Furthermore, it is unknown what character the features enumerated under this syndrome have. This generates a question if the six “indicators” are essential, distinctive, significant, co-decisive, contours, features, factors, frames, pillars, or mechanisms. Although Friedrich and Brzezinski’s totalitarian syndrome fulfilled a prominent educational role mostly for US citizens by showing that there could be social worlds completely different from those in which one lives, the proposed understanding of totalitarianism is insignificant in defining such regimes. This theoretical framework inaccurately represents the social phenomena to which it refers. The paper finishes with the argument against applying the syndrome to scrutinize political regimes because of its considerably limited content validity.

Investigating Everyday Prospective Memory in Younger and Older Couples

Daily events are not simply individual concepts, but shared by the social environment we live in. The present study investigates the role of romantic partners in the co-regulation of cognitive functioning by the example of prospective memory (PM), the ability to remember and correctly execute future intentions. In this context, we examined the impact of social proximity (i.e., physical closeness and psychological intimacy) on interpersonal regulation. Over the course of 21 days, 64 younger couples (18-33 years) and 52 couples of older adults (57-87 years) completed an ambulatory assessment comprising a daily pseudo-randomized PM task. Results reveal that couples’ PM performance was higher for younger than for older participants. Further, dyadic PM was correlated with psychological intimacy for both age groups, but the impact of time spent together on intimacy and PM performance, respectively, was stronger in older adults. Possible moderating factors and explanations for these findings will be discussed.

Book review: Christianity and human rights. Perspectives from Hungary. Edited by András Koltay

Christianity has played a crucial role in building and maintaining civilisation and cultures in Europe until this very day. People living on the continent share the legacy of antiquity and Christianity in balance, while respecting the values of religion and still maintaining neutrality in their constitutional systems. This causes the question to stand, whether Christianity still is a part of European culture, and if so, in what religious, political or cultural ways.All these questions are examined in the volume, which incorporates 16 studies of various authors. Essays show clearly that not only the merge of different cultures, disputes of interests, the connection between law and religion, but also and mainly the ideas of Christianity are all special legal theories and questions waiting to be examined.Even though the various academics contributing to this volume have their own individual concepts and different views, most of the studies concentrate on problems and questions of basic freedoms, such as human dignity, freedom of speech and religious freedom. As it is stated by the Editor in the foreword, all 16 studies are written in English by academics from different research institutes all over Hungary, also easily accessible internationally, inviting researchers to contribute to this international scientific debate.

Drive2Pass: A 3D Game-Based Interactive Driving Simulation System for Improving the Youth Driving Learning and Training using Machine Learning

Youths have a higher car accident rate, so to decrease the percentage, I developed a game that will teach players to practice safer driving behaviors [5]. It is meant to simulate real driving, and teaches the players key individual concepts about road safety. This game puts an emphasis on properly executing blinking, hill parking, and headlights. This addresses the problem in other games where they solely focus on steering and acceleration, as this game also includes other driving elements to promote defensive driving. The intended goal of this game was to teach beginner drivers proper driving etiquette in a safe, risk-free environment and become a potential alternative to the traditional method of driving on real roads.

The neuroscience of advanced scientific concepts

Cognitive neuroscience methods can identify the fMRI-measured neural representation of familiar individual concepts, such as apple, and decompose them into meaningful neural and semantic components. This approach was applied here to determine the neural representations and underlying dimensions of representation of far more abstract physics concepts related to matter and energy, such as fermion and dark matter, in the brains of 10 Carnegie Mellon physics faculty members who thought about the main properties of each of the concepts. One novel dimension coded the measurability vs. immeasurability of a concept. Another novel dimension of representation evoked particularly by post-classical concepts was associated with four types of cognitive processes, each linked to particular brain regions: (1) Reasoning about intangibles, taking into account their separation from direct experience and observability; (2) Assessing consilience with other, firmer knowledge; (3) Causal reasoning about relations that are not apparent or observable; and (4) Knowledge management of a large knowledge organization consisting of a multi-level structure of other concepts. Two other underlying dimensions, previously found in physics students, periodicity, and mathematical formulation, were also present in this faculty sample. The data were analyzed using factor analysis of stably responding voxels, a Gaussian-naïve Bayes machine-learning classification of the activation patterns associated with each concept, and a regression model that predicted activation patterns associated with each concept based on independent ratings of the dimensions of the concepts. The findings indicate that the human brain systematically organizes novel scientific concepts in terms of new dimensions of neural representation.

Exploring the Multifaceted Relationship of Compliance and Integrity—The Case of the Defence Industry

Over the years, compliance has come to be closely associated with integrity. Originally, compliance foremost had been understood as abiding by (financial) law and regulation as a prerequisite to pursuing an organization’s operational goals. In response to societal developments and corruption scandals this perspective gradually has shifted. Despite the increased importance and consecutive academic attention of the seemingly self-evident relationship between compliance and integrity, a dedicated analysis of this relationship is still lacking. Such an analysis not only will increase our theoretical understanding of the underlying concepts and how they evoke each other, but practically its insights may also help to increase the effectiveness of managing compliance and integrity within organizations. This contribution, therefore, conducts a conceptual analysis into the relationship between compliance and integrity. First, the meaning of compliance and integrity as individual concepts is discussed, followed by a comparison of the two concepts. The commonalities and differences that come to the fore then act as a stepping stone to unpack the various ways the concepts of compliance and integrity invoke each other. Based on this discussion a basic analytic framework is drawn up that summarizes the different valuations of the relationship between compliance and integrity. To illustrate their practical relevance, the different valuations depicted by the framework are illustrated with an example drawn from the defence industry. It concludes by discussing the implications of the analysis and suggesting some possible routes for further research.

Adaptive capacity and flexibility of the Neanderthals at Heidenschmiede (Swabian Jura) with regard to core reduction strategies

The branched reduction system at the Heidenschmiede described here is hitherto exceptional for the Middle Paleolithic of the Swabian Jura. By means of refits and supporting objects, we are able to describe a superordinate reduction system that combines several individual reduction concepts, such as Levallois and blade production, within one volume. In the Middle Paleolithic of the Swabian Jura, blade technology has thus far played a rather minor role. On the one hand, it is possible to split a selected volume (nodule) into three parts, which are reduced separately according to individual concepts. On the other hand, it is also possible to reduce parts of a volume with one concept first and then with another. The hypothetical reduction system can be branched or linear, thus emphasizing the technological flexibility in core reduction, which requires a high degree of cognitive skills of three-dimensional imagination.

Poetic discourse: text, hermeneutics, harmony

The article is devoted to the investigation of poetic discourse. Discourse is understood as the actualization of text structures in interaction with extralinguistic factors. The article considers the problems of understanding, methods of comprehension and the method of analyzing a poetic text; understanding of the unity of language and thinking, the author's axiological paradigm, refracted through the prism of the dynamics of cultural experience. The author analyze fiction that allow to retrace the formation of poetic concept. The influence of the structure on the formation of text is also presented. The main individual concepts are determined. The given examples illustrate the statements under consideration.

Professional competency: Pre-service mathematics teachers’ understanding toward probability concept

The ability to understand mathematics is a faculty crucial to be possessed by pre-service teachers who will enter into the education sphere. It is one of the professional competencies essential for teachers since satisfactory lessons’ delivery engenders more comprehensible instruction in teachers’ students. Qualitative research employs a descriptive approach relevant to the research purpose, describing mathematics pre-service teachers’ professional competency of understanding the concept toward probability observed based on mathematical abilities; advanced, intermediate, and basic mathematics ability. The subjects are three pre-service teachers having passed discrete mathematics course in a college in Madura. The criteria to select the subjects are the GPA (Grade-point Average) of the last semester and information from the lecturer. It is because unlikely to administer the test due to online learning applied at the college. Findings indicated that the subject with advanced mathematics ability could meet individual concepts, relate concepts and connect concepts with the operations. The subject with intermediate mathematics ability could meet individual concepts, but could not relate to some concepts. However, he could connect concepts with the operations. The subject with basic mathematics ability could not meet individual concepts, relate concepts, and connect concepts with the operations. In terms of the advancement indicator of understanding the concept, the subjects have not attained it since they have not apprehended concept definition well, particularly the probability concept, although the subject with advanced mathematics ability was procedurally prodigious.