The Making of Meaning through Dyadic Haptic Affective Touch

Despite the importance of touch in human–human relations, research in affective tactile practices is in its infancy, lacking in-depth understanding needed to inform the design of remote digital touch communication. This article reports two qualitative studies that explore tactile affective communication in specific social contexts, and the bi-directional creation, sending and interpretation of digital touch messages using a purpose-built research tool, the Tactile Emoticon. The system comprises a pair of remotely connected mitts, which enable users in different locations to communicate through tactile messages, by orchestrating duration and level of three haptic sensations: vibration, pressure and temperature. Qualitative analysis shows the nuanced ways in which 68 participants configured these elements to make meaning from touch messages they sent and received. It points to the affect and emotion of touch, its sensoriality and ambiguity, the significance of context, social norms and expectations of touch participants. Findings suggest key design considerations for digital touch communication, where the emphasis shifts from generating ‘recognizable touches’ to tools that allow people to shape their touches and establish common understanding about their meaning.

Motivational Factors Underlying the Intention Of Herbal Soap Entrepreneurs To Obtain Halal Certificate In Malaysia

The goal of this study is to determine the motivation factors underlying Herbal soap entrepreneurs‘ intention to obtain Halal certificate in Malaysia. This is a quantitative study that employs questionnaires as a research tool and uses Dimaggio and Powell's (1983) model on institutional theory to study the intention of Herbal soap entrepreneur in getting Halal certificate. The study predicted that there are positive links between Malaysian Herbal soap entrepreneurs’ motivation factors (coercive isomorphism, normative isomorphism and mimetic isomorphism) and the intention to obtain a Halal certificate. This study will have significant implications for various Halal stakeholders. Furthermore, despite the fact that many studies have focused primarily on the Halal food sector, there is a need for more research into the Halal Herbal soap market. More empirical and non-empirical research is needed to reveal more concerns with Halal certification in the Herbal soap industry.

Adult Learning Methods in Health Education Institutions

The research aims to identify learning styles in health education institutions. The analysis was applied in post-secondary health schools, identifying in addition to the general characteristics of the group, particular aspects of the Kolb model, which determines the belonging to a learning style. The research tool used was Kolb's questionnaire, it was applied in two health education units, in order to be able to capture possible differences between the learning styles present in the respondents of the general nurse specialization. It should be noted that the emphasis was on the four learning styles present in Kolb's model, as this model is the best known and it is still widely used in research. The study highlighted the fact that there is a diversity of learning styles identified within these health education institutions that depend to a greater or lesser extent on the age of the respondents. This research can be extended, being able to be applied in several post-secondary health education units in order to increase the degree of accuracy, the study can be carried out both in state or private health education units, thus increasing the complexity and will be able to obtain even more relevant results.

Runet Users' Attitude to Outrageous Content in Virtual Social Environments

This study of the Runet virtual social environments deals with identifying and analyzing user reactions to watching a video clip containing outrageous behavior, and studying social attitudes of the respondents. The Celebrium-X platform employing the adjoint ideomotion technology for remote collection and processing of group neuro-responses was chosen as a research tool. As the empirical basis of the research, the raw data obtained as a result of the conducted survey was used. The results of the study have shown the respondents' negative attitude to publishing of outrageous video clips in virtual social environments. The Internet audience realizes a negative effect produced by the aggressive content on people's psychological sphere and social behavior. Received: 12 October 2021 / Accepted: 11 December 2021 / Published: 3 January 2022

Criteria for assessing action undertaken by border municipalities towards a “green smart city”

The article presents a proposal for a research tool that might assess the ecological activity of municipalities, with particular emphasis on those that lie on national boundaries. With climate change, it has become necessary to take into account the principles of sustainable growth while maintaining high living standards in the long term. Systematic research on the action undertaken by municipalities in this area is a necessary requirement in the coming years. For this reason, the main directions and areas of research in the process of approaching the concept of a “green smart city” have been outlined. The available literature is limited to research in the field of smart cities and examines solutions for large urban agglomerations. The evaluation criteria of “ecological maturity” proposed in this paper are designed for small border municipalities. One may accept the thesis that due to their specificity, location, natural diversity and the opportunities for cooperation with a foreign partner that they offer, border municipalities can create a model of ecological behaviour in terms of a “green smart city”. This evolution requires support and monitoring for policymakers, and the proposed online research tool may reveal “ecological immaturities”, decisional errors or just plain negligence. One might only hope that, as a result of these indications, the recommendations will prove valuable for all local government units. On the other hand, a number of doubts and dilemmas are raised that researchers are unable to eliminate at this stage.

„Gazeta Polska Bukowiny” jako źródło do badań współczesnej polszczyzny pisanej na Ukrainie

The Magazine Gazeta Polska Bukowiny as a Source for the Study of Contemporary Written Polish in UkraineThis article presents the magazine Gazeta Polska Bukowiny [The Polish Gazette of Bukovina], which has been published in Ukraine since 2007, as a source for the study of contemporary written Polish under the conditions of its contact with other languages in Ukraine. The analysis is set against the background of research on the press of the Polish national minority in the country. The article offers a discussion of the advantages and prospects of the linguistic study of texts published in Gazeta Polska Bukowiny, including the use of the electronic corpus of this periodical as a research tool. The study outlines the characteristics of the magazine (time of publication, structure, topics of texts, their authors, editing) and, in the most general terms, the scope of deviations from the general Polish norm, which can be analysed on the basis of texts written by people of Polish descent. The linguistic specificity of these texts is more precisely illustrated on the example of case forms of nouns which deviate from their normative Polish equivalents. The author considers the potential impact of interference resulting from contact between Polish and Ukrainian and – directly or indirectly – Russian, which functions in Ukraine alongside the official language of the country. „Gazeta Polska Bukowiny” jako źródło do badań współczesnej polszczyzny pisanej na UkrainieCelem publikacji jest przedstawienie „Gazety Polskiej Bukowiny”, ukazującej się od 2007 roku na Ukrainie, jako źródła do badań nad współczesną polszczyzną pisaną w tym kraju w warunkach jej kontaktu z innymi językami. Na tle pokazania stanu badań nad językiem prasy polskiej mniejszości narodowej na Ukrainie omawia się zalety i perspektywy studiów językoznawczych prowadzonych na materiale tekstów „Gazety Polskiej Bukowiny”, w tym także z uwzględnieniem – jako narzędzia badawczego – utworzonego na potrzeby naukowe elektronicznego korpusu tego periodyku. Podaje się charakterystykę gazety (czas wydawania, struktura, zakres tematyczny publikacji, ich autorzy, redakcja) i najogólniej określa się zasięg odstępstw od ogólnopolskiej normy językowej, które można analizować na podstawie tekstów publikacji pisanych przez osoby polskiego pochodzenia. Dokładniej zaś specyfikę językową ilustruje się na przykładzie deklinacyjnych form rzeczownika odbiegających od normatywnych odpowiedników ogólnopolskich. Przytacza się komentarze o możliwych wpływach zewnątrzinterferencyjnych w wyniku kontaktów polszczyzny z językiem ukraińskim i – bezpośrednio lub pośrednio – rosyjskim, który aktywnie funkcjonuje na Ukrainie obok języka państwowego.

The Concept of China’s Peaceful Rise and Offensive Realism

This article aims at adressing several research issues. Firstly, to present offensive realism as a proper research tool to analyse US-China rivalry. Secondly, the author discusses the theory of “China’s peaceful rise” and I argues that it smoothly overlapped with the US strategy of liberal hegemony. Thirdly, He presents and defends the argument that China does not rise peacefully. Fourthly, the author claims that China wants to became a regional hegemon in South-East Asia and the USA according to offensive realism cannot let it happen. Last but not least the author considers the arguments that are frequently used to support the theory of “China’s peaceful rise” and explains why they fail to depict the current and predict the future nature of US-China relations. In this article the author employed the following research methods: historical, descriptive and decision making methods.