Algorithmic solutions to the problem of assessing the information impact on the electorate during election campaigns

In the article, to solve the problem of assessing the information impact on the electorate during election campaigns, algorithmic solutions, including a mathematical model, a numerical scheme and algorithmic implementations, are formed. This assessment is reduced to determining the instantaneous values of the number of voters who prefer a candidate (party), taking into account: the positive or negative stochastic nature of the impact of mass media; interpersonal interaction; two-step assimilation of information; the presence of a variety of mass media, social groups and a list of candidates. The mathematical model is based on a generalized model of information confrontation in a structured society and, with the introduction of stochastic components in the intensity of agitation, it is reduced to solving the FokkerPlanckKolmogorov equation. For its study in the formulation of the Galerkin method, a numerical scheme is proposed and the order of its convergence is determined. In relation to the basic procedures of the numerical scheme, the features of the algorithmic implementation are clarified.

Semantic Potential of Tactile Metaphors (Based on Words Naming the Property of Softness)

This article describes the results of the study on the psychophysiological phenomenon of synaesthesia projected onto language and speech. Synaesthesia is considered on the basis of words with the root myagk- (myagky, myagko, myagkost’, smyagchit’), which in their original meaning name the tactile sensation of softness. The paper aimed to identify the potential of this vocabulary and the sensory impression behind it as a means of conceptualizing knowledge about the world as well as to study the mechanism for the development of metaphorical, primarily synaesthetic, semantics. It is important to assess the sequence of expression of synaesthetic semantics and meanings that go beyond synaesthetic meanings, as well as to study whether vocabulary with the original semantics of softness can figuratively conceptualize knowledge. The research revealed a universal ability of this kind of vocabulary to conceptualize all types of sensory impressions (visual, auditory, olfactory and gustatory) when used metaphorically. In addition to conveying a multimodal perception of the world, these words can express new sensory sensations, unusual for the speaker, for which there are no special names in the language. Along with the synaesthetic semantics itself, vocabulary with the meaning of softness is able to reflect the psychological impressions of comfort, pleasure and enjoyment, as well as the psychological characteristics of a person and the psychological aspect of interpersonal interaction, including speech. The next stage of abstraction of the tactile impression is the development on its basis of quantitative semantics, i.e. the meaning of low intensity of the manifestation of an attribute or an action in their psychological perception. The results obtained can be used to identify the mechanism for conceptualizing sensory impressions and forming synaesthetic metaphors, as well as applied in the practice of lexicographic description of cognitive metaphors.

Dialogic Basis of the Categories of “Openness” and “Tolerance” to the “Other” in Modern Political Discourse – Martin Buber and Gabriel Marcel

The article analyzes the dialogical nature of the concepts of “tolerance”, “freedom”, “openness”. The interpretation of the dialogical relationship and the appearance of “Other” in it as opposed to “I” through the prism of the concepts of M. Buber and G. Marcel are analyzed. The impact of philosophers of dialogue on the formation of the modern meaning of the concepts “tolerance”, “other”, “openness” is substantiated. The dialogical methodology of interpersonal communications as one of the options for political interaction is considered. The relation “I-You” and the relation “I-It” as principles of construction of mass communication and interpersonal interaction are investigated. The rise in understanding the “Other” in the context of the type of interaction with it is illustrated. The need for mutual openness to enable tolerance is established. Tolerance is seen as the mutual acceptance of two equal freedoms without a dichotomous division into primary and secondary. On the example of dialogic concepts of M. Buber and G. Marcel, the types of dialogical interaction with the “Other” and the possible interpretation of the “Other”, including its typology, are demonstrated. The influence of dialogic interpretation of intersubjective connection on the formation of modern European values is determined.

How Gig Worker Responds to Negative Customer Treatment: The Effects of Work Meaningfulness and Traits of Psychological Resilience

The negative interpersonal interaction between customers and platform gig workers has become a problem for platform owners and government. This study investigates the role of negative customer treatment in the context of gig work and its impact on gig workers’ sabotage behavior. A questionnaire survey approach was used in the study, collected three-wave survey data from 258 Chinese gig workers including food-deliver platform workers and app-based ride-hailing drivers. Both effects of the mediation and moderation were tested, all of which find support, using hierarchical multiple regression by SPSS22.0. Results indicate that negative customer treatment can also predict gig workers’ service sabotage through work meaningfulness. Furthermore, positive customer treatment acted as an effective safeguard against the effects of negative customer treatment on employee service sabotage. Trait psychological resilience can also mitigate the effects of a low level of work meaningfulness. The manuscript’s focus provides an interesting angle to the previous research, especially the inclusion of work meaningfulness and trait resilience, on negative customer treatment in the context of gig work. This study contributes to further broaden the perspective of conservation of resource (COR) theory for individual intrinsic motivation analysis. Practical implications for platform management and government governance have also been discussed in this manuscript.

Music, Evolution, and the Experience of Time

This chapter explores the psychological structure and perception of time in music in light of recent theoretical discussion and proposals for specific features of the human faculty for music—qualities that are at once universally present and operational in music across cultures whilst also being unique to our species and to the domain of music. The author contends that music’s architectural foundations—configurations of musical pulse, musical tone, and musical motivation—provide a sustained attentional structure for managing personal experience and interpersonal interaction and offer a continually renewing phenomenological link between the immediate past, the perceptual present and future expectation. A crucial and distinguishing feature of our experience with music is thus the particular way in which we share intersubjective time and enact and create an extended moment by constantly merging from one perceptual present into the next.

A Case Study of Learners’ Engagement in Mobile Learning Applications

Although mobile learning applications play a crucial role in today’s education and can support learning, the low retention rate is a prevalent challenge in mobile learning. Existing studies have found that interpersonal interaction, high expectations, and supportive environment (from an educational perspective) as well as compatibility, interactivity, and usability (from a marketing perspective) can impact learners’ engagement in learning activities and customers’ engagement in mobile applications. However, comprehensive studies investigating learners’ engagement in mobile learning applications from educational and marketing perspectives are rare. To fill the research gap, we analyzed learners’ reviews on five top-ranked lifelong learning applications (Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, edX, and Skillshare). Inductive coding was used to identify critical factors impacting learners’ engagement in mobile learning applications, such as usability, availability of learning experiences, features to facilitate learning, interpersonal interaction, and incentives for completion. We further explored specific engagement strategies displayed in the analyzed applications through an analytical evaluation. Besides, this study expands Hew’s model of learners’ engagement and suggests new conceptual relationships between critical factors impacting learners’ engagement, self-determination theory, and learners’ engagement.

Polymedia and family multilingualism

This paper investigates family multilingualism in a polymedia perspective, presenting results from a study of transnational communication among four families with Senegalese background, living in Norway. Ethnographic interview data collected in 2017 and 2018, including mediagrams, are analysed to get insight into the families’ uses of media and language. Furthermore, the moment-by-moment language practices through which family relationships are managed and sustained are examined through fine-grained analysis of interpersonal interaction. The paper thus both draws on and goes beyond polymedia to investigate how linguistic repertoires are developed in digital communication. The aim is to explore ways in which this theory may help us rethink family multilingualism as digital language practices become increasingly significant.

Impacts of Interpersonal Interaction on Creative Performance: The Moderating Effect of Goal Orientation

This study adopted a social perspective to explore the relationships of interpersonal interaction on creative performance and the moderating effect of goal orientation based on the social exchange theory and social capital theory. Interpersonal interaction was divided into two types, expressive relations and instrumental relations. Goal orientation was differentiated as learning goal orientation and performance goal orientation. Creative performance was divided into three facets, namely creative thinking, creative proposals, and creative applications. Data were collected from research and development engineers. The results show that expressive relations have positive effects on all aspects of creative performance, whereas instrumental relations have positive effects on creative applications. Learning goal orientation moderates the relationship between instrumental relations and creative proposals. Performance goal orientation has moderating effects on the relationship between interpersonal relations (both expressive and instrumental) and creative performance. This study addresses a gap in research into types of interpersonal interaction and goal orientation as these relate to creative performance. Keywords: Interpersonal interaction, Goal orientation, Creative performance.

Digital transformation as an adaptation factor for personnel to realise productive capacity in a pandemic

The directions for the development of the enterprise digital environment are considered, and the ways to improve the professional competences of the enterprise staff, including the digital aspect, have been analysed. A questionnaire survey of the personnel of the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering in 2019 and 2020 using the methodology “Assessment of personnel capability (Manageability Assessment)” revealed the problems determined by the digital transformation process. Significant components for staff have been identified, including clarity of understanding of their place in the project, appreciation of task setting, staff focus on the overall end result, and functional interpersonal interaction. In analysing levels of manageability levels, the influence on the staff labor activity the factors such as remuneration, social and living conditions in the enterprise, ergonomic conditions at the workplace, interpersonal horizontal and vertical relationships in the team, and social effectiveness of management, have been studied. The findings provide the basis for practical recommendations to Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering management on changing the enterprise organisational culture to activate the staff labor potential. This solved the problems identified, improving the efficiency of staff working remotely in a pandemic and the manageability of staff across the enterprise as a whole.

Bible Journaling as a Spiritual Aid in Addiction Recovery

Bible Journaling is a trend of the past decade whereby readers make creative, visual interventions in their Bibles, using coloured pens and pencils, watercolours, stickers and stencils, highlighting texts of particular resonance. Journaling, in its more conventional written forms, has long been recognised as a pathway to spiritual development. Significantly, Bible journaling is almost exclusively practiced by women and has a high level of interpersonal interaction attached to it, through open and mutual sharing of these creations, through various online social media fora. Gleaned from the sharing of women who journal for spiritual support, this article examines the role Bible journaling plays in aiding recovery from drug addiction. Multimodal analysis is a methodological approach that provides a structured semiotic framework in which to closely examine every feature of a creation such as a journaled page of a Bible, to examine how the journaler has made meaning of a text through their interventions on the page. Appreciating every mark, choice and placement of image, colour, typography as a motivated sign revealing the interest of the creator, the sign-maker, a detailed multimodal analysis is conducted of one page of a recovered drug-user’s journaled Bible. As shall be demonstrated, profound insights into the appropriation of sacred texts for the spiritual life of a recovering addict can be gleaned in this process. Bible journaling reveals itself to be a highly valuable spiritual practice for those in addiction recovery. This interdisciplinary paper uniquely brings a methodological approach from the field of semiotics to the field of spirituality. Both the methodological approach and the subject of sacred text journaling may be of particular interest to spiritual directors, across many religions with a foundational sacred text, as a means whereby adherents can engage with a text in a deep, contemplative and creative practice that is personally, spiritually sustaining and motivating during a difficult phase of life.