Effective criteria in the public-private partnership in developing countries to apply the sustainable development goals: GAN-based decision support system for the renewable electrical system, case study Syria.

The cost of generating electricity in developing countries surpasses the government's ability to sustain it, necessitating the involvement of the private sector in this service provision through public-private partnerships (PPPs) contracts. In Syria, the electricity system has been highly susceptible to damage as a result of the ongoing crisis, leading to frequent and prolonged blackouts. This research focuses on addressing the need for a comprehensive system that aids decision-making for PPPs contracts in the country. By employing a combination of studies, reports, and interviews with domain experts, significant general and exclusive factors that guide decision-makers in PPPs contracts are identified and organized into questionnaires. These questionnaires are then filled out by professionals engaged in PPPs contracts. The collected data is analyzed and validated using SPSS software. However, due to insufficient data collected, generative adversarial neural networks (GAN) are utilized to enhance the research data. Additionally, Expert Choice and the analytic hierarchy process are employed to calculate weights for each factor. Remarkably, the calculated weights for both general and exclusive factors align with real-life strategies. General factors primarily address the financial and commercial considerations associated with PPPs, while exclusive factors primarily focus on the operational aspects of the electrical power system. These factors are arranged in descending order of effectiveness, enabling stakeholders to determine whether the private sector should be engaged in the project or if it should remain within the public sector's purview. The proposed system has demonstrated its reliability and can serve as a promising starting point for PPPs contracts.

Wild Mushrooms as a Source of Protein: A Case Study from Central Europe, Especially the Czech Republic.

Wild mushroom foraging has a long tradition, especially in the region of Central Europe. Wild mushrooms are a valuable food resource, as they provide nutritional benefits to the European population. They offer a relatively high content of protein and are traditionally used in many European cuisines as a substitute for meat. This is particularly true in times of crisis, such as wars and pandemics. The study presented in this paper shows that wild mushrooms can substitute around 0.2 percent of daily protein intake and contribute around 3% to the agricultural output of the Czech economy, which was selected as a representative for Central Europe. The calculated real price of wild mushrooms indicates their increasing popularity as a source of food protein in Central Europe, while their price seems to be independent of the quantity supplied.

The moderating role of perceived health risks on the acceptance of genetically modified food.

The public perspective on genetically modified foods (GMFs) has been intensely debated and scrutinized. Often, discussions surrounding GMF tend to revolve solely around the potential health risks associated with their consumption. However, it is essential to acknowledge that public perceptions of genetically modified foods are multifaceted, encompassing environmental concerns, ethical considerations, and economic implications. This paper studies the factors predicting GMF acceptance employing the representative sample of the Czech population (N = 884, aged 18-90 years, M ± SD: 48.17 ± 17.72; 53.40% women, 18.04% with higher education). The research relies on the Behavioral Change Model and the Health Belief Model. We employ hierarchical ordinal regressions to study the effects of information, environmental concerns, perceived health risks, food habits, purchasing habits, and socio-demographics on GMF acceptance. The results suggest that the (un)willingness to purchase GMF is primarily driven by the health risks - the environmental concerns were largely unimportant. The impact of information provision on GMF acceptance proved positive, suggesting information and education to be the main channels of creating public acceptance. The intrinsic interest regarding information related to GMF had an adverse impact on the perception of GMF morality. The benefits of the GMF proved unrelated to the GMF acceptance, indicating the gap in the information campaign. The research provides valuable insights for policymakers, public health professionals, and market researchers to communicate the GMF agenda effectively to the general public.

The predictive ability of emotional creativity in motivation for adaptive innovation among university professors under COVID-19 epidemic: An international study.

Emotional creativity (EC) refers to cognitive abilities and personality traits related to the originality of emotional experience and expression. Previous studies have found that the COVID-19 epidemic and the restrictions imposed increased the levels of negative emotions, which obstructed adaptation. This research suggests that EC predicts the motivation for innovative adaptive behavior under the restrictions of COVID-19. In the case study of university professors, we show that EC predicts the motivation to creatively capitalize on the imposed online teaching in looking for innovative research and personal development. Methodologically, we rely on the Emotional Creativity Inventory (ECI) administered to a sample of 463 university professors (41.5% men, aged 22-100. M ± SD = 45.53 ± 11.46, median 44) from the Czech Republic (N = 137), Slovak Republic (N = 61), and Russia (N = 265). The indicators for motivation for innovative performance included motivations to use distant methods of scientific research, to look for partners for conducting scientific research in other cities or abroad, to conduct interdisciplinary research, starting distance learning to enhance qualifications, and the perception that due to online teaching, there is more time for personal development. We employ a set of ordinal regression analyses controlling for age, gender, position (lecturer, researcher, and manager), type of science (formal, natural, social, and applied), and country. The results suggest that Emotional Creativity and its three components predict the motivation of university professors to creatively capitalize on the imposed online teaching in looking for innovative research and personal development under the conditions of COVID-19. Furthermore, our results confirmed the gender and age differences in EC. The differences in EC according to position (lecturer, researcher, and manager) and type of science were not statistically significant. These results compel us to be aware of the importance of the emotional side of creativity to optimize stress-related behavior under the conditions of limited abilities to continue as usual. More space devoted to the manifestation of all the aspects of emotional creativity would improve adaptation to challenging circumstances and even allow one to capitalize on new opportunities. Moreover, we suggest that if personal intrinsic Emotional Creativity is high, the crises, such as the COVID-19 epidemic, may improve adaptation and trigger creative outcomes.

Does Playing Video Games Increase Emotional Creativity?

Emotional creativity (EC), which constitutes a main aspect of the general creativity concept, is often shown to be substantially related to positive emotional experiences, effective motivation, and innovation at the workplace as well as at school. However, little is known about the relationship between emotional creativity and the time people tend to spend playing video games. Nowadays, video games and virtual reality have become an important aspect of public health and psychological research. They constitute a key element of popular culture and generate considerable economic profit as part of the public entertainment industry. Our study is based on the results of an emotional creativity inventory (ECI) survey that was administered at a snowball and convenient sample of 453 respondents (aged 18-60 years, M ± SD: 23.68 ± 6.36; 66.40% women, 20.00% with higher education) from the Czech Republic who were questioned about their habits and the time they devote to playing video games. The sample country was selected as one with a long tradition of homebrew video gaming going back to the 1980s. We employed a set of multinomial regression analyses, which revealed that more time devoted to playing video games is associated with lower emotional creativity, in general, as well as with lower novelty, preparedness, and effectiveness components of emotional creativity. The negative association above was less pronounced for women than for men. Moreover, in a sample containing only women, a longer time devoted to playing video games was associated with the higher novelty component of emotional creativity (the associations with the other two components were not statistically significant for women only). Our findings might considerably contribute to the study of the general overall long-term effect of video games and the use of digital technologies in general on public health.

Ratings of activities of daily living in nursing home residents: comparison of self- and proxy ratings with actual performance and the impact of cognitive status.

This study was conducted to examine differences between self- and proxy ratings of activities in daily living (ADL) in nursing home residents and to compare them with actual performance. An impact of cognitive status on these ratings was also determined. Data were obtained from 164 dyads of nursing home residents (self-ratings) and their professional care providers (proxy ratings). Statistical procedures included t tests, intraclass correlations, Pearson's correlations, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and ROC curves. Paired t test provided evidence that residents in general overestimated their abilities for all ADLs (p < .01 in all cases), but a substantial subset of 54 residents, with mean MMSE of 18, agreed with their care providers. The mean MMSE score of those who overestimated their abilities was 13 (N = 57). The ANOVA revealed that greater rating differences were associated with more severe cognitive impairment (MMSE, F = 9.93, p < .001). Proxy ratings of walking were not significantly different from actual performances (p = .145), while self-ratings overestimated it (p < .001). Although residents in general overestimated their ADL abilities and results of comparison with actual performance indicated that proxies may be closer to the actual status in this population, a considerable number of those with milder cognitive impairment were able to assess their ADLs with reasonable accuracy.

Amygdala and emotionality in Parkinson's disease: An integrative review of the neuropsychological evidence.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is often accompanied by significant changes in emotionality, such as apathy, anhedonia, anxiety and depression. The present review summarizes the empirical evidence, including amygdala changes and psychological changes in emotionality in people suffering from PD. Seventeen empirical full-text articles including research on both amygdala and emotionality in PD were reviewed. The changes in amygdala volumes as well as changes in binding potentials, functional connectivity, regional homogeneity and regional cerebral blood flow were found to have various impacts on emotionality in people with PD. The integration of the results showed that some effects of amygdala changes on emotionality were lateralized. Some of the reviewed studies indicated that the volume loss in the left amygdala was found to be related to increased anxiety, whereas bilateral volume loss in amygdala was linked to increased depressivity. The reviewed results also support a hypothesis of bradylimbic affective disturbance in patients with PD. The disturbed activation of amygdala accompanying the evaluation of negative facial expressions implies that the evaluation of the content of affective stimuli in terms of their affective meanings is disturbed in PD patients. Impaired evaluation of affective attributes given by amygdala-based translational deficits is likely to be related to problems in translating the results of cognitive appraisal into somatomotor, arousal and other changes. This mechanism is suggested to be responsible for apathy as well as for other changes in emotionality accompanying PD.

Factors influencing job satisfaction in post-transition economies: the case of the Czech Republic.

This paper presents an analysis of factors influencing job satisfaction in post-transition economies on the example of the Czech Republic. Our research shows that women reported higher levels of job satisfaction compared to men. Education proved to be statistically significant in one of three indicators of job satisfaction. Personal income and workplace relationships proved to be positively and significantly related to all the three indicators of job satisfaction. Most of the occupational dummies were significantly related to two out of three indicators of job satisfaction. In addition, we found that Czech entrepreneurs enjoy and value their job, which indicates strong self-selection for doing business in post-transition economies. However, human capital expressed by the level of education was significant factor for job satisfaction, meaning that well-educated people might not be satisfied with their jobs or feel that their education and experience are wasted in the market economy.