A Comprehensive Literature Review of the Rank Reversal Phenomenon in the Analytic Hierarchy Process

During the last few decades, several multi‐criteria decision analysis methods have been proposed to help in selecting the best compromise alternatives. Among them, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and its applications have attracted much attention from academics and practitioners. However, since the early 1980s, critics have raised questions regarding its proper use. One of them concerns the unacceptable changes in the ranks of the alternatives, called rank reversal, upon changing the structure of the decision. Several modifications were suggested to preserve ranks. In this paper, a classification scheme and a comprehensive literature review are presented in order to uncover, classify and interpret the current research on AHP methodologies and rank reversals. On the basis of the scheme, 61 scholarly papers from 18 journals are categorized into specific areas. The specific areas include the papers on the topics of adding/deleting alternatives and the papers published in adding/deleting criteria. The scholarly papers are also classified by (1) year of publication, (2) journal of publication, (3) authors' geographic location and (4) using the AHP in association with other methods. It is hoped that the paper can meet the needs of researchers and practitioners for convenient references of AHP methodologies and rank reversals and hence promote the future of rank reversal research. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integrative review on career interventions with unemployed people: Nature,outcomes, and recommendations

The study of career development among unemployed people is vital for effective institutional responses. This integrative review based on Torraco's protocol fills a literature gap by synthesizing research on interventions for this population. Seven keywords, five databases, and six eligibility criteria were defined. Among 324 articles, 36 were reviewed. Findings highlight diverse counseling modalities, emphasizing group interventions and remote delivery. Tailored approaches, including length, frequency, and social-emotional and career dimensions, are crucial. Practical recommendations emphasize comprehensive, psychological support, goal-oriented counseling, and postintervention assistance. These insights underscore vocational psychology's importance in addressing unemployment, impacting government policies, career services, and psychologists.     

Never Ending Stories? Hebrew Writers' Creative Journey in the Second Half of Life

This qualitative study explored the relationship between creativity, time, age, and the literary world among 16 award-winning Israeli writers in the second half of their lives. Based on data collected through in-depth interviews with the participants, the findings indicate that the writers' creativity in the second half of life was linked to Preservation, Growth, and Decline, leading to four interrelated dimensions: (a) preserving youth through creativity, (b) enhancing creativity over time, (c) navigating creativity, acclaim, and ageism, and (d) managing creativity amidst a changing world. The study found that the writers' creativity was enhanced over time, as they gained experience and developed their skills. However, some writers experienced a decline in stamina or their ability to write long novels. The study also found that the writers' experiences of acceptance from the literary world and the audience changed over time. Some writers continued to receive acclaim and attention, while others experienced ageism and a decline in the audience's interest in their work.     

The Roman Catholic Church and Slavery in José Evaristo d'Almeida's O Escravo (The Slave)

This installment of Dialog's Theology in Film and Fiction series introduces the first Cape Verdean novel, The Slave, by José Evaristo d'Almeida (1856). This vivid story depicts a number of social and moral issues tied together within the tragic plot of the novel. The article discusses the historical relationship of the Roman Catholic Church to slavery, the colonial history of Portugal and Cape Verde, and the theological use of the Bible in this history. This discussion is applied to Almeida's novel, revealing the manifold nineteenth‐century varieties of the literary history and theology of colonialism.     

医学灰色文献：开放科学环境下医学信息资源建设的新挑战

开放科学强调不限于最终科研成果的科学研究全过程、全要素的开放共享,其中除正式出版物之外的科学资料与数据被称为灰色文献。灰色文献在科学研究中具有独特的价值,尤其在生物医药领域,灰色文献能起到消除发表偏倚、促进信息透明、支持重复检验、增进科研诚信等作用。医学灰色文献可以划分为常规型、数据型、网络型以及史料和特藏型。在其开发利用过程中,还面临知识产权、数据隐私、质控管理等问题。因此,开放科学时代医学灰色文献资源的建设与管理,对于医学科研和数字健康的发展具有重要的学术价值。

     

2012年～2021年《医学与哲学》文献分布与刊文趋势研究

通过文献计量方法,利用CiteSpace、VOSviewer、Bicomb等分析软件对2012年~2021年《医学与哲学》载文情况进行数据挖掘,主要从文献时序、基金项目、发文机构、作者、高被引论文、关键词聚类等方面统计分析。结果表明《医学与哲学》期刊载文数量有所下降,刊载论文所获基金支持比例持续上升,核心作者群和发文机构稳定,高被引论文关注度和认可度高,形成以人文医学、叙事医学、中医学、临终关怀、安宁疗护、知情同意等为重点的研究前沿,期刊发展态势良好。《医学与哲学》期刊也面临作者、机构合作群体有待加强、选稿来源有待拓展、国际化影响力有待提升等方面挑战。

     

医宗扁鹊的正说与误解

扁鹊,先秦时期著名医学家,中医学开宗明义的大师。关于他的历史记载和当代评述,有很多正说,也有很多误解,拨开这些历史迷雾,是正本清源、传承中医学术的需要,也是正确解读中医历史的必然过程。文章通过论证《史记》《列子》《战国策》等史书记载中有关扁鹊的史料的真实性,进一步明确了扁鹊的生活年代,从而证实扁鹊在医学中的医宗地位。在当今中医学术快速发展与中华文明伟大复兴的时刻,在建立文化自信,迎接“百年未有之大变局”,构建“人类命运共同体”的过程之中,研究扁鹊学术的源流,具有十分重要的意义。

     

“If I could burn the space”: on homelessness and the collapse of subjectivity in S.Y. Agnon’s A Guest for the Night*

A Guest for the Night, one of Agnon’s greatest novels, has long been considered to have dealt with the demise of Jewish Eastern Europe, Zionism and the art of the novel. This article offers a different reading, showing Agnon’s novel as a radical work that may have greatly exceeded its author’s intentions. Focusing on the irony directed at the novel’s narrator, I claim that A Guest for the Night calls on its readers to reconsider common premises regarding the history and politics of Eretz Israel/Palestine.     

Agents of Reform?: Children’s Literature and Philosophy

Children’s literature was first published in the eighteenth century at a time when the philosophical ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau on education and childhood were being discussed. Ironically, however, the first generation of children’s literature (by Maria Edgeworth et al) was incongruous with Rousseau’s ideas since the works were didactic, constraining and demanded passive acceptance from their readers. This instigated a deficit or reductionist model to represent childhood and children’s literature as simple and uncomplicated and led to children’s literature being overlooked and its contribution to philosophical discussions being undermined. Although Rousseau advocates freeing the child to develop, he does not feel that reading fiction promotes child development, which is a weakness in an otherwise strong argument for educational reform. Yet, rather ironically, the second generation of children’s writers, from Lewis Carroll onwards, more truly embraced Rousseau’s broader philosophical ideas on education and childhood than their predecessors, encouraging and freeing readers to imagine, reflect and actively engage in ontological enquiry. The emphasis had changed with the child being embraced in education and society as active participant rather than passive or disengaged recipient. Works deemed to be seminal to the canon of children’s literature such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan and The Chronicles of Narnia challenge readers to work through conflicts many of which can be identified retrospectively as exhibiting postmodern characteristics. By exploring moral and spiritual dilemmas in their writing, Carroll, Barrie and Lewis’s works can be regarded as contributing to discussions on theodical postmodernism. The successes of The Lord of the Rings and Narnia films suggest that there is an interest in exploring moral dilemmas, fulfilling a need (perhaps for tolerance and understanding) in society at large. Children’s literature has an almost divine power to restore, to repair and to heal, all characteristics of theodical postmodernism but differing from the more widely held conception of postmodernism which pulls apart, exacerbates and exposes. Children’s literature therefore offers a healthy and constructive approach to working through moral dilemmas. In their deconstruction of childhood, these authors have brought children’s literature closer to aspects of enquiry traditionally found in the domain of adult mainstream literature. As the boundaries between childhood and adulthood become more fluid, less certain, debate is centring around whether the canon of children’s literature itself has become redundant or meaningless since there are no longer any restrictions on which subjects can be treated in children’s literature. Despite the fact that children’s literature clearly engages with difficult issues, it continues to be left out of the critical equation, not given serious attention, disregarded as simplistic and ignored in contemporary philosophical discussions concerning morality, postmodernism and the future of childhood. With children’s literature coming closer to mainstream literature, and exhibiting prominent features of postmodernism, however, it is only a matter of time before philosophical discussions actively engage with children’s literature and recognise its contribution to the resolution and reconciliation of ontological dilemmas. When this occurs, philosophy and children’s literature will re-engage, enriching contemporary investigations of existence, ethics and knowledge and fruitfully developing thought in these areas. This paper aims to contribute to this process.