ECONOMICS : An Introduction to the Discipline

To explore the experiences of 8-week thrice-weekly supervised intense cardiorespiratory interval training at home in people with post-stroke fatigue. Qualitative, using semi-structured individual interviews. Eleven people with post-stroke fatigue were recruited from a study investigating the effects of supervised intense cardiorespiratory interval training. The interviews were conducted 1-2 weeks after the intervention period and analysed inductively with qualitative content analysis. The theme "Supervised cardiorespiratory interval training at home was perceived as feasible and safe, reducing fatigue and contributing to enhanced self-efficacy in both exercise and everyday life" was based on 4 main categories: "Experiences of performing the intervention and testing, "Perceived impact of the intervention on fatigue", "Perceived impact of the intervention on self-efficacy", and "The reinforcing experiences of exercise transfer to everyday life". The informants reported that participating in the intervention made them feel physically and mentally stronger and no longer restricted by a lack of confidence in performing activities that increased their heart rate. Participating in supervised intense cardiorespiratory interval training provided a model on how to train, which was transferable to other contexts in everyday life. The training improved exercise self-efficacy and gave the informants the confidence to challenge themselves in everyday life.

Abstract:
 Learning fiqh should be able to strengthen students' beliefs about the moderation of Islamic law. As a scientific discipline, fiqh discusses syara law based on how it is formulated and implemented in everyday life. This study aims to reveal the ability of Senior High School (SMA) students in analyzing the moderation of Islamic law that they learn in accordance with the 2013 curriculum in the subject of Islamic Religious Education and Character, which includes the law of janazah review, and the law of khutbah, tablig and da'wah by linking it to the context of everyday life. This study used a survey method, with tests as a data collection tool conducted at SMANs in Semarang, Bogor and Makassar in the even semester of the 2019/2020 school year. The results showed that by thinking at a high level at the level of analysis, students could find the moderate values ​​of Islamic law in the context of everyday life.
 Abstrak:
 Pembelajaran fiqih semestinya dapat memperkuat keyakinan peserta didik tentang kemoderatan hukum Islam. Sebagai disiplin ilmu, fiqih membahas hukum syara berdasarkan cara perumusan dan implementasinya dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengungkap kemampuan peserta didik Sekolah Menengah Atas (SMA) dalam menganalisis kemoderatan hukum Islam yang dipelajarinya sesuai dengan kurikulum 2013 pada mata pelajaran Pendidikan Agama Islam dan Budi Pekerti, yang meliputi hukum pemulasaraan Janazah, hukum khutbah, tablig dan dakwah dengan mengaitkannya kepada konteks kehidupan sehari-hari. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode survei, dengan tes sebagai alat pengumpul data yang dilakukan di SMAN di Semarang, Bogor, dan Makassar pada semester genap tahun ajaran 2019/2020. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa dengan berpikir tingkat tinggi pada tingkat analisis, peserta didik dapat menemukan nilai-nilai kemoderatan hukum Islam dalam konteks kehidupan sehari-hari.

This paper presents a study of Irish households, the internet and everyday life. Social studies of technology draw heavily from anthropology, not only in ethnographic methodologies but also in the ways in which such data can be understood and interpreted within the contexts of everyday life. To achieve this, the concept of the domestication of (media) technologies has been developed to describe and analyse the processes of technology's acceptance, rejection and use. Domestication is employed as a structural and analytical framework to achieve an empirical understanding of the domestic user. Based on a critical analysis from an anthropological perspective, the paper will revise the original domestication of the concept of technology. The notion of technological black boxes and I-methodology strategies are critiqued. This paper calls for users to be conceptualised as active agents in the overall design process and not as just end users who become active once the artefact has become commodified.

Since the mid-1980s Germany has witnessed a change in the conception of memorials against the crimes of National Socialism. In contrast to previous concepts the new memorials renounce any kind of pathos irrespective of whether generated by a technique of mimetic imagery or geometric abstraction. While earlier memorials were recognised as works of art through their exposed position in public space, the new memorials pursue an opposing strategy of dissimulation in everyday life, at times even culminating in their complete disappearance, as in the case of Jochen Gerz’s ‘Memorial against Fascism, War and Violence’ in Hamburg- Harburg. Over the period of seven years and under the watchful eyes of the population, the memorial was slowly lowered into the ground until it was no longer visible, leaving as a reminder nothing more than a simple commemorative plate. Through techniques of dissimulation in everyday life the new memorials dispense with their recognition as art, which was thought to be essential for empathetic expression, but was always an obstacle for critical reflection. Forty years after the end of the war, as witnesses gradually died off, the conception of the Holocaust memorial started to change. As the recollection of the Nazi regime and its atrocities moved on from ‘communicative memory’ — as Jan Assmann terms the recollection of authentic experience1 — to cultural, mediatic memory, the new memorials began to liberate admonitory commemoration from artistic-aesthetic formalism and to carry it back to where National Socialist terror started: the context of everyday life.

In market economy, there are four types of markets: perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, monopoly. The main differences among them are the ability to set price, barrier to enter and exit the market, numbers of companies. To study innovation’s efficiency in these markets, it is necessary to understand their special characteristics. To simplify the problem, when patent is employed, only the innovation company has the access to this new technology. When it does not exist, every company in the market can use the new technology. In perfect competition market, there are no barrier to enter or exit and lots of companies producing identical products, so no company can set the price. Because there is no barrier, companies that can earn profit will enter the market, which decreases the price. Eventually, all companies’ marginal cost, average cost and marginal benefit is equal to the price, average benefit. In other words, companies in perfect competition market earn zero economic profit. Social welfare is always maximum in this type of markets. In this case, when one company discovers new production technology, other companies will follow immediately. Lower cost causes higher supply, which makes the price decrease and equal to the average cost eventually, leaving every company having zero economic profit, including the first company discovered the new technology, so there is no incentive for any company to spend resource on innovation. However, consumers’ welfare would increase because of lower price. When patent is employed, one company can produce products in a lower price and earn certain economic profit, but can hardly make an influence on the market because there are too many suppliers. Thus, in perfect competition market, patent is a good way to provide incentives for innovations. In monopolistic competition market, there are lots of companies selling slightly different products. The difference among products enables one company to increase the price over in a limited range, so monopolistic competition market is inefficient. In this type of markets, there are two types of innovations: technology and product. The former one reduces the cost and has the same consequence as that in perfect competition market. The latter one, product innovation, makes the product more special, giving the company more market power. However, without patent, product innovation will be copied easily, making the original product less special and canceling out the market power gained by the original company. Since there is no economic benefit, there is no incentive for any company in the market to innovate. When patent is employed, products’ difference is kept and gives the company more market power since there is consumer preference in monopolistic competition market. This increase of market power is not as negligible as that in perfect competition market, so the market becomes less efficient when the company with patent increases the price. In oligopoly market, there are only a few companies with great market power, so all of them can set the price. In this market, companies make decision based on both output and price effects. Output effect means when price is higher than marginal cost, companies can increase profit by increase its output. Price effect means when a company increases its output, the market price goes down, causing less profit for the company. When output effect is more impactful than price effect, companies will increase sales. When price effect is more impactful than output effect, companies will decrease sales. Oligopoly market can be inefficient without restrictions. Regarding innovations, there is still no incentives without the presence of patents. With patent, innovation company will gain market power that is huge enough to cause inefficiency and even to force other companies to exit the market. Thus, patent in oligopoly market will cause negative impact on society, which should be limited. The last type of markets if monopoly. In monopoly market, there is only one company, so patent is necessary. When this company innovates and decreases its production cost, it will tend to increase its output to maximize profit, which enlarges consumers’ welfare. However, this increase is not as much as that in perfect competition market, so innovation in monopoly market is still inefficient.

Production costs are crucial in both economics and accounting, as they determine pricing, profitability, and market competitiveness. These costs include direct expenses like raw materials and labor, as well as indirect costs such as depreciation and overhead. In economics, understanding production costs helps businesses optimize resource allocation and maximize efficiency. In accounting, accurate cost tracking ensures financial transparency, aids in budgeting, and supports strategic decision-making. Additionally, production costs influence inflation, supply chain stability, and economic growth. Proper cost management enhances profitability, reduces waste, and ensures sustainable business operations, making it a fundamental aspect of financial and economic planning.

This paper analyses the meaning of poverty in different periods, as defined by the use of language. It examines the creation of codes as a representation of escape from poverty. The author shows variations in the meaning of poverty in Thai society as three overlapping layers: deprivation, used to evaluate the poor in a straightforward way; development poverty, used for negotiating with the government in the sense of receiving development benefits; and social poverty, used to set social hierarchies. All three meanings have become integrated and have been selectively used in differing contexts in everyday life. However, they each share the feature of comparing differing degrees of wealth relating directly to divisions in social class. This reflects people's awareness of the poverty gap in Thailand.

This study provides a unique look at the confrontation of societal priorities about sport and life. The study examines how the meaning of a sporting superevent changes in a community when it is confronted by a natural disaster such as a major earthquake. Press coverage of the 1989 baseball World Series played between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics is used as a case study to understand how sport is variantly placed into the context of everyday life as social conditions and interpretations of a disaster change. A reader-oriented critique of press coverage focuses on the changing construction of the interpretive community of sports fans during fourphases: (1) the pre-series period, (2) the pre-quake playing period, (3) the moratorium period, and the (4) the post-quake playing period. The often unrecognized struggles of the press to create interpretive communities of fans are most clearly seen in the context of this intervention of a natural disaster into the workings of an ongoing process of "naturalizing" sport into everyday life.

Existing studies show that the role of algebra in learning is currently focused in many perspectives so traditional algebra learning requires fundamental reforms and changes in thinking. Algebraic learning currently must be able to focus on the mastery and application of algebra in various contexts in everyday life. The study was conducted to design mathematics learning to support the transition of arithmetic thinking to the algebraic thinking of junior high school students, and to describe the socio-mathematical norms in mathematics learning for a transition from arithmetic thinking into algebraic thinking. The research method used is design research. The results showed that the indicator of transitions from arithmetic thinking into algebraic thinking can be achieved well, some students made mistakes when working on negative number operations because students find it was difficult to distinguish between signs of numbers and signs of operations involved in an algebraic expression. This should be anticipated in order to prepare students for a more advanced level of algebraic understanding.

This paper studies what migrant mothers in Finland say about their social relationships, language use and sense of belonging. The main focus of my study is on the mothers’ stories and the factors that they consider relevant for their socialization into the local language and sense of belonging. This longitudinal ethnographic study (2012–2018) explores the case of eleven migrant mothers. The data is analyzed applying nexus analysis (Scollon & Scollon 2004). The study focuses on language socialization and languaging. In everyday contexts, language is understood as a target and it is also used as a central tool in action. The results indicate that multilingual contexts in everyday life are relevant for constructing the sense of belonging since they offer possibility to give and receive social and linguistic support.

In this article, the author explores how one particular group of working-class women living in Belfast, the North of Ireland, experience the place(s) in which they live. The perspective of place that this exploration is embedded in represents the accumulation of multiple person-place relationships that are mediated by the sociopolitical history of the North of Ireland, as well as by the gendered, classed, and religious-mediated contexts in which the women live. The author explores the relationship between place and identity by describing a feminist participatory action research (PAR) project that she engaged in with a group of women living in Belfast (which included the use of photovoice as a tool for investigating people's lives) that provided them with a culturally relevant lens through which to view the relationship between place and the everyday lives of Irish women. Out of that investigation, the author and the women designed a photo-text exhibit that provides knowledge to local and international communities about the ways in which women engage in the formulation and reformulation of place and identity within contexts of everyday life.

The research explores innovative pricing strategies in China’s fashion e-commerce sector, focusing on their impact on consumer behavior, revenue growth, and market competitiveness. By analyzing techniques such as dynamic pricing, personalized discounts, subscription models, and flash sales, the study uncovers how digital technologies and data analytics optimize pricing frameworks. The integration of AI-driven algorithms and social commerce platforms highlights the sector's adaptability in leveraging technology to influence consumer decisions and boost profitability. A case study approach investigates how fashion e-commerce companies address challenges such as fluctuating demand, market competition, and ethical considerations in pricing. The research also examines consumer perceptions, emphasizing trust, transparency, and the psychological impact of urgency and exclusivity. Findings provide actionable insights for businesses navigating the rapidly evolving digital marketplace. This study not only enhances understanding of pricing strategies but also contributes to broader discussions on the intersection of technology, consumer behavior, and economic growth in the e-commerce landscape.

Popular art is not just about entertainment, and this paper explores some of the pertinent issues that one genre of popular fiction, romance, signals. Using the novel The Girl was Mine as a backdrop, the paper concentrates on masculinity as a way out of an essentialised gender analysis that confines the genre of romance to the category of woman, as demonstrated in the mentioned critical works. Masculinity is a fictional construction, and this article attempts to explore how David Karanja has used the genre of romance to perpetuate it within the context of Kenyans' everyday life. A move towards men and masculinity is a project of levelling the playing field of romantic fiction.

This study aims to reveal mathematical connections of elementary school teachers in solving trigonometric problem. The subjects of this study were 22 elementary school teachers as the prospective participants of Professional Teacher Education and Training (PTET). They came from several districts of South Sulawesi Province. The teachers were given trigonometry problem. Trigonometry problems could encourage teachers to connect geometrical and algebraic concept, graphical representation and algebraic representation, as well as daily life context. The result shows that most of the subject teachers of this study solved the problem according to procedures they know without considering everyday life context. On the other hand, there were some subjects who connected problem with everyday life context using graphical, verbal, or numerical representation. Thus, subjects who were able to connect problem information with appropriate concepts and procedures are categorized as substantive connections. While the subjects who were able to connect problem information with mathematical concepts but less precise in using the procedure are categorized as classification connections.

Carbon markets devolve governance to external institutions and displace power from sovereign states. Major producers in these markets, notably China, have expressed concern about the adverse implications for national interests and sovereignty associated with selling off the rights to emit carbon emissions abroad. This article suggests that such concern has shaped the discursive context in which emission trading schemes have gained popularity in the country. Our discourse analysis shows that notions of market power are made manifest as a powerful storyline. In the Chinese language, “power,” “sovereignty,” and “rights” all use the same character. The storyline captures all these expressions and allows for a positive view about active engagement in carbon trading as a way to protect development rights and redeem carbon sovereignty. Thus, the contested policy of emissions trading becomes embedded in the more appealing narrative of national development and made politically attractive, despite unfavorable realities against it.