Terminology and Methods

This paper draws attention to the pervasiveness of life stage concepts in human cultures and advocates the creation of a new field of study on indigenous life stage concepts. First, historical and cultural examples are presented to illustrate the widespread use of life stage concepts across times and places. Then, sociological research on the institutionalization of life stages in the 19th and 20th centuries in industrial societies is summarized, but with a new interpretation of how those life stage concepts arose. Next, the idea of life stages as master narratives is proposed, as a way of explaining how life stages provide the raw material for individuals to construct a personal identity narrative. The paper concludes by proposing that the exploration of indigenous life stage concepts is an exciting new potential field of study.

El desarrollo de la investigación en el campo de la biología no solo se remite al conocimiento del funcionamiento de la vida o su aplicación para la producción de alimentos, la salud, o el manejo sustentable de los recursos naturales. En paralelo, se ha generado también otro tipo de conocimiento, este último poco conocido, que tiene como propósito originar información confiable para comprender las distintas etapas, a los actores, a las instituciones y el análisis de las prácticas que se desarrollan en los espacios educativos donde se forman los biólogos.
 El artículo presenta un estado de conocimiento a partir de una revisión bibliográfica de productos de investigación educativa acerca de la formación de biólogos en México a nivel superior, desde su origen a principios del siglo pasado, hasta nuestros días. El trabajo se orientó a reconocer la diversidad de tópicos, intereses, enfoques y tendencias espacio-temporales, además de evidenciar la formación disciplinar y teórica de los autores. Estos elementos se constituyeron como estrategia de comprensión y análisis empírico que permitieron delimitar etapas analíticas que definieron la organización de los resultados. A partir de la construcción de este estado de conocimiento, se expone un panorama general de los tópicos y abordajes metodológicos en las investigaciones con respecto al tema, poniendo en evidencia, a partir de su análisis, un proceso de cambio considerable a través del tiempo, en el que es posible apreciar el tránsito de investigaciones meramente descriptivas, a problemáticas más complejas que permitieron distinguir y delimitar diferentes temáticas y etapas. El proceso de transformación y diversificación de los trabajos aquí mostrados se traduce en la posibilidad de reconocer un nuevo campo de investigación que afronta nuevos desafíos para el presente siglo y aporta el primer estado del conocimiento referente a esta temática.

Stab wound analysis is a relatively new field of study in forensic science, and there is currently much debate regarding the effectiveness of the analysis due to a lack of validation studies. Furthermore, the underlying viewpoints on the success of stab wound analysis vary. Examination of cut marks, for example, can reveal a variety of characteristics which can be used to determine the type of weapon that was used to inflict them. However, published studies are not consistent when identifying knife blade characteristics, instead considering a wide variety of morphological aspects and their potential value in forensic scenarios. The existing research methodology is therefore inadequate to reliably inform in such contexts, and future experimental design should be influenced by the conditional variance in stabbings in order to provide reliable findings.The research presented here takes a systematic approach to the problem, compiling the published literature (up to September 2023) on the use of different imaging methods applied to stab wound examination to create a taxonomy to examine trends in methodological approaches in both research and investigative settings. This approach identified that published studies could be classified as either morphological or morphometrical, and further sub-classified based on their degree of success and the findings reached. This emphasises the importance of prioritising research into mark data, and the need for a multi-technique, multi-disciplinary approach. A decision tree was created to illustrate which mark attributes should be studied for which purpose, and using which imaging method(s). Furthermore, the research presented identifies two key areas in stab wound research which should be the focus of standardisation efforts, namely methodological procedures and mark characteristic collection. Knife markings are difficult to interpret, but further research and standardisation of kerf mark analysis, as highlighted here, will improve the efficiency and reliability of both forensic investigations and future experimental studies.

Since the end of the 20th century, intense studies have been conducted in the realms of cognitive linguistics and cultural linguistics. One of the features peculiar to the development of these realms in the East Slavic countries is their integration. As a result, a new field of study emerged – cultural conceptual linguistics. This field has gained the greatest popularity in the region since then. This popularity didn’t come out of thin air. Firstly, cognitive linguistics and cultural linguistics began to progress almost simultaneously in the post-Soviet era. Secondly, much of the credit goes to the local well-established research schools which contributed a lot to language semantics. The article analyses the focus and novel approaches of cultural conceptual research. Different definitions to “concept” are provided. The concept is a mental unit that can be represented by a word, phrase, sentence, or even a whole text. The cultural linguistic concept differs from other mental units due to its evaluative component. The core of a concept always contains values. In most Belarusian research at the turn of the 20th – beginning 21st cc. key linguistic issues revolved around more traditional topics – in the paradigm of structural and functional linguistics. However, some ideas proposed by cultural and cognitive linguists in recent decades were known long before that, as Belarusian linguistics has always recognized the fact that language and cognitive processes are closely related. The article addresses one of the focal concepts of Belarusian cultural conceptualizations that is the concept narod ‘folk; people; nation’ by employing the prototypical approach which is an effective way to determine the concept structure and its specific character.

Cases of excessive use of the Internet have been reported for some time, with numerous claimed adverse effects to the well-being of the subject. Objective signs and subjective symptoms are similar to those of addictive behavior, leading to the classification of those cases as incidences of an addiction disorder. Research results from this new field of study have led to the recent provisional introduction of a subset of those cases, those concerning online gaming, in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-5) under the heading ‘Internet Gaming Disorder’. This review article critically examines research conducted on the personality attributes of those Internet users who demonstrate signs and symptoms of excessive use. The results lend credit to the notion of including a disorder in psychiatric taxonomies yet do not cover all possible fields of research, rather focusing on trait personality psychology. Directions are offered for future research.

Transformation of entrepreneurial intention to action is a relatively new field of research that has attracted considerable interest from researchers over the past decade. This literature review has endeavoured to systematise and categorise the past studies to comprehend their actual research focus. The study has used 65 articles published between 1981 – 2020, divided into two categories, as articles published between 1981-2000 and 2001 – 2020. This study has used PRISMA framework, with well-defined exclusion and inclusion clauses, to identify relevant articles. The review found psychosocial influence to be the major focus of entrepreneurship research during year 1981-2000 period, while entrepreneurial mindset, entrepreneur’s family background, gender, behavioural control and entrepreneurial eco system, to be the major focus of the studies conducted between year 2001 and 2020. This review also found quantitative research methodology to be more popular among entrepreneurship researchers with regression analysis and structural equation modelling being most preferred for data analysis. This study has identified University students to be the most preferred unit of observation, while nascent entrepreneurs were found to be the least preferred. The study has also identified intention-action transformation to be a relatively new field of study with the field only gaining momentum over the past decade. This study adds value to the existing literature, through systemization and categorization, while supporting the administrators, policymakers, universities, and future researchers.

What is meant by “digital human sciences,” what types of research objects and topics does it circumscribe, and how does it overlap with or depart from related fields of research? This chapter introduces the digital human sciences as a new field of study, distinguishes it from the digital humanities, and discusses its multidisciplinary character.

Sharing economy is an area that has been attracting increased interest from entrepreneurs and academics, due to its notable growth. This study aims to present a quantitative panorama of studies related to the sharing economy. In order to accomplish this, the bibliometric method was applied to data extracted from the Scopus Database. It is verified that this is a relatively new field of study and that this field of research is being strongly influenced by themes such as sustainability, the internet, as well as by representative companies (e.g. Airbnb and Uber). Based on the bibliographic coupling, four clusters are visible on the mapping. These four clusters that were identified may be considered trends for research conducted in this field.

Information Systems (IS) is a relatively new field of study that investigates information and communications technology (ICT) in organisational settings. Originally a branch of management science, IS became an independent field in the late 1960s. Only recently in North America has IS design research (ISDR) become a distinct line of inquiry within the field. This paper details the emergence of ISDR within North American IS research and outlines its current state. ISDR, as currently conceived in North America, is narrower in scope than design research in fields where it has a longer history. With reference to the literature, we expose directions of research highly germane to ISDR that are precluded by the current common understanding, which requires an artefact as the output of all design research efforts. We propose suggestions for relaxing this constraint on research output while still retaining a focus on research relevance and ICT artefacts.

El estudio de las prácticas políticas transnacionales de los migrantes ha tenido diversos niveles de participación en el amplio campo de las migraciones internacionales, y ha sido una preocupación relativamente reciente en Europa y América Latina, donde está menos desarrollado que en Estados Unidos. En consecuencia, son escasos los trabajos que abordan el transnacionalismo político de colombianos, lo cual contrasta con el número de investigaciones que abordan el desplazamiento forzado y la migración colombiana.De los trabajos existentes, en Estados Unidos, resaltan especialmente las investigaciones comparativas entre grupos de inmigrantes, desde metodologías cuantitativas y bajo el enfoque analítico de las redes sociales; mientras que, en Europa, se destaca el estudio de casos específicos, que articulan la teoría de la acción colectiva y la teoría de los factores push-pull, bajo metodologías cualitativas. En todos los casos, las investigaciones que se preguntan por las prácticas políticas de los colombianos con respecto al contexto de salida, homeland politics, son aquellas que mayor atención han tenido a nivel general.El transnacionalismo político es un campo de estudios relativamente nuevo, y conviene resaltar su importancia en tanto que busca atender a la dimensión política de la migración, en este caso de colombianos, no solo como causa —pues al respecto existe un patrimonio importante de investigaciones—, sino como práctica política de participación de estos migrantes en otras latitudes.En este orden de ideas, el objetivo de esta investigación no es hacer teoría de las migraciones internacionales, sino aproximarme a describir las diferentes perspectivas desde las cuales ha sido abordado el transnacionalismo político de los colombianos. Para esto, trabajé desde el paradigma histórico hermenéutico, que me permitió hacer un rastreo comprensivo del fenómeno social a través del estado del arte; dicho paradigma se entiende como investigación de la investigación, en tanto que busca establecer un panorama del patrimonio investigativo existente sobre un tema, para derivar en nuevas reflexiones, preguntas y abordajes sobre este. Dicho esto mi objetivo en este trabajo no es hacer teoría de las migraciones internacionales, sino aproximarme a describir las diferentes perspectivas analíticas desde las que ha sido abordado el trasnacionalismo político de los colombianos, reconociendo que es un campo relativamente nuevo dentro de los estudios migratorios. En este sentido, organizaré la presentación así: primero, presentaré el abordaje metodológico que sustenta el estado de la cuestión; segundo daré cuenta de las investigaciones enfocadas a las prácticas de los inmigrantes con respecto al país de origen; tercero presentaré los trabajos que enfatizan en las prácticas políticas en el contexto de recepción con respecto a su situación de inmigrantes; cuarto presentaré los trabajos que triangulan “Inmigrant politics” y “homeland politics”; y quinto, daré mis conclusiones frente al campo de estudios y el panorama del transnacionalismo político de los colombianos.Para efectos de esta investigación trabajé desde el paradigma histórico hermenéutico, puesto que me permite hacer un rastreo comprensivo del fenómeno social bajo la perspectiva del estado del arte. Los estados del arte son entendidos como “investigación de la investigación”. en tanto buscan establecer un panorama del patrimonio investigativo existente sobre un tema, para derivar en nuevas reflexiones, preguntas y abordajes del mismo.Palabras claves: transnacionalismo político, migración, colombianos, organizaciones sociales, participación política.

On the basis of a national analysis and the expert discussion, this article presents a methodological approach to the realization of professional education and the creation of the required competencies for civilian and military aviation personnel, based on a system approach platform, with the application in the specific aviation education environment of future employees in the Transport sector. This article presents the third part of a study. The article used analysis and synthesis tools, the method “per partes” (integration in parts) and an expert method. The authors solved the following praxeological questions: How to identify the Interdisciplinary Didactic System for creating the required competencies of aviation personnel in the conditions of the Slovak Republic? What are the core themes of aviation knowledge in the Transport sector, the skills and competencies of our graduates? The strategic framework for the solutions is the implementation of a state education policy, the transport policy, the defence policy of the state and the relevant international and the European agenda, in the conditions of universities in Slovakia, in cooperation with their partners. The core outputs of this article are the framework knowledge, the skills and competences of graduates identified in the new field of study “Transport” in the Slovak Republic.

The aim of the paper is twofold. On the one hand, it examines the epistemological reasons behind the shifting beginnings of Byzantine literature, a shift that covers a period of four centuries (AD 300-700), as well as the methodological problems for the study of Byzantine literature resulting from the rise of Late Antiquity as a new historical period and a new field of studies. On the other hand, the paper proposes a series of four textually immanent criteria and seven internal operative principles by means of which a different methodological approach to the «beginning» of Byzantine literature can be reached. For this purpose Eusebios of Caesarea and Lactantius will be used as the textual basis for establishing a structural break in literary production in the first two decades of the fourth century. For the purpose of controlling this proposal a comparison with an important but highly debated monument (the Arch of Constantine in Rome) will be made and some final conclusions as to the course of Greek literature in early Byzantine times will be made.

The Notion of Corpus in Contrastive Language Studies: Choices, tools and exploitation
 Since past decades, Contrastive Linguistics is in search of ways for its development. Such a situation results from the fact that the scientific context nowadays is overwhelmed with the advent of new disciplines; is highly saturated by needs for interdisciplinarity; and it imposes the search of paths which have to serve as guide for forthcoming studies. As far as Contrastive Linguistics is concerned, the ways leading to its development are methodological, theoretical, and epistemological in nature. Regarding this wide scope, this study mainly focusses on the methodological aspect of the discipline. Clearly, this paper examines the notion of “Corpus” within the field of Linguistics in general and Contrastive Linguistics in particular. As a new field of study, Contrastive Linguistics needs to be grounded on solid methodological foundations as well. First of all, it delves into addressing issues of methodological tools used while contrasting languages; then, it examines the issue of corpus selection for a specific study; and finally, it proposes ways for selecting and treating data which are often overlooked by professionals and students alike. To undertake the study hereof, it resorted to the Taxonomy approach in Natural Sciences elaborated by Carl Von Linné, Candole, Charles Darwin, Willi Hennig. The use of this methodological approach purposes at providing clear definitions of terms surrounding the notion of “Corpus”; at describing the various types of corpora, at underscoring their internal organisation; and at casting light on the useful tools for the constitution of a special kind of corpus relevant for studies in Contrastive Linguistics.The tasks mentioned earlier will provide a good grasp of how the notion of “corpus” is apprehended within the framework of contrastive analysis. This work shall equally equip young scholars looking forward to specialising in this highly technical scientific niche with abilities to better find markers in a methodology of proper and full selection, constitution and exploitation of a corpus in contrastive linguistics.

PurposeThe purpose of Lat-Intersectology is to foster a deeper, more holistic understanding of societal structures, guiding more effective, inclusive policies and social justice initiatives. It champions the complexity of human diversity, urging a shift from linear analytical models to a more expansive, interlaced understanding of social realities.Design/methodology/approachLat-Intersectology is a relatively new field of study that emerged from the intersection of Latino critical race and intersectionality theories. Lat-Intersectology seeks to build on Latino Critical theory (LatCrit) by examining the complex ways in which immigration status, race and ethnicity intersect Latino immigrants’ identities. Lat-Intersectology proposes a novel approach that seeks to unravel the deficit layers prevalent among Latino immigrants in the United States. This new approach emphasizes the understanding of these intersections not just as theoretical constructs but as privileged realities, influencing scholarly discourse. By foregrounding new perspectives, Lat-Intersectology contributes to a more nuanced understanding of US Latino immigrants’ social dynamics, promoting strategies for inclusion that are both informed by and tailored to the specificities of Latino immigrants’ context.FindingsLat-Intersectology provides a critical approach to the complex dynamics of privilege within Latino immigrant populations in the United States. It offers a nuanced analysis that recognizes diverse experiences shaped by race, ethnicity and legal status. The findings underscore that privileges are not monolithic among Latino immigrants; rather, they are fragmented and highly dependent on intersecting identities, providing a way for more inclusive and effective advocacy, tailored to the multifaceted nature of immigrant experiences in the United States.Originality/valueLat-Intersectology, as a groundbreaking methodology, shifts the paradigm in examining Latino immigrants in the United States by focusing on the intersections of their privileges, a concept often overshadowed by the dominant narrative of marginalization. This novel approach does not negate the systemic challenges faced but instead enriches our understanding by acknowledging the multifaceted identities within this community. By analyzing privileges alongside adversities, Lat-Intersectology facilitates a more nuanced discourse, recognizing that within the struggles, there are varying degrees of social advantages, perhaps tied to factors like skin color, immigration status, economic background or education. This methodology’s originality lies in its balanced view, offering a more comprehensive analysis of Latino immigrants’ experiences. Ultimately, the value of Lat-Intersectology is profound, as it fosters empathy and promotes a deeper comprehension of the complexities within human experiences, encouraging policies and social attitudes that reflect the diversity of experiences within the Latino immigrant community.

Scrutinizing a relatively new field of study, the Handbook of Political Party Funding assesses the basic assumptions underlying the research, presenting an unequalled variety of case studies from diverse political finance systems. With contributions from both eminent international scholars and prominent representatives of the second generation of students in the field, this original and thought-provoking collection of current research updates our understanding of party funding regimes, while contributing to the re-examination of perennial and often problematic issues. It illustrates, using select empirical data, the range of alternative political finance structures, exposing both the limits of these regimes and their effects on parties, systems and on democratic competition. Offering diverse and detailed case studies, the chapters examine the stakes involved nationally, and the impact of financing on the political environment. At the same time, they present a picture of a field of study that is still establishing itself, offering direction for future research. Students and academics of political science, public law and comparative politics will find this an essential reference for studying party funding and its wider influence. Members of political institutions and those fighting political corruption will find this an incredibly useful Handbook for understanding the positives and negatives of party funding globally