Alternative Forms Of Analysis Research Articles

What Remains? Salvaging Meaning from “Dementia Friendly Communities” Using Cut-Ups and Collage

This paper explores the possibilities of using alternative forms of analysis when thinking about “dementia friendly communities,” a recent if not by now historic phenomenon. Using ethnographic methods, I ask the question: what remains beyond, in excess of, and is never quite captured in discourses around such communities, if they exist? Dementia is an elusive concept, often appearing as personal disruption, and often threatening the ways that contemporary lives are ordered. I ask whether there is value in questioning the fragmentary remains of researching dementia friendly communities from a different angle, by approaching the disparate assemblage of materials, fieldnotes, photos, recordings of ordinary practices, of state practices, through more creative means? Taking inspiration from the avant-garde techniques of William S. Burroughs, in particular cut-ups and collage, the aim here has been to pay attention differently and move beyond what is already known.

An ultrafast SARS-CoV-2 virus enrichment and extraction method compatible with multiple modalities for RNA detection

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a zoonotic RNA virus characterized by high transmission rates and pathogenicity worldwide. Continued control of the COVID-19 pandemic requires the diversification of rapid, easy to use, sensitive, and portable methods for SARS-CoV-2 sample preparation and analysis. Here, we propose a method for SARS-CoV-2 viral enrichment and enzymatic extraction of RNA from clinically relevant matrices in under 10 min. This technique utilizes affinity-capture hydrogel particles to concentrate SARS-CoV-2 from solution, and leverages existing PDQeX technology for RNA isolation. Characterization of our method is accomplished with reverse transcription real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for relative, comparative RNA detection. In a double-blind study analyzing viral transport media (VTM) obtained from clinical nasopharyngeal swabs, our sample preparation method demonstrated both comparable results to a routinely used commercial extraction kit and 100% concordance with laboratory diagnoses. Compatibility of eluates with alternative forms of analysis was confirmed using microfluidic RT-PCR (μRT-PCR), recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA), and loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). The alternative methods explored here conveyed successful amplification from all RNA eluates originating from positive clinical samples. Finally, this method demonstrated high performance within a saliva matrix across a broad range of viral titers and dilutions up to 90% saliva matrix, and sets the stage for miniaturization to the microscale.

O MOVIMENTO FEMINISTA E A PSICOLOGIA

O presente trabalho constitui uma reflexão sobre o impacto que os pressupostos do Movimento Feminista têm causado na produção teórica da Psicologia, provocando uma revisão de suas metodologias e conceitos, e levando a uma nova abordagem científica preocupada agora com o desenvolvimento de formas alternativas de análise das relações entre as mulheres e os homens. Contestando o viés androcêntrico da ciência moderna o Movimento Feminista promoveu o desenvolvimento de formas alternativas de análise das relações entre homens e mulheres e provocou o que poderíamos chamar de uma virada epistemológica nas ciências sociais. Fez-se uma breve alusão ao enquadramento histórico subjacente à emergência da Psicologia, bem como aos princípios que estiveram na base de seu desenvolvimento como ciência. Em seguida aborda-se o modo como o questionamento desses princípios tem levado a Psicologia a compreender o enquadramento das pessoas (mulheres e homens) no mundo social envolvente, a tomada de perspectiva do ser humano com base em aspectos relacionais. Este trabalho pretende abordar os desafios propostos pelo Movimento Feminista à Psicologia e as repercussões de tais questionamentos em suas práticas.

Unravelling the New Classical Counter Revolution

To understand the position of Keynes's The General Theory today, and why so many policy-makers felt they had to go back to it to understand the Great Recession, we need to understand the New Classical Counter Revolution (NCCR), and why it was so successful. This revolution can be seen as having two strands. The first, which attempted to replace Keynesian policy, failed. The second, which was to change the way academic macroeconomics was done, was successful. Before the NCCR, macroeconomics was an intensely empirical discipline: something made possible by the developments in statistics and econometrics inspired by The General Theory. After the NCCR and its emphasis on microfoundations, it became much more deductive.As a result, most academic macroeconomists today would see the foundation of their discipline as not coming from The General Theory, but as coming from basic microeconomic theory – arguably the ‘classical theory’ that Keynes was so keen to cast aside. Students are also taught that pre-NCCR methods of analysing the economy are fatally flawed, and that simulating DSGE models is the only proper way of doing policy analysis. This is simply wrong. The problem with the NCCR was not the emergence of microfoundations modelling, which is a progressive research programme, but that it discouraged the methods of analysis that had flourished after The General Theory. I argue that, had there been more academic interest in these alternative forms of analysis, the discipline would have been better prepared ahead of the financial crisis.

Improving organisational performance – red team policing and partnerships

Purpose – Intra and inter-organisational learning holds important consequences for official agencies’ capabilities to reduce harm, particularly in the field of safeguarding children. A range of formal learning mechanisms exist but as these can be limited there is a case for expanding the learning opportunities relied upon. The concepts of “red teaming” and “alternative analysis” though relatively well established in other sectors are under-developed, under-used and under-promoted within policing. They offer flexible conceptual and practical resources that aim to challenge established models, thinking and practices. Policing organisations would benefit from institutionalising alternative forms of analysis though this would involve an attitudinal commitment and shift. This paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Documentary analysis and reflection. Findings – Consideration of the red team approach by police and partners offers an alternative approach to effective organisational learning to prevent repeating similar mistakes uncovered by Serious Case Reviews. Originality/value – This paper will allow practitioners to reflect upon current serious reviews of cases and offers an alternative and effective way of improving partner agencies capabilities to reduce harm.

Einschätzung kognitiver Fähigkeiten bei Kindern mit geistiger Behinderung mit der Kaufman-Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) am Beispiel von Kindern mit Down Syndrom

Standardized tests only give limited information on the intellectual competencies of children with learning difficulties due to problems such as the "floor effect", poor differentiation in the lower range of functioning and flat profiles. Therefore, Reynolds and Clark (1985) suggested supplementing the standard analysis on the basis of chronological age with an alternative form of analysis on the basis of the developmental age level. The present study compares both forms of analysis for a group of 15 children with Down's syndrome tested with the Kaufman-Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC). The standardized analysis resulted in flat profiles in the lowest range, showing little difference within and between the children. On the other hand, the alternative analysis demonstrated a high variability with a number of individual strengths and weaknesses as well as trends for this group of children. While the standardized analysis allows the determination of the level of intellectual capability, the determination of individual strengths and weaknesses through the alternative analysis can be an important basis for individualized training and therapy.

Assessing the Economic Impacts of Events: A Computable General Equilibrium Approach

This article explores the use of computable general equilibrium (CGE) analysis in evaluating the economic impacts of special events. It is argued that CGE analysis is preferred to input-output (I-O) approaches for assessing other than local economic impacts. The article illustrates several differences between the alternative forms of analysis in event assessment. These include assessing the differential effects of events on the host region, other regions, and nationally and the ability to estimate interindustry effects. The article then shows how CGE models can be adapted to estimate the displacement effects of events, their fiscal impacts, intraregional effects, event subsidies, and multistate effects. The article also discusses how event impacts will vary depending on the extent of integration between regional and national resource markets and regional and national product and services markets and how labor markets are modeled.

Outlaw territory: Criminality, neighborhoods, and the Edward Savitz case

In a reassessment of an earlier analysis of the Edward Savitz case (Patton, 1992a) that relied on a moral panic theory framework to the exclusion of the class and geographical elements of the story, this essay offers an explanation for the preeminence of moral panic analysis in the first decade of AIDS and demonstrates the utility of an alternative form of analysis for the Savitz case that would take those previously overlooked elements into account.

Cases and Biographies: An Essay on Routinization and the Nature of Comparison

▪ Abstract Routines, protocols, and organization charts focus attention, structure cognition, and shape decision making. Participants in organizations, legal systems, and markets compare cases, deciding which protocol governs the treatment of each case in a stream. But situations vary in the extent to which thought and action are effectively governed by routines and standard operating procedures. In less structured or more chaotic situations, biography is an alternative form of analysis that shapes cognition and helps people make sense of otherwise uninterpretable events. Biography and narrative do their work by constructing the causal unity of objects over time rather than by constructing causation from a comparison across similar cases. Using examples such as critically ill infants, animals, heirlooms, the penalty phase of capital trials, juvenile justice, the lower criminal courts, religious relics, and cloth, the paper compares case and biographical analysis in organizations, legal settings, and markets, asking how these different ways of thinking come about and what follows from them.

Reflecting on method: the use of a time-log diary to examine the labour process of further education lecturers

To examine the labour process of teachers in further education we constructed a time-log diary in which lecturers recorded time spent on various activities undertaken during a week. In this article the authors explore the development of the time log, its use, and forms of analysis that arose as they sought to make sense of the data. The authors' interest in this article is not so much in their findings but rather in an exploration of the way in which they sought to gather, analyse and interpret the data so as to illuminate the social conditions of lecturers' labour. Their initial intent was to gather ‘hard’ statistical data, however the tension generated between over-specification of categories within the log and the different interpretations of participants led to alternative forms of analysis, in particular the cameo. This led the authors to consider refining the diary and using it alongside a series of cameos which would enable us to gather ‘hard’ statistical data whilst at the same time being able to set these against in-depth qualitative data. Such an approach enables the development of a richer understanding of the changing nature of work and the lived experience of those involved in further education.

Reply to Quinn and Keough

dependent observations. We chose a real data set, rather than a contrived one, that presented additional challenges (such as small sample size). Quinn and Keough have brought up several points concerning our paper. We respond to comments 1 and 3 and comment on their Table 1. Comment 1. Quinn and Keough state that we repeat the vague claims of the robustness of analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures that are found in many textbooks. Robustness of ANOVA procedures is a controversial issue among statisticians. Some advocate the use of ANOVA when moderate deviations from the assumptions occur (e.g., Montgomery 1984, p. 87, 91). Zar (1984, p. 170) carefully provides primary references for the robustness of ANOVA, concluding that ... analysis of variance may typically be depended upon unless the data deviate severely from the underlying assumptions. The statement that we used in our paper is somewhat milder than these, more in agreement with Quinn and Keough's own statements in Comment 1. We agree with Quinn and Keough that exploratory data analysis is always advisable. But when the data set is very small, as in this case, normality checks will yield little useful information (Montgomery 1984, p. 86), and tests for homogeneity of variances are unreliable (Zar 1984, p. 183). Comment 3. Quinn and Keough correct a misstatement made concerning the assumptions needed for validity of the repeated measures procedure. We had intended to state that the standard ANOVA assumptions are necessary but not sufficient conditions for the repeated measures procedure. The additional sphericity assumptions mentioned by Quinn and Keough, one form of which is referred to as the Huynh-Feldt conditions (Huynh and Feldt 1970), should have been stated in our paper for informational purposes. However, from a practical point of view, we felt that a discussion of these conditions would contribute little to the point of the paper because they are difficult to test for, especially in a small data set of the type we analyzed, and because of their theoretical complexity. Also, Huynh and Feldt (1980) indicate that some departure from sphericity may not substantially change the nature of the traditional F tests in repeated measures designs (see Read et al. 1988, p. 605-606). Quinn and Keough suggest two possible alternative forms of analysis. One of these is use of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). We avoided a discussion of this technique because it is our feeling that univariate techniques should be used if possible in order to avoid the additional complexities associated with multivariate procedures. The Greenhouse-Geisser (GG) correction that is used to adjust for violations of the sphericity assumption recommended as the second alternative has been shown in simulation studies to be ultraconservative (Ott 1988, p. 800). Concerning Table 1. There are a number of reasons why Quinn and Keough's numbers in Table 1 differ somewhat from ours:

Contextual variations in the meaning of health inequality

The meaning of inequality in health is contextually determined; it changes both within and between countries and over time. This paper points to the limited ability of the classic class-based analyses of inequalities in health to explain such change. An alternative form of analysis, based on the interaction between age, gender and cause of death is proposed. Within this framework, intercountry (European) comparisons of life expectancy and age-specific mortality for both sexes are used to illustrate a shift over time in the social aetiology of disease from economic to behaviourally based causality. Implications for the British experience and for British social policy are discussed.

Cumulative selection differentials and realized heritabilities with overlapping generations

ABSTRACTIt is shown that a commonly used method of calculating cumulative selection differentials in experiments where generations overlap is biased, and consequently leads to biased estimates of realized heritability. In one example, the heritability was underestimated by about one-fifth. Since genetic variation in a given progeny crop may be increased by genetic differences between parental age groups, realized heritability estimated by regression may not agree with base population estimates. An alternative form of analysis is proposed to allow for this effect.