Alternative Interpretation Research Articles

Residential Encounters with Historical Narratives: Traumatic Rememberances in Salt and Saffron

Kamila Shamsie’s literary contribution as her 2nd renowned work of an art emerges as a historical narrative which emphasizes in shaping our understanding of the traumatic past and its impact on the present. It provides a framework for interpreting partition events, constructing collective memory, and shaping national identity as well. It explores the role of female agency in memorizing and passing down these reminiscences to the next generation by storytelling and portrays them as inheritors of the legacy pigeonholed by courage, bravery, and audacity to keep these traumatic memories The present study aims to scrutinize identity, trauma, and memory as the three main themes, with the goal of understanding and illuminating the complex interactions between them. The novel deals with these three themes from a whole different perspective as Aliya shows some aspects of her identity as a postcolonial comeback and her dadi who experiences the partition by herself which becomes a traumatic episode of her life and eventually the memory that is quite prominent in the novel by every character. Maurice Halbwachs’ philosophy of collective memory stands out as a crucial element that has a significant influence on how historical and sociological processes happen. He argues that the memory of individual develops while having a deeper interaction with the community and shapes according to the larger events beyond the capacity of that particular individual. Furthermore, it bridges the gap between imaginary presents and historical realities, as they conjure up alternative interpretations of the past while being grounded in the factual framework of historical events.

Historia sztuki w polu metodologii. Aktualne problemy i wyzwania

At the end of the 20th century, the theory of art history shifted from the area of methodology understood as a normative field of the philosophy of science to the area of the social practice of constructing knowledge. The term “art historical methodology” itself became trivialized when its meaning was detached from the horizon of epistemology and became extremely inclusive, encompassing all methods practised in the discipline, with a method being considered to be the use of any theory as a tool of interpretation. As a consequence, the basic problem of scientific methodology, which is the critical assessment of explanatory and interpretive theories due to the value of their justification, is not addressed in the self-reflection of contemporary art history. The retreat from the rigors of methodology was related to the reception of structuralism, initiated by Ernst Gombrich in the book Art and Illusion. Popper’s model of situational logic as a method of historical explanation of works of art was transformed into a structuralist model, referring to constant rules of pictorial representation, symbolization and communication. Michael Fried and Norman Bryson formulated their own theories of invariant rules defining the necessary initial conditions for the formation and reception of pictures, so that individual works could be interpreted in terms of these rules and, as a result, confirm the general theory, which created a vicious circle. Structuralist theories did not function as hypotheses requiring critical testing, but as interpretive codes that served to read each work of art within their own conceptual system. The next step in the process of the reception of structuralism was the development of theories defining general rules that would govern the discursive practice of art history, and the detection of which at the basis of this practice would discredit or invalidate its epistemological dimension. Hayden White’s narrativism was the theory that historical discourse is subject to narrative conventions, not to the laws of logic and the rigors of methodology that serve to limit the pool of alternative explanations or interpretations. This theory was intended to justify the pluralism of equal versions of history as a politically correct idea, appropriate for a “democratic” model of knowledge. Theorists developing White’s theses in the field of art history claimed that the discursive practice of this discipline was not governed by methodological rules but by political motivations (Keith Moxey) or aesthetic principles of artwriting (David Carrier). After the phase of open denial of the dependence of the art history discourse on methodology, the theory of the discipline turned into an analysis of techniques for building this discourse, which no longer included methodological issues, as in James Elkins’ book Our Beautiful, Dry, and Distant Texts. A critical review of theories separating art history from methodology leads to the conclusion that they are untenable. It is impossible to maintain the scientific status of our discipline without respecting the principles of methodology founded in the contemporary philosophy of science.

In Search of “Good Russians”: Ukrainian-Russian Encounters in the United States During the First Cold War

The article is devoted to the topic of Ukrainian-Russian intellectual encounters in exile during the Cold War. The author focuses on Ukraine’s and Russia’s mutual representations in historical narratives in connection with their respective discourses of national identity. The article also describes sporadic attempts at establishing Ukrainian-Russian public dialogue in exile starting in the early 1960s. All of them were initiated and conducted by Ukrainian public activists and intellectuals. The author concludes that participants on both sides ascribed opposing meanings to historical terms. Russian authors, on the one hand, consistently used the modern designation “Ukrainian” as a synonym for “Little Russian,” which automatically situated Ukraine within the “pan-Russian” historical framework. Ukrainian historians, on the other hand, tried to reinterpret “Russian” as a modern national designation rather than an imperial one. Hence the Ukrainian-Russian dialogue had no chance of succeeding unless Russian participants agreed to rethink their discourse of national identity. It is no wonder that many American observers remained confused about the nature of Ukrainian-Russian debates: to them, they looked like a dead-end situation. Thus, rather than trying to find alternative interpretations of Ukrainian and Russian history, most Western specialists followed either one or the other respective national narrative.

Divergent Pattern of Development in Rats and Humans.

Rattus norvegicus is the second most used laboratory species and the most widely used model in neuroscience. Nonetheless, there is still no agreement regarding the temporal relationship of development between humans and rats. We addressed this question by examining the time required to reach a set of homologous developmental milestones in both species. With this purpose, a database was generated with data collected through a bibliographic survey. This database was in turn compared with other databases about the same topic present in the literature. Finally, the databases were combined, covering for the first time the entire development of the rat including the prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal periods. This combined database includes 362 dates of 181 developmental events for each species. The developmental relationship between humans and rats was better fit by a logarithmic function than by a linear function. As development progresses, an increase in the dispersion of the data is observed. Developmental relationships should not be interpreted as a univocal equivalence. In this work is proposed an alternative interpretation where the age of one species is translated into a range of ages in the other.

Reevaluating Gender Dynamics: A Critical Analysis of Misogynistic Narratives in Hadith Literature

The discourse on religion and feminism often includes an analysis of the social construction of women in religious teachings. Feminist scholars argue that religious doctrines and interpretations, including those in Islam, have historically propagated subordinate views of women. This study examines such perceptions within Islamic Hadiths, specifically focusing on hadiths deemed misogynistic, as reported by al-Nasā’ī and other primary sources. This qualitative study employs a bibliographic approach, scrutinizing the authenticity and contextual meaning of the Hadiths. It involves a critical examination of the chain of transmission (sanad) and the text (matan) of the hadiths. The study also considers the historical and cultural context of these narrations and engages feminist perspectives to offer alternative interpretations. The hadiths from al-Nasā’ī are generally classified as hasan (sound), based on the credibility of the narrators. Variations in the text across different reports are critically examined for consistency in meaning. The study finds that while the hadiths reflect the patriarchal culture of their time, their interpretation is subject to the context and can align with Islamic teachings on justice and gender equality. The analysis suggests that these Hadiths, when contextualized, do not inherently convey misogynistic intentions. The study concludes that the perception of misogyny in the hadiths is influenced by their interpretation and historical context. A more nuanced understanding reveals that these hadiths can be interpreted in ways that support harmony and equality within the family, aligning with broader Islamic principles.

Does gender affect medical decisions?

It is rarely the case in medical practice that differences between female and male physicians can be described under ceteris paribus conditions. Physicians self-select their type of practice, patients self-select physicians, and physicians are expected to account for both the context and the characteristics of their patients when providing medical treatment. As a result, reported gender differences in medical practice can have several alternative interpretations. A key question, therefore, is whetherthe treatment of a given patient is expected to depend on the gender of the physician. To address this question, we quantify gender effects using data from an incentivized laboratory experiment, in which Chinese medical doctors and Chinese medical students choose medical treatment under different payment schemes. We estimate preference parameters of females and males assuming decision makers have patient-regarding preferences. We cannot reject the hypothesis that gender differencesin treatment choices are absent. The differences between preference parameters of females and males are not statistically significant, and there is no evidence that the degree of randomness in choices differs between genders. The absence of gender effects in the laboratory, where choice context is fixed, provides nuance to previous findings on gender differences, and highlights the general difficulty of separating individuals’ behavior from their context.

Plants and laboratories: the ascent of sap between physics and vegetal physiology

The ascent of sap in plants represented a puzzle in early modern studies of nature. Although philosophers, gardeners and naturalists had traditionally explained it as a process of fermentation caused by the Sun, an alternative view emerged in combination with the physical studies of pressure. This latter field of experimentation somehow influenced the study of plants. While the mathematical study of liquids gained momentum, scholars started to apply these rules to vegetal processes, comparing pipes with plant vessels and making plants the objects of their laboratory. In this article, I explore the various ways in which scholars dealt with this phenomenon, following the physics of the equilibrium and motion of liquids, and especially through the two alternative interpretations—one developing in Italy, and one north of the Alps—that characterized the seventeenth-century study of liquids. I focus on Nehemiah Grew's and Marcello Malpighi's different interpretations of the ascent of sap in plants, as they were two major actors in seventeenth-century botanical studies, and how much they drew their interpretations from experiments in the laboratory.

What Is the Vital Force? Towards a Quantum Perspective on Vitalism and Possible Consequences for CAM.

A brief history of vitalism is followed by a description of the scientific paradigm and the relationship of information to quantum theory. Quantum Bayesianism (QBism) is introduced as an alternative subjective interpretation of quantum theory, and a better descriptor of the therapeutic process (TP) than previous objective conventional quantum theoretical (CQT) interpretations. The vital force (Vf) is considered a system defined solely by observations of a patient’s (Px’s) secondary symptoms (S2) during case-taking, and changes to them (DS2) after treatment. This is combined with a previous gyroscopic metaphor of the Vf. According to QBism, wave functions generated by this metaphor depend on subjective degrees of belief in observations of S2 and DS2. As such, assessing a Px’s S2 and DS2 not only changes over time but may well differ from another’s assessment of the same Px. Conclusion: Treating the Vf as an analogue of the quantum state of a macroscopic system, i.e., Px, represents all that can possibly be known about a Px’s symptoms by observation, not the Vf’s presumed reality, separate from an observer. The Vf is simply a representation of knowledge about Px, suggesting how a subjective generally valid quantum metaphor for the TP might develop in future.

Cognitive Foundations of Society: The Concept of Schemata in Cell, Gene, and Tissue Therapies

Abstract Interpreting how people accord meaning to life situations is an old challenge in sociology. Emphasis has been given to values shared within social groups; other sociologists have stressed the discursive or communicative dimensions of society. This paper seeks an alternative interpretation by combining sociological inquiry and insights from cognitive linguistics. It explores the concept of schema, which points to the unconscious identification of patterns in human experiences, enabling people to assimilate concepts such as FORCE, CONTAINMENT, and others. This paper focuses on discourses and views around advanced therapies: medicinal products based on genes, cells, or tissues. These therapies are frequently understood via two alternative schemata. The CURE schema foregrounds therapies’ long-term potential to revert disease and tends to underpin metaphoric reasoning; the IMPAIRMENT schema highlights specific limitations brought about by disease, being frequently associated with metonymic reasoning. Schemata underpin broader initiatives and decisions, including those adopted by regulatory and government agencies. As they constitute basic and socialized understandings, their study enables the identification of the cognitive and linguistic foundations of society.

Interpretation of presynaptic phenotypes of synaptic plasticity in terms of a two-step priming process.

Studies on synaptic proteins involved in neurotransmitter release often aim at distinguishing between their roles in vesicle priming (the docking of synaptic vesicles to the plasma membrane and the assembly of a release machinery) as opposed to the process of vesicle fusion. This has traditionally been done by estimating two parameters, the size of the pool of fusion-competent vesicles (the readily releasable pool, RRP) and the probability that such vesicles are released by an action potential, with the aim of determining how these parameters are affected by molecular perturbations. Here, it is argued that the assumption of a homogeneous RRP may be too simplistic and may blur the distinction between vesicle priming and fusion. Rather, considering priming as a dynamic and reversible multistep process allows alternative interpretations of mutagenesis-induced changes in synaptic transmission and suggests mechanisms for variability in synaptic strength and short-term plasticity among synapses, as well as for interactions between short- and long-term plasticity. In many cases, assigned roles of proteins or causes for observed phenotypes are shifted from fusion- to priming-related when considering multistep priming. Activity-dependent enhancement of priming is an essential element in this alternative view and its variation among synapse types can explain why some synapses show depression and others show facilitation at low to intermediate stimulation frequencies. Multistep priming also suggests a mechanism for frequency invariance of steady-state release, which can be observed in some synapses involved in sensory processing.

Of the Perfect and the Ordinary: Indistinguishability and Hallucination

Abstract The claim that perfect hallucination is introspectively indistinguishable from perception has been a centrepiece of philosophical theorizing about sense experience. The most common interpretation of the indistinguishability claim is modal: that it is impossible to distinguish perfect hallucination from perception through introspection alone. I run through various models of introspection and show that none of them can accommodate the modal interpretation. Rejecting the modal interpretation opens up two alternative interpretations of the indistinguishability claim. According to the generic interpretation, hallucination is indistinguishable from perception despite the existence of possible exceptions, while according to the actuality interpretation, the indistinguishability of hallucination from perception consists in the actual failure to distinguish hallucination from perception. These alternative understandings of the indistinguishability claim have a number of significant implications for the problem of perception, including the rejection of perfect hallucination and illusion in favour of our ordinary, non-philosophical concepts of these states.

The costs of multimodal metaphors: comparing ERPs to figurative expressions in verbal and verbo-pictorial formats

ABSTRACT Psycholinguistic research on metaphor has focused on verbal material. Yet, metaphors frequently occur in a multimodal format, blending words and pictures to convey meaning. Here we compared verbal and multimodal metaphors by using item pairs where stimulus one was always a word (e.g., language in the metaphorical conditions and river in the literal conditions) and stimulus two was either a word (bridge) or a picture (the image of a bridge). The two types of metaphors elicited a similar N400 effect compared to literal pairs; at later latencies, visual metaphors were associated with a more pronounced negativity compared to literal pictures, whereas no effect was observed in the verbal domain. These findings indicate that both visual and verbal metaphors recruit conceptual operations reflected in the N400, but for visual metaphors, elaboration lasts longer. This difference in time course was driven by the low number of alternative interpretations and their closedness, pointing to the costs, rather than the facilitation, of integrating visual signs at an abstract level of representation.

Making Vessels for the Dead: Pottery-Making Practices, Chaîne Opératoire and the Use of Grog (Crushed Sherds) as a Technological and Cultural Choice during Late and Inca Periods in the Northwestern Argentine Region (Southern Andes)

Abstract Pottery-making practices have been approached by the use and application of the concept of chaîne opératoire in different parts of the world. This concept has allowed researchers to re-evaluate the social dimensions of technological studies as well as to explore aspects related to technical and social identity of ancient and modern artisans. In this article, we examine the use of grog (crushed sherds) to temper specific ceramic vessels (infant funerary urns) as material practice often used by ancient potters during Late (c. 950–1450 AD) and Inca (c. 1450–1532 AD) Periods in the Northwestern Argentine (NWA) region. The research shows that this practice can be understood as a ritual material practice with a long-standing tradition in the NWA region. Additionally, several alternative interpretations of this practice are explored in the light of different – animistic – understandings of how the Andean world works, and how people interact each other, with material things, and with landscape.

Limonite deposit at the Mikniškiai settlement site (South Lithuania)

A cemented limonite deposit and sunken features recorded at the Mikniškiai settlement site (mid-1st century BC – early 3rd century AD) have been interpreted as potential signs of shallow opencast ore mining. Inhabitants of this area of Lithuania maintained close relations with the Bogaczewo culture, through which knowledge of iron metallurgy spread. However, the archaeometallurgical investigation revealed that the tested samples represent natural bog ore that was insufficiently Fe-enriched material for iron smelting. There were no attempts to increase the iron content by proper pre-processing of the ore. Moreover, the archaeological investigation revealed no traces of ore roasting and not a single piece of iron slag was found at the site. This implies that to assume the occurrence of ore-rich sediments in the vicinity of Iron Age settlements as an indication of iron bloomery might be premature and the circumstances of their discovery allow more than one alternative interpretation.

On the interpretation of single and bilayer graphene minimal conductivity

Within the Boltzmann kinetic theory minimal dc conductivity of single and bilayer graphene is studied. It is shown that the uncertainty principle plays a key role in graphene band structure. In the paper a new alternative interpretation for minimal universal conductivity of single and bilayer graphene is proposed. Minimal conductivity is determined by degenerate electrons and holes of the overlap range of electron and hole bands. It is established that the minimal conductivity of single and bilayer graphene can be explained in the framework of one definite physical approach based on the uncertainty relations. Within the proposed theoretical approach minimal conductivity of both single-layer and bilayer graphene equals 4e2/h. It is found that in crystals with parabolic dispersion quantum expansion of an energy level E is asymmetric with respect to E; in a crystal with linear dispersion an energy level quantum expansion is symmetric.

The Russo-Ukrainian War: a Worldsystem Theoretical Approach

The article follows the perspective of the World-system and aims to reveal the factors determining Russian foreign policy. In response to the neo-realistic interpretation of Russia’s behaviour in the international system, based on the logic of maintaining the balance of powers, an alternative interpretation is formulated: Russia’s foreign policy is influenced by structural geo-economic factors – belonging to the ‘semi-peripheral’ geo-economic zone. It leads to socio-economic tensions and political instability within the state and forces the Russian regime to use various domestic and foreign policy instruments to mobilize the society. One such instrument is military aggression in foreign countries, including Ukraine.

Innovative solutions for disease management

The increasing prevalence of chronic diseases is a driver for emerging big data technologies for healthcare including digital platforms for data collection, systems for active patient engagement and education, therapy specific predictive models, optimized patient pathway models. Powerful bioelectronic medicine tools for data collection, analysis and visualization allow for joint processing of large volumes of heterogeneous data, which in turn can produce new insights about patient outcomes and alternative interpretations of clinical patterns that can lead to implementation of optimized clinical decisions and clinical patient pathway by healthcare professionals.With this perspective, we identify innovative solutions for disease management and evaluate their impact on patients, payers and society, by analyzing their impact in terms of clinical outcomes (effectiveness, safety, and quality of life) and economic outcomes (cost-effectiveness, savings, and productivity).As a result, we propose a new approach based on the main pillars of innovation in the disease management area, i.e. progressive patient care models, patient-centric approaches, bioelectronics for precise medicine, and lean management that, combined with an increase in appropriate private-public-citizen-partnership, leads towards Patient-Centric Healthcare.

Creating Cromwell: an analysis of the historical novel’s position and potentiality through a study of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy

ABSTRACT This article considers the role historical novels can play in representing the past, and to what extent (and how) such fiction can both challenge and enhance historiography. Focusing on Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, it looks at how a novelist can use literary techniques, imaginative reconstruction of gaps in the historical record, and alternative interpretation of existing historiography (including primary sources) to radically alter our perception of the past; and indeed whether as a genre it may be able to do so more effectively than traditional (academic) historiography. In doing so, it traces the development of critical theory on the historical novel from Georg Lukács through postmodern critics such as Hayden White and Linda Hutcheon, to the recent work of Rosario Arias and Elodie Rousselot. Acknowledging the subjectivity and unreliability of ‘history’ (often presented as fact or ‘the past’) it argues for a blurring of the line between historiography and historical fiction, concluding that at least some historical novels should be granted admission to the field of historiography. The first steps towards this have been taken in the gradual acceptance of narrative history as subjective and just as incapable of ever truly representing the past as any other form of writing. It is to be hoped that there might be a similar acceptance of the historical novel’s ability to represent the past (albeit differently), to imaginatively reconstruct pasts that might have been. Rather than an inferior form, sharply delineated from ‘history’, might historical novels form a rich addition to a historiography considered as a spectrum rather than an exclusive and excluding discipline?

Attention bias vs. attention control modification for social anxiety disorder: A randomized controlled trial

Gaze-Contingent Music Reward Therapy (GC-MRT) is an eye-tracking-based attention bias modification protocol for social anxiety disorder (SAD) with established clinical efficacy. However, it remains unclear if improvement following GC-MRT hinges on modification of threat-related attention or on more general enhancement of attention control. Here, 50 patients with SAD were randomly allocated to GC-MRT using either threat faces or shapes. Results indicate comparable reductions in social anxiety and co-morbid depression symptoms in the two conditions. Patients in the shapes condition showed a significant increase in attention control and a reduction in attention to both the trained shapes and threat faces, whereas patients in the faces condition showed a reduction in attention to threat faces only. These findings suggest that enhancement of attention control, independent of valence-specific attention modification, may facilitate reduction in SAD symptoms. Alternative interpretations and clinical implications of the current findings are discussed.

Qualifying Schenker’s Theory:

This study critically evaluates Heinrich Schenker's theory of linear analysis, ("Der Freie Satz" ca. 1935). Schenker's theory aims to derive tonal structure through linear interpretations, diverging from vertical harmonic analysis (Theory of Musical Composition, ca. 1817). However, its limited application to Austro-Germanic works raises concerns about its broader validity. By exploring French and Italian repertoires, I assess Schenker's methodology, particularly examining descending fundamental lines, interruption, and hidden repetition/motivic analysis. This evaluation thus qualifies Schenker's theory and proposes alternative interpretations beyond the Viennese style, expanding its scope and applicability to diverse musical traditions.