Alternative Methodological Approaches Research Articles

The Influence of Speculation in Food and Commodities and the Impact of Futures Prices on Spot Prices- Evidence from two Behavioral Experiments

This paper examines the impact of speculation on commodity and food futures on spot prices. Econometric studies contradict each other, coming not to a clear empirical outcome. Therefore, we take an alternative methodological approach with two behavioral experiments. The outcome shows, that tendencies in futures prices influence the price-setting behavior of market players in the spot market in the same direction. Since futures prices had no direct influence on profits and there were no other influences, futures prices must have influenced the expectations of market participants psychologically. Speculation with futures prices thus has an influence on spot prices via expectations. When speculation involves commodities and food in the future market serving crucial real economic functions it can lead to substantial misallocations and damages, why speculation should be regulated.

P09-02 A global new alternative methodological approach to complement teratogenicity and developmental neurotoxicity studies with thyroid disruption analysis in zebrafish embryos for different chemicals

P09-02 A global new alternative methodological approach to complement teratogenicity and developmental neurotoxicity studies with thyroid disruption analysis in zebrafish embryos for different chemicals

Theory testing and replication studies in the global work domain

Global work—any work arrangement that spans multiple countries and involves employees who are collaborating with one another, are culturally diverse and often are geographically dispersed—is a fascinating and timely research domain given the current social, technological, and geopolitical landscape. It may therefore be particularly tempting to explore novel theories and phenomena, and we have indeed seen a proliferation of new theories over recent years. However, we argue the global work domain needs to balance new theory development more carefully with theory testing and replication if it is to build cumulative scientific knowledge. In this editorial, we review established models and newer theories of global work that offer opportunities for theory testing, including (a) expatriate adjustment and adaptation theories, (b) models of global leadership effectiveness and expatriate managerial behavior, and (c) frameworks of global career consequences. We also identify existing empirical studies, whose replications would help advance the global work domain. This involves (a) deductively testing inductively developed models, (b) expanding existing studies to other types of global workers or adding meaningful new variables to a conceptual model that was examined, (c) using alternative methodological approaches to assess the predictions or research questions, or (d) adopting novel measures.

Introduction to the virtual issue on bioeconomy innovation pipelines and supply chain shocks

Abstract This introduction presents five articles of the virtual issue on bioeconomy innovation pipelines and supply chain shocks. The presented cases use alternative methodological approaches with their own advantages and disadvantages. The conclusion we can draw is that the specificities of individual case studies make it difficult to generalise and many more cases would be needed to perform a meta-analysis. We encourage agricultural economists to provide further research on detailed cases, which will be particularly important for gaining a better understanding of the potential effects of the EU Green Deal.

Individualised Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Targeting of the Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex for Enhancing Cognition: A Randomised Controlled Trial.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been demonstrated to produce cognitive enhancing effects across different neuropsychiatric disorders; however, so far, these effects have been limited. This trial investigated the efficacy of using a novel individualised approach to target the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (L-DLPFC) for enhancing cognitive flexibility based on performance on a cognitive task. First, forty healthy participants had their single target site at the L-DLPFC determined based on each individual's performance on a random letter generation task. Participants then received, in a cross-over single-blinded experimental design, a single session of intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) to their individualised DLPFC target site, an active control site and sham iTBS. Following each treatment condition, participants completed the Task Switching task and Colour-Word Stroop test. There was no significant main effect of treatment condition on the primary outcome measure of switch reaction times from the Task Switching task [F = 1.16 (2, 21.6), p = 0.33] or for any of the secondary cognitive outcome measures. The current results do not support the use of our novel individualised targeting methodology for enhancing cognitive flexibility in healthy participants. Research into alternative methodological targeting approaches is required to further improve rTMS's cognitive enhancing effects.

Fit for one or fit for all? The normative theory of fit and the normative and distinctive decomposition of fit

PurposeCentral to the fit concept is that congruence between individual and environmental attributes leads to improved outcomes. However, when discussing fit, researchers often describe congruence as alignment between distinctive or unique individual and environmental attributes. We suggest that current approaches to examining fit do not adequately account for this assumption of distinctiveness because they fail to consider normative expectations and preferences. As such, we propose an alternative theoretical and methodological approach to conceptualizing and measuring fit.Design/methodology/approachWe introduce the normative theory of fit, outline how researchers can decompose fit into distinctive and normative components and identify areas for future research.FindingsManagement researchers have largely ignored the importance of decomposing fit into distinctive and normative components. This shortcoming necessitates additional research to ensure a more accurate understanding of fit and its relationship with outcomes.Originality/valueWe provide a clarification and critical examination of a pervasive construct in the field of management by introducing the normative theory of fit, identifying areas where researchers can employ this theoretical lens and suggesting a reevaluation of the importance placed on differentiation that is traditionally employed in practice.

Picturing a Home: A New Perspective on Home-Making Through Photo-Elicitation

ABSTRACT The photo-elicitation method can provide rich insights into home-making – the process whereby residents use, modify and personalize domestic space. However, previous studies have prioritized the words of participants, gathered in follow-up interviews, over photographs themselves. This paper presents an alternative methodological approach. Specifically, we approach photographs as primary sources, with a focus on their composition. First, we demonstrate how formal elements of photographs can be identified, and their meanings analysed. We show that domestic photographs speak to people’s relationships with their homes, and identify empirical insights into scale, light and absences. Second, we combine data from follow-up interviews with formal analysis of images to confirm these insights, and generate additional findings – e.g., regarding the negotiation of domestic architecture and the meanings of possessions. We conclude that photo-elicitation studies of home-making benefit from both visual and narrative insights into participants’ homes, and that both types of data merit serious analysis.

Negative Space: An Alternative Framework for Archaeoacoustics.

Hearing the remote past seems impossible. Archaeoacoustics is a contemporary field intent on reconstructing the evolution of early communication systems, offering the possibility of developing methodologies relating to past sound signaling and music. Through a contribution of the emerging sensory field of archaeoacoustics and an example of acoustic assessments conducted at the site of Coves del Toll, can we understand signals of the past in order to investigate human behaviour and trace its cognitive evolution? This paper explores alternative methodological and theoretical approaches to understanding prehistoric sonic behaviours in early hominids and aims to set out a framework to theoretically and philosophically approach the "sound record" of the past. The theoretical proposition of this paper integrates the musical and sound art disciplines of spectralism and sound ecology to challenge the current limitations of listening to sound.

Методичний підхід до рейтингової оцінки конкурентоспроможності податкових систем країн Європи

The aim of the study is to develop an alternative scientific and methodological approach to the rating assessment of the level of competitiveness of the tax system of the leading countries of the world. A review of scientific studies devoted to the integral assessment of tax systems of different countries showed a variety of approaches to the choice of indicators and valuation methods. Despite the obvious positive aspects of the methodology for calculating the International Tax Competitiveness Index (ITCI), there are claims regarding the number of indicators and the methods for calculating final scores in subcategories and categories. A methodical approach to an alternative integral assessment of the level of tax competitiveness based on the use of the model of the iterative method of principal components is proposed, which made it possible to compile a ranking of the level of efficiency of the tax systems of European countries in 2023. The presented model is easily implemented without the involvement of special applied statistical programs. Ukraine (like most countries with developing economies) is not yet among the 38 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, so the official ITCI index for Ukraine can only be calculated unofficially. The taxation system of Ukraine is characterized by both positive indicators and some shortcomings. Therefore, in order to improve the tax system of Ukraine, it is necessary to study the positive and negative experience of other countries and determine the factors influencing the country’s position in the ranking of international tax competitiveness. In the course of further research, it is necessary to critically review the system of indicators, excluding the ones that do not significantly affect the final result, but can lead to certain errors.

ОПТИМИЗАЦИЯ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ ОЦЕНОК ПАРАМЕТРОВ СПЕЦИАЛЬНОГО СЕМЕЙСТВА ВЕРОЯТНОСТНЫХ РАСПРЕДЕЛЕНИЙ

The widespread introduction of digital technologies brings to the fore the problem of the level of training of relevant personnel. The qualifications of graduates require constant improvement. The use of probability distributions in applied research is expanding. Directions and goals may be different, but the basis is the mathematical properties of distributions. Therefore, a very urgent task is to formulate a holistic study of these properties in probability theory and mathematical statistics. In this study, using specific examples, we demonstrate an alternative methodological approach to obtaining maximum likelihood estimates, optimal estimates, as well as their properties for exponential type distribution laws.

Early Age- and Sex-Dependent Regulation of Astrocyte-Mediated Glutamatergic Synapse Elimination in the Rat Prefrontal Cortex: Establishing an Organotypic Brain Slice Culture Investigating Tool.

Clinical and pre-clinical studies of neuropsychiatric (NP) disorders show altered astrocyte properties and synaptic networks. These are refined during early postnatal developmental (PND) stages. Thus, investigating early brain maturational trajectories is essential to understand NP disorders. However, animal experiments are highly time-/resource-consuming, thereby calling for alternative methodological approaches. The function of MEGF10 in astrocyte-mediated synapse elimination (pruning) is crucial to refine neuronal networks during development and adulthood. To investigate the impact of MEGF10 during PND in the rat prefrontal cortex (PFC) and its putative role in brain disorders, we established and validated an organotypic brain slice culture (OBSC) system. Using Western blot, we characterized the expression of MEGF10 and the synaptic markers synaptophysin and PSD95 in the cortex of developing pups. We then combined immunofluorescent-immunohistochemistry with Imaris-supported 3D analysis to compare age- and sex-dependent astrocyte-mediated pruning within the PFC in pups and OBSCs. We thereby validated this system to investigate age-dependent astrocyte-mediated changes in pruning during PND. However, further optimizations are required to use OBSCs for revealing sex-dependent differences. In conclusion, OBSCs offer a valid alternative to study physiological astrocyte-mediated synaptic remodeling during PND and might be exploited to investigate the pathomechanisms of brain disorders with aberrant synaptic development.

Problematizing Strategic Alliance Research: Challenges, Issues and Paradoxes in the New Era

AbstractStrategic alliances have attracted substantial attention from industry and academia over the past three decades. However, due to rapid technological evolution, saturated marketplaces, globalisation of businesses on the one hand and de‐globalisation of the market on the other (as marked by Brexit and the trade war between US and China, COVID‐19 pandemic and the Ukraine war), the strategic environment of businesses is changing quickly. Fundamental and rapid changes in the wider environment necessitate the review of theoretical and practical insights of earlier and emerging studies ‐ to examine the new challenges, issues and paradoxes of strategic alliances. This special issue attempts to provide a forum to allow researchers to question the assumptions underlying existing theory a little further beyond just “gap‐spotting” or “gap‐filling”. This special issue includes four very interesting literature review pieces, which venture deeper into the phenomenon, and explore the opportunities, issues and paradoxes of strategic alliances while adopting alternative theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches and interpretations to address issues of managing strategic alliances and maximising returns from them in the new strategic context.

Sustainable development of World Cultural Heritage sites in China estimated from optical and SAR remotely sensed data

To address the gap of insufficient and incompatible census data on total per capita expenditure, the percentile score model is proposed as an alternative methodological approach to access the progress toward sustainability of cultural World Heritage List (WHL) properties in China by satellite images. We propose two complementary disturbance indicators: The land cover change ratio (LCR) that is visually detected using high-resolution optical images, and the surface deformation estimated using interferometric radar data. The nexus between Sustainable Development Science Satellite 1 (SDGSAT-1) glimmer data (a proxy for socioeconomic development) and LCR measurements are highly correlated (R2 ≈ 0.8). This pattern does not hold, however, for the deformation indicator considering the complexity of relevant driving forces. First-hand scientific percentile scores reveal that 12/30 WHL properties are in good condition with a percentile score > 90, 16/30 properties are in qualified condition, and the remaining two are in disqualified condition; this could be attributable to limitations of the methodological approach in terms of overestimation or underestimation. The methodology may be improved by testing its performance on the achievement assessment of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 11.4.

Mild matters: trial learnings and importance of community engagement in research for early identified bilateral mild hearing loss.

Early identification of mild hearing loss has resulted in early hearing amplification without adequate evidence of effectiveness. This paper describes learnings from a pilot trial, combined with a qualitative study, to highlight the importance of community engagement in designing research studies to determine whether early amplification benefits young children with bilateral mild hearing loss. PART 1 of the study is a proof-of-concept non-blinded multi-centre randomised controlled trial (RCT) of hearing device fitting vs. no fitting aimed to gather preliminary data and determine its acceptability/feasibility in children <2 years old with bilateral mild hearing loss. PART 2 is a qualitative study to understand the barriers/enablers to RCT participation. Of 40 potentially eligible families, nine (23%) declined, three were uncontactable (7%), 26 (65%) ineligible: of these, nine (35%) did not meet hearing threshold inclusion criteria, 11 (42%) were already fitted or had made decisions on fitting hearing device, two (7%) had conductive loss and four (16%) were ineligible for other reasons. Two of 11 (18%) eligible families were randomised. With the limited sample size, outcome measures were not compared between groups. Both participants completed the trial, reported the RCT to be acceptable, and neither changed group post-enrolment. Whilst recruitment uptake could potentially be increased by altering the eligibility criteria, better communication with and reimbursement of clinicians as recruiters, and improving awareness of the study amongst external stakeholders, the RCT methodology does not conform to family-centred practice, and potentially raises ethical concerns regarding potential adverse consequences of not offering early amplification. Parental perception of losing control over choice of management due to randomisation is not an easily modifiable factor. Alternative methodological approaches without randomisation are required to determine whether hearing amplification benefits infants with mild hearing loss.Clinical Trial Registration: identifier [ACTRN12618001608257].

Parameter Estimation and Species Tree Rooting Using ALE and GeneRax.

ALE and GeneRax are tools for probabilistic gene tree-species tree reconciliation. Based on a common underlying statistical model of how gene trees evolve along species trees, these methods rely on gene vs. species tree discordance to infer gene duplication, transfer, and loss events, map gene family origins, and root species trees. Published analyses have used these methods to root species trees of Archaea, Bacteria, and several eukaryotic groups, as well as to infer ancestral gene repertoires. However, it was recently suggested that reconciliation-based estimates of duplication and transfer events using the ALE/GeneRax model were unreliable, with potential implications for species tree rooting. Here, we assess these criticisms and find that the methods are accurate when applied to simulated data and in generally good agreement with alternative methodological approaches on empirical data. In particular, ALE recovers variation in gene duplication and transfer frequencies across lineages that is consistent with the known biology of studied clades. In plants and opisthokonts, ALE recovers the consensus species tree root; in Bacteria-where there is less certainty about the root position-ALE agrees with alternative approaches on the most likely root region. Overall, ALE and related approaches are promising tools for studying genome evolution.

Southern Perspectives on Border Criminology

In this special issue, we explore the limits of existing theories for understanding migration governance from a Southern perspective and what the potential for rethinking border controls and their study, such as alternative epistemological and methodological approaches, might engender. We invited contributions to imagine what a ‘Southern perspective’ on the field of border criminologies would look like. In other words, what does it entail to study and theorise border control from the South? We organised a panel at the European Society of Criminology in September 2021 and then invited further authors. We sought to engage multiple disciplinary traditions and diverse case studies that speak to the various disciplinary perspectives and geopolitical dimensions of bordering. Many of the authors in this special issue are early career researchers who, through engaging with postcolonial theory and decolonial approaches, are fostering novel perspectives within border criminologies. Collectively, the articles bring together the different geopolitical, sociocultural and economic ways in which borders in the Global South are imagined, constructed, negotiated and reconstructed. The articles offer a wide range of epistemological and methodological insights for border criminologies to engage with, shifting our understanding from Northern perspectives.

Online Interviews as New Methodological Normalcy and a Space of Ethics: An Autoethnographic Investigation into Covid-19 Educational Research

Worldwide travel restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic abruptly changed the norms of conducting qualitative research. Online interviews, long regarded as a second choice to their offline counterparts, are no longer seen as supplementary since they emerged as the dominant mode of data collection during the pandemic. This study employs an autoethnographic approach to investigate the authors’ experiences of adjusting to alternative methodological approaches. The investigation critically reflects on how the author’s agencies in allocating and gathering instructional, social, and economic resources led to a researcher identity reconfigured by choices in making ethical commitment in data collection. This article also sheds light on how the authors, constrained by limited resources, gained better understanding of ethics in practice through negotiation with participants and obtained rich data by exercising their agencies. The article argues that researchers need to place both online and offline methods on equal footing to facilitate a more ethically sensitive approach to data collection.

Beyond Demographic Identifiers and Classification: A Search for Alternative Approaches to Quantitatively Evaluating Equity

As interest in addressing issues of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) increases in the US and parts of Europe, this essay argues that the Western-centered interpretations of and approaches towards evaluating equity need to be more carefully examined to deem its cultural appropriateness. This essay reviews ways to conceive of equity and presents three alternative methodological approaches to quantitatively evaluating equity that do not require the Western convention of identification.

COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Surveillance in Early Pregnancy in the United States: Design Factors Affecting the Association Between Vaccine and Spontaneous Abortion.

In the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), we previously reported no association between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination in early pregnancy and spontaneous abortion (SAB). The present study aims to understand how time since vaccine rollout or other methodological factors could affect results. Using a case-control design and generalized estimating equations, we estimated the odds ratios (ORs) of COVID-19 vaccination in the 28 days before a SAB or last date of the surveillance period (index date) in ongoing pregnancies and occurrence of SAB, across cumulative 4-week periods from December 2020 through June 2021. Using data from a single site, we evaluated alternative methodological approaches: increasing the exposure window to 42 days, modifying the index date from the last day to the midpoint of the surveillance period, and constructing a cohort design with a time-dependent exposure model. A protective effect (OR= 0.78, 95% confidence interval: 0.69, 0.89), observed with 3-cumulative periods ending March 8, 2021, was attenuated when surveillance extended to June 28, 2021 (OR= 1.02, 95% confidence interval: 0.96, 1.08). We observed a lower OR for a 42-day window compared with a 28-day window. The time-dependent model showed no association. Timing of the surveillance appears to be an important factor affecting the observed vaccine-SAB association.

A Narrative Review of Student Evaluations of Teaching in Decolonial Praxis: Implications for Occupational Therapy Higher Education

Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are the primary source for evaluating teaching effectiveness and are used for deciding tenure and promotion. However, as efforts to engage in a decolonial critique of higher education amplify, the use of SETs in teaching and learning requires scrutiny. A narrative review was used to address the research question of SET biases in decolonial praxis and what insights may be useful for OT decolonial praxis. We identify and describe two content areas: (a) SET biases and (b) recommendations for alternatives promoting OT decolonial praxis. A total of 92 articles were sourced from five databases. Of the 92 articles, 44 met the inclusion criteria: peer-reviewed across disciplines, written in English, research conducted in the US, and published between 2011–2021. SETs scores are affected by factors beyond the influence of the instructor. Twenty-nine factors contributing to SETs biases were grouped into three main categories: SETs biases against instructors, other biases from students, and SETs biases in processes. Alternative methodological approaches are highlighted that may mitigate the identified biases for application in decolonial praxis in OT higher education.