Areas Of Ambiguity Research Articles

A Be/Coming-Out Model: Assessing Factors of Resilience and Ambiguity

Sexual orientation, “coming out,” and the impacts of external stressors, resiliency, and losses remains an area not well understood. Being a sexual minority can result in ambiguous losses that potentially complicate established or formative resilience. These types of losses are largely overlooked and little research exists on how these loss(es) impact lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) populations (Boss, 2006). This article presents a “Be/Coming-Out” model to better assess and understand three interactive life dimensions: self-perceptions, social relationships, and society structures. The model depicts the ongoing and multilayered interactions, highlighting areas of resiliency and ambiguity, including potential risk factors and barriers to formation of resiliency behaviors. Discussion focuses on be/coming out as a lifelong process and applying the model as a tool in assessing individuals and couples levels of resiliency, as well as potential ambiguous losses related to sexual minority identity.

A guerrilla strategy for a pro-life England

ABSTRACTAccess to safe and legal abortion is integral to women's sovereignty over their own bodies. In this paper I examine current anti-abortion strategising in England. I suggest that the range of anti-abortion activities can be understood as part of a broader ‘Guerrilla Strategy’ to restrict access to abortion care. Such an approach focuses on capitalising on the marginalisation of abortion services and areas of legal ambiguity to make abortion care ‘uncomfortable’ to both access and deliver. Guerrilla strategies rely for success on the marginalisation of abortion care (both physically and ideologically) from mainstream medical practice and flourish within a legal framework that relies on physicians as gatekeepers. The paper ends with a consideration of how we might respond to these anti-abortion strategies; in particular paying attention to the ways we can embrace and encourage provision of services to women through supporting and improving the conditions of the important professional bodies needed to deliver these services.

Validating niche-construction theory through path analysis

Under the conventional view of evolution, species over time come to exhibit those characteristics that best enable them to survive and reproduce in their preexisting environments. Niche construction provides a second evolutionary route to establishing the adaptive fit, or match, between organism and environment, viewing such matches as dynamical products of a two-way process involving organisms both responding to problems posed by environments as well as setting themselves new problems by changing their environments through further niche construction. Not surprising, the analysis of niche construction is complicated. For example, variables of interest might contain measurement error, or some variables might not be observable. In other cases, variables might not be datable and have to be measured at the same date. A time-series generalization of path analysis, which itself can be viewed as a version of simultaneous-equation analysis, offers a means of highlighting causal relationships in complex systems of niche construction by graphically representing a hypothesis of causality between variables and, in some instances, providing an estimated weight that a hypothesized causal variable has on another variable. Path analysis forces researchers to specify how variables relate to one another and encourages development of clear and logical theories concerning the processes that influence a particular outcome. As we show through a case study—the coevolution of cattle husbandry and the tolerance for milk consumption—path analysis can also call attention to potential areas of weakness and ambiguity in data sets and how they are used in constructing inferences.

Políticas de inclusión educativa para los jóvenes en México. Un análisis desde un contexto de desigualdad y violencia

This paper carries out an analysis of the general and particular proposal of educational policy for the education levels of secondary and upper middle in relation to the theme of inclusive education. The analysed policy proposal is from the Mexican Federal Government for the years 2013-2018. For the analysis of the whole of politics (programs, actions and trends of Government) is an analysis of the institutional architecture, both of the quality or policies of structural nature, such as those directed to the inclusion or cross-cutting nature, everything from a perspective of educational inequalities. Thus, educational policy for these levels set up an intervention in the social and educational device, where there are virtuous and novel elements in combination with areas of ambiguity or omission, whereupon the device for the calidad-inclusion is no much coherent, incomplete and disconnected; so finally that device of public policy fails to produce, despite their efforts in terms of numerous actions and investment, a new format of high school or schools close to the idea of inclusive school or for all.

Should we keep on renaming a +35-year-old baby?

Over the last +35 years at least five concepts – multimodal, intermodal, combined, co-modal and synchromodal – relating to freight transport chains have been put forward. I pinpoint the main properties of each concept and trace a plausible evolutionary path. The original concept is multimodal transport; the newest one is synchromodal transport. Every new concept borrows certain elements from the previous concepts and introduces new ones.This profusion of concepts is not in itself a hindrance. However, the concepts do exhibit substantial areas of overlap and ambiguity. This status quo facilitates misinterpretation of research efforts and hampers the coherent development of theory, regulations and policies.In this viewpoint, I argue that such an orderly situation can only be attained if there is a unified, or at least consensual, ontology. With an ontology in place, we would (re-)specify the existent concepts following the same principles. The outcome would be unambiguous meanings and clear limits. And herein lies, in my view, the main limitation we face: we still have to agree on the respective domains of specification and on the nature of each concept.I identify a total of four domains, which are: technological domain, organisational and managerial domains, production domain and externalities domain.

Accuracy Analysis of the Two-Reference-Node Angle-of-Arrival Localization System

The accuracy of two-reference-node angle-of-arrival localization system is investigated. First, the localization ambiguity area is obtained in terms of the angles-of-arrival errors. Then, using this area, the normalized localization precision is defined to obtain the target localization accuracy in different positions with respect to the two reference nodes. In addition, for a given normalized localization precision threshold, the region in which a target can be localized with better localization accuracy than that threshold is characterized and the area of the region is obtained.

Phase separation in a salting-out extraction system of ethanol–ammonium sulfate

The effects of tie line length, phase volume ratio, phase continuity, degree of mixing and equipment geometry size on the kinetics of phase separation in the ethanol–ammonium sulfate salting-out extraction system were studied with tie line lengths of 42.5%, 51.4% and 56.6% and phase volume ratio in the range of 1:9–9:1. The time for product distribution and phase equilibrium was also investigated. It was found that the rate of phase separation increased as the tie line length increased and the shortest separation time was obtained at the phase inversion point for all the tie lines at a constant phase volume ratio. The phase continuity was determined not only by the phase volume ratio, but also by the degree of mixing. An ambiguity area where gentle vortex produced a top-continuous system and intense mixing produced a bottom-continuous system was observed and its scope was extended as the mixing intensity decreased. Additionally, increasing the cross-sectional area of equipment had a significant effect on the rate of phase separation because the coalescence process determined the separation rate in the salting-out extraction system. By comparing the concentration of target product (butanol) and phase-forming component (ethanol) in the top phase at different time intervals, it was concluded that this system can achieve complete phase equilibrium within 10min. The knowledge of kinetics of phase separation is important to the deep understanding of this system and beneficial to process scale up for industrialization.

A Review of Projects and Construction Law Practice in Saudi Arabia

Construction law in Saudi Arabia has never seen greater appeal. The key discussion of the paper is a review of the practice for projects and construction law, and how a lawyer can represent and advise clients of the construction industry in Saudi Arabia. The discussion will examine key available legislative sources, authorities, literatures, and media in Saudi Arabia. The research will evaluate the above to explicate the current international understanding of Saudi projects and construction law practice. The framework of the paper is merely a review of key areas of the practice extracting them from syllabus of courses teaching construction law in international universities. In addition to academic research, points of discussion are cited from local newspapers mainly those commented by well-known practitioners. The key advantage the reader will have after reading this paper is to know more how the understudy jurisprudence and law has emerged. The delivered view here is that the legal and regulatory system may have many ambiguous areas and shortcomings for foreign lawyers. But, the issue is not being on the top agenda of supreme authority of the Kingdom. This was inaugurated because it is almost inherently built in the system that parties have greater latitude to choose their own preference of how to configure the documentation and the structure of the project. The aim, at the end, is to assist international lawyers in how to practically represent and advise clients in Saudi Arabia. Also, consequently, enlighten their instincts to the recently increasing disputes and potential failures of projects in the Kingdom.

Perceptions of the Role of the Doctor of Nursing Practice-Prepared Nurse: Clarity or Confusion.

Confusion and disagreement about the DNP degree and its implications continues despite the rapid and steady growth of DNP programs. There is a paucity of literature that examines nurses' perceptions of the role of the DNP-prepared nurse. The purpose of this study was to explore how nurses perceive the role of the DNP-prepared nurse and identify areas of ambiguity in understanding the roles that DNP-prepared nurses fulfill. A descriptive, cross-sectional design, using self-administered questionnaires, explored the perceptions of n = 340 nurses with various educational levels and backgrounds. Descriptives of the sample and instruments were conducted as well as chi-square analyses to detect differences in perceptions across levels of education. Results indicated that nurses clearly supported the DNP degree with a focus on the improvement of health care outcomes through the roles of leadership in health organizations, policy, interprofessionalism, and translation of evidence into practice. Multiple areas of confusion concerning the role of DNP-prepared nurse existed in academia, academia leadership, and scholarship. In order to reduce role ambiguity, the distinctive contributions of the DNP-prepared nurse must be embraced, valued, and operationalized. Otherwise, the role of the DNP-prepared nurse will continue to be discussed, debated, and challenged.

Boundary Work and Exchange: The Formation of a Professional Service Market

This article develops a processual theory of boundary work and exchange for understanding the emergence and transformation of social structures such as professions and their state regulatory regimes. It argues that social boundaries are often ambiguous and elastic areas, and their social construction involves multiple forms of boundary work (boundary making, boundary blurring, and boundary maintenance) as well as the process of exchange that integrates them. Based upon 256 in‐depth interviews with law practitioners and public officials in twelve provinces of China, 3 years of ethnographic work on a professional Internet forum, and archival research, the study employs the theory of boundary work and exchange to explain the creation, differentiation, and fragmentation of legal professions in three decades of China's economic reform (1979 to 2009).

The Tenth Development Plan (2014–2018) of Turkey and the conceptualization of the regional area. Problems and prospects / Dziesiąty Plan Rozwoju (2014–2018) Turcji i konceptualizacja obszaru regionalnego. Problemy i perspektywy

This paper discusses in a critical way how the regional area is conceptualized in the Tenth Development Plan of Turkey (2014–2018). The Tenth Plan introduced in 2014 considerably rests on the strategic framework of the preceding Ninth Development Plan (2007–2013). The regional area in Turkey was and is a strategically ambiguous area where the delineation efforts were mostly devoted to the concerns of public administration and territorial sovereignty rather than functional regionalization. The treatment of the regional area in the Tenth Plan seems to confirm this premise. Here, the main topics of the analysis involve new institutional bodies and governance, new and old policy tools of development planning and sustainable development as well as a territorial statistical system. These three analytical areas will be elaborated on by the relevance to geographical representation system, spatial setting and hierarchy. In that vein, the paper attempts to develop a somewhat different view of the development planning in Turkey by focusing on the treatment of the regional area and the spatial context in the latest development plan.

On the Practicality of Group Dynamic Assessment: A Seminal Enterprise Deserving Closer Scrutiny

This paper is a preliminary study designed to scrutinize the way Group Dynamic Assessment (G-DA), suggested by Poehner (2009), has been implemented in L2 classrooms regarding its basic premise: moving the group forward in its ZPD while benefiting individuals as well. Since the one-to-one interaction that characterizes DA framework represents an unrealistic model for classroom teachers who must manage classes of 15 to 30 learners, Poehner (2009) suggests the use of DA with groups of L2 learners rather than individuals and offers examples of two approaches to G-DA: concurrent and cumulative. However, the development of group ZPD cannot be easily traced in the presented approaches, and the process of shifting the activity from the individual to the group is not clarified either. To present a more realistic model of G-DA, this paper suggests the application of small group DA to L2 classrooms. To this end, it has initially delved into the concepts of 'group learning', 'group ZPD', and 'group DA'. Next, the areas of ambiguity in the two suggested approaches to G-DA have been identified. Finally, a less complicated model of classroom DA, namely small group DA is presented.

Assessment of thermodynamic parameters of plasma shock wave

The work is devoted to the solution of the one-dimensional equation of hydraulic gas dynamics for the coaxial magneto plasma accelerator by means of Lax-Wendroff modified algorithm with optimum choice of the regularization parameter artificial viscosity. Replacement of the differential equations containing private derivatives is made by finite difference method. Optimum parameter of regularization artificial viscosity is added using the exact known decision of Soda problem. The developed algorithm of thermodynamic parameter calculation in a braking point is proved. Thermodynamic parameters of a shock wave in front of the plasma piston of the coaxial magneto plasma accelerator are calculated on the basis of the offered algorithm. Unstable high-frequency fluctuations are smoothed using modeling and that allows narrowing the ambiguity area. Results of calculation of gas dynamic parameters in a point of braking coincide with literary data. The chart 3 shows the dynamics of change of speed and thermodynamic parameters of a shock wave such as pressure, density and temperature just before the plasma piston.

Islet inflammation in human type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is caused by the selective deletion of pancreatic β-cells in response to an assault mounted within the pancreas by infiltrating immune cells. However, this apparently clear and focussed annunciation conceals a stark reality in which the cellular and molecular events leading to β-cell loss remain poorly understood in humans. This reflects the difficulty of studying these processes in living individuals and the fact that, using pathological specimens, islet inflammation has been analysed in fewer than 200 recent-onset cases of T1DM worldwide, over the past century. Nevertheless, insights have been gained and the composition of the islet infiltrate is being disclosed. This is shown to be primarily lymphocytic in nature, with populations of both CD8+ and CD4+ T cells displaying an autoreactivity against specific islet antigenic peptides. The T cells are often accompanied by influent CD20+ B cells, although new data imply that the proportions of these individual cell types vary and that patients fall into at least two distinct categories having either a hyper-immune (CD20Hi) or a pauci-immune (CD20Lo) phenotype. The overall rate of β-cell decline appears to correlate with these two phenotypes such that hyper-immune patients lose β-cells more quickly and tend to develop disease at an earlier age than those with the pauci-immune profile. In this article, we review the evidence which underpins our current understanding of the aetiology of T1DM and highlight both the established features as well as areas of on-going ambiguity and debate.

Unproven stem cell-based interventions & physicians' professional obligations; a qualitative study with medical regulatory authorities in Canada.

BackgroundThe pursuit of unproven stem cell-based interventions (“stem cell tourism”) is an emerging issue that raises various concerns. Physicians play different roles in this market, many of which engage their legal, ethical and professional obligations. In Canada, physicians are members of a self-regulated profession and their professional regulatory bodies are responsible for regulating the practice of medicine and protecting the public interest. They also provide policy guidance to their members and discipline members for unprofessional conduct.MethodsWe conducted semi-structured telephone interviews with representatives from six different provincial Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons in Canada to discuss their experiences and perspectives regarding stem cell tourism. Our focus was on exploring how different types of physician involvement in this market would be viewed by physicians’ professional regulatory bodies in Canada.ResultsWhen considering physicians’ professional obligations, participants drew analogies between stem cell tourism and other areas of medical tourism as well as with some aspects of complementary alternative medicine where existing policies, codes of ethics and regulations provide some guidance. Canadian physicians are required to act in the best interests of their patients, respect patient autonomy, avoid conflicts of interest and pursue evidence-based practice in accordance with accepted standards of care. Physicians who provide unproven treatments falling outside the standard of care, not in the context of an approved research protocol, could be subject to professional discipline. Other types of problematic conduct include referrals involving financial conflict of interest and failure to provide urgent medically necessary care. Areas of ambiguity include physicians’ obligations when asked for information and advice about seeking unproven medical treatments, in terms of providing non-urgent follow-up care, and when asked to support efforts to go abroad by providing tests or procedures in advance that would not otherwise be medically indicated.ConclusionsSpecific policy guidance regarding the identified areas of tension or ambiguity may prove helpful for physicians struggling with these issues. Further consideration of the complex interplay of factors at issue in how physicians may (should) respond to patient demands related to unproven medical interventions while meeting their professional, legal and ethical obligations, is warranted.

In the eye of the beholder: A qualitative study of mutual obligations and areas of ambiguity in the hospital–physician relationship

Hospitals and physicians have been working together for years in providing specialized health services. However, hospital–physician relationships are considered lukewarm at the best. We build on psychological contract theory to develop an in-depth understanding of how physicians (N = 15) and hospital executives (N = 15) in Belgium experience and interpret obligations in their working relationship. Our analysis yielded a rich understanding of mutual obligations and areas of ambiguity. Two major themes emerged from the analysis. A distinction should be made between administrative obligations (adequate support and responsive decision making) and professional obligations (clinical excellence and physician autonomy). Two areas of ambiguity could be identified reflecting both dimensions. An economic trade-off exists in the day-to-day interaction and therefore views on how the care should be organized differ. In addition, the extent to which medical decisions should take into account the corresponding impact on hospital finance varies.

A Review of Trypanosomosis-Induced Reproductive Dysfunctions in Male Animals

Trypanosomosis has been recognized as one of the major limitations to livestock production in the African continent. In addition to its clinical manifestations such as weight loss, lethargy, weakness and dullness, reproductive organs are also affected which has led to reduction of fertility in infected farm animals. This paper highlighted the major dimensions of reproductive dysfunctions induced by African animal trypanosomosis in male animals with emphasis on ruminants and simultaneously discussed how the pathogenesis lead to the observed reproductive disorders with the aim of identifying areas of ambiguity where further research need to be focused. Testicular degeneration, reduced libido, orchitis and poor semen characteristics have been established in infected males. Studies of receptors of these reproductive hormones under trypanosomosis infection are very rare in literature and hence, the involvement of endocrine glands most especially the anterior pituitary and hypothalamus remains inexplicit enough. A sequential investigation of the relationship between the concurrent pathological changes in reproductive and endocrine organs, reproductive hormones and their respective receptors as well as the reproductive performance of animals suffering from trypanosomosis are suggested. This will improve our knowledge on the pathogenesis of trypanosomosis as it affects reproduction while promoting development and implementation of strategies to contain the disease in food animals.Keywords: Trypanosomosis, testis, pituitary, hypothalamus, sperm, infertility.

Understanding clinicians’ decisions to offer intravenous thrombolytic treatment to patients with acute ischaemic stroke: a protocol for a discrete choice experiment

BackgroundIntravenous thrombolysis is an effective emergency treatment for acute ischaemic stroke for patients meeting specific criteria. Approximately 12% of eligible patients in England, Wales and Northern Ireland received thrombolysis in...

Functional and Structural Integration without Competence Overstepping in Structured Semantic Knowledge Base System

Logic, language and information integration is one of areas broadly explored nowadays and at the same time promising. Authors use that approach in their 8 years long research into Structured Semantic Knowledge Base System. The aim of this paper is to present authors idea of system capable of generating synergy effect while storing various type of information. The key assumption, which has been adopted, is the thesis that the attempt to find universal way of the reality description is very inefficient solution. Combination of several solutions into one system must be based on the principle of supporting rather than on redundancy, ambiguity or mutual antagonism areas of logic, language and information. Natural language processing in the context of logics or information processing is ineffective, not to say pointless in the means of certainty. It is simply caused by the fact that natural languages have been formed long time ago as the main communication channel, rather than for automatic information processing. It was one of the reasons that logic has been founded as the universal language of mathematics and formalized communication in more extensive sense. Information processing however brought more sophisticated problems that mathematics could not smoothly solve, what made computer science appear. Studies over artificial intelligence revealed even more complex issues to solve. The unity of those three areas: logics, language and information is a necessity to acquire complementarity and synergy.

Selected Abstracts From Recent Publications in Cardiopulmonary Disease Prevention and Rehabilitation

Selected Abstracts From Recent Publications in Cardiopulmonary Disease Prevention and Rehabilitation