Common Sense Basis Research Articles

Science fiction as a source of realistic description of behavior 
 (based on the short story by Kir Bulychev "I'm dialing a number")

The article disputes the assertion of N. Frye and Tz. Todorov that fiction is created only on the basis of fiction. It is reality that is ultimately the source of works of art. Realistic descriptions may be perfectly present in fiction, and most readers intuitively know what description is realistic and what is fantastic one. But this is a rather difficult task for AI. In order to teach AI to understand tests better, it is necessary to investigate how people build their understanding of the information that is not stated in the text clearly. The article describes the method of behavioral analysis of texts and provides an example of the fantastic story analysis. It shows that a significant part of the knowledge about the characters, their state, circumstances and forms of behavior is extracted on the basis of common sense as something taken for granted for a person belonging to the given culture, but not for a representative of another culture or a computer program. The same applies to the difference between real and fantastic events. For AI to understand the meaning of the described events, it is to be able to rely on common sense knowledge, extract common sense judgments, that are appropriate for a current context, and draw appropriate conclusions based on them.

Locating Hotspots for the Social Life Cycle Assessment of Bio-Based Products from Short Rotation Coppice

The establishment of new value chains raises expectations in economic and social benefits. To determine whether these expectations can be fulfilled or whether there are also negative consequences, social aspects should be assessed as early as the R&D phase. Potential social impacts can be assessed with the help of a social life cycle assessment (SLCA). A common problem in SLCA studies is the large number of social aspects. Thus, it is important to prioritize the most relevant aspects. Scholars agree that socioeconomic indicators should not be selected on a purely intuitive and common sense basis and that a standardized approach is missing. A three-step process has been developed to identify the most vulnerable and relevant social aspects. These three steps were implemented into a case study to empirically test the method. Short-rotation-coppice as an alternative form of agricultural dendromass production is one possibility to obtain wood resources for the processing of bio-based products. The use of agricultural land for dendromass production promises additional income for the region’s farmers and job opportunities for the local population. The extant literature shows that the most frequently addressed impacts are related to workers’ health and safety aspects. The outcome of this study aims to support future research by identifying an appropriate approach for the selection of indicators in SLCA. For studies with a similar focus, the proposed set of indicators can be used as a framework in itself or serve as a basis for the choice of relevant social indicators.

Redefining Successful Treatment of Severe Alcoholic Hepatitis.

Redefining Successful Treatment of Severe Alcoholic Hepatitis.

Why Do Scholars Use PowerPoint the Way They Do?

PowerPoint has received much criticism regarding excessive use of text and the lack of contact with the audience. Why presenters use PowerPoint in this way has not been studied so far. Our study using interviews with beginning and advanced presenters shows that some use the program as a speaking note and as a means to draw the attention away from themselves. Some even think that PowerPoint can replace rhetorical skills. Slides are mainly designed on the basis of commonsense, instead of guidelines based on human information processing. Implications for the teaching of PowerPoint use in business communication are discussed.

Towards theorising translation as an occupation

The article considers the applicability of the notion of profession to translation. After discussing the state of the art in the sociology of professions, the author critically considers the discussion of translation as a profession in present-day Translation Studies. It is shown that translation either remains undefined as a profession or defined on a purely common sense basis. The studies of translation are also largely ethnomethodological in nature. The paper attempts to put the discussion of the occupational status of translation on a clearer theoretical foundation. In his discussion, the author borrows Abraham Flexner’s definition of the term “profession” and his criteria, based on which an occupation can be viewed as qualifying as a profession or failing to do so. It is argued that based on Flexner’s criteria, translation is an occupation in the process of professionalising.

“There is nothing so practical as a good theory”: How to let it work in practice (the case of Galperin’s theory)

IntroductionIf we consider teachers, trainers, and instructors as the consumers of psycholo­gical knowledge, we may ask this question: What type of psychology do practi­tioners need? Certainly, they are not in need of general speculations; rather, they need concrete information about the psychology of learning, development, and in­struction, information that can become the core of their practical activity. Recent educational practice has created a real challenge for psychology: the challenge of providing knowledge that is sensitive to the heterogeneity and complexity of the social context in which learning processes take place while at the same time of­fering to the teacher sufficiently concrete and clear psychological descriptions both of students and of learning/teaching processes and contents. Without answering such a challenge, researchers wonder why teachers and school administrators do not want to use their remarkable and sometimes outstanding ideas, theories, and models, while teachers and school administrators (together with the general pub­lic) wonder why researchers are not capable of providing them with practical, use­ful knowledge, expressed in an acceptable and understandable form, that can be applied to everyday schooling activities. More than thirty years ago, Snelbecker (1987) published a menu of teachers' justifications for not using educational psy­chologists' and instructional designers' prescriptions in their everyday professional activity. Evaluating the possibilities of instructional-design blueprints, several teachers claimed that they were already on their own practicing what was recom­mended by scientists. Other teachers, while acknowledging the innovative nature of scientific recommendations, still doubted the practical possibility of applying the recommendations in their own classrooms. Snelbecker found that statements such as these were the most common among teachers : don't need any help in teach­ing/training am already doing what you advise if I use that theory, I'll have to change my teaching methods completely already know those theories.It is not easy to get practitioners to accept a system of conditions for applying scientific knowledge. Creating such conditions would mean giving teachers, train­ers, instructors the possibility of obtaining more explanation about and practice with that knowledge than they can obtain on the basis of common sense or their own practical experience alone. It means discovering a general proce­dure that would not only enable the users to analyze many concrete instructional situations according to the findings of modem psychology (in particular, learning and developmental psychology) but would also encourage them to do it. In other words, it is necessary to offer a sort of intellectual tool that practitioners can use to increase their competence in using instructional technologies. This instrument has to be multifunctional and universal. It should direct the attention of the users to changes in and development of the constructive activity of a learner and to focus the users' attention on the mental, internal components of any learning activity. On the procedural (technological) level, such an approach must operate sufficiently so as not to be simply a set of speculative declarations of good intentions. Thus, ap­plied psycho-educational theory requires a strict and simultaneously more explicit form of psychological knowledge. In other words, it requires non-metaphoric de­scriptions of the variables (structural, functional, and developmental) that are most essential and that determine the effectiveness and efficiency of learning/teaching processes as well as a description of the interrelations of those variables. In addi­tion, a detailed and, again, non-metaphoric and unambiguous description of the psychologically grounded conditions that should be present within schooling en­vironments should be offered. Such descriptions must encompass the whole of the schooling situation and the complexity of the processes and phenomena involved. …

How Much Law Does the School System Need?

In its ideal form, the law is a guardian of the freedom and autonomy of the school system. On the other hand, the school system must, as part of its responsibility, establish a respectful and responsible attitude toward the rule of law. In Slovenia, practice deviates from such ideal to too great an extent. Excessive and inappropriate legal regulation reduces the freedom and autonomy of the school system. The consequences within this system are: partly ignored legal regulations, and the resulting ineffectiveness; excessive legal administration in schools; increased teachers’ opposition to the law; a lack of teachers’ motivation; and, as a consequence, worsened quality of the educational process. The law, however, is only a part of the problem. The latter has its roots mainly in a general disorientation of society with regard to its values. In order to establish the right measure and manner of the legal regulation of the school system, the moral and common sense basis of society must first be healed and strengthened.

COPD: a model for chronic respiratory disease

Today COPD is the subject of both basic research and clinical studies aimed at seeking to better define its pathogenesis, diagnosis, natural history and therapy. Of equal importance are the pharmacoeconomic studies that carry out a cost/benefit analysis of all the measures necessary to control the disease at the different stages of its evolution. In the early sixties the interest of pneumologists and microbiologists was focused on chronic bronchitis, the first of the bronchial diseases in which, thanks to antibiotics, subjects managed to overcome several episodes of acute lower respiratory tract infections and survive. Subsequently the definition of COPD expanded to include other bronchopulmonary pathologic conditions, such as emphysema, bronchiectasis and chronic asthma, characterized by chronic evolution. Today the control of all these pathologies is global and standardized following the recommendations of guidelines, consensus conferences or papers and other national and international documents. The first important step in COPD prevention is the control of air pollution - particularly in large centers and metropolitan areas - and the reduction of indoor pollutants combined with the campaign against tobacco smoking and all toxic fumes, including those of occupational origin, in diverse environments. Here, the epidemiological data provided by health authorities are of fundamental importance (attention should be paid to the diagnosis of COPD as the main disease!) in order to know which metropolitan areas are the most affected and investigate the cause. Last but not least comes the patient. An early diagnosis of the disease is of fundamental importance. Some steps need to be rigorously followed in order to improve the course of the disease: early diagnosis should be accompanied by an accurate definition of the clinical and functional disease status; follow up is necessary to verify the effect of prescribed drugs as well as of other therapeutic measures; assessment and control of complications requires careful management carried out, if needed, in hospital. What methodology should be used? Medical education and regular postgraduate courses for GPs, who represent the front line in the control of all diseases and in screening of the general population. Of course, when the GP first comes to suspect the disease, he should refer the patient to the specialist to have the diagnosis confirmed and to define the patient's clinical and functional status. After receiving recommendations on the therapeutic course to follow, the GP should follow the patient to observe the effect of drugs and verify the results: in any case he should submit the patient to specialist control. Careful follow up on the part of the GP and subsequent specialist assistance makes it possible to monitor the natural history of the disease in the single patient and, if necessary, take appropriate measures. Also the eventual hospital admission in the advanced stages of the disease, when home treatment is no longer possible, must take place as soon as possible. COPD cannot be cured: it is possible, however, to modify its natural history by means of prompt and efficacious therapeutic measures. This goal will be reached when there is a full collaboration existing between patient, GP, specialist, laboratory and hospital centers. Not all patients respond to different therapies in the same way. Hopefully, while waiting for pharmacogenomics to indicate for us the real non responders to different treatments, on the basis of common sense it is advisable to use what is currently available in the most appropriate way according to the stage of the disease: i.e. drugs belonging to different classes, physiotherapy, oxygen therapy, etc. If interventions are early and appropriate, it is obvious that there will be an economic benefit also for the community as a whole, considering the growing incidence of COPD in the general population and the impact that this trend has on the family and on the work environment.

Normal Homes

Normal Homes

Historical survey of manufacturing control practices from a production research perspective

Manufacturing control is concerned with what is done where, when and why in manufacturing. Over time, methods and practices have developed for efficient and effective inventory control, resource utilization and ensuring customer delivery. A limited review of the production research literature from the past two centuries was undertaken to determine the prior existence and awareness of a number of present practices. Rather than focus on one particular practice and explore it exhaustively, 22 practices were researched, five of which are described at greater depth. It is clear from this limited review of the historical literature that many of the same or similar manufacturing problems have been consciously recognized and dealt with in the past, often with the same concepts and philosophies. The elegant and sophisticated mathematical modelling and justification of the present might have been absent in the past, but the common sense basis of the solutions can be observed.

Recommendations on resuscitation of babies at birth

The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR), in its 1997 advisory statement on paediatric life support [ 1 International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR)-Advisory statement on Paediatric Life Support. Resuscitation 1997;34:115–128. Google Scholar ], recognised the need to develop consistent international guidelines to be promulgated by national resuscitation councils and associations. These guidelines, known as advisory statements, are based on specific data (outcome validity), but in the absence of specific data, were developed and supported on the basis of common sense (face validity) or ease of teaching or skill retention (construct validity). The ILCOR advisory statement [ 1 International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR)-Advisory statement on Paediatric Life Support. Resuscitation 1997;34:115–128. Google Scholar ]makes specific recommendations for basic resuscitation of the new born. These guidelines have developed and enhanced these concepts and extended them into advanced life support. They are an extension of the guidelines already published by the ERC [ 2 European Resuscitation Council. Guidelines for basic life support. Resuscitation 1992;24:103–110. Br Med J 1993;306:1587–1589. Google Scholar , 3 European Resuscitation Council. Guidelines for advanced life support. Resuscitation 1992;24:111–121. Br Med J 1993;306:1589–1593. Google Scholar , 4 European Resuscitation Council. Guidelines for paediatric life support Resuscitation 1994;27:91–106. Br Med J 1994;308:1349–1355. Google Scholar ]and take into account recommendations made by other national [ 5 Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Resuscitation of babies at birth. BMJ Publishing Group, 1997. Google Scholar , 6 British Paediatric Association. Neonatal resuscitation-the report of a BPA working party. British Paediatric Association 1993, London. Google Scholar ]and international [ 7 American Heart Association. Neonatal advanced life support. JAMA 1996;255:2969–2973. Google Scholar ]organisations.

Logical Basis of Common Sense

Logical Basis of Common Sense

Management of ALS: nutritional care.

Weight loss, complaints of dysphagia, and signs of tongue atrophy and bulbar weakness are familiar to neurologists caring for patients with advanced ALS. Under these circumstances, most physicians seek to support the patient with some type of nutritional intervention. Frequently, the expertise of a nutritionist is sought to advise patients on proper swallowing techniques, to devise diets with more manageable consistency, and to counsel patients and family regarding the proper amounts of protein and calories for optimal nutrition. Ultimately, most patients are considered candidates for enteral nutrition delivered via percutaneous endoscopically placed gastrostomy (PEG). The nutritional needs of the ALS patient appear to be managed on an ad hoc common sense basis. In the experience of many neurologists, patients do not admit to eating difficulties unless questioned directly. Patients are not deceitful. They focus on their apparent success in consuming a meal, without consciously realizing that they have insidiously modified their eating patterns to accommodate advancing bulbar weakness. They become adept at avoiding choking by eating slowly and carefully. Because these strategies are generally effective in preventing choking, patients do not spontaneously admit to eating difficulties. However, the picture is different when talking to family. In general, they are concerned that the ALS patient is not eating enough of the right type of food and is losing weight. It is surprising that the scientific study of the nutritional needs in ALS has received little attention to date. This workshop reviewed the current data regarding nutrition in ALS and identified issues requiring further investigation. Slowie et al. [1] were the first to investigate the consumption of calories and protein in ALS. They found that 70% of 20 randomly selected ambulatory …

On the Nature of Professional Communication: Publication for Practitioners

Over the past 2 years, the editorial indulge in the luxury of holding par board of Social Work has placed an ticular opinions or viewpoints (without increasing emphasis on outreach to factual support) through the simple ex authors, especially to practitioners. pedient of professing to be a true believer This article, which presents one model or by citing the common sense basis of for articles, was written as a part their beliefs. Professionals also hold true of the board's ongoing activities in beliefs, but, because of their public man assisting authors. It is intended to date, the true beliefs must be verifiable demonstrate how authors might by methods that can withstand repeated organize existing materials. We hope scrutiny. Such validation or verification that the article will be useful to is necessary because professionals play authors, and we welcome comments on a critical role in the lives and well-being this and on other models. of their clientele. The cornerstone of epistemology is This is the second of two articles that that ideas that seek to claim the status of have as their focus encouraging practiknowledge must be verifiable. Much of doners to write for publication. In a prescience is given over to the processes vious issue of Social Work, the authors whereby this is accomplished. To para argued that publication is a practice role phrase Cornman (1981), knowledge can integral to the evolution of the profesbe defined, generally, as true belief or, sion and to the professional maturity of more specifically, as justified true belief, the individual practitioner (Williams & The general case resides within the Hopps, 1987). This article expands on realm of lay knowledge and may or may that idea by reviewing some technical not have a factual base but is, nonethe aspects of the publishing role, including less, true belief. The second instance, or suggestions for structuring ideas and justified true belief, lies within the prov the content, form, and style used in ince of professional knowledge and either theory-based or research-oriented theory. It follows then, that in addition to reports. The targets of this article are true belief, one must have sound those practitioners, new or experienced, evidence or reason for one's beliefs if who have not published in a scholarly they are to merit the status of justified journal or who have attempted to unsuctrue belief. cessfully and have given up. More For social workers there is an addi sophisticated readers may find solace tional test of knowledge as justified true in the efforts to bring greater uniformibelief that lies within the purview of our ty to article writing and add to the conpurpose and values. Knowledge em sensus about the scientific paradigm, ployed by social workers must promote The focus of this article will be on the the social good; contribute to change by methods a practitioner should use to defining or redefining social problems; communicate and share ideas effectivedemonstrate progress in reducing social ly with persons in the profession and in ills, including the reduction of individual other fields. maladaptations; advance the purposes The single most critical difference beof the profession by adding to its knowl tween the professional and the lay peredge base; and contribute to human son is the basis on which they claim liberation (Witkin & Gottschalk, 1987; legitimacy for their ideas. Lay people can Williams & Hopps, 1987). Communicating Theories

An Integrated Approach to Map Design and Production

Creative, productive human activity is often associated with a melding of rational-analytical thinking and intuitive-holistic thought. In this paper the common sense basis of map design and production is related to the integration of these two distinct but complementary ways of processing information. A variety of internal (physiological/psychological) and external (data, materials, tools, working conditions, map audience) circumstances that influence cartographic education are viewed within the framework of these two cognitive styles. This balanced approach to cartographic education is less frustrating and potentially more effective for students than much contemporary course work with its strong rational-analytical emphasis.

The Sociology of Adjudication

Clinical psychologists, counsellors, and other professional people regularly pass judgment on others in the course of their day-to-day work, and generally they must do so on a hit-and-run, common sense basis. Lewis Dexter cites some cases of such adjudication affecting mental defectives, especially those who have been brought to the attention of the courts, and implies that revisions of practice are in order. The author has published a series of articles in the field of mental deficiency research under the auspices of the K. J. Anthony Trust (% Depositor's Trust Co.) of Lewiston, Maine.

How to Get Along with Children.

Dr. Richardson is an author of recognized stature in the field of child behavior, especially in the adolescent age group. In this book he attempts to cover the entire age span from birth through adolescense. His aim is laudable, and his approach is on an admirable common-sense basis. However, his treatment is perhaps too sketchy and in many places could have been greatly expanded, to the benefit of the reader. The technique of asking a question and then answering it is sometimes good, but when for every question asked there are scores which might equally well have been included, and when the answers are of a length more suitable to a newspaper column than to a supposedly more comprehensive book, the use of this technique is not as successful as it might be. Also, in answer to questions about sex the author of successful books on this subject for adolescents

Refresher course for general practitioners physical methods of treatment in psychiatry.

No general practitioner can afford to regard psychiatry as a remote specialty of which he need know nothing. Psychiatric illness is far too common for that. It has been estimated that nearly half of the hospital beds in the country are occupied by psychiatric patients ; and about one-third of all the patients going to their doctors for help have symptoms which are caused or compli cated by psychological factors. Even if these patients are referred to hospitals or clinics they are likely to be handed back to their own doctors again. The family doctor is likely to be the last as well as the first court of appeal, especially when the patient has been seen by specialists of rival schools who have tendered mutually conflicting advice. The bewildered patient will then go to his own doctor, who, he trusts, will decide these com plicated questions for him on a basis of common sense. Furthermore, psychiatry depends on the general body of medical knowledge and opinion for guidance in making its advances. The family doctor knows which of his patients have benefited from one or another method of treatment. If in fact some theory of psychi atry proves of little practical use, its adherents, how ever fanatical their faith, will eventually be brought into touch with reality by a dwindling clientele. In the conference rooms of learned societies abstruse theories will continue to be debated in magniloquent terms. The wise practitioner will eschew theory but pay the closest attention to clinical facts, and judge from them alone. In this article methods of treatment are discussed which have no adequate theoretical basis. Their dis coverers were often led by theoretical notions which now no longer gain much credence. The reason why these methods are still used is because they are actually found to work. The lack of theoretical foundation cannot be claimed as a merit. But it mus? be remem bered that many of the most effective methods of treat ment in general medicine were discovered in the same accidental way?the use of liver extract to treat perni cious anaemia, for example. Much of our medical knowledge has been gained the wrong way round, and a discovery in therapy has compelled reconsideration of pathogenesis. Psychiatry to-day is in a stage of develop ment in many ways equivalent to that of general medi cine a hundred years ago, and we can expect advances to occur in the same way. The three methods of treatment discussed in this article have altered the face of clinical psychiatry. Before their advent the hospital psychiatrist had to watch the progress of his patients uphill or down almost with folded hands. Only in the case of the general paretic was he able to take active remedial measures. Since the discovery of insulin coma treatment, electric convulsion therapy, and leucotomy the outlook for the great bulk of his patients has been altered immeasur ably. This change has not occurred without putting new responsibilities on the general practitioner. It is now his duty to see that no one of his patients slips into a state of dangerous depression or mental alienation without being put in touch with the sources of aid. The several indi cations of these treatments are of immediate interest to all doctors who are directly in touch with and are directly consulted by the general public.

Clinical Treatment of Marital Conflicts

I NCREASING emphasis upon the study of the family and its problems has led inevitably to the consideration of the subject of treatment. With regard to participation in this field, social scientists have tended, for the most part, to fall into either of two groups. One group, divorced from research interest, has become absorbed in therapy for its own sake. The second group looks upon all treatment as unscientific and therefore as making no contribution to systematic theory and general understanding of either the family or its problems. These opposing points of view have led to confusion in the minds of those persons who are interested in the therapeutic aspects. This confusion is to be found in the widely divergent conceptions not only of the family but of the therapeutic process itself. Thus one observes a wide range in therapeutic procedure from counseling of the most superficial sort to clinical treatment upon a scientific plane. Counseling itself runs the gamut from that of furnishing guidance by correspondence to that of giving advice in so-called clinics and centers. Here the services take one of two forms in which the counselor either deals with the superficial aspects of the situation on a common-sense basis, or refers the case to specialized agencies in the community, assuming himself little responsibility for the treatment of the specific problems presented. The tendency in either instance is to over-simplify the situation and to deal with the apparent rather than the real factors, or to treat one factor as though it constituted the whole of the marriage conflict pattern. Thus sex-hygiene counseling, treatment of parent-child conflicts, or advice in home management, or what not, is thought to bring about the desired remedial results. Obviously the function which these so-called family counselors perform is not unique and does not differ fundamentally from that performed by ministers, friends, relatives, social workers, teachers, and occasionally family physicians and lawyers. Perhaps it is only logical with the increase in the divorce rate and in the prevalence of family conflicts that the number of these counselors increase. From the standpoint of contributing to scientific knowledge in the field of family adjustment, however, they offer little or nothing. Yet it is doubtful if in most instances their efforts interfere with the well-being and adjustment of the patient, for eventually he will probably seek more expert assistance. Certainly one would have to believe in omens and fortune tellers to accept without challenge statements of the efficacy of the efforts of many persons engaged in counseling, since their

A COMMON SENSE BASIS OF CHEMISTRY TEACHING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

RÉSUMÉIn the series of papers on “Common Sense Basis of Chemistry Teaching,” it has been pointed out that The teaching of chemistry without individual laboratory work is not real chemistry instruction and has doubtful cultural values, The inidvidual laboratory method answers criticisms of methods in general educational practice very well and thus to abandon the idea is unthinkable; to improve the method is the worth aim, Lecture‐demonstration work has an important rôle to perform in continuing for the mass interesting demonstrations, correlating the work with the experience of the individual worker, The lecture demonstration‐method should not be a substitute method but an addition method entering into the domain of scientific study where, on account of the dangers involved or the difficulties of the technique of the apparatus used, or the great cost of materials needed for individual laboratory work, the teacher plays his part—inspitational as well as instructional, Individual laboratory work is best adapted to the needs of pupils from a common sense basis. The evaluation of objectives and the use of examinations of the traditional type to determine relative values of procedures are not easily carried out—it is not a problem for the application of strictly scientific methods.