Complex Methodological Issues Research Articles

Study of kobyz tradition in musical turkology (genesis and typology problems)

The article is devoted to topical issues of studying kobyz traditions in the musical culture of the peoples of Turkic origin. Along with a review of various scientific studies, they examined such complex methodological issues as the definition of the historical Korkut prototype, the differentiation of the genesis of the mare instrument. The author touches upon issues related to the difficulty of knowing the historical personality of Korkut based on the folklore genre - legend. Based on the shamanic tunes of Nyshan, which, without proper scientific argument, began to be attributed to Korkut, illuminates the stage stages of the formation of maze tunes from saryn to instrumental kyui. The author is inclined to believe that the information about Korkuta as the first creator of the mare is not entirely correct, because the geography of the distribution of the mare is much wider than those peoples who know the name of Korkuta. As for musical instruments consonant with the term "kobyz," they are known not only to Kazakh, but also to the peoples of Turkic, even Slavic origin. The author concludes that first in the Middle Ages the word "kobyz" denoted a common musical instrument, and then was applied to plucked and bowed chordophones. All this leads to the fact that the historical prototype of Korkut should begin with the study of historical, ethnic and genealogical sources.

Summary of Living on the Edge: An American Generation’s Journey Through the Twentieth Century

AbstractLiving on the Edge: An American Generation’s Journey through the Twentieth Century (University of Chicago Press, 2021) tells the story of the rarely studied 1900 generation, from their social origins to their old age, as they coped with and adapted to the revolutionary changes of the last century. Using longitudinal data from the Berkeley Guidance Study, the authors followed 420 parents (210 couples) born between 1885 and 1908, all of whom had children born in Berkeley between 1928–29. The analyses, which often challenge conventional wisdom, reveal their status as a “hinge generation,” or bridge, between past and present in their educational, work, and family experiences. Following highlights from the authors, four scholars offer critical commentary on the book. Matt Nelson addresses challenges related to analyzing kinship networks and patterns of economic assistance across the Great Depression era, pointing to measurement limitations that obscure important forms of aid. Kelly Condit-Shrestha raises concerns related to race and ethnicity, especially the absence of Black, American Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Hispanic persons in the original study, as well as to westward migration, American Empire, and white-settler colonialism. Silvia Pedraza addresses crucial social class differences (middle class versus working class) in the expectations and experiences of women, calling for greater clarity in the relationship between women’s roles and notions of “respectability.” Finally, Evan Roberts takes up some of the complex methodological issues involved in leveraging historical data to understand the life course and identifying the uniquely disruptive nature of social change across generations and countries.

“We can talk to you, you’re less radical”: reflexivity and developing answerability

This autoethnographic paper discusses the complex methodological issues of a Latina scholar activist conducting research about the undocumented in a law enforcement context in the presence of power elites. She navigates her purpose and perceived identities in withholding some identities for the purpose of accessing data. She chronicles her fieldwork, noting her cultural intuition approach, reflecting on her navigation of answerability to her immigrant community members as well as to traditional norms of academic colonizing fieldwork that serve the elite higher education institutions. She examines the possibility of maintaining integrity to her call of solidarity, advocacy, and activism en familia, to her community members and values.

Институциональные характеристики рыночной экономики в международных стандартах финансовой отчетности

The article analyzes the influence of the fundamental characteristics of a market economy on the methodological component of International Financial Reporting Standards. On the basis of a comparative analysis of the principles of market and organization functioning, the causes of modern problems in the presentation of accounting (financial) statements are identified, and options for solving complex methodological issues are proposed. The author is inclined to the need to reform the accounting system on the principles of not copying, but adapting to International Financial Reporting Standards.

Conceptualising Research Methodology for Doctoral Researchers in Open Education (with penguins)

This article provides a reflective account of the process of creating a series of visualisations for doctoral researchers. These were created to accompany a handbook about research methods which is aimed at less experienced researchers working in the field of open education. The Handbook was created for members of the Global OER Graduate Network, which supports doctoral research in open education worldwide. The goal of the visualisations were to make complex methodological issues more salient for less experienced researchers, and to support doctoral candidates who might feel overwhelmed or unsupported. Images are openly licensed to promote sharing and reuse.

The Genre of Disobedience: Is the Bildungsroman beyond Discipline?

This article revisits the complex historical and methodological issues that surround the study of the Bildungsroman both within German literature and in a broader comparative context. It argues that the unusually narrow and well-defined circumstances of the Bildungsroman’s rise in eighteenth-century Germany contributed to the persistence of a normative and often-essentialist understanding of this genre. The article further identifies the limitations of this understanding, which at once generates a fair amount of critical frustration and hinders the use of Bildungsroman as a comparative term. The article proposes an alternative understanding of the Bildungsroman as a genre capable of transcending the context in which it originated and of leaving behind the very notion of Bildung. The genre functions as something like German literature’s disobedient child, one that we persistently attempt, and persistently fail, to discipline. This article suggests that we might wish to abandon this futile disciplinarian practice altogether.

Developing the Global Health Cost Consortium Unit Cost Study Repository for HIV and TB: methodology and lessons learned

Consistently defined, accurate, and easily accessible cost data are a valuable resource to inform efficiency analyses, budget preparation, and sustainability planning in global health. The Global Health Cost Consortium (GHCC) designed the Unit Cost Study Repository (UCSR) to be a resource for standardised HIV and TB intervention cost data displayed by key characteristics such as intervention type, country, and target population. To develop the UCSR, the GHCC defined a typology of interventions for each disease; aligned interventions according to the standardised principles, methods, and cost and activity categories from the GHCC Reference Case for Estimating the Costs of Global Health Services and Interventions; completed a systematic literature review; conducted extensive data extraction; performed quality assurance; grappled with complex methodological issues such as the proper approach to the inflation and conversion of costs; developed and implemented a study quality rating system; and designed a web-based user interface that flexibly displays large amounts of data in a user-friendly way. Key lessons learned from the extraction process include the importance of assessing the multiple uses of extracted data; the critical role of standardising definitions (particularly units of measurement); using appropriate classifications of interventions and components of costs; the efficiency derived from programming data checks; and the necessity of extraction quality monitoring by senior analysts. For the web interface, lessons were: understanding the target audiences, including consulting them regarding critical characteristics; designing the display of data in “levels”; and incorporating alert and unique trait descriptions to further clarify differences in the data.

TO THE PROBLEM OF THE PARADIGM OF STUDYING NEO-PAGANISM

The article examines the problem of theoretical understanding of the interrelation between ancient paganism and modern neo-paganism. The available historiography on the topic of Russian neo-paganism, consisting of three main areas: “critical”, “confessional” and “understanding”, is considered. On the example of some complex methodological issues, their insolubility within the framework of the used theoretical paradigms is substantiated. The author notes the lack of a variety of theoretical approaches to the problem. A critical analysis of the existing “understanding” approach in the works of A. A. Beskov is made. To resolve controversial issues, it is proposed to supplement the “understanding” approach with an “explanatory” one based on the principles of historicism, reductionism and evolutionism. The theoretical tools of religion scholars such as E. Durkheim and R. Girard are attracted. Based on their achievements, the author comes to the conclusion that paganism, as an archaic religion, disappears with the transformation of the society in which it originated. Therefore, paganism and modern neo-paganism are different phenomena, practically unrelated to each other.

Delving Into the Unknown: An Experience of Doing Research With d/Deaf Prisoners

This article acts as a reflexive account of my experience of doing qualitative research with d/Deaf people in a prison setting. This research was the first in England and Wales (excluding small-scale unpublished undergraduate dissertations) to include semi-structured interviews with multiple d/Deaf prisoners, and thus the journey documented is both innovative and unique. Because I was entering unmarked territory methodologically, my experience was laden with obstacles, as is discussed throughout. Key issues explored relate first to the process of gaining access to d/Deaf prisoners, second to researcher–participant language barriers, and third to issues of ethics and authenticity generated by the Deaf participants’ preference for a visual language (British Sign Language) in a setting like prison. Guidance is given throughout about how to overcome complex methodological issues, and concluding remarks include a set of recommendations for prospective researchers.

Listening to young people with autism: learning from researcher experiences

ABSTRACTThis study explores the opportunities and dilemmas that have been encountered by researchers seeking the views of young people with autism. Twelve researchers were interviewed about their experiences in this field. Through exploration of the complex methodological and ethical issues that they encountered, this study aims to better understand how researchers can improve the way they listen to, and engage with, the views of children and young people with autism. This article discusses four themes that emerged from the interviews: power dynamics; building rapport; communication; and meaningful processes and outputs.

Love, satisfaction and exhaustion in the nursery: methodological issues in evaluating the impact of Work Discussion groups in the nursery

ABSTRACTThe significance of practitioners’ emotions in nursery interactions is evident in vivid accounts from widely different socio-cultural contexts. Work Discussion (WD) is a model of professional reflection distinctive in its attention to emotion in work interactions. Psychoanalytic conceptions, particularly the notion of the defended subject, underpin WD. Enabling participants in WD to discuss subjective work experience in an open way is thus subtle and sensitive. Research has not addressed how the impact of different models of professional reflection may be evaluated. Can WD, with its explicit attention to the emotions evoked at work, strengthen practitioners’ engagement with children and families? This paper critically discusses the complex methodological issues in evaluating the impact of WD on nursery practitioners, children and parents in the nursery. The challenge is to combine the intense subjectivity of WD with an evaluation that is rigorous and objective. Later papers will illustrate data analysis and report findings.

Identifying the source of food-borne disease outbreaks: An application of Bayesian variable selection.

Early identification of contaminated food products is crucial in reducing health burdens of food-borne disease outbreaks. Analytic case-control studies are primarily used in this identification stage by comparing exposures in cases and controls using logistic regression. Standard epidemiological analysis practice is not formally defined and the combination of currently applied methods is subject to issues such as response misclassification, missing values, multiple testing problems and small sample estimation problems resulting in biased and possibly misleading results. In this paper, we develop a formal Bayesian variable selection method to account for misclassified responses and missing covariates, which are common complications in food-borne outbreak investigations. We illustrate the implementation and performance of our method on a Salmonella Thompson outbreak in the Netherlands in 2012. Our method is shown to perform better than the standard logistic regression approach with respect to earlier identification of contaminated food products. It also allows relatively easy implementation of otherwise complex methodological issues.

THE ELECTRONIC DESIGNER OF METHODICAL PUZZLES AS MEANS OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS ORGANIZATION AT SCHOOL

Ponte Academic JournalJun 2017, Volume 73, Issue 6 THE ELECTRONIC DESIGNER OF METHODICAL PUZZLES AS MEANS OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS ORGANIZATION AT SCHOOLAuthor(s): Larisa Evgenievna Babushkina ,Natalya Viktorovna Kuznetsova, Vasily Vasilievich Kadakin, Tatiana Ivanovna Shukshina, Alexander Evgenyevich FalileevJ. Ponte - Jun 2017 - Volume 73 - Issue 6 doi: 10.21506/j.ponte.2017.6.7 Abstract:The article describes a study aimed at increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of ensuring the quality integrity and integration of the training system. The article says that the school primary objective is the teacher purposeful pedagogical activity, connected with the design of the training session. One of the main problems in the lesson design is the development of lesson technological cards, which are presenting means of the teacher individual methods. The article describes an electronic designer for lesson planning which is developed by the team of professors of the Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute named after M.E. Evseyev. The authors claim that the "Electronic Designer of Methodical Puzzles" allows the teacher to solve more complex methodological issues, to delve deeper into the psychology of students, to analyze the reasons for the difficulties in mastering the educational material and to take measures to overcome them. "Electronic designer of Methodical Puzzles" is meant to automate and simplify the creation of lesson technological cards for both beginners and qualified teachers. Examples of creation of lesson technological cards are given. Some ways of solving the problem of educational process design, presented in the discussion of this article, are suggested. Download full text:Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution Username Password

Pluralistic approaches to the study of process and outcome in psychoanalysis. The LAC depression study: a case in point

Approaching process and outcome in psychoanalysis is a topic that touches on ambitious and complex epistemological and methodological issues. As discussed in the first part of the paper, in keeping with challenging epistemic considerations, it would seem appropriate to describe the specificity of psychoanalysis as a specific scientific discipline of the unconscious (spezifische Wissenschaft des Unbewussten, see LIT). Psychoanalysis, over its more than 100-year history, evolved a range of highly advanced research methods for investigating the specific object of its research, namely unconscious conflicts and fantasies. Hence, like many other scientific disciplines, contemporary psychoanalysis comprises a plurality of theories, methods of clinical treatments as well as a plurality of research topics. This position is discussed with reference to a model illustrating different forms of clinical and extra-clinical research in psychoanalysis. A major, ongoing comparative study of outcomes of psychoanalytical and cognitive behavioural, long-term treatments of chronically depressed patients, the so-called LAC-study, serves to illustrate the richness of contemporary research in psychoanalysis.

Methodological issues in human studies of endocrine disrupting chemicals.

Possible harm from endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in humans is speculated based on two types of evidence; 1) increasing trends of suspected diseases in ecological studies of populations and 2) findings from traditional epidemiological studies of individuals. However, ecological findings are not regarded as direct human evidence of the relation between EDCs and disease, while the evidence among epidemiological studies of individuals is often inconsistent. Thus, a criticism is that linking EDCs and health in human is naively presumed without solid evidence. However, human studies of EDCs are methodologically complex and understanding methodological issues will help to interpret findings from existing human studies and to properly design optimal human studies. The key issues are low reliability of exposure assessment of EDCs with short half-lives, EDC mixtures, possibility of non-monotonic dose-response relationships, non-existence of an unexposed group, difficulties in measuring exposure during critical periods, and interactions with established risk factors. Furthermore, EDC mixtures may affect human health through other mechanisms than traditional endocrine disruption, for example glutathione depletion or mitochondrial dysfunction. Given this complexity, the most plausible scenario in humans is that exposure to EDC mixtures leads to increasing risk of related diseases at the ecological level, but inconsistent associations would be expected in traditional epidemiological studies. Although epidemiologists have long relied on Bradford Hill's criteria to objectively evaluate whether associations observed in epidemiology can be interpreted as causal, there are challenges to use these criteria for EDCs, particularly concerning consistency across studies and the findings of linear dose-response relationships. At the individual level, compared to EDCs with short half-lives, epidemiological studies of EDCs with long half-lives among populations with a relatively low exposure dose range of exposure can likely produce relatively more reliable results, because the measurement of EDCs with long half-lives likely represents typical long-term exposure and populations with exposure in the low range of doses are likely to have a reference group closer to non-exposure.

Textes antiques et grand public : enjeux de traduction

Every translation task raises a slew of complex methodological issues. For ancient languages, these questions are even more outstanding due to the time lag ; this is why we consider their discrete exploration to be crucial. This paper identifies the specificities of translation from ancient languages into modern languages, defines the particular challenges arising and suggests theoretical and methodological leads to tackle them. Considering that every translation recreates a communication situation, we analyze the specificity of the translation of ancient texts in the light of sociolinguistic and pragmatic theories. From linguistic to extralinguistic features, we review the different elements of R. Jakobson’s interpretation process with regard to the translation of classics. We explore how the characteristics of the original communication situation and those of the situation recreated for the translation can be considered to determine a translation strategy. This interdisciplinary approach lays the foundations for a theoretical and methodological thought about ancient texts translation in the French speaking academic world.

Languages in motion: Multilingualism and mobility in the linguistic landscape

This special issue of the International Journal of Bilingualism is concerned with the interplay of multilingualism and mobility in the linguistic landscape (henceforth LL). The various contributors to this special issue view LL studies as offering a way of investigating multilingualism and mobil- ity. The LL is understood herein as an expression of multilingualism in society, a site where lan- guage, together with other semiotic resources, is involved in the symbolic construction of multilingual spaces. The LL is a crucial site in which the mobility of language resources can be mapped. This dual attention to multilingualism and mobility is motivated by recent theorising in sociolinguistics, as well as our collective interest in the ever-expanding discipline of LL studies. The aim is to bring together research that addresses complex theoretical and methodological issues within the emerging paradigm of the sociolinguistics of globalisation (Coupland, 2010; Heller, 2007; Pennycook, 2010) in which mobility plays a crucial role in the study of multilingualism (Blommaert, 2010). By investigating language practices in the LL, our focus is specifically on language in motion, a process by which different linguistic resources are in a state of translocality, meaning they are on the move across various trajectories of time and space (cf. Blommaert, 2010; Johnstone, 2010). Such a focus allows us to begin to examine what the consequences for languages may be through these processes of mobility enabled by globalisation. Specifically, we seek to investigate how these processes manifest themselves in the LL. We take an approach to LL research proposed by Stroud and Mpendukana (2009), where the LL embodies the social distribution of multilingual resources that in turn have consequences for language ideologies, discourses and practices. Throughout each of the articles we seek to trace the trajectories of mobile linguistic resources and analyse the consequences of these flows for language ideologies.Recently, there have been calls for a more contextualised, historical and critical approach that can produce a 'greater understanding of the larger socio-political meanings of linguistic land- scapes' (Leeman & Modan, 2009, p. 332). Indeed, the LL of a given community has become an influential site of contestation and negotiation, appropriation and resistance of multilingualism. The LL provides important clues to the nature of multilingualism in the community and often pro- vides a more accurate account of the lived sociolinguistic reality of a given community than offi- cial language policies do. By viewing the LL in this way we see it as an important site for the investigation of how the processes of mobility are impacting on the linguistic hierarchy of given places and spaces. From this perspective, the current volume will investigate the discourse of mul- tilingualism across four research sites located in Ireland, Finnish Lapland, Ethiopia and the United States. More specifically, our goal within this special issue is to examine what linguistic resources get (re) mobilised and the potential consequences of such mobility. With this in mind, each of the articles is orientated around the following set of questions:1. What linguistic resources get mobilised and for what purposes?2. What is the indexical value of these language resources?3. How do varying language communities use the LL in different ways to address the issues of global flows and mobility?4. In what way do the processes of language mobility stir language hierarchies and values attached to the language resources evident in these spaces?5. What are the consequences for language ideologies?Key to such an investigation is an understanding of language as a mobile resource, in line with Heller (2007, p. 2) who argues: '(...) language as a set of resources which circulate in unequal ways in social networks and discursive spaces and whose meaning and value are socially con- structed within the constraints of social organisational processes, under specific historical condi- tions'. …

Evidence-based medicine in metastatic spine disease

Treatment modalities for metastatic spine disease have significantly expanded over the last two decades. This expansion occurred in many different fields. Improvement in surgical techniques and instrumentation now allow the oncologic spine surgeons to effectively circumferentially decompress the neural elements without compromising stability. Percutaneous techniques, both vertebral augmentation and pre-operative endovascular embolization procedures, also greatly benefit patients suffering from spinal column metastasis. Imaging technology advances has contributed to better pre-operative planning and the development of highly conformational radiation techniques, thus permitting the delivery of high-dose radiation to tumors, while avoiding radiotoxicity to the spinal cord and other vital structures. These new developments, combined with evidence-based stability and disease-specific quality of life scores now allow not only better treatment, but also a solid foundation for high-quality research. Spine oncology literature currently suffers from a lack of high-quality evidence due to low prevalence of the disease and complex methodological issues. However, when following evidence-based medicine principles, which incorporate best available evidence, clinical expertise and patient preference, sound, evidence-based recommendations can be made regarding the abovementioned treatment modalities.

Doing Sensitive Research Sensitively: Ethical and Methodological Issues in Researching Workplace Bullying

Complex ethical and methodological issues can sometimes arise when conducting research into sensitive topics. By employing an autobiographic approach to explore the personal dilemmas that arose for the author while undertaking doctoral research on workplace bullying in Irish education, this article highlights potential difficulties and tensions which may arise for researchers (particularly those at the beginning of their careers) when conducting sensitive research. Specific attention is paid to the importance of protecting the researcher from harm, the exiting of the research relationship in an appropriate manner, and the necessity of anticipating potential problems before they become manifest.

Dialoguer avec l’Antiquité. Cadre sociolinguistique et pragmatique pour la traduction des textes antiques

Every translation task raises a slew of complex methodological issues. For ancient languages, these questions are even more outstanding due to the time lag ; this is why we consider their discrete exploration to be crucial. This paper identifies the specificities of translation from ancient languages into modern languages, defines the particular challenges arising and suggests theoretical and methodological leads to tackle them. Considering that every translation recreates a communication situation, we analyze the specificity of the translation of ancient texts in the light of sociolinguistic and pragmatic theories. From linguistic to extralinguistic features, we review the different elements of R. Jakobson’s interpretation process with regard to the translation of classics. We explore how the characteristics of the original communication situation and those of the situation recreated for the translation can be considered to determine a translation strategy. This interdisciplinary approach lays the foundations for a theoretical and methodological thought about ancient texts translation in the French speaking academic world.