Conceptual Question Research Articles

Doctoring Traditions: Ayurveda, Small Technologies, and Braided Sciences by Projit Bihari Mukharji

Reviewed by: Doctoring Traditions: Ayurveda, Small Technologies, and Braided Sciences by Projit Bihari Mukharji Rohan Deb Roy Projit Bihari Mukharji. Doctoring Traditions: Ayurveda, Small Technologies, and Braided Sciences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016. xi + 374 pp. Ill. $45.00 (978-0-226-38313-2). Historians of British India have predominantly examined the role of the colonial state in the making and deployment of modern medicine. Medicines have featured not just as indispensable tools of colonial governance, but also as products of intercultural colonial encounters. Most of these existing works privilege sources in the European languages, particularly English. Colonized peoples find a place in this literature primarily as either victims or stakeholders in the colonial medical apparatus. These inclusions have enabled a more complete assessment of the workings of the imperial state, apart from also revealing the global roots of Western European and Anglo-American science and medicine. In contrast, new critical studies have begun to examine the specific lifeworlds of colonized people as primary objects of inquiry by focusing on sources in non-European languages. In this book, Projit Bihari Mukharji, one of the most prolific contributors to this genre of scholarship, has written a history of “modern Ayurveda” in colonial Bengal. In the historiography of Ayurveda for this period, it is unique in its focus on Bengal, and in its sustained integration of intellectual history with an analysis of material culture. Mukharji has pursued the challenge of emphasizing modern Ayurvedic practices in Bengal without romanticizing indigenous cultures. It is, therefore, a significant intervention at a time when Ayurveda is being celebrated as an untainted symbol of pristine Indian tradition and nationhood. Revealingly, a statement attributed to a senior representative of the Union Government of India in 2016 claimed that “doctors prescribing non-Ayurvedic medicines are anti-nationals.”1 This book can be read as a timely scholarly indictment of these widely prevalent ahistorical positions. Doctoring Traditions argues that “modern Ayurveda” is not a timeless medical genre. Rather, it demonstrates that Bengali writers and practitioners assembled it in the period between 1870 and 1930 from a global repertoire of therapies, ideas, material objects, and expertise. “Modern Ayurveda” acquired deep roots in Bengal through its entanglements with intimate identity politics of neighborhoods, aspirational castes, regional religious cults, and consumption practices of middle classes. Mukharji charts out (especially in the concluding chapter) how the reconstruction of this material-cultural field (modern Ayurveda) was achieved through the marginalization of various practices. Implicit in this book is a refreshing critique of essentialism. Mukharji keenly traces messy, recalcitrant and heterogeneous pasts that are often concealed by black-boxed historical categories. He shows in each chapter that “modern [End Page 813] Ayurveda” in Bengal conjured up multiple visions of the human body and its vitality. Modern Ayurveda was itself “produced through the braiding” of dissimilar epistemological traditions: “‘West’ and ‘East’” (p. 2) or “Sanskritic and European (accessed mostly through English) sciences” (p. 43). At the same time, he is attentive to the ways in which the “knowledge traditions” implicated in the “braiding” themselves contained “internal differences,” which could be “extremely antagonistic and mutually irreconcilable” (p. 24). Mukharji’s nuanced interpretation of historical categories is further evident in his sophisticated treatment of technologies. The key chapters of the book are structured around specific technologies: pocket watches, thermometers, microscopes, and organotherapy. Mukharji argues that these “small technologies” were “instigators” (p. 257) that engendered different metaphorical and material conceptions about the human body held by modern Ayurveda. However, this is not a straightforward story of technological determinism. Rather, Mukharji shows that each of these technologies was informed by the cultural history of contemporary Bengal, which occasioned porous boundaries between various ostensibly distinct domains: the scientific and the sacred, the statistical and the indigenous, the scriptural and the mundane. He reveals that these technologies seldom worked effectively on their own, but rather through constant interplay with human bodies, cultural values, and therapeutic practice. Doctoring Traditions opens up for analysis the conceptual question of how “small technologies” ought to be defined. Should they be defined in terms of their size, their everydayness, or their ability to be handled by nonspecialists? Were microscopes or organotherapy “small technologies” in the same sense...

Improving remote sensing crop classification by argumentation-based conflict resolution in ensemble learning

The acquisition of data through remote sensing has become of great importance in precision agriculture, as it covers large geographical areas faster and cheaper than ground inspections. The challenge is to develop technical solutions that can benefit from both huge amounts of raw data extracted from satellite images, but also from the robust amount of knowledge refined during centuries of agricultural practice. Aiming to accurately classify crops from satellite images, we developed a hybrid intelligent system that can exploit both agricultural expert knowledge and machine learning algorithms. As the crop raw data is characterized by heterogeneity, we drive our attention to ensemble learners, while expert knowledge is encapsulated within a rule-based system. Vote-based methods for solving conflicts between ensemble’s base learners have difficulties in classifying exceptional cases correctly and also to give the rationale behind their decision. The conceptual research question is on conflict resolution in ensemble learning. To deal with debatable cases in ensemble learning and to increase transparency in such debatable decisions, our hypothesis is that argumentation could be more effective than voting-based methods. The main contribution is that voting system in ensemble learning is substituted by an argumentation-base conflict resolutor. Prospective decisions of base classifiers are presented to an argumentative system based on defeasible logic that performs dialectical reasoning on pros and cons against a classification decision. The system computes a recommendation considering both the rules extracted from base learners and the available expert knowledge. The investigated case study deals with crop classification into four classes: corn, soybean, cotton, and rice. The test site used for the experiment is an area of 20 square kilometers in the New Madrid County, southeast of the Missouri State, USA. The results show that our approach increases classification accuracy compared to the voting-based method for conflict resolution in an ensemble learner comprising of three base classifiers: a decision tree, a neural network, and a support vector machine algorithm. We also argue that combining ensemble learning and argumentation fits the decision patterns of human agents, who first collect various opinions and then perform dialectical reasoning on these opinions. We think that the people who can benefit from the conceptual instrumentation presented in this work are decision makers in domains characterized by high data availability, robust expert knowledge, and a need for justifying the rationale behind decisions.

How to infer non-Abelian statistics and topological visibility from tunneling conductance properties of realistic Majorana nanowires

We consider a simple conceptual question with respect to Majorana zero modes in semiconductor nanowires: Can the measured non-ideal values of the zero-bias-conductance-peak in the tunneling experiments be used as a characteristic to predict the underlying topological nature of the proximity induced nanowire superconductivity? In particular, we define and calculate the topological visibility, which is a variation of the topological invariant associated with the scattering matrix of the system as well as the zero-bias-conductance-peak heights in the tunneling measurements, in the presence of dissipative broadening, using realistic nanowire parameters to connect the topological invariants with the zero bias tunneling conductance values. This dissipative broadening is present in both (the existing) tunneling measurements and also (any future) braiding experiments as an inevitable consequence of a finite braiding time. The connection between the topological visibility and the conductance allows us to obtain the visibility of realistic braiding experiments in nanowires, and to conclude that the current experimentally accessible systems with non-ideal zero bias conductance peaks may indeed manifest (with rather low visibility) non-Abelian statistics for the Majorana zero modes. In general, we find that large (small) superconducting gap (Majorana peak splitting) is essential for the manifestation of the non-Abelian braiding statistics, and in particular, a zero bias conductance value of around half the ideal quantized Majorana value should be sufficient for the manifestation of non-Abelian statistics in experimental nanowires.

The Investigation of Chemistry Questions Asked in Free Boarding and Scholarship Examination for High School Level in the Context of Algorithmic and Conceptual Question Type

Ogretim programlarinin yurutulmesinde en onemli kaynak olarak ders kitaplari gorulmekle birlikte merkezi sistemle yapilan sinavlarda sorulan kimya sorulari, kimya ogretim programina gore hazirlandiklari icin ogretim programinin yansimalari olarak dusunulebilir. Bu calismanin amaci, 1998- 2015 yillari arasinda lise 9, 10 ve 11. Siniflar icin yapilan Parasiz Yatililik Ve Bursluluk Sinavi (PYBS) 'nda sorulan 140 kimya sorusunu “Algoritmik”, “Kavramsal” soru tipi baglaminda incelemektir. Calisma betimsel bir calismadir. Veri analizinde, nitel arastirma kapsaminda yer alan dokuman analizi yontemi kullanilmistir. Crosstabs ve Kappa istatistigi kullanilmistir. Elde edilen bulgular, PYBS' ndasorulan sorularin toplamda %80’inin kavramsal, %20’sinin algoritmik sorular oldugunu ortaya koymustur. Soru turlerinin yillara gore dagilimiyla ilgili bulgular ise PYBS' nda sorulan sorularin cogunlukla kavramsal sorulardan olustugunu gostermektedir. Elde edilen bulgular ilgili literaturle ve kimya ogretim programiyla iliskilendirilerek kimya konularinin kavramsal ogretimine yonelik cikarimlar yapilmistir

Yes! There are resilient generalizations (or "laws") in ecology.

ABSTRACT It is often argued that ecological communities admit of no useful generalizations or "laws" because these systems are especially prone to contingent historical events. Detractors respond that this argument assumes an overly stringent definition of laws of nature. Under a more relaxed conception, it is argued that ecological laws emerge at the level of communities and elsewhere. A brief review of this debate reveals an issue with deep philosophical roots that is unlikely to be resolved by a better understanding of generalizations in ecology. We therefore propose a strategy for transforming the conceptual question about the nature of ecological laws into a set of empirically tractable hypotheses about the relative re- silience of ecological generalizations across three dimensions: taxonomy, habitat type, and scale. These hypotheses are tested using a survey of 240 meta-analyses in ecology. Our central finding is that generalizations in community ecology are just as prevalent and as resilient as those in population or ecosystem ecology. These findings should help to establish community ecology as a generality-seeking science as opposed to a science of case studies. It also supports the capacity for ecologists, working at any of the three levels, to inform matters of public policy.

Peer Instruction: Using Isomorphic Questions to Document Learning Gains in a Small Statics Class

AbstractPeer instruction (PI) is an in-class instructional technique implemented to promote an active learning environment. Within this pedagogy, students respond to a multiple-choice conceptual question (often using electronic clickers and a classroom response system), engage in peer discussions, then re-respond to the original conceptual question, and finally participate in a classwide discussion facilitated by the instructor. An improvement in the correct response rate is common and is often associated with student learning during the peer discussion phase of the process. To observe the effectiveness of PI in a small engineering statics class, the PI sequence was modified by including an isomorphic question; the resulting learning gains were measured. Three surveys were also distributed during the course to gauge student attitudes toward PI. Findings show that (1) PI improved student conceptual understanding, (2) the resulting learning gains are not statistically affected by a student’s preclass prepar...

A Ten Week, First‐semester Biochemistry Lab Course Studying Bacterial Alkaline Phosphatase

In a traditional introductory biochemistry lab, students are expected to learn a variety of standard biochemical techniques. One of the challenges in designing a lab curriculum is finding a way to engage students in a way where they not only learn the necessary skills, but see how different aspects of biochemistry work together with one another. This work describes a 10 week laboratory project studying wild‐type and mutant bacterial alkaline phosphatase, where students purifying, quantitate, and perform kinetic assays on wild‐type and selected mutants of the enzyme. Additionally, students also perform vector DNA analysis. In addition to simply learning important techniques, students acquire novel biochemical data in their kinetic analysis of mutant enzyme. The experiments are designed to build on student's work from week to week in a way that encourages students to apply quantitative analysis and reasoning skills, reinforcing traditional textbook biochemical concepts. Students are assessed through lab reports focused on journal style writing, quantitative and conceptual question sheets, and traditional exams. Students also are surveyed to obtain data relating to their perception of the efficacy of the course design and in achievement of learning outcomes.Support or Funding InformationThis work was supported by The University of Tampa Dana Foundation Grant; The University of Tampa David Delo Research Professor Grant; The University of Tampa College of Natural and Health Sciences; and The University of Tampa Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Physics.

Against Context-blind Embedded Scalar Implicatures

A sentence like #Jane assigned an A to some of her students is odd in the context where every professor always assigns the same grade to all of his students, and Jane is a professor. Magri(2009, 2011) suggests that its oddness comes from the mismatch between the scalar implicature that Jane did not assign an A to all of her students and the contextual information. In Magri(2011) the focus moves from the analysis of unembedded cases to embedded cases, especially in downward entailing contexts. He argues that his mismatching implicature reasoning can also explain oddness of embedded cases. In this paper, after discussing empirical problems of Magri’s theory, I propose an alternative analysis. More specifically, I show that two conditions − Ban on Underinformativity and Ban on Overinformativity − can successfully account for the data in question. Finally, I discuss Spector(2014), and point out a conceptual question arising from his proposal.

Corporate responsibility and the idea of the firm

<p>An appeal to some version of corporate responsibility has become a strategic issue for business. There are many interpretations of this idea, but it is unlikely that companies can ignore the debate about this issue. Many companies and most global corporations make public claims about their corporate responsibilities in addition to claims about financial outcomes and success. These claims range from informal contributions to public debate, to responses to issues of public concern, to formal reporting on the basis of sets of objectives and targets.</p><p><br />This raises a conceptual question: to what extent, if at all, do claims about corporate responsibility have implications for the idea of the firm. The argument developed in this paper is one attempt to address this conceptual question.</p><p><br />I will start by setting out one version of the idea of the firm and its core or traditional responsibilities, and then work through a series of possible further responsibilities. Each of these further responsibilities will be incorporated into the initial version in order to understand potential implications for the idea of the firm.</p><p><br />The argument in this paper does not assume that this initial version of the idea of the firm is the only possible version, or that the particular dimensions of responsibility described here are the only possible dimensions. However, given this version and these dimensions the paper will consider the kinds of issues that various claims about corporate responsibility would raise for the idea of the firm, and in particular for the boundaries of the firm. The structure of the argument and the specific implications of the responsibilities identified can be assessed separately; the former may continue to be useful even if the latter are disputed or incorrect. In addition, the structure of the argument should make it possible to change the content or the ordering of the specific responsibilities while retaining the overall argument.</p><p>This paper does not explicitly distinguish between a series of concepts related to the broad idea of corporate responsibility including corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability, and corporate citizenship among others. These concepts may refer to different aspects of a firm’s responsibilities. For example ‘sustainability’ is increasingly central to the public claims made by firms, and in many cases refers to a specific set of primarily environmental responsibilities. The issues raised by these various concepts can be discussed further.</p><p><br />The argument developed does not make claims about whether the implications discussed are desirable, even if the arguments about the implications for the firm are accurate. However, the argument does aim to open up some of the issues that these claims would need to address if any of these implications were considered desirable.</p><p><br />This paper is intended as a contribution to a continuing debate and is not a closed argument. It is intended to promote a discussion of the adequacy, the empirical implications, and the ethical implications of the arguments presented, and to stimulate further critical analysis.</p>

Does the Presence of Voice Imply the Absence of Silence? The Necessity to Consider Employees’ Affective Attachment and Job Engagement

Employer-sponsored voice practices ( ESVPs) are a tool used by human resource management to increase voice behavior and fulfill legal requirements for employee participation and consultation. Conceptual papers question the usefulness of ESVPs, arguing that they may promote selective expression at work in the way that employees who use ESVPs suggest work-related process improvements (i.e., promotive voice) but still remain silent about issues that disturb smooth cooperation (i.e., cooperative silence). Prior research that treated voice and silence as being mutually exclusive cannot clarify how using ESVPs relates to voice and silence and under which conditions these links are particularly strong. Drawing from an employee survey in a UK branch of a multinational technology company, we apply a differentiated approach that treats voice and silence as separate behaviors and considers their specific motivators. Results from structural equation modeling show that even though employees use ESVPs and engage in voice, silence may still linger as a potential threat to performance and well-being. Moreover, moderator analyses revealed that affective attachment to the organization increased and job engagement decreased the occurrence of this potentially dangerous coincidence. Our findings provide evidence for the usefulness of more differentiated approaches to employee voice and silence and indicate that factors that facilitate voice, be they formal procedures or pro-organizational attitudes, might not suffice to overcome silence at work. We close with a discussion on ways to facilitate voice while reducing silence at the same time. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate Responsibility and the Idea of the Firm

An appeal to some version of corporate responsibility has become a strategic issue for business. There are many interpretations of this idea, but it is unlikely that companies can ignore the debate about this issue. Many companies and most global corporations make public claims about their corporate responsibilities in addition to claims about financial outcomes and success. These claims range from informal contributions to public debate, to responses to issues of public concern, to formal reporting on the basis of sets of objectives and targets. This raises a conceptual question: to what extent, if at all, do claims about corporate responsibility have implications for the idea of the firm. The argument developed in this paper is one attempt to address this conceptual question. I start by setting out one version of the idea of the firm and its core or traditional responsibilities, and then work through a series of possible further responsibilities. Each of these further responsibilities will be incorporated into the initial version in order to understand potential implications for the idea of the firm.The argument in this paper does not assume that this initial version of the idea of the firm is the only possible version, or that the particular dimensions of responsibility described here are the only possible dimensions. However, given this version and these dimensions the paper considers the kinds of issues that various claims about corporate responsibility raise for the idea of the firm, and in particular for the boundaries of the firm. The structure of the argument and the specific implications of the responsibilities identified can be assessed separately; the former may continue to be useful even if the latter are disputed or incorrect. In addition, the structure of the argument should make it possible to change the content or the ordering of the specific responsibilities while retaining the overall argument.This paper does not explicitly distinguish between a series of concepts related to the broad idea of corporate responsibility including corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability, and corporate citizenship among others. These concepts may refer to different aspects of a firm’s responsibilities. For example ‘sustainability’ is increasingly central to the public claims made by firms, and in many cases refers to a specific set of primarily environmental responsibilities. The issues raised by these various concepts can be discussed further. The argument developed does not make claims about whether the implications discussed are desirable, even if the arguments about the implications for the firm are accurate. However, the argument does aim to open up some of the issues that these claims would need to address if any of these implications were considered desirable.

Integrating Military and Veteran Culture in Social Work Education: Implications for Curriculum Inclusion

This article explores the conceptual question of how to best integrate military culture and issues into social work education. Military service members, veterans, and their families are returning to civilian communities with the ending of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and seeking community-based providers for health and mental health treatments. Civilian social workers need to have an appreciation for the unique psychosocial stressors and needs of this population to be able to engage and intervene effectively with them. The military lifestyle and its demands require an understanding of topics that include coping and adaptation to stress, ecological and systems theories, family roles and functioning, community capacity to support the population, and the effect of these across the lifespan.

How Hyponarrativity May Hinder Antidepressants’ “Happy Ending”

How Hyponarrativity May Hinder Antidepressants’ “Happy Ending” Ginger A. Hoffman (bio) Keywords cbt, depression, hyponarrativity, anti-depressants, major depressive disorder, Prozac psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, cognitive therapy, narrative theories of the self In A Logic in Madness, Aaron J. Hauptman (2015) presents the case of Mr. A, a college-age man suffering from the unexpected and cruel severance of a romantic relationship. This breakup caused Mr. A to become severely depressed, harboring a desire to starve himself. However, Mr. A adamantly refused any sort of pharmacotherapy for his condition. Being someone who has “a doggedness with rationality” (p. 304) and who cares deeply about being logical, he offered several arguments and reasons for his refusal. One of these was: “I am depressed for a very good reason and if, because of that, I have these feelings then it is right for me to have these feelings” (p. 304). He further regarded drug therapy as “dishonest,” “despicable,” and “disloyal” (p. 304). Mr. A’s case beautifully showcases several intersecting questions at the heart of philosophy of psychiatry and psychiatric practice. Here, I focus upon only one: ‘what should be done about Mr. A’s situation?’1 Although Hauptman raises a related question: ‘Is Mr. A suffering from a disease, or from heartbreak?’, the question about what should be done may or may not be linked to Hauptman’s conceptual question in more or less complex ways, and is arguably the more urgent question for Mr. A, his clinicians, his parents, and his friends. As I understand it, Mr. A has three main options: (1). receive no treatment; (2). receive pharmacotherapy (what I will also call ‘drug therapy’ or ‘antidepressants.’ This is considered an ‘external’ or ‘direct’ manipulation of his brain chemistry.); or (3). receive psychotherapy i.e., some sort of ‘talk therapy’). The tension that drives this case is that clearly no treatment is bad, because it is the option that carries the largest risk of self-starvation, but Mr. A steadfastly refuses drug therapy. So much of the case is painted as a Scyllan and Charybdian choice between (1) and (2). Oddly (it seems to me), psychotherapy is not introduced as an option in Hauptman's discussion until later. I found this puzzling, insofar as many consider it textbook knowledge that certain forms of psychotherapy [End Page 317] are equally effective as medication (Holmes 2001, 234–5; Kaplan and Sadock 2007, 961; see also Hollon and Ponniah 2010). Granted, equal effectiveness becomes more shaky in cases of severe depression (see discussion in Biegler 2011), but there is still evidence for sometimes equal effectiveness in this context (DeRubeis et al. 2005), and certainly psychotherapy stands a better chance of effectiveness than no treatment at all. I am curious about what institutional, economic, and other factors led to this delayed introduction, and whether Hauptman would think that such factors should be combatted. My curiosity is coupled to my main aim here: to present a novel consideration in support of psychotherapy.2 Because psychotherapy is the outcome that Hauptman calls “a success in many regards” (2015, 305), I am in broad agreement with him. I am not sure, however, as to whether our agreement would extend to the specific consideration I present here. Notably, I do not think my consideration here is necessarily the most important one in this decision, especially because the issue of forced treatment and violation of autonomy loom very large. But I hope that it may serve as an additional way to shed light on the merits of psychotherapy in Mr. A’s case. Furthermore, I believe it is a consideration that Mr. A himself might have found appealing and conceptually useful. The Potential Hyponarrativity of Antidepressants Consider Hauptman’s presentation of Mr. A’s position against drug treatment on p. 304: “To modulate that [depressed state] externally [i.e., with drugs] … would mean to affect his brain in a way that it should not be affected.” Because my consideration in favor of psychotherapy (3) is largely structured as a consideration against drug therapy (2) paired with an assumption, for the purposes of this paper, that no treatment (1) is off the table...

The philosophical aspects of hate crime and hate crime legislation: introducing the special section on the philosophy of hate crime.

In this introduction to the special symposium on the philosophy of hate crime, we provide an overview of the main philosophical aspects of hate crime and hate crime legislation. We point out that there are two overarching philosophical issues that span over the literature: the Conceptual Question--concerning what hate crime is--and the Normative Question--concerning the status of hate crimes and the justification of hate crime legislation. We also provide brief summaries of the articles in the special section and point to their relations to the broader themes.

Critical behaviours of contact near phase transitions.

A central quantity of importance for ultracold atoms is contact, which measures two-body correlations at short distances in dilute systems. It appears in universal relations among thermodynamic quantities, such as large momentum tails, energy and dynamic structure factors, through the renowned Tan relations. However, a conceptual question remains open as to whether or not contact can signify phase transitions that are insensitive to short-range physics. Here we show that, near a continuous classical or quantum phase transition, contact exhibits a variety of critical behaviours, including scaling laws and critical exponents that are uniquely determined by the universality class of the phase transition, and a constant contact per particle. We also use a prototypical exactly solvable model to demonstrate these critical behaviours in one-dimensional strongly interacting fermions. Our work establishes an intrinsic connection between the universality of dilute many-body systems and universal critical phenomena near a phase transition.

The Politics of Developmental State Persistence: Institutional Origins, Industrialization, and Provincial Challenge

How and why do developmental state institutions persist? We address this conceptual question through an empirical puzzle: even though Pakistan and Turkey, like South Korea and Taiwan, constructed postwar developmental state institutions, the Pakistani and Turkish economies have been unable to upgrade to higher value-added production following the Korean and Taiwanese experience. If, as many scholars argue, the creation of developmental state institutions is necessary and sufficient for high growth outcomes, how can we understand the divergence between these two sets of cases? We argue that that the persistence of developmental state institutions is contingent on the absence of articulated opposition from agrarian actors and provincial capitalists against regimes of industrial promotion. While Korea and Taiwan suppressed or co-opted potential challengers from the countryside, such actors in Pakistan and Turkey effectively challenged the developmental state in the mid-1970s. We suggest that the politics of developmental state persistence are analytically distinct from the origins of developmental states, thus enabling a more dynamic understanding of the relationship between the politics of developmental state institutions and late industrialization.

Configuring the foreign correspondent: New questions about China’s public diplomacy

The perennial narrative of foreign correspondents’ misadventures in China alerts us to a blind spot in current examinations of China’s public diplomacy efforts. Much work has been done to indicate the level of efforts on the part of the state actors in their engagement of public diplomacy exercises. However, how foreign media shapes the success or failure of public diplomacy is not at all clear. Yet knowing the answer to this question is crucial if we are to understand the depth and breadth of the challenges facing China’s public diplomacy goals. Concerned with this question, this article, combining institutional and historical analyses, centres upon the figure of the foreign correspondent in China, and raises the empirical and conceptual question of the role of the foreign correspondent in China’s public diplomacy agenda. The article’s main objective is to chart a new direction in the examination of China’s soft power, public diplomacy and communication strategies.

How penalty leads to improvement: A measurement study of wireless backoff in IEEE 802.11 networks

Despite much theoretical work, different modifications of backoff protocols in 802.11 networks lack empirical evidence demonstrating their real-life performance. To fill the gap we have set out to experiment with performance of exponential backoff by varying its backoff factor. Despite the satisfactory results for throughput, we have witnessed poor fairness manifesting in severe capture effect. The design of standard backoff protocol allows already successful nodes to remain successful, giving little chance to those nodes that failed to capture the channel in the beginning. With this at hand, we ask a conceptual question: Can one improve the performance of wireless backoff by introducing a mechanism of self-penalty, when overly successful nodes are penalized with big contention windows? Our real-life measurements using commodity hardware demonstrate that in many settings such mechanism not only allows to achieve better throughput, but also assures nearly perfect fairness. We further corroborate these results with simulations and an analytical model. Finally, we present a backoff factor selection protocol which can be implemented in access points to enable deployment of the penalty backoff protocol to consumer devices.

Conceptual question response times in Peer Instruction classrooms

Classroom response systems are widely used in interactive teaching environments as a way to engage students by asking them questions. Previous research on the time taken by students to respond to conceptual questions has yielded insights on how students think and change conceptions. We measure the amount of time students take to respond to in-class, conceptual questions [ConcepTests (CTs)] in two introductory physics courses taught using Peer Instruction and use item response theory to determine the difficulty of the CTs. We examine response time differences between correct and incorrect answers both before and after the peer discussion for CTs of varying difficulty. We also determine the relationship between response time and student performance on a standardized test of incoming physics knowledge, precourse self-efficacy, and gender. Our data reveal three results of interest. First, response time for correct answers is significantly faster than for incorrect answers, both before and after peer discussion, especially for easy CTs. Second, students with greater incoming physics knowledge and higher self-efficacy respond faster in both rounds. Third, there is no gender difference in response rate after controlling for incoming physics knowledge scores, although males register significantly more attempts before committing to a final answer than do female students. These results provide insight into effective CT pacing during Peer Instruction. In particular, in order to maintain a pace that keeps everyone engaged, students should not be given too much time to respond. When around 80% of the answers are in, the ratio of correct to incorrect responses rapidly approaches levels indicating random guessing and instructors should close the poll.Received 31 March 2014DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.10.020113This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical Society

Traditionally taught students learn; actively engaged students remember

A common narrative in physics education research is that students taught in lecture-based classes learn less than those taught with activity-based reformed methods. We show this narrative is simplistic and misses important dynamics of student learning. In particular, we find students of both methods show equal short-term learning gains on a conceptual question dealing with electric potential. For traditionally taught students, this learning rapidly decays on a time scale of weeks, vanishing by the time of the typical end-of-term post-test. For students in reform-based classes, however, the knowledge is retained and may even be enhanced by subsequent instruction. This difference explains the many previous pre- and post-test studies that have found minimal learning gains in lecture-based courses. Our findings suggest a more nuanced model of student learning, one that is sensitive to time-dependent effects such as forgetting and interference. In addition, the findings suggest that lecture-based courses, by incorporating aspects designed to reinforce student understanding of previously covered topics, might approach the long-term learning found in research-based pedagogies.