Contextual Variation Research Articles

Integrating Context to Preferences and Goals for Goal-oriented Adaptability of Software Systems

AbstractModern software systems are continuously seeking for adaptability realizations, to generate better fit behaviours in response to domain changes. Requirements variability motivates adaptability; hence, understanding the influence of the domain changes, i.e. context variability, to requirements variability is necessary. In this paper, we propose an approach for context-based requirements variability analysis in the goal-oriented requirements modelling. We define contextual goals and contextual preferences to specify the relationships of contexts with requirements and preferences, respectively. Given a requirements problem represented through a goal model, we use the contextual goals to derive applicable solutions at a given situation. Then, from those applicable solutions, we use the contextual preferences as criteria for evaluating and selecting the ones that would best satisfy stakeholder priorities. To support our variability analysis, we develop a tool to automate the derivation and evaluation of the solutions. We further demonstrate the use of our approach in detecting modelling errors and validating the impact of prioritizations, leading to improvements in the requirements specifications. Our approach broadens the scope of requirements variability by weaving context variability with both stakeholder goals and preferences, in order to sufficiently represent the adaptability needs of software systems where contextual changes are commonplace.

Contraceptive use in Eswatini: do contextual influences matter?

This study sought to investigate the determinants of current use of modern contraceptives beyond the individual level in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). Previous studies have overlooked the role of community characteristics such as socioeconomic development, women's empowerment and fertility norms in shaping contraceptive use. Hierarchical structured subsample data of 4112 sexually experienced women from the 2007 Eswatini Demographic Health Survey were analysed using multilevel logistic regression to identify factors contributing to community/cluster variations in women's current use of modern contraceptives. Less than half (44.2%) of the sexually active women were using modern contraceptive methods in 2007. At the community level, the odds of contraceptive use decreased for rural women (AOR = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.68-0.98) and among women residing in communities with high-fertility norms (AOR = 0.77, 95% CI: 0.66-0.89). After adjusting for both individual- and community-level factors, no community-level variables considered for the study were significantly associated with contraceptive use. The findings highlight in all four models, from the empty to full model, that there is a small and decreasing significant variation in women's contraceptive use across communities (MOR, 1.37-1.17). In 2007, the findings suggest individual rather than community factors account for some contextual variability in contraceptive use. The study proposes the use of ethnographic techniques to unravel community factors that promote modern contraceptive use in Eswatini.

Neutralisation and contrast preservation

AbstractThis paper studies the contextual variation in the voicing properties of three-consonant clusters (CC#C) in Hungarian. We investigate the velar+alveolar stop clusters /kt/ and /ɡd/, and the alveolar fricative+stop clusters /st/ and /zd/ in potentially voicing-neutralising and assimilating contexts. We show that in these contexts, regressive voicing assimilation in Hungarian is categorical, but partially contrast preserving, and that stops and fricatives are not affected in the same way. Fricatives resist voicing before a voiced obstruent and are devoiced utterance-finally. This is a phonetically unfavourable position, therefore other duration-related cues step up to prevent complete laryngeal neutralisation.

Employing resilience engineering in eliciting software requirements for complex systems: experiments with the functional resonance analysis method (FRAM)

Resilience engineering provides concepts and methods for assessing the ability of socio-technical systems to adjust their functioning before, during, or after changes or disturbances. As such, this field of study has great potential to contribute to software engineering—particularly for the requirements specification for information systems—that deals with variability, unpredictability, and adaptation in complex contexts. Despite software engineers’ efforts, the requirements phase is still challenging, especially in complex socio-technical systems. In these systems, the software must be more resilient and adaptable to deal with uncertain situations. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the contributions of resilience engineering to requirements engineering to identify software requirements for complex systems. Two experiments were performed with software professionals to produce requirements specifications in healthcare. The participants used information from the functional resonance analysis method (FRAM) compared to business process modeling notation (BPMN). Both experiments were supported by a systematic approach called MacKnight. This study indicates innovative strategies to gather resilient software requirements from FRAM models for complex systems.

Utility of Focus Groups in Retrospective Analysis of Conflict Contexts

This article addresses the challenges of conducting retrospective qualitative research in conflict contexts, particularly those stemming from the susceptibility of retrospective accounts to present narratives and contextual variations in the experience and interpretations of war. This article shows how focus groups combined with in-depth interviews can be used as a strategy to overcome these challenges. Drawing on empirical examples from research conducted in conflict settings, the article shows how focus groups can be instrumental in culturally anchoring the researcher and accessing the most reliable accounts of the past via unearthing the locally relevant wartime events and war-induced dynamics.

Contextualizing the development of social essentialism.

Given the critical role that psychological essentialism is theorized to play in the development of stereotyping and prejudice, researchers have increasingly examined the extent to which and when children essentialize different social categories. We review and integrate the types of contextual and cultural variation that have emerged in the literature on social essentialism. We review variability in the development of social essentialism depending on experimental tasks, participant social group membership, language use, psychological salience of category kinds, exposure to diversity, and cultural norms. We also discuss future directions for research that would help to identify the contexts in which social essentialism is less likely to develop in order to inform interventions that could reduce social essentialism and possible negative consequences for intergroup relations.

P1763 Impact of disproportionate functional mitral regurgitation

Abstract Background Application of the effective regurgitant orifice area (EROA) and regurgitant volume (RegVol) is potentially limited as such lesion-focused metrics inevitably lack flexibility to account for the heterogeneity of left ventricular size and function. A recently proposed conceptual framework seeks to rearrange EROA and RegVol cut-offs according to left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LVEDV) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), introducing the novel term "disproportionate FMR" to describe clinically meaningful FMR. Methods To test the impact of disproportionate FMR, we embedded data of 291 heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) under guideline directed therapy (GDT) into this framework. Regurgitant Volume and EROA were plotted against LVEDV using bubble plots that also account for the heterogeneity of EF (Figure 1 A and C). The black lines depict a regurgitant fraction (RegFrac) of 50% at the median EF (25%) or Vmax (4.3m/s) of the study population. Thus, above individual center lines (illustrated by different bubble sizes) FMR severity is disproportionate, within the area of measurement uncertainty it is proportionate to LV dilation and below, it is likely non-severe. The degree of uncertainty of proportionate FMR is determined by the imprecision of the measurements defined as 2SDs of regurgitant fraction (±6.6%) per Bland-Altmann analysis. Results During a median follow-up of 84 months (IQR 84-136), 166 patients died. Disproportionate FMR was associated with excess mortality (RegVol: HR 1.97, 95%CI 1.38-2.81, P < 0.001; EROA: HR 2.22, 95%CI 1.52-3.22), whereas proportionate FMR was not associated with increased long-term mortality (RegVol: HR 1.04, 95%CI 0.71-1.53, P = 0.83; EROA: HR 1.06, 95%CI 0.71-1.58, P = 0.79; Figure 1B&D). Conclusions In this contemporary HFrEF cohort every fifth patient has disproportionate FMR which conveys a two-fold increased risk of mortality which provides evidence for the validity of the conceptual framework. Advancement of the proposed framework to clinical practice has several implications: 1)EROA and RegVol are metrics that do not account for the contextual variability of LVEDV and EF. 2)The RegFrac -not incorporated in ESC guidelines but integrated in AHA/ACC definitions- provides a metric proportionated to left ventricular size and function supporting its use to define relevant FMR. However, technical limits suggest its complementary use on top of more robust metrics such as EROA and RegVol. Future studies need to clarify whether disproportionate FMR reflects the subgroup of patients that benefit from mitral valve repair, and provide a robust algorithm that integrates the metrics of FMR severity in a complementary manner. Abstract P1763 Figure.

Achilles’ Desire for Lament: Variations on a Theme

In Iliad’s final books, the appearance of the formula “desire for lament” echoes a key narrative arc: Achilles’ shift from cyclical grief and vengeance to releasing his relentlessness along with Hektor’s body. The formula has no stated object when Achilles desires to weep for Patroklos, but, when Priam stirs Achilles to weep for his father, desire leaves Achilles and he takes pleasure in lament. The contextual variations of the formula “desire for lament” reinforce the poem’s final insights. In the Iliad, grief drives actions that do not satisfy; satisfaction comes only when such aimless desires for action are released.

Exploring Teacher Traits in Classroom Practices

Teachers play a key role to proliferate the educational system as they are at the implementation level of educational acts, rules and regulations. Their traits are at a flux because of temporal and contextual variations encountered in different settings. This context led this study to explore teacher traits in real classroom practices. To achieve this goal, phenomenological research design, as a type of qualitative inquiry, has been adopted. The population of the study comprised the stakeholders of Bachelor of Mountain Tourism Management (BMTM) programme conducted in Janapriya Multiple Campus, Pokhara. The tool for collecting information was non-participant class observation, in which three classes were observed. The results of the study reveal that teacher traits can be measured by triad roles like professional, administrative, and social dimensions. The study implies that teachers should be aware of these triad roles; and the current pedagogical trends and practices.

Acoustic\u2013phonetic and auditory mechanisms of adaptation in the perception of sibilant fricatives

Listeners are highly proficient at adapting to contextual variation when perceiving speech. In the present study, we examined the effects of brief speech and nonspeech contexts on the perception of sibilant fricatives. We explored three theoretically motivated accounts of contextual adaptation, based on phonetic cue calibration, phonetic covariation, and auditory contrast. Under the cue calibration account, listeners adapt by estimating a talker-specific average for each phonetic cue or dimension; under the cue covariation account, listeners adapt by exploiting consistencies in how the realization of speech sounds varies across talkers; under the auditory contrast account, adaptation results from (partial) masking of spectral components that are shared by adjacent stimuli. The spectral center of gravity, a phonetic cue to fricative identity, was manipulated for several types of context sound: /z/-initial syllables, /v/-initial syllables, and white noise matched in long-term average spectrum (LTAS) to the /z/-initial stimuli. Listeners’ perception of the /s/–/ʃ/ contrast was significantly influenced by /z/-initial syllables and LTAS-matched white noise stimuli, but not by /v/-initial syllables. No significant difference in adaptation was observed between exposure to /z/-initial syllables and matched white noise stimuli, and speech did not have a considerable advantage over noise when the two were presented consecutively within a context. The pattern of findings is most consistent with the auditory contrast account of short-term perceptual adaptation. The cue covariation account makes accurate predictions for speech contexts, but not for nonspeech contexts or for the absence of a speech-versus-nonspeech difference.

Differences in Distress Intolerance Among Daily and Intermittent Smokers.

Distress intolerance is an important risk factor for smokers. Smokers have greater problems tolerating distress than nonsmokers, and distress intolerance is theoretically an important predictor of early lapse. However, much of the distress intolerance research has been conducted on daily smokers. Understanding distress intolerance in nondaily or intermittent smokers may help elucidate whether distress intolerance is a function of current smoking habits. Daily (n = 36) and intermittent (n = 28) smokers completed behavioral distress intolerance tasks (breath holding, mirror tracing persistence, and image persistence) along with self-report measures of both general and smoking-specific distress intolerance. They also completed 1 week of ecological momentary assessment where positive and negative affect were assessed along with momentary distress intolerance, at both random times (7×/day) and immediately prior to smoking a cigarette. Results found no differences between intermittent and daily smokers on behavioral distress intolerance tasks or general self-reported distress intolerance. Daily smokers reported greater self-reported smoking-specific distress intolerance compared to intermittent smokers. In addition, across both smoker groups, momentary distress intolerance was higher at smoking compared to random sessions, and low positive affect predicted greater momentary distress intolerance specifically for intermittent smokers prior to smoking. The lack of differences between daily and intermittent smokers on general distress intolerance measures suggests that distress intolerance abilities and self-perceptions are not a function of higher levels of current smoking. However, the contextual variation in momentary distress intolerance is worth further exploration in both daily and intermittent smokers. The overall lack of differences between intermittent and daily smokers on distress intolerance tasks and self-report measures suggests that daily smoking is not associated with lower abilities to manage or tolerate distress at the individual difference level. However, understanding fluctuations in distress intolerance across time and context is crucial, as smokers' perceptions of their abilities to manage distress shift based on affect and smoking contexts. Stabilizing or increasing self-efficacy in tolerating distress during daily life is likely an important avenue for future research.

Eliciting Stuttering in Laboratory Contexts.

Purpose The contextual variability of stuttering events makes it difficult to reliably elicit stuttered speech in laboratory settings. As a result, studies that compare stuttered versus fluent speech are difficult to conduct and, thus, are limited in the literature. The purpose of the current study is to describe a novel approach to elicit stuttering during laboratory testing. Method A semistructured clinical interview leveraging the phenomenon of stuttering anticipation was administered to 22 adults who stutter (1st visit). The interview was used to generate participant-specific anticipated and unanticipated word lists, which were used as stimuli during a 2nd visit so that the validity of the method could be tested. Results The method yielded a near-equal distribution of unambiguously stuttered and fluent utterances (43.6% and 43.5%, respectively). Moreover, 12.9% of the utterances were judged to be ambiguous, that is, not unambiguously stuttered or fluent. Conclusion This approach outperformed previous attempts to elicit stuttering during laboratory testing. It could be implemented in future studies that compare neural, physiological, or behavioral correlates of fluent versus stuttered speech.

Contextual variation in young children's acquisition of social-emotional skills.

This study examined variation in the timing of 5,447 infants’ and toddlers’ reported acquisition of 12 basic social-emotional skills across and within 11 developing and developed country sites. Although children differed significantly across sites in when they attained social-emotional skills on average (e.g., M age Brazil = 20.50 months vs. M age India = 26.92 months), there was also substantial heterogeneity across skills. For example, children in Pakistan were reported to demonstrate sympathy on average seven months earlier than their peers in Ghana, whereas the opposite was true for sharing. Overall, country-level health and education were strongly associated (r > .60) with earlier site-level skill attainment. In addition to heterogeneity across sites, we also observed notable within-site variability in skill development (ICCs = .03 to .38). Future research is needed to identify sources of variability and how to promote skills that matter within a given context.

“It’s more fashionable to speak it badly”: indexicality and metasemiotic awareness among users of English from the Spanish-speaking world

AbstractAs ELF scholars warn us against treating linguistic productions of “non-native” English speakers as “errors” when they are sociolinguistically driven variation, it is necessary to investigate how speakers in Expanding Circle settings conceptualise, label and experience such uses themselves. This paper reports a qualitative study of the metalinguistic and evaluative practices of university students in Chile, Mexico and Spain. It explores how they ascribe (un)desirable meanings to different ways of speaking English as an additional language (i. e. indexical relations), whether these symbolic associations are seen to influence students’ own linguistic use, and the extent to which such indexical relations are theorised as inherent in language form or as symbolic and negotiable (i. e. metasemiotic awareness). The analysis of more than 53 hours of elicited interview talk reveals a complex web of available social meaning relations and multidirectional accounts of the effects that such meanings have on students’ linguistic and semiotic practices. Although many students display awareness of the contextual variability of social meaning-making processes (Coupland. 2007.Style: Language variation and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), only a minority were able to directly challenge dominant indexical associations and stereotypical trait attributions. The findings underscore the need for English language teachers to understand their students’ semiotic goals and interpretative repertoires, firstly to avoid discriminating against sociolinguistically motivated variation in students’ English use and secondly, to provide them with additional tools to negotiate their position as speakers of English as an additional language. The paper also reflects on the implications that these findings have for how we explain variation and attitudinal ambivalence in ELF research.

Reporting and synthesis practices in barriers and facilitators reviews: a methodological systematic review

BackgroundAn increasing number of systematic reviews set out to identify and synthesise research on barriers to and facilitators of the achievement of various outcomes. Yet, this type of review has been criticised for relying on aggregative synthesis approaches (such as vote counting), and for generating overly simplistic representations of complex social issues. We aimed to describe and appraise the reporting and synthesis practices used in recently published barriers and facilitators reviews in public health. MethodsWe did a methodological systematic review of reviews, using the following databases: ABI/INFORM Global, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA), CINAHL, Embase, Global Health, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), Medline, PAIS Index, PsycINFO, Social Science Database, and Sociology Database. All English-language peer-reviewed systematic reviews that synthesised either primary or secondary research on barriers and facilitators in a health-related context were eligible for inclusion. We designed the search string to include an exhaustive list of synonyms for “barrier(s)”, “facilitator(s)”, and “systematic review”. We restricted our search results to reviews from Nov 1, 2017, to Nov 30, 2018. Our protocol was prospectively registered in PROSPERO (CRD42018112361). Findings100 reviews were identified. We found a high degree of variation in the synthesis and categorisation practices used in barriers and facilitators reviews, with most reviews using aggregative (rather than interpretive) synthesis approaches. The findings echo common critiques of this review type, including concerns associated with reducing complex issues to simplified, discrete factors. Few reviews critically investigated the potential dynamic features and contextual variability of, and interrelationships between, identified factors. Although several papers highlighted the complexity of barriers and facilitators, this was usually mentioned in passing rather than systematically analysed or discussed in depth. Analysis of the minority of reviews that included explicit discussion of the barriers and facilitators approach revealed some common themes. These issues tended to be either conceptual/definitional (eg, ideas about the interrelationships and overlap between factors) or methodological/practical (eg, challenges related to the aggregation of heterogeneous research). InterpretationBarriers and facilitators reviews can enhance both their academic contribution and effect on policy and practice by clearly defining their constructs of analysis, explicitly describing how factors are extracted and subsequently synthesised, and providing critical reflection on the contextual variability and reliability of identified factors. FundingNone.

Contextual and socioeconomic variation in early motor and language development

ObjectiveTo compare early motor and language development of children <3 years of age growing up in high-income and low-income contexts.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingWe analysed differences in motor and language skills across study...

Impact of wildfire size on snowshoe hare relative abundance in southern British Columbia, Canada

BackgroundLarge wildfires result in more heterogeneous fire scars than do smaller fires because of differences in landscape context and high variability in burn intensity and severity. Previous research on mammal response to wildfire has often considered all fires as comparable disturbances regardless of size. Here, we explicitly examine whether fire size affects relative abundances of a keystone herbivore, snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus Erxleben, 1777), in regenerating stands of the same age. We surveyed vegetation and fecal pellets of snowshoe hares in nine 13-year-old wildfires, specifically, three fires in three size categories—small (80 to 200 ha), medium (1000 to 5000 ha), and large (>10 000 ha)—and in mature forests in southern British Columbia, Canada.ResultsSnowshoe hare density was low (0.4 hares ha−1), but hares were present at 57% of mature sites. Hares were absent from all areas where small fires had burned and were found in only one medium area post fire (0.2 hares ha−1). Hares were found within the fire scars of all three large burned areas, and with much higher numbers (3.8 hares ha−1) than in the medium fire area or mature forest. Snowshoe hare abundance was highly correlated with the number of sapling trees, especially lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Douglas ex Loudon). Sapling densities were highly variable, but dense stands of saplings were found only in burn scars from large wildfires.ConclusionsFire size is an important predictor of snowshoe hare relative abundance in areas that are regenerating post fire; fires of different sizes are not comparable disturbances. Specifically, the post-fire heterogeneity after large fires enabled both the highest hare numbers as well as patches with no hares. These results suggest that forest and wildlife managers should protect areas with dense regeneration post fire, as these sites are necessary for hares after large wildfires.

Re-examining the opportunity pull and necessity push debate: contexts and abilities

ABSTRACT This study explores how different groups of workers, according to their ability level, respond to ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors as local labour market conditions change. Arguments based on the opportunity cost of a transition to entrepreneurship serve to link individual-level motivations, which relate to ‘pull’ or ‘push’ factors, with contextual variations, which capture the scenarios in which individuals evaluate their occupational choice. Micro-level panel data on career histories reveal that overall entries into self-employment tend to be pro-cyclical, though the relationship is moderated by individual ability levels. The negative effect of the local unemployment level is attenuated and even reverses for the least able workers; self-employment entry probability instead is highest among the ablest workers across most stages of the business cycle. The results also reveal that large urban settings provide refuge for low ability individuals, who are less likely to resort to self-employment during economic downturns.

Non-standard Schedules, Work–Family Conflict, and the Moderating Role of National Labour Context: Evidence from 32 European Countries

AbstractA wide body of research over the past 30 years links non-standard work schedules to increased work–family conflict (WFC), but often only within single country contexts. A relatively under-explored question is the extent to which the effects of non-standard schedules on family life might vary by country or be buffered by institutional context. Building on past research, this study uses multilevel modelling techniques on 2004 and 2010 European Social Survey data to explore whether the effects of non-standard schedules on WFC vary across 32 countries in Europe, and if so, whether this contextual variation can be explained by labour regulations and industrial relations characteristics measured at the country level. Findings show that while non-standard work hours and days are associated with increased WFC across the majority of sampled countries, the strength of this association varies significantly between countries. The strongest factor shaping the social consequences of non-standard schedules is the degree to which workers are covered under collective bargaining agreements in a country, which explains as much as 17% of the observed between-country variation in the effects of non-standard schedules on WFC. These findings highlight collective agreements as one of the central mechanisms through which family-friendly regulations on working times and conditions are generated for non-standard schedule workers across Europe. More broadly, findings suggest that when studying the social consequences of non-standard schedules, these arrangements must be contextualized in the broader institutional frameworks within which they are organized and regulated.

The state-of-play in physician health systems leadership research

PurposeThis paper aims to review a decade of evidence on physician participation in health system leadership with the view to better understand the current state of scholarship on physician leadership activity in health systems. This includes examining the available evidence on both physicians’ experiences of health systems leadership (HSL) and the impact of physician leadership on health system reform.Design/methodology/approachA state-of-the-art review of studies (between 2007 and 2017); 51 papers were identified, analyzed thematically and synthesized narratively.FindingsSix main themes were identified in the literature as follows: (De)motivation for leadership, leadership readiness and career development, work demands and rewards, identity matters: acceptance of self (and other) as leader, leadership processes and relationships across health systems and leadership in relation to health system outcomes. There were seemingly contradictory findings across some studies, pointing to the influence of regional and cultural contextual variation on leadership practices as well entrenched paradoxical tensions in health system organizations.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research should examine the influence of varying structural and psychological empowerment on physician leadership practices. Empirical attention to paradoxical tensions (e.g. between empowerment and control) in HSL is needed, with specific attention to questions on how such tensions influence leaders’ decision-making about system reform.Originality/valueThis review provides a broad synthesis of diverse papers about physician participation in health system leadership. Thus, it offers a comprehensive empirical synthesis of contemporary concerns and identifies important avenues for future research.