Deterministic View Research Articles

Identity Work: A Qualitative Study of Residents’ Experiences Navigating Identity Struggles

Introduction: Medical training traditionally holds a deterministic view of professional socialization wherein many medical learners struggle to construct a professional identity. Previous research has demonstrated the dysfunctional norms and conflicting ideologies that create identity struggle, disproportionally affecting women and individuals underrepresented in medicine. Symbolic interactionism can help explain identity struggles, emphasizing the influence of socio-contextual factors on identity construction. The purpose of this study was to explore how residents navigate identity struggles during residency training. Method: We conducted a qualitative exploration of 12 residents in three specialties at three academic institutions in the United States. Participants engaged in rich picture drawings followed by one-on-one interviews. We coded transcript data and met regularly to identify themes related to residents’ experiences with navigating professional identity struggles. Results: We identified three main themes on navigating identity struggles: the weight of identity work, the isolating nature of identity work, and the navigation that occurs with and against socio-contextual currents. Residents described identity work as navigation like a boat at sea. This work felt weighty and at times overwhelming and residents often felt unable to discuss their identity struggles with others. Residents utilized what agency they had to either navigate with the current, navigating towards acceptable—albeit imperfect—paths forward, or attempting to go against the current to forge new paths through resistance. Discussion: This study highlights how context enables and constrains identity construction, how contextual constraints can create dissonance between identities, and the considerable effort required to reconcile dissonance and construct professional identities. Training program adjustments, enhanced resident support, and cultural shifts are required to sustain residents’ identity work. Medical professionals should engage in collective identity work to reimagine the profession’s identity by addressing dysfunctional cultural norms.

Pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis: genetic, environmental and random mechanisms

BackgroundThe pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS) requires both genetic factors and environmental events. The question remains, however, whether these factors and events completely describe the MS disease process. This question...

A Probabilistic Approach to Characterizing Drought Using Satellite Gravimetry

AbstractIn the recent past, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission and its successor GRACE Follow‐On (GRACE‐FO), have become invaluable tools for characterizing drought through measurements of Total Water Storage Anomaly (TWSA). However, the existing approaches have often overlooked the uncertainties in TWSA that stem from GRACE orbit configuration, background models, and intrinsic data errors. Here we introduce a fresh view on this problem which incorporates the uncertainties in the data: the Probabilistic Storage‐based Drought Index (PSDI). Our method leverages Monte Carlo simulations to yield realistic realizations for the stochastic process of the TWSA time series. These realizations depict a range of plausible drought scenarios that later on are used to characterize drought. This approach provides probability for each drought category instead of selecting a single final category at each epoch. We have compared PSDI with the deterministic approach (Storage‐based Drought Index, SDI) over major global basins. Our results show that the deterministic approach often leans toward an overestimation of storage‐based drought severity. Furthermore, we scrutinize the performance of PSDI across diverse hydrologic events, spanning continents from the United States to Europe, the Middle East, Southern Africa, South America, and Australia. In each case, PSDI emerges as a reliable indicator for characterizing drought conditions, providing a more comprehensive perspective than conventional deterministic indices. In contrast to the common deterministic view, our probabilistic approach provides a more realistic characterization of the TWS drought, making it more suited for adaptive strategies and realistic risk management.

Narratives in exposomics: A reversed heuristic determinism?

Since the completion of the Human Genome Project (HGP), biomedical sciences have moved away from a gene-centred view and towards a multi-factorial one in which environment, broadly speaking, plays a central role in the determination of human health and disease. Environmental exposures have been shown to be highly prevalent in disease causation. They are considered as complementary to genetic factors in the etiology of diseases, hence the introduction of the concept of the "exposome" as encompassing the totality of human environmental exposures, from conception onwards (Wild in Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev 14:1847-1850, 2005), and the launch of the Human Exposome Project (HEP) which aims to complement the HGP. At first sight, and seen as complementary to the genome, the exposome could thus appear as contributing to the rise of novel postgenomic deterministic narratives which place the environment at their core. Is this really the case? If so, what sort of determinism is at work in exposomics research? Is it a case of environmental determinism, and if so, in what sense? Or is it a new sort of deterministic view? In this paper, we first show that causal narratives in exposomics are still very similar to gene-centred deterministic narratives. They correspond to a form of Laplacian determinism and, above all, to what Claude Bernard called the "determinism of a phenomenon". Second, we introduce the notion of "reversed heuristic determinism" to characterize the specific deterministic narratives present in exposomics. Indeed, the accepted sorts of external environmental exposures conceived as being at the origins of diseases are determined, methodologically speaking, by their identifiable internal and biological markers. We conclude by highlighting the most relevant implications of the presence of this heuristic determinism in exposomics research.

Investigation of undergraduate and master students’ understanding of gene structure and function

ABSTRACT The concept of gene is constantly changing, becoming increasingly complex and difficult to teach and learn. This study investigates the gene concept acquired by Italian undergraduate and master students in biological/natural sciences. The undergraduate students attended a basic biology course the year before the survey, while the master students attended a general genetics course two years before. Students were asked to answer the open-ended question ‘what is a gene?’ Answers were analysed in terms of gene concept (structure and function) and gene-trait relationship. The survey was repeated for five academic years to check if the results fluctuated over time. A significant difference was found between the two groups of students with regard to the gene concept: a simplistic Mendelian conception was prevalent among the undergraduates, whereas a more complex modern/molecular conception prevailed among the master students. Surprisingly, there was no significant difference in the gene-trait relationship: most students in both groups described it in a reductionist way (a single gene determines a trait). These results suggest that there is a need to improve the teaching of biology and genetics, to prevent students from losing sight of the complexity and to avoid oversimplification, which could lead to a deterministic view.

The publicness of voluntary action during crisis: From resilience mechanisms to resistance tactics

ABSTRACT Although the volunteerism approach is regarded as a helpful strategy, critical concerns arise regarding the dynamics of vulnerability and the publicness of disaster-affected communities’ collective action. This study aims to examine the publicness meaning of public interest and its function in enhancing resilience capacity through voluntary action. Using a hermeneutic approach, this study investigates the collective action of “Canthelan” food sharing within the environmental structure of the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, during the COVID-19 outbreak. The findings indicate that voluntary action in the context of “Canthelan” is a response to crises accumulated by the pandemic’s socioeconomic threat, the emergence of societal vulnerabilities, and the failure of social protection policies. Voluntary action functions as an alternative resilience mechanism for vulnerable and disadvantaged communities by providing access to and control over food resources in an egalitarian interaction space. Simultaneously, the constructed mechanisms become structurally aggregated knowledge narratives and manifestations of contestation concerning the development of resilience. Voluntary action mechanisms contribute to the development of social resilience through the mediation process, which is a process of mutual support and interaction to face and adapt to threats. However, the deterministic view of power authority hinders the transformative capacity of voluntary action.

Creativity as an implementation of the idea of the integrity of the world

The article is devoted to the study of the areas of realization of creative activity, justification of the possibility of creativity as a process of creation of qualitatively new values, mechanisms of creativity, the main of which is intuition. One of the key questions, the answer to which determines the possibility of explaining creativity, is the choice of deterministic or irrational representation of the world. The author makes a reasoned choice in favor of a deterministic view of the world, within the framework of which intuition, and thus creativity, receive an adequate explanation. The research methodology in this article is based on the idea of creativity as a process manifested in the form of intuition, through which the mind reaches areas of world understanding inaccessible to reason based on reproductive thinking. As a result of the research conducted by the author, the key role of intuition in creativity has been established. Intuition, in its turn, is a consequence of isomorphism of forms and laws in different subject areas, at different levels of the universe. A generalization of the use of isomorphism in practice takes the form of the principle of similarity or analogy. The ability of human being to intuition is the result of his multisystem integration into many systems: physical and biological world, social and cultural environment, system of professional knowledge and relations, etc. The representation of the integrity of the world is an imperative of creativity. On the other hand, creativity is an indispensable tool for creating a holistic representation of the world. By virtue of its defining internal mechanisms, everything valuable that creativity gives birth to becomes a part of the holistic world. It can be stated that in the process of creativity the representation of its integrity is implanted (reproduced and used as a tool).

Revisiting the role of values in evidence-based education

Abstract Evidence-based practice in education involves basing decisions about what to do on evidence about the relative effectiveness of available interventions (e.g. programmes, products, practices). This article considers two influential critiques of evidence-based education (EBE) pertaining to its treatment of values. The ‘general critique’ condemns EBE for excluding values from decisions about what to do in education. The ‘specific critique’ condemns EBE for relying on a deterministic view of causality in education which disregards the complex, value-laden nature of educational contexts. I argue that virtually all versions of EBE escape the general critique, including the dominant intervention-centred approach that relies on experimental research to discover ‘what works’, because the predictions EBE aims to support are only one premise in a broader normative argument. Further, intervention-centred EBE can avoid much of the specific values-based critique because it is consistent with a probabilistic, rather than deterministic, understanding of causality. However, I argue that only a context-centred approach to EBE that relies on evidence about the specific target setting from local sources in addition to evidence from theory and mixed methods research can fully address the specific critique by accommodating critics’ descriptive claims about the nature of educational contexts.

The sociopolitical in human genetics education.

Education must go beyond only countering essentialist and deterministic views of genetics.

One Never Knows

Abstract Understanding anticipatory action as undergirding the dynamics of life is the prerequisite for defining what art is. Its change over time reflects the fact that life is purposeful and escapes prediction. Explaining art from the perspective of means and methods involved in producing it, from a deterministic view, leads to circular reasoning: the conclusion (machine art is the future) is in the premise (machines can make art). This fallacy becomes evident in the context of the current infatuation with automation of artmaking (especially through AI), and even art evaluation. The role art plays in defining the human condition is no less significant than that of science, itself indebted to aesthetics in its expression.

What are we measuring in international assessments? Learning? Probably. Intelligence? Not likely

In the current manuscript, we provide a brief look into the evolution of intelligence testing, tracing its origins and methodologies from the mid-19th century. We then critically examine contemporary research that misinterprets international assessment data, which measures differences in learning, as proxies for differences in intelligence. The reviewed research perpetuates racial hierarchies and leans toward a deterministic view of intelligence, sometimes with eugenicist undertones. We further emphasize the methodological shortcomings of such research, cautioning against the inappropriate interpretations of international assessment data. We underscore that these assessments, while valuable in their intended context, are not validated measures of intelligence or cognitive ability and should not be misconstrued as such. Further, these scores should not be misinterpreted as an indication of what students are capable of learning. Finally, we show several examples of why international assessment results are not well-suited as proxies of intelligence, but, rather, how they might tap into learning.

명리 운명론과 자유의지의 상호작용에 관한 고찰

The purpose of this study is to illuminate the influence of fatalism on life and prevent the detriment of excessive reliance on fatalism driven by anxieties about the future. According to fatalism, one's destiny is determined at the moment of birth, implying that individuals with identical birth charts should follow similar life trajectories; however, diverse life paths exist. This signifies limitations in deterministic views of fate and the presence of various variables, including free will. Therefore, this study explores the existence and scope of free will within Myeongri fatalism, offering an in-depth examination of the interaction between fatalism and free will. To conduct this research, clinical data of individuals with identical birth charts leading different lives were analyzed to investigate the interplay between fatalism and free will through the influences of diverse internal circumstances and choices in crucial aspects such as family environment, occupation, and spouse selection. The results suggest that choices made through free will can foster the development of individual abilities and talents. Furthermore, the study concludes that Myeongri and free will are not contradictory concepts but can, in fact, mutually complement each other

Attitudes and Considerations for Multidomain Lifestyle Approaches to Dementia Prevention: A Qualitative Study.

Dementia, with the most common form being Alzheimer's disease, is a global health issue and lifestyle-based strategies may reduce risk. Individuals with a family history of dementia are an important target group, but little is known about their attitudes and perceptions of dementia risk reduction. To elucidate the attitudes to and key considerations for multidomain lifestyle-based dementia prevention strategies in middle-aged Australians with a family history of dementia. Twenty participants (80% female; age range 47-65 years), undertook semi-structured phone-based interviews. Inductive thematic analysis of interview transcripts was conducted. Hierarchical coding frames and illustrative quotes were compiled and critically challenged until a final set of themes was produced. Some participants expressed a positive attitude toward lifestyle-based dementia prevention. Reasons related to wanting to future proof, believing that risk reduction is relevant at all life stages and/or that there is always room for improvement. Other participants had a negative attitude, expressing that they were already following a healthy lifestyle, did not feel it was relevant to them yet, and/or held a deterministic view that dementia is random. Important considerations congregated on the themes of being tailored/personalized, taking a holistic approach, and involving small, achievable steps. In individuals with a family history of dementia, a positive attitude to dementia prevention holds promise for intervention efforts, but in individuals expressing negative attitudes, further education and individual-level counselling may be warranted. Multidomain lifestyle-based preventive strategies also need to be tailored to the needs of key target groups to optimize appeal and effectiveness.

Deterministic ideas about man in the philosophical works of A.L. Chizhevsky: scientific and religious aspects

The subject of the study is the scientific and religious aspects of the anthropological determinism of the philosophical works of A.L. Chizhevsky, the object is the deterministic views of the cosmist on man. The author examines in detail the "dialectical" anthropological determinism compatible with the freedom of human will of the "Basic principle of the universe" and the roughly deterministic approach to man of the "Electronic Theory and genesis of forms". Special attention is paid to the study of the question concerning the validity of both types of deterministic views in the context of global evolutionism, as well as Christianity and Vedantist ideas about the "cosmic game" correlated with the phenomenon of cosmic consciousness. The purpose of the work is to explicate the question of the peculiarities of the correlation of scientific and religious worldviews in Russian cosmism, based on which it is possible to identify the grounds for a productive dialogue between science and religion. The following methods were used: analysis of textual sources (including manuscripts of the 1703 fund of the Archive of the Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation), comparative analysis, analysis, synthesis, generalization, induction and deduction, historical method. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the identification of two varieties of anthropological determinism characterizing the philosophical works of A.L. Chizhevsky, and the study of their compliance with scientific and religious views. The main conclusions of the study are the following judgments: 1) "dialectical" anthropological determinism seems legitimate, in contrast to the roughly deterministic approach to man; 2) an assessment of the correspondence of the two mentioned varieties of anthropological determinism to scientific and religious views allows us to draw the same conclusion about their legality. A similar vision of a complex phenomenon in scientific and religious discourses indicates the presence of points of contact between them. The similarities and differences between science and religion should become the basis for solving the urgent problem of building a constructive dialogue between these forms of human culture.

The Discursive Construction of ‘Good Parenting’ by Romanian Parenting Influencers

This article analyzes promotional and educational content published online by newly emerged parenting influencers in Romania to endorse parenting education programs, workshops, seminars, or books. The paper aims to investigate how these programs construct ‘good parenting’ practices at a discursive level, what (de)legitimation strategies they use to promote products or services, and how they shape power relations between experts and parents. The study uses a multidimensional thematic, critical, and pragmatic discourse analysis approach. The results show that, through discursive strategies, influencers portray ‘good parenting’ as an anxiety and value-driven process. This approach is rooted in a parental determinist view that emphasizes the influence of parental actions on children’s health and well-being. On the other hand, parenting expert influencers depict the ‘good parent’ as a ‘conscious parent’ (a parent that is both child-conscious, and attentive to their own needs and emotions) who should reform old parenting practices to ensure a secure relationship with their children and correct old parenting mistakes. The paper contributes to the growing body of knowledge on the changing nature of parental culture in post-industrial countries, with a particular focus on Romania.

Stochastic Economic Ranking Addresses Risk and Uncertainty for Decision-Makers

_ This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 213385, “Stochastic Economic Ranking: A Prudent Way To Address Risk and Uncertainty for Decision-Makers,” by Mahesh Narayanan, SPE, Mehaboob Abdulazeez, SPE, and Khadija Bukhamsin, SPE, Saudi Aramco, et al. The paper has not been peer reviewed. _ Project screening and ranking is inevitable even when an organization faces no resource bottlenecks. In project economic predictions, the stochastic approach is prevalent and proves to be the most natural approach to address technical and commercial uncertainties. In contrast with a deterministic approach, a stochastic Monte Carlo simulation helps in understanding the range of possible outcomes to enable effective decision-making. The objective of the complete paper is to present an integrated stochastic work flow that addresses the subsurface, surface, and cost uncertainties to screen, rank, and grade opportunities early in the derisking process. Introduction The proposed work flow simultaneously can address all technical and commercial uncertainties with a Monte Carlo model and predict a range of possible economic outcomes with customized economic analysis tools. In other words, it can achieve complete unbiased sample randomness in expected project outcomes. The work flow also creates a stage-gate decision-tree approach and reviews economics as a series of staged investments. This helps to expose incremental capital in the life cycle of a project responsibly and help with course correction where necessary. Value Addition: Stochastic Approach A common practice in the oil and gas industry is to simply examine low, middle, and high cases. This is a limited view of possible scenarios and provides a false sense of precision regarding expected project outcomes. The term “stochastic” refers to the property of being well-described by a random probability distribution. A stochastic approach features the following advantages: - A stochastic model addresses uncertainties in inputs with complete unbiased randomness in the outcomes. - By running thousands of calculations and using many different estimates of future economic conditions, stochastic models predict a range of possible future investment results, showing the potential upside and downside of each. - Once the work flow is followed and the model is set up, multiple realizations can be created with a single click. Proposed Integrated Stochastic Methodology In the world of project economics, classical stochastic economics is a tool to address uncertainty and risk. In simple terms, a mean or deterministic view of a production profile, along with one view of a schedule, is taken and blended with probabilistic distribution of cost inputs. This data is then taken through a Monte Carlo model to create multiple scenarios to predict a range of possible economic outcomes. This narrow range of economic outcomes only covers the uncertainty in cost but does not cover variability in well performance and time.

Abstract B109: Guidelines from the PRIMED Consortium on the use of population descriptors in polygenic risk model development and application

Abstract Whether and how to use descriptors such as race, ethnicity, and ancestry in genomic research and clinical risk models is an ongoing and evolving topic of debate, because how we refer to populations and individuals can have known and unforeseen consequences, including detrimental scientific, clinical, social, and ethical impacts. Clinical risk models incorporating polygenic risk scores (PRS) may perform differently for individuals from populations different from those used in training and validation; in particular, the correlation between polygenic predictions and predicted traits often decrease as a function of genetic distance between training and target samples. Thus, describing the populations used to develop risk models and the populations where they will be applied is essential to evaluate clinical validity and utility. Previous work has often used race, ethnicity or continental ancestry (inferred from self-report and/or genetic data) to describe training samples and target populations, but such labels run the risk of reinforcing biological determinist views of race and may not capture important aspects of the population that can affect polygenic model performance, such as region and socioeconomic status. Population descriptors may also be directly included in clinical risk models. The Polygenic RIsk MEthods in Diverse Populations (PRIMED) Consortium covened a multidisciplinary Population Descriptors Working Group to propose guidelines on conceptualizing, applying and communicating population descriptor information in the context of PRS development and application. These guidelines emphasize the importance of matching the chosen descriptors to the scientific and clinical goal; transparency; and engaging affected communities and subject matter experts to ensure that adequate considerations are given to ethical, legal, and social implications of their research and its communication. We present these guidelines and an accompanying data model designed to support transparency and flexibility. Citation Format: Peter Kraft, Iain Konigsberg, Stephanie Gogarten. Guidelines from the PRIMED Consortium on the use of population descriptors in polygenic risk model development and application [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 16th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2023 Sep 29-Oct 2;Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(12 Suppl):Abstract nr B109.

Confucian or confusion? Analyses of international students’ self-rated intercultural sensitivity and its sociocultural predictors at Canadian universities

IntroductionIn mainstream psychological research, Confucian heritage culture is often the scapegoat for subjecting Confucian heritage culture students to cultural archetypes of reticence, obedience, and unassailability, leading to the stigmatization of international students. This study examines differences in international students’ self-rated intercultural sensitivity and the potential discrepancy that exists between large-scale differences in sociocultural dimensions and student perceptions of these dimensions.MethodsA total of 120 international students enrolled at Canadian universities completed an online questionnaire which combines existing validated surveys on intercultural sensitivity and perceptions of sociocultural dimensions. Students were divided into two groups: Confucian and non-Confucian groups. The data analysis techniques include AN(C)OVAs, hierarchical linear regression, and Spearman’s rho correlation.ResultsThe quantitative analyses lead to the main findings as follows: 1) Confucian heritage culture has little predictive value to intercultural sensitivity; 2) Confucian student group does not uniquely identify with Confucian values; 3) Second language apprehension, as the sole predictor, accounts for more variation in intercultural sensitivity than most sociocultural predictors combined.DiscussionThis study demonstrates that deterministic views of heritage culture may not accurately reflect international students’ personal identification with their heritage culture. Therefore, further research is needed to illuminate the role of studying abroad in deconstructing general culture and contextualizing students’ assumed fixed identities.

An analysis of safety practices for small, medium, and large construction projects: A resilience engineering perspective

The varied nature of the construction industry, involving projects of different sizes, poses significant challenges to improving its Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) performance. The existing literature identifying strategies for improving the performance of small construction projects has focused on a deterministic and reactive view of safety. However, recent theoretical advancements in safety criticize this view. Alternatively, a Resilience Engineering (RE)-based perspective is deemed suitable for construction projects to be adaptive in managing safety. However, none of the previous studies analyzed the prevalence of RE-based attributes within the construction industry and across projects of different sizes. This study has adapted a RE-based questionnaire to which 180 survey responses from site professionals were obtained. A concurrent triangulation mixed method was used to analyze this data, supplemented with 16 interviews and field observations from 27 building construction projects in India. The 'contract value' was used as a metric to aggregate the responses for three project types, i.e., 'small', 'medium', and 'large'. The study results indicate that most practices promoting RE-based attributes, such as Monitoring, Learning, and Anticipating, are neither prevalent in the industry nor are significantly different among projects of various sizes. The findings show that small and medium-sized projects may exceed larger projects in several RE-based safety practices, suggesting that pathways to improve safety for smaller projects may not necessarily be limited to emulating larger projects, as typically recommended in the literature. The study advances the understanding of RE-based safety practices and supports safety initiatives in all construction sites.

The politics of expertise in building back better: Contrasting the co-production of reconstruction post-Irma in the Dutch and French Caribbean

Reconstruction processes in post-disaster contexts are both technical and political. In the face of growing losses from disasters to human development, we question how the call to Build Back Better (BBB) is rendered authoritative in different governance settings through the mobilisation of expertise and knowledge. Bringing the idea of knowledge co-production from Science and Technology Studies into critical studies of post-disaster politics, we contrast the politics of expertise emergent after Hurricane Irma in French St Martin and Dutch St Maarten. Although they share a common geography, reconstruction processes unfolded very differently across these two island settings. Governance arrangements contributed to the delineation of different ‘recovery spaces’, i.e. the actors, their resources, relationships and visions as constituted by and through different forms of post-disaster knowledge and expertise. Comparative analysis of these spaces shows how highly differential knowledge outcomes emerged out of common processes on both sides of crafting multiple forms of political legitimacy in order to undertake reconstruction activities. Through the notion of interactional coproduction we illustrate how such processes both drew on established historical repertoires as well as contained potential for co-evolution, which cautions against deterministic views of the relationship between reconstruction actors, their interests, and knowledge claims. Mobilising the contrast between two differing governance regimes that nevertheless share common histories of colonial and post-colonial development as well as environmental hazard, we argue that knowledge co-production needs to be understood in order to take advantage of the emergence in post-disaster policy regimes of possibilities for progressive transformation, but that these are ambiguous and contingent moments in which expertise becomes a flexible political resource through which to both constrain or enable Building Back Better.