Examination Of Empirical Evidence Research Articles

What Philosophical Aesthetics Can Learn from Applied Anthropology

Through a detailed case study of investigations on beauty, I demonstrate that a thoughtful consideration of empirical evidence can lead to the disclosure of the fundamental assumptions entrenched in a philosophical discipline. I present a contrastive examination of two empirically oriented approaches to art and beauty, namely, the anthropology of art and the anthropology of aesthetics. To capture these two different ways of interpreting the available evidence, I draw upon a debate between Alfred Gell and Jeremy Coote on the understanding of beauty and art in the Dinka community. Following Gell, I reveal that the Western-centric predilection of Coote, who uses traditional aesthetic categories, leads to his failure to grasp the functional and causal roles of beauty in the social relations of the Dinka. In more general terms, my study reveals the inherent limitations of aesthetics as developed in the Western tradition and its Kantian legacy. Being steadily driven towards purely abstract and speculative concepts, such as ‘work of art,’ Western aesthetics has lost the ability to account for the causal role of beauty in social relations. By contrasting this approach with Gell’s anthropological approach to art, I indicate those fundamental assumptions of aesthetics as a philosophical discipline that apparently confine it to a particular cultural context, compromising its ability to account for the universal human condition. As my study illustrates, this limitation could be overcome by a thoughtful and unprejudiced examination of empirical evidence.

Examination of Empirical Evidence of Organic Growth Strategy a Study on Indonesia Public Listed Companies

The main objective of this research is to re-examine and adjust the original model of Organic Growth Index (OGI), developed by Ref. [9] and applied into Indonesian public listed companies with earnings generated organically rather than through income manipulation, financial engineering, or through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). As this original model excludes banks, financial institutions, REITs and insurance companies, the OGI assessment need to be adjusted to include those sectors. This research modified the first step of OGI, by applying residual income (RI) instead of economic value added (EVA) to avoid the complexity of EVA calculation for financial institutions and REITs companies. This research compares the result with the reference research16 which has initially applied the OGI analysis towards the Indonesia public listed companies. Their research based on 70 samples were taken from Kompas 100 Stock Index from the period of 2004 to 2007 which also exclude financial institutions companies. This research has used similar objects comprises of Kompas 100 companies, nonetheless through OGI modification with objective of including banks, financial institutions and insurance companies, covered period from 2008 to 2012, albeit interval of 5 years, consistent with original OGI. The OGI model designed to explain value-creating companies that have consistently outperformed industry competition through organic growth. The original test begins by selecting the best EVA which is modified into RI model to accommodate the assessment of financial institutions companies. The result of this study shows that there are only 2 percent of Indonesian public listed companies identified as OGI winners, significantly less than the previous Waworuntu and Tjhatra’s research of 10% and also less than previous Hess study. This study also indicated that more Indonesian public companies actively involved in M&A activities.

Bridging the Normative Gap in Graduate Criminal Justice Curricula: Teaching Theories of Justice

Encouraging graduate students to think about the values that guide criminal justice policy and practice and their implications for justice is essential for a full understanding of the field. In fact, several prominent scholars have recently called for an approach that integrates empirical with normative analysis. Based on an examination of empirical evidence on pedagogical practices, literature on normative theories, and personal teaching experience, this article attempts to bridge this “normative gap.” It is structured around three core questions: (1) Why teach about justice in a criminal justice program? (2) What might be the course goals? and (3) What challenges are likely to arise and how might they be overcome? Ultimately its purpose is to make a compelling case for the teaching of a course on justice and offer some practical guidance on how such a course might be taught.

Elites Behaving Badly

AbstractThis paper presents a model to account for the behaviour of social elites, in terms oftheir decisions to distribute resources between themselves, and a mass of disadvantagedmembers of society. Privileged members of society have the opportunity to allocateresources either to improve their own productive capacity, or to enhance the productivecapacity of the disadvantaged. Redistribution in favour of the disadvantaged increasesthe productive capacity of society, but comes at the cost of rising political aspirationsof the poor, which erodes the power of the elite. The paper derives conditions underwhich (a) the elite will redistribute to the point of equality with the disadvantaged; (b)conditions under which the disadvantaged are subject to extreme forms of extractionby the elite; as well as (c) the range of intermediate redistributive activity likely tobe employed by the privileged. Examination of empirical evidence suggests that themodel generalizes across the experience of a panel of 102 countries.Keywords: elitebehaviour, disadvantagedpopulationgroups, redistribution, humancapital, productivity, development.JEL Codes: O43; O15; O11.

The Future of Motivated Deception and Its Detection

Highly publicized deceptions by spies, terrorists, foreign adversaries, politicians, and corporations occur daily amid fears that the ability to detect such duplicity is far outstripped by the ability to perpetrate it by motivated deceivers. Whether new technologies hold promise for aiding in their detection or instead pose greater risks of vulnerability is the issue addressed in this chapter. Answers to this question lie in considering, (a) humans’ general proclivities to detect deceit, (b) features of communication technologies that may abet or deter successful deceit, (c) the role of motivation in deceptive performances, and (d) the potential of information technologies to identify indicators of deceit. This chapter takes up these four issues within the context of a hypothesis called the motivation impairment effect (MIE), which holds that high motivation facilitates deceptive verbal performances but impairs deceptive nonverbal ones and motivation backfires. Examination of empirical evidence expressly testing or directly relevant to the motivation impairment effect reveals that, although modality and motivation frequently emerge as significant influences on deception detectability, effects are not uniform and the modality by motivation interaction needed to substantiate the MIE often fails to materialize or produces patterns incompatible with the hypothesis. Motivation effects sometimes support a choking-under-pressure interpretation and other times support a strategic repair interpretation, leading to the conclusion that the MIE per se may be more illusory than real. If so, the prospect of utilizing new technologies to detect high stakes deception from verbal and nonverbal behavior ironically may show promise.

The learning organisation concept and its adaptation to teaching in an undergraduate accounting unit

This paper explores the effects of the adaptation of the learning organisation (LO) concept to teaching in a university setting. The literature in accounting education calls for a change in traditional teaching methods in order to produce accounting graduates whose skills are more appropriate for the contemporary business and professional environment. To address this deficiency accounting educators have started to explore and use teaching innovations. In this study, the LO concept has been adapted to a teaching environment, in contrast to most research which has focused on LO in business settings. The paper, through the examination of empirical evidence arising from a natural experiment, was able to determine some of the impacts arising from the adaptation of the LO concept to teaching in a university setting. The results of the paper suggest that the adaptation of the LO concept not only resulted in improved student learning outcomes, but also influenced life‐long learning. Further research could widen the scope of the operationalisation of the LO concept and explore its use in other undergraduate and postgraduate units.

Increasing the evidence base for selection for undergraduate medicine: four case studies investigating process and interim outcomes.

Prior to 1997, the University of Adelaide, Australia selected medical students according to matriculation marks alone. After extensive consultation with relevant stakeholders and examination of empirical evidence, the selection process is now based on a national written examination of reasoning and interaction skills, a structured oral assessment and a threshold matriculation score. This paper presents a series of 4 case studies examining the process related to the procedure and early interim outcomes, with the aim of adding to the evidence base for methods of medical student selection. Data were collected from a range of sources between 1996 and 2001, including the University's central administration system, the Faculty of Health Sciences, and purpose-designed oral assessment forms and self-report student questionnaires. The oral assessment process has shown itself to be characterised by a high level of interassessor reliability. Equity of access has been addressed and the number of schools represented in the student intake has increased from between 10 and 15 in the final years of the old selection process to over 30 statewide under the new process. There has been a corresponding increase in the proportion of students from rural backgrounds (from an original 4-12% to 20-22%). These investigations add to the evidence base for medical school selection in that they demonstrate that an oral assessment process can be reliable and lead to early positive results in relation to student outcomes and access.

Adapting to diabetes mellitus: a theory synthesis.

One priority in nursing research is the development of middle-range theories that are applicable to nursing practice. The purpose of this article is to describe the development of a middle-range theory, adapting to diabetes mellitus, through theory and concept synthesis. The adaptation to chronic illness model explicates the conceptual relationships of the Roy adaptation model in a theory specific to chronic illness. Several concepts in the diabetes literature, self-management, integration, and health-within-illness were synthesized with the theory through examination of empirical evidence. This method of theory development increases the specificity of the existing theory and informs the application to nursing practice.

Adapting to Diabetes Mellitus: A Theory Synthesis

One priority in nursing research is the development of middle-range theories that are applicable to nursing practice. The purpose of this article is to describe the development of a middle-range theory, adapting to diabetes mellitus, through theory and concept synthesis. The adaptation to chronic illness model explicates the conceptual relationships of the Roy adaptation model in a theory specific to chronic illness. Several concepts in the diabetes literature, self-management, integration, and health-within-illness were synthesized with the theory through examination of empirical evidence. This method of theory development increases the specificity of the existing theory and informs the application to nursing practice.

School Choice? Or is it Privatization?

an Goldhaber's interesting article on school choice (School Choice: An Examination of Empirical Evidence on Achievement, Parental Decision Making, and Equity, December 1999 Educational Researcher) inadvertently poses arguments for and against choice in a way that may obscure rather than illuminate policy. It is all well and good to define school choice as any policy that is designed to reduce constraints that current school configurations place on and students (p. 16), but, as Goldhaber himself recognizes by end of his article, the bounds of debate have shifted rather dramatically from whether to enhance choice within public system to question of public funding for vouchers that could be used at private schools (p. 22). Given that fact, he should have considered whether school choice arguments, including those that support charter schools, were ever about anything but increasing role of publicly funded, privately delivered education. When choice is about privatization, we need to know much more about how such an educa-

Mixing and matching horizontal and vertical standards: A case study on toy-related injuries

INTRODUCTION Safety standards for consumer products have traditionally been structured to apply to classes or groups of goods such as prams, toys and cots. These are known as vertical standards. Recently there has been interest in developing standards which are hazard based and cover broader classes of goods. Such standards are referred to as horizontal standards. The Working Draft European Horizontal Standard for Children's Use and Care Articles takes a horizontal approach to a class of products. This paper considers how horizontal and vertical approaches can be mixed, with specific reference to toys, but also considers the broader question of how this sort of decision can be made more generally. OBJECTIVES• To consider whether the coverage of the Working Draft European Horizontal Standard for Children's Use and Care Articles (CENrrC 252 WG6 N 145) could be expanded to cover toys. •To develop an approach for making this judgement based on injury surveillance data. • To identify issues which need to be addressed in deciding the appropriate mix of horizontal and vertical standards. METHOD A random sample (n = 1060) of toy-related injury cases among children aged 0 to 9 years presenting to sentinel emergency departments in Australia was examined. Cases were drawn from the National Injury Surveillance Unit's Injury Surveillance Information System (ISIS). Cases were drawn at random from all records that had been assigned anyone of more than 40 toy codes. Bicycles were excluded due to the difficulty of separating out small toy bicycles from larger bicycles used for transport. The description of the injury circumstances for each selected case was carefully examined. Cases were only included for further study if the description indicated that some particular feature of the toy contributed to the injury. For each of these cases, injury events were classified according to the major categories of hazard covered by the Working Draft European Horizontal Standard for Children's Use and Care Articles. In addition, two extra hazard categories were added to cover instability and Joss of control of wheeled toys, and projectile toys. The types of events occurring in each of the major hazard categories were closely examined to assess whether the provisions in the draft horizontal standard might be suitable. RESULTS There is a considerable overlap between the provisions of the draft horizontal standard and those needed to deal with the causes of injuries related to toys. There are, however, aspects of toy-related injury, including mobility, energy producing characteristics, desired use patterns and size of the items, that pose different hazard management questions. Hazard patterns change dramatically with age. Injuries often occur when young children access toys designed for older children. Major hazards are associated with height, shearing and cutting, wheeled toy instability and loss of control, ingestion, inhalation and insertion, and the strength and durability of toys. CONCLUSIONS A key issue which has emerged is the need to adequately define the boundaries of applicability for a horizontal standard. Examination of empirical evidence of hazard patterns can provide guidance and is a necessary step in boundary definition. After undertaking this analysis of injuries associated with toys it is concluded that: • the philosophy and many provisions of the child use and care standard are applicable to toys; •toys differ from child use and care items in that necessary characteristics create hazards for younger children; • the management of toy-related injury may place more emphasis on information than is envisaged for child use and care items; the information task for toys is more complex in that it requires communication to users of the risks to younger children who are not intended to be users; • a vertical standard for toys is necessary because of these differences.

Delinquency Theory and Recent Research

An examination of empirical evidence relating to current theory on delinquency raises three fundamental questions. First, studies of undetected delinquency suggest that the inverse rela tionship between social class and violation of the law may be less potent than current theory implies. Comprehensive study of delinquent behavior within as well as between classes is needed. Second, whether delinquent groups are internally cohesive, bound by ties of loyalty, permanence, and stability or whether they are held together more by external pressures is an open question. Further studies on group cohesiveness are needed because of their obvious relevance to inquiries having to do both with causation and with control. Finally, studies have not revealed the kinds of singularly-focused delinquent subcultures which have been hypothesized, raising the question as to whether delinquent subculture is oppositional in character, unique and autonomous, or part of a more amorphous and widespread tradition of deviance. Some of these questions cannot be an- Second, whether delinquent groups are internally cohesive, tion on a broad cross-section of adolescents and of determining the effects of official identification and processing on the official picture of delinquency presented.

The Place of Induction in Science

The place of induction in the framing and test of scientific hypotheses is investigated. The meaning of ‘induction’ is first equated with generalization on the basis of case examination. Two kinds of induction are then distinguished: the inference of generals from particulars (first degree induction), and the generalization of generalizations (second degree induction). Induction is claimed to play a role in the framing of modest empirical generalizations and in the extension of every sort of generalizations—not however in the invention of high-level hypotheses containing theoretical predicates. It is maintained, on the other hand, that induction by enumeration is essential in the empirical test of the lowest-level consequences of scientific theories, since it occurs in the drawing of “conclusions” from the examination of empirical evidence. But it is also held that the empirical test is insufficient, and must be supplemented with theorification, or the expansion of isolated hypotheses into theories. Refutation is not viewed as a substitute for confirmation but as its complement, since the very notion of unfavorable case is meaningful only in connection with the concept of positive instance. Although the existence of an inductive method is disclaimed, it is maintained that the various patterns of plausible reasoning (inductive inference included) are worth being investigated. It is concluded that scientific research follows neither the advice of inductivism nor the injunction of deductivism, but takes a middle course in which induction is instrumental both heuristically and methodologically, although the over-all pattern of research is hypothetico-deductive.