Genuine Questions Research Articles

Analyzing online forums to identify information needs and knowledge gaps in patients with left ventricular assist devices: a qualitative study.

To explore the knowledge and unmet informational needs of candidates for left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), as well as of patients, caregivers, and family members, by analyzing social media data from the MyLVAD.com website. A qualitative content analysis method was employed, systematically examining and categorizing forum posts and comments published on the MyLVAD.com website from March 2015 to February 2023. The data was collected using an automated script to retrieve threads from MyLVAD.com, focusing on genuine questions reflecting information and knowledge gaps. The study received approval from an ethics committee. The research team developed and continuously updated categorization matrices to organize information into categories and subcategories systematically. From 856 posts and comments analyzed, 435 contained questions representing informational needs, of which six main categories were identified: clothing, complications/adverse effects, LVAD pros and cons, self-care, therapy, and recent LVAD implantation. The self-care category, which includes managing the driveline site and understanding equipment functionality, was the most prominent, reflecting nearly half of the questions. Other significant areas of inquiry included complications/adverse effects and the pros and cons of LVAD. The analysis of social media data from MyLVAD.com reveals significant unmet informational needs among LVAD candidates, patients, and their support networks. Unlike traditional data, this social media-based research provides an unbiased view of patient conversations, offering valuable insights into their real-world concerns and knowledge gaps. The findings underscore the importance of tailored educational resources to address these unmet needs, potentially enhancing LVAD patient care.

Motivating (Underdetermination) Scepticism

The aim of this paper is to analyse and develop how scepticism becomes an intelligible question starting from requirements that epistemologists themselves aim to endorse. We argue for and defend the idea that the root of scepticism is the underdetermination principle by articulating its specificity as a respectable epistemic principle and by defending it against objections in current literature. This engagement offers a novel understanding of underdetermination-based scepticism. While most anti-sceptical approaches challenge scepticism by understanding it as postulating uneliminated scenarios of mass deception, or as endorsing unnatural epistemic requirements, we argue here that both contentions are mistaken. Underdetermination-based scepticism targets our beliefs by issuing a genuine question about the rational support they enjoy. If we cannot establish that the sources of our beliefs provide them the required epistemic merit and authority, they lack non-arbitrary grounds. This has a sizable impact on what constitutes a satisfactory anti-sceptical strategy. Strategies that merely focus on the scenario-based aspect of scepticism, or on the truth-functional evaluation of our beliefs, are shown to miss the mark of the sceptical threat. The proposed analysis ultimately provides a shift in perspective concerning the character and reach of philosophical doubt.

A (Somewhat) New Way to See and Understand the Diverse and Strategic Use of the Interrogatives in Isa 40:12–31

Abstract Interpreters predominantly identify the interrogatives in Isa 40:12–31 as Rhetorical Questions (RQs) along with a single Genuine Question. However, upon closer examination the prophet also employs another type of interrogative that operates similarly to RQs, namely Conducive Questions. The prophet creatively and strategically arranges the interrogatives into a parallel pattern. Specifically, the prophet forms two parallel interrogative sequences with each placed in two respective parallel literary sequences (vv. 12–20; 21–26) that together constitute the first section of vv. 12–31. A second literary unit (vv. 27–31) begins with a Genuine Question immediately followed by a final pair of interrogatives. The prophet utilizes the Conducive and Rhetorical Questions to intentionally lead the addressee to verbally confirm, mentally assent to, and, in certain instances, confess with the inferred answers. The prophet’s purpose with these interrogatives aims at synchronizing the theological worldviews of both communicative participants.

Sustainable Farming in Practice: Building Resilient and Profitable Smallholder Agricultural Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa is at crossroads. With a rapidly growing population of 1.2 billion and changing climates, the continent faces major development challenges, including food insecurity, climate change, resource degradation, poverty, gender inequality, and social exclusion. While there are multiple competing narratives promoted in the high-input, industrialised world to address climate change and the resilience of agricultural systems (e.g., regenerative agriculture, agroecology), there is an ongoing debate and genuine questions about the appropriateness of these approaches to small-scale farmers in SSA. African agricultural systems are unique, characterised by low productivity, nutrient mining, land degradation, hoe culture, and fragmented and diversified small farms. Though environmental pollution and over-dependence on fossil fuel-powered mechanisation are rarely topping the priority list, climate change is becoming a major concern. The top-down narratives from environment-concerned communities lack the tools to address the most pressing and immediate challenge of local communities in Sub-Saharan Africa, namely (i) intensification by increased crop productivity per unit of inputs, (ii) increased access to rural energy forcing farmers to use available biomass for cooking instead of soil regeneration; (iii) the intent of no use or reduced mineral fertilisers, in a system marred by nutrient mining over centuries; and (iv) failure to address recurrent drought through integrated soil water management interventions. To address these specific challenges, we present context-specific, outcome-oriented farming solutions as a viable and appropriate strategy called ‘sustainable farming’. We argue that the nature-based narratives will remain to be important but will be better adopted if they respond to local demands and context-specific challenges of small-scale farmers. By means of three successful land restoration programmes in East Africa, we present eight outcomes that should be addressed to ensure sustainable farming of small holdings and reduce the risk of climate change. For these innovations to be adopted at scale, we proposed to put in place incentive mechanisms and functional last-mile delivery systems.

Interactivity/Reciprocity (Online Discussions/Discussion Quality)

Interactivity/Reciprocity (Online Discussions/Discussion Quality)

Rationality (Online Discussions/Discussion Quality)

Rationality (Online Discussions/Discussion Quality)

Echoing Retorts in Hárbarðsljóð and Lokasenna

Echoing Retorts in <i>Hárbarðsljóð</i> and <i>Lokasenna</i>

An Intelligent TLDR Software for Summarization

Abstract: The amount of textual data available from diverse resources is increasing dramatically in the substantial data age. This textual volume has a wealth of information and expertise that must be skilfully summarised in order to be useful. Because billions of articles are published every day, it takes a long time to look through and keep up with all of the information available. Much of this text material has to be reduced to shorter, focused summaries that capture the most important aspects, both so we can explore it more efficiently and to ensure that the bigger papers include the information we need. Because manual text summarising is a time-consuming and typically difficult activity, automating it is expanding in popularity and thus provides an ideal impetus for academic study. The growing availability of documents has necessitated much study in the field of natural language processing (NLP) for automatic text summarization. "Is there any software that can assist us digest the facts more efficiently and in less time?" is the genuine question. As a result, the major goal of the summarization system is to extract the most important information from the data and deliver it to the consumers. In NLP, summarization is the act of condensing text information in huge texts to make it easier to understand and consume. We suggest a solution by developing a text summary programme that uses Natural Language Processing and accepts an input (plain text or text scrapped from a website). The output is the outlined text. Natural language processing, along with machine learning, makes it easier to condense large quantities of information into a coherent and fluent summary that only incorporates the article's most important points.

The scheduled caste and scheduled tribe atrocity law: Judgements, amendment and contradiction: A review

The paper makes the analysis of the recent Supreme Court verdict pertaining to the Law on Atrocities which has remained the bone of contention for some time now and which has erupted a renewed debate and subsequent protests in India. The argument that this paper wants to make is that the Judgment in Subhash Kashinath Mahajan Case which prompted the widespread criticism as well as protest appears to be a misplaced application of the law and that it raises genuine questions relating to the application of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Atrocities Act and the judicial protection of these communities.

Governance, Democracy and Inclusion in the Perspective of Nepal

Proportional representation is more effective in terms of inclusive governance. The constitution of Nepal, adopted in 2015, has largely implemented it. Quotas are reserved in different sector of the state. Despite this, various factions within Nepali society are still in movement in different form. There are two genuine questions in this context. Are the constitutional provisions appropriate? What are the challenges in the paths of inclusive governance? The objectives of this paper are to examine Nepal’s existing practices of inclusion in the governing process, and the challenges of inclusive democracy from a Nepali perspective. The descriptive research design was adopted in this paper. Secondary sources were used to acquire the information. In addition, the KSL comprehensive guideline was followed to prepare this paper. The conclusion of this paper is that the country faces numerous challenges in implementing inclusive governance, like the movement of concerning republicanism, secularism, federalism and inclusion. Nevertheless, federalism, republicanism, secularism and inclusions are crucial requirements for sustainable peace. Obviously, the PR model of representation in each state organ ensures that all sections are represented.

Role of the Courts in Ensuring Free and Fair Elections in Kenya

Although the Judiciary has made many decisions that are consistent with the ideal of free and fair elections in the last fifty-six years, its dominant approach to electoral dispute resolution generally entails making superficially sound but disingenuous and deeply flawed decisions. This ‘clever’ approach, referred to as ‘legal sophistry’ in this article, generally entails an inflexible emphasis of legal and procedural technicalities; eschewing or suppressing serious genuine questions regarding the validity and integrity of elections; disingenuous adoption of discreditable case law from countries that practice pseudo or sham democracy; and manipulation of the law in favour of incumbency. Legal sophistry is inconsistent with the transformative agenda of the 2010 Constitution, which, inter alia, requires the Judiciary to promote the values and principles embodied in the Constitution and determine (electoral) disputes without undue regard to technicalities of law and procedure. Legal sophistry undermines the ideal of free and fair elections in at least three significant ways. First, it encourages electoral fraud and malpractice. Secondly, it leads to absurd or unjust outcomes, such as judicial affirmation of flawed elections. Lastly, legal sophistry undermines democracy, the rule of law and public confidence in the courts as honest arbiters of political disputes. The entrenchment of legal sophistry as the Judiciary’s dominant approach to electoral dispute resolution has defied constitutional, legal and institutional reforms specifically designed to end it. The resilience of legal sophistry may be attributed to the factors that have influenced the evolution of the Judiciary from its inception to date, especially colonial legacy, corruption, patronage politics, impunity and the institutional degradation of the pre-2010 years.

Messiah and Scripture: Paul’s “In Christ” Idiom in Its Ancient Jewish Context.

Messiah and Scripture: Paul’s “In Christ” Idiom in Its Ancient Jewish Context.

Editor’s Introduction

Editor’s Introduction

The Syllabi of Arabic Colleges in the Digital Age

The primary objective of this article is to evaluate the contents, syllabus, and teaching pedagogies of the Arabic college in the digital age. This is, indeed, a broader topic and this may need volumes of writing to explore all aspects of this topic extensively from different perspectives. Dramatic changes are taking place in the fields of education. Educationalists, academics, pedologists and experts in different fields of education are coming up with different theories on education. Religious Education too undergoes different changes in teaching and learning pedagogies. Moreover, new teaching methods and resources are being added to religious education. Despite all this changes, Arabic college education remains in its rudimentary stage in some sectors of Muslim communities. It can be hypothetically argued that the religious texts are static and limited. Therefore, what kind of new teaching pedagogies can be introduced in RE teaching in Islam.? what kind of new contents or themes can be added into RE teaching in Islam? These are some genuine questions to ask. Islam is a divinely revealed religion and no one has the right to add or omit anything from religion of Islam. Therefore, all what Muslim school teachers in Islamic lesson to do is to interpret, elaborate, comment, explain and infer the meanings of religious texts in Islam. Such a contention is partially right. Some Islamic texts are static in theological, and legal aspects of Islam. Yet, most Islamic texts are subject to human interpretation, rationalization, and human reasoning. Although some religious texts static, human life is not static. Human life revolves with changing social contexts. Muslim clerics must be educated to relate their knowledge to the digital world. Syllabus updates, upgrading teaching pedagogies, enriching teaching resources, and training of teaching staff are needed to revolutionize Arabic college education. This paper is an attempt to underscore the significance of reforming education in Arabic colleges. This paper is divided into 5 areas. a) The first part of this paper highlights the significance of syllabus updates, b) The second part evaluates teaching pedagogies, c) The third part assesses student enrolment d) The fourth part highlights the financial and administrative challenges of Arabic colleges. e) The final part of this paper makes some recommendations to update Arabic colleges.

Education and Resentment

That the world is awash with resentment poses a genuine question for educators. Here, we will suggest that resentment can be better harnessed for good if we stop focusing on people and tribes and, instead, focus on systems: those invisible norms that often produce locked-in structures of social interaction. A “systems lens” is vast, so fixes will have to be an iterative process of reflection, and revision toward a more just system. Nonetheless, resentment toward the status quo may be an important element in keeping that otherwise tedious process going, with the caveat that resentment is only productive when it is combined with reason, and that, therefore, educators, rather than privileging participant reactive attitudes, ought, instead, to promote participant reactive reasoning, as the latter can be a genuine force for both personal and interpersonal growth, while the former might very well do the reverse.

Health Problems of Third Gender in Naulo Bihani, Pokhara

The third gender is in many cultures made up of an individual, considered male at the time of birth, but change on feminine gender role or sexual role when they grow up and vice versa third genders and homosexual are the group of people who are not allowed to talk about their sexual and emotional preferences in public. The study health problems faced by the third gender of Naulo Bihani, Pokhara raises the genuine questions regarding the demographic and health condition of that third gender. All 60 residing there were the sample of data collection through census method by using interview schedule with open and close questions. Observation and KII were done with the management committee of Naulo Bihani, Pokhara, and sister organization of Blue Dimond Society Kathmandu. It attempts to raise consciousness of human rights on the sexual and gender minorities, witness violence, abuse and rape. All the respondents suffered from viral and bacterial diseases; 78.33 percent suffered from protozoa infection. Only fifteen percent respondents were suffered from Syphilis. But no one was suffered from HIV AIDS. They felt social discrimination and tell them Hijara and so on. It is justification to advocate their right in the society so the researcher tried to make a research on the topic.

Master Questions, Student Questions, and Genuine Questions: A Performative Analysis of Questions in Chan Encounter Dialogues

I want to know whether Chan masters and students depicted in classical Chan transmission literature can be interpreted as asking open (or what I will call “genuine”) questions. My task is significant because asking genuine questions appears to be a decisive factor in ascertaining whether these figures represent models for dialogue—the kind of dialogue championed in democratic society and valued by promoters of interreligious exchange. My study also contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of early Chan not only by detailing contrasts between contemporary interests and classical Chan, but more importantly by paying greater attention to the role language and rhetoric play in classical Chan. What roles do questions play in Chan encounter dialogues, and are any of the questions genuine? Is there anything about the conventions of the genre that keeps readers from interpreting some questions in this way? To address these topics, I will proceed as follows. First, on a global level and for critical-historical context, I survey Chan transmission literature of the Song dynasty in which encounter dialogues appear, and their role in developments of Chan/Zen traditions. Second, I zoom in on structural elements of encounter dialogues in particular as a genre. Third, aligning with the trajectory of performative analyses of Chan literature called for by Sharf and Faure, I turn to develop and criticize a performative model of questions from resources in recent analytic and continental philosophy of language and I apply that model to some questions in encounter dialogue literature.

Business and Public Records Hearsay Exceptions, Fed.R.Evid. 803(6) and (8); Multiple Level Hearsay, Fed.R.Evid. 805

Business Records: A record of an act, event, condition, opinion, or diagnosis is admissible as an exception to the hearsay rule under Fed.R.Evid. 803(6) if, (A) the records was made at or near the time by—or from information transmitted by—someone with knowledge; (B) the record was kept in the course of a regularly conducted activity of a business, organization, occupation, or calling, whether or not for profit; (C) making the record was a regular practice of that activity; (D) all these conditions are shown by the testimony of the custodian or another qualified witness, or by a certification that complies with Fed.R.Evid. 902(11) or (12) or with a statute permitting certification; and (E) neither the source of information nor the method or circumstances of preparation indicate a lack of trustworthiness. Pursuant to Fed.R.Evid. 101(b)(4) a “record” includes a memorandum, report, or data compilation which pursuant to Fed.R.Evid. 101(b)(6) includes electronically stored information. The hearsay exception for records of regularly conducted business activities, widely referred to as the business records hearsay exception, rests upon considerations of both reliability and necessity. Records of regularly conducted activities cannot fulfill the function of aiding the proper transaction of business unless accurate. The motive for following a routine of accuracy is great and the motive to falsify largely non-existent. More specifically, the reliability of business records is supplied by systematic checking, by regularity and continuity which produce habits of precision, by actual experience of business in relying upon them, and/or by a duty to make an accurate record as part of a continuing job or occupation. Given the nature of the reliability of business records, it makes no difference whether the records are those of a party or of a third person. Public Records: A record, which includes a memorandum, report, or data compilation, or statement of a public office setting forth (A)(i) the office’s activities, or (A)(ii) a matter observed while under a legal duty to report, but not including, in a criminal case, a matter observed by law enforcement personnel, or (A)(iii) in a civil case or against the government in a criminal case, factual findings from a legally authorized investigation, provided (B) that the opponent does not show that the source of information or other circumstances indicate a lack of trustworthiness is an exception to the hearsay rule, Fed.R.Evid. 803(8). The exception is based upon the assumption that public officers will perform their duties, that they lack motive to falsify, and that public inspection to which many such records are subject will disclose inaccuracies. In addition, the disruptive effect of bringing public officials into court to testify about matters that have generally been accurately reported and recorded is avoided. Use of a certified copy of the record, see Fed.R.Evid. 902(4) and 1005, also serves the public convenience by saving time and the expenditure of public money. Moreover, the record is likely to be much more reliable than the official’s often hazy recollection. The absence of specific requirements of regular, regular, at, personal knowledge, at or near the time of the event, thus facilitating admission by certified copy of the public record, Fed.R.Evid. 902(4), when no question of trustworthiness has been raised, does not mean that the requirements of regularity, contemporaneousness, etc., should not be imposed in determining trustworthiness, i.e., “the opponent does not show that the source of information or other circumstances indicate a lack of trustworthiness,” Fed.R.Evid. 803(8)(B), when a genuine question is raised. Multiple Level Hearsay: Hearsay within hearsay, often referred to as double level or multiple hearsay, is addressed in Fed.R.Evid. 805, which provides that if each of two or more statements falls within an exception to the hearsay rule, multiple hearsay is admissible. An illustration is the business record coming within the hearsay exception provided in Fed.R.Evid. 803(6), which includes within it information supplied by an informant not himself under a duty to provide such information. If the informant’s statement itself qualifies as a hearsay exception, for example, an excited utterance, Fed.R.Evid. 803(2), the record containing it is admissible provided among others that the person recording the excited utterance was under a business duty to do so. Similarly, if either the original statement or the statement within which the second level statement appears is admissible as not hearsay as defined in Fed.R.Evid. 801(d), provided that the remaining statement is so defined or qualifies as a hearsay exception, the two statements are admissible.

Pattern-recognition, intersubjectivity, and dialogic meaning-making in education

From a conventional monological view, meaning-making is located in a particular statement. In conventional schools, students are positioned to be enactors of ready-made knowledge and skills on teacher’s demand based on their pattern-recognition and production, rather than to be authors of their own education, learning, knowledge, and meaning. Pattern recognition involves the emergence of active production of diverse potential patterns that may or may not approximate well the targeted pattern (“sprouting”). The sprouting can be guided (“supervised”) by an expert or unguided, mediated or unmediated. These diverse potential patterns are sequentially evaluated about how likely each of them can be close to the targeted pattern. In each evaluation, the probabilistic confidence of some patterns grows while some other patterns decrease. In contrast, according to Bakhtin, meaning-making is defined as the relationship between a genuine, interested, information-seeking, question and serious response to it. From the Bakhtinian dialogic perspective, a statement does not have any meaning until it is viewed as a reply to some question in an internally persuasive discourse. A student’s meaning-making process starts with a genuine, interested, information-seeking, question raised by the student. At least, when a student cannot yet formulate this genuine question, they have to be pregnant with such a question, experiencing a certain puzzlement, uneasiness, curiosity, tension, and so on. Another aspect of dialogic meaning-making is interaddressivity. A student is interested in other people: 1) in what other people may think and how they feel about it; however these people define this it, and 2) in other people as such – in what they are doing, feeling, relating, and thinking about; in the relationship with these people; in the potential that these people may realize and offer; and so on.

COVID-19, fake news, and the sleep of communicative reason producing monsters: the narrative of risks and the risks of narratives.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the world has witnessed growing tension from the pandemic dimension of a disease with severe epidemiological impacts and wide-reaching sociocultural and political spinoffs. In ideal conditions of public communication, the authorities would be aligned with a totally transparent system supplying abundant information and ease of understanding to generate credibility, confidence, and partnership with the media. In the hiatuses of acceptable versions and in the midst of indeterminations, individuals become their own experts, consuming fake news and reproducing fallacious risk narratives with disastrous consequences. The article discusses various aspects of fake news and the use of communicative reason by public authorities, citing the case of Iran and drawing parallels with the antivaccination movement and its consequences. The authors address the challenge of coordinated orientation of society with information, competing with pseudo-scientific pastiches that proliferate at breakneck speed in the absence of official data. All this raises the following question: which communication models should back the official narrative to create the conditions for collaboration and partnership with the media? What impacts would such models have on the proliferation of misleading narratives that citizens turn to during crises of appropriate orientation? The authors conclude that it is also the government's role to use its broad visibility to create references of safety under the primacy of communicative reason, sensitive to society's genuine questions and concerns. In short, government should produce responsible references on a monumental scale, oriented by the ethics of accountability in line with the common good.