Hypothetical Answers Research Articles

Review Editor's Introduction

In an Introduction written this summer, I noted that the 2008 U.S. Presidential election process symbolized some fundamental questions about the relationship between race, gender, and class in American politics. The recent election of Barack Obama clearly represents a watershed. Commentators have noted that the incoming Obama administration offers the possibility of a new and more cooperative way of negotiating and regulating differences in our domestic politics and in world politics. Whether this comes to pass is of course an open question. As political scientists our job is to keep such questions open, to proffer our own hypothetical and revisable answers to them, to foster an academic and perhaps even a public culture where these questions can be seriously, freely, and constructively debated, and to place such contemporary questions in a broader historical and theoretical context. The books under review in this issue of Perspectives contribute substantially to these tasks.

"What kills neurons in neurodegenerative diseases?", a review series in an open access journal

Over the last several decades there has been great progress with respect to understanding the triggers of most neurodegenerative diseases. For example, genetics studies have identified mutations in superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) gene that clearly cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. However ask a panel of experts how a mutation in SOD1 causes motor neurons to die and one will receive many different hypothetical answers. There is simply insufficient data to unequivocally support one hypothesis over another. With rare exceptions, this is true for almost all neurodegenerative diseases. In this review series, we have invited seminal researchers in the field of neurodegeneration to critically review the pathways that potentially lead to neurodegeneration. These reviews include both disease specific reviews (e.g., the role of alpha-synuclein in driving neuronal death in Parkinson's disease) as well as more general reviews that focus on a pathway or a process that could lead to neurodegeneration (e.g., the role of autophagy in neurodegeneration). As one of us describes in detail in the introductory review The therapeutic importance of understanding mechanisms of neuronal cell death in neurodegenerative diseases the effort to understand the precise pathway that lead to neuronal death is not simply academic. It has major implications in developing new therapies that might actually modify the disease process. By providing a state of the field, it is our hope that this review series will reinvigorate efforts to conduct research that will ultimately answer the question, What kills neurons in neurodegenerative diseases? In each of the reviews, we have asked the authors to not only provide a comprehensive review of the key observations that demonstrate the importance of a specific protein or pathway in neurodegeneration but also highlight the critical next steps needed to shed light on the many enigmatic aspects of neurodegeneration. Over 20 review articles will appear in this series during 2009. These reviews, published in the open access form in Molecular Neurodegeneration, will allow broad public access. Given the flexibility of this publishing format and the wide range of subject matter that could be addressed, we encourage those wishing to contribute substantive reviews of material not currently covered to contact either of us to discuss a potential submission.

Hypothetical Free Market Answers

Hypothetical Free Market Answers

Österreich-Konzeptionen und jüdisches Selbstverständnis. Identitäts-Transfigurationen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. (Conditio Judaica 35) by Hanni Mittelmann, Armin A. Wallas

AUSTRIAN STUDIES, II, 2OO3 217 Take, for example, education. Gay's arresting chapter, 'Alibis forAggression', includes a well-differentiated analysis of institutionalized aggression, tracing the debates underlying the gradual decline in corporal punishment. But as a social institution, schools are only brieflymentioned, university and technical education virtually ignored. Did education really play somuch less significant a role in the making ofmiddle-class culture than neurosis? Maybe to the individual. But hardly to the societywhich it so changed. Similarly, although the (popular) press receives some attention, there is littleattempt to convey how the communications revolution changed human perceptions. Part of the problem lies in the difficulty of using Schnitzler's witness tomediate theflavour of generational difference. Schnitzler isa great synchronie, but not a diachronic medium. And he isquintessentially a figure of the lateVictorian bourgeoisie, not of theEuropean orAmerican bourgeoisie per se.He simply lacks that 'representative' quality which thatgreat scholar ofVictorian England, G. M. Young, saw invested in those diverse 'exemplary' figures and texts which could allow his 200-page Portrait of an Age (1936) to distinguish so acutely between early-, mid- or late-Victorian Britain. 'Middle-class culture' as described here excludes many of the achievements and contradictions of the 'bourgeois century'. The problem lies not in the book, but in its subtitle. 'Schnitzler's Century' is a searching and original study of the human being and writer Arthur Schnitzler and of the insightswhich each can offer the student of later-nineteenth-century bourgeois culture. Trinity College Dublin Eda Sagarra ?sterreich-Konzeptionen und j?disches Selbstverst?ndnis. Identit?ts-Transfigurationen imig. und 20. Jahrhundert. Ed. byHanni Mittelmann and Armin A. Wallas. (Conditio Judaica 35). T?bingen: Niemeyer. 2001. 329 pp. 56,00. isbn 3-484-65135-0. Why was the situation of theJews inAustria, inparticular the loyaltyof theJews to theHabsburg Empire, so markedly different from their situation inGermany? Perhaps because there the so-called Jewish Question' was only one of a number of 'national' questions in a multi-national framework, and the severity of any antagonism thus became somewhat diffused; perhaps because the Habsburg authorities favoured Jews as a Germanizing influence, possibly the only true Staatsvolk of the eastern crownlands. Such questions and hypothetical answers informthedeliberations in thepresent volume. The diversity and mixture of cultural and linguistic orientations were immensely rich in theHabsburg Empire before 1918, and in this respect underscore the great attraction of intercultural visions; at the same time, however, theAustrian experience also highlights the resistance to interculturality and itscollapse (cf. 'Introduction', pp. 7-8.). Appropriately, thevolume opens with two informative and considered articles on the liberal era and the patterns ofJewish assimilation in themultinational context of the time. If thischaracterized thepolitical background to a potentially productive symbiosis, then 'Vienna 1900' certainly saw an unleashing of creativity which stretched from the literary and artistic, the scientific and psychoanalytical, to the musical and to aspects of popular culture (with its subtle subtexts thematizing the Austrian conditiojudaica, which Stephen Beller graphically adumbrates as the 'triumph of Jewish modernity' [p. 50] in his discussion of the 'Brautkleid mit 2l8 Reviews Rei?verschlu?' in the operetta Im wei?enR??t). Some of thefigures discussed in the various contributions on this defining period are Beer-Hofmann, Freud, Schiele, Schoenberg and Mahler. In subsequent articles the focus turns to Prague and the positions ofMauthner, Werfel, Brod and others in the nationality struggles of the Bohemian capital; then the perspective shifts to three figures ofMoravian-Jewish extraction; thence to Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth, as promoters of the so-called Habsburg myth, and to the revolutionary counter-myths ofHugo Sonnenschein and Albert Ehrenstein. The subsequent three contributions address various aspects ofAustrian culture during theNazi period and itsremembrance, be it theportrayal of Mauthausen inpost-war literature,Austria-related poetry before and after 1945, or the attitude of an individual likeJosefWeinheber towards Austria and theReich. Articles on the 'Reconstruction of theVienna Jewish Community after 1945' and on the theatre landscape inpost-war Austria as a source fora re-emerging Austrian identityduring thatperiod extend the scope of thevolume firmlyinto thepost-1945 period. Here, the rapid politicization of theatreprogramming seems tohave delayed the chances of using thedramatic medium fora progressive and reflective departure by quite some decades. Of the...

Can Hypothetical Questions Reveal True Values? A Laboratory Comparison of Dichotomous Choice and Open-Ended Contingent Values with Auction Values

Can hypothetical questions reveal true values? An examination of thelaboratory experimental literature examining contingent valuation (CV)lends some support for using open-ended hypothetical willingness to payquestions. However, experimental studies examining dichotomous choicehave found that hypothetical answers overstate demand. Consistent withthe experimental literature, published CV studies comparing open-ended todichotomous choice questions have shown that values from the dichotomouschoice method equal or exceed those of the open-ended method in everycase. This paper presents a series of experiments employing more than 800subjects to test this hypothesis for CV and compares the CV results toactual auction values in a single controlled experimental environment.

Corridors as Conduits for Small Animals: Attainable Distances Depending on Movement Pattern, Boundary Reaction and Corridor Width

Corridors are supposed to facilitate and conduct moving individuals between habitat remnants within an otherwise inhospitable landscape. Despite the scientific interest in corridors, their function as conduits is open to question. In this paper we present hypothetical answers to this question based on simulations of individual movements through corridors. Our generic modeling approach is individual-based and spatially explicit. The model is designed to simulate conceivable movements of small animals through line corridors with clear boundaries such as hedgerows. The parameters of the individual movements correspond with empirical data of tracking studies. We define the transition probability as the likelihood that moving individuals attain a distant target area within a certain period of time. We determine the transition probability based on distance frequency distributions. Our results show how the transition probability depends on the degree of movement autocorrelation, the returning angle at boundaries and the corridor width. In general, the transition probability is essentially determined by the degree of movement autocorrelation. The relative importance of both the returning angle at boundaries and the corridor width on the transition probability increases with higher degrees of movement autocorrelation. With increasing corridor width the transition probability increases asymptotically towards an upper level depending on movement velocity and time. Consequently, the corridor width has to be regarded as the main easily modified aspect for controlling transition probabilities. We use our findings to discuss the issue of an optimum corridor width. We take up the important effects of movement canalization within corridors and the way corridors influence both mortality en route and movement velocity. We compare the consequences of these effects on transition probabilities to situations without corridors in order to evaluate corridors in a more unbiased fashion.

Interviewing Job Applicants—

The basic interview, where the hiring manager or recruiter asks questions about qualifications and attempts to get a "feel" for the candidate, is vulnerable to many kinds of error and bias, and, as a result, has almost no ability to predict an employee's future job performance. On the other hand, systematic interviews using structured questions that are based on careful analysis of the components of excellent job performance can improve the interviewer's ability to predict an employee's future performance from about 3 percent to near 25 percent. The best questions are matched with hypothetical answers that illustrate excellent, good, and marginal answers, and which may be compared to candidates' actual answers. The questions may be framed as historical (behavioral) or hypothetical (situational). Every candidate for a particular job is asked the same set of questions. Interview panels, probing and follow-up questions, and credential previews are all controversial, but prudence and common sense can be acceptable guides on those issues. The costs of developing structured interview programs are usually offset by the savings from avoiding poor hires and subsequent turnover, and line managers' responses to the structured interview format are generally very positive.

Interviewing job applicants—: How to get beyond first impressions

The basic interview, where the hiring manager or recruiter asks questions about qualifications and attempts to get a "feel" for the candidate, is vulnerable to many kinds of error and bias, and, as a result, has almost no ability to predict an employee's future job performance. On the other hand, systematic interviews using structured questions that are based on careful analysis of the components of excellent job performance can improve the interviewer's ability to predict an employee's future performance from about 3 percent to near 25 percent. The best questions are matched with hypothetical answers that illustrate excellent, good, and marginal answers, and which may be compared to candidates' actual answers. The questions may be framed as historical (behavioral) or hypothetical (situational). Every candidate for a particular job is asked the same set of questions. Interview panels, probing and follow-up questions, and credential previews are all controversial, but prudence and common sense can be acceptable guides on those issues. The costs of developing structured interview programs are usually offset by the savings from avoiding poor hires and subsequent turnover, and line managers' responses to the structured interview format are generally very positive.

Beyond Selecting Information: Biases in Spontaneous Questions and Resultant Conclusions

Biases in trait hypothesis testing were examined from both subjects′ and observers′ viewpoints. Subjects formulated two questions to test each of three hypotheses and drew inference from hypothetical yes and no answers; observers read these questions and drew inferences from the same answers. It was shown that subjects tended to ask about features that were (a) consistent with the hypothesis and (b) either very probable or very improbable. Furthermore, subjects′ data showed that questions were less diagnostic when subjects tested a single hypothesis (e.g., extraversion) as opposed to a double hypothesis (e.g., extraversion versus introversion); observers′ data showed this effect only for the first question asked. Subjects also were likely to confirm the hypothesis that they were testing (relative to an alternative) and were more likely to confirm the hypothesis following hypothesis-consistent questions (relative to hypothesis-inconsistent questions). Both subjects and observers were too influenced by the hypothetical answers; that is, they overconfirmed the hypothesis when the answers were confirmatory and overdisconfirmed the hypothesis when the answers were disconfirmatory.

Teachers’ experience doing action research

How do teachers carry out action research? What kinds of difficulties do they encounter? How do they deal with them? Students in our action research courses often ask these kinds of questions, and we are embarrassed to be able to give only hypothetical answers. Academics have long been pleading for accounts of teachers' experience with action research, but few have appeared. Most available pieces appear in books of collected articles about action research (for example, Nixon, 1981: Kemmis, 1982); only a few appear individually (Enright, 1979; Byers, 1982; Burton, 1986). For teachers, the rewards of publication are often outweighed by the time and energy required to organize, write, type and decide where to submit an article on action research. Although many teacher journals, and especially journals of professional associations, contain articles in which teachers state a problem and explain their solution, these are not thought of as action research. Action research is often more situation-dependent than are the tips and tricks of the trade found in teacher journals. Consequently, its results appear less generalizable. Action research is essentially done for oneself to improve one's own practice, not for the benefit of others. In spite of the lack of firsthand accounts, we and many others like us continue enthusiastically to

Hodgkin's disease: a war between T-lymphocytes and transformed macrophages?

The interaction between Reed-Sternberg (RS) cells and autogeneic T T cells was investigated. It was found that T cells cytolyse RS cells in the following sequential manner: Stage 1, T cells affix the tips of their microvilli onto target cells, Stage 2, T cells subject cell membranes to tearing, and shearing forces which produce gaps and holes; Stage 3, target cells lyse and T cells "crawl" away. The relationship between the events occurring at the cellular level and those observed clinically are discussed. Hodgkin's disease holds a fascination for clinicians and "bench" scientists alike, perhaps because of the enigma and challenge it represents. It is not surprising, therefore, that many questions go unanswered. For example, we are still addressing ourselves to the following questions: What is the origin of the Reed-Sternberg (RS) cell? If a macrophage, then why do T cells attach to it and what is the nature of the T cell-RS interaction? Why is cellular immunity so often impaired even in patients in the early stages of the disease? Why do patients with Hodgkin's disease sometimes develop autoimmune hemolytic anemia when they are, in fact, immunologically hyporesponsive? In this paper, I shall present evidence which answers a few of these questions and provides hypothetical answers to the others.

Migration and alcohol use: a careers analysis.

Most members of our society, if they see fit, may readily do the two things that this paper is about: They may move from place to place, and they may drink alcoholic beverages. Either of these two options, depending on how it is exercised, may have profound consequences for personal lives and for social fabrics. Therefore, whether or not migration and alcohol use tend to be connected in any way seems an important practical question. This exploratory inquiry will lead us to some hypothetical answers to that question and to some issues of method and theory that emerge along the way

A Paradigm for the Study of Political Unification

A Paradigm is more than a perspective but less than a theory. It provides a set of interrelated questions, but no hypothetical answers or account of validated propositions. It provides a “language,” a net of variables, but it does not specify the relationships among the parameters of these variables. It is less vague than a mere perspective, providing an ordered, specific, and often logically exhaustive and tightly ordered focus for research and speculation. A paradigm is often a stage on the way from an old perspective to a new theory.