Important Element Of Research Research Articles

Children’s spirituality: epistemology and theory from various helping professions

Children’s spirituality is a rising area of importance in research within other helping disciplines, which social work should attend to. Epistemology is an important element of research that is often difficult to discern. This article discusses the different epistemological paradigms and identifies pertinent theories in relation to some of the significant studies on spirituality in preadolescent children. There is a lack of valid and reliable scales specific to children from a postpositivist stance. Constructivism appears as a prevalent epistemology within the literature, underpinned with humanist, existential, and transpersonal theories. Current research is often grounded in James Fowler’s faith development, founded on constructivist child development theory. Research is contributing to the recognition of the unique characteristics of spirituality in children that include relational consciousness and meaning-making, and coping styles. Gender, context, and culture aspects are also identified as important concerns for children’s spirituality that are introduced within social constructionist research. There remains considerable room for expansion in research on children’s spirituality and theory development especially in social work.

What is microbial community ecology?

The activities of complex communities of microbes affect biogeochemical transformations in natural, managed and engineered ecosystems. Meaningfully defining what constitutes a community of interacting microbial populations is not trivial, but is important for rigorous progress in the field. Important elements of research in microbial community ecology include the analysis of functional pathways for nutrient resource and energy flows, mechanistic understanding of interactions between microbial populations and their environment, and the emergent properties of the complex community. Some emergent properties mirror those analyzed by community ecologists who study plants and animals: biological diversity, functional redundancy and system stability. However, because microbes possess mechanisms for the horizontal transfer of genetic information, the metagenome may also be considered as a community property.

Regenerative Medicine: Does Erythropoietin have a Role?

Regenerative Medicine, a recent new medical domain, aims to develop new therapies through the stimulation of natural regenerative processes also in human beings. In this field, Erythropoietin (EPO) represents a significant subject of research. Several studies allow the assertion that EPO, in different concentrations, has protective effects mainly on the central nervous system, cardiovascular system and renal tissue. This action is carried out through one of few regenerative activities of human beings: angiogenesis. This mechanism, which involves endothelial stem cells and VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor), has been experimentally demonstrated with Recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) and Darbepoetin, a long-acting EPO derivate. Furthermore, the demonstration of a cardiac production of EPO in Fugu rubripes and in Zebrafish has led cardiologists to "discover" Erythropoietin, postulating a hypothetical role in treatment of cardiovascular disease for this hormone. This is some of the experimental evidence which demonstrates that EPO can be in reason considered an important element of research of Regenerative Medicine and put in the network of drugs able to regenerate tissues and organs.

Prognostic Model for Predicting Hearing Recovery in Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

To aid in realistic counseling of patients at the time of their first visit concerning their chances for recovery, we created a simple prognostic model for predicting hearing recovery in idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSHL). An important element of research on ISSHL is to identify prognostic factors for this disease. Many studies have described predictive indicators to identify patients with a good prognosis needing no or minimal treatment. Only a few of these studies have included a model for calculating the probability for patient recovery, which may be important for clinical work, but these prognostic tables have not achieved widespread use clinically. Evaluation of an electronic patient data base of 541 patients with ISSHL. The standard treatment was carbogen inhalation (95% O2 and 5% CO2 8 times per day in duration of 30 min) and prednisone orally (100 mg in 1 morning dose) for 7 days. Factors that were analyzed included the patient's age, the interval between the onset of symptoms and beginning of treatment, the presence or absence of vertigo and tinnitus, audiometric patterns, the severity of hearing loss, and hearing in the opposite ear. Hearing gain was expressed either as absolute hearing gain or as relative hearing gain. Significant recovery of hearing was defined as the final pure-tone audiometry of 30 dB or less (or the same as the pure-tone audiometry of the opposite ear). The absolute hearing gain was 15.1 dB. The mean relative hearing gain was 47%. Three hundred one (57%) patients had significant recovery of hearing, and 228 (43%) did not have significant recovery of hearing. Using step-wise multiple linear regression analysis, the most important factors for prognosis included severity of hearing loss, presence of vertigo, time between onset and treatment, the hearing of the other ear, and the audiogram shape (beta coefficient was -0.216, -0.231, 0.211, 0.113, and -0.064, respectively; constant, 0.968). A recovery expectancy table was developed using the data from this study. Based on a retrospective analysis, prognostic indicators for hearing recovery in ISSHL were found to be severity of hearing loss, presence of vertigo, time between onset and treatment, the hearing of the other ear, and the audiogram shape. We created a model for calculating the probability for hearing recovery based on the analysis of 529 patients with unilateral ISSHL.

Creating a positive experience of research for people with psychiatric disabilities by sharing feedback.

This paper describes a consumer evaluation that explored the reflections of persons with psychiatric disabilities on receiving individualized feedback following participation in a community research project. Findings indicate that feedback is an important element of research, offering a valued means to reciprocate participants' contributions. Feedback can facilitate mutual learning, fostering hope and empowerment, while participation in performance tests without feedback may reinforce negative self-evaluations. Feedback needs sensitive presentation and discussion, focused on strengths, to be experienced as worthwhile and respectful by people with psychiatric disabilities. This is particularly important as their self-identities may already be undermined by experiences of mental illness. Researchers need dedicated time, resources, and training to incorporate individual feedback in research.

Quality of life measurement in gastroenterology: what is available?

Monitoring and enhancement of a patient's health-related quality of life (HRQL) is an important element of research and medical care. In a previous article, we provided an overview of HRQL measurement. Now we will review the structure and properties of the most commonly used generic and digestive disease-specific HRQL instruments and illustrates their use in the gastroenterology and hepatology literature. Generic measures have been used to study specific diseases as well as to compare HRQL in GI and nongastrointestinal disease. Disease specific instruments have been developed for inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, dyspepsia, gastroesophageal reflux disease, liver disease, and GI malignancy. Further work is needed to compare disease-specific instruments and to define the most appropriate uses of HRQL measurement in clinical trial and community practice settings.

An image‐analysis technique for accurate counting of pollen on stigmas

summaryPollen counting is an important element of research in pollination, and the majority of current methods involve manual counting. An image‐processing technique has been developed for accurate counting and sizing of small particles, and this was tested on almond pollen grains. Our automatic process was found to be several times faster than manual counting and more accurate, with an average error of only 3 %. Because of its simplicity, it is an attractive tool for research on such topics as pollen viability or germination. It was found that in the methods using vials there were ‘residues’ of c. 17 % on the vial walls and on the handling tools. In addition, the first drop from each vial contained, on average, 1–65 times more grains than the average number of grains in all drops, whereas the last drop from each vial contained fewer grains than the average. This phenomenon was correlated with the non‐uniform pollen distribution in the suspension. An automatic counting system is therefore, recommended, to avoid the problem, otherwise a calibration procedure should be used that accounts for both the residues on the tools and the non‐uniformity of contents of sample drops.

Development of Tonal Centres and Abstract Pitch as Categorizations of Pitch Use

Modelling how people establish a sense of tonality and encode pitch invariance are important elements of research into musical cognition. This paper describes simulations of processes that induce c...

THE RELATIONSHIP OF RELIABILITY IN CLASSROOM RESEARCH TO THE AMOUNT OF OBSERVATION: AN EXTENSION OF THE SPEARMAN‐BROWN FORMULA

Direct observation of teachers teaching and of learners learning has come to be regarded in recent years as an important element of research aimed at improving our understanding of the teaching-learning process. Of this research, a large part has been essentially quantitative, as evidenced by a quick glance through a review such as that by Rosenshine (1971), in which 51 essentially correlational studies are reported. Aside from the generally inconclusive nature of most of the research reviewed,' one's attention is drawn immediately to the lack of impact which measurement theory has had upon the practice of classroom observation. It is clear that a good deal of measurement necessarily takes place when teachers and pupils are observed, whether it be in counting the frequency of occurrence of particular behaviors, measuring the time devoted to particular activities, or computing the nowfamiliar indirect/direct ratio (Flanders, 1970). Yet only recently (Cronbach, Gleser, Nanda, & Rajaratnam, 1972; McGaw, Wardrop, & Bunda, 1972; Medley & Mitzel, 1963) has classroom observation attracted the attention of measurement specialists. Consequently, greater interest has developed in the measurement properties of observational measures (e.g., Shavelson & Dempsey-Atwood, 1976). Measurement theory, by and large, has been developed in the context of paperand-pencil tests of mental abilities and psychological constructs, and many of its concepts and assumptions reflect this origin (e.g., true score, item discrimination, item characteristic curve). The measurement of classroom behavior is an area to which the relevance of many of these concepts and assumptions is not obvious. There is, however, a sense in which the responses of a student to a test and a record of a person's observed behavior are logically equivalent. Each records a sample of behavior. In many cases, the same kind of information is recorded: the frequency of occurrence of a particular behavior of interest (in the case of the test, the behavior of interest is the giving of a correct response to an item). Test scores are not fundamentally different from behavioral measurements, but they are more properly seen as a particular kind of behavioral measurement in which the conditions of measure-