Interpretive Research Research Articles

A systematic review on interpretability research of intelligent fault diagnosis models

Abstract Recent years have witnessed a surge in the development of intelligent fault diagnosis (IFD) mostly based on deep learning methods, offering increasingly accurate and autonomous solutions. However, they overlook the interpretability of models, and most models are black-box models with unclear internal mechanisms, thereby reducing users’ confidence in the decision-making process. This is particularly problematic for critical decisions, as a lack of clarity regarding the diagnostic rationale poses substantial risks. To address these challenges, a more reliable, transparent, and interpretable system is urgently demanded. Research on the interpretability of IFD has gained momentum and stands today as a vibrant area of study. To promote in-depth research and advance the development of this field, a thorough examination of existing journal articles on interpretable fault diagnosis models is essential. Such a review will demystify current technologies for readers and provide a foundation for future investigation. This article aims to give a systematic review of the state-of-the-art interpretability research in the field of IFD. We present a systematic review of recent scholarly work on interpretable models in this domain, categorizing them according to their methodologies and structural attributes. In addition, we discuss the challenges and future research directions for the interpretability of IFD.

Food Security in the Rural Mapuche Elderly: Analysis and Proposals

Background: The increase in population longevity often occurs in contexts of inequity and relative poverty, accompanied by economic deterioration. This becomes a social determinant that has a direct impact on food security. This phenomenon particularly affects certain groups and territories, although there is still a lack of disaggregated references. Intersections between factors such as being a rural inhabitant, Indigenous, woman, or elderly person are observed in relation to food security, which forces us to pay greater attention to gaps that have remained invisible for years. Objective: The objective of this study is to analyze the main factors that affect the food security of Mapuche men and women over 60 years of age living in the rural area of Temuco, Chile. Method: Qualitative, descriptive, and interpretative research was carried out, observing the process from the interpretative symbolic paradigm and the complexity approach. Results: The data are made up of the discourses of these subjects, whose analysis allowed for the identification of results. These results show that producing their own food enables rural Mapuche elders to achieve food security. The cultural food heritage preserved by Mapuche elders, especially women, acts as a facilitating factor, as do community spaces that reinforce their culture. Among the obstacles to food security are migration to the city for work, pathological aging, and the limited production of culturally healthy foods (affected by environmental problems, cultural changes, the destabilization of group identity, and public policies that are incongruent with the territorial worldview). Conclusions: While rural Mapuche elders retain valuable practices for their food security, inadequate policies, migration and environmental degradation present significant challenges.

Adoption of Eco-Friendly Waste Reduction Practices in the Clothing Retail Sector in Cape Town

The fashion and textile industry significantly contributes to environmental degradation through unsustainable manufacturing and waste disposal practices, particularly in South Africa's retail sector. This study examines the retail merchandise cycles of two prominent clothing retailers based in Cape Town, South Africa to identify stages that generate substantial fashion and textile waste and proposes a model to enhance sustainability within the industry. Adopting a qualitative, interpretive research paradigm, data were collected through purposive sampling and in-depth interviews with key personnel, primarily buyers, within the selected companies. The research involved mapping and analyzing each retail cycle phase to identify excessive waste generation points. The findings revealed that retailers produce considerable amounts of waste (pre- and post-consumer) due to fast fashion practices and insufficient recycling systems. While both companies acknowledged the importance of sustainability, there was a notable lack of concrete policies and limited visibility into supplier processes concerning environmental impact. The study identified specific departments and operations within the retail cycles responsible for significant waste production, highlighting the need for systemic changes. Based on these insights, an improved retail cycle model was developed emphasizing waste reduction through sustainable sourcing, enhanced recycling initiatives, and stricter supplier compliance measures. The proposed model aims to minimize environmental harm by integrating sustainability into all aspects of the retail process.

Career choices: exploring military migrants’ justifications for their enlistment in the British Armed Forces

PurposeUsing “on justification” theory, this article explores the rationality and justification of the West-African military migrants for joining the British Armed Forces.Design/methodology/approachWe utilise an interpretive qualitative research methodology in this study. We undertook semi-structured interviews with 42 military migrants who joined the British Armed Forces between 1998 and 2013.FindingsWe identify various factors that influenced the participants’ decision to join the British Armed Forces, such as individual aspirations, the need to find a “path” at a crossroad in life (e.g. a career dilemma or the loss of a parent), economic opportunities and institutional incentives. Military migrants’ career motivations are shaped by their deep affection for the Crown and their desire to give back to the country with which they share a colonial history.Practical implicationsThe UK’s Ministry of Defence, government and policymakers could gain valuable insights from this study. The findings could significantly shape their recruitment and retention policies, thereby enhancing the attractiveness of the military profession. This could be a crucial step in addressing the recruitment challenges and personnel deficit currently faced by the British Armed Forces.Originality/valueThis study provides a fresh perspective on the dynamics of the military service of foreign-born veterans. The article focuses on an underrepresented group (West-African military migrants) to enhance our understanding of their career motivations in the British Armed Forces. We identify and categorise the motivations and justifications for military migrants’ enlistment in the British Armed Forces according to seven justifications, each depicting a career pattern informing the participants’ motivations and justifications for their enlistment.

A Call for Investment in Interpretation Research

A Call for Investment in Interpretation Research

Exploring sociocultural factors and ubuntuism for women living with HIV in rural Zimbabwe.

The focus of this study was on women living with HIV in rural Zimbabwe, who face many challenges, both in the family and community. Patriarchy compounds these problems as these women navigate access to health and other services. The study sought to explore ubuntuism and the sociocultural factors that facilitate or constrain women living with HIV from accessing community services and resources. An interpretive phenomenological analysis research design was utilised for the study. Purposive and quota sampling were applied to recruit 40 participants from six villages. Data were collected using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions that were audio recorded and transcribed. The data were analysed using the interpretive phenomenological analysis framework. The study found that women living with HIV face stigma and discrimination in the form of social exclusion and reduced access to community-based health activities and empowerment opportunities. These challenges were compounded by the negative impact of patriarchy that gives rise to land, resettlement and acculturation challenges. Ubuntu is a reflection of mutual dependence and can be used to promote more compassionate relationships with those who are HIV positive in the community.Contribution:The study provides unique insights into the challenges experienced by women living with HIV and how ubuntu could mitigate those challenges so that it adds to the humanistic philosophies in interpersonal relationships.

Research on Fault Diagnosis of Rotating Parts Based on Transformer Deep Learning Model

The rotating parts of large and complex equipment are key components that ensure the normal operation of the equipment. Accurate fault diagnosis is crucial for the safe operation of these systems. To simultaneously extract both local and global valuable fault feature information from key components of complex equipment, this study proposes a fault diagnosis network model, named MultiDilatedFormer, which is based on the fusion of transformer and multi-head dilated convolution. The newly designed multi-head dilated convolution module is sequentially integrated into the transformer-encoder architecture, constructing a feature extraction module where the complementary advantages of both components enhance overall performance. Firstly, the sample is expanded into a two-dimensional feature map and then input into the newly designed feature extraction module. Finally, the diagnostic output is performed by the designed patch feature fusion module and classifier module. Additionally, interpretability research is conducted on the proposed model, aiming to understand the decision-making mechanism of the model through visual analysis of the entire decision process. The experimental results on three different datasets indicate that the proposed model achieved high accuracy in fault diagnosis with relatively short data windows. The highest accuracy reached 97.95%, which was up to 10.97% higher than other models. Furthermore, the feasibility of the model is also verified in the actual dataset of the rotating parts of the injection molding machine. The excellent performance of the model on different datasets demonstrates its effectiveness in extracting comprehensive fault feature information and also proves its great potential in practical industrial applications.

Interpretability as Approximation: Understanding Black-Box Models by Decision Boundary

Currently, interpretability methods focus more on less objective human-understandable semantics. To objectify and standardize interpretability research, in this study, we provide notions of interpretability based on approximation theory. We first define explainable models in terms of explicitness and then use completeness to define interpretability, thereby turning interpretability into the process of approximating black-box models with interpretable models. In particular, we think that the decision boundary of a classification model is equivalent to its interpretability. Next, we implement this approximation interpretation on multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) and then propose to use the MLP as a universal interpreter to explain other complex black-box models. Compared to the LIME method, which can only extract local linear features, our method is global and therefore termed as GIME. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our approaches.

The complexity of compliance—Diverse responses to octopus fishery closures in Zanzibar

Abstract Marine protected areas like periodic closures are increasingly used to improve both fisheries management and biodiversity conservation, and often secondarily, human well‐being. Yet rule breaking, whether formal regulations, or community‐agreed norms, continues to negate expected management and conservation outcomes, remaining a major challenge. Although compliance scholarship today is expanding beyond non‐economic explanations of (non)‐compliance behaviour, approaches and theory used fail to show the diversity of perceptions and dispositions that can underpin motivations. A deepening engagement with behavioural sciences like sociology, psychology or behavioural economics is increasingly recognized as key in tackling compliance issues in marine protected areas. In this paper, we contribute to such a strand of compliance scholarship by presenting the responses and positions to (non‐) compliance, rules/regulations and authorities of different people, for example, fishers, traders and others involved in an area‐based fishery management intervention in Zanzibar, Tanzania. We take a qualitative approach aligning with an interpretive research ethic to carry out story circles, photo‐elicitation tasks and focus groups at three sites enacting periodic octopus closures. Theory drawn from sociology, anthropology and cognitive sciences was used to interpret how participants justified were motivated by or dispositioned towards rules, rule makers and rule breakers. Generally, the area‐management intervention was supported by participants, signalling the potential for future compliance most commonly based on the recognition of a degraded marine ecosystem in need of protection. However, the diverse and dynamic responses by different livelihood groups (i.e. traders and fishers) indicated on which basis and through which logics compliance behaviour was condoned or legitimated. This type of insight can help managers gauge or anticipate the potential for non‐compliance in participatory approaches that can impact the health of marine ecosystems. Recommendations include providing discussion spaces for conservation participants' (not just fishermen or fishery organizations) own meanings to be understood and not assumed. Meanings which create and shape relations, actions and concepts in marine protected area processes and thus directly impact the uptake and sustainability of conservation interventions. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Methodology Matters: Emplotting Interpretivism in Contemporary Political Science and International Studies

Abstract The visibility and adoption of interpretive research approaches in the post-Perestroika period have increased in the United States, yet common knowledge within political science (PS) and international studies (IS) departments still signals their marginality. This paper stems from the observation that interpretive scholars often share autobiographical narratives or “journey stories” describing how they came to embrace interpretive research despite socio-institutional obstacles. Based on semi-structured interviews and participant observation, it asks: What do the journey stories of both new and established scholars engaged in interpretivism reveal about the sociology of PS and IS academies? Our findings reveal a widespread perception that interpretivism is gaining a foothold in the United States while intimating the spread of neopositivist hegemony, to some degree, to academies abroad. We show how scholars make use of the label “interpretivism” and identify key diffusion pathways responsible for interpretivism’s wider recognition today. In addition, we find that despite shared assumptions of neopositivist hegemony, our interlocutors pursue interpretive research because it provides them with epistemological and experiential congruence. Their journey stories, we argue, point toward an evolving methodological landscape in PS and IS, which in turn shapes what forms of knowledge production are considered legitimate and valuable.

Character of Ecological People in the Quran

The harmonious relationship between humans and their environment can be likened to a mutually beneficial relationship. This perspective views humans as an inseparable element of their environment, with an emphasis on the human obligation to care for and ensure the survival of nature. In return, nature will provide benefits to fulfil human needs. This research aims to actualise ecological verses in human life and produce the proposition of theological insanity from the perspective of the Quran. The following research method is a qualitative approach focusing on library research. As a guide and reference, it uses library data sources. When viewed from the method of analysis, it can be classified as descriptive research that describes information based on events and facts and relates it to explanations from related sources according to the topic of this research. In analysing Quranic interpretation, the following includes thematic or maudhûi interpretation research, with steps, namely collecting Quranic verses related to humans, the environment and nature. Furthermore, it provides interpretation and understanding of the verses in question through the application of various contemporary interpretation sources combined with other sources. This research produces a proposition of ecological human character in the Quran, which includes Khalifah, Hikmah, and Mizan. Thus, three things are interrelated to create the character of the rahmatan li al 'alamin people.

Panna Addams: współczesna tożsamość „z pogranicza”. O postawie głównej bohaterki serialu Wednesday

The article is a part of qualitative interpretive research conducted as part of a doctoral thesis addressing the portrayal of femininity in contemporary selected film fairytales. The aim of the analysis was to present fairy tale heroines as an audiovisual representation of expectations, norms, and values stemming from gender and inscribed in the prevailing socio-cultural order. The qualitative interpretation of the active stance of the main character in the popular series Wednesday serves as an exe mplification of cultural contestation between the traditional understanding of femininity and its androgynous redefinition, not constrained by widely accepted social norms.

Effects of adverse childhood experiences on university students' ability to lead healthy lives: an exploratory qualitative study in Lahore, Pakistan.

Adverse Childhood Experiences are a significant global public health concern as these experiences have adverse effects on all the health determinants. The interpretive phenomenological research design was used to explore the implications of adverse childhood experiences on the adult life of university students. An interpretive thematic analysis method was employed to analyze this study. Five major themes emerged after a comprehensive review of the information obtained from the interviews with the ten selected participants. These were (1) Chronic health struggles (2) Mental health disorders (3) Emotional and social difficulties (4) Paranoia and distrust and (5) Academic and professional under-performance. This study concludes that adverse childhood experiences have long-lasting negative effects on university students' health and behaviour, preventing them from leading healthy lives and excelling academically and professionally.

Interpretable reduced-order optimization research for improving indoor environmental quality in buildings based on dimensional analysis and surrogate-based optimization

Implementing large-scale optimization designs and identifying optimal design variables in fields such as architectural engineering is crucial for improving indoor environmental quality. However, the high-dimensional nonlinear characteristics complicate the understanding of the optimization process and increase the difficulty of finding optimal solutions. This study proposes an interpretable reduced-order optimization (ROO) method based on dimensional analysis, which integrates numerous variables into a single reduced-order coefficient through a power form. The goal is to develop a reduced-order and approximately one-dimensional nonlinear relationship during the optimization process and to reveal the mechanisms of single-objective and multi-objective optimization, thereby enhancing the interpretability of the optimization process. The reliability of the ROO is validated through single-objective optimization of building thermal bridges and multi-objective optimization of squirrel cage fans. The study shows that the power in the reduced-order coefficient can be used to determine the sensitivity and impact of design variables on optimization targets. The nonlinear relationship between the composite structural parameters of the building thermal bridge and the total heat flux can be reduced to an approximately one-dimensional linear relationship, significantly reducing the total heat flux of the thermal bridge by 10.3 %. The ROO accurately describes the aerodynamic performance of the fan and its high-dimensional nonlinear relationship with eight design variables, eliminating optimization conflicts among multiple operating conditions and significantly enhancing the aerodynamic performance. The ROO method proposed in this study offers a new approach to making the optimization process more interpretable, playing a crucial role in optimization design and revealing optimization mechanisms in engineering applications.

Towards the development and enhancement of Open and Distance Learning policies in Africa: A step by step guide to the game

Purpose: This study sought to explain and understand possible steps for developing and enhancing open and distance learning (ODL) policies in Malawi. Methodology: It thus deployed descriptive and interpretive phenomenological research as advanced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger to deeply understand policies, practices and perceptions within higher education institutions (HEIs) in Malawi. It was assumed that human experiences can best be understood through ones immersion into documents, conversations and lived-experiences of the research subjects. Accordingly, we used document analyses, observations and systematic conversations followed by practical activities to enhance the available draft-ODL policies at the selected HEIs. Findings: The study established that many academics had inadequate knowledge on policy formulation using paradigmatic and marginalized philosophical theories. It was also established when policy-makers combine different theories to inform their policies, they gain more advantages than they would have otherwise done. Since education is usually confronted by complex issues, such theoretical amalgamation has paid dividends. While this study inherently took an eccentric approach to research by reconciling Husserl and Heidegger’s contradictions, it also infused some elements of empiricism and conceptual ideals ushering in a mixed methodology that culminated into a transformative paradigm. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Since research is about discovering new knowledge, this study garnered its uniqueness and credibility through such methodical surprises; the approaches that transcended mere theoretical analyses to yielding a tangible ODL policy product. We acknowledge our methodological limitations although such limitations cannot lender our findings invalid. We therefore recommend researchers to try this approach, and share with us their findings.

Improving community vitality: spiritually informed entrepreneurial actions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to depict how entrepreneurs improve community vitality in the economic, social and environmental dimensions. The paper joins the conversation of business spirituality as the study participants were Sri Lankan Buddhist entrepreneurs from the emerging venture context (i.e. from enterprises which are less than 1–10 years old). The aim of the paper is to introduce spiritually informed entrepreneurial actions, thus contributing to a better understanding of entrepreneurial impact on communities. Design/methodology/approach The paper involves a qualitative, interpretivist research design. Data was collected by conducting 28 semi-structured interviews with 18 Sri Lankan Buddhist entrepreneurs. Research participants were selected from diverse business sectors. The research applied inductive thematic analysis for structuring and interpreting data. Findings For Sri Lankan Buddhist entrepreneurs, improving community vitality is an essential altruistic goal of their business agenda. During the operations of their ventures, this altruistic goal is translated into altruistic actions that improve the economic, social and environmental vitalities of communities. Research findings highlight that in the case of Sri Lankan Buddhist entrepreneurs, altruistic actions are informed by compassion, which is a fundamental value in the Buddhist religion. Drawing on the findings, an integrated model of community vitality, which describes the role of compassion and the mechanisms of entrepreneurial actions in a Buddhist setting was developed inductively. Originality/value Studying entrepreneurial actions to focus on the motivations behind improving community vitality is a new research topic. The paper provides valuable knowledge on business spirituality regarding the compassionate motivations of Buddhist entrepreneurs. The integrated model of community vitality, which describes the mechanisms of entrepreneurial actions to improve community vitality in a Buddhist setting could be an essential compass not only to entrepreneurs but also research scholars in the field of business spirituality.

Considering Participant Observation Methods for Nursing Qualitative Research

Observation is used as a research technique and the selection of the appropriate type depends on the research question and the paradigm underlying each study. The degree of participation and involvement of a nurse researcher varies according to the nature of the setting and the research question. The objective is to reflect on the experience in applying observational techniques in nursing qualitative research. We report on the experience of using 14 observations of interactions between nurse-child-parents in a nursing appointment in a healthcare center. This data collection allowed identification of advantages and limitations in the nurse-child-parent interaction processes, in a healthcare center. We argue that advantages of observation can include overcoming the divergence between what participants say and what they do; capturing the emotional dimension cultivated within the natural environment; flexibility and non-intrusiveness if the researcher gives time to develop a relationship with the participants. Doing observations requires significant time in the natural context, through sustained presence, building trust, and becoming integrated into the context before the research begins. In interpretive and naturalistic qualitative research observational techniques continue to offer a method that can be used alone or conjugated with other data collection techniques.

Interpretability research of deep learning: A literature survey

Deep learning (DL) has been widely used in various fields. However, its black-box nature limits people's understanding and trust in its decision-making process. Therefore, it becomes crucial to research the DL interpretability, which can elucidate the model's decision-making processes and behaviors. This review provides an overview of the current status of interpretability research. First, the DL's typical models, principles, and applications are introduced. Then, the definition and significance of interpretability are clarified. Subsequently, some typical interpretability algorithms are introduced into four groups: active, passive, supplementary, and integrated explanations. After that, several evaluation indicators for interpretability are briefly described, and the relationship between interpretability and model performance is explored. Next, the specific applications of some interpretability methods/models in actual scenarios are introduced. Finally, the interpretability research challenges and future development directions are discussed.

A review of deep learning approaches for multimodal image segmentation of liver cancer.

This review examines the recent developments in deep learning (DL) techniques applied to multimodal fusion image segmentation for liver cancer. Hepatocellular carcinoma is a highly dangerous malignant tumor that requires accurate image segmentation for effective treatment and disease monitoring. Multimodal image fusion has the potential to offer more comprehensive information and more precise segmentation, and DL techniques have achieved remarkable progress in this domain. This paper starts with an introduction to liver cancer, then explains the preprocessing and fusion methods for multimodal images, then explores the application of DL methods in this area. Various DL architectures such as convolutional neural networks (CNN) and U-Net are discussed and their benefits in multimodal image fusion segmentation. Furthermore, various evaluation metrics and datasets currently used to measure the performance of segmentation models are reviewed. While reviewing the progress, the challenges of current research, such as data imbalance, model generalization, and model interpretability, are emphasized and future research directions are suggested. The application of DL in multimodal image segmentation for liver cancer is transforming the field of medical imaging and is expected to further enhance the accuracy and efficiency of clinical decision making. This review provides useful insights and guidance for medical practitioners.

Законодательный уровень правового регулирования в субъектах федеративных государств (сравнительно-правовой контекст)

Relevance. The normative prescriptions formed in the subjects of federal states, including in the subjects of the Russian Federation, acquiring a legislative form in accordance with their constitutions, under the conditions of the right granted to these subjects to carry out “their own legal regulation” (Part 4 of Article 76 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation), form a fundamentally new — their own level of legislative regulation in the regions, which is noticeable It also modernizes the role of federal legislation in the system of regulatory regulators of public relations. Widely practiced in the subjects of the Russian Federation and other federal states, the principle of its own legislative regulation brings its positive results. Goal. In a comparative legal context, to substantiate that, thanks to the legislative form of legal regulation formed by the subjects of the federation in a single legal space, favorable conditions are created for the implementation of the constitutional principle of equality in specific relations, which, in turn, contributes to strengthening the unity of the Russian federal state. Methods. The obtained conclusions are based on dialectical, logical, systemic, sociological, as well as comparative legal, formal legal, legal interpretation, statistics and other research methods. Results. The distinctive features, meaning, content, positive role and practical significance of their own legislative regulation in the subjects of federal states are revealed. Arguments are presented confirming that the own legislative regulation in the subjects of the Russian Federation, carried out in the form of specifying federal laws and supplementing them with new content, contributes to strengthening the integrity of the federal state and its sovereignty and as such acts as a key link in the system of regulatory regulators in the regions. The results obtained are new and have practical significance. In this aspect, legal regulation in the subjects of the Russian Federation has not been considered in the scientific literature.