Practical Interpretation Research Articles

Navigating the Bayes maze: The psychologist's guide to Bayesian statistics, a hands-on tutorial with R code.

Bayesian statistics has gained substantial popularity in the social sciences, particularly in psychology. Despite its growing prominence in the psychological literature, many researchers remain unacquainted with Bayesian methods and their advantages. This tutorial addresses the needs of curious applied psychology researchers and introduces Bayesian analysis as an accessible and powerful tool. We begin by comparing Bayesian and frequentist approaches, redefining fundamental terms from both perspectives with practical illustrations. Our exploration of Bayesian statistics includes Bayes's Theorem, likelihood, prior and posterior distributions, various prior types, and Markov-Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods, supplemented by graphical aids for clarity. To bridge theory and practice, we employ a psychological research example with real, open data. We analyse the data using both frequentist and Bayesian approaches, providing R code and comprehensive supporting information, and emphasising best practices for interpretation and reporting. We discuss and demonstrate how to interpret parameter estimates and credible intervals, among other essential topics. Throughout, we maintain an accessible and user-friendly language, focusing on practical implications, intuitive examples, and actionable recommendations.

An Endpoint Adjudication Committee for the Assessment of Computed Tomography Scans in Fracture Healing

IntroductionEndpoint Adjudication Committees (EACs) benefit the quality of randomized control trials (RCTs) where outcomes depend on subjective interpretations. However, assembling a committee to adjudicate large datasets is cumbersome. In a recent RCT, the primary outcome was time to union following operative fixation of scaphoid non-union, with real or placebo adjunctive ultrasound treatment. Union status was determined with computed tomography (CT) scans interpreted by treating surgeons and radiologists. An EAC was established to deliberate discrepancies between radiologists’ and surgeons’ interpretations of union status. MethodsThree hundred sixty-four CT scans from 142 participants were collected in the RCT. The treating surgeon and an MSK radiologist categorized images by percent-union (0%, 1-24%, 25-49%, 50-74%, 75-99%, 100%). Union was defined as at least 50% trabecular bridging. The EAC adjudicated those images that were deemed major discrepancies. The committee was composed of three members assembled by the committee chair, an MSK radiologist. A charter was established to guide the adjudication process. Ten minutes were allotted to each scan, including 2-3 minutes of an independent adjudicator's review, followed by 5-7 minutes of committee discussion to reach a diagnosis. ResultsAdjudicators spent an average of seven minutes on each scan. The EAC assessed 101 CT scans from 69 patients collected across five study sites: four scans from the agreed upon group as practice interpretations, 75 major discrepancies, and 22 missing interpretations from either the initial MSK radiologist, the treating orthopaedic surgeon, or both. These were adjudicated for final union status. Twenty-eight of the images with major discrepancies were adjudicated to union, and 47 to non-union. Adjudication changed the primary outcome of time to union in 40/142 (28%) of study participants. ConclusionThis adjudication process provides a valuable research tool for reference by other clinical investigators whose RCTs’ outcomes are dependent on interpretation of radiographic images.

HEDDI-Net: heterogeneous network embedding for drug-disease association prediction and drug repurposing, with application to Alzheimer’s disease

BackgroundThe traditional process of developing new drugs is time-consuming and often unsuccessful, making drug repurposing an appealing alternative due to its speed and safety. Graph neural networks (GCNs) have emerged as a leading approach for predicting drug-disease associations by integrating drug and disease-related networks with advanced deep learning algorithms. However, GCNs generally infer association probabilities only for existing drugs and diseases, requiring network re-establishment and retraining for novel entities. Additionally, these methods often struggle with sparse networks and fail to elucidate the biological mechanisms underlying newly predicted drugs.MethodsTo address the limitations of traditional methods, we developed HEDDI-Net, a heterogeneous embedding architecture designed to accurately detect drug-disease associations while preserving the interpretability of biological mechanisms. HEDDI-Net integrates graph and shallow learning techniques to extract representative diseases and proteins, respectively. These representative diseases and proteins are used to embed the input features, which are then utilized in a multilayer perceptron for predicting drug-disease associations.ResultsIn experiments, HEDDI-Net achieves areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of over 0.98, outperforming state-of-the-art methods. Rigorous recovery analyses reveal a median recovery rate of 73% for the top 100 diseases, demonstrating its efficacy in identifying novel target diseases for existing drugs, known as drug repurposing. A case study on Alzheimer's disease highlighted the model's practical applicability and interpretability, identifying potential drug candidates like Baclofen, Fluoxetine, Pentoxifylline and Phenytoin. Notably, over 40% of the predicted candidates in the clusters of commonly prescribed clinical drugs Donepezil and Galantamine had been tested in clinical trials, validating the model's predictive accuracy and practical relevance.ConclusionsHEDDI-NET represents a significant advancement by allowing direct application to new diseases and drugs without the need for retraining, a limitation of most GCN-based methods. Furthermore, HEDDI-Net provides detailed affinity patterns with representative proteins for predicted candidate drugs, facilitating an understanding of their physiological effects. This capability also supports the design and testing of alternative drugs that are similar to existing medications, enhancing the reliability and interpretability of potential repurposed drugs. The case study on Alzheimer's disease further underscores HEDDI-Net's ability to predict promising drugs and its applicability in drug repurposing.

Defining variances in practice for use of electrophysiology studies in risk stratification of patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot: a PACES survey.

Sudden cardiac death poses a significant risk in patients with surgically repaired tetralogy of Fallot. Despite extensive research, risk stratification practices vary. This study surveyed the Pediatric and Adult Congenital Electrophysiology Society to identify these differences. Results showed diverse practices in indications, methods, and interpretation of electrophysiology studies, highlighting a need for standardised algorithms to improve patient outcomes.

Parent-Reported Feeding Practices Associated With Children's Observed Willingness-to-Try-New-Foods in Childcare.

Feeding behaviours are established early in life, with lifelong influences on children's appetite, growth and health, emphasizing the importance of understanding how parent-child feeding interactions relate to children's eating and growth patterns. The objective was to examine reciprocity between parent-reported feeding practices and children's observed willingness-to-try-new-foods in childcare settings without parental presence, thereby assessing independence from context and parental influence. The sample included parent-child dyads (n = 436) recruited from 51 childcare centres across 10 counties. Parent-reported feeding practices, children's observed willingness-to-try-new-foods and children's height and weight were measured using the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire (CFPQ), a food tasting activity and standardized anthropometric protocols, respectively. Logistic and linear regression models assessed associations between parent-reported feeding practices and children's observed willingness-to-try-new-foods, as well as body mass index z-score (BMIz), respectively. All models adjusted for potential confounders, including clustering within childcare centres. Children's observed willingness-to-try-new-foods was positively associated with parent-reported restriction for weight control, suggesting independence from context. A child-driven interpretation suggests parental perceptions of children's high food responsivity or concerns about excess weight gain and a parent-driven interpretation suggests that children exhibit higher willingness-to-try-new-foods in response to parental weight-related restriction. Children's observed willingness-to-try-new-foods was not related to other parent-reported feeding practices. Child BMIz was positively associated with parent-reported restriction for weight and health and negatively associated with pressuring and giving children control over food intake. Future research is needed to determine factors associated with child and parent-driven interpretations of feeding practices and effective strategies to promote responsive parent feeding practices.

Methods (techniques) of legal interpretation in the practice of the Сourt of Justice of the EU

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) uses a variety of tools in its activities, among which the most important are the methods of interpretation. Using a whole range of methods (methods) of interpretation, the CJEU fills existing gaps in the law or clarifies the meaning and scope of application of the rules of European Union law. The CJEU uses methods of interpretation in its legal interpretation activities that are used in both national and international law. However, their use in the interpretation of European Union law is somewhat different. Based on the analysis of the case law of the CJEU, researchers distinguish a wide range of methods of interpretation, among which the main ones are philological (linguistic), systemic, teleological, historical, etc. The combination of these methods allows for the adaptation of EU law to changing conditions and unification of its multilingual nature. The work is focused on the most commonly used methods of interpretation: philological, systemic and teleological. The philological interpretation is applied by the CJEU somewhat differently than in the generally accepted classical sense. This is a consequence of the multilingual nature of EU law, which influences both the procedure and the order in which this method of interpretation is used. The systemic method emphasizes the need for an interpretation that would allow EU legal norms to be integrated into a coherent and consistent framework within the complex system of EU legal sources, taking into account the hierarchy of primary and secondary law. In this regard, the general principles of EU law are of particular importance. As a result of the Court of Justice of the European Union’s application of the systemic interpretation mechanism, the unification of the understanding of EU law within the legal systems of various member states is ensured. Teleological interpretation in the practice of the CJEU lays the foundation for case law, considering the presence of extensive preambles in EU legal acts. An analysis of the ways, methods and practices of interpretation of EU law is necessary to prepare the national legal system and national courts for cooperation within the framework of the CJEU.

Interpretation of good clinical practice of acupuncture and moxibustion research management

Interpretation of good clinical practice of acupuncture and moxibustion research management

Latent Structure and Profiles of Emotion Regulation: Reappraisal and Suppression Patterns with the Polish Version of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire.

Background/Objectives: The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) is a 10-item self-report measure of two emotion regulation strategies, cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES). This study aimed to (1) examine the latent structure of the Polish version of the ERQ, and (2) use it to explore different profiles of emotion regulation strategy use and their links with mental health outcomes. Methods: Our sample was 1197 Polish-speaking adults from the general community in Poland. Results: A factor analysis showed that the ERQ had strong factorial validity, with an intended two-factor structure (CR and ES factors) that was invariant across gender, age, and education categories, as well as across different levels of psychopathology symptoms and alexithymia. Our latent profile analysis extracted four emotion regulation profiles (subtypes): a Mainly Reappraisal profile (high CR, low ES), a Mainly Suppression profile (low CR with high ES), a Generally Low Regulation profile (low CR, low ES), and a Generally High Regulation profile (high CR, high ES). People with the Mainly Reappraisal profile had the best mental health outcomes, whereas people with the Mainly Suppression profile had the poorest mental health outcomes. Conclusions: Conceptually, these findings support the process model of emotion regulation, illustrating the differential affective outcomes of various emotion regulation strategies. Our results highlight the importance of considering individual differences in strategy use patterns, including combinations of strategies within an emotion regulation profile. The Polish version of the ERQ appears to be a robust measure of these key emotion regulation processes across a variety of demographic groups. To facilitate its use, including score interpretations in clinical practice, we present Polish percentile rank norms for the ERQ.

Size effect on Raman measured stress and strain induced phonon shifts in ultra-thin silicon film

The fabrication of complex nano-scale structures, which is a crucial step in the scaling of (nano)electronic devices, often leads to residual stress in the different layers present. This stress gradient can change many of the material properties, leading to changes in device performance, especially in the active part of the transistor, the channel. Measuring, understanding, and, ultimately, controlling the stress fields is hence crucial for many design steps. The level of stress can in principle be measured by micro-Raman spectroscopy. This, however, requires a priori knowledge of the mechanical properties of the material. However, mechanical properties start to deviate from the bulk values when film dimensions become thinner than 5 nm. If this effect is ignored, errors of up to 400% can be introduced in the extracted stress profile. In this work, we illustrate this effect for a range of Si (001) slabs with different silicon film thicknesses, ranging from 5 to 0.7 nm and provide best practices for the proper interpretation of micro-Raman stress measurements.

African feminist interpretations of political actions, practices and policies: Zimbabwe’s Bustop TV

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on Bustop TV, a Zimbabwean media house that participates in digital activism and shares on social media video skits featuring two women in leading roles. It explores how Bustop TV relies on some of the basic tenets of African feminisms, including women’s collective action, solidarity, agency, and an emphasis on African women’s specific social, cultural and political contexts. Additionally, the paper examines how Bustop TV navigates the complex relationship between local and international agendas, especially since the media house receives international funding, often linked to the “NGO-ization” phenomenon and the potential alienation of local audiences. The paper combines a cultural approach and an African feminist perspective to analyse three video skits selected from Bustop TV’s over 1350 videos. These three videos were purposively selected because they represent videos produced by Bustop TV to critique or comment on significant political events and processes. The paper argues that Bustop TV underscores Zimbabwean women’s agency in political participation by framing their everyday experiences as taking place in spaces of resistance and contestation. In these spaces, men and women interact with each other and their society’s structural conditions as agents in pursuit of their socio-economic and political interests.

Prediction of Tidal Volume in Newborns Through a Novel Three-Dimensional Model: A Viability Study.

Although noninvasive monitoring through quantifying rib cage movement has been useful in serial assessment of pulmonary function in newborns, measuring tidal volume (TV) is commonly performed invasively. As it is the most basic measure of pulmonary function, expanding its assessment to a noninvasive measure can contribute to clinical findings and interpretations in neonatal clinical practice. (1) Create a noninvasive measurement tool for TV for neonatal clinical use; (2) Evaluate the agreement between measured TV and predicted TV. Observational study with healthy newborns. Predicted TV was calculated based on the newborns' weight using the mid-range of the volumes usually set during mechanical ventilation of term infants (5 mL/kg). For measured TV, newborns were filmed in supine position using a digital camera, and their chest circumferences were measured with a nonelastic tape. Body markers delimited the segmentation of the area of interest, and a MATLAB software routine established their relationship with the area in cm² and generated a representative image of the thoracic and abdominal areas in a cylindrical, elliptical-based format, as well as a three-dimensional model to represent quantitative data of measured TV. Paired t-test assessed the means of measured and predicted TV, Pearson's correlation assessed level of association, and Kappa coefficient assessed the agreement between them. Newborns' gestational ages ranged from 38 to 40 weeks and weights from 2190 to 4125 g. A total of 56 respiratory cycles were validated for analysis. The mean predicted TV according to weight was 5.06 mL/kg, and measured TV was 5 ml/kg (p = 0.31), with a correlation of 0.7 (p < 0.001) and a kappa coefficient of 0.39 (p = 0.01). MATLAB software routine was a practical and easy-to-use tool to monitor noninvasive TV in a neonatal setting. There was no difference between predicted and estimated TV, with fair agreement between them.

Authoring a Muslim Feminist “Self” Through Travel Writing: Reclaiming Agency Through Islam

This article aims to analyze nineteenth and twentieth-century travel writing by a Muslim woman writer, Nur Begum, who embarked on a 3-month journey to perform Hajj (pilgrimage). We aim to unravel her deliberate choice of poetic form as travel writing, which we argue consciously manifests her resistance against the prevailing patriarchal norms set by the Muslim culture. The study draws on Bakhtin’s dialogic framework of the human “self” as an agent engaged in constant negotiation of meanings as he emphasizes the link between human struggle for voice and their activity and growth. Within this theoretical framework, we decipher how Nur Begum authors her “feminist self” in a struggle to articulate her voice against patriarchy that denies her individuality. Moreover, we use insights from Muslim feminist scholarship (e.g. post-patriarchal reading of Islam and feminist theology) to explain how selected verses from Nur Begum’s travel writing deconstruct the myths emerging from the patriarchal interpretation of Islam and social practices in Muslim societies.

연설문 한-아 기계 번역의 가용성 연구: 구글 번역, 챗GPT, 파파고 비교를 중심으로

This study compares the usability of machine translation tools—Google Translate, ChatGPT, and Papago—for Korean-Arabic translation and examines their potential applications. Focusing on the Korean-Arabic language pair, the study analyzes speeches commonly used in translation and interpretation practice. The dataset consists of five Korean speeches delivered by President Yoon Suk-yeol during his state visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar in October 2023, totaling 2,639 words (11,269 characters) translated into Arabic. The translations were evaluated based on fidelity, fluency, formality, and pragmatics. The analysis revealed that Google Translate produced the highest quality translations with the fewest errors in fidelity and fluency. ChatGPT exhibited frequent omissions from the source text but performed well in fluency, formality, and pragmatics, showing potential for simultaneous interpretation, albeit with necessary source-text verification. In contrast, Papago displayed significant distortions and the lowest quality in fluency and formality, highlighting its limitations for interpretation purposes.

Tłumaczenie tekstów aktów prawnych w kontekście ich wielopoziomowości

TRANSLATION OF LEGAL ACTS IN THE CONTEXT OF THEIR MULTI-LEVEL NATUREThe main aim of the article is to discuss the problem of translating legal texts from the perspective of their multi-level nature. The need to distinguish the descriptive, normative, and presuppositional layers of legal acts, emphasized in legal doctrine, seems to strongly impact the translation strategy adopted by the translator. Starting from this assumption, the author finally formulates the thesis that the shape of the strategy mentioned earlier also affects the practice of interpretation and application of legal acts, which leads to formulating a postulate regarding the marking of the translation layer of a legal act.

Application of expert opinion in investigation and proof of criminal offences against justice

The article substantiates the thesis that an expert opinion is one of the sources of proof in criminal offences against justice. It is established that the possibilities of expert research in this category of cases are mainly aimed at proving certain circumstances which occurred in the past, and the confirmation of which is a sufficient basis for establishing the fact that a person encroaches on the normal (lawful) activities of justice authorities and obstructs the conduct of legal proceedings, i.e., expert tasks are mainly aimed at investigating the method of unlawful conduct. Forensic examinations aimed at identifying the perpetrator are atypical in their investigation, since in most cases the identity of the latter is reliably known. Based on the generalisation of case law materials, the author determines that for this category of cases, it is typical to appoint the following examinations: forensic psychiatric examination, handwriting examination, technical examination of a document, etc. The author emphasises that law enforcement practice needs to be improved in the context of developing unified approaches to the grounds sufficient for a person to undergo a forensic psychiatric examination. Since the existing legislative approach does not define such grounds in detail, and given the presumption of mental health, the task of ensuring their unambiguous interpretation in law enforcement practice is urgent. In addition, it is determined that typical examinations also include handwriting examination, the objects of which are primarily protocols of procedural actions, official documents containing forged signatures or false text. Another typical method used in the investigation of criminal offences against justice is the technical examination of a document, which is aimed at confirming/refuting the fact of its forgery. The author believes that further research on the issues raised should be aimed at identifying typical mistakes made by the inquiry and investigation authorities which affect the ability to solve expert tasks in this category of criminal offences.

Проблемы и особенности нормативной правовой регламентации использования «документов прикрытия» в оперативно-розыскной деятельности

Introduction. The implementation of operational investigative activities by officials of operational investigative activity subjects and persons providing them with confidential assistance objectively requires the concealment of a significant amount of information about themselves, as well as about the operational investigative means and methods they use. However, the objective reality in which operational investigative activities are carried out often does not allow concealing the very fact and circumstances of its implementation. In such conditions, it is tactically more advantageous and rational to disguise the implementation of operational investigative activities under other types of social activity, using for this purpose a covert-conspiratorial toolkit, which includes the so-called cover documents – documents that encrypt the identity of officials, departmental affiliation of enterprises, institutions, organisations, divisions, premises and vehicles of bodies implementing operational investigative activities, as well as the identity of citizens providing them with assistance on a confidential basis. Russian operational-search legislation regulates their use extremely sparingly and illogically, which gives rise to theoretical and practical problems of using this functional-legal institute of operational-search activities. In this work, the author analyses the modern normative legal regulation of this sphere. Methods. The study used general scientific dialectical, comparative legal, formal logical methods and the method of content analysis. This made it possible to identify evidence of a normative legal deficit in terms of regulating the lawful and safe circulation of special chemical substances for operational-search purposes in the prevention, suppression and detection of crimes, and the search for criminals. Results. Based on the analysis of a number of federal laws, inconsistent and contradictory provisions of individual articles designed to regulate the use of cover documents by operational-search activity subjects were identified. This gives rise to a conflict of laws in their legal interpretation and subsequent implementation in practice. The study allowed the author to state a certain inadequacy of the legal regulation of the use of cover documents by operational-search activity subjects and participants and the need for the earliest possible optimisation of the regulatory system in the area under consideration in accordance with the proposed authentic approaches. In conclusion, the author formulates individual proposals for the interpretation of current legal norms and their editorial correction.

Inference of Correlations Among Testlet Effects: A Latent Variable Selection Method.

In psychological and educational measurement, a testlet-based test is a common and popular format, especially in some large-scale assessments. In modeling testlet effects, a standard bifactor model, as a common strategy, assumes different testlet effects and the main effect to be fully independently distributed. However, it is difficult to establish perfectly independent clusters as this assumption. To address this issue, correlations among testlets could be taken into account in fitting data. Moreover, one may desire to maintain a good practical interpretation of the sparse loading matrix. In this paper, we propose data-driven learning of significant correlations in the covariance matrix through a latent variable selection method. Under the proposed method, a regularization is performed on the weak correlations for the extended bifactor model. Further, a stochastic expectation maximization algorithm is employed for efficient computation. Results from simulation studies show the consistency of the proposed method in selecting significant correlations. Empirical data from the 2015 Program for International Student Assessment is analyzed using the proposed method as an example.

Small-Format Texts in the Practice of Teaching Translation and Interpretation for Professional Purposes

The article analyzes the possibilities of using small-format texts of various discourses in the practice of teaching translation and interpretation for professional purposes. The authors consider the possibilities of using small-format texts various types (texts of social and commercial advertising, posters, synopses, trailers and shorts of authentic films, cartoons, messages in social networks, texts of news briefs. etc.) as new types of authentic texts used for the purpose of teaching translation and interpretation to students of various specialties. The purpose of the article is to identify the features of using small-format texts in the practice of teaching French as a foreign language to students of various specialties. In the course of considering this issue, we paid the main attention to the selection criteria for small-format texts used for educational purposes, as well as the development of a set of exercises based on the use of small-format texts in translation training (using the French language as an example). The research methodology includes the methods of discourse analysis, content analysis and the method of continuous sampling for the selection of research materials (small-format texts), the linguocultural method for assessing the educational potential of the small-format texts under consideration, as well as the method of compiling exercises to develop a set of multidirectional exercises for teaching students translation techniques and methods in the professional sphere. We used the method of verification and validation of question-answer forms to develop a questionnaire, which is a consistent approbation and development of a questionnaire, to obtain adequate survey data to assess the quality of the small-format texts implementation in translation teaching practice. As a result of the study, the authors developed a set of methodological recommendations for the use and selection of small-format texts applicable for educational purposes, as well as a set of exercises using small-format texts of various discursive genesis, applied at different stages of the lesson. This study may be of interest to researchers and practicing teachers in the field of teaching foreign languages in general and the French language in particular, teaching translation and interpretation for special purposes, and university teachers from the point of view of using new types of authentic texts in the practice of teaching and training and translation practice.

FRAMES AND REFRAMING IN MEDICINE

In this work, the notion of “frame” is used as a strategy for analyzing medical space. I consider medicine to be an ideal example for understanding how frames operate and how changes in practice. The objective is to analyze narrative medicine as a particular case of reframing that allows the reconstruction of the classic frame in medicine, Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM). To do this, I will propose an analysis of both frames and I will study as a practical example the formal chart and the “parallel chart” proposed by narrative medicine. The “parallel chart” will be considered as a tool that complements the medical chart and that will allow new approaches and guides for interpretation and action in medical practice.

The Influence of Popular Culture’s Interpretation of Noah’s Ark upon Evangelical Reading and Interpretation

Whilst there is much published research looking at the use and/or interpretation of the Bible in popular culture, there has been little research investigating the impact of such cultural biblical engagement upon contemporary Christian Bible readers. Drawing upon focus group data, this paper thus explores the influence that the cultural history of Noah’s ark, particularly in popular culture, has upon the way evangelicals interpret. This paper shows that evangelical readers were influenced by the interpretations of the Noah story in the spheres of science, new atheism, children’s books and films, and this affected the conclusions they came to about the issue of historicity, morality and applicability. The paper closes with a reflection on why this phenomenon occurs and what hermeneutical benefits it might offer the reader by considering how God might be at work in the cultural depictions of Scripture and what they might offer interpretative practice.