Conceptual Issues Research Articles

Unexpected lucidity in dementia: application of qualitative methods to develop an informant-reported lucidity measure

Objectives Unexpected lucidity is a phenomenon of scientific, clinical, and psychological relevance to health professionals, to those who experience it, and their relatives. This paper describes qualitative methods used to develop an informant-based measure of lucidity episodes. Methods The approach was refinement of the operationalization of the construct; review of seminal items, modification, and purification; and confirmation of the feasibility of reporting methodology. Modified focus groups were conducted with 20 staff and 10 family members using a web-based survey. Themes included reaction when hearing the term; words that come to mind; description of and first reaction to referenced or observed ‘lucidity’ events. Semi-structured cognitive interviews were conducted with 10 health professionals working with older adults with cognitive impairment. Data were extracted from Qualtrics or Microsoft 365 Word® for analysis using NVivo. Results Conceptual issues, as well as issues regarding comprehension, interpretation, clarity, semantics, and standardization of definitions derived from an external advisory board, focus groups and cognitive interviews informed items’ modification, and resulted in the final lucidity measure. Conclusions An obstacle to understanding the mechanisms and estimating the prevalence of lucid events among individuals with dementia and other neurological conditions is the scarcity of reliable and valid measures. The substantive and varied data gathered from multiple methods including the collaborative work of an External Advisory Board, modified focus groups with staff and family caregivers, and structured cognitive interviews with health professionals were central in creating the revised version of the lucidity measure.

Youth values in the context of traditions and innovations

The article analyzes the values of the younger generation in the context of the relationship between continuity and progress in the development of traditions and considers traditional values and how they are related to the development of "new" values and young people’s worldview. The relation of tradition to innovation is comprehended, and the existing definitions of tradition and the role of its functions are analyzed. The paper defines the role of mass communications and their influence on the formation of the value world of the younger generation; factors for the formation of viable generations and the spread of the principles of viability to all spheres of social life are identified. The article deals with a complex of ideological, conceptual, theoretical, and socio-cultural issues related to the socio-philosophical and cultural aspects, as well as to the understanding of political socialization and culture as an integral characteristic of the social sphere of life of modern Kazakhstani society. The genesis, structure, dynamics, institutional forms, and normative value content of the political socialization and culture of the Kazakhstan youth, conditioned by national traditions and political culture, are analyzed.

Landscape of polymer quantum cosmology

We show that the quantization ambiguities of loop quantum cosmology, when considered in wider generality, can be used to produce discretionary dynamical behavior. There is an infinite dimensional space of ambiguities which parallels the infinite list of higher curvature corrections in perturbative quantum gravity. There is, however, an ensemble of qualitative consequences which are generic in the sense that they are independent of these ambiguities. Among these, one has well-defined fundamental dynamics across the big bang, as well as extra microscopic quantum degrees of freedom that might be relevant in discussions about unitarity in quantum gravity. We show that, in addition to the well-known bouncing solutions of the effective equations, there are other generic types of solutions for sufficiently soft initial conditions in the matter sector (tunneling solutions) where the scale factor goes through zero and the spacetime orientation is inverted. We also show that, generically, a contracting semiclassical universe branches off at the big bang into a quantum superposition of universes with different quantum numbers. Despite their lack of quantitative predictive power, these models offer a fertile playground for the discussion of qualitative and conceptual issues in quantum gravity.

Causal inference in cognitive neuroscience.

Causal inference is a key step in many research endeavors in cognitive science and neuroscience, and particularly cognitive neuroscience. Statistical knowledge is sufficient for prediction and diagnosis, but causal knowledge is required for action and intervention. Most statistics courses and textbooks emphasize the difficulty of causal inference, focusing on the maxim that "correlation does not mean causation": there can be multiple causal possibilities, often many of them, consistent with given observed statistics. This paper focuses instead on the conceptual issues and assumptions that confront causal and other kinds of inference, primarily focusing on cognitive neuroscience. We connect inference methods with goals and challenges, and provide concrete guidance about how to select appropriate tools for the scientific task. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Theory and Methods Philosophy > Foundations of Cognitive Science.

The Forum: Global Challenges to Democracy? Perspectives on Democratic Backsliding

Abstract There is a widespread perception that we are witnessing a period of democratic decline, manifesting itself in varieties of democratic backsliding such as the manipulation of elections, marginalization and repression of regime opponents and minorities, or more incremental executive aggrandizement. Yet others are more optimistic and have argued that democracy is in fact resilient, or that we are observing coinciding trends of democratic decline but also expansion. This forum highlights key issues in the debate on democracy's decline, which center on conceptual and measurement issues, agreement on the phenomenon but not its nature or severity, the importance of international factors, the emphasis we should put on political elites versus citizens, and the consequences of backsliding for global politics. Staffan I. Lindberg provides an empirical perspective on the scope and severity of democracy's decline, and argues that polarization and misinformation are important drivers for this current wave of autocratization. Susan D. Hyde highlights the detrimental consequences of reduced support for democracy by the international community, which has affected civil society organizations—important arbiters of democracy—especially severely. Challenging some of these conclusions, Irfan Nooruddin claims that any gains for democracy after the end of the Cold War were short-lived, failing to sustain democracy because of an overemphasis on elections and a disregard for structural factors. Finally, Larry M. Bartels argues that we need to look to political elites and not citizens if we want to protect democracy in the United States and elsewhere, which has important implications for how we study democracy and its challenges.

Experimental cheat-sensitive quantum weak coin flipping

As in modern communication networks, the security of quantum networks will rely on complex cryptographic tasks that are based on a handful of fundamental primitives. Weak coin flipping (WCF) is a significant such primitive which allows two mistrustful parties to agree on a random bit while they favor opposite outcomes. Remarkably, perfect information-theoretic security can be achieved in principle for quantum WCF. Here, we overcome conceptual and practical issues that have prevented the experimental demonstration of this primitive to date, and demonstrate how quantum resources can provide cheat sensitivity, whereby each party can detect a cheating opponent, and an honest party is never sanctioned. Such a property is not known to be classically achievable with information-theoretic security. Our experiment implements a refined, loss-tolerant version of a recently proposed theoretical protocol and exploits heralded single photons generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion, a carefully optimized linear optical interferometer including beam splitters with variable reflectivities and a fast optical switch for the verification step. High values of our protocol benchmarks are maintained for attenuation corresponding to several kilometers of telecom optical fiber.

Evaluating population health interventions:The contributions of theory-driven evaluations

Population health intervention research has been characterized by the deployment of scientific methods designed to produce knowledge on policy and program interventions directly or indirectly involving the health sector, and potentially affecting population health. The proposed solutions encompass a multitude of interventions of variable types, scale, focus and implementation, rendering them particularly complex and difficult to understand. This complexity raises major conceptual and methodological issues because in reality, we assess not an intervention, but rather a set of interventional elements interacting with those specific to the context in which they appear. It is the interactions that produce effects, to the extent that it makes little sense to speak of an intervention, and more sense to consider an interventional system defined by the interactions. To grasp the numerous elements brought into play, it behooves us to amalgamate evaluation paradigms and approaches. In a precise context, theory-driven evaluations are of pronounced interest. This article presents the main principles of this type of evaluation by focusing on its capacity to shed light on the stakes involved in intervention/context interplay, and by putting forward conclusions transferable to population health research.

Ensuring safety of maritime transport: current trends and conceptual generalizations of its international legal mechanism

The article deals with topical issues of ensuring security of maritime transport and preventing relevant threats based on legal measures. The scientific literature in the field of maritime law and legal means (norms, methods) of ensuring safety in maritime transport is analyzed. The variability and complexity of the nature of maritime threats and various measures to respond to them require an understanding of the policies, regulations, national civil and criminal legislation of the participating States and international public law, and therefore actualize the issues of conceptualization of international legal regulation of maritime transport security in this study. The subject of the study is the provision of safety in maritime transport through the knowledge of current trends and the substantiation of the conceptual provisions of the international legal mechanism as such. Systematic, comparative legal and dialectical approaches have been applied to generalize the essence and features of international legal regulation of safety in maritime transport. The main research methods used are diverse variations of analysis and synthesis of its results, analogy and comparison, generalization and concretization, functional cognition and deduction, abstraction, historical and formal legal methods. The main scientific result of the study is that the problem of ensuring safety in maritime transport has been studied from a legal and organizational point of view. The paper examines the formation of the legal mechanism for ensuring international security in maritime transport, defines the concept of the legal mechanism for ensuring international security in maritime transport, reveals the characteristics of the main threats to international security in maritime transport, justifies the right to ensure security in maritime transport as an institute of international maritime law, presents the results of the analysis of the existing areas of security in maritime transport, put forward proposals to improve international legislation in the field of maritime transport safety. The scientific results obtained as a result of the research can be used in educational activities when teaching the basics of international law, as well as in scientific research procedures when learning about the functioning of modern international law and its individual institutions.

Conceptual Analysis of Public Policy Failures in Nigeria: Tract to Economic Underdevelopment

The study examined the conceptual issues of public policy failure in Nigeria and how it affects economic development. The main objective of the study is to conceptually analyses public policy failures in Nigeria as a tract to economic underdevelopment. Contents method was used in the analysis. This means that the study uses conceptual analysis and rational analysis in assessing the public policies failures in Nigeria. The study was based on the thesis of elite theory. The study reveals that public policies are not effective in Nigeria. The paper also reveals the consequences of public policies failure in Nigeria. The study analyzed the concept of public policy and economic underdevelopment. The study concludes that constant changes of government in Nigeria, high level of corruption among government officials of these public policies agencies among others affected the smooth operations of public policies in Nigeria. The study therefore recommends that there should be continuity in public policy implementation even where there is change in government as government is a continuum; and parochial and primordial interests should be avoided during policy formulation and implementation in the country. There should be capital punishment in the country constitution to address the issues of corruption in Nigeria.

Language Ecology or Ecolinguistics: Conceptual and Theoretical Discussions

Language ecology is the interactions between the environment and language. Such a discipline, ‘language ecology’ or ‘ecolinguistics has been founded by Einar Haugen’. Accordingly, the study aims at qualitatively reviewing the theoretical and conceptual issues surrounding the subject of language ecology by tracing the roots of language ecology. It further highlights the fundamental inconsistencies between how the concept of ecology is perceived in sociology and biology, and is applied to language, particularly, transposing the main central concepts of bio-ecology, such as relationship/interaction, environment, and organism to human language and theory of ecological-linguistic. The theory wavers among placing the focus on the organism, interrelation and the interaction. It mainly considers language ecology as a metaphor, but infrequently treats language ecology as a science field. Since the theory does not clearly delimit its object, its relationships with the neighboring scientific fields have been undecided. Moreover, the grand scope of the theories includes severe challenges in the empirical research that are limited to available resources and time. The principle, holistic, dynamic and multi-faceted perception of ecolinguistics forms a valuable correction to linguistic approaches, focusing only on language as a synchronically, static, and autonomous, quasi-invariable system.

Conceptual and methodological issues in the study of the personality-and-culture relationship.

Culture-and-personality studies were central to social science in the early 20th century and have recently been revived (as personality-and-culture studies) by trait and cross-cultural psychologists. In this article we comment on conceptual issues, including the nature of traits and the nature of the personality-and-culture relationship, and we describe methodological challenges in understanding associations between features of culture and aspects of personality. We give an overview of research hypothesizing the shaping of personality traits by culture, reviewing studies of indigenous traits, acculturation and sojourner effects, birth cohorts, social role changes, and ideological interventions. We also consider the possibility that aggregate traits affect culture, through psychological means and gene flow. In all these cases we highlight alternative explanations and the need for designs and analyses that strengthen the interpretation of observations. We offer a set of testable hypotheses based on the premises that personality is adequately described by Five-Factor Theory, and that observed differences in aggregate personality traits across cultures are veridical. It is clear that culture has dramatic effects on the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors from which we infer traits, but it is not yet clear whether, how, and in what degree culture shapes traits themselves.

"Economic Effectiveness of State Policy in Reforming Higher library and Information Education in Ukraine"

"The article considers the conceptual and practice issues of reforming higher library and information education in Ukraine within state policy. Two-planes approach is applied: the study combines educational research and concepts of state policy efficiency evaluation with taking into account exogenous factors. The current state, problems and prospects of LIS education in Ukraine are considered in light of overall world trends in libraries development in the 21st century and best practices of some European states. The conclusion is made that in the last decade, there has been a transformation of the instrumental, that is, technological, model of the modernization of librarianship into a conceptual one focused on the implementation of the new socio-cultural mission of libraries in the knowledge-based information society, and, accordingly, LIS education should not only correspond but get ahead of libraries evolution, with a view on extremely rapid knowledge obsolescence. The model of evaluating economic effectiveness of state policy in reforming higher library and information education is proposed, which is rather universal that nation-state- oriented, as it allows taking into account the influence of specific factors of environment."

Tongue Ties or Fragments Transformed: Making Sense of Similarities and Differences between the Five Largest English-Speaking Jewish Communities

The subjects of Jewish identity and Jewish communal vitality, and how they may be conceptualized and measured, are the topics of lively debate among scholars of contemporary Jewry (DellaPergola 2015, 2020; Kosmin 2022; Pew Research Center 2021; Phillips 2022). Complicating matters, there appears to be a disconnect between the broadly accepted claim that comparative analysis yields richer understanding of Jewish communities (Cooperman 2016; Weinfeld 2020) and the reality that the preponderance of that research focuses on discrete communities. This paper examines the five largest English-speaking Jewish communities in the diaspora: the United States of America (US) (population 6,000,000–7,600,000), Canada (population 393,500), the United Kingdom (UK) (population 292,000), Australia (population 118,000), and South Africa (population 52,000) (DellaPergola 2022). A comparison of the five communities’ levels of Jewish engagement, and the identification of factors shaping these differences, are the main objectives of this paper. The paper first outlines conceptual and methodological issues involved in the study of contemporary Jewry; hierarchical linear modeling is proposed as the suitable statistical approach for this analysis, and ethnocultural and religious capital are promoted as suitable measures for studying Jewish engagement. Secondly, a contextualizing historical and sociodemographic overview of the five communities is presented, highlighting attributes which the communities have in common, and those which differentiate them. Statistical methods are then utilized to develop measures of Jewish capital, and to identify explanatory factors shaping the differences between these five communities in these measures of Jewish capital. To further the research agenda of communal and transnational research, this paper concludes by identifying questions that are unique to the individual communities studied, with a brief exploration of subjects that Jewish communities often neglect to examine and are encouraged to consider. This paper demonstrates the merits of comparative analysis and highlights practical and conceptual implications for future Jewish communal research.

Методи і технології побудови локальних тренажерів для підготовки персоналу в енергетиці на основі сценарно-імітаційних моделей

Views on the solution of conceptual issues regarding the methods and technologies of building local simulators for training personnel in the energy industry are presented. Information technology for building local simulators based on scenario-simulation modeling of energy equipment and personnel activities is proposed. Methods of designing scenario structures and implementing methods of model construction in the development of local simulators are considered. The need for further development and improvement of technology due to the problem-oriented adaptation of the latest software packages is indicated, which would enable experienced experts in the energy industry to massively create training tools in a convenient and understandable interactive environment.

Food and Water Security in the Context of Sustainable Development

A review of food and water security in the context of sustainable development is the purpose of this study. Food and water security are complicated sustainable development challenges that are linked to both health and sustainable economic development through malnutrition. These are contained in the sustainable development SDGs such as 2 and 6 (Zero Hunger) (Sanitation and clean water). This paper is a review of food and water security that has to do with the conceptual issues, stylized facts on food and water security, food and water security nexus, factors militating against food security around the world, related empirical studies and way forward, Having pointed out some of the factors militating against food and water security such global warming/ climate change, disease outbreak and insecurity etc. strong conclusion and recommendation were made such as fight against insecurity and diseases outbreak, good sanitation and hygiene should also be promoted and sustained, good agricultural policy formation and implementation amongst other things will play out to promote food and water security, hence, to achieve sustainable economic development.

The 2023 Conceptual Issue: So…Where Do We Go from Here?

The 2023 Conceptual Issue: So…Where Do We Go from Here?

GRADE guidance 36: updates to GRADE's approach to addressing inconsistency

ObjectivesTo update previous Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) guidance by addressing inconsistencies and interpreting subgroup analyses. Study Design and SettingUsing an iterative process, we consulted with members of the GRADE working group through multiple rounds of written feedback and discussions at GRADE working group meetings. ResultsThe guidance complements previous guidance with clarification in two areas: (1) assessing inconsistency and (2) assessing the credibility of possible effect modifiers that might explain inconsistency. Specifically, the guidance clarifies that inconsistency refers to variability in results, not in study characteristics; that inconsistency assessment for binary outcomes requires consideration of both relative and absolute effects; how to decide between narrower and broader questions in systematic reviews and guidelines; that, with the same evidence, ratings of inconsistency may differ depending on the target of certainty rating; and how GRADE inconsistency ratings relate to a statistical measure of inconsistency I2 depending on the context in which one views results. The second part of the guidance illustrates, based on a worked example, the use of the instrument to assess the credibility of effect modification analyses. The guidance explains the stepwise process of moving from a subgroup analysis to assessing the credibility of effect modification and, if found credible, to subgroup-specific effect estimates and GRADE certainty ratings. ConclusionThis updated guidance addresses specific conceptual and practical issues that systematic review authors frequently face when considering the degree of inconsistency in estimates of treatment effects across studies.

Satisfaction with Democracy: A Review of a Major Public Opinion Indicator

AbstractSatisfaction with democracy (SWD) is one of the most commonly studied topics in the fields of political behavior and public opinion. Gauged with a survey question that asks respondents whether they are satisfied with the way democracy works, SWD has featured as an independent or dependent variable in more than 400 publications. In this Synthesis, we review the evolution and findings of this nearly 50-year-old body of literature, identifying gaps and disagreements. We pay particular attention to issues of measurement and conceptualization, research methodology, and real-world importance. We conclude by highlighting critical areas of future research, including continued investigation into the measurement of SWD and what the question captures, more qualitative and (quasi-)experimental work, more focus on emotions and extreme (dis)satisfaction, and greater geographic coverage.

Conceptual issues and stages of establishment of military chaplainty in independent Ukraine

The formation of the chaplaincy movement in the context of the formation of independent Ukraine (after 1991) required the solution of a number of issues, primarily of a conceptual nature. The initiators of the restoration of chaplaincy faced the underestimation of the chaplaincy factor, the risks of transferring interfaith disputes to the military environment. In fact, it was a question of finding their own model of chaplaincy service, which would provide an optimal model for organizing the work of chaplains. The authors propose to divide the development of the chaplaincy movement in independent Ukraine into three stages, which differ not only chronologically but also in their characteristics. The first stage (1991-2005) was characterized by a rethinking of the role and place of religion in the activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The idea of a chaplaincy service was revived primarily on the basis of the volunteer movement. Volunteers also encouraged churches to form appropriate structures that would be responsible for chaplaincy work. At this stage, the driving force behind the formation of the chaplaincy movement was the unstable informal ties between church and security forces in Ukraine. With the advent of the first legal acts that regulated the search for optimal models for creating the chaplaincy institute, the second stage of development of the chaplaincy movement in Ukraine began. It lasted from 2006 to 2013. During this time, regulations were developed and implemented that institutionalized the relationship between the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the country's largest churches and religious organizations. The third stage began with the beginning of the Russian Federation's attack on Ukraine in 2014 and continues to this day. The annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of hostilities in eastern Ukraine created the need to sharply increase the number of chaplains and to legalize them in military institutions. Already in 2015-2016, the formation of the state regulatory framework of the chaplaincy institute began and staff positions of chaplains in military units were introduced. On the other hand, there has also been a qualitative growth in the theoretical and practical training of chaplains and their material support. These processes show that the establishment of the institute of military chaplaincy in Ukraine has actually taken place. In each period, the authors highlight the problematic issues that government agencies and religious organizations addressed in organizing the chaplaincy movement. Particular attention was paid to the attempts of activists to form their own model of chaplaincy ministry and the problematic issues of improving the quality of chaplains' training. In particular, it was pointed out that the best way for Ukraine is to organize separate chaplaincy faculties in the country's higher educational institutions to train specialists at the level of world standards.

Implementation of Sinaka Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education in Indigenous Peoples Education Curriculum: A Qualitative Study

The practice of mother tongue in teaching kindergarten and primary levels are of great help to strengthen the foundation of early years of education in improving pupils’ basic learning skills. It is designed to implement learner-centered education from the beginning of the education ladder and this is apparent in a rising number of educational programs that utilize this approach. As such, little is known about how a national policy for MTB-MLE can be disseminated into contextualized local schools. To capture the breadth of conceptual and implementation issues, purposive sampling was used in this study to determine the teachers, tribal parents, and leader perspectives. Focus group discussion was done using transcript-based analysis to gather first-hand information. Findings derived and identified four main themes, namely (1) teachers’ unpreparedness of MTB-MLE implementation, (2) teachers’ difficulty in delivering MTB-MLE, (3) fear of Manobo Language endangerment, and (4) inadequacy of contextualized and indigenized IMs. Hence, it is commended that these issues must be addressed efficiently to shift the perspective of the teachers in using the Manobo Language in their school. The implementation needs better encouragement, support, and motivation for the teachers to embrace the challenges brought by MTB-MLE with an optimistic perspective to address certain gaps in its implementation.