Mainstream Science Research Articles

Measuring the Mathematical Maturity of Students in an Academic Development Programme

This study focuses on students who are registered for the University of Pretoria’s academic development programme, the Four-year Programme (FYP). The programme was introduced as a gateway for students who are under-prepared but have the potential to succeed. This programme helps them to then continue their studies in mainstream science programmes. Our research focuses on measuring the change in the academic maturity of these students. In the theoretical framework that we developed, academic maturity is subdivided into two components, namely, non-subject based maturity, and subject based maturity (mathematical maturity). A mathematics test was also administered twice (at the beginning of the year and after the first semester) and was used to measure the subject based maturity of students. The results of the pre- and post-tests were compared to measure the improvement in students’ mathematical skills. The results showed that in all of the topics and constructs, there was an improvement in students’ mathematical abilities. The study also shows that students still struggle with the fundamentals of some mathematics topics, even after a semester of tuition in the FYP.

Development and Dynamics of State Administration in Indonesia: The Struggle of the Discourse of the “State” Administration vis a vis the “Public” Administration

Since Woodrow Wilson “stirred up” the United States public through his writing entitled The Study of Administration (1887) in the journal Political Science Quarterly, state administration began to develop to worldwide, including to Indonesia. Since the 1990s, the state administration has grown considerably compared to Wilson's time. It cannot be denied that the development of State Administration Science is so massive in its home country of the United States and other Anglo-Saxon countries such as England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. While in developing countries, the dynamics of State Administration is not so intense because there is still strong political, bureaucratic and cultural control. The concept of “State Administration” is not “public administration” for a while until the author can accept the logic thinking (epistemology) of Public Administration as the mainstream science of State Administration in Indonesia today. In theory, concepts and paradigms, state administration is experiencing a fairly rapid development. Many contemporary theories have emerged in the repertoire of State Administration that criticize and enrich classical theories such as theories about Organization and bureaucracy. That development is something natural considering that state administration is part of the social sciences that have dynamic characteristics, unlike the Natural Sciences which tend to be passive and positivistic. This development should be appreciated because it indicates that the state administration is able to exist in the midst of increasingly complex community problems and needs concrete solutions.

The two principles that shape scientific research

ABSTRACT This paper argues that all scientific research is framed by one of two organizing principles that underpin and shape almost every aspect of scientific research as well as nonscientific inquiry. The most commonly employed principle within mainstream science is content determines content. This is a closed, circular principle that is usually unstated within hypotheses but plays a major role in developing methodologies and arriving at conclusions. The second more open principle is context determines content. This principle represents the implied background embedded within hypotheses. The difference between these two principles revolves around the issue of context, with the first principle closing off contexts by ignoring, erasing, or devaluing them, while the second more holistic principle explicitly takes them into account. Each of these research principles has a focus on the explicit detailed nature of ‘content’ while differing in relation to the source and cause of such content. We argue that the more open and holistic principle of context determines that content is superior in producing reliable evidence, results and conclusions.

Fake Research: How Can We Recognise it and Respond to it?

ABSTRACT Fake research produces results that are invalid from the start. I take such research to be characterised by three jointly sufficient features. It is severely methodologically defective, and the relevant defects support certain nonepistemic (social, political, economic) interests and objectives, while the relevant objectives typically concern the interference with attempts at political regulation. I deal with two kinds of claimed fake research. One is agnotological ploys in which scientific dissent is created by interested parties from industry or politics in order to support their own partisan goals. Another one is the populist antiscience movement that suspects fake research in the scientific mainstream. I suggest three remedies to reduce or eliminate the impact of fake research: disclosing fallacies, improving the understanding of scientific methods, and distinguishing more clearly between science and politics in political decision-making.

Concretization, please: A commentary on Turcotte, Holmes, and Murray.

Concretization, please: A commentary on Turcotte, Holmes, and Murray.

Creationism USA: Bridging the Impasse on Teaching Evolution

Creationism USA: Bridging the Impasse on Teaching Evolution

Decolonial scientific education to combat ‘science for domination’

In this article, we argue that mainstream science education is contaminated by neoliberal values and functions in the service of political domination and exploitation and that a neoliberal and exploitative science education does not contribute to the building of a sustainable and just world. The work from Paulo Freire and Enrique Dussel underpin the tenets of decolonial pedagogies. We draw on their work to analyze how decolonial pedagogies have been developed in Latin America. We carried out a literature review in Brazil and found two different ways of approaching decoloniality in science education: (a) studies that start from hybrid, interstitial spaces, as an enunciative locus that allows the construction of other logics of thought and (b) studies dedicated to denouncing the colonial power project from an anti-racist education that contests coloniality and oppression. We present examples of Freirean educational practices and proposals in science education that illustrate how decolonial pedagogies can reveal the coloniality of power/being/knowledge and potentialities of intercultural dialogues. We conclude with an explanation of how and why Freirean dialogicity and affection can counter science for domination.

Drawing on local knowledge and attitudes for the conservation of critically endangered rhino rays in Goa, India

Abstract In the context of marine species declines in data‐limited regions, local ecological knowledge (LEK) is a valuable source of information on species ecology and historical trends. LEK can also help understand how threatened species exist within a local culture, in terms of their uses and values, and reveal attitudes towards their conservation. Rhino rays (guitarfish and wedgefish) are highly threatened by overfishing with most species critically endangered, yet poorly studied in countries like India that fish them the most. We drew on LEK to understand the socio‐ecological status of rhino rays in Goa, on the west coast of India. We investigated their habitat use and seasonality, interaction with fisheries, socio‐economic uses and relational values. We also explored attitudes of fishers towards rhino rays and their conservation. A combination of semistructured interviews and key informant interviews (88 in total) was conducted with fishers at multiple sites. Local knowledge suggests that nearshore habitats around river mouths form important nursery grounds for some rhino rays, and provided insights on their seasonality and breeding. Rhino rays appeared to be targeted historically but are entirely bycaught at present, with highest catches in gillnets and in the South Goa district, during September and October. LEK indicated that taxa like sawfish (Pristis spp.) and wedgefish (Rhynchobatus spp.) have severely declined or disappeared from this region. We coded different relational values, from recreation (rhino rays are consumed and enjoyed with alcohol) to symbolic values (rhino rays are considered lucky). All key informants expressed positive attitudes towards rhino ray conservation and stated that a ban on landing these species would have little to no impact on fisher earnings. The usefulness of LEK suggests it should be brought into the scientific mainstream to support development of more equitable and socially appropriate management plans. Fostering relational values can reinforce fishers' positive attitudes, thereby enhancing rhino ray conservation. Their low commercial value and potentially high post‐capture survival suggest that using norm‐based approaches to promote live release may be successful. Further research on rhino ray ecology and human dimensions can support the development of appropriate conservation interventions. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Evolution and expansion of the One Health approach to promote sustainable and resilient health and well-being: A call to action.

One Health is a transdisciplinary approach used to address complex concerns related to human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health. One Health frameworks and operational tools are available to support countries and communities, particularly for the prevention and control of zoonotic diseases and antimicrobial resistance and the protection of food safety. However, One Health has yet to be implemented in a manner that fully considers the complexities and interconnectedness of the diverse influences that have impacts at a larger system level. This lack of consideration can undermine the sustainability of any positive outcomes. To ensure the One Health approach can function effectively within the new global context of converging and escalating health, social, economic, and ecological crises, it must evolve and expand in three overlapping dimensions: (1) Scope: the partners, knowledge, and knowledge systems included, (2) Approach: the techniques, methodologies, and scholarship considered, and (3) Worldview inclusivity: the interweaving of other worldviews together with the mainstream scientific worldview that currently predominates. Diverse partners and knowledge from outside the mainstream health and scientific sectors, including Indigenous peoples and representatives of local communities, and traditionally generated knowledge, must be included. These systems of knowledge can then be braided together with mainstream science to comprise a holistic framework for decision-making. Scholarship and methodologies being applied in other fields and contexts to solve complex challenges and manage uncertainty, such as collaborative governance, social-ecologic systems theory, and complexity science, must be recognized and incorporated. The spectrum of considered worldviews must also expand to authentically integrate the expanded scope and approach into action and sustainable impact. By increasing community and social engagement and by recognizing and entwining different worldviews, the plurality of disciplines, and traditional and scientific ways of knowing to address community concerns in the contexts in which they exist, we can ensure that One Health remains effective and true to its paradigm in our rapidly changing and complex world.

Cancer Immunology Research: A Decade of Illumination and Innovation

<i>Cancer Immunology Research</i>: A Decade of Illumination and Innovation

Boundary spanners: a critical role for enduring collaborations between Indigenous communities and mainstream scientists

The need to diversify science includes increasing both the diversity of science practitioners and the voices included in decision-making processes. Indigenous communities have been sought out to provide Indigenous knowledge to mainstream science research programs. As working across the mainstream science and community boundary is increasingly codified into the future of natural sciences, models for equitable collaboration and roles within project structures are needed. The goal of this project is to present a framework for collaboration between mainstream science and Indigenous communities. Specifically, we are addressing an under-recognized role central to partnership, a boundary spanner, who acts as the fulcrum facilitating collaboration. To better understand the role of boundary spanners in collaborative projects, we engaged six boundary spanners who participated in semi-structured interviews and workshops. Emergent common experiences and perspectives of how boundary spanners can be supported and their role in collaborative projects were defined and articulated. The boundary spanners identified 10 characteristics that contribute to equitable partnership between mainstream science and Indigenous communities. From the perspective of the boundary spanners, they detailed how collaborative projects can be structured to increase long-term partnerships and community support of research projects. Equitable collaboration between Indigenous communities and mainstream science is frequently only achieved when individuals at the interface of the mainstream science and Indigenous community have a high level of cultural competency. Equally important is the support provided to the boundary spanners and early engagement of partner Indigenous communities. Through the use of story and metaphor, we highlight the voices of boundary spanners and how their contributions can best be used.

Gamified Mobile Apps’ Impact on Academic Performance of Grade 8 in a Mainstream Physics Class

Aim/Purpose: This research project aims to create a gamified instructional material tailored for Grade 8 students that includes a partially deaf student attending mainstream Science classes. The developed gamified mobile application underwent expert review and was used as an intervention tool to enhance academic performance in Physics among these students. Background: In the Philippines, there is a lack of accessible Science Instructional Materials for students with special educational needs, making inclusive education challenging. To address this, teachers need to enhance resources for inclusivity without compromising learning enjoyment. Gamification, a technique that increases student engagement, is critical. However, only some resources combine gamification and inclusion, highlighting the need for Science teachers to develop such materials. Methodology: Using a quantitative descriptive approach, the researchers assessed students’ competencies in Physics 8, identifying strengths and weaknesses. This data guided the creation of targeted interventions. A systematic literature search helped identify game design components from prior research, aiding the development of the Science-Inclusive Gamified Mobile Application (SIGMA). This application integrated various features, leading to a significant improvement in students’ academic performance. Pre-test and post-test analyses showed substantial progress. Contribution: The gamified mobile application positively affected eighth-grade students, including one with hearing impairment, enhancing their educational experience and interest in challenging topics. The research underscores the importance of teachers adopting gamified technologies to foster proactive knowledge acquisition. Findings: The Grade 8 pupils, with one partially deaf student, responded positively to the gamified mobile application, which made the educational experience more enjoyable and increased students’ interest in topics that are often least comprehended. Design elements like leaderboards and feedback were integrated into the Science Gamified Mobile App (SIGMA). Usage resulted in significant academic improvement, supported by pre-test/post-test scores (pre: mean 10.15, post: mean 26.73). The study highlights gamification’s impact on performance with substantial empirical evidence. Recommendations for Practitioners: Teachers in various disciplines should keep adopting and utilizing gamified technologies that encourage and aid their students’ imaginative and proactive knowledge acquisition. Recommendation for Researchers: These research results provide important insight into the impact of gamification on students’ academic performance. However, substantial challenges must be addressed to analyze and interpret these results. Integrating gamification in settings with more participants and longitudinal studies that examine the influence over time would be intriguing because it would allow for an in-depth investigation into the results acquired. Impact on Society: The investigation results suggest that the mobile application with gamification elements had an essential effect on the academic achievement of eighth-grade students, including a student with a partial hearing impairment. The results of the present investigation may contribute significantly to the field of education by offering guidance to teachers who aim to integrate gamification into their Science course material within a classroom environment that promotes inclusivity. The research has identified crucial design elements for developing a practical gamified mobile application. Future Research: It would be intriguing to duplicate the kind of intervention carried out in this study in longitudinal research since it would allow us to know the impacts of gamification over a prolonged time. It is also vital to understand, through studies that are either more experimental or quasi-experimental, the effects of gamified mobile applications on students with various hearing impairments. It is also recommended to conduct a subsequent research phase utilizing the gamified mobile application with participants from other demographic groups.

Közgazdaságtani modellek a valláskutatásban

The economics of religion has entered the social science mainstream in recent decades, mainly through the work of Roger Finke, Laurance Iannaccone and Rodney Stark. In these works, the authors sought to lay down a new theoretical framework for explaining religious phenomena that could be used to provide a new context for the empirical data sets of sociology of religion by applying approaches to rational choice theory and the concept of the market. In doing so, they have sought to overcome the secularisation thesis (Iannacone 1998, Finke and Stark, 2000) and the view that the religious dimension is primitive or at least irrational (Stark, Iannaccone and Finke, 1996). The first half of the following paper focuses on this economic approach, reflecting in this context on the changing nature of religiosity in modern times, the challenges of religious identity formation, and the issue of religious markets resulting from contemporary pluralism, including the spiritual offer in Hungary. In the second part, relevant parts of our data collected over several years at the Everness festival, which provides a platform for the display of a broad spectrum of Hungarian spiritual offerings, are briefly presented, along with religious market supply trends.

캐나다 아동청소년 과학소설

The present study overviews Canadian science fiction for children and young adults in its early history. Canada’s multiculturalism is a great resource for diversity on their literary works, but at the same time, it often turns into concerns on their national identity. Canadian novels portray this unique trait in their stories with three major features. By contrasting the technology-dominated society with the nature-friendly one, they ultimately aim for an idyllic society. Also, the works express distrust of technology and progress with concerns about negative effects on the global environment. Finally, they lie on the blurred border between fantasy adventure and science fiction. Unlike mainstream science fiction novels, Canadian children’s SF writers take the subjects of science, nature, and humans more seriously. Depicting a variety of possible future societies, they continue to emphasize both the harmony of technology and the nature and the exploration of human identity. This originality distinguishes them from other countries’ works and are sufficiently attractive to many young readers.

Women and Parapsychology 2022 – An Online Survey

In 1991, the Parapsychology Foundation organized an international conference on the topic "Women and Parapsychology," held in Dublin, Ireland. The survey aimed for an assessment of the situation in parapsychology 30 years after this conference. Our team asked women active in the research field of parapsychology and related areas about their scientific careers, authoring articles, contributions to the field and gender-specific experiences. We distributed the link to the extensive online questionnaire on several e-mail lists and websites and also sent the link specifically to individuals. 30 women completed the questionnaire. We got a selective, non-representative sample, with a high average age and level of education. Due to these limitations, the survey did not provide complete clarity as to whether parapsychology differed from other disciplines with regard to the status and situation of women. Several aspects are comparable to the situation of women in other research fields. As is generally the case in academia, women tend to be paid less. They have to make greater efforts to be taken seriously by male colleagues, which can slow down their careers, in addition to career interruptions due to raising children, greater difficulties balancing work and family life, and the like. We found a relatively low proportion (10 women who reported sexual intimidation or harassment in the field of parapsychology. General funding problems in parapsychology are even greater for women because of the additional childrearing responsibilities and less institutionalized research. Some findings lead us to the thesis that it is not necessarily the gender aspect that is responsible for rude and inappropriate behavior on the part of male colleagues, but rather a tendentially greater openness on the part of female researchers for worldviews and heterodox research subjects outside of the scientific mainstream. This thesis must be validated in further studies.

Electrolyzed–Reduced Water: Review I. Molecular Hydrogen Is the Exclusive Agent Responsible for the Therapeutic Effects

Numerous benefits have been attributed to alkaline-electrolyzed-reduced water (ERW). Sometimes these claims are associated with easily debunked concepts. The observed benefits have been conjectured to be due to the intrinsic properties of ERW (e.g., negative oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), alkaline pH, H2 gas), as well enigmatic characteristics (e.g., altered water structure, microclusters, free electrons, active hydrogen, mineral hydrides). The associated pseudoscientific marketing has contributed to the reluctance of mainstream science to accept ERW as having biological effects. Finally, through many in vitro and in vivo studies, each one of these propositions was examined and refuted one-by-one until it was conclusively demonstrated that H2 was the exclusive agent responsible for both the negative ORP and the observed therapeutic effects of ERW. This article briefly apprised the history of ERW and comprehensively reviewed the sequential research demonstrating the importance of H2. We illustrated that the effects of ERW could be readily explained by the known biological effects of H2 and by utilizing conventional chemistry without requiring any metaphysical conjecture (e.g., microclustering, free electrons, etc.) or reliance on implausible notions (e.g., alkaline water neutralizes acidic waste). The H2 concentration of ERW should be measured to ensure it is comparable to those used in clinical studies.

Reproductive Justice: The Final (Feminist) Frontier

From Gattaca to Star Trek, problematic tropes surrounding reproduction can easily be found in works of mainstream science fiction. Such tropes uphold conservative anxieties around reproductive technologies, abortion, and pregnancy, and these works thus become influential in legal, ethical, and policy discussions on these issues. In contrast, feminist science fiction attempts to expose reproductive injustice, both current and future, through portrayals of prototype social-legal contexts. In this article, I argue that feminist science fiction works are, therefore, of importance for feminist legal theory as they can help us imagine a radically transformed future for reproduction. I consider the work of Octavia Butler and Laura Lam as examples of reproductive dystopia highlighting current, past, and potential future socio-legal injustices. These feminist works call for change grounded in the lived experiences of women and people capable of becoming pregnant.

Eye‐Tact: An ensemble based multi‐model and multidimensional approach for fall prediction and evaluation in Parkinson's Disease patients

AbstractArtificial Intelligence (AI), as a mainstream science today, has the potential to significantly improve human wellbeing and wellness. An automated caretaking system is being developed in this study to enable constant monitoring of people without requiring much human intervention. To do so, we must take into account a wide range of people's movements and varied perspectives in real‐time contexts. The proposed system, coined “Eye‐Tact”, integrates a vision‐based multimodel architecture with wearable sensors to identify poses and detect falls. For people with Parkinson's disease (PD), this patient‐specific, vision‐based keypoint analysis model has been successfully deployed for person identification and aberrant activity recognition. The proposed Multi Model Ensemble Technique (MMET) employs a variety of sensors to acquire data on physiological and other parameters that are necessary for fall prediction and evaluation. The measures used in the proposed system are precision, recall, F1 score and support. The above mentioned parameters are used to evaluate the performance of different models, including XGBoostClassifier, CatBoostClassifier, and RandomForestClassifier. The results reveal that the RantomForestClassifier outperforms other types of classifiers with 97% of accuracy. The proposed work demonstrates its capacity to develop a system that carefully understands and analyses heterogeneous data cautiously using state‐of‐the‐art technologies.

“Real-Life Needs”: How Humanitarian Techniques Produce Hierarchies of Science and Mathematics Education

Background and Context: Racialized disparities in curricular tracking have long been ascribed to narrow tests that create a hierarchy of perceived ability. Consequently, teachers are urged to reject deficit views of ability and embrace more expansive techniques to reveal and respond to the real-life needs of students, especially those from minoritized groups. Paradoxically, these tools, upheld as equity strategies today, had prior careers racializing populations along a hierarchy of perceived needs. That hierarchy, which gave a humanitarian basis for curricular tracking, continues to produce racializing effects today. Purpose: This article rethinks how teachers are taught to distinguish the real-life needs of students from marginalized communities. As a history of the present, it examines how demographic distinctions in health-related needs emerged historically and became tied to lower track science and mathematics instruction. We ask: To what extent do current strategies persist in dividing populations and prescribing distinct pedagogies? Have the normalizing impulses of past tools been removed or rearticulated in recent reforms that promote educational and health equity? Research Design: We first analyzed articles reviewed as exemplary of culturally responsive science and mathematics education to identify techniques recommended to uncover students’ real-life needs. Next, we compared these techniques with similar tools promoted in early 20th-century U.S. science and mathematics education journals, when these fields began distinguishing types of students and matching them with distinct tiers of instruction. Conclusions: Despite key shifts over the century (e.g., from treating inherent pathologies to redressing inequities), similar tools operate as humanitarian techniques today. That is, they classify populations as having “immediate needs” for intervention in daily life that preempt “future needs” for academic preparation. The resulting hierarchy of perceived needs orders students and subject matter from applied relevance to abstract rigor. This yields four dangers: (1) positing target students and families as not-yet-capable of self-direction, (2) prioritizing for target groups an applied and often lower prestige curriculum with consequences for their academic trajectories, (3) depoliticizing systemic inequities as problems of attitude adjustment, and (4) depoliticizing mainstream science and mathematics education by isolating sociopolitical concerns as compensatory interventions. We argue that school science and mathematics are not unique in these respects but epitomize risks present whenever social scientific tools offer an ostensibly neutral basis for seeing and sorting difference.

A Novel Method to Achieve Precision and Reproducibility in Exposure Parameters for Low-Frequency Pulsed Magnetic Fields in Human Cell Cultures.

The effects of extremely low-frequency electromagnetic field (ELF-MF) exposure on living systems have been widely studied at the fundamental level and also claimed as beneficial for the treatment of diseases for over 50 years. However, the underlying mechanisms and cellular targets of ELF-MF exposure remain poorly understood and the field has been plagued with controversy stemming from an endemic lack of reproducibility of published findings. To address this problem, we here demonstrate a technically simple and reproducible EMF exposure protocol to achieve a standardized experimental approach which can be readily adopted in any lab. As an assay system, we chose a commercially available inflammatory model human cell line; its response to magnetic fields involves changes in gene expression which can be monitored by a simple colorimetric reporter gene assay. The cells were seeded and cultured in microplates and inserted into a custom-built, semi-automated incubation and exposure system which accurately controls the incubation (temperature, humidity, ) and magnetic-field exposure conditions. A specific alternating magnetic field (<1.0% spatial variance) including far-field reduction provided defined exposure conditions at the position of each well of the microplate. To avoid artifacts, all environmental and magnetic-field exposure parameters were logged in real time throughout the duration of the experiment. Under these extensively controlled conditions, the effect of the magnetic field on the cell cultures as assayed by the standardized operating procedure was highly reproducible between experiments. As we could fully define the characteristics (frequency, intensity, duration) of the pulsed magnetic field signals at the position of the sample well, we were, for the first time, able to accurately determine the effect of changing single ELF-MF parameters such as signal shape, frequency, intensity and duty cycle on the biological response. One signal in particular (10 Hz, duty cycle, rectangular, bipolar, T) provided a significant reduction in cytokine reporter gene expression by in our model cell culture line. In sum, the accuracy, environmental control and data-logging capacity of the semi-automated exposure system should greatly facilitate research into fundamental cellular response mechanisms and achieve the consistency necessary to bring ELF-MF/PEMF research results into the scientific mainstream.