Methodological Revolution Research Articles

Detecting life by behavior, the overlooked sensitivity of behavioral assays

Detecting life has driven research and exploration for centuries, but recent attempts to compile and generate a framework that summarizes life features, aimed to develop strategies for life detection missions beyond planet Earth, have disregarded a key life feature: behavior. Yet, some behaviors such as biomineralization or motility have occasionally been proposed as biosignatures to detect life. Here, we capitalize on a specific taxis’ motility behavior, magnetotaxis, to experimentally provide insights in support of behavior as an unambiguous, sensitive biosignature, and magnetic forces as a prescreening option. Using a magnetotactic bacterial species, Magnetospirillum magneticum, we conducted a lab sensitivity experiment comparing PCR with the hanging drop behavioral assay, using a dilution series. The hanging drop behavioral assay visually shows the motility of MTB toward magnetic poles. Our findings reveal that the behavioral assay exhibits higher sensitivity in the detection of M. magneticum when compared to the established PCR protocol. While both methods present similar detection sensitivities at high concentrations, at ≥ 10–7 fold dilutions, the behavioral method proved more sensitive. The behavioral method can detect bacteria even when samples are diluted at 10–9. Comparable results were obtained with environmental samples from the Hula Valley. We propose behavioral cues as valuable biosignatures in the ongoing efforts of life detection in unexplored aquatic habitats on Earth and to stimulate and support discussions about how to detect extant life beyond Earth. Generic and robust behavioral assays can represent a methodological revolution.

The Influence of Lobbies: Analyzing Group Consensus from a Physics Approach

In this paper, we study the influence of a small group of agents (i.e., a lobby) that is trying to spread a rumor in a population by using the known model proposed by Serge Galam. In particular, lobbies are modeled as subgroups of individuals who strategically choose their seating in the social space in order to protect their opinions and influence others. We consider different social gatherings and simulate, using finite Markovian chains, opinion dynamics by comparing situations with a lobby to those without a lobby. Our results show how the lobby can influence opinion dynamics in terms of the prevailing opinion and the mean time to reach unanimity. The approach that we take overcomes some of the problems that behavioral economics and psychology have recently struggled with in terms of replicability. This approach is related to the methodological revolution that is slowly changing the dominant perspective in psychology.

Beyond capitalist justice: the role of historical materialism in Marx’s theory of justice

Although Karl Marx did not formulate an explicit, comprehensive theory of justice, he substantively engaged with the concept. Utilizing the analytical framework of historical materialism, Marx critically examined the capitalist notion of justice, thereby paving the way for the development of his own theoretical perspective. An understanding of Marx’s approach to justice necessitates an exploration of the role that historical materialism plays within it. The introduction of ‘historical man’ via historical materialism fundamentally shifts our perspective, shaping Marx’s conception of justice and laying the theoretical groundwork for its formulation. Moreover, historical materialism has profoundly transformed the methodology within justice theory, heralding a new paradigm in the field. Thus, the paradigmatic and methodological revolutions instigated by Marx’s historical materialism underscore the fundamental distinctions between his theory of justice and capitalist justice theories.

Ethical, aesthetic, socio-political background and aspects of Kant’s philosophy

The ethical and aesthetic aspects of Kant’s philosophy had a huge impact on the socio-cultural circles of writers and artists, and turned out to be more accessible both to philosophers and to all fans of philosophy. Social and political issues have always worried people more than theoretical aspects. Kant raises the question of eternal peace, refutes the existing evidence of God, explores the origin of the moral law, its ontological basis and offers its solution. It was an era of social and scientific revolutions: the social one broke the structures of feudalism, opening new horizons for cultural and political transformations; the scientific one made a paradigm shift. The methodological revolution of Bacon and Descartes led to the emergence of fundamentally new approaches, for example, induction. The Galileo-Newton scientific revolution shaped a new universalism. Kant’s philosophy organically complemented all these processes. His postulates of practical reason embody transcendental ideas in objective reality, which the will helps to find corresponding objects. The revolutionary impact exerted by the Critique of Practical Reason, according to Kant’s followers, was much stronger than the ideas of the Great French Revolution. Kant explored the aesthetic ability of man in the Critique of Judgment, considering it as the ability of the soul to unite the faculties of knowledge and desire.

External segment of the globus pallidus in health and disease: Its interactions with the striatum and subthalamic nucleus

The external segment of the globus pallidus (GPe) has long been considered a homogeneous structure that receives inputs from the striatum and sends processed information to the subthalamic nucleus, composing a relay nucleus of the indirect pathway that contributes to movement suppression. Recent methodological revolution in rodents led to the identification of two distinct cell types in the GPe with different fiber connections. The GPe may be regarded as a dynamic, complex and influential center within the basal ganglia circuitry, rather than a simple relay nucleus. On the other hand, many studies have so far been performed in monkeys to clarify the functions of the basal ganglia in the healthy and diseased states, but have not paid much attention to such classification and functional differences of GPe neurons. In this minireview, we consider the knowledge on the rodent GPe and discuss its impact on the understanding of the basal ganglia circuitry in monkeys.

Homo methodologicus and the origin of science and civilisation

Few things have impacted our lives as much as science and technology, but how we developed science and civilisation is one of the most challenging questions that has not yet been well explained. Attempting to identify the central driver, leading scientists have highlighted the role of culture, cooperation and geography. They focus thus on broad factors that are important basic preconditions but that we cannot directly influence. To better address the question, this paper integrates evidence from evolutionary biology, cognitive science, methodology, archaeology and anthropology. The paper identifies 9 main preconditions necessary for contemporary science, which include 6 main preconditions for civilisation. Using a kind of quasi-experimental research design we observe that some cultures (experimental groups) met the preconditions while other cultures (control groups) did not. Among the preconditions, we explain how our mind's evolved methodological abilities (to observe, solve problems and experiment) have directly enabled acquiring knowledge about the world and collectively developing increasingly sophisticated methods (such as mathematics and more systematic experimentation) that have enabled science and civilisation. We have driven the major revolutions throughout our history – the palaeolithic technological and agricultural revolutions and later the so-called scientific, industrial and digital revolutions – by using our methodological abilities in new ways and developing new methods and tools, i.e. through methodological revolutions. Viewing our methods as the main mechanism through which we have directly developed scientific and technological knowledge, and thus science and civilisation, provides a new framework for understanding science and the history of science. Viewing humans as homo methodologicus, using an expanding methodological toolbox, provides a nuanced explanation of how we have been directly able to meet our needs, solve problems and develop vast bodies of technological and scientific knowledge. By better understanding the origin and foundations of science, we can better understand their limits and, most importantly, how to push those limits. We can do so especially by addressing the evolved cognitive constraints and biases we face and improving the methods we use.

Introduction

Abstract Metaphor research has witnessed tremendous changes in how metaphor is seen and understood. Traditionally, metaphor has been viewed as a special, creative, and noticeable use of language. Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory (1980) has marked a cognitive revolution by viewing metaphor as pervasive in language as well as fundamental to thought and action. More recently, the discourse revolution has re-emphasised metaphor’s manifestations in language and its function in communication. A methodological revolution has brought forth procedures to identify and analyse metaphor in naturally occurring data (such as MIP and MIPVU). Despite these advances, in the present introduction, we identify four challenges that we believe metaphor researchers are still faced with: (1) How metaphorical are metaphors? (2) whose metaphor is it anyway? (3) metaphor research needs more diversity; and (4) how to study metaphor empirically – qualitatively or quantitatively? We conclude by presenting outlines of the contributions and specify how they address these issues.

Communication Tools and E-Learning: A Revolution in the Research Methodology of Communication for a Pedagogical Scenario

Communication is a source of motivation and cohesion, so knowing how to communicate is a way to facilitate e-learning interactions and group/class dynamics through various communication tools. Communication tools and e-learning have brought major changes to teaching and learning. These tools include online learning platforms, forums, webinars, online videos, podcasts, social media, and other advanced communication technologies. They allow learners and teachers to communicate and collaborate remotely, offering increased flexibility and accessibility. It is important to design instructional programs that effectively integrate these online learning and communication tools into the instructional scenario. E-learning allows teachers to choose from a variety of synchronous and asynchronous methods. Asynchronous methods allow for additional communication, while real-time or synchronous methods allow for in-process communication. The choice of communication tools associated with the training modules depends on the learning activity the trainer wants to perform. In this case, we recommend that you offer a variety of communication tools and design your e-learning course to meet the needs of your learners.

Communication Tools and E-Learning: A Revolution in the Research Methodology of Communication for a Pedagogical Scenario

Communication Tools and E-Learning: A Revolution in the Research Methodology of Communication for a Pedagogical Scenario

CryoEM of Viral Ribonucleoproteins and Nucleocapsids of Single-Stranded RNA Viruses

Single-stranded RNA viruses (ssRNAv) are characterized by their biological diversity and great adaptability to different hosts; traits which make them a major threat to human health due to their potential to cause zoonotic outbreaks. A detailed understanding of the mechanisms involved in viral proliferation is essential to address the challenges posed by these pathogens. Key to these processes are ribonucleoproteins (RNPs), the genome-containing RNA-protein complexes whose function is to carry out viral transcription and replication. Structural determination of RNPs can provide crucial information on the molecular mechanisms of these processes, paving the way for the development of new, more effective strategies to control and prevent the spread of ssRNAv diseases. In this scenario, cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM), relying on the technical and methodological revolution it has undergone in recent years, can provide invaluable help in elucidating how these macromolecular complexes are organized, packaged within the virion, or the functional implications of these structures. In this review, we summarize some of the most prominent achievements by cryoEM in the study of RNP and nucleocapsid structures in lipid-enveloped ssRNAv.

Form of manifestation of value: Heinrich’s monetary theory of value – a review of the Philosophical methodology based on Marx’s labour theory of value

Marx’s scientific labour theory of value is fundamentally inseparable from his philosophical method of advancing from the thinking abstract to the thinking concrete. He employs the power of abstraction to reveal the essential determination of value, and then to accomplish a generalisation of the commonness of all commodity-money relations. Through the intermediate links, Marx advances from the abstract to the concrete, grasping the historical individuality and form of manifestation of value in the specific capitalist phase. Heinrich is acutely aware of the methodological revolution achieved by Marx in his treatment of value theory, and, therefore, advocates examining the value theory from the philosophical methodological perspective. However, in his view, it is the emphasis on the form of value that is Marx’s fundamental critique to the political economy, with money as a necessity in the capitalist society. Consequently, he proposes the term ‘monetary theory of value’ to replace Marx’s labour theory of value. Heinrich, who lacks the scientific power of abstraction, directly focuses on the concrete phase of capitalism and, thus, merely attaches great importance to the external form of manifestation of value. The underlying cause of his deficiency is the philosophical methodology he adheres to, i.e. the formal dialectics.

Woman of colour feminisms as a vehicle for racially-just methodologies in educational research

ABSTRACT There is an overwhelming presence and dominance of white-centric methodologies in educational research. To create necessary re-envisionings, we theorize how approaches to methodology can be disrupted and rethought through Black feminisms, Chicana feminism and Womanism. While each are distinct in their standpoints and contours, they have strong points of affinity, such as their focus on the generation of theory through lived experiences, interrogating various forms of oppression, coalition building and spirituality. From these intersections, we begin by discussing how Black feminisms, Chicana feminism and Womanism, as theories in the flesh, can re-envision methodology, generally. We then provide specific examples of putting Chicana feminism and Black feminisms to work in order to foster authentic relationships in collaborative inquiry and incite ruptures and renarrativizations through life story inquiry. We end with a discussion of how working in solidarity among women of color feminists can enact coalition building as a site of methodological revolution.

Female Agents at the Royal Palace of Madrid: Political Interests, Favors and Gifts (ca. 1598-1640)

The rise of the New Diplomatic History in the late twentieth century led to a methodological revolution altering the foundations of traditional historiography.2 One of the principal consequences were a new recognition that there were multiple sorts of diplomatic agents that included artists, businessmen, men of the church, travelers, and women. It is this last group to which we devote this essay. In this paper we will analyze several case studies in order to offer a general perspective of the mechanisms used by these female agents so as to establish a pattern of behavior. We will focus on aristocratic women at the Madrid court during the reign of Philip III and Philip IV in order to know how the foreign ambassadors approached these women seeking information. These women get in return gifts and mercedes for them, their families and members of their patronage networks. Finally, we will study the multiple fidelities developed by female agents.

THE ETHNOGRAPHIC AND LITERARY NARRATIVE, THE SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL INTERSECTION, STUDY IN THE CURRICULUM AND ANALYSIS OF TERMINOLOGY

Ethnography gained popularity in the era of the methodological revolution for the study of qualitative topics that our countries lagged behind. Hence the importance of the research and its problem, which is divided into two parts: the ambiguity of foreign terms and their translations of this topic, and solving this problem requires analyzing the basic terms and meeting them with their opposites towards translating anthropology with (science of difference), versus sociology, in order to gain complete clarity in our minds, and secondly: the search for a structural and functional origin that unifies the ethnographic, scientific narrative and the literary narrative, and the search for methodological origins that differentiate between the French and Anglo-American traditional in the study of the different other as a verse, i.e. a strange natural human sign that exists on the difference. The research concluded that the three terms: ethnography, ethnology and anthropology belong to the study of "the other", which passes through the French tradition in three stages: description, structural interpretation and semiotic interpretation. As for the AngloAmerican tradition, the hermeneutical anthropology considered the structural interpretation as a first interpretation, preceding the next interpretation, and allowed the researcher to release his imagination in codifying the ethnographic narrative, so that the code became an interpretation of the possible interpretations. Emphasis on choosing critical and depressing topics. The two traditions systematically intersected by proposing the term: (cultural region), which was transformed into a descriptive, classification, and analytical procedure for the disparate cultures, using the comparative approach. The nature of the research necessitated dividing it into three sections. In the first section, I studied the concept of ethnography and its idiomatic neighborhoods. The second topic was devoted to studying the points of overlap between the scientific ethnographic narrative and the literary narrative, and the third topic was devoted to studying the points of intersection between the sardine study approaches. Key words: Primary School Teacher Preparation System, Finland.

Linguistique du corpus pour les variétés à faible densité. Langues minoritaires et enquêtes morphologiques basées sur corpus

Corpus linguistics grew up in the domain of written (and literary) varieties, while its recent methodological revolution is due to the computer-assisted capacity of elaborating massive amounts of text data. On the other hand, the so-called ‘low-density varieties’, including spoken varieties as well as varieties spoken in minority communities, have been confined to a rather marginal role. Among others, this is due to the technical problems connected to the scarce degree of normalization in linguistic –including graphemic– terms, as well as to the scarcity of language resources for automatic processing. In this paper, we will exploit the possibilities opened by corpus linguistics for acquiring and analyzing the textual patrimony of the Walser German communities of Piedmont and Aosta Valley. The varieties of Highest Alemannic spoken there, dramatically exposed to language decay, provide a limited but significant amount of data, which is accompanied by a substantial lexical documentation due to the active collaboration of the speakers’ communities in collecting and compiling local dictionaries. After briefly introducing our archive and discussing the peculiar solutions adopted for the construction of the platform, we will also present corpus-based morphological investigations regarding the representation of verbal prefixes, of the clitic group, as well as of the inflectional behaviour of verb classes.

Averting the Next Credibility Crisis in Psychological Science: Within-Person Methods for Personalized Diagnostics and Intervention.

Personalizing assessments, predictions, and treatments of individuals is currently a defining trend in psychological research and applied fields, including personalized learning, personalized medicine, and personalized advertisement. For instance, the recent pandemic has reminded parents and educators of how challenging yet crucial it is to get the right learning task to the right student at the right time. Increasingly, psychologists and social scientists are realizing that the between-person methods that we have long relied upon to describe, predict, and treat individuals may fail to live up to these tasks (e.g., Molenaar, 2004). Consequently, there is a risk of a credibility loss, possibly similar to the one seen during the replicability crisis (Ioannides, 2005), because we have only started to understand how many of the conclusions that we tend to draw based on between-person methods are based on a misunderstanding of what these methods can tell us and what they cannot. An imminent methodological revolution will likely lead to a change of even well-established psychological theories (Barbot et al., 2020). Fortunately, methodological solutions for personalized descriptions and predictions, such as many within-person analyses, are available and undergo rapid development, although they are not yet embraced in all areas of psychology, and some come with their own limitations. This article first discusses the extent of the theory-method gap, consisting of theories about within-person patterns being studied with between-person methods in psychology, and the potential loss of trust that might follow from this theory-method gap. Second, this article addresses advantages and limitations of available within-person methods. Third, this article discusses how within-person methods may help improving the individual descriptions and predictions that are needed in many applied fields that aim for tailored individual solutions, including personalized learning and personalized medicine.

Sociologul și istoricii. Henri H. Stahl despre istoriografia română

The article focuses on a case-study of a scientific dialogue (or lack of it) between the Marxist sociologist Henri H. Stahl and Romanian historians. The first section of the study, A failed dialogue, examines the various rhetorical strategies used by Henri H. Stahl when addressing an audience of historians. Stahl’s increasingly irritated tone, triggered by what he perceived to be his marginalization by professional historians, seems only partially justified. The reception of Stahl’s studies of historical sociology was heterogeneous, but despite some positive reviews his contributions remained rather overlooked in the field of historiography. The second section of the article, The taxonomy of Romanian historiography, looks at the historians through the lenses of Stahl’s scientific references and late life interviews. Apart from Iorga, to whom Stahl was emotionally and intellectually attached, the sociologist classified Romanian historians in four categories: (1) respected, but out dated; (2) meticulous, but rather thick; (3) pseudo-socialising and dangerous; (4) useful and trans-disciplinary. In the end, Stahl’s growing frustration with Romanian historiography seems to be best explained by his failure to initiate a methodological revolution in the field.

Отказ от благосостояния потребителя при антитрасте цифровых платформ

This article aims to characterize the new theoretical and methodological reversal observed today in the American antitrust regulation of digital platforms. To this end, the author retrospectively describes the history of the development of the theory and methodology of antitrust regulation in the United States. The article describes the ideas of economic structuralism of the “Harvard school”. Further, the author reveals the theoretical and methodological revolution associated with the theory of prices; describes the fundamental differences between the “Harvard” and “Chicago” schools in terms of assessing the relationship between market structure and the intensity of competition. The article reveals the formation of the doctrine of consumer welfare as the dominant one in antitrust regulation. The consequences of the application of the doctrine of consumer welfare in antitrust regulation are described: the narrowness of ideas about barriers to entry, public welfare; breadth of understanding of competitive forces; ignoring the structural and sectoral characteristics of competition; absolutization of indicators of consumer prices and output volumes. The author gives a negative assessment of the effectiveness of the application of the doctrine of consumer welfare in the antitrust regulation of digital platforms. The paper explains how the focus on consumer welfare has been used by digital platforms to generate gigantic market power. In this context, a criticism of the ideas of the Chicago School in relation to digital markets is presented. Reanimation of ideas and methods of economic structuralism in decision-making within the framework of antimonopoly regulation of monopolistic activities of digital platforms is argued.

Pre-registration: Weighing costs and benefits for researchers

In the past decade, the social and behavioral sciences underwent a methodological revolution, offering practical prescriptions for improving the replicability and reproducibility of research results. One key to reforming science is a simple and scalable practice: pre-registration. Pre-registration constitutes pre-specifying an analysis plan prior to data collection. A growing chorus of articles discusses the prescriptive, field-wide benefits of pre-registration. To increase adoption, however, scientists need to know who currently pre-registers and understand perceived barriers to doing so. Thus, we weigh costs and benefits of pre-registration. Our survey of researchers reveals generational differences in who pre-registers and uncertainty regarding how pre-registration benefits individual researchers. We leverage these data to directly address researchers’ uncertainty by clarifying why pre-registration improves the research process itself. Finally, we discuss how to pre-register and compare available resources. The present work examines the who, why, and how of pre-registration in order to weigh the costs and benefits of pre-registration to researchers and motivate continued adoption.

Recent Progress on Flexible Capacitive Pressure Sensors: From Design and Materials to Applications

AbstractFor decades, the revolution in design and fabrication methodology of flexible capacitive pressure sensors using various inorganic/organic materials has significantly enhanced the field of flexible and wearable electronics with a wide range of applications in aerospace, automobiles, marine environment, robotics, healthcare, and consumer/portable electronics. Mathematical modelling, finite element simulations, and unique fabrication strategies are utilized to fabricate diverse shapes of diaphragms, shells, and cantilevers which function in normal, touch, or double touch modes, operation principles inspired from microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based capacitive pressure sensing techniques. The capacitive pressure sensing technique detects changes in capacitance due to the deformation/deflection of a pressure sensitive mechanical element that alters the separation gap of the capacitor. Due to advancement in state‐of‐the‐art fabrication technologies, the performance and properties of capacitive pressure sensors are enhanced. In this review paper, recent progress in flexible capacitive pressure sensing techniques in terms of design, materials, and fabrication strategies is reported. The mechanics and fabrication steps of paper‐based low‐cost MEMS/flexible devices are also broadly reported. Lastly, the applications of flexible capacitive pressure sensors, challenges, and future perspectives are discussed.