Mutual Inspiration Research Articles

From genes to games: Cooperation and cyclic dominance in meiotic drive

Evolutionary change can be described on a genotypic level or a phenotypic level. Evolutionary game theory is typically thought of as a phenotypic approach, although it is frequently argued that it can also be used to describe population genetic evolution. Interpreting the interaction between alleles in a diploid genome as a two player game leads to interesting alternative perspectives on genetic evolution. Here we focus on the case of meiotic drive and illustrate how meiotic drive can be directly and precisely interpreted as a social dilemma, such as the prisoners dilemma or the snowdrift game, in which the drive allele takes more than its fair share. Resistance to meiotic drive can lead to the well understood cyclic dominance found in the rock–paper–scissors game. This perspective is well established for the replicator dynamics, but there is still considerable ground for mutual inspiration between the two fields. For example, evolutionary game theorists can benefit from considering the stochastic evolutionary dynamics arising from finite population size. Population geneticists can benefit from game theoretic tools and perspectives on genetic evolution.

Science and Social Practice: Action Research and Activity Theory as Socio-Critical Approaches

Action research and activity theory are considered by a number of followers as socio-critical approaches, whereas others do not relate them to social-criticism and use them merely as methods to improve practice. This article searches for general insights in Kurt Lewin's and Lev S. Vygotsky's work into how one proceeds and acts critically. In their methodological writings, different levels of critique can be determined: First, there is a critique of psychology's scientific state of the art compared to modern natural sciences. This critique includes the demand not to divide issues of method from methodological ones. Second, both thinkers relate knowing to the power to intervene; they both perceive a close connection between scientific progress and the improvement of social practice. However, their standpoints diverge here. Lewin favors a mutual inspiration between science and social practice in terms of “art” and “revolutionary progress” but does not theorize a more fundamental connection between these domains. By contrast, Vygotsky assumes interdependence between scientific progress and the liberation of the entire societal basis of human development. This assumption was encouraged by his historical experience of the Russian Revolution, yet needs to be rethought in light of subsequent historical developments.

Facilitating learning at conferences

The typical conference consists of a series of PowerPoint presentations that tend to render participants passive. Students of learning have long abandoned the transfer model that underlies such one-way communication. We propose an alternative theory of conferences that sees them as a forum for learning, mutual inspiration and human flourishing. We offer five design principles that specify how conferences may engage participants more and hence increase their learning. In the research-and-development effort reported here, our team collaborated with conference organisers in Denmark to introduce and facilitate a variety of simple learning techniques at 30 1- and 2-day conferences of up to 300 participants each. We present ten of these techniques and data evaluating them. We conclude that if conference organisers allocate a fraction of the total conference time to facilitated processes that engage participants in various forms of reflective conversation and knowledge sharing, they may enhance the satisfaction and learning-related outcomes experienced by their participants.

Evolutionary game theory and evolutionary economics: are they different species?

Evolutionary game theory and evolutionary economics seem to inhabit different academic spheres and have little collaboration with one another. Neither side cites much research by the other. Does this de facto academic separation impede fruitful possibilities for mutual inspiration and joint development? This paper addresses this question by considering (1) the different origins and research orientations of the two genres, (2) to what extent evolutionary economists could make use of evolutionary game theory, and (3) what evolutionary game theorists might learn from other, less formal, modes of theorising. The paper concludes that while significant possibilities for collaboration exist, the foremost test is whether they can help enhance our understanding of structures and causal processes in the real world.

The discourse of collaborative creative writing: Peer collaboration as a context for mutual inspiration

Drawing on socio-cultural theory, this paper focuses on children's classroom-based collaborative creative writing. The central aim of the reported research was to contribute to our understanding of young children's creativity, and describe ways in which peer collaboration can resource, stimulate and enhance classroom-based creative writing activities. The study drew on longitudinal observations of ongoing activities in Year 3 and Year 4 classrooms (children aged 7–9) in England. Selected pairs’ collaborative creative writing activities were observed and recorded using video and audio equipment in the literacy classroom and in the ICT suite (13 pairs, about 2–4 occasions each). The research built on the contextualised, qualitative analysis of the social and cognitive processes connected to shared creative text composition. Using an analytic tool developed specifically for creative writing tasks, we linked collaborative and discursive features to cognitive processes associated with writing (‘engagement’ and ‘reflection’). The research has identified discourse patterns and collaborative strategies which facilitate ‘sharedness’ and thus support joint creative writing activities. The paper discusses two significant aspects of the observed paired creative writing discourse. It reports the significance of emotions throughout the shared creative writing episodes, including joint reviewing. Also, it shows children's reliance on collaborative floor ( Coates, 1996), with discourse building on interruptions and overlaps. We argue that such use of collaborative floor was indicative of joint focus and intense sharing, thus facilitating mutual inspiration in the content generation phases of the children's writing activities. These findings have implications for both educational research and practice, contributing to our understanding of how peer interaction can be used to resource school-based creative activities.

Psychiatry Across the Pond

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article From the PresidentFull AccessPsychiatry Across the PondNada Stotland, M.D., M.P.H.Nada StotlandSearch for more papers by this author, M.D., M.P.H.Published Online:15 Aug 2008https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.43.16.0003Credit: David HathcoxFor the past several years, the presidents of APA and the Royal College of Psychiatrists have attended, and presented at, each other's annual meetings. It was the Royal College that gave APA our presidential medallion 40 years ago. The meetings are opportunities for both mutual commiseration and mutual inspiration. With our current concerns about the rising costs and inefficiencies of health care and our national elections around the corner, this is a good time to think about the advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of health care systems.The Royal College performs the functions of both our APA and the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology; it is the Royal College that sets the standards and administers the examinations that qualify physicians as specialists in psychiatry. This makes nearly all the practicing psychiatrists in the country members of the college. Within the Royal College, there are faculties comprising the psychiatric subspecialties. The faculties have their own meetings and elect their own representatives to the governing body of the college, which also includes representatives of geographic areas, making for quite a large board of directors. The president of the Royal College serves for three years. At this meeting, Professor Sheila Hollins finished her term, and Professor Dinesh Bhugra commenced his.Dr. Stotland poses with Professor Dinesh Bhugra, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, at the college's headquarters in July.Credit: Ken Busch, M.D.Professor Hollins has a particular interest in patients with little or no reading skills. She has co-written a fascinating set of booklets: “Books Beyond Words.” Each of these picture booklets addresses an important life event: losing a parent; going to the doctor, hospital, or outpatient clinic; being arrested or on trial; falling in love; and dealing with abuse; as well as speaking up for oneself, personal hygiene, and general medical care: “Looking After My Breasts” and (I had to read this title twice) “Looking After My Balls.” The pictures show individuals gradually coping with each challenge and provide a stimulus for discussion with family members and health care professionals. By the way, I like the terms the authors use: “service users” rather than our“ consumers,” and “carers” for both professionals and lay people, usually family members, who provide care.This year the Royal College met in London, using the meeting facilities of the Imperial College. This inexpensive venue has enabled the college to experiment with a meeting without pharmaceutical company support. The only exhibits featured college programs and publications. The meeting briefcases carried only the seal of the college. There was not a free pen, umbrella, or sticky note in sight. The attendees, therefore, bore the full expense of the meeting; registration cost between $1,500 and $2,000 for three days of meetings, coffee breaks, and hot lunches. Hotel accommodations were extra. Britain has 13,000 psychiatrists; the attendance at the meeting was fewer than 1,000 psychiatrists, which included a significant number from other European countries and from the British Commonwealth, including from India, Africa, Australia, and Canada.This year marks the 60th anniversary of the National Health Service (NHS). Although our systems of care are very different, we face similar problems. Like us, the NHS is worried about treatment of the growing elderly population and active and returning military. At the college meeting, I participated in a symposium on the integration of primary and mental health care. The college has marked the NHS anniversary by developing “Fair Deal for Mental Health: Our Manifesto for a 3-year Campaign Dedicated to Tackling Inequality in Mental Healthcare.” One frequently repeated slogan is “No health without mental health.”Some of us have a mental image of NHS facilities as dingy, dirty, and overcrowded. Professor Bhugra recently told the press that he would not like to see a family member in some NHS psychiatric facilities. But I visited a facility where I would be more than happy to have a member of my family cared for—the Chelsea and Westminster General Hospital. I have never seen a more bright, beautiful, and architecturally brilliant hospital.Over the past 10 years, the NHS has greatly reduced waiting times and introduced standards for the care of some medical conditions. The NHS is now moving in the direction of increased patient choice. While there is some interest in privatization, most people are satisfied with the current system, which provides care for everyone.We spend more on health care than any other country in the world, and yet we do not excel in terms of maternal and infant mortality or life expectancy. Other countries may have something to teach us as we make crucial decisions about the future of our health care system. ▪ ISSUES NewArchived

Japanese and US perspectives on the National Innovation Ecosystem

Coinciding with a proposal for a National Innovation Ecosystem (NIES) by the US Council on Competitiveness, Japan's Industrial Structure Council proposed a major shift from a technology policy to an innovation policy based on the ecosystem concept. While Japan and the US achieved success through mutual inspiration in the 1980s and 1990s, both countries need a new approach to sustaining their national innovation, especially in light of the new paradigm for a post-information society, which began in the early 2000s. Realizing this need led both countries to reexamine the broader applications of the ecosystem discipline to technology policy systems. This paper analyzes the parallel paths of technology policy in Japan and the US over the last three decades. We found that the development cycle in both countries is governed by four ecosystem principles: (1) sustainable development through substitution, (2) self-propagation through co-evolution, (3) organizational inertia and inspired learning from competitors, and (4) heterogeneous synergy.

The learning conference

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to call attention to the fact that conferences for professionals rely on massive one‐way communication and hence produce little learning for delegates – and to introduce an alternative, the “learning conference”, that involves delegates in fun and productive learning processes.Design/methodology/approachA typical full‐day conference is analyzed. It has six hours of podium talk and twenty‐five minutes for delegates to become involved. What model of learning can possibly lie behind this? The transfer model, which assumes learners to be empty vessels. An alternative view is that conference delegates are active professionals in search of inspiration, and they also want to share knowledge with their peers at the conference. A theory of the conference as a forum for mutual inspiration and human co‐flourishing is proposed, as are four design principles for a learning conference: presentations must provide concise input; the conference host must introduce processes that help delegates; interpret the input in the light of their ongoing concerns; talk about their current projects; and share knowledge with the other delegates.FindingsSix learning processes for use during conferences are described: individual reflection; the buzz dyad; “You have won two consultants, free of charge”; facilitated group work; the knowledge exchange; and lunch with gaffer tape.Originality/valueThis paper introduces learning theory and learning techniques into an educational context which has resisted innovation, the professional conference. It offers alternatives to wall‐to‐wall lecturing: some simple processes for involving delegates so as to help them derive inspiration from the material presented and from each other.

Mutual inspiration

Mutual inspiration

Visual Perception and Perceptual Processing in Real and Virtual Environments

We present a brief outline of the development of research in visual perception with the advent of new technologies up to New Media and virtual environments. There is a mutual inspiration and benefiting between fundamental and applied research and technological progress which should be utilized by the disciplines involved. Next, an overview of a conference, held in Nara (Japan) September 2001, is given of which different selections of articles are presented in the current special issues of the Swiss Journal of Psychology and of Japanese Psychological Research.

Comment on “Parent‐Infant Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Treatment: Contradiction or Mutual Inspiration?” by Christiane Ludwig‐Körner

Comment on “Parent‐Infant Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Treatment: Contradiction or Mutual Inspiration?” by Christiane Ludwig‐Körner

Parent‐infant‐psychotherapy and psychoanalytic treatment: contradiction or mutual inspiration?

Psychoanalysis and parent‐infant‐psychotherapy are compared. Although parent‐infant‐psychotherapy developed from psychoanalysis, it appears at first glance not to be “analytic” with its aim of dealing quickly with the symptoms presented and also with its different setting. The author shows that an analytic approach in understanding the multi‐facetted net of relationships between family members and the infant in its “phantasmic interaction” and a consideration of the implication for analysis of the empirical research carried out in conjunction with parent‐infant‐therapy can lead to a fruitful exchange of ideas. One example of this is research into the correlation between attachment patterns and the processing of conflicts. Furthermore a dialogue between these two disciplines can remind psychoanalysts that a critical discussion of the external circumstances of their methods does not immediately call into question their fundamental approach to therapy: the work in transference on relationship fantasies.

75 Jahre Deutsche Gesellschaft für Lichtforschung

Photobiology made a tremendous progress at the beginning of the 20 th century. This was due to heliotherapy as well as to the phototherapy of tuberculosis and the prevention of rickets by artificial light sources. The scientific intermingling and the clinical application need cooperation of the sciences and mutual inspiration. Therefore the „Deutsche Gesellschaft f;r Lichtforschung“ (DGfL) was founded 1927 in Hamburg by Prof. Hans Meyer, to bring together Medicine, Meteorology and Physics. The interdisciplinarity is one of the chracteristics of the DGfL and it is made to last. In the same time many connections with international associations are built up and installed to endure. Photobiology lost considerably in importance up to the middle of the century by reasons of therapeutical progress as well as by World War II. After this devasting period, new developments in photochemistry and in biophysics finally justified the reestablishment of the DGfL in 1953. The international congresses of photobiology, 1968 in New Hampshire/USA and in Bochum 1972 were characterized by new and important highlights, bringing together Medicine (Dermatology and Endocrinology), Epidemiology and Technology with the cellular and molecular Biology. In addition, Photoimmunology is in progess, since more than 10 years. These novel fields of photobiology, demanding even more interdisciplinary cooperation, will open very new horizons to the DGfL.

Tourism, growth and poverty: Framework conditions for tourism in developing countries

Tourism in developing countries has grown rapidly in the past 20 years to the point where a fresh look at its underpinnings appears overdue. The industry itself realizes that the quality of growth is as important as quantity. Inevitably, growth and globalization have brought about a change in tourism's structure, driven by competition, consolidation among the main economic players and the revolution in information and technology. The recent Sommets du Tourisme, now in its third year, promoted by the Geneva/ Chamonix/ Mont Blanc tourism industry, took up these issues in December 5–7, 2001. This paper is a result of a presentation made at that Sommets du Tourisme on tourism, poverty and the World Bank Croup's role. The Bank Croup addresses tourism through its regular channels, including poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSP) and country assistance strategy process (CAS). Its interventions focus on public good issues, market failures, and gaps not filled by others. In this framework, this article reviews tourism as a sector that can contribute to sustainable development, including its economic, financial, social and environmental aspects. It argues that developing countries can compete favorably in world markets — they often have the framework conditions which give them a good opportunity to create the new products and services that consumers seek, often in as yet unspoiled areas. Growth and poverty are addressed, as are the policy conditions for making markets work, and assuring the sustainability of tourism's often all too fragile assets. Local communities are often left out of the decision‐making process that determines their future, leading to disenchantment with tourism; similarly, local communities may have difficulty dealing effectively with the burgeoning international travel industry. The paper underscores the importance of institutions, particularly the respective roles of government and industry, and partnership as a source of mutual inspiration. Some examples are offered here as illustrations of types of investment in sustainable tourism.

The definitional practice of dictionaries and the Cognitive Semantic conception of polysemy

Cognitive Semantics has had a major impact on lexical studies: more than any other recent theory, it has in the last fifteen years led to a renewed interest in lexical research. But what about lexicography ? What is the relationship between Cognitive Semantics and lexicography ? And specifically, in the context of the present issue of this journal, what is the impact of Cognitive Semantics on the lexicographical treatment of polysemy ? In what follows, I will try to answer that question succinctly and perhaps a bit sketchily, but also as fair as possible to both the theoretical, lexicological and the practical, lexicographical part of the comparison. I emphasize my attempt at fairness, because I deliberately want to avoid any form of theoretical imperialism. It is definitely not an assumption of this paper that theoreticians in principle have the answers, and that lexicographers simply have to follow. I have pointed out earlier (GEERAERTS 1997, 5) that there should be a relationship of mutual inspiration between both disciplines, and even though the present paper looks from lexicological theory to lexicographical practice rather than the other way round, I still hold the reverse perspective to be equally important.

Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab i mere end 50 år

Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab i mere end 50 år

I Paradisets Have

I Paradisets Have

The interrelationship between vocabulary acquisition theory and general SLA research

The current state of affairs is characterised as one in which general SLA models have syntax as their core and pay less and variable attention to other linguistic levels, notably lexis. In order to improve the current situation we need involvement from both the vocabulary research community and SLA model builders. It is demonstrated how the former group readily borrows key concepts from psycholinguistics and SLA theory and rethinks them from a lexical point of view. However, such borrowing and recasting is often done in a piecemeal fashion to fit specific research issues. As for SLA model builders, some examples are discussed that are regarded as serious attempts at integrating lexis into a particular acquisition model. One is L2 reading research and vocabulary acquisition through reading, which illustrates a high degree of integration with common research goals and mutual theoretical inspiration. A second example underlines the fact that there is an obvious potential for including lexis in the ‘focus on form’ movement. It is our contention that more attention to lexis should supplement the predominantly grammatical ‘focus on form’ that is the current norm.

Reflections on Project Work and Problem-based Learning

SUMMARY It is difficult to define and compare project-organized learning and problem-based learning both at a theoretical and a practical level, but there is a need for clarification outlimng differences and similarities for both institutions practising and institutions planning to implement some of these educational ideas. Both project work and problem-based learning emphasize the learning process instead of the teaching process; however, the focus on different aspects of the learning process forms a fruitful base for mutual inspiration and development—like a creative couple challenging the learning process of tomorrow.

The standard model of quantum measurement theory: History and applications

The standard model of the quantum theory of measurement is based on an interaction Hamiltonian in which the observable to be measured is multiplied by some observable of a probe system. This simple Ansatz has proved extremely fruitful in the development of the foundations of quantum mechanics. While the ensuing type of models has often been argued to be rather artificial, recent advances in quantum optics have demonstrated their principal and practical feasibility. A brief historical review of the standard model together with an outline of its virtues and limitations are presented as an illustration of the mutual inspiration that has always taken place between foundational and experimental research in quantum physics.