New Frame Of Reference Research Articles

Left-Wing Follies

Left-Wing Follies

New frames of reference for mapping drugs in the four classes of the BCS and BDDCS into regions with clear boundaries

The Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS), adopted by drug regulatory agencies for oral drug products approval, classify drug substances into four classes according to their aqueous solubility and epithelial membrane permeability. In a solubility‐permeability frame of reference, drugs on the boundaries of the four regions depicting the four drug classes are problematic to classify. To remove the fuzziness in the boundaries of the solubility‐permeability frame of reference, a dataset of 85 oral drugs from all four classes of BCS are mapped into new frames of references in which the coordinate axes are based on the rates of dissolution, systemic elimination (metabolism), and membrane permeation. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 3570–3579, 2015

Editorial: “Gender, Family and Parenting in the Chinese Context

Editorial: “Gender, Family and Parenting in the Chinese Context

Analyzing the Barriers of Health Care Supply Chain in India: The Contribution and Interaction of Factors

Healthcare supply chain has been a subject of interest for many years. The pressure of changes in environment lead to changes in guiding principles which produce solid problems viewed as problems with no feasible solutions. Healthcare supply chain demands effort on part of researchers to not view the problems as static. The different factors need to be viewed as dynamic. We attempt to highlight the benefits of adopting a factor interaction approach to hospital protocol. The interpretative system modelling (ISM) approach is utilized for interaction of variables affecting healthcare supply chain. This can provide healthcare sector professionals with programme guidelines where they can investigate their dynamic effects. Case study analysis and interviews have been used for generating data for ISM to understand the frame of reference in which Healthcare supply chain operate. ISM methodology has been successfully used to observe the boundaries between the different stratums of various systems and visualise the different echelons of the interacting variables of Healthcare supply chain operations. This helps to embrace and integrate human thinking. This is an advantage over hard quantitative approaches where expert knowledge is pushed to give a number to their opinion usually in form of weights to variables such as structured equation modelling or goal programming using historical data. The research paper aims to build a new frame of reference for studying and measuring the performance of Healthcare supply chain operations.

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES OF COLLAGE AS A DIDACTIC MEANS: INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

The research aim is to examine the functions and educational opportunities of collage as a didactic means. The methodology and methods involve the multilateral theoretical data analysis and generalization; activity approach to pupils’ perception analysis; communicative approach to finding the interrelation between the perception and speech act; lingua-cultural approach to collage consideration as a sign, information vehicle and communication subject; and developmental teaching approach. The author undertakes the cross-disciplinary analysis, including the scientific works on philosophy, psychology, semiotics and culture studies, and proves the collage adequacy to the cognitive specificity of modern pupils’perception and foreign-language teaching. The concept of collage is specified, its semiotic characteristics and unique features as a didactic means discussed. The research novelty involves developing a new frame of reference to collage as a didactic tool and cultural phenomenon with educational and developmental opportunities. The research findings, including the methodology basis for content structuring and selecting a collage type, can be used for educational problem solving.

Brazil's Human Rights Foreign Policy: Domestic Politics and International Implications

This paper analyses the approach to human rights in Brazilian foreign policy agendas since President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's first mandate. It discusses institutional arrangements arising from domestic processes of democratisation, as well as from human rights regime changes that have occurred regionally and globally. The paper's key contention is that the foreign policy changes—both in emphasis and positioning—which took place after 2003 were due to three variables: (i) the securitisation of the global order after 9/11 and the resumption of the double standards policy; (ii) the transnationalisation of human rights movements and the emerging judicialisation of foreign policy; and (iii) at the domestic level, non-governmental actors' and social movements' emerging demands for participation in the field of foreign policy. The paper aims to contribute to the theoretical debate on foreign policy as public policy, and to offer some new frames of reference regarding Brazil's official motivations in the field of human rights.

An empirical study of solution search processes in complex problem-solving: the vehicle cross-beam case

A growing number of studies has focused on the activities that underlie the unfolding of knowledge-intensive problem-solving activities in new product development (NPD). However, this research relies extensively on the traditional dichotomy of problem-solving as consisting of analytical and/or directional search processes, located on opposite ends of the solution search continuum. Thus, we lack an understanding of other solution search processes used to overcome complex problems. In this paper, I address this research deficit by drawing upon an illustrative case study of engineers as problem-solvers in their attempts to develop a vehicle cross-beam. I show that problem-solvers iterate between three solution search processes to overcome technical design obstacles, namely, analytical, directional and synthesised search. The iteration between representations of solutions to problems (analytical search), the implementation of such solutions (directional search) and the subsequent evaluation of such solutions (synthesised search) provide problem-solvers with a means of reaching new frames of reference that mirror higher level learning in complex problem-solving.

Participatory Demand-supply Systems

Introducing the notion of Participatory Demand-Supply (PDS) systems as socio-technical systems, this paper focuses on a new approach to coordinating demand and supply in dynamic environments. A participatory approach to demand and supply provides a new frame of reference for system design, for which the engagement of all stakeholders plays an important role, as does distributed ICT. This approach has been applied to an industrial case to explore new opportunities enabled by distributed ICT for communication, negotiation, joint decision-making, and collective learning required for coordinating demand and supply. The application results in a platform as a test-bed for collecting relevant information to study the participation of stakeholders (actors) in coordinating a PDS system.

Preparing for Complexity and Wicked Problems through Transformational Learning Approaches

As the information environment becomes increasingly complex and challenging, Library and Information Studies (LIS) education is called upon to nurture innovative leaders capable of managing complex situations and “wicked problems.” While disciplinary expertise remains essential, higher levels of mental complexity and adaptive capabilities are also needed to manage complexity. This article reviews three transformational learning approaches with the potential to effectively guide student growth toward these higher levels: (1) overcoming immunity to change, (2) threshold concepts and variation theories, and (3) transformative learning theory. All three approaches aim at transforming high-level meanings that are limiting into understandings that empower in order to achieve pragmatic goals, comprehend foundational disciplinary concepts, and generate new frames of reference for social justice.

Porosity: Networking Cities for a Changing Climate

On October 28th 2013 Hurricane Sandy hit land on the East Coast of the United States. The deadliest storm to hit the country since 2005 it caused tens of billions of dollars in damage, destroyed thousands of homes, left millions without electric service, and caused 117 deaths in the United States, including 53 in New York, making Sandy the most life costly hurricane to hit the United States mainland since Hurricane Katrina. In all an estimated 186 people were killed across the United States, the Caribbean, and Canada. In the immediate aftermath of the storm not only did the emergency services, state and federal government implement emergency plans of action, including both direct intervention on the ground and massive financial support, so too did a number of charities, community and residents groups across the US. One of the most surprising of these groups was what became known as Occupy Sandy. As noted by the Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute: “Within hours of Sandy’s landfall, members from the Occupy Wall Street movement used social media to tap the wider Occupy network for volunteers and aid. Overnight, a volunteer army of young, educated, tech-savvy individuals with time and a desire to help others emerged. In the days, weeks, and months that followed, “Occupy Sandy” became one of the leading humanitarian groups providing relief to survivors across New York City and New Jersey. At its peak, it had grown to an estimated 60,000 volunteers—more than four times the number deployed by the American Red Cross.” What this phenomenon clearly demonstrates is the potential for digital networking to improve response to catastrophic storm events at a community level. Far from being solely a question of material support and logistics, the response to the disaster was one equally definable as digital. Pointing to the possible rethinking of issues around the extreme and localised consequences of climate change and responses to it in purely traditional infrastructural terms, the social media focused organisation of Occupy Sandy potentially offers us a new frame of reference to deal with these, and less catastrophic issues around climate change and our response to it. This paper provides a discussion of the projected impacts of global environmental change in urban environments in the United States, with a particular focus on their impact on existing storm and sanitary water infrastructure. However, it theorizes a new approach to this archaic system of infrastructure that exploits social networking tools and digital technologies to build greater networks for climate change resilience across the United States and, by extension, elsewhere.

The Territorialisation of Interest Representation in Scotland: Did Devolution Produce a New Form of Group-Government Relations?

The Scottish Government represents an important new ‘venue’ for group influence and provides a strong incentive for interest groups to engage. A large number have exploited this new opportunity. The devolution of powers to a Scottish Parliament in 1999 followed a century of administrative devolution in areas such as health, education, local government and justice. Many Scottish groups have long histories, and there is evidence of distinct territorial policy communities before 1999 in some areas—but devolution provided a new frame of reference for policy-making and a strong impetus to organise at this level. Factors such as Scotland's size, and the Scottish Government's limited policy-making capacity, have produced a ‘Scottish Policy Style’, in which groups and government interact in distinctive ways. However, this development is complicated by the multi-level nature of policy-making, producing the need for many groups to organise and lobby at local, Scottish, UK and/or EU levels. The devolution of economic policy, and the prospect of territorial corporatism, is limited. The picture varies markedly from issue to issue, from areas such as compulsory education producing Scotland and local-level relationships to agriculture and environmental policy in which key decisions are made by the EU for the UK and Scotland to implement.

Computing proton dose to irregularly moving targets

Purpose: While four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT) and deformable registration can be used to assess the dose delivered to regularly moving targets, there are few methods available for irregularly moving targets. 4DCT captures an idealized waveform, but human respiration during treatment is characterized by gradual baseline shifts and other deviations from a periodic signal. This paper describes a method for computing the dose delivered to irregularly moving targets based on 1D or 3D waveforms captured at the time of delivery.Methods: The procedure uses CT or 4DCT images for dose calculation, and 1D or 3D respiratory waveforms of the target position at time of delivery. Dose volumes are converted from their Cartesian geometry into a beam-specific radiological depth space, parameterized in 2D by the beam aperture, and longitudinally by the radiological depth. In this new frame of reference, the proton doses are translated according to the motion found in the 1D or 3D trajectory. These translated dose volumes are weighted and summed, then transformed back into Cartesian space, yielding an estimate of the dose that includes the effect of the measured breathing motion. The method was validated using a synthetic lung phantom and a single representative patient CT. Simulated 4DCT was generated for the phantom with 2 cm peak-to-peak motion.Results: A passively-scattered proton treatment plan was generated using 6 mm and 5 mm smearing for the phantom and patient plans, respectively. The method was tested without motion, and with two simulated breathing signals: a 2 cm amplitude sinusoid, and a 2 cm amplitude sinusoid with 3 cm linear drift in the phantom. The tumor positions were equally weighted for the patient calculation. Motion-corrected dose was computed based on the mid-ventilation CT image in the phantom and the peak exhale position in the patient. Gamma evaluation was 97.8% without motion, 95.7% for 2 cm sinusoidal motion, 95.7% with 3 cm drift in the phantom (2 mm, 2%), and 90.8% (3 mm, 3%)for the patient data.Conclusions: We have demonstrated a method for accurately reproducing proton dose to an irregularly moving target from a single CT image. We believe this algorithm could prove a useful tool to study the dosimetric impact of baseline shifts either before or during treatment.

Hearing voices simulation: process and outcomes of training

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the experience and impact of targeted training involving simulation of auditory hallucinations on attitudes and practice of professionals working with people with mental illness. Design/methodology/approach – Pragmatic mixed-method study. Data were collected from 83 professionals who completed training using cross-sectional survey and focus groups. Descriptive, comparative and thematic analyses were performed. Findings – Training was associated with changes in thinking and attitude related to working with people who hear voices. Participants, who commonly found the simulation confronting, drew on the experience to deepen appreciation of coping with voices that are distressing and develop a new frame of reference for practice. They positioned themselves differently and described adopting a range of practices consistent with the recovery approach. Environmental constraints variously impacted on capacity to enact these practices. Research limitations/implications – The study was conducted in one centre using a bespoke survey instrument with a sample intrinsically motivated to complete training. Hence, caution should be exercised with regard to generalisability. However, findings are consistent with the limited published literature and the mixed-method approach provided a comprehensive understanding. Practical implications – The paper demonstrated that the training employed can support development of patient centred, recovery-oriented practices. These are likely essential to optimising patient and service outcomes. Further research is needed to examine the impact of training on a broader cross section of professionals and the outcomes for patients. Originality/value – The paper provides important new insights regarding the mechanisms by which training can contribute to development of patient-centred care.

Gower in Context(s): Scribal, Linguistic, Literary and Socio-historical Readings ed. by Laura Filardo-Llamas, Brian Gastle, Marta Gutiérrez Rodríguez (review)

Reviewed by: Gower in Context(s): Scribal, Linguistic, Literary and Socio-historical Readings ed. by Laura Filardo-Llamas, Brian Gastle, Marta Gutiérrez Rodríguez Steele Nowlin Laura Filardo-Llamas, Brian Gastle, and Marta Gutiérrez Rodríguez, eds., Gower in Context(s): Scribal, Linguistic, Literary and Socio-historical Readings. Special issue of ES. Revista de Filología Inglesa 33.1. Valladolid: Publicaciones Universidad de Valladolid. 2012. Pp. 189. ISBN: 978–8–48448–725–3. €14.43. This special issue of ES collects ten essays that originated as papers at the Second International Congress of the International John Gower Society in Valladolid, Spain, in 2012, and places Gower’s poetry (mainly the Confessio Amantis) into broader manuscript, social, political, literary, and—especially—international contexts. The first three essays examine the Confessio in ‘Manuscript Context.’ In ‘Vernacular accessus: Text and Gloss in Gower’s Confessio Amantis and Christine de Pizan’s Épître Othéa,’ Ruen-chuan Ma argues that the Confessio and Épître respectively [End Page 144] theorize and enact the validation of vernacular texts via a Latin tradition: Gower’s approach empowers the vernacular only by limiting it to the models of specific Latin writers, while ‘Christine’s approach opens classical narratives to different methods of reading and interpretation’ and ‘allows the vernacular to assume the instructive position usually ascribed to Latin’ (26). In ‘The Margins in the Iberian Manuscripts of John Gower’s Confessio Amantis: Language, Authority and Readership,’ Tamara Pérez-Fernández examines the removal and translation into vernaculars of the Latin apparatus in the Castilian and Portuguese translations of the Confessio. While also noting important differences between the Iberian manuscripts, Pérez-Fernández suggests that the alterations ‘threaten the carefully designed layers of textual interaction’ and impression of auctoritas that characterize the English versions (35). Rosemarie McGerr, in ‘Gower’s Confessio and the Nova statuta Angliae: Royal Lessons in English Law,’ argues that Gower was influenced by the Nova statuta’s opening section justifying the deposition of Edward II as a necessary action ‘that result[ed] from good counsel’ (52); she contends that the ‘hybrid quality’ of both texts blends ‘legal, religious, and literary genres’ in an effort to ‘create new frames of reference for…readers and present strong arguments for the king’s responsibility to uphold England’s laws’ (46). The next three essays examine the ‘Socio-historical Context’ of Book One of the Confessio. Jerome Mandel sees ‘Conflict Resolution in the “Wife of Bath’s Tale” and in Gower’s “Tale of Florent”’ as the key marker of difference between the tales: Chaucer’s tale resolves conflict ‘through personal negotiation’ (76), while Gower’s resorts to ‘the imposition of absolute judicial authority’ (74); Chaucer’s world ‘appeals to political, social, religious, and ethical authority, all of which are questioned, discussed, and negotiated,’ while ‘Gower’s world is more solid, more fixed, more dominated by principle than by negotiation’ (77). In ‘Controlling the Uncontrollable: Love and Fortune in Book 1 of the Confessio Amantis,’ Misty Schieberle detects thematic parallels between Guillaume de Machaut’s Jugement dou Roi de Behaingne, Remède de Fortune, and Confort d’Ami and Gower’s poem, arguing that the Confessio demonstrates Gower’s ‘careful close reading of Machaut’s approach to Fortune’ (86). Gower adapts Machaut’s counter-Boethian notion that a lover can defy or delay the dictates of Fortune by acting virtuously in both love and politics. Moreover, virtuous choices generate ‘reciprocal relationship[s]’ in others by ‘predispos[ing] others to the outcome the individual desires’ (91–92). Briefly surveying several tales of Book One, including ‘Florent,’ ‘Nebuchadnezzar,’ and the ‘Three Questions,’ Schieberle concedes that Gower, extending Machaut’s philosophy, suggests that one can ‘prepar[e] oneself for forces one cannot control completely’ (93). In ‘Arguing from Foreign Grounds: John Gower’s Leveraging of Spain in English Politics,’ Katie Peebles argues that Gower sets the ‘Tale of the Three Questions’ in Spain to comment simultaneously on contemporary Anglo-Iberian relations and domestic politics. The tale’s elevation of the daughter, Peronelle, to the aristocracy resonates with John of Gaunt’s political and military efforts in Castile and an English aristocratic identity that is in large...

A qualitative study of the lived experiences of young Chinese females in condom use negotiations

Based on a qualitative study of young Chinese females' lived experiences of condom use negotiations, this paper discusses how a gender and power perspective provides a new frame of reference in which to examine the shaping of young women's perception and decision-making regarding contraception. The recurrent themes of the narratives collected through individual interviews with 10 adolescent pregnant females living in Hong Kong indicate that their lack of bargaining power for sexual safety is maintained by the structures of social norms and their strong affective attachments to their partners. The findings facilitate practitioners' development of a multi-layered understanding of the power dynamics in sexual relationships and draw implications for further practice and research. Chinese cultural factors have also been explored in a contextual discussion on the influences of traditional gender roles on the constitution of adolescent sexual identities and sexual behaviours.

Can the Library Contribute Value to the Campus Culture for Learning?

What value can academic and research libraries contribute to the campus culture for learning? How can these value contributions be measured? This paper offers the campus culture for learning as a new frame of reference for measuring the library's contribution to learning. It examines various means of assessing the role a library plays in a campus learning culture. It identifies related outcome assessment goals, and the means of measuring performance are suggested.

A qualitative analysis of parents' perceived outcomes and experiences in a parent education program adopting a transformative approach

Based on a qualitative analysis of a group of parents' perceived outcomes and experiences in a parent education program in Hong Kong, this paper discusses how a transformative approach provides a new frame of reference from which to explore the new directions of parent education. The research findings suggest that parent transformation can be achieved in numerous ways comprising consciousness raising, growth facilitation, life integration, relationship enhancement, support generation and community building. The findings provide a knowledge base for an investigation of its applicability. They also offer reference materials to guide other parent education practitioners in applying the transformative approach in actual practice.

"The King Is Dead [and has been for three decades], Long Live the King": Contemporary Kabbalah and Scholem's Shadow

"The King Is Dead [and has been for three decades], Long Live the King":Contemporary Kabbalah and Scholem's Shadow Shaul Magid Jonathan Garb . The Chosen Will Become Herds: Studies in Twentieth Century Kabbalah. Translated by YaffaBerkovitz-Murciano. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2009. Pp. xi + 218. Pinchas Giller . Shalom Shar'abi and the Kabbalists of Beit El. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Pp. viii + 199. There is a myth that one can identify a demon, or dybuk, because it casts no shadow—meaning that its corporeality is a mere illusion. But what do we make of a human being who continues to cast a shadow almost three decades after his death? In short, what do we make of a disembodied shadow such as Gershom Scholem (1897-1982)? All of us who research the Jewish mystical tradition stand in that shadow and we often vie for our "four ells" inside its dark yet comforting embrace. In this shared space a scholarly carnival has continued unabated for the past three decades: Oedipal wars, romantic reconstructions, chivalrous defenses, sweeping misreadings, and self-serving caricatures are among the main attractions.1 No one has (yet) been able to fully step out of the giant's shadow. The no-man's land of the post-Scholem era has begun to [End Page 131] receive some attention but still remains unexplored territory.2 Perhaps the only way out of this "anxiety of influence" is through it, in this case by slowly deconstructing its contours, (re)reading the texts Scholem read and misread in a social, political, and ideational context Scholem could not have anticipated or one Scholem definitively devalued. Or, more relevant for our present concerns, reading—texts Scholem intentionally did not read against his "better" judgment—which gestures toward a kind of Kafkaesque reading of Scholem.3 In a forum in the previous issue of JQR I explored some of Scholem's attitudes toward contemporary Kabbalah in greater detail. Here I simply want to frame a discussion of two important new books on contemporary Kabbalah, one by the Israeli scholar Jonathan Garb and one by the American Pinchas Giller, as part of a growing body of literature that challenges some of Scholem's assumptions about the contemporary world by showing us new developments that he could not have predicted—developments that undermine Scholem's skeptical attitude toward the possibility of a kabbalistic renewal—and that should be taken seriously by scholars. Garb is associate professor of Jewish thought at the Hebrew University, [End Page 132] where he also earned his doctorate. Giller is professor of Jewish thought at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. He earned his doctorate at Berkeley's Graduate Theological Union. Both have written on Kabbalah from the medieval period to the present. Without explicitly saying so, both offer quite different renderings of Scholem's position on the contemporary scene. In doing so, both begin a process of stepping outside Scholem's shadow into the uncharted territory of the twenty-first century. Jonathan Garb's The Chosen Will Become Herds, which originally appeared in Hebrew as Yeḥide ha-segulot yihyu le-'adarim, is the first book-length study devoted to twentieth-century Kabbalah.4 Although the book limits its scope largely to contemporary Israel, in the final chapter Garb briefly incorporates a more global view of the subject. Without explicitly mentioning Scholem, Garb gestures toward his intimidating presence when he justifies his project at the outset of the book. "The aim of this book is to present the main currents of twentieth-century Kabbalah by focusing on various leitmotifs that characterizes it and differentiate it from the more classical forms of Kabbalah" (p. 7). Garb posits that what he calls "classical" Kabbalah came to be distinguished from "modern" Kabbalah in the twentieth century, when Kabbalah took on a "distinctly modern (and perhaps even postmodern) flavor . . . that accounts for the contemporary assimilation and influence of Kabbalah" (p. 2).5 What it not clear from this assessment but is implied throughout the book is that the twentieth century has presented us with two radically new frames of reference: first, the politicization of Judaism through applied Zionism, that is, the modern...

Mogen Advocaten Liegen? Collaborative Negotiation Als Inspiratie Voor Een Nieuwe Ethiek (May Lawyers Lie? Collaborative Negotiation as Inspiration for New Ethics. Inaugural Lecture Belgian Francqui Chair University of Brussels, Power Point Presentation and Link to Life Video of the Lecture)

This is the power point presentation including link to the live video of the lecture, of my inaugural lecture at the University of Brussels where I was awarded the Belgian Francqui Chair 2010-2011. In the first part of the lecture I identify three causes of the negative imago of lawyers, being their ambiguous relationship with truth, with clients and with codes of ethics. In the second part, I argue that a new frame of reference, positive and collaborative, inspired by principled or collaborative negotiation may offer inspiration for a new ethics for lawyers in particular and professionals in general. I argue that such inspiration may be caught in two slogans: educate your client and educate your self.If the livestream video link found in the PDF does not work, please view the lecture on YouTube (YouTube search: Professor Verbeke Francqui). The full lecture may be viewed in nine different YouTube clips.

On the governing equations for the compressing process and its coupling with other processes

As a continuation of a recent linear analysis by Mao et al. (Acta Mech Sin, 2010, 26: 355), in this paper we propose a general theoretical formulation for the compressing process in complex Newtonian fluid flows, which covers gas dynamics, aeroacoustics, nonlinear thermoviscous acoustics, viscous shock layer, etc., as its special branches. The principle on which our formulation is based is the maximally natural and dynamic Helmholtz decomposition of the Navier-Stokes equation, along with the kinematic Helmholtz decomposition of the velocity field. The central results are the new dilatation equation and velocity-potential equation, which are the counterparts of vorticity transport equation and vector stream-function equation for the shearing process, respectively. Various couplings of the compressing process with shearing and thermal processes, including its physical sources, are carefully identified. While the possible applications and influences of the new formulation are yet to be explored, our preliminary discussion on the pros and cons of previous formulations pertain to acoustic analogy and that on the process splitting and coupling in highly compressible turbulence indicates that at least the formulation can serve as a new frame of reference by which one may gain some additional insight and thereby develop new approaches to the multi-process complex flow problems.