Open-ended Approaches Research Articles

Stakeholder Impartiality: A New Classic Approach for the Objectives of the Corporation

The stockholder/stakeholder dilemma has occupied corporate leaders and corporate lawyers for over a century. In addition to the question whose interests should managers prioritize, the question how those interests could or should be balanced has proven equally difficult. To address the latter challenge, this paper advances a doctrinal innovation that is both new and time-honored - to implement a duty of impartiality with regard to directors’ discretion over stakeholder interests. A sub-component of trustees’ duty of loyalty, the duty of impartiality regulates settings in which several beneficiaries have conflicting interests without dictating substantive outcomes, especially not equal treatment. This paper proposes an analogous process-oriented impartiality duty to consider the interests of relevant stakeholders. Stakeholder impartiality is a lean duty whose main advantage lies in its being workable. It can be implemented in legal systems that have different positions on the objectives of the corporation, from Canada’s and India's open-ended stakeholderist approaches to Delaware’s staunch shareholderism.

Pengembangan Bahan Ajar Segitiga Dengan Pendekatan Open Ended Untuk Meningkatkan Kemampuan Pemecahan Masalah Matematika

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengembangkan perangkat pembelajaran dengan menggunakan pendekatan open ended yang baik untuk topik segitiga di kelas VII SMP Negeri 6 Pematangsiantar, mendeskripsikan efektifitas pembelajaran dengan menggunakan pendekatan open ended untuk topik segitiga di kelas VII SMP Negeri Pematangsiantar, dan meningkatkan kemampuan pemecahan masalah matematis siswa. Bahan ajar dikatakan baik jika setelah divalidasi dan dilakukan uji coba, memenuhi syarat-syarat yang ditetapkan, yaitu untuk tiap pertemuan harus memenuhi: aktivitas siswa dalam pembelajaran berada pada batas toleransi waktu ideal, kemampuan guru mengelola pembelajaran minimal cukup baik, respon siswa terhadap perangkat pembelajaran positif, dan tes hasil belajar valid, reliabel, dan sensitif. Selanjutnya, pendekatan open ended efektif jika hasil belajar siswa tuntas, kemampuan guru mengelola pembelajaran minimal cukup baik, aktivitas siswa dalam pembelajaran efektif, dan respon siswa terhadap kegiatan pembelajaran positif.Pengembangan perangkat pembelajaran dilakukan dengan menggunakan model 4-D Thiagarajan, dkk yang telah dimodifikasi. Proses pengembangan tersebut terdiri dari tiga tahap, yaitu: pendefinisisian, perancangan, dan pengembangan. Hasil analisis data yang telah diperoleh menunjukkan bahwa bahan ajar menggunakan pendekatan open ended berdasarkan validasi dari para validator dengan nilai rata-rata untuk buku guru 4,15 untuk RPP dengan rata-rata 4,26 pengelolahan pembelajaran dengan skor rata-rata 3,94 dikatakan praktis, aktivitas siswa telah memenuhi kriteria efektif dan dikatakan praktis, ketuntasan belajar siswa mencapai 80% dan dikatakan efektif, respon siswa mencapai 90% dan dikatakan efektif. Sehingga dapat disimpulkan bahwa bahan ajar dengan menggunakan pendekatan open ended pada materi segitiga kelas VII SMP Negeri 6 Pematangsiantar adalah valid, praktis dan efektif. Untuk kemampuan pemecahan masalah matematis telah terjadi peningkatan dengan persentase gain 61%.

KEMAMPUAN REPRESENTASI MATEMATIS DALAM MATERI FUNGSI DENGAN PENDEKATAN OPEN ENDED PADA SISWA KELAS VIII MTs SIRAJUL ULUM PONTIANAK

The purpose of this study was to determine the ability of mathematical representation through an open-ended approach to functional material in class VIII MTs. Sirajul Ulum Pontianak. The research method used was the experimental method with Quasi experimental research and the design used in this study was posttest-only control design. The results obtained were (1) the average ability of students' mathematical representation after being taught with an open-ended approach was 72 with the criteria classified as good; (2) The average mathematical representation ability of students is 57 with criteria classified as sufficient; and (3) The ability of mathematical representations given to the treatment of open-ended approaches is better than students given the treatment of conventional learning models, this can be seen from the average results and has been proven using inferential statistics. Every student in the control class or experiment experiences problems on each indicator, which is what distinguishes the average.

Incumbent actors, guided search paths, and landmark projects in infra-system transitions: Re-thinking Strategic Niche Management with a case study of French tramway diffusion (1971–2016)

This paper concerns the emergence and diffusion of radical innovations in the context of sustainability transitions. We confront the typical understanding in the Strategic Niche Management framework with an in-depth longitudinal case study of French modern tramways (1971–2016), which represents a particular technology class: local infrastructure systems. The case confirms the relevance of existing SNM-concepts, but also points to three pattern deviations: 1) incumbent actors from neighbouring regimes can play a leading role in the development of radical alternatives, 2) the early formulation of highly specific visions can effectively guide search paths (as opposed to a usual prescription about more open-ended approaches to foster innovative variety creation), and 3) particularly influential projects (which we call ‘landmark projects’) can decisively accelerate innovation developments. Exploring a greater variety of diffusion and transition patterns (based on temporal interactions of causal mechanisms and varying roles played by different actors) is a fruitful way forward for sustainability transitions research.

Islamic-Nuanced Calculus Module with Open-Ended Approach in Real Number System Material

Modules are teaching materials that can be used independently, so that module development is very useful in the learning process. Therefore, this study aims to develop Islamic nuances calculus modules with an open-ended approach to real number system material. The research method used is research and development (R & D) with a 4D model. The 4D model consists of four stages: define, design, development, and dissemination. At the development stage, an assessment is carried out to determine the feasibility of the module. This assessment was carried out by 2 material expert validators, 2 Islamic religious material validators, and 1 media expert validator. The withdrawal of the module was obtained based on limited trials on 10 respondents, namely students of Raden Intan Lampung State Islamic University. The conclusions obtained from this study are Islamic nuanced calculus modules with open-ended approaches to the real number system material is valid and appropriate to use as teaching materials and the attractiveness is in the attractive criteria.

Vasculitis research: Current trends and future perspectives.

We discuss recent and prospective research in small and large vessel vasculitis. Large cohorts of Takayasu arteritis (TA) have been recently published from across the world, clarifying our understanding of this uncommon disease. Novel open-ended approaches like large-scale genotyping, proteomics and metabolomics have helped gain novel insights into TA, giant cell arteritis (GCA) and anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis (AAV). Recent advances in the imaging of TA and GCA offer promise for earlier diagnosis and better monitoring of response to therapy. Although two randomized controlled trials of abatacept and tocilizumab failed to meet their primary end-points, successful large-scale studies of abatacept and tocilizumab in GCA hold promise for better disease control. While cyclophosphamide has revolutionized the management of AAV, increasing use of rituximab as an alternative induction regimen, as well as use of novel approaches involving reduced or no corticosteroid use for AAV and alternative agents such as avacopan (a complement 5a receptor antagonist) hold promise for lesser toxic induction regimens in the future. Increasingly, the risk of cardiovascular events and comorbidities such as osteoporosis are being recognized as factors affecting long-term prospects of patients with vasculitis. There is a shift in emphasis to utilize patient-reported outcomes to more accurately gauge the impact of vasculitides and their treatment.

Climate-Adaptive Volume: Solving the Motion Envelope of a Reconfigurable Cooling Aperture for Desert Climate

Through several prototypes of a roof aperture for passive cooling in a desert climate, the relationships between design, thermal performance, and measurement are explored. Optimization of both day and night cooling modes within the same device requires the kinetic transformation of the aperture from a narrow downdraft chimney into an open radiation apparatus. Different methods are examined, from premeasured geometric optimization with constrained motion to a generalized design that can acquire numerous configurations and deploy algorithmic controls with live sensing to measure optimized performance during operation. The results are evaluated based on the structural-mechanical operation of the prototypes as well as the cooling effect they produce. Future steps and the implications for open-ended feedback-based design approaches are discussed.

Evaluating the impacts of transport backcasting scenarios with multi-criteria analysis

Scenario analysis and backcasting methods have been used to determine sustainable transport futures, often with a clearly defined process and the use of experts. This paper diverges from this commonly used approach by presenting a more collaborative and unstructured framework to backcasting that allows the experts to have a much greater part in defining the process and the outcomes. The focus is on the evaluation stage that is operationalised by a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) where the experts themselves have the opportunity to discuss, rank and evaluate the policy packages. The spatial context (Andalusia in Spain) is taken as the laboratory, and regional and local policy-makers are engaged in a series of workshops facilitating an open deliberative process, where MCA is combined with face-to-face discussions, and both of them are integrated with transport scenario analysis. This ‘collaborative appraisal framework’ consists of presenting the methodological process, the identification of sustainability impacts, the ranking of those impacts according to three different policy pathways (lower carbon emissions, technological innovation, and urban compactness), as well as commenting on the feasibility, acceptability and potential barriers of such policy options. The paper ends with comments on the usefulness of open-ended and participatory approaches in transport backcasting studies, in particular the use of MCA in identifying and evaluating transport decisions.

Measuring Wisdom: Existing Approaches, Continuing Challenges, and New Developments.

The question how wisdom can best be measured is still open to debate. Currently, there are two groups of wisdom measures: open-ended performance measures and self-report measures. This overview article describes the most popular current measures of wisdom: the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm, the Bremen Wisdom Paradigm, Grossmann’s wise-reasoning approach, the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale, the Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale, and the Adult Self-Transcendence Inventory. It discusses the specific challenges of both open-ended and self-report approaches with respect to content validity, convergent and divergent validity, concurrent and discriminant validity, and ecological validity. Finally, promising new developments are outlined that may bridge the gap between wisdom as a competence and wisdom as an attitude and increase ecological validity by being more similar to real-life manifestations of wisdom. These new developments include autobiographical approaches and advice-giving paradigms.

Assessment of the Value of Air Quality Improvement in Tehran

Air pollution in Tehran, the capital city of Iran, has led to poor air quality, with consequences for the health of residents. This study uses a contingent valuation method to estimate the willingness to pay of Tehran’s residents for air quality improvement. Open-ended and stochastic payment card approaches were used to determine the willingness to pay of the sample. The mean individual willingness to pay for a specified air quality improvement was approximately US $6.40 per month, and the variance of the willingness to pay was approximately U.S. $4, as estimated using the SPC approach. Open-ended questions revealed that the mean individual willingness to pay was approximately U.S. $4 per month. Significant positive effects of income, use of public transportation, marriage, job and health status on the mean willingness to pay were observed. Although most respondents believed that air quality improvement is the government’s responsibility, they are willing to bear the cost as a supplement to achieve better air quality.

Lost in translation? The odyssey of ‘digital humanities’ in French

By examining the case of the French translation of the expression “digital humanities” (DH), this article argues that cultural diversity and multilingualism could be fostered in digital culture. If other languages have been invited and forced to welcome this English phrase, its translations have to be studied since they could potentially have strong epistemological backwash-effects on it. Through an historical etymological inquiry, it can be demonstrated that the use of the outmoded French word humanites is the most significant element in the two French expressions humanites numeriques or humanites digitales. This single word opens up a specific space for humanist approaches within the open-ended digital approaches. On this base, the encounter between Humanities and hard sciences can be reconsidered, as it happens already in two examples of new DH masters in French-speaking countries.

Patients’ willingness to pay for blood-based EGFR T790M testing: Results from a Canadian validation study of circulating DNA T790M testing.

e18329 Background: Detection of EGFRmutations in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in peripheral blood has been shown to have high concordance with definitive tumor biopsy samples. Patients’ perceived value and willingness to pay for novel technology can help inform policy and funding decisions in the public healthcare system. Methods: Canadian patients undergoing screening for the ASTRIS clinical trial (NCT02474355) were invited to participate in a national Canadian validation study of blood-based ctDNA T790M testing. All participants had metastatic EGFRmutant lung cancer with acquired resistance to EGFR kinase inhibitors. In addition to collection of blood samples and demographic data, patients completed a structured interview measuring their perceived value of blood-based ctDNA testing as an alternative to tumor biopsy and willingness to pay for testing using both open-ended and iterative bidding approaches. The study was supported by a grant from AstraZeneca. Results: 55 patients have been accrued of a planned 60. As of 01/31/2017, demographic data for 55 and willingness to pay data for 52 patients were available, the rest are pending. The median age of the cohort is 64 years (range 31-87), 68% are Asian (36/53), 56% female (31/55). Patients received a median of 1 prior line of treatment (range 1-7); all received prior EGFR kinase inhibitor therapy (66% gefitinib), and 34% also received prior cytotoxic chemotherapy (18/53). All but one patient preferred to have the blood test over repeat tumor biopsy. Patients were personally willing to pay a median of $400 CAD for the test (IQR $600, range 0-$10000). Patients estimated that a reasonable price for the test was a median of $150 (IQR $300, range 0-$2500). Conclusions: Lung cancer patients value ctDNA testing highly and prefer it to tumor biopsy. Despite the expectation that services like molecular testing should be covered through the Canadian public healthcare system, patients expressed willingness to pay out of pocket for ctDNA blood testing, reflecting perceived major value of this technology.

Measuring environmentally sustainable tourist behaviour

This study reveals substantial variation in estimates of the proportion of tourists behaving in an environmentally sustainable manner. Results indicate that the variation is explained by (1) definitions of environmentally sustainable tourist behaviour including—or not including—intent to protect the environment and (2) the use of either unprompted open-ended or prompted closed questions. The latter are associated with respondent’s tendencies to respond in a socially desirable way, thus artificially inflating the occurrence of environmentally sustainable tourist behaviour by as much as 74 per cent. Unprompted open-ended questions are not susceptible to social desirability bias. Future studies into environmentally sustainable tourist behaviour should measure actual observed behaviour. If this is not possible, unprompted open-ended approaches are recommended.

Experimenting Within an Education Community

Elwyn Richardson’s experimental approach to teaching and learning and Oruaiti was officially sanctioned, but the history of education in Aotearoa/New Zealand shows that teachers have been typically conformist. In this article, I suggest that positivist paradigms from the industrial age continue to shape classroom teaching, partly because of norms of individualism, and partly because neoliberal understandings have become central in the functioning of our schools and society. Teaching is an activity that promotes the ethics of a community or society by promulgating some ideas and marginalising others. In Aotearoa/New Zealand, many of our students struggle with the collective orientation of their community traditions and the societal emphasis on individualism. Modernist beliefs in social progress through technology still permeate education policy. Promoting communitarian understandings requires more open-ended approaches to teaching such as Richardson demonstrated. With digital technologies gaining progressively greater influence in schools, the opportunities for social connectedness have been enhanced alongside an increasing emphasis on individual devices. This article briefly explores interconnections between experimentation, context and community.

Feminist Reclamations of Normative Masculinity: On Democratic Manhood, Feminist Masculinity, and Allyship Practices

‘Feminist masculinity’ might seem like a contradiction in terms. One might have assumed that we can embrace feminism or embrace masculinity, but not both. If traditional masculinity is contrary to feminist values, a pressing query for feminist men is whether repudiation of traditional masculinity should move one to reject normative masculinity entirely, or to reframe and reclaim it instead. bell hooks and Michael Kimmel each counsel against discarding manhood and masculinity. hooks envisions feminist masculinity as an alternative to patriarchal dominance, with masculinity to be reconstituted in terms of love, integrity, and mutuality; Kimmel advocates moving from immature and traditional masculinities toward justice and democratic manhood, with a new model of masculinity that identifies real men with adulthood and doing the right thing. Neither proposal provides a viable stance for feminist men without collapsing into androgyny or risking erasure of some men’s and women’s identities and experiences. Building on Alcoff’s work on anti-racist whiteness, I suggest that feminist allyship practices ground a normative model of masculinity compatible with, and informed by, feminist values. We may understand allyship masculinities as open-ended feminist approaches to manhood: masculinities predicated on recognizing and responding to, rather than ignoring or accepting, the privileges and expectations distinctive of men under patriarchy.

Interpretación del Arte Rupestre Centro-Sahariano: una aproximación al estilo de Cabezas Redondas = Interpretation of Central Sahara Rock Art: an approach to The Round Head style

In the last decades the study of Sahara rock art begun to have its own agenda within prehistoric research and to take off as an archaeological sub-discipline. Africa has gone from being seen as an empty continent to an autonomous source of culture, and the Sahara as a container of an immense cultural and artistic legacy whose scope researchers are only now starting to comprehend. This cultural and artistic legacy is the object of many studies aimed at understanding the specific contexts of art production. The characteristic style of Tetes Rondes is the one whose interpretation poses the most difficulties to researchers. For this reason it occupies an important part of this article. The lack of contextual information (material remains) that would help validate or refute hypotheses made by researchers and the importance of not settling for a ‘superficial’ reading of the images for the study of the art, are some of the aspects that will be examined. This article holds that to overcome some of these problems it is essential to use open-ended approaches that will allow initial premises not to be constrained from the offset by broader theoretical currents. Adapting the interpretative theories to the archaeological remains, and not the other way around, is fundamental to the improvement of our knowledge of the past.

You can go your own way: effectiveness of participant-driven versus experimenter-driven processing strategies in memory training and transfer

ABSTRACTCognitive training programs that instruct specific strategies frequently show limited transfer. Open-ended approaches can achieve greater transfer, but may fail to benefit many older adults due to age deficits in self-initiated processing. We examined whether a compromise that encourages effort at encoding without an experimenter-prescribed strategy might yield better results. Older adults completed memory training under conditions that either (1) mandated a specific strategy to increase deep, associative encoding, (2) attempted to suppress such encoding by mandating rote rehearsal, or (3) encouraged time and effort toward encoding but allowed for strategy choice. The experimenter-enforced associative encoding strategy succeeded in creating integrated representations of studied items, but training-task progress was related to pre-existing ability. Independent of condition assignment, self-reported deep encoding was associated with positive training and transfer effects, suggesting that the most beneficial outcomes occur when environmental support guiding effort is provided but participants generate their own strategies.

The role of race, socioeconomic status, and System of Care services in placement decision-making

A 2×2×2 experimental design was used to examine the potential influence of race (African American vs. Caucasian), socioeconomic status of the foster care environment (Low vs. High), and System of Care (SOC) services (System of Care/Wraparound Services vs. Treatment as Usual) on social workers' placement decisions within the child welfare system. Two hundred thirty-one social workers from Illinois (86.8% female, 85.4% European-American; mean age of 50.6years) read a vignette of a child in foster care and were asked to recommend whether the child should remain in his current community-based foster care placement or be stepped up to a residential placement. Workers then completed a demographic form and rated the child's clinical and treatment needs. No main effects of race, SES of the foster care environment, or treatment history on placement decisions were found. Subsequent exploratory analyses indicated that clinical factors, environmental factors, participants' experience in child welfare, and vignette condition interacted in nuanced ways to predict placement recommendations. While clinical variables were the primary factors that social workers considered when making placement decisions, the decisions were also be influenced by perceptions of the availability of community and family resources. Future research should consider using more open-ended approaches in order to further assess the processes by which social workers make placement decisions in the child welfare system.

Microbiological diversity of peri-implantitis biofilms.

The open-ended microbial diagnostic approaches such as the complete or partial sequencing of the 16S ribosomal gene by Sanger sequencing or by pyrosequencing have provided new insights into the diversity of the oral microbiota. These techniques have recently been used to evaluate the microbiota associated with osseointegrated implants and these results have expanded the knowledge on the diversity of the microbial communities associated with peri-implantitis. Taken together, the results of these studies suggest that the diversity of the microbial community of peri-implantitis and periodontitis might not be as similar as previously thought. Although certain known periodontal pathogens may also be associated with the etiology of peri-implantitis, apparently there were many differences between these two clinical conditions, involving distinct microorganisms. Further investigations on the diversity of peri-implant microbiota would be essential in order to define effective preventive and therapeutic strategies for peri-implantitis. It is also important to standardize laboratory protocols to make the results of the open-ended diagnostic techniques based on PCR amplification more comparable throughout the different research groups.

Teaching global perspectives: engineering ethics across international and academic borders

Recent policy reports on responsible innovation emphasize the need to make ethics integral to advanced engineering programs. Students, however, usually perceive ethics as a set of rules and principles embedded in codes rather than as a set of open-ended approaches and a potential source of innovative research questions. We report on the pilot offering of an intensive summer program for graduate students, Global Perspectives: Engineering Ethics Across International and Academic Borders, which aimed to shift this perspective by creating opportunities for students to explore the challenging situation of ethics within graduate engineering education and specifically to engage in collaborative, interdisciplinary ethics research. By synthesizing scholarship from the philosophy of emotion, student voice, and early engagement, we aimed to create a space for student exploration, collaborative learning, and active knowledge production. The student commentaries that follow the article serve as the program's preliminary assessment and draw attention to the important role that students may play in shaping new pedagogical initiatives.