Problematic Criteria Research Articles

A Credibility Crisis in Psychology?

The interest in the global result obtained by B. Nosek’s team increased significantly, not only among psychologists, after an article presenting the results of a large-scale international replication of psychological empirical research had been published in Science (cf. Open Science Collaboration, 2015). While 97% of the original research yielded statistically significant results (p <. 05), only 36% of the results were significant in the replication. The author of the present article postulates that this result laid the ground for unjustified generalizations about the methodological weaknesses of psychology as an empirical science. Psychology is an empirical science, but it also has its peculiarities due to the specificity of the subject matter and the method (e.g. Orne, 1962, 1973; Rosenthal, 1966/2009; Rosenzweig, 1933). Equally importantly, psychology is not practiced in social or cultural isolation. Finally, psychological research is bound by rigorous ethical standards/constraints, and psychologists (as well as researchers in other fields) who publish the results of empirical research to be analyzed statistically are constrained by the editorial practices of scientific journals. Journals have an interest only in papers that present statistically significant results (where “p < .05”!), which leads to the so-called file-drawer effect (Rosenthal, 1979). As strongly emphasized by the author, the debate cannot be limited to the statistical significance of psychological research (in particular the power of statistical test which has emerged as a popular trend in recent years). In this article, the author discusses (and presents his point of view) the following problems: 1) the methodological specificity of psychology as an empirical science, 2) the triad of statistical significance (the problematic criterion of “p < .05”), effect size, and the power of a statistical test, 3) the socio-cultural context of psychological research, 4) researchers' failure to follow methodological and ethical guidelines, and 5) possible precautions and remedies.

Assessing Health Literacy of Elderly with Chronic Diseases during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Makassar City, Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia

The elderly are vulnerable to experience health problems and physical deterioration characterized by high rates of chronic diseases among the elderly. Health literacy ability becomes crucial for the elderly with chronic diseases to treat and maintain their health. This study was aimed to describe the literacy levels of the elderly with chronic diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic in Makassar. The method of study was a descriptive survey with a cross-sectional study. The research population is elderly with chronic diseases in Makassar city, and the samples are 124 elderly with age ≥60 years old and suffering chronic diseases more than six months in two selected sub-district. The research was conducted a cross-sectional survey, and descriptive univariate data analysis was used. The instrument was used Indonesia's health literacy short-form survey questionnaire (HLS-EU-SQ10-IDN). The result of this study reveals that the health literacy levels vary: insufficient criteria by 33.99%, problematic criteria by 49.2%, sufficient criteria by 16.1%, and perfect criteria by 0.8%. The results prove that the health literacy level of the elderly with chronic diseases is insufficient. This study concluded that the dominant level of the health literacy of the elderly with chronic diseases is inadequate and problematic. Health education program to improve their literacy is necessarily improved during the COVID-19 outbreak

Implementation of an improvement cycle in the care of a primary health care.

to evaluate the effectiveness of a quality improvement cycle applied to the care of spontaneous demand in a primary care center. quasi-experimental before and after study, with a quantitative approach and no control group. An improvement cycle was carried out in a primary care center in the city of Guarabira/PB using five quality criteria. An evaluation, an intervention focused on the most problematic criterion and a reassessment were carried out. The samples were random (n = 60). The percentages and confidence intervals of compliance with each criterion were verified. Statistical significance was calculated using the Z test. after the intervention, there was a significant improvement in two quality criteria of the care of spontaneous demand users (the user must be heard by a professional and go through the risk classification). the improvement cycle was an effective quality management method.

Understanding, and Misunderstanding, State Sponsorship of Terrorism

The U.S. government list of state sponsors of terrorism is dated, politicized, analytically muddy, and in general not useful for distinguishing which states truly sponsor terrorism and how aggressively they do so. A better list and process would identify different criteria that go into sponsoring terrorism and, in so doing, create multiple de facto lists. Lists would distinguish important factors such as the use of terrorism in war and the problematic criterion of states using their own clandestine agents for terrorism-like violence. Different forms of passive support would also be assessed, particularly because state passivity is often vital for jihadists and white supremacists, two of the greatest terrorism dangers today. The political and analytically flawed nature of the state sponsor list and process, however, is as much by design as it is by accident, and change is especially difficult as a result.

Moving beyond unwise replication practices: The case of romantic motivation.

Replication research holds an increasingly important place in modern psychological science. If such work is to improve the state of knowledge rather than add confusion, however, replication attempts must be held to high standards of rigor. As an example of how replication attempts can add confusion rather than clarity, we consider an article by Shanks and colleagues (2015). They conducted a meta-analysis of studies examining romantic motivation, using problematic criteria for the inclusion of effects and reached conclusions of a null effect that were unwarranted. A more rigorous and defensible approach, relying on a representative analysis of effects and p-curves, suggests a different, more positive conclusion with no evidence of p-hacking. Shanks et al. also conducted several experiments that suffered from numerous issues, such as relying on inappropriate subject samples (e.g., older adults likely to be less sensitive to mating manipulations than college students used in previous research), altered research methods, and demonstrably weak manipulations, among other problems. We discuss the broader implications of this case, to illustrate both the opportunities and the pitfalls inherent in attempts to replicate contextually sensitive research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Druhyi etap rozderzhavlennia presy: rezultaty ta problemy

The article traces back the second stage of the print media denationalization in Ukraine spanning 2017―2018s. This reform aimed to cancel out the influence of central and local public authorities on the editorial staffs. This paper analyzes the official data available on the website of the State Committee for Television and Broadcasting of Ukraine. The latter body is the main coordinator responsible for the reform implementation of print media denationalization in Ukraine. Additionally, we trace back by stages how the Oblasts and mass media there entered and completed the process, who were the leaders in terms of + and – signs at each stage. Considering the data as well as the reaction of the media community, the author states that in the course of this process, mass media faced a wide range of problems. Those may be classified according to their problematic criteria into legal and organizational. Legal problems were: non-acceptance of amendments to the fundamental law about clear definition of the possibility to form an editorial staff by means of withdrawal; redefining the matters of property lease, suspension of transfer of property that was in editorial offices’ ownership; extra procedures for the protection of rights of editors and journalists that were not able to launch the process because of inactivity of central and local public authorities. Organizational obstacles included the following ones: a lack of the mechanism of effective influence of co-founders on the necessity to make a decision about the start of reforming; lack of cooperation between the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the State Committee for Television and Broadcasting of Ukraine as well as absence of the mechanism of control over the data of Mass Media Register for the latter; unauthorized dismissal of editors; transfer of the founders’ rights to state-owned and municipal enterprises; output of the property meant to pass into the ownership from the enterprise’s ownership and so on. Besides, the author claims that Poltava Oblast has become an indisputable leader both in percentage and quantitative terms with its 29 reformed mass media amounting to 93% of all print media. Kyiv has shown the worst results in implementing the reforming process — 0 %. Keywords: denationalization, print media, problems of reform, the second stage.

STANDARDIZED NURSING PLANS AND THEIR CLINICAL USE

This paper states the results of the study on the verification of the applicability of standardized nursing plans in clinical practice. The aim was to develop an effective model of managed nursing care for patients deficient in breathing. The research methods used were: a thought experiment, an experiment, a content analysis, and a survey. From the results, the author suggested four nursing plans which solve actual respiratory deficit. A basis for diagnosis was the classification system of nursing diagnoses NANDA. The plans were verified in two faculty hospitals at clinics of anaesthesiology and intensive medicine. Based on the standardized nursing plans, nursing care quality increased by 19 %. After analysis of the unmet criteria, the author found the most problematic criteria that were inconsistent with the standard. In the last part of the study, a survey of the nurses defined the advantages of standardized plans for nurses and patients.

Welfare of cattle kept in intensive silvopastoral systems: A case report

ABSTRACT The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of three different intensive silvopastoral systems (ISPS) on cattle animal welfare (AW) in Colombia. The three ISPS differed in area, plant composition, and grazing periods as follows: ISPS1 - low plant diversity in paddocks of 1200 m2, with grazing period of 24 h; ISPS2 - middle plant diversity in paddocks of 600 m2, with grazing period of 12 h; and ISPS3 - high plant diversity in paddocks of 600 m2, with grazing period of 24 h. Animal welfare was assessed using a wide range of criteria, which were integrated using L-spline functions and Choquet integrals to generate overall values. It was found that AW was good in all ISPS; the highest scoring criteria was for food and water, with 99, 97, and 100 points from a maximum of 100 for ISPSs 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Comfort showed values of 100 for all three systems, but good health was the most problematic criteria of the AW features with scores of 25, 40, and 36 for ISPSs 1, 2, and 3, respectively. All three ISPS showed excellent scores for appropriate behavior (82, 88, and 89). The welfare problems shown here were not specific to the individual ISPS, but were common to all livestock systems in the region. Despite the differences in diversity of plants, size of paddocks, and grazing period among the three ISPSs tested, all of them provide cattle with sufficient resources and a diverse environment, ensuring a good state of welfare to them.

Medium Increased Risk for Central Sleep Apnea but Not Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Long-Term Opioid Users: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Opioids are associated with higher risk for ataxic breathing and sleep apnea. We conducted a systematic literature review and meta-analysis to assess the influence of long-term opioid use on the apnea-hypopnea and central apnea indices (AHI and CAI, respectively). A systematic review protocol (Cochrane Handbook guidelines) was developed for the search and analysis. We searched Embase, Medline, ACP Journal Club, and Cochrane Database up to November 2014 for three topics: (1) narcotics, (2) sleep apnea, and (3) apnea-hypopnea index. The outcome of interest was the variation in AHI and CAI in opioid users versus non-users. Two reviewers performed the data search and extraction, and disagreements were resolved by discussion. Results were combined by standardized mean difference using a random effect model, and heterogeneity was tested by χ(2) and presented as I(2) statistics. Seven studies met the inclusion criteria, for a total of 803 patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). We compared 2 outcomes: AHI (320 opioid users and 483 non-users) and 790 patients with CAI (315 opioid users and 475 non-users). The absolute effect size for opioid use was a small increased in apnea measured by AHI = 0.25 (95% CI: 0.02-0.49) and a medium for CAI = 0.45 (95% CI: 0.27-0.63). Effect consistency across studies was calculated, showing moderate heterogeneity at I(2) = 59% and 29% for AHI and CAI, respectively. The meta-analysis results suggest that long-term opioid use in OSA patients has a medium effect on central sleep apnea.

The Descent of English

Emonds & Faarlund judge subgrouping by problematic criteria and do not actually employ their stated criteria, while those criteria in fact show English to be West Germanic.

The urban design guideline and conceptual model development for improving the quality of visual appeal of pedestrian; Mashhad Monfared Street Pedestrian

According to the formation of initial steps in urban pedestrian design of Iran, this study tries to prepare visual-spatial quality measurement framework for urban pedestrians to evaluate the quality of visual appeal of pedestrians and on the other hand it provides the promotion of their visual quality and effective use in the next experiences. in this regard and on the basis of comparative comparison and according to the principle of interment understanding of experts and scholars opinions, this study analyzes the related theoretical foundations and develops a special conceptual model to evaluate visual appeal of pedestrians. Designing for pedestrians requires more attention than designing for vehicles on the other hand, perhaps the most problematic criterion of walkability that is less discussed is visual-spatial quality. this study that has practical aspects, develops model and components of pedestrians visual appeal by analyzing theoretical documents and studies and then assess the situation of the study area -Mashhad Monfared street- based on theoretical framework and finally, it offers a designing guideline to improve visual appeal of Monfared pedestrian.

Tool for environmental performance assessment of city bus transit operations: case studies

The purpose of this article was to present a tool for the assessment of the environmental performance of bus transit operators. The research method was the qualitative modeling. Environmental performance is the result of the environmental management practices adopted by an organization. Environmental performance was hierarchically structured in criteria and indicators. The assessment process produces an overall dimensionless index, a pure number without an associated physical dimension, originated from expert judgments and according to a composition rule. Experts attribute a degree of compliance to expected performance, ranging between 0 and 100 % (respectively the worst and the best), to the situation of environmental categorical indicators. Five criteria, apprehended by 32 indicators and prioritized by analytic hierarchy process, were used in the tool: Atmosphere (39 %), regarding impacts of the bus operation in air quality; effluents (6 %), regarding impacts caused by liquid waste; solid waste (8 %), regarding the generation of solids; land use (18 %), regarding how the operation uses the land; and natural resources (29 %), regarding how efficient the operation is in using natural resources. The tool was tested in six bus transit operations of a Latin America city of about 1,500,000 inhabitants. Indicators were assessed by scales fulfilled by managers of the operations. The overall dimensionless results for the six operators were: 58.96; 53.24; 50.97; 54.07; 47.01; and 37.69 % of the maximum possible performance. This numbers represent the degree of global satisfaction of the experts with the environmental results obtained by the operators. For all six operators, the more problematic criterion was Atmosphere. An improvement strategy should focus on it, implementing corrective actions monitored by the indicators of the criteria.

The pre-theoreticality of moral intuitions

Moral intuitionism, once an apparently moribund metaethical position, has seen a resurgence of interest of late. Robert Audi, a leading moral intuitionist, has argued that in order for a moral belief to qualify as intuitional, it must fulfill four criteria: it must be non-inferential, firmly held, comprehended, and pre-theoretical. This paper centers on the fourth and seemingly most problematic criterion: pre-theoreticality. The paper begins by stipulating the defensibility of the moral cognitivism upon which moral intuitionism turns. Next, the paper develops the distinction between semantic and epistemic pre-theoreticality, and goes on to explore and reject the putative ubiquity of the theoreticality of first-order moral discourse: it argues that on a defensible understanding of theoryhood, both semantic and epistemic pre-theoretical moral belief is not only possible, but in fact frequently realized. The paper then briefly explores and rebuts objections to (epistemic) pre-theoreticality issuing from (i) the “Cornell Realists” and (ii) considerations of the epistemic relevance of the epistemic/valuational background of moral belief. The paper concludes that, so far as the pre-theoreticality criterion is concerned, moral intuitionism remains in the running as a viable thesis regarding foundationally justified first-order moral belief and knowledge.

The 'placement' of people with profound impairments across the lifespan: re-thinking age criteria.

BackgroundAdvances in lifesaving technologies and treatments make it possible for children with profound physical and cognitive impairments to survive into adulthood. Questions regarding how and where they should live are discussed rarely and, when they are, primarily focus on safety and/or containing costs. Since models of long-term care provision are age-based, children who reside in institutions are ‘discharged’ to adult facilities when they reach an arbitrary age. Such transfers may not be in the best interests of these young people or their families. Our aim in this debate is to highlight why age is a problematic criterion for placement decisions, with the goal of stimulating further research and inquiry.DiscussionTransfers from pediatric to adult institutions are driven primarily by funding arrangements and underpinned by stage-based theories of human development. Arguments supporting such transfers point to the value of communal living with same age peers, and engagement in age-appropriate activities. These goals are questionable for individuals who are minimally interactive and/or where equally worthy interactions are feasible in intergenerational settings. Instead their accommodation needs might more closely align with palliative care principles of supporting individuals and families to enjoy what they bring to each other’s lives and minimize suffering. Innovative models of ‘vertical care’ and ‘lifetime homes’, which enable continuous flexible services across the lifespan, are discussed as examples of alternative approaches requiring further debate and research.SummaryEntrenched funding and service models that require the transfer of profoundly impaired young people from pediatric to adult facilities need to be re-examined with considerations of best interests, needs, and preferences of individuals and their families. Questions of what constitutes a ‘good life’ for these individuals are tenacious and require further thought and research. Nevertheless, they need to be regarded as citizens of our human community deserving of a good life in whatever form that may take, in settings that enable them to flourish.

Everybody’s Happy Nowadays? A Critical Engagement with Key Events and Contemporary Quests for the Historical Jesus

Key Events is clearly a major contribution to historical Jesus studies from a broadly evangelical perspective. While there is much to commend and a number of strong essays, there are, inevitably criticisms to be made. A number of arguments appear to be repeating debates from the 1980s and 1990s with a familiar cast of good (e.g. N.T. Wright), bad (e.g. Burton Mack, Jesus Seminar) and ambivalent (e.g. E.P. Sanders) characters. This nostalgic feel means that alternative understandings of the historical Jesus and wider issues of history and historical change are not properly discussed, although clearly the opportunities were present among the contributors of Key Events. There is a sustained discussion of historical change in the chapter on resurrection but this repeats problematic arguments in favour of the historicity of the resurrection in what is effectively an attempt to prove what is historically unprovable. Finally, to lesser or greater extent, a number of essays in Key Events continue to perpetuate the idea of a ‘Jewish … but not that Jewish’ Jesus through monolithic constructions of Jews and Judaism and through the discredited criterion of dissimilarity in disguise: double dissimilarity. It is not always clear that the problematic criterion of double dissimilarity is applied consistently, with some evidence of contributors forgetting aspects of dissimilarity from Christianity while never forgetting dissimilarity from Judaism (even when similar Jewish evidence is, in fact, available). These criticisms should not take away from a number of positive contributions made to historical Jesus studies and it may be that Key Events represents a vision of what most historical Jesus scholars see as the future of the sub-field.

Dynamic Migration Intentions and the Impact of Socio-Institutional Environments: A Transit Migration Hub in Turkey

Transit migration is generally defined by migrants having the intention to move onwards to a third country. Based on an empirical investigation in Izmir, a transit migration hub in Turkey, this paper critically discusses intentionality as a valid dimension in conceptualisations of transit migration. The study found that migrants' intentions in this transit migration hub are highly fluctuating because of their embeddedness in socio-institutional environments, which continuously affect migrants' social capital, risk perceptions and coping strategies, causing new migration intentions to arise. The study argues that intention is a problematic criterion in conceptualising transit migration, due to a conceptual fallacy where transit migration flows are taken as the unit of analysis whereas intentions are individual attributes.

The Worst-Kept Secret: Israel's Bargain with the Bomb (review)

Reviewed by: The Worst-Kept Secret: Israel's Bargain with the Bomb Emily B. Landau The Worst-Kept Secret: Israel's Bargain with the Bomb, by Avner Cohen. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 370 pp. $27.99 The added value of Avner Cohen's new book on Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity—or as he prefers to call it, "amimut"—is at the descriptive level: interesting historical and anecdotal evidence and documentation on the birth, development, and supporting features of Israel's bargain with the bomb. But analytically speaking, Cohen's book is largely a disappointment. He is critical of amimut and informs his reader from the outset that the time has come for change. But when he attempts to support his thesis—on both domestic and strategic grounds—the result is weak and unsubstantiated. It is quite clear that the impetus for writing this book was the domestic Israeli front, and the unacceptable costs that Cohen believes that Israel as a society and a state has paid for maintaining secrecy in the nuclear realm and upholding the national nuclear taboo. Intellectually, however, Cohen knows that the case for ending amimut must be anchored in strategic realities. The problem is that his two "strategic" chapters—which appear almost as an afterthought —offer a logic that doesn't stand up to scrutiny, especially for the more informed reader. On the issue of taboo, it seems that Cohen cannot escape the chains of his own past experience—namely, the personal price that he paid with the taboo-keepers [End Page 148] in Israel for writing his previous book on Israel and the Bomb. But this personal aversion to secrecy should not be confused with the strategic dimensions and implications of Israel's policy of ambiguity and/or the discussion of whether the time has come for a change. Cohen's depiction of the taboo's effect on society is troubling. His static portrayal fails to appreciate the reality that has evolved in Israel, especially over the past 10 to 15 years: the quite extensive debate that is carried out on this topic in Israel on a regular basis—in the media, at conferences, and in academic writing. Academics address the nuclear issue frequently and without concern. One of Cohen's mistakes is to reduce "having a debate on the nuclear issue" to the presence of an active protest movement against the bomb—a problematic criterion for assessing whether Israelis discuss their nation's nuclear policy. Cohen has harsh words for the Israeli public—he regards Israelis as willing accomplices in a culture of non-debate of nuclear issues. He derides them and complains that they support the nuclear policy even though they don't understand it. Even the educated, in his view, have little understanding of the "legal and political intricacies of the nonproliferation regime," and blindly support amimut. From their position of ignorance, "Israelis regard compromising amimut as a direct threat to their national security." But Israelis might be smarter than Cohen gives them credit for. Indeed, they most likely well understand the rather straightforward strategic logic of nuclear ambiguity, which gives them an insurance policy at very low cost. They also seem to realize that "coming clean" will be viewed negatively world-wide, and will increase demands for Israel to disarm. Indeed, although Cohen assumes that people are holding on to their positions for the wrong reasons, they are more likely doing so for the right ones. At the end of the day, the strongest advocate for the continuation of a nuclear taboo—in the sense that he will not admit to any erosion of the omnipresent norm—seems to be Avner Cohen himself. The taboo is actually the linchpin of his analysis—without it, his thesis crumbles. On the strategic front—where the logic of amimut is solid and strong—Cohen's attempt to undermine the policy is even more problematic. He provides a superficial and often tautological reasoning for ending amimut that rests on repeated assertions that the policy is anachronistic. But to say that "everybody knows" Israel is nuclear is not a compelling argument—this has been the situation for at least 25 years. And...

Psychometric Performance of DSM-IV Alcohol Use Disorders in Young Adulthood: Evidence From an Australian General Population Sample

The current study investigates the performance of alcohol use disorders in young adults using item response theory and differential item functioning (DIF). The 1997 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing (Australia) sample was based on a stratified, multistage area probability sample of people ages 18 years and older in the Australian population. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), alcohol use disorders were assessed in all current alcohol users (N = 7,746; 44.2% female). The psychometric properties of the DSM-IV alcohol use disorder criteria in young adults were assessed using item response theory. Age-based DIF was also assessed in each of the DSM-IV criteria for alcohol use disorders. The presence of age-based DIF in subgroups defined by sex and consumption was also examined. Overall, problems were identified in the use in hazardous situations, persistent desire/inability to quit/cut down, and tolerance criteria in young adults. However, the DIF identified at the criterion level had little impact on total information provided by the criteria across the two age groups. Subgroup analyses indicated that for the female-only and non-heavy using subgroups, DIF was no longer detected in the use in hazardous situations criterion. The alcohol use disorder criteria were found to provide maximum information about moderate to severe pathology among young adults. There was little evidence for the DSM-IV abuse/dependence distinction in young adulthood. Some of the DSM-IV alcohol use disorder criteria appear problematic when applied to young adults, and future research needs to focus on clarifying young adults' understanding of these problematic criteria. Although DIF was identified in three of the alcohol use disorder criteria, the total information provided by these criteria was largely the same among younger and older age groups.

Constructively Responding to Requests for Paraprofessionals

Paraprofessional utilization has steadily risen in an effort to meet the needs of students with disabilities in inclusion-oriented classrooms. To date, no widely accepted processes exist to assist schools in determining when the use of paraprofessional staff is warranted. Many schools have attempted to fill this void by developing local processes designed to justify paraprofessional assignment. This article describes how justification approaches to paraprofessional decision making operate from a reactive posture, include inherently problematic criteria, and perpetuate socially constructed myths that certain students need one-to-one paraprofessionals. An alternative framework for making decisions is offered through a series of school/district- and classroom/team-level concepts and corresponding actions that can be pursued in developing proactive processes and practices tailored to local contexts.

What is parallelism?

Although parallel and convergent evolution are discussed extensively in technical articles and textbooks, their meaning can be overlapping, imprecise, and contradictory. The meaning of parallel evolution in much of the evolutionary literature grapples with two separate hypotheses in relation to phenotype and genotype, but often these two hypotheses have been inferred from only one hypothesis, and a number of subsidiary but problematic criteria, in relation to the phenotype. However, examples of parallel evolution of genetic traits that underpin or are at least associated with convergent phenotypes are now emerging. Four criteria for distinguishing parallelism from convergence are reviewed. All are found to be incompatible with any single proposition of homoplasy. Therefore, all homoplasy is equivalent to a broad view of convergence. Based on this concept, all phenotypic homoplasy can be described as convergence and all genotypic homoplasy as parallelism, which can be viewed as the equivalent concept of convergence for molecular data. Parallel changes of molecular traits may or may not be associated with convergent phenotypes but if so describe homoplasy at two biological levels-genotype and phenotype. Parallelism is not an alternative to convergence, but rather it entails homoplastic genetics that can be associated with and potentially explain, at the molecular level, how convergent phenotypes evolve.