Problematic Understanding Research Articles

Reading meatphors in DNA (and RNA): a bio-rhetorical view of genetic text metaphors

ABSTRACT The ongoing digitization of biological life rests in part on the idea of genetic information being contained in genetic texts written in the four-letter language of DNA. Genetic text metaphors have been criticized for being inaccurate, misleading, and outdated. They are also inescapable, malleable, and remarkably generative for engineering biology. Yet problematic understandings of genetic texts as containing information do not inhere in the metaphor but rather depend on particular ways of understanding how texts work – in particular, thinking about texts as containing information as shaped by cybernetic redefinitions of information. The concept of meatphor, analogizing biomolecular relations to discursive relations described through metaphor, enables rethinking those metaphors through a bio-rhetorical approach. Doing so foregrounds how nucleic acids make meaningful relationships in context over how they contain deterministic or controlling information. That approach distinguishes between how human readers have tended to make meanings with genetic texts and how molecules that interact with or ‘read’ texts do so, opening up underexplored ways to think about those metaphors. Through this lens, meatphor becomes one strategy to attend to how diverse meanings may be made with genetic text metaphors themselves, with consequences for bioengineering and societal practices.

Bonds not Claims. Political Representation as a form of Political Relationship

In the article, I argue that Michel Saward’s popular approach to political representation leads to its particularly problematic understanding as a potentially coercive form of political relationship. Drawing primarily on the experiences of feminist theorists, I argue that beyond analyzing the mechanism of ‘claim-making’, it is also ethically necessary to consider the possibilities and consequences of ‘claim-breaking’. Situations where political representation is broken illustrate how even institutionalized forms of representation often stem from the emotional needs of specific individuals, which politicians cynically exploit. To illustrate this, I utilize and critically assess Saward’s general explanatory model, analyzing the example of Donald Tusk’s resignation from the position of Prime Minister of Poland to assume the role of President of the European Council.

Jung’s Conceptualization of Synchronicity Theory and the Role of Astrology Inside

Abstract Jung’s conceptualization of synchronicity has a relation to his engagement in astrology began in roughly 1906. Jung’s conceptualization of varieties of synchronistic experiences can be divided into non-divinatory and divinatory experiences. Among the divinatory sources, he overlooked the differences between I-Ching divination and astrology. His neglect caused a logical discrepancy in his early synchronicity theory. Forty-six years after his first engagement in astrology, his essay on synchronicity (1952) possesses a long section for his astrological experiment. In his astrological experiment, his problematic understanding of metaphysical and methodological issues behind the experiment led to the failure of his statistical part of the experiment. The case study part of it turns to support his meaningful chance version of synchronicity theory and leads to the acknowledgement of the standard version of synchronicity theory: meaningful chances.

Communication, understanding and engagement of patients with pancreatic cancer at time of diagnosis

BackgroundObjectives: To investigate communication clarity and understanding at the time of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) diagnosis and whether they can influence patient engagement and compliance. MethodsConsecutive PDAC patients were enrolled at the time of diagnosis after obtaining informed consent in a single-center study. The patients completed a validated scale (PHE-s®), and the understanding rate was assessed using standardized tools. Patient compliance was evaluated, and the correlation between the PHE-s®, understanding, and compliance was calculated. ResultsThirty patients were enrolled (15 female) with a mean age 64.4, 13 were metastatic. The mean visit time was 31 min, being longer if visiting doctor was an oncologist (p = 0.002). The engagement level was high in 70% of the patients, and all but one were compliant. The analysis of doctor-patient interactions showed a median of 121 conversational turns for doctors, 75 for patients, and 20 for caregivers (p < 0.0001), and the median percentage of speaking time was 77% for doctors, 13% for patients, and 2% for caregivers (p < 0.0001). Female caregivers spent more time speaking than did male caregivers (median 11.6% vs. 1.3%; p = 0.06). There were 290 instances of problematic understanding, most of which occurred during the taking of patients' personal medical history for doctors, while for patients and caregivers, these occurred mainly during the discussion of diagnosis/treatment (p < 0.0001). In a multivariable analysis, only origin from central or southern Italy was associated with high engagement (p = 0.0087). ConclusionIn this first attempt to measure clarity of communication and engagement in patients with PDAC, typical features of conversation and problematic understanding emerged, which deserves further investigation.

Bowling for Better: Reforming World Geography Bowl to Create a More Inclusive Geography

Since 1993, the World Geography Bowl (WGB) has been a part of the fabric of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), with competitions happening at nearly all AAG regional and national meetings. Initially intended as a way of encouraging attendance and participation by undergraduates and geographers at non-research-intensive universities, today the competition exhibits problematic understandings of how best to create community and foster future generations of geographers. In this article, we briefly recount our experiences with the WGB and explore how aspects of the WGB’s operations reinforce many of the same problematic aspects of the discipline that many geographers seek to dismantle as geographers. We outline some of the issues with the WGB as it is currently constructed and propose several ways it could be reformed toward a more inclusive community-building activity. Given the appropriate reform, we conclude that the WGB can serve as an important part of the discipline’s framework and social reproduction.

Escape Narratives and Regional Identity: A Case Study of the Story of Joe Burrow

This case study analyzes the news media’s framing of National Football League (NFL) quarterback Joe Burrow and his background during the 2019 football season, from the announcement of Burrow as a Heisman trophy finalist to the aftermath of his selection as the first overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft. With his heightened visibility on the field, Burrow’s background was increasingly of interest to football fans and sports journalists. It was not Burrow’s fairly “typical” family background as the child of a football coach in a nuclear family that received the most attention, but the Appalachian town of Athens, OH, where Burrow was a high school student, that became an important narrative. Emerging theme analysis suggests that sports journalists often extended idealized narratives to frame Burrow as an overcomer of a systemic cultural background with which he did not immediately identify. That narrative often utilized stereotypical representations of rural Appalachia as a place dominated by cultural poverty, highlighted representations of engrained hopelessness and lack of agency in the region, and reinforced problematic understandings of the nature of structural poverty and the ways it may be effectively challenged. The research addresses gaps in the literature about the college student-athlete in nuanced conversations about race and class in athlete-to-career narratives and notes the ways an athlete may call on such mediated tropes to extend a narrative for possible community or self-benefit.

Deliberative Interdependence: A Durkheimian Approach to Promoting Collaborative Learning in Diverse Classrooms

ABSTRACT As institutions of higher education have become more diverse over the past several decades, building a strong sense of community in the classroom has emerged as a core moral and pedagogical imperative to make students from all backgrounds feel welcome and promote their academic success. In this paper, I argue that the pedagogy underlying the impetus for community building in the classroom is premised on a problematic understanding of the type of bonds that connect students in a genuinely diverse classroom. In Durkheimian terms, these bonds are more akin to organic solidarity (bonds by virtue of mutual reliance) than mechanical solidarity (bonds by virtue of shared cultural and moral beliefs). Instead of community building, I propose deliberative interdependence as a more effective model for generating collaborative learning in diverse classrooms. I illustrate how to apply this model through innovative learning and assessment methods and draw on student course evaluations to document their effectiveness.

Problematic Issues with Hermeneutics in Law

This paper deals with problematic understanding of legal texts. Hermeneuticapproaches are reflected in various opinions regarding the understandingand interpretation of the text. The interpretation is presentedin light of the research from both legal and philosophical sciences. Theviews of lawyers and philosophers of continental Europe as well as commonlaw systems in relation to hermeneutics are analyzed.The actuality of the issue is due to the fact that the problem discussed inthe jurisprudence is not yet solved. There is no uniform approach to theissue; the principles set out in action are not explicitly defined. There isno unified strategy. All this creates difficulties in the implementation ofpractical activities.In the presented work the establishing of principles is given special importance.Understanding the text as the main goal of Hermeneutics is setas the unity of the two processes. First of all, it is the correct understandingof the will expressed, and then the correctly perceived will be passedto whom this norm is directed to. These two processes should be harmoniouslyinterconnected so that an interpretation can be achieved with thedesired goal and the text will not add new vagueness.The article discusses subjective and objective theories of comprehensionand their positive sides as well as their shortcomings. The focus is on thegoals of Hermeneutics and the tasks that should be carried out by the textinterpreter. Hermeneutic activity is presented as a synthetic connectionof the three elements that are considered: the author of the text, the textitself, and the subjective subject.In conclusion, it is suggested that since the importance of the text in thejurisprudence is given special attention, the goal of interpretation mustmatch the goals of the law. The objectives of the law are based on socialaspirations and their will, and therefore the principles of interpretationshould be determined based on the will of the public.

A Theoretical War: Accounting for American Imperialism in the Middle East

Abstract This review surveys two decades of academic research on the question of contemporary imperialism and holds it up against the historical record of America’s increasingly violent entanglements in the Middle East over the course of the previous half century, though particularly since 2001. While early contributions to this literature emerged from a different context than the one they often sought or were expected to explain, others attributed a simplistic and problematic understanding of the relationship between US foreign policy and the political-economy of petroleum. Later contributions then eschewed a close analysis of imperialism in the Middle East in favor of a broader accounting of the dynamics of global capitalism. This review ultimately critiques the widespread assumption that the vitality of hegemony and capital must be assessed in relation to their ability to secure control and homogenous conditions of reproduction. A more robust understanding must be based in an approach that views the economic and the political not as fundamental units of analysis but as sites of struggle in the historical and contemporary constitution of imperialism.

REALISTIC CAPACITY OF M. GABRIEL’S «NEUTRAL REALISM»

The article concerns Markus Gabriel’s philosophical conception —ontology and main thesesof so-called «neutral realism», while questioning the most significant arguments of the German philosopher and considering a few other positions that it has parallels with. For instance, with Frege’s conception of meaning, in which the notion of sense plays an important role, being one of the elements of the so-called «semantic triangle». Or with the notion of sense in post-structuralism, particularly in works by Derrida, who as-sumed sense as the horizon of the world, yet rejected any reality beyond it. Among others, G.Harman’s object-oriented philosophy and L.Bryant’s flat ontology appear to be to some extent relevant for compar-ing them with «neutral realism»: realism as a crucial point and anti-hierarchy of ontology seem to be a common place for each ofthem; however, the definition of reality and existence in each conception dif-fers essentially. Giving a brief overview of conceptual solutions supposed to label Gabriel’s philosophy as «new realism», the paper provides analysis of the notion of the «fieldof sense», as well as several on-tological principles of the aforementioned conception: neutrality, univocality of being, and anti-essentialism. A polemic interest is drawn by the problematic understanding of existence in Gabriel’s on-tology. There can alsobe seen a problem with reaching positive results of Gabriel’s realistic program, which is eventually supposed to give some sort of knowledge and explanation of what is real. The paper ends with some critical arguments (for instance, concerning an ambiguity of Gabriel’s ontology, in which the pluralistic and unifying strategies of defining any beings tend to intertwine with one another), thus calling into question the initial realistic tasks of Gabriel’s philosophical project.

(Re) imagining the Problem of Racism: An Evangelical Response to Racism

This article aims to re-imagine and offer an evan­ge­lical response to the problem of racism that is not di­choto­mous, but holistic, where racism is understood both as an individual and structural sin, leading to a balance between racial reconciliation and racial justice that needs to be con­sistent­ly practiced. This research indicates that evangelicals generally do not yet have a holistic imagination to understand racism. Hence efforts to fight this persisting problem are still one-sidedly inclined toward racial reconciliation. For this purpose, this article begins by analyzing the common yet problematic understanding and response by some evangelicals who emphasize racism as only an individual sin and racial reconciliation as a solution. The next step is to describe the importance of imagination, namely the capacity to con­cept­u­al­ize the problem of racism in its entirety by involving sensitivity to racist situations, interpretation of Scripture with virtues, and introspection of our position toward racism—all of which are used to understand the dual nature of racism and response against it. In the end, as I demonstrate that racism is both an individual and structural sin, evangelical churches thus need to strike a balance between racial reconciliation and racial justice if they want to handle the problem of racism well.

Recognizing the Diverse Faces of Later Life: Old Age as a Category of Intersectional Analysis in Medical Ethics.

Public and academic medical ethics debates surrounding justice and age discrimination often proceed from a problematic understanding of old age that ignores the diversity of older people. This article introduces the feminist perspective of intersectionality to medical ethical debates on aging and old age in order to analyze the structural discrimination of older people in medicine and health care. While current intersectional approaches in this field focus on race, gender, and sexuality, we thus set out to introduce aging and old age as an additional category that is becoming more relevant in the context of longer life expectancies and increasing population aging. We analyze three exemplary cases on the individual, institutional, and public health level, and argue that considering the intersections of old age with other social categories helps to accommodate the diverse identities of older people and detect inequality and structural discrimination.

&lt;p&gt;Effects of Reading Motivation and Meta-comprehension on the Reading Comprehension of Students with Intellectual Disabilities&lt;/p&gt;

Introduction. Reading comprehension is an essential skill to achieve autonomy and independence within our literate society. Unfortunately, several studies show that students with intellectual disabilities tend to achieve low reading levels. In normotypical students, the influence of reading motivation and metacomprehension habilities on reading comprehension has been extensively studied. In this sense, it is interesting and innovative to explore the influence of these variables on the population of students with IDs. Method. The present research had two main objectives: 1) to describe the level of reading motivation and meta-comprehension skills present in students with intellectual disabilities (N=27); and 2) to predict the impact of these variables on their performance in reading. A standardized reading comprehension test (LECTUM), the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ), and different instruments to assess aspects of Metacomprehension (metacomprehension inventory, inconsistency detection test and confidence in performance judgments) were applied. Results. The analysis of the data through descriptive statistics allowed characterizing the performance of the students in each of the variables considered. In turn, the stepwise linear regression analysis showed that, together, the total number of inconsistencies detected as a measure of metacomprehension monitoring and two dimensions of metacognitive knowledge (knowledge about cognition and regulation after problematic understanding), predict 67% of the variability in participants’ reading comprehension performance. Discussion and Conclusion. Implications for special educational practice and reading comprehension theory are discussed.

Theoretical and legal aspects of criminal responsibility for exceeding power or official authority by a law enforcement officer

This article is devoted to theoretical and legal foundations. In the legal aspects of criminal liability for overstepping the authority or service duties by a law enforcement officer in accordance with the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The author points out that under the conditions of military invasion of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine the role and importance of the functioning of law enforcement agencies has essentially increased. On the basis of the provisions of the current legislation, the problematic understanding of “criminal liability” for overstepping the authority or service duties by a law enforcement officer”, as well as the definition of the structure of this crime and its qualificatory features were disclosed. It is noted that today in the legal science and practice there are no clear criteria for the eligibility of this or that body to the category of a special subject “law enforcement”. Thus, it is emphasized that this matter requires its legislative consolidation. Problems that arise during the interpretation of the essence and meaning of the concept of “excessive power or service duties” were analyzed. It is emphasized that the overstepping of authority or official powers by a law enforcement officer belongs to the group of service offenses and is often associated with the commission of other offenses of this group. The court practice is analyzed, within the limits of which it is specified, what is to be understood under excessive powers or service duties. It is established that criminal liability for abuse of authority and for exceeding authority or service duties is indirectly linked to the establishment of a direct link between the service position, the competence of the service person, the amount and scope of the granted powers and their use for committing a crime. It is noted that the specificity of this criminal offence lies in its special subject – a law enforcement officer.

The ethical indefensibility of heartbeat bills.

Recently, several states in the United States have sought to adopt more restrictive abortion policies. Most have tried to enact "heartbeat bills" that prohibit most abortions once a fetal heartbeat becomes detectable. This article explores this question: Are heartbeat bills ethically defensible? I argue that they are not. There are at least four problems with them. First, heartbeat bills rely on a problematic understanding of human death. Second, they contradict and even undermine the leading arguments in ethics against abortion. Third, they are ambiguous not just in terms of when they judge fetal heartbeats to be detectable but also in what they deem to be heartbeats. Finally, there is a case to be made that heartbeat bills are disingenuous, both in their intentions and in their underlying motives.

Life stabilization and resiliency for disabled people? A critical discourse analysis of the Ontario poverty reduction strategy

In 2020, the government of Ontario, Canada, introduced Building a Strong Foundation for Success: Reducing Poverty in Ontario ( 2020 -2025), the province’s third poverty reduction strategy. This study employs Critical Discourse Analysis to explore the discourses that emerge in this strategy and examine instances of intertextuality between it and previous strategy iterations. Several discourses (re)emerge suggesting that people living in poverty, and disabled people specifically, must ‘realize their potential’ by becoming more ‘resilient’ and work towards ‘life stabilization’. The ‘self-sufficiency’ discourse in prior poverty reduction strategies, recast as ‘independence’ in this newest rendition, anchors the strategy to problematic understandings of ‘dependency’. The systemic causes of poverty are negated, as is a rights-based framework for poverty alleviation. The Ontario government does not define the poverty reduction strategy’s success in terms of poverty reduction, but as mere social assistance caseload reductions, and as such, has built ‘a strong foundation for its lackluster success’. Points of Interest In 2020, the government of Ontario, Canada released its third poverty strategy, entitled Building a Strong Foundation for Success: Reducing Poverty in Ontario ( 2020 -2025). A way of doing research called Critical Discourse Analysis was adopted by the authors to explore how language was used in the poverty strategy to identify how people living in poverty, and disabled people specifically, should behave in order for them to be considered successful. We discuss several discourses (themes in the language of the poverty strategy) in our analysis related to the need for people on social assistance, including disabled people, to ‘realize their potential’ by becoming more ‘resilient’, ‘independent’, and work towards ‘life stabilization’ Recent actions by the government to outsource its employment supports to private companies, and the hiring of fraud investigators to question the authenticity of people’s claims to disability income supports, are worrying trends.

Populism as the Politics of (Mis)Recognition

Society consists of several different groups possessing unique demands, interests, and lifestyles. The power relations among these groups tend to result in inequalities and injustices, causing certain ways of life to degrade despite democracy’s ultimate aim of providing equal opportunities for all. The politics of recognition and populism arrive in this context as two forms of politics aiming to fix the problems found in the disadvantaged sections of society. By revolting against society’s asymmetrical relations in the constructive social power that brings with it the ability to define the boundaries, relevance, and status of identities, populism presents itself as a significant solution to the claims of recognition. Nevertheless, populism excludes the essential requirements of the politics of recognition such as dialogue, negotiation, and discussion through its antagonistic distinction between the people and the elite. Populism also reflects on its problematic understanding of representation with regard to struggles for recognition and its instrumentalization of feelings of misrecognition. This paper offers a view of populism as a false response to the politics of recognition that uses demands for recognition to shift but not balance the power asymmetry in society.

When is a Qin Tomb not a Qin Tomb? Cultural (De)construction in the Middle Han River Valley

When scholars of early China use terms like "Qin" to interpret archaeological remains, they often conflate three registers of meaning: temporal, political, and cultural. This leads to problematic understandings of history and renders the agency of non-elite people invisible to historical narratives. By conducting exploratory statistical analyses including correspondence and principal component analyses on a cluster of burials from the Wangpo cemetery site in Xiangyang, Hubei, this article demonstrates that the mortuary practices of local communities in the middle Han River valley consisted of much more cultural mixture than current designations suggest. The study proposes an alternative approach to interpreting cemeteries like Wangpo that highlights cultural mixture, leading to a version of history that better incorporates the experiences of non-elites in the formation of early Chinese empire in the middle Han River region.

What the controversy over ‘the reasonable’ reveals: On Habermas’s Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie

This article discusses Jürgen Habermas’s latest book Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie from the specific angle of what the section on Rawls indicates about the overall philosophical project pursued by Habermas. This tiny element within the imposing architecture reveals a structural problem that affects Habermas’s program for a detranscendentalization of reason. After a general premise, Habermas’s appraisal of Rawls’s work is reconstructed and critically examined (Section 1). Then, in the guise of a Rawlsian rejoinder, a problematic understanding of pluralism is shown to undergird Habermas’s overlooking of the ground-breaking potential of the normativity of ‘the reasonable’ and ‘the most reasonable’ (Section 2). Finally, this neglect is argued to be indicative of a deeper lacuna: namely, a missing confrontation with Wittgenstein’s rival path to a postmetaphysical, intersubjective, detranscentendalized reason (Section 3). That lacuna, finally, invites a closer scrutiny of the overall genealogical picture and its central opposition between two pathways (related to Kant and Hume) to the postmetaphysicization of reason.

A critical analysis of the representations of older adults in the field of human\u2013robot interaction

This paper argues that there is a need to critically assess bias in the representations of older adults in the field of Human–Robot Interaction. This need stems from the recognition that technology development is a socially constructed process that has the potential to reinforce problematic understandings of older adults. Based on a qualitative content analysis of 96 academic publications, this paper indicates that older adults are represented as; frail by default, independent by effort; silent and technologically illiterate; burdensome; and problematic for society. Within these documents, few counternarratives are present that do not take such essentialist representations. In these texts, the goal of social robots in elder care is to “enable” older adults to “better” themselves. The older body is seen as “fixable” with social robots, reinforcing an ageist and neoliberal narrative: older adults are reduced to potential care receivers in ways that shift care responsibilities away from the welfare state onto the individual.