Question Asks Research Articles

Evolving Views of Islamic Law in Turkey

The tradition of Kemalist secularism (laiklik) in Turkey is often cited to distinguish Turkey as an exceptional case among predominantly Muslim countries. While it is true that the Turkish Constitution, laws, and legal opinions approach the relationship between the state and religion very differently than those of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or even Indonesia, it would be wrong to underestimate the role that religion plays in the formation of Turkish legal norms, including citizen understanding of those norms. There is a wealth of literature describing the nature of Turkish secularism and its evolution. A number of both quantitative and qualitative studies inquire about the preference forShari'aamong Turkish voters. The typical question asks whether respondents favor the establishment of aShari'astate. Over the past fifteen years, these surveys have received response rates ranging between five and twenty-five percent in favor of such a state. However, these results are extremely problematic, because they do not provide any context or meaning for “the establishment of aShari'astate,” either for those who favor it or for those who oppose it. This study begins to unpack the range of possible meanings attributed toShari'awithin Turkey, both among voters and among intellectuals, as a framework for future empirical studies and as a basis for deeper understandings of the role of Islam within Turkish law and politics.

Cultural Border Crossings in the UAE

"Over the course of one academic year, I documented the experiences of new first-year male Emirati students at a college of higher education in a rural location of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Using the metaphor of a cultural border crossing, I found that the congruency between the pre-dominantly Arabic life-world associated with Emirati families and government schooling and the largely dominant Western/English language culture in institutes of higher education was broadly related to the students’ self-perceived level of preparedness for academic study and the competence of Emirati students in their second language, English. Four types of border crossing experiences were described – smooth, managed, difficult, and impossible – with easier and smoother crossing experiences associated with close congruency between the two different cultures. Suffering from the effects of neo-indigeneity, absent parents, poor secondary school experiences, and a disempowering ‘rentier effect’, I found that the failure of male Emirati students to make satisfactory border crossings to college life initiated a process of departure manifested by high absenteeism leading to eventual withdrawal. This occurred more frequently with students placed in the lower levels of an academic bridge program where cultural and linguistic ‘discomfort’ were felt the most - 66% of the new students left college during the year with a staggering 97% drop-out rate in the lowest level alone. Mainly Western teachers who developed a classroom culture based on ‘warm demandingness’ and caring rapport-building appeared to have the most positive impact upon the students. The development of students’ soft-skills in a new experiential learning program was assessed using a Mental Toughness Questionnaire which surprisingly produced lower post-test scores, indicating greater self-awareness and honesty. A key emerging question asks - whose interests are being served (or not) by compelling first-language students to cross cultural borders into higher education colleges and asking them to study using the dominant second-language of English?"

Ordinary Objects and Series‐Style Answers to the Special Composition Question

AbstractThe special composition question asks, roughly, under what conditions composition occurs. The common sense view is that composition only occurs among some things and that all and only ‘ordinary objects’ exist. Peter van Inwagen has marshaled a devastating argument against this view. The common sense view appears to commit one to giving what van Inwagen calls a ‘series‐style answer’ to the special composition question, but van Inwagen argues that series‐style answers are impossible because they are inconsistent with the transitivity of parthood. In what follows I answer this objection in addition to other, less troubling objections raised by van Inwagen.

PRESUPUESTOS ONTOLÓGICOS PARA LA DECLARACIÓN UNIVERSAL DE LOS DERECHOS DE LA MADRE TIERRA

The Buen Vivir is a utopia that arises in Latin America inspired by the rationalities of indigenous peoples, peasants and afro-descendant people of the subcontinent which, against the current hegemonic discourses, is having a huge influence in global discussions about the civilization crisis. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the universal declaration of Mother Earth's rights draft , considering the ontological foundations that support it. The aim is to understand the question asks about the sense of being through answers around the relationality to the whole, as well as to discuss the relevance of considering these ontological assumptions in a moment of history in which we are challenged by the continuity of human life on the planet.

Enhanced gene transfection using calcium phosphate co-precipitates and low-intensity pulsed ultrasound

The capability to controllably disrupt the cell membrane by ultrasound (US), thus facilitating entry of exogenous species, has now reached a state of some maturity. However, a compelling question asks whether there is a residual role for US in enhancing transfection: that is, once the genetic material has been delivered to the cytosol, can US assist in its transport into the nucleus? The present experiment was designed with a view to addressing this question. As such, our experimental setup discriminates between: (i) the precursor cell membrane permealization step, and (ii) any subsequent intracellular trafficking into the nucleus. In this study, calcium phosphate co-precipitates (CaP) were used to internalize plasmid DNA encoding for luciferase (pDNA-Luc) (>90%) in HeLa cells. After 2h incubation with the CaP-pDNA-Luc, cells were washed and insonated for varying durations. The results showed that US can indeed enhance the intracellular trafficking of previously internalized genes when longer insonation periods are implemented, culminating with an increased probability for successful nuclear localization, as inferred from an enhanced luciferase expression. Moreover, the results suggest that the intracellular role of US might be mediated through a pathway that appears not to be limited to destabilizing the endosomal vesicles. The study thus provides new information regarding the intracellular effects of US, and in effect represents a new modality combining US and CaP carriers for improved efficiency in gene delivery.

On some questions concerning strong compactness

A question of Woodin asks if ? is strongly compact and GCH holds below ?, then must GCH hold everywhere? One variant of this question asks if ? is strongly compact and GCH fails at every regular cardinal ? < ?, then must GCH fail at some regular cardinal ? ? ?? Another variant asks if it is possible for GCH to fail at every limit cardinal less than or equal to a strongly compact cardinal ?. We get a negative answer to the first of these questions and positive answers to the second of these questions for a supercompact cardinal ? in the context of the absence of the full Axiom of Choice.

What Characterizes Effective Operations?

This month's question asks about characteristics of effective treatment plant operations. The article discusses two basic characteristics necessary for an operator to accurately perform the necessary tasks: maximum operational flexibility, and adequate instrumentation to identify and evaluate why process changes occur.

Examining patient choices for metastatic breast cancer drugs.

6053 Background: Patients with metastatic breast cancer face difficult drug decisions. Our previous research (ASCO Proc 2011, abstr 6044) focused on general benefit and toxicity showed that conjoint analysis (CA) allows patients to express preferences; our current research quantifies patient preference for specific drug profiles (capecitabine and paclitaxel). Methods: Research Advocacy Network and CBWhite conducted research using CA for DOD Center of Excellence for Individualization of Therapy in Breast Cancer. An online survey was sent by four breast cancer organizations (N=641). Questions elicited views on trade-offs between benefit and type/severity/duration of toxicity. CA questions present pairs of hypothetical treatments and ask respondents their preferred alternative; a follow-up question asks whether the person would take the treatment if it were the only option available. Analysis of response patterns allows study of treatment preferences for combinations of benefit and described toxicity. Results: See table. Preferences show much greater attention to benefit than to toxicity. When CA is used to examine impact of biomarkers, focus on benefit continues. Paclitaxel profile (IV) set with moderate PN lasting 1 year post treatment: with 33% benefit LH, 6% of respondents change treatment decision if biomarker predicts 27% vs 60% toxicity likelihood; with 27% toxicity LH, 22% of respondents change treatment decision if biomarker predicts 20% vs 50% benefit likelihood. Conclusions: For patients with metastatic disease, CA shows much greater attention to benefit than toxicity, and high likelihood to take treatment with at least 30% chance of benefit for any toxicity tested here. These results suggest biomarkers (for the profiled drugs) predicting benefit are more likely to be used to affect patient treatment decisions than biomarkers for toxicity. [Table: see text]

The Relationship between Capital Flows and Current Account: Volatility and Causality

This paper examines the relationship between net private capital inflows and the current account in a set of industrial and developing countries. The first question asks whether the cyclical volatility in current accounts can be explained by the volatility of capital flows. The second question addresses the causal link between net capital inflows and current account imbalances. There is evidence in our data that inflows do cause current account imbalances in the developing countries. In contrast, the evidence implies that inflows do not cause current account imbalances in the industrial countries, nor does the inflow volatility affect current account volatility.

Enhancing and Displacing Literacy Practices: Examining Student Publishing in a Fifth Grade Writer’s Workshop

Publication of student work has been considered a mainstay of the writer’s workshop since the early days of the ‘children as authors’ movement (Graves, 1983). However, this philosophy, which stipulates students should share their work with peers, may not be one that always benefits students. This case study utilizes the concept of literacy-in-action (Brandt &amp; Clinton, 2002), to look at the manner in which one local rendition of writer’s workshop both enhanced and displaced student literacy practices. The guiding question asks: How are focal students, Sara, Ally and Nigel, engaging in the practice of publication of their writing and how are those publications, as literacy objects, mediating their practice of literacy in the writer’s workshop? The examination of writer’s workshop first presents the way publication of student writing found its way into Sara and Nigel’s classroom and the kinds of investments accumulated in it as it made its way into their practice of classroom writing. It then presents the agentful activity engaged in by these students in their classroom literacy practice of writing for publication. Through the analysis, the ways an assessment-focused writer’s workshop worked to enhance and displace individual student’s literacy practices are brought out.

The Origin and Aim of Posterior Analytics II.19

Abstract In Posterior Analytics II.19 Aristotle raises and answers the question, how do first principles become known? The usual view is that the question asks about the process or method by which we learn principles and that his answer is induction. I argue that the question asks about the original prior knowledge from which principles become known and that his answer is perception. Hence the aim of II.19 is not to explain how we get all the way to principles but to defend the claim that our knowledge of them originates in perception. Aristotle explains how we learn principles earlier in book II, in his account of definitional inquiry. In II.19 he explains how we reach by induction the preliminary accounts necessary for such inquiries.

Sustentabilidade: mantra ou escolha moral? uma abordagem ecológico-econômica

Qual é o tamanho ótimo da escala econômica que a natureza pode admitir? A questão requer que se esteja falando de uma situação em que a economia seja vista como subsistema do ecossistema. É assim que a economia ecológica percebe a realidade e é nessa óptica que se configura o conceito de sustentabilidade ecológica. O impacto ambiental do crescimento sobre os recursos e sumidouros da natureza tem que ser contido dentro de limites. A noção usual de sustentabilidade, porém, dá a impressão de se ter convertido numa espécie de mantra da atualidade, sem maior compromisso. Mudanças no sistema econômico são inevitáveis como forma de adaptação às restrições que o processo econômico confronta. Cabe indagar o que é que se deseja sustentar e em que escala de tempo. À sociedade cumpre escolher a mudança a se fazer: uma escolha moral.

Personal, family and school influences on secondary pupils’ feelings of safety at school, in the school surroundings and at home

Different types of variables seem to influence school safety and a pupil’s feelings of safety at school. The research question asks which risk and promotive variables should be integrated in a theoretical model to predict a pupil’s feelings of safety at school, in the school surroundings and at home; what the outcomes are of an empirical check of this model and how feelings of safety at school could be improved. A theoretical model is developed, which contains seven types of variables: personal, family related, school-related problematic behaviours, perceived school measures to improve safety, curriculum and social aspects of teaching–learning processes and of the school, and demographic variables. A large-scale empirical check of the model is carried out using data from national Internet-based surveys in Dutch secondary education. The monitoring took place in 2006 and 2008. A total of 159,630 pupils, 13,127 teachers and educational support staff, 1235 school leadership and 433 schools participated. Data reliability was checked by Alpha scale construction. The model was tested in three multiple regression analyses, to explain the pupils’ feelings of safety at school, in the school surroundings and at home, respectively. Most relevant were characteristics and variables assessed with the pupils, followed by contextual variables of teachers and other staff. School leadership variables are important mainly with respect to pupils’ feelings of safety in the school surroundings. Promotive variables that seem most promising in improving both safety and feelings of safety in and around school concern a number of elements. They include: enhancement of pupils’ level of attainment, taking school measures against playing truant and to eliminate weapons, stimulating pro-social formulation and shared control of rules of conduct between teachers and pupils, paying attention to pupils’ involvement in school, increasing the involvement of external institutions and the police in school safety procedures and increasing support in Dutch language for pupils in need of this.

“Worlds Otherwise”

The debate concerning ontology is heating up in the social sciences. How is this impacting anthropology and archaeology? What contributions can these disciplines make? Following a session at the 2010 Theoretical Archaeology Group conference at Brown University (“‘Worlds Otherwise’: Archaeology, Theory, and Ontological Difference,” convened by Ben Alberti and Yvonne Marshall), a group of archaeologists and anthropologists have continued to discuss the merits, possibilities, and problems of an ontologically oriented approach. The current paper is a portion of this larger conversation—a format we maintain here because, among other things, it permits a welcome level of candor and simplicity. In this forum we present two questions (written by Alberti and Witmore, along with the concluding comments) and the responses of five of the Theoretical Archaeology Group session participants. The first question asks why we think an ontological approach is important to our respective fields; the second, building upon the first set of responses, asks authors to consider the difference that pluralizing ontology might make and whether such a move is desirable given the aims of archaeology and anthropology. While several angles on ontology come through in the conversation, all share an interest in more immanent understandings that arise within specific situations and that are perhaps best described as thoroughly entangled rather than transcendent and/or oppositional in any straightforward sense.

What's the Correct Backwash Rate for Dual‐Media Filters?

This month's question asks about the correct backwash rate for dual media filters. The article recommends that the rate should be whatever adequately cleans the filter. The article discusses filter‐coring and solids‐retention profiling as filter inspection methods that can ensure the optimum rate is being achieved. These methods should be an important feature of any annual filter surveillance program.

What's Our First Step in Creating a Succession Plan?

This month's question asks about creating a succession plan for a water utility. Preserving institutional knowledge is an important part of succession planning that can be done by using data collection templates to create system records. All standard operations and practices, especially those that aren't performed routinely, should be thoroughly documented. In addition to asset records and operating procedures, accurate system maps with notes and documentation are valuable sources of institutional information. An overall plan for collecting records, maps, and procedures would greatly enhance the usability of the system.

Where Can I Find Good Training to Further My Career?

This month's question asks about training for career enhancement. The answer discusses the wealth of information offered by AWWA in the form of training courses and reference materials on all aspects of water system management and operation. Specifically, the article describes how to navigate AWWA's website to find information on training/education opportunities offered by AWWA.

Examining the Moderating Role of National Culture on an Extended Technology Acceptance Model

Previous research studies have primarily examined the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in one country or in developed and western countries. This paper attempts to answer two questions of particular significance that remain only partially answered in the information systems literature. The first question asks: do TAM relationships hold good for a group of countries of diverse national cultures? The second question investigates: can national culture explain differences in TAM relationships across countries? To answer the above two questions, a structural equation modeling approach was applied using computer-related data collected from college students in the USA and two countries of non-Western cultures: Chile, and the United Arab Emirates. The research findings imply that for the group of three countries, all relationships among the components of an extended TAM that incorporates individual computer knowledge as an external variable were supported. In addition, national culture moderates four of the TAM relationships.

The placebo response in clinical trials: more questions than answers.

Meta-analyses and re-analyses of trial data have not been able to answer some of the essential questions that would allow prediction of placebo responses in clinical trials. We will confront these questions with current empirical evidence. The most important question asks whether the placebo response rates in the drug arm and in the placebo arm are equal. This 'additive model' is a general assumption in almost all placebo-controlled drug trials but has rarely been tested. Secondly, we would like to address whether the placebo response is a function of the likelihood of receiving drug/placebo. Evidence suggests that the number of study arms in a trial may determine the size of the placebo and the drug response. Thirdly, we ask what the size of the placebo response is in 'comparator' studies with a direct comparison of a (novel) drug against another drug. Meta-analytic and experimental evidence suggests that comparator studies may produce higher placebo response rates when compared with placebo-controlled trials. Finally, we address the placebo response rate outside the laboratory and outside of trials in clinical routine. This question poses a serious challenge whether the drug response in trials can be taken as evidence of drug effects in clinical routine.

Importance of Service Elements Among Chinese Gamblers Visiting Macau

Casino gaming is a common form of entertainment in many countries, and the casino gaming industry worldwide is expanding at a rapid pace (Lee et al., 2006). Macau is one of the main locations of the gaming industry in East/Southeast Asia, and is a key part of the economy in Macau. The gaming industry accounted for 83 percent of tax revenue in 2010 (Macau FSB 2011), and also accounted for 14 about percent of Macau’s total employment (Macau DSEC 2008). However, while the industry is thriving, it is a very competitive environment, and individual casinos need to understand their well to attract customers.We specifically examined the importance of various service elements among casino goers visiting Macau from Hong Kong and mainland China. This sort of information is critical in making decisions about details of the marketing mix for various segments (e.g., Wind & Bell 2007). Rϋck & Mende (2008) recommend more extensive use of segmentation analysis in the tourism industry. In this spirit, here we examine importance by home of the visitor (HK, China), marital status, and age, although this is only the preliminary step toward more detailed segmentation analysis.Respondents were asked about what attributes were important in their decision to visit one casino over another. The twenty attributes were mostly taken from Shoemaker and Zemke (2005), with slight adaptation and a few additional questions to reflect Macao’s unique situation. For example, one question asks about the transportation link between Macau’s ferry port or the border gate to different casinos. Questions used a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (highly unimportant) to 5 (highly important). The questionnaire was designed in Chinese, and tested in a small pilot of eight casino players to check the relevance and clarity of the questions. On average, respondents took 10 minutes to complete the questionnaire and reported no problems understanding it, so that no changes were required. The main survey was administered in July 2010 in face-to-face interviews with Chinese gamblers through convenience sampling outside ten large casinos. Twenty University of Macau students who were fluent in both Cantonese and Mandarin conducted the interviews. The researchers provided training and on-site demonstration of conducting the interview, and supervised the fieldwork. A total of 371 completed questionnaires were collected, 168 Hong Kong Chinese, and 203 mainland Chinese. (There were also 29 Taiwanese, but this sub-sample was too small for meaningful analysis as a separate segment, and the data on Taiwanese casino goers is not used here.)Factor analysis of these importance ratings yielded six factors accounting for about 58 percent of variance. These six factors are noted in Table 1, in which the 20 questions are organized by the factors on which they loaded. On an overall basis, then, the importance scores are not highly useful in distinguishing what customers want or do not care about much. Every question has a mean indicating some degree of importance significantly above the mid-point of the scale. However, MANOVA shows that the three variables describing characteristics of casino visitors (‘where from’, age, marital status, and their two-way interactions) do differ strongly on some of the dimensions. In particular, f5 employee interaction shows up as being strongly influenced by all three of the characteristics (although by marital status only in interactions with ‘where from’ and age).We focus on employee interaction here, since it is one of the most clear examples of distinct differences among our respondents. Employee interaction is much more important to visitors from mainland China than from Hong Kong, and to the oldest visitors. This importance does not differ much by marital status among mainland Chinese, but among Hong Kong visitors, married visitors think it is significantly more important than do single visitors. Among mainland Chinese, the importance of employee interactions generally rises with age, although the youngest age category (18-27) also rates it more highly than some of the older categories. On the other hand, the overall trend, although erratic, is toward less importance as age increases among Hong Kong visitors.