Small Group Research Research Articles

Response by Bassnett to “Translation and the materialities of communication”

Translation studies is a fast-moving, rapidly expanding field. Where once there was a relatively small group of researchers discussing functional approaches along with theories of equivalence, toda...

Theory and Practice of Systemic Therapy: A Re-introduction to Jackson and Weakland's “Conjoint Family Therapy” (1961)

When Journal of Systemic Therapies Editor Jim Duvall asked for input about pivotally important—even essential—publications in the emergence of systemic brief therapies, the research and publications of the Palo Alto Group immediately came to mind. There are many noteworthy contributors to systemic thinking and practice, yet the pervasive influence of this small group of researchers stands almost unparalleled. First in Gregory Bateson’s research team (1952–1961), continuing at the Mental Research Institute (MRI) and later in the MRI Brief Therapy Center (1958– present) the contributions of Gregory Bateson, Don D. Jackson, John Weakland, Jay Haley, William Fry, and later Virginia Satir, Richard Fisch, Paul Watzlawick, and colleagues revolutionized systemic understanding of human behavior and methods for promoting change efficiently and effectively. Systemic epistemology and models of therapy as currently known and practiced stand solidly on the foundation built by what has come to be known as the Palo Alto Group. Imagine being a therapist in 1961, well trained in the individually oriented approaches so prevalent at that time, when Jackson and Weakland’s “Conjoint Family Therapy: Some Considerations on Theory, Technique, and Results” appeared in the journal Psychiatry. Freudian concepts and practices pervaded the behavioral sciences. Most therapeutic theory, clinical practice, and literature focused on identifying and either accepting as incurable or attempting to treat pathology located inside the individual. While the Interpersonal Theory of Harry Stack Sullivan, M.D. (1947), and colleagues such as Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, M.D. (1950), had gained wider acceptance, the focus of theory and clinical practice remained almost exclusively on individual pathology and biology, and was past causal in orientation. One wonders what it was like to read the research papers from the Palo Alto Group. The appearance of “Toward a Theory of Schizophrenia” (Bateson, Jackson, Haley, & Weakland, 1956), “The Question of Family Homeostasis” (Jackson,

Key Informant Models for Measuring Group-level Variables in Small Groups

We offer a new conceptualization and measurement models for constructs at the group-level of analysis in small group research. The conceptualization starts with classical notions of group behavior proposed by Tönnies, Simmel, and Weber and then draws upon plural subject theory by philosophers Gilbert and Tuomela to frame a new perspective applicable to many forms of small group behavior. In the proposed measurement model, a collective property is operationalized as shared interpersonal action that explicitly allows us to control for systematic (method) error and random error. Group members act as key informants of group properties and processes and are treated as methods in a multitrait multimethod setting to validate our models. The models are applied to data of 277 three-person groups to develop and illustrate new procedures for ascertaining variation in measures due to hypothesized construct(s), method error, and random error. Implications and guidelines for small group research are discussed.

Small Group Research 2015 Annual Review Issue

Small Group Research 2015 Annual Review Issue

Big Data: the challenge for small research groups in the era of cancer genomics.

In the past decade, cancer research has seen an increasing trend towards high-throughput techniques and translational approaches. The increasing availability of assays that utilise smaller quantities of source material and produce higher volumes of data output have resulted in the necessity for data storage solutions beyond those previously used. Multifactorial data, both large in sample size and heterogeneous in context, needs to be integrated in a standardised, cost-effective and secure manner. This requires technical solutions and administrative support not normally financially accounted for in small- to moderate-sized research groups. In this review, we highlight the Big Data challenges faced by translational research groups in the precision medicine era; an era in which the genomes of over 75 000 patients will be sequenced by the National Health Service over the next 3 years to advance healthcare. In particular, we have looked at three main themes of data management in relation to cancer research, namely (1) cancer ontology management, (2) IT infrastructures that have been developed to support data management and (3) the unique ethical challenges introduced by utilising Big Data in research.

Three-dimensional reconstructions of solid surfaces using conventional microscopes.

The three-dimensional digital replicas of solid surfaces are subject of interest of different branches of science and technology. The present paper in its introductory parts brings an overview of the various microscopic reconstructive techniques based on optical sectioning. The main attention is devoted to conventional reconstruction methods and especially to that one employing the Fourier transform. The three-dimensional replicas of this special reconstructive frequency method are compared graphically and numerically with the three-dimensional replicas of the confocal method. Based on the comparative study it has been concluded that the quality of the conventional replicas of surfaces possessing textures of intermediate height irregularities is acceptable and almost comparable with the quality of confocal replicas. This study is relevant both for identifying a convenient technique that provides good qualities of three-dimensional replicas and for selecting the hardware whose price is affordable even for small research groups studying rougher surface textures.

Call for Proposals Small Group Research 2017 Review Issue

Call for Proposals Small Group Research 2017 Review Issue

Small Group Research 2015 Annual Review Issue

Small Group Research 2015 Annual Review Issue

20 years of performance measurement in sustainable supply chain management – what has been achieved?

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the academic literature on sustainability performance measurement for sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) published over the past 20 years. The development and current state of instruments, concepts and systems to measure and manage sustainability performance are examined and research gaps are identified.Design/methodology/approach– A systematic literature review is conducted spanning two decades of publications in peer-reviewed academic journals. The publications are analyzed with regard to frequency and bibliometrical metrics and research content.Findings– The research examines the development of the field over 20 years, which has witnessed a steep rise in related publications only for the past five years, indicating a late interest in the area compared to other sustainability topics. Social performance measures entered the discussion particularly late, whereas economic and environmental measurement almost exclusively dominated the field for the first few years.Research limitations/implications– The authors identify research gaps and discuss future directions for research. The analysis shows how the research area develops from a topic dealt with by a small group of interested researchers into a broader research field acknowledged in the scientific community.Practical implications– Findings underline the importance of measuring performance for sustainability management of supply chains. The review identifies what measurement and management tools are discussed in the literature over time.Originality/value– This is the first literature review on sustainability performance measurement for SSCM summarizing the development over the time span of 20 years.

Art-based action research – participatory art for the north

Abstract The article will introduce the art-based action research method and the practices and knowledge gained in the fields of art and design education, taking into account contemporary art’s situational, contextual and communal nature. The method is collaboratively created and developed by a small group of artists, educators and researchers with the participation of the students in the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland to guide the next generation of art and design education scholars. The method, as part of art education and applied visual arts Master’s and Doctoral theses, takes into account the university’s northern circumstances and special features. The article discusses the relevance of the engaging participatory art parallel to developing the art-based research method in visual art education. The article also seeks to introduce a new perspective to the discussion about research in art universities.

In tribute to Bernard Witholt.

It was in the mid-seventies that I met Bernard for the first time – he had just arrived in Groningen as a new professor with fresh ideas. I remember a meeting where I participated as a young student with some older Dutch professors who were, and I say this politely, not amused about the research subjects that Bernard discussed in his inspiring style. It was about Pseudomonas growing in a two-phase reactor and its application potential as well its potential for collaborations. This did not go well with the audience as Bernard provided his visionary views for microbial biotechnology in the sense that he wanted disciplines to collaborate and not remain in splendid isolation in their ivory towers. I remember being captivated by his ideas and did not agree with the displayed skepticism and accusations of modernisms of others. Fortunately, the concepts did not disappear from the agenda and in mid-eighties, the Netherlands Society for Biotechnology was founded by Bernard and other inspired colleagues. This provided the basis for further concentration of multidisciplinary activities and their spin-outs. When I became chairman of the Society about 20 years later, Bernard was at ETH Zurich and I invited him to deliver the first key note speech at the bi-annual Netherlands Biotechnology Congress. He provided his views on the innovation that originates from small research groups under the title ‘Is little science still viable’. Once again, he inspired many of us – as he did all his life.

Researchers’ perspectives on scientific and ethical issues with transcranial direct current stimulation: An international survey

In the last decade, an increasing number of studies have suggested that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) may enhance brain function in healthy individuals, and ameliorate cognitive and other symptoms in patients suffering from various medical conditions. This, along with its presumed safety, simplicity, and affordability, has generated great enthusiasm amongst researchers, clinicians, patient populations, and the public (including a growing “do-it-yourself” community). However, discussion about the effectiveness and ethics of tDCS thus far has been confined to small groups of tDCS researchers and bioethicists. We conducted an international online survey targeting the opinions of researchers using tDCS who were asked to rate the technique’s efficacy in different contexts. We also surveyed opinions about ethical concerns, self-enhancement and public availability. 265 complete responses were received and analyzed statistically and thematically. Our results emphasize the potential uses of tDCS in clinical and research contexts, but also highlight a number of emerging methodological and safety concerns, ethical challenges and the need for improved communication between researchers and bioethicists with regard to regulation of the device. Neither the media reputation of tDCS as a “miracle device” nor concerns expressed in recent neuroethical publications were entirely borne out in expert opinion.

Research groups: How big should they be?

Understanding the relationship between scientific productivity and research group size is important for deciding how science should be funded. We have investigated the relationship between these variables in the life sciences in the United Kingdom using data from 398 principle investigators (PIs). We show that three measures of productivity, the number of publications, the impact factor of the journals in which papers are published and the number of citations, are all positively correlated to group size, although they all show a pattern of diminishing returns—doubling group size leads to less than a doubling in productivity. The relationships for the impact factor and the number of citations are extremely weak. Our analyses suggest that an increase in productivity will be achieved by funding more PIs with small research groups, unless the cost of employing post-docs and PhD students is less than 20% the cost of a PI. We also provide evidence that post-docs are more productive than PhD students both in terms of the number of papers they produce and where those papers are published.

Special Issue: Geometric Tolerancing

In 1989 a small group of researchers gathered at Jerusalem, Israel under the sponsorship of CIRP (International Academy for Production Engineering) to address the emerging problem of computer-aided tolerancing (CAT), which is situated prominently at the interface between product design and manufacturing. Since then, such CIRP CAT meetings have been held as working seminars and conferences at an approximate frequency of once in 2 yr. The latest edition of the CIRP CAT conference was the 13th in this series and was held at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China during May 11–14, 2014. We are pleased to bring a selection of ten papers that were presented at that conference to this special issue. These papers cover a wide spectrum of current, international research in CAT.Standards play an important role in CAT. In the paper titled “A Portrait of an ISO STEP Tolerancing Standard as an Enabler of Smart Manufacturing Systems,” the authors introduce a recently published international standard for the exchange of human-readable three-dimensional presentation as well as machine-readable representation of tolerances. They portray this standard as an enabler of digital, also known as smart, manufacturing. In the paper titled “Formal Language for GeoSpelling,” the authors propose a syntax for a formal language to capture the semantics of the ISO geometrical product specifications standards that cover all dimensional and geometrical tolerancing. They envision GeoSpelling to be generic enough to cover not only standardized specifications but also other kinds of geometrical specifications.Tolerances influence process plans in computer-aided manufacturing. The paper titled “A Framework for Explicating Formal Geometrical and Dimensional Tolerances Schema from Manufacturing Process Plans for 3D Conformance Analysis” positions tolerancing information formally and explicitly in computer-aided manufacturing process planning. It proposes a method to determine datum flow chain in manufacturing and to compare it to design specifications. A related problem is analyzed in the paper titled “Welding Simulation of Non-Nominal Structures with Clamps.” It proposes a method to simulate variations in components and fixtures, and to combine them with welding simulation, thereby simulating geometric variation in a welded assembly. The influence of manufacturing processes on the surface quality is the topic of another paper titled “Manufacturing Signature for Tolerance Analysis,” which investigates the effects of manufacturing signature in tolerance stack-up analysis.Continuing the theme of manufactured surface variation, in the paper titled “Geometrical Simulation of Multiscale Toleranced Surface with Consideration of the Tolerancing Principle,” the authors propose a method for geometrical modeling of multiscale surface variation. They also propose a multilevel display of such surface variations. In the paper titled “Comparison of Analysis Line and Polytopes Methods to Determine the Result of a Tolerance Chain,” the authors explore functional surfaces in mechanisms, and how they are related to maximum and minimum material conditions in an assembly. Recently, industrial interest has moved beyond just the surface to the interior of manufactured parts. To address this need, the paper titled “Numerical Analysis of the Feldkamp-Davis-Kress Effect on Industrial X-ray Computed Tomography for Dimensional Metrology” proposes a method for improving the accuracy of X-ray computed tomography for nondestructive verification of manufactured parts.Most of the current tolerance analyses to date have used ideal geometric forms. Recognizing that manufactured parts have nonideal forms, new geometric models called “skin models” have emerged as a more realistic way to model such nonideal forms. The paper titled “Contact and Mobility Simulation for Mechanical Assemblies Based on Skin Model Shapes” presents an approach for a skin model based simulation of contact and mobility for assemblies. A related paper titled “Comparison of Skin Model Representations and Tooth Contact Analysis Techniques for Gear Tolerance Analysis” examines four skin model representations for gear tolerance analysis.We want to express our special gratitude to Professors Mathieu, Xiang, Jianrong, Yang, and Ravani for their help in the selection and review of the papers appearing in this special issue.

The scientific impact of mexican steroid research 1935–1965: A bibliometric and historiographic analysis

We studied steroid research from 1935 to 1965 that led to the discovery of the contraceptive pill and cortisone. Bibliometric and patent file searches indicate that the Syntex industrial laboratory located in Mexico and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) produced about 54% of the relevant papers published in mainstream journals, which in turn generated over 80% of the citations and in the case of Syntex, all industrial patents in the field between 1950 and 1965. This course of events, which was unprecedented at that time in a developing country, was interrupted when Syntex moved its research division to the US, leaving Mexico with a small but productive research group in the chemistry of natural products.

Theory‐changing breakthroughs in science: The impact of research teamwork on scientific discoveries

We have developed and tested an evidence‐based method for early‐stage identification of scientific discoveries. Scholarly publications are analyzed to track and trace breakthrough processes as well as their impact on world science. The focus in this study is on the incremental discovery of the ubiquitin‐mediated proteolytic system in the late 1970s by a small international team of collaborating researchers. Analysis of their groundbreaking research articles, all produced within a relatively short period of time, and the network of citing articles shows the cumulative effects of the intense collaboration within a small group of researchers working on the same subject. Using bibliographic data from the Web of Science database and the PATSTAT patents database in combination with expert opinions shows that these discoveries accumulated into a new technology. These first findings suggest that potential breakthrough discoveries can be identified at a relatively early stage by careful analysis of publication and citation patterns.

Все мы вышли из «грушинской шинели» (к 85-летию со дня рождения Б.А. Грушина)

B.A. Grushin belongs to a small group of researchers, rightfully called the founders of Soviet theoretical and empirical sociology. As a philosopher and methodologist he contributed significantly to the conceptual language of sociology, addressed many of the complex problems of the genesis of mass consciousness and behavior. A special place in his work was given to questions of the study of public opinion, he was the first in the USSR to begin conducting public opinion polls and publishing the results of the analysis of people’s opinions in the press. B.A. Grushin was one of the founders of the Russian (former all-Union) center for the study of public opinion.The material published herein is a synopsis statement in the format of a journal article of the main ideas of the eponymous book, which was dedicated to the IV International sociological conference “Following Grushin’s traditions” (2014). It acquaints the reader with the main stages of the biography and scientific achievements of B.A. Grushin.

Call for Proposals Small Group Research 2016 Review Issue

Call for Proposals <i>Small Group Research</i> 2016 Review Issue

Women and Memory Forum

Other| March 01 2015 Women and Memory Forum Journal of Middle East Women's Studies (2015) 11 (1): 134–135. https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-2832466 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Women and Memory Forum. Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 1 March 2015; 11 (1): 134–135. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-2832466 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsJournal of Middle East Women's Studies Search Advanced Search The Women and Memory Forum (WMF) is an Egyptian research organization consisting of researchers and activists dedicated to the production of specialized knowledge in the field of gender and women’s studies. Our aims are to strengthen women’s rights movements, raise awareness, and empower women in the Arab world. We seek to address what we perceive as the key obstacles confronting Arab women. These obstacles include scarce alternative cultural and political knowledge about women in history and contemporary society and about hegemonic discourses that undercut women’s rights and aspirations. We also see ourselves as an integral part of a feminist transnational movement seeking more equitable and just societies. The WMF began in 1995 as an idea among a small group of researchers and developed into an organization that invited more members to participate, in the process expanding our scope and interests.WMF researchers and activists work on projects linked to member... You do not currently have access to this content.

Extending a Provocative Tradition: Book Reviews and Beyond at AMR

Extending a Provocative Tradition: Book Reviews and Beyond at <i>AMR</i>