Stasis Theory Research Articles

Gateways and Anchor Points: The Use of Frames to Amplify Marginalized Voices in Disability Policy Deliberations

This essay analyzes the rhetorical framing tactics of a group of disability activists to understand how they use key words, topic shifts, and other framing maneuvers to amplify marginalized voices in public debates. Focusing on a town hall meeting and a legislator update meeting between activists and lawmakers, the author uses stasis theory to analyze how these maneuvers (1) create gateways for marginalized voices to enter the discussion and (2) anchor deliberations around topics of importance to the disabled community. This suggests a more complex role for framing in face-to-face deliberative contexts than studies of framing strategies in written texts have traditionally considered. I argue that a multidimensional view of framing uniting consideration of word choice with attention to interactive dynamics is necessary to appreciate how framing maneuvers can not only shape the content of debates but amplify the voices of people excluded by the tacit rules of democratic deliberation.

Treatment of Intrauterine Adhesions from Phlegm and Blood Stasis Theory

Treatment of Intrauterine Adhesions from Phlegm and Blood Stasis Theory

Lei Xiaoqin's Experience in Treating Retinal Vein Occlusion and Macular Edema from the Blood Heat Stasis Theory

Macular edema is one of the common complications of retinal vein occlusion and the main reason for vision loss in patients. Professor Lei Xiaoqin focused on blood heat stasis, who believed that the main pathogenesis of RVO-ME is blood-heat bleeding and vein stasis. Treatment should follow the methods of cooling blood and hemostasis, activating blood and diuretic water, clearing the collaterals and eyes, and the clinical effect is significant.

Eaching Stasis Theory as a Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing Tool in Engineering Subjects

eaching Stasis Theory as a Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing Tool in Engineering Subjects

The Construction of Value in Science Research Articles: A Quantitative Study of Topoi Used in Introductions

Scholars in the field of writing and rhetorical studies have long been interested in professional writing and the ways in which experts frame their research for disciplinary audiences. Three decades ago, rhetoricians incorporated stasis theory into their work as a way to explore the nature of argument and persuasion in scientific discourse. However, what is missing in these general arguments based on stasis are the particular arguments in science texts aimed at persuasion. Specifically, this article analyzes arguments from the stasis of value in introductions of science research articles. This work is grounded in the Classical topoi, or topics, cataloging types of arguments and identifying seven topoi. I analyzed 60 introductions from articles in three different science journals, totaling the number of value arguments and arguments comprising the topoi. Findings yielded different proportions in types of arguments, sharp disparities among the journals, and widespread use of value arguments. The broader issue at work in this article is how scientists make a case for the importance of their research and how these findings might inform writing and argumentation in the sciences.

Changing Climate, Changing Terrain: The Stasis Metaphor and the Climate Crisis

Rhetorical theory has frequently relied on metaphors of place and positioning as heuristics to build better arguments. This article utilizes one such metaphor, that of stasis theory, as a method by which we might change the terrain of the conversation surrounding the climate crisis. As an example, the author does a rhetorical analysis of a recent agricultural report from the Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment and finds that, rather than using traditional questions of conjecture and quality, the authors of the report focus on questions of procedure and definition to reframe the discussion surrounding the climate crisis. Drawing from the rhetoric in this report, the author suggests that technical communicators might similarly produce more fruitful conversations around the climate crisis if they focus on what to do (procedure) and redefining the crisis as a local issue (definition).

Transformation stasis phenomenon and overall transformation kinetics of low-carbon, Nb-bearing ferrous alloy

To illuminate the overall transformation kinetics of low-carbon, Nb-bearing ferrous Alloy (Nb ferrous alloy), a novel method was proposed to investigate the overall transformation behavior on the basis of bainitic transformation stasis theory. The stability and transformation behavior of austenite were controlled by choosing different isothermal temperatures nearby or away from the transformation start temperature (Ts), and the dilatometric variation discipline and microstructural features corresponding to different processes were investigated. Nucleation mechanisms throughout the overall transformation process were further discussed on the basis of the classical J-M-A model. Results indicate the overall transformation kinetics concerning to studied Nb ferrous alloy can be nearly separated into two stages in terms of the dilatometric variation discipline together with microstructural features, they are (a) Acicular ferrite (AF) transformation stage with relative high transformation rate at initial transformation stage, and (b) Conventional bainite (CB) transformation stage with low transformation rate in the late stage. The possible nucleation is the diffusion-controlled mechanism with regard to studied Nb ferrous alloy during isothermal temperature from 580 ℃ to 440 ℃. At the initial stage, AF nucleates on the parent austenite grain boundary or sub-grain boundary and grows in the mode of arbitrary dimensional, and the nucleation rate is decreased gradually. At the second stage, the formed AF impingements each other, and new phase nucleus attached to parent austenite grain boundary, sub-grain boundary or AF boundary begin to grow in the mode of incrassation and transform into CB, and the nucleation rate is almost zero throughout the secondary transformation stage.

Examining Assumptions in Science-Based Policy: Critical Health Communication, Stasis Theory, and Public Health Nutrition Guidance

Recent work in rhetoric of science, technology, health, and medicine argues for a shift away from critique, even as some health communication scholars call for critical engagement with the situated, ideological nature of scientific claims supporting public health messages. We suggest that critique of scientific claims remains important to rhetoricians of health and medicine, but that such critique must go further in examining interactions between science, values, and public health policy. We offer an adapted version of stasis theory as a framework for pursuing this end. Using the U.S. public health nutrition policy Dietary Guidelines for Americans as a case study, we engage this framework to explore how science-based nutrition policy provides a discursive lens that influences how subsequent scientific evidence is produced, interpreted, and employed.

Genomic Contextualism: Shifting the Rhetoric of Genetic Exceptionalism

As genomic science has evolved, so have policy and practice debates about how to describe and evaluate the ways in which genomic information is treated for individuals, institutions, and society. The term genetic exceptionalism, describing the concept that genetic information is special or unique, and specifically different from other kinds of medical information, has been utilized widely, but often counterproductively in these debates. We offer genomic contextualism as a new term to frame the characteristics of genomic science in the debates. Using stasis theory to draw out the important connection between definitional issues and resulting policies, we argue that the framework of genomic contextualism is better suited to evaluating genomics and its policy-relevant features to arrive at more productive discussion and resolve policy debates.

Application of Stone Needle Therapy Based on Blood Stasis Theory in the Treatment of 36 Cases of Knee Osteoarthritis in Early and Middle Stage

Application of Stone Needle Therapy Based on Blood Stasis Theory in the Treatment of 36 Cases of Knee Osteoarthritis in Early and Middle Stage

Arguing Over Texts: The Rhetoric of Interpretation

Arguing Over Texts: The Rhetoric of Interpretation

Analysis of clinical characteristics of traditional Chinese and Western medicine in Professor Jiang Liangduo's theory of "sanjiao meridian stasis"

In the clinical practice, Professor Jiang Liangduo, a national senior Chinese medicine doctor, has created the theory of "sanjiao meridian stasis" from the theory of meridian dialectics and from the overall state. In this paper, the traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine clinical characteristics of sanjiao meridian stasis theory which is often used by Professor Jiang Liangduo in the treatment of out-patient syndrome differentiation, were first studied and summarized to investigate its inherent regularity. First, the source of data and research methods were introduced, and then the Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Support System was used with the method of data mining to retrospectively analyze the disease characteristics of Chinese and Western medicine in 279 patients with sanjiao meridian stasis diagnosed by Professor Jiang in 2014. Then the following main conclusions were made after research: sanjiao meridian stasis was more common in women as well as young and middle-aged population. Often manifested by prolonged treatment course, red tongue with yellowishfur, with good correlation between modern Western medicine diagnosis and TCM differentiation syndrome. The symptoms of sanjiao meridian stasis syndrome are mostly of heat syndromes, and middle-aged patients are the most common patients with stasis and stasis of sanjiao. Related information of Western medicine diagnosis can help to diagnose the "sanjiao meridian stasis".

Fixating on the Stasis of Fact: Debating “Having It All” in U.S. Media

Abstract Drawing on stasis theory, this essay explores how the debate frame functions within U.S. journalism. Using the news coverage of Marissa Mayer’s coinciding pregnancy and promotion to Yahoo! CEO and the reportage of Hillary Clinton’s upcoming grandchild during the 2016 precampaign as case studies, I develop a two-part argument. First, by analyzing the rhetorical mechanisms within this media debate, I demonstrate how the debate frame makes facts themselves infinitely debatable, thereby stagnating this public debate at the stasis of fact. This ultimately perpetuates the “having it all” debate—and its sexist assumptions. Second, I consider the escape routes out of this dominant discourse, analyzing how arguments maneuver beyond the stasis of fact to consider policy reforms regarding women in the workplace.

Tutoring in Critical Thinking: Using the Stases to Scaffold High School Students’ Reading and Writing of Persuasive Text

ABSTRACTUsing case study research methods, we investigated the effectiveness of a dialogic tutoring model informed by cognitive strategy instruction to implement a problem-solving strategy using a gradual-release-of-responsibility model of instruction situated in stasis theory. Eight minority 10th graders participated because of their difficulties with prewriting/invention in identifying and constructing claims and supports in the writing of their persuasive papers. Compared to baseline scores derived from their previous persuasive papers, the 8 participants scored higher on the dimensions of (a) development, organization, focus, and clarity and (b) voice but at almost the same level on the dimension of conventions. Based on interactions with the participants, we are convinced that the stases used as a reading and writing strategy offer a potentially powerful heuristic in bridging the gap between the more abstract Toulmin model and the practical and strategic challenge of filling the slots in that model.

Discussion of acupuncture for diabetic peripheral neuropathy based on blood stasis theory

Based on the understanding of TCM and western medicine on diabetes mellitus (DM) and diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), the relationship between DPN pathogenesis and blood stasis of TCM is discussed from the perspective of modern medicine. It is indicated blood stasis is the key pathogenesis to DPN, and a two-step acupuncture treatment of DPN from the theory of blood stasis is proposed. The first step is to analyze the pathogenesis of blood stasis, which could block the progress of the disease and diminish the symptoms. The second step is to apply acupuncture for pathological result of blood stasis by following the principle of eliminating exogenous pathogen, as a result, the purpose of treating both symptoms and root cause is achieved.

Sex Before the Law: Transgender Arguments under Title VII and Shifting Stases of Sex

Until recently, transgender plaintiffs claiming sex discrimination were successful only when the discrimination was argued to be based on the plaintiff’s birth sex. Schroer v. Billington is often mistakenly understood to have been decided based on a more expansive understanding of sexed identity. Here, I call upon stasis theory to highlight how Schroer shifts the focus on sex away from sexed identities to structure, calling attention to how sex as system gives rise to discrimination. In so doing, Schroer ultimately refuses law’s responsibility for the maintenance of sex as system and locates the problem of sex with society.

Value Arguments in Science Research Articles

It is in the interest of scholarly journals to publish important research and of researchers to publish in important journals. One key to making the case for the importance of research in a scholarly article is to incorporate value arguments. Yet there has been no rhetorical analysis of value arguments in the literature. In the context of rhetorical situation, stasis theory, and Swales’s linguistic analysis of moves in introductions, this article examines value arguments in introductions of science research articles. Employing a corpus of 60 articles from three science journals, the author analyzes value arguments based on Toulmin’s definition of argument and identifies three classes of value arguments and seven functions of these arguments in introductions. This analysis illuminates the rhetorical construction of value in science articles and provides a foundation for the empirical study of value in scholarship.

Stasis in Space! Viewing Definitional Conflicts Surrounding the James Webb Space Telescope Funding Debate

ABSTRACTDuring 2010 and 2011, debate ensued over funding for National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This article uses stasis theory to analyze reports and statements produced by NASA, politicians, and scientists. The analysis reveals that an official report addresses stasis questions and guides further action. Additionally, varying perspectives on the telescope suggest that definitions play a crucial role in technology funding debates. This analysis demonstrates that stasis theory provides a productive tool for analyzing technology policy debates.

Climate Change Conceptual Change: Scientific Information Can Transform Attitudes.

Of this article's seven experiments, the first five demonstrate that virtually no Americans know the basic global warming mechanism. Fortunately, Experiments 2-5 found that 2-45 min of physical-chemical climate instruction durably increased such understandings. This mechanistic learning, or merely receiving seven highly germane statistical facts (Experiment 6), also increased climate-change acceptance-across the liberal-conservative spectrum. However, Experiment 7's misleading statistics decreased such acceptance (and dramatically, knowledge-confidence). These readily available attitudinal and conceptual changes through scientific information disconfirm what we term "stasis theory"--which some researchers and many laypeople varyingly maintain. Stasis theory subsumes the claim that informing people (particularly Americans) about climate science may be largely futile or even counterproductive--a view that appears historically naïve, suffers from range restrictions (e.g., near-zero mechanistic knowledge), and/or misinterprets some polarization and (noncausal) correlational data. Our studies evidenced no polarizations. Finally, we introduce HowGlobalWarmingWorks.org--a website designed to directly enhance public "climate-change cognition."

The Interpretive Stasis of Assimilation: Evangelical Arguments against the “Magical” Use of The Prayer of Jabez

In his bestselling book The Prayer of Jabez, Bruce Wilkinson claims that believers can reap guaranteed blessings from God by praying an obscure biblical prayer. But for many evangelicals, Wilkinson’s book teaches magic not prayer. At issue is the appropriate use of this biblical prayer. How might rhetoricians and other scholars of religion analyze this biblical debate? This article argues that the legal or interpretive stases, a neglected part of stasis theory, constitute an important rhetorical method for analyzing arguments over the meaning of texts, religious or not, thereby shedding light on the nature, motivations, and implications of such debates.