Unclear Concept Research Articles

Article Commentary: Unclear concepts — unclear messages

Article Commentary: Unclear concepts — unclear messages

Staying in ‘the stream of life’: rehabilitation of older people in their own homes following total hip replacement

Background. According to World Health Organization (WHO), rehabilitation should be based on the person's entire situation with a focus on body functions, level of activity, participation and environment. But different types of investigations show an unclear concept of rehabilitation in professional nursing. Aims and objectives. This study aims to identify older persons' (≥75 years of age) experiences of the rehabilitation process after total hip replacement. Design and methods. Qualitative interviews were undertaken with six persons who were rehabilitated in their own homes following total hip replacement. The interviews were guided by Max van Manen's phenomenological methodology with its focus on the life world as described through patients' experience of time, space, body and interpersonal relations. Results. Staying in the stream of life confirmed the importance of the life world. What is essential in the rehabilitation process is to get back into everyday life as soon as possible and participate in activities which are meaningful and which are linked to being at home where 'you can be who you are'. The home is the framework for being in the stream of life, and it provides the centre of gravity for the people's welfare. Conclusion. Staying in the stream of life is about being the author of one's own meaningful life. It takes into account life phenomena embodied in the maintenance aspect of health care; dignity in relation to identity and integrity; and an understanding of the dialectical relation between frailty and strength. Relevance to clinical practice. Rather than focusing exclusively on patient participation and goal-directed activity, nursing actions should integrate life phenomena as key aspects of rehabilitation with older people in their own right.

Vague concept of “reversible cleavage” in the theory of the surface tension of solids

Numerous derivations of the well-known Shuttleworth equation have been based on the unclear concept of “reversible cleavage” leading to the decisive step in any derivation - equalization of the surface free energy and surface stress. This is the key concept in contemporary surface thermodynamics of solids. But “cleavage” is not a surface process and, in this field, it cannot be a reversible operation. Besides, the “reversible cleavage” has no formal definition in the domain of the surface tension of solids that is an abnormal for any exact science. Consequently, this concept and all its corollaries including the Shuttleworth and generalized Lippmann equations have to be recognized as incorrect.

Notable Trade Book Lesson Plan: The City of Ember and The People of Sparks

Using children’s literature to teach economics is a good method of making unclear concepts seem logical and authentic and has been used effectively by primary school educators for many years. However, finding a popular book that contains clear and comprehensible examples of economic choice, goods and services, and supply and demand at the upper elementary/middle school level can be a challenge. Meeting this challenge is Jeanne DuPrau’s Ember Series, a compelling futuristic cautionary tale that encourages its readers to think seriously about the allocation of limited resources and the consequences of planning for the future. This interactive lesson takes a situation from a book’s plot and applies it to economic principle “voluntary trade creates wealth.”

The Paradigm of the War on Crime: Legitimating Inhuman Treatment?

Since 11 September 2001, a new paradigm has developed in criminal law. Parallel to the idea of the ‘war on terror’, a paradigm based around ‘war on crime’ has emerged. Inevitably, however, a paradigm of war leads to abandoning scientific approaches based on a legal-moral vision (crime, guilt and punishment) in favour of a merely pragmatic vision, which associates national security with social defence. Based on an unclear concept of dangerousness, presumed by simple membership in a group labelled ‘enemy’, the goal is to neutralize, or even eliminate, the criminal/deviant. When combined with a denial of international protections, deconstructing national criminal law thus runs the risk of pushing a black hole through the rule of law. Many have criticized such a paradigm; however, the author points out that the paradigm of the war on crime (and more generally the war on terror), provided that it respects international law, can be useful, because it shows the need to overcome the binary opposition between war and peace, as well as between war crimes and ordinary crimes. Nonetheless, it must be clear that this paradigm can only be one of transition. To overcome the war-peace dichotomy in a global community and to reconstruct the relationship between terrorism and torture, neither a ‘war crimes’ nor a ‘war on crime’ paradigm is truly sufficient. Only through the amplification of a paradigm of ‘crime against humanity’ (itself unstable and evolving but free from the war metaphor) can we reconstruct humanity as a value and make it the cornerstone of any legal system.

Propagation of wave modes and antispiral waves in a reaction-diffusion system

Since the observation of antispirals by Vanag et al. in a reaction-diffusion system, the study of its origin becomes a focus of nonlinear science and pattern formation. It was shown that antispirals may exist in a reaction-diffusion system when the system is near the onset of Hopf bifurcation. Here, we demonstrate that antispiral waves can also exist in a relaxational oscillatory medium, which is far from Hopf onset. Furthermore, we clarify the previously unclear concept of group velocity in inharmonic nonlinear waves, and prove that the group velocity v(g)=domega/dk is physically significant and valid both for excitable media and for oscillatory media. From this formula, we identify two types of wave propagating fronts: gentle mode front and steep mode front. Finally, we discuss the origin of counterpropagating waves and propose necessary conditions for antispiral formation. A direct deduction from these criteria is that antispirals cannot exist in an excitable medium.

Low-temperature mobility of holes inSi∕SiGep-channel heterostructures

We present a theory of the low-temperature mobility of holes in strained SiGe layers of $\mathrm{Si}∕\mathrm{Si}\mathrm{Ge}$ $p$-channel heterostructures. Our theory must not be based on the unclear concept of interface impurity charges assumed in the previous calculations, but takes adequate account of the random deformation potential and random piezoelectric field. These appear as effects arising from both lattice mismatch and interface roughness. It is proved that deformation potential scattering may be predominant over the well-known scattering mechanisms such as background doping, alloy disorder, and surface roughness for a Ge content $x\ensuremath{\gtrsim}0.2$, while piezoelectric scattering is comparable thereto for $x\ensuremath{\gtrsim}0.4$. Our theory turns out to be successful in providing a good quantitative explanation of recent experimental findings not only about the low value of the hole mobility but also its dependence on carrier density as well as its decrease with Ge content.

Lifeworld, Discourse, and Realism

In this paper, I give a systematic account of the core features of Jürgen Habermas’s revised approach to truth that comprises both realist and epistemic components. While agents in the lifeworld are pragmatic realists and work on the basic assumption that (most of) their beliefs about the world are true, beliefs that have become problematic can be scrutinized only in the form of validity-claims in rational discourses. Thus Habermas introduces a discursive truth predicate that involves a procedural idealization of the conditions of discourse in terms of ‘justified acceptability under conditions that are currently ideal’. He argues that this truth predicate has to be understood in connection with agents’ pragmatic realism to give a comprehensive account of truth. This paper is concerned with the tension between truth-in-the-lifeworld and discursive truth. I argue that Habermas’s account is troubled by two problems: firstly an unclear conception of the role of the truth predicate; and secondly, the suggestion that agents in discourse temporarily abandon their lifeworldly realism. While the first problem can be remedied by exploring the distinction between a truth predicate and a truth criterion, the second difficulty requires a modification of Habermas’s account. I show that the consistency of his approach depends on the acceptance of the principle of bivalence throughout (in both lifeworld and discourse), and hence on the subscription to a certain kind of realism that extends beyond the lifeworld.

Quality of life in schizophrenics with and without the deficit syndrome

We investigated the relations between deficit as part of schizophrenic symptomatology and the popular but unclear concept of quality of life (QOL). In a 47-patient sample, subjective QOL was compared in schizophrenics with and without the deficit syndrome. Self- and hetero-rated QOL is more impaired in deficit patients. Differences between deficit and non-deficit groups are more significant as the index used for measuring QOL gets less “behavioral” and more “psycho-pathological”. These results are consistent with existing literature. The “behavioral” dimensions of Heinrichs’ quality of life scale (QLS) are less discriminative between deficit and non-deficit schizophrenics, but they are more independent of the symptoms. They might have a special clinical meaning, which needs to be defined. The concepts of QOL (as used in QLS) and deficit symptomatology are partially redundant. QLS might be an inappropriate, or at least un-specific measure of QOL.

New Directions in Organizational Behaviour?

Organizational research possesses some endemic problems which constrict its progress. This introduction to Management Revue's special issue on debates six deficiencies in the current research: an unclear conception of how to understand the in behaviour; the lack of studies which connect micro- and macro-behaviour; a sterile concentration on the study of relationships instead of mechanisms; a superficial understanding of the practical side of research; an ignorance of the upheavals in the world of work; and a stagnation in theoretical developments. The last section introduces other articles in this issue of Management Revue. Key words: Organizational Behaviour, Micro-Macro Link, Behavioural Mechanisms, Praxeology Why new directions in behaviour? Is research not prospering? Didn't it produce much in the way of interesting knowledge? To deny the merits of research would certainly be foolish. It has profoundly advanced our understanding of the world of work and it has given us valuable prompts to improve working conditions.1 Nevertheless research possesses some endemic problems which constrict its progress. In what follows I will enter into six debates on current research. The deliberations centre on widespread misunderstandings and bad habits that need rethinking and thus lead to new directions in research. In the last section I describe the intentions and content of the articles in this issue of Management Revue and how they contribute to tackling the debated problems. 1. What is behaviour? The first question deserving greater attention is simply in what sense do the studies assembled under the heading of truly speak about organisational behaviour, i.e. about that is peculiarly organizational. Certainly job satisfaction and the other main topics in the literature on such as job performance, justice perceptions, leadership, and group decision making, have something to do with organizations. Jobs are normally done in organizations, fairness refers to payment and careers which play a major role in organizations, leadership is a question of significance for every superior, and the groups under study are often work groups which do their jobs in organizations. But that is perhaps all. Looking at the research field of organizational it seems as though it would suffice to speak of behaviour studied within organizations and consequently there would be no need to refer to a term like organizational at all. see, for example, the readings of Huseman/Carroll (1979) where dimensions are covered in only one out of nine chapters and even in this chapter the question of the impact is not really discussed. Instead one can find some very generalised deliberations on design, the matrix organization and the contingency approach. The only exception is an article by Chris Argyris which critically describes some differences between the needs of individuals and the requirements of jobs. Similarly in the readings of Staw (1991) very few of the forty articles contain any reference to the characteristics of organizations. One article entitled corporations, culture, and commitment does indeed touch directly on our question, but on closer inspection it merely provides some shallow insights along the lines of culture being critical to developing intensity and dedication- characteristics that are described as ingredients of successful firms. Five of the articles in the Staw readings appear to contain at least an indirect reference to our question because their subject matter contains something relating to the management of innovation. But on delving deeper it transpkes that two of them don't really get near the question at all. …

A new characteristic impedance perturbation method for finding attenuation constants

AbstractA new characteristic impedance perturbation method for finding the attenuation constant α of transmission lines is presented, which not only clarifies some unclear concepts and applied limitations of the Wheeler incremental inductance rule, but which also can be extended to the TM mode transmission line in some cases. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 32: 243–245, 2002.

Needs-led assessment: the challenges and the reality.

The NHS & Community Care Act 1990 heralded a new era in community care in the UK. Needs-led assessment and case management were to form the cornerstone of high quality care. Practitioners were challenged to alter their attitudes and practice to accommodate the needs-led approach. Previously they had assessed need to ascertain eligibility for statutory services, now they were required to identify "need" per se. The pivotal role given to assessment meant the success, or otherwise, of the reforms lay in part on the ability of practitioners to make this transition. However, to make needs-led assessment a reality, practitioners would have both to overcome conceptual barriers--need being an unclear concept, with no clear framework existing to assess need--and also to deal successfully with the conflicting requirement to ration services. In order to investigate whether the shift to needs-led practice had been possible, the opinions of social and healthcare practitioners providing services for older people in North Wales were sought through semi-structured interviews in 1994-1995 and 1998-1999. Supports and constraints to practice were also explored. Practitioners indicated that whilst they welcomed the needs-led philosophy, putting it into practice was difficult, if not impossible. The main constraints were a lack of resources (financial, service provision and staffing) and the conceptual difficulty of separating "need" from the "need for a particular service". Ever-tightening budgets and service eligibility criteria over the period of the study indicate that a shift of focus from assessment of need to rationing has taken place.

The Wizard of Oz in the Twentieth Century: Studying Baum's Masterwork

The Wizard of Oz in the Twentieth Century:Studying Baum's Masterwork Anne K. Phillips (bio) The Wizard of Oz: Shaping an Imaginary World, by Suzanne Rahn. New York: Twayne, 1998. In time for the centenary of L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz (1900), Twayne has published Suzanne Rahn's The Wizard of Oz: Shaping an Imaginary World as a selection in its Masterwork Studies series. The volume includes a detailed chronology, three short background chapters, "The Historical Context," "The Importance of The Wizard of Oz," and "The Critical Reception," and four chapters presumably organized around Rahn's own reading of the novel: "The Road to the Emerald City," "Dorothy Opens the Door: The Inner Landscape of Oz," "'Now We Can Cross the Shifting Sands': The Outer Landscape of Oz," and "'Toto, I've a Feeling We're Not in Kansas Anymore': The Movie's Oz." Rahn's book includes a striking frontispiece of Baum, representative illustrations by W. W. Denslow and John R. Neill, and maps of portions of Oz and the surrounding countries. Nonetheless, the text itself suffers from a lack of organization and an unclear conception of its audience that undermine its substance and usefulness. Problems with organization, particularly with unnecessary duplication and repetition of material, plague the volume. There are no different contexts or circumstances justifying the repetition; instead, such examples convey the impression that the book was hastily written or not carefully edited. For instance, Rahn uses the same quotation from The Wizard of Oz, "Everyone seemed happy and contented and prosperous," on page 34 and again on page 36, with no apparent recognition in the latter instance that she has previously addressed it. In chapter 4, she refers in only slightly greater detail to the scholarship of Henry M. Littlefield, which she has already summarized in chapter 3. She introduces and returns to very similar descriptions of Rose Lawn, Baum's childhood home, in chapters 4 and 6. The same quotation from C. Warren Hollister, "Where is the theme? The theme is Oz," [End Page 245] appears on pages 27 and 79, and Rahn's summary of the movie's popularity (touching on exactly the same details) can be found on page 9 and page 109. In none of these cases does the second reference significantly expand on the subject matter. The repetition also gives the volume a curiously circular approach that undermines its effect. These duplicated materials suggest that the chapter organization developed for this volume has not served its content as it should, or that Rahn needed to reconceptualize the content of the early chapters in particular. The volume's sense of its audience is equally unfocused. Is it intended for teachers, as the appendix, "Approaches to Teaching The Wizard of Oz," would suggest? If so, the ideas contained here, including map-drawing and celebrating the author's birthday, are not especially challenging, even for elementary school students. Although Rahn includes a list of other fantasy novels that might serve as related reading, there is no substance to her comparisons, no guideline for teachers to consider or follow in studying fantasy. Rahn's potentially useful suggestion in this section that teachers introduce their students to the kinds of discussion generated by enthusiasts and scholars through such groups as the International Wizard of Oz Club or "any of several Oz discussion groups on the Internet" (133) would be more valuable if she included the addresses for these groups in the appendix or elsewhere in the volume. If the volume isn't well-designed for teachers, might it be effective for students, as the promotional material printed on the back cover of the dust jacket would suggest? We are told that the Masterworks series provides "[a] necessary addition to collections serving high school and university students." If so, the overview of critical commentaries on the novel and other sections need to be developed to be comprehensible to this audience. For instance, in chapter 3, "The Critical Reception," Rahn provides no more than one- or two-sentence references to the critical analyses of Baum's book; she doesn't provide enough context for students at any level to comprehend or apply them. Referring...

What is Reflection? On reflection in the teaching profession and teacher education

Abstract The first part of the article gives an outline of the notion of reflection in contemporary pedagogy: the situation in research and practice as well as the problem situation. In the second part of the article some basic characteristics of reflection are described and discussed. In this part semantic and ontological aspects of reflection are examined. Four basic aspects of reflection are highlighted: reflection as self‐reflection, reflection as thinking, reflection as self‐understanding and the distancing function of self‐reflection. In this connection Schon's influential but unclear concept of reflection in action is critically examined.

Vladimir Solov'ev's Rossiia i vselenskaia tserkov', Early Slavophilism's Pneumatic Spirit, and the Pauline Prophet

The publication of La Russie et l'Eglise Universelle in 1889 marked the culmination of Vladimir Solov'ev's decade-long effort to develop his theocracy.'' In the first two books of this work, which appeared as Rossiia i vselenskaia tserkov' in 1911, Solov'ev thoroughly examines the modern social relationships between two members of his theocracy: the Priest (in the form of the Pope) and the King (in the form of the Tsar and other heads of state). But he discusses the third member of his theocracy, the Prophet, mainly through the use of historical models. Using the social model of the biblical Jewish as an element of the theocratic preparation of Christ, Solov'ev depicts the prophet, a figure with whom Solov'ev identifies,2 as a spiritual guide for the modern Church and state.3 Yet, in light of two to three thousand years of teleological progress by mankind toward the free union with the Divinity, Solov'ev leaves the reader with an unclear conception of the nature and function of the contemporary prophet in modern society.4 This paper will piece together the modern social role of Solov'ev's contemporary prophet and discuss how this actually differs from Solov'ev's professed model, the of

Outlook for Industrialization of the Arab World

Historical, economic and institutional factors are examined to show that the Arab states, since their independence, have managed, despite continuous efforts, to accomplish only a modest industrial development. The general tendency of the relevant literature in Arabic is committed to mechanistic approaches and unclear concepts. It seems that, without some degree of regional integration, no real industrial improvement is likely. The paper argues that even this integration will not do. The failure of the Arab world over the last several decades to mobilize its human resources, identifies the chief obstacle to sustained industrial improvements in the Arab world.

Support network characteristics associated with support satisfaction and perceived support

Social support networks, supportive behaviors, and subjective appraisals of support (perceptions, satisfaction) have emerged as three approaches to support conceptualization and measurement. We see these as three equally legitimate components of the support meta-construct, and ask what support network characteristics are associated with perceptions of and satisfaction with support. Ninety-eight nontraditional women students (ages 30 to 61) provided data on characteristics of networks providing five modes of support, satisfaction with each mode of support, and perceptions of support from family, friends, and others. Bi- and multivariate analyses yielded complex findings but indicated that support perceptions and satisfaction are related to size of support mode-specific networks, closeness of network relationships, and composition of networks, particularly the presence of a spouse, and the proportion of close friends, acquaintances, and immediate family. Since Cobb's (1976) enthusiastic review, a huge volume of empirical literature has emerged under the rubric of social support-recognition of the importance of context in the development and maintenance of individual well-being and distress. Unfortunately, this research has often been conducted without the prerequisite theoretical and conceptual analysis of the support construct, resulting in a plethora of idiosyncratic measures (often post hoc) exhibiting dubious relevance to unclear concepts (Barrera, 1981; Dean & Lin, 1977; Heller & Swindle, 1983; Thoits, 1982).

観察学習における媒介過程

To analyse the role of the mediational process in observational learning, two experiments explored how the learning of the subjects with a clear concept of “right and left side” differed from those with an unclear concept when they attempted to realize observational learning of a “right and left side” discrimination problem. The subjects were the first through fifth graders (Exp. I) and the second and third graders (Exp. II) at a primary school. The results demonstrated that no occurrence of observational learning was found in the subjects with an unclear concept of “right and left side”, and that younger children performed poorer than older ones even with a clear concept.

Opportunity for What? Some remarks on current disputes about equality in education

In the past few years a great many heads have been broken in many places in disputes about equal rights; and of these disputes that about equality in education has been one of the most violent in some countries. It is my belief that at least some of these heads would not have been broken if some clearer thinking had been going on inside them. Not that everything can be achieved by clear thinking; firmness of purpose and other moral qualities are also required. But if more clarity were introduced into these disputes, some of the violence might be replaced by cooperation, when the disputants discovered that there were principles (perhaps a bit less simple than the slogans on their placards) upon which they could agree. That, at any rate, is the hope with which I, as a philosopher, approach this question. Nearly all disputes about equality are expressed in the language of rights. This is a pity; for out of all the concepts in our moral language that of rights is one of the least clear, and the efforts of philosophers have attained less success here than perhaps they have elsewhere. It would seem that rights have something to do withjustice; but that too is a very unclear concept. It, in turn, has something to do with what we ought to be doing or what it is right to do; but the relation is as yet unexplained. I shall spend the first part of this paper examining these concepts and the relations between them; and then in the rest I shall go on to apply what I have said to some practical issues of some importance. If any reader finds the analysis dry or remote, I ask him to be patient. I shall not be able to make it very long or thorough; I have tried elsewhere [i] to give a fuller account of justice, and shall have to limit myself to a summary treatment here. Rights are the stamping-ground of intuitionists of those who think that they just know the answers to moral questions, without argument or the use of reason. That, indeed, is why so many heads get broken. For quite a time useful work has been in progress (starting at least with that of Wesley Hohfeld [2]) on the articulation and clarification of different senses of the word 'rights', in legal contexts especially. But on the more fundamental question of how we establish what our rights (meaning especially our moral rights) are, I know of no solid ground on which to stand. It will help to remind ourselves of some well-known distinctions, and of the way in which the concept of legal rights functions (though I shall not be able to be rigorous enough to satisfy the lawyers); there are important analogies between legal and moral rights, but they do not take us all the way. The reason is that, whereas in the legal case there are the courts and the legislature to decide what our rights are, or are to be, and what they say goes, in the case of moral rights there is no similar authority to appeal to (which, again, accounts for some broken heads).