Complex Questions (complex + question)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


5.3 Global challenges in research and strategic planning

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF DENTAL EDUCATION, Issue 2002
Bruce J. Baum
Health sciences research is experiencing dramatic progress. How can dental schools throughout the world best make these research advances relevant for dental students, as well as providing them with the means to assess and utilize the research advances that will occur in the future? This complex question presents a critical challenge to the dental educational community. Research is clearly integral to the mission of dental education. By providing dental students with active learning strategies, dental educators can inculcate the ability for independent scientific thinking and thereby develop reflective as well as technically competent practitioners. However, there is a shortage of well-trained individuals to fill faculty and research positions in certain parts of the world. Global networks for mutual information exchange are imperative to overcome resource limitations in individual institutions, as is dedicated funding for research in the dental educational setting. [source]


Behind the Dream of the Arab.

ORBIS LITERARUM, Issue 2 2009
The Non-Publication of Wordsworth's The Prelude
This essay asks why Wordsworth did not publish his autobiographical poem, The Prelude, in 1805 when it was all but completed, but postponed publication indefinitely. It suggests that this is a complex question that needs a complex answer. The answer must take into consideration at least sociological aspects having to do with the literary marketplace, and metaphysical aspects having to do with the extent to which personal ,presence' is established in a work in manuscript as opposed to one published as a printed book around 1800. Having dealt with this material in its first part, in its second part the essay suggests that this question and its multiple answers are part of the meaning of one of the poem's cruxes, the so-called Dream of the Arab. [source]


Ethical, Legal, and Social Dimensions of Epilepsy Genetics

EPILEPSIA, Issue 10 2006
Sara Shostak
Summary:,Purpose: Emerging genetic information and the availability of genetic testing has the potential to increase understanding of the disease and improve clinical management of some types of epilepsy. However, genetic testing is also likely to raise significant ethical, legal, and social issues for people with epilepsy, their family members, and their health care providers. We review the genetic and social dimensions of epilepsy relevant to understanding the complex questions raised by epilepsy genetics. Methods: We reviewed two literatures: (a) research on the genetics of epilepsy, and (b) social science research on the social experience and social consequences of epilepsy. For each, we note key empiric findings and discuss their implications with regard to the consequences of emerging genetic information about epilepsy. We also briefly review available principles and guidelines from professional and advocacy groups that might help to direct efforts to ascertain and address the ethical, legal, and social dimensions of genetic testing for epilepsy. Results: Genetic information about epilepsy may pose significant challenges for people with epilepsy and their family members. Although some general resources are available for navigating this complex new terrain, no guidelines specific to epilepsy have yet been developed to assist people with epilepsy, their family members, or their health care providers. Conclusions: Research is needed on the ethical, legal, and social concerns raised by genetic research on epilepsy and the advent of genetic testing. This research should include the perspectives of people with epilepsy and their family members, as well as those of health care professionals, policymakers, and bioethicists. [source]


,Should I Stay or Should I Go ?',A Critical Analysis of the Right to Withdraw from the EU

EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 5 2010
Hannes Hofmeister
This article seeks to answer one of the key questions facing the EU in the future: what effect will the new right to withdraw have on the EU? Will it lead to a gradual fragmentation of what was supposed to be ,an ever closer union of unlimited duration'? Or will it even mark the beginning of the end of the Union? In order to answer these complex questions, this article first briefly analyses the pre-Lisbon situation regarding withdrawal. It then critically examines the newly inserted Article 50, which codifies the right to withdraw. Having done so, it will then examine whether non-legal considerations, such as political and economic reasons, will render withdrawal a theoretical rather than realistic option. [source]


Green fluorescent protein , a bright idea for the study of bacterial protein localization

FEMS MICROBIOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 1 2001
Gregory J Phillips
Abstract Use of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) of Aequorea victoria as a reporter for protein and DNA localization has provided sensitive, new approaches for studying the organization of the bacterial cell, leading to new insights into diverse cellular processes. GFP has many characteristics that make it useful for localization studies in bacteria, primarily its ability to fluoresce when fused to target polypeptides without the addition of exogenously added substrates. As an alternative to immunofluorescence microscopy, the expression of gfp gene fusions has been used to probe the function of cellular components fundamental for DNA replication, translation, protein export, and signal transduction, that heretofore have been difficult to study in living cells. Moreover, protein and DNA localization can now be monitored in real time, revealing that several proteins important for cell division, development and sporulation are dynamically localized throughout the cell cycle. The use of additional GFP variants that permit the labeling of multiple components within the same cell, and the use of GFP for genetic screens, should continue to make this a valuable tool for addressing complex questions about the bacterial cell. [source]


Ground Water Recharge and Chemical Contaminants: Challenges in Communicating the Connections and Collisions of Two Disparate Worlds

GROUND WATER MONITORING & REMEDIATION, Issue 2 2004
Christian G. Daughton
Our knowledge base regarding the presence and significance of chemicals foreign to the subsurface environment is large and growing , the papers in this volume serving as testament. However, complex questions with few answers surround the unknowns regarding the potential for environmental or human health effects from trace levels of xenobiotics in ground water, especially ground water augmented with treated waste water. Public acceptance for direct or indirect ground water recharge using treated municipal waste water (especially sewage) spans the spectrum from unquestioned embrace to outright rejection. In this paper, I detour around the issues most commonly discussed regarding ground water recharge and instead focus on some of the less-recognized issues,those that emanate from the mysteries created at the many literal and virtual interfaces involved with the subsurface world. My major objective is to catalyze discussion that advances our understanding of the barriers to public acceptance of waste water reuse with its ultimate culmination in direct reuse for drinking. I pose what could be a key question as to whether much of the public's frustration or ambivalence in its decision-making process for accepting, or rejecting, water reuse (for various purposes including personal use) emanates from fundamental inaccuracies, misrepresentation, or oversimplification of what water is and how it functions in the environment,just exactly what the water cycle is. These questions suggest it might behoove us to revisit some very elementary aspects of our science and how we are conveying them to the public. [source]


The influence of lawyers' questions on witness accuracy, confidence, and reaction times and on mock jurors' interpretation of witness accuracy

JOURNAL OF INVESTIGATIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND OFFENDER PROFILING, Issue 3 2010
Mark R. Kebbell
Abstract Two studies demonstrate the influence of lawyers' complex questions on mock-witness accuracy, confidence, and reaction times and on the interpretation of witness accuracy by mock jurors. In study one, 32 mock witnesses were shown a short film and then questioned either with lawyers' complex questions or simple alternatives. In Study 2, 20 mock jurors viewed video footage of the mock witnesses assigned to each of the two previous conditions and were asked to rate their confidence in the witnesses' answers. The findings of the two studies indicated that lawyers' use of confusing questions reduce not only accuracy but also speed of response and both witnesses' and jurors' ability to determine accuracy. The implication of these findings is straightforward, lawyers should ask simple questions wherever possible. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Making sex: law's narratives of sex, gender and identity

LEGAL STUDIES, Issue 1 2003
Laura Grenfell
From the 1970 decision of Corbett, onwards, legal narratives established two modes of categorising complex social identi5 in relation to sex and gender. These narratives responded to complex identity questions by attempting to simplify identity by limiting it to biological factors or anatomical and psychological factors. I demonstrate that the law's struggle to ,make' sex is reflected to a certain extent by feminism's trajectory, in that feminisms have also attempted to grapple with these complex questions, and often opted for the same simple solutions to the problem of understanding gender, sex and identity. The aim of this paper is to show that some strands of feminist theory, specifically post-structuralist feminist theory, can produce a more progressive and constructive approach to determining sex in their ability to illuminate the complexities of identity. In particular, my aim is to urge those courts that ,make' sex to consider these complexities and the implications that flow from placing transgender people into rigid arid narrow categories. [source]


Research paradigms in medical education research

MEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 4 2010
Suzanne Bunniss
Medical Education 2010: 44: 358,366 Context, The growing popularity of less familiar methodologies in medical education research, and the use of related data collection methods, has made it timely to revisit some basic assumptions regarding knowledge and evidence. Methods, This paper outlines four major research paradigms and examines the methodological questions that underpin the development of knowledge through medical education research. Discussion, This paper explores the rationale behind different research designs, and shows how the underlying research philosophy of a study can directly influence what is captured and reported. It also explores the interpretivist perspective in some depth to show how less familiar paradigm perspectives can provide useful insights to the complex questions generated by modern healthcare practice. Conclusions, This paper concludes that the quality of research is defined by the integrity and transparency of the research philosophy and methods, rather than the superiority of any one paradigm. By demonstrating that different methodological approaches deliberately include and exclude different types of data, this paper highlights how competing knowledge philosophies have practical implications for the findings of a study. [source]


Daphnia comes of age: an ecological model in the genomic era

MOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 7 2008
SARAH SCHAACK
Abstract Scientists in various subdisciplines of biology have long relied on model organisms to push the frontiers of knowledge forward as far as possible in their specific field. Today, interdisciplinary science requires model organisms that can push our understanding on multiple frontiers and help us formulate and address more complex questions. Members of the genus Daphnia represent just such an interdisciplinary model. Daphnia are aquatic microcrustaceans (also known as waterfleas) that have long been central to the study of ecology and toxicology and have recently been developed as a genomic model. A recent survey of both nuclear and mitochondrial markers in populations of the Daphnia pulex complex from high-altitude lakes in South America (Mergeay et al. 2008, this issue) provides an excellent example of how genetic data and ecological information can be used to push the boundaries of our understanding in molecular ecology. In this species complex, extensive hybridization has occurred resulting in polyploidization and, consequently, asexuality. Their data reveal high levels of genetic diversity, incongruence in phylogenetic signal among genomes (nuclear and mitochondrial), cryptic species in the complex, and a new model for the historical spread of the species throughout the Americas. Their data indicate that genome-level changes have occurred in this species which have profound consequences in an ecological context, the implications of which can be more fully appreciated because of our extensive knowledge of the ecology and natural history of the genus Daphnia. [source]


Nuclear DNA analyses in genetic studies of populations: practice, problems and prospects

MOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2003
De-Xing Zhang
Abstract Population-genetic studies have been remarkably productive and successful in the last decade following the invention of PCR technology and the introduction of mitochondrial and microsatellite DNA markers. While mitochondrial DNA has proven powerful for genealogical and evolutionary studies of animal populations, and microsatellite sequences are the most revealing DNA markers available so far for inferring population structure and dynamics, they both have important and unavoidable limitations. To obtain a fuller picture of the history and evolutionary potential of populations, genealogical data from nuclear loci are essential, and the inclusion of other nuclear markers, i.e. single copy nuclear polymorphic (scnp) sequences, is clearly needed. Four major uncertainties for nuclear DNA analyses of populations have been facing us, i.e. the availability of scnp markers for carrying out such analysis, technical laboratory hurdles for resolving haplotypes, difficulty in data analysis because of recombination, low divergence levels and intraspecific multifurcation evolution, and the utility of scnp markers for addressing population-genetic questions. In this review, we discuss the availability of highly polymorphic single copy DNA in the nuclear genome, describe patterns and rate of evolution of nuclear sequences, summarize past empirical and theoretical efforts to recover and analyse data from scnp markers, and examine the difficulties, challenges and opportunities faced in such studies. We show that although challenges still exist, the above-mentioned obstacles are now being removed. Recent advances in technology and increases in statistical power provide the prospect of nuclear DNA analyses becoming routine practice, allowing allele-discriminating characterization of scnp loci and microsatellite loci. This certainly will increase our ability to address more complex questions, and thereby the sophistication of genetic analyses of populations. [source]


The student athlete experience

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 144 2009
Joy Gaston Gayles
This chapter discusses data sources available for studying the experience of student athletes on college campuses and highlights the need for national-level data to address complex questions concerning this population. [source]


Identifying best practices and skills for workforce development in data curation

PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2007
P. Bryan Heidorn
The nature of science and scholarship is being transformed by the ability to collect and integrate vast quantities of information. Some sciences such as ecology and environmental science are inherently integrative, requiring the combination of many types of information from many sources in order to answer more complex questions than has been previously possible. This new information and the information management tools designed to deal with this volume of data will help us make informed decisions that will impact human health and prosperity. To enable this cross-scale, interdisciplinary integration for the coming generations of scholars, data must be managed to facilitate interoperability, preservation, and sharing. This panel will explore best practices in data curation and models of education for new data curation professionals. [source]