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Core Assumptions (core + assumption)
Selected AbstractsBeyond Trauma-Focused Psychiatric Epidemiology: Bridging Research and Practice With War-Affected PopulationsAMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY, Issue 4 2006Kenneth E. Miller PhD This article examines the centrality of trauma-focused psychiatric epidemiology (TFPE) in research with war-affected populations. The authors question the utility of the dominant focus on posttraumatic stress disorder and other disorders of Western psychiatry, and they identify a set of critical research foci related to mental health work with communities affected by political violence. Core assumptions of TFPE and its roots in logical positivism and the biomedical model of contemporary psychiatry are explored. The authors suggest that an alternative framework,social constructivism,can serve as a bridge between researchers and practitioners by helping to refocus research efforts in ways that are conceptually and methodologically more attuned to the needs of war-affected communities and those working to address their mental health needs. [source] International Conflict and the Tenure of Leaders: Is War Still Ex Post Inefficient?AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2004Giacomo Chiozza Recent work in comparative politics and international relations has shown a marked shift toward leaders as the theoretical unit of analysis. In most of the new theoretical models a core assumption is that leaders act to stay in power. There exists, however, remarkably little systematic empirical knowledge about the factors that affect the tenure of leaders. To provide a baseline of empirical results we explore how a broad range of domestic and international factors affects the tenure of leaders. We focus in particular on the effect of conflict and its outcome. We find that political institutions fundamentally mediate the costs and benefits of international conflict and that war is not necessarilyex postinefficient for leaders. This suggests that the assumption that war isex postinefficient for unitary rational actors can not be simply extended to leaders. Therefore, a focus on leaders may yield important new rationalist explanations for war. [source] A CRITICAL LOOK AT PAP ADEQUECY: ARE OUR CRITERIA SATISFACTORY?CYTOPATHOLOGY, Issue 2006D.R. Bolick Liquid based Pap (LBP) specimen adequacy is a highly documented, yet poorly understood cornerstone of our GYN cytology practice. Each day, as cytology professionals, we make adequacy assessments and seldom wonder how the criteria we use were established. Are the criteria appropriate? Are they safe? What is the scientific data that support them? Were they clinically and statistically tested or refined to achieve optimal patient care? In this presentation, we will take a fresh look at what we know about Pap specimen adequacy and challenge some of the core assumptions of our daily practice. LBP tests have a consistent, well-defined surface area for screening, facilitating the quantitative estimates of slide cellularity. This provides an unprecedented opportunity to establish reproducible adequacy standards that can be subjected to scientific scrutiny and rigorous statistical analysis. Capitalizing on this opportunity, the TBS2001 took the landmark step to define specimen adequacy quantitatively, and set the threshold for a satisfactory LBP at greater than 5,000 well visualized squamous epithelial cells. To date, few published studies have attempted to evaluate the validity or receiver operator characteristics for this threshold, define an optimal threshold for clinical utility or assess risks of detection failure in ,satisfactory' but relatively hypocellular Pap specimens. Five years of cumulative adequacy and cellularity data of prospectively collected Pap samples from the author's laboratory will be presented, which will serve as a foundation for a discussion on ,Pap failure'. A relationship between cellularity and detection of HSIL will be presented. Risk levels for Pap failure will be presented for Pap samples of different cellularities. The effect of different cellularity criterion on unsatisfactory Pap rates and Pap failure rates will be demonstrated. Results from this data set raise serious questions as to the safety of current TBS2001 adequacy guidelines and suggest that the risk of Pap failure in specimens with 5,000 to 20 000 squamous cells on the slide is significantly higher than those assumed by the current criteria. TBS2001 designated all LBP to have the same adequacy criterion. Up to this point, it has been assumed that ThinPrep, SurePath, or any other LBP would be sufficiently similar that they should have the same adequacy criteria. Data for squamous cellularity and other performance characteristics of ThinPrep and SurePath from the author's laboratory will be compared. Intriguing data involving the recently approved MonoPrep Pap Test will be reviewed. MonoPrep clinical trial data show the unexpected finding of a strong correlation between abundance of endocervical component and the detection of high-grade lesions, provoking an inquiry of a potential new role for a quantitative assessment of the transition zone component. The current science of LBP adequacy criteria is underdeveloped and does not appear to be founded on statistically valid methods. This condition calls us forward as a body of practitioners and scientists to rigorously explore, clarify and define the fundamental nature of cytology adequacy. As we forge this emerging science, we will improve diagnostic performance, guide the development of future technologies, and better serve the patients who give us their trust. Reference:, Birdsong GG: Pap smear adequacy: Is our understanding satisfactory? Diagn Cytopathol. 2001 Feb; 24(2): 79,81. [source] The notion of ,phonology' in dyslexia research: cognitivism,and beyondDYSLEXIA, Issue 3 2007Per Henning Uppstad Abstract Phonology has been a central concept in the scientific study of dyslexia over the past decades. Despite its central position, however, it is a concept with no precise definition or status. The present article investigates the notion of ,phonology' in the tradition of cognitive psychology. An attempt is made to characterize the basic assumptions of the phonological approach to dyslexia and to evaluate these assumptions on the basis of commonly accepted standards of empirical science. First, the core assumptions of phonological awareness are outlined and discussed. Second, the position of Paula Tallal is presented and discussed in order to shed light on an attempt to stretch the cognitive-psychological notion of ,phonology' towards auditory and perceptual aspects. Both the core assumptions and Tallal's position are rejected as unfortunate, albeit for different reasons. Third, the outcome of this discussion is a search for what is referred to as a ,vulnerable theory' within this field. The present article claims that phonological descriptions must be based on observable linguistic behaviour, so that hypotheses can be falsified by data. Consequently, definitions of ,dyslexia' must be based on symptoms; causal aspects should not be included. In fact, we claim that causal aspects, such as ,phonological deficit', both exclude other causal hypotheses and lead to circular reasoning. If we are to use terms such as ,phonology' and ,phoneme' in dyslexia research, we must have more precise operationalizations of them. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Singing Our World into Existence: International Relations Theory and September 11INTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2004February 2, Portland, Presidential Address to the International Studies Association This paper focuses on the relationship between International Relations theory and ethics. It poses the question of the complicity of the discipline in the events of September 11, 2001. The paper begins with a discussion of Weber's notion of science as a vocation, and links this to the commitment in the discipline to a value-free conception of social science, one that sharply separates facts from values. The paper then examines the role of ten core assumptions in International Relations theory in helping to construct a discipline that has a culturally and historically very specific notion of violence, one resting on distinctions between economics and politics, between the outside and the inside of states, and between the public and the private realms. Using the United Nations Human Development report, the paper summarizes a number of forms of violence in world politics, and questions why the discipline of International Relations only focuses on a small subset of these. The paper then refers to the art of Magritte, and specifically Velazquez's painting Las Meninas, to argue for a notion of representation relevant to the social world that stresses negotiation, perspective, and understanding rather than notions of an underlying Archimedean foundation to truth claims. In concluding, the paper asserts that the discipline helped to sing into existence the world of September 11 by reflecting the interests of the dominant in what were presented as being neutral, and universal theories. [source] Truth-Seeking, Truth-Telling, and Postconflict Peacebuilding: Curb the Enthusiasm?,INTERNATIONAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 3 2004David Mendeloff This essay evaluates popular and scholarly claims about the peace-promoting benefits of formal truth-telling and truth-seeking mechanisms in the aftermath of civil wars. Its purpose is twofold. First, it synthesizes and clearly articulates in one place the full range of claims about the relationship between truth-telling and peacebuilding. Second, it evaluates these claims by systematically examining the core factual and theoretical assumptions on which they are based. An argument is made that many such claims,and their core assumptions,are flawed or highly contentious as well as that truth-telling advocates claim far more about the power of truth-telling than logic or evidence dictates. This is not to say that truth-telling has no role to play in preventing the resumption of violent conflict in postwar societies, only that proponents likely overstate its importance. Before proclaiming the necessity of truth commissions or trials in the aftermath of violent conflict, we need to better understand how truth-telling prevents the recurrence of civil war, how important it is relative to other factors and other peacebuilding strategies, and when it is likely to prove helpful, harmful, or irrelevant. [source] The Limits to Public Value, or Rescuing Responsible Government from the Platonic GuardiansAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 4 2007R.A.W. Rhodes In various guises, public value has become extraordinarily popular in recent years. We challenge the relevance and usefulness of the approach in Westminster systems with their dominant hierarchies of control, strong roles for ministers, and tight authorising regimes underpinned by disciplined two-party systems. We start by spelling out the core assumptions behind the public value approach. We identify two key confusions; about public value as theory, and in defining ,public managers'. We identify five linked core assumptions in public value: the benign view of large-scale organisations; the primacy of management; the relevance of private sector experience; the downgrading of party politics; and public servants as Platonic guardians. We then focus on the last two assumptions because they are the least applicable in Westminster systems. We defend the ,primacy of party politics' and we criticise the notion that public managers should play the role of Platonic guardians deciding the public interest. The final section of the article presents a ,ladder of public value' by which to gauge the utility of the approach for public managers in Westminster systems. [source] Re-imagining Relevance: A Response to Starkey and MadanBRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, Issue 2001Christopher Grey Starkey and Madan (2001) propose that changing conditions of knowledge production mean that business schools face an increasing relevance gap which, if they do not respond, will be filled by management consultants and corporate universities. In this response, I question the core assumptions of their analysis, suggesting that they misunderstand both the historical role and present practices of universities and business schools. In particular they fail to understand the complexities of knowledge production, its relationship to practice and the importance of ,independence' which is the unique contribution that universities make to society. I argue that their proposal to bridge the relevance gap would, if adopted, have the effect of leaving business schools with no defensible social role. Thus, ironically, their ,solution' to the challenges facing business schools would in fact exacerbate the problems they currently face. [source] Relationship Development and Workplace Integration: An Evolutionary PerspectiveCOMMUNICATION THEORY, Issue 4 2005JC. Bruno Teboul In this article, the authors argue that recent scholarship emanating from the field of evolutionary psychology (EP) promises to further current understanding of relationship development processes in organizations. To this end, they briefly review EP's core assumptions about human nature and behavior and then examine three adaptive mechanisms that underlie close relational functioning in the workplace. Specifically, the authors describe how reciprocal altruism and preference for similarity, coupled with sensitivity toward prestige hierarchies, underscore the exchange and coordination activities of employees' relationships at work. The proposed model of relationship development is discussed in terms of employee adjustment and integration processes. In conclusion, the authors highlight the potential of EP as both (a) a metatheoretic framework through which seemingly disparate areas of scholarship can be unified, and (b) a vehicle for theoretical development, a catalyst of novel predictions about communication in organizations, grounded in ultimate, rather than proximate, causation. [source] | ||||||||||||||||