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Contemporary Methods (contemporary + methods)
Selected AbstractsEducating reflective systems developersINFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 2 2002Lars Mathiassen Abstract. Systems development research shows that practitioners seldom follow methods and that the competencies required for successful development of computer-based systems go well beyond those represented in contemporary methods. These insights make us question the role that methods should play in educating would-be developers. Pedagogical theories, such as situated learning and double-loop learning, complement these insights. Integrating the two, we argue that students need to complement the simplified accounts that methods express, with reflections on methods-in-use and on development practice in general. We present operationalizations of this idea in two quite different academic settings. Based on a retrospective analysis of our experiences in these settings, and a comparison and evaluation of the two approaches, we propose a number of lessons that can be used to improve the education of would-be developers. [source] If bone is the answer, then what is the question?JOURNAL OF ANATOMY, Issue 2 2000R. HUISKES In the 19th century, several scientists attempted to relate bone trabecular morphology to its mechanical, load-bearing function. It was suggested that bone architecture was an answer to requirements of optimal stress transfer, pairing maximal strength to minimal weight, according to particular mathematical design rules. Using contemporary methods of analysis, stress transfer in bones was studied and compared with anatomical specimens, from which it was hypothesised that trabecular architecture is associated with stress trajectories. Others focused on the biological processes by which trabecular architectures are formed and on the question of how bone could maintain the relationship between external load and architecture in a variable functional environment. Wilhelm Roux introduced the principle of functional adaptation as a self-organising process based in the tissues. Julius Wolff, anatomist and orthopaedic surgeon, entwined these 3 issues in his book The Law of Bone Remodeling (translation), which set the stage for biomechanical research goals in our day. ,Wolff's Law' is a question rather than a law, asking for the requirements of structural optimisation. In this article, based on finite element analysis (FEA) results of stress transfer in bones, it is argued that it was the wrong question, putting us on the wrong foot. The maximal strength/minimal weight principle does not provide a rationale for architectural formation or adaptation; the similarity between trabecular orientation and stress trajectories is circumstantial, not causal. Based on computer simulations of bone remodelling as a regulatory process, governed by mechanical usage and orchestrated by osteocyte mechanosensitivity, it is shown that Roux's paradigm, conversely, is a realistic proposition. Put in a quantitative regulatory context, it can predict both trabecular formation and adaptation. Hence, trabecular architecture is not an answer to Wolff's question, in the sense of this article's title. There are no mathematical optimisation rules for bone architecture; there is just a biological regulatory process, producing a structure adapted to mechanical demands by the nature of its characteristics, adequate for evolutionary endurance. It is predicted that computer simulation of this process can help us to unravel its secrets. [source] Oxidative Stress Following Traumatic Brain Injury in RatsJOURNAL OF NEUROCHEMISTRY, Issue 5 2000Detection of Free Radical Intermediates, Quantitation of Biomarkers Abstract: Oxidative stress may contribute to many pathophysiologic changes that occur after traumatic brain injury. In the current study, contemporary methods of detecting oxidative stress were used in a rodent model of traumatic brain injury. The level of the stable product derived from peroxidation of arachidonyl residues in phospholipids, 8- epi -prostaglandin F2,, was increased at 6 and 24 h after traumatic brain injury. Furthermore, relative amounts of fluorescent end products of lipid peroxidation in brain extracts were increased at 6 and 24 h after trauma compared with sham-operated controls. The total antioxidant reserves of brain homogenates and water-soluble antioxidant reserves as well as tissue concentrations of ascorbate, GSH, and protein sulfhydryls were reduced after traumatic brain injury. A selective inhibitor of cyclooxygenase-2, SC 58125, prevented depletion of ascorbate and thiols, the two major water-soluble antioxidants in traumatized brain. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy of rat cortex homogenates failed to detect any radical adducts with a spin trap, 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline N -oxide, but did detect ascorbate radical signals. The ascorbate radical EPR signals increased in brain homogenates derived from traumatized brain samples compared with sham-operated controls. These results along with detailed model experiments in vitro indicate that ascorbate is a major antioxidant in brain and that the EPR assay of ascorbate radicals may be used to monitor production of free radicals in brain tissue after traumatic brain injury. [source] Structure, Agency and Power in Political Analysis: Beyond Contextualised Self-InterpretationsPOLITICAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 2 2008Jason Glynos This article evaluates Mark Bevir and Rod Rhodes' interpretive approach to political analysis by examining their account of social change. Their work is significant because they have endeavoured to construct a distinctive approach which strikes a productive balance between philosophical reflection and analytical attention to the empirical domain. Moreover, in elaborating their approach, Bevir and Rhodes wage a war along a number of fronts: positivism, institutionalism and post-structuralism, and so an analysis of their work enables us to take stock of a range of contemporary methods and approaches. In considering their underlying presuppositions and commitments, we pay particular attention to their account of human agency and its relationship to social structures and political power. While we agree with much of their critique of positivism, naturalism, realism and institutionalism, we argue that Bevir and Rhodes risk overplaying the role of interpreting the individual beliefs and desires of relevant actors to the detriment of a wider net of social practices and logics. Moreover, in challenging their understanding of the post-structuralist approach to political analysis we develop its resources to enrich the possibilities of a critical interpretivism, moving beyond concepts like tradition, dilemma and situated agency. Put more precisely, we argue that the radical contingency of social structures and human agency , their structural incompleteness , discloses new ways of understanding both their character and their mutual intertwining. For example, we develop the categories of lack, dislocation and political identification to think human agency and its relation to wider social structures. More broadly, we argue that an approach developed around different sorts of logics , social, political and fantasmatic , goes some way to steering a different course between a pure thick descriptivism that focuses principally on individual beliefs and desires on the one hand, and a concern with causal laws and mechanisms on the other. [source] Assessment and Statistics of Surgically Induced AstigmatismACTA OPHTHALMOLOGICA, Issue thesis1 2008Kristian Nęser Abstract. The aim of the thesis was to develop methods for assessment of surgically induced astigmatism (SIA) in individual eyes, and in groups of eyes. The thesis is based on 12 peer-reviewed publications, published over a period of 16 years. In these publications older and contemporary literature was reviewed1. A new method (the polar system) for analysis of SIA was developed. Multivariate statistical analysis of refractive data was described2,4. Clinical validation studies were performed. The description of a cylinder surface with polar values and differential geometry was compared. The main results were: refractive data in the form of sphere, cylinder and axis may define an individual patient or data set, but are unsuited for mathematical and statistical analyses1. The polar value system converts net astigmatisms to orthonormal components in dioptric space. A polar value is the difference in meridional power between two orthogonal meridians5,6. Any pair of polar values, separated by an arch of 45 degrees, characterizes a net astigmatism completely7. The two polar values represent the net curvital and net torsional power over the chosen meridian8. The spherical component is described by the spherical equivalent power. Several clinical studies demonstrated the efficiency of multivariate statistical analysis of refractive data4,9,11. Polar values and formal differential geometry describe astigmatic surfaces with similar concepts and mathematical functions8. Other contemporary methods, such as Long's power matrix, Holladay's and Alpins' methods, Zernike12 and Fourier analyses8, are correlated to the polar value system. In conclusion, analysis of SIA should be performed with polar values or other contemporary component systems. [source] | ||||||||||