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Empirical Knowledge (empirical + knowledge)
Selected AbstractsValues and technology assessmentin psychiatryACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 399 2000T. Nilstun Economic resources for health care are limited and they should be distributed as fairly and effectively as possible. But the basis for such a distribution is far from clear. What interests are involved? What kind of provision of care is most efficient? How far should the distribution be left to market solutions? What is the proper role of health care politicians and authorities? In technology assessment a promising combination of value premises and empirical knowledge is used in answering such questions. The aim of this introductory article is to explore issues related to values and value conflicts that have implications for technology assessment. Ethical principles are discussed and related to problematic issues in mental health care such as the absence of psychiatry, the abuse of psychiatry, the definition of mental illness, diagnostic activities, treatment decisions, priority setting as well as research and development. [source] Toward an Integrative Model of Effective FOB SuccessionENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 4 2004Isabelle Le Breton-Miller Given that less than 10% of family owned businesses (FOBs) survive into the third generation, the issue of top executive succession has received a good deal of attention. Unfortunately, the literature on the topic is fragmented, as it deals with different parts of the elephant. This synthetic effort tries to put together the pieces to (1) derive a more encompassing model of what it takes for a succession to succeed, (2) determine the trends, consensus findings, as well as the gaps in our conceptual and empirical knowledge, and (3) suggest areas for further research. [source] Fuzzy torque distribution control for a parallel hybrid vehicleEXPERT SYSTEMS, Issue 1 2002Jong-Seob Won A fuzzy torque distribution controller for energy management (and emission control) of a parallel hybrid electric vehicle is proposed. The proposed controller is implemented in terms of a hierarchical architecture which incorporates the mode of operation of the vehicle as well as empirical knowledge of energy flow in each mode. Moreover, the rule set for each mode of operation of the vehicle is designed in view of an overall energy management strategy that ranges from maximal emphasis on battery charge sustenance to complete reliance on the electrical power source. The proposed control system is evaluated via computational simulations under the FTP75 urban drive cycle. Simulation results reveal that the proposed fuzzy torque distribution strategy is effective over the entire operating range of the vehicle in terms of performance, fuel economy and emissions. [source] Advances in Latino Family Research: Cultural Adaptations of Evidence-Based InterventionsFAMILY PROCESS, Issue 2 2009GUILLERMO BERNAL PH.D. The stark contrast between frequent calls for research and practice that are applicable across a broad spectrum of cultural and ethnically diverse groups and the dearth of empirical knowledge about Latino families provided the impetus for this special issue on advances in Latino family research. A focus on empirically based practice frames the issue, focusing specifically on how concepts (expressed emotion, parenting style) can be used within interventions, how Latino parents perceive efforts to deliver evidence-based interventions, and how pilot projects that delivered culturally adapted interventions in three separate cities impacted family functioning. In all, the introduction highlights the complexities for researchers in meeting the needs of the field to ensure that effective interventions are applicable across cultural groups. Meeting the challenges is important to address the need of the growing Latino population. Advances in intervention research with ethnic minorities also stand to contribute to the advancement of intervention research broadly. This special issue provides examples of efforts that are underway to better understand what treatments work for Latino families, provided by whom, for what specific problems, and in which specific circumstances, paving the way to begin attempting to answer a challenge posed more than 40 years ago by Gordon Paul. RESUMEN El marcado contraste entre las frecuentes convocatorias para investigaciones y prácticas aplicables a un amplio espectro de grupos de distintas culturas y razas, y la escasez de conocimiento empírico sobre las familias latinas sirvieron como impulso para publicar este número especial sobre los avances en las investigaciones relativas a las familias latinas. La publicación está enmarcada en el análisis de la práctica sustentada empíricamente, centrándose específicamente en cómo los conceptos (emoción expresada, estilo de crianza de los hijos) pueden utilizarse dentro de las intervenciones, en cómo los padres latinos perciben las iniciativas de realizar intervenciones sustentadas empíricamente y en cómo los proyectos piloto que ofrecieron intervenciones adaptadas culturalmente en tres ciudades distintas influyeron sobre el desenvolvimiento familiar. En general, la introducción destaca las complicaciones que enfrentan los investigadores a la hora de responder a las necesidades del campo para garantizar que puedan aplicarse intervenciones eficaces a distintos grupos culturales. Resolver estas complicaciones es importante para responder a la necesidad de la población latina en aumento. Los avances en las investigaciones sobre intervenciones con minorías étnicas también contribuyen al avance de las investigaciones sobre intervenciones en general. La publicación especial ofrece ejemplos de iniciativas que están en marcha para comprender mejor qué tratamientos son eficaces para las familias latinas, quiénes deben proporcionarlos, para qué problemas específicos y en qué circunstancias específicas, allanando el camino para comenzar a responder un problema que planteó Gordon Paul hace más de 40 años. Palabras clave: Latinos/hispanos, familia, adaptación cultural, intervención, salud mental de los latinos [source] A literature review of spirituality in coping with early-stage Alzheimer's diseaseJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 5a 2008Linda Beuscher PhD Aims., This paper presents a literature review focusing on the use of spirituality in coping by older persons with early-stage Alzheimer's disease from their perspectives. The purpose of this literature review is to examine the existing body of knowledge about spirituality in coping with Alzheimer's disease and to apply a spiritual framework of coping in organizing the literature to identify themes and gaps in knowledge. Background., Despite the abundance of Alzheimer's disease research, little is known about how older persons with this devastating disease cope with the consequential losses. Maintaining a sense of normalcy and preserving self-worth are coping strategies reported by older persons with early-stage Alzheimer's disease. As spirituality is an effective coping resource for older persons with numerous psychological and personal losses in their lives, it may be an important coping resource for person with Alzheimer's disease. Method., A literature search was conducted to find research published between 1990,2006 aimed at understanding spirituality in coping with early-stage Alzheimer's disease. Conclusions., Six research studies were reviewed. Findings suggest that persons with early-stage Alzheimer's disease draw from their spirituality and faith to find meaning and courage in facing the challenges of cognitive losses. Furthermore, they are able to provide rich information about their spirituality and the psychosocial aspects of living with Alzheimer's disease. Limited empirical knowledge compels the need for future research to explore how spirituality is utilized in coping with early-stage Alzheimer's disease. Relevance to clinical practice., Enhancing persons' abilities to cope effectively with their diseases is an important goal of nursing care. Understanding how older persons with Alzheimer's disease cope with their memory loss is critical to the development of evidence-based interventions to minimize the stress of living with this disease. [source] Developing and implementing a comprehensive approach to serving women with co-occurring disorders and histories of traumaJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2005Nicholas Huntington The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funded the Women, Co-Occurring Disorders and Violence Study to generate empirical knowledge on how to improve services for women who are trauma survivors and have co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. We first review the literature on the pervasiveness of trauma among women and the ways in which current service systems fail to address their needs. We then describe the four core principles of the model grantees developed to test in the project. Working through a project Steering Committee, grantees mandated that services be (a) integrated, (b) trauma-informed, (c) consumer-involved, and (d) comprehensive. For each of these principles, we describe the specifications adopted by the committee, the strategies the study sites used to implement the principle in their local settings, and the concrete lessons sites learned concerning how to implement the principle. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 33: 395,410, 2005. [source] Psychopharmacological and electroconvulsive treatment of anxiety and depression in the elderlyJOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 3 2000W. A. Heffern MN The pharmacotherapeutics of antianxiety and antidepressant medication in the elderly is reviewed, and the benefits and risks of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) are discussed. Physiological changes in normal ageing are described, and the pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic implications are addressed. Finally, the role of the advanced practice nurse (mental health/psychiatry) is discussed in terms of accountability, collaboration, and the development of empirical knowledge to enhance quality patient care. [source] Genetics and Neuroscience in Dyslexia: Perspectives for Education and RemediationMIND, BRAIN, AND EDUCATION, Issue 4 2007Gerd Schulte-Körne ABSTRACT , Our understanding of the causes of a developmental disorder like dyslexia has received recent input from both neuroscience and genetics. The discovery of 4 candidate genes for dyslexia and the identification of neuronal networks engaged when children read and spell are the basis for introducing this knowledge into education. However, the input from educational practitioners as well as empirical knowledge from research on learning also contribute significantly to our understanding of how children acquire the basic skills for learning to read and spell. It is imperative to merge the knowledge acquired from research in the fields of neuroscience, genetics, and empirical education, as well as to understand how the learning brain and instruction interact. Doing so can be seen as a major step in attaining an optimal approach for teaching, reading, and spelling and for finding the best suited and most effective treatment concepts for dyslexic children and adolescents. [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] Historicising Criminalisation: Conceptual and Empirical IssuesTHE MODERN LAW REVIEW, Issue 6 2009Nicola Lacey This paper charts a renaissance in scholarly analysis of criminalisation, and suggests that we do not have the conceptual tools or empirical knowledge to make the claims about ,overcriminalisation' which motivate much of this scholarship. My argument gives further shape to projects under the umbrella of criminalisation, setting out some of the conceptual issues to be resolved before we can work towards an adequate interpretive, and normative, vision of how criminal law has been and might be used. The paper elaborates a number of projects in ,criminalisation scholarship', and suggests there is a failure adequately to distinguish the different senses of ,criminalisation' in the literature, or the varying methods which might be applied within historical, interpretive, analytic and normative studies of criminalisation. In conclusion, the paper argues for a certain genre of criminalisation scholarship, and for a multi-disciplinary criminalisation research agenda informed by history, sociology and political science as much as by law, criminology and philosophy. [source] IDENTITY OVER TIME: OBJECTIVELY, SUBJECTIVELYTHE PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 230 2008Bas C. VanFraassen In the philosophy of science, identity over time emerges as a central concern both as an ontological category in the interpretation of physical theories, and as an epistemological problem concerning the conditions of possibility of knowledge. In Reichenbach and subsequent writers on the problem of indistinguishable quantum particles we see the return of a contrast between Leibniz and Aquinas on the subject of individuation. The possibility of rejecting the principle of the identity of indiscernibles has certain logical difficulties, leading us inexorably from ontology into epistemology. For the epistemological problem we attend to the differences that emerged between the (neo-)Kantian and logical empiricist traditions, also saliently displayed in Reichenbach's writings. After examining the contrast between Kant's and Leibniz's conceptions of empirical knowledge, specifically with respect to the irreducibility of spatiotemporal determinations, we explore an application of a neo-Kantian view to the same problem of indistinguishable quantum particles. [source] Complexation of the Vulcanization Accelerator Tetramethylthiuram Disulfide and Related Molecules with Zinc Compounds Including Zinc Oxide Clusters (Zn4O4)CHEMISTRY - A EUROPEAN JOURNAL, Issue 3 2008Ralf Steudel Prof. Abstract Zinc chemicals are used as activators in the vulcanization of organic polymers with sulfur to produce elastic rubbers. In this work, the reactions of Zn2+, ZnMe2, Zn(OMe)2, Zn(OOCMe)2, and the heterocubane cluster Zn4O4 with the vulcanization accelerator tetramethylthiuram disulfide (TMTD) and with the related radicals and anions Me2NCS2., Me2NCS3., Me2NCS2,, and Me2NCS3, have been studied by quantum chemical methods at the MP2/6-31+G(2df,p)//B3LYP/6-31+G* level of theory. More than 35 zinc complexes have been structurally characterized and the energies of formation from their components calculated for the first time. The binding energy of TMTD as a bidendate ligand increases in the order ZnMe2
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