Transformations in Educational Research and the Functionalist Framework

Functionalism was described by J. H. Turner as one of the most general and at the same time most significant perspectives of contemporary sociology. It is founded on organicist ideas which define the essence of social life in terms of analogous to biological life. Functionalism was fundamentally formed by the notion that social reality needed to be studied as a system, that the processes unfolding in this system could be understood only in the context of relationships among the elements of this system and, finally, that the social organism, as any other organism, exhibited internal integration tendencies. The early functionalist beliefs grounded on these assumptions were crucially re-worked by Robert Merton, becoming an attractive research perspective in social sciences which is particularly useful in the study of educational phenomena and processes

Going to Court to Change Japan

"Going to Court to Change Japan takes us inside movements dealing with causes as disparate as death by overwork, the rights of the deaf, access to prisoners on death row, consumer product safety, workers whose companies go bankrupt, and persons convicted of crimes they did not commit. Each of the six fascinating case studies stands on its own as a detailed account of how a social movement has persisted against heavy odds to pursue a cause through the use of the courts. The studies pay particular attention to the relationship between the social movement and the lawyers who handle their cases, usually pro bono or for minimal fees. Through these case studies we learn much about how the law operates in Japan as well as how social movements mobilize and innovate to pursue their goals using legal channels. The book also provides a general introduction to the Japanese legal system and a look at how recent legal reforms are working. Going to Court to Change Japan will interest social scientists, lawyers, and anyone interested in the inner workings of contemporary Japan. It is suitable for use in a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses on Japan in social sciences and law, and can also provide a comparative perspective to general courses in these fields. Contributors include John H. Davis Jr., Daniel H. Foote, Patricia L. Maclachlan, Karen Nakamura, Scott North, Patricia G. Steinhoff, and Christena Turner.

Going to Court to Change Japan

"Going to Court to Change Japan takes us inside movements dealing with causes as disparate as death by overwork, the rights of the deaf, access to prisoners on death row, consumer product safety, workers whose companies go bankrupt, and persons convicted of crimes they did not commit. Each of the six fascinating case studies stands on its own as a detailed account of how a social movement has persisted against heavy odds to pursue a cause through the use of the courts. The studies pay particular attention to the relationship between the social movement and the lawyers who handle their cases, usually pro bono or for minimal fees. Through these case studies we learn much about how the law operates in Japan as well as how social movements mobilize and innovate to pursue their goals using legal channels. The book also provides a general introduction to the Japanese legal system and a look at how recent legal reforms are working. Going to Court to Change Japan will interest social scientists, lawyers, and anyone interested in the inner workings of contemporary Japan. It is suitable for use in a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses on Japan in social sciences and law, and can also provide a comparative perspective to general courses in these fields. Contributors include John H. Davis Jr., Daniel H. Foote, Patricia L. Maclachlan, Karen Nakamura, Scott North, Patricia G. Steinhoff, and Christena Turner.

Productivity and its impact in the ISI and Scopus citation databases from 1996 to 2005

Bibliometric research of the productivity of all doctors of natural and social sciences is presented in this paper. Due to selectiveness, and particularly due to the orientation towards scientific periodicals and the English language, scientific output indexed in WoS and Scopus databases favours hard science publications, and consequently manifests even greater differences among the observed domains. To be more precise, the natural sciences greatly surpass the social sciences in terms of productivity, citation rate and the h-index. According to WoS, the average number of papers per natural scientist was ten times the number of papers per social scientist. Practically three quarters of the social scientists did not publish a single paper referenced in these databases over a period of ten years, compared to slightly over one tenth of the natural scientists. The average citation rate of a natural science paper was almost three times the citation rate per paper from the social sciences. In contrast to the social sciences that still lag behind the world average for its area, the natural sciences in general are less far behind, while some of the disciplines are on a par with their international counterparts. The defects in the international bibliometric and citation databases and the mentioned differences in patterns of scientific communication strongly suggest that the bibliometric monitoring of publications in the social sciences and humanities should not rest on the same methodological assumptions that apply to the hard sciences (Nederhof, 2006). In addition, significant disciplinary oscillations were determined in the natural and social sciences. Scientific fields show specific publication practices, making the levelling of criteria in any of the two observed scientific areas utterly questionable

Correlation between Latin American And Caribbean Journals Impact Indicators

Purpose – Identify the levels of correlation between impact indicators from Latin American and Caribbean journals indexed in databases.The selected indicators are the Impact Factor, 5-year Impact Factor, EigenFactor Score, Article Influence Score, Journal Citation Indicator, SJR, CiteScore, h-index (SJR), Source-normalized Impact per Paper, and h5-index Design/methodology/approach – Data were downloaded from Journal Citation Reports, SCimago, and Scopus. A Phyton script was used to search for journals titles and extract the h5-indexfrom Google Scholar Metrics. Pearson and Spearman coefficients tests were used to identify the level of correlation between pairs of indicators from the same set of journals. Data are analyzed in general, and according to the areas of Science, Technology and Medicine, and Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Findings – The correlation coefficients are positive moderate (0.40  0.90) between Impact Factor, 5-year Impact Factor, and CiteScore (CS),Science, Technology and Medicine journals have stronger correlation levels than Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences journals. Considering the relationship between availability and average correlation, the CS and the h5-index are the most suitable indicators for journals assessment in the region. Originality/value – This paper provides a correlation analysis between impact indicators of all indexed Latin American and Caribbean journals. It is also innovative by using an automated technique of search and data extraction in Google Scholar Metrics.The results can contributeto the elaboration of journals evaluation policies in the countries of the region

Strategies to support engagement and continuity of activity during mealtimes for families living with dementia; a qualitative study

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Keller, H. H., Martin, L. S., Dupuis, S., Reimer, H., & Genoe, R. (2015). Strategies to support engagement and continuity of activity during mealtimes for families living with dementia; a qualitative study. BMC Geriatrics, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-015-0120-2Background Mealtimes are an essential part of living and quality of life for everyone, including persons living with dementia. A longitudinal qualitative study provided understanding of the meaning of mealtimes for persons with dementia and their family care partners. Strategies were specifically described by families to support meaningful mealtimes. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the strategies devised and used by these families living with dementia. Methods A longitudinal qualitative study was undertaken to explore the meaning and experience of mealtimes for families living with dementia over a three-year period. 27 families [older person with dementia and at least one family care partner] were originally recruited from the community of South-Western Ontario. Individual and dyad interviews were conducted each year. Digitally recorded transcripts were analyzed using grounded theory methodology. Strategies were identified and categorized. Results Strategies to support quality mealtimes were devised by families as they adapted to their evolving lives. General strategies such as living in the moment, as well as strategies specific to maintaining social engagement and continuity of mealtime activities were reported. Conclusions In addition to nutritional benefit, family mealtimes provide important opportunities for persons with dementia and their family care partners to socially engage and continue meaningful roles. Strategies identified by participants provide a basis for further education and support to families living with dementia.Research funding support was provided by the Alzheimer Society of Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Management of Helicobacter pylori among medical doctors working in Khartoum, Sudan 2019: a cross-sectional study

Background: Various international guidelines have been developed regarding Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) management, as it is infecting more than half of the world's population. Sudan's health system lacks guidelines regarding H. pylori management, leading to a discrepancy in practice. Investigating the current approach could be a step forward in the formulation of a national consensus in the management of H. pylori. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among medical doctors currently working in Khartoum, Sudan. Participants were enrolled from platforms of medical associations through an online questionnaire. The questionnaire was scored out of 25 points, and scoring 13 or above considered a good approach. Data analysis was carried out using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: A total of 358 medical doctors participated in the study. The mean (±SD) score was 12.9(±4.5). Those who were using textbooks, campaigns, symposiums or general medical information to their primary Source of knowledge significantly scored higher. The most selected indication for both diagnosis (76.8%) and treatment (67.6%) was an active peptic ulcer. Stool antigen test (SAT) was the most preferred test (70.7%). The majority of respondents selected triple therapy (82.1%) as a first-line regimen. Only 37.7% confirmed the eradication after four weeks of stopping the treatment. They ensure eradication mainly through SAT (29%). Conclusion: A suboptimal approach was noted among medical doctors of Khartoum, Sudan, regarding H. pylori management. Efforts should be invested in forming national guidelines and the implementation of continuous medical education programs. Keywords: Helicobacter pylori, Medical doctor, Sudan

Temporal and spatial ensemble statistics are formed by distinct mechanisms

Our brains can extract a summary representation of the facial characteristics provided by a group of faces. To date, there has been a lack of clarity as to what calculations the brain is actually performing during this ensemble perception. For example, does ensemble processing average the fiducial points (e.g., distance between the eyes, width of the mouth) and surface characteristics (e.g., skin tone) of a set of faces in a fashion that produces what we call a ‘morph average’ face from the group? Or does ensemble perception extract a general ‘gist average’ of the face set (e.g., these faces are unattractive)? Here, we take advantage of the fact that the ‘morph average’ face derived from a group of faces is more attractive than the ‘gist average’. If ensemble perception is performing morph averaging, then the adaptation aftereffects elicited by a morphed average face from a group should be equivalent to those elicited by the group. By contrast, if ensemble perception reflects gist averaging, then the aftereffects produced by the group should be distinct from those elicited by the more attractive morphed average face. In support of the morph averaging hypothesis, we show that the adaptation aftereffects derived via temporal ensemble perception of a group of faces are equal to those produced by the group's morphed average face. Moreover, these effects increase as a linear function of increasing attractiveness in the underlying group. We also reveal that spatial ensemble processing is not equal to temporal ensemble processing, but instead reflects the ‘gist’ attractiveness of the group of faces; e.g., these faces are unattractive. Finally, gist averaging of a spatially presented group of faces is abolished when a temporal manipulation is additionally employed; under these circumstances, morph averaging becomes apparent again. In summary, we have shown for the first time that temporal and spatial ensemble statistics reflect qualitatively different perceptual calculations.Ministry of Education (MOE)Nanyang Technological UniversitySupported by Nanyang Technological University Research Scholarship (HY), Undergraduate Research Experience on Campus (AC), College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Incentive Scheme (HX), and Ministry of Education - Singapore Academic Research Fund (AcRF) Tier 1 (HX). H. Ying is also supported by the Ministry of Education - China Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (19YJC190030), the City & University strategy-Soochow University Leading Research Team in Humanities and Social Sciences. Parts of this research (data from Exp 1) were presented at the Annual Meeting of Visual Science Society (VSS), May 2017, St. Pete Beach, Florida. The research reported here forms part of H. Ying's Ph.D. thesis at Nanyang Technological University

Nethnographic Research Report on Families with Members with Disabilities in Social Media and Facebook

Article presents nethnographic qualitative research report partially based on the research completed in 2017 as thesis at the Chair of Disability Studies, Faculty of Education Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland. The research was conducted within 4 online open groups, organizational cultures of families with children, youth or adults with disabilities who are participating in social media in Poland. The primary focus of the research was the law and legal issues’ perception by families. However, in this paper we refer to wider aspects of general online activities undertaken by the members of researched 4 groups, that in fact form online organizational disability cultures. Presented results of analysis contain categories as: basic cultural artifacts (material and symbolic), values of 4 analyzed groups and underlying assumptions, according to the model of organizational culture by Edgar H. Schein (2010). Furthermore we discuss the general activities of participants in the context of the core research topic that was law and legal aspects of public online discussions. The main research question was formulated as follows: how families (from 4 organizational cultures online) with members with disabilities are active on social media in the context of the law and legal issues? Collected qualitative data was elaborated on the ground of the organizational culture model according to 3 levels of organizational culture indicated by Schein (2010) as: 1. artifacts, 2. espoused beliefs and values and 3. cultural underlying assumption

Wilson Branches Out

This article reports that by March or April 1991, all of the H. W. Wilson Company databases will become available on the Bibliographic Retrieval Service (BRS) online system. After seven years of exclusivity on WILSONLINE, the Wilson databases are branching out and BRS is only the first extension. Starting in 1986, Wilson offered ways to access electronic versions of its indexes. Many libraries have purchased selected Wilson indexes on CD-ROM to emphasize end-user searching. BRS implementation of the Wilson files is planned in stages throughout 1991. Stage 1 will bring up Readers\u27 Guide to Periodical Literature, Applied Science & Technology Index, Biological & Agricultural Index, Social Sciences Index, General Science Index, and many more. Stage 2 will add Business Periodicals Index and Education Index; and finally Stage 3 includes Book Review Digest, Biography Index, Bibliographic Index, Essay and General Literature Index, and Cumulative Book Index. All files will be up by the end of 1991. Becky Clarke, director of Database Licensing Service at Wilson, says two factors determine these stages: the existing record structure of each database and the ease with which it could be mounted on BRS; and what files are already on BRS and how the various Wilson files fit in