The parties' voices in a therapeutic interview

Drawing on a dialogical approach inspired by Bakhtin, we start from the assumptionthat a concrete discussion is an intermingling between dialogue in praesentia and dialogue inabsentia, and we refer to the notion of 'enunciative positioning' to account for the variousrelations that a speaker may express towards the voices that he or she invokes. Our data arebased on a first therapeutic interview between a therapist, a mother and a child in a counselingcenter for children and adolescents. We identify the various voices invoked in this interviewand show that three levels of discursive process were involved: (a) the speakers invokedabsent speakers; (b) at the same time they developed their own discourse on the basis of theirinterlocutors' discourse which (c) itself drew on absent speakers or voices. We highlight thevarious discursive processes through which the speakers integrate their own voice into absentvoices, or integrate a distant voice so that it loses its property of being a distant (andborrowed) voice. As a theoretical and methodological contribution to dialogism, our resultsshow that absent voices and their specific intermingling with hic et nunc exchanges were amajor resource for therapeutic changes

The problem of interpretation in vignette methodology in research with young people

In this paper we explore how interpretation is dealt with by researchers using a vignette methodology. Researchers using vignette methodology often struggle with interpretation: how to interpret the responses when participants shift between discussing the vignettes as themselves, taking the perspective of the character in the vignette and commenting on what ‘ought’ to happen. We argue that by foregrounding a consideration of the method with an explicitly articulated theoretical position of dialogicality, issues inherent in interpretation become a valuable addition to the research rather than an obstacle to be overcome. In the paper we discuss ‘Louise’ a young carer, detailing the various positions she takes in her talk about the vignette of Mary, a fictitious young carer, to illustrate how a perspective based in dialogical theory contributed to the analysis of her various moves through different identity positions

Meeting physicians' needs: a bottom-up approach for improving the implementation of medical knowledge into practice.

Multiple barriers to knowledge translation in medicine have been identified (ranging from information overload to abstraction of models), leading to important implementation gaps. This study aimed at assessing the suggestions of practicing physicians for possible improvements of knowledge translation (KT) effectiveness into clinical practice. We used a mixed methods design. French- German- and Italian-speaking general practitioners, psychiatrists, orthopaedic surgeons, cardiologists, and diabetologists practicing in Switzerland were interrogated through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and an online survey. A total of 985 physicians from three regions of Switzerland participated in the online survey, whereas 39 participated in focus group discussions and 14 in face-to-face interviews. Physicians expressed limitations and difficulties related to KT into their daily practice. Several barriers were identified, including influence and pressure of pharmaceutical companies, non-publication of negative results, mismatch between guidelines and practice, education gaps, and insufficient collaboration between research and practice. Suggestions to overcome barriers were improving education concerning the evaluation of scientific publications, expanding applicability of guidelines, having free and easy access to independent journals, developing collaborations between research and practice, and creating tools to facilitate access to medical information. Our study provides suggestions for improving KT into daily medical practice, matching the views, needs and preferences of practicing physicians. Responding to suggestions for improvements brought up by physicians may lead to better knowledge translation, higher professional satisfaction, and better healthcare outcomes

Disentangling adaptation from drift in bottlenecked and reintroduced populations of Alpine ibex

Identifying local adaptation in bottlenecked species is essential for conservation management. Selection detection methods have an important role in species management plans, assessments of adaptive capacity, and looking for responses to climate change. Yet, the allele frequency changes exploited in selection detection methods are similar to those caused by the strong neutral genetic drift expected during a bottleneck. Consequently, it is often unclear what accuracy selection detection methods have across bottlenecked populations. In this study, simulations were used to explore if signals of selection could be confidently distinguished from genetic drift across 23 bottlenecked and reintroduced populations of Alpine ibex (Capra ibex). The meticulously recorded demographic history of the Alpine ibex was used to generate comprehensive simulated SNP data. The simulated SNPs were then used to benchmark the confidence we could place in outliers identified in empirical Alpine ibex RADseq derived SNP data. Within the simulated data set, the false positive rates were high for all selection detection methods (FST outlier scans and Genetic-Environment Association analyses) but fell substantially when two or more methods were combined. True positive rates were consistently low and became negligible with increased stringency. Despite finding many outlier loci in the empirical Alpine ibex SNPs, none could be distinguished from genetic drift-driven false positives. Unfortunately, the low true positive rate also prevents the exclusion of recent local adaptation within the Alpine ibex. The baselines and stringent approach outlined here should be applied to other bottlenecked species to ensure the risk of false positive, or negative, signals of selection are accounted for in conservation management plans

Batch effects in a multiyear sequencing study: false biological trends due to changes in read lengths

High-throughput sequencing is a powerful tool, but suffers biases and errors that must be accounted for to prevent false biological conclusions. Such errors include batch effects; technical errors only present in subsets of data due to procedural changes within a study. If overlooked and multiple batches of data are combined, spurious biological signals can arise, particularly if batches of data are correlated with biological variables. Batch effects can be minimized through randomization of sample groups across batches. However, in long-term or multiyear studies where data are added incrementally, full randomization is impossible, and batch effects may be a common feature. Here, we present a case study where false signals of selection were detected due to a batch effect in a multiyear study of Alpine ibex (Capra ibex). The batch effect arose because sequencing read length changed over the course of the project and populations were added incrementally to the study, resulting in nonrandom distributions of populations across read lengths. The differences in read length caused small misalignments in a subset of the data, leading to false variant alleles and thus false SNPs. Pronounced allele frequency differences between populations arose at these SNPs because of the correlation between read length and population. This created highly statistically significant, but biologically spurious, signals of selection and false associations between allele frequencies and the environment. We highlight the risk of batch effects and discuss strategies to reduce the impacts of batch effects in multiyear high-throughput sequencing studies

Using vignette methodology as a tool for exploring cultural identity positions of language brokers

This paper examines how vignette methodology can aid understanding of cultural identity. This is demonstrated through a study of child language brokers where a child is engaged in the cultural contexts of both the host culture and the home culture and must therefore negotiate new cultural identities. Participants were young people aged 15-18 years; some of whom were brokers while others were not. Drawing on notions of adequacy and inadequacy, visibility and invisibility, theoretical ideas around cultural identity theory and dialogical self theory can provide an understanding of how the young people moved through different (often conflicting) identity positions

The negotiation and co-construction of meaning and understanding within a postgraduate online learning community

There is an increasing development of courses and course components taught through teaching and learning dialogues online yet there is little secure knowledge regarding the educational quality and outcomes of these dialogues. Drawing on contemporary socio-cultural research, this paper adapts a well-established analytical framework (see Mercer, 1995) that has been developed to understand face to face educational dialogues to the new context of asynchronous electronic conferencing. The work reported is derived from an in-depth case study of a tutorial group of 11 students enrolled on a course within the Open University's MA in Open and Distance Learning. The course was taught on-line to an international cohort of students from wide-ranging academic backgrounds. The analyses of electronic conference archives presented here focus on understanding the students’ on-line collaborative work and the ways in which they constructed meaning, negotiated shared understanding and supported each other in the process of learning at a distance. The implications of the findings for educational practice are considered