Research and theory for nursing and midwifery: Rethinking the nature of evidence

Background and Rationale: The rise in the principles of evidence-based medicine in the 1990s heralded a re-emerging orthodoxy in research methodologies. The view of the randomised controlled trial (RCT) as a “gold standard” for evaluation of medical interventions has extended recently to evaluation of organisational forms and reforms and of change in complex systems—within health care and in other human services. Relatively little attention has been given to the epistemological assumptions underlying such a hierarchy of research evidence. Aims and Methods: Case studies from research in maternity care are used in this article to describe problems and limitations encountered in using RCTs to evaluate some recent policy-driven and consumer-oriented developments. These are discussed in relation to theory of knowledge and the epistemological assumptions, or paradigms, underpinning health services research. The aim in this discussion is not to advocate, or to reject, particular approaches to research but to advocate a more open and critical engagement with questions about the nature of evidence. Findings and Discussion: Experimental approaches are of considerable value in investigating deterministic and probabilistic cause and effect relationships, and in testing often well-established but unevaluated technologies. However, little attention has been paid to contextual and cultural factors in the effects of interventions, in the culturally constructed nature of research questions themselves, or of the data on which much research is based. More complex, and less linear, approaches to methodology are needed to address these issues. A simple hierarchical approach does not represent the complexity of evidence well and should move toward a more cyclical view of knowledge development

Ecos popperianos na metodologia econômica de Elinor Ostrom

Resumo O artigo procura apresentar e analisar a discussão metodológica em economia empreendida por Elinor Ostrom, buscando identificar nela a influência da epistemologia popperiana. A ênfase voltou-se para os conceitos de Princípio da Racionalidade e de Análise Situacional, com os quais Popper contribuiu para a metodologia das Ciências Sociais. O artigo mostrou que esses conceitos encontraram equivalentes na análise da autora, e que Ostrom não apenas reconhece a importância da contribuição popperiana, mas dela faz o ponto de partida para sua proposta metodológica aplicada à governança de recursos comuns. O artigo refere-se, também, ao fato de que ao longo do tempo a metodologia dessa autora gradativamente abre a uma interlocução metodológica mais plural, conservando, no entanto, aspectos essenciais do projeto popperiano para a metodologia em Ciências Sociais, entre os quais a adesão ao individualismo metodológico

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits—almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

A Statistical Approach for Computing Reachability of Non-linear and Stochastic Dynamical SystemsQuantitative Evaluation of Systems

We present a novel approach to compute reachable sets of dynamical systems with uncertain initial conditions or parameters, leveraging state-of-the-art statistical techniques. From a small set of samples of the true reachable function of the system, expressed as a function of initial conditions or parameters, we emulate such function using a Bayesian method based on Gaussian Processes. Uncertainty in the reconstruction is reflected in confidence bounds which, when combined with template polyhedra ad optimised, allow us to bound the reachable set with a given statistical confidence. We show how this method works straightforwardly also to do reachability computations for uncertain stochastic models

The specificity of American higher education

The possibility—and potential pitfalls—of an “Americanization” of European higher education are widely discussed. This paper argues that it is important to base comparisons and considerations of possible emulation on a stronger understanding of the specificity of American higher education. It stresses the importance of seeing this as a system with highly differentiated institutions and complex contextual relations. The present paper also summarizes dramatic changes that have transformed American higher education in recent years, and others that are beginning to transform it further. This shows the system to be internally dynamic and also influenced by important external conditions (including matters of finance, public policy, and new technology). The U.S. system is only understood well if analysis locates specific patterns in relation to these structural transformations. Such specificity should inform future comparative research

The Reading Fluency and Comprehension of Fifth- and Sixth-Grade Struggling Readers Across Brief Tests of Various Intervention Approaches

Development Psychopathology in context: clinical setting