How to Cure Narrativism with Rational Evaluation

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugen Zeleňák

Over the past years, narrativism has ceased to be the dominant research program in the philosophy of history and several authors have started to develop new research agendas. In his recent book, Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen presents an original postnarrativist philosophy of history as an attempt to surpass narrativism. Although he adopts what he calls the narrativist insight, he tries to avoid the problems of narrativism by focusing on epistemic questions. He is convinced that the historical enterprise is rational and also that historical works contain informal arguments which should be evaluated by rational standards. His postnarrativism is an ambitious project deserving close attention. Nevertheless, I try to show that his innovative approach shares some common features with a fairly conventional understanding of history. In conclusion I argue that it would be preferable to rethink some of the epistemic criteria he relies on rather than to embrace those which were used within the more conventional accounts.

No other talent process has been the subject of such great debate and emotion as performance management (PM). For decades, different strategies have been tried to improve PM processes, yielding an endless cycle of reform to capture the next “flavor-of-the-day” PM trend. The past 5 years, however, have brought novel thinking that is different from past trends. Companies are reducing their formal processes, driving performance-based cultures, and embedding effective PM behavior into daily work rather than relying on annual reviews to drive these. Through case studies provided from leading organizations, this book illustrates the range of PM processes that companies are using today. These show a shift away from adopting someone else’s best practice; instead, companies are designing bespoke PM processes that fit their specific strategy, climate, and needs. Leading PM thought leaders offer their views about the state of PM today, what we have learned and where we need to focus future efforts, including provocative new research that shows what matters most in driving high performance. This book is a call to action for talent management professionals to go beyond traditional best practice and provide thought leadership in designing PM processes and systems that will enhance both individual and organizational performance.


Author(s):  
Rachel Crossland

Chapter 1 explores Woolf’s writings up to the end of 1925 in relation to scientific ideas on wave-particle duality, providing the ‘retrospect of Woolf’s earlier novels’ which Michael Whitworth has suggested shows that she was working ‘in anticipation of the physicists’. The chapter as a whole challenges this idea of anticipation, showing that Woolf was actually working in parallel with physicists, philosophers, and artists in the early twentieth century, all of whom were starting to question dualistic models and instead beginning to develop complementary ones. A retrospect on wave-particle duality is also provided, making reference to Max Planck’s work on quanta and Albert Einstein’s development of light quanta. This chapter pays close attention to Woolf’s writing of light and her use of conjunctions, suggesting that Woolf was increasingly looking to write ‘both/and’ rather than ‘either/or’. Among other texts, it considers Night and Day, Mrs Dalloway, and ‘Sketch of the Past’.


Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Donato Traversa ◽  
Simone Morelli ◽  
Angela Di Cesare ◽  
Anastasia Diakou

In the past decade cardiopulmonary nematodes affecting felids have become a core research topic in small animal parasitology. In the late 2000s, an increase in studies was followed by unexpected findings in the early 2010s, which have stimulated research teams to start investigating these intriguing parasites. Prolific scientific debate and exchanges have then fostered field and laboratory studies and epi-zootiological surveys. New data have improved basic and applied knowledge, solved dilemmas and posed new questions. This article discusses the past and present background to felid cardiopulmonary nematodes after the last few years of intense scientific research. New data which have demonstrated the key role of Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Troglostrongylus brevior in causing respiratory infections in domestic cats, and on the nil to negligible current importance of other species, i.e., Troglostrongylus subcrenatus, Oslerus rostratus and Angiostrongylus chabaudi, are presented. Biological information and hypothesized alternative routes of infection are analysed and discussed. Novel identification and taxonomical data and issues are reported and commented upon. On the whole, recent biological, ecological and epi-zootiological information on felid meta-strongyloids is critically analysed, with the aim to answer outstanding questions, stimulate future studies, and underline new research perspectives.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 153473542199007
Author(s):  
Siddhartha Sood ◽  
Rahul Jayachandiran ◽  
Siyaram Pandey

Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer in the world with a growing incidence in North America. Contemporary treatments for melanoma include surgical resection, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. However, apart from resection in early melanoma, the prognosis of patients using these treatments is typically poor. In the past decade, there have been significant advancements in melanoma therapies. Immunotherapies such as ipilimumab and targeted therapies such as vemurafenib have emerged as a promising option for patients as seen in both scientific and clinical research. Furthermore, combination therapies are starting to be administered in the form of polychemotherapy, polyimmunotherapy, and biochemotherapy, of which some have shown promising outcomes in relative efficacy and safety due to their multiple targets. Alongside these treatments, new research has been conducted into the evidence-based use of natural health products (NHPs) and natural compounds (NCs) on melanoma which may provide a long-term and non-toxic form of complementary therapy. Nevertheless, there is a limited consolidation of the research conducted in emerging melanoma treatments which may be useful for researchers and clinicians. Thus, this review attempts to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of current advancements in metastatic melanoma treatment by surveying new research into the molecular and cellular basis of treatments along with their clinical efficacy. In addition, this review aims to elucidate novel strategies that are currently being used and have the potential to be used in the future.


Author(s):  
Dong Jung Kim

Abstract In contrast to growing public attention to geoeconomics as the new mode of conducting great power competition, the IR discipline has not actively engaged in conceptual and theoretical analysis from the geoeconomic viewpoint. This article examines issues that geoeconomics needs to solve to become a new theoretical framework in the positivist “American” IR scholarship that dominates research on great power competition. On the one hand, the concept of geoeconomics needs to be redefined and account for a phenomenon that is not already covered in extant IR scholarship. Thus, geoeconomics should be considered as a form of grand strategy and defined as the use of economic instruments to advance mid- to long-term strategic interests in a geographical region of the world. On the other hand, geoeconomics in positivist IR should take into account international economic structure and domestic politics in developing a parsimonious explanation for the conditions to employ geoeconomic grand strategy. In this process, the theorist needs to make an analytical choice to concentrate on certain factors and mechanisms to assure theoretical parsimony. This article concludes that addressing the issues of conceptual clarity and parsimonious theorization would potentially allow geoeconomics to become a new research program in positivist IR.


Human Affairs ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Filippo Zerilli

AbstractIn the past two decades academic and research literature on “corruption” has flourished. During the same period organizations and initiatives fighting against corruption have also significantly expanded, turning “anti-corruption” into a new research subject. However, despite a few exceptions there is a division of labor between scholars who study corruption itself and those who study the global anti-corruption industry. Juxtaposing corruption’s local discourses and anti-corruption international practices, this article is an attempt to bring together these two intertwined research dimensions and explore how an ethnographic approach might contribute to framing them together. Firstly, it describes how corruption in Romania is often conceptualized and explained in terms of national heritage, something related to old and recent cultural history, including traditional folklore. Secondly, it explores how anti-corruption works in practice, focusing on international legal cooperation projects monitoring the progress and shortcomings both prior to and post Romania’s accession to the European Union. Finally, revealing the articulations of these two apparently unrelated research fields, the article argues that corruption’s local explanations and the circular logic of auditing observed within the anti-corruption industry share a common developmental ideology mirroring the crypto-colonialist structure of power relations and dependency among European nation-states emerging out of the Cold War.


2016 ◽  
Vol 91 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.R. Dunham ◽  
R.J. Kendall

AbstractNorthern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) and Scaled quail (Callipepla squamata) have been declining steadily throughout much of their historical range over the past few decades. Even the Rolling Plains of Texas, historically rich with wild quail and one of the last remaining quail strongholds, has been suffering a population decline, most notably since 2010. Gambel's quail (Callipepla gambelii) have also been experiencing their own decline throughout their respective range, but not as significant as that of other species of quail. Eyeworms (Oxyspirura petrowi) in quail have been recognized for years but not thoroughly studied until recently. New research reveals thatO. petrowiinfection can cause inflammation, oedema, and cellular damage to the eye of the quail host. The objective of this research was to better understand the prevalence of the eyeworm infection in different quail species, expand on known distribution, and determine if there is a relationship between location and species infected with eyeworms. Northern bobwhite, Scaled quail and Gambel's quail were hunter-donated from one county within Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, and examined for the prevalence, mean abundance and mean intensity of eyeworm infection from November 2013 to February 2014. Quail from every location were found to have individuals with a varying degree of eyeworm infection. This is the first study to document eyeworm infection in Gambel's quail and in quail in New Mexico and Arizona, and reports the highest eyeworm infection found in Northern bobwhite and Scaled quail.


2016 ◽  
Vol 710 ◽  
pp. 409-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianfranco De Matteis ◽  
Giuseppe Brando

This paper aims at providing an overview on the current state of the art and on possible future developments concerning the component method implementation for the classification of beam-to-column joints belonging to aluminum moment resisting frames.After a brief discussion on the component method theoretical bases, developed in the past to give a feasible calculation procedure for steel joints, recent experimental and numerical studies, carried out for investigating some aluminum components, are presented and discussed. In particular strengths and weaknesses of the current knowledge are put into evidence, also in light of the peculiarities that make aluminum alloys different from steel. The launch of new research fields, aimed at pursuing an update of the current codes dealing with aluminum structures, is therefore proposed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 143-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh Pandita ◽  
Meenakshi Koul ◽  
Shivendra Singh

Purpose The purpose of this study is to reflect a growing trend toward the introduction of new research journals in India. The study focuses on the number of journals introduced in India during the past decade, namely, for the period 2005-2014. Some of the key aspects analyzed include year-wise distribution of journals introduced, cumulative and annual corresponding growth of newly introduced journals, publishing form of journals, namely, online, print and hybrid. Some other aspects studied include distribution of journals on the basis of language, periodicity, state, etc. for both online and print journals. Design/methodology/approach To undertake the present study, data were retrieved from the official website of the National Science Library, New Delhi, and the analysis is based on the number of ISSN numbers issued by the National Science Library New Delhi during the period of study. Findings A total of 15,631 research journals were introduced in India from 2005 through 2014. Compared to 4,954 (31.69 per cent) online journals, 10,614 (67.90 per cent) print journals were introduced in India during the past decade, depicting print as the larger medium of journal publishing in India. During the period of study, research journals in India grew annually at 31.44 per cent. New Delhi, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh emerged as the three leading research journal publishing states of the country, while 82.86 per cent journals are published in English language and a maximum 32.52 per cent journals are published on a quarterly basis. Originality/value The study is first of its kind undertaken in India.


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