Dreams of a Final Theory T

The grander metaphysical schemes popular in Hertz’s era often suppressed conceptual innovation in manifestly unhelpful ways. In counterreaction, Hertz and his colleagues stressed the raw pragmatic advantages of “good theory” considered as a functional whole and rejected the armchair meditations upon individual words characteristic of the metaphysical imperatives they spurned. Rudolf Carnap’s later rejection of all forms of “metaphysics” attempts to broaden these methodological tenets to a wider canvas. In doing so, the notion of an integrated, axiomatizable “theory” became the shaping tenet within our most conception of how the enterprise of “rigorous conceptual analysis” should be prosecuted. Although Carnap hoped to suppress all forms of metaphysics, large and small, through these means, in more recent times, closely allied veins of “theory T thinking” have instead encouraged a revival of grand metaphysical speculation that embodies many of the suppressive doctrines that Hertz’s generation rightly resisted (I have in mind the school of “analytic metaphysics” founded by David Lewis). The proper corrective to these inflated ambitions lies in directly examining the proper sources of descriptive effectiveness in the liberal manner of a multiscalar architecture.

Improving knowledge transfer: A realist evaluation of the implementation of knowledge transfer pathways by a health research funder

<p>Organisations whose mission is to fund health research are increasingly concerned with ensuring that the research they fund is used productively. The resulting interest in the concept of “knowledge transfer” has involved introducing policies to prompt researchers to think about their role, not just as knowledge producers, but as translators of research findings. In New Zealand, researchers can be asked, in their application for funds, to provide an account of what will happen to their research results. They are then judged on the quality of that account. However, little is known about how effectively this type of policy influences researchers to do more to make connections with those who use their findings. Using the explanatory power of the realist evaluative approach, this thesis examines the implementation of new instructions by the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) for providing knowledge transfer pathways in research applications. A focus of the research is on how these instructions change (or do not change) the mind-set of researchers. Key informant interviews were held, and the scholarly and grey literature examined, to develop an initial theory on how researchers would be influenced by such instructions. Individual interviews were then held with researchers, seeking their reflections on what they had originally written in a specific knowledge transfer pathway and how this then matched up with what actually happened; these interviews were then used to refine the initial theory. Finally, an on-line survey was conducted with those who sat on the HRC’s research assessing committees in the 2014/15 funding round in order to refine the theory further. The final theory identified six mechanisms, which under different contexts, explain how the HRC’s knowledge transfer policy works (or does not work) to prompt researchers to reason differently. A continuum of reasoning in the form of a dimmer switch was used to explain circumstances where researchers may become more mindful of what is involved in knowledge transfer, but were not likely to markedly change their behaviours. Based on the assumption that the HRC wants to be more active in encouraging researchers to undertake activities other than producing research results, two recommendations are made: (1) knowledge transfer policies should support self-reflexivity by different groups of researchers rather than creating more hoops within the research application process, and (2) the processes by which knowledge transfer sections are judged needs to be strengthened if researchers are going to be confident that this is a “serious” part of the application process.</p>

Improving knowledge transfer: A realist evaluation of the implementation of knowledge transfer pathways by a health research funder

<p>Organisations whose mission is to fund health research are increasingly concerned with ensuring that the research they fund is used productively. The resulting interest in the concept of “knowledge transfer” has involved introducing policies to prompt researchers to think about their role, not just as knowledge producers, but as translators of research findings. In New Zealand, researchers can be asked, in their application for funds, to provide an account of what will happen to their research results. They are then judged on the quality of that account. However, little is known about how effectively this type of policy influences researchers to do more to make connections with those who use their findings. Using the explanatory power of the realist evaluative approach, this thesis examines the implementation of new instructions by the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) for providing knowledge transfer pathways in research applications. A focus of the research is on how these instructions change (or do not change) the mind-set of researchers. Key informant interviews were held, and the scholarly and grey literature examined, to develop an initial theory on how researchers would be influenced by such instructions. Individual interviews were then held with researchers, seeking their reflections on what they had originally written in a specific knowledge transfer pathway and how this then matched up with what actually happened; these interviews were then used to refine the initial theory. Finally, an on-line survey was conducted with those who sat on the HRC’s research assessing committees in the 2014/15 funding round in order to refine the theory further. The final theory identified six mechanisms, which under different contexts, explain how the HRC’s knowledge transfer policy works (or does not work) to prompt researchers to reason differently. A continuum of reasoning in the form of a dimmer switch was used to explain circumstances where researchers may become more mindful of what is involved in knowledge transfer, but were not likely to markedly change their behaviours. Based on the assumption that the HRC wants to be more active in encouraging researchers to undertake activities other than producing research results, two recommendations are made: (1) knowledge transfer policies should support self-reflexivity by different groups of researchers rather than creating more hoops within the research application process, and (2) the processes by which knowledge transfer sections are judged needs to be strengthened if researchers are going to be confident that this is a “serious” part of the application process.</p>

The ‘Philosopher’s Stone’

Physicists have long been in search of the final theory—a physical theory that can be regarded as the truly fundamental description of nature. But metaphysicians likewise aspire to describe the world as it is most fundamentally. I argue that if we take a naturalistic approach to metaphysics, a final theory is even more crucial to success of the metaphysical project than it is to that of the physicist. This is because the non-fundamental theories produced by contemporary physicists may at least be said to approximate the final theory, and so physicists may be said to at least be making progress towards their goal in advance of having achieved it. Metaphysical theories, by contrast, cannot be said to be ‘approximately true’, and hence do not obviously partake in such progress. This raises questions of the value of engaging in naturalistic metaphysics prior to the emergence of a truly final theory.

A Systemic Approach to Trainee Physician Wellness: Using the Theory of Change to Restructure a Pediatric Residency Program

Background: Resident well-being leads to better patient care practices, but a systematic approach is needed to achieve the wellness agenda. The Theory of Change was used for developing an interventional model for wellness in our study, after identifying the causes of burnout and attrition in a pediatric residency program. Methods: This was a quality improvement project where residents were asked about their main stressors in an anonymous open-ended feedback form. Workload (n=63, 37.5%) was identified as the main source of dissatisfaction. A database of 43 residents who quit in the past ten years was examined to find 40.0% of residents left after the first year of training and the main cause was marriage and/or family concerns (28.9%). Then literature was reviewed to build a wellness intervention's framework. Finally, the Theory of Change was applied focusing on restructuring the residency core, accountability and communication, and stress management. The final theory of the change model included the assumptions that the program needed restructuring because of high attrition, low first pass exam rate, and decreased patient satisfaction. The goal was to increase resident wellness and performance, while keeping patient care at the core. Results: The short-term outcomes were drop in attrition rate from an average of 8.67% to 1.75%, decrease in FCPS exam attempt from 3.3 to almost 1, and an increase in patient satisfaction. Conclusion: Using the Theory of Change, it was possible to address residents’ concerns, increase their retention and improve patient satisfaction by reconstructing the wellness program.

Superunification Theory: The Shortest Way to The Unified Field Equations

This continues previous articles on the unified theory published in this journal and intends to discuss the general principles of the theory, again. The Final theory, if any, shall necessarily be the most original scheme grounded upon certain postulates intuitively clear to us. The universal system of mathematical harmony begins with the

Questionnaire feedback from MBBS second year students about current examination trends and their opinion for perspective changes

Background: All subjects of MBBS do not have same examination pattern especially concerning to question paper pattern and distribution of marks. As a result, students are experiencing variety of examination patterns during their study. Neither is their uniformity of examination pattern throughout the country nor there is uniformity within a university. In such situation, it would be wise to take feedback from students which could help in redesigning the examination pattern. This study was done to collect students’ opinion regarding current examination methods and possible changes that might be required in existing assessment methods.Methods: Questionnaire based study was done on MBBS second year students of Viswabharathi medical college. Questionnaire consisted of 10 questions about examinations faced by the students. Each question had five options arranged according to 5-point Likert scale.Results: 99 students participated in this study. 51.52% students preferred having two essay questions and 42.42% preferred having one essay question in final theory exam. 52.53% preferred to have 40 marks as weightage of one paper. 50.51% supported having illustration-based questions in their final theory examinations. 79.80% stated that at least 30 days of preparation holidays are required for them before their final exams. 48.48% preferred having five very short answer questions. 48.48% stated that weekend tests conducted by their institute were helpful to them. 66.66% disagreed upon increasing number of questions in final examination. 63.63% agreed on having MCQ’s. 48.48% agreed on having viva voce during every internal examination. Consensus could not be reached upon frequency of institutional tests.Conclusions: This study highlighted certain shortcomings in medical education with respect to examinations. Weightage and number of questions might be increased marginally to have a uniform pattern. Question paper should have more very short answer questions and less essay questions. Illustration based questions should also be introduced. 30 days of preparation holidays must be given before final exams for self-study.

Constraining theories of gravity by GINGER experiment

The debate on gravity theories to extend or modify general relativity is very active today because of the issues related to ultraviolet and infrared behavior of Einstein’s theory. In the first case, we have to address the quantum gravity problem. In the latter, dark matter and dark energy, governing the large-scale structure and the cosmological evolution, seem to escape from any final fundamental theory and detection. The state of the art is that, up to now, no final theory, capable of explaining gravitational interaction at any scale, has been formulated. In this perspective, many research efforts are devoted to test theories of gravity by space-based experiments. Here, we propose straightforward tests by the GINGER experiment, which, being Earth based, requires little modeling of external perturbation, allowing a thorough analysis of the systematics, crucial for experiments where sensitivity breakthrough is required. Specifically, we want to show that it is possible to constrain parameters of gravity theories, like scalar–tensor or Horava–Lifshitz gravity, by considering their post-Newtonian limits matched with experimental data. In particular, we use the Lense–Thirring measurements provided by GINGER to find out relations among the parameters of theories and finally compare the results with those provided by LARES and Gravity Probe B satellites.

A Realist Evaluation of Theory about Triggers for Doctors Choosing a Generalist or Specialist Medical Career

There is a lack of theory about what drives choice to be a generalist or specialist doctor, an important issue in many countries for increasing primary/preventative care. We did a realist evaluation to develop a theory to inform what works for whom, when and in what contexts, to yield doctors’ choice to be a generalist or specialist. We interviewed 32 Australian doctors (graduates of a large university medical school) who had decided on a generalist (GP/public health) or specialist (all other specialties) career. They reflected on their personal responses to experiences at different times to stimulate their choice. Theory was refined and confirmed by testing it with 17 additional doctors of various specialties/career stages and by referring to wider literature. Our final theory showed the decision involved multi-level contextual factors intersecting with eight triggers to produce either a specialist or generalist choice. Both clinical and place-based exposures, as well as attributes, skills, norms and status of different fields affected choice. This occurred relative to the interests and expectations of different doctors, including their values for professional, socio-economic and lifestyle rewards, often intersecting with issues like gender and life stage. Applying this theory, it is possible to tailor selection and ongoing exposures to yield more generalists.