EP.TU.520ISC0Re Begins: An independent research group for junior doctors

Research is often a difficult component of training for many surgical trainees and junior medical officers (JMOs) wanting to apply for surgical training in Australia. In 2014, we established an independent research group called Institute of Surgical Collaboration for Research (ISCoRe) to develop a research culture amongst surgical trainees and junior medical officers (JMOs). The group was chaired by an unaccredited surgical registrar with a strong interest in surgical research and a general surgeon with a wealth of experience in presentations and publications in an advisory role. Being a small independent research group allows us to work very closely with JMOs and surgical trainees to identify their career interests, coming up with research topics and ideas and guiding the research group members through the process of data collection, analysis, writing up abstracts and submitting abstracts to conferences. We have had a good initial success with the research output from the group, with multiple research abstracts accepted and presented in various international conferences in our first two years of the formation of the group. However, being an independent group does have its disadvantages. The biggest challenges we face involve manpower and financial support. We are hopeful that by training up JMOs who have been with us for one or two years, they will in turn be able to help us guide new group members.

Our Path to Dimitrie Gusti

This short paper is, in fact, a brief presentation of the independent research group the “Gusti Cooperative”, which has been investigating, for twenty years, the history of the Sociological School of Bucharest from a social history perspective. In the article a take a critical stance towards the diachronic practice of the history of sociology promoted from the 1960s onwards, advocating, instead, for a synchronic approach to the Gustian phenomenon. Therefore, in this short exploration, I emphasize that it is necessary to continue in-depth research of the contexts in which the School was active, as well as the need for auxiliary tools, while not attempting to make any kind of synthesis. ##plugins.themes.academic_pro.article.details##

A magyar Rorschach-rendszer revíziója és az új, sine morbo standard

Háttér és célkitűzés: A Rorschach-teszt időszerűvé vált új, sine morbo standardját 2007 és 2014 között a Szegedi Tudományegyetem Pszichológiai Intézetének független kutatócsoportja készítette el. A standardizálás előkészítő és kezdeti szakaszában felülvizsgáltuk a magyar Rorschach-rendszert, jelölési alapelveket fogalmaztunk meg, módosítottunk néhány jel alkalmazásán, újakat is bevezettünk.Módszer: A kutatásban a pszichiátriailag sine morbo, felnőtt személyek önként vettek részt, életkoruk 18 és 75 év közötti volt, iskolai végzettségük az általános iskolástól a többdiplomásig terjedt, és 118 település lakói közül kerültek ki. Az alapvető független változók kategóriáiból 32 almintát állítottunk össze, a teljes minta 1500 főből állt.Eredmények: Az eredmények alapján vagy megerősítettük, vagy módosítottuk a mutatók korábbi jellemző értékeit és övezeteit, meghatároztuk az új mutatók referenciaértékeit, a feleletszám eltérő hatását a jelekre és mutatókra, összeállítottuk az új vulger válaszok listáját, támpontokat nyújtottunk a lokális értelmezéshez.Következtetés: Rorschach-rendszerünk revíziója és az új standard adatai a Rorschach-teszt szükséges és elkerülhetetlen továbbfejlesztését szolgálják, validitását erősítik, reliabilitását növelik.Background and objective: The elaboration of the new “sine morbo” standard for the Rorschach test started in 2007 and was completed in 2014 by an independent research group at the Institute of Psychology of the University of Szeged. In the preparatory and initial phases of the standardisation process, the Hungarian Rorschach system was re-examined, marking principles were defined, new signs were introduced and several indicators of the Comprehensive System, which are currently being used in most countries, were adopted into our system.Method: The adult individuals who volunteered to participate in the study were psychiatrically “sine morbo”, came from 118 different communities, were aged 18 to 75, and had education levels ranging from primary school to multiple academic degrees. We compiled 32 subsamples from among the categories of the basic independent variables, with a total sample size of 1,500 individuals.Results: Based on the results, we either reinforced or modified the previous characteristic values and zones of the indicators; determined the reference values of the new indicators and the different effects of the response rate on the signs and indicators; established a list of new vulgar responses; and provided guidance for local interpretation.Conclusion: The revision ofour Rorschach system and the data of the new standard serve as a necessary improvement of the Rorschach test, strengthening its validity and increasing its reliability.

Experimental Evaluation of FMCheck: A Replication Study

Software Product Lines are usually specified using feature models. A hierarchically arranged set of features with different relationships among them represents a feature model. However, there is a lack of techniques to support the detection of semantic defects in feature models. In this context, it was recently developed FMCheck, a checklist-based inspection technique to support the detection of defects in feature models. The results of a first study conducted by FMCheck's developers indicated its feasibility (more effective) when compared to ad-hoc techniques. This paper reports the replication accomplished by an independent research group following a different experimental design but using the same artifacts. The obtained results strengthened the previous findings, indicating that FMCheck is more effective than ad-hoc inspections. However, additional replications should be performed with different experimental designs to understand better the influence of the artifacts inspected over such findings.

Diffusion, Analysis and Discussion of Electronic Literature in Italy (DADELI)

The present paper introduces a new project whose aim is to disseminate, analyse and discuss electronic literature in Italy. In the first section a general overview of the state of art of Italian electronic literature is given. We show that efforts both within academic research institutions and the publishing industry are hindered by a lack of interest and a misconception about what electronic literature is, particularly in Italy. The second section discusses two twin projects designed by Gruppo Giada, an independent research group founded in 2014: the first one is an Anthology of the History of Electronic Literature (1945-2015) (section 2.1), and the second one is an online platform (section 2.2). Finally, the conclusion underlines the goals of Gruppo Giada’s projects, given the current global landscape of the field of electronic literature.

WHICH COUNTS MORE: ABILITY OR CLASS?

There is plenty of evidence about social mobility in Britain. The best is the National Child Development Survey, which has analyzed all the children born in a single week in 1958 at various points in their lives. In "Two Nations? The Inheritance of Poverty and Affluence," the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an independent research group, analyzed this data. It found that by 1991, 34% of those in the highest income quintile had fathers who were also in the top income group; 11%, however, had fathers in the poorest quintile. In a society with full equality of opportunity, and ability distributed equally across the population, 20% of the richest quintile would have had fathers from the richest quintile, and 20% from the poorest. This suggests that opportunity is dispersed in Britain, but not fully equalized. But what if ability is not in fact distributed equally amongst the population? This question is explored, using the same data as the Institute for Fiscal Studies, in "Unequal but Fair?", a pamphlet by Peters Saunders, a sociologist at Sussex University, published last month by the Institute of Economic Affairs. He concludes that ability is greater at the top of the class/income pile than at the bottom, and that individual ability plays a crucial part in deciding where an individual will end up. Ability alone is well over twice as important as their class origins, three times more powerful than the degree of interest their parents showed in their schooling, and five times more powerful than their parents' level of education or the aspirations which their parents harbored for them while they were growing up.