The Application of Problem-Centered Interview as a Method of Pedagogical Research

The purpose of the article is to present the qualitative research method known as Problem-Centered Interview and its potential application in pedagogical research. The author demonstrates the main assumptions and stages of the method, simultaneously analyzing the possible benefits and limitations of its use. The originality of the method is confronted with other types of interviews, i.e.: active, in-depth and classical narrative interview. The application of unique qualities of the method,such as: administering three types of reasoning (deductive, inductive and abductive), addressing the prior knowledge bias of the researcher and taking into account afalsification in the validation process, all of which increase the credibility of research conclusions. The Problem-Centered Interview which is placed between the objectivist Grounded Theory and constructionism is able to provide a new insight into education and upbringing. The application of the method makes it possible for the research itself to become an educational situation.

Centrality of drug targets in protein networks

Background In the pharmaceutical industry, competing for few validated drug targets there is a drive to identify new ways of therapeutic intervention. Here, we attempted to define guidelines to evaluate a target’s ‘fitness’ based on its node characteristics within annotated protein functional networks to complement contingent therapeutic hypotheses. Results We observed that targets of approved, selective small molecule drugs exhibit high node centrality within protein networks relative to a broader set of investigational targets spanning various development stages. Targets of approved drugs also exhibit higher centrality than other proteins within their respective functional class. These findings expand on previous reports of drug targets’ network centrality by suggesting some centrality metrics such as low topological coefficient as inherent characteristics of a ‘good’ target, relative to other exploratory targets and regardless of its functional class. These centrality metrics could thus be indicators of an individual protein’s ‘fitness’ as potential drug target. Correlations between protein nodes’ network centrality and number of associated publications underscored the possibility of knowledge bias as an inherent limitation to such predictions. Conclusions Despite some entanglement with knowledge bias, like structure-oriented ‘druggability’ assessments of new protein targets, centrality metrics could assist early pharmaceutical discovery teams in evaluating potential targets with limited experimental proof of concept and help allocate resources for an effective drug discovery pipeline.

An Evaluation Methodology for Interactive Reinforcement Learning with Simulated Users

Interactive reinforcement learning methods utilise an external information source to evaluate decisions and accelerate learning. Previous work has shown that human advice could significantly improve learning agents’ performance. When evaluating reinforcement learning algorithms, it is common to repeat experiments as parameters are altered or to gain a sufficient sample size. In this regard, to require human interaction every time an experiment is restarted is undesirable, particularly when the expense in doing so can be considerable. Additionally, reusing the same people for the experiment introduces bias, as they will learn the behaviour of the agent and the dynamics of the environment. This paper presents a methodology for evaluating interactive reinforcement learning agents by employing simulated users. Simulated users allow human knowledge, bias, and interaction to be simulated. The use of simulated users allows the development and testing of reinforcement learning agents, and can provide indicative results of agent performance under defined human constraints. While simulated users are no replacement for actual humans, they do offer an affordable and fast alternative for evaluative assisted agents. We introduce a method for performing a preliminary evaluation utilising simulated users to show how performance changes depending on the type of user assisting the agent. Moreover, we describe how human interaction may be simulated, and present an experiment illustrating the applicability of simulating users in evaluating agent performance when assisted by different types of trainers. Experimental results show that the use of this methodology allows for greater insight into the performance of interactive reinforcement learning agents when advised by different users. The use of simulated users with varying characteristics allows for evaluation of the impact of those characteristics on the behaviour of the learning agent.

Judgment and Decision Making in Teams

As organizations increasingly adopt team-based systems, team judgment and decision making are often preferred ways of making decisions compared to individual decision making. Teams are considered to have a greater potential to make a higher quality decision compared to individuals because teams can utilize a larger pool of information, team members can correct each other’s error, and team discussion can facilitate team processes that enhance team outcomes such as learning. Team judgment and decision making, however, are known to be subject to potential pitfalls such as polarization, common knowledge bias, and conformity pressures. This article summarizes team judgment and decision making from an information processing perspective in which information distributed among team members and interaction dynamics among team members (i.e., discussion, deliberation) determine the mechanisms whereby distributed information is expressed and elaborated and whereby it influences the ultimate team decision or judgment as discussed in The Emerging Conceptualization of Groups as Information Processors. Accordingly, studies on team judgment and decision making focus on processes whereby team members reach a team decision or judgment and the different factors that could make the team processes more effective. The current review attempts to achieve a balance in emphasis by including topics that are of interest both to academics as well as to practitioners of team judgment and decision making.

Cultural Variations in the Curse of Knowledge: the Curse of Knowledge Bias in Children from a Nomadic Pastoralist Culture in Kenya

We examined the universality of the curse of knowledge (i.e., the tendency to be biased by one’s knowledge when inferring other perspectives) by investigating it in a unique cross-cultural sample; a nomadic Nilo-Saharan pastoralist society in East Africa, the Turkana. Forty Turkana children were asked eight factual questions and asked to predict how widely-known those facts were among their peers. To test the effect of their knowledge, we taught children the answers to half of the questions, while the other half were unknown. Based on findings suggesting the bias’s universality, we predicted that children would estimate that more of their peers would know the answers to the questions that were taught versus the unknown questions. We also predicted that with age children would become less biased by their knowledge. In contrast, we found that only Turkana males were biased by their knowledge when inferring their peers’ perspectives, and the bias did not change with age. We discuss the implications of these findings.

Application of principles of supply chain management to the pharmaceutical good transportation practices

Purpose Pharmaceuticals supply chain management (SCM) requires special expertise to transport the medicinal products because of weird features of their demand, supply and sensitivity towards quality. The purpose of this study is to establish the linkage of pharmaceutical quality system requirements with the SCM principles. The study enables the collaborative approach of technical, transport, logistics and supply chain teams within the pharmaceutical industry. Design/methodology/approach The methodology followed for this study is literature review and survey. The study is supplemented with data obtained through the structured questionnaire. Findings Through this study, an exclusive perspective for pharmaceutical good transportation practice (GTP) has been propagated in alignment with seven principles of SCM by Anderson. This study offers guidance to pharmaceutical industry for transportation of products by conceptualizing basic supply chain features such as segmentation, customization of requirement, market signals, differentiation, technology orientation and channel spanning performance. Research limitations/implications Here is limited information available about the transportation failures in the pharmaceutical industry. Application of supply chain principles to pharmaceutical transportation is sometimes affected by technical knowledge bias of the researcher. Practical implications The study has successfully expounded the practical aspects of pharmaceutical GTP for supply chain professionals. Social implications The study facilitates the patients and pharmaceutical consumers to get quality products in a timely manner across the globe. Originality/value The application of SCM principles to the pharmaceutical GTP is the result of novel research and has not been studied earlier.

Nineteenth-Century Homeopathic Materia Medica Texts Predict Source Materials Whose Physiological Actions Influence Thyroid Activity

Introduction The homeopathic materia medica contains hundreds of thousands of observations collected over the course of two centuries. It includes both clinical observations of potentized medicines and observations of the actions of potentized medicines on healthy subjects (provings). This current study was undertaken to determine the degree to which observations within the materia medica were associated with the physiological mechanisms for thyroid activity-inhibiting substances in their undiluted state. Materials and Methods Four specific symptoms for iodine deficiency were selected to describe the hypothyroid state: (1) generalized aggravation by or sensitivity to cold; (2) chronic painless hoarseness; (3) goiter; (4) painless diffuse non-scarring alopecia. Symptom representation for the four selected symptoms within the homeopathic materia medica was compared for 2 halogen inhibitors, for 3 substances that influence thyroid hormone target tissues, for 6 substances known or suspected to increase thyroid-stimulating hormone or decrease thyroid hormone levels, and for 11 substances not known to inhibit thyroid activity. To avoid knowledge bias, only those compilations of materia medica whose publication dates preceded the discoveries of crucial aspects of thyroid physiology were used as source materials for investigation. Results Homeopathic medicines derived from 11 substances with mechanisms for inhibition of thyroid activity were more likely to exhibit selected symptoms than the medicines derived from the 11 substances without known physiological mechanisms for thyroid activity inhibition. The difference between groups was analyzed via the Mann–Whitney non-parametric U test and was statistically significant to p < 0.01. After observations obtained from provings alone were removed from analysis, the difference remained significant to p < 0.01. Only the two halogen inhibitors of iodine (bromine and fluoric acid) and one of the influencers of thyroid hormone target tissue (calcium carbonate) were significantly goitrogenic. Conclusions With respect to thyroid activity inhibition, there is a statistically significant association between observations recorded within the homeopathic materia medica and the expected physiological mechanisms for the corresponding undiluted substances.

Knowledge Transfer Conditioning by the Communication Processes in the IT/IS Area

This chapter addresses the communication between information technology/information systems (IT/IS) professionals and their users in the corporate environment of the city of Curitiba (Brazil). The main goal was to analyze the communication processes and their pitfalls to knowledge transfer in this area. The study is exploratory considering that the desired number of responses was not reached. Results show that professionals have a communication whose terms make difficult users to understand them. Although it is not intentional, respondent professionals do not facilitate their understanding, what creates a knowledge bias between them. Conclusions suggest that professionals be formally prepared for customer service and manage their approach as user-cantered. Professionals need to be clear to users, in order to guarantee them confidence. Respondent users recognize the importance of IT/IS for their lives and companies; thus they expect professionals to share and explain well their actions/choices.

HOW POWERFUL ARE NETWORK EFFECTS? A SKILL-BIASED TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE APPROACH

Even for the standard skill-biased technological change (SBTC) literature, the generic rise in the skill premium in the face of the relative increase in skilled workers since the 1980s seems a little puzzling. We develop a general equilibrium SBTC growth model that allows the dominance of either the price channel or the market-size channel mechanism through which network spillovers affect the technological-knowledge bias and, thus, the paths of intra-country wage inequality. The proposed mechanisms can accommodate facts not explained by the earlier literature.

Growing Up Thinking of God’s Beliefs: Theory of Mind and Ontological Knowledge

The study of social cognition involves the attribution of states of mind to humans, as well as, quite recently, to nonhuman creatures, like God. Some studies support the role of social cognition in religious beliefs, whereas others ascribe religious beliefs to an ontological knowledge bias. The present study compares these distinct approaches in 37 catholic children aged 4 to 10 years, who were administered an adapted version of the unexpected content task assessing false beliefs of different agents: a human, a dog, a robot, and God. The children were also administered an intentionality understanding task, a component of mentalization abilities, and an interview on ontological knowledge assessing emotions, intentions, imagination, and epistemic knowledge. In line with previous research, the results showed that children did not attribute false beliefs to God as they did to the human and to other nonhuman agents. Importantly, while false-belief attribution to the human was associated with the children’s ability to attribute mental states (intentionality understanding), false-belief attribution to God was related to children’s ontological knowledge. We conclude that, contrary to false-belief attribution to the human and to other nonhuman agents, children’s understanding of God’s mind is largely a function of ontological knowledge about God, rather than of children’s social cognitive functions.