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This paper investigates the simplification of programming for non-technical university students. Typical simplification strategies are outlined, and according to our findings CT courses for non-technical students typically address learners from different faculties, providing generic and basic knowledge, not specifically related to their major. In this study, we propose instead a hermeneutic approach to simplify programming, in which we aim at clarifying the problem-solving aspect of programming, addressing computational problems that are specific to their studies and leveraging on learners' preunderstanding of the digital media they have experienced as users. The practical counterpart of our theoretical approach is a minimalistic Python multimedia library, called Medialib, that we designed to enable university students with a non-technical profile to create visual media and games with short and readable code. We discuss the use of Medialib in two empirical case studies: a collaboration with the university of Kyushu in Fukuoka, Japan, and a coding module for Media Studies students at the University of Southern Denmark. Furthermore, we use Notional Machines to attempt a comparison of the simplicity of learning tools for programming, and to ground our claim that Medialib is "simpler" for learners than other popular approaches. The main contribution is a hermeneutic approach to the simplification of programming for specific contexts that combines the hermeneutic spiral and notional machines. The approach is supported by a tool, the Medialib library; the two case studies provide examples of how the approach and tool can be deployed in beginners in CT courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spirituality plays an important role in coping with chronic diseases. However, the meaning of spirituality is not known in hemophilia, as a chronic disease. This study aimed to explore the essence of spirituality in hemophilia patients. This qualitative study with a hermeneutic phenomenological approach was conducted on twelve Muslim adult hemophilia patients. The participants were selected using purposeful sampling. The data were gathered through interview. Then, the data were analyzed using thematic analysis and van Manen's methodological framework. MAX.QDA qualitative software package 2010 was used to import the transcripts and analyze the data. Four themes were identified: "relationship with God," "God as the fulcrum," "strong religious beliefs," and "spiritual satisfaction." "Relationship with God" meant "to ask God for help" and "praying for oneself and others." "God as the fulcrum" consisted of two subthemes, i.e., "hope in God" and "Trust in God." "Strong religious beliefs" also included "belief in openness of God's mercy," "belief in God and the omnipotence of God," and "belief in creation by God." Finally, "spiritual satisfaction" consisted of two subthemes, namely "accepting the providence" and "thanking the divine blessings." Spirituality in hemophilia patients meant having relationship with God who was considered as the fulcrum, strong religious beliefs, and spiritual satisfaction. By understanding the hemophilia patients' spirituality experiences, the nurses and healthcare workers could provide holistic care focused on spirituality. Yet, more studies are recommended to be conducted on hemophilia patients to explore spirituality in other religions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If we want to take firm the importance of universal principles in Bioethics, but at the same time we want to take seriously the importance of cultural diversity and pluralism, it is necessary to adopt a multifaceted approach. In the article I argue that a possible way out is a sort of hermeneutic approach, in order to reduce the ambivalence that stems from the dual recognition of cultural diversity and universal value of human rights. Through this approach conflicting principles and traditions can be harmonized within a common framework, at least to some extent. Such an approach, in my perspective, can be implemented as a strategy of interpretation, which can hold together different conceptions and common principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of Vietnamese Australians migrated to Australia as refugees to escape a war and this unique migration background may affect their ability to access and utilize healthcare services in Australia. Inability to utilize dementia services is associated with higher levels of caregiver burden, higher rates of morbidities and mortality and hospitalization. The aim of the study was to explore the perceived challenges of dementia care from Vietnamese family caregivers and Vietnamese care workers. Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics was used to interpret and describe the experiences of the participants. Data were collected from in-depth interviews with six Vietnamese family caregivers and a focus group with Vietnamese care workers using purposive sampling. Participants were recruited from a Vietnamese community care organization in South Australia. Five themes were identified from the data analysis namely: (1) a need for culturally and linguistically appropriate dementia education programs; (2) a willingness and unwillingness to seek help; (3) poor knowledge of health care service availability related to dementia; (4) the effect of language barrier in accessing services; and (5) the main sources of services utilized. The study revealed that Vietnamese family caregivers and Vietnamese care workers held different views on the association of stigma with dementia. Findings also revealed factors that impacted accessing and utilizing dementia services. These findings facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of Vietnamese family caregivers' needs and have implications for developing individualized support for family caregivers and for consumer-directed dementia services in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an increasingly growth of professional guidelines, textbooks and research about ethics in health care, awareness about ethics in Danish physiotherapy private practice seen vague. This article explores how physiotherapists in Danish private practice, from an ethical perspective, perceive to practice physiotherapy. The empirical data consists of interviews with twenty-one physiotherapists. The interviews are analysed from a hermeneutic approach, inspired by Ricoeur's textual interpretation of distanciation. The analysis follows three phases: naïve reading, structural analysis and comprehensive analysis. Four main themes are constructed: Beneficence as the driving force; Disciplining the patient through the course of physiotherapy; Balancing between being a trustworthy professional and a businessperson; The dream of a code of practice. Private practice physiotherapy is embedded in a structural frame directed by both political and economical conditions that shape the conditions for practicing physiotherapy. It means that beneficence in practice is a balance between the patient, the physiotherapists themselves and the business. Beneficence towards the patient is expressed as an implicit demand. Physiotherapeutic practice is expressed as being an integration of professionalism and personality which implies that the physiotherapists also have to benefit themselves. Private practice seems to be driven by a paternalistic approach towards the patient, where disciplining the patient is a crucial element of practice, in order to optimise profit. Physiotherapists wish for a more beneficent practice in the future by aiming at bridging 'to be' and 'ought to be'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2008 commercial video game Spore allowed more than a million players to design their own life forms. Starting from single-celled organisms players played through a caricature of natural history. Press coverage of the game's release offer two frames for thinking about the implications of the game. Some scientists and educators saw the game as a troubling teacher of intelligent design, while others suggested it might excite public interest in science. This paper explores the extent to which these two ways of thinking about the game are consistent with what players have done with the game in its online community. This analysis suggests that, at least for the players participating in this community, the game has not seduced them into believing in intelligent design. Instead the activities of these players suggest that the game has played a catalytic role in engaging the public with science. These findings indicate that designers of educational games may wish to consider more deeply tensions between prioritizing accuracy of content in educational games over player engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sportwissenschaft is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This essay addresses the issue of indigeneity in terms of local cultures. The authors do so in conversation with Kim, Yang, and Hwang’s recent book, Indigenous and Cultural Psychology: Understanding People in Context. The life and work of Virgilio Enriquez is reviewed briefly as an exemplary indigenous psychologist. He illustrates the possibility of an indigenous psychology with a local, regulative grammar of cognition, affect, behavior, and relationships. The accounts of the tower of Babel and Constantine point to the irreversible damage of homogenizing culture and imposing it on other cultures. We argue that the imposition of a local, particular Western psychology on a global scale might risk a similar cost. The authors propose that current research in indigenous psychologies might take more seriously the notion that culture is not monolithic but should be understood from the point of view of the analysis of power relationships. Secondly, the authors argue that the role of language has not received sufficient attention in terms of shaping thought and increasing the incommensurability between cultures. Thirdly, it is argued that positivist epistemology has dominated the field and that more hermeneutic approaches must be considered. Fourth, the question must be asked regarding who controls indigenous research. Too often control has been exogenous rather than in the hands of local leaders. Finally, it is suggested that North Americans would do well to examine and recognize the indigeneity of their own psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizenship and its education is again gaining importance in many countries. This paper uses England as its primary example to develop a Habermasian perspective on this issue. The statutory requirements for citizenship education in England imply that significant attention be given to the moral and social development of the learner over time, to the active engagement of the learner in community and to the knowledge skills and understanding necessary for political action. This paper sets out a theoretical framework that offers a perspective on learning suitable for these far-reaching aims. We argue that schools need to shift from the currently dominant discourse of accountability to incorporate a discourse of care in order to make room for an effective and appropriate pedagogy for citizenship. Habermas’s social theory gives us a theoretical framework that properly locates schools within the lifeworld as part of civil society. Schools should therefore attend to hermeneutical and emancipatory concerns, not only to strategic interests. We put these in the context of Habermas’s social theory to paint an alternative vision learning for citizenship education which is based in developing the dispositions, values and attitudes necessary for lifelong learning with a view to developing ongoing communicative action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to explore the legacy of Charles V. Gerkin’s pastoral theology and to construct a method of pastoral theology. In Part I, I will trace within a larger context of pastoral theology the history of Gerkin’s pastoral theology since his early clinical praxis. In Part II, I will explore his method of developing pastoral theology and construct a renewed critical and constructive method of pastoral theology, reflecting on the implications of exploring the history and method of his pastoral theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to explore the legacy of Charles V. Gerkin’s pastoral theology and to construct a method of pastoral theology. In Part I, I will trace within a larger context of pastoral theology the history of Gerkin’s pastoral theology since his early clinical praxis. In Part II, I will explore his method of developing pastoral theology and construct a renewed critical and constructive method of pastoral theology, reflecting on the implications of exploring the history and method of his pastoral theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Der Nervenarzt is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Argumentation is a form of communication, rather than an application of (formal) logic, and is used in communicative activity as a means for inquiry, although it is more typically thought of as bringing inquiry to closure. Thus interpretation is an intrinsic and crucial aspect of conversational (interactive) argumentation. In order to further this understanding of argumentative activity, I propose a procedure for interpretation that draws upon hermeneutic phenomenology. In response to criticisms by argumentation theorists (and others) who understand this tradition as oriented to psychological, perceptual, or textual objects, I argue that hermeneutic phenomenology supports methods for analysis of public communicative activity. The resulting conception of ’thick argumentation‘ responds to contemporary (postmodern) claims that argumentation valorizes univocity, stasis, and certainty at the expense of the pluralism, fluctuation, and range of epistemic results that characterize discourse in the public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential of psychiatry as an integrative science has been impeded by an internal schism that derives from the duality of mental and physical. Organic unity theory is proposed as a conceptual framework that brings together the terms of the mind-body duality in one coherent perspective. Organic unity theory is braided of three strands: identity, which describes the relationship between mentally described events and corresponding physically described events; continuity, which describes the linguistic-conceptual system that contains both mental and physical terms; and dialectic, which describes the relationship between the empirical way of knowing that is associated with the physical domain of the linguistic-conceptual system and the hermeneutic way of knowing that is associated with the mental domain. Each strand represents an integrative formulation that resolves an aspect of mental-physical dualism into an underlying unity. After the theory is presented, its implications for psychiatry are briefly considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]