Search results for "theories"
showing 10 items of 302 documents
Closed Theories, Falsificationism and Non-Cumulative Progress
2020
It is argued that scientific progress occurs not with the cumulative growth of knowledge or when theories get closer to the truth but with discovering new domains and new theories that fit these domains. This horizontal view on the direction of scientific progress (in contrast to vertical, when we aim to get from here to the abstract and ephemeral truth) allows avoiding traditional objections posed by the incommensurability thesis and pessimistic induction, namely, that radical theory changes leave no room for progress. According to this perspective, the discovery of quantum mechanics as a new field of inquiry is a progress in itself, since this discovery had opened up a new distinctive dom…
Redefining habits and linking habits with other implicit processes
2019
In their commentaries on Hagger (2019), Gardner, Rebar, and Lally (2019) and Phillips (2019) provide welcome debate on the conceptualization and operation of habits in physical activity. In this response, I extend their comments by (i) calling for a redefining of habits to encompass contemporary views of habit, and (ii) suggesting that descriptions of physical activity habits should make reference to their relations with other implicit constructs that reflect automatic processes. Specifically, I contend that extant definitions of habits for complex behaviors like physical activity should move away from definitions of unitary responses to specific cues or contexts, and, focus on ‘macro’ expr…
The reasoned action approach applied to health behavior: Role of past behavior and tests of some key moderators using meta-analytic structural equati…
2018
Abstract Rationale The reasoned action approach (RAA) is a social cognitive model that outlines the determinants of intentional behavior. Primary and meta-analytic studies support RAA predictions for multiple health behaviors. However, including past behavior as a predictor in the RAA may attenuate model effects. Direct effects of past behavior on behavior may reflect non-conscious processes whereas indirect effects of past behavior through social cognitive variables may represent reasoned processes. Objective The present study extended a previous meta-analysis of the RAA by including effects of past behavior. The analysis also tested effects of candidate moderators of model predictions: be…
The Languages and Anti-Languages of Health Communication in the Age of Conspiracy Theories, Mi/Disinformation and Hate Speech
2022
The Languages and Anti-Languages of Health Communication in the Age of Conspiracy Theories, Mis/Disinformation and Hate Speech” aims at analysing the languages of discourse of health communication, specifically health message design, addressing COVID-19 in both institutional and non-institutional media settings. The purpose of this special issue is to explore the “anti-languages” and counter-discourses endorsing (mis/dis-)information, and conspiracy theories which are in direct opposition to official discourses and challenge social and political hegemony. The discourse approach to health communication featured in the papers of this special issue will help understanding social responses to s…
Decoupling of HRM as health sector regulation
2022
This systematic review of the academic literature since early 1990s on the application of some HRM practices in health care sheds light on the persistence decoupling between institutional norms and standards related to human resource management (HRM) procedures and the actual practices in organizations. Contrary to the affirmation of NIT, translation processes do not put an end to decoupling. The isomorphisms identified by the neo institutionalists relate to leadership decisions, not practices. The application of HRM practice bundles is opposed by health care professionals. This analysis of the «critical» approach is apparently contradicted by that which we describe as «optimistic» because …
Human Resource Management rules and practices in the health sector : Why do disconnected forms of social regulation persist ?
2021
International audience; This systematic review of the academic literature since 1994 on the application of HRM rules in health care sheds light on the persistence of gaps between institutional norms and standards related to human resource management (HRM) procedures and the actual practices in organizations. Contrary to the affirmation of Scandinavian institutionalism, “translation” processes do not eliminate “controversies”, nor put an end to “decoupling”. The very grounds of new public management (NPM) are brought under question. Though not well known among English-speaking academics, Reynaud’s theory of social regulation opens the way toward explaining this phenomenon and challenges neoi…
Matter Dependence of the Four-Loop Cusp Anomalous Dimension
2019
We compute analytically the matter-dependent contributions to the quartic Casimir term of the four-loop light-like cusp anomalous dimension in QCD, with $n_f$ fermion and $n_s$ scalar flavours. The result is extracted from the double pole of a scalar form factor. We adopt a new strategy for the choice of master integrals with simple analytic and infrared properties, which significantly simplifies our calculation. To this end we first identify a set of integrals whose integrands have a dlog form, and are hence expected to have uniform transcendental weight. We then perform a systematic analysis of the soft and collinear regions of loop integration and build linear combinations of integrals w…
The 1-loop effective potential for the Standard Model in curved spacetime
2018
The renormalisation group improved Standard Model effective potential in an arbitrary curved spacetime is computed to one loop order in perturbation theory. The loop corrections are computed in the ultraviolet limit, which makes them independent of the choice of the vacuum state and allows the derivation of the complete set of $\beta$-functions. The potential depends on the spacetime curvature through the direct non-minimal Higgs-curvature coupling, curvature contributions to the loop diagrams, and through the curvature dependence of the renormalisation scale. Together, these lead to significant curvature dependence, which needs to be taken into account in cosmological applications, which i…
Flavour mixing transport theory and resonant leptogenesis
2021
We derive non-equilibrium quantum transport equations for flavour-mixing fermions. We develop the formalism mostly in the context of resonant leptogenesis with two mixing Majorana fermions and one lepton flavour, but our master equations are valid more generally in homogeneous and isotropic systems. We give a hierarchy of quantum kinetic equations, valid at different approximations, that can accommodate helicity and arbitrary mass differences. In the mass-degenerate limit the equations take the familiar form of density matrix equations. We also derive the semiclassical Boltzmann limit of our equations, including the CP-violating source, whose regulator corresponds to the flavour coherence d…
Constraints on Cosmic Strings Using Data from the Third Advanced LIGO–Virgo Observing Run
2021
We search for gravitational-wave signals produced by cosmic strings in the Advanced LIGO and Virgo full O3 data set. Search results are presented for gravitational waves produced by cosmic string loop features such as cusps, kinks and, for the first time, kink-kink collisions.cA template-based search for short-duration transient signals does not yield a detection. We also use the stochastic gravitational-wave background energy density upper limits derived from the O3 data to constrain the cosmic string tension, $G\mu$, as a function of the number of kinks, or the number of cusps, for two cosmic string loop distribution models.cAdditionally, we develop and test a third model which interpolat…