Thanks, that was long, but I appreciate the detailed explanation. If I'm understanding this correctly, the issue is that the selectors actually need to reference elements that are out of the scope of the component. Meaning they aren't contained within the components container. If this is the case, either 1) the scoping of the component is incorrect or 2) you need to source the elements you want to show/hide in a different manner. In the case of 1), you just need to move this up grade up to the parent or some other appropriate ancestor. In the case of 2) you could do a few different things: use an invoker that takes in an element or taken in the necessary elements as an option (maybe a member) of your grade. Either of these would move the configuration up to where it is used and be referenced like "{parent}.dom.expandingAdjuster". 

I may still not be clear on the whole picture so feel free to correct any errors in my understanding. I think we should try to talk about this more at today's GPII meeting, if possible.