Conceptual Systems Research Articles

Efficient Population of the Verification Tradespace Using Bayesian Inference

This article presents a process to efficiently elicit belief models of verification strategies in the context of applying tradespace exploration to the design of verification strategies. The need for efficiency is at the core of tradespace exploration, where a large region of the solution space needs to be explored before anchoring to a specific solution or solution set. In conceptual design and systems architecture, solutions are modeled by leveraging independent models that are connected by an overarching model. In designing verification strategies, however, verification activities cannot be modeled independently of the overall strategy in which they are used. As a result, probabilities associated with the confidence generated by each verification activity, need to be elicited for each candidate verification strategy individually. This requires, in principle, to generate a specific model for each solution in the solution space, which may hamper efficiency. In this article, we show that Bayesian inference can be used to overcome this limitation. In particular, the proposed process in this article uses only one elicitation activity for an overarching verification strategy and then leverages Bayesian inference to determine automatically the probabilities of other verification strategies in the solution space.

지속가능발전에 대한 관광전공 학부생의 지식, 태도, 행동 분석

The present study aims at understanding undergraduate students' conceptual systems of tourism ethics by metaphor analysis for appropriate direction of the ethics curriculum. For this study, a total of 115 undergraduate students from all grades were asked to describe tourism ethics metaphorically and were asked to write down their reasons for the metaphors they chose. To analyze their metaphors, systemic metaphor analysis was adopted. The results of this study are as follows. First, practical moral-seeking type, interpersonal moral-seeking type, and social moral-seeking type were derived from tourism ethics. Second, there were differences in the characteristics of tourism ethics types according to the major, grade, and gender of undergraduate students. Thus, we suggest that when building an ethics curriculum, planners should consider both the major and gender of the undergraduates, and then develop the instructional methods based on the industrial fields. These results have importance not only as educational guidelines for tourism students but also for informing decisions about the tools that tourism destinations can effectively employ to control the tourism industry.

은유분석을 이용한 관광윤리 개념체계에 관한 연구

The present study aims at understanding undergraduate students' conceptual systems of tourism ethics by metaphor analysis for appropriate direction of the ethics curriculum. For this study, a total of 115 undergraduate students from all grades were asked to describe tourism ethics metaphorically and were asked to write down their reasons for the metaphors they chose. To analyze their metaphors, systemic metaphor analysis was adopted. The results of this study are as follows. First, practical moral-seeking type, interpersonal moral-seeking type, and social moral-seeking type were derived from tourism ethics. Second, there were differences in the characteristics of tourism ethics types according to the major, grade, and gender of undergraduate students. Thus, we suggest that when building an ethics curriculum, planners should consider both the major and gender of the undergraduates, and then develop the instructional methods based on the industrial fields. These results have importance not only as educational guidelines for tourism students but also for informing decisions about the tools that tourism destinations can effectively employ to control the tourism industry.

Turning conceptual systems maps into dynamic simulation models: An Australian case study for diabetes in pregnancy.

BackgroundSystem science approaches are increasingly used to explore complex public health problems. Quantitative methods, such as participatory dynamic simulation modelling, can mobilise knowledge to inform health policy decisions. However, the analytic and practical steps required to turn collaboratively developed, qualitative system maps into rigorous and policy-relevant quantified dynamic simulation models are not well described. This paper reports on the processes, interactions and decisions that occurred at the interface between modellers and end-user participants in an applied health sector case study focusing on diabetes in pregnancy.MethodsAn analysis was conducted using qualitative data from a participatory dynamic simulation modelling case study in an Australian health policy setting. Recordings of participatory model development workshops and subsequent meetings were analysed and triangulated with field notes and other written records of discussions and decisions. Case study vignettes were collated to illustrate the deliberations and decisions made throughout the model development process.ResultsThe key analytic objectives and decision-making processes included: defining the model scope; analysing and refining the model structure to maximise local relevance and utility; reviewing and incorporating evidence to inform model parameters and assumptions; focusing the model on priority policy questions; communicating results and applying the models to policy processes. These stages did not occur sequentially; the model development was cyclical and iterative with decisions being re-visited and refined throughout the process. Storytelling was an effective strategy to both communicate and resolve concerns about the model logic and structure, and to communicate the outputs of the model to a broader audience.ConclusionThe in-depth analysis reported here examined the application of participatory modelling methods to move beyond qualitative conceptual mapping to the development of a rigorously quantified and policy relevant, complex dynamic simulation model. The analytic objectives and decision-making themes identified provide guidance for interpreting, understanding and reporting future participatory modelling projects and methods.

Exchange and Transaction as a Form of Life and Meaning in the Logic of Tantric Concepts

This essay examines conceptual metaphors from Śaiva-Śākta traditions of Hindu tantra. It explores how conceptual metaphors associated with heterodox ritual exchanges between humans and fierce divinities were employed and used to transform other ideas (bodily fluids, sacrificial products, sexualized symbols, celibacy, states of consciousness, ideas about kinship) to express a new kind of kinship or family (kula) that replaced or supplemented orthodox concepts (such as class and caste). It then considers the combination or blending of these conceptual systems with other ideas about concentration and miniaturization (intensifying something to its essence). The resulting conceptual metaphors are then directly related to the way that tantric traditions moved over time to semanticized, abstract, orthodox, and mystical expressions and concepts. There is a diverse body of scholarship that examines and interprets the historical traditions of Hindu tantra. This body of scholarship is seldom considered outside of conversations among area specialists. Some of this is due to the heterodox nature of some tantric practices, especially concepts or rituals that use sex or sexual symbolism. Tantric focus on these heterodox conceptual frameworks conflicts directly with purity-oriented conceptual systems of orthodox Hindu traditions. Through a kind of meta-analysis of some of these conceptual metaphors, this essay seeks to consider a kind of conceptual logic that makes their heterodox content more understandable and accessible to other areas of religious studies and philosophy. The study relies on certain insights drawn from metaphor theory to formulate the concepts (such as exchange metaphors) it examines.

„Niezdeterminowanie” granic poznania w znaturalizowanym relatywizmie pojęciowym W.V.O. Quine’a

<p>W artykule opisano znaturalizowany relatywizm pojęciowy W.V.O. Quine’a w perspektywie problematyki granic wiedzy. Quine był jednocześnie relatywistą pojęciowym (mamy do wyboru wiele równoważnych pod względem epistemologicznym systemów pojęciowych) i empirycznym naturalistą (przyjmował naturalistyczną koncepcję treści empirycznej zredukowanej do pobudzeń odbieranych przez nasze powierzchnie sensoryczne w ramach behawioryzmu lingwistycznego). Ponadto bezpośrednio podejmował zagadnienie granic wiedzy, jednak jego główną intencją – jak sam zaznaczył – była przede wszystkim analiza i modyfikacja tytułowego problemu, a nie próba udzielenia na niego odpowiedzi. Krótko mówiąc, zdaniem Quine’a zagadnienie to można zredukować do kontekstu językowego.</p>

Workflow assessment as a preclinical development tool : Surgical process models of three techniques for minimally invasive cochlear implantation.

Minimally invasive cochlear implant surgery is a challenging procedure due to high demands on accuracy. For clinical success, an according assistance system has to compete against the traditional approach in terms of risk, operating time and cost. It has not yet been determined what kind of system is the most suited. The purpose of this study is a proof of concept of surgical process modeling as a preclinical development tool and the comparison of workflow concepts for this new approach. Three preclinical systems (two stereotactic and one robotic) for minimally invasive cochlear implant surgery are compared using the method of surgical process modeling. All three systems were successfully tested with ex vivo human specimen to create minimally invasive surgical access to the cochlea. Those systems where chosen for comparison, because they represent three diverse approaches with different corresponding workflows for the same intervention. The experiments were used to create a process model for each system by recording the interventions. All three conceptual systems developed by our group have shown their eligibility. The recorded process models provide a convenient method for direct comparison. Reduction in the surgical time has a higher impact on the process, than time that is needed for setting up a system beforehand. The stereotactic approaches have little preparation effort and are low cost in terms of hardware compared to the robotic approach, which in return is beneficial in terms of workload reduction for the surgeon. Surgical process modeling is suitable for comparison of different assistant systems for minimally invasive cochlear implantation. The benefit of reduced trauma, compared to the traditional mastoidectomy, can now be assessed with consideration of the workflow of each technique. The process models enable an assessment in the regard of surgical time and workload.

What We Mean When We Talk about Teaching: The Limits of Professional Language and Possibilities for Professionalizing Discourse in Teachers’ Conversations

BackgroundLong-standing calls to infuse technical language in teaching—what we call the Professional Language Project—have been revived in recent years along with the core practices movement in teacher education. The Professional Language Project has been identified as a desired outcome of research and a potential benefit to teacher education.ObjectiveDrawing on sociolinguistic studies of teachers’ sensemaking, we critique the Professional Language Project to show its limits in making the intended contribution to teaching and teacher education.Research DesignThis analytic essay uses a practice perspective on both language and teaching to interrogate the premises of the Professional Language Project. Specifically, we hold up its goals against empirical findings about how teachers use language to make sense of instructional decisions in their workplaces.ConclusionsEmpirical studies of teachers’ in situ language use point to two fallacies in the Professional Language Project. First, the presence or absence of technical terms in teachers’ talk does not relate to the depth of their sensemaking or instructional sophistication, indicating that technical terms do not accomplish the conceptual goals that some Professional Language Project advocates suggest. Second, a prevailing common-sense discourse culture in teaching often results in conceptual slippage in the use of technical terms, leading words to be absorbed into existing conceptual systems more than they catalyze new understandings.

The theory of literature as a declaration of love

In Frumoasa necunoscută. Literatura și paradoxurile teoriei, Carmen Mușat analyzes and systemizes the relational character of literature and the discourses on literature. She revisits famous notions of modernity which can be capitalized on in our current context, where we speak of the death of the author and even the end of literary theory. In all of the approaches that she takes in the book, the author is certain that the theorist and his presence in the world retain a valid purpose, as they can counterargue, wherever the case may be, and justify the beauty of literature from novel points of view. Frumoasa necunoscutăpresents to us an inventory for an ideal way to look upon the world and literature. Carmen Mușat is a researcher who is up to date with the most sophisticated conceptual systems. The result of this is a narration under the form of a complex declaration of love for literature and the paradoxes of theory.

How meaning unfolds in neural time: Embodied reactivations can precede multimodal semantic effects during language processing

Research on how the brain construes meaning during language use has prompted two conflicting accounts. According to the ‘grounded view’, word understanding involves quick reactivations of sensorimotor (embodied) experiences evoked by the stimuli, with simultaneous or later engagement of multimodal (conceptual) systems integrating information from various sensory streams. Contrariwise, for the ‘symbolic view’, this capacity depends crucially on multimodal operations, with embodied systems playing epiphenomenal roles after comprehension. To test these contradictory hypotheses, the present magnetoencephalography study assessed implicit semantic access to grammatically constrained action and non-action verbs (n = 100 per category) while measuring spatiotemporally precise signals from the primary motor cortex (M1, a core region subserving bodily movements) and the anterior temporal lobe (ATL, a putative multimodal semantic hub). Convergent evidence from sensor- and source-level analyses revealed that increased modulations for action verbs occurred earlier in M1 (∼130–190 ms) than in specific ATL hubs (∼250–410 ms). Moreover, machine-learning decoding showed that trial-by-trial classification peaks emerged faster in M1 (∼100–175 ms) than in the ATL (∼345–500 ms), with over 71% accuracy in both cases. Considering their latencies, these results challenge the ‘symbolic view’ and its implication that sensorimotor mechanisms play only secondary roles in semantic processing. Instead, our findings support the ‘grounded view’, showing that early semantic effects are critically driven by embodied reactivations and that these cannot be reduced to post-comprehension epiphenomena, even when words are individually classified. Briefly, our study offers non-trivial insights to constrain fine-grained models of language and understand how meaning unfolds in neural time.

Children's understanding of time: A study in a primary history classroom

This paper reports findings from a study of Portuguese primary children's understanding of time and historical time. The research involved two classes (first grade, with 24 students aged 6 to 7, and third grade, with 25 students aged 8 to 9) of primary school students during two school academic years in an urban primary school in northern Portugal. The main aim of the study was to analyse how students from the first to fourth grade of education develop chronological (time) concepts and historical understanding. Different data collection techniques and methodologies were used that allowed for three types of triangulation. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, open interviews, participant researcher observation, audio data, field notes and class diaries. The research was undertaken by the researcher and the class teacher. The research was carried out though a longitudinal study over two years. At three times during the study, the students were asked to arrange historical pictures in chronological order and to explain their sequences. The research data were analysed using a deductive approach. This allowed the construction of a conceptualization system with parameters, categories and subcategories. The findings suggest that temporal understanding and historical thinking are developed gradually but, significantly, they can be facilitated and accelerated by means of specific social studies/history teaching strategies and pedagogy – that is, an intervention strategy.

THE ROLE OF THE AFFECTIVE DIMENSION IN SHAPING FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNERS’ CONCEPTUAL SYSTEM

The role of affective factors in the process of foreign language learning and teaching is undeniable. Still, despite growing interest in the role of attitudinal variables in foreign language training, the problem has not been much researched from the perspective of multidimensional cognition. Thus, the focus of the article is the architecture of foreign language learners’ cognition situated within a multimodal framework and shaped by particular socio-linguistic experience. It is postulated that the conceptual system of a foreign language learner is unique in being highly susceptible to processing in terms of affective parameters. This hypothesis is corroborated by the results of a pilot study which show that concrete words in the conceptual systems of foreign language learners are associated with affect more than in the case of native speakers.

Metaphors of Miscarriage in the Psalms

Abstract The article applies the conceptual blending theory of metaphor to a specific imagery in the Psalms: metaphors of miscarriage or stillbirth. It asks whether miscarriage is considered a real threat or a “mere” metaphor in these texts, and situates the texts within the conceptual systems about miscarriage and stillbirth in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East. In the Psalms, miscarriage and stillbirth are described by three terms with different connotations: שכל (bereavement) in Ps 35:12, נפל (falling down) in Ps 58:9, and יצא (going forth/coming out) in Ps 144:14. Conceptual blending offers a framework to integrate both “literal” and “metaphoric” references to miscarriage in the Psalms.

Application of the principle of threeunity for the evaluation of ironore deposits

Subject of research – deposits of iron ore on the principle of threeunity asobjects of natural, needs, economic. The purpose of writing the article is thedevelopment of a resource-based approach to the study of problems, systems ofconcepts and indicators that allow to characterize the resource-cost aspects andevaluation of the results of the study of iron ore deposits in accordance with theirneeds in the process of exploration of mineral resources, conducting search andexploration research and work. Because we are substantiated by the need-resourceconcept of the EG, the system of indicators of iron ore stocks. The methodologyof the work – application of abstract-logical, system-structural and comparativeanalysis (to determine the system of concepts and indicators that allow characterizingresource-cost aspects and evaluating the results of the study of deposits of ironores); analysis (study of the right base for studying the geology of the interior);monographic analysis (with the application of a resource approach); generalization(formation of a system of monetary obligations to the state); interpretation(substantiated systems of concepts using the principle of threeunity and resourceand cost estimates for the study of mineral resources, minerals, conductingexploratory research and work on the needs and resources concept of economicgeology). Results of work-justified: resource approach to evaluation of exploreddeposits of iron ore; Consideration on the principle of fourunity quaternity ofgeological objects as: natural resources (quantity, quality, structure of ores);production and economic resources (costs, production facilities); informationalresources ie information display of geology of subsoil (for example, deposits inthe form of geological maps, geological reports); property resources (fiscal payments from the sale of deposits, iron ore, information about them). Conclusions -using the resource approach and the fourunity principle, iron ore deposits canbe estimated not by geological and economic indicators, but by a system ofquantitative and qualitative indicators, which reflect them as objects of natural,industrial-economic, informational, and fiscal.

Incorporating conceptual and interpretation uncertainty to mineral prospectivity modelling

Prospectivity analyses are used to reduce the exploration search space for locating areas prospective for mineral deposits. The scale of a study and the type of mineral system associated with the deposit control the evidence layers used as proxies that represent critical ore genesis processes. In particular, knowledge-driven approaches (fuzzy logic) use a conceptual mineral systems model from which data proxies represent the critical components. These typically vary based on the scale of study and the type of mineral system being predicted. Prospectivity analyses utilising interpreted data to represent proxies for a mineral system model inherit the subjectivity of the interpretations and the uncertainties of the evidence layers used in the model. In the case study presented, the prospectivity for remobilised nickel sulphide (NiS) in the west Kimberley, Western Australia, is assessed with two novel techniques that objectively grade interpretations and accommodate alternative mineralisation scenarios. Exploration targets are then identified and supplied with a robustness assessment that reflects the variability of prospectivity value for each location when all models are considered.The first technique grades the strength of structural interpretations on an individual line-segment basis. Gradings are obtained from an objective measure of feature evidence, which is the quantification of specific patterns in geophysical data that are considered to reveal underlying structure. Individual structures are weighted in the prospectivity model with grading values correlated to their feature evidence. This technique allows interpreted features to contribute prospectivity proportional to their strength in feature evidence and indicates the level of associated stochastic uncertainty.The second technique aims to embrace the systemic uncertainty of modelling complex mineral systems. In this approach, multiple prospectivity maps are each generated with different combinations of confidence values applied to evidence layers to represent the diversity of processes potentially leading to ore deposition. With a suite of prospectivity maps, the most robust exploration targets are the locations with the highest prospectivity values showing the smallest range amongst the model suite. This new technique offers an approach that reveals to the modeller a range of alternative mineralisation scenarios while employing a sensible mineral systems model, robust modelling of prospectivity and significantly reducing the exploration search space for Ni.

Intersystemic Legal Comparison and Interlingual Legal Translation Norway and Germany

AbstractThis paper presents theoretical aspects of the intersystemic translation of legislative texts from Norwegian into German for informative purposes. When comparing legal systems, one differentiates between international, national and supranational legal systems. Since each legal system has its own conceptual system, the prevailing challenge in legal translation (studies) is how to reconcile different conceptual systems and their denominations in two different legal languages. Therefore, it is often argued that the ideal profile for a legal translator should consist of a combination of skills of both lawyers and linguists. In this vein, a case study on recent changes in Norwegian and German family law concerning motherhood/fatherhood is used to illustrate an interdisciplinary approach to translating central concepts from Norwegian into German.

Methodological Isomorphism as Ivan Franko’s Style of Scholarly Thinking

The present paper tries to reconstruct Ivan Franko’s methodological thinking on the basis of his works and aims at synchronizing criteria, procedures and principles of proving and producing scholarly knowledge. The main purpose here is building isomorphic models of thinking and methodological instruction based on some Franko’s constants of the world view and understanding reality.
 Franko as a scholar was interested in various fields: literary studies, ethnography, linguistics, philosophy, social economics, law, political science, history, statistics etc. He intended to create the ground for institutionalization of research work in Ukrainian society. His scholarly universalism allowed using the knowledge from different fields simultaneously in order to study the same subject from different perspectives. This subject was a society which he understood as the people, class, and individual in his activities.
 At every stage of his methodological reflection, Franko adhered to clear determinism both in defining the subject field of research and in constructing his assertions. But the attempt to single out the subject knowledge in its pure form was complicated by the fact that he didn’t think of it separately from the sphere of application, and therefore he was focused on the methods related to the practical use and giving the opportunity of transferring the gained knowledge into the sphere of education.
 In the definitions of scholarly work he used such characteristics as “thoroughness and precision”, “good care and logic of scholarly analysis”, facts, observations, descriptions, comparisons, criticism, analysis (more simple and versatile). These markers form a framework that makes it possible to reconstruct the style of his thinking as a methodologist.
 In general, Franko’s style of scholarly thinking tended to inductivism. This style was determined by detailed description and study of empirical material with accurate statistical method; analogy and comparison through applying different kinds of scholarly languages; conceptual systems, often borrowed from the related spheres of knowledge, in particular notions of general methodology (evolution); interest in general research problems; search for transitional joints of sectorial methods, their conceptualization and approbation.

Mandarin Chinese modality exclusivity norms.

Modality exclusivity norms have been developed in different languages for research on the relationship between perceptual and conceptual systems. This paper sets up the first modality exclusivity norms for Chinese, a Sino-Tibetan language with semantics as its orthographically relevant level. The norms are collected through two studies based on Chinese sensory words. The experimental designs take into consideration the morpho-lexical and orthographic structures of Chinese. Study 1 provides a set of norms for Mandarin Chinese single-morpheme words in mean ratings of the extent to which a word is experienced through the five sense modalities. The degrees of modality exclusivity are also provided. The collected norms are further analyzed to examine how sub-lexical orthographic representations of sense modalities in Chinese characters affect speakers’ interpretation of the sensory words. In particular, we found higher modality exclusivity rating for the sense modality explicitly represented by a semantic radical component, as well as higher auditory dominant modality rating for characters with transparent phonetic symbol components. Study 2 presents the mean ratings and modality exclusivity of coordinate disyllabic compounds involving multiple sense modalities. These studies open new perspectives in the study of modality exclusivity. First, links between modality exclusivity and writing systems have been established which has strengthened previous accounts of the influence of orthography in the processing of visual information in reading. Second, a new set of modality exclusivity norms of compounds is proposed to show the competition of influence on modality exclusivity from different linguistic factors and potentially allow such norms to be linked to studies on synesthesia and semantic transparency.

Features of Using Videogrammetry in Experimental Aerodynamics

We briefly describe the special considerations that must be taken into account in experimental aerodynamics when using videogrammetry for non-intrusive measurement of distributed geometric parameters describing the position, movement, and deformation of objects. We also describe the specific characteristics of corrections due to image distortion and calibration in videogrammetry measurement systems. We discuss three conceptual systems for measurements using a single digital camera.

Developing a Common Language Area in Interdisciplinary Interaction: Reflections on the Experience of Cooperation Between Specialists Working in Exact and Social Sciences, 1990–2010s

This article considers the subject of interdisciplinary interaction among specialists working in exact and social sciences as a practice of exchanging ideas about social reality; mutual adaptation of these ideas; empirical verification of the universal formal logic rules applied to specific tasks of sociological research. Such formulation of the subject goes beyond the problem of adapting educational programs to “literacy classes” for potential partners. It is maintained that in inter-professional communication it is important to formulate conceptual systems of common use not “in general”, not for all possible cases, but with regard to the problem addressed by consolidated effort. For such conceptual systems we use the term “common language area” according to the ideas of epistemologists (Ilya Kasavin). Elements of these conceptual systems include paradigms, concepts, tools and procedures mobilized for collaborative work. Readers are offered a description of the experience of cooperation between mathematicians and sociologists in 1990 – 2010s in the qualitative analysis of sociological data — which is an area of concern for both sociology and exact methods. To find a cooperative solution, we needed to develop a system of basic propositions regarding the object and purpose of the research; to put together a structure of sociological data suitable for using the proposed formal tool; to carry out empirical verification of the formalized language of logic-mathematical reasoning. This work has made it possible to explicate the opportunities and limitations when it comes to interpreting results. The article draws conclusions about the specifics of communication in a team of specialists, including sociologists and mathematicians, and about the development of a common language area in the field of cooperation that deals with qualitative analysis of sociological data. Our experience of cooperation in using formalized qualitative analysis of sociological data shows that, when it comes to the need to solve a common problem, partner role relations turned out to be the most effective (rather than role pairs such as “teacher-student” or “seller-buyer”).