Context Of Logic Research Articles

Design and implementation of a health systems strengthening approach to improve health and nutrition of pregnant women and newborns in Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, and Senegal.

Maternal and neonatal mortality are unacceptably high in developing countries. Essential nutrition interventions contribute to reducing this mortality burden, although nutrition is poorly integrated into health systems. Universal health coverage is an essential prerequisite to decreasing mortality indices. However, provision and utilization of nutrition and health services for pregnant women and their newborns are poor and the potential for improvement is limited where health systems are weak. The Community-Based Maternal and Neonatal Health and Nutrition project was established as a set of demonstration projects in 4 countries in Africa with varied health system contexts where there were barriers to safe maternal health care at individual, community and facility levels. We selected project designs based on the need, context, and policies under consideration. A theory driven approach to programme implementation and evaluation was used involving developing of contextual project logic models that linked inputs to address gaps in quality and uptake of antenatal care; essential nutrition actions in antenatal care, delivery, and postnatal care; delivery with skilled and trained birth attendant; and postnatal care to outcomes related to improvements in maternal health service utilization and reduction in maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. Routine monitoring and impact evaluations were included in the design. The objective of this paper is to describe the rationale and methods used in setting up a multi-country study that aimed at designing the key maternal and neonatal health interventions and identifying indicators related to inputs, outcomes, and impact that were measured to track change associated with our interventions.

Rhetoric, Communication, Fiction

Rhetoric, Communication, Fiction Richard Walsh (bio) The subtitle of James Phelan's target essay directs us towards a "rhetorical poetics of narrative," and this is a theoretical orientation with which I am in strong sympathy. I agree with the principle that "Narrative is ultimately not a structure but an action" (2); it is a mode of communication (and behind that, a mode of cognition—but even there, a semiotic articulation of meaning, for one's self, that is continuous with communication more narrowly understood). This shared premise has large implications and, like Phelan, I am invested in pursuing them, though with nothing like his sustained energy and industry. However, the key move of this essay, its appropriation of Chatman's narrative communication model, seems to me a misstep, and indeed contrary to the logic of a rhetorical approach. [End Page 99] On the face of it, a "communication model" ought to be very amenable to rhetorical theory, but their superficially congruent interest in communication hides a basic inversion of conceptual priorities between the two. On the one hand, rhetorical approaches to narrative give primacy to the communicative act, which takes place in some cognitive environment shared between the communicator and the recipient of that communication (I am avoiding narratologically loaded terms). Of course, among the things such a narrative act may represent or report is some other narrative act; the shared context of narrative logic providing for the communication itself will also substantially provide for the intelligibility of any such represented narrative act, and indeed any further narrative acts presented within that represented narration—it is a recursive form. The communication model, on the other hand, is founded upon a structuralist conception of narrative in which there is a something—the story—articulated in a certain form—the discourse. The story/discourse model gives conceptual primacy to the content plane (Chatman 22–23), and so conceives of narrative as a representational orientation towards an object in the first instance, and only secondarily a communicative orientation towards another subject. This, too, is a recursive model, but it propagates in the opposite way: instead of generating evermore representational levels of narration, it generates evermore transmissive levels of mediation. Phelan expresses some skepticism about the story/discourse distinction, and I certainly back his implied dissent from "the majority of narrative theorists" ("Authors" 5) on this point—perhaps with more enthusiasm than he would wish: I think the story/discourse distinction is fundamentally at odds with the conceptual orientation of rhetorical approaches. But Phelan would also evidently like to dissociate the story/discourse distinction from the communication model, and I do not think that is possible. His reason is that he would like to incorporate characters, which Chatman locates squarely in the category of story, within the communication model's discursive framework; in my view, this move itself confirms and compounds the communication model's illegitimacy from the perspective of rhetorical theory. What do the arrows in Chatman's diagram of the communication model signify? In Phelan's own author–resources–audience (ARA) diagram, this is a relatively straightforward question, despite the fact that the arrows there go in both directions: it is a model of the way authorial communicative purposes are conveyed through certain resources to an audience. The arrows [End Page 100] going back in the opposite direction signify the audience's agency in this process, through interpretative attention to those resources, and considerations about this effort in turn influence authorial choices. I would not frame it in those terms, but I might make an analogous point by drawing upon the terminology of relevance theory and noting that ostensive-inferential communication is likewise a conceptual hybrid of authorial ostension and audience inferences (Sperber and Wilson 54). Of course, a relevance theory account of communication would also reframe the category of "resources" as the shared cognitive environment, which the author changes and the audience evaluates in order to maximize the relevance of the consequent contextual effects (142). This way of putting it makes explicit what Phelan's list of resources tacitly acknowledges, which is that the parameters of the communicative act are not exclusively textual or representational. In Chatman's communication model, however...

Myths as Contextual Logic for Social Control: The Igbo Example

This work argues for the evaluation of myths within the context of their role as a means of social control through the transmission of cherished cultural values and norms, using Igbo mythology as a case study. It argues that the epistemic credentials of myths are largely determined by their historical and cultural contexts; hence, myths defy universal logic and rationalism. It is thus inappropriate, misleading and a mismatch of categories to subject myths to modern Western criteriology, which regards myth as a logically bankrupt, pre-scientific and anachronistic mode of thought. This study contends that such pejorative categorization derives substantially from enculturation, which is the process by which the dominant Western culture completely undermines non-Western belief systems. Our study also reveals that Igbo mythology richly embodies practical rules that guide social living. From three instantiations made in this paper, we observe that myths simply prefer a different logic, which is less stringent and argumentative than those of both science and Western epistemology. Its logic recognizes diversity of cultures and polysemy of linguistic expressions. This study utilizes the expository and comparative methods of inquiry. It recommends an acculturation ideology, which integrates the best elements of sciento-cultural rationalities. This fusion, charts a path for society's growth, thereby fostering social control and protecting human personhood from the destructive backlashes of science and technology. Key Words: Myths, Contextual Logic, Social Control, Acculturation, Igbo

To whose drum are we marching? Change in business networks through a contextual logics perspective

Our focus is on understanding the interplay of social structure and human agency in business networks. Our solution is to propose a contextual logics perspective, by asking: How do contextual logics emerge and decay within different parts of the network, and what is their role in the mobilization of resources, activities and business relationships? An historical case study of a network extending to two decades is employed to understand change through the use of contextual logics to access resources or restrict their use. Contextual logics are defined as shared and changing understandings of the means and ends, which are available for individuals to elaborate, along the way to attaining a specific future. We adopt a processual approach and embrace networks as constantly becoming, so avoiding the reduced time configurations found in the institutional logics literature. More particularly, we elaborate on two contextual logics, firstly Telos, which is concerned with creating an end, and secondly Conatus, which is about building and retaining an entity. Our case exhibits how managers can collaboratively apply contextual logics to mobilize resources, activities and business relationships in networks.

P2Mプログラム・ライフサイクルマネジメント論理文脈と進化 : 不確実性下におけるサステナブル・シームレスイノベーション

P2Mプログラム・ライフサイクルマネジメント論理文脈と進化 : 不確実性下におけるサステナブル・シームレスイノベーション

Equivalences Among Polarity Algorithms

The concept of polarity is pervasive in natural language. It relates syntax, semantics and pragmatics narrowly (Giannakidou, in: Maienborn, von Heusinger, Portner (eds.), Semantics: an international handbook of natural language meaning, De Gruyter Mouton, Berlin, 2011; Israel in The grammar of polarity: pragmatics, sensitivity, and the logic of scales, Cambridge studies in linguistics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014), it refers to items of many syntactic categories such as nouns, verbs and adverbs. Neutral polarity items appear in affirmative and negative sentences, negative polarity items cannot appear in affirmative sentences, and positive polarity items cannot appear in negative sentences. A way of reasoning in Natural Language is through Natural Logic (van Benthem in Essays in logical semantics, vol. 29 of Studies in linguistics and philosophy, Reidel, Dordrecht, 1986; Language in action: categories, lambdas, and dynamic logic, vol. 130 of Studies in logic, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1991). This logic is based on the concept of polarity in order to make the meaning of a sentence weaker o stronger without changing its truth value. There exist many proposals to compute polarity in the Natural Logic context, the most widely known are the ones by: van Benthem (1986, 1991), Sanchez-Valencia (Studies on natural logic and categorial grammar, Ph.D. thesis, Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1991), Dowty (Proceedings of the 4th conference on semantics and theoretical linguistics, Cornel University, CLC Publications, Rochester, 1994), and van Eijck (in: ten Cate, Zeevat (eds.), 6th international Tbilisi symposium on logic, language, and computation, Batumi, Georgia, Springer, 2007). If Natural Logic is going to be used, as an inferential mechanism between text fragments, in Natural Language Processing applications such as text summarization, question answering, and information extraction, it is a priority to know what the existing relationship among the aforementioned algorithms is; for example, to implement the most general. We show in this paper the equivalence among the analyzed algorithms, filling a gap in Natural Logic research, particularly in computing polarity, and the soundness of their algorithms.

Tameness in least fixed-point logic and McColm's conjecture

We investigate four model-theoretic tameness properties in the context of least fixed-point logic over a family of finite structures. We find that each of these properties depends only on the elementary (i.e., first-order) limit theory, and we completely determine the valid entailments among them. In contrast to the context of first-order logic on arbitrary structures, the order property and independence property are equivalent in this setting. McColm conjectured that least fixed-point definability collapses to first-order definability exactly when proficiency fails. McColm's conjecture is known to be false in general. However, we show that McColm's conjecture is true for any family of finite structures whose limit theory is model-theoretically tame.

POSITING AND PRESUPPOSING. A READING OF THE RELATION BETWEEN NATURE AND SPIRIT IN HEGEL'S SYSTEM

ABSTRACT In this paper I will provide a reading of the relation between nature and spirit starting from an analysis of the movement of positing and presupposing, discussed by Hegel in the "Science of Logic" in his discussion of the transition between Being and Essence. 1) I will offer an analysis of the logical context within which this dialectical movement emerges. 2) I will show the role played by this dialectical movement in determining the relation between the spheres of nature and spirit in Hegelʼs "Encyclopedia". 3) I will then claim that a difficulty related to this movement arises in the "Logic", and that this difficulty reverberates in the relation between nature and spirit in Hegel's system. In particular, 4) an ambiguity arising at a logical level generates two different configurations of this movement, depending on whether the latter is meant to describe the relation of 4.1) the finite or of 4.2) the infinite spirit to nature. 5) I will finally focus on some problems deriving from my reconstruction and I will try to suggest - in very general and programmatic terms - in what sense the internal analysis of the relation between nature and spirit in Hegelʼs system can be fruitfully discussed against the dominant framework of the contemporary debate, i.e. naturalism. However, this suggestion does not necessarily imply an endorsement of Hegel's position.

Pragmatic clarifications and dispositions in Peirce’s How to Make our Ideas Clear

A “prova” do pragmatismo e, em geral, a ideia que a relevância da máxima pragmatista tinha que ser “provada”, é uma questão controversa. Devemos ter cautela antes de considerá-la. Christopher Hookway dedicou um livro a essa mesmíssima questão e os argumentos, frequentemente, envolvem a consideração de ínfimos detalhes dos escritos tardios de Peirce, bem além do âmbito deste trabalho. Contentar-me-ei aqui com um enigma, lógica e cronologicamente precedente: acadêmicos assumem, há muito tempo, que Peirce aplicou, em um novo contexto lógico e metafísico, a doutrina de Bain de que uma crença era uma “prontidão para agir” e que essa aplicação forneceu o cerne do primeiro pragmatismo de Peirce. Penso que mesmo nos primeiros textos, isto não é bem assim e, contrariamente ao que é frequentemente considerado, disposições à ação não desempenham um papel tão óbvio nas Ilustrações da Lógica da Ciência. Em suma, não está claro se os exemplos de Peirce foram, na época, exemplos pragmáticos. A primeira seção deste trabalho apresenta um roteiro preliminar para aferir as diversas dimensões do pragmatismo de Peirce na década de 1870; a segunda aborda o suposto papel do disposicionalismo em Como Tornar Nossas Ideias Claras (doravante designado como HMIC); a terceira apresenta algums elementos contextuais que podem explicar o “surto” de disposicionalismo em 1878.

Organotitania-Based Nanostructures as a Suitable Platform for the Implementation of Binary, Ternary, and Fuzzy Logic Systems.

Titanium dioxide nanocomposites were synthesized in hierarchical architectures through the use of a 1,4-dihydroxyanthraquinone photosensitizer. In the first step, the dye was either incorporated into the TiO2 core or adsorbed on its surface. In the subsequent phase, both structures were covered with an outer layer of titanium dioxide. The structure, morphology, aggregation, spectroscopic, and electrochemical properties of the synthesized TiO2 -based materials are presented with emphasis on the photosensitization and the photocurrent switching phenomena, which are also discussed within the context of the optical logic gates implementation and fuzzy logic systems operation. We present three different interpretations of the photocurrent action spectra yielding binary, ternary, or fuzzy logic circuits.

A-2 P2Mプログラムライフサイクルマネジメント論理文脈と進化 : 不確実性下におけるサステナブル・シームレスイノベーション(グローバル競争/環境プロジェクト研究トラック)

A-2 P2Mプログラムライフサイクルマネジメント論理文脈と進化 : 不確実性下におけるサステナブル・シームレスイノベーション(グローバル競争/環境プロジェクト研究トラック)

Logic at Old Vilnius University: an example of the integrative coexistence of different intellectual discourses

Research in logic at Old Vilnius University (1579–1773) is interpreted as exhibiting an integrative, multilayered and multicultural spirit of tolerance in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in Vilnius, in particular. This article focuses on synthetic conceptions of universals and of the object of scientific knowledge as found in the works of Vilnius University professors M. Smiglecki and D. Ortiz. Their conception of universalia was an intermediate variant between realism and nominalism, affirming universal nature to exist in rebus inasmuch as it is cognized by intellect. The object of scientia likewise connected aspects of various epistemological positions. The result of such syntheses was the assertion that, purely theoretically, it is possible to cognize particularity as well as generality in a scientific way, yet practically, the only real object of science is generality. The above-mentioned conception of universals became quite influential in the European context of scholastic logic and philosophy, whereas the conception of the object of science did not receive a great deal of attention.

How Do Higher-Education Students Use Their Initial Understanding to Deal with Contextual Logic-Based Problems in Discrete Mathematics?

Mathematical reasoning in logical context has now received much attention in the mathematics curriculum documents of many countries, including Indonesia. In Indonesia, students start formally learning about logic when they pursue to senior-high school. Before, they previously have many experiences to deal with logic, but the earlier assignments do not label them as logic. Although the students have already experienced much about logic, it does not assure that they have a better understand about it even they purpose to university. Thus, this paper presents several findings of our small-scale study which was conducted to investigate the issues on how higher-education students overcome contextual logic-based problems. Data were collected through pretest, students’ written work, video recording and interview. A fifteen-minute test which consisted of four questions was given to 53 student participants in the third semester who proposed mathematics discrete course. The information towards the main issues was required through the analysis of students’ written work in the pretest and video recording during the students’ interview. The findings indicate that the students’ initial understanding, in general, do not help them much to solve logical problems based on context. In our findings, they apply several strategies, such as random proportions, word descriptions, permutation-combination calculations and deriving conclusion through logical premises.

Problemas de decisión y recursividad en sistemas lógicos formales

En la teoría de la recursión se dice que un problema de decisión es recursivamente resoluble si existe un procedimiento mecánico para resolverlo. Dentro del contexto de las lógicas formales, el problema de decisión consiste simplemente en determinar si una fórmula bien formada cualquiera del sistema es, o no es, un teorema.
 En este trabajo se analizan, entre otros asuntos, primeramente el famoso problema de decisión de la lógica canónica de primer orden F0 (también llamado Entscheidungsproblem) desde una perspectiva moderna. Luego se estudian los problemas de decisión de las lógicas proposicionales parciales. Se aprovecha el desarrollo alcanzado por la teoría de la recursión y de los sistemas productivos semi-Thue, luego de los trabajos de Post y Kleene en los años 40’s y de Davis en la década de los 70’s, entre otros, para explicar una solución a estos problemas de decisión.

Hazelnut: a bidirectionally typed structure editor calculus

Structure editors allow programmers to edit the tree structure of a program directly. This can have cognitive benefits, particularly for novice and end-user programmers. It also simplifies matters for tool designers, because they do not need to contend with malformed program text. This paper introduces Hazelnut, a structure editor based on a small bidirectionally typed lambda calculus extended with holes and a cursor . Hazelnut goes one step beyond syntactic well-formedness: its edit actions operate over statically meaningful incomplete terms. Naïvely, this would force the programmer to construct terms in a rigid "outside-in" manner. To avoid this problem, the action semantics automatically places terms assigned a type that is inconsistent with the expected type inside a hole. This meaningfully defers the type consistency check until the term inside the hole is finished . Hazelnut is not intended as an end-user tool itself. Instead, it serves as a foundational account of typed structure editing. To that end, we describe how Hazelnut's rich metatheory, which we have mechanized using the Agda proof assistant, serves as a guide when we extend the calculus to include binary sum types. We also discuss various interpretations of holes, and in so doing reveal connections with gradual typing and contextual modal type theory, the Curry-Howard interpretation of contextual modal logic. Finally, we discuss how Hazelnut's semantics lends itself to implementation as an event-based functional reactive program. Our simple reference implementation is written using js_of_ocaml.

Through the Lens of Social Constructionism: The Development of Innovative Anti-Corruption Policies and Practices in Bulgaria, Greece and Romania, 2000–2015

This article analyses the development of innovative anti-corruption policies and practices in Bulgaria, Greece and Romania between 2000 and 2015, using a social-constructionist focus. It critically examines the ways in which corruption perceptions, policies and assumptions shape anti-corruption practices. It argues that anti-corruption is not a technical solution to a technical problem, but a complex process entangled in local histories with a strong impact on the production of contemporary political arrangements. By examining the evolution, institutionalization, implementation and politicization of anti-corruption policies, the article shows that corruption and, by extension, anti-corruption are not ‘natural’ but ‘social’ facts. The comparative case-study methodology employed unravels the contextual socio-political logic that has led the three countries under discussion to tackle corruption differently — in a passive (Bulgaria), reactive (Greece) or proactive (Romania) manner — despite being exposed to similar anti-corruption agendas. The research is based on face-to-face interviews and on documentary and secondary data analysis.

GLOBALIZATION: THE GEOGRAPHICAL NEXUS

Geography as both a discipline and wide discourse explicitly aims to conceive the Earth as a whole. Human geography contributed a lot to the critical study of globalization. However, the academic inquiry suggests the lack of conceptualization, which can serve as a readable scholarly framework, teaching and learning in particular. This article scopes the weave of terms related to globalization and geography based on the Dictionary of Human Geography. Acknowledging the reservations of the Dictionary of Human Geography itself and understanding the limitations of the survey based on yet one dictionary this article ponders on the foundations, which can framework the geographical approach to globalization. Focus on detecting the key concepts mentioned in the topical article, clarifying their interpretation and logical context for geographical nexus paves the way for platforming the systemized and generalized conceptualization. The basic concepts of economics and social sciences design the ‘flat-world’ metaphor. The last serves to the vital task of human geography aimed to disclosure of taken-for-granted geographical imaginary and an investigation of its (often unacknowledged) effects, thus, geographical conceptualization of globalization. Geographic arguments serve as an integral part of the logic of the ‘flat-world’ geographic imaginary of globalization debunking. The evolution of academic responses to the ‘political version’ of the world’s general state suggests essence, limitations and further development of skeptical, parameterized, geographically sensitive approaches, and counter-hegemonic critique of neo-liberal globalization. The disciplinary nexus of globalization implicitly refers to economic, industrial and agricultural, population and labor, urban and rural, regional, contrapuntal and feminist geographies. Moreover, the context of the above consideration reinforces the role of human and physical the geographies and the formal theories of location and spatialization, in particular. Notions of spatial organization, place-transcending and place-remaking dynamics deterritalization and reterritorialization, etc. suggest the need for further reverse exploration of over thirty geographical concepts and terms – the space, the place, the territory, etc. – in the context of globalization discourse. The mental map of the conceptual framework of globalization and geographical nexus summarizes the key findings.

Reflections on context in service research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of context and its implications for theory and research in service. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper based on exploring existing research and theory related to context in service research. Findings – The characteristics of service make context both important and challenging, there is great contextual diversity in service research as reflected, for example in ecosystems made up of multiple contextual variables. There is a need to identify the context-specific nature of middle range theory and the contextual logic of general theory. The authors explore the challenges of context for service theory and how we might learn from theory in a particular context and test or adapt it in other contexts. Originality/value – The findings of this paper are of value to researchers seeking to develop and justify theory in service research (general, middle range or theory in use).

Formal framework for defining trust in multi-organisation environment

Multi-organisations environment MOE is composed of several players that depend on each other for resources and services. Having a good access control policy to these resources becomes necessary. Moreover, being able to define a dynamic policy, meaning that it adapts over time, provides us with a more versatile way when administering these systems. In this paper, we extend the classical framework: organisation-based access control OrBAC, adapted to MOE, adding trust information. Initially we present the theoretical framework to represent trust among organisations and users of the system, and then we present its inclusion in OrBAC as a new logical context for rule firing.

Conceptual frames revisited

The paper presents a logical framework formalising the main insights of the psychological theory of concepts developed by Lawrence Barsalou. The framework is established within the context of Common Logic as a logical theory in the axiomatic manner. Its semantic characterisation is provided and shown to be sound and incomplete with respect to the class of its models.