Logical Continuum Research Articles

От логики к бессмысленности: философия языка Людвига Витгенштейна в повести Томаса Бернхарда «Хождение»

The article attempts to reveal the scale of influence of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus on the subject matter and writing method of Thomas Bernhard. On the basis of the novella Walking, published in 1970, we demonstrate that the issues raised by Wittgenstein at the beginning of the 20th century were of primary importance for Bernhard. The Austrian writer was interested not only in establishing the relationship between the world and language, but also in extrapolating this metaphysical problem to an understanding of the nature of literary creativity. Wittgenstein in his work asked the critical question about the possibility of adequate transmission of events by means of language and sought to explore its ontological and logical foundations. However, this idea of the philosopher receives an unusual refraction in the novella Walking. On the one hand, Bernhard casts doubt on Wittgenstein’s assumption about the initial isomorphism of words and objects and condemns his characters to endless wandering in the closed space of speech. On the other hand, in such a negative way he confirms the ideological core of the “linguistic turn”, and, in fact, that human existence is determined by language. Thus, literary exploration of themes of madness, suicide, the deceptiveness of reality, which in the logical continuum of the Tractatus are declared nonsensical, leads Bernhard’s narrative to an existential level.

The Pitfalls of the Ethical Continuum and its Application to Medical Aid in Dying

The Pitfalls of the Ethical Continuum and its Application to Medical Aid in Dying

Development of doctrinal model for state financial security management and forecasting its level

A doctrinal model of state financial security management in the context of globalization changes has been developed. The model is formed at five levels (doctrinal, conceptual, strategic, programmatic, planned), contains a logical continuum of mission, priorities in the financial sector and the level of technological innovation, influencing factors and a system of actions aimed at achieving goals. This model accumulates a set of solutions aimed at adapting to transformational processes in the economy associated with new needs of states, globalization processes in the world financial space, technology development, new challenges and threats. As a result of the study, forecasting is carried out and the effectiveness of the results of modifying approaches to managing the financial security of the state using a polynomial algorithm for extrapolating the parameters of stochastic systems is proved. A polynomial correlation-regression model is presented, the input data of which were specific indicators of the effectiveness of innovative development of the state, perception of corruption and debt dependence. In fact, this is a set of those indicators at which the strategic directions of strengthening the financial security of the state are directed in the context of globalization changes. The generalized values of the state of financial security of the state, determined on the basis of the developed polynomial correlation-regression model, are obtained, as well as the absolute and relative amounts of error indicate the accuracy of the forecasts obtained. So, the mean level of error is 0.005 %, which means that the totality of these indicators can characterize the state of financial security of the state. Accordingly, this model is useful in the process of predicting the results of modifying approaches to the formation of the financial security of the state

Advantages and disadvantages of digital technologies in dental medicine education

Digital technologies have begun their journey in dentistry in recent years. Thanks to this development, clinical practices and laboratory techniques are moving to digital processes. The merging of these digital puzzles into one whole is the logical continuum of this trend - the creation of a 3D virtual patient. In the context of medical education, the virtual patient is defined as an interactive computer simulation of a real-life clinical scenario for the purpose of teaching, learning and evaluation. This review is limited to one area of e-learning in dentistry. It is a fact that few studies have been published as to compare the effectiveness of new virtual and augmented reality systems in dental education. Advanced simulation technology shows the potential to improve training methods and quality. With the widespread adoption and integration of these technologies into the curriculum, students can achieve a higher level of competence before embarking on a clinical practice. Scientific researches will continue to offer a variety of technologies and effective treatments. To take full advantage of modern science, new knowledge and technology must be incorporated into the core of dental education. The aim of this study is to present the advantages and disadvantages of digital technologies and virtual simulators in dental education.

Liminality and Decolonization: Discourse Evolution in Robert A. Heinlein’s Trilogy of Liberty and Self-responsibility

This paper analyzes the mutation of Robert A. Heinlein’s (1907-1988) discourse on the question of colonialism and decolonization. The aim is to analyze his discourse evolution. In his ‘trilogy of liberty and self-responsibility’ (Starship Troopers, 1959; A Stranger in a Strange Land, 1961, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, 1966). The American science fiction writer has delivered perturbing statements on the notion of freedom. Often labeled as a decadent or fascistic storyteller, Heinlein is equally acknowledged for the audacity of craftsmanship. When intersected with postcolonial studies, his narratives offer an oblique optics to the understanding of the evolution of imperialistic discourse: from unashamed colonialism to apologetic decolonization. Located between science fiction studies (SF) and postcolonial theory, the issue was addressed through the theories of Homi Bhabha, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Arnold Van Gennep. These tools were used to substantiate the claim that Robert A. Heinlein’s fiction has incorporated liminalities to sustain the decolonization process of its protagonists. The study revealed a logical continuum along the three novels: the narratives correspond to the three levels of liminality. In other words, the writer’s discourse has evolved from a conservative into a progressive view of decolonization.

Liminality and Decolonization: Discourse Evolution in Robert A. Heinlein’s Trilogy of Liberty and Self-responsibility

This paper analyzes the mutation of Robert A. Heinlein’s (1907-1988) discourse on the question of colonialism and decolonization. The aim is to analyze his discourse evolution. In his ‘trilogy of liberty and self-responsibility’ (Starship Troopers, 1959; A Stranger in a Strange Land, 1961, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, 1966). The American science fiction writer has delivered perturbing statements on the notion of freedom. Often labeled as a decadent or fascistic storyteller, Heinlein is equally acknowledged for the audacity of craftsmanship. When intersected with postcolonial studies, his narratives offer an oblique optics to the understanding of the evolution of imperialistic discourse: from unashamed colonialism to apologetic decolonization. Located between science fiction studies (SF) and postcolonial theory, the issue was addressed through the theories of Homi Bhabha, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Arnold Van Gennep. These tools were used to substantiate the claim that Robert A. Heinlein’s fiction has incorporated liminalities to sustain the decolonization process of its protagonists. The study revealed a logical continuum along the three novels: the narratives correspond to the three levels of liminality. In other words, the writer’s discourse has evolved from a conservative into a progressive view of decolonization.

Business as usual? Not a chance! A glimpse into the future of environmental public health in Canada

When Editor Andrew Papadopoulos asked if I would be interested in writing about the future of public health in Canada, I agreed without a second thought. I entered public health in the United Kingdom (1964) as a first-year public health student, and in 50 years the ‘‘basics’’ of protecting public health and safety have remained unchanged: hygienic food, clean water, safe housing, effective waste disposal, pest control, and infection control. . . No, I haven’t forgotten education, research, planning, legislation, and a host of applied sciences; my point is that the basics are applicable at any time and place. Here’s an even more important point: the basics don’t change, but the ‘‘contexts’’ certainly will, and probably far sooner and more drastically than most of us realize. For the purposes of the discussion to follow, I have deliberately included a broader concept of ‘‘inspectors’’, ‘‘practitioners’’, and ‘‘environmental health professionals’’ to include Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and federal officers as well as provincial and regional staff. This is to acknowledge a logical continuum of health protection personnel in Canada, recognizing that current legislative and administrative frameworks determine who-does-what.

RELACJE PRZYCZYNOWOŚCI W WYROKACH SĄDOWYCH NA PRZYKŁADZIE EUROPEJSKIEGO TRYBUNAŁU PRAW CZŁOWIEKA

The aim of the paper is to analyze the judgment as a legal genre whereby causality relations behave in a particular way depending on the type of the connective used. The relations of causality are described against a background of interactional linguistics, semantic and lexical vagueness as well as the degree of subjectivity in the selected types of causality. The emphasis in the present analysis is on the epistemic causality as the one most closely related to the judicial discourse and the language of law. In this type of causality it is the author who becomes the source of a logical continuum between the cause and effect as opposed to the other extremity where the source is outside the speaker. The analysed corpus consists of 20 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (altogether 496 sentences have been identified where particular causal connectives were present) issued between 2007 and 2013 and available at the official site of the court: http://www.echr.coe.int/ECHR/homepage_en. The judgments have been selected in order to identify and conduct a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the relation of causality as realized by three English causal connectives: because, as and therefore.

Preanalytical quality improvement: in quality we trust

Total quality in laboratory medicine should be defined as the guarantee that each activity throughout the total testing process is correctly performed, providing valuable medical decision-making and effective patient care. In the past decades, a 10-fold reduction in the analytical error rate has been achieved thanks to improvements in both reliability and standardization of analytical techniques, reagents, and instrumentation. Notable advances in information technology, quality control and quality assurance methods have also assured a valuable contribution for reducing diagnostic errors. Nevertheless, several lines of evidence still suggest that most errors in laboratory diagnostics fall outside the analytical phase, and the pre- and postanalytical steps have been found to be much more vulnerable. This collective paper, which is the logical continuum of the former already published in this journal 2 years ago, provides additional contribution to risk management in the preanalytical phase and is a synopsis of the lectures of the 2nd European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM)-Becton Dickinson (BD) European Conference on Preanalytical Phase meeting entitled "Preanalytical quality improvement: in quality we trust" (Zagreb, Croatia, 1-2 March 2013). The leading topics that will be discussed include quality indicators for preanalytical phase, phlebotomy practices for collection of blood gas analysis and pediatric samples, lipemia and blood collection tube interferences, preanalytical requirements of urinalysis, molecular biology hemostasis and platelet testing, as well as indications on best practices for safe blood collection. Auditing of the preanalytical phase by ISO assessors and external quality assessment for preanalytical phase are also discussed.

Heart Rate Regulation Processed Through Wavelet Analysis and Change Detection: Some Case Studies

Heart rate variability (HRV) is an indicator of the regulation of the heart, see Task Force (Circulation 93(5):1043-1065, 1996). This study compares the regulation of the heart in two cases of healthy subjects within real life situations: Marathon runners and shift workers. After an update on the state of the art on HRV processing, we specify our probabilistic model: We choose modeling heartbeat series by locally stationary Gaussian process (Dahlhaus in Ann Stat 25, 1997). HRV is then processed by the combination of two statistical methods: (1) Continuous wavelet transform for calculating the spectral density energy in the high frequency (HF) and low frequency (LF) bands and (2) Change point analysis to detect changes of heart regulation. Next, we plot the variations of the HF and LF energy in extreme conditions for both populations. This puts in light, that physical activities (rest, moderate sport, marathon race) can be ordered in a logical continuum. This allows to define a new index based on HF and LF energy that is log HF + log LF which appears relevant to measure HR regulation. The results obtained are pertinent but have to be completed by further studies.

Psychometric properties of a Swedish version of the Pearlin Mastery Scale in people with mental illness and healthy people

Background: Mastery refers to the degree to which people perceive that they can control factors that influence their life situation, and has been found important for people's quality of life and well-being. It is thus essential to be able to measure mastery in a valid and reliable way. Aim: This study aimed at using the Rasch measurement model to investigate the psychometric properties of a Swedish version of the Pearlin Mastery Scale (Mastery-S). Methods: A sample of 300 healthy individuals and 278 persons with mental illness responded to the Mastery-S. Item responses were Rasch analysed regarding model fit, response category functioning, differential item functioning (DIF) and targeting, using the partial credit model. Results: The Mastery-S items represented a logical continuum of the measured construct but one item displayed misfit. Reliability (Person Separation Index) was 0.7. The response categories did not work as expected in three items, which could be corrected for by collapsing categories. Three items displayed DIF between the two subsamples, which caused a bias when comparing mastery levels between subsamples, suggesting the Mastery-S is not truly generic. Conclusions: The Mastery-S may be used to obtain valid and reliable data, but some precautions should be made. If used to compare groups, new analyses of DIF should first be made. Users of the scale should also consider exempting item 6 from the scale and analyse it as a separate item. Finally, rewording of response categories should be considered in order to make them more distinct and thereby improve score reliability.

“Climbing the hierarchical ladders of rules”: A life-cycle theory of institutional evolution

This paper proposes an analysis of the emergence and evolution of institutional frameworks. It explains the causes, process, and outcome of institutional evolution. We first describe the institutional framework as a multilevel system at the bottom of which several “local and flexible” institutions apply to subsets of the society while, at the top, a single “generic and rigid” institution applies to all. Dissatisfied with generic order, promoters of local orders try to design collective governance solutions that are better suited to their needs. If agents are heterogeneous (as we assume), then coordination needs differ and a competitive process begins among sponsors of alternative orders. To benefit from efficiency gains, promoters of local orders encourage adherence to their preferred system of rules. The resulting competition for adherents explains why “local and voluntary” institutions might progressively turn into “generic and mandatory” ones. We thus establish a logical continuum between contractual governance mechanisms and institutions. We then analyze the strategic interplay among sponsors of alternative institutional orders by considering not only the “horizontal” competition among institutions emerging in the same time but also the “vertical” competition between promoters of new rules and sponsors of the established, more generic rules.

Ethics and the Networked Business

Pushing through a logical continuum of closed- to open-system views of organizations necessarily changes the conceptualization of a firm from a strongly bounded entity to a configuration of networks and sub-networks, which exists and operates in a larger systemic network configuration. We unfold a classification of management processes corresponding to views of the firm along the closed/open-systems continuum. We examine ethical issues that are likely to devolve from these classes of management processes, and we suggest typical means by which managers will attempt to control their firms’ exposure to such issues. The final class of management processes examined focuses on the achievement of outcomes that are mutually satisfactory in the set of networks and sub-networks that constitute the focal firm, and that support the sustainability of the whole system. The article contributes to organizational theory, business ethics, and computer and information ethics by providing a comprehensive analysis of the impact of managerial views of the firm and of networks – virtual, social, informational – on managerial processes and on our understanding of how business ethics issues are linked to perceptions of what a firm is, does, and can do.

On non‐compact logics in NEXT(KTB)

AbstractIn this paper we construct a continuum of logics, extensions of the modal logic T2 = KTB ⊕ □2p → □3p, which are non‐compact (relative to Kripke frames) and hence Kripke incomplete. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Interpolation in superintuitionistic predicate logics with equality

It is shown that the Craig interpolation property and the Beth property are preserved under passage from a superintuitionistic predicate logic to its extension via standard axioms for equality, and under adding formulas of pure equality as new axioms. We find an infinite independent set of formulas which, though not equivalent to formulas of pure equality, may likewise be added as new axiom schemes without loss of the interpolation, or Beth, property. The formulas are used to construct a continuum of logics with equality, which are intermediate between the intuitionistic and classical ones, having the interpolation property. Moreover, an equality-free fragment of the logics constructed is an intuitionistic predicate logic, and formulas of pure equality satisfy all axioms of the classical predicate logic.

Subject headings for African American materials

Brown's work offers subject access to materials on all aspects of African American life and culture-from the A.M.E. Church to zoning. Using the same format as the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), the book lists approximately 3,000 subject headings that are interfaced with and interlinked to the LCSH and provide a logical continuum for the subject access of materials on the African American experience in the United States. As a supplement to LCSH, this list will be invaluable to catalogers. Useful as a search tool for patrons of academic, public, special, and school library/information centers, the book will also serve library professionals in collection development and benefit students and faculty involved with African American studies.

Constructing a continuum of predicate extensions of each intermediate propositional logic

Wajsberg and Jankov provided us with methods of constructing a continuum of logics. However, their methods are not suitable for super-intuitionistic and modal predicate logics. The aim of this paper is to present simple ways of modification of their methods appropriate for such logics. We give some concrete applications as generic examples. Among others, we show that there is a continuum of logics (1) between the intuitionistic predicate logic and the logic of constant domains, (2) between a predicate extension ofS4 andS4 with the Barcan formula. Furthermore, we prove that (3) there is a continuum of predicate logics with equality whose “equality-free fragment” is just the intuitionistic predicate logic.

A study of intermediate propositional logics on the third slice

The intermediate logics have been classified into slices (cf. Hosoi [1]), but the detailed structure of slices has been studied only for the first two slices (cf. Hosoi and Ono [2]). In order to study the structure of slices, we give a method of a finer classification of slices & n (n ≥ 3). Here we treat only the third slice as an example, but the method can be extended to other slices in an obvious way. It is proved that each subslice contains continuum of logics. A characterization of logics in each subslice is given in terms of the form of models.

Objectives to direct the training of emergency medicine residents on off-service rotations: Critical care medicine, part 1

This article is the first of two parts outlining the objectives for a resident rotating in the intensive care unit (ICU). It is part of a larger continuing series on the goals and objectives to direct the training of emergency medicine residents on off-service rotations. The critical care unit is a valuable rotation that allows the resident to see and care for critically ill patients, many of whom present initially to the emergency department. Critical care is a logical continuum for the sick and injured patient as he moves from the prehospital and emergency department (ED) settings to the ICU. These objectives are designed to focus the resident's reading and study during a critical care rotation.

The Natufian Culture and the Origin of the Neolithic in the Levant

The Natufian culture occupies a special place in the evolution of human societies in the Near East, namely, that of the threshold to the emergence of farming communities. The idea that the Natufians were the earliest farmers is as old as the original discovery of their cultural remains by Garrod (I932). What seemed at the time an intuitive suggestion is now considered perhaps the right interpretation (Moore i982, Unger-Hamilton i989). The shift from hunting-and-gathering with some horticulture to a true farming economy seems a logical continuum (Henry i989). The fact that most of the hard evidence from the Natufian sites comes from the Early or even Middle Natufian (Valla i984), which predates the Early Neolithic by at least 8oo radiocarbon years, is rarely taken into account (Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen i989). The discovery of early farming sites in the Jordan Valley and the adjacent hilly areas on both the east and the west side of the Rift Valley has made it clear that the origins of wheat and barley agriculture were in the southern Levant (van Zeist I988, Bar-Yosef i989). Thus the need to understand cultural processes in and around the Natufian homeland (Stordeur i98i) has assumed special importance. Explaining not only how but also why the Natufian culture emerged from a world of hunter-gatherers apparently not much different in material culture from their contemporaries has become the concern of a number of scholars. Henry (i989) has produced perhaps the most substantial discussion, which takes population dynamics into account. As more and more new data have been retrieved from Natufian sites, pollen cores, and faunal collections, the need for direct international discussion has become obvious, especially since many scholars working in various countries of the Near East have no such communication because of the political situation. The participants in the conference on the Natufian held at the Centre des Recherches Archeologiques, Sophia Antipolis, Valbonne, June 6-8, I989, were archaeologists, zooarchaeologists, palynologists and palaeobota-