Realistic Explanation Research Articles

Non-uniqueness of the Color Adaptation Techniques in RGB Photoelasticity

Color adaptation in RGB photoelasticity takes care of the tint variations in a calibration specimen and the analysis image, whereby an existing calibration look-up table (LUT) is modified to adapt to the changed tint environments. The theoretical justification available for color adaptation ignores important practical aspects such as the modulation of intensities and dispersion of spectral signatures. In this paper, these nuances of color adaptation have been verified through experiments and a realistic theoretical explanation for color adaptation is provided. The experimental and theoretical analysis show that color adaptation technique produces non-unique LUTs, which is the prime reason behind the uncertainties due to color adaptation seen in the literature. This paper proposes a new strategy to overcome the non-uniqueness problem, which is validated and applied to demodulate actual fringe maps. The validation results show that the fringe maps are sufficiently smooth with 0.02 mean absolute deviation (MAD) in fringe orders. Moreover, common industrial uncertainties which can be resolved through the proposed methodology are highlighted.

A new variety of local realism explains a Bell test experiment: the Theory of Elementary Waves (TEW) with no hidden variables

In a recent article on the Theory of Elementary Waves (TEW) (see “TEW eliminates Wave Particle Duality” in JAP, February 2015), the most controversial aspect was the claim that TEW provides a local realistic explanation of the Alain Aspect 1982 experiment. That claim was not proved. This article fills in that gap by providing a local realistic explanation of a Bell test experiment published in 1998 by Weihs, Jennewein, Simon, et al. Advanced TEW uses no hidden variables, and therefore does not fall under the jurisdiction of Bell’s theorem. It rejects wave particle duality. It violates the Bell inequalities, yet is local and realistic. Particles follow a bi-ray, which is composed of two elementary rays, traveling at the speed of light in opposite directions, coaxially, conveying no energy. As was the case with the previous article, the main obstacle to credibility is that these assumptions sound incredible. It is wise sometimes to tolerate ridiculous ideas, lest we fail to recognize a paradigm shift when one comes along. Another obstacle to credibility is the multitude of unanswered questions. A truly fruitful theory raises more questions than it answers, by a ratio of 100 to 1. TEW fulfills that definition of fruitfulness.

It's Culture, Not Genes: Explaining Why Jamaican Sprinters Are the Fastest Humans on Earth

IntroductionIN THE SIX YEARS SINCE USAIN BOLT dramatically lowered the ioo metres world record from the previous 9.72 seconds of Asafa Powell to the still incredible 9.58, the need for a scientific explanation behind the sudden dominance of Jamaicans in the short sprints has arisen. This was further stimulated and underlined by the almost total sweep of the 100 and 200 metres gold medals at both the Olympic Games and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Track and Field Championships between 2008 and 2013.To the forefront have come two main sets of explanations, both physiological. The first is that something genetically specific to Jamaicans makes them predisposed to run faster than anyone else. The second, stereotyped by the fabled Trelawny yam from Bolt's hometown, suggests that the peculiarities of the Jamaican diet might provide a sort of metabolic boost, which has now propelled them to the pinnacle of global sprinting.Less popular, but central to this article, is the premise that, whatever impact the biological factors may have, the real explanation lies not in realm of physiology and nutrition. Rather, the key elements are to be found in factors within the social environment. In other words, it is socio-cultural phenomena which have had the most influence, and not a fortuitous coincidence of characteristics wrought by some accident of nature. It is accepted that the Jamaican propensity to speed does have some biological basis. However, a set of socio-cultural factors unique to the Jamaican environment has resulted in Jamaican sprinters' historical success. Some of these factors have been enhanced by other variables since the mid to late 1990s, to produce the phenomenon of the fastest sprinters on the planet. It is not an overnight occurrence. Rather, as with most perceivable aspects of culture, it steadily evolved over time, and might have been catalysed more recently, writing a new chapter in sporting history.A statement by early sociologist Karl Marx could explain the recent historic ascendancy of the Jamaican sprinters, and perhaps synthesises the proposition of this essay. Marx declared:Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; . . . [they do] not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living. And just as they seem to be occupied with revolutionising themselves and things, creating something that did not exist before, precisely in such epochs of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service . . dHaving established the analytical standpoint of this article, my goal is, first, to quantitatively determine the perceived dominance of Jamaicans, recording any trend or temporal variation. Having done that, I then present and evaluate the position of the proponents of biological factors.Culture definedThese circumstances and traditions transmitted from the past are what anthropologists and sociologists call culture. Incorporating all of the above, culture is the sum total of non-biological behaviour of a people, which they have developed and passed down across time, in coming to terms with their physical and social environment. Talcott Parsons defines it as those patterns relative to behaviour and the products of human action which may be inherited . . . passed on from generation to generation independently of the biological genes '.2 Culture comprises all areas of human social interaction and is a people's primary adaptive mechanism.The salient point is that culture does not exist in a detached vacuum. It is anchored in material realities. Cultural materialists like Marvin Harris recognise the dialectical relationship between culture and environment. Harris, a self-labelled Vulgar Marxist', asserts that the explanation of cultural phenomena lies in an understanding of practical circumstances. …

African baobabs with false inner cavities: the radiocarbon investigation of the Lebombo Eco Trail baobab.

The article reports the radiocarbon investigation results of the Lebombo Eco Trail tree, a representative African baobab from Mozambique. Several wood samples collected from the large inner cavity and from the outer part of the tree were investigated by AMS radiocarbon dating. According to dating results, the age values of all samples increase from the sampling point with the distance into the wood. For samples collected from the cavity walls, the increase of age values with the distance into the wood (up to a point of maximum age) represents a major anomaly. The only realistic explanation for this anomaly is that such inner cavities are, in fact, natural empty spaces between several fused stems disposed in a ring-shaped structure. We named them false cavities. Several important differences between normal cavities and false cavities are presented. Eventually, we dated other African baobabs with false inner cavities. We found that this new architecture enables baobabs to reach large sizes and old ages. The radiocarbon date of the oldest sample was 1425 ± 24 BP, which corresponds to a calibrated age of 1355 ± 15 yr. The dating results also show that the Lebombo baobab consists of five fused stems, with ages between 900 and 1400 years; these five stems build the complete ring. The ring and the false cavity closed 800–900 years ago. The results also indicate that the stems stopped growing toward the false cavity over the past 500 years.

Understanding and Explaining

The quest to provide a fundamental understanding and explanation of reality is an ambitious one. Perhaps it is too ambitious. The possible restrictions for such an enterprise to be successful must be inquired in order to determine the issue. Section Understanding explores one's understanding in reaching scientific conclusions: to what extent does a successful account testify to understanding? Section Explaining focuses on the other side of such an account: does it provide an explanation in a more fundamental sense than pointing out causes of phenomena, or is it restricted to such a task? A critical stance vis-a-vis the scientific enterprise of laying bare reality's structure remains necessary in order not to confuse a consistent and productive theory with one that demonstrates an understanding and explanation in the sense of this article.

An explanatory coherence model of decision making in ill-structured problems

Classical models of decision making deal fairly well with uncertainty, where settings are well-structured in terms of goals, alternatives, and consequences. Conversely, the typical ill-structured nature of strategy choices remains a challenge for extant models. Such cases can hardly build on the past, and their novelty makes the prediction of consequences a very difficult and poorly robust task. The weakness of the classical expected utility model in representing such problems has not been adequately solved by recent extensions. In this paper we offer an explanatory coherence model for decision making in ill-structured problems. We model alternatives as sets of concurrent causal explanations of reality that act as justifications for action. According to these premises, choice is based on an evaluation of the internal coherence and the consistency of competing explanations of the available evidence. This model is psychologically grounded on causal inference and builds on the connectionist tradition of explanatory coherence. To illustrate the model, we consider the decision of investing in a new technology and we discuss how changes in the structure of alternatives may impact on the solution. We show how the final choice depends on collecting the relevant evidence, making the suitable hypotheses, and drawing the consistent causal explanations linking the two.

A comparison of North American and European railway systems – a critique and riposte

The objective of current paper is to offer constructive criticism and expose some serious shortcomings in the paper published Clausen and Voll (Transp Res Rev 5:129–133, 2013) in the ETRR. A literature review method is applied for the current research paper. A technical and scientific discussion, including organizational and policy issues in relation to rail freight transport systems in Europe and U.S., is performed. Clausen and Voll [4] ostensibly set out to draw comparisons between North American and European railway systems. It claims to be focused on the management and operation of carload freight and how this is organized, planned and moved but does not develop this in adequate detail. The paper fails to address many generic contextual differences and influences that govern the management and operation of carload freight in both domains. It does not present a balanced or complete set of arguments as to why one scenario is to be preferred to the other. The analysis in the paper is largely generic, limited and yet arrives at robust and trenchant conclusions preferring the North American production model without any real substantiation or justification for this position being presented. The European position is inadequately described in terms of governance, ownership and operational models and is criticised for its constraints and limitations without any real explanation as to how these could be overcome. The relatively slow evolution of the response of the US railroads to the legislation that endowed them with greater commercial and operational freedoms is not adequately covered. The position in Europe in relation to a rapid sequence of interventions and directives is also not adequately reviewed. The paper does not demonstrate the impact of recent technologies in terms of intermodal activities despite these being significant components of rail freight volume and revenue in both domains. The paper also has very limited details on the commercial and competitive realities faced by railways in both domains including rail-on-rail, waterway and road based competition and how this is managed by the train operators. The paper makes superficial reference to the “Blocking Problem” but fail to develop what this implies and how the rail freight operators develop strategies to mitigate this.

Do Managers Use Meeting Analyst Forecasts to Signal Private Information? Evidence from Patent Citations

AbstractThis study examines whether firms manage earnings to meet analyst forecasts to signal superior future performance. Prior research finds that firms use earnings management to just meet analyst forecasts and that these firms have a positive association with future performance (Bartov et al., 2002). There are two potential explanations for the positive association – signaling and attaining benefits that allow for better future performance (i.e., the real benefits explanation). Prior studies cannot provide evidence of signaling because they do not control for the real benefits explanation. Our research design enables us to control for the real benefits explanation because we can identify potential signaling firms within the sample of firms that just meet analyst forecasts. We use a unique database from the National Bureau of Economic Research to construct a proxy for the manager's belief about future firm value due to patents. We find that firms with more patent citations are more likely to just meet the analyst forecast and manage earnings to achieve this goal. We also find firms that just meet analyst forecasts with more patent citations have significantly better performance than firms with fewer patent citations, which is consistent with signaling and not the real benefits explanation.

Multicultural Learning Styles Dilemma: Re-Thinking Management Education

In this era of globalization, businesses pursue strategic advantage by shifting from being multinational to being transnational organizations. The idea of globalization represents an ever changing process that brings people and societies together into a common market of not only goods and services but also knowledge. Business curricula must also change to face this new and changed world. Arguably, business education focuses on presenting scientific principles by objectifying theories and their applications, essentially homogenizing them. However, business theories being universal are applied in various cultural contexts with varied results, and with various accreditation agencies standardizing the MBA program, homogenization is insured without regard to when, where, how and why it is applied. This thinking may be faulty. A realistic explanation for rejection of homogeneity is due to multifaceted cultural factors and contexts in which business is practiced. This apparent rejection of homogeneity is further evidenced when according to (Hooker, 2003, p. 13), “...global business and media weaken the nation state and the civic institutions it represents by making them increasingly irrelevant. More ancient forms of social organization fill the void, as nation states fracture along ethnic and religious lines.” Students may defocus themselves from real implications of understanding and subsequent application of various business theories, especially if they are out of cultural context. While numerous cross cultural studies have surfaced focusing on national culture, there has been little or no attempt to unveil the impact of ethnic culture on learning.

A path-following driver/vehicle model with optimized lateral dynamic controller

Reduction in traffic congestion and overall number of accidents, especially within the last decade, can be attributed to the enormous progress in active safety. Vehicle path following control with the presence of driver commands can be regarded as one of the important issues in vehicle active safety systems development and more realistic explanation of vehicle path tracking problem. In this paper, an integrated driver/DYC control system is presented that regulates the steering angle and yaw moment, considering driver previewed path. Thus, the driver previewed distance, the heading error and the lateral deviation between the vehicle and desired path are used as inputs. Then, the controller determines and applies a corrective steering angle and a direct yaw moment to make the vehicle follow the desired path. A PID controller with optimized gains is used for the control of integrated driver/DYC system. Genetic Algorithm as an intelligent optimization method is utilized to adapt PID controller gains for various working situations. Proposed integrated driver/DYC controller is examined on lane change manuvers andthe sensitivity of the control system is investigated through the changes in the driver model and vehicle parameters. Simulation results show the pronounced effectiveness of the controller in vehicle path following and stability.

Surgical subspecialization: escape route for surgeons or added benefit for patients?

Surgical subspecialization: escape route for surgeons or added benefit for patients?

The lustre of pearls

A bout 15 years ago, I learned from a gemologist friend that the value of pearls is appraised by evaluating the following factors: Size; shape; colour and lustre (a term used for the quality of shinyness). The first three are easily quantified, but what about lustre? I decided to look into the problem as an intriguing piece of applied optics. Pearlescence? Iridescence? What optical phenomenon is responsible for the unique appearance of nacre (i.e. motherof-pearl)? The appearance of abalone shell, especially New Zealand Paua shell, gives a clue: Interference colours. So it must be something to do with the structure, maybe it is due to something like thin film interference? This is confirmed by scanning electron microscopysee Fig.1 – and explained by marine biologists as follows: Nacre consists of thin, tabular crystals of aragonite, which is Calcium Carbonate that the mollusk concentrates from seawater. But that is not all: aragonite normally forms needle-shaped crystals. However in seashells, it is constrained into tabular, platelet-shaped crystals by means of a protein secreted by the animal. This protein has dangling bonds with a spacing that is comparable with that of calcium carbonate molecules arranged in flat layers. So the biology of the situation constrains a change in crystal ‘architecture’ – from acicular, i.e. needle-shaped, to tabular. This, incidentally, gives the resulting composite structure quite remarkable mechanical strength, apart from the interesting optical properties. That seems to explain it, I thought: In abalone shells, the thickness of the “bricks” must be very uniform so that thin-film interference gives rise to iridescent colours. But what about ordinary nacre (mother-of-pearl) and indeed pearls themselves? My first thoughts were that maybe the layers are too thick or maybe of non-uniform thickness in ordinary nacre. I wasted a lot of time trying to calculate the reflection properties of thin films of slightly variable (i.e. poly-disperse) thickness. This turned out to be an interesting exercise, rather more difficult than I thought. I even enlisted the expert help of Professor John Lekner from Victoria University, New Zealand, who spent a brief Sabbatical with us in Melbourne and is a noted specialist in reflection phenomena, random matrices and so forth. It turned out to be a wild goose chase and eventually the real answer dawned on me and turned out to be much simpler than I had thought. Before coming to the real explanation, I must remind you why sugar, salt, snow, etc. are white. Rather surprisingly, many students and even more accomplished physicists are unaware of the answer. Starting with an analogy, the random walk of a drunk near a cliff-top, even if initially stepping away from the cliff face, inevitably ends up at the bottom of the cliff! In a completely analogous way, a photon (or a ray, if you prefer) entering a substance consisting of small transparent crystals gets randomly refracted (scattered) and ends up coming back to the surface, whence it emerges in some random direction, never to return to the bulk. This is a form of diffuse reflection, which – if the crystallites are totally non-absorbing – corresponds to 100% reflection. Even better than the best metallic mirrors! So, a white surface is a better reflector than a metallic surface. Even with a certain amount of absorption caused by impurities, this gives rise to strong diffuse reflection, hence the utility of white paint. The mean depth to which the photon (or ray) penetrates depends on the scattering power of the crystallites. This, in cartoon by melbourne artist Leunig

Avoiding loopholes with hybrid Bell-Leggett-Garg inequalities

By combining the postulates of macrorealism with Bell locality, we derive a qualitatively different hybrid inequality that avoids two loopholes that commonly appear in Leggett-Garg and Bell inequalities. First, locally invasive measurements can be used, which avoids the "clumsiness" Leggett-Garg inequality loophole. Second, a single experimental ensemble with fixed analyzer settings is sampled, which avoids the "disjoint sampling" Bell inequality loophole. The derived hybrid inequality has the same form as the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt Bell inequality; however, its quantum violation intriguingly requires weak measurements. A realistic explanation of an observed violation requires either the failure of Bell locality, or a preparation-conspiracy of finely tuned and nonlocally correlated noise. Modern superconducting and optical systems are poised to implement this test.

Spring Oscillations within Financial Markets

In this financial engineering study we suggest a new realistic economic explanation of the price volatility clustering within worldwide financial markets. The suggested clustering mechanism is based on the cooperation of feedbacks which we empirically observe and which are also connected to a momentum and level trading techniques. The explanation could be considered as an additional one to the current volatility clustering theories and its usage is mainly for short time volatility series. The research is the basic one in the area of the market price development.

Response of California Summer Hydroelectricity Generation to Spring Temperature

Regions depending on winter snowpack for hydroelectricity generation may be adversely affected if spring temperatures increase. An inverse relationship between spring temperature and summer hydroelectricity generation is complicated by changing statistical properties of the variables involved. We use simple approaches to quantify, within broad limits, the effect of a change in spring temperature on hydroelectricity generation in subsequent months over a political entity as large and geographically diverse as the state of California, incorporating variables that are highly nonstationary in the mean and in covariances with each other. Looking at data from several simple perspectives provides insight and a physically realistic explanation of the observations. California’s high-elevation hydropower reservoirs mitigate effects of dry winters; precipitation is limiting and spring temperature has no detectable effect. Following wet winters, however, warm springs can lead to earlier snowmelt and increased spillage so that water storage is limited by high-elevation reservoir capacity; during cold springs the snowpack melts more slowly, allowing it to act as a water reservoir for a longer period of time so that water can be supplied as needed. Following winters with over 70 cm of Research Article British Journal of Environment & Climate Change, 3(3): 316-332, 2013 317 precipitation, water supply is abundant and hydropower seems limited by generation capacity. Our results demonstrate limitations of California’s high-elevation hydropower system, especially if climate warms, and our findings should also aid in the development of more complex, physically based, hydrologic models to aid water managers.

Covalent Bonding: The Fundamental Role of the Kinetic Energy

This work addresses the continuing disagreement between two prevalent schools of thought concerning the mechanism of covalent bonding. According to Hellmann, Ruedenberg, and Kutzelnigg, a lowering of the kinetic energy associated with electron delocalization is the key stabilization mechanism. The opposing view of Slater, Feynman, and Bader has maintained that the source of stabilization is electrostatic potential energy lowering due to electron density redistribution to binding regions between nuclei. Despite the large body of accurate quantum chemical work on a range of molecules, the debate concerning the origin of bonding continues unabated, even for H2(+), the simplest of covalently bound molecules. We therefore present here a detailed study of H2(+), including its formation, that uses a sequence of computational methods designed to reveal the relevant contributing mechanisms as well as the spatial density distributions of the kinetic and potential energy contributions. We find that the electrostatic mechanism fails to provide real insight or explanation of bonding, while the kinetic energy mechanism is sound and accurate but complex or even paradoxical to those preferring the apparent simplicity of the electrostatic model. We further argue that the underlying mechanism of bonding is in fact of dynamical character, and analyses that focus on energy do not reveal the origin of covalent bonding in full clarity.

Phylogenetic evidence for a shift in the mode of mammalian body size evolution at the Cretaceous‐Palaeogene boundary

Summary Phylogenetic comparative methods provide a powerful way of addressing classic questions about tempo and mode of phenotypic evolution in the fossil record, such as whether mammals increased in body size diversity after the Cretaceous‐Palaeogene (K‐Pg) extinction. Most often, these kinds of questions are addressed in the context of variation in evolutionary rates. Shifts in the mode of phenotypic evolution provide an alternative and, in some cases, more realistic explanation for patterns of trait diversity in the fossil record, but these kinds of processes are rarely tested for. In this study, I use a time‐calibrated phylogeny of living and fossil Mammaliaformes as a framework to test novel models of body size evolution derived from palaeontological theory. Specifically, I ask whether the K‐Pg extinction resulted in a change in rates of body size evolution or release from a constrained adaptive zone. I found that a model comprising an Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process until the K‐Pg event and a Brownian motion process from the Cenozoic onwards was the best supported model for these data. Surprisingly, results indicate a lower absolute rate of body size evolution during the Cenozoic than during the Mesozoic. This is explained by release from a stationary OU process that constrained realized disparity. Despite a lower absolute rate, body size disparity has in fact been increasing since the K‐Pg event. The use of time‐calibrated phylogenies of living and extinct taxa and realistic, process‐based models provides unparalleled power in testing evolutionary hypotheses. However, researchers should take care to ensure that the models they use are appropriate to the question being tested and that the parameters estimated are interpreted in the context of the best fitting model.

Fine Tuning Explained? Multiverses and Cellular Automata

The objective of this paper is analyzing to which extent the multiverse hypothesis provides a real explanation of the peculiarities of the laws and constants in our universe. First we argue in favor of the thesis that all multiverses except Tegmark's <<mathematical multiverse>> are too small to explain the fine tuning, so that they merely shift the problem up one level. But the <<mathematical multiverse>> is surely too large. To prove this assessment, we have performed a number of experiments with cellular automata of complex behavior, which can be considered as universes in the mathematical multiverse. The analogy between what happens in some automata (in particular Conway's <<Game of Life>>) and the real world is very strong. But if the results of our experiments can be extrapolated to our universe, we should expect to inhabit -- in the context of the multiverse -- a world in which at least some of the laws and constants of nature should show a certain time dependence. Actually, the probability of our existence in a world such as ours would be mathematically equal to zero. In consequence, the results presented in this paper can be considered as an inkling that the hypothesis of the multiverse, whatever its type, does not offer an adequate explanation for the peculiarities of the physical laws in our world. A slightly reduced version of this paper has been published in the Journal for General Philosophy of Science, Springer, March 2013, DOI: 10.1007/s10838-013-9215-7.

The Higher Phylogeny of Austronesian: A Response to Winter

This paper is a response to criticism by Winter in an earlier issue of this journal of Sagart’s discussion of the higher phylogeny of Austronesian. I give examples outside of Austronesian of compound numerals being affected by several apparently irregular changes; argue that the number of changes proposed in my Austronesian model is realistic; explain the order of establishment of disyllabic numerals as depending on two factors, cardinal order and number of competitors; give Austronesian examples showing that the drive to disyllabism does apply to morphologically complex forms; and ascribe the limited similarities between the phylogenies of Blust and Ross to chance. Finally, I claim that the only realistic explanation of the nesting of six related isoglosses is a sequence of innovations.

Enhanced Uncoupling of the Mitochondrial Respiratory Chain as a Potential Source for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of unknown origin. Higher incidences for ALS in certain population subgroups have raised questions about feasible causes and led to controverse discussions, though without providing a real explanation for over 90% of sporadic ALS cases so far. Although speculative to this date however, a combined view on recent data obtained in different scientific fields might offer reasonable explanations for the origin of ALS. Here it is discussed, whether enhanced activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) in concert with raised uncoupling of the mitochondrial respiratory chain in muscle tissue might be a potential key factor that could initiate the onset of ALS. The aim of this document is to show a possible link between mitochondrial uncoupling and the degeneration of motor neurons, primarily to evoke further discussions in this important area.