Faulty Assumptions Research Articles

On the Reality of Gainey Points

ABSTRACTEren, Meltzer, and Andrews (2018. “Is Clovis Technology Unique to Clovis?” PaleoAmerica 4: 201–218) repeat claims made elsewhere that deny the existence of a Gainey fluted point type/complex in the Great Lakes-Northeast region of North America and its distinctiveness from Clovis. The literature they cite that purports to refute the existence of Gainey does not do so. In fact, that literature is irrelevant to the question, and they ignore the 50+ years of published work that demonstrates in increasing detail how the Gainey point type differs from generally accepted characterizations of Clovis points and strongly suggests they post-date western Clovis forms. Treating all large, relatively parallel-sided points in the Great Lakes-Northeast as Clovis, despite evidence suggesting use and changes over hundreds of years, results in excessive time averaging and raises real doubts about conclusions based on that faulty assumption.

The Effect of Shared Service Centers on Administrative Intensity in English Local Government: A Longitudinal Evaluation

Abstract“Administrative intensity” (AI) describes the proportion of total resources that organizations spend on administrative support functions rather than primary service and production processes. We test whether “sharing” administrative activities between organizations leads to a fall in AI due to economies of scale, as is often supposed, using organizational and financial data from more than 300 English local authorities. We employ multi-wave change score regression analysis to relate changes in AI from 2008 to 2016 to levels of shared services participation, and further test whether reform performance varies by category of local authority, type of administration, or degree of structural complexity. Although we find that some measures of AI fell slightly over this period, this was unrelated to shared service adoption for any category of local authority. Sharing of clerical rather than professional types of administration, and sharing by organizations and within partnerships characterized by lower structural complexity, also failed to improve reform outcomes. Faulty assumptions about the extent of administrative scale diseconomies in English local government partly explain this significant reform underperformance.

Beyond Asexualization: Narratives of Sexual Objectification of Persons with Albinism in Nigeria

Often overemphasised, in most sexuality studies, is that persons with disability, especially women, face experiences of asexualization rather than sexualisation. Similarly overemphasised is the faulty monolithic assumption that economic deprivation is the causal factor in the objectification of persons with disability. This has unintentionally created an expectation that objectifying environments are the inevitable and immutable default to economic distress. This is often not the case within the socio-cultural space of persons with albinism (PWA) in Southern Nigeria, where their presence is obvious. As a departure, this study examined the sexual objectification of PWA in Nigeria. It was discovered that at some points in the life course of PWA, most especially among the women with the development and aging of their body, objectification added to mental health risks such as withdrawal syndrome, isolation and indolence. The study concludes that cultural attitudes not only creates and threatens PWA sexed and gendered body confidence in relationships but also for them to be labelled and misconstrued as sexually inactive.

Myths of Established Security Policy

Since 2017, the Study Group “European Security and Peace” of the Federation of German Scientists (VDW) has been working on the central interrelationships and challenges of European and global security. In doing so, it continues the VDW‘s tradition in the field of cooperative security and peace policy, in which science played a particular role. At the beginning of the VDW‘s foundation, questions of nuclear disarmament and arms control were at the forefront, which is reflected in particular in the “Göttingen Declaration of 1957 on Nuclear Armament” as well as in its participation in the international Pugwash movement. In the meantime, new security risks, complex conflict dynamics and crisis constellations have emerged alongside nuclear armament, from digitalisation to climate change. This development is accelerated by technical-scientific progress and its ambivalence as well as by economic and social processes of globalization. Under the changing conditions of the 21st century, the (apparent) stability of the previous world order is dissolving; the challenges for peace and security in and around Europe are increasing. The opportunities for a cooperative world order are dwindling. Nationalist power politics is fuelling a chaotic dynamic that increases the danger of a new uncontrollable arms race, weakens established forms and institutions for dealing with conflicts and clouds the prospect of a sustainable European peace order. Following in the tradition of the VDW, the study group aims at contributing to a better understanding of the complex conflict dynamics through analyses, statements and events and to draw constructive conclusions for an appropriate peace policy. As its first project, the study group has analytically examined some “myths of established security policy”. Here, the ambiguous term “myth” refers to beliefs that have solidified into dogmas. They promote political decisions that are based on premises that need to be problematized. It is the task of science to critically question, interpret and examine the plausibility of assumptions underlying political decisions. It is evident that even highly problematic decisions can result from faulty assumptions. Widespread myths can block the path to appropriate social discourse and good politics. The goal the study group has set itself is to address some of these certainties as myths and to deconstruct them in order to break them up and thus correct them. Specific recommendations for action, however, take second place. The draft papers were discussed extensively and in part controversially in the study group. However, the responsibility for the deliberately pointed texts lies solely with the authors. The first delivery contains individual papers on the following topics: the cooperative world order (Lothar Brock), Russia and the European peace order (Sabine Jaberg), the effectiveness of robust military interventions in the Global South (Hans-Georg Ehrhart), the inadequate equipment of the German Federal Armed Forces (Michael Brzoska), the current relevance of arms control (Michael Staack) and the threat to security posed by climate change (Jürgen Scheffran). Further papers are in preparation. With the publication of the “Myth Papers” and related comments, a scientific discussion is to be initiated which – so the authors of the papers and the editors of the Friedens-Warte hope – will lead to critical reflection, but also to new ideas for a better, scientifically informed peace and security policy.

The arrogance of teratology: A brief chronology of attitudes throughout history.

While the discipline of Teratology has existed for about 60 years, there has been a deep interest in the causes of human malformations for millennia. Absent the scientific method and acting on fervent beliefs that made sense to ancient/medieval populations, “mechanisms” were described and prognostications of future events were assigned to terata resulting in tragic (and unwarranted) sequelae. This article examines the collective beliefs and thinking within various eras in the hope of providing lessons to inform future behavior. The eugenics movement is an informative, recent example. Science of the 19th century had unraveled some of the mysteries of development and the role of genetics in determining birth outcomes. There was, however, a deep misunderstanding about the enormous amount of information that had yet to be uncovered. Based on immature science and faulty assumptions, it was suggested that “unfit” individuals be euthanized and their parents sterilized. Such “solutions” would be considered deplorable today. Surprisingly, such a reprehensible program was supported (at least in part) by many intelligent and highly regarded individuals. Today, it is imperative that we enter into the era of molecular biology and gene editing cautiously and perspicaciously. The history of teratology has elucidated our inability to understand where our new technologies and actions might take us and how unintended consequences could disrupt even our most carefully thought‐out plans.

A Decade of Research on Social Media and Journalism: Assumptions, Blind Spots, and a Way Forward

Amid a broader reckoning about the role of social media in public life, this article argues that the same scrutiny can be applied to the journalism studies field and its approaches to examining social media. A decade later, what hath such research wrought? In the broad study of news and its digital transformation, few topics have captivated researchers quite like social media, with hundreds of studies on everything from how journalists use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat to how such platforms facilitate various forms of engagement between journalists and audiences. Now, some 10 years into journalism studies on social media, we need a more particular accounting of the assumptions, biases, and blind spots that have crept into this line of research. Our purpose is to provoke reflection and chart a path for future research by critiquing themes of what has come before. In particular, our goal is to untangle three faulty assumptions—often implicit but no less influential—that have been overlooked in the rapid take-up of social media as a key phenomenon for journalism studies: (1) that social media would be a net positive; (2) that social media reflects reality; and (3) that social media matters over and above other factors.

Sigmoidal Acquisition Curves Are Good Indicators of Conformist Transmission

The potential for behaviours to spread via cultural transmission has profound implications for our understanding of social dynamics and evolution. Several studies have provided empirical evidence that local traditions can be maintained in animal populations via conformist learning (i.e. copying the majority). A conformist bias can be characterized by a sigmoidal relationship between a behavior’s prevalence in the population and an individual’s propensity to adopt that behavior. For this reason, the presence of conformist learning in a population is often inferred from a sigmoidal acquisition curve in which the overall rate of adoption for the behavior is taken as the dependent variable. However, the validity of sigmoidal acquisition curves as evidence for conformist learning has recently been challenged by models suggesting that such curves can arise via alternative learning rules that do not involve conformity. We review these models, and find that the proposed alternative learning mechanisms either rely on faulty or unrealistic assumptions, or apply only in very specific cases. We therefore recommend that sigmoidal acquisition curves continue to be taken as evidence for conformist learning. Our paper also highlights the importance of understanding the generative processes of a model, rather than only focusing solely on the patterns produced. By studying these processes, our analysis suggests that current practices by empiricists have provided robust evidence for conformist transmission in both humans and non-human animals.Arising from: Acerbi, A. et al. Sci. Rep. 6, 36068 (2016); https://doi.org/10.1038/srep36068.

Reconceptualizing Participation Grading as Skill Building

Two common ways that instructors assess participation in sociology courses are recalling participation by memory or counting times spoken during class in real time. However, these common assessments rely on faulty assumptions that do not support their usage. This article reconceptualizes participation grading as an opportunity to motivate skill building across a variety of dimensions. The evidence from two classes of 45 and 47 students demonstrates that this conceptualization can be effectively implemented in undergraduate courses. Students set participation goals; all students met at least one goal, and more than two-thirds met all three goals. Qualitative themes from their reflections include students learned that participation is about skills not personality, it gets easier once started, participation dimensions are interconnected, and these skills can be applied in other classes. Benefits can be achieved when instructors implement a multifaceted skill-based participation system to assess participation.

An Economic Case for Prepaying your Mortgage

Households that already contribute sufficiently to tax-deferred retirement accounts often believe that the tax break from interest expense deduction is more beneficial than prepaying a mortgage. This idea stems from a faulty assumption regarding the appropriate opportunity cost of funds. This study covers a 26-year period and shows that prepayment is optimal for this type of household when correctly comparing the after-tax cost of the mortgage and the after-tax return of the risk-appropriate competing investment. The study illustrates that interest expense savings are greater than tax deduction benefits from 1990-2016 when prepaying 15-year and 30-year mortgages.

How PGS/PGT-A laboratories succeeded in losing all credibility

How PGS/PGT-A laboratories succeeded in losing all credibility

The misunderstanding of Clausius statement of the second law of thermodynamics and its aftermath

As with the first law of thermodynamics, the second law of thermodynamics has been proven by countless examples. The Clausius statement of the second law of thermodynamics given in most of the literatures is “heat can never pass from a colder to a warmer body without some other change, connected therewith, occurring at the same time”. After carefully studying Clausius’ mechanical theory of heat published from 1850 to 1865, we found that this is not true. Actually, Clausius already clearly stated that the second law of thermodynamics is “Theorem of the equivalence of the transformation of work to heat and the transformation of heat at a higher to a lower temperature”. The former statement is only a basic principle that can lead to the theorem of the equivalence of transformations. In addition, all processes in derivation of the theorem of the equivalence of transformations and proof of the equivalence between Clausius statement and Kelvin statement are reversible processes. The statement “Heat can never pass from a colder to a warmer body without some other change” only illuminates the spontaneous natural phenomenon in opposite direction that heat flows from high temperature to low temperature, which tells that heat at different temperatures are nonequivalent. Admittedly, Clausius discussed the process irreversibility and thereby obtained Clausius Inequality. But he only used the state change to measure the process irreversibility, which did not involve the concept of space, time and speed. Clausius just expressed that the process irreversibility will reduce heat efficiency and did not focus exclusively on the laws of process irreversibility. The misunderstanding of viewing Clausius statement as “Heat can never pass from a colder to a warmer body without some other change”, easily produces such a viewpoint that the second law of thermodynamics is the rule about process direction and irreversibility, consequently leading to the faulty assumption that the minimum entropy generation principle can be used to derive the transport law of heat conduction and optimize the heat transfer process. However, theory and practice analyses have proven that it is problematic. The action of heat conduction process is just half of entransy dissipation, whose variation points to the linear Fourier’s heat conduction law, which thereby has a better application for the optimization of heat transfer process. Transfer process has different laws from conversion process, so they should be treated distinguishingly and analyzed with different methods and indexes. It is not advisable to simply put heat transfer issues into category of non-equilibrium thermodynamics.

Bill C-71 Is a Red Herring: Submission to the Canadian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security

Bill C-71 is founded on faulty assumptions. Assumptions that ignore the real problem of violent gang crime to focus exclusively – and unnecessarily – on law-abiding firearms owners – hunters, sport shooters, and firearms retailers – individuals who do not pose a threat to public safety. The problem is violent crime, not firearms ownership. There are many egregious problems with Bill C-71. In essence, this bill is a red herring, intended to distract the Canadian public from the government’s failure to deal with gang violence. By selecting the year 2013 as the base of comparison, the government abuses statistics to argue shootings are increasing. Canada has a gang problem, not a gun problem. Criminal violence is driven by a small number of repeat offenders, not by the many Canadians who legally own firearms. While Canada’s legal guns are more likely to be found outside of metropolitan areas, the vast bulk of gang related homicides involving firearms were committed in metropolitan areas in 2016. There is no convincing empirical support for the assumption in Bill C-71 that tightening up restrictions on law-abiding firearms owners (PAL holders) will somehow restrict the flow of guns to violent criminals, and therefore, contribute to reducing gang violence. The claim that criminals get their guns from “domestic sources” is false and misleading. This claim cannot justify additional restrictions on firearms ownership and use by PAL holders. Bill C-71 is unnecessary and does not contribute to public safety. Canadian gun laws are already enormously complex and constitute a maze for unwary firearms owners. Since 1998, gun crime is predominantly administrative violations not violent crimes.

Information, Knowledge, and the Return of Social Physics

The article discusses two vital aspects of the current debate about the societal importance and future role of data, information, and knowledge in the context of social organization, administration, and government. First, it is argued that the debate concerning Big Data suffers from faulty assumptions regarding the societal significance and power of information which needs to be extended to a more comprehensive investigation about the social role of knowledge. Second, the theoretical positions brought forward are illustrated by revisiting an episode from the early history of the social sciences, arguing that misguided ideas about the possibility of “Social Physics” have failed before and are likely to fail again, due to the complexity of social behavior.

The BEIR VII Estimates of Low-Dose Radiation Health Risks Are Based on Faulty Assumptions and Data Analyses: A Call for Reassessment.

The 2006 National Academy of Sciences Biologic Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR) VII report is a well-recognized and frequently cited source on the legitimacy of the linear no-threshold (LNT) model-a model entailing a linear and causal relationship between ionizing radiation and human cancer risk. Linearity means that all radiation causes cancer and explicitly excludes a threshold below which radiogenic cancer risk disappears. However, the BEIR VII committee has erred in the interpretation of its selected literature; specifically, the in vitro data quoted fail to support LNT. Moreover, in vitro data cannot be considered as definitive proof of cancer development in intact organisms. This review is presented to stimulate a critical reevaluation by a BEIR VIII committee to reassess the validity, and use, of LNT and its derived policies.

Locke on Individuation and Kinds


 
 
 Locke has been accused of endorsing a theory of kinds that is inconsistent with his theory of individuation. This purported inconsistency comes to the fore in Locke’s treatment of cases involving organisms and the masses of matter that constitute them, for example, the case of a mass constituting an oak tree. In this essay, I argue that this purported problem, known as ‘The Kinds Problem’, can be solved. The Kinds Problem depends on the faulty assumption that nominal essences include only features observable at a time t. Once this assumption is rejected, new candidates open up for the relevant difference in the world that is included in the nominal essence of e.g. mass but not oak tree. And I argue that there is at least one good candidate for the extrinsic feature observable only over time in which the mass differs from the oak it constitutes, namely its persistence conditions. The Kinds Problem can be solved.
 
 

Gospel Writing: A Canonical Perspective by Francis Watson

Reviewed by: Gospel Writing: A Canonical Perspective by Francis Watson O.P. Anthony Giambrone Gospel Writing: A Canonical Perspective Francis Watson. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2013. Pp. xiii + 665. $48.00 (paper). ISBN: 978-0-8028-4054-7. Very few New Testament scholars today could have produced a book of the same scope, competence, and creativity as Francis Watson's Gospel Writing. It is an achievement of truly imposing force and richness and certainly ranks among the most ambitious and important contributions to the field of Gospel studies in the post-Bultmannian age. The irony is that the ghost of Rudolf Bultmann haunts the text, without ever being named, so that it becomes hard to say precisely where the discipline is going. The question for exegetes and theologians will thus be how to measure Watson's proposed paradigm shift against the no less significant (if less expansive and erudite) projects of Martin Hengel, Richard Burridge, and Richard Bauckham, whose ideas push in a different direction and harbor no theological nostalgia for the era of midcentury Formgeschichte. The stated aim of Watson's tome is to reconfigure the standard model of Gospel origins. By this he means, in the first place, dislodging the regnant Two-Document Hypothesis, whereby Matthew and Luke independently rewrote and merged Mark and a lost sayings source (Q)—with John coming up the rear in some uncertain relation to his three canonical predecessors. By setting Q in the crosshairs, the book builds openly upon Mark Goodacre's more pioneering and pointed oeuvre. Indeed, as a senior scholar of some standing and as the present editor of New Testament Studies, Watson easily represents the most noteworthy "establishment" advocate to throw his full weight behind Goodacre's theory. If Watson thus offers his own extended arguments meant to undermine the credibility of Q (chap. 3, "The Coincidences of Q") and to buttress the theory that Luke, in fact, wrote with direct knowledge of Matthew's Gospel (chap. 4, "Luke the Interpreter"), this is not the real site of innovation. Admittedly, the detailed discussion of order in Luke's sayings material is a meaningful and needed element in the mounting "L/M theory," as Watson designates it (e.g., 118-19). His handling of the Lucan preface is also of interest. Still, Goodacre remains the most eloquent and convincing spokesmen for the L/M view. The real innovation and [End Page 133] significance, rather, is in the way that Watson has (as Goodacre has not) so vigorously thought through the implications of "life without Q." The two opening chapters of the book put the whole project in its historical context and together comprise part 1, "The Eclipse of the Fourfold Gospel." The narrative arc sketched in this superbly engaging account serves to expose a pair of faulty but foundational assumptions that Watson sees as constitutive of the present perspective: (1) the perception of plurality/disharmony as a problem, and (2) the effort to reverse the flow of reception to recover a form of the Gospel prior to the act of interpretation. It all begins with "Augustine's Ambiguous Legacy" (chap. 1). Here Watson offers the first of multiple displays of his remarkable, masterful range. The essential point of the argument, which focuses upon De consensu evangelistarum, is to challenge the supposedly dominant assumption, inherited in some way from Augustine (Origen purportedly represents a different legacy), that disharmony among the Gospels represents a theological problem. Watson accordingly highlights a double tendency in Augustine's work. On the one hand, he innovatively proposes a literary, source-critical explanation for the similarities and differences between the Gospels—rather than simply assuming the direct access of each evangelist to apostolic preaching, as earlier tradition did. "For the tradition, Mark is Peter's son; for Augustine, he is Matthew's" (20). While the so-called Augustinian Hypothesis that results—that is, the suggestion that the evangelists wrote their Gospels in the canonical order and in dependence upon one another—is not highly regarded today, in the course of his work Augustine gives hints of revising his own view, as Watson interestingly shows. In any case, neither Augustine's later, revised view nor his...

KONSEP HAK MILIK DALAM EKONOMI ISLAM

Capitalism as an economic system that is implemented by most countries in the world today, in fact it gave birth to injustice and social inequalityare increasingly out of control. Social and economic inequalities are felt both between countries (developed and developing countries) as well as insociety itself (the rich minority and the poor majority). The condition is born from the practice of departing from faulty assumptions about the man. In capitalism the individual to own property released uncontrollably, causing a social imbalance. On the other hand, Islam never given a state model that guarantees fair distribution of ownership for all members of society, ie at the time of the Prophet Muhammad established the Islamic government in Medina. In Islam, the private ownership of property was also recognized but not absolute like capitalism. Islam also recognizes the forms of joint ownership for the benefit of society and acknowledges the ownership of the state that aims to create a balance and social justice.

The Case for Prepaying your Mortgage

Households that already contribute sufficiently to tax-deferred retirement accounts often believe that the tax break from interest expense deduction is more beneficial than prepaying a mortgage. This idea stems from a faulty assumption regarding the appropriate opportunity cost of funds. This study covers a 26-year period and shows that prepayment is optimal for this type of household when correctly comparing the after-tax cost of the mortgage and the after-tax return of the risk-appropriate competing investment. The study illustrates that interest expense savings are greater than tax deduction benefits from 1990-2016 when prepaying 15-year and 30-year mortgages.

Out of Time, Out of Place: Primitivism and African Art

<p>This article debates the proposition that artistic production mirrors humanity’s maturation from primitive superstition to scientific rationality. This effort sits at the intersection of demography, political economy and aesthetics. According to traditional demographic theory, primitive peoples are caught in a poverty trap of high birth rates, a condition inimical to industrialization, well-planned urbanization, universal education, women’s emancipation and cultural production. The analysis focuses on three dynamics: the demographic effects of mass migration on creativity: the trajectories of declining populations and their places in cultural hierarchies; and slavery and colonialism’s reduction to penury of skilled artists in pre-industrial societies. The method interrogates self-reinforcing trends of the canons of demography, political economy and aesthetics and the resulting concurrence on the path of progress, which assumes that art is a reflection of liberal historical advancement. The overarching argument of the article is that by setting the criteria and suppressing alternative accounts of the history of African art, these canons narrow and misrepresent our global cultural legacy. Background: sub-Saharan African art is classified as “primitive” according to the canons of art history, demography and political economy. This label is problematic because it conveys faulty demographic assumptions about sub-Saharan Africa and reflects the ways in which theories of human progress reinforce analyses underlying the designation of primitive. The proposition advanced is that these canons narrow, suppress alternative accounts of the history of African art, and misrepresent our global cultural legacy.</p>

CBT in Patients With Chronic Illness

CBT in Patients With Chronic Illness