Interpretation Of Judgment Research Articles

American Bias in Global Security Studies Data

AbstractThree major datasets contain problematic interpretative judgments, arguably biased toward the United States: the Polity dataset; Reiter and Stam's data on war outcomes; and Singh and Way's data on nuclear proliferation. These examples raise the possibility that important datasets in global security studies, and in political science more generally, are systematically affected by an American bias. Bias means that, non-Americans might code the same observations differently, on average. The issue arises because Americans, on average, seem to have certain predispositions that non-Americans, on average, do not have. Other nationalities have their own predispositions. I also demonstrate that each of the three empirical examples has significant implications for causal inferences, altering certain statistical findings based upon them. For instance, I reexamine Haber and Menaldo's study of the resource curse, showing that alternative data coding casts substantial doubt on their inferences.

Comments on “Evaluation of potentially toxic element contamination in the riparian zone of the River Sava” by Pavlović et al. (2019)

Polluted fluvial systems deserve the continuous attention of researchers due to the relevancy of the contaminants in rivers which are crucial to sustainable life. Perhaps due to the complexity inherent to fluvial systems and the intricacy of sediment compositional data, not all current studies on contamination in river-transported matter meet the state-of-the-art knowledge in the relevant disciplines. We comment on certain pitfalls in fluvial pollution studies, taking work by Pavlović et al. (2019) as an example. We specifically stress the need for judgment and carefulness in sediment sampling and interpretation of sediment composition. These provide two examples of the most common and persistent challenges for fluvial pollution research.

The Archival Impulse and the Editorial Impulse

There is no firm, outside vantage-point from which to survey and thus to define archive and edition as securely differentiated categories. As readers we inhabit the same textual field as the approaches to documents and texts that we seek to define. To record is first to read and analyse sufficiently for the archival purpose; to interpret is first to read and to analyse sufficiently for the editorial purpose. In practice, the archival impulse anticipates the editorial, and the editorial rests on the archival. We may envisage the relationship of archive and edition as a horizontal slider or scroll bar running from archive on the left to edition on the right. In this model every position on the slider involves interpretative judgement appropriate to its purpose. Every position along the slider involves a report on the documents, but the archival impulse is more document-facing and the editorial is, relatively speaking, more audience-facing. Yet each activity, if it be a scholarly one, depends upon or anticipates the need for its complementary or co-dependent Other. The archival impulse aims to satisfy the shared need for a reliable record of the documentary evidence; the editorial impulse to further interpret it, with the aim of orienting it towards known or envisaged audiences and by taking their anticipated needs into account. The sliding scroll-bar model dispenses with recently expressed anxiety about digital literary archives (special-purpose collections) replacing editions. The latter will continue to be prepared as long as there are readers whose requirements need to be served. The slider model helps us to survey the full range of archival and editorial possibilities. The term “representation” embraces the archival impulse. The editor’s aim, on the other hand, is less to represent something that is pre-existing than to present something (the text of a version, the text of a work, a process of writing) that typically has not existed in precisely this form before, together with the critically analysed materials necessary to defend the presentation.

Methylphenidate modifies activity in the prefrontal and parietal cortex accelerating the time judgment

Methylphenidate produces its effects via actions on cortical areas involved with attention and working memory, which have a direct role in time estimation judgment tasks. In particular, the prefrontal and parietal cortex has been the target of several studies to understand the effect of methylphenidate on executive functions and time interval perception. However, it has not yet been studied whether acute administration of methylphenidate influences performance in time estimation task and the changes in alpha band absolute power in the prefrontal and parietal cortex. The current study investigates the influence of the acute use of methylphenidate in both performance and judgment in the time estimation interpretation through the alpha band absolute power activity in the prefrontal and parietal cortex. This is a double-blind, crossover study with a sample of 32 subjects under control (placebo) and experimental (methylphenidate) conditions with absolute alpha band power analysis during a time estimation task. We observed that methylphenidate does not influence task performance (p> 0.05), but it increases the time interval underestimation by over 7s (p< 0.001) with a concomitant decrease in absolute alpha band power in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex (p< 0.001). Acute use of methylphenidate increases the time interval underestimation, consistent with reduced accuracy of the internal clock mechanisms. Furthermore, acute use of methylphenidate influences the absolute alpha band power over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and parietal cortex.

Praktyka opodatkowania wyrobisk górniczych po wyroku Trybunału Konstytucyjnego z dnia 13 września 2011 roku (P 33/09)

For a long time, the issue of the taxation of underground post-mining pits and their equipment with the real estate tax has been an issue that has given rise to divergent judicial decisions of tax authorities and administrative courts. Doubts arise, first and foremost, from the ambiguity of legal definitions concerning the issues mentioned above. Such a situation led directly to certain divergence among different decisions of tax authorities and administrative courts. As a result of constantly growing doubts, the Voivodship Administrative Court in Gliwice submitted a motion to the Constitutional Tribunal to examine the constitutionality of the provisions of the Local Taxes and Fees Act to the extent to which they define a building as a subject of taxation. The Constitutional Tribunal issued an interpretative judgement which is of crucial importance for the practice of the taxation of post-mining pits. First and foremost, it resolved the fundamental dilemma concerning the post-mining pit both in its physical and comprehensive sense, deciding that as such a post mining pit does not constitute the subject of taxation. The Constitutional Tribunal stated that underground post-mining pits are not construction features (services and facilities) in terms of the Construction Law, but space created as a result of mining works, and consequently the cannot be qualified as structures under the provisions of the Construction Law. Therefore, they are not subject to real estate tax either independently (as excavations in the physical sense) or together with their infrastructure (as excavations in the comprehensive sense). The situation is different in the case of infrastructure located in underground post-mining pits. Its individual elements may be classified as construction structures (construction equipment) under the Construction Law, and thus as structures under the Local Taxes and Fees Act. While the issue of exclusion of underground post mining pits from taxation (in both physical and comprehensive sense) is no longer a controversial issue in judicial decisions, the taxation of “post-mining pits in the technical sense” continues – despite the fact that several years have passed since the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal in 2011, and this situation provokes numerous difficulties. This is reflected by the analysis of the most recent judicial decisions relating to the same entity with respect to a dispute that has been going on for a long time – in its genesis reaching back to the period long before the day in which the aforementioned judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal was issued. The article thoroughly analyses the latest judicial decisions of administrative courts through the prism of the premise and arguments contained in the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal. A number of detailed conclusions were presented. The authors also adopted the main premise that the necessity to carry out a proper amendment seems justified. Such an amendment would in a clear, unambiguous manner determine the legislator’s will in the area of the taxation (or non-taxation) of post-mining pits. A view was also expressed that it was possible to establish, with the help of specialists, a closed statutory catalogue of objects that would be typical and necessary for the proper functioning of post-mining pits (from the point of view of the objectives pursued there), which the legislator would consciously and undoubtedly consider to be taxable structures.

Interpretative judgements and educational assessment

Emphasising ‘the elusiveness of meaning and knowledge’, postmodernism ‘has permeated in a fragmentary way nearly all aspects of contemporary culture and thought’. Postmodernist thinkers have taught...

Toward a Theory of Pedagogical Reduction: Selection, Simplification, and Generalization in an Age of Critical Education

AbstractIn this article, David Lewin examines the processes of educational representation, simplification, and selection, proposing the term “pedagogical reduction” in order to clarify the role these processes play within pedagogy. Although this term is virtually unknown among Anglo‐American educational theorists, it reflects a substantial theoretical basis in the related German concept didaktishe Reduktion. Drawing on sources from the hermeneutic tradition, Lewin argues that education is fundamentally an interpretive exercise because selection and simplification require the interpretive judgment of educators, and that the hermeneutic constraints applied to education entail forms of reduction. He then examines pedagogical reduction within the curriculum areas of history, science, and philosophy in order to illustrate the generative and generalizing nature of pedagogical reduction, which takes students from particulars (objects, exercises, or events) to general or universal principles. Lewin discusses Comenius's 1658 textbook Orbis Sensualium Pictus in order both to illustrate pedagogical reduction as a historical form and to draw attention to a key historical moment in the development of educational representation and reduction. He then turns to an examination of skepticism of pedagogical reduction from progressive and critical pedagogies. The argument culminates in the suggestion that educational theory is too often presented with a false dilemma: either accept the need for a contrived educational experience disconnected from the experiences and concerns of life, or react against this flattened educational aspiration by seeking something authentic and progressive that meaninglessly conflates education and life. Understanding the proper place of reduction in education, Lewin concludes, is vital in mediating this dichotomy.

A DISCRICIONARIEDADE JUDICIAL E AS CONDIÇÕES DE VERDADE DAS PROPOSIÇÕES JURÍDICAS À LUZ DO DEBATE HART E DWORKIN

Em um contexto de relativização da cisão entre criação e aplicação do direito, o trabalho tem por objetivo analisar, sob o olhar analítico e conceitual da filosofia, o problema do grau de liberdade interpretativa, a (in) determinabilidade do direito, a (in) existência de resposta correta e a necessidade do uso da discricionariedade judicial, a partir do estudo das condições de verdade das proposições jurídicas e das discussões sobre a possibilidade de juízos interpretativos objetivamente verdadeiros, à luz do realismo e antirrealismo semânticos. A pesquisa bibliográfica de abordagem qualitativa centra-se na análise do positivismo hartiano e do interpretativismo de Ronald Dworkin. Ao contrário da teoria de Dworkin, segundo a qual mesmo nos casos difíceis as proposições jurídicas apresentam um valor de verdade, o pensamento hartiano considera que a existência de casos difíceis conduz à indeterminação do direito e à ideia de que certas proposições carecem do valor de verdade.

Relating (Un)acceptability to Interpretation. Experimental Investigations on Negation

Although contemporary linguistic studies routinely use unacceptable sentences to determine the boundary of what falls outside the scope of grammar, investigations far more rarely take into consideration the possible interpretations of such sentences, perhaps because these interpretations are commonly prejudged as irrelevant or unreliable across speakers. In this paper we provide the results of two experiments in which participants had to make parallel acceptability and interpretation judgments of sentences presenting various types of negative dependencies in Basque and in two varieties of Spanish (Castilian Spanish and Basque Country Spanish). Our results show that acceptable sentences are uniformly assigned a single negation reading in the two languages. However, while unacceptable sentences consistently convey single negation in Basque, they are interpreted at chance in both varieties of Spanish. These results confirm that judgment data that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable negative utterances can inform us not only about an adult’s grammar of his/her particular language but also about interesting cross-linguistic differences. We conclude that the acceptability and interpretation of (un)grammatical negative sentences can serve linguistic theory construction by helping to disentangle basic assumptions about the nature of various negative dependencies.

Explaining Away Disorder: The Influence of Context on Impressions of Mental Health Symptoms

Clinical assessments involve understanding displays of mental disorder symptoms in the contexts in which they display. Contextual information plays a large role in externalizing disorder assessments. Yet we know little about contextual information’s impact within internalizing disorder assessments. Panic disorder symptoms develop outside environmental effects, but over time symptoms become conditioned responses to one’s environment, making this disorder an interesting test case. In two experiments ( N = 269), lay participants read vignettes about children displaying a single symptom of panic disorder embedded in contextual information that either conformed or did not conform to the presence of panic disorder. Contextual information changed interpretations of panic disorder symptoms and reduced judgments of the likelihood of panic disorder. This effect held when participants made judgments about panic disorder only (Experiment 1) and when alongside externalizing disorder symptoms (Experiment 2). These findings have important implications for understanding interpretive judgments about symptoms within diagnostic assessments of mental health.

Wyroki interpretacyjne i zakresowe w orzecznictwie Trybunału Konstytucyjnego

The article discusses interpretative and limited judgments in the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland. These judgments are of great significance in the judicial control of law’s conformity to the Constitution. They were distinguished following the departure from the original, dichotomic division of the Constitutional Tribunal’s judgments into those deciding the full and unambiguous consistency or inconsistency of an act with the Constitution. The article defines interpretative and limited judgements, and describes their roles and functions. An interpretative judgement is a decision in which the Constitutional Tribunal decides the conformity or non-conformity of a relevant act to the Constitution in its given interpretation. Its aim is not to eliminate non-uniformity or divergence in the interpretation of legal regulations, but to eliminate from all potential interpretative variants of a relevant act the one that is inconsistent with the Constitution. A limited judgement is a decision in which the Constitutional Tribunal decides the conformity or non-conformity of an act to the Constitution in a specific (subjective, objective or time) scope of its application. A limited judgement aims to decide whether a legal regulation whose interpretation is unambiguous, is consistent with the Constitution in a given scope of its application. The article also describes advantages and disadvantages of interpretative and limited judgements, accounting for the relevant views in the doctrine and jurisprudence in this respect, and examines the number of these judgements against the general number of judgements concerning the constitutionality of law that were passed by the Constitutional Tribunal in recent years.

Perceptions versus interpretations, and domains for self-fulfilling prophesies.

I suggest two ways in which Jussim's extensive discussion (in his 2012 book) could be enriched: first, by exploring the distinction between perceptual judgments and interpretive judgments; second, by considering the power of expectations to be self-fulfilling in the case of young children and the case of fragile egos.

What Are Scale-degree Qualia?

Nearly every kind of tonal theory invokes some notion of scale degrees. One way to describe the experience of scale-degree perception is as “qualia,” introspectively available aspects of experience that give what it is like to undergo that experience. This article examines the nature of scale-degree qualia on the basis of their phenomenology and, drawing on thought experiments from philosophy of mind, presents an inflationary account of scale-degree qualia, separating them from other types of musical qualia and other concepts related to scale degrees. I argue that the attribution of scale-degree qualia is a kind of interpretive judgment that can be unconscious or, if the qualia are tied to musical concepts, conscious, thereby giving the listener a degree of control over the qualitative content of their experience.

New guideline: 2‐mm margin width adequate for breast‐conserving surgery in patients with DCIS

Three national cancer organizations have come together to issue a consensus guideline intended to provide clarity regarding the optimal negative margin width for treating women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) who have undergone breast-conserving surgery and whole-breast irradiation (WBRT). The Society of Surgical Oncology, the American Society for Radiation Oncology, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology published the new guideline in their respective journals, the Annals of Surgical Oncology, Practical Radiation Oncology, and the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1 To create the new guideline, the Society of Surgical Oncology put together a multidisciplinary panel of experts that included clinicians and researchers from all three organizations in addition to a patient advocate. The group used a meta-analysis of margin width and ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) from a systematic review of 20 studies, including 7883 patients, and other published literature as the basis for the consensus. The guideline authors say that retrospective single-institution studies have suggested that a negative margin width of 1 cm or more may eliminate the reduction in IBTR seen in patients undergoing WBRT. Furthermore, despite the widespread use of breast-conserving therapy (BCT) for DCIS, the panel says that there was no previous consensus on what constitutes an optimal negative margin width. Thus, approximately 1 in 3 women attempting BCT for DCIS undergo re-excision. It was this lack of consensus that lead the panel to convene. The panel concluded that the use of a 2-mm margin as the standard in women diagnosed with DCIS and treated with WBRT is associated with low rates of IBTR and has the potential to decrease re-excision rates, improve cosmetic outcome, and decrease the cost of care. They also concluded that margins wider than 2 mm do not significantly reduce the rates of recurrence when compared with 2-mm margins, and their routine use is not supported by the evidence. See “Summary of Key Recommendations from the New DCIS Consensus Guideline,” left, for the main points of the panel's recommendations. Bruce G. Haffty, MD, immediate past chair of the American Society for Radiation Oncology board of directors, said that the new guideline will assist clinicians who have struggled with margin width in this patient population. “While the guideline appropriately allows for some flexibility and clinical judgment in interpretation,” he says, “the conclusion that a 2-mm margin width is adequate in patients with DCIS will be helpful and reassuring to clinicians and patients in clinical decision making.” There are some limitations to the guideline: It applies only to patients who have been diagnosed with DCIS and DCIS with microinvasion and treated with WBRT, and the findings should not be applied to patients with DCIS treated with accelerated partial-breast irradiation or to those who have invasive carcinoma.

Article 60 ICJ Statute, Interpretation Proceedings, and the Competing Concepts ofRes Judicata

AbstractThe judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 11 November 2013, interpreting its 1962 judgment in the case concerning the Temple of Preah Vihear, inspires a reconsideration of the role of interpretation proceedings pursuant to Article 60 of the Statute of the Court. In particular, it invites us to take a closer look at the role and scope of the principle ofres judicatain public international law in general and as considered in the case law of the Court in particular. This contribution reveals the competing concepts of the principle in interpretation and consecutive original contentious proceedings, and promotes instead a uniform concept that avoids the conflict inherent in current approaches.Section 1 introduces Article 60 of the ICJ Statute (section 1.1.) and thereinafter views interpretation proceedings before the Court in light of the Court's case law, in particular its 2013 interpretation judgment in theTemplecase (section 1.2.). Section 2 constitutes the heart of the analysis and discusses what will be identified as the competing concepts ofres judicata. Section 2.1. presents the functions, concepts, and case law ofres judicatain public international law in general, whereas section 2.2. focuses specifically on the case law of the ICJ and the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) in this regard. Finally, section 2.3. concludes this study by setting out the approach that the author regards as appropriate to reconcile the competing concepts ofres judicata.

Standardization and performance of a visual Gestalt evaluation of biocrystallization patterns reflecting ripening and decomposition processes in food samples

The biocrystallization method is based on the phenomenon that additive-specific, dendritic crystallization patterns emerge when an aqueous dihydrate cupric chloride solution with additives is crystallized on a glass plate. The patterns reflect physiological processes like ripening and decomposition and are applied in differentiating food samples according to feeding regime, production system and degree of processing. The method has been used for decades in organic food quality assessment from an ontological holistic stance. The patterns are evaluated visually and by means of computerized image analysis. The present study describes the development of the visual evaluation from a morphological description of structural features towards the perception of a Gestalt, a salient, coherent ‘meaningful-whole’, which complies more closely with the pattern formation principle of the method. The methodology was standardized according to ISO-Norms 11035 and 8587 for sensory analysis of food products, adapted for use in the visual evaluation of biocrystallization patterns. Two Gestalts, ‘Ripening’ and ‘Decomposition’, reflected in biocrystallization patterns from diverse agricultural products were characterized, trained on and examined. Based on the statistical evaluation, it is concluded that the panel has become reliable and appropriate for ranking biocrystallization patterns according to the intensity of the two Gestalts. The developed level of Gestalt evaluation of biocrystallization patterns provides a basis towards qualitative interpretative judgements on the food quality of a product relating to quality concepts based on plant physiological processes.

A network-centric approach to managing risk

The strategies of many large organisations are underpinned by top down, hierarchical management, complex forecasting and predictive modelling, standardised processes, siloed business units, division of labour, information biases and disjointed stakeholder management. Rigid and inflexible, organisations are struggling to respond to the risks associated with unpredictable, ever changing and complex operational environments. Budget blowouts into the billions of dollars, stretched resources, increasing governance, social and political interdependencies and a complex playing field that is constantly changing as it grows and matures is what oil and gas companies in Australia today face. Proponents of Australia’s massive LNG boom are doing the hard yards and they are feeling the pressure. Unfortunately with pressure comes poor decision making. Lack of access to evidence based and up to date, real time information means decisions are often made based on intuition or unqualified, out of date information due to immature systems. Research has clearly proven that intuitive decision making results in cognitive biases. These biases results in perceptual blindness or distortion (seeing things that aren’t really there), illogical interpretation (being non-sensical) and inaccurate judgments (being just plain wrong). Without a system in place to manage risks in it’s operational space, companies will continue to make poor decisions that only increase the risks they try so hard to control. This paper proposes a new approach to better understanding organisational interdependency and risk management through adoption of a network centric approach. It explores the benefits of a network centric approach and how this it can be applied in a multi dimensional environment to not only reduce risk events and costs but enable a truly resilient and competitive business.

Implicit Bias in Legal Interpretation

What role do policy preferences play when a judge or any other reader decides what a statute or other legal text means? Most judges think of themselves as doing law, not politics. Yet the observable decisions that judges make often follow patterns that are hard to explain by anything other than policy preferences. Indeed, if one presses the implications of the data too hard, it is likely to be heard as an accusation of bad faith – a claim that the judge or other decision-maker isn’t really earnest in trying to separate preference from judgment. This does not advance the discussion, and distracts from the possibility of more interesting explanations. A promising antidote, we believe, lies in empirical study not just of large numbers of judicial decisions collected over time, as previous scholars have done, but of the immediate experience of legal interpretation. We compile, and here present, rich evidence of what happens when lawyers in training are asked in controlled surveys to distinguish between their policy preferences on the one hand and their own interpretive judgments or predictions about courts judgments on the other. Our findings offer two lessons. First and foremost, they suggest that separating policy preferences from judgments about the meaning of statutes is very difficult. The same is true of preferences and predictions about what courts will do: respondents tend to predict that courts will do what the respondents themselves prefer. The fundamental entanglement of preferences and interpretation raises important questions about the ability of anyone – including judges – to neutrally carry out interpretive strategies meant to generate answers in close cases. Second, however, the results also show that certain ways of framing the interpretive question can reduce the influence of preference on interpretation – though perhaps not its effect on predictions. Instead of simply asking respondents how they would interpret the text of a statute or how the drafters would likely want it applied, it is better to ask respondents how ordinary readers would interpret the statute. This framing of the interpretative question can debias an individual’s interpretation of a statute. In short, interpretative theories that elevate text alone or give the intent of drafters are both susceptible to contamination by private preferences. To immunize interpretation from these preferences, a theory that asks how ordinary readers would read a statute may be the best prescription.

Reserves Booking in Upstream Fiscal Environments: Inconsistencies and a Proposal for Revised Guidelines

Summary The lack of consistency has long hampered regulatory reserves booking in upstream fiscal systems, particularly in foreign jurisdictions. The root cause is ambiguity in reporting standards that leave much room for interpretation. Currently, no clear guidelines are issued by the US regulatory agencies for the recognition of reserves in different fiscal systems. Standards used by the industry go back to 1977, and they cater mostly to US situations. Oil companies use their own interpretive judgment to book reserves from across the spectrum of fiscal settings. Some of the reserves reported appear to be overstated. Separate from inconsistency, reserves that are currently reported from foreign operations may bear little relationship to what the investment community generally perceives as reserves. Investors need better transparency and better comparability. This paper addresses problems in the current reserves recognition practices in fiscal environments, and it proposes revised guidelines aimed to bring transparency and consistency in reserves recognition. We also provide relevant formulation. A key criterion for reserves recognition under the proposed scheme is ownership in kind. We exclude from consideration some of the practices currently used in the industry. It is hoped that this paper will stimulate further discussion on the subject and prompt the regulatory agencies to issue official guidance.

What's Different About the Thirteenth Amendment, and Why Does It Matter?

This symposium contribution discusses four basic features of the Thirteenth Amendment that appear both to be unique and to raise important interpretive issues. Because they are unique, they call for interpretive judgments of unfamiliar and difficult kinds. In addition, the essay considers three purported features that have been described as unique in the past, but that appear illusory upon reflection. If the current surge of scholarly interest in the Amendment is to have any impact on the case law, questions connected to each of these seven features will likely contribute importantly to its shaping.