Knowledge Of World Research Articles

The Russia-Ukraine War and Nuclear Weapons: Evaluating Familiar Insights

ABSTRACT This article examines the nuclear dimension of the war in Ukraine. It makes two arguments. First, our knowledge of the nuclear world is fundamentally limited and so any inferences we draw from the war in Ukraine should be tentative. Second, what we are observing in Ukraine appears at least consistent with basic and well-established theoretical insights about nuclear weapons: a) that nuclear weapons deter; b) that nuclear weapons enable; and c) that these political effects of nuclear weapons emerge from genuine nuclear risks. This article lays out these insights and demonstrates their consistency with existing empirical evidence from the war in Ukraine. Overall, therefore, it does not appear that the war in Ukraine should yet cause us to fundamentally rethink our understanding of nuclear weapons in major ways.

Object color knowledge representation occurs in the macaque brain despite the absence of a developed language system.

Animals guide their behaviors through internal representations of the world in the brain. We aimed to understand how the macaque brain stores such general world knowledge, focusing on object color knowledge. Three functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments were conducted in macaque monkeys: viewing chromatic and achromatic gratings, viewing grayscale images of their familiar fruits and vegetables (e.g., grayscale strawberry), and viewing true- and false-colored objects (e.g., red strawberry and green strawberry). We observed robust object knowledge representations in the color patches, especially the one located around TEO: the activity patterns could classify grayscale pictures of objects based on their memory color and response patterns in these regions could translate between chromatic grating viewing and grayscale object viewing (e.g., red grating-grayscale images of strawberry), such that classifiers trained by viewing chromatic gratings could successfully classify grayscale object images according to their memory colors. Our results showed direct positive evidence of object color memory in macaque monkeys. These results indicate the perceptually grounded knowledge representation as a conservative memory mechanism and open a new avenue to study this particular (semantic) memory representation with macaque models.

Reflecting on the powers, possibilities and constraints of geography curricula in England, Finland and Sweden

ABSTRACT National curriculum statements found within the Official Recontextualising Field (ORF) provide an insight into how geography as a school subject is conceptualized in a country’s education system. National curricula can shape teachers’ agency in curriculum making and what, how and where children and young people study and learn geography. This paper engages with the lower secondary national geography curriculum for England, Finland and Sweden. We examine the structure and nature of the national geography curricula in each country, before drawing on the threefold arrangement of geographical knowledge as a tool for the analysis of the curricula. Our analysis found that deep and descriptive world knowledge forms the largest proportion of all three national curricula documents, and we argue that this can lead to a potentially limited conceptualization of geographical knowledge and representation of geography. We also suggest that the threefold arrangement could more actively engage with political dimensions when considering futures, and that there should be greater attention paid to the histories and geographies of the discipline (geography) in school geography.

Social Rationality and Human Reasoning: Logical Expressivism and the Flat Mind.

This paper attempts to reconcile the claims that the mind is both flat (Chater, 2018) and highly rational (Oaksford & Chater, 2020). According to the flat mind hypothesis, the mind is a mass of inconsistent and contradictory fragments of experience. However, standard accounts of rationality from formal epistemology argue that to be rational, our beliefs must be consistent, and we must believe all the logical consequences of our beliefs. A social account of rationality is developed based on Brandom's (1994) logical expressivism, in which respecting the norms of logic and probability theory is still central but where these standards apply to our public commitments in social dialogical contexts rather than to our individual belief systems (Skovgaard-Olsen, 2017). According to this account, even if someone's individual beliefs are inconsistent, they cannot be condemned as irrational if they acknowledge the inconsistency and seek to resolve it. It is shown how this approach interacts with people's fragmented and shallow world knowledge, and its social distribution yields some counterintuitive consequences, such as it sometimes being rational individually not seeking to resolve contradictions. Other consequences of this social expressivist approach are considered, including for dual process theories of reasoning, our view of beliefs, the status of logic, and Fodor's (1983) view of central systems. It is concluded that people can have flat minds and yet be highly rational.

The how and the when of semantic illusions in native and non-native languages

Abstract The nature and processing of semantic illusions (SI; when speakers fail to notice an anomalous word in a sentence that is contextually perfectly aligned with world knowledge) have been largely studied during first language comprehension. Although this issue is not free of controversy, findings sustain The Node Structure Theory, according to which SI is a phonological and/or semantic priming effect which occurs due to phonological and/or semantic links existing between the correct and the anomalous word. However, the question as to whether the same underlying mechanisms can be found in bilinguals and whether the effect is modulated by age of language acquisition (AoA) and language dominance remains unexplored. The aim of this study was to examine this issue on sequential European Portuguese-German bilinguals (and their respective control groups) using a self-paced reading paradigm. The sentences’ language, AoA (early vs. late), and type of target word used (correct vs. anomalous) were manipulated. Results showed the occurrence of SI, independently of language and AoA. Therefore, findings suggest that SI occur due to a semantic overlap between critical words and are similarly processed in L1 and L2.

Designing Learning Centres that Facilitate Knowledge Construction on Science Process Skills in Early Childhood Classrooms

Science education is perceived to have the potential to develop 21st century competencies. In Zimbabwe, the teaching of science in early childhood by using learning centres is considered as a way of empowering young learners with scientific knowledge and skills to become productive citizens in future. To strengthen the initiative, resources are being channelled and policies crafted to support the teaching of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Despite considerable efforts to introduce STEM in early childhood development (ECD), research concerning the benefits of developing science skills using learning centres is sparse. This study adopted an interpretive paradigm and multiple case study design for three schools and three purposively selected ECD teachers. Data was solicited through semi-structured interviews, document analysis and classroom observations. The variable nature of learning centres in ECD classrooms is an indication of shortcomings in policy on teaching using learning centres. At learning centres, learners construct scientific knowledge, ideas and skills through interaction with peers and developmentally appropriate materials. Teachers should be creative and innovative and create learning centres that enable learners to explore the world and construct scientific knowledge through active participation and sharing ideas. A policy to guide the teachers on constructing appropriate learning centres for effective teaching of science skills should be drafted.

Exploration of Historical Sites of Art and Culture Exchange on the Silk Road of Pre-Qin and Han Dynasties

Abstract The pre-Qin and Han Silk Road opened up the Central Plains Dynasty to the Eurasian- African continent, not only having extraordinary political, economic and cultural exchanges complementary strategic significance, but also becoming an irreplaceable important window and way for the Central Plains Dynasty to gain cognitive knowledge of the broader world. In particular, the exploration of the artistic and cultural relics and historical background of the Silk Road is a deep excavation and collation of historical materials of exchanges between the East and the West, especially between China and the nationalities in the Western regions in the fields of traditional politics, commerce, economy, art and culture. This depth of excavation and collation of historical materials, so as to clarify the origin of the Silk Road under different historical conditions and the background of its political, economic, art, and cultural significance in forming the civilisation of the countries along the route. This mutual understanding among various nationalities inevitably promotes the shared development of Eastern and Western civilizations. Therefore, the topic discussed in this paper is a retrospective and complementary approach to the Silk Road as a distant civilisation. This exploration is also another purposeful search for the roots of this road, which was known as the “Journey of Adventure” and “Journey of Intercommunication” from the pre-Qin Dynasty to the two Han Dynasties. Accordingly, this paper promotes the discussion from three aspects: the long historical context of the Silk Road, the channel of multi-ethnic art exchange constituted by Silk Road, and the exchange and dissemination of handicraft culture on the Silk Road, excavating these three rich historical materials is more in order to reveal the historical values of the Silk Road.

Individual differences in categorization development: The mediation of executive functions and factual knowledge, the case of food.

Cognitive mechanisms underpinning categorization development are still debated, either resulting from knowledge accretion or an increase in cognitive control. To disentangle the respective influence of accumulated factual knowledge and executive functions (inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility) on (a) the development of categorization abilities in the food domain and (b) differences in this development by child characteristics (i.e., food neophobia), we conducted two experiments. The first experiment assessed 4-6-year-old children's (n = 122) ability to taxonomically categorize food at the superordinate level of categorization. The second experiment tested 3-6-year-old children's (n = 100) ability to cross-categorize the same food according to two different relationships alternatively (i.e., taxonomic and thematic). Results indicate that accumulated factual knowledge and executive functions mediated both the effect of age and the effect of food neophobia on categorization performance. Notably, the specific executive functions involved may vary depending on the categorization abilities tested, whereas world knowledge was always a prerequisite. Overall, this research highlights the complex interplay between accumulated factual knowledge, executive functions, and child characteristics in shaping the development of categorization abilities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Experience in Monitoring Brazed Aluminium Heat Exchanger, after Major Repairs

Brazed Aluminium Heat Exchangers are fundamental for a natural gas liquid recovery plant. Refrigeration at cryogenic temperatures and the liquefaction process take advantages from their thermal hydraulic efficiency and compactness characteristics, making such units economically feasible. These exchangers are proprietary design, with only a few manufacturers around the world and limited knowledge about their maintenance. After two failures in the same equipment with possible thermal fatigue contributions, occurring only nine months apart, two complex repair procedures had to be carried out. To ensure operational safety, online monitoring through Acoustic Emission Technique has been performed. This monitoring led to discoveries of systems and routine maneuverer that triggered damage mechanisms. This allowed for the implementation of adjustments to mitigate the propagation of damage, thereby increasing the equipment's lifespan. The procedure applied in this type of equipment constitutes an innovative approach using the Acoustic Emission technique, which has resulted in a successful strategy of condition monitoring.

How Did Early Modern Scholars Study Early Maps?

The two standard Anglophone historiographies of the history of cartography (Skelton 1972, Harley 1987) situated the field’s origins in the early modern era, or even in the later Middle Ages. Yet “history” and “cartography” are both products of the profound changes in the intellectual foundations and institutions of European knowledge practices in the decades to either side of 1800. By contrast, this essay explores how early modern scholars variously engaged with maps from the past in terms of contemporary knowledge practices. [Part 1] It first outlines the early modern meanings of “history” and “geography” and then reviews how early modern scholars engaged with early maps in three distinct ways. Classical scholars used the Peutinger map and Ptolemy’s Geography to identify locations of ancient places in order to improve their comprehension of Classical texts. [Part 2] Some geographers wrote histories of voyages and travels that related past routes to contemporary maps, and others wrote historical narratives of the compilation of encyclopedic texts and maps of regional and world knowledge. [Part 3] Antiquaries opportunistically described and at times reproduced a variety of maps, charts, and plans that came to their attention, but without active searches for early maps. Overall, I demonstrate that before 1775 there was neither a systematic approach taken to the study of maps from the past nor any hint of the core methodology that would be adopted by the first historiographical mode of map history as it developed after 1830.

SCIENTIFIC AND METHODOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF PLANNING IN THE TRAINING OF ATHLETES

This work examines certain principles that must be followed in the process of scientific inquiry. These principles include the knowledge of the objective world, determinism, development, historicism, and the unity of theory and practice. It emphasizes the ability to form a truthful understanding of the surrounding world and its laws through human learning activities.

Abduction, Skepticism, and Indirect Realism

AbstractMoore and Russell thought that perceptual knowledge of the external world is based on abductive inference from information about our experience. Sosa maintains that this ‘indirect realist’ strategy has no prospects of working. Vogel disagrees and thinks it can and does work perfectly well, and his reasoning (and variations on that reasoning) seem initially promising, moreso than other approaches. My aim, however, will be to adjudicate this dispute in favor of Sosa’s pessimistic answer, and in doing so, to better uncover the important role abductive inference does have in a wider theory of perceptual knowledge, even if it doesn’t feature in any promising vindication of (anti-skeptical) indirect realism.

N400 or P600?—A Systematic Review of ERP Studies on Gender Stereotype Violations

ABSTRACTPsycholinguistic studies using the event‐related brain potential (ERP) technique have found both N400 and P600 effects for gender stereotype violations. The finding of a P600 effect for this type of world knowledge violation is surprizing given that this component is traditionally associated with syntactic violations. In this paper, we set out to systematically analyse design‐ and task patterns of ERP studies investigating gender stereotype violations. Based on our review, we propose a scheme that predicts a P600 effect for gender stereotype violations for stimuli comprising entire sentences, and specifically when the gender stereotype serves to establish coherence in inferences (i.e., expecting a specific referent gender or a stereotype‐appropriate behaviour of the sentence subject based on the gender stereotype information). We predict an N400 effect for gender stereotype information that does not serve to establish coherence in inferences, as well as in priming paradigms. By extension, our predictive scheme suggests that the N400 may reflect a hybrid process of semantic retrieval and integration, while the P600 may reflect a cognitive process of error monitoring, and mental revision. Our study can aid in the interpretation of previous findings and inform future studies investigating gender stereotyping.

An Overview of Skeptical Worries: The Gettier Problem, Agrippa’s Trilemma, and the Brain-in-a-Vat

Here I will explore through a literature review three important but different ways in which skepticism has been developed. The first is that of the Gettier problem and its potentially skeptical implications for knowledge. The second is Agrippa’s Trilemma, in which the non-skeptic ostensibly struggles to develop a satisfactory account of epistemic justification. Third and lastly, there are brain-in-a-vat scenarios, as one attempts to meet the skeptic’s challenge of having knowledge of the external world. I conclude that the above are important challenges while still maintaining that the non-skeptic has formulated responses worth our consideration.

Improving accuracy of GPT-3/4 results on biomedical data using a retrieval-augmented language model.

Large language models (LLMs) have made a significant impact on the fields of general artificial intelligence. General purpose LLMs exhibit strong logic and reasoning skills and general world knowledge but can sometimes generate misleading results when prompted on specific subject areas. LLMs trained with domain-specific knowledge can reduce the generation of misleading information (i.e. hallucinations) and enhance the precision of LLMs in specialized contexts. Training new LLMs on specific corpora however can be resource intensive. Here we explored the use of a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) model which we tested on literature specific to a biomedical research area. OpenAI's GPT-3.5, GPT-4, Microsoft's Prometheus, and a custom RAG model were used to answer 19 questions pertaining to diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) disease biology and treatment. Eight independent reviewers assessed LLM responses based on accuracy, relevance, and readability, rating responses on a 3-point scale for each category. These scores were then used to compare LLM performance. The performance of the LLMs varied across scoring categories. On accuracy and relevance, the RAG model outperformed other models with higher scores on average and the most top scores across questions. GPT-4 was more comparable to the RAG model on relevance versus accuracy. By the same measures, GPT-4 and GPT-3.5 had the highest scores for readability of answers when compared to the other LLMs. GPT-4 and 3.5 also had more answers with hallucinations than the other LLMs, due to non-existent references and inaccurate responses to clinical questions. Our findings suggest that an oncology research-focused RAG model may outperform general-purpose LLMs in accuracy and relevance when answering subject-related questions. This framework can be tailored to Q&A in other subject areas. Further research will help understand the impact of LLM architectures, RAG methodologies, and prompting techniques in answering questions across different subject areas.

Mental representation of words and concepts in late multilingualism

Abstract Speakers of multiple languages must store the respective lexical items efficiently to enable correct access. Importantly, all items must be linked to semantic information and world knowledge. One prominent model of the mental lexicon of late bilinguals is the Revised Hierarchical Model (Kroll & Stewart, 1994), which postulates bidirectional but asymmetrical connections between separate stores for L1 (native language) and L2 (second/foreign language), and a shared conceptual store. Using German native speakers with advanced English proficiency, Experiment 1 largely confirmed model predictions regarding different preferred mental routes and processing times depending on translation direction. Moreover, the original design was extended by including abstract stimuli and picture naming in L2. A series of additional measures, such as proficiency and age of acquisition, served to specify the language experience of the participants and made it possible to compare the results with a group of non-native speakers of German (Experiment 2). Interestingly, the results suggest that the model also applies to two or more non-native languages, potentially influenced by the experimental and environmental language context.

Combating misinformation in the age of LLMs: Opportunities and challenges

AbstractMisinformation such as fake news and rumors is a serious threat for information ecosystems and public trust. The emergence of large language models (LLMs) has great potential to reshape the landscape of combating misinformation. Generally, LLMs can be a double‐edged sword in the fight. On the one hand, LLMs bring promising opportunities for combating misinformation due to their profound world knowledge and strong reasoning abilities. Thus, one emerging question is: can we utilize LLMs to combat misinformation? On the other hand, the critical challenge is that LLMs can be easily leveraged to generate deceptive misinformation at scale. Then, another important question is: how to combat LLM‐generated misinformation? In this paper, we first systematically review the history of combating misinformation before the advent of LLMs. Then we illustrate the current efforts and present an outlook for these two fundamental questions, respectively. The goal of this survey paper is to facilitate the progress of utilizing LLMs for fighting misinformation and call for interdisciplinary efforts from different stakeholders for combating LLM‐generated misinformation.

How Can Recommender Systems Benefit from Large Language Models: A Survey

With the rapid development of online services and web applications, recommender systems (RS) have become increasingly indispensable for mitigating information overload and matching users’ information needs by providing personalized suggestions over items. Although the RS research community has made remarkable progress over the past decades, conventional recommendation models (CRM) still have some limitations, e.g. , lacking open-domain world knowledge, and difficulties in comprehending users’ underlying preferences and motivations. Meanwhile, large language models (LLM) have shown impressive general intelligence and human-like capabilities for various natural language processing (NLP) tasks, which mainly stem from their extensive open-world knowledge, logical and commonsense reasoning abilities, as well as their comprehension of human culture and society. Consequently, the emergence of LLM is inspiring the design of recommender systems and pointing out a promising research direction, i.e. , whether we can incorporate LLM and benefit from their common knowledge and capabilities to compensate for the limitations of CRM. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive survey on this research direction, and draw a bird’s-eye view from the perspective of the whole pipeline in real-world recommender systems. Specifically, we summarize existing research works from two orthogonal aspects: where and how to adapt LLM to RS. For the “ WHERE ” question, we discuss the roles that LLM could play in different stages of the recommendation pipeline, i.e. , feature engineering, feature encoder, scoring/ranking function, user interaction, and pipeline controller. For the “ HOW ” question, we investigate the training and inference strategies, resulting in two fine-grained taxonomy criteria, i.e. , whether to tune LLM or not during training, and whether to involve conventional recommendation models for inference. Detailed analysis and general development paths are provided for both “WHERE” and “HOW” questions, respectively. Then, we highlight the key challenges in adapting LLM to RS from three aspects, i.e. , efficiency, effectiveness, and ethics. Finally, we summarize the survey and discuss the future prospects. To further facilitate the research community of LLM-enhanced recommender systems, we actively maintain a GitHub repository for papers and other related resources in this rising direction 1 .

Towards Enlightenment: Taixu’s Interpretation of Buddhist Psychology

Chinese intellectuals started to engage in Buddhist psychology in the early 20th century, a time when Western culture was greatly influencing the country. Taixu criticized Western psychology and proposed his Buddhist psychology. He proposed a tripartite psychology based on Buddhist doctrine: psychology on affection (qing 情); psychology on reflection (xiang 想); and psychology on wisdom (zhi 智). Perceiving Western psychology as lacking in both theoretical depth and breadth, he specifically criticized behaviorism. He integrated the interpretation of “sense faculties” (indriya) from the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, thereby reconstructing an Ideal Behavioral Science, a philosophical system that centers on behavior and encompasses all aspects of life. This paper argues that Taixu’s critique of Western psychology and his construction of Buddhist psychology responded to the ideological trends of his era. In Taixu’s conceptual system, Buddhist psychology was part of his theory on “Buddhism for human life” (rensheng fojiao 人生佛教), serving not only to explain the psychological state of human but also to guide cultivation and lead people to enlightenment, bearing practical significance. Taixu’s study of worldly knowledge, including psychology, attempts to comprehensively construct a modern Buddhist system that integrates Buddhist Dharma and secular learning.

Development of self-derivation through memory integration and relations with world knowledge

ABSTRACT Accumulating world knowledge is a major task of development and education. The productive process of self-derivation through memory integration seemingly is a valid model of the process. To test the model, we examined relations between generation and retention of new factual knowledge via self-derivation through integration and world knowledge as measured by standardised assessments. We also tested whether the productive process of self-derivation predicted world knowledge even when a measure of learning through direct instruction also was considered. Participants were 162 children ages 8–12 years (53% female; 15% Black, 6% Asian, 1% Arab, 66% White, 5% mixed race, 7% unreported; 1% Latinx). Age accounted for a maximum of 4% of variance in self-derivation and retention. In contrast, substantial individual variability related to general knowledge and content knowledge in several domains, explaining 20–40% variance. In each domain for which self-derivation performance was a unique predictor, it explained a nominally greater share of the variance than the measure of learning through direct instruction. The findings imply that individual variability in self-derivation has functional consequences for accumulation of semantic knowledge across the elementary-school years.