Logical Question Research Articles

The separability of arbitration agreement in the Emirati law

Arbitration nowadays is widely accepted as a main dispute resolution means. Parties, in more than one case, refer to arbitration to have their contractual disputes resolved. Accordingly, in such cases, parties conclude two contracts; a substantive contract regulating their substantive rights, and an arbitration contract. The latter contract assigns arbitration as a means to resolve the disputes resulting from the former contract. The two contracts are attached to each other, since arbitration is adopted to resolve the disputes resulting from the substantive contract. However, a logical question is posed to the effect that ‘how separable is the arbitration contract from the substantive contract?’ This study is set to address and assess this issue in the Emirati law. It is found that the Emirati courts reached more than one view on this regard. Accordingly, this study recommends that the Emirati legislator needs to readdress this issue in order to avoid futuristic conflicts concerning this issue.

Quantae psychologiae? - una vel multae

Concerned with the study of empirical correlations between elements of behavior and external circumstances, and especially with the research of these empirical relationships in a much simpler manner than it would be suitable for their complex nature, many psychologies rarely look at the fundamental issues of capability, or assumptions, of their own noetic efforts. Instead, there are multiple "views" that pretend to be psychological theories. The concept of psychology as a study of soul necessarily relies on the concept of science, and on the concept of soul as its subject. It is still the case - especially in academic circles - that the ruling concept of science is the modern, Cartesian, scientific concept where natural science is the only paradigm of science. When applied to the science of soul, that scientific paradigm inevitably gives different variations of reductionist psychology: from experimental psychology to neurophysiology. The truth (or factual knowledge as content) of such studies of soul must inevitably be reduced and scarce, namely, a reduced and scarce knowledge of soul itself. General psychological theory, of course, cannot be a compromise formation of disparate attitudes, rules and principles, nor can it, epistemologically, be an eclectic knowledge of mental phenomena. If different psychological theories, approaches, and points of view, which are sometimes, pretentiously, being called schools, see each mental theme or content in a totally different way, then it is necessary to examine the type, quality and place of the truth those psychologies strive for. It is not logical to expect such different approaches to reach the same truth, the same understanding of the correlations of psychological facts. In that case, the most logical question that can be asked is whether it is the same area of research and whether it is the same science about psyche.

Evacuation from tunnels: An example of the Strazevica tunnel

Tunnels are passageways built for different purposes: road tunnels, railway tunnels, subway tunnels or similar. Their dimensions are becoming more and more considerable, depending on technology improvement. According to the fact that many people and vehicles pass continually through these structures, there was a logical question about a possible evacuation in case of disasters such as fire, explosion or similar. This is a constantly open and actual problem, confirmed by many people who perished in disasters because they could not be evacuated or because an evacuation was delayed for some reasons. This paper has been written to show a possible evacuation situation and to calculate the minimum time for the evacuation in the case of 772 m long Straževica tunnel.

Understanding Soybean Cyst Nematode HG Types and Races

Confusion still exists about the concept of soybean cyst nematode (SCN), Heterodera glycines, race and HG type. Questions from researchers and agribusiness and extension professionals who advise farmers include: When will there be a molecular test for HG type (or SCN race)? How many HG types (or races) are there in a field? Do seed treatments work against all HG types (or races)? These seemingly logical questions of practical significance are unanswerable if one understands the concept of HG type and SCN race. This article draws a comparison between the current SCN HG type test and a hypothetical test for human food sensitivities that may provide a new perspective and make HG types more easily understood and used. Accepted for publication 25 May 2016. Published 20 June 2016.

Comparative optimizer rank and score: A modern approach for performance analysis of optimization techniques

The performance analysis of optimization techniques is very important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each technique. It is not very common to find an optimization technique that performs equally on all optimization problems, and the numbers offered by the most common performance measures, the achieved function value (fitness) and the number of function evaluations, are not representative by their own. For instance, reporting that an optimization technique O on a benchmark function B achieved a fitness F after a number of evaluations E is not semantically meaningful. Some of the logical questions that would arise for such report are: (a) how other techniques performed on the same benchmark, and (b) what are the characteristics of this benchmark (for example, modality and separability). The comparative optimizer rank and score (CORS) proposes an easy to apply and interpret method for the investigation of the problem solving abilities of optimization techniques. CORS offers eight new performance measures that are built on the basic performance measures (that is, achieved fitness, number of function evaluations, and time consumed). The CORS performance measures represent the performance of an optimization technique in comparison to other techniques that were tested under the same benchmarks, making the results more meaningful. Besides, these performance measures are all normalized in a range from 1 to 100, which helps the results to keep well-interpretable by their own. Furthermore, all the CORS performance measures are aggregatable, in which the results are easily accumulated and represented by the common characteristics defining optimization problems (such as dimensionality, modality, and separability), instead of a per benchmark function basis (such as F1, F2, and F3). In order to demonstrate and validate the CORS method, it was applied to the performance data of eight novel optimization techniques of the recent contributions to metaheuristics, namely, the bat algorithm (BA), cuckoo search (CS), differential search (DS), firefly algorithm (FA), gravitational search algorithm (GSA), one rank cuckoo search (ORCS), separable natural evolution strategy (SNES), and exponential natural evolution strategy (xNES). These performance data were generated by 96 tests of 16 benchmark functions and 6 dimensionalities. Along with the basic and CORS performance data, the aggregated CORS results were found to offer a very helpful knowledge regarding the performance of the examined techniques.

Frege and Carnap on the normativity of logic

In this paper I examine the question of logic’s normative status in the light of Carnap’s Principle of Tolerance. I begin by contrasting Carnap’s conception of the normativity of logic with that of his teacher, Frege. I identify two core features of Frege’s position: first, the normative force of the logical laws is grounded in their descriptive adequacy; second, norms implied by logic are constitutive for thinking as such (in a sense to be clarified). While Carnap breaks with Frege’s absolutism about logic and hence with the notion that any system of logic should have a privileged claim to correctness, I argue that there is a sense in which Carnap’s framework-relative conception of logical norms has a constitutive role to play: though they are not constitutive for the conceptual activity for thinking, they do nevertheless set the ground rules that make certain forms of scientific inquiry possible in the first place. I conclude that Carnap’s principle of tolerance is tamer than one might have thought and that, despite remaining differences, Frege’s and Carnap’s conceptions of logic have more in common than one might have thought.

Why lay social representations of the economy should count in economics

We consider the potentially major role of lay economic representations in economic theoretical modelling. Departing both from the rational expectation hypothesis, that supposes a maximal cognitive fit between agents’ representations and the variables in the model , and from an approach in terms of psychological biases that would externally affect agents’representation of their environment, we consider that lay representations have essential features that make them potentially valuable tools for the reconciliation of normative and practical perspectives in macroeconomics. By reviewing a series of studies in the sub-field of the psychology of lay economics, we first emphasize the collective and pragmatically-oriented features of these lay economic representations. We thereby uncover the major role of language and meaning, seemingly non-economic human institutions, in laying down the basis for economic understanding. Secondly, we directly address the question of the internal logic and cognitive features of these representations and uncover/in uncovering typical circular causal reasoning in lay macroeconomics. We finally re-assess the question of the maximal fit between ordinary economic psychology and predictive economic modelling.

AN EVALUATION OF THE IDENTICAL AGENDA IN THE BANGLA AND ENGLISH WRITINGS OF NIRAD C. CHAUDHURI

This paper endeavours to explore and evaluate the identical topics Nirad C Chaudhuri deals with in his Bangla and English writings. As a versatile writer, Chaudhuri brought about multifarious issues in his Bangla and English writings. Of his writings in these two languages, some are similar and some are dissimilar in topics. Why he made this difference while writing is a logical question to answer. Certainly, he did not write for the same audience. He wrote in Bangla for the Bangla-speaking people and in English for the English-speaking people. He wanted to share his ideas with these two communities and to remind them of their lost glories. His major identical topics are nationalism, Rabindranath, imperialism, Indo-British relations, Hindu-Muslim relations, marriage, love, sex and conjugal life, life and culture in Bengal, India and England, biographies of famous personalities etc. He thought that these topics were of common interest to both streams of readers and they will suit their mental faculties in order to awaken them from their slumber.

Determinants of energy intensity in South Africa: Testing for structural effects in parameters

A cursory look at South Africa's energy data reveals that, energy intensity has consistently declined for the past two decades. The logical question that ensues is; what might have contributed to this phenomenon? The current study aims to investigate how different phenomena have contributed to the decline in South Africa's energy intensity. The study also tests for structural effects in the model parameters. The result showed that the de-industrialisation since 1980 and the changes in trade structure in favour of more imports have contributed significantly to the decline in energy intensity, in South Africa. Also, the current industry composition has induced technological transfer via FDI (Foreign direct inflows) and this has contributed to the decline in energy intensity levels, in South Africa. The individual effect analyses showed that each of the predictors shared significant amount of variance with the regression effect. Finally, there are significant structural effects in the parameters, and this has rendered the effects of regressors asymmetric.

Linear optical quantum metrology with single photons: exploiting spontaneously generated entanglement to beat the shot-noise limit.

Quantum number-path entanglement is a resource for supersensitive quantum metrology and in particular provides for sub-shot-noise or even Heisenberg-limited sensitivity. However, such number-path entanglement has been thought to be resource intensive to create in the first place--typically requiring either very strong nonlinearities, or nondeterministic preparation schemes with feedforward, which are difficult to implement. Very recently, arising from the study of quantum random walks with multiphoton walkers, as well as the study of the computational complexity of passive linear optical interferometers fed with single-photon inputs, it has been shown that such passive linear optical devices generate a superexponentially large amount of number-path entanglement. A logical question to ask is whether this entanglement may be exploited for quantum metrology. We answer that question here in the affirmative by showing that a simple, passive, linear-optical interferometer--fed with only uncorrelated, single-photon inputs, coupled with simple, single-mode, disjoint photodetection--is capable of significantly beating the shot-noise limit. Our result implies a pathway forward to practical quantum metrology with readily available technology.

Adult Second Language Learning of Spanish Vowels

The present study reports on the findings of a cross-sectional acoustic study of the production of Spanish vowels by three different groups of speakers: 1) native Spanish speakers; 2) native English intermediate learners of Spanish; and 3) native English advanced learners of Spanish. In particular, we examined the production of the five Spanish phonemic monophthongs (/i e a o u/) in two prosodic positions: stressed and unstressed. Since Spanish and English vary in the nature of the difference between stressed and unstressed vowels, a logical question is: How does the relationship between stressed and unstressed vowels differ across the three groups of participants? Do the learners transfer English patterns to their Spanish? The findings are discussed in terms of their significance for current models of second language speech learning and provide important information regarding the paths of pronunciation development in the second language acquisition of Spanish.

Design of a smartphone application to monitor stress, asthma symptoms, and asthma inhaler use

Design of a smartphone application to monitor stress, asthma symptoms, and asthma inhaler use

On the epistemological significance of the hungarian project

There are three elements in this paper. One is what we shall call ‘the Hungarian project’. This is the collected work of Andreka, Madarasz, Nemeti, Szekely and others. The second is Molinini’s philosophical work on the nature of mathematical explanations in science. The third is my pluralist approach to mathematics. The theses of this paper are that (1) the Hungarian project gives genuine mathematical explanations for physical phenomena. (2) A pluralist account of mathematical explanation can help us with appreciating the significance of the Hungarian project. (3) The significance consists in the fruitfulness and spread of the project. The spread is wide because the explanations are written in the very familiar language of first-order logic with identity. For this reason, the explanation is understandable to many mathematicians. (4) Because of the methodology adopted in the Hungarian project, the explanations are fruitful in another sense. In the Hungarian project certain questions are asked that would not be asked with a more usual methodology. The Hungarians are distinguished from other scientists in asking logical and mathematical questions, and these both deepen our understanding of the physical theories and induce further spread to mathematics and philosophy.

Placenta-derived exosomes and syncytiotrophoblast microparticles and their role in human reproduction: immune modulation for pregnancy success.

The syncytiotrophoblast (STB) of human placenta constitutively produces and secretes extracellular vesicles of different size, morphology and function that enter the maternal circulation, and participate in the maternal-fetal cross-talk during pregnancy. Syncytiotrophoblast-derived microvesicles/microparticles (STBM) are larger microvesicles (0.2-2 μm) shed by the apical plasma membrane of the STB as a result of cell activation and turnover. Simultaneously with the STBM shedding, the STB produces and secretes exosomes--nanosized (30-100/150 nm) membrane-bound microvesicles that originate from the endosomal compartment. They convey cell-cell contact 'by proxy' transporting signals/packages of information between donor and recipient cells locally or/and at a distance. STBM and exosomes, delivered directly in the maternal blood surrounding the chorionic villi of the placenta, have contrasting biological functions. While the exosomes are immunosuppressive down regulating maternal immunity in pluripotent ways, the main effects of STBM on the maternal immune system are pro-inflammatory, immune activating, and pro-coagulant. Since both STBM and exosomes are present in the maternal circulation throughout normal pregnancy logical questions are what is the net effect of these vesicles on the maternal immune system and is this effect beneficial or detrimental to pregnancy. In this review, the current knowledge about placenta-derived extracellular vesicles with a main focus on exosomes is summarized and discussed. In a concluding remark, a hypothetical proposal on how STBM and exosomes might interact in pregnancy is discussed and a way to evaluate this interaction is suggested.

22 Reasons Why Black Businesses Fail

It is common knowledge that the characteristics of Black-owned American businesses differ from the characteristics of businesses owned by other ethnic groups in the United States. Specifically, there are fewer Black businesses per capita; Black businesses experience lower levels of gross receipts; and Black businesses are less likely to be large enough to employ workers. It is also common knowledge that the survival rate of Black American businesses is lower than the survival rate for businesses owned by other ethnic groups. The logical question to ask is: Why? This BlackEconomics.org Report Brief identifies and explains 22 reasons why Black businesses fail. There are 11 structural reasons, 6 cultural reasons, and 5 psychological reasons why Black businesses fail. The goal of the analysis is to enable a more comprehensive perspective on why Black businesses fail so that Black entrepreneurs can fashion strategies that lead to more Black business successes.

PŘÍSTUPY K HODNOCENÍ ZMĚN KAPITÁLOVÉ STRUKTURY PRŮMYSLOVÝCH ODVĚTVÍ

Capital structure is described as a relation between equity and debts while the mutual consequences among items of company’s assets and resources employed as well as the cost of capital are also taken into account. Both, the theory and practice, at evaluation of approaches to capital structure are focu­sed on creation and optimization of capital structure. Relatively less frequent approach is the analy­sis of a state and of changes in capital structure on the level of whole business branch. But on this basis, it is possible to investigate some “average” approaches to selection of financial resources. At ca­pi­tal structure optimization (the proportion between equity and debts), a wide range of criteria plays a substantial role, e.g. cost of capital, risk, expected profitability, liquidity, dividend policy. These criteria have joint effect. This way, a logic question which criteria are preferred more and which criteria are preferred less appears. The article deals with the analysis of capital structure of three branches of manufacturing industry (the branch of production of plastics, the branch of production of electric equipments, the branch of production of textile) in the years 2007–2009 with the special focus on development of financial structure, capital structure and on cost of capital.

Response to comments by C. Palmer on my paper, Feather structure, biomechanics and biomimetics: the incredible lightness of being

In the latter part of a paper on feather structure and biomechanics, I (Lingham-Soliar 2014) critiqued a paper by Nudds and Dyke (2010) on the inadequacy of feather rachis strength for flapping flight in Archaeopteryx. Subsequently, I received a few emails from one of the authors, essentially alleging that I had misrepresented the findings of Weiss and Kirchner (2010) with respect to the significance of the foam centre of the rachis. A written response by Palmer (2014) expressing similar views followed, to which I reply here (for references not listed see Lingham-Soliar 2014). Palmer says that the classical Brazier buckling formula for thin-walled circular tubes is a reasonable approximation for the calamus region of the rachis. However, most college textbooks on feather morphology plainly show that the calamus and the rachis are quite distinct structural components of the primary feather shaft. Thus, while the concept of the thin-walled, circular engineering tube may be a reasonable approximation for the calamus because it lacks a foam center, by default it would not be a reasonable approximation for the rachis, the structure investigated by Nudds and Dyke (2010), which has a foam center. For example, Azuma (2006, p. 37) describes the rachis as ‘‘a rectangular center filled with foam material and can more easily accommodate bending distortion than the quill [calamus].’’ Furthermore, Palmer refers to the calamus as the region subjected to the highest bending moment, and thus the most likely region to fail (a statement he makes without support or citation). Yet, regardless of whether it is true or not, it is irrelevant because of the quite distinctive structural environment and biomechanics of the calamus compared to the rachis. Just one condition (among many) is enough to show this, i.e., quite unlike the rachis it is completely embedded in the avian skin, which is a highly complex, hydraulic, skeleto-muscular apparatus that is subjected to a wide array of internal and external mechanical strains and stresses (Homberger and de Silva 2000; see their fig. 1). Palmer says that I had not taken the time to check what I had recommended as a more suitable formula based on Corning and Biewener (formula 5). I did take Corning and Biewener’s (1998) formula on trust, as one invariably does in respected publications. Nevertheless, the point I had made was based on a simple question of logic—the rachis possesses a medullary pith, and Corning and Biewener’s (1998) formula 5 allegedly allowed for a medullary pith (a foam sandwich structure; their formula 4 does not). However, Palmer (2014) claims, albeit without evidence, that formula 5 gives a failure bending moment almost an order of magnitude less than that given by the bare tube formula. Even if this is accepted, we have two choices: (1) it invalidates the sandwich principle in typical biological and engineering systems, or (2) formula 5 is faulty. Furthermore, Corning and Biewener’s formulae (p. 3059) use a Poisson ratio based on wool, i.e., ‘softer’, more ‘bendy’ (low modulus) a-keratin. Feathers comprise the stiffer (high modulus) b-keratin—this is important. However, a commentary is not the place to take this any further nor the appropriateness of the formulae used by Nudds and Dyke (2010). That study suffers from additional fundamental weaknesses. Palmer says I mislead by claiming that Weiss and Kirchner’s findings on the (2010) feather medullary foam shows a significant increase in mechanical efficiency (of Communicated by F. Bairlein.

The Link among Strategic Planning, Curriculum Management, and Assurance of Learning: One School’s Experience

ABSTRACT Schools need effective processes to make certain there is clear linkage among strategic plans, execution of goals and objectives related to strategy, and assurance of learning activities that demonstrate accomplishment of plan. This paper describes experiences and learning of one business school over four-year period in establishing clear linkage among strategy, execution, and measurement. Key components of success include credibility and trust between faculty and administration and commitment by faculty members toward continuous improvement. INTRODUCTION Strategic planning is critical activity for business schools. It allows schools to allocate rationally scarce resources, such as faculty development funding, and to make careful decisions about prioritizing and moving funds between various programs. A carefully crafted strategy should enable business school to recognize and respond to changes that are constantly occurring in its market place. For example, many programs are considering, and/or are competing with, electronic degree offerings. Planning produces list of goals and objectives. Schools measure progress in reaching their objectives through various assurance of learning activities. For example, The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) Standard 16 (AACSB, 2007) requires schools to create and demonstrate achievement of learning goals for their undergraduate programs. Schools often accomplish these types of curriculum development and curriculum management activities through curriculum committee staffed by faculty members. Schools have well-established processes for managing curriculum and benefit when there is direct link between strategy and execution (in this example, execution of curriculum goals). This paper reports on one school's experiences over past four years in strategic planning, carrying out plan through various committees, and measuring was accomplished during process through various assessment activities. During that same period, school was successful in achieving reaffirmation of accreditation from AACSB. The paper closes with short list of what we have learned regarding shared governance. PRIOR RESEARCH As Sir William Osler (1849-1919), Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, once observed, schemes are laid in advance, it is surprising how often circumstances fit in with them.(Osler, 1904, p. 144) When striving to accomplish mission, planning becomes important to an organization (Boone & Kurtz, 1992). Merriam-Webster (2008) defines planning as the act or process of making or carrying out plans, specifically, establishment of goals, policies, and procedures for social or economic unit (planning, para.1). The dictionary defined plan as a method for achieving an end (plan, para. 2). Plans are expected development of planning process (Boone & Kurtz). Planning might not guarantee success in accomplishing organizational goals and objectives; but it is rare for an organization to succeed solely by luck or circumstance (Boone & Kurtz). Boone & Kurtz suggested that planning process causes managers to concentrate on goals and objectives of organization. Boone & Kurtz (1992) suggests that an organization should have goals and objectives, as well as detailed guideline on how to achieve goals and objectives. The logical questions, which arise at this point, are (a) where will goals and objectives lead an organization?; (b) will happen to organization if it is successful in achieving its goals and objectives? Kaufman, Herman, & Watters (1996) stated that the past is prologue to future and planning is an attempt to make positive change and create--even invent--a new tomorrow (p. 83). Planning must tackle future; it is roadmap for achieving organization's vision. …

The axiomatic power of Kolmogorov complexity

The famous Gödel incompleteness theorem states that for every consistent, recursive, and sufficiently rich formal theory T there exist true statements that are unprovable in T. Such statements would be natural candidates for being added as axioms, but how can we obtain them? One classical (and well studied) approach is to add to some theory T an axiom that claims the consistency of T. In this paper we discuss another approach motivated by Chaitin's version of Gödel's theorem where axioms claiming the randomness (or incompressibility) of some strings are probabilistically added, and show that it is not really useful, in the sense that this does not help us prove new interesting theorems. This result answers a question recently asked by Lipton. The situation changes if we take into account the size of the proofs: randomly chosen axioms may help making proofs much shorter (unless NP=PSPACE).We then study the axiomatic power of the statements of type “the Kolmogorov complexity of x exceeds n” (where x is some string, and n is some integer) in general. They are Π1 (universally quantified) statements of Peano arithmetic. We show that by adding all true statements of this type, we obtain a theory that proves all true Π1-statements, and also provide a more detailed classification. In particular, as Theorem 7 shows, to derive all true Π1-statements it is enough to add one statement of this type for each n (or even for infinitely many n) if strings are chosen in a special way. On the other hand, one may add statements of this type for most x of length n (for every n) and still obtain a weak theory. We also study other logical questions related to “random axioms”.Finally, we consider a theory that claims Martin-Löf randomness of a given infinite binary sequence. This claim can be formalized in different ways. We show that different formalizations are closely related but not equivalent, and study their properties.

Error risk in the decision making process

This research starts from the assumption, widely observed in literature, that stress and distraction involve risks of error, especially in high-density decision-making work situations, including Urgent Care-Emergency Depart - ments. Three groups of undergraduates, 20 subjects each, were given fifteen multiplechoice logical questions: one group worked under stress; the second group worked under stress and was distracted twice; the third group worked under conditions that were neither stressful nor disturbing. The highest number of correct answers was generally scored by those working under quiet conditions. The group who worked under stress and was disturbed twice scored a greater number of correct answers than the group working under stress. For exploratory purposes, eight undergraduates were exposed to a condition of attentional disturbance for the entire duration of the test; they registered a significant lengthening of response times and a significant negative effect on their performance.