Logical End Research Articles

Marsilius of Inghen on incipit and desinit in Consequentiae ii, Chapters 4-5

In this paper, the author offers an introduction to Marsilius of Inghen’s treatment of expositiones of sentences de incipit and de desinit in his treatise on Consequentiae, with an analysis of the various modi exponendi presented by Marsilius and an edition of the text. The author argues that, in the split between physical and logical approaches to the issues arising in analyses of incipit and desinit, Marsilius’ theory presents some hybrid features, but tends towards the logical end of the spectrum.

Uncompelled Hypothetical Investors and Its Implications for Appraisal Practice

That the FMVS’s lack of compulsion assumption is synonymous with the Hypothetical Seller’s ability and willingness to expose his non-marketable asset, to the Hypothetical Marketplace, for ample and sufficient time, is generally acknowledged. What is not acknowledged, however, is (i.) he, being uncompelled, is indifferent between selling and not selling (which is what lack of compulsion means), (ii.) his indifference is manifested in his ability, and willingness, to offer his non-marketable asset for as long as it takes to sell at the going market price (any lesser exposure would be evidence of a material form, or degree, of compulsion to sell), (iii.) the Hypothetical Marketplace is competitive and, thus, the going market price is the competitive price, and (iv.) together, taken to their logical and unmistakable end, they provide substantive proof that any form of DLOM is, and always has been, untenable under a scrupulous application of the FMVS in appraisal practice.

Practical significance of exercise stress test in individuals at low risk for atherosclerotic coronary artery disease

Background: Despite not finding favor with a number of apex global bodies including the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, United States Preventive Services Task Force, exercise stress test continues to be performed customarily among asymptomatic individuals to screen for potential presence of ischemic heart disease. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study comprises a successive total of 2042 individuals who were put through a screening stress test as a part of their health checkup package. A telephonic communication was made with all the persons who had been advised further assessment such as repeat stress test, drug therapy, stress thallium testing, or coronary angiography. The compliance of this group to the advice offered was noted along with their subjective sense of satisfaction with the overall process. Based on these inputs the practical utility of stress test was calculated as either good or poor. Results: Out of 2042 individuals who underwent stress test, 183 (9%) were reported as positive. Out of these 183 individuals only 132 with positive stress test could be contacted telephonically. After a detailed analysis of their compliance with the advice offered, it was noted that the screening had best practical utility when the test report was negative. Only one person with a positive report had followed the advice to the logical end by undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting and had a likely good practical utility. In rest of the scenarios, the practical utility was poor. Conclusion: The screening exercise stress tests are sought by most individuals as means of reassurance about health. Its practical significance in all other scenarios is poor. Therefore, unless definite indications exist, stress test should not be performed as a screening test.

La fin de la réalité

This contribution studies the German translations for reality: Realitat, Sachheit, Wirklichkeit, first in their own ambiguity, then at the end of the hegelian Objective Logic in The Science of Logi...

Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations in Africa: Retrospect and Prospects from Nigeria

This article diagnostically examined the several competing perspectives on the beleaguered nature of intergovernmental relations in Nigeria. Tracing the evolution of intergovernmental relation in Nigeria and espousing its legal, political and governance antecedents, the paper hazarded the undercurrent for the lingering conflicts between the center and the component units. The article also critically analyzed the impacts of the erstwhile British colonial strategy of division into regions as a means for administering the country and exploration of the mineral endowments in the 1950s on the composition and the current nature of predatory power that the center currently wields, much to the detriments and underfunding of the component units in the federation. The paper found evidences to showcase that because the British colonialists unduly queered the political pitch by allocating more seats to the North than to each of the other two regions at the center, intergovernmental relations in Nigeria has been quite contentious. If anything, a mutual suspicion between the North-dominated Federal Government and the Southern component units became a logical end. We concluded, among others, that notwithstanding the ample provisions in the 1999 Constitution for veritable intergovernmental relationship in Nigeria, there are still the intricate issues of regional domination of the center, leading to lack of political will to induce proper constitutional implementations.

The megaprocessor

In James Newman's living room is a monument to our kind of crazy. Seven 2-meter-tall panels are covered with circuit boards festooned with blinking lights. It is a complete working CPU, plus 256 bytes of RAM and an input/output interface, all built out of 42,300 hand-soldered discrete transistors. It took Newman some four years and roughly &#a3;40,000 sterling (about US $52,500) to build and design the so-called Megaprocessor in his home in Cambridge, England. In some absinthe-tinged sense, the project is the logical end point of his software writing career. Newman explains that, over the years, he found himself doing increasingly low-level programming, and so became more and more interested in the underlying hardware. He says he began working on the Megaprocessor because he wanted to build a processor to see how a real one worked.

The publicization of public space

In this article, we start by jointly examining the shortcomings contained in the substantial definitions of publicity commonly applied to the analysis of both public spaces (physical) and public spheres (political). We propose instead to consider publicity as a potential and publicization as a process, observable both in urban spaces and in the media. Building on John Dewey, we argue that when this process reaches its logical end, it determines and brings together a problem, a place, a sphere and a group of people that it makes public. It also leads to mechanisms of political action that constitute the ends of public space. Using the example of New Orleans post Katrina, we illustrate this process by discussing three obstacles that often stall or reverse publicization processes, which we believe deserve further study. Finally, we ground the values on which the process of publicization rests on the shared experience of trouble in potentially public spaces. This pragmatists approach opens the door to the study of publicization processes and public spaces beyond western cultures, and suggests an empirical way to deepen and reassess liberal conceptions of public space.

Automatic belief network modeling via policy inference for SDN fault localization

Fault localization for SDN becomes one of the most critical but difficult tasks. Existing tools typically only address a specific part of the problem (e.g., control plane verification, flow checker). In this paper, we propose a new approach to tackle SDN fault localization by automatically Modeling via Policy Inference (called MPI) the causality between SDN faults and their symptoms to a belief network. In the MPI system, a service oriented high level policy language is used to specify network services provisioned between end nodes. MPI parses each service provisioning policy to a logical policy view, which consists of a pair of logical end nodes, a traffic pattern specification, and a list of required network functions (or a service function chain). An SDN controller takes the policies from multiple parties and provisions the requested services on its orchestrated SDN network. MPI queries the controller about the network topology and retrieves flow rules from all SDN switches. MPI maps the policy view to the corresponding implementation view, in which all the logical components in the policy view are mapped to the actual system components along with the actual network topology. Referring to the component causality graph templates derived from SDN reference model, the implementation view of the current running network services can be modeled as a belief network. A heuristic fault reasoning algorithm is adopted to search for the most likely root causes. MPI has been evaluated in both a simulation environment and a real network system for its accuracy and efficiency. The evaluation shows that MPI is a highly scalable, effective and flexible modeling approach to tackle fault localization challenges in a highly dynamic and agile SDN network.

Time Changes the Colour of Bruises

Old injuries are always claimed to be caused during the alleged crime by the victims in Criminal cases, where it becomes a very big challenge to the Medical Officer who receives the request for an Wound Certificate. Often times the age of injury has led the doctor and Police Officer in arriving at the correct time of crime. But at the same times many cases could not reach a logical end since the benefit of doubt goes to the accused in such cases, and they are left scot-free. There has been very little research in the last decade on the age of contusions based on colour and histopathological changes apart from what is given in the standard text books. Hence this study has been taken up to verify the validity of the relation between the colour changes and age of a Contusion.

Other neoliberal penalities: Marching Powder and prison tourism in La Paz

For Loïc Wacquant ‘neoliberal penality’ is epitomized by the ‘penal state’ in the USA. As a decentring of this assumption, this article examines the 2003 ‘cult’ memoir Marching Powder, Rusty Young and Thomas Mcfadden’s account of the five years that Mcfadden, a British cocaine smuggler, spent in San Pedro prison La Paz in the late 1990s, where he became famous for organizing ‘prison tours’ for foreign backpackers. Marching Powder offers a vision of the extreme end of neoliberal penal logic whereby Bolivia displaces the USA as the site of a possible neoliberal ‘extreme’ as San Pedro becomes a synecdoche for an alternative neoliberal penal order. Drawing on debates from critical criminology and tourism studies, I suggest that as the correlate of the prison tours which it continues to promote, Marching Powder feeds the touristic desire for the spectacle of punishment.

PROFESSIONAL ORIENTATION AS LIFELONG PROCESS

What profession to choose? The question is inevitable; the answer is seeking every individual in some stage of his age or social development. The solution of the issue is very importance not only for his personality but generally for society. Professional orientation helps the youth for professional consciousness. Professional orientation is normal continuation of educational work and is considered to be its logical end in some respects. Providing consultancy to individual for professional orientation aims not only assisting to organize his learning process, but assuring confidence towards his future from psychological point of view.

The Unicist Logic and its Mathematics as a Complex Adaptive System

Every entity is ruled by a concept that defines its purpose, its action and the way it controls its operation so as to prevent the purpose from being altered.When dealing with living beings, concepts are intrinsic and define both the nature and evolution of that being. In the case of the elements used by the living creature, we call them extrinsic concepts which acquire sense by the being’s own intrinsic concepts.The difference between an intrinsic and an extrinsic concept lies in the ability to know and become aware of it. What is extrinsic to one may result intrinsic to another. While the logical structures of intrinsic concepts “are”, the ones of extrinsic concepts “are believed”.This is why extrinsic concepts are defined as credibility zones determined by the intrinsic functional needs of the living beings.A purpose, a procedure and an action guide describe every concept. The purpose, known as central value, sustains the natural functionality of the “object” under analysis.The procedure, known as antithetic value, aims on the one hand, at acting in relation to the environment and on the other hand, at modifying the purpose tending to a higher functionality level.The action guide, known as homeostatic value, aims at supporting the central value purpose, tending to minimize the energy consumption so as to avoid the modification of the concept functionality.The unicist logic ends up describing a unified field. If we describe the unified field for a living being in an abstract way we may say that the purpose is given by its vital functionality, the procedure by the action developing value and entropy, and the action guide by the conservation function.The unicist logic defines the logical relations among the elements above setting forth the laws that rule a system.

PROFESSIONAL ORIENTATION AS LIFELONG PROCESS

What profession to choose? The question is inevitable; the answer is seeking every individual in some stage of his age or social development. The solution of the issue is very importance not only for his personality but generally for society. Professional orientation helps the youth for professional consciousness. Professional orientation is normal continuation of educational work and is considered to be its logical end in some respects. Providing consultancy to individual for professional orientation aims not only assisting to organize his learning process, but assuring confidence towards his future from psychological point of view.

Guides, not gatekeepers

editorial ISSN 1948-6596 Guides, not gatekeepers The 7th annual #OpenAccess Week 1 begins 20th October, so we thought we would take some time to reflect on the current publishing landscape, to recognize our editors’ and reviewers’ important contributions, and to encourage young authors who may be daunted by seemingly bleak terrain; we are a community. That editors are ‘gatekeepers’ (Crane 1967, Simon & Fyfe 1994), abetted by reviewers (de Grazia 1963, Hojat et al. 2003), has become a common motif in critiques of modern for-profit scientific publishing (Marusic 2010). The proposition is, roughly, that editors restrict access of meritorious science to journals of perceived higher value (Hojat et al. 2003) under the guise of providing content expertise (Powell 2010), while in fact of- ten erring in judgment (Smith 2006) and being motivated by the journal’s not authors’ interests 2 . Disappointing enough in its own right, when true, capricious (editorial) review takes on added sig- nificance as simple indices of publication rates and short-term impact grow in influence 3 . In an age of rapidly multiplying journals it seems increasingly possible to publish and perish. There are two broader threats too: that risky ‘high impact’ pa- pers are favored over thorough but less head- turning science, and conversely that innovations are filtered out prior to publication because they are kicking the shins, rather than standing on the shoulders, of giants. In the first case, science gains a reputation for being fundamentally flawed 2,4 . In the second case, incremental advances trap disci- plines within a detrimental cycle of confirmation bias (de Grazia 1963 in Crane 1967). Editors incar- nated as gatekeepers protect corrupt and crum- bling empires. Open Access (OA) journals such as PLoS ONE and PeerJ, that intend to review only “scientific and methodological soundness” and take editorial decisions without determining “‘impact’, ‘novelty’ or ‘interest’” 5 , are promoted as possible solutions. The perception that such review should increase the flow of data, for exam- ple by reducing under-reporting of negative re- sults (the ‘file drawer problem’ [Rosenthal 1979]), contributes to backing of these journals by advo- cates of Open Science and Big Data. Publication, in droves, by and for the masses, the logic goes, should democratize data, speed science, and en- hance knowledge. Carried to its logical end, PLoS Currents and rOpenSci for example, provide tools practically for self-publishing. In these models, the sorting of science occurs after, not before, publi- cation and is done through social media, com- menting, and citation. Laudable intentions not- withstanding, the intended objectivity may be un- attainable: review is susceptible to ‘unconscious bias’ (e.g., Englund et al. 1999, Moss-Racusin et al. 2012), social networks may coalesce around and amplify shared values (McPherson et al. 2001, Saez-Trumper et al. 2013), commenting is shaped by a subset of active network members 6 , and cita- tions are used selectively (Greenberg 2009). Amid the clamor of clashing publication models, few have asked “what are [academic jour- nals] for”? (Whittaker 2014:2). Simply, they should make science both more accessible and better (Whittaker 2014). Critics imply that tradi- tional for-profit non-OA publishers do neither. Does pay-to-publish OA necessarily do either? Re- moving financial barriers to reading scientific pa- pers is a ‘common good’ but alone is not synony- mous with greater access. Fees conceivably could prohibit some authors from publishing; others may publish so much that if the proverbial needle is in a haystack, it becomes harder to find among the burgeoning pile of chaff. Yet pay-to-publish 1 http://openaccessweek.org/, last accessed 25/09/2014 2 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/02/health/02docs.html?pagewanted=all, last accessed 25/09/2014 3 http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2013/12/whats-wrong-science, last accessed 25/09/2014 4 http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/ 21588057-scientists-think-science-self-correcting-alarming-degree-it-not-trouble, last accessed 25/09/2014 5 https://peerj.com/about/aims-and-scope/, last accessed 25/09/2014 6 e.g. https://www.facebook.com/groups/6908354463/, last accessed 25/09/2014 frontiers of biogeography 6.3, 2014 — © 2014 the authors; journal compilation © 2014 The International Biogeography Society

French Connection II

Two books, each representing a distinct geographical location and intellectual tradition, provide dramatically different points of departure for evaluating French literary and cultural influence in the American hemisphere. The first, Richard Slotkin's Regeneration through Violence (1973), is a signal example of the post-Vietnam War critique of American literary and cultural history that used the tragic confluence of French and US military actions in Southeast Asia as an occasion to rewrite hoary Americanist conceits of the noble savage, the vanishing frontier, and the irresistible march of progress as mandates for imperial, genocidal conquest. Though it turned Americanist inquiries inexorably westward, Slotkins's work, like Richard Drinnon's similarly themed Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian-Hating and Empire-Building (1980), introduced a recursive, transatlantic coordinate into its critical narrative that made France's ideal of civilization at once the ideological origin and the logical end of a nationalist tradition whose manifest destiny lay in Southeast Asia.

Science Communication in the Post‐Expert Digital Age

Recently, Popular Science disabled its online comments. In explaining this decision, the magazine cited research that showed that online comments, especially uncivil ones, strongly influence readers, often leading to misleading or incorrect interpretations of the articles. Popular Science wrote, “If you carry out those results to their logical end…you start to see why we feel compelled to hit the ‘off’ switch” [Labarre, 2013].

Differential role of temporoparietal junction and medial prefrontal cortex in causal inference in autism: An independent component analysis

Neuroimaging studies have consistently identified a network of brain regions responsible for making inferences of others’ mental states. This network includes the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) at the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), and temporal poles. Although TPJ and MPFC are key nodes of the Theory of Mind (ToM) network, their relative functional roles are still debated. This study sought to examine the contribution of these regions in causal attribution and to explore the nature of the ToM network in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Participants watched a series of comic strip vignettes in the MRI scanner, and identified the most logical ending to each vignette, which sometimes required intentional causal attribution. Independent component analysis was done to isolate temporally correlated brain networks. The functional networks for intentional causality included the TPJ and MPFC, with an increased contribution of TPJ. There was also a significant group difference in the TPJ, with reduced response in participants with ASD. These results suggest an increased role of TPJ in intentional causality. In addition, the reduced response in ASD in TPJ may reflect their difficulties in social cognition.

Measuring Sustained Competitive Advantage From Resource-based View: Survey of Chinese Clothing Industry

The resource-based view of the firm (RBV) argues that valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable resources are the source of a firm’s sustained competitive advantage (SCA); this contention has been tested in an increasing number of studies. However, the extant empirical literature emphasizes the significance of resources and capabilities (R&Cs) played and few studies focus on SCA, the other end of the RBV logic. Therefore, this study aims to address this deficiency by focusing on the measurement of SCA. Further, SCA is traditionally measured by financial performance in the empirical studies, which is not only inconsistent with the theory but also proves to be practically difficult in access to the data. However, this paper argues that process performance is more appropriate to measure SCA and this theoretical idea is examined with the survey data collected in 2011/2012 using 209 valid responses from participants in the Chinese clothing companies. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was adopted to test hypothesized relationships between the endogenous construct of process performance and three exogenous constructs measuring R&Cs. The results suggest that process performance is an appropriate and effective method measuring SCA in terms of good construct validity and of consistency with the RBV expectations.

The power of private foundations: Rockefeller and Gates in the struggle against malaria

This article investigates the rationale that informs the global engagement of private foundations and addresses the question of to what extent and in what way they have the power to (autonomously) shape global social and health policy in line with their convictions even when others disagree or could be expected to disagree. Following a conceptual discussion of power and taking malaria policy as the basis of a historical comparison between the Rockefeller Foundation and the Gates Foundation, the article shows that private foundations are impressively successful in promoting their vision of social and health problems while downplaying potential conflicts and passing over alternatives to their policy prescriptions. Moreover, the foundations can draw on their status as private actors in order to assert autonomy for their own actions even though their ultimate goal is to affect the policies of others – those of the public sector in particular. While the foundations’ power is originally based on their monetary resources that often serve as leverage for the mobilization of external resources, their funding of research and interventions helps them in the long run to even develop authority in their field of engagement. With a view to malaria policy it is noteworthy that both foundations analysed were successful in shaping policy in line with their convictions but limited their take on the malaria problem to ‘safe issues’ and marginalized other perspectives. In particular, they promoted a biomedical rather than a social understanding of health problems, they preferred time-limited investments over sustained spending, and they favoured solutions that promised readily recognizable results. Both foundations brought this biomedical-managerial frame to its logical end when they developed a preoccupation with malaria eradication and shaped global policies accordingly while others pointed at the less obvious dangers and problems of this seemingly persuasive approach.

Quest for Peace: Dealing with Militancy

Considering the wide-ranging dynamics of militancy the country is faced with, dialogue and negotiated settlement — keeping in view the larger regional security context as well as long term structural aspects — provides the ideal way forward. Deterrence indeed is necessary to maintain and may be resorted to, where and when it is inevitable; keeping however in view that force can hardly provide a permanent solution to such multidimensional and long standing problem. While moving for dialogue devising a proper, well-though-out mechanism, with a logical end in view should be ensured. The role of traditional institution of jirga, and community elders is instrumental in this regard and must be pursued. International experiences stand testimony to the need for consistency and secrecy in such endeavors. And last but not the least, the people of militancy hit areas will have to be given a clear message that their developmental needs will be met, properly. The write-up is based primarily on deliberations of IPS roundtable “Negotiating Peace: Dealing with the Taliban — Current Status and Options” held on November 12, 2013. Following the Chatham House rules, the comments of the panelists and participants are being given unattributed. Important documents, national and international, related to the subject are also annexed. Editors are thankful to Ms. Fehmeedah Khalid, an IPS team member, for assistance provided in preparation of this write-up.