Logical Inconsistencies Research Articles

Valuing EQ-5D health states for Sri Lanka

The aim of this study was to derive an algorithm to estimate utility values for the EQ-5D-3L health states based on the preferences of a population sample from Sri Lanka. The time trade-off method was used to directly value 198 EQ-5D-3L health states in a general population sample (n = 780) from Sri Lanka. Stratified cluster sampling with random selection within clusters was used to select the sample from four districts. Each participant valued 15 health states via face-to-face interviews. The best fit model was selected using consistency, parsimony, and goodness of fit. Based on logical inconsistency, numerous sub-samples were also used for model specification. For each model, the numbers of illogical orderings in the resulting value set were also examined. Generalised least squares with random effects were found to be the best specification. The sub-sample consisting of participants with less than seven logical inconsistent observations produced no illogical ordering in the final value set and is considered the preferred model. Compared to value sets in other countries, a high disutility is associated with level 3 deficits in the mobility dimension. More than 50 % of health states in the Sri Lankan value set are deemed worse than death health states. Sri Lankan utility values for EQ-5D-3L states deviate markedly from existing values for upper middle and high-income countries. It is important to have country-specific utility values to conduct cost-utility analysis.

Justifying Communal Violence, Recuperating Militancy: Sunil Ariyaratne's Sarungale and Gamini Fonseka's Nomiyena Minisun

This paper examines two Sinhala films, Sunil Ariyaratne's Sarungale (1979) and Gamini Fonseka's Nomyena Minisun (1994), that demonstrate the ambivalence of the Sinhala socio-political establishment towards the Tamil other. However, while Ariyaratne's ambivalence is discriminatory and victimizes the Tamil minority, Fonseka's recuperation of Tamil militancy provides the potential for change in a post-conflict society. InSarungale, Ariyaratneemploys a perspective in which intra-ethnic violence (caste-based violence amongst Hindu Tamils) is juxtaposed with inter-ethnic, communal violence between Sinhalese and Tamils. In so doing, the film justifies anti-Tamil violence experienced by Nadaraja, the Tamil protagonist. However, by casting GaminiFonseka, an icon in Sinhala cinema in the role of Nadaraja, and by using the popular genre of melodrama, Ariyaratne elicits the viewer's sympathy towards the victimization of Tamils. Indeed, it is this type of vacillation towards Tamils, and by extension the Tamil national question, since the 1950s that gives rise to Tamil militancy and the armed conflict of the 1980s. Regarding Sri Lanka's armed conflict, much critical attention has been paid to the state's violent suppression of resistance, and considerably less scholarship is devoted to the state's complex relationship to Tamil militancy. Indeed, the reincarnation of former combatants as new stakeholders in the government has challenged static definitions of militants, an identity often conflated with terrorists. At the same time, however, the state has made arbitrary distinctions between militants by requiring rehabilitation of some cadres and not others. My argument, then, consists of ·two claims: on the one hand, the ambivalence of Sarungale illustrates the discriminatory power of majoritarian politics evident even in its progressive aesthetic expressions. Indeed, it is this form of discriminatory power disguised as humanism that leads to total war. On the other hand, NomiyenaMinisun represents a productive form of ambivalence as the film captures the state's mutable position vis-a-vis· the Tamil militant movement, an inconsistent logic that gives a faint ray of hope for post-war reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

Development of an EORTC-8D utility algorithm for Sri Lanka.

Currently there are no reported cancer-specific health state valuations in low- and middle-income countries using a validated preference-based measure. The EORTC-8D, a cancer-specific preference-based measure, has 81,920 health states and is useful for economic evaluations in cancer care. The aim of this study was to develop a utility algorithm to value EORTC-8D health states using preferences derived from a representative population sample in Sri Lanka. The time-tradeoff method was used to elicit preferences from a general population sample of 780 in Sri Lanka. A block design of 85 health states, with a time horizon of 10 years, was used for the direct valuation. Data were analyzed using generalized least squares with random effects. All respondents with at least one logical inconsistency were excluded from the analysis. After logical inconsistencies were excluded, 4520 observations were available from 717 respondents for the analysis. The preferred model specified main effects with an interaction term for any level 4 or worse descriptor within a health state. Worsening of physical functioning had a substantially greater utility decrement than any other dimension in this population. Limitations are that the data collection could not include the whole country and that females formed a large part of the sample. Preference weights for EORTC-8D health states for Sri Lanka have been derived: These will be very useful in economic evaluations of cancer-related interventions in a range of low- and middle-income countries.

Apophenia? Data Under-Mining the Volatility Leverage-Effect.

The inverse relation between stock returns and their volatility, known as volatility leverage-effect (VLE), is documented as a strikingly robust empirical regularity. This paper argues that existing explanations of the phenomenon either suffer from logical inconsistencies or have secondary implications that contradict empirical evidence. Robustness of the empirical findings is re-examined by conducting a thorough investigation of VLE in S&P500 data. Combining misspecification analysis with a novel approach to outlier detection reveals that the VLE relation is indeed very fragile. Implications range from the empirical validity of VLE itself to its use as a moment condition for structural models.

Some inconsistencies in NICE's consideration of social values.

The UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recently proposed amendments to its methods for the appraisal of health technologies. Previous amendments in 2009 and 2011 placed a greater value on the health of patients at the "end of life" and in cases where "treatment effects are both substantial in restoring health and sustained over a very long period". Drawing lessons from these previous amendments, we critically appraise NICE's proposals. The proposals repeal "end of life" considerations but add consideration of the "proportional" and "absolute" quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) loss from illness. NICE's cost-effectiveness threshold may increase from £20,000 to £50,000 per QALY on the basis of these and four other considerations: the "certainty of the ICER [incremental cost-effectiveness ratio]"; whether health-related quality of life is "inadequately captured"; the "innovative nature" of the technology; and "non-health objectives of the NHS". We demonstrate that NICE's previous amendments are flawed; they contain logical inconsistencies which can result in different values being placed on health gains for identical patients, and they do not apply value weights to patients bearing the opportunity cost of NICE's recommendations. The proposals retain both flaws and are also poorly justified. Applying value weights to patients bearing the opportunity cost would lower NICE's threshold, in some cases to below £20,000 per QALY. Furthermore, this baseline threshold is higher than current estimates of the opportunity cost. NICE's proposed threshold range is too high, for empirical and methodological reasons. NICE's proposals will harm the health of unidentifiable patients, whilst privileging the identifiable beneficiaries of new health technologies.

Why is Politics Not Essentially Contested?

This paper is an attempt to defend the thesis of essential contestedness against the criticism of its logical inconsistency. The author believes that such criticism results from a misconception of whether Gallie’s thesis of essential contestedness can be applied to terms such as politics, law, or history. On the example of politics, the author attempts to demonstrate that this term cannot be essentially contested for at least two reasons: firstly, politics is not a concept, but a general term; secondly, it is the appraisals of the concept that are essentially contested, not the concepts themselves. The author of the paper believes that these claims will dispel the doubts about the logical consistency of the idea of essential contestability.

Dutch Books, Coherence, and Logical Consistency

AbstractIn this paper I present a new way of understanding Dutch Book Arguments: the idea is that an agent is shown to be incoherent iff (s)he would accept as fair a set of bets that would result in a loss under any interpretation of the claims involved. This draws on a standard definition of logical inconsistency. On this new understanding, the Dutch Book Arguments for the probability axioms go through, but the Dutch Book Argument for Reflection fails. The question of whether we have a Dutch Book Argument for Conditionalization is left open.

The Effects of Truth-Lie Base Rate on Interactive Deception Detection Accuracy

Consistent with the Park and Levine's (PL) probability model of deception detection accuracy, previous research has shown that as the proportion of honest messages increases, there is a corresponding linear increase in correct truth–lie discrimination. Three experiments (N = 120, 205, and 243, respectively) varied the truth–lie base rate in an interactive deception detection task. Linear base-rate effects were observed in all 3 experiments (average effect r#x02009;= .61) regardless of whether the judges were interactive participants or passive observers, previously acquainted or strangers, or previously exposed to truths or lies. The predictive power of the PL probability model appears robust and extends to interactive deception despite PL's logical incompatibility with interpersonal deception theory.

Pure bound field corrections to the atomic energy levels and the proton size puzzle

Reinforcement of the puzzle about the proton charge radius, rE, stimulated by the recent experiment with muonic hydrogen (Antognini et al. Science, 339, 417 (2013)) induced new discussions on the subject, and now some physicists are ready to adopt the exotic properties of the muon, lying beyond the Standard Model, to explain the difference between the results of muonic hydrogen experiments (rE = 0.840 87(39) fm) and the CODATA-2010 value rE = 0.8775(51) fm based on electron–proton scattering and hydrogen spectroscopy. In the present contribution we suggest a way to achieve progress in the entire problem via paying attention on some logical inconsistency of fundamental equations of atomic physics, constructed by analogy with corresponding classical equations without, however, taking into account the purely bound nature of electromagnetic fields generated by the electrically bound particles in stationary energy states. We suggest eliminating this inconsistency via introducing some appropriate correcting factors into these equations, which explicitly involve the requirement of total momentum conservation in the system “bound particles and their fields” in the absence of electromagnetic radiation. We further show that this approach allows us not only to eliminate long-standing discrepancies between theory and experiment in the precise physics of simple atoms, but also yields the same estimation (though with different uncertainties) for the proton size in the classic 2S–2P Lamb shift in hydrogen, 1S Lamb shift in hydrogen, and 2S–2P Lamb shift in muonic hydrogen, with the mean value rE = 0.841 fm. Finally, we suggest the crucial experiment for verification of the validity of pure bound field corrections: the measurement of decay rate of bound moun in various meso-atoms, especially at large Z, where the standard calculations and our predictions essentially deviate from each other, and some of the available experimental results (Yovanovitch. Phys. Rev. 117, 1580 (1960)) strongly support our approach.

Rational Hypocrisy: A Bayesian Analysis Based on Informal Argumentation and Slippery Slopes

Moral hypocrisy is typically viewed as an ethical accusation: Someone is applying different moral standards to essentially identical cases, dishonestly claiming that one action is acceptable while otherwise equivalent actions are not. We suggest that in some instances the apparent logical inconsistency stems from different evaluations of a weak argument, rather than dishonesty per se. Extending Corner, Hahn, and Oaksford's (2006) analysis of slippery slope arguments, we develop a Bayesian framework in which accusations of hypocrisy depend on inferences of shared category membership between proposed actions and previous standards, based on prior probabilities that inform the strength of competing hypotheses. Across three experiments, we demonstrate that inferences of hypocrisy increase as perceptions of the likelihood of shared category membership between precedent cases and current cases increase, that these inferences follow established principles of category induction, and that the presence of self-serving motives increases inferences of hypocrisy independent of changes in the actions themselves. Taken together, these results demonstrate that Bayesian analyses of weak arguments may have implications for assessing moral reasoning.

Charles J. Adams Antara Reduksionisme dan Anti-Reduksionisme dalam Kajian Agama

This paper is about a critical survey of Charles J. Adams’ insights concerning the definition and nature of religion. We are particularly interested in digging up the logic and methodological inconsistency of Charles Adams as far as his offer on religious studies is concerned. Initially we were impressed by the power of his allusions. But the deeper we go the more we found out that his thought is replete with methodological incongruence. First, he is not certain about the definition of religion; an uncertainty that leads to a lot of fundamental errors in the description of religion as a whole. Second, he is not sure what line of argument he follows, the fact that leads to confusion whether he is reductionist or anti-reductionist. It is about this confusion that this paper is concerned with. Although a major part of this paper deals with religions in general, its theme and problems are of particular importance to the study of Islam.

Mediation: The Technological Foundation of Modern Science

Modern science is increasingly data-intensive, multidisciplinary, and network-centric. There is an emerging consensus among the members of the academic research community that the practices of this new science paradigm should be congruent with “open science”. This entails that the bonanza of research data, the wide availability of algorithms, data tools, and data services produced by the members of the research community must be discoverable, understandable, and usable by overcoming all kinds of heterogeneity and logical inconsistencies. The main concept for coping with the many dimensions of heterogeneity and logical inconsistency is mediation. Mediation is achieved by mediators or brokers. These are software modules that exploit encoded knowledge about certain datasets, data services, and user needs in order to implement an intermediary service. A mediating environment is an environment that provides a core set of intermediary services. Mediation should be a distinct functionality of future research data infrastructures. This paper surveys the different levels of interoperability, i.e., exchangeability, compatibility, and usability, their properties and relationships, mediation concepts, functions, and intermediary services. The current interoperability landscape is also illustrated. Finally, the paper advocates the need for mediating environments to be supported by future research data infrastructures and envisions that one of the most important features of future research data infrastructures will be mediation software.

Evidence that photons have extension in space

Satyendra Nath Bose realized that there was a logical inconsistency in the derivation of Planck's radiation law since the derivation used to obtain the temperature-independent prefactor in the blackbody radiation law had been based in part on classical wave hypotheses, such as the number of degrees of freedom of the ether. Bose worked out a strictly quantum derivation by combining the quantum hypothesis with statistical mechanics to determine the number of states of each mode that would occupy a 6-dimensional phase space. Here I use the model of an extended photon to show that the temperature-independent prefactor of Planck's radiation law can be derived in an alternative manner by calculating how many extended photons of each mode would fill a 3-dimensional Euclidean space. By combining my derivation of the temperature-independent prefactor with Planck's temperature-dependent probability distribution, I show that all of the major equations that describe blackbody radiation can be derived from the assumption that the photon is an extended body in 3-dimensional Euclidean space. This derivation provides evidence for the suggestion that photons are neither mathematical points nor groups of infinite plane waves, but quantized and finite volume elements.

A computer aided treatment event recognition system in radiation therapy

To develop an automated system to safeguard radiation therapy treatments by analyzing electronic treatment records and reporting treatment events. CATERS (Computer Aided Treatment Event Recognition System) was developed to detect treatment events by retrieving and analyzing electronic treatment records. CATERS is designed to make the treatment monitoring process more efficient by automating the search of the electronic record for possible deviations from physician's intention, such as logical inconsistencies as well as aberrant treatment parameters (e.g., beam energy, dose, table position, prescription change, treatment overrides, etc). Over a 5 month period (July 2012-November 2012), physicists were assisted by the CATERS software in conducting normal weekly chart checks with the aims of (a) determining the relative frequency of particular events in the authors' clinic and (b) incorporating these checks into the CATERS. During this study period, 491 patients were treated at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for a total of 7692 fractions. All treatment records from the 5 month analysis period were evaluated using all the checks incorporated into CATERS after the training period. About 553 events were detected as being exceptions, although none of them had significant dosimetric impact on patient treatments. These events included every known event type that was discovered during the trial period. A frequency analysis of the events showed that the top three types of detected events were couch position override (3.2%), extra cone beam imaging (1.85%), and significant couch position deviation (1.31%). The significant couch deviation is defined as the number of treatments where couch vertical exceeded two times standard deviation of all couch verticals, or couch lateral/longitudinal exceeded three times standard deviation of all couch laterals and longitudinals. On average, the application takes about 1 s per patient when executed on either a desktop computer or a mobile device. CATERS offers an effective tool to detect and report treatment events. Automation and rapid processing enables electronic record interrogation daily, alerting the medical physicist of deviations potentially days prior to performing weekly check. The output of CATERS could also be utilized as an important input to failure mode and effects analysis.

VAT neutrality: a principle of EU law or a principle of the VAT system?

According to recent CJEU case law, fiscal neutrality is not a rule of primary law which can condition the validity of a provision of an European Directive; it is only a principle of interpretation, to be applied concurrently with the principle of strict interpretation of the VAT exemptions. In this article it is suggested that the principle of fiscal neutrality has been contained in the European Treaties since 1957, and it is an implementation in VAT matters of the concept of the EU principle of non-discrimination. Discrimination is sometimes expressly authorised by EU law, but for a transitional period in the case of VAT exemptions. The distinction between non-discrimination and VAT neutrality is not based on historical or economic evidence and it creates logical inconsistencies. The CJEU gives priority to uniform interpretation above the objectives of the Treaties but this does not improve the functioning of the internal market.

Threats to validity in the use and interpretation of script concordance test scores

Recent reviews have claimed that the script concordance test (SCT) methodology generally produces reliable and valid assessments of clinical reasoning and that the SCT may soon be suitable for high-stakes testing. This study is intended to describe three major threats to the validity of the SCT not yet considered in prior research and to illustrate the severity of these threats. We conducted a review of SCT reports available through the Web of Science database. Additionally, we reanalysed scores from a previously published SCT administration to explore issues related to standard SCT scoring practice. Firstly, the predominant method for aggregate and partial credit scoring of SCTs introduces logical inconsistencies in the scoring key. Secondly, our literature review shows that SCT reliability studies have generally ignored inter-panel, inter-panellist and test-retest measurement error. Instead, studies have focused on observed levels of coefficient alpha, which is neither an informative index of internal structure nor a comprehensive index of reliability for SCT scores. As such, claims that SCT scores show acceptable reliability are premature. Finally, SCT criteria for item inclusion, in concert with a statistical artefact of the SCT format, cause anchors at the extremes of the scale to have less expected credit than anchors near or at the midpoint. Consequently, SCT scores are likely to reflect construct-irrelevant differences in examinees' response styles. This makes the test susceptible to bias against candidates who endorse extreme scale anchors more readily; it also makes two construct-irrelevant test taking strategies extremely effective. In our reanalysis, we found that examinees could drastically increase their scores by never endorsing extreme scale points. Furthermore, examinees who simply endorsed the scale midpoint for every item would still have outperformed most examinees who used the scale as it is intended. Given the severity of these threats, we conclude that aggregate scoring of SCTs cannot be recommended. Recommendations for revisions of SCT methodology are discussed.

Remediation of at-risk medical students: theory in action

BackgroundPrevious work has shown that a programme that draws on a blend of theories makes a positive difference to outcomes for students who fail and repeat their first semester at medical school. Exploration of student and teacher perspectives revealed that remediation of struggling medical students can be achieved through a cognitive apprenticeship within a small community of inquiry. This community needs expert teachers capable of performing a unique combination of roles (facilitator, nurturing mentor, disciplinarian, diagnostician and role model), with high levels of teaching presence and practical wisdom. Yet, despite participants’ convergent opinions on the elements of effective remediation, significant differences were found between outcomes of students working with experienced and inexperienced teachers. The current study explores the actual practice of teachers on this remediation course, aiming to exemplify elements of our theory of remediation and explore differences between teachers.MethodsSince it is in the classroom context that the interactions that constitute the complex process of remediation emerge, this practice-based research has focused on direct observation of classroom teaching. Nineteen hours of small group sessions were recorded and transcribed. Drawing on ethnography and sociocultural discourse analysis, selected samples of talk-in-context demonstrate how the various elements of remediation play out in practice, highlighting aspects that are most effective, and identifying differences between experienced and novice teachers.ResultsLong-term student outcomes are strongly correlated to teacher experience (r, 0.81). Compared to inexperienced teachers, experienced teachers provide more challenging, disruptive facilitation, and take a dialogic stance that encourages more collaborative group dynamics. They are more expert at diagnosing cognitive errors, provide frequent metacognitive time-outs and make explicit links across the curriculum.ConclusionsRemediation is effective in small groups where dialogue is used for collaborative knowledge construction and social regulation. This requires facilitation by experienced teachers who attend to details of both content and process, and use timely interventions to foster curiosity and the will to learn. These teachers should actively challenge students’ language use, logical inconsistencies and uncertainties, problematize their assumptions, and provide a metacognitive regulatory voice that can generate attitudinal shifts and nurture the development of independent critical thinkers.

An algorithm selection based platform for image understanding using high-level symbolic feedback and machine learning

Natural image processing and understanding encompasses hundreds of different algorithms. Each algorithm generates best results for a particular set of input features and configurations of the objects/regions in the input image (environment). To obtain the best possible result of processing in a reliable manner, we propose an algorithm selection approach that selects the best algorithm for a each input image. The proposed algorithm selection starts by first selecting an algorithm using low level features such as color intensity, histograms, spectral coefficients or so and a user given context if available. The resulting high-level image description is analyzed for logical inconsistencies (contradictions) and image regions that must be processed using a different algorithm are selected. The high-level description and the optional user-given context are used by a Bayesian Network to estimate the cause of the error in the processing. The same Bayesian Network also generates new candidate algorithm for each region containing the contradiction in an iterative manner. This iterative selection stops when the high-level inconsistencies are all resolved or no more different algorithms can be selected. We also show that when inconsistencies can be detected, our framework is able to improve high-level description when compared with single algorithms. In order for such complex and iterative processing being computationally tractable we also introduce a hardware platform based on reconfigurable VLSI that is well suited as the platform of the proposed approach. We show that the algorithm selected approach is ideally suited for either a hybrid type VLSI processor or for a Logic-In-Memory processing platform.

A new approach to identify, classify and count drug‐related events

The incidence of clinical events related to medication errors and/or adverse drug reactions reported in the literature varies by a degree that cannot solely be explained by the clinical setting, the varying scrutiny of investigators or varying definitions of drug-related events. Our hypothesis was that the individual complexity of many clinical cases may pose relevant limitations for current definitions and algorithms used to identify, classify and count adverse drug-related events. Based on clinical cases derived from an observational study we identified and classified common clinical problems that cannot be adequately characterized by the currently used definitions and algorithms. It appears that some key models currently used to describe the relation of medication errors (MEs), adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and adverse drug events (ADEs) can easily be misinterpreted or contain logical inconsistencies that limit their accurate use to all but the simplest clinical cases. A key limitation of current models is the inability to deal with complex interactions such as one drug causing two clinically distinct side effects or multiple drugs contributing to a single clinical event. Using a large set of clinical cases we developed a revised model of the interdependence between MEs, ADEs and ADRs and extended current event definitions when multiple medications cause multiple types of problems. We propose algorithms that may help to improve the identification, classification and counting of drug-related events. The new model may help to overcome some of the limitations that complex clinical cases pose to current paper- or software-based drug therapy safety.

Juicios morales y fronteras biológicas: más allá de la frontera razón / emoción

We build boundaries that are theoretically based on biological grounds and we derive moral judgments from them. Likewise, we take for granted that emotions such as fear, disgust or rage were the element that led us to this mistake, especially when we realise the logical inconsistency of deriving moral judgments in this way. Consequently, we often associate emotions with prejudices, beliefs or fallacies, which we ought to free ourselves from. However, emotions are not the cause of the problem. Firstly, because the classical dichotomical framework that defends the reason/emotion polarity is also questionable. Secondly, because emotions, as alarms which transmit important information, may be a key element in the discovery and overcoming of the discriminations that arise at the boundaries of dichotomies. Thus, the aim here is to analyse the relationship between these three elements: biological boundaries, moral judgments and emotions. And then toargue in favour of the links between reason and emotions as a way of surpassing the old dichotomic model, and, to conclude, I will point out some of the benefits of replacing a dualistic framework by an interactive one.