Ordinary Cases Research Articles

What a Maker’s Knowledge Could Be

Three classic distinctions specify that truths can be necessary versus contingent, analytic versus synthetic, and a priori versus a posteriori. The philosopher reading this article knows very well both how useful and ordinary such distinctions are in our conceptual work and that they have been subject to many and detailed debates, especially the last two. In the following pages, I do not wish to discuss how far they may be tenable. I shall assume that, if they are reasonable and non problematic in some ordinary cases, then they can be used in order to understand what kind of knowledge the maker’s knowledge is. By this I mean the sort of knowledge that Alice enjoys when she holds the information (true content) that Bob’s coffee is sweetened because she just put two spoons of sugar in it herself. The maker’s knowledge tradition is quite important but it is not mainstream in modern and analytic epistemology and lacks grounding in terms of exactly what sort of knowledge one is talking about. My suggestion is that this grounding can be provided by a minimalist approach, based on an information-theoretical analysis. In the article, I argue that (a) we need to decouple a fourth distinction, namely informative versus uninformative, from the previous three and, in particular, from its implicit association with analytic versus synthetic and a priori versus a posteriori; (b) such a decoupling facilitates, and is facilitated by, moving from a monoagent to a multiagent approach: the distinctions qualify a proposition, a message, or some information not just in themselves but relationally, with respect to an informational agent; (c) the decoupling and the multiagent approach enable a re-mapping of currently available positions in epistemology (Classic, Innatist, Kant’s and Kripke’s) on these four dichotomies; (d) within such a re-mapping, two positions, capturing the nature of a witness’ knowledge and of a maker’s knowledge, can best be described as contingent, synthetic, a posteriori, and uninformative and as contingent, synthetic, weakly a priori (ab anteriori), and uninformative respectively. In the conclusion, I indicate why the analysis of the maker’s knowledge has important consequences in all those cases in which the poietic (constructive) intervention on a system determines the truth of the model of that system.

Avoiding Backtesting Overfitting by Covariance-Penalties: An Empirical Investigation of the Ordinary and Total Least Squares Cases

Systematic trading strategies are rule-based procedures which choose portfolios and allocate assets. In order to attain certain desired return profiles, quantitative strategists must determine a large array of trading parameters. Backtesting, the attempt to identify the appropriate parameters using historical data available, has been highly criticized due to the abundance of misleading results. Hence, there is an increasing interest in devising procedures for the assessment and comparison of strategies, that is, devising schemes for preventing what is known as backtesting overfitting. So far, many financial researchers have proposed different ways to tackle this problem that can be broadly categorised into three types: Data Snooping, Overestimated Performance, and Cross-Validation Evaluation. In this paper, we propose a new approach to dealing with financial overfitting, a Covariance-Penalty Correction, in which a risk metric is lowered given the number of parameters and data used to underpins a trading strategy. We outlined the foundation and main results behind the Covariance-Penalty correction for trading strategies. After that, we pursue an empirical investigation, comparing its performance with some other approaches in the realm of Covariance-Penalties across more than 1300 assets, using Ordinary and Total Least Squares. Our results suggest that Covariance-Penalties are a suitable procedure to avoid Backtesting Overfitting, and Total Least Squares provides superior performance when compared to Ordinary Least Squares.

Biased continuous-time random walks for ordinary and equilibrium cases: facilitation of diffusion, ergodicity breaking and ageing.

We examine renewal processes with power-law waiting time distributions (WTDs) and non-zero drift via computing analytically and by computer simulations their ensemble and time averaged spreading characteristics. All possible values of the scaling exponent α are considered for the WTD ψ(t) ∼ 1/t1+α. We treat continuous-time random walks (CTRWs) with 0 < α < 1 for which the mean waiting time diverges, and investigate the behaviour of the process for both ordinary and equilibrium CTRWs for 1 < α < 2 and α > 2. We demonstrate that in the presence of a drift CTRWs with α < 1 are ageing and non-ergodic in the sense of the non-equivalence of their ensemble and time averaged displacement characteristics in the limit of lag times much shorter than the trajectory length. In the sense of the equivalence of ensemble and time averages, CTRW processes with 1 < α < 2 are ergodic for the equilibrium and non-ergodic for the ordinary situation. Lastly, CTRW renewal processes with α > 2-both for the equilibrium and ordinary situation-are always ergodic. For the situations 1 < α < 2 and α > 2 the variance of the diffusion process, however, depends on the initial ensemble. For biased CTRWs with α > 1 we also investigate the behaviour of the ergodicity breaking parameter. In addition, we demonstrate that for biased CTRWs the Einstein relation is valid on the level of the ensemble and time averaged displacements, in the entire range of the WTD exponent α.

Geometrothermodynamics of Van der Waals black hole

We study the geometrothermodynamics of a special asymptotically AdS black hole, i.e. Van der Waals \(\left( VdW\right) \) black hole, in the extended phase space where the negative cosmological constant \(\Lambda \) can be regarded as thermodynamic pressure. Analysing some special conditions of this black hole with geometrothermodynamical method, we find a good correlation with ordinary cases according to the state equation.

Characterizing hypervelocity (>2.5 km/s)-impact-engendered damage in shielding structures using in-situ acoustic emission: Simulation and experiment

Pervasive in outer space, hypervelocity impact (HVI), caused by man-made debris (a.k.a. space junk) and natural micrometeoroids, poses a clear and tremendous threat to the safe operation of orbiting spacecraft, and it will possibly lead to the failure of a space exploration mission. Addressing such an issue, damage in a downscaled two-layer space shielding assembly, engendered by HVI events with an impact velocity up to 4 km/s, was characterized quantitatively, using in-situ measured acoustic emission (AE) induced under HVI. A hybrid model, based on three-dimensional smooth-particle hydrodynamics and finite element, was developed, to achieve insight into the traits of HVI-induced AE waves and HVI-caused damage. Proof-of-concept simulation was accomplished using the hybrid model, in which a projectile, at various impact velocities, impinged a series of shielding assembly of different thicknesses, in a normal or oblique manner. Experimental validation was implemented, and HVI-induced AE waves were in-situ acquired with a built-in piezoelectric sensor network integrated with the shielding assembly. Results from simulation and experiment show qualitative consistency, demonstrating the capability of the hybrid model for depicting HVI-produced shock waves, and the feasibility of in-situ measurement of HVI-induced AE signals. Taking into account the difference and uniqueness of HVI against other ordinary impact cases, an enhanced, delay-and-sum-based imaging algorithm was developed in conjunction with the built-in sensor network, able to “visualize” HVI spots in pixelated images accurately and instantaneously.

Hope, Powerlessness, and Agency

Hope is hard to characterise because of the exceptional diversity of its applications, to the point that one may wonder whether there is continuity between ordinary cases of hope and what is often called 'hope against hope'. In this paper, I shall follow the relatively small but growing literature on hope and examine propositional hopes, i.e. hopes of the form 'hoping that p', with a particular focus on recent work by Philip Pettit and Adrienne Martin. I shall do this first by identifying a significant difficulty encountered by what has become known as the 'orthodox definition' (Martin 2014, henceforth 'OD'). The OD defines hope by means of two necessary and sufficient conditions: A hopes that p if and only if (1) A desires that p and (2) A assigns to p a degree of probability between (and excluding) 0 and 1. On this definition, to hope is to desire an outcome we deem neither certain nor impossible. Note that the relevant probability assignment is subjective: the OD allows, for example, that children can hope for Father Christmas to visit them on Christmas Eve.

Expected Comparative Utility Theory

This paper proposes a new theory of rational choice. Contra standard decision theory, this paper roughly argues that an agent should rank her choice options (in terms of how choiceworthy they are) according to their expected comparative utility. For any number of alternative options, a, b, c, d and e, the expected comparative utility of a is the probability-weighted average of the differences in utility between a and b, c, d or e across the various states – that is, for each state, the difference in utility between a and whichever of b, c, d and e carries the greatest utility in that state. In a number of ordinary decision cases, ECU Theory gives different verdicts from those of EU Theory.

Heat transfer analysis of fractional second-grade fluid subject to Newtonian heating with Caputo and Caputo-Fabrizio fractional derivatives: A comparison

The present study is a comparative analysis of unsteady flows of a second-grade fluid with Newtonian heating and time-fractional derivatives, namely, the Caputo fractional derivative (singular kernel) and the Caputo-Fabrizio fractional derivative (non-singular kernel). A physical model for second-grade fluids is developed with fractional derivatives. The expressions for temperature and velocity fields in dimensionless form as well as rates of heat transfer are determined by means of the Laplace transform technique. Solutions for ordinary cases corresponding to integer order derivatives are also obtained. Numerical computations for a comparison between the solutions of the problem with the Caputo time-fractional derivative, problem with Caputo-Fabrizio time-fractional derivative and of the ordinary fluid problem were made. The influence of some flow parameters and fractional parameter $\alpha$ on temperature field as well as velocity field was presented graphically and in tabular forms.

An exact algorithm for Min-Max hyperstructure equipartition with a connected constraint

Hyperstructure is a topological concept that shares characteristics with both graphs and hypergraphs. The Min-Max hyperstructure equipartition with a connected constraint problem consists in partitioning a hyperstructure into K equal-sized connected parts that minimizes the maximum load in each part (the number of hyperedges assigned to each part). This problem, proved to be NP-hard, is an integer nonlinear programming problem. The linearized version of this problem has been introduced.Shrink and Cut algorithm is designed to simplify original complex hyperstructure without changing the optimal solution of the Min-Max hyperstructure equipartition with a connected constraint problem. By the use of this algorithm, Min-Max hyper-tree equipartition with a connected constraint can be solved in polynomial time. An exact algorithm: Min-Max hyperstructure partitioning algorithm, based on a Shrink and Cut algorithm and algorithm S for finding all the spanning trees, is designed to solve ordinary cases, which shows well on experimental results.

Improving primary level home and community care services for older people: The case of Hong Kong

The aims of this study were to assess the impairment levels of users and waitlisted applicants for Hong Kong's Integrated Home Care Services (Ordinary Cases) (IHCS [OC]), reveal their possible hidden needs and potential demand for higher level services, assess their unmet needs for IHCS (OC) and explore whether not using IHCS (OC) was associated with any deterioration in impairment. In all, 567 respondents were clinically assessed twice, over a 6‐month interval, by the Minimal Data Set Home Care questionnaire. The results showed that some moderately or severely impaired respondents had only limited access to higher level services. Some respondents with either no impairment or only low‐level impairment had applied for higher level services. Most waitlisted applicants had not received any IHCS (OC), even after 6 months of waiting. Using IHCS (OC) or not had no significant impact on the deterioration in impairment. Several ways of improving home and community care services are discussed.

Understanding: not know-how

There is considerable agreement among epistemologists that certain abilities are constitutive of understanding-why. These abilities include: constructing explanations, drawing conclusions, and answering questions. This agreement has led epistemologists to conclude that understanding is a kind of know-how. However, in this paper, I argue that the abilities constitutive of understanding are the same kind of cognitive abilities that we find in ordinary cases of knowledge-that and not the kind of practical abilities associated with know-how. I argue for this by disambiguating between different senses of abilities that are too often lumped together. As a consequence, non-reductionists about understanding—those that claim that understanding-why is not reducible to knowledge-that—need to find another way to motivate the view. In the end, the fact that abilities are constitutive of understanding-why does not give us reason to conclude that understanding is a kind of know-how.

Demographic Characteristics, Anatomical Distribution, and Clinical Presentations of Lipomatosis Tumors Arising from Hand and Wrist

The aim of this study is to analyze demographic characteristics, anatomical distribution, and clinic presentations of the lipomatosis masses in hand and wrist. The hand and wrist magnetic resonance (MR) images of 2,453 patients were evaluated retrospectively. Nineteen cases were included in the study that is seen fat component in mass in MR images. Patients' age, sex, and clinical symptoms were noted. The size and the localization area of the mass were evaluated. Ordinary lipomas were detected in 18 (95%) patients, and fibrolipomatous hamartoma of the median nerve was detected in 1 patient (5%). Benign ordinary lipomas were most frequently observed in palmar and ventral sides. Lipomas located in palmar area tend to be bigger size comparing with other locations. Deep-seated lipoma is localized in central area frequently. In ordinary lipoma cases, patients are generally (78%) asymptomatic. The most frequent clinical symptom is limitation in movement depending on mass dimension.

What a maker\u2019s knowledge could be

Three classic distinctions specify that truths can be necessary versus contingent,analytic versus synthetic, and a priori versus a posteriori. The philosopher reading this article knows very well both how useful and ordinary such distinctions are in our conceptual work and that they have been subject to many and detailed debates, especially the last two. In the following pages, I do not wish to discuss how far they may be tenable. I shall assume that, if they are reasonable and non problematic in some ordinary cases, then they can be used in order to understand what kind of knowledge the maker’s knowledge is. By this I mean the sort of knowledge that Alice enjoys when she holds the information (true content) that Bob’s coffee is sweetened because she just put two spoons of sugar in it herself. The maker’s knowledge tradition is quite important but it is not mainstream in modern and analytic epistemology and lacks grounding in terms of exactly what sort of knowledge one is talking about. My suggestion is that this grounding can be provided by a minimalist approach, based on an information-theoretical analysis. In the article, I argue that (a) we need to decouple a fourth distinction, namely informative versus uninformative, from the previous three and, in particular, from its implicit association with analytic versus synthetic and a priori versus a posteriori; (b) such a decoupling facilitates, and is facilitated by, moving from a monoagent to a multiagent approach: the distinctions qualify a proposition, a message, or some information not just in themselves but relationally, with respect to an informational agent; (c) the decoupling and the multiagent approach enable a re-mapping of currently available positions in epistemology (Classic, Innatist, Kant’s and Kripke’s) on these four dichotomies; (d) within such a re-mapping, two positions, capturing the nature of a witness’ knowledge and of a maker’s knowledge, can best be described as contingent, synthetic, a posteriori, and uninformative and as contingent, synthetic, weakly a priori (ab anteriori), and uninformative respectively. In the conclusion, I indicate why the analysis of the maker’s knowledge has important consequences in all those cases in which the poietic (constructive) intervention on a system determines the truth of the model of that system.

Morphisms and Order Ideals of Toric Posets

Toric posets are in some sense a natural “cyclic” version of finite posets in that they capture the fundamental features of a partial order but without the notion of minimal or maximal elements. They can be thought of combinatorially as equivalence classes of acyclic orientations under the equivalence relation generated by converting sources into sinks, or geometrically as chambers of toric graphic hyperplane arrangements. In this paper, we define toric intervals and toric order-preserving maps, which lead to toric analogues of poset morphisms and order ideals. We develop this theory, discuss some fundamental differences between the toric and ordinary cases, and outline some areas for future research. Additionally, we provide a connection to cyclic reducibility and conjugacy in Coxeter groups.

Laparoscopic right hemicolectomy for a patient with idiopathic retroperitoneal fibrosis: A case report

A 62-year-old man with abdominal pain and lumbago was admitted to our hospital. Blood examination revealed renal insufficiency, and CT revealed retroperitoneal fibrosis causing bilateral hydrocele and ureteral compression. A colonoscopy was performed to rule out secondary retroperitoneal fibrosis due to malignancies, and this imaging revealed an ascending colon cancer. Laparoscopic right hemicolectomy with lymphadenectomy and retroperitoneal biopsy were performed. The retroperitoneum was filled with hard, white fibrous tissue, which made it difficult to mobilize the right mesocolon from the retroperitoneum. Devascularization performed before mobilization allowed for a safe and oncologically feasible procedure. Histologically, there were no malignant cells in the retroperitoneal tissue. The patient has been without colon cancer reoccurrence for 4 years. When the surgical challenges that distinguish these patients from ordinary cases are recognized preoperatively, laparoscopic colectomy may be a feasible option for patients with colorectal cancer with idiopathic retroperitoneal fibrosis.

Seeing Development as Security: Constructing Top-Down Authority and Inequitable Access in Jharkhand

This article examines governmental development interventions and their local-level implications for access to and authority over resources, using a framework of assemblage practices (Li 2007) as an analytical strategy in a mixed-methods study in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum. This insurgency-affected district, populated by the Ho tribe, has India’s largest iron deposits. It hosts the Saranda Action Plan (SAP), a controversial intervention that exemplifies how India’s government elides development with security in resource-conflict regions. SAP aims to bring security and development to mineral-rich Saranda forest division, but has been widely critiqued for its failure to deliver community-oriented development, while the security agenda paves the way for mining concessions. Meanwhile, neighbouring Sadar Chaibasa division, with comparable development issues but less minerals, is treated indifferently. Based on secondary research in Saranda and empirical work in Sadar Chaibasa’s forest villages, this article untangles the practices through which governmental development interventions construct inequitable resource access locally in both extreme and ordinary cases. It argues that seeing development as security enables the mutual constitution of top-down authorisation and inequitable resource access, building an undemocratic local-level state.

Two adult cases of Bland–White–Garland syndrome with lethal arrhythmia due to coronary steal phenomenon during physical or mental stress

We experienced two adult cases of anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery, so-called Bland–White–Garland (BWG) syndrome, that presented with ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation during exertion in daily life. They presented to our hospital with syncope due to VT, and recovered following application of an automated external defibrillator with cardiopulmonary resuscitation. We diagnosed BWG syndrome by multi-detector computed tomography angiography and coronary angiography. We analyzed the mechanisms of lethal arrhythmias in relation to myocardial ischemia on exertion. Coronary flow modification and implantable cardioverter defibrillator implantation were performed in order to prevent future lethal arrhythmia due to myocardial ischemia. It is important to be aware of congenital heart disease in ordinary cases.<Learning objective: We experienced two rare cases of patients who were admitted with ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation who had adult type Bland–White–Garland syndrome during exertion in daily life. It is important to be aware of congenital heart disease in ordinary cases.>

Efficient solvers for time-dependent problems: a review of IMEX, LATIN, PARAEXP and PARAREAL algorithms for heat-type problems with potential use of approximate exponential integrators and reduced-order models

In this paper, we introduce and comment some recent efficient solvers for time dependent partial differential or ordinary differential problems, considering both linear and nonlinear cases. Here “efficient” may have different meanings, for instance a computational complexity which is better than standard time advance schemes as well as a strong parallel efficiency, especially parallel-in-time capability. More than a review, we will try to show the close links between the different approaches and set up a general framework that will allow us to combine the different approaches for more efficiency. As a complementary aspect, we will also discuss ways to include reduced-order models and fast approximate exponential integrators as fast global solvers. For developments and discussion, we will mainly focus on the heat equation, in both linear and nonlinear form.

On the Relationship between Cognitive and Sensory Phenomenology

My main aim in this paper is to consider what methodology is best suited to adopt for one who believes that there is cognitive phenomenology (CP) in order to argue for its irreducibility to sensory phenomenology. I shall first present and criticize a methodology widely adopted by the deniers of CP in order to reject the irreducibility claim, the so called “exclude-and-isolate” methodology. I shall use my criticisms against it as a lever for backing up a certain conception of the nature of cognitive phenomenal properties. The key notion in this conception is that of factual intimacy which I shall mobilize to put forward the idea that cognitive phenomenal properties are inseparable, in practice and in ordinary cases, from sensory phenomenal properties (leaving open the possibility of their explanatory and metaphysical independence). I shall then present a strategy to prove irreducibility which is compliant with the inseparability claim. One such strategy is in my view provided by combining the so-called phenomenal contrast methodology with a methodology that, instead of contrasting couples of cases, compares them in order to disclose the presence of phenomenological commonalities. What the comparison methodology shows is that experiences with different sensory features can share a common phenomenal component. Since this possibility obtains even by assuming that all of a subject’s sensory features differ, it follows that the common phenomenal component cannot be sensory in nature. This is enough to prove that the phenomenology in question is cognitive and that this phenomenology is irreducible to the sensory one.

Numerical Investigation of Wind Waves in the Persian Gulf: Bathymetry Effects

AbstractThe effects of bathymetry on the process of wind-wave generation in the Persian Gulf have been investigated using a long-term hindcasting analysis. A 5-yr (2004–08) hindcasting procedure is first performed (denoted as origin) by using the Simulating Waves Nearshore (SWAN) model and COAMPS wind field data. Two alternative scenarios, in which wave breaking (noBrek) and depth-induced refraction (noRefc) are deactivated, are also generated. By comparing the results from alternative cases with those from the ordinary cases, a 5-yr total energy deviation (TED) is calculated and presented as seasonal contour maps depicting the sensitivity to bathymetry. The results show only ±2% TED found in noBrek, but up to ±20% TED found in noRefc, an order of magnitude larger than depth-induced breaking. Similarly, the seasonal effects of refraction on the nearshore wave-propagating directions can be investigated by comparison between origin and noRefc. The seasonal histograms of mean wave angle are plotted and discussed for three selected nearshore sites around Qatar, located at the western, northern, and eastern sides of the peninsula. The largest relative occurrence percentage and the largest peak shift ranging in 10°–20° can be found at the northern side, while the eastern side results in a weaker and more random distribution in the winter (the strong shamal season) due to the leeside location. The effect of fetch-limited wind-wave generation is also present at the eastern site, as remotely generated waves propagating eastward over a long fetch toward this site offset southward-propagating waves generated by dominant winds from the north over a limited fetch.