Terms Of Explanation Research Articles

Faithful and Consistent Graph Neural Network Explanations with Rationale Alignment

Uncovering rationales behind predictions of graph neural networks (GNNs) has received increasing attention over recent years. Instance-level GNN explanation aims to discover critical input elements, such as nodes or edges, that the target GNN relies upon for making predictions. Though various algorithms are proposed, most of them formalize this task by searching the minimal subgraph, which can preserve original predictions. However, an inductive bias is deep-rooted in this framework: Several subgraphs can result in the same or similar outputs as the original graphs. Consequently, they have the danger of providing spurious explanations and failing to provide consistent explanations. Applying them to explain weakly performed GNNs would further amplify these issues. To address this problem, we theoretically examine the predictions of GNNs from the causality perspective. Two typical reasons for spurious explanations are identified: confounding effect of latent variables like distribution shift and causal factors distinct from the original input. Observing that both confounding effects and diverse causal rationales are encoded in internal representations, we propose a new explanation framework with an auxiliary alignment loss, which is theoretically proven to be optimizing a more faithful explanation objective intrinsically. Concretely for this alignment loss, a set of different perspectives are explored: anchor-based alignment, distributional alignment based on Gaussian mixture models, mutual-information-based alignment, and so on. A comprehensive study is conducted both on the effectiveness of this new framework in terms of explanation faithfulness/consistency and on the advantages of these variants. For our codes, please refer to the following URL link: https://github.com/TianxiangZhao/GraphNNExplanation

Exploring Students’ Procedural Fluency and Written Adaptive Reasoning Skills In Solving Open-Ended Problems

Developing students’ mathematical skills requires both procedure and reasoning. However, the declination of possessing these skills is still evident today. Hence, this study aimed to describe the students’ procedural fluency in terms of accuracy, flexibility, and efficiency and written adaptive reasoning in terms of explanation and justification in solving open-ended problems. The study employed descriptive-correlational design through purposive sampling of thirty students from a National High School in Laguna, Philippines. The quantitative data revealed that in procedural fluency, students can quickly submit a complete solution leading to correct answer. However, they fail to provide two or more solutions in solving open-ended problems. The results also showed that students can clearly explain the problem but struggle to justify their solution. Moreover, procedural fluency is positively correlated to their adaptive reasoning. Consequently, students with an average level of mathematical achievement scored significantly higher than those at a low mathematical level in terms of flexibility. Pedagogical implications suggest that problem-solving activities for students should not solely focus on getting the correct procedures and answers. Further, it is recommended that teachers should expose students in open-ended problems and allow them to try and justify their own unique solutions irrespective of their mathematical achievement.

Hempel on scientific understanding

Hempel seems to hold the following three views: (H1) Understanding is pragmatic/relativistic: Whether one understands why X happened in terms of Explanation E depends on one's beliefs and cognitive abilities; (H2) Whether a scientific explanation is good, just like whether a mathematical proof is good, is a nonpragmatic and objective issue independent of the beliefs or cognitive abilities of individuals; (H3) The goal of scientific explanation is understanding: A good scientific explanation is the one that provides understanding. Apparently, H1, H2, and H3 cannot be all true. Some philosophers think that Hempel is inconsistent, while some others claim that Hempel does not actually hold H3. I argue that Hempel does hold H3 and that he can consistently hold all of H1, H2, and H3 if he endorses what I call the “understanding argument.” I also show how attributing the understanding argument to Hempel can make more sense of his D-N model and his philosophical analysis of the pragmatic aspects of scientific explanation.

Boosting algorithms in energy research: a systematic review

Machine learning algorithms have been extensively exploited in energy research, due to their flexibility, automation and ability to handle big data. Among the most prominent machine learning algorithms are the boosting ones, which are known to be “garnering wisdom from a council of fools”, thereby transforming weak learners to strong learners. Boosting algorithms are characterized by both high flexibility and high interpretability. The latter property is the result of recent developments by the statistical community. In this work, we provide understanding on the properties of boosting algorithms to facilitate a better exploitation of their strengths in energy research. In this respect, (a) we summarize recent advances on boosting algorithms, (b) we review relevant applications in energy research with those focusing on renewable energy (in particular those focusing on wind energy and solar energy) consisting a significant portion of the total ones, and (c) we describe how boosting algorithms are implemented and how their use is related to their properties. We show that boosting has been underexploited so far, while great advances in the energy field are possible both in terms of explanation and interpretation, and in terms of predictive performance.

Jurisprudence Books Alasfiyeh and Its Status among the Books of Jurisprudence

The first section of this paper considers the Al-Asifiyayh school in terms of its origin, and the most prominent of its students. The second section examines the jurisprudence books that were studied in the school, exploring the scholars who wrote and studied these books, and how the previous scholars paid attention in terms of explanation, summarization,and transcription. Because of the importance, those books caught the respect of the publication houses They were printed in several editions in more than one house, an indication that they were highly valued.
 Keywords: school Alasfiyeh- Place- Jurisprudence book- Jurisprudence

Psicopedagogía crítica para conceptos epistémicos y sociales en investigación universitaria

El objetivo de este trabajo fue proponer nuevas definiciones de términos epistémicos que son utilizados en el ámbito universitario y particularmente en ciencias socioculturales: gnoseología, epistemología y teoría del conocimiento, por un lado, y por el otro, los términos de explicación y comprensión. Para ello, estos conceptos pasaron por una exposición descriptiva para posteriormente ser tratados psicopedagógica y sociocríticamente, lo cual permitió conocer los pormenores intrínsecos que tienen cada uno ellos; este proceso garantizó una base teórica que permitió y fundamentó la propuesta de nuevas concepciones de los cinco términos en cuestión. Aparte del método de trabajo de campo de investigación, se utilizó el análisis teórico discriminante, el método descriptivo, el inductivo, el análisis-síntesis y de posición, el de la elevación de lo abstracto a lo concreto y lo histórico-lógico; también se recurrió al paradigma sociocrítico, al método propositivo y, particularmente, al método de la filofización de los hechos. Entre los resultados, primero, se logró cumplir con el objetivo de formular nuevas proposiciones conceptuales para los términos epistémicos y sociales ya mencionados; segundo, se detectó que cada uno de los autores revisados tiene una posición conceptual distinta respecto a un solo término universal, lo cual lleva a la confusión; tercero, las tres epistemes de la gnoseología, la epistemología y la teoría del conocimiento son sinónimas, pero la epistemología se diferencia de las otras dos por ser la única que implica un tratamiento del método; y cuarto, respecto a los términos sociales de explicación y comprensión, ambos pueden contribuir ya sea de manera separada o conjunta a las ciencias físicas, naturales y sociales, pero el último de alguna forma se diferencia del primero porque es más profundo en su actuar en relación con todo tipo de hechos: si bien permite ver cuestiones objetivas, principalmente es útil para temas intersubjetivos y trascendentales de todo tipo de hechos materiales y humanos.

Exploring spatiotemporal dynamics in a housing market using the spatial vector autoregressive Lasso: A case study of Seoul, Korea

AbstractHouse prices fluctuate spatiotemporally and when influential changes from a region happen, the effects spread out in space over time. Although many studies have introduced various models to explain the spatiotemporal dynamics in housing markets, it is always challenging to consider both dimensions in a model. Some recent studies have identified spatiotemporal interactions of house prices by combining spatial and temporal models via spatial vector autoregression. The approach, however, assumes spatial homogeneity of the variables due to insufficient degrees of freedom. Since the housing market is generally conceived as heterogeneous, we suggest an alternative model of the spatial vector autoregressive Lasso without the homogeneity assumption. As an empirical example, we examine the spatiotemporal interaction between house sales price and rent in Seoul, Korea. The results show that rent for apartments in Gangnam‐gu, a socioeconomic core of Seoul, has positive impacts on rent for apartments in surrounding suburbs rather than their sales price. Moreover, the suggested model outperforms the classical method in terms of explanation, prediction, and autocorrelation of residuals. This research is expected to provide a methodological guide to explore the interaction between house sales price and rent, and insights into the spatiotemporal dynamics of the housing market in Seoul.

The cold war re-visited: explaining and understanding of the end of the cold war in light of neo-realism

Neorealism is certainly the most analyzed and criticized theoretical approach. This study is no exception. The Cold War was unexpectedly ended in the 1989- 1991 period. One of the main criticisms of neorealism is that it failed to predict an end to the Cold War. In international relations discipline, theories have rarely predictive ability. For the neorealist theorists, especially Waltz claims that the prediction issue is not a major criticism because neo-realism does not aim to predict the behavior of individual states at any given time. The main objective of neorealism is to explain the logic of individual relationships in the international state system. This article aims to offer new ideas whether neorealism tells us about the Cold War in terms of explanation about the events that may reemerge in global political scene almost twenty-five year later. Another important contribution of this article is to analyze the success and failure of the neorealist explanation and understanding of the Second Cold War of 1979-1985 in order to shed lights on the future the Third Cold War that is a political reality in terms of a Russian threat and a West response after the 2014 Crimean Crisis. It should be stressed that neorealism has the explanatory rather than the predictive power.

The Representation of Action

AbstractFrom its inception, the philosophy of action has sought to account for action in terms of an associated kind of explanation. The alternative to this approach was noticed, but not adopted, by G.E.M. Anscombe. Anscombe observed that a series of answers to the reason-requesting question ‘Why?’ may be read in reverse order as a series of answers to the question ‘How?’ Unlike answers to the question ‘Why?’, answers to the question ‘How?’ are not explanatory of what they are about: they reveal, not reasons for doing something, but ways of doing something, and they have the form of what Aristotle called a practical syllogism. The alternative to theorizing action in terms of explanation, is, thus, to theorize it in terms calculation. In exploring this alternative, I argue for three main theses: first, that (pace Anscombe) it is not a matter of indifference whether we theorize action in terms of the question ‘Why?’ or in terms of the question ‘How?’; second, that the question ‘Why?’ is a question for an observer of action, whereas the question ‘How?’ is a question for the agent; and finally, that the standpoint of the agent, revealed by the question ‘How?’, is prior to that of an observer, revealed by the question ‘Why?’.

“The TMJ Sound Scout”: Device to diagnose Temporomandibular Joint Sound

ABSTRACTAimsTraining and teaching the students about the temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) and related sounds which can be used for its diagnosis is difficult for both teacher and students in terms of explanation and understanding. It is difficult for operator to explain about the condition of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) sounds in disease state and same way it is difficult to understand as patients.There is a need for a simple and handy device that can be used for teaching purpose in classrooms and institutional dental clinics and also for patients’ education and diagnosis.This paper presents a meek, easy to assemble, and economic electronic device to diagnose and record TMJ sounds.Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders are very common in the current era due to stressful lifestyle and working environment. Some of them remain unnoticed and undiagnosed due to lack of patient motivation, education, and also due to lack of operators’ knowledge and skill to diagnose the same.Students’ training and education also need reform and advancement in the field of TMDs. The paper explains about manufacturing of simple and handy device to diagnose and record TMJ sounds. The instrument can be used for teaching and training of students in teaching institutes and clinics. It can also be used for patient education purpose.How to cite this articlePrajapati P, Rao N, Sethuraman R, Patel JR. “The TMJ Sound Scout”: Device to diagnose Temporomandibular Joint Sound. J Contemp Dent 2016;6(2):114-116.

Revisiting VFR tourism in South Africa

The segment of visiting, friends and relatives (VFR) is one of the largest components of tourism economies. During the last two decades there emerged tourism scholarship around VFR travel, mostly in Australia, the USA and Europe. This paper examines the size, characteristics and spatial patterns of VFR tourism in South Africa. It is argued that studies of VFR travel in the global South must be linked to questions about migration. In the South African case the volume, nature and geography of VFR tourism cannot be understood without an analysis of historical migration trends. It is demonstrated that VFR travel is the largest element of domestic tourism and is dominated by black travellers. In terms of explanation, the continued role of circular mobilities in the post-apartheid period is highlighted. The geographical patterns of VFR tourism in South Africa reveal a complex of factors and most importantly the existence of split or translocal households for which VFR mobilities are critical. In South Africa, strong VFR travel occurs to large metropolitan areas and to the former homeland areas that are not considered as significant tourism destinations. Arguably, in many of these rural areas of South Africa VFR travel is the most significant driver of local tourism economies.

Burden or Relief? Fiscal Impacts of Recent Ukrainian Migration to Poland

Immigration has become recently one of the most important subjects in socio-economic debates. In many countries immigrants are commonly presented as a threat to host economies and societies. On top of this fiscal impacts of immigration are ones of the hottest and most controversial topics in recent debate on migration. Against this background this paper aims at (1) discussing and synthesizing both theoretical and empirical literature on fiscal impacts of immigration, and (2) assessing empirically net fiscal position of Ukrainian immigrants in Poland. On the theoretical level we show that there exists no clear or coherent theoretical framework to explain fiscal effects of migration. Outcomes of empirical studies are mixed and not unequivocal, but generally prove that fiscal impacts of immigration are small or negligible.In terms of explanation, type of migration, labor market incorporation (absorption) and institutional framework at destination (structure of the welfare state) are presented as critical factors. Importance of those factors is clearly supported by empirical analysis presented. Net fiscal position of Ukrainian immigrants in Poland is unequivocally positive (and more beneficial than it is in case of the natives). This is mostly due to favorable characteristics of incoming immigrants (in terms of age and education) and particular migration strategies in work (pure labor migration). These features, however, to a large extent result from modes of labor market incorporation and structural characteristics of the Polish welfare state.

Gli approcci teorici per lo studio dei personal network

The subject of this essay is an analysis of the most significant theoretical approaches that have affected the personal networks, with the aim to demonstrate that interest in the personal networks created with the late modernity that has accelerated the process of individuation and individualism. The purpose of this essay will be to demonstrate that the relational approach is the one that best approximates the study of interpersonal networks and that, in terms of explanation and understanding of the latest social dynamics, never as in this moment is strategic to put a specific emphasis on interpersonal relationships. To achieve these goals, after seeing how the classical sociology dealt with personal networks, we present the relational approach, which can find in the network analysis its specific methodological complements, then we conclude with a reflection on the operational impacts of some recent empirical researches.

Les causes, les raisons et la morale

The Verstehen controversy, which stems from Wilhelm Dilthey, has today become an academic question. But, recently, cognitive sciences and new developments in action theory provided an interesting renewal of the topic. The classical problem of explanation vs. understanding has been reformulated in terms of explanation by causes vs. explanation by reasons. The paper relies on these new issues in order to clarify the original distinction by making explicit its three basic dimensions: ontological, logical and ethical. It also draws some consequences of taking into account the normative facts in sociological analysis.

Motivation to Learn: The pedagogical nexus in the Russian school: Some implications for transnational research and policy borrowing

Earlier research had shown that in some Russian schools, pupils were significantly more highly motivated to learn in school than in some American and English schools. Further inquiry was conducted to ascertain to what extent such high motivation might be attributed to schooling-related factors. It is suggested that Russian schools exhibit a 'pedagogical nexus' - a set of linked, interactive and mutually reinforcing influences on pupils' motivation to learn within and because of the schooling process- in which continuity of school, class and teacher - inter-generational continuity; closeness of home-school relations; readiness and preparation for schooling; the articulation of a national curriculum in school texts and in a critical pedagogics; the extent and character of inter-relation between lesson, textbook, homework and assessment; and the role of memorisation in learning - play highly inter-related and mutually attuned roles. It is argued that the terms of explanation of an unfamiliar education system cannot be reliably used for the identification of isolable practices for transnational export to other systems. Explanations of unfamiliar systems can, however, raise powerful and pointed evaluative questions of general interest.

Argument‐based explanation of the British nationality act as a logic program

Abstract Explanations are a significant component of any knowledge‐based system in the legal domain. We have previously proposed a method by which explanations can be improved by making use of annotations on program clauses as to the role of the clause, and organising the explanation according to an argument schema based on that of Stephen Toulmin. In this paper we describe an application of this approach to a part of the British Nationality Act. This serves to illustrate both the practicality of making the required annotations on a legal logic program, and the gains in terms of explanation that can be achieved.

Preschool children can learn to transfer: Learning to learn and learning from example

In a series of seven experiments we examined preschool children's ability to learn and transfer across problems that shared a common underlying structure but differed in surface manifestations. The problems involved novel uses of familiar tools or simple biological themes such as mimicry as a method of defense. In the first three studies, we examined children's ability to learn to transfer after being exposed to a variety of transfer situations. Three-year-olds benefit from conditions that encourage them to reflect upon relational similarity; four-year-olds show a learning to learn effect without prompts to look for similarity. Both ages rapidly form a mind set to look for analogous solutions across problems. In Studies 4 to 7, we looked at preschoolers' learning from examples. When required to explain why an example is an illustration of a general theme, transfer to other instances of that theme is rapid, often occurring on the basis of only one example. Explanations and elaborations provided by the children, either spontaneously or in response to prompts, are much more effective at promoting transfer than those provided by an experimenter. The data are discussed in terms of explanation or analysis-based models of both machine and human learning.

Technical note:: Hybrid corn: Its adoption revisited

The analysis presented is for the adoption of hybrid corn. Among the three functional relationships that are tried the log logistic performs best in terms of explanation (R 2) and serial correlation before adjusting for it. After adjusting for the serial correlation using the Cochrane Orcutt procedure the differences between the three functional forms practically vanish. The adoption parameter of the log logistic is best explained by economic variables among which the total area of corn in the state, which stands for both the importance in the economy and economies of scale of extension services, is outstanding.

Causes as explanations: A critique

This paper offers a critique of the view that causation can be analyzed in terms of explanation. In particular, the following points are argued: (1) a genuine explanatory analysis of causation must make use of a fully epistemological-psychological notion of explanation; (2) it is unlikely that the relatively clear-cut structure of the causal relation can be captured by the relatively unstructured relation of explanation; (3) the explanatory relation does not always parallel the direction of causation; (4) certain difficulties arise for any attempt to construct a nonrelativistic relation of causation from the essentially relativistic relation of explanation; and (5) to analyze causation as explanation is to embrace a form of “causal idealism”, the view that causal connections are not among the objective features of the world. The paper closes with a brief discussion of the contrast between the two fundamentally opposed viewpoints about causality, namely causal idealism and causal realism.