Unified Foundation Research Articles

Unifying Foundations – to be Seen in the Phenomenon of Language

Scientific knowledge develops in an increasingly fragmentary way.A multitude of scientific disciplines branch out. Curiosity for thisdevelopment leads into quests for a unifying understanding. To a certain extent, foundational studies provide such unification. There is a tendency, however, also of a fragmentary growth of foundational studies, like in a multitude of disciplinaryfoundations. We suggest to look at the foundational problem, not primarily as a search for foundations for one discipline in another, as in some reductionist approach, but as a steady revelation ofpresuppositions for individual scientific theories – which are boundto meet, sooner or later, in a common language. A decisive point hereis our holistic conception of language, as a whole of description-interpretation processes which are entangled(complementary) in the language itself. For every language there is alinguistic complementarity. We suggest this unique form ofentanglement as a unifying presupposition, ultimately foundational forall communicable knowledge. Involved is a linguistic realism, in terms ofwhich we critically examine ``language-world'' problems, as exposed byWittgenstein, and Russell, about a foundational interdependence of language andreality (world). Throughout, we attach to the developmentof foundational studies of mathematics, logics, and the naturalsciences. In particular, we study the interpretation problem foraxioms of infinity in some detail. We emphasize that the holistic concept of language contradicts Carnap's semiotic fragmentation thesis (thus, no clean cutbetween syntax, semantics, pragmatics).

The unity of logic, pedagogy and foundations in Grassmann's mathematical work

Hermann Grassmann's Ausdehnungslehre of 1844 and his Lehrbuch der Arithmetik of 1861 are landmark works in mathematics; the former not only developed new mathematical fields but also both contributed to the setting of modern standards of rigor. Their very modernity, however, may obscure features of Grassmann's view of the foundations of mathematics that were not adopted since. Grassmann gave a key role to the learning of mathematics that affected his method of presentation, including his emphasis on making initial assumptions explicit. In order to better understand this less well-known aspect of his work it will help to examine why some commentators have overlooked his theme of unifying logic, pedagogy and foundations, while others have recognised it.

Scheduling length for switching element disjoint multicasting in Banyan-type switching networks

Due to the stringent bit-error requirement in fiber optics, preventing the forthcoming crosstalk at switching elements (SEs) is very crucial in the large-scale photonic switches. In this paper, we consider the SE-disjoint multicasting for a photonic Banyan-type switching network. This ensures that at most, one connection holds each SE in a given time thus, neither photonic crosstalk nor link blocking will arise in the switching network implemented with optical devices such as directional couplers, splitters and combiners. Routing a set of connections under such constraint usually takes several routing rounds hence, it is desirable to keep the number of rounds (i.e., scheduling length) to a minimum. Unfortunately, finding the optimal length is NP-complete in general, we propose an algorithm that seeks an approximation solution less than double of the optimal upper bound. The bound permits the Banyan-type multicasting network to be rearrangeable nonblocking as well as crosstalk-free. It is given that the same bound guarantees wide-sense nonblocking for multicast connections, provided that the multicasting capability of the network is restricted to the second half of the whole stages, and strictly nonblocking for one-to-one connections, yet allowing to be free from the crosstalk. We also consider other crosstalk-free multicasting and the link-disjoint multicasting for the Banyan network. The theory developed in this paper gives a unified foundation on designing nonblocking and crosstalk-free photonic Banyan-type networks under the multicast connections.

The social brain: a unifying foundation for psychiatry.

TO THE EDITOR: The Research Committee of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP), a specialty think tank,has addressed psychiatry’s need for a unifying scientific foundation. Such a foundation would consider the disorders commonly treated by psychiatrists in terms of the physiolog

TOWARDS A UNIFIED VERSION MODEL USING THE RESOURCE DESCRIPTION FRAMEWORK (RDF)

Version control, a fundamental component of Software Configuration Management (SCM) — a key mechanism for software development especially in large-scale systems — lacks a unified foundation for interchangeability, interoperability, and integrability. A practical solution of such problems is not readily achieved because version controls of different SCM systems employ various version models. Hence a single unified version model is required. The work develops a single formalism to model major version control approaches as well as a prototype system. Its architecture is based on a federated SCM architecture and introduces a new SCM foundation which contains two layers: unified SCM representation and computation, based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the Equivalent Transformation computational model, respectively. The evolution of software objects, their relationships as well as team cooperation strategies can be uniformly expressed under the representation layer. The computational layer is briefly mentioned for framework demonstration. Finally, a simple prototype system is presented.

Optimizing memory usage in the polyhedral model

The polyhedral model provides a single unified foundation for systolic array synthesis and automatic parallelization of loop programs. We investigate the problem of memory reuse when compiling Alpha (a functional language based on this model). Direct compilation would require unacceptably large memory (for example O(n 3 ) for matrix multiplication). Researchers have previously addressed the problem of memory reuse, and the analysis that this entails for projective memory allocations. This paper addresses, for a given schedule, the choice of the projections so as to minimize the volume of the residual memory. We prove tight bounds on the number of linearly independent projection vectors. Our method is constructive, yielding an optimal memory allocation. We extend the method to modular functions, and deal with the subsequent problems of code generation. Our ideas are illustrated on a number of examples generated by the current version of the Alpha compiler.

Religious Foundations of Civil Society

This article (part 2 of 2) explores, from a Bahá’í perspective, the loss of a transcendent ethical basis as a central problem of modern social theory. It discusses religion as the source of society’s moral foundations and its organizing principles of order, law, and governance. Implications are drawn for the potential of religion’s most enduring core concept, that of covenant, to provide the unifying foundation for a just, caring, and tolerant global social order.

Toward a unified view of electronic commerce, electronic business, and collaborative commerce: a knowledge management approach

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) has become a major factor in determining the future survival or success of organizations. The definitions of e-commerce are many and diverse. In addition to these, there are varied notions of electronic business (e-business) and collaborative commerce (c-commerce). Here, we structure the existing five-fold e-commerce taxonomy to accommodate various e-business and c-commerce perspectives as well. From this, we synthesize an integrated over-arching definition of e-business. However, the result has a limitation. To overcome it, we advance a knowledge-management view that explicitly recognizes e-business as being based on e-knowledge: processes and technologies for managing knowledge. We contend that the knowledge-oriented perspective of e-commerce/c-commerce/e-business is beneficial in furnishing a common, organized, and unified foundation for understanding and managing electronic organizations in the knowledge e-conomy. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Pirmasis judintojas ir Universumo vieningumo problema

Straipsnyje analizuojama Pirmojo judintojo samprata ir universumo vieningumo problema Aristotelio filosofijoje. Aristotelio absoliutas yra mąstymas, ir universumas, kaip jo mąstymo produktas, turi būti neprieštaringas. Erdvė ir laikas gali būti laikomi akcidentaliu absoliuto veiklos (savikūros) rezultatu, žemiausio ontinio statuso būties modų – erdvinių-laikinių pirmųjų esmių, išsemiančių savo įsibūtinimo galimybes veikiant „causa finalis“ aktualizacijos metu – atsiradimu ir sunykimu. Universumo struktūra įgyja vieningumo, nebelieka radikalios parmenidiškos ar platoniškos būties-nebūties, idėjos-materijos priešpriešos. Aristotelio Pirmasis judintojas sujungia šiuos universumo sandus, jam materija ir forma tėra specifiniai veiklos aspektai. Aukščiausio ontinio lygmens vyksmas – pastovus absoliuto veikimas – kartojamas žemesniais lygmenimis. Tai gali būti traktuojama kaip mitologinio kosmogenezės ir universumo varianto patobulinimas. Aristotelio metafizikoje akcentuojamas intelektualusis kosmogenezės aspektas: kosmosas – tai save apmąstančio absoliuto minčių materializuotas atspindys. Save mąstantis absoliutas pasirodo ir kaip pastovus kosmoso kūrėjas, kuriam šis kūrimo procesas yra racionalus tikslas.

The ODO project: toward a unified basis for constraint-directed scheduling

The ODO project is an inquiry into constraint-directed scheduling with the primary motivation of the development of a unified foundation for constraint-directed search techniques. Central to this foundation is the exploitation of the knowledge in the constraint representation, the use of commitment assertion and retraction as search operators, a generic model of scheduling strategies, and the use of texture measurements to distill constraint information for search guidance. Each of these components is discussed in-depth. The ODO framework, a commitment-based model of constraint-directed search with which many existing scheduling techniques can be modelled and implemented, is presented along with a selection of past, current, and future research using the framework. ( 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Secure electronic commerce — II: The ABA digital signature guidelines

As a result of nearly three years of meetings with the participation of business, legal and technical experts from more than eight countries, the Information Security Committee, Section of Science and Technology, American Bar Association (ABA) has developed draft Digital Signature Guidelines (‘Guidelines’)1 - an abstract statement of principles, intended to serve as a long-term unifying foundation for digital signature law across varied legal settings either for adjudicatory use or legislative enactment. The Guidelines include definitions, general principles, and define the rights and responsibilities of certification authorities, subscribers (that is, persons to whom certificates have been issued) and relying parties (that is, persons who may use these certificates to authenticate messages but are not in privity with the certification authority). They also articulate legal expectations concerning reliance on digital signatures generally.

Bravais classes for the simplest incommensurate crystal phases

Through the reformulation of crystallography that treats periodic and quasiperiodic structures on an equal footing in three-dimensional Fourier space, a novel computation is given of the Bravais classes for the simplest kinds of incommensurately modulated crystals: (3 + 3) Bravais classes in the cubic system and (3 + 1) Bravais classes in any of the other six crystal systems. The contents of a Bravais class are taken to be sets of ordinary three-dimensional wave vectors inferred from a diffraction pattern. Because no finer distinctions are made based on the intensities of the associated Bragg peaks, a significantly simpler set of Bravais classes is found than Janner, Janssen & de Wolff [Acta Cryst. (1983). A39, 658–666] find by defining their Bravais classes in higher-dimensional superspace. In our scheme, the Janner, Janssen & de Wolff categories appear as different ways to describe identical sets of three-dimensional wave vectors when those sets contain crystallographic (3 + 0) sublattices belonging to more than a single crystallographic Bravais class. While such further discriminations are important to make when the diffraction pattern is well described by a strong lattice of main reflections and weaker satellite peaks, by not making them at the fundamental level of the Bravais class, the crystallographic description of all quasiperiodic materials is placed on a single unified foundation.

Pragmatics and foundationalism

My discussion of Bickhard and Campbell’s ‘Some foundational questions concerning language studies’ will be, as their paper is, programmatic and succinct. I will focus on what I take to be the reason why the editors of the Journal of Pragmatics decided to devote a special issue to this paper, namely the authors’ argument to the effect that a ‘functional, pragmatic, or interactive’ conception of representation, meaning, and linguistic structures must be adopted as a unified foundation for epistemology, cognitive science, and language studies. In order to focus on the essentials of this argument, other valuable aspects of the authors’ work will not be commented upon here. Let me say, from the outset, that I share much of B&C’s concern about the inadequacy of traditional forms of representationalism (cf. Dascal 1989) as well as their emphasis on the thorough ‘pragmaticity’ and ‘context-dependence’ of language and cognition (cf. Dascal 1983, 1992). Where I diverge from them is in the conclusion they draw from this, namely, the attribution of a ‘foundational’ role to pragmatics. B&C’s argument proceeds as follows. First, they argue that if all representations were ‘encodings’ (i.e., substitutional, translational, or ‘stand-in’ relations), then it would be impossible to explain how they acquire or possess content. The reason is that the basic formula for assigning content to an encoding is “‘Y represents the same thing as ‘I”, for epistemic agent A”, which can only succeed in assigning content if agent A already knows what ‘Y’ represents. Hence, there must be some other, more fundamental form of representation, where content arises without presupposing that it is already explicitly represented or known. For B&C, such a form is ‘intrinsically functional in nature’. The content of such representations is an emergent property they acquire by virtue of their role in providing a goal-directed, hierarchically organized system with a set of informational selections that increases the likelihood of the system to reach its goal. Such a system interacts with the environment. The results of any such interaction include ‘internal outcomes’, which depend on the system as well as on the environment. An internal

Basic tools and mild continuities in relator spaces

Starting with this paper, we offer a simple, unified foundation to general topology and abstract analysis by using a straightforward generalization of uniform spaces which leads us to more general structures than the ordinary topologies. As the extensive references show uniform spaces have been defined and generalized in terms of various objects. The most widely used ones are certain metrics, relations and covers. Covers are versatile tools in topology, while metrics are better adapted to arguments in analysis. However, almost everything can be formulated more simply in terms of relations. Therefore, we adhere to relations. Before describing the main features of our present approach, it seems necessary to make some historical remarks. Uniform spaces in terms of relations were first introduced by Weft [97], and later standardized by Bourbaki [10] with some adjustments. A uniform space in the Weil--Bourbaki sense is an ordered pair X(q/)=(X, ~) consisting of a set X and a nonvoid family q /o f relations U c X • such that

Groundwater lowering in the foundation pit of the Kaisiadorys pumped-storage station

The unified foundation pit of the powerhouse of the Kaisiadorys pumped-storage station (PSS) and reverse canal is located in a cove of the Kaunas reservoir with an elevation of the normal pool level (NPL) of 144 m at the debouchment of the Streva River into it. The pit of the powerhouse on two sides is cut into the bank slope, thanks to which it has a large drainage area. The pit is protected from the Kaunas reservoir and Streva Riverby cofferdams. The perimeter of the pit at elevations153-146.5 m is 2100 m. The bottom of the rectangular 180 • 20-m pit is located at elevation 107.15 m.

General Economic Equilibrium as a Unifying Concept in Energy-Economic Modeling

In the pristine model of general economic equilibrium producers and consumers are assumed to take prices for their inputs and outputs as given. A market equilibrium solution is obtained when the prices of all products lead to equal amounts of supply and demand for each. The mathematical properties of this model provide a rich and powerful unifying foundation for much of modern microeconomic theory. However, in many practical applications it is difficult or impossible to develop the data, and formulate and solve the equations required to implement the model of general economic equilibrium in its most general form. In practice, generality of formulation is often sacrificed for ease of computation and interpretation. These tradeoffs allow the latest breakthroughs in optimization algorithms and computer technology to be applied in the analysis of important societal problems. A potential drawback associated with this otherwise desirable trend is that the analysis could become infatuated with the use of particular algorithms, and lose sight of the restrictive simplifying assumptions they imply. The present paper includes a comparison of the simplifying assumptions required in four of the most popular types of energy-economic models with respect to the model of general economic equilibrium. This comparison helps sharpen our appreciation for the tradeoffs between generalization of formulation and ease of computation and interpretation that are available. The concept of general economic equilibrium is employed to provide a common framework for four ostensibly different approaches to large-scale modeling: (1) variable-coefficient input-output theory, (2) process network methodology, (3) linear programming and (4) general nonlinear optimization. The similarities and the differences of the four approaches are isolated within this framework. This comparison makes both the absolute and the relative strengths and weaknesses of the models more transparent.

Alcoholism

Alcoholism, although lacking a unified biomedical foundation, can be understood in metaphor; an alcoholic is an individual seeking an altered state of consciousness (A.S.C.). The theoretical discussion is buttressed by clinical examples in an effort to clarify the present hypothesis.

Principles of a novel nomenclature of organic compounds

Abstract

Linearized supersonic motion under a Lorentz-like transformation

The symmetry of the Lorentz transformation is shown to be inherent in the acoustics of sources in subsonic motion. The symmetry in the supersonic case is expressed in terms of a Lorentz-like transformation. The linearized wave equation describing the motion of a point source and a thin airfoil in supersonic motion is discussed by using this new transformation. Results in the paper suggest that there is a unified relativistic foundation for the acoustics of both subsonic and supersonic sources.

A neurophysiological model for anomalous correspondence based on mechanisms of sensory fusion.

Normal retinal correspondence is not stable. The arguments for the plasticity of correspondence in normal binocular vision have been given into previous papers (Nelson, 1975, 1977). In this paper, both laboratory research and the clinical strabismus literature are reviewed to show similarities between normal and abnormal binocular vision. In particular, it is argued that sensory fusion (Panum's areas) and anomalous retinal correspondence (AC) obey similar principles, and so a sensory fusional model of AC may be developed. Recent advances in the neurophysiology of binocular vision are reviewed, but current laboratory knowledge cannot account for many phenomena known clinically unless certain postulates are made. Two hypothesized intracortical interactions among binocular disparity detectors, termed disparity domain inhibition and spatial domain facilitation, play key roles in extending the neurophysiology of binocular vision to an account of both normally - and clinically - observed plasticities of correspondence. The fusional model of retinal correspondence developed here from postulated domain interactions contrasts with the older concept of fixed corresponding points, an approach which has failed to provide a unified foundation for the treatment of normal and abnormal binocular vision.