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Selected AbstractsFrom the Good Will to the Formula of Universal Law,PHILOSOPHY AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2004SAMUEL C. RICKLESS In the First Section of the Groundwork, Kant argues that a good-willed person "under subjective limitations and hindrances" is required "never to act except in such a way that [she] could also will that [her] maxim should become a universal law." Call this argument "K". Although recent commentators (including Barbara Herman, Christine Korsgaard, Nelson Potter, and Allen Wood) have done much to clarify and defend many of the important claims Kant makes in the First Section, they have accurately identified neither K's premises nor the reasoning by means of which K's conclusion is derived. The result of this is that K's strengths are underappreciated. My aim is to rectify this state of affairs, by providing a detailed reconstruction of K, and thereby bring out the various ways in which the argument deserves our recognition and praise. [source] Autoassociator networks: insights into infant cognitionDEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2004Sylvain Sirois This paper presents autoassociator neural networks. A first section reviews the architecture of these models, common learning rules, and presents sample simulations to illustrate their abilities. In a second section, the ability of these models to account for learning phenomena such as habituation is reviewed. The contribution of these networks to discussions about infant cognition is highlighted. A new, modular approach is presented in a third section. In the discussion, a role for these learning models in a broader developmental framework is proposed. [source] Wittgenstein's Builders and Perry's Objection to Sentence PriorityDIALECTICA, Issue 1 2002Eli Dresner In the first section of this paper I present a view of linguistic meaning that I label 'Sentence Priority'(SP): the position that semantically primitive language-world contact is made at the level of complete sentences (rather than the level of sentence parts). Then, in the main part of the paper, I consider and reject an objection against Sentence Priority raised by John Perry, an objection that appeals to Wittgenstein's builders parable. Perry argues that the builder's utterances (,Slab',,Pillar', etc.) are utterances of self-standing nouns, and that therefore they constitute a counter-example to SP. A sound assessment of Perry's argument, however, depends on a clear distinction between two cases: one in which the four expressions mentioned in Wittgenstein's example exhaust the builders'expressive powers, and one in which they do not. Once these cases are distinguished it can be seen that in neither does Perry's argument go through. [source] Standard-Setting Methods as Measurement ProcessesEDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT: ISSUES AND PRACTICE, Issue 1 2010Paul Nichols Some writers in the measurement literature have been skeptical of the meaningfulness of achievement standards and described the standard-setting process as blatantly arbitrary. We argue that standard setting is more appropriately conceived of as a measurement process similar to student assessment. The construct being measured is the panelists' representation of student performance at the threshold of an achievement level. In the first section of this paper, we argue that standard setting is an example of stimulus-centered measurement. In the second section, we elaborate on this idea by comparing some popular standard-setting methods to the stimulus-centered scaling methods known as psychophysical scaling. In the third section, we use the lens of standard setting as a measurement process to take a fresh look at the two criticisms of standard setting: the role of judgment and the variability of results. In the fourth section, we offer a vision of standard-setting research and practice as grounded in the theory and practice of educational measurement. [source] Design-based empirical orthogonal function model for environmental monitoring data analysis,ENVIRONMETRICS, Issue 8 2008Breda Munoz Abstract An empirical orthogonal function (EOF) model is proposed as a prediction method for data collected over space and time. EOF models are widely used in a number of disciplines, including Meteorology and Oceanography. The appealing feature of this model is the advantage of not requiring any assumption for the covariance matrix structure. However, there is a need to account for the errors associated with the spatial and temporal features of the data. This is accomplished by incorporating information from the sampling design, used to establish the network, into the model. The theoretical developments and numerical solutions are presented in the first section of the paper. An application of the model to real data and the results of validation analyses are also presented. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Symbols in Wittgenstein's TractatusEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY, Issue 3 2007Colin Johnston This paper is concerned with the status of a symbol in Wittgenstein's Tractatus. It is claimed in the first section that a Tractarian symbol, whilst essentially a syntactic entity to be distinguished from the mark or sound that is its sign, bears its semantic significance only inessentially. In the second and third sections I pursue this point of exegesis through the Tractarian discussions of nonsense and the context principle respectively. The final section of the paper places the forgoing work in a secondary context, addressing in particular a debate regarding the realism of the Tractatus. [source] Particularism, Generalism and the Counting ArgumentEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY, Issue 1 2003Simon Kirchin In a recent collection of papers ,Moral Particularism (hereafter MP)1, some writers argue against a particularist explanation of thick ethical features, particularist in the sense developed by Jonathan Dancy. In this piece I argue that particularists can tackle what I regard as the most interesting argument put forward by these writers, an argument I call the Counting Argument. My aim is twofold. First, I wish to make clear exactly what the debate between particularists and their opponents about the thick rests on. Secondly, I do not wish to provide a ,knock-down' argument to show particularism as true, but merely to push the onus back onto particularism's opponents and show that far more needs to be said. One last introductory comment. After some necessary scene-setting in the first section, where I explain how the philosophical ground is carved up and introduce some terminology, I indicate why this debate is fundamental in ethical theory although I don't pursue the idea here. [source] Upgrading, uneven development, and jobs in the North American apparel industryGLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 2 2003Jennifer Bair In this article we examine the developmental consequences of globalization at multiple scales, using a commodity chains framework to investigate the case of the North American apparel industry. In the first section we outline the apparel commodity chain and offer a brief typology of its lead firms. In the second section we discuss the concept of industrial upgrading and describe several main export roles in the global apparel industry. In the third section we focus on the regional dynamics resulting from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). We contrast the Mexican experience with that of countries in the Caribbean Basin to show the impact of distinct trade policies on export-oriented development. We argue that NAFTA is creating upgrading opportunities for some Mexican firms to move from the low value-added export-oriented assembly (or maquila) model to full-package production. In the fourth section we explore the unevenness of upgrading dynamics through a comparison of two blue jeans manufacturing clusters in the United States and Mexico: El Paso and Torreon. Our conclusions about upgrading and uneven development in the North American apparel industry emphasize the importance of local, national and regional institutional contexts in shaping inter-firm networks and their development impact. [source] Not Enough Science or Not Enough Learning?HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2008Exploring the Gaps between Leadership Theory, Practice This paper addresses the relationships between leadership theory, practice and development, drawing on both the higher education and wider leadership literature. It explores why challenges and problems exist within the contested field of leadership theory and why gaps remain between theory and practice after more than a century of research , and indeed, with increasing levels of research, scholarship and development in the last 25 years. After highlighting the importance of context for theory, practice and development, the first section of the paper examines a range of factors that contribute to theoretical ,contests' including different starting assumptions made by researchers, the different focus of studies, examination of different causal links to explain leadership, differences in values and cultural lenses and different constructs, terminology and perspectives. The second section examines the challenges faced by leadership practitioners, as individuals, and through exercising leadership as a collective responsibility in the context of changing operating environments within higher education institutions and across sectors and countries. The author highlights three areas where some re-thinking of the links between theory and practice are necessary , at the input stage, linking research findings and recruitment practices; in terms of outcomes, by researching links between leaders, leadership and performance; and in process terms, to examine more deeply complex and relational dynamic of leadership in action. The third section offers a number of specific suggestions as to how closer alignment between theory, practice and development can be achieved. The paper concludes by arguing for greater maturity (in research, practice and development) that acknowledges that leadership is played out in complex, dynamic and changing social systems. A stronger emphasis on ,leadership learning' should deliver both better science and better outcomes for leaders and led in higher education. [source] Ethical aspects of technical safetyHUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS IN MANUFACTURING & SERVICE INDUSTRIES, Issue 3 2003Carl Friedrich Gethmann Uncertainty and inequality are the most important phenomena that lead to the situation in which the modern technical age, in contrast to the premodern technical phase, gives rise to specifically moral problems which in the premodern era played only a marginal role or no role at all. So modern, technically constituted societies must learn to develop from the initial perception of dangers to a rational risk assessment. To justify this ethical obligation, the first section discusses the relation between danger and risk. The problem of weighing risks is analyzed in the second section; in this context the concept of pragmatic consistency is introduced. In the third section, the term safety is explicated as a comparative concept by means of the principle of pragmatic consistency. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 13: 243,252, 2003. [source] Oxyntomodulin reduces expression of glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor in the brainstem of chickensJOURNAL OF ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY AND NUTRITION, Issue 4 2010A. G. Moghaddam Summary Oxyntomodulin (OXM) is a peptide released from the gut and attenuates food intake by acting on hypothalamus. However, its role at the molecular level is not well studied. In the first section of this study, we analysed the effect of OXM on food intake behaviour after injecting into the lateral ventricle of chickens. The outcome showed that food intake decreased significantly after administering 4 nmol of OXM. In the second part, the expression of glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP-1R) in the brainstem was analysed by real-time RT-PCR. The results showed that expression of GLP-1R was reduced to 27% and 16% at 30 and 90 mins after injection of OXM respectively. In saline-injected chickens, no reduction in GLP-1R was seen. It can be concluded that OXM has a down regulatory effect on the responding receptor, GLP-1R and OXM in chicks has the same reductive effect on food intake as in the mammals. [source] The unrealized potential of everyday technology as a context for learningJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 7 2001Gary Benenson This four-part article argues that technology education should play a far more substantial role in the schools. In the first section the article broadly defines the term technology to include the artifacts of everyday life as well as environments and systems. Second is a description of the City Technology Curriculum Guides project, of which most of the thinking in this article is a product. The third section presents a comprehensive set of goals for elementary technology education, using classroom examples from City Technology. Many of these goals coincide with the goals of other school subjects, including math, science, English language arts and social studies. The concluding section suggests a broad role for technology education in providing a context for learning in these areas. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 730,745, 2001 [source] Language and the Measure of MindMIND & LANGUAGE, Issue 4 2010ELI DRESNER In his recent book The Measure of Mind Robert Matthews presents the most elaborate and convincing attempt to date to account for the propositional attitudes in measurement theoretic terms. In the first section of this paper I review earlier applications of measurement-theoretic conceptualization to the discussion of the mind, I outline Matthews' own account, and I raise two questions concerning it. Then, in the second section of the paper, I present a unified measurement-theoretic account of both linguistic meaning and the propositional attitudes, in which a variant of Matthews' position is embedded. Such a unified account, I argue, yields satisfactory answers to the questions raised with respect to Matthews' original view, and demonstrates other advantages. [source] Cystic fibrosis lung disease starts in the small airways: Can we treat it more effectively?PEDIATRIC PULMONOLOGY, Issue 2 2010Harm A.W.M. Tiddens MD Abstract The aims of this article are to summarize existing knowledge regarding the pathophysiology of small airways disease in cystic fibrosis (CF), to speculate about additional mechanisms that might play a role, and to consider the available or potential options to treat it. In the first section, we review the evidence provided by pathologic, physiologic, and imaging studies suggesting that obstruction of small airways begins early in life and is progressive. In the second section we discuss how the relationships between CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), ion transport, the volume of the periciliary liquid layer and airway mucus might lead to defective mucociliary clearance in small airways. In addition, we discuss how chronic endobronchial bacterial infection and a chronic neutrophilic inflammatory response increase the viscosity of CF secretions and exacerbate the clearance problem. Next, we discuss how the mechanical properties of small airways could be altered early in the disease process and how remodeling can contribute to small airways disease. In the final section, we discuss how established therapies impact small airways disease and new directions that may lead to improvement in the treatment of small airways disease. We conclude that there are many reasons to believe that small airways play an important role in the pathophysiology of (early) CF lung disease. Therapy should be aimed to target the small airways more efficiently, especially with drugs that can correct the basic defect at an early stage of disease. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2010; 45:107,117. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Spinoza's Proof of NecessitarianismPHILOSOPHY AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2003OLLI KOISTINEN This paper consists of four sections. The first section considers what the proof of necessitarianism in Spinoza's system requires. Also in the first section, Jonathan Bennett's (1984) reading of lpl6 as involving a commitment to necessitarianism is presented and accepted. The second section evaluates Bennett's suggestion how Spinoza might have been led to conclude necessitarianism from his basic assumptions. The third section of the paper is devoted to Don Garrett's (1991) interpretation of Spinoza's proof. I argue that Bennett's and Garrett's interpretations of Spinoza's necessitarianism have shortcomings which justify an attempt to offer an alternative proof. In the proof given in the fourth section, it is argued that Spinoza derived necessitarianism from the conjunction of the following principles: (i) necessary existence of the substances; (ii) substance-property ontology; (iii) superessentialism; and (iv) the ,no shared attribute'thesis. [source] Beyond the ivory tower: from business aims to policy makingPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2006Richard Tudway Abstract This article explores the provenance of some of those deepest heart-felt anxieties of modern times,and offers a practical response. There is a pervasive sense of angst in OECD countries about where we are headed. Somehow the values, public and private, we once thought we all stood for are compromised. The democratic process looks tired and shop-soiled. This backdrop plays upon deeper existential fears. Do we have any real control over our individual or collective destinies? The effect is morally and spiritually debilitating. This is, in brief, the core of the Argument from the first section. It is followed in section two by a presentation of the Facts that support this rather uninviting scenario. After looking at how things are shaping up on the socio-economic and political fronts, one provisional conclusion is that values and beliefs, along with policies and institutions, are in a state of poor repair. Section three on Findings adds to the sense of existential woe. It does so by exploring the real or imagined psychological disjunction which is common in the today's work-place and everyday living. The alienation and the loss of direction that affects the wellbeing and even the balance of otherwise normal people is striking. We are left with unanswered questions at many different levels. Why are the prospects of progress in dealing positively and constructively with these problems so uncertain? Is there any all-in-one solution, or are we simply to address each symptom as it comes along, and disregard the wider context? Section four of the paper tries to provide a holistic Prognosis of the situation, seen from an all-level encompassing perspective. It does so in the belief we cannot meaningfully begin to address specific symptoms outside the context of the wider whole. It concludes with a few simple, in some ways ageless aspirations of mankind, whose aim is to equate what we say with what we do. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Annotation: Conceptions of IntelligenceTHE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 3 2001Mike Anderson This paper argues for the scientific utility of the concept "intelligence". In the first section three common arguments against the validity of general intelligence are discussed and dismissed. The second section presents the evidence in favour of the proposition that individual differences in IQ may be based on differences in speed of information processing. However, the third section shows that executive functions, particularly inhibitory processes, represent a more likely basis for the, development of intelligence. The theory of the minimal cognitive architecture underlying intelligence and development (Anderson, 1992a) shows how speed and executive functioning might represent two dimensions to, g,one an individual differences (within age) dimension based on speed and the other a developmental dimension based on changing executive functioning. In the fourth section this theory is used to generate new insights on the nature of intellectual disability and specific cognitive deficits and to make practical suggestions for educational intervention for low-IQ children. [source] Characteristics of Underground Water Flow at Different Water Levels in Tianshengan Karst Area, Yunnan, ChinaACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (ENGLISH EDITION), Issue 1 2010Janja KOGOV Abstract: Three tracing tests from the same injection point executed at low, medium, and high water levels in the karst aquifer near Tianshengan village, Lunan Stone Forest, Yunnan Province, China, have revealed the basic properties of underground water flow. They showed the general directions of water flows; tracer concentrations were observed at six successive points allowing for the calculation of apparent dominant flow velocities at these sections towards the Dalongtan karst spring. For the high water level, the discharge between single sections was between two and 10 times greater than that at low water level. For the medium water level, the flow velocity at different sections was between 1.4 and 3.7 times faster than that at low water level; and for high water level, it was between 1.3 and 2.7 times faster than that at medium water level. The fastest water flow appeared at the first section (23 cm/s at medium water level); and the slowest (0.6 cm/s at low water level) appeared where water flow must cross the Tianshengan fault (north-south direction), and later, a layer of 20-30 m thickness of quartz sandstone and shale clay-stones. It was also possible to calculate the recovery of the tracer for point 4, Dakenyan, where discharge was measured. At the medium water level, 50% of the injected tracer was detected a half-day after its first appearance and at low water level after more than 3 days. The previously published research illustrates the transport velocities of possible contaminants and their solubilities in water at different hydrological conditions. [source] Process Optimization of Filling Up CrystallizationCHEMICAL ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY (CET), Issue 5 2010I. Markovits Abstract The optimization of filling up crystallization of a specific active pharmaceutical ingredient (APIe) is presented and discussed. Filling up crystallization is a special cooling crystallization method the main goal of which is to narrow the crystal size distribution (CSD) of the product. Fast cooling of the solution is achieved in the first section of the cooling profile as the hot solution of the API for crystallization is fed into the crystallizer, where a constant but significantly lower temperature is maintained by choosing a suitable addition rate of the hot solution and utilizing the cooling efficiency of the crystallizer. The process of determination for formulation of the crystals occurs during the filling up period of the crystallization. As a result of optimization, a parameter range is specified from which the process parameters can be chosen ensuring that the product specifications comply with the limitations. [source] Critical Discourse Analysis in Political Studies: An Illustrative Analysis of the ,Empowerment' AgendaPOLITICS, Issue 2 2010Michael Farrelly In the first sections of this article I give a simple and general account of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and how it might contribute to the theoretical and methodological repertoire of political studies through its discourse-dialectical theory of how discourse figures as an aspect of social practices without reducing those practices to discourse. In the final section I give a short illustrative example of how a CDA approach to detailed textual analysis might also be applied to specific texts (or groups of texts) in the political arena: in the example I take the press release in which the national UK government heralded its recent ,empowerment' White Paper, ,Communities in Control'. [source] |