A large body of research has examined the relationship between moral intensity (MI) and the four‐component model of morality, typically, by separating MI into its constituent dimensions and regressing them individually against the four‐component model. This approach, however, violates the definition of MI as a single construct. To correct this problem, we develop and test a model of the impact of MI as a single, 6‐item formative construct. We find that when MI is taken into account, moral recognition (...) is not significant. MI does, however, serve as a strong trigger for judgment. We also determine that splitting MI into multiple factors does not significantly affect the results, confirming the assertion that MI is a single, coherent construct. (shrink)

We prove that for a finitely generated infinite nilpotent group $G$ with structure $(G,\cdot,\dots)$, the connected component ${G^*}^0$ of a sufficiently saturated extension $G^*$ of $G$ exists and equals \[ \bigcap_{n\in\N} \{g^n\colon g\in G^*\}. \] We construct an expansion of ${\mathbb Z}$ by a predicate $({\mathbb Z},+,P)$ such that the type-connected component ${{\mathbb Z}^*}^{00}_{\emptyset}$ is strictly smaller than ${{\mathbb Z}^*}^0$. We generalize this to finitely generated virtually solvable groups. As a corollary of our construction we obtain an optimality (...) result for the van der Waerden theorem for finite partitions of groups. (shrink)

We develop a logical modelling approach to describe evolvable computational systems. In this account, evolvable systems are built hierarchically from components where each component may have an associated supervisory process. The supervisor's purpose is to monitor and possibly change its associated component. Evolutionary change may be determined purely internally from observations made by the supervisor or may be in response to external change. Supervisory processes may be present at any level in the component hierarchy allowing us to (...) use evolutionary behaviour as an integral part of system design. We model such systems in a revision-based first-order logical framework in which supervisors are modelled as theories which are at a logical meta-level to the theories of their components. This enables evolutionary change of the component to be induced by revision-based changes of the supervisor at the meta-level. In this way, the intervention required in evolutionary change is modelled purely logically. The hierarchical component-based structure is fairly intricate so we present the basic ideas firstly in a simple setting, the well-known blocks world, before introducing tree-based structures to represent component hierarchies. We also introduce some techniques for establishing the behaviour of evolvable systems specified in this logical framework. The ideas and concepts are driven by example throughout. We conclude with a more substantial example, that of a simple model of an evolvable system of automated bank teller machines. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the inferential configuration of arguments, generally referred to as argument scheme. After outlining our approach, denominated Argumentum Model of Topics (AMT, see Rigotti and Greco Morasso 2006, 2009; Rigotti 2006, 2008, 2009), we compare it to other modern and contemporary approaches, to eventually illustrate some advantages offered by it. In spite of the evident connection with the tradition of topics, emerging also from AMT’s denomination, its involvement in the contemporary dialogue on argument schemes should not be (...) overlooked. The model builds in particular on the theoretical and methodological perspective of pragma-dialectics in its extended version, reconciling dialectic and rhetoric; nevertheless, it also takes into account numerous other contributions to the study of argument schemes. Aiming at a representation of argument schemes able to monitor the inferential cohesion and completeness of arguments, AMT focuses on two components of argument scheme that could be distinguished, readapting pragma-dialectical terms, as procedural and material respectively. The procedural component is based on the semantic-ontological structure, which generates the inferential connection from which the logical form of the argument is derived. The material component integrates into the argument scheme the implicit and explicit premises bound to the contextual common ground (Rigotti 2006). In this paper, the comparison of the AMT to other approaches focuses on the inferential configuration of arguments and not on the typologies of argument schemes and on the principles they are based on, which the authors intend to tackle in a further paper. (shrink)

We analyze model-theoretic connected components in extensions of a given group by abelian groups which are defined by means of 2-cocycles with finite image. We characterize, in terms of these 2-cocycles, when the smallest type-definable subgroup of the corresponding extension differs from the smallest invariant subgroup. In some situations, we also describe the quotient of these two connected components. Using our general results about extensions of groups together with Matsumoto–Moore theory or various quasi-characters considered in bounded cohomology, we obtain new (...) classes of examples of groups whose smallest type-definable subgroup of bounded index differs from the smallest invariant subgroup of bounded index. This includes the first known example of a group with this property found by Conversano and Pillay, namely the universal cover of [Formula: see text], as well as various examples of different nature, e.g. some central extensions of free groups or of fundamental groups of closed orientable surfaces. As a corollary, we get that both non-abelian free groups and fundamental groups of closed orientable surfaces of genus [Formula: see text], expanded by predicates for all subsets, have this property, too. We also obtain a variant of the example of Conversano and Pillay for [Formula: see text] instead of [Formula: see text], which was not accessible by the previously known methods. (shrink)

Models of gene regulatory networks have proven useful for understanding many aspects of the highly complex behavior of biological control networks. Randomly generated non-Boolean networks were used in experimental simulations to generate data on dynamic phenotypes as a function of several genotypic parameters. We found that predictive relationships between some phenotypes and quantitative genotypic parameters such as number of network genes, interaction density, and initial condition could be derived depending on the strength of the topological genotype on specific phenotypes. (...) We quantitated the strength of the topological genotype effect on a number of phenotypes in multi-gene networks. For phenotypes with a low influence of topological genotype, derived and empirical relationships using quantitative genotype parameters were accurate in phenotypic outcomes. We found a number of dynamic network properties, including oscillation behaviors, that were largely dependent on genotype topology, and for which no such general quantitative relationships were determinable. It remains to be determined if these results are applicable to biological gene regulatory networks. (shrink)

In this article, a mixed integer linear program model is proposed for the production, lot sizing, and scheduling of automotive plastic components to minimize the setup, inventory, stockout, and backorder costs, by taking into account injection molds as the main index to schedule on parallel flexible injection machines. The proposed MILP considers the minimum and maximum inventory capacities and penalizes stockout. A relevant characteristic of the modeled problem is the dependence between mold setups to produce plastic components. The lot sizing (...) and scheduling problem solution results in the assignment of molds to machines during a specific time period and in the calculation of the number of components to be produced, which is often called lot size, following a sequence-dependent setup time. Depending on the machine on which the mold is setup, the number of units to be produced will be distinct because machines differ from one another. The stock coverage, defined in demand days, is also included in the MILP to avoid backorders, which is highly penalized in the automotive supply chain. Added to this, the proposed model is extended by considering setup common operators to respond to and fulfill the constraints that appear in automotive plastic enterprises. In this regard, the MILP presented solves a lot-sizing and scheduling problem, emerged in a second-tier supplier of a real automotive supply chain. Finally, this article validates the MILP by performing experiments with different sized instances, including small, medium, and large. The large-sized dataset is characterized by replicating the amount of data used in the real enterprise, which is the object of this study. The goodness of the model is evaluated with the computational time and the deviation of the obtained results as regards to the optimal solution. (shrink)

Product structures are represented in engineering models by depicting and linking components, features and assemblies. Their understanding requires knowledge of both design and manufacturing practices, and yet further contextual reasoning is needed to read them correctly. Since these representations are essen- tial to the engineering activities, the lack of a clear and explicit semantics of these models hampers the use of information systems for their assessment and exploita- tion. We study this problem by identifying different interpretations of structure (...) rep- resentations, and then discuss the formal properties that a suitable language needs for representing components, features and combinations of these. We show that the representation of components and features require a non-standard mereology. (shrink)

While there are reasons to believe that both component forces and a resultant force operate on a body in combined circumstances, the threat of overdetermination largely prevents adoption of this view. Accordingly, a lively debate has arisen over which force actually exists and which force is eliminated in combined circumstances, the components or the resultant. In this article I present a non-reductive model of resultant force which ensures the existence of both the resultant force and the component forces (...) without overdetermination. According to the non-reductive model, the resultant force is the summation of component forces, where summation is interpreted as meaning that the component forces, when temporally and spatially overlapping, form a superposed mixture which is the resultant force, but which is not identical to the conjunction of component forces taken with temporal and spatial independence. (shrink)

This paper argues that the choice of backing to certify the authority of a warrant requires a legitimation inference. When brought into question, such an inference becomes a claim defended by showing sound reasons for the selection of backing pertinent to a shared context. Legitimation controversies ensue when an attributed consensus meets objection. It is argued that attention to legitimation controversies renders the Toulmin model a more useful critical paradigm for investigating the development and risks of communicative reasoning in a (...) public forum. The nomination of John Tower as Secretary of Defense is employed to illustrate how critical analysis of legitimation controversies reflexively expands the domain of inquiry for informal reasoning. (shrink)

Emotion is conceptualised as an emergent, dynamic process based on an individual's subjective appraisal of significant events. It is argued that theoretical models of emotion need to propose an architecture that reflects the essential nature and functions of emotion as a psychobiological and cultural adaptation mechanism. One proposal for such a model and its underlying dynamic architecture, the component process model, is briefly sketched and compared with some of its major competitors. Recent empirical evidence in support of the (...) model is reviewed. Special emphasis is given to the dynamic aspect of emotion processes, in particular the sequence of appraisal checks and the synchronisation of response systems, as well as the capacity of the model to predict individual differences in emotional responding. (shrink)

The non-random mixing of biomembrane components, especially saturated phospholipids, exhibits important consequences in molecular biology. Particularly, the distribution of lipids within natural and model membranes is strongly determined by the selective association processes. These processes of phospholipids take place due to the cooperative modes in multiparticle systems as well as the specific lipid-lipid interactions both in the hydrophobic core and in the region of the polar headgroups. We demonstrated that the investigation of the selective association processes of saturated phospholipids might (...) contribute to the insight of the lipid domains appearance inside the bilayer membranes. The association probabilities of like- pairs and cross- pairs from a binary mixture of saturated phospholipids were tested for both parallel and anti-parallel alignments of the polar headgroups. The present model confirms the experimental evidence for saturated phospholipids to have a high tendency for association in parallel configuration of the electric dipole moments of the polar headgroups whether the cross-sectional area of the polar headgroup is in an usual range of 25-55 2. There are three major lipid domains in a binary mixture of saturated phospholipids: lipid domains in non-mixed phase of the first mixture component, in parallel alignment of the polar headgroups; lipid domains in non-mixed phase of the second mixture component, in anti-parallel alignment of the polar headgroups; lipid domains in mixed phase. We think that the selective association processes of phospholipids are neither exclusively, nor only involved in promoting the lipid domains appearance through bilayer phospholipid membranes. (shrink)

The rise of ethical scandals in the business world urged corporations to allocate time and resources to emphasize the ethical behavior of their managers and employees. The Model of Ethical Behavior in this article has three main assumptions: (1) the institutionalization of a Compliance and Ethics Program Model is done in terms of just two components: one Explicit and the other Implicit, (2) both components have a significant and direct influence over the ethical behavior of employees, which is represented in (...) the model by two variables: Value Consistency and Presence of Ethical Conflicts, and (3) proper ethical behavior is perceived by employees to have a positive impact over the economic results of the firm. Reliable scales are developed to measure all these variables from the data collected by the "Barómetro de Valores y Ética Empresarial © ," a survey applied in 2009 to 12,321 employees from 54 Chilean corporations. The empirical analysis showed that there are three very distinctive components in the Presence of Ethical Conflicts variable: (1) what the company does that affects the employee, (2) what the company does that affects other people, and (3) what the employee does that affects the company. Finally, the Explicit and Implicit components of a Compliance and Ethics Program are shown to have a significant and positive impact over: (1) Value Consistency in employees* behavior; (2) the Presence of Ethical Conflicts in organizations; and (3) the perceived importance of ethics as a key factor to improve economic performance. (shrink)

This paper refers to a subjective approach to Ecosystems, referred to as Impure Systems to capture a set of fundamental properties. There are four main phenomenological components: directionality, intensity, connection energy and volume. A fundamental question in this approach to Impure Systems is the intensity or forces of a relation. Concepts as the system volume, and propose a system thermodynamic theory based in the Law of Zipf and the temperature of information are introduced. It hints at the possibility of adapting (...) the fractal theory by introducing the fractal dimension of the system. (shrink)

Given the negative consequences of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on public health, his study aimed at investigating: the differences between adults with and without chronic illness in buying behavior, vaccination intention, pandemic worry, and the health belief model components; the HBM components as mediators of the relationship between pandemic worry and vaccination intention. The sample consisted of 864 adults, of which 20.5% reported having a chronic illness. Associations between pandemic worry, vaccination intention, and HBM were ascertained using correlation and mediation (...) analyses. Individuals with chronic illness reported a higher level of pandemic worry, higher levels of perceived threat, greater benefits from vaccination, had lower self-efficacy and bought more medicine and sanitary/hygienic products. No significant differences were observed regarding vaccination intention, barriers against vaccination, and changes in food buying behavior. We found that the relationship between pandemic worry and vaccination intention was partially mediated by the perceived threat of disease and the benefits of vaccination. Pandemic worry predicted vaccination intention directly but also through the contribution of the perceived threat of disease and the benefits of vaccination. These findings suggest that presenting evidence of COVID-19 vaccine efficacy and the benefits of having the vaccine will encourage the population to follow vaccination recommendations. (shrink)

Acoustic emission technique is a common approach to identify the damage of the refractories; however, there is a complex problem since there are as many as fifteen involved parameters, which calls for effective data processing and classification algorithms to reduce the level of complexity. In this paper, experiments involving three-point bending tests of refractories were conducted and AE signals were collected. A new data processing method of merging the similar parameters in the description of the damage and reducing the dimension (...) was developed. By means of the principle component analysis for dimension reduction, the fifteen related parameters can be reduced to two parameters. The parameters were the linear combinations of the fifteen original parameters and taken as the indexes for damage classification. Based on the proposed approach, the Gaussian mixture model was integrated with the Bayesian information criterion to group the AE signals into two damage categories, which accounted for 99% of all damage. Electronic microscope scanning of the refractories verified the two types of damage. (shrink)

There are two known general results on the finite model property of commutators [L0,L1]. If L is finitely axiomatizable by modal formulas having universal Horn first-order correspondents, then both [L,K] and [L,S5] are determined by classes of frames that admit filtration, and so they have the fmp. On the negative side, if both L0 and L1 are determined by transitive frames and have frames of arbitrarily large depth, then [L0,L1] does not have the fmp. In this paper we show that (...) commutators with a “weakly connected” component often lack the fmp. Our results imply that the above positive result does not generalize to universally axiomatizable component logics, and even commutators without “transitive” components such as [K3,K] can lack the fmp. We also generalize the above negative result to cases where one of the component logics has frames of depth one only, such as [S4.3,S5] and the decidable product logic S4.3×S5. We also show cases when already half of commutativity is enough to force infinite frames. (shrink)

While competition has become increasingly fierce in organizations and in the broader market, the research on competition at an individual level is limited. Most existing research focuses on trait competitiveness. We argue that employee competitiveness can be state-like and can be demonstrated as an attitude toward and behavior representative of competition. We therefore propose a dynamic model with two separate components: competitive attitude and competitive behavior. Drawing upon self-determination theory and the person-environment interaction perspective, we examine how employee competitive attitude (...) and competitive behavior can be influenced by both personal characteristics and team climate, which in turn leads to different work outcomes, as demonstrated in two studies. Study 1 developed measures for competitive attitude and competitive behavior. Study 2 collected data from salespeople in a large insurance company in three waves. The results showed that employee competitive attitude and behavior could be predicted by personality. Moreover, employee competitive attitude and behavior were related to sales performance in differential ways via job crafting, and these mediated relationships could be moderated by team climate. These findings support the two-component dynamic model combining competitive attitude and behavior, which helps promote understanding of the dynamics of competition and its consequences at the individual level. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed. (shrink)

Recent advances in moral psychology and applications of virtue science have created promising opportunities to refine theories of media practice and ethical principles. This article sets forth the theoretical foundation for a model of virtuous action among media exemplars that is multidimensional, inductive, and informed by these developments. The model draws on a range of psycho-social assessment tools to explore five key dimensions of virtuous behavior: story of the self, personality, integration of morality into the self, moral ecology, and moral (...) skills and knowledge. The model's structure is designed to strengthen the empirical basis used to make normative and predictive claims about media practice. (shrink)

How environmental mechanical forces affect cellular functions is a central problem in cell biology. Theoretical models of cellular biomechanics provide relevant tools for understanding how the contributions of deformable intracellular components and specific adhesion conditions at the cell interface are integrated for determining the overall balance of mechanical forces within the cell. We investigate here the spatial distributions of intracellular stresses when adherent cells are probed by magnetic twisting cytometry. The influence of the cell nucleus stiffness on the simulated (...) nonlinear torque-bead rotation response is analyzed by considering a finite element multi-component cell model in which the cell and its nucleus are considered as different hyperelastic materials. We additionally take into account the mechanical properties of the basal cell cortex, which can be affected by the interaction of the basal cell membrane with the extracellular substrate. In agreement with data obtained on epithelial cells, the simulated behaviour of the cell model relates the hyperelastic response observed at the entire cell scale to the distribution of stresses and strains within the nucleus and the cytoskeleton, up to cell adhesion areas. These results, which indicate how mechanical forces are transmitted at distant points through the cytoskeleton, are compared to recent data imaging the highly localized distribution of intracellular stresses. (shrink)

Ultraviolet radiation activates the expression of a wide variety of genes, by pathways which differ between the short non‐solar ultraviolet C (UVC) wavelengths, which are strongly absorbed by nucleic acids, and the long solar ultraviolet A (UVA, 320–380 nm) wavelengths, which generate active oxygen intermediates. Intermediate solar ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths in the UVB (290–320 nm) range also contain an oxidative component, but more closely resemble UVC in their gene activating properties. Short wavelength UV, in common with other extracellular stimuli (...) including growth factors, activates signal transduction events that involve both stress‐ and mitogen‐activated protein kinase cascades. The extrapolation of the complex modulation of gene expression that ensues to the consequences of natural UV exposure requires careful attention to the details of doses and wavelength employed in the model experiments. Nevertheless, there is evidence that UVB irrradiation of skin can activate the expression of proteins including immunomodulating cytokines, ornithine decarboxylase and, to a limited extent, nuclear oncogene products, as well as lead to stabilisation of p53. Non‐cytotoxic doses of UVA radiation also lead to the strong activation of several genes which would be expected to have functional relevance in vivo. (shrink)

A universal property of visual word identification is position-invariant letter identification, such that the letter is coded in the same way in CAT and ACT. This should provide a fundamental constraint on theories of word identification, and, indeed, it inspired some of the theories that Frost has criticized. I show how the spatial coding scheme of Colin Davis can, in principle, account for contrasting transposed letter priming effects, and at the same time, position-invariant letter identification.

This Element presents a philosophical exploration of the concept of the 'model organism' in contemporary biology. Thinking about model organisms enables us to examine how living organisms have been brought into the laboratory and used to gain a better understanding of biology, and to explore the research practices, commitments, and norms underlying this understanding. We contend that model organisms are key components of a distinctive way of doing research. We focus on what makes model organisms an important type of model, (...) and how the use of these models has shaped biological knowledge, including how model organisms represent, how they are used as tools for intervention, and how the representational commitments linked to their use as models affect the research practices associated with them. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core. (shrink)

A general account of modeling in physics is proposed. Modeling is shown to involve three components: denotation, demonstration, and interpretation. Elements of the physical world are denoted by elements of the model; the model possesses an internal dynamic that allows us to demonstrate theoretical conclusions; these in turn need to be interpreted if we are to make predictions. The DDI account can be readily extended in ways that correspond to different aspects of scientific practice.

To understand the endogenous components of the event-related brain potential (ERP), we must use data about the components' antecedent conditions to form hypotheses about the information-processing function of the underlying brain activity. These hypotheses, in turn, generate testable predictions about the consequences of the component. We review the application of this approach to the analysis of the P300 component. The amplitude of the P300 is controlled multiplicatively by the subjective probability and the task relevance of the eliciting events, (...) whereas its latency depends on the duration of stimulus evaluation. These and other factors suggest that the P300 is a manifestation of activity occurring whenever one's model of the environment must be revised. Tests of three predictions based on this “context updating” model are reviewed. Verleger's critique is based on a misconstrual of the model as well as a partial and misleading reading of the relevant literature. (shrink)