This paper presents decomposition of the fourth-order Euler-type linear time-varying system as a commutative pair of two second-order Euler-type systems. All necessary and sufficient conditions for the decomposition are deployed to investigate the commutativity, sensitivity, and the effect of disturbance on the fourth-order LTVS. Some systems are commutative, and some are not commutative, while some are commutative under certain conditions. Based on this fact, the commutativity of fourth-order Euler-type LTVS is investigated by introducing the commutative requirements, (...) theories, and conditions. The fourth-order Euler-type LTVSs are investigated into commutative pairs of twice Euler-type second-order linear time-varying systems. The decomposition theories and conditions are derived, proved, and solved to simplify the use of commutativity for practical and industrial uses. Some fourth-order systems are sensitive toward change in initial conditions or parameters while others are not, and the effect due to disturbance also varies within systems. Furthermore, the stability and robustness of systems have so many issues. But we consider fourth-order Euler-type LTVS to observe, investigate, and tackle these issues. Lastly, the realization of fourth-order LTVS from cascaded two second-order systems can be laboratory experimented which is an open problem for future engineers to investigate. However, the theoretical results show a good agreement with the simulation results is considered in this work. Perhaps it might have unlimited physical applications in science and engineering as well as theoretical contribution. But beyond any reasonable doubt, the novelty is guaranteed because this study is the first of its kind that introduces the decomposition of the fourth-order Euler-type linear time-varying system as a commutative pair of two second-order Euler-type systems. Illustrative examples are presented to support the results. (shrink)

Decompositional equivalence is the principle that there is no preferred decomposition of the universe into subsystems. It is shown here, by using a simple thought experiment, that quantum theory follows from decompositional equivalence together with Landauer’s principle. This demonstration raises within physics a question previously left to psychology: how do human—or any—observers identify or agree about what constitutes a “system of interest”?

We report on progress and an unsolved problem in our attempt to obtain a clear rationale for relevance logic via semantic decomposition trees. Suitable decomposition rules, constrained by a natural parity condition, generate a set of directly acceptable formulae that contains all axioms of the well-known system R, is closed under substitution and conjunction, satisfies the letter-sharing condition, but is not closed under detachment. To extend it, a natural recursion is built into the procedure for constructing (...) class='Hi'>decomposition trees. The resulting set of acceptable formulae has many attractive features, but it remains an open question whether it continues to satisfy the crucial letter-sharing condition. (shrink)

The Feferman–Vaught theorem provides a way of evaluating a first order sentence \(\varphi \) on a disjoint union of structures by producing a decomposition of \(\varphi \) into sentences which can be evaluated on the individual structures and the results of these evaluations combined using a propositional formula. This decomposition can in general be non-elementarily larger than \(\varphi \). We introduce a “tree” generalization of the prenex normal form (PNF) for first order sentences, and show that for (...) an input sentence in this form having a fixed number of quantifier alternations, a Feferman–Vaught decomposition can be obtained in time elementary in the size of the sentence. The sentences in the decomposition are also in tree PNF, and further have the same number of quantifier alternations and the same quantifier rank as the input sentence. We extend this result by considering binary operations other than disjoint union, in particular sum-like operations such as join, ordered sum and NLC-sum, that are definable using quantifier-free translation schemes. (shrink)

In this paper we argue that an operational organism concept can help to overcome the structural deficiency of mathematical models in biology. In our opinion, the structural deficiency of mathematical models lies mainly in our inability to identify functionally relevant biological characters in biological systems, and not so much in a lack of adequate mathematical representations of biological processes. We argue that the problem of character identification in biological systems is linked to the question of a properly formulated (...) organism concept. Lastly, we demonstrate how a decomposition of an organism into independent characters in the context of a specific biological process--such as adaptation by means of natural selection--depends on the dynamical properties and invariance conditions of the equations that describe this process. (shrink)

We study the question of how to decompose Hilbert space into a preferred tensor-product factorization without any pre-existing structure other than a Hamiltonian operator, in particular the case of a bipartite decomposition into "system" and "environment." Such a decomposition can be defined by looking for subsystems that exhibit quasi-classical behavior. The correct decomposition is one in which pointer states of the system are relatively robust against environmental monitoring (their entanglement with the environment does not continually (...) and dramatically increase) and remain localized around approximately-classical trajectories. We present an in-principle algorithm for finding such a decomposition by minimizing a combination of entanglement growth and internal spreading of the system. Both of these properties are related to locality in different ways. This formalism could be relevant to the emergence of spacetime from quantum entanglement. (shrink)

The phase φ of any wave is determined by the ratio x/λ consisting of the distance x propagated by the wave and its wavelength λ. Hence, the dependence of φ on λ constitutes an analogue system for the mathematical operation of division, that is to obtain the hyperbolic function f(ξ)≡1/ξ. We take advantage of this observation to decompose integers into primes and implement this approach towards factorization of numbers in a multi-path Michelson interferometer. This work is part of a (...) larger program geared towards unraveling the connections between quantum mechanics and number theory. We briefly summarize this aspect. (shrink)

In this paper we argue that an operational organism concept can help to overcome the structural deficiency of mathematical models in biology. In our opinion, the structural deficiency of mathematical models lies mainly in our inability to identify functionally relevant biological characters in biological systems, and not so much in a lack of adequate mathematical representations of biological processes. We argue that the problem of character identification in biological systems is linked to the question of a properly formulated (...) organism concept. Lastly, we demonstrate how a decomposition of an organism into independent characters in the context of a specific biological process—such as adaptation by means of natural selection—depends on the dynamical properties and invariance conditions of the equations that describe this process. (shrink)

Identifying important entities in software systems has many implications for effective resource allocation. Complex network research opens new opportunities for identifying important entities from software networks. However, the existing methods only focus on identifying important classes. Little work has been done on the identification of important packages. Moreover, the metrics they used to quantify the class importance are only designed for unweighted software networks and cannot fit in with the weighted software networks. To overcome these limitations, in this article, (...) we introduce the weighted k-core decomposition method to identify the important packages. First, we use a weighted software network to describe packages and their internal dependencies. Second, we use Wk-core to partition a software network into a layered structure. Then, the packages that are denoted by the nodes within the main core are the identified important packages. To evaluate our method, we use a variant of the susceptible–infectious–recovered model to examine the spreading influence of the nodes in six real weighted software networks. The results show that our method can well identify influential nodes, better than other four methods. Furthermore, we demonstrate our method on two software networks and show that the important packages identified by our method are more meaningful from a software engineering perspective when compared with the other methods. (shrink)

Context: In this paper I expand aspects of the generalized bottom-up explanatory approach devised in Part I to expound the natural emergence of composite self-organized dynamic systems endowed with self-produced embodied boundaries and with observed degrees of autonomous behavior. In Part I, the focus was on the rules defined by Varela, Maturana & Uribe (VM&U rules), viewed as a validation test to assess if an observed system is autopoietic. This was accomplished by referring to Maturana’s ontological-epistemological frame and by (...) defining distinctions, concepts, and abstractions necessary to describe dynamic systems in any observational domain. This approach concentrates on pure causation flow rather than on domain-specific interaction mechanisms. Problem: It is essential to analyze the requirements imposed by the VM&U rules on the “intra-boundaries” phenomenology for compliance with the self-production capabilities expected from an autopoietic system. Beyond what is merely implied by the compact wording of the VM&U rules, a key point needs to be addressed explicitly: how to describe some “peculiar” capabilities that the components should be endowed with to participate in new component production (as macro-molecules do in the biological domain) so that system’s self-production can be assessed. Method: Using this approach, I first describe the process of constituting self-organized dynamic structures provided with embodied boundaries. Then I explain how a capability of self-organization emerges and how this results in ephemeral configurations that may evolve into self-regulated long-lasting dynamic system stability within a continuous causation flow inside the boundaries, up to the emergence of some “specialized” subsets of components. This explication allows us to distinguish the medium, the boundaries, and the core of a self-organized dynamic system and to focus attention on the “intra-boundaries” phenomenology that should be at the heart of self-production capabilities, as prescribed by the 5th and 6th VM&U rules. Results: I propose an abstract, domain-free description of the “peculiar” composition and decomposition transformation capabilities that components should possess while subject to state transitions triggered within the “intra-boundaries” causation flow. This is combined with a discussion concerning the “intra-boundaries” causation structure’s possible topological layouts that could be compliant with the 6th rule. Implications: The above-mentioned results allow us to improve our analytic criteria when observing dynamic systems existing in non-biological domains in order to assess their autopoietic nature. They also reveal that the task of consistently identifying possible non-biological autopoietic systems is harder than merely identifying self-organized dynamic systems provided with boundaries and some observable autonomous behavioral capabilities in a given observational domain. More implications will be discussed further in Part III. (shrink)

Systems biologists often distance themselves from reductionist approaches and formulate their aim as understanding living systems “as a whole.” Yet, it is often unclear what kind of reductionism they have in mind, and in what sense their methodologies would offer a superior approach. To address these questions, we distinguish between two types of reductionism which we call “modular reductionism” and “bottom-up reductionism.” Much knowledge in molecular biology has been gained by decomposing living systems into functional modules (...) or through detailed studies of molecular processes. We ask whether systems biology provides novel ways to recompose these findings in the context of the system as a whole via computational simulations. As an example of computational integration of modules, we analyze the first whole-cell model of the bacterium M. genitalium. Secondly, we examine the attempt to recompose processes across different spatial scales via multi-scale cardiac models. Although these models rely on a number of idealizations and simplifying assumptions as well, we argue that they provide insight into the limitations of reductionist approaches. Whole-cell models can be used to discover properties arising at the interfaces of dynamically coupled processes within a biological system, thereby making more apparent what is lost through decomposition. Similarly, multi-scale modeling highlights the relevance of macroscale parameters and models and challenges the view that living systems can be understood “bottom-up.” Specifically, we point out that system-level properties constrain lower-scale processes. Thus, large-scale modeling reveals how living systems at the same time are more and less than the sum of the parts. (shrink)

The performance of most of the state-of-the-art speaker recognition systems deteriorates under degraded conditions, owing to mismatch between the training and testing sessions. This study focuses on the front end of the speaker verification system to reduce the mismatch between training and testing. An adaptive voice activity detection algorithm using zero-frequency filter assisted peaking resonator was integrated into the front end of the SV system. The performance of this proposed SV system was studied under degraded conditions with 50 (...) selected speakers from the NIST 2003 database. The degraded condition was simulated by adding different types of noises to the original speech utterances. The different types of noises were chosen from the NOISEX-92 database to simulate degraded conditions at signal-to-noise ratio levels from 0 to 20 dB. In this study, widely used 39-dimension Mel frequency cepstral coefficient features were used, and Gaussian mixture model–universal background model was used for speaker modeling. The proposed system’s performance was studied against the energy-based VAD used as the front end of the SV system. The proposed SV system showed some encouraging results when EMD-based VAD was used at its front end. (shrink)

The main goal of the paper is to suggest some analytic proof systems for LC and its finite-valued counterparts which are suitable for proof-search. This goal is achieved through following the general Rasiowa-Sikorski methodology for constructing analytic proof systems for semantically-defined logics. All the systems presented here are terminating, contraction-free, and based on invertible rules, which have a local character and at most two premises.

We study definably complete locally o‐minimal expansions of ordered groups. We propose a notion of special submanifolds with tubular neighborhoods and show that any definable set is decomposed into finitely many special submanifolds with tubular neighborhoods.

Although there has been much recent discussion on mechanisms in philosophy of science and social theory, no shared understanding of the crucial concept itself has emerged. In this paper, a distinction between two core concepts of mechanism is made on the basis that the concepts correspond to two different research strategies: the concept of mechanism as a componential causal system is associated with the heuristic of functional decomposition and spatial localization and the concept of mechanism as an abstract form (...) of interaction is associated with the strategy of abstraction and simple models. The causal facts assumed and the theoretical consequences entailed by an explanation with a given mechanism differ according to which concept of mechanism is in use. Research strategies associated with mechanism concepts also involve characteristic biases that should be taken into account when using them, especially in new areas of application. (shrink)

Reconstructability analysis (RA) decomposes wholes, namely data in the form either of set theoretic relations or multivariate probability distributions, into parts, namely relations or distributions involving subsets of variables. Data is modeled and compressed by variable-based decomposition, by more general state-based decomposition, or by the use of latent variables. Models, which specify the interdependencies among the variables, are selected to minimize error and complexity.

The paper discusses a four-valued propositional logic FOUR≤, similar to Belnap's logic, which can be used to describe incomplete or inconsistent knowledge. In addition to the two classical logical values tt, ff, FOUR≤ features also two nonclassical values: ⊥, representing incomplete information, and ⊤, representing inconsistency. The nonclassical values are incomparable, and together with the classical ones they form a diamond-shaped lattice L4 known from Belnap's logic, which underlies the semantics of FOUR≤. The set of connectives contains those of Belnap's (...) logic, together with an additional operator representing the lattice order, which decisively increases the expressive power of the logic. In the paper we develop a complete decompositional deduction system in Rasiowa-Sikorski style for FOUR≤. (shrink)

The traditional formalism of quantum mechanics is mainly used to describe ensembles of identical systems (with a density-operator formalism) or single isolated systems, but is not capable of describing single open quantum objects with many degrees of freedom showing pure-state stochastic dynamical behaviour. In particular, stochastic 'line-migration' as in single-molecule spectroscopy of defect molecules in a molecular matrix is not adequately described. Starting with the Bohr scenario of stochastic quantum jumps (between strict energy eigenstates), we try to incorporate (...) more general pure-state stochastic dynamical behaviour into the quantum mechanical formalism.Probability distributions of (approximately) pure states, arising through the stochastic pure-state dynamics for long times, give rise to appropriate decompositions of thermal density operators. These decompositions of density operators into pure states mediate between quantum mechanics for ensembles of molecules and quantum theory for single molecules (or single dressed quantum objects). We suggest that such decompositions should be consistent with infinite limits (e.g. the Born-Oppenheimer limit for infinite nuclear masses) in the sense that quantum fluctuations (around classical behaviour in the infinite limit) die out asymptotically. (shrink)

This study first investigates robust iterative learning control issue for a class of two-dimensional linear discrete singular Fornasini–Marchesini systems under iteration-varying boundary states. Initially, using the singular value decomposition theory, an equivalent dynamical decomposition form of 2-D LDSFM is derived. A simple P-type ILC law is proposed such that the ILC tracking error can be driven into a residual range, the bound of which is relevant to the bound parameters of boundary states. Specially, while the boundary (...) states of 2-D LDSFM satisfy iteration-invariant boundary states, accurate tracking on 2-D desired surface trajectory can be accomplished by using 2-D linear inequality theory. In addition, extension to 2-D LDSFM without direct transmission from inputs to outputs is presented. A numerical example is used to illustrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the designed ILC law. (shrink)

One of the most important methods in dealing with the optimization of large, complex systems is that of hierarchical decomposition. The idea is to reduce the overall complex problem into manageable approximate problems or subproblems, to solve these problems, and to construct a solution of the original problem from the solutions of these simpler prob lems. Development of such approaches for large complex systems has been identified as a particularly fruitful area by the Committee on the (...) Next Decade in Operations Research (1988) [42] as well as by the Panel on Future Directions in Control Theory (1988) [65]. Most manufacturing firms are complex systems characterized by sev eral decision subsystems, such as finance, personnel, marketing, and op erations. They may have several plants and warehouses and a wide variety of machines and equipment devoted to producing a large number of different products. Moreover, they are subject to deterministic as well as stochastic discrete events, such as purchasing new equipment, hiring and layoff of personnel, and machine setups, failures, and repairs. (shrink)

The paper presents a compositional approach to the verification of CTL* properties over reactive systems. Both symbolic model-checking and deductive verification are considered. Both methods are based on two decomposition principles. A general state formula is decomposed into basic state formulas which are CTL* formulas with no embedded path quantifiers. To deal with arbitrary basic state formulas, we introduce another reduction principle which replaces each basic path formula, i.e., path formulas whose principal operator is temporal and which (...) contain no embedded temporal operators or path quantifiers, by a newly introduced boolean variable which is added to the system. Thus, both the algorithmic and the deductive methods are based on two statification transformations which successively replace temporal formulas by assertions which contain no path quantifiers or temporal operators. Performing these decompositions repeatedly, we remain with basic assertional formulas, i.e., formulas of the form Efp and Afp for some assertion p. In the model-checking method we present a single symbolic algorithm to verify both universal and existential basic assertional properties. In the deductive method we present a small set of proof rules and show that this set is sound and relatively complete for verifying universal and existential basic assertional properties over reactive systems. Together with two proof rules for the decompositions, we obtain a sound and relatively complete proof system for arbitrary CTL* properties. Interestingly, the deductive approach for CTL* presented here, offers a viable new approach to the deductive verification of arbitrary LTL formulas. The paper corrects a previous preliminary version of a deductive system for CTL*, in which some of the rules were unsound. The correction is based on the introduction of a new type of temporal testers which are guaranteed to be non blocking. That is, when composed with a deadlock-free system, which is a key operation in the verification process, the resulting composed system is guaranteed to remain deadlock free. (shrink)

By probability theory the probability space to underlie the set of statistical data described by the squared modulus of a coherent superposition of microscopically distinct (sub)states (CSMDS) is non-Kolmogorovian and, thus, such data are mutually incompatible. For us this fact means that the squared modulus of a CSMDS cannot be unambiguously interpreted as the probability density and quantum mechanics itself, with its current approach to CSMDSs, does not allow a correct statistical interpretation. By the example of a 1D completed scattering (...) and double slit diffraction we develop a new quantum-mechanical approach to CSMDSs, which requires the decomposition of the non-Kolmogorovian probability space associated with the squared modulus of a CSMDS into the sum of Kolmogorovian ones. We adapt to CSMDSs the presented by Khrennikov (Found. Phys. 35(10):1655, 2005) concept of real contexts (complexes of physical conditions) to determine uniquely the properties of quantum ensembles. Namely we treat the context to create a time-dependent CSMDS as a complex one consisting of elementary (sub)contexts to create alternative subprocesses. For example, in the two-slit experiment each slit generates its own elementary context and corresponding subprocess. We show that quantum mechanics, with a new approach to CSMDSs, allows a correct statistical interpretation and becomes compatible with classical physics. (shrink)

The Ollivier–Poulin–Zurek definition of objectivity provides a philosophical basis for the environment as witness formulation of decoherence theory and hence for quantum Darwinism. It is shown that no account of the reference of the key terms in this definition can be given that does not render the definition inapplicable within quantum theory. It is argued that this is not the fault of the language used, but of the assumption that the laws of physics are independent of Hilbert-space decomposition. All (...) evidence suggests that this latter assumption is true. If it is, decoherence cannot explain the emergence of classicality. (shrink)

In the many worlds community there seems to exist a belief that the physics of quantum theory is completely defined by it’s Hamilton operator given in an abstract Hilbert space, especially that the position basis may be derived from it as preferred using decoherence techniques.We show, by an explicit example of non-uniqueness, taken from the theory of the KdV equation, that the Hamilton operator alone is not sufficient to fix the physics. We need the canonical operators $\hat{p}$ , $\hat{q}$ as (...) well. As a consequence, it is not possible to derive a “preferred basis” from the Hamilton operator alone, without postulating some additional structure like a “decomposition into systems”. We argue that this makes such a derivation useless for fundamental physics. (shrink)

The paper hypothesizes the possibility of applying the mathematical construction of the Taylor series in the semantic space. Then symbolic forms, like some spiritual functions that display the immanent in semantic space and are explicated in the form of verbal constructions, can be tried to decompose into a Taylor series. The first terms of the Taylor series of thinking functions carry basic meanings that are conjectured by secondary forms, tertiary, etc., as in the case of the usual Taylor series, (...) where the first term of the series is a constant, the second term is linear, determined by the first derivative of the function, the third is quadratic, otherwise acceleration. The paper shows that all of the above can be found in the paradigms of thinking called Foucault epistems. The world in ancient philosophy seemed unchangeable or cyclical, which refers us to the concept of a constant or the first term of the Taylor series of the function of thinking. With the advent of Christianity, the circle of time turned into a straight line, the concept of evolution appeared. This stage was completed by Galileo, who introduced the idea of speed into the paradigm of thinking, which completed the formation of the second, linear term of the Taylor series of the thinking function. The third term of the series appeared in Newton's theory and entered the next episteme with the idea of acceleration. Deductively, one can continue the decomposition of the thinking function into a Taylor series and imagine the appearance of a member of the series responsible for the third derivative. (shrink)

Functional decomposition is an important goal in the life sciences, and is central to mechanistic explanation and explanatory reduction. A growing literature in philosophy of science, however, has challenged decomposition-based notions of explanation. ‘Holists’ posit that complex systems exhibit context-sensitivity, dynamic interaction, and network dependence, and that these properties undermine decomposition. They then infer from the failure of decomposition to the failure of mechanistic explanation and reduction. I argue that complexity, so construed, is only incompatible (...) with one notion of decomposition, which I call ‘atomism’, and not with decomposition writ large. Atomism posits that function ascriptions must be made to parts with minimal reference to the surrounding system. Complexity does indeed falsify atomism, but I contend that there is a weaker, ‘contextualist’ notion of decomposition that is fully compatible with the properties that holists cite. Contextualism suggests that the function of parts can shift with external context, and that interactions with other parts might help determine their context-appropriate functions. This still admits of functional decomposition within a given context. I will give examples based on the notion of oscillatory multiplexing in systems neuroscience. If contextualism is feasible, then holist inferences are faulty—one cannot infer from the presence of complexity to the failure of decomposition, mechanism, and reductionism. (shrink)

I argue that analogue mental representations possess a canonical decomposition into privileged constituents from which they compose. I motivate this suggestion, and rebut arguments to the contrary, through reflection on the approximate number system, whose representations are widely expected to have an analogue format. I then argue that arguments for the compositionality and constituent structure of these analogue representations generalize to other analogue mental representations posited in the human mind, such as those in early vision and visual imagery.

In this paper, we explore the effects of certain forbidden substructure conditions on preordered sets. In particular, we characterize in terms of these conditions those preordered sets which can be represented as the supremum of a well-ordered ascending chain of lowersets whose members are constructed by means of alternating applications of disjoint union and ordinal sums with chains. These decompositions are examples of ordinal decompositions in relatively normal lattices as introduced by Snodgrass, Tsinakis, and Hart. We conclude the paper with (...) an application to information systems. (shrink)

We describe here a special subdirect decomposition of algebras with modular congruence lattice. Such a decomposition is based on the properties of the congruence lattices of algebras. We consider four properties of lattices: atomic, atomless, locally uniform and anti-uniform. In effect, we describe a star-decomposition of a given algebra with modular congruence lattice into two or three parts associated to these properties.

Within many approaches to the interpretation of quantum mechanics, especially modal interpretations, one singles out a particular decomposition of the state vector in order to fix the properties that are well-defined for the system. We present a novel proposal for this preferred decomposition. Given a distinguished factorization of the Hilbert space, it is the decomposition that minimizes the Ingarden–Urbanik entropy from among all product decompositions with respect to the distinguished factorization. We incorporate this choice of preferred (...) class='Hi'>decomposition into a framework for modal interpretations and investigate in detail the extent to which it provides a solution to the measurement problem and the extent to which it ensures that measurements whose outcomes are predictable with probability 1 reveal pre-existing properties of the system under investigation. (shrink)

At the heart of chemistry lies the periodic system of chemical elements. Despite being the cornerstone of modern chemistry, the overall structure of the periodic system has never been fully understood from an atomic physics point of view. Group-theoretical models have been proposed instead, but they suffer from several limitations. Among others, the identification of the correct symmetry group and its decomposition into subgroups has remained a problem to this day. In an effort to deepen our limited understanding (...) of the periodic law, we have extended the traditional Lie algebraic framework to account for the peculiar degeneracy structure of the periodic system. Starting from the four-dimensional hidden symmetry and accidental degeneracy of the hydrogen atom, as first revealed by Fock in 1935, our research has mainly focussed on the way this SO(4) symmetry of the Coulomb potential gets broken in the periodic system as a consequence of the transformation of the hydrogenic (n, l) filling order to the Madelung (n+l, n) order due to electronic repulsions, relativistic effects and spin-orbit couplings. In this PhD dissertation, a new left-step format of the periodic table is first proposed on the basis of the Madelung rule. Following the particle physics tradition, the chemical elements are then considered as various states of some 'atomic matter', which is described by a non-compact spectrum-generating dynamical Lie group. The chemical elements are shown to form a basis for a single infinite-dimensional degeneracy space of the SO(4,2) ⊗ SU(2) group. An explanation for the period doubling is then proposed in terms of a particular symmetry breaking of the SO(4,2) group to the anti de Sitter SO(3,2) group. The Madelung rule is rationalised on the basis of nonlinear Lie algebras which reflect the screening of the Coulomb hole. This opens new perspectives for a symmetry-based understanding of how the periodic law emerges from its quantum mechanical foundations, and holds the future promise of complementing our current phenomenological approach by a direct atomic physics approach. (shrink)

RésuméSelon une thèse holistique sur les symboles, un symbole nepeut exister isolément mais doit faire partie d'un système symbolique. Une opinion, elle aussi plausible, veut que les systémes symboliques émergent graduellement chez un individu, un groupe ou une espéce. Le problème c'est qu'on voit mal, si le holisme des systémes symboliques tient, comment un système symbolique peut émerger graduellement, du moins pour la première fois. Ce n'est possible, semble-t-il, que si être un symbole est affaire de degré, thèse au départ (...) problématique. Cet article explique comment être un symbole cognitif peut après tout être affaire de degré. L'intuition contraire vient de ce que le processus d' interprétation nous force au tout ou rien, ce qui laisse unjeu dans la façon dont le matériel sous-jacent réalise les symboles à des degres divers. Les travaux de Daniel Dennett sont à cet égard éclairants. Le holisme vautpour les symboles tels qu'ils sont interprétés, tandis que le gradualisme vaut pour la façon dont le matériel sous-jacent réalise les symboles. (shrink)

This paper defends an interpretation of Gottlob Frege’s views on the structure of thought. I argue that Frege did not think that a thought has a unique decomposition into its component senses, but rather the same thought can be decomposed into senses in multiple, distinct ways. These multiple decompositions will often have distinct logical forms. I also argue against Michael Dummett and others that Frege was committed to the sense of a predicate being a function from the (...) sense of a name (or names) to a complete thought. I defend my Frege interpretation against a puzzle often discussed in the Frege literature; namely, that the Multiple Decompositions Thesis is incompatible with Frege’s stated view that a thought is built up out of its component senses as parts. I provide textual evidence and argument that Frege thought of the part/whole relation in such a way that a whole can be analyzed into (or built up out of) parts in multiple, distinct ways, thus dissolving the puzzle. I conclude with discussion of every sort of example of multiple decompositions that can be found in Frege's work. (shrink)

Decomposition is a bracing, revisionary, and provocative inquiry into music—from Beethoven to Duke Ellington, from Conlon Nancarrow to Evelyn Glennie—as a personal and cultural experience: how it is composed, how it is idiosyncratically perceived by critics and reviewers, and why we listen to it the way we do. Andrew Durkin, best known as the leader of the West Coast–based Industrial Jazz Group, is singular for his insistence on asking tough questions about the complexity of our presumptions about music (...) and about listening, especially in the digital age. In this winning and lucid study he explodes the age-old concept of musical composition as the work of individual genius, arguing instead that in both its composition and reception music is fundamentally a collaborative enterprise that comes into being only through mediation. Drawing on a rich variety of examples—Big Jay McNeely’s “Deacon’s Hop,” Biz Markie’s “Alone Again,” George Antheil’s Ballet Mécanique, Frank Zappa’s “While You Were Art,” and Pauline Oliveros’s “Tuning Meditation,” to name only a few—Durkin makes clear that our appreciation of any piece of music is always informed by neuroscientific, psychological, technological, and cultural factors. How we listen to music, he maintains, might have as much power to change it as music might have to change how we listen. (shrink)

Combinatory logic is known to be related to substructural logics. Algebraic considerations of the latter, in particular, algebraic considerations of two distinct implications, led to the introduction of dual combinators in Dunn & Meyer 1997. Dual combinators are "mirror images" of the usual combinators and as such do not constitute an interesting subject of investigation by themselves. However, when combined with the usual combinators, the whole system exhibits new features. A dual combinatory system with weak equality typically lacks the Church-Rosser (...) property, and in general it is inconsistent. In many subsystems terms "unexpectedly" turn out to be weakly equivalent. The paper is a preliminary attempt to investigate some of these issues, as well as, briefly compare function application in symmetric -calculus and dual combinatory logic. (shrink)

An analysis of two heuristic strategies for the development of mechanistic models, illustrated with historical examples from the life sciences. In Discovering Complexity, William Bechtel and Robert Richardson examine two heuristics that guided the development of mechanistic models in the life sciences: decomposition and localization. Drawing on historical cases from disciplines including cell biology, cognitive neuroscience, and genetics, they identify a number of "choice points" that life scientists confront in developing mechanistic explanations and show how different choices result in (...) divergent explanatory models. Describing decomposition as the attempt to differentiate functional and structural components of a system and localization as the assignment of responsibility for specific functions to specific structures, Bechtel and Richardson examine the usefulness of these heuristics as well as their fallibility—the sometimes false assumption underlying them that nature is significantly decomposable and hierarchically organized. When Discovering Complexity was originally published in 1993, few philosophers of science perceived the centrality of seeking mechanisms to explain phenomena in biology, relying instead on the model of nomological explanation advanced by the logical positivists (a model Bechtel and Richardson found to be utterly inapplicable to the examples from the life sciences in their study). Since then, mechanism and mechanistic explanation have become widely discussed. In a substantive new introduction to this MIT Press edition of their book, Bechtel and Richardson examine both philosophical and scientific developments in research on mechanistic models since 1993. (shrink)

Pioneering molecular work on chelicerate visual system development in the horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus surprised with the possibility that this process may not depend on the deeply conserved retinal determination function of Pax6 transcription factors. Genomic, transcriptomic, and developmental studies in spiders now reveal that the arthropod Pax6 homologs eyeless and twin of eyeless act as ancestral determinants of the ocular head segment in chelicerates, which clarifies deep gene regulatory and structural homologies and recommends more unified terminologies in the comparison (...) of arthropod visual systems. Following this phylotypic stage, chelicerate visual system development differs fundamentally from other arthropods during the compartmentalization of the ocular segment in that eye and optic neuropil primordia originate independently from each other. Comparative analyses of this phase identified further gene regulatory homologies but also major differences, most notably the possibly compensatory replacement of Pax6 by Pax2 in lateral eye specification. Also see the video abstract here: https://youtu.be/Hdfr3z5kEXU. (shrink)

Resumen: Este artículo busca observar las diferencias entre el modelo sistémico funcional y el modelo pragmático-formal en su comprensión de la experticia científica y su rol en las sociedades modernas. Se elaborará un breve diagnóstico acerca de la importancia de la confianza en experticia científica en la sociedad contemporánea y cómo este proceso ha sido analizado. Luego, se analizará la descripción del conocimiento científico en la sociedad contemporánea desde el modelo sistémico funcional. Utilizando los conceptos de diferenciación funcional y acoplamiento (...) estructural, se sugerirá que, desde este modelo, el conocimiento científico es una forma de comunicación especializada propia de un sistema funcional de la sociedad. A continuación, se describirá la aproximación del modelo pragmático formal. Especial importancia tienen aquí las ideas de mundo de la vida y esfera pública. Sobre la base de estas caracterizaciones, se comparan las visiones de estos autores y se analizan las diferencias en su conceptualización de la experticia. Se argumenta que las diferencias de estos dos modelos en relación con el estatus ontológico del mundo de la vida marcan sus visiones de la experticia y los debates actuales acerca de sus posibilidades de convertibilidad en la literatura especializada. El artículo finaliza con un resumen y posibles líneas futuras de investigación.: This article seeks to observe the differences between the functional-systemic model and the pragmatic-formal model in their understanding of scientific expertise and its role in modern societies. First, a brief diagnosis about the importance of trust in scientific expertise in contemporary society and how this process has been analyzed in the specialized literature will be made. Then, the description of scientific knowledge will be analyzed from the point of view of the functional systemic model. Using the concepts of functional differentiation and structural coupling, it will be argued that scientific knowledge is here considered a specialized form of communication characteristic of a functional system. Next, the approximation of the formal-pragmatic model is described. Of special importance here are the ideas of lifeworld and public sphere. On the basis of these characterizations, the visions of these authors are compared and the differences are analyzed in relation to their conceptualization of expertise. It is then suggested that the differences between these two models in relation to the ontological status of the lifeworld shape their views of scientific expertise as well as current debates on this topic. The article ends with a summary and possible future line of research. (shrink)

Effect algebras (EAs), play a significant role in quantum logic, are featured in the theory of partially ordered Abelian groups, and generalize orthoalgebras, MV-algebras, orthomodular posets, orthomodular lattices, modular ortholattices, and boolean algebras.We study centrally orthocomplete effect algebras (COEAs), i.e., EAs satisfying the condition that every family of elements that is dominated by an orthogonal family of central elements has a supremum. For COEAs, we introduce a general notion of decomposition into types; prove that a COEA factors uniquely (...) as a direct sum of types I, II, and III; and obtain a generalization for COEAs of Ramsay’s fourfold decomposition of a complete orthomodular lattice. (shrink)

This research work proposes an implementation of adept content-based music retrieval technique that attempts to address the demands of the rising availability of digital music. The primary objective of this research work is to balance the perilous impact of non-relevant songs through progressive filtering for query by humming music information retrieval system. The PF is a technique of searching in manifolds for problem solving through reduced search space. A new strategy for empirical mode decomposition analysis is adopted, and outcomes (...) are propelled as a significant source of information for multiresolution histogram representations. Finally, the concept of PF is realized through MRH to retrieve the desired song by humming. The proposed multiresolution QBH system is evaluated on a music database of 1200 fragments, and the experimental results effectively locate the humming patterns and recite the eminence of EMD analysis for retrieving the desired song through humming. (shrink)

The philosophical vision of the world and the consequent methodology behind the book are clarified. The perspective used is the systemic one, but since today this term has assumed a wide and diversified meaning in the literature, this introduction will clarify the specific meaning of our approach, starting from the meaning of the term "system". Our idea of system is based on three key assertions that may seem contradictory, but are necessary and complementary to its definition. In particular, we considered (...) the usual idea that the system is more and less than the sum of its juxtaposed parts, highlighting the role of emergencies and constraints. In our idea of a system, however, we must consider a third fundamental characteristic: its dynamism, the dual nature of the system as an entity and as a process, its role as a "dynamic entity". Afterwards, the holistic and reductionist approaches were analysed in detail, and both the specific merits and the fact that these two opposing worldviews, considered individually, cannot give a complete and balanced description of reality, were taken into account. For us, only the systemic approach provides a balanced description of both the parts and the whole and must, therefore, be preferred. Finally, the differences between our approach and the approaches mentioned above have been considered in detail in this introduction. (shrink)