Parentage analyses via microsatellite markers have revealed multiple paternity within the broods of polytocous species of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fishes and invertebrates. The widespread phenomenon of multiple paternity may have attending relationships with such evolutionary processes as sexual selection and kin selection. However, just how much multiple paternity should a species exhibit? We developed Bayesian null models of how multiple paternity relates to brood sizes. For each of 114 species with published data on brood sizes and numbers of sires, we (...) compared our null model estimates to published frequencies of multiple paternity. The majority of species fell close to our null model, especially among fish and invertebrate species. Some species, however, had low probabilities of multiple paternity, far from the predictions of the null model, likely due to sexual selection and environmental constraints. We suggest a major division among species’ mating systems between those with close to random mating and high levels of multiple paternity, and those with constraints that produce low levels of multiple paternity. (shrink)

Approximately three decades ago the question was first answered whether parasitoids are able to assess the number or origin of eggs in a host for a solitary parasitoid, Leptopilina heterotoma, by fitting theoretically derived distributions to empirical ones. We extend the set of different theoretically postulated distributions of eggs among hosts by combining searching modes and abilities in assessing host quality. In the models, parasitoids search either randomly (Poisson) (1) or by vibrotaxis (Negative Binomial) (2). Parasitoids are: (a) assumed (...) to treat all hosts equally, (b) able to distinguish them in unparasitised and parasitised hosts only, (c) able to distinguish them by the number of eggs they contained, or (d) able to recognise their own eggs. Mathematically tractable combinations of searching mode (1 and 2) and abilities (a,b,c,d) result in seven different models (M1a, M1b, M1c, M1d, M2a, M2b and M2c). These models have been simulated for a varying number of searching parasitoids and various mean numbers of eggs per host. Each resulting distribution is fitted to all theoretical models. The model with the minimum Akaike's information criterion (AIC) is chosen as the best fitting for each simulated distribution. We thus investigate the power of the AIC and for each distribution with a specified mean number of eggs per host we derive a frequency distribution for classification.Firstly, we discuss the simulations of models including random search (M1a, M1b, M1c and M1d). For M1a, M1c and M1d the simulated distributions are correctly classified in at least 70% of all cases. However, in a few cases model M1b is only properly classified for intermediate mean values of eggs per host. The models including vibrotaxis as searching behaviour (M2a, M2b and M2c) cannot be distinguished from those with random search if the mean number of eggs per host is low. Among the models incorporating vibrotaxis the three abilities are detected analogously as in models with random search. (shrink)

In this paper , the authors explore neutrosophic statistics, that was initiated by Florentin Smarandache in 1998 and developed in 2014, by presenting various examples of several statistical distributions, from the work [1]. The paper is presented with more case studies, by means of which this neutrosophic version of statistical distribution becomes more pronounced.

This paper aims at investigating the dynamic characteristics of a microring driven by dual arch electrodes because they are basic elements of microelectrostatic motors. The dual arch electrodes surround the periphery of the microring and are arranged symmetrically to the center of the ring. The electrodes are fixed while the microring is flexible. The electrostatic force will deform the microring, while the deflection of the microring changes the gap between the microring and the electrodes, thereby changing the electrostatic force. Therefore, (...) this is an electromechanical coupling effect. The nonlinear partial-differential equation that governs the motion of the microring is derived based on thin shell theory. Then, based on the assumption of small deflection, the nonlinear governing equation is linearized by truncating the higher-order terms of the Taylor series expansion of the nonlinear electrostatic force. After that, the linearized governing equation is discretized into a set of ordinary differential equations using Galerkin method in which the mode shape functions of the ring are adopted. The influences of the structural damping of the microring and the span of the arch electrodes on the forced response and dynamical stabilities of the microring are investigated. The results show that the damping ratio has a great influence on the system instability during high-frequency excitation. The unstable region of the system can increase with the increase of the electrode span; the response amplitude can also be increased within a certain range. (shrink)

The data analyzed in this paper are part of the results described in Bueno et al. (2000). Three cytogenetics endpoints were analyzed in three populations of a species of wild rodent – Akodon montensis – living in an industrial, an agricultural, and a preservation area at the Itajaí Valley, State of Santa Catarina, Brazil. The polychromatic/normochromatic ratio, the mitotic index, and the frequency of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocites were used in an attempt to establish a genotoxic profile of each area. It (...) was assumed that the three populations were in the same conditions with respect to the influence of confounding factors such as animal age, health, nutrition status, presence of pathogens, and intra- and inter-populational genetic variability. Therefore, any differences found in the endpoints analyzed could be attributed to the external agents present in each area. The statistical models used in this paper are mixtures of negative-binomials and Poisson variables. The Poisson variables are used as approximations of binomials for rare events. The mixing distributions are beta densities. The statistical analyzes are under the bayesian perspective, as opposed to the frequentist ones often considered in the literature, as for instance in Bueno et al. (2000). (shrink)

In several experiments of survival analysis, the cause of death or failure of any subject may be characterized by more than one cause. Since the cause of failure may be dependent or independent, in this work, we discuss the competing risk lifetime model under progressive type-II censored where the removal follows a binomial distribution. We consider the Akshaya lifetime failure model under independent causes and the number of subjects removed at every failure time when the removal follows the (...) binomial distribution with known parameters. The classical and Bayesian approaches are used to account for the point and interval estimation procedures for parameters and parametric functions. The Bayes estimate is obtained by using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method under symmetric and asymmetric loss functions. We apply the Metropolis–Hasting algorithm to generate MCMC samples from the posterior density function. A simulated data set is applied to diagnose the performance of the two techniques applied here. The data represented the survival times of mice kept in a conventional germ-free environment, all of which were exposed to a fixed dose of radiation at the age of 5 to 6 weeks, which was used as a practice for the model discussed. There are 3 causes of death. In group 1, we considered thymic lymphoma to be the first cause and other causes to be the second. On the base of mice data, the survival mean time of mice of the second cause is higher than the first cause. (shrink)

Before examining de Moivre's contributions to the science of mathematics, this article reviews the source materials, consisting of the printed works and the correspondence of de Moivre, and constructs his biography from them. The analytical part examines de Moivre's contributions and achievements in the study of equations, series, and the calculus of probability. De Moivre contributed to the continuing development from Viète to Abel and Galois of the theory of solving equations by means of constructing particular equations, the roots of (...) which can be written in the form $$\sqrt[n]{{a + \sqrt b }} + \sqrt[n]{{a - \sqrt b }}$$. He also discovered the reciprocal equations. In the course of this work de Moivre discovered an expression equivalent to (cos α+i sin α) n =cos n α+i sin n α and, following Cotes, he succeeded in expressing the nth roots of unity in trigonometric form. In the theory of series, de Moivre developed a polynomial theorem encom-passing Newton's binomial theorem and, in particular, a theorem of recurrent series useful in the calculus of probability. The demands of the calculus of probability led de Moivre to an approximation for the binomial coefficients $$\left( {_m^n } \right)$$ for large values of n. The interaction between de Moivre and James Stirling, particularly in regard to the asymptotic series for log (n!), is treated at length. This work supplied the foundation for de Moivre's limit theorem for the binomial distribution. The calculus of probability, which occupied him from 1708 onward, became in time ever more the center of de Moivre's inquiries. Proceeding from contemporary collections of gambling exercises, de Moivre, by introducing an explicit measure of probability for the so-called Laplace experiments, found the beginnings of a theory of probability. De Moivre expanded the classic application of probability calculus to games of chance by addressing himself to the problem of annuities and by adopting Halley's work with its conception of “Probability of life”. De Moivre was the first to publish a mathematically formulated law for the decrements of life derived from mortality tables. (shrink)

The prediction of the secondary structure of a protein from its amino acid sequence is an important step towards the prediction of its three-dimensional structure. However, the accuracy of ab initio secondary structure prediction from sequence is about 80 % currently, which is still far from satisfactory. In this study, we proposed a novel method that uses binomial distribution to optimize tetrapeptide structural words and increment of diversity with quadratic discriminant to perform prediction for protein three-state secondary structure. (...) A benchmark dataset including 2,640 proteins with sequence identity of less than 25 % was used to train and test the proposed method. The results indicate that overall accuracy of 87.8 % was achieved in secondary structure prediction by using ten-fold cross-validation. Moreover, the accuracy of predicted secondary structures ranges from 84 to 89 % at the level of residue. These results suggest that the feature selection technique can detect the optimized tetrapeptide structural words which affect the accuracy of predicted secondary structures. (shrink)

The risk priority number calculation method is one of the critical subjects of failure mode and effects analysis research. Recently, RPN research under a fuzzy uncertainty environment has become a hot topic. Accordingly, increasing studies have ignored the important impact of the random sampling uncertainty in the FMEA assessment. In this study, a fuzzy beta-binomial RPN evaluation method is proposed by integrating fuzzy theory, Bayesian statistical inference, and the beta-binomial distribution. This model can effectively realize real-time, dynamic, (...) and long-term evaluation of RPN under the condition of continuous knowledge accumulation. The major contribution of the proposed model is to use the random uncertainty and fuzzy uncertainty in an integrated model and provide a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method to solve the complex integrated model. The study presented a case study, which presented how to apply this model in practice and indicated the significant influence on the measurement error caused by ignoring the random uncertainty caused by expert evaluation in RPN calculations. (shrink)

In this paper I provide a frequentist philosophical-methodological solution for the stopping rule problem presented by Lindley & Phillips in 1976, which is settled in the ecological realm of testing koalas’ sex ratio. I deliver criteria for discerning a stopping rule, an evidence and a model that are epistemically more appropriate for testing the hypothesis of the case studied, by appealing to physical notion of probability and by analyzing the content of possible formulations of evidence, assumptions of models and meaning (...) of the ecological hypothesis. First, I show the difference in the evidence taken into account in different frequentist sampling procedures presented in the problem. Next, I discuss the inapplicability of the Carnapian principle of total evidence in deciding which formulation of evidence associated with a given sampling procedure and statistical model is epistemically more appropriate for testing the hypothesis in question. Then I propose a double-perspective (evidence and model) frequentist solution based on the choice of evidence which better corresponds to the investigated ecological hypothesis, as well as on the choice of a model that embraces less unrealistic ontological assumptions. Finally, I discuss two perspectives of the stopping rule dependence. (shrink)

Spoken word recognition involves a perceptual tradeoff between the reliance on the incoming acoustic signal and knowledge about likely sound categories and their co-occurrences as words. This study examined how adult second language (L2) learners navigate between acoustic-based and knowledge-based spoken word recognition when listening to highly variable, multi-talker truncated speech, and whether this perceptual tradeoff changes as L2 listeners gradually become more proficient in their L2 after multiple months of structured classroom learning. First language (L1) Mandarin Chinese listeners (...) and L1 English-L2 Mandarin adult listeners took part in a gating experiment. The L2 listeners were tested twice—once at the start of their intermediate/advanced L2 language class and again two months later. L1 listeners were only tested once. Participants were asked to identify syllable-tone words that varied in syllable token frequency (high/low according to a spoken word corpus) and syllable-conditioned tonal probability (most probable/least probable in speech given the syllable). The stimuli were recorded by 16 different talkers and presented at eight gates ranging from onset-only (gate 1) through onset+40 ms increments (gates 2 through 7) to the full word (gate 8). Mixed-effects regression modeling was used to compare performance to our previous study which used single-talker stimuli (Wiener, Lee, & Tao, 2019). The results indicated that multi-talker speech caused both L1 and L2 listeners to rely greater on knowledge-based processing of tone. L1 listeners were able to draw on distributional knowledge of syllable-tone probabilities in early gates and switch to predominantly acoustic-based processing when more of the signal was available. In contrast, L2 listeners, with their limited experience with talker range normalization, were less able to effectively transition from probability-based to acoustic-based processing. Moreover, for the L2 listeners, the reliance on such distributional information for spoken word recognition appeared to be conditioned by the nature of the acoustic signal. Single-talker speech did not result in the same pattern of probability-based tone processing, suggesting that knowledge-based processing of L2 speech may only occur under certain acoustic conditions, such as multi-talker speech. (shrink)

This replication study aims to investigate a potential bias toward addition in the German language, building upon previous findings of Winter and colleagues who identified a similar bias in English. Our results confirm a bias in word frequencies and binomial expressions, aligning with these previous findings. However, the analysis of distributional semantics based on word vectors did not yield consistent results for German. Furthermore, our study emphasizes the crucial role of selecting appropriate translational equivalents, highlighting the significance of considering (...) language‐specific factors when testing for such biases for languages other than English. (shrink)

A small set of allocation principles is said to be behind several theories of distributive justice. However, disagreement about the appropriate relationship between these notions remains, so that compromises between principles may generate more agreement. Truncated utilitarianism is a prominent candidate. It demands maximising total wealth subject to a floor level of individual wealth for all people. Based on some well-known distributive notions, we developed a questionnaire setting and confronted student respondents with corresponding allocation problems, where an exogenously given (...) poverty line served as a floor. However, support for allocations resulting from this specific interpretation of truncated utilitarianism remained rather low. This is surprising because the respective solution was close to an equal split of resources, and aspects of efficiency and responsibility were explicitly introduced to promote more general acceptance. We argue that people may either wish to see higher floor levels or are more inequality averse than probably expected. Moreover, high support for an unconditional consideration of the poverty line can be witnessed, even though aspects of responsibility, but not efficiency arguments, display an influence. In general, attitudes with respect to the equality–efficiency trade-off are found to remain heterogeneous, although different equality concerns are prominent. Furthermore, trade-offs are moderated by the responsibility principle. (shrink)

We have evolved to become who we are, at least in part, due to our general drive to create new things and ideas. When seeking to improve our creations, ideas, or situations, we systematically overlook opportunities to perform subtractive changes. For example, when tasked with giving feedback on an academic paper, reviewers will tend to suggest additional explanations and analyses rather than delete existing ones. Here, we show that this addition bias is systematically reflected in English language statistics along several (...) distinct dimensions. First, we show that words associated with an increase in quantity or number (e.g., add, addition, more, most) are more frequent than words associated with a decrease in quantity or number (e.g., subtract, subtraction, less, least). Second, we show that in binomial expressions, addition-related words are mentioned first, that is, add and subtract rather than subtract and add. Third, we show that the distributional semantics of verbs of change, such as to improve and to transform, overlap more with the distributional semantics of add/increase than subtract/decrease, which suggests that change verbs are implicitly biased toward addition. Fourth, addition-related words have more positive connotations than subtraction-related words. Fifth, we demonstrate that state-of-the-art large language models, such as the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT-3), are also biased toward addition. We discuss the implications of our results for research on cognitive biases and decision-making. (shrink)

In the course of the last 30 years, feminist theories of gender have shifted from quasi-Marxist, labor-centered conceptions to putatively ‘post-Marxist’ culture-and identity-based conceptions. Reflecting a broader political move from redistribution to recognition, this shift has been double edged. On the one hand, it has broadened feminist politics to encompass legitimate issues of representation, identity and difference. Yet, in the context of an ascendant neoliberalism, feminist struggles for recognition may be serving less to enrich struggles for redistribution than to displace (...) the latter. Thus, instead of arriving at a broader, richer paradigm that could encompass both redistribution and recognition, feminists appear to have traded one truncated paradigm for another – a truncated economism for a truncated culturalism. This article aims to resist that trend. I propose an anaysis of gender that is broad enough to house the full range of feminist concerns, those central to the old socialist-feminism as well as those rooted in the cultural turn. I also propose a correspondingly broad conception of justice, capable of encompassing both distribution and recognition, and a non-identitarian account of recognition, capable of synergizing with redistribution. I conclude by examining some practical problems that arise when we try to envision institutional reforms that could redress gender maldistribution and gender misrecognition simultaneously. (shrink)

The present paper investigates the question of whether right-libertarians must accept easements by necessity. Since easements by necessity limit the property rights of the owner of the servient tenement, they apparently conflict with the libertarian homestead principle, according to which the person who first mixes his labor with the unowned land acquires absolute ownership thereof. As we demonstrate in the paper, however, the homestead principle understood in such an absolutist way generates contradictions within the set of rights distributed on its (...) basis. In order to avoid such contradictions, easements by necessity must be incorporated into the libertarian theory of property rights and the homestead principle must be truncated accordingly. (shrink)

Aggregating snippets from the semantic memories of many individuals may not yield a good map of an individual’s semantic memory. The authors analyze the structure of semantic networks that they sampled from individuals through a new snowball sampling paradigm during approximately 6 weeks of 1-hr daily sessions. The semantic networks of individuals have a small-world structure with short distances between words and high clustering. The distribution of links follows a power law truncated by an exponential cutoff, meaning that (...) most words are poorly connected and a minority of words has a high, although bounded, number of connections. Existing aggregate networks mirror the individual link distributions, and so they are not scale-free, as has been previously assumed; still, there are properties of individual structure that the aggregate networks do not reflect. A simulation of the new sampling process suggests that it can uncover the true structure of an individual’s semantic memory. (shrink)

Previous studies provided evidence for a connection between language processing and language change. We add to these studies with an exploration of the influence of lexical-distributional properties of words in orthographic space, semantic space, and the mapping between orthographic and semantic space on the probability of lexical extinction. Through a binomial linear regression analysis, we investigated the probability of lexical extinction by the first decade of the twenty-first century (2000s) for words that existed in the first decade of the (...) nineteenth-century (1800s) in eight data sets for five languages: English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. The binomial linear regression analysis revealed that words that are more similar in form to other words are less likely to disappear from a language. By contrast, words that are more similar in meaning to other words are more likely to become extinct. In addition, a more consistent mapping between form and meaning protects a word from lexical extinction. A nonlinear time-to-event analysis furthermore revealed that the position of a word in orthographic and semantic space continues to influence the probability of it disappearing from a language for at least 200 years. Effects of the lexical-distributional properties of words under investigation here have been reported in the language processing literature as well. The results reported here, therefore, fit well with a usage-based approach to language change, which holds that language change is at least to some extent connected to cognitive mechanisms in the human brain. (shrink)

BackgroundDouble-blind peer review has been proposed as a possible solution to avoid implicit referee bias in academic publishing. The aims of this study are to analyse the demographics of corresponding authors choosing double-blind peer review and to identify differences in the editorial outcome of manuscripts depending on their review model.MethodsData includes 128,454 manuscripts received between March 2015 and February 2017 by 25 Nature-branded journals. We investigated the uptake of double-blind review in relation to journal tier, as well as gender, country, (...) and institutional prestige of the corresponding author. We then studied the manuscripts’ editorial outcome in relation to review model and author’s characteristics. The gender (male, female, or NA) of the corresponding authors was determined from their first name using a third-party service (Gender API). The prestige of the corresponding author’s institutions was measured from the data of the Global Research Identifier Database (GRID) by dividing institutions in three prestige groups with reference to the 2016 Times Higher Education (THE) ranking. We employed descriptive statistics for data exploration, and we tested our hypotheses using Pearson’s chi-square and binomial tests. We also performed logistic regression modelling with author update, out-to-review, and acceptance as response, and journal tier, author gender, author country, and institution as predictors.ResultsAuthor uptake for double-blind submissions was 12% (12,631 out of 106,373). We found a small but significant association between journal tier and review type (p value < 0.001, Cramer’s V = 0.054, df = 2). We had gender information for 50,533 corresponding authors and found no statistically significant difference in the distribution of peer review model between males and females (p value = 0.6179). We had 58,920 records with normalised institutions and a THE rank, and we found that corresponding authors from the less prestigious institutions are more likely to choose double-blind review (p value < 0.001, df = 2, Cramer’s V = 0.106). In the ten countries with the highest number of submissions, we found a large significant association between country and review type (p value < 0.001, df = 10, Cramer’s V = 0.189). The outcome both at first decision and post review is significantly more negative (i.e. a higher likelihood for rejection) for double-blind than single-blind papers (p value < 0.001, df = 1, Cramer’s V = 0.112 for first decision; p value < 0.001; df = 1, Cramer’s V = 0.082 for post-review decision).ConclusionsThe proportion of authors that choose double-blind review is higher when they submit to more prestigious journals, they are affiliated with less prestigious institutions, or they are from specific countries; the double-blind option is also linked to less successful editorial outcomes. (shrink)

This note is viewing survival data of a natural cohort as being generated by a possibly nonlinear, nonhomogeneous death process. It proves that the usual conditional distributions of the number of survivors at a certain age are binomial if and only if the death process is linear. Thus the customary statistical methods for the analysis of life table data are, strictly speaking, invalid whenever the underlying death process is nonlinear. For example, if a contagious disease is the cause of (...) some or all of the deaths, the deaths will not be independent and the death process, not linear. One should then base the statistical analysis on a model for the spread of the disease rather than the routine binomial model. (shrink)

This note is viewing survival data of a natural cohort as being generated by a possibly nonlinear, nonhomogeneous death process. It proves that the usual conditional distributions of the number of survivors at a certain age are binomial if and only if the death process is linear. Thus the customary statistical methods for the analysis of life table data are, strictly speaking, invalid whenever the underlying death process is nonlinear. For example, if a contagious disease is the cause of (...) some or all of the deaths, the deaths will not be independent and the death process, not linear. One should then base the statistical analysis on a model for the spread of the disease rather than the routine binomial model. (shrink)

Through structural analysis of 8-year tag networks from online knowledge-sharing platforms, this study finds that, with the scale of tag networks growing quickly, the growth trend of number edges indicates that tag network follows densification law. The clustering coefficient and the average shortest path of the network show that the rapid growth of network size does not bring about the compartmentalization of the knowledge network, and the degree distribution of tag networks shows a truncated power-law distribution. According (...) to the structural characteristics of the tag network, this study proposes a tag network model based on the BA model. Based on the preference attachment, the triadic closure mechanism is employed to construct the edges between the old nodes, which revises the limitation that the BA model only connects edges between old and new nodes. The results show that the simulation model matches the actual tag network structure well. The generation mechanism of the tag network model provides a reference for understanding the knowledge construction process of the online knowledge-sharing platform to a certain extent. (shrink)

Genetic variability and diversity are the result of a mutation-selection balance that acts permanently within and between species. The presence of deleterious mutations is a necessary consequence of this process and thus the price paid by a species for its capacity for further evolution (Haldane 1937, Am Nat 71:337–349). Recent estimations of mutation rate in the human lineage has revived the debate as to whether the high number of deleterious mutations poses a severe problem for the future of mankind. Theoretical (...) considerations allow a scenario in which the survival of the human race is maintained by truncation selection of deleterious mutations that removes as many mutations as appear anew in every generation. In this case our genetic burden is carried by those individuals that suffer a genetic death resulting from random distribution of deleterious alleles. Nevertheless, one has to ask whether the mutation rate may set absolute limits on the complexity of a species. (shrink)

Modelling of contagious disease usually employs compartmental SEIR-like models where the waiting times in respective compartments are exponentially distributed. In this paper, we are interested in investigating how the distributions of sojourn times in infective compartments affect the dynamics and persistence of the contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, a chronic respiratory disease of cattle. Two kinds of extreme distributions of the sojourn times are considered: a Dirac delta-function and truncated Gaussian function leading to a model with (non-constant) delay and the classical (...) exponential distribution that stands for a model without delay. Expressions of the basic reproductive numbers are derived and dynamical behaviours are discussed for the three models. It is found that the spreading of disease exhibits wave-like oscillations for the time-delay dynamics. In contrast, the disease appears to last longer when the spreading is described by the classical dynamics without delay. Subsequently, the time-delay dynamics turns out to be more appropriate for the description of an experimental epidemic of CBPP. (shrink)

In this paper I shall approach, from the luck egalitarianism perspective, to the problem of distributive justice in the health care. For that purpose I will follow an argumentative strategy based in some of the statements argued by Ronald Dworkin and Shlomi Segall on which the origin of luck egalitarianism relays. Even though it is truth that Rawls at the time of proposing the principle of fair equality of opportunities, he intended to mitigate the social inequalities originated by luck; for (...) some egalitarian philosophers such as Ronald Dworkin, Rawls’ argument resulted inequitable since it did not consider the binomial liberty-responsibility. The consideration of responsibility as a criterion of distribution of healthcare resources will be tested and studied in three points. First of all I will expose the general aspects of luck egalitarianism and I will define the position of Daniels and Segall regarding healthcare assistance. In second term, I will go back to the distinction made by Dworkin between “brute luck” and “option luck” and I will expose his proposal about the resources equality and the healthcare model based on the ground of the liberty-responsibility binomial that he defends. In third place, I will analyze the relationship between liberty and responsibility in healthcare. This way I shall intend to demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages that may arise from taking individual responsibility as a criterion for the distribution of resources. (shrink)

Lofts’s purpose is to interpret Cassirer in the light of francophone post-structuralist thought, particularly that of Jacques Lacan. Portraying a cautious neo-Kantian as a proto-post-structuralist may seem almost perverse, but the notion has potential. Unfortunately, the book reads as if it were still in rough draft. Its sections are disconnected, its arguments and insights are truncated or aphoristic, its style is careless, and it is poorly edited. Orthographical and typographical errors abound, even to the point of printing Lofts’s own (...) name wrong once. The long note about Hegel repeats previous text. Lofts’s analysis does not flow with the stream of the history of philosophy, but rather leaps from stone to stone in that stream, lingering too long on some stones and avoiding others. Dilthey, Gadamer, and Habermas, for example, are conspicuously absent from the discussion. Originally presented as Lofts’s dissertation, this book seems not yet to have proceeded far enough beyond that phase to warrant wider distribution. (shrink)

The long-time tail effect (i.e., a non-Markovian effect) in a velocity autocorrelation function for moderately dense classical gases in d-dimensional space is estimated for arbitray n-mode coupling by superposition of the Markov equations for the collective modes which has been introduced through the complex spectral representation of the Liouville operator in the previous paper. Taking into account intermediate nonhydrodynamic modes in a transition between hydrodynamic states, we found slower decay processes in the long-time tail. These new processes lead to a (...) critical dimension at d = 4 as in the renormalization group, that is, higher modes processes lead to slower decay process in the autocorrelation function for d = 4, while they lead to quicker decay process for d > 4. This conclusion clashes with the traditional point of view, which leads to the critical dimension d = 2. These slower processes invalidate the traditional kinetic equations for bare distribution functions obtained by a truncation of the BBGKY hierarchy for d < 4, as well as the Green-Kubo formalism, as there appear contributions of order t−1, t−1/2, ... coming from multiple mode-mode couplings even for d = 3. (shrink)

Lofts’s purpose is to interpret Cassirer in the light of francophone post-structuralist thought, particularly that of Jacques Lacan. Portraying a cautious neo-Kantian as a proto-post-structuralist may seem almost perverse, but the notion has potential. Unfortunately, the book reads as if it were still in rough draft. Its sections are disconnected, its arguments and insights are truncated or aphoristic, its style is careless, and it is poorly edited. Orthographical and typographical errors abound, even to the point of printing Lofts’s own (...) name wrong once. The long note about Hegel repeats previous text. Lofts’s analysis does not flow with the stream of the history of philosophy, but rather leaps from stone to stone in that stream, lingering too long on some stones and avoiding others. Dilthey, Gadamer, and Habermas, for example, are conspicuously absent from the discussion. Originally presented as Lofts’s dissertation, this book seems not yet to have proceeded far enough beyond that phase to warrant wider distribution. (shrink)

There exists a significant disparity within society between individuals in terms of intelligence. While intelligence varies naturally throughout society, the extent to which this impacts on the life opportunities it affords to each individual is greatly undervalued. Intelligence appears to have a prominent effect over a broad range of social and economic life outcomes. Many key determinants of well-being correlate highly with the results of IQ tests, and other measures of intelligence, and an IQ of 75 is generally accepted as (...) the most important threshold in modern life. The ability to enhance our cognitive capacities offers an exciting opportunity to correct disabling natural variation and inequality in intelligence. Pharmaceutical cognitive enhancers, such as modafinil and methylphenidate, have been shown to have the capacity to enhance cognition in normal, healthy individuals. Perhaps of most relevance is the presence of an ‘inverted U effect’ for most pharmaceutical cognitive enhancers, whereby the degree of enhancement increases as intelligence levels deviate further below the mean. Although enhancement, including cognitive enhancement, has been much debated recently, we argue that there are egalitarian reasons to enhance individuals with low but normal intelligence. Under egalitarianism, cognitive enhancement has the potential to reduce opportunity inequality and contribute to relative income and welfare equality in the lower, normal intelligence subgroup. Cognitive enhancement use is justifiable under prioritarianism through various means of distribution; selective access to the lower, normal intelligence subgroup, universal access, or paradoxically through access primarily to the average and above average intelligence subgroups. Similarly, an aggregate increase in social well-being is achieved through similar means of distribution under utilitarianism. In addition, the use of cognitive enhancement within the lower, normal intelligence subgroup negates, or at the very least minimises, several common objections to cognitive enhancement. Subsequently, this paper demonstrates that there is a compelling case for cognitive enhancement use in individuals with lower, normal intelligence. (shrink)

The Neutrosophic Precalculus and the Neutrosophic Calculus can be developed in many ways, depending on the types of indeterminacy one has and on the method used to deal with such indeterminacy. This article is innovative since the form of neutrosophic binomial factorial theorem was constructed in addition to its refrains. Two other important theorems were proven with their corollaries, and numerical examples as well. As a conjecture, we use ten (indeterminate) forms in neutrosophic calculus taking an important role in (...) limits. To serve article's aim, some important questions had been answered. (shrink)

In this chapter, a positive account of reader engagement with fiction will developed. According to this picture, the basic reader attitude towards fictional works is imaginative. But, in my view, engagement with fiction does not require any de se imagining on the part of readers; it requires only de dicto and de re imagining. The account of reader engagement is modelled on the attitudes of story-listeners to the stories to which they listen and the performers who tell them. In engaged (...) reading, however, the activity of story-listening is, in an important sense, truncated: reader engagement with the text occurs without the mediation of a storyteller. As a result, readers have to imaginatively supply a substitute – a fictionalized version of the author. (shrink)