Weak reasoning argumentative theory. A dialogical approach for the discovery of philosophy in high schools

In the literature on philosophical practices, despite the crucial role that argumentation plays in these activities, no specific argumentative theories have ever been proposed to assist the figure of the facilitator in conducting philosophical dialogue and to enhance student’s critical thinking skills. The dissertation starts from a cognitive perspective that challenges the classic Cartesian notion of rationality by focusing on limits and biases of human reasoning. An argumentative model (WRAT – Weak Reasoning Argumentative Theory) is then outlined in order to respond to the needs of philosophical dialogue. After justifying the claim that this learning activity, among other inductive methodologies, is the most suitable for critical thinking education, I inquired into the specific goal of ‘arguing’ within this context by means of the tools provided by Speech Act Theory: the speaker’s intention is to construct new knowledge by questioning her own and other’s beliefs. The model proposed has been theorized on this assumption, starting from which the goals, and, in turn, the related norms, have been pinpointed. In order to include all the epistemic attitudes required to accomplish the complex task of arguing in philosophical dialogue, I needed to integrate two opposed cognitive accounts, Dual Process Theory and Evolutionary Approach, that, although they provide incompatible descriptions of reasoning, can be integrated to provide a normative account of argumentation. The model, apart from offering a theoretical contribution to argumentation studies, is designed to be applied to the Italian educational system, in particular to classes in technical and professional high schools belonging to the newly created network Inventio. This initiative is one of the outcomes of the research project by the same name, which also includes an original Syllabus, research seminars, a monitoring action and publications focused on introducing philosophy, in the form of workshop activities, into technical and professional schools.

Modelos de volatilidade estocástica em séries financeiras: uma aplicação para o IBOVESPA

Neste artigo apresentamos uma análise Bayesiana para o modelo de volatilidade estocástica (SV) e uma forma generalizada deste, cujo objetivo é estimar a volatilidade de séries temporais financeiras. Considerando alguns casos especiais dos modelos SV usamos algoritmos de Monte Carlo em Cadeias de Markov e o software WinBugs para obter sumários a posteriori para as diferentes formas de modelos SV. Introduzimos algumas técnicas Bayesianas de discriminação para a escolha do melhor modelo a ser usado para estimar as volatilidades e fazer previsões de séries financeiras. Um exemplo empírico de aplicação da metodologia é introduzido com a série financeira do IBOVESPA.

Mortalidade cardiovascular por sexo e faixa etária em São Paulo, Brasil: 1996 a 1998 e 2003 a 2005

FUNDAMENTO: O conhecimento da evolução da mortalidade cardiovascular é importante para levantar hipóteses sobre a sua ocorrência e subsidiar medidas de prevenção e controle. OBJETIVOS: Comparar a mortalidade pelo conjunto das doenças cardiovasculares e seus principais subgrupos: doença isquêmica do coração e cerebrovasculares (DIC e DCBV), no município de São Paulo, por sexo e idade, de 1996 a 1998 e 2003 a 2005. MÉTODOS: Foram usados dados de óbitos do Programa de Aprimoramento das Informações de Mortalidade para o Município (PROAIM) e estimativas populacionais da Fundação Sistema Estadual de Análise de Dados (SEADE) do Estado de São Paulo. A magnitude na mortalidade e as mudanças entre os triênios foram medidas pela descrição de coeficientes e variação percentual relativa. O modelo de regressão de Poisson foi usado também para estimar a mudança na mortalidade entre os períodos. RESULTADOS: Observou-se redução importante da mortalidade cardiovascular. Os coeficientes aumentam com a idade em ambos os sexos. Também são mais elevados na população masculina, na faixa a partir dos 70 anos. Os coeficientes de mortalidade por DIC são maiores que aqueles por DCBV, tanto nos homens como nas mulheres de 50 anos ou mais. O declínio pelo conjunto das doenças cardiovasculares foi maior em mulheres de 20 a 29 anos (-30%) e em homens de 30 a 39 anos (-26%). CONCLUSÃO: A força da intensidade da mortalidade cardiovascular diminuiu entre 1996 e 1998, a 2003 e 2005. Ainda assim há diferenças entre os grupos. Essa redução pode significar, em parte, um maior acesso aos métodos diagnósticos e terapêuticos.

An extension of the Pitzer equation for the excess Gibbs energy of aqueous electrolyte systems to aqueous polyelectrolyte solutions

Pitzer`s equation for the excess Gibbs energy of aqueous solutions of low-molecular electrolytes is extended to aqueous solutions of polyelectrolytes. The model retains the original form of Pitzer`s model (combining a long-range term, based on the Debye-Huckel equation, with a short-range term similar to the virial equation where the second osmotic virial coefficient depends on the ionic strength). The extension consists of two parts: at first, it is assumed that a constant fraction of the monomer units of the polyelectrolyte is dissociated, i.e., that fraction does not depend on the concentration of the polyelectrolyte, and at second, a modified expression for the ionic strength (wherein each charged monomer group is taken into account individually) is introduced. This modification is to account for the presence of charged polyelectrolyte chains, which cannot be regarded as punctual charges. The resulting equation was used to correlate osmotic coefficient data of aqueous solutions of a single polyelectrolyte as well as of binary mixtures of a single polyelectrolyte and a salt with low-molecular weight. It was additionally applied to correlate liquid-liquid equilibrium data of some aqueous two-phase systems that might form when a polyelectrolyte and another hydrophilic but neutral polymer are simultaneously dissolved in water. A good agreement between the experimental data and the correlation result is observed for all investigated systems. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Heat transfer and entropy generation optimization of forced convection in a porous-saturated duct of rectangular cross-section

We investigate analytically the first and the second law characteristics of fully developed forced convection inside a porous-saturated duct of rectangular cross-section. The Darcy-Brinkman flow model is employed. Three different types of thermal boundary conditions are examined. Expressions for the Nusselt number, the Bejan number, and the dimensionless entropy generation rate are presented in terms of the system parameters. The conclusions of this analytical study will make it possible to compare, evaluate, and optimize alternative rectangular duct design options in terms of heat transfer, pressure drop, and entropy generation. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection bias in gene extraction on the basis of microarray gene-expression data

In the context of cancer diagnosis and treatment, we consider the problem of constructing an accurate prediction rule on the basis of a relatively small number of tumor tissue samples of known type containing the expression data on very many (possibly thousands) genes. Recently, results have been presented in the literature suggesting that it is possible to construct a prediction rule from only a few genes such that it has a negligible prediction error rate. However, in these results the test error or the leave-one-out cross-validated error is calculated without allowance for the selection bias. There is no allowance because the rule is either tested on tissue samples that were used in the first instance to select the genes being used in the rule or because the cross-validation of the rule is not external to the selection process; that is, gene selection is not performed in training the rule at each stage of the cross-validation process. We describe how in practice the selection bias can be assessed and corrected for by either performing a cross-validation or applying the bootstrap external to the selection process. We recommend using 10-fold rather than leave-one-out cross-validation, and concerning the bootstrap, we suggest using the so-called. 632+ bootstrap error estimate designed to handle overfitted prediction rules. Using two published data sets, we demonstrate that when correction is made for the selection bias, the cross-validated error is no longer zero for a subset of only a few genes.

Generalized optimal lattice covering of finite-dimensional Euclidean space

A generalization of the classical problem of optimal lattice covering of R-n is considered. Solutions to this generalized problem are found in two specific classes of lattices. The global optimal solution of the generalization is found for R-2. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Heat flow for Yang-Mills-Higgs fields, part I

The Yang-Mills-Higgs field generalizes the Yang-Mills field. The authors establish the local existence and uniqueness of the weak solution to the heat flow for the Yang-Mills-Higgs field in a vector bundle over a compact Riemannian 4-manifold, and show that the weak solution is gauge-equivalent to a smooth solution and there are at most finite singularities at the maximum existing time.

Modeling the optical constants of solids using acceptance-probability-controlled simulated annealing with an adaptive move generation procedure

The acceptance-probability-controlled simulated annealing with an adaptive move generation procedure, an optimization technique derived from the simulated annealing algorithm, is presented. The adaptive move generation procedure was compared against the random move generation procedure on seven multiminima test functions, as well as on the synthetic data, resembling the optical constants of a metal. In all cases the algorithm proved to have faster convergence and superior escaping from local minima. This algorithm was then applied to fit the model dielectric function to data for platinum and aluminum.

The application of adaptive partitioned random search in feature selection problem

Feature selection is one of important and frequently used techniques in data preprocessing. It can improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of data mining by reducing the dimensions of feature space and removing the irrelevant and redundant information. Feature selection can be viewed as a global optimization problem of finding a minimum set of M relevant features that describes the dataset as well as the original N attributes. In this paper, we apply the adaptive partitioned random search strategy into our feature selection algorithm. Under this search strategy, the partition structure and evaluation function is proposed for feature selection problem. This algorithm ensures the global optimal solution in theory and avoids complete randomness in search direction. The good property of our algorithm is shown through the theoretical analysis.

Modelos de resposta à interação entre fármacos anestésicos : análise de regressão e análise de Clusters

Os avanços tecnológicos e científicos, na área da saúde, têm vindo a aliar áreas como a Medicina e a Matemática, cabendo à ciência adequar de forma mais eficaz os meios de investigação, diagnóstico, monitorização e terapêutica. Os métodos desenvolvidos e os estudos apresentados nesta dissertação resultam da necessidade de encontrar respostas e soluções para os diferentes desafios identificados na área da anestesia. A índole destes problemas conduz, necessariamente, à aplicação, adaptação e conjugação de diferentes métodos e modelos das diversas áreas da matemática. A capacidade para induzir a anestesia em pacientes, de forma segura e confiável, conduz a uma enorme variedade de situações que devem ser levadas em conta, exigindo, por isso, intensivos estudos. Assim, métodos e modelos de previsão, que permitam uma melhor personalização da dosagem a administrar ao paciente e por monitorizar, o efeito induzido pela administração de cada fármaco, com sinais mais fiáveis, são fundamentais para a investigação e progresso neste campo. Neste contexto, com o objetivo de clarificar a utilização em estudos na área da anestesia de um ajustado tratamento estatístico, proponho-me abordar diferentes análises estatísticas para desenvolver um modelo de previsão sobre a resposta cerebral a dois fármacos durante sedação. Dados obtidos de voluntários serão utilizados para estudar a interação farmacodinâmica entre dois fármacos anestésicos. Numa primeira fase são explorados modelos de regressão lineares que permitam modelar o efeito dos fármacos no sinal cerebral BIS (índice bispectral do EEG – indicador da profundidade de anestesia); ou seja estimar o efeito que as concentrações de fármacos têm na depressão do eletroencefalograma (avaliada pelo BIS). Na segunda fase deste trabalho, pretende-se a identificação de diferentes interações com Análise de Clusters bem como a validação do respetivo modelo com Análise Discriminante, identificando grupos homogéneos na amostra obtida através das técnicas de agrupamento. O número de grupos existentes na amostra foi, numa fase exploratória, obtido pelas técnicas de agrupamento hierárquicas, e a caracterização dos grupos identificados foi obtida pelas técnicas de agrupamento k-means. A reprodutibilidade dos modelos de agrupamento obtidos foi testada através da análise discriminante. As principais conclusões apontam que o teste de significância da equação de Regressão Linear indicou que o modelo é altamente significativo. As variáveis propofol e remifentanil influenciam significativamente o BIS e o modelo melhora com a inclusão do remifentanil. Este trabalho demonstra ainda ser possível construir um modelo que permite agrupar as concentrações dos fármacos, com base no efeito no sinal cerebral BIS, com o apoio de técnicas de agrupamento e discriminantes. Os resultados desmontram claramente a interacção farmacodinâmica dos dois fármacos, quando analisamos o Cluster 1 e o Cluster 3. Para concentrações semelhantes de propofol o efeito no BIS é claramente diferente dependendo da grandeza da concentração de remifentanil. Em suma, o estudo demostra claramente, que quando o remifentanil é administrado com o propofol (um hipnótico) o efeito deste último é potenciado, levando o sinal BIS a valores bastante baixos.

Cooperative scheduling system with emergent swarm based behavior

This paper presents a Swarm based Cooperation Mechanism for scheduling optimization. We intend to conceptualize real manufacturing systems as interacting autonomous entities in order to support decision making in agile manufacturing environments. Agents coordinate their actions automatically without human supervision considering a common objective – global scheduling solution taking advantages from collective behavior of species through implicit and explicit cooperation. The performance of the cooperation mechanism will be evaluated consider implicit cooperation at first stage through ACS, PSO and ABC algorithms and explicit through cooperation mechanism application.

Flexible and dynamic replication control for interdependent distributed real-time embedded systems

Replication is a proven concept for increasing the availability of distributed systems. However, actively replicating every software component in distributed embedded systems may not be a feasible approach. Not only the available resources are often limited, but also the imposed overhead could significantly degrade the system’s performance. This paper proposes heuristics to dynamically determine which components to replicate based on their significance to the system as a whole, its consequent number of passive replicas, and where to place those replicas in the network. The activation of passive replicas is coordinated through a fast convergence protocol that reduces the complexity of the needed interactions among nodes until a new collective global service solution is determined.

A new least-squares approach to differintegration modeling

Signal Processing, Vol. 86, nº 10

Critical reappraisal of Late Mesozoic-Cenozoic Central and North Atlantic, Caribbean and Mediterranean evolution

(l) The Pacific basin (Pacific area) may be regarded as moving eastwards like a double zip fastener relative to the continents and their respective plates (Pangaea area): opening in the East and closing in the West. This movement is tracked by a continuous mountain belt, the collision ages of which increase westwards. (2) The relative movements between the Pacific area and the Pangaea area in the W-E/E-W direction are generated by tidal forces (principle of hypocycloid gearing), whereby the lower mantle and the Pacific basin or area (Pacific crust = roof of the lower mantle?) rotate somewhat faster eastwards around the Earth's spin axis relative to the upper mantle/crust system with the continents and their respective plates (Pangaea area) (differential rotation). (3) These relative West to East/East to West displacements produce a perpetually existing sequence of distinct styles of opening and closing ocean basins, exemplified by the present East to West arrangement of ocean basins around the globe (Oceanic or Wilson Cycle: Rift/Red Sea style; Atlantic style; Mediterranean/Caribbean style as eastwards propagating tongue of the Pacific basin; Pacific style; Collision/Himalayas style). This sequence of ocean styles, of which the Pacific ocean is a part, moves eastwards with the lower mantle relative to the continents and the upper-mantle/crust of the Pangaea area. (4) Similarly, the collisional mountain belt extending westwards from the equator to the West of the Pacific and representing a chronological sequence of collision zones (sequential collisions) in the wake of the passing of the Pacific basin double zip fastener, may also be described as recording the history of oceans and their continental margins in the form of successive Wilson Cycles. (5) Every 200 to 250 m.y. the Pacific basin double zip fastener, the sequence of ocean styles of the Wilson Cycle and the eastwards growing collisional mountain belt in their wake complete one lap around the Earth. Two East drift lappings of 400 to 500 m.y. produce a two-lap collisional mountain belt spiral around a supercontinent in one hemisphere (North or South Pangaea). The Earth's history is subdivided into alternating North Pangaea growth/South Pangaea breakup eras and South Pangaea growth/North Pangaea breakup eras. Older North and South Pangaeas and their collisional mountain belt spirals may be reconstructed by rotating back the continents and orogenic fragments of a broken spiral (e.g. South Pangaea, Gondwana) to their previous Pangaea growth era orientations. In the resulting collisional mountain belt spiral, pieced together from orogenic segments and fragments, the collision ages have to increase successively towards the West. (6) With its current western margin orientated in a West-East direction North America must have collided during the Late Cretaceous Laramide orogeny with the northern margin of South America (Caribbean Andes) at the equator to the West of the Late Mesozoic Pacific. During post-Laramide times it must have rotated clockwise into its present orientation. The eastern margin of North America has never been attached to the western margin of North Africa but only to the western margin of Europe. (7) Due to migration eastwards of the sequence of ocean styles of the Wilson Cycle, relative to a distinct plate tectonic setting of an ocean, a continent or continental margin, a future or later evolutionary style at the Earth's surface is always depicted in a setting simultaneously developed further to the West and a past or earlier style in a setting simultaneously occurring further to the East. In consequence, ahigh probability exists that up to the Early Tertiary, Greenland (the ArabiaofSouth America?) occupied a plate tectonic setting which is comparable to the current setting of Arabia (the Greenland of Africa?). The Late Cretaceous/Early Tertiary Eureka collision zone (Eureka orogeny) at the northern margin of the Greenland Plate and on some of the Canadian Arctic Islands is comparable with the Middle to Late Tertiary Taurus-Bitlis-Zagros collision zone at the northern margin of the Arabian Plate.