Advantages and limitations of formal expression

Testing the validity of knowledge requires formal expression of that knowledge. Formality of an expression is defined as the invariance, under changes of context, of the expression's meaning, i.e. the distinction which the expression represents. This encompasses both mathematical formalism and operational determination. The main advantages of formal expression are storability, universal communicability, and testability. They provide a selective edge in the Darwinian competition between ideas. However, formality can never be complete, as the context cannot be eliminated. Primitive terms, observation set-ups, and background conditions are inescapable parts of formal or operational definitions, that all refer to a context beyond the formal system. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and Gödel's Theorem provide special cases of this more universal limitation principle. Context-dependent expressions, on the other hand, have the benefit of being more flexible, intuitive and direct, and putting less strain on memory. It is concluded that formality is not an absolute property, but a context-dependent one: different people will apply different amounts of formality in different situations or for different purposes. Some recent computational and empirical studies of formality and contexts illustrate the emerging scientific investigation of this dependence.     

Some New Results on Orthogonally Constrained Candecomp

The use of Candecomp to fit scalar products in the context of Indscal is based on the assumption that, due to the symmetry of the data matrices involved, two components matrices will become equal when Candecomp converges. Bennani Dosse and Ten Berge (2008) have shown that, in the single component case, the assumption can only be violated at saddle points in the case of Gramian matrices. This paper again considers Candecomp applied to symmetric matrices, but with an orthonormality constraint on the components. This constrained version of Candecomp, when applied to symmetric matrices, has long been known under the acronym Indort. When the data matrices are positive definite, or have become positive semidefinite due to double centering, and the saliences are nonnegative – by chance or by constraint –, the component matrices resulting from Indort are shown to be equal. Because Indort is also free from so-called degeneracy problems, it is a highly attractive alternative to Candecomp in the present context. We also consider a well-known successive approach to the orthogonally constrained Indscal problem and we compare, from simulated and real data sets, its results with those given by the simultaneous (Indort) approach.     

话语心智

语言建构论把关注的重心从心灵与世界的关系转移到语言与世界的关系。语言的作用不是表达心理,而是规制心理。话语本身就是社会行动,注重话语分析的心理学家放弃了将“环境”中行为的个人当作研究对象,转而研究在不同语境中普遍存在的语言实践和话语。话语不仅成为心理学对意义进行追问的对象和手段,而且话语的观念更是被当作心理学的本体论和认识论。     

Mixture Model Analysis of Complex Samples

We investigate the effects of a complex sampling design on the estimation of mixture models. An approximate or pseudo likelihood approach is proposed to obtain consistent estimates of class-specific parameters when the sample arises from such a complex design. The effects of ignoring the sample design are demonstrated empirically in the context of an international value segmentation study in which a multinomial mixture model is applied to identify segment-level value rankings. The analysis reveals that ignoring the sample design results in both an incorrect number of segments as identified by information criteria and biased estimates of segment-level parameters.     

A Combinatorial Approach to Assess the Separability of Clusters

Separability of clusters is an issue that arises in many different areas, and is often used in a rather vague and subjective manner. We introduce a combinatorial notion of interiority to derive a global view on separability of a set of entities. We develop this approach further to evaluate the overall separability of a partition in the context of cluster analysis. Our approach captures combinatorial and geometrical aspects of data and provides, in addition to numerical evaluations, graphical representations particularly useful when data are not easily visualized. We illustrate the methodology on some real and simulated datasets.     

The situation of causality

Causality in the abstract is a grand theme. We take it up when we want to penetrate to the bottom of things to understand general laws that govern the working at the world of the deepest and most detailed level.In this essay, I argue for a more situated understanding of causality. To counter our desire for ever greater generality, I suggest that causal relations, even those that hold only on average, require context. To counter our desire for ever greater detail, I suggest that causal relations may exist only at a certain level of granularity.     

The mixture method of clustering applied to three-way data

Clustering or classifying individuals into groups such that there is relative homogeneity within the groups and heterogeneity between the groups is a problem which has been considered for many years. Most available clustering techniques are applicable only to a two-way data set, where one of the modes is to be partitioned into groups on the basis of the other mode. Suppose, however, that the data set is three-way. Then what is needed is a multivariate technique which will cluster one of the modes on the basis of both of the other modes simultaneously. It is shown that by appropriate specification of the underlying model, the mixture maximum likelihood approach to clustering can be applied in the context of a three-way table. It is illustrated using a soybean data set which consists of multiattribute measurements on a number of genotypes each grown in several environments. Although the problem is set in the framework of clustering genotypes, the technique is applicable to other types of three-way data sets.     

Constructivism: A ‘Next’ Area of Scientific Development?

Radical Constructivism has been defined as an‘unconventional approach to the problem ofknowledge and knowing’. Its unconventionalityis summarised by its claim that it isimpossible to attribute unique meaning toexperience – as no mind-independent yardstick canbe assumed to exist against which to identifyuniqueness, and hence to produce knowledge andknowing. In other words, it is claimed thatthere is no ‘reality’ that is knowable to allindividual knowers. This claim appearsindefensible by itself, as it does not explainwhy the successes of traditional science appearas such. However, it is defensible in thecontext of numerous failures to achieve uniqueattributions, or of the history of science.Even so, what is missing are concrete methodsand research designs. This often leaves RadicalConstructivism to be critical only, toconcentrate on justifying the impossibility ofsuccess without contributing itself.Where this is the case it reduces scientiststo individuals considered unable to communicatewith others on public (and unique)attributions-who may do so only by borrowingmethods from previous approaches. It is arguedthat a more valuable contribution is possibleif Radical Constructivism is seen as a responseto the challenge defined by frequent failuresof traditional approaches. The latter may beextended such that the extensions converge toRadical Constructivism. Such extensions arebased on reported observations, rather than onexperiences in general, and are to beattributed meanings – uniquely as well asnon-uniquely – by way of a collective. The lattershould allow its ‘actors’ to restrict whatmaintains the collective to what is observableto others, as well as use the collective torestrict their own observations. The study ofcollectives thus allows for the study ofrestrictions or values, and hence for includingsubjective or constructivist experiences beyond(reportable) observations.     

On Gene’s Action and Reciprocal Causation

Advancing the reductionist conviction that biology must be in agreement with the assumptions of reductive physicalism (the upward hierarchy of causal powers, the upward fixing of facts concerning biological levels) A. Rosenberg argues that downward causation is ontologically incoherent and that it comes into play only when we are ignorant of the details of biological phenomena. Moreover, in his view, a careful look at relevant details of biological explanations will reveal the basic molecular level that characterizes biological systems, defined by wholly physical properties, e.g., geometrical structures of molecular aggregates (cells). In response, we argue that contrary to his expectations one cannot infer reductionist assumptions even from detailed biological explanations that invoke the molecular level, as interlevel causal reciprocity is essential to these explanations. Recent very detailed explanations that concern the structure and function of chromatin—the intricacies of supposedly basic molecular level—demonstrate this. They show that what seem to be basic physical parameters extend into a more general biological context, thus rendering elusive the concepts of the basic level and causal hierarchy postulated by the reductionists. In fact, relevant phenomena are defined across levels by entangled, extended parameters. Nor can the biological context be explained away by basic physical parameters defining molecular level shaped by evolution as a physical process. Reductionists claim otherwise only because they overlook the evolutionary significance of initial conditions best defined in terms of extended biological parameters. Perhaps the reductionist assumptions (as well as assumptions that postulate any particular levels as causally fundamental) cannot be inferred from biological explanations because biology aims at manipulating organisms rather than producing explanations that meet the coherence requirements of general ontological models. Or possibly the assumptions of an ontology not based on the concept of causal powers stratified across levels can be inferred from biological explanations. The incoherence of downward causation is inevitable, given reductionist assumptions, but an ontological alternative might avoid this. We outline desiderata for the treatment of levels and properties that realize interlevel causation in such an ontology.     

Expanding Mediation Theory

In his article In Between Us, Yoni van den Eede expands existing theories of mediation into the realm of the social and the political, focusing on the notions of opacity and transparency. His approach is rich and promising, but two pitfalls should be avoided. First, his concept of ‘in-between’ runs the risk to conceptualize mediation as a process ‘between’ pre-given entities. On the basis of current work in postphenomenology and actor-network theory, though, mediation should rather be seen as the origin of entities, not as an intermediary between them. Second, Van den Eede’s separate discussion of transparency and opacity in ‘use’ and in ‘context’ runs the risk to make invisible the complementarity of the two dimensions. While transparency of use embodies an experiential form of the distinction between transparency and opacity, transparency of context embodies a more cognitive dimension of the distinction. Only by linking the two it becomes possible to take responsibility for the impact that technological mediations can have. Users and designers need a ‘double vision’ to simultaneously see the transparency of both use and context.     

A New Representation of Interval Symbolic Data and Its Application in Dynamic Clustering

In this study, we consider the type of interval data summarizing the original samples (individuals) with classical point data. This type of interval data are termed interval symbolic data in a new research domain called, symbolic data analysis. Most of the existing research, such as the (centre, radius) and [lower boundary, upper boundary] representations, represent an interval using only the boundaries of the interval. However, these representations hold true only under the assumption that the individuals contained in the interval follow a uniform distribution. In practice, such representations may result in not only inconsistency with the facts, since the individuals are usually not uniformly distributed in many application aspects, but also information loss for not considering the point data within the intervals during the calculation. In this study, we propose a new representation of the interval symbolic data considering the point data contained in the intervals. Then we apply the city-block distance metric to the new representation and propose a dynamic clustering approach for interval symbolic data. A simulation experiment is conducted to evaluate the performance of our method. The results show that, when the individuals contained in the interval do not follow a uniform distribution, the proposed method significantly outperforms the Hausdorff and city-block distance based on traditional representation in the context of dynamic clustering. Finally, we give an application example on the automobile data set.     

Micro Situations and Macro Structures: Natural-Language Communication and Context

This contribution investigates the role ofcontext in natural-language communication bydifferentiating between linguistic andsociocultural contexts. It is firmly anchoredto a dialogue framework and based on arelational conception of context as astructured and interactionally organisedphenomenon. However, context is not onlyexamined from this bottom-up or microperspective, but also from a top-down or macroviewpoint as pre- and co-supposed socioculturalcontext. Here, context is not solely seen as aninteractionally organised phenomenon, butrather as a sociocultural apparatus whichstrongly influences the interpretation of microsituations.The section, micro building blocks andlocal meaning, argues for a sociopragmaticapproach to natural-language communication thusaccommodating both speech act theory andconversation analysis. It examines the questionof how linguistic and sociocultural contextsare accommodated by the micro building blocksof speech act and turn, and speaker and hearer.The results obtained are systematised in thesection, micro meets macro, and adaptedto the requirements of the dialogue act ofa plus/minus-validity claimbased on thecontextualisation of Jürgen Habermas'sconception of ratification of validityclaimadopted from this theory ofcommunicative action(1987). The definition ofa plus/minus-validity claim is furthersupplemented by the Gricean CooperativePrinciple, the ethnomethodological premise ofaccountability of social action, theconversation-analytic notion of sequentialorganisation and the interpersonal concepts offace and participation format. Validity claimsare discussed from both bottom-up and top-downperspectives stressing the dynamics of contextwith regard to both process and product, andselection and construction.In conclusion, the relational status of contextrequires an interactive frame of referenceaccounting for context, contextualisation,decontextualisation and recontextualisation.     

Using Generalized Procrustes Analysis for Multiple Imputation in Principal Component Analysis

Multiple imputation is one of the most highly recommended procedures for dealing with missing data. However, to date little attention has been paid to methods for combining the results from principal component analyses applied to a multiply imputed data set. In this paper we propose Generalized Procrustes analysis for this purpose, of which its centroid solution can be used as a final estimate for the component loadings. Convex hulls based on the loadings of the imputed data sets can be used to represent the uncertainty due to the missing data. In two simulation studies, the performance of Generalized Procrustes approach is evaluated and compared with other methods. More specifically it is studied how these methods behave when order changes of components and sign reversals of component loadings occur, such as in case of near-equal eigenvalues, or data having almost as many counterindicative items as indicative items. The simulations show that other proposed methods either may run into serious problems or are not able to adequately assess the accuracy due to the presence of missing data. However, when the above situations do not occur, all methods will provide adequate estimates for the PCA loadings.     

Mathematics,Philosophical and Semantic Considerations on Infinity (II): Dialectical Vision

Human language has the characteristic of being open and in some cases polysemic. The word “infinite” is used often in common speech and more frequently in literary language, but rarely with its precise meaning. In this way the concepts can be used in a vague way but an argument can still be structured so that the central idea is understood and is shared with to the partners. At the same time no precise definition is given to the concepts used and each partner makes his own reading of the text based on previous experience and cultural background. In a language dictionary the first meaning of “infinite” agrees with the etymology: what has no end. We apply the word infinite most often and incorrectly as a synonym for “very large” or something that we do not perceive its completion. In this context, the infinite mentioned in dictionaries refers to the idea or notion of the “immeasurably large” although this is open to what the individual’s means by “immeasurably great.” Based on this linguistic imprecision, the authors present a non Cantorian theory of the potential and actual infinite. For this we have introduced a new concept: the homogon that is the whole set that does not fall within the definition of sets established by Cantor.     

多模态大数据语境下科技术语翻译标准分析——以新冠肺炎和新冠病毒术语翻译为例

科技术语翻译在全球贸易、科技传播中起着举足轻重的作用,但还存在不准确、不规范和不一致等现象,例如在线词典、机器翻译引擎、在线百科等提供的新冠肺炎和新冠病毒的译法。梳理了科技术语翻译标准和多模态大数据语境理论框架。基于科技术语与翻译方面权威的规范文献的国际国内标准和术语翻译标准的相关研究等可归纳为准确、简明、一致、规范的术语翻译标准;多模态大数据语境则指术语可通过文本、图片、网页等多模态语境传播,整个网络具有多模态语境互文性。文章以新冠肺炎和新冠病毒术语翻译标准化为例,基于网络、数据库检索、图文等互文性语境,以及现有相关研究,分析在科普和学术论文场合的翻译惯例,根据术语翻译标准,更全面归纳了标准化汉英翻译,包括优选术语、全称、曾称和简称等,示范了英语科技论文中全称和简称的写作方式等,可为在线词典、机器翻译中术语优化和科技名词规范等术语翻译标准化相关工作提供参考。     

Ordination in the presence of group structure,for general multivariate data

A low-dimensional representation of multivariate data is often sought when the individuals belong to a set ofa-priori groups and the objective is to highlight between-group variation relative to that within groups. If all the data are continuous then this objective can be achieved by means of canonical variate analysis, but no corresponding technique exists when the data are categorical or mixed continuous and categorical. On the other hand, if there is noa-priori grouping of the individuals, then ordination of any form of data can be achieved by use of metric scaling (principal coordinate analysis). In this paper we consider a simple extension of the latter approach to incorporate grouped data, and discuss to what extent this method can be viewed as a generalization of canonical variate analysis. Some illustrative examples are also provided.     

Towards a Hierarchical Definition of Life,the Organism,and Death

Despite hundreds of definitions, no consensus exists on a definition of life or on the closely related and problematic definitions of the organism and death. These problems retard practical and theoretical development in, for example, exobiology, artificial life, biology and evolution. This paper suggests improving this situation by basing definitions on a theory of a generalized particle hierarchy. This theory uses the common denominator of the “operator” for a unified ranking of both particles and organisms, from elementary particles to animals with brains. Accordingly, this ranking is called “the operator hierarchy”. This hierarchy allows life to be defined as: matter with the configuration of an operator, and that possesses a complexity equal to, or even higher than the cellular operator. Living is then synonymous with the dynamics of such operators and the word organism refers to a select group of operators that fit the definition of life. The minimum condition defining an organism is its existence as an operator, construction thus being more essential than metabolism, growth or reproduction. In the operator hierarchy, every organism is associated with a specific closure, for example, the nucleus in eukaryotes. This allows death to be defined as: the state in which an organism has lost its closure following irreversible deterioration of its organization. The generality of the operator hierarchy also offers a context to discuss “life as we do not know it”. The paper ends with testing the definition’s practical value with a range of examples.     

表示“酸奶制品”概念的俄语术语汉译方法刍议

术语之所以称为术语,通常是针对语词所在的系统而言的,离开具体的系统,语词的术语特征则无从谈起。在一般情况下,翻译这类词语时不存在多大困难,但当这些词语(术语)在同一文本或同一语境中使用时,问题就会凸显出来。文章分析了表示“酸奶制品”概念的一组俄语术语在同一文本中汉译的具体问题,并探讨了术语的几种翻译方法。     

摹状词指称的存在性和语境

斯特劳森正确地指出,罗素把限定摹状词的存在性预设当作存在性断定,进而把一个违反存在性预设因而没有真值的语句看作一个假命题,这是对预设和断定的混淆。笔者进一步指出,唐奈兰把由世界语境和交流语境造成的关于适合于摹状词的对象是否存在的差别,错误地归结为,在适合于一个摹状词的对象不存在的情况下关于该摹状词的归属性用法和指称性用法的差别。笔者认为,无论归属性用法还是指称性用法,只有在适合于那个摹状词的对象存在的情况下才有指称;关键在于,适合于那个摹状词的对象在不同的语境下可能是不同的。