Firing the pigskin real right : Media representations of Simpson and Romo.

The purpose of the study was to examine the media\u27s representations of sport-celebrity couple singer-actress, Jessica Simpson and Dallas Cowboys Quarterback, Tony Romo. One hundred magazine and 100 newspaper articles published between December 17, 200, that coincided with the first publicized notion of the Jessica Simpson jinx and April 15, 2009, were qualitatively analyzed. The investigation revealed the prevailing dominant ideologies of patriarchal structures, traditional gender roles, hegemonic masculinity and deviance, while underscoring the mass media\u27s ubiquitous characteristics. The literature emphasized the mass media\u27s representation of the celebrity and the media\u27s habitual employment of gossip and rumor linguistics to frame the narratives surrounding Simpson and Romo, both autonomously and collectively. The study uncovered typologies that mirror the archetypal sporting partnership: Simpson\u27s polarized physical attributes, her feminine position as a supporter, her function as an antagonist (i.e., the femme fatale, Yoko Ono), and Romo\u27s position as a hegemonic male and a victim. Through the development of the above themes, the researcher sought to illustrate the concepts of villanization and victimization in the mass media, where Simpson was portrayed unfavorably and Romo was portrayed favorably suggesting the need to maintain the patriarchal order while restraining female dominance

Rejoinder to comments on “reasoning with belief functions: An analysis of compatibility”

AbstractAn earlier position paper has examined the applicability of belief-functions methodology in three reasoning tasks: (1) representation of incomplete knowledge, (2) belief-updating, and (3) evidence pooling. My conclusions were that the use of belief functions encounters basic difficulties along all three tasks, and that extensive experimental and theoretical studies should be undertaken before belief functions could be applied safely. This article responds to the discussion, in this issue, of my conclusions and the degree to which they affect the applicability of belief functions in automated reasoning tasks

Closure Failure and Scientific Inquiry

Deduction is important to scientific inquiry because it can extend knowledge efficiently, bypassing the need to investigate everything directly. The existence of closure failure—where one knows the premises and that the premises imply the conclusion but nevertheless does not know the conclusion—is a problem because it threatens this usage. It means that we cannot trust deduction for gaining new knowledge unless we can identify such cases ahead of time so as to avoid them. For philosophically engineered examples we have “inner alarm bells” to detect closure failure, but in scientific investigation we would want to use deduction for extension of our knowledge to matters we don’t already know that we couldn’t know. Through a quantitative treatment of how fast probabilistic sensitivity is lost over steps of deduction, I identify a condition that guarantees that the growth of potential error will be gradual; thus, dramatic closure failure is avoided. Whether the condition is fulfilled is often obvious, but sometimes it requires substantive investigation. I illustrate that not only safe deduction but the discovery of dramatic closure failures can lead to scientific advances

Medical Developments and Religious Belief with Special Reference to Europe in the 18th and 19th Centuries

It has frequently been suggested that, historically, science and religion react together in a state of conflict. Three areas of medical development have been studied to determine the nature of such conflict in this field where, in particular, its existence has been alleged. The introduction into Europe of inoculation for smallpox, about 1720, seems to have been met by religious objections from some hyper-Calvinist sources - particularly in Scotland - but this opposition had almost disappeared by the 19th century, and it did not recur on the introduction of cowpox vaccination by Jenner in 1798. Obstetric anaesthesia is commonly said to have stimulated massive religious opposition when it was introduced in 1847. Evidence of such opposition in contemporary sources has proved to be virtually non-existent, however, and it appears that this 'conflict' is a myth, based upon a defence prepared by James Young Simpson of Edinburgh against an attack which never materialized. The value given to the life of unborn children was a source of genuine conflict between the medical profession - which regarded the fetus as disposable - and the Roman Catholic church - which regarded all life as valuable, even that of the unborn. Debates occurred over induced abortion, embryotomy, and the caesarian operation -a means of saving the child which the catholic church supported, but surgeons regarded as unacceptably dangerous for the mother. These differences continued until-well into the present century. It is concluded that, while occasional specific disputes have occurred, there is no evidence of any general 'warfare' between medicine and religion, and that such a conflict is merely an historiographical artifact based upon past failures to study the historical evidence sufficiently closely

The Survey, Taxonomy, and Future Directions of Trustworthy AI: A Meta Decision of Strategic Decisions

When making strategic decisions, we are often confronted with overwhelming information to process. The situation can be further complicated when some pieces of evidence are contradicted each other or paradoxical. The challenge then becomes how to determine which information is useful and which ones should be eliminated. This process is known as meta-decision. Likewise, when it comes to using Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems for strategic decision-making, placing trust in the AI itself becomes a meta-decision, given that many AI systems are viewed as opaque "black boxes" that process large amounts of data. Trusting an opaque system involves deciding on the level of Trustworthy AI (TAI). We propose a new approach to address this issue by introducing a novel taxonomy or framework of TAI, which encompasses three crucial domains: articulate, authentic, and basic for different levels of trust. To underpin these domains, we create ten dimensions to measure trust: explainability/transparency, fairness/diversity, generalizability, privacy, data governance, safety/robustness, accountability, reproducibility, reliability, and sustainability. We aim to use this taxonomy to conduct a comprehensive survey and explore different TAI approaches from a strategic decision-making perspective

The truth about value and the value of truth

Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis an attempt is made to sketch the outlines of a cognitive theory of ethics, i.e. a theory in which ethical statements are a subset of descriptive statements. It is argued that the good is a quale, and that this quale roughly corresponds to what is often referred to as "pleasure". If this conceptualisation of the good is correct, then the resulting ethical theory is a cognitive, egoist version of ethical hedonism. The thesis proceeds by relating this conceptualisation of the good to economic phenomena. An investigation is then made of the conditions under which the following of a boundedly rational rule is preferable to calculating which one of the possible options available to the actor to follow. It is argued that one such rule is that "truth" should serve as a norm of inquiry. Next the issue of "altruism" is considered. It is argued that our intuitions regarding what egoist action should be are radically untrustworthy. Considerations from evolutionary biology and game theory make it clear that an egoist actor might well be best advised to perform a number of actions that would normally be termed altruistic. The next topic concerns the relation between fact and value. Arguments that claim to undermine the distinction between fact and value are argued to be fallacious. It is also argued that the correct view of the relation between fact and value can help to clarify some of the problems surrounding the conceptualisation of "objectivity". The thesis ends by considering the gains that arise from adopting the position argued for.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis word 'n poging aangewend om 'n kognitiwe teorie van etiek, m.a.w 'n teorie waarbinne etiese stellings 'n subspesie van deskriptiewe stellings is, daar te stel. Daar word geargumenteer dar "die goeie" 'n quale is, en dat hierdie quale rofweg dieselfde objek is as wat dikwels na verwys word as plesier. Indien hierdie siening van "die goeie" korrek is, dan impliseer dit die moontlikheid van 'n kognitiewe, egoïstiese weergawe van etiese hedonisme. Die tesis poog eerstens om die verhouding tussen hierdie siening van "die goeie" en ekonomise fenomene te verduidelik. Daarna word ondersoek ingestel na die kondisies waaronder die volg van 'n begrensde rasionele reël 'n beter opsie vir 'n akteur is as om an al die moontlike opsies te kyk en die beste te kies. Daar word geargumenteer dat die idee dat die "waarheid" die doel van ondersoek moet wees een so 'n reël is. Volgende word daar gekyk na die kwessie van altruïsme. Daar word geargumenteer dat ons intuïsies insake die aard van egoïstiese optrede radikaalonbetroubaar is. Sekere kwessies in evolusionêre biologie en spelteorie laat dit blyk dat 'n egoïstiese akteur waarskynlik verskeie oënskynlik "altruïstiese" aksies behoort uit te voer. Die volgende kwessie wat bespreek word is die verhouding tussen feite en waardes. Daar word geargumenteer dat pogings om hierdie onderskeid te ondermyn nie suksesvol is nie. Daar word verder geargumenteer dat die korrekte siening insake hierdie verhouding sekere probleme insake die verstaan van "obkjektiwiteit" kan ophelder. Die tesis eindig deur die voordele wat uit spruit uit die aanvaarding van die posisie wat hier voor geargumenteer word.National research Foundation (NRF

Mobility, Place and Identity in Women's Road Narratives: A Spatial Analysis of Mona Simpson's 'Anywhere but Here' and Barbara Kingsolver's 'The Bean Trees'

This thesis sets out to explore women's road narratives in terms of mobility, place and identity. Since the publication of Jack Kerouac's masterpiece On the Road, road narratives have been a recurring feature in American literature and culture. However, the female aspect of this genre remains under-explored. Literary works by and of women on the road are generally overlooked. The muteness of this genre does not seem to occur due to a lack of literary works, but rather due to a lack of accessibility as well as public and critical attention. My research will examine how the notion of class and upward mobility relate to the American tradition of traveling the road as it is presented in two central novels within this genre. The texts I will explore are Mona Simpson's Anywhere but Here and Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees. Both explore the intricacies of life on the road as well as the desire for a better life. Moreover, central to these novels is that traveling seems to occur while they are relocating from one place to another, rather than driving as a means of only exploring the American milieu and landscape. I am interested in the nexus between space and mobility. Specifically, how this relates to traveling the road as well as the dynamics of the local environment of place. Likewise, I will look at how identity and personal development are reshaped by their encounters during their travels on the road, as well as by their settlement into a new location and circumstance. Furthermore, I will explore how relocation functions as a catalyst for a journey of personal reinvention both materially and psychologically. However, these novels not only question the notion of upward mobility but also reveal the social dynamics that obstruct these characters from ascending socially and economically. Doreen Massey's contribution to social geography and especially space and spatiality rewrites our understanding of space and place as homogenous and static localities. Drawing on Massey's definition of space as "interrelations", "multiplicity" and always "under construction", I will focus on the complexity of social dynamics on a macro scale as well as the micro scale of social interactions. Additionally, since these novels are not restrained by the traditional road trip structure of departure – adventure – return, these novels are not either bound by the prospect of "the return". Hence, these narratives are able to explore the future of these characters as open and under construction. This enables the characters in Anywhere but Here and The Bean Trees to engage with the dynamic spaces they explore during their travels, as well the embedded social structures of the places in which they eventually seek to position themselves. Even though these novels deal with these issues differently, these texts can be considered as potent critiques of the notion of relocation as an easy and unproblematic means of achieving upward mobility

1995 Vol. 44 No. 3

https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/lawpublications_gavel1990s/1013/thumbnail.jp

The Paradox of Presidential Popularity, with an emphasis on Rhetoric

This study considers how President Bill Clinton maintained consistently high levels of public support in the face of the incessant scandals that plagued his presidency. It is my assessment that it is the nature of the presidency, Clinton\u27s political skill, the economic environment during his terms, Clinton\u27s rhetoric, and his personality that made his survival possible. I will place special emphasis on the areas of Clinton\u27s personality and rhetoric as the key components for this explanation, both because I feel these characteristics are most relevant to my study and the most unexplored

Transition and mixing in axisymmetric jets and vortex rings

A class of impulsively started, axisymmetric, laminar jets produced by a time dependent joint source of momentum are considered. These jets are different flows, each initially at rest in an unbounded fluid. The study is conducted at three levels of detail. First, a generalized set of analytic creeping flow solutions are derived with a method of flow classification. Second, from this set, three specific creeping flow solutions are studied in detail: the vortex ring, the round jet, and the ramp jet. This study involves derivation of vorticity, stream function, entrainment diagrams, and evolution of time lines through computer animation. From entrainment diagrams, critical points are derived and analyzed. The flow geometry is dictated by the properties and location of critical points which undergo bifurcation and topological transformation (a form of transition) with changing Reynolds number. Transition Reynolds numbers were calculated. A state space trajectory was derived describing the topological behavior of these critical points. This state space derivation yielded three states of motion which are universal for all axisymmetric jets. Third, the axisymmetric round jet is solved numerically using the unsteady laminar Navier Stokes equations. These equations were shown to be self similar for the round jet. Numerical calculations were performed up to a Reynolds number of 30 for a 60x60 point mesh. Animations generated from numerical solution showed each of the three states of motion for the round jet, including the Re = 30 case