3,215 research outputs found
Character analysis of oral activity: contact profiling
The article presents the results of our observations on syntactic, semantic and plot peculiarities of oral language activity, we find it justified to consider the above mentioned parameters as identification criteria for discovering characterological differences of Ukrainian-speaking and Russian-speaking objects of contact profiling. It describes the connection between mechanisms of psychological defenses as the character structural components, and agentive and non-agentive speech constructions, internal and external predicates. Localized and described plots of oral narratives inherent to representatives of different character types
Knowledge-based support in Non-Destructive Testing for health monitoring of aircraft structures
Maintenance manuals include general methods and procedures for industrial maintenance and they contain information about principles of maintenance methods. Particularly, Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) methods are important for the detection of aeronautical defects and they can be used for various kinds of material and in different environments. Conventional non-destructive evaluation inspections are done at periodic maintenance checks. Usually, the list of tools used in a maintenance program is simply located in the introduction of manuals, without any precision as regards to their characteristics, except for a short description of the manufacturer and tasks in which they are employed. Improving the identification concepts of the maintenance tools is needed to manage the set of equipments and establish a system of equivalence: it is necessary to have a consistent maintenance conceptualization, flexible enough to fit all current equipment, but also all those likely to be added/used in the future. Our contribution is related to the formal specification of the system of functional equivalences that can facilitate the maintenance activities with means to determine whether a tool can be substituted for another by observing their key parameters in the identified characteristics. Reasoning mechanisms of conceptual graphs constitute the baseline elements to measure the fit or unfit between an equipment model and a maintenance activity model. Graph operations are used for processing answers to a query and this graph-based approach to the search method is in-line with the logical view of information retrieval. The methodology described supports knowledge formalization and capitalization of experienced NDT practitioners. As a result, it enables the selection of a NDT technique and outlines its capabilities with acceptable alternatives
Non-Euclidean geometry in nature
I describe the manifestation of the non-Euclidean geometry in the behavior of
collective observables of some complex physical systems. Specifically, I
consider the formation of equilibrium shapes of plants and statistics of sparse
random graphs. For these systems I discuss the following interlinked questions:
(i) the optimal embedding of plants leaves in the three-dimensional space, (ii)
the spectral statistics of sparse random matrix ensembles.Comment: 52 pages, 21 figures, last section is rewritten, a reference to
chaotic Hamiltonian systems is adde
Inconsistent boundaries
Research on this paper was supported by a grant from the Marsden Fund, Royal Society of New Zealand.Mereotopology is a theory of connected parts. The existence of boundaries, as parts of everyday objects, is basic to any such theory; but in classical mereotopology, there is a problem: if boundaries exist, then either distinct entities cannot be in contact, or else space is not topologically connected (Varzi in Noûs 31:26–58, 1997). In this paper we urge that this problem can be met with a paraconsistent mereotopology, and sketch the details of one such approach. The resulting theory focuses attention on the role of empty parts, in delivering a balanced and bounded metaphysics of naive space.PostprintPeer reviewe
Conformal field theory, boundary conditions and applications to string theory
This is an introduction to two-dimensional conformal field theory and its
applications in string theory. Modern concepts of conformal field theory are
explained, and it is outlined how they are used in recent studies of D-branes
in the strong curvature regime by means of CFT on surfaces with boundary.Comment: 45 pages, LaTeX2
Comparing Incomparable Frameworks: A Model Theoretic Approach to Phonology
In previous work, we used techniques from mathematical logic and model theory to study and compare two phonological theories, SPE and Government Phonology. The surprising result was that Government Phonology corresponds to a very weak fragment of SPE, yet it can attain the full expressivity of the latter through more powerful mechanisms of feature spreading. An issue that we didn\u27t elaborate on, however, is the question of what this increase in expressivity buys us in terms of empirical coverage, which we pick up in this paper. Again making good use of our model theoretic techniques, we investigate two phonological phenomena --- Sanskrit n-retroflexion and primary stress assignment in Creek and Cairene Arabic --- and show how much power feature spreading has to be granted in any descriptively adequate account which does not invoke additional technical machinery. These technical results are accompanied by reflections on the relation between empirically minded theory comparisons and the model theoretic approach
Kriesel and Wittgenstein
Georg Kreisel (15 September 1923 - 1 March 2015) was a formidable mathematical
logician during a formative period when the subject was becoming
a sophisticated field at the crossing of mathematics and logic. Both with his
technical sophistication for his time and his dialectical engagement with mandates,
aspirations and goals, he inspired wide-ranging investigation in the metamathematics
of constructivity, proof theory and generalized recursion theory.
Kreisel's mathematics and interactions with colleagues and students have been
memorably described in Kreiseliana ([Odifreddi, 1996]). At a different level of
interpersonal conceptual interaction, Kreisel during his life time had extended
engagement with two celebrated logicians, the mathematical Kurt Gödel and
the philosophical Ludwig Wittgenstein. About Gödel, with modern mathematical
logic palpably emanating from his work, Kreisel has reflected and written
over a wide mathematical landscape. About Wittgenstein on the other hand,
with an early personal connection established Kreisel would return as if with
an anxiety of influence to their ways of thinking about logic and mathematics,
ever in a sort of dialectic interplay. In what follows we draw this out through
his published essays—and one letter—both to elicit aspects of influence in his
own terms and to set out a picture of Kreisel's evolving thinking about logic
and mathematics in comparative relief.Accepted manuscrip
Holographic entropy relations
We develop a framework for the derivation of new information theoretic
quantities which are natural from a holographic perspective. We demonstrate the
utility of our techniques by deriving the tripartite information (the quantity
associated to monogamy of mutual information) using a set of abstract arguments
involving bulk extremal surfaces. Our arguments rely on formal manipulations of
surfaces and not on local surgery or explicit computation of entropies through
the holographic entanglement entropy prescriptions. As an application, we show
how to derive a family of similar information quantities for an arbitrary
number of parties. The present work establishes the foundation of a broader
program that aims at the understanding of the entanglement structures of
geometric states for an arbitrary number of parties. We stress that our method
is completely democratic with respect to bulk geometries and is equally valid
in static and dynamical situations. While rooted in holography, we expect that
our construction will provide a useful characterization of multipartite
correlations in quantum field theories.Comment: v1: 58 pages, 1 pdf figur
Mirror Symmetry and Other Miracles in Superstring Theory
The dominance of string theory in the research landscape of quantum gravity
physics (despite any direct experimental evidence) can, I think, be justified
in a variety of ways. Here I focus on an argument from mathematical fertility,
broadly similar to Hilary Putnam's 'no miracles argument' that, I argue, many
string theorists in fact espouse. String theory leads to many surprising,
useful, and well-confirmed mathematical 'predictions' - here I focus on mirror
symmetry. These predictions are made on the basis of general physical
principles entering into string theory. The success of the mathematical
predictions are then seen as evidence for framework that generated them. I
attempt to defend this argument, but there are nonetheless some serious
objections to be faced. These objections can only be evaded at a high
(philosophical) price.Comment: For submission to a Foundations of Physics special issue on "Forty
Years Of String Theory: Reflecting On the Foundations" (edited by G. `t
Hooft, E. Verlinde, D. Dieks and S. de Haro)
- …