Are There Philosophical Answers to Psychiatric Questions?

Contemporary psychiatry has only one generally accepted model, that of biological – materialist explanation and treatment. But clinicians recognize that this model omits much that is important and they therefore confront a dilemma: either limit their practice to an incomplete model, or use other models which seem unfounded and speculative. Philosophical considerations may help clinicians find a way out 1) by showing the inherent limitations of biological – materialist explanations, and 2) by grounding other (psychotherapeutic) approaches on general considerations of how the mind, and in particular language, works. These general considerations include: the dependence of meaning upon environmental context, the attribution of meaning as involving sets of skills, capacities and reactions, the multiplicity of language games and therefore their individual limitations, the dependence of meaning upon our shared interests, the largely unconscious nature of mind and our necessary limitations to public criteria for mental events and processes

Refined Inference on Long Memory in Realized Volatility

There is an emerging consensus in empirical finance that realized volatility series typically display long range dependence with a memory parameter (d) around 0.4 (Andersen et. al. (2001), Martens et al. (2004)). The present paper provides some analytical explanations for this evidence and shows how recent results in Lieberman and Phillips (2004a, 2004b) can be used to refine statistical inference about d with little computational effort. In contrast to standard asymptotic normal theory now used in the literature which has an O(n-1/2) error rate on error rejection probabilities, the asymptotic approximation used here has an error rate of o(n-1/2). The new formula is independent of unknown parameters, is simple to calculate and highly user-friendly. The method is applied to test whether the reported long memory parameter estimates of Andersen et. al. (2001) and Martens et. al. (2004) differ significantly from the lower boundary (d = 0.5) of nonstationary long memory.ARFIMA; Edgeworth expansion; Fourier integral expansion; Fractional differencing; Improved inference; Long memory; Pivotal statistic; Realized volatility; Singularity

Semi-Automated SVG Programming via Direct Manipulation

Direct manipulation interfaces provide intuitive and interactive features to a broad range of users, but they often exhibit two limitations: the built-in features cannot possibly cover all use cases, and the internal representation of the content is not readily exposed. We believe that if direct manipulation interfaces were to (a) use general-purpose programs as the representation format, and (b) expose those programs to the user, then experts could customize these systems in powerful new ways and non-experts could enjoy some of the benefits of programmable systems. In recent work, we presented a prototype SVG editor called Sketch-n-Sketch that offered a step towards this vision. In that system, the user wrote a program in a general-purpose lambda-calculus to generate a graphic design and could then directly manipulate the output to indirectly change design parameters (i.e. constant literals) in the program in real-time during the manipulation. Unfortunately, the burden of programming the desired relationships rested entirely on the user. In this paper, we design and implement new features for Sketch-n-Sketch that assist in the programming process itself. Like typical direct manipulation systems, our extended Sketch-n-Sketch now provides GUI-based tools for drawing shapes, relating shapes to each other, and grouping shapes together. Unlike typical systems, however, each tool carries out the user's intention by transforming their general-purpose program. This novel, semi-automated programming workflow allows the user to rapidly create high-level, reusable abstractions in the program while at the same time retaining direct manipulation capabilities. In future work, our approach may be extended with more graphic design features or realized for other application domains.Comment: In 29th ACM User Interface Software and Technology Symposium (UIST 2016

First occurrence of the problematic vetulicolian Skeemella clavula in the Cambrian Marjum Formation of Utah, USA

The Cambrian Marjum Formation of western Utah (USA) preserves a diverse soft-bodied fauna from the upper Drumian that is slightly younger than the well-known Burgess Shale. While the Marjum is dominated by arthropods, animals belonging to a variety of phyla have been found. Here, we document the second occurrence of the rare, enigmatic taxon Skeemella clavula, which was previously thought to be restricted to the Pierson Cove Formation of the Drum Mountains. The occurrence in the Marjum represents a new preservational setting, as well as a slightly younger deposit. The new specimens also expand the number of known specimens to three. In addition, they improve understanding of the morphology of this representative of the problematic phylum Vetulicolia

Inventory Reduction and Productivity Growth: Evidence from the Japanese Automotive Sector

The literature on JIT production suggests a causal link between work-in-process inventory and manufacturing productivity. Such a connection has been described in numerous case studies but never tested statistically. This paper uses historical data for 52 Japanese automotive companies to evaluate the inventory-productivity relationship. We find that inventory reductions stimulated gains in productivity, rather than vice versa. On average, each 10% reduction in inventory led to about a 1% gain in labor productivity, with a lag of about one year. Significant differences are found among company groups: Toyota affiliates had a shorter lag; while Nissan affiliates demonstrated no productivity effect. Firms that made inventory reductions typically saw an increase in their productivity rank

Inventory Reduction and Productivity Growth: Linkages in the Japanese Automotive Industry

The literature on JIT production suggests a causal link between work-in-process inventory and manufacturing productivity. Such a connection has been described in numerous case studies but never tested statistically. This paper uses historical data for 52 Japanese automotive companies to evaluate the inventory-productivity relationship. We find that firms increased their productivity rank during periods of substantial inventory reduction. More detailed tests suggest that inventory reductions stimulated gains in productivity: on average, each 10% reduction in inventory led to about a 10% gain in labor productivity, with a lag of about one year. Such effects were more immediate for Toyota affiliates but undetectable for close suppliers of Nissan. These findings imply that inventory reduction served as an important driver of process improvement for many Japanese automotive companies, although some firms emphasized other methods

Inventory Reduction and Productivity Growth: A Comparison of Japanese and US Automotive Sectors

This study asseses the inventory and productivity performance of the Japanese and US automotive industries in recent decades. Within each country we distinguish between vehicle assemblers and parts suppliers. In Japan, assemblers and suppliers made dramatic inventory reductions and productivity gains, particularly during the 1970s. By comparison, we find an unbalanced pattern for the United States: American assembly plants have been streamlined but parts suppliers have stagnated. In both countries our findings suggest a strong association between inventory reduction and productivity growth