A defence of Hart's semantics as nonambitious conceptual analysis

Two methodological claims in Hart's The Concept of Law have produced perplexity: that it is a book on “analytic jurisprudence” 1 and that it may also be regarded as an essay in “descriptive sociology.” 2 Are these two ideas reconcilable? We know that mere analysis of our legal concepts cannot tell us much about their properties, that is, about the empirical aspect of law. We have learned this from philosophical criticisms of conceptual analysis; yet Hart informs us that analytic jurisprudence can be reconciled with descriptive sociology. The answer to this puzzle lies in the notion of nonambitious conceptual analysis. The theorist analyzes concepts but accepts the limitations of conceptual analysis and therefore uses empirical knowledge and substantive arguments to explain, refine, or perhaps refute initial insights provided by intuitions. This is the conclusion that this paper arrives at as an argumentative strategy to defend Hart's legal theory from the criticisms of Stavropoulos and Dworkin. The latter argues that Hart's legal theory cannot explain theoretical disagreements in law because he relies on a shared criterial semantics. Stavropoulos aims to show that Hart's semantics is committed to ambitious conceptual analysis and relies on the usage of our words as a standard of correctness. Both attacks aim to show that the semantic sting stings Hart's legal theory. This essay refines both challenges and concludes that not even in the light of the most charitable interpretation of these criticisms is Hart's legal theory stung by the semantic sting. This study defends the view that Hart's methodological claims were modest and that he was aware of the limits of conceptual analysis as a philosophical method. He was, this study claims, far ahead of his time. 1 H.L.A Hart, THE CONCEPT OF LAW (1994). 2 Id

The effective participation of the audience in the production of news: encouraging opportunities through data journalism

Digital tools allow and encourage users "to participate in the creation and circulation of media” (Lewis, 2012). This participation can be considered as a remedy against the growing disconnection between journalism and citizens, also as a formula for a greater democratization of the media (Negroponte, 1996 y Castells, 2001). However, most studies show that rarely the participation of the audience become significant, papers indicate that it is actually quite unusual to allow citizens to be part of the productive process. (Domingo et al., 2008). The journalistic organization has not transferred the power to the recipients and the interaction with the audience is only welcome as comments about the information (Peters & Witschge, 2014). This work aims to demonstrate how the Data Journalism comes to enable this effective participation of the audience in the process of news production. Our main objective is to define the terms in which the participation of the audience takes place in Data Journalism, we aim to categorize how and to what extent this relationship occurs and what benefits it brings to the information. To achieve the objectives set for this work we have analyzed the Data Journalism works awarded in the Data Journalism Awards since its foundation in 2012. These awards are the most prestigious of the world and they have also been the reference for other international researches because selecting award-winning works involves studying a sample with quality (Hermida, 2017; Ojo & Heravi, 2017). After an in-depth analysis, sixteen pieces were detected, of more than a hundred, in which citizen participation was perceived.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. This research is part of the R + D project CS02015-64955-C4-3-

OPTIMAL PRICING AND GRANT POLICIES FOR MUSEUMS

Considering two potential sources of income (public grants and ticket revenues),we have defined a theoretical model where the public agency is the principal and the manager of the museum is the agent. This model allows us to design the optimal contract between both sides and thus to establish the optimal values of grants, ticket prices, budget and effort applied by the manager. Furthermore, we have found a theoretical reason to explain the inelastic pricing strategy that has been found in some of the empirical research on cultural and sports economics. The main conclusion is that the optimal contract allows a Pareto optimum solution in prices that does not change if we introduce moral hazard into this relationship. This solution allows us to conclude that the public agency should regulate ticket prices in accordance with the social valuation. However, public grants and museum budgets would be affected by the existence of this problem, moving the equilibrium away from the Pareto optimum situation. In this case, even with a risk averse manager and a risk neutral public agency, grants and budgets will depend on results because higher budgets related to good results provide the main incentives to increase the manager’s level of effort. Although the focus of this paper is on museum administration, the model that we have developed can be easily generalized and applied to other institutions, such as schools, sport facilities or NGOs, which are able to raise funds directly from private (e. g. ticket revenues or membership fees) or public sources (e.g. public grants).cultural economics, grants, public prices, museums, principal- agent model

Modeling and Grey-box Identification of a Robot Manipulator

Modeling and parameter identification of the main three of an idustrial robot of the type ABB IRB 2000 is considered. This Master thesis has been done at the Department of Automatic Control, Lund Institute of Technology working with a real robot located in the Robotics Laboratory. The model has been bult using the simulation software called Dymola (Dynamic Modeling laboratory), and the parameter identification has been performed with some tools included in the same software. The procedures requested in order to carry out the modeling and the parameter calibration are explained in detail, and finally a short description about the control desig in Dymola is done

Performance Analysis of an Annular Diffuser Under the Influence of a Gas Turbine Stage Exit Flow

In this investigation the performance of a gas turbine exhaust diffuser subject to the outlet flow conditions of a turbine stage is evaluated. Towards that goal, a fully three-dimensional computational analysis has been performed where several turbine stage-exhaust diffuser configurations have been studied: a turbine stage with a shrouded rotor coupled to a diffuser with increasing divergence angle in the diffuser, and a turbine stage with an unshrouded rotor was also considered for the exhaust diffuser performance analysis. The large load of this investigation was evaluated using a steady state numerical analysis utilizing the "mixing plane" algorithm between the rotating rotor and stationary stator and diffuser rows. Finally, an unsteady analysis is performed on a turbine stage with an unsrhouded rotor coupled to an annular exhaust diffuser with an outer wall opening angle of 18°. It has been found that the over the tip leakage flow in the unshrouded rotor emerges as a swirling wall jet at the upper wall of the diffuser. When using the turbine with the shrouded rotor no wall jet was observed, making the flow at the entrance to the diffuser "quasi-uniform". The maximum opening angle of the diffuser upper wall achieved before the diffuser stalls was 12° with a static pressure recovery coefficient of Cp = 0.293. When the wall jet was observed, diffuser opening angles of 18° were possible with a static pressure recovery of Cp = 0.365. Consequently the wall jet energizes the diffuser upper wall boundary layer flow, allows for higher static pressure recovery levels and postpones diffuser stall. By altering the speed of the rotor the effect of the swirl in the turbine exit plane on the performance of the diffuser was explored. In the case where the wall jet was absent the diffuser recovers more pressure when the inlet is swirl-free. In this case the performance of the diffuser is independent on whether the turbine exit flow has co or counter swirl. In the presence of the wall jet, higher static pressure recovery was achieved when the wall jet was in co-swirl and the core flow at a slightly counter-swirl direction. This observation was more pronounced when larger diffuser upper wall opening angles were considered. In the unsteady analysis it was found that the wall jet axial velocity and swirl intensities pulsate with the relative position of the rotor to the stator. The wall jet is always co-swirling while the core flow is counter-swirling. Moreover, the wall jet does not penetrate the diffuser boundary layer as deeply as was observed in the steady state case and flow separation occurs at the upper endwall corner of the diffuser. Furthermore the performance of the diffuser shows a periodic variation that seems to depend on the relative position of the rotor to the stator. The averaged pressure recovery coefficient is Cp = 0.321 which is 11.0 % less than predicted in the steady state case

Testing unified models of active galaxies through infrared spectroscopy

New near-infrared spectroscopic observations of several Active Galactic Nuclei (A G N) are presented. In combination with existing data and X-ray, visible and far-infrared frequencies, these data are used to investigate the effects of interstellar extinction on then observed spectral energy distributions. The derived intrinsic properties of these sources are compared in detail with those expected in terms of current ‘-unified schemes” of AGN, which seek to relate the various observational classes through the parameters of luminosity, viewing angle and obscurationAfter first presenting the methods of data reduction and analysis appropriate to infrared spectra, I use observations of the Paschen ß hydrogen recombination line in three so-called Narrow Line X-ray Galaxies to show that their intrinsic (extinction-corrected) broad-line and X-ray properties can be accounted for in terms of normal Seyfert 1 nuclei obscured by moderate interstellar extinction along our line of sight. Near-infrared spectroscopy of the luminous radio galaxy Cygnus Aᵥ at A≃2μm reveals strong narrow line emission from H₂ v=1-0 S(l), S(1), [Sivi] and H⁺, which I argue is excited by a lightly-obscured quasar nucleus obscured by Av=37±7 mag. Wavelength independent electron scattering of this continuum plausibly accounts for the observed optical and near-infrared non-stellar continuum. I also demonstrate that the quasar nucleus is also able to power the observed far-infrared continuum through heating of interstellar dust by the (unobserved) ultraviolet continuum.Similar observations of the infrared-luminous galaxy merger Markarian 463 are presented as part of a multiwavelength study to determine the origin of the high far-infrared luminosities of such systems. In Markarian 463 this luminosity is provided almost wholly by an optically-obscured Seyfert 1 nucleus, which I predict should be detectable as a hard X-ray source. Using ultraviolet, optical and near-infrared line observations I am able to quantify or set limits on the roles of various emission mechanisms and the roles of interstellar dust and gas in shaping the appearance of Markarian 463(E) from hard X-ray to sub-millimetre frequencies.These results demonstrate the utility of near-infrared spectroscopy in testing schemes which seek to unify the observational classes of AGN, and in providing important links between emission mechanisms over a wide range of frequency. I propose further observational tests for the AGN under study here, and for larger, unbiased samples of AGN for which such observations should be possible in the near future

Delivering Information about Retirement Saving among Hispanic Women: Two Facebook Experiments

We conducted two Facebook experiments (the first one during July 21–25, 2016, and the second during April 22–25, 2018) to determine what type of message related to injunctive norms is more effective in getting Hispanic women interested in learning about financial planning for retirement. We also explore how social media tools could be used in future interventions to promote retirement saving among Hispanic women. In both experiments, we found that a message centered on peer influence may be more successful than a message centered on familism in getting Hispanic women interested in learning more about financial planning for retirement. When we disaggregate our data by age and state, we find that click-through rates were higher among Hispanic women between 45 and 55 years old, and the largest number of impressions were among Hispanic women in California and Texas. When we disaggregate our data by device, we find that most study participants were reached through an Android smartphone

Grammar-Based Geodesics in Semantic Networks

A geodesic is the shortest path between two vertices in a connected network. The geodesic is the kernel of various network metrics including radius, diameter, eccentricity, closeness, and betweenness. These metrics are the foundation of much network research and thus, have been studied extensively in the domain of single-relational networks (both in their directed and undirected forms). However, geodesics for single-relational networks do not translate directly to multi-relational, or semantic networks, where vertices are connected to one another by any number of edge labels. Here, a more sophisticated method for calculating a geodesic is necessary. This article presents a technique for calculating geodesics in semantic networks with a focus on semantic networks represented according to the Resource Description Framework (RDF). In this framework, a discrete "walker" utilizes an abstract path description called a grammar to determine which paths to include in its geodesic calculation. The grammar-based model forms a general framework for studying geodesic metrics in semantic networks.Comment: First draft written in 200