How Are Curiosity and Interest Different? Naive Bayes Classification of People's Beliefs

Researchers studying curiosity and interest note a lack of consensus in whether and how these important motivations for learning are distinct. Empirical attempts to distinguish them are impeded by this lack of conceptual clarity. Following a recent proposal that curiosity and interest are folk concepts, we sought to determine a non-expert consensus view on their distinction using machine learning methods. In Study 1, we demonstrate that there is a consensus in how they are distinguished, by training a Naïve Bayes classification algorithm to distinguish between free-text definitions of curiosity and interest (n = 396 definitions) and using cross-validation to test the classifier on two sets of data (main n = 196; additional n = 218). In Study 2, we demonstrate that the non-expert consensus is shared by experts and can plausibly underscore future empirical work, as the classifier accurately distinguished definitions provided by experts who study curiosity and interest (n = 92). Our results suggest a shared consensus on the distinction between curiosity and interest, providing a basis for much-needed conceptual clarity facilitating future empirical work. This consensus distinguishes curiosity as more active information seeking directed towards specific and previously unknown information. In contrast, interest is more pleasurable, in-depth, less momentary information seeking towards information in domains where people already have knowledge. However, we note that there are similarities between the concepts, as they are both motivating, involve feelings of wanting, and relate to knowledge acquisition

The Role of Domain Satisfaction in Explaining the Paradoxical Association Between Life Satisfaction and Age

Although aging is associated with declines in many life circumstances, overall life satisfaction does not appear to sharply decline with age. One explanation for this paradoxical finding is that several life domains improve with age such that increases in certain domains balance the decreases in others. Life and domain satisfaction data from eight years of the British Household Panel Study were analyzed to evaluate this hypothesis. Results showed that although domain satisfaction scores demonstrate distinct trajectories, the aggregate of these distinct trajectories resembled the overall life satisfaction trajectory. These findings have implications for top-down and bottom-up models of life satisfaction

Naming and Non-necessity

Kripke’s examples of allegedly contingent a priori sentences include ‘Stick S is exactly one meter long’, where the reference of ‘meter’ is fixed by the description ‘the length of stick S’. In response to skepticism concerning apriority Kripke replaced the meter sentence with a more sophisticated variant, arguing that the modified example is more immune to such skepticism. The case for apriority is examined. A distinction is drawn between apriority and a broader notion, “qua- priority,” of a truth whose epistemic justification is dependent on no experience other than that required to justify belief of the deliverances of pure semantics. It is argued that Kripke’s examples are neither a priori nor qua-priori

Worst-case MOSFET parameter extraction for a 2μm CMOS process

This paper will describe the process by which realistic nominal and worstcase DC MOSFFT model parameter sets were determined and validated for a 2μm CMOS technology. The steps involved in this task, which will be detailed, ranged from the definition of a suitable circuit simulator model. through the collection of statistical parametric data, to the generation and verification of the worstcase model sets obtained from this data

Experimental analysis of the rate of absorption of steam bubbles in lithium bromide solution for use in an absorption heat transformer

Paper presented to the 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Florida, 14-16 July 2014.An experimental investigation is conducted into the absorption of steam bubbles in a concentrated lithium bromide solution. The aim of the work is to determine whether such bubble absorption may be advantageously utilised within the absorber column section of an absorption heat transformer system. A glass bubble column is constructed and a high speed camera is used to track the collapse of steam bubbles at different temperatures and solution concentrations. A simple ordinary differential equation model is developed which is capable of explaining 96% of the observed experimental variance. Very high mass transfer coefficients of ~0.012m/s are observed which indicates that this method of absorption may have significant advantages over alternative methods previously examined.cf201

Decision and Discovery in Defining “Disease”

This version (May 17, 2005) was published in its final form as: Schwartz PH. Decision and discovery in defining 'disease'. In: Kincaid H, McKitrick J, editors. Establishing medical reality: essays in the metaphysics and epistemology of biomedical science. Dordrecht: Springer; 2007. p. 47-63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-5216-2_5The debate over how to analyze the concept of disease has often centered on the question of whether to include a reference to values, in particular the ‘disvalue’of diseases, or whether to avoid such notions. ‘Normativists,’such as King ([1954], 1981) and Culver and Gert (1982) emphasize the undesirability of diseases, while ‘Naturalists,’ most prominently Christopher Boorse (1977, 1987, 1997), instead require just the presence of biological dysfunction. The debate between normativism and naturalism often deteriorates into stalemate, with each side able to point out significant problems with the other. It starts to look as if neither approach can work. In this paper, I argue that the standoff stems from deeply questionable assumptions that have been used to formulate the opposing positions and guide the debate. In the end, I propose an alternative set of guidelines that offer a more constructive way to devise and compare theories

Examining the economic viability of an absorption heat transformer in energy intensive industries

Paper presented to the 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Florida, 14-16 July 2014.Absorption heat transformers are closed cycle thermodynamic systems which are capable of upgrading the temperature of waste heat energy and, allowing it to be recycled within a plant. An industrial case study is conducted which examines the economic viability of installing a triple absorption heat transformer in a small oil refinery. Particular attention is paid to determining the suitability of different waste heat streams which have been made available. In the refinery examined, two waste streams of interest have been identified; a viscous residue oil line and a condensing Naphtha stream. A relatively large increase in temperature is required by the company in order that the recycled waste heat energy may be incorporated into its existing heat exchange network (HEN), and thus a triple stage heat transformer is being designed. Results obtained during this study indicate that the physical properties of the residue oil stream make it unsuitable for use in such heat recovery technology, while the Naphtha condensation may be utilised with more favourable outcomes. Based upon the current gas price being quoted by the refinery, it is demonstrated that this Naphtha stream on its own does not contain sufficient quantities of recyclable energy to ensure that the system is capable of generating an acceptable return upon investment. The suitability of such heat recovery to larger, more energy intensive sites is highlighted however, and it is demonstrated that if the quantity of suitable energy available were to increase by a factor of two or four then the economic indicators begin to show substantially more favourable results. Thus it may be concluded that at the current low gas price, the use of a triple stage absorption heat transformer is mainly suited to larger plants with sufficient waste energy available for recyclingdc201

O(a^2) cutoff effects in lattice Wilson fermion simulations

In this paper we propose to interpret the large discretization artifacts affecting the neutral pion mass in maximally twisted lattice QCD simulations as O(a^2) effects whose magnitude is roughly proportional to the modulus square of the (continuum) matrix element of the pseudoscalar density operator between vacuum and one-pion state. The numerical size of this quantity is determined by the dynamical mechanism of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and turns out to be substantially larger than its natural magnitude set by the value of Lambda_QCD.Comment: 38 pages, 1 figure, 2 table