Possible Worlds and Counterfactuals: Critique and Commentary on Complicating Causation

This article focuses on David Lewis’s theory of causation. The author provides helpful clarity regarding the difference between material and counterfactual conditions, the distinction between causal dependence and causation, and the nature of possible world theories in general. Although it is found that Lewis does not fall victim to the problems of metaphysical impossibility or preemption, his theory still relies too much on mere intuition. Lewis’ solution is not very convincing when it comes to the slippery issue of causation

Why Parties of Power? Elite Strategies and Institutional Choice in Post-Soviet Eurasia.

In this project, I pose the question, "why do authoritarian rulers create political parties?" Given the recent proliferation of authoritarian regimes that feature pluralistic, if skewed, elections, the incentives for dictators to have parties of their own have never been stronger. Yet only about half of authoritarian rulers in fact have their own parties. I argue that incumbent rulers create parties of power in order to change existing political elites' incentives for cooperation, but that many rulers do not to create parties of their own because they risk failing to attract political elites into their party. I theorize party creation by incumbent authoritarian rulers as a strategic and interdependent process, in which the act of establishing a party serves as a meaningful but imperfect signal of a leader’s type. I present a formal model of authoritarian party creation in which I define parameters and state assumptions that generate five pure-strategy equilibria. I state two hypotheses relating to the role of elite beliefs in leading to different party creation outcomes, which I evaluate using paired historical case studies of four Post-Soviet leaders’ institutional choices. This project offers a corrective to existing theories of authoritarian party creation by focusing on short-term incentives and immediate strategic conditions. It also demonstrates why many leaders choose not to create parties despite having incentives to do so.PhDPolitical ScienceUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116707/1/efeiman_1.pd

Development of a high capacity toroidal Ni/Cd cell

A nickel cadmium battery design which can offer better thermal management, higher energy density and much lower cost than the state-of-the-art is emphasized. A toroidal Ni/Cd cell concept is described. It was critically reviewed and used to develop two cell designs for practical implementation. One is a double swaged and the other a swaged welded configuration

What makes a good induction supporter?

The Teacher Induction Scheme, introduced in 2002, marked the first major change to new teacher induction in Scotland in 37 years. This paper gives an outline of these changes set against developments in mentoring theory in the wider context. It argues that the personal qualities of the induction supporter are crucial to developing an effective mentoring relationship. The views of student teachers are used to describe preferred characteristics of effective mentors and effective induction provision. A person specification is created by the comments of the "Class of 2002" — the first probationer teachers to have taken part in the Scheme

Priming quantifier scope:Reexamining the evidence against scope inversion

In a study of quantifier-scope priming, Chemla and Bott (2015) found evidence suggesting that, while representations of quantifiers’ relative scope can be primed, a scope inversion operation cannot. We identify a confound in their materials. In Experiment 1, we replicate their finding with this confound intact. In Experiment 2, we remove the confound and find that all priming disappears. This confound demonstrates how structural priming paradigms can be sensitive to many dimensions of similarity, pointing to a need for task-specific controls. We conclude that the prior study does not provide evidence concerning the priming of either relative scope representations or operations. While priming of scope representations has been independently found in other paradigms, the jury is still out on Chemla and Bott’s more novel finding – the absence of priming of a scope inversion operation

The complexities and challenges of be(com)ing a teacher and a teacher educator

Much has been written about the process of be(com)ing a teacher. Issues such as the professional socialisation of new teachers, the need for support and guidance, mentoring and induction, the formation of teacher identity and opportunities to learn in the workplace have been addressed. Existing literature points to the complex and ongoing nature of the process of becoming a teacher, which relates not only to issues pertaining to the content and form of teacher education programmes, but also to motivational, contextual and professional aspects (Flores 2006; Feiman- Nemser 2012). Less is known, however, about the process of be(com)ing a teacher-educator, particularly as far as his/her education and opportunities for continuing professional development (CPD) are concerned, as well as his/her professional identities, despite the growing interest in the topic in recent years (Vanassche and Kelchtermans 2014; Izadinia 2014; Lunenberg, Dengerink, and Korthagen 2014).CIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho (FCT R&D unit 317), PortugalNational Funds through the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) and co-financed by European Regional Development Funds (FEDER) through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (POCI) through CIEC (Research Centre on Child Studies, of the University of Minho) with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007562info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio