Contextual emergence of intentionality

By means of an intriguing physical example, magnetic surface swimmers, that can be described in terms of Dennett's intentional stance, I reconstruct a hierarchy of necessary and sufficient conditions for the applicability of the intentional strategy. It turns out that the different levels of the intentional hierarchy are contextually emergent from their respective subjacent levels by imposing stability constraints upon them. At the lowest level of the hierarchy, phenomenal physical laws emerge for the coarse-grained description of open, nonlinear, and dissipative nonequilibrium systems in critical states. One level higher, dynamic patterns, such as, e.g., magnetic surface swimmers, are contextually emergent as they are invariant under certain symmetry operations. Again one level up, these patterns behave apparently rational by selecting optimal pathways for the dissipation of energy that is delivered by external gradients. This is in accordance with the restated Second Law of thermodynamics as a stability criterion. At the highest level, true believers are intentional systems that are stable under exchanging their observation conditions.Comment: 27 pages; 4 figures (Fig 1. Copyright by American Physical Society); submitted to Journal of Consciousness Studie

A biophysical observation model for field potentials of networks of leaky integrate-and-fire neurons

We present a biophysical approach for the coupling of neural network activity as resulting from proper dipole currents of cortical pyramidal neurons to the electric field in extracellular fluid. Starting from a reduced threecompartment model of a single pyramidal neuron, we derive an observation model for dendritic dipole currents in extracellular space and thereby for the dendritic field potential that contributes to the local field potential of a neural population. This work aligns and satisfies the widespread dipole assumption that is motivated by the "open-field" configuration of the dendritic field potential around cortical pyramidal cells. Our reduced three-compartment scheme allows to derive networks of leaky integrate-and-fire models, which facilitates comparison with existing neural network and observation models. In particular, by means of numerical simulations we compare our approach with an ad hoc model by Mazzoni et al. [Mazzoni, A., S. Panzeri, N. K. Logothetis, and N. Brunel (2008). Encoding of naturalistic stimuli by local field potential spectra in networks of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. PLoS Computational Biology 4 (12), e1000239], and conclude that our biophysically motivated approach yields substantial improvement.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figure

Examining the Mathematical Education Gaps during the Transition from Middle School to High School

This research examines the transition from middle school to high school and the effects that this transition has on a student’s mathematical gains. PSAT 8/9 test scores and NWEA MAP scores were collected for a unified district and paired T hypothesis tests were utilized to examine the change in test scores throughout the transition from eighth grade to freshmen year. This data shows that overall, there was an increase in the mean score for each test from the end of eighth grade to the end of freshmen year and there was an increase in the number of students meeting the benchmark, however the percentage of students testing at grade level by the end of freshmen year is still significantly low

Living in Perfect Harmony: Harmonizing Sub-Artic Co-Management through Judicial Review

To foster the participation of Aboriginal peoples in resource governance, the Government of Canada has recently restructured a number of administrative regimes, converting them into institutions of co-management. Despite this restructuring, the degree to which Aboriginal peoples’ participation can influence the regulatory output of co-management boards remains uncertain in law. This article deconstructs one interpretive method that can impact participation in co-management regimes: harmonization. Drawing on a trilogy of cases, I argue that recent judicial efforts to harmonize the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act with its predecessor, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, can limit the regional interpretive differences that Aboriginal peoples’ participation in treaties and co-management is intended to foster. This outcome is problematic to the extent that it frustrates the participatory goals of the legislation and the substantive goals of contemporary treaties. In light of this problem, I advocate a cautious approach to statutory interpretation in which administrative boards tasked with ensuring Aboriginal participation in decision making can be expected to produce rules, decisions, and interpretations that differ from those produced under other regimes

Living in Perfect Harmony: Harmonizing Sub-Artic Co-Management through Judicial Review

To foster the participation of Aboriginal peoples in resource governance, the Government of Canada has recently restructured a number of administrative regimes, converting them into institutions of co-management. Despite this restructuring, the degree to which Aboriginal peoples’ participation can influence the regulatory output of co-management boards remains uncertain in law. This article deconstructs one interpretive method that can impact participation in co-management regimes: harmonization. Drawing on a trilogy of cases, I argue that recent judicial efforts to harmonize the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act with its predecessor, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, can limit the regional interpretive differences that Aboriginal peoples’ participation in treaties and co-management is intended to foster. This outcome is problematic to the extent that it frustrates the participatory goals of the legislation and the substantive goals of contemporary treaties. In light of this problem, I advocate a cautious approach to statutory interpretation in which administrative boards tasked with ensuring Aboriginal participation in decision making can be expected to produce rules, decisions, and interpretations that differ from those produced under other regimes

Writing the Rules of Socio-Economic Impact Assessment: Adaptation Through Participation

New governance initiatives like co-management can be made effective through the use of agency rulemaking. Using the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Assessment Board as a case study, this paper affirms that it is possible for marginalized stakeholders to participate in new governance arrangements like co-management and to alter decision-making. The study of participation presented here illustrates: 1) that a high level of agency support for community participation in rule-making can lead to rules which reflect community values, and 2) that agency implementation of community values has led to the increased use of stakeholder collaboration through private agreement. Nonetheless, the paper also reveals that there are limitations on the ability to translate social needs into privately negotiated agreements. Where negotiations depart from highly commoditized terms and attempt to include diverse community values, stakeholder participation is bounded. Consequently, this paper questions the use of negotiated agreements to meet the goals of stakeholder participation, as conceived by deliberative democratic strands of new governance