71 research outputs found
Living with semantic indeterminacy: The teleosemanticist's guide
Teleosemantics has an indeterminacy problem. In an earlier publication, I argued that teleosemanticists may afford to be realists about indeterminacy, pointing to the phenomenon of vagueness as a case of really-existing semantic indeterminacy. Here, I continue that project by proposing two criteria of adequacy that a semantically indeterminate theory should meet: a criterion of theoretical adequacy and a criterion of extensional adequacy. I present reasons to think that indeterminate versions of teleosemantics can meet these criteria. I end by discussing vagueness, concluding that it most likely is not the same kind of phenomenon as the semantic indeterminacy afflicting teleosemantics
Internalism and culpable irrationality
According to internalism about rationality, the ir/rationality of a subject depends only on how things appear from her subjective perspective. According to culpabilism, rationality is a normative standard such that violations of rationality are (at least sometimes) blameworthy. According to a classical line of reasoning, culpabilism entails internalism. I argue that, to the contrary, culpabilism entails that internalism is false. The internalist cannot accommodate the possibility of culpable irrationality
Passageeffektivitet för nedströmsvandrande laxsmolt förbi ett integrerat vattenintag till spill och turbin vid Bruksfors, RickleÄn
Awareness, views and experiences of Citizen Science among Swedish researchers â two surveys
In 2021 Swedenâs first national portal for citizen science will be launched to help researchers practice sustainable and responsible citizen science with different societal stakeholders. This paper present findings from two surveys on attitudes and experiences of citizen science among researchers at Swedish universities. Both surveys provided input to the development of the national portal, for which researchers are a key stakeholder group. The first survey (n=636) was exclusively focused on citizen science and involved researchers and other personnel at Swedish University of Agricultural Science (SLU). 63% of respondents at SLU had heard about citizen science (CS) prior to the survey; however a majority of these (61%) had not been involved in any CS initiative themselves. Dominant reasons for researchers choosing a CS approach in projects were to enable collection of large amounts of data (68%), improving the knowledge base (59%), improving data quality (25%), promote participantsâ understanding in research (21%) and promote collaboration between the university and society (20%). The other survey (n=3 699) was on the broader topic of communication and open science, including questions on CS, and was distributed to researchers from all Swedish universities. 61% of respondents had not been engaged in any research projects where volunteers were involved in the process. A minority of the researchers had participated in projects were volunteers had collected data (18%), been involved in internal or external communication (16%), contributed project ideas (14%) and/or formulated research questions (11%). Nearly four out of ten respondents (37%) had heard about CS prior to the survey. The researchers were more positive towards having parts of the research process open to citizen observation, rather than open to citizen influence/participation. Our results show that CS is a far from well-known concept among Swedish researchers. And while those who have heard about CS are generally positive towards it, researchers overall are hesitant to invite citizens to take part in the research process
Not on the edge: the syntax and pragmatics of clause-initial negation in Swedish
The possibility of topicalizing sentential negation is severely restricted in the Germanic V2-languages. In this paper, we show that negative preposing was more frequent and less restricted in earlier stages of Swedish: approx. 8 % of all occurrences of negation are clause initial in Old Swedish, compared to less than 0.5 % in present day Swedish. We propose that this change in frequency can be traced to the syntactic status of the negative element. More specifically, we argue that Old Swedish eigh 'not' may function as a syntactic head and cliticize to the finite verb in [C-0]. This possibility is not open to the XP inte 'not' in Modern Swedish. In Modern Swedish, we argue that the restrictions on negative preposing instead are related to more general pragmatic restrictions on the information expressed in [Spec,CP]: according to our hypothesis, negative preposing is licensed by contrast
AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study
: High throughput screening (HTS) is routinely used to identify bioactive small molecules. This requires physical compounds, which limits coverage of accessible chemical space. Computational approaches combined with vast on-demand chemical libraries can access far greater chemical space, provided that the predictive accuracy is sufficient to identify useful molecules. Through the largest and most diverse virtual HTS campaign reported to date, comprising 318 individual projects, we demonstrate that our AtomNetÂź convolutional neural network successfully finds novel hits across every major therapeutic area and protein class. We address historical limitations of computational screening by demonstrating success for target proteins without known binders, high-quality X-ray crystal structures, or manual cherry-picking of compounds. We show that the molecules selected by the AtomNetÂź model are novel drug-like scaffolds rather than minor modifications to known bioactive compounds. Our empirical results suggest that computational methods can substantially replace HTS as the first step of small-molecule drug discovery
Om sÄngundervisning  fyra sÄngpedagogers uttalade praxisteorier
Sammanfattning
Denna uppsats behandlar sÄngpedagogers formuleringar av förestÀllningar, erfarenheter och
kunskaper kring sÄngundervisningen i den kommunala musik- och kulturskolan. VÄrt syfte Àr
att skaffa oss kÀnnedom om fyra sÄngpedagogers uttalade praxisteori: Hur talar fyra
sÄngpedagoger i kommunala musik- och kulturskolan om sin yrkespraktik? Hur kan dessa
uttalanden relateras till det teoretiska begreppet uttalad praxisteori? Vi anvÀnder oss av
litteratur som behandlar begreppet uttalad praxisteori, samt av litteratur och examensarbeten
om Àmnen som musikpedagogik och sÄngundervisning. Datainsamlingsmetoden utgörs av
kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer, dÀr vi intervjuar fyra sÄngpedagoger som Àr
verksamma vid olika musik- och kulturskolor i södra Sverige. Intervjusvaren analyseras med
hjÀlp av begreppet uttalad praxisteori, och dess bestÄndsdelar etiskt legitimering,
praxisbaserade grunder, samt teoribaserade grunder. Resultatet visar att sÄngpedagogernas
uttalade praxisteorier delvis liknar varandra, men alla Àr unika i sin sammansÀttning.
Gemensamt för alla fyra sÄngpedagogerna Àr deras resonemang kring sÄnglektionens ram och
Äsikten att relationsskapande och "att kunna hantverket" Àr viktigt i yrket. De tydligaste
skiljedragen mellan informanterna visar sig i relation till antal Är i yrket, dÀr uttalanden om
huruvida specifika moment bör komma i en viss ordning i elevens utveckling och om mÄlen
med undervisningen skiljer sig Ät. De intervjuade sÄngpedagogernas uttalade praxisteorier
bestÄr i stor utstrÀckning av praxisbaserade grunder och etiskt legitimering, medan
teoribaserade grunder endast pÄtalas av tvÄ av sÄngpedagogerna. De tillfrÄgade
sÄngpedagogerna förefaller relativt ovana vid att formulera sina praxisteorier och uttrycker sig
sÀllan i pedagogiska ordalag. Vi tror att ett reflekterande och verbaliserande av den egna
praxisteorin Àr relevant sÄvÀl för oss och andra sÄngpedagoger som för sÄngundervisningens
fortsatta utveckling och hoppas pÄ vidare forskning om sÄng ur ett pedagogiskt perspektiv
KOMMUNALSKATTER OCH KONJUNKTUR
Fiscal policy and its consequences have attracted much attention on both academic and societal level, in Sweden and elsewhere. However, the dependence between fiscal policy on municipality level and business cycles has only recently sparked a debate among Swedish economists. Studies point out that a law which came to force in 2000, balanskravet, may have caused municipalities to lower expenditures, alternatively raising taxes, during recessions. This thesis examines how the level of municipality taxes depends on business cycle fluctuations and the impact that balanskravet has had on this correlation. We employ econometric regressions, with annual data covering the period 1980-2014, to enable an analysis of the dependence between taxes and business cycles, both before and after the introduction of balanskravet. The outcome of our tests indicates that a procyclical tax-behavior has existed throughout the studied period. However, contrary to the critique on balanskravet, the law does not seem to have had the expected enhancing effect on this behavior. Even so, the finding that tax policy among Swedish municipalities is conducted procyclical is problematic, according to economic theory. This thesis provides recommendations on further policy reforms in order to enable municipalities to avoid procyclical taxing
Visualizing time-on-task in second language learning : A case study
With globally increased migration and mobility between countries, it has become critical for many people to learn to speak a second language. The focus of this study is on adult migrant language learners that are learning a second language of the host country on the side of their working life. This study aims to support learners in their second language acquisition outside classrooms settings. In particular, it explores how the use of a specially designed application aimed at helping learners to keep track on how much time they spend on studying a second language affects their engagement and motivation to continue study the target language. To support migrant learners keeping track of the time spent on language learning activities (e.g., speaking, writing, reading and listening), a web-based application, the TimeTracker App, accessible through usersâ mobile device has been developed by the researcher and offered to the learners. Participants in this study used the application for around two weeks. A mixed method approach was employed: data was collected through semi-structured interviews and by extracting log data from the applicationâs database. Interview data was analysed by means of a conventional content analysis and log data by using descriptive statistics. Overall, the studyâs results show that the use of the TimeTracker App enabled the respondents to feel more aware of how much time they spent on their studies, and inspired them to devote more time to study the target language compared to before using the application. The findings suggest that migrant learners become more motivated and engaged in their second language learning when using the application.Globalt ökad migration och rörlighet mellan lĂ€nder har gjort det kritiskt för mĂ„nga att lĂ€ra sig att tala ett andrasprĂ„k. Denna studie fokuserar pĂ„ arbetande migranter som lĂ€r sig ett andrasprĂ„k vid sidan av sitt arbetsliv. Studien syftar till att stödja de studerande i sitt lĂ€rande av ett andrasprĂ„k utanför klassrummet. I synnerhet undersöker den hur anvĂ€ndningen av en speciellt utformad applikation som syftar till att hjĂ€lpa eleverna att hĂ„lla reda pĂ„ hur mycket tid de spenderar pĂ„ att studera ett andrasprĂ„k pĂ„verkar deras engagemang och motivation för att fortsĂ€tta studera mĂ„lsprĂ„ket. För att hjĂ€lpa studerande migranter hĂ„lla reda pĂ„ den tid som spenderas pĂ„ sprĂ„kinlĂ€rning (t ex att tala, skriva, lĂ€sa och lyssna) har en webbaserad applikation, TimeTracker App, som Ă€r tillgĂ€nglig via anvĂ€ndarnas mobiltelefon, utvecklats av författaren och erbjudits till eleverna. Deltagarna i denna studie anvĂ€nde applikationen i cirka tvĂ„ veckor. En blandad metod anvĂ€ndes: data samlades in genom halvstrukturerade intervjuer och genom att extrahera loggdata frĂ„n applikationsdatabasen. Intervjudata analyserades med hjĂ€lp av en konventionell innehĂ„llsanalys och loggdata med hjĂ€lp av beskrivande statistik. Sammantaget visar studiens resultat att anvĂ€ndningen av TimeTracker App gjorde det möjligt för respondenterna att bli mer medvetna om hur mycket tid de spenderade pĂ„ sina studier och det inspirerade dem att Ă€gna mer tid att studera mĂ„lsprĂ„ket jĂ€mfört med innan man anvĂ€nde applikationen. Resultaten tyder pĂ„ att arbetande migranter blir mer motiverade och engagerade i sitt studerande av ett andrasprĂ„k nĂ€r de anvĂ€nder applikationen
The effect of corporate donations on a companyâs market value in a short-term perspective : An event study approach
Background: Societies around the world have seen an increased willingness to contribute to social responsibilities activities. One way for corporations to commit to corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been to donate corporate assets. However, donating company assets has been questioned if justifiable. Arguments ranging from the missuses of assets to increased competitive advantage as a part of corporate strategy have been mentioned in connection to corporate donations. These different opinions have created an uncertainty of how corporate donations ultimately will affect a companyâs market value. Objective: The objective of this thesis is to distinguish if corporate donations have a significant effect on a companyâs market value. It is further examined if different amounts or recipient area of a donation significantly impacts the response to the donation. The aim is to understand if the donation amount is lost or if donating can create value for a company, possibly helping to motivate managers to donate and thus create value for our society. Method: An event-study methodology approach was used to examine abnormal returns associated with corporate donation announcements. Linear regressions were applied to distinguish if different donation amounts or if the recipient area played a significant role regarding how realised donation announcements is interpreted by the market. Result: No market significance regarding abnormal returns was found connected to donation announcements during any of the three studied event windows. The linear regressions performed revealed that the donation amounts significantly affect market reactions during a two day-period before an announcement as well as a seven day-period after the announcement day. Indicating information leakage and lagging reactions to the announcement. Recipient area was identified to not affect abnormal returns with the regressions for any of the investigated event windows. However, through an analysis of means, some specific cases where the donation amount and the recipient area resulted in a significant difference between groups were distinguished. Conclusion: No significant punishment to donating companies was found; hence no lost firm value was identified, indicating that the act of donating is not viewed as inappropriate by the market. Therefore, managers do not need to fear the marketâs reactions when planning a corporate donation. Internal value can emerge from the act of donating, in the form of goodwill, brand image, reputation, company image, positioning or awareness. Further, it was determined that neither the donation amount nor the recipient area have a significant relation to the effect for any of the whole event windows tested.Bakgrund: SamhĂ€llen runt om i vĂ€rlden har upplevt en ökad strĂ€van att bidra till samhĂ€llsansvar. Ett sĂ€tt som företag bidrar till detta Ă€r genom att donera sina tillgĂ„ngar. Dock har anvĂ€ndningen av företagstillgĂ„ngar till detta Ă€ndamĂ„l ifrĂ„gasatts. DĂ€r argument som felanvĂ€ndning av företagstillgĂ„ngar till konkurrensfördel som en del av företagsstrategi har anvĂ€nts i samband med företagsdonationer. Dessa skilda Ă„sikterna har skapat oklarhet kring hur företagsdonationer verkligen pĂ„verkar ett företags marknadsvĂ€rde. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsatts Ă€r att urskilja om företagsdonationer har en signifikant effekt pĂ„ ett företags marknadsvĂ€rde. Vidare undersöks om mĂ€ngden som doneras har betydelse och om mottagaromrĂ„det pĂ„verkar den initiala reaktionen. MĂ„let Ă€r att förstĂ„ om donationsvĂ€rdet gĂ„r förlorat eller om donationer kan skapa vĂ€rde för företag, vilket möjligen kan bidra till att motivera chefer att donera och pĂ„ sĂ„ vis skapa vĂ€rde för samhĂ€llet. Metod: Event-studiemetoden anvĂ€nds för att undersöka abnormal avkastning som förknippas med offentliggörandet av företagsdonationer. LinjĂ€ra regressioner anvĂ€nds för att urskilja om olika donationsmĂ€ngder eller mottagaromrĂ„den har ett signifikant inflytande angĂ„ende hur publikationen av en donation tolkas av marknaden. Resultat: Ingen marknadstĂ€ckande signifikans betrĂ€ffande abnormal avkastning observerades kopplat till offentliggörandet av donationer under nĂ„got av de tre testade eventfönstren. De linjĂ€ra regressioner som utfördes avslöjar att donationsmĂ€ngden signifikant pĂ„verkar marknadsreaktioner under en tvĂ„dagarsperiod innan offentliggörandet samt under en sjudagarsperiod efter annonseringsdagen. Detta indikerar att det finns informationslĂ€ckage och efterslĂ€pande reaktioner kopplat till tillkĂ€nnagivandet. MottagaromrĂ„de pĂ„verkade inte abnormal avkastning enligt de utförda regressionerna för nĂ„got av de testade eventfönsterna. DĂ€remot kunde vissa specifika fall urskiljas genom en medelvĂ€rdesanalys dĂ€r donationsmĂ€ngd och mottagaromrĂ„de resulterade i en signifikant skillnad mellan grupperna. Slutsats: Ingen signifikant bestraffning mot donerande företag hittades, dĂ€rav Ă€r inget förlorat företagsvĂ€rde identifierat; vilket indikerar att handlingen att donera inte anses som felaktig av investerare. Följaktligen behöver chefer inte bekymra sig för investerares reaktioner i samband med donationer. Inneboende vĂ€rde kan skapas av akten att donera i form av goodwill, varumĂ€rke, rykte, företagssyn, positionering och/eller medvetenhet. Vidare kunde det faststĂ€llas att varken donationsmĂ€ngden eller mottagaromrĂ„det har en signifikant relation till effekten under nĂ„got av de testade eventfönsterna
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