2,550 research outputs found
Scientific discovery reloaded
The way scientific discovery has been conceptualized has changed drastically in the last few decades: its relation to logic, inference, methods, and evolution has been deeply reloaded. The âphilosophical matrixâ moulded by logical empiricism and analytical tradition has been challenged by the âfriends of discoveryâ, who opened up the way to a rational investigation of discovery. This has produced not only new theories of discovery (like the deductive, cognitive, and evolutionary), but also new ways of practicing it in a rational and more systematic way. Ampliative rules, methods, heuristic procedures and even a logic of discovery have been investigated, extracted, reconstructed and refined. The outcome is a âscientific discovery revolutionâ: not only a new way of looking at discovery, but also a construction of tools that can guide us to discover something new. This is a very important contribution of philosophy of science to science, as it puts the former in a position not only to interpret what scientists do, but also to provide and improve tools that they can employ in their activity
Manufacturing a mathematical group: a study in heuristics
I examine the way a relevant conceptual novelty in mathematics, that is, the notion of group, has been constructed in order to show the kinds of heuristic reasoning that enabled its manufacturing. To this end, I examine salient aspects of the works of Lagrange, Cauchy, Galois and Cayley (Sect. 2). In more detail, I examine the seminal idea resulting from Lagrangeâs heuristics and how Cauchy, Galois and Cayley develop it. This analysis shows us how new mathematical entities are generated, and also how what counts as a solution to a problem is shaped and changed. Finally, I argue that this case study shows us that we have to study inferential micro-structures (Sect. 3), that is, the ways similarities and regularities are sought, in order to understand how theoretical novelty is constructed and heuristic reasoning is put forwar
An Empirical Analysis on the European Market of Human Experimentation
The target of this work is to support the thesis that pharmaceutical companies' testing phase would be treated like any other form of production in a globalization process, that is to say, a specific phase of pharmaceutical R&D could be localized where the cost of clinical evidence is lower. Considering Europe, an empirical analysis in order to support the main hypothesis is performed. Taking trials of phases II and III, funded by Industry (dependent variable) and the main macroeconomic features (independent variables) of each nation into account, the empirical work is implemented via regression analysis on panel data (2000 - 2007). The sample analyzed considers EU-27 plus the candidate states (Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey), Norway, Switzerland and Iceland. Results suggest the appropriateness of this process since clinical research is clearly affected by economic conditions, regardless of the scientific purpose.Pharmaceutical Company R&D; Human experimentation; Medical Researcher; Research Subject;
Imagining a New Italy to Create Italians. Le Vie dâItalia from 1917 to 1935
This article is situated in the framework of the editorial products through which Touring reinvented tourism and travel in the early part of the 1900s. It concentrates on the magazine Le Vie dâItalia, proposing a rereading starting from the covers, which, up through 1935, exhibited a product, or rather, an Italian product brand each month in place of the traditional beauty of the landscape. These covers/manifestos suggest a new visual of the landscape and build the new view for Italians, relying on the rhetorical mechanismâamply tested historicallyâof figures of the landscape operating as a topic
On the Energy Increase in Space-Collapse Models
A typical feature of spontaneous collapse models which aim at localizing
wavefunctions in space is the violation of the principle of energy
conservation. In the models proposed in the literature the stochastic field
which is responsible for the localization mechanism causes the momentum to
behave like a Brownian motion, whose larger and larger fluctuations show up as
a steady increase of the energy of the system. In spite of the fact that, in
all situations, such an increase is small and practically undetectable, it is
an undesirable feature that the energy of physical systems is not conserved but
increases constantly in time, diverging for . In this paper we
show that this property of collapse models can be modified: we propose a model
of spontaneous wavefunction collapse sharing all most important features of
usual models but such that the energy of isolated systems reaches an asymptotic
finite value instead of increasing with a steady rate.Comment: 14 pages, revtex, no figure
Structure from motion systems for architectural heritage. A survey of the internal loggia courtyard of Palazzo dei Capitani, Ascoli Piceno, Italy
We present the results of a point-cloud-based survey deriving from the use of image-based techniques, in particular with multi-image monoscopic digital photogrammetry systems and software, the so-called âstructure-from-motionâ technique. The aim is to evaluate the advantages and limitations of such procedures in architectural surveying, particularly in conditions that are âat the limitâ. A particular case study was chosen: the courtyard of Palazzo dei Capitani del Popolo in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, which can be considered the ideal example due to its notable vertical, rather than horizontal, layout. In this context, by comparing and evaluating the different results, we present experimentation regarding this single case study with the aim of identifying the best workflow to realise a complex, articulated set of representationsâusing 3D modelling and 2D processingânecessary to correctly document the particular characteristics of such an architectural object
The Image as a Communication Tool for Virtual Museums. Narration and the Enjoyment of Cultural Heritage
The challenge of contemporary museums is to make content accessible to a wider audience; in this way information related to the good becomes more communicative and usable in order to enhance its uniqueness. Accessibility goes through an innovative communication of content: the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that are increasingly part of peopleâs daily lives. Communication in most cases occurs visually, so ICTs are increasingly focusing on a rethinking of this expressive form; images become a better support for high-quality data transfer
Towards Quantum Superpositions of a Mirror: an Exact Open Systems Analysis - Calculational Details
We give details of calculations analyzing the proposed mirror superposition
experiment of Marshall, Simon, Penrose, and Bouwmeester within different
stochastic models for state vector collapse. We give two methods for exactly
calculating the fringe visibility in these models, one proceeding directly from
the equation of motion for the expectation of the density matrix, and the other
proceeding from solving a linear stochastic unravelling of this equation. We
also give details of the calculation that identifies the stochasticity
parameter implied by the small displacement Taylor expansion of the CSL model
density matrix equation. The implications of the two results are briefly
discussed. Two pedagogical appendices review mathematical apparatus needed for
the calculations.Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX. Minor changes mad
Localization and interactions in topological and non-topological bands in two dimensions
A two-dimensional electron gas in a high magnetic field displays
macroscopically degenerate Landau levels, which can be split into Hofstadter
subbands by means of a weak periodic potential. By carefully engineering such a
potential, one can precisely tune the number, bandwidths, bandgaps and Chern
character of these subbands. This allows a detailed study of the interplay of
disorder, interaction and topology in two dimensional systems. We first explore
the physics of disorder and single-particle localization in subbands derived
from the lowest Landau level, that nevertheless may have a topological nature
different from that of the entire lowest Landau level. By projecting the
Hamiltonian onto subbands of interest, we systematically explore the
localization properties of single-particle eigenstates in the presence of
quenched disorder. We then introduce electron-electron interactions and
investigate the fate of many-body localization in subbands of varying
topological character
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