Expressivism, Truth, and (Self-) Knowledge

In this paper, I consider the prospects of two different kinds of expressivism - ethical expressivism and avowal expressivism - in light of two common objections. The first objection stems from the fact that it is natural to think of ethical statements and avowals as at least potential manifestations of knowledge. The second objection stems from the fact that it is natural to treat ethical statements and avowals as truth-evaluable. I argue that, although a recent avowal expressivist attempt (Bar-On 2004) to meet the second objection may succeed, the related response to the first objection threatens to undermine the principal advantages of that view. Then, I argue that although recent ethical expressivist attempts (especially Blackburn 1998 and Gibbard 2003) to meet the first objection are successful, the related response to the second objection threatens to undermine the principal advantages of that view. This suggests a cross-pollination of defensive strategies, which I go on to explore in order to articulate the theoretical commitments one must take on to make either cross-pollinated position work in the face of both objections. In light of this, I suggest that the prospects for the resulting ethical expressivist position are considerably better than the prospects for the resulting avowal expressivist position, though both positions involve significant theoretical costs

Pemanfaatan Limbah Lumpur Padat (Sludge) Pabrik Pengolahan Kelapa Sawit Sebagai Alternatif Penyediaan Unsur Hara Di Tanah Ultisol

Pemanfaatan sludge pabrik pengolahan kelapa sawit masih belum optimal, oleh sebab itu perlu pengkajian pemanfaatan sludge sebagai alternatif penyediaan unsur hara di tanah Ultisol. Penelitian dilaksanakan selama 4 bulan dimulai pada bulan November 2015 hingga Maret 2016 di rumah kasa Fakultas Pertanian Universitas Sumatera Utara dan analisis tanah serta tanaman dilakukan di Laboratorium Riset dan Teknologi Fakultas Pertanian USU. Penelitian ini menggunakan rancangan acak kelompok non faktorial dengan tanpa perlakuan (Z0), 21,25 g sludge/pot (Z1), 42,50 g sludge/pot (Z2), 63,275 g sludge/pot (Z3), 85,00 g sludge/pot (Z4), 106,25 g sludge/pot (Z5), 127,50 g sludge/pot (Z6), 148,75 g sludge/pot (Z7), dan 3 ulangan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan pemberian sludge berpengaruh nyata dalam meningkatkan unsur hara dan pertumbuhan tanaman jagung di tanah Ultisol yaitu : pH tanah, C-organik, P tersedia, tinggi tanaman, jumlah daun, diameter batang, berat kering tajuk dan serapan P tanaman. Akan tetapi tidak berpengaruh nyata dalam meningkatkan N total, K tukar, dan KTK tanah Ultisol

A design methodology for portable software on parallel computers

This final report for research that was supported by grant number NAG-1-995 documents our progress in addressing two difficulties in parallel programming. The first difficulty is developing software that will execute quickly on a parallel computer. The second difficulty is transporting software between dissimilar parallel computers. In general, we expect that more hardware-specific information will be included in software designs for parallel computers than in designs for sequential computers. This inclusion is an instance of portability being sacrificed for high performance. New parallel computers are being introduced frequently. Trying to keep one's software on the current high performance hardware, a software developer almost continually faces yet another expensive software transportation. The problem of the proposed research is to create a design methodology that helps designers to more precisely control both portability and hardware-specific programming details. The proposed research emphasizes programming for scientific applications. We completed our study of the parallelizability of a subsystem of the NASA Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) data processing system. This work is summarized in section two. A more detailed description is provided in Appendix A ('Programming Practices to Support Eventual Parallelism'). Mr. Chrisman, a graduate student, wrote and successfully defended a Ph.D. dissertation proposal which describes our research associated with the issues of software portability and high performance. The list of research tasks are specified in the proposal. The proposal 'A Design Methodology for Portable Software on Parallel Computers' is summarized in section three and is provided in its entirety in Appendix B. We are currently studying a proposed subsystem of the NASA Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) data processing system. This software is the proof-of-concept for the Ph.D. dissertation. We have implemented and measured the performance of a portion of this subsystem on the Intel iPSC/2 parallel computer. These results are provided in section four. Our future work is summarized in section five, our acknowledgements are stated in section six, and references for published papers associated with NAG-1-995 are provided in section seven

Which SMEs seek external support? Business characteristics, management behaviour and external influences in a contingency approach

To improve SME growth and competitiveness, governments often encourage business owner-managers to make use of external sources of support. Whether they seek this depends on the degree to which they perceive themselves to need assistance. Additionally its use can be constrained by market failures. In this paper, we model whether SME owner-managers seek information and advice from formal sources, including public and private providers. In 2011, the researchers conducted a telephone survey of 1202 SMEs (1-249 employees) in England to assess the use and non-use of external support between 2008 and 2011. Using a contingency approach, we model various influences on the use and non-use of formal support and identify those owner-managers who face more concerns but have less confidence in their capabilities. We find the demand for support, especially from private providers, is fuelled by a firm’s objective to grow and a size threshold, although this is moderated by various concerns which increase the likelihood of using public sources. The willingness to take informal advice can act as a stepping stone to using formal sources. Whilst market failures affected less than a fifth of firms, those with women directors were particularly affected as were newly founded firms

Physical Acoustics

Contains reports on four research projects.U. S. Navy (Office of Naval Research) under Contract Nonr- 1841(42

Normative Alethic Pluralism

Some philosophers have argued that truth is a norm of judgement and have provided a variety of formulations of this general thesis. In this paper, I shall side with these philosophers and assume that truth is a norm of judgement. What I am primarily interested in here are two core questions concerning the judgement-truth norm: (i) what are the normative relationships between truth and judgement? And (ii) do these relationships vary or are they constant? I argue for a pluralist picture—what I call Normative Alethic Pluralism (NAP)—according to which (i) there is more than one correct judgement-truth norm and (ii) the normative relationships between truth and judgement vary in relation to the subject matter of the judgement. By means of a comparative analysis of disagreement in three areas of the evaluative domain—refined aesthetics, basic taste and morality—I show that there is an important variability in the normative significance of disagreement—I call this the variability conjecture. By presenting a variation of Lynch’s scope problem for alethic monism, I argue that a monistic approach to the normative function of truth is unable to vindicate the conjecture. I then argue that normative alethic pluralism provides us with a promising model to account for it