Debunking logical grounding: distinguishing metaphysics from semantics

Many philosophers take purportedly logical cases of ground (such as a true disjunction being grounded in its true disjunct(s)) to be obvious cases, and indeed such cases have been used to motivate the existence of and importance of ground. I argue against this. I do so by motivating two kinds of semantic determination relations. Intuitions of logical ground track these semantic relations. Moreover, our knowledge of semantics for (e.g.) first order logic can explain why we have such intuitions. And, I argue, neither semantic relation can be a species of ground, even on a quite broad conception of what ground is. Hence, without a positive argument for taking so-called ‘logical ground’ to be something distinct from a semantic determination relation, we should cease treating logical cases as cases of ground.Accepted manuscrip

Language Box - Some Cool Stuff To Do With EPrints

4th International Conference on Open RepositoriesThis presentation was part of the session : EPrints User Groups PresentationsLanguage Box is a teaching and learning repository for language teachers to store and manage their teaching materials

Debunking Logical Ground: Distinguishing Metaphysics from Semantics

Many philosophers take purportedly logical cases of ground ) to be obvious cases, and indeed such cases have been used to motivate the existence of and importance of ground. I argue against this. I do so by motivating two kinds of semantic determination relations. Intuitions of logical ground track these semantic relations. Moreover, our knowledge of semantics for first order logic can explain why we have such intuitions. And, I argue, neither semantic relation can be a species of ground even on a quite broad conception of what ground is. Hence, without a positive argument for taking so-called ‘logical ground’ to be something distinct from a semantic determination relation, we should cease treating logical cases as cases of ground

The influence of interpolation and station network density on the distributions and trends of climate variables in gridded daily data

We study the influence of station network density on the distributions and trends in indices of area-average daily precipitation and temperature in the E-OBS high resolution gridded dataset of daily climate over Europe, which was produced with the primary purpose of Regional Climate Model evaluation. Area averages can only be determined with reasonable accuracy from a sufficiently large number of stations within a grid-box. However, the station network on which E-OBS is based comprises only 2,316 stations, spread unevenly across approximately 18,000 0.22A degrees grid-boxes. Consequently, grid-box data in E-OBS are derived through interpolation of stations up to 500 km distant, with the distance of stations that contribute significantly to any grid-box value increasing in areas with lower station density. Since more dispersed stations have less shared variance, the resultant interpolated values are likely to be over-smoothed, and extreme daily values even more so. We perform an experiment over five E-OBS grid boxes for precipitation and temperature that have a sufficiently dense local station network to enable a reasonable estimate of the area-average. We then create a series of randomly selected station sub-networks ranging in size from four to all stations within the E-OBS interpolation search radii. For each sub-network realisation, we estimate the grid-box average applying the same interpolation methodology as used for E-OBS, and then evaluate the effect of network density on the distribution of daily values, as well as trends in extremes indices. The results show that when fewer stations have been used for the interpolation, both precipitation and temperature are over-smoothed, leading to a strong tendency for interpolated daily values to be reduced relative to the "true" area-average. The smoothing is greatest for higher percentiles, and therefore has a disproportionate effect on extremes and any derived extremes indices. For many regions of the E-OBS dataset, the station density is sufficiently low to expect this smoothing effect to be significant and this should be borne in mind by any users of the E-OBS dataset

Students’ views on assessment: Preliminary Results of Survey with 1st Year Students in Department of Social Sciences

This presentation reports on the views of assessment of first year students in a social sciences department. Data was collected using a structued questionnaire from 104 students studying social care and early childhood education. While many positive findings are evident with regard to preparation, feedback and the approachability of lecturers there are lessons to be learned for educators

Graduates’ expectations and experience of social care work: Strengths and abilities being nurtured?

This paper reports on the views of social care graduates with regard to their expectations of the workplace and subsequent experiences as newly qualified practitioners in the workforce. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted with the same participants. The first was at the end of their final year in college (n=17) and the second nine to twelve months later when they were in employment (n=14). Findings indicate that participants, while apprehensive, felt ready for the workforce. Similarly graduating students held fears about transitioning to the workplace particularly in relation to increased practice accountability but as workers participants reported themselves as coping with this increased responsibility, although some discussed the abruptness of the leap from little responsibility as students to complete responsibility as workers. Findings from this research also examine the expectations of graduates in relation to finding stable work post qualification, which contradicted somewhat the realities for new graduates in finding employment in the social care field. The majority were employed as relief or agency workers and while appreciative of the experience being gained spoke of the difficulties encountered in relation to lone working, not having sufficient information about clients to engage meaningfully with them and the lack of supervision and support. Some also questioned the expectations of employers that they organise and pay for their own additional training. The majority however were enjoying the work and particularly engagement with clients

Identifying Acute Organ Dysfunction as a Marker of Severe Sepsis

The current definition of sepsis is suspected or documented infection plus at least one systemic manifestation of infection. Severe sepsis has been defined as sepsis plus evidence of organ dysfunction. Identifying acute organ dysfunction is a marker of severe sepsis. This topic was chosen after witnessing a number a patients fall into septic shock before severe sepsis was diagnosed and treatment initiated. Diagnosis of severe sepsis is important for specific protocol to be implemented in a timely fashion. The current differentiation between sepsis and severe sepsis is evidence of organ dysfunction. There are many examples of organ dysfunction that are not commonly considered when doing a patient workup. Increasing knowledge of acute organ dysfunction markers could potentially lead to earlier diagnosis of severe sepsis. The earlier it is diagnosed, the sooner treatment protocol can be initiated. Recent research showed that if severe sepsis is diagnosed timely, administration of timely drugs improved cardiovascular performance, lessened the inflammatory response, tissue hypo-perfusion and multi-organ injury, and most importantly reduced mortality (Lin, Lee, & Wu, 2013)