Objectual Attitudes and Intentional Objects: A Theory of Incomplete Objects

Searches and desires are examples of intentional attitudes, i.e. acts or states about or directed toward something. While it seems that we can and do look for or desire nothing in particular or things that do not exist, it is not as uncontroversial what the metaphysical status of the objects of such seeking or desiring may be. On antirelationalist views, there is nothing that a person is in a relation to when they are searching for a horse, but none in particular, or for a one-horned horse. On relationalist views, the searcher by virtue of their search enters into a relation with a real entity, which may be a representation in the searcher’s mind, an abstract object out there in the world, or a Meinongian nonexistent object. This paper looks at the objects of nonspecific searches, those that may be expressed by sentences of the form ‘S is looking for an F,’ and presents arguments for a relationalist view according to which objects of search, what we look for whenever we go looking for something, are entities of an abstract, nonmental, and incompletely determinate kind

Who consumes illegal wildlife? : an analysis of bear bile usage in Vietnam

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on April 6, 2011).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. Mark Cowell.M.A. University of Missouri--Columbia 2010.Vietnam is home to two species of bears: Asiatic Black bear (Ursus thibetanus) and Malayan sun bear (Helarctos malayanus). Both of these species are under serious threats, mainly from illegal hunting and trade. Bears are hunted from the wild and sold to farms to support the growing bear bile industry in Vietnam. There are currently about 4,000 captive bears in Vietnam, most of which originate from the wild; these bears are often kept in small iron cages and milked for bile on a regular basis. For this study, more than 3,000 of people from three major cities in Vietnam - Hanoi (north), Da Nang (central) and Ho Chi Minh (south) were surveyed to analyze the demographics and motiviations of bear bile consumers. Results indicate that 22% of surveyed participants have used bear bile in the past. Hanoi (35%) has a much higher percentage of people using bear bile than both Da Nang (14%) and Ho Chi Minh City (16%). Both men and women consume bear bile, but the percentage of men (29%) using bear bile is much higher than women (17%). Most bear bile consumers (73%) use bear bile to cure specific health problems while only a small percentage (14%) of them use bear bile for entertainment purposes. Women mostly use bear bile to cure specific ailments (88%) while men use bear bile for many different purposes, including entertainment. Survey results indicate that bear bile consumption tends to rise as age increases, with purposes for usage also varying among age groups. During this survey, participants ranked medical alternatives to bear bile as the most effective method to reduce bear bile consumption and phase out bear farming operations in Vietnam.Includes bibliographical reference

Variasjon i strømpriser

Formålet med denne masteroppgaven er å beskrive strømprisene som en stokastisk differensiallikning med mål om å utvikle modeller som skal representere disse prisene. Disse modellene vil gi oss innsikt i strømprisenes struktur og utvikling over tid. Vi kommer til å bruke følgende stokastiske differensiallikning $$dX_t = \theta(m_t - X_t)dt + \sigma dB_t$$ hvor $\theta$, $m_t$ og $\sigma$ er parametere som skal estimeres slik at de passer best mulig til observerte data for strømpriser. For å oppnå dette målet vil vi gi en innføring i grunnleggende begreper innenfor stokastiske prosesser, inkludert brownske bevegelser, martingaler og Ornstein-Uhlenbeck prosesser. Videre vil vi diskutere variasjon av stokastiske prosesser, Girsanovs teorem og maximum likelihood estimation for å utvikle metoder for å estimere parameterne i prosessen

The Mediating Effects of Switching Costs on the Relationship between Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty: A Study in Retail Banking Industry in Vietnam

This paper develops and empirically tests the mediating role of switching costs in service quality - loyalty and satisfaction-loyalty relationships. Especially, different types of switching costs are tested separately providing more insights into their roles. A research model about the interrelationships between service quality, customer satisfaction, switching costs and customer loyalty is developed. Based on this model, a survey is conducted with retail banking customers, with and 261valid respondents. The hypotheses are then proposed and tested using Structural equation modeling technique (SEM). The analysis reveals that: positive switching cost is a significant mediator for both service quality-loyalty and satisfaction-loyalty relationships, while negative switching cost only mediates the service quality-loyalty relationship. These findings suggest that building and managing switching costs are necessary following-up steps after customer satisfaction for achieving long-term customer loyalty

The mediating effects of switching costs on the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty: A study in retail banking industry in Vietnam

This paper develops and empirically tests the mediating role of switching costs in service quality - loyalty and satisfaction-loyalty relationships. Specially, different types of switching costs are tested separately providing more insights about their roles. This approach extended the insights on mediating effects of switching costs by differentiate the roles of positive switching costs and negative switching costs in the model. A research model about the interrelationships between service quality, customer satisfaction, switching costs and customer loyalty is developed. Based on this model, a survey is conducted with retail banking customers, with and 261 valid respondents. The hypotheses are then proposed and tested using Structural equation modeling technique (SEM). The analysis reveals that: positive switching cost is a significant mediator for both service quality-loyalty and satisfaction-loyalty relationships, while negative switching cost only mediates the service quality-loyalty relationship. These findings suggest that building and managing switching costs are necessary following-up steps after customer satisfaction for achieving long-term customer loyalty. However, using the right types of switching costs is necessary to significantly boost the loyalty from customers. © ExcelingTech Pub, UK

RESEARCH ON THE MANUFACTURING MAGNESIUM FROM THANHHOA DOLOMITE BY PIDGEON PROCESS

The magnesium and magnesium alloys has applied widely in different industrial aspects in Vietnam in the modern life. Especially, the products from magnesium alloys implementing in the automotive have increased rapidly since the car elements tend to be generated by the light alloys in order to save the fuel. However, in the current time, Vietnam has no factories to produce the magnesium to adapt the domestic demand although it owns an enrich resource of raw materials. This research indicates the possibility of using the dolomite ore in Thanhhoa – Vietnam to make the magnesium as well as evaluate the primary factors like recovering temperature, reducing agent rate, recovering time having effect on the reduction efficiency of Thanhhoa dolomite by metallothermic method in vacuum (Pidgeon Process). This is basic process, low investment and suitable for the small and medium scales in Vietnam. The experiment includes heating, indicating the chemical ingredients and recovering experiment on the dolomite after calcination (dolime) by using ferrosilicon. The thermodynamic model is created to estimate the recovering efficiency in the Pidgeon. The result shows that the CaO/MgO molar ratio of calcination dolomite in Thanhhoa is nearly 1.5 which is suitable to produce magnesium in the case of highly-required efficiency and pureness. Besides, the result from the furnace of the experiment is lower than the one in the model. The samples are set up to check the influence of the rate of ferrosilicon in the compound. The result indicates that the ideal efficiency reaches 85 % with 30 % ferrosilicon. Moreover, the study confirms that the optimal operating conditions in this process are recovering during three hours at 1200 °C and 100 Pa pressure. This result proves the potential application of Thanhhoa dolomite in the industry suitable with the current condition in Vietna

Screening of a Small Spherical Macroion by Oppositely Charged Flexible Polyelectrolyte

Electrostatic interactions play important roles in the assembly, the structureand the functions of many biological as well as soft matter systems. In the presence of a macro-ion in aqueous solution, oppositely charged molecules mobilize around it to screen out its electrostatic potential. In this paper, we focus on screening of small macroion by a flexible polyelectrolyteusing Monte-Carlo simulation. It is shown that the condensation of the polyelectrolyte around the macroion shows a first order phase transition from a dense to a dilute concentration of monomers. The width of the condensed region increases with stronger screening or with smaller macro-ion charges. For small macro-ion charge, or when the Coulomb interactions are strongly screened, no complexation between the polyelectrolyte and the macro-ion happens.Additionally, long polyelectrolyte protrudes both tails and loops from the macroion. This is quite different from the case of large macroions where only tails appear. Our results can be used to explain various experimental trends