Market basket analysis of library circulation data

“Market Basket Analysis” algorithms have recently seen widespread use in analyzing consumer purchasing patterns-specifically, in detecting products that are frequently purchased together. We apply the Apriori market basket analysis tool to the task of detecting subject classification categories that co-occur in transaction records of book borrowed form a university library. This information can be useful in directing users to additional portions of the collection that may contain documents relevant to their information need, and in determining a library’s physical layout. These results can also provide insight into the degree of “scatter” that the classification scheme induces in a particular collection of documents

Urban Philosophy and Right-wing Populism

This paper was prepared on November 9, 2016 to replace a scheduled talk (on \u27The Possessive-Individualist City\u27) for a conference of urban philosophers held two weeks later in the United States. The ensuing discussion yielded a lot of useful ideas while it also reflected the fact that American, like Canadian philosophers are, just as much as their compatriots, in a state of shock at the election result. I explained that my credentials for addressing the topic are that, living in Toronto in 2010, I had already experienced an urban version of Trump-style populism in the mayoral campaign that elected the infamous Rob Ford. Like Trump, Ford ran on anti-elite rhetoric which in his case demonized professionals, the press, and politicians of the inner city, and he drew on a defined constituency with many features of Trump\u27s core voters. This paper is thus able to draw, with some modifications, on one earlier prepared regarding Toronto\u27s Ford phenomenon

To Mel Watkins

A tribute to Mel Watkin

Some contributions of Morris R. Cohen to American philosophy.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThe aim of this dissertation is to expound, interpret, and evaluate certain points of view which Morris R. Cohen has raised in American philosophy. The specific issue with which this dissertation deals are the following: the hypothetico-deductive method which Cohen uses as an approach to scientific knowledge, the exposition of a realistic logic and its identification with pure mathematics, and the development of a non-Euclidean philosophy of law. Cohen's criticism of prevailing views of scientific method make necessary a critical evaluation of his own views. His conception of scientific method differs sharply from the widespread acceptance of induction and experimental method with its minimum emphasis on anticipatory ideas and the deductive elaboration of alternative hypotheses in the determination of scientific fact. [TRUNCATED

Interview with C.B. Macpherson on the COVID-19 Pandemic

In 1983 (on the Centenary of Karl Marx’s death) the Canadian Society for Socialist Studies enlisted me to interview C.B. Macpherson about the continuing significance of Marx’s theories, and it has occurred that I might interview him again now about the relevance of his own views to the social and political ramifications of the current epidemic. A problem is that Macpherson died a few years after the earlier interview. However, luckily and likely in virtue of a just published book by me on his political thought, Macpherson’s ghost has agreed to the interview that follows

Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison's conception of personality

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1939. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

The Evolution of Hetergeneous "Clumpy Jets": A Parameter Study

We investigate the role discrete clumps embedded in an astrophysical jet play on the jet's morphology and line emission characteristics. By varying clumps' size, density, position, and velocity, we cover a range of parameter space motivated by observations of objects such as the Herbig Haro object HH~34. We here extend the results presented in Yirak et al. 2009, including how analysis of individual observations may lead to spurious sinusoidal variation whose parameters vary widely over time, owing chiefly to interacts between clumps. The goodness of the fits, while poor in all simulations, are best when clump-clump collisions are minimal. Our results indicate that a large velocity dispersion leads to a clump-clump collision-dominated flow which disrupts the jet beam. Finally, we present synthetic emission images of H-$\alpha$ and [SII] and note an excess of [SII] emission along the jet length as compared to observations. This suggests that observed beams undergo earlier processing, if they are present at all.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to the Astrophysical Journa

John Ruskin, His Social Philosophy

The purpose of this thesis is to set forth the teachings of John Ruskin, to explain them in the light of the day in which he lived, to compare them with recent economic thought, and to point out their influence on the trend of economic thought. With this in mind the author set out first , to develop briefly, the social and economic doctrines preceding and during the time of John Ruskin in order to better understand Ruskin’s social philosophy. To still further enlighten the reader concerning the philosophy of Ruskin a brief biography is presented in which the influence of his early religious training is stressed together with the influence of the ancient philosophers and with the influence of his teacher, Thomas Carlyle. With this background in view the social philosophy was developed from the letters, lectures and essays of John Ruskin. With this material before him the author compared the teachings and doctrines of John Ruskin with those of his contemporaries and with those of his predecessors. It was also interesting to compare his philosophy with that of today and to show how his teachings have influenced the trend of social development