Recommending the Most Encompassing Opposing and Endorsing Arguments in Debates

Arguments are essential objects in DirectDemocracyP2P, where they can occur both in association with signatures for petitions, or in association with other debated decisions, such as bug sorting by importance. The arguments of a signer on a given issue are grouped into one single justification, are classified by the type of signature (e.g., supporting or opposing), and can be subject to various types of threading. Given the available inputs, the two addressed problems are: (i) how to recommend the best justification, of a given type, to a new voter, (ii) how to recommend a compact list of justifications subsuming the majority of known arguments for (or against) an issue. We investigate solutions based on weighted bipartite graphs.Comment: 10 pages. This report was reviewed by a committee within Florida Tech during April 2014, and had been written in Summer 2013 by summarizing a set of emails exchanged during Spring 2013, concerning the DirectDemocracyP2P.net syste

Towards a Realistic, Data-Driven Thermodynamic MHD Model of the Global Solar Corona

In this work we describe our implementation of a thermodynamic energy equation into the global corona model of the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF), and its development into the new Lower Corona (LC) model. This work includes the integration of the additional energy transport terms of coronal heating, electron heat conduction, and optically thin radiative cooling into the governing magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) energy equation. We examine two different boundary conditions using this model; one set in the upper transition region (the Radiative Energy Balance model), as well as a uniform chromospheric condition where the transition region can be modeled in its entirety. Via observation synthesis from model results and the subsequent comparison to full sun extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-Ray observations of Carrington Rotation (CR) 1913 centered on Aug 27, 1996, we demonstrate the need for these additional considerations when using global MHD models to describe the unique conditions in the low corona. Through multiple simulations we examine ability of the LC model to asses and discriminate between coronal heating models, and find that a relative simple empirical heating model is adequate in reproducing structures observed in the low corona. We show that the interplay between coronal heating and electron heat conduction provides significant feedback onto the 3D magnetic topology in the low corona as compared to a potential field extrapolation, and that this feedback is largely dependent on the amount of mechanical energy introduced into the corona.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, Submitted to ApJ on 12/08/200

Deriving the radial distances of wide coronal mass ejections from elongation measurements in the heliosphere - Application to CME-CME interaction

We present general considerations regarding the derivation of the radial distances of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from elongation angle measurements such as those provided by SECCHI and SMEI, focusing on measurements in the Heliospheric Imager 2 (HI-2) field of view (i.e. past 0.3 AU). This study is based on a three-dimensional (3-D) magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) simulation of two CMEs observed by SECCHI on January 24-27, 2007. Having a 3-D simulation with synthetic HI images, we are able to compare the two basic methods used to derive CME positions from elongation angles, the so-called "Point-P" and "Fixed-Phi" approximations. We confirm, following similar works, that both methods, while valid in the most inner heliosphere, yield increasingly large errors in HI-2 field of view for fast and wide CMEs. Using a simple model of a CME as an expanding self-similar sphere, we derive an analytical relationship between elongation angles and radial distances for wide CMEs. This relationship is simply the harmonic mean of the "Point-P" and "Fixed-Phi'' approximations and it is aimed at complementing 3-D fitting of CMEs by cone models or flux rope shapes. It proves better at getting the kinematics of the simulated CME right when we compare the results of our line-of-sights to the MHD simulation. Based on this approximation, we re-analyze the J-maps (time-elongation maps) in January 26-27, 2007 and present the first observational evidence that the merging of CMEs is associated with a momentum exchange from the faster ejection to the slower one due to the propagation of the shock wave associated with the fast eruption through the slow eruption.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted in Annales Geophysicae (Special Issue: Three eyes on the Sun - multi-spacecraft studies of the corona and impacts on the heliosphere

Empirical Evidence Justifying the Adoption of a Model-Based Approach in the Course Web Applications Development

With the ever-increasing role of business people in software development there is a growing need for business schools to offer courses in e-business and e-commerce applications development. This paper presents the results of a student survey evaluating the applications development skills acquired by business students exposed to two different approaches to teaching the course E-business applications development. The first group was taught using a model-based approach, while the second one was taught using a traditional code-based approach. In the model-based approach the environment model of evaluation was used to introduce the basic programming constructs. The UML Web Modeler profile and statecharts were employed to abstract from the intricacies and the distributed nature of Webbased information systems. A major constituent of this approach was the development of a system model. The underlying assumption was that adopting a model-based approach would enhance students' ability to think and reason formally about, develop rigorously, and program better E-business applications. The contention was that learners would perceive coding as yet another view in the system model. It was believed that having defined the components ' interfaces, students would be bound to experience fewer difficulties when writing the code. In the code-based approach students are exposed to Web programming without being required to develop a system model

Varna during the Ottoman period (from the 15th to the 19th C.) - research achievements and perspectives

This paper presents the achievements of, and the perspectives for, research on the history of Varna during the Ottoman period (from the 15th to the 19th C.). The historical sources that provide information on the subject are discussed in detail: Ottoman, Greek, Bulgarian, periodicals, foreign sources, and consular correspondence. The first written accounts on the history of the city are also taken into consideration. To a certain extent, they also play the role of historical sources on the subject. An overview is made of the topics on which scientific research is still to be done. The conclusion is drawn that in the future the history of Varna during the Ottoman period should be explored by analyzing all available historical sources in a comprehensive and unbiased way, and taking into account the diversity of the city's population in the period

Cognitive Problems, Metacognition, and Philosophy of Language

In this paper I argue that many of the cognitive problems (such as low self-esteem, permanent anxiety, bad learning strategies, student-teacher conflict of values, or motivational deficit ) that interfere with problem solving are rooted in individuals\u27 philosophically naive views of how their own intelligence works and can be overcome through development of an adequate philosophical competence. Accordingly, I attempt a delineation of the scientific prescription for overcoming these problems, metacognition, in terms of concepts of contemporary\u27 philosophy\u27 of language. Four scientific concepts were examined, including M. V. Covington\u27s concept of strategic thinking, J. Lochhead\u27s concept of the role of verbalization in thinking, R. Paul\u27s concept of conceptualization and elements of thought, and M. Lipman\u27s concept of the role of philosophy, in children\u27s early cognitive development, which all consider overcoming of cognitive problems. Four philosophical concepts were examined, including L. Wittgenstein\u27s early concept of the correct use of language, his later concept of language games, J. Searle\u27s concept of speech acts, and R. Rorty\u27s concept of the speech acts, and R. Rorty\u27s concept of the political answer to philosophical questions, which all consider overcoming of traditional philosophical problems. In the scientific views, cognitive problems are explained by individuals\u27 inadequate personal epistemology and overcome through the mind\u27s activity, metacognition, which involves knowledge of how one\u27s intelligence works, or a concept of cognition and a utilization of this knowledge in any new problematic situation. Similarly, in the philosophical views, philosophical problems are generally explained by misuse of the logic of language and overcome by mediation of what I called the philosophical methodology of dissolution, which I interpreted as involving both an appropriate concept of cognition and a permanent utilization of this concept. Thus, the delineation of the concept of metacognition in philosophical terms becomes possible, given that cognitive problems qualify better for the competence of philosophy than for the expertise of science. By means of J. Habermas\u27 concept of philosophy as a mediating interpreter I conceptualized both philosophical and cognitive problems as problems of mediation which come into being in the exchange of expertise on two presupposed levels of discourse and activity, respectively, expert culture and everyday communication. Since the problems of mediation are conceived of as remaining out of the scope of the expert fields but in the scope of philosophy as an non-expert field, the latter was used to provide with its competence the problem solving practices which deal with such problems on the level of everyday communication. Then, I illustrate an overcoming of cognitive problems by mediation of the philosophical methodology of dissolution which I examine and represent in the form of the scientific concept of metacognition as a sequence of explanation and application of a philosophical concept of cognition which in this case is a compositional philosophical concept of language