Reification and Truthmaking Patterns

Reification is a standard technique in conceptual modeling, which consists of including in the domain of discourse entities that may otherwise be hidden or implicit. However, deciding what should be rei- fied is not always easy. Recent work on formal ontology offers us a simple answer: put in the domain of discourse those entities that are responsible for the (alleged) truth of our propositions. These are called truthmakers. Re-visiting previous work, we propose in this paper a systematic analysis of truthmaking patterns for properties and relations based on the ontolog- ical nature of their truthmakers. Truthmaking patterns will be presented as generalization of reification patterns, accounting for the fact that, in some cases, we do not reify a property or a relationship directly, but we rather reify its truthmakers

Averting economic collapse and the solipsism bias

We study the behavior of experimental subjects who have to make a sequence of risky investment decisions in the presence of network externalities. Subjects follow a simple heuristic-investing after positive experiences and reducing their propensity to invest after a failure. This result contrasts with the theoretical findings of Jeitschko and Taylor [Jeitschko, T.D., Taylor, C., 2001. Local discouragement and global collapse: A theory of coordination avalanches. Amer. Econ. Rev. 91 (1), 208-224] in which even agents who have only good experiences eventually stop investing because they account for the fact that others with worse experiences will quit. This can trigger sudden economic collapse-a coordination avalanche-even in the most efficient Bayesian equilibrium. In the experiment, subjects follow their own experiences and disregard the possible bad experiences of others-thus exhibiting behavior that we term "solipsism bias." Solipsism results in sustained investment activity and thus averts complete collapse. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

The effect of disorder on the fracture nucleation process

The statistical properties of failure are studied in a fiber bundle model with thermal noise. We show that the macroscopic failure is produced by a thermal activation of microcracks. Most importantly the effective temperature of the system is amplified by the spatial disorder (heterogeneity) of the fiber bundle. The case of a time dependent force and the validity of the Kaiser effects are also discussed. These results can give more insight to the recent experimental observations on thermally activated crack and can be useful to study the failure of electrical networks.Comment: 22 pages, 11 fgure

Failure time and critical behaviour of fracture precursors in heterogeneous materials

The acoustic emission of fracture precursors, and the failure time of samples of heterogeneous materials (wood, fiberglass) are studied as a function of the load features and geometry. It is shown that in these materials the failure time is predicted with a good accuracy by a model of microcrack nucleation proposed by Pomeau. We find that the time interval $$ between events (precursors) and the energy $\varepsilon$ are power law distributed and that the exponents of these power laws depend on the load history and on the material. In contrast, the cumulated acoustic energy $E$ presents a critical divergency near the breaking time $\tau$ which is % E\sim \left( \frac{\tau -t}\tau \right) ^{-\gamma }. The positive exponent $$ is independent, within error bars, on all the experimental parameters.Comment: to be published on European Physical Journa

The Economic Implications of China’s Demographic Problems

China is facing a major threat that is entirely internal: a shrinking population. China’s population growth is a key factor for its economic and financial expansion since the late 1970’s and has allowed its gross domestic product to become the largest in the world. But in recent years, China’s population has started a dangerous decline that worries its policymakers and can only get worse.While China’s leaders have recently introduced policies to accelerate the birthrate, many analysts feel that this is too late to reverse a perilous trend. These analysts predict that a shrinking population will affect China from an economic and financial perspective that will eventually cause it to fall from its place as a major global economy.The aim and purpose of this article is to examine the economic implications of China’s demographic problems

The Economic Implications of Global Water Scarcity

Water, like any other natural resource, is vital to a nation’s economic growth and existence. Without adequate water supplies a nation will face severe economic problems as well as social unrest and political instability. The current problem many nations face is their dwindling water supply. The aim and purpose of this paper is to examine the economic impact of global water scarcity on both developed and developing nations. This paper will also examine how a lack of clean water will hurt a nation’s economic growth and its ability to be a viable player in global trade and be able to provide for its people. This study will also look at the causes of water scarcity and also how the problem can be rectified