How to make and defend a proposal in a deliberation dialogue

In this paper it is shown how tools developed in argumentation theory and artificial intelligence can be applied to the development of a new dialectical analysis of the speech act of making a proposal in a deliberation dialogue. These tools are developed, modified and used to formulate dialogue pre-conditions, defining conditions and post-conditions for the speech act of making a proposal in a deliberation dialogue. The defining conditions set out what is required for a move in a dialogue to count as the making of a proposal by one of the parties. What is required are the conditions that (1) the move fit the requirements of the argumentation scheme for practical reasoning, and (2) the premises are propositions describing common goals of both parties or propositions that they reasonably consider means to achieve these goals. The analysis goes beyond the standard speech act approach by specifying not only the normative requirements for making a well-formed proposal, but also the requirements for responding to it by questioning or criticizing it, and the requirements for defending it.     

Non-contacting seals for critical service process pumps

To improve the quality of life, man has learned to manufacture countless chemicals, pharmaceutical and biotechnological products, petroleum fuels, and numerous metal products. The processing of these products and their by-products has had a major impact on the environment. Tougher air and water quality standards have led to the development of new sealing systems that far exceed performance requirements for emission control. New seal technology has resulted in non-contacting non-leaking seals for conventional pumps handling difficult services. Design and application of this seal technology is presented in this article. Comparison of competing technologies is discussed and life cycle costs are given. Clearly, gas lubricated non-contacting seals for pumps are becoming the choice of sealing technologies for plant operators on difficult services. These systems are proving to be very economical.     

A dynamic measure of order in structural glasses

Although some patterns of physical behavior are common in the glass transition and in the properties of supercooled liquids and glasses (characteristic viscoelasticity, temperature dependence of viscosity and relaxation times, property evolution through “physical aging”, difficulties in performing equilibrium measurements or simulations, etc.), it is difficult to arrive at a definition of the glass transition which distinguishes it from other phenomena exhibiting similar features. The present paper addresses this problem by defining a dynamical measure of order involving the average “shape” of particle trajectories in supercooled liquids. This dynamic order parameter should provide a measure of “closeness” to the glass transition and some indirect insights into the physical nature of supercooled liquids and glasses. Arguments are given that the proposed dynamic measure of order [“generalized capacity”, C(T)] is related to the temperature-dependent “effective hydrodynamic radius” R_H(T) measured in supercooled liquids and model numerical calculations are given to support this view. Some consequences of the intermittent particle motion at low temperatures for stress relaxation are also discussed.     

Disguise and the structured self-report assessment of psychopathology: I. An analogue investigation.

Explored the utility of disguise in structured self-report assessments of psychopathology in 3 experiments with 370 university students. Exp I used items from the Basic Personality Inventory (BPI); Exp II used the BPI, the Desirability scale of the Personality Research Form—Form E, and 4 criterion measures; and Exp III used 2 of the criterion measures and the BPI. Data indicate that under normal test-taking circumstances, the use of disguised test items was not advantageous. This relationship, however, was moderated by a number of dimensional parameters. When faking response sets in terms of desirability was induced, the use of disguised test item content was not useful. Data are interpreted in terms of the various strategies of test construction underlying the assessment of psychopathology. Results support a rational strategy of test construction emphasizing the use of relevant test item content. It is concluded that, in structured self-report assessments, the most valid results may be obtained through the use of direct questions with cooperative test respondents. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Time series analysis of wind speed using VAR and the generalized impulse response technique

This research examines the interdependence in time series wind speed data measured in the same location at four different heights. A multiple-equation system known as a vector autoregression is proposed for characterizing the time series dynamics of wind. Additionally, the recently developed method of generalized impulse response analysis provides insight into the cross-effects of the wind series and their responses to shocks. Findings are based on analysis of contemporaneous wind speed time histories taken at 13, 33, 70 and 160 ft above ground level with a sampling rate of 10 Hz. The results indicate that wind speeds measured at 70 ft was the most variable. Further, the turbulence persisted longer at the 70-ft measurement than at the other heights. The greatest interdependence is observed at 13 ft. Gusts at 160 ft led to the greatest persistence to an “own” shock and led to greatest persistence in the responses of the other wind series.     

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS ON COKE YIELDS IN VACUUM RESIDS AS A FUNCTION OF COMPOUND CLASSES AND ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS

This paper describes the statistical analysis of data on coke formation (measured by microcarbon residue) in five resids, as a function of compound classes, in order to identify variables wiih a significant effect on the former. In this sense, the SAS VARCLUS and Principal Component Analysis were used. The analysis carried out leads to a lineal combination of the H/C ratio, vanadium and nitrogen content as a model to explain coke yield, under non-catalytic conditions, as determined by MCR. Of all these factors, the H/C ratio has the most important contribution.     

Assessing terrestrial wildlife populations in the Toronto and Region Area of Concern

Beneficial use impairments (BUIs) under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement identify environmental issues requiring remedial action within the Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOCs). We conducted this study to support the assessment of the wildlife component of BUI 3: degradation of fish and wildlife populations. We compared bird and amphibian (frogs and toads) data from the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s Terrestrial Long-term Monitoring Program in the Toronto and Region AOC to an adjacent, but otherwise similar, reference watershed, Duffins Creek. Twelve of 13 targets were met within the AOC for forest bird, wetland bird, meadow bird and amphibian populations based on averages of mean annual values at sites within the AOC that were within two standard deviations of averages at sites in the Duffins Creek reference watershed between 2008 and 2017. Even though wildlife populations within the AOC were within the normal range of variability expected from a reference watershed, they were often at lower levels than within the Duffins Creek reference watershed. In addition, forest bird and amphibian populations were negatively affected by urbanization within the AOC and meadow bird indices declined. We conclude that while wildlife populations within the AOC currently meet targets for BUI 3, they continue to be negatively impacted by numerous stressors that are primarily related to past and ongoing urbanization. Thus, continued restoration of wildlife habitat and protection of existing habitat within the AOC is highly recommended.     

Spatial ecology of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) in Lake Winnipeg and its potential for management actions

Common carp feeding and spawning behaviours negatively impact the functioning of marsh ecosystems. In the Netley-Libau Marsh, situated on the southern end of Lake Winnipeg, water level regulations, nonpoint source nutrient pollution, and the non-native common carp are thought to be the main contributors to the degradation of the marsh habitat. Using acoustic telemetry, we analysed the movement rate, frequency and timing of suspected spawning migrations, spatial ecology, and aggregation of common carp in the Lake Winnipeg drainage over a three year time period. Common carp moved the farthest during the open water period when water temperature was >5 °C. Their annual migration into Netley-Libau Marsh was correlated to ordinal date. Common carp left the marsh in late spring/early summer, presumably feeding in Lake Winnipeg, before moving to overwintering sites situated in Traverse Bay and Lake Winnipeg, where they arrived typically by October and formed aggregations. These findings will inform habitat and fisheries managers in the effort to undertake evidence-based management actions. The predictability of the movements and the tendency for common carp to aggregate indicates that exclusion techniques and commercial fishing may represent viable management solutions.     

Potential applications of three-way multidimensional scaling and related techniques to integrate knowledge from multiple experts

Theknowledge transfer problem in artificial intelligence consists of finding effective ways to elicit information from a human expert and represent it in a form suitable for use by an expert system. One approach to formalizing and guiding this knowledge transfer process for certain types of expert systems is to use psychometric scaling methods to analyze data on how the human expert compares or groups solutions. For example, Butler and Corter [1] obtained judgments of thesubstitutability of solutions from an expert, then analyzed the resulting data via techniques for fitting trees and extended trees [2]. The expert's interpretation of certain aspects of the solutions were directly encoded as production rules, allowing rapid prototyping. In this paper we consider the problem of combining information from multiple experts. We propose the use of three-way or individual differences multidimensional scaling, tree-fitting, and unfolding models to analyze two types of data obtainable from the multiple experts: judgments of the substitutability of pairs of solutions, and judgments of the appropriateness of specific solutions to specific problems. An application is described in which substitutability data were obtained from three experts and analyzed using the SINDSCAL program [3] for three-way multidimensional scaling [4].     

A connection between the Cantor–Bendixson derivative and the well-founded semantics of finite logic programs

Results of Schlipf (J Comput Syst Sci 51:64?C86, 1995) and Fitting (Theor Comput Sci 278:25?C51, 2001) show that the well-founded semantics of a finite predicate logic program can be quite complex. In this paper, we show that there is a close connection between the construction of the perfect kernel of a $\Pi^0_1$ class via the iteration of the Cantor?CBendixson derivative through the ordinals and the construction of the well-founded semantics for finite predicate logic programs via Van Gelder??s alternating fixpoint construction. This connection allows us to transfer known complexity results for the perfect kernel of $\Pi^0_1$ classes to give new complexity results for various questions about the well-founded semantics ${\mathit{wfs}}(P)$ of a finite predicate logic program P.