I argue that generic generalizations expressed in language (i.e., “generics”) are apt for good clinical reasoning. I begin by introducing what generics are in language and describe two problems in the use and interpretation of generics: Generics can license inaccurate judgements about the frequency of events or properties within a group (i.e., a problem with the “truth-aptness” of generics) and can facilitate problematic beliefs about social kinds (e.g., prejudice or essentializing). I provide an account of clinical reasoning and describe some (...) features of what I call “good” clinical reasoning. I offer examples of generics in clinical contexts and examine how the two problems with generics (i.e., of truth-aptness and social generics) can be harmful to patients and impair clinical reasoning. However, I ultimately argue that generics are important for good clinical reasoning because they track “conspicuous” features of disease processes (e.g., severe possible outcomes). Further, I argue that prejudicial generics are often irrational to believe, and social generics that are rational to believe need not lead to problematic implicatures about social kinds and can, in principle, instead facilitate meaningfully articulating societal injustices. I then argue that statistical statements, which are tempting alternatives to generics in clinical reasoning, are no better than generics for good clinical reasoning, even with respect to the two problems identified in the use of generics. (shrink)

The literature on methodological individualism is characterized by a widely held view that if the doctrine were stated with sufficient care it would be seen to be trivially true. Professor Bhargava questions this view. He begins by carefully disentangling the various formulations of the doctrine, identifies its most plausible version, and finally locates the principal assumption underlying it, namely that beliefs are attitudes individuated entirely in terms of what lies within the individual mind. Bhargava argues that once this individualist assumption (...) is challenged it is possible to rehabilitate a non-individualist methodology which permits a contextual study of beliefs and actions, and even a study of social context relatively independent of the beliefs and actions of individuals. (shrink)

Personal identity include both first-person and third-person identities. The objective of the essay is to demonstrate the primitiveness of first-person identity, or self-identity, by re-examining a few well-known thought experiments that are referred to as ‘borderline cases of personal identity’. The primary goal of the essay is to demonstrate that no borderline case poses a significant challenge to first-person identity. The discussion is divided into three sections. The first section motivates the debate. Additionally, the importance of the first-person identity statement (...) ‘I am I’, which is immune from error through misidentification, is established. In the second section, five well-known thought experiments are evaluated to demonstrate that none of them poses a genuine threat to first-person identity. In the third and final part, some real pathological case studies are analysed to strengthen the main argument. (shrink)

The main technical errors are in the literature survey. On pages 44, 93-94, 131 and 133 I claim that Fitting's and/or Rautenberg's systems are incomplete because they omit contraction. The claim is wrong because contraction is implicit in their set notation. Their systems are complete because they allow contraction on any formula whereas the systems in this technical report explicitly build contraction into certain rules, allowing contraction only on certain types of formulae. Please accept my apologies for any confusion this (...) causes you. (shrink)

This book demonstrates the variety of ways in which the materiality of islands is intertwined in a symbiotic relationship with the capacity of the imagination to make islands the site and embodiment of a host of recurrent human desires, anxieties, and hopes.

Whether poetry gives knowledge or not is a question that has been debated from a variety of perspectives, depending on how a society or a culture defines knowledge, and on the function it ascribes to poetry in relation to that definition. The civilizations of Asia and the Middle East have generally taken the line that poetry deals primarily with affects, emotions and feelings. The West has had a more complicated history of responses. One way of making sense of this history (...) is to map rival claims as split over the idea of scientific knowledge, where it affects notions of the poetic function. The mapping, through all its manifold branches, gives clear indications that claims to knowledge – both those made on behalf of poetry, and those denied to poetry – depend more on assumptions, predispositions and cultural conditioning than on rational argument or critical debate. The resulting variety also suggests that the cultural relativism that affects such debates is unlikely to arrive at resolutions except of the contingent kind. (shrink)

In July 2021, a series of gruesome videos exposed a case of brutal torture perpetrated by a guru or leader of the trans feminine hijra community in eastern India. This guru was allegedly of a Bangladeshi Muslim background, and various community members used the case as an alibi to target hijras of such national and religious origin, sometimes even demanding their expulsion from India. This phenomenon paralleled increasing affiliations between certain sections of trans/hijra communities and the Hindu Right. This article (...) situates this case within the broader rise of queer and trans Hindutva or Hindu nationalism and locates it as indicative of Hindutva’s expansion to its erstwhile ‘elsewheres’: areas outside its traditional strongholds such as eastern India and communities such as hijras who are known for their mixed religious practices and have been historically stigmatised by Hindu society. However, the article also analyses the case to show how hijras and related communities evidence contingently wavering political alliances and complex dynamics of intra-community power and resistance that remain irreducible to typical equations of Hindu right-wing politics. Queer/trans Hindutva might become disrupted by its potential constituents themselves, showing how Hindutva’s ‘elsewheres’ trouble its assimilationist capacities. (shrink)

Background As noise brings great error in the analysis of metallographic images, an adaptive weighted mean filtering method proposed to overcome the shortcomings of the standard mean filtering method. Methods The method used to detect the pulse noise points in the image, and then the modified mean method used to filter out the detected noise points. Patents on metallographic image processing have discussed for the development of the proposed methodology. Results It is shown that filter window can be filtered in (...) comparison with the conventional 3×3, 5×5 and 7×7 filt window to reduce noise detection and reduce the complexity of the weight calculation. Conclusion It can be concluded that this method can better protect the details of the image, has better filtering effect than the standard mean filtering, and its processing speed is faster than the median filtering of the large window, which has profound significance for the edge detection and processing of the metallographic image. (shrink)

This paper presents a method for the study of the influence of stability of a power transformer on the power system based on the vibration principle. Traditionally, the EMD and EEMD algorithms are employed to test the box vibration signal data of the power transformer under three working conditions. The proposed method utilizes a partial EMD screening along with MPEEMD method for the online monitoring of power transformer. A complete online monitoring system is designed by using the STM32 processor and (...) LabVIEW system. The proposed system is compared with EMD and EEMD algorithms in terms of the number of IMFs obtained by decomposition, maximum correlation coefficient, and mean square error. The inherent mode correlation, when compared with the mean square error of the reconstructed signal, shows that the reconstruction error of MPEEMD algorithm is 4.762×10−15 which is better than the traditional EMD algorithm. It is observed from the results that the proposed method outperforms both EMD and EEMD algorithms. (shrink)

A major requirement for humans is a breathable atmosphere. In microgravity, despite environmental life support systems regulating air exchange, astronauts complain about air quality, with elevated CO2-levels resulting in detrimental health and performance effects. We extend extant accounts of human respiration to include the role of gravity and buoyancy. Using computational fluid dynamics, we demonstrate that the absence of biothermal convection in microgravity reduces airflow around the human body. This impairs gas exchange by creating an environmental breathing deadspace in front (...) of the face, leading to significant CO2-rebreathing, with implications for astronaut health and countermeasures. In 1g, increasing ambient air temperature can also reduce efficient respiratory exchange, resulting in breathing conditions equivalent to those in microgravity, with implications for treating respiratory disease on Earth. (shrink)

Trope metaphysics tries to explain the world and its features in terms of tropes. Tropes as properties are particulars where as properties, universals are multiply-realizable. The theory of tropes has rejected the existence of Universals. The central claim of this paper is that the trope theory offers comparatively a better metaphysical explanation of the world of everyday experiences than the theory of the Universals. This paper argues that trope metaphysics is better in the sense that (a) it is qualitatively more (...) parsimonious, and (b) its account of the world and its properties is more comprehensive than what the theory of universals offers. (shrink)

Over the years, the urban heat vulnerability has evolved as a pressing global concern for researchers and policymakers alike. Numerous studies have aimed at mitigating the adverse effects of urban heat vulnerability on public health and safety. However, the critical task of selecting the most fitting indicator for urban heat islands in public spaces is not emphasized in the existing studies, considering the diverse indices available. Beyond identification, studies that delve into the prioritization of these indices and the determination of (...) optimal variables along with their respective weights are scanty. The present study attempts to address these gaps in urban heat vulnerability research through the lens of natural solutions. The study employs a fuzzy analytical hierarchy approach to ascertain the weights of selected criteria, providing a nuanced understanding of the multifaceted factors influencing their applicability. Real-time impact estimation using the fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solutions enhances the practicality of the findings. The results reveal a set of pivotal characteristics crucial for constructing a robust heat vulnerability index, facilitating the prioritization of selected criteria. The implementation of this hybrid methodology culminates in a streamlined, precise, and practical tool for evaluating heat vulnerability in hot urban public spaces. These findings contribute valuable insights to the academic discourse and offer a tangible resource for policymakers and practitioners. The proactive approach provides a roadmap for addressing impending challenges related to urban heat vulnerability, marking a positive step toward creating resilient and sustainable urban environments. (shrink)

We show that the polynomial translation of the classical propositional normal modal logic S4 into the intuitionistic propositional logic Int from Fernández is incorrect. We give a modified translation and prove its correctness, and provide implementations of both translations to allow others to test our results.

Does there exist any equivalence between the notions of inconsistency and consequence in paraconsistent logics as is present in the classical two valued logic? This is the key issue of this paper. Starting with a language where negation ( ${\neg}$ ) is the only connective, two sets of axioms for consequence and inconsistency of paraconsistent logics are presented. During this study two points have come out. The first one is that the notion of inconsistency of paraconsistent logics turns out to (...) be a formula-dependent notion and the second one is that the characterization (i.e. equivalence) appears to be pertinent to a class of paraconsistent logics which have double negation property. (shrink)

Contemporary Artificial Intelligence methods, especially their subset-deep learning, are finding their way to successful implementations in the detection and classification of intrusions at the network level. This paper presents an intrusion detection mechanism that leverages Deep AutoEncoder and several Deep Decoders for unsupervised classification. This work incorporates multiple network topology setups for comparative studies. The efficiency of the proposed topologies is validated on two established benchmark datasets: UNSW-NB15 and NetML-2020. The results of their analysis are discussed in terms of classification (...) accuracy, detection rate, false-positive rate, negative predictive value, Matthews correlation coefficient and F1-score. Furthermore, comparing against the state-of-the-art methods used for network intrusion detection is also disclosed. (shrink)

This book puts together the most important contemporary writings in the debate on secularism. It deals with conceptual, normative and explanatory issues in secularism and addresses urgent questions, including the relevance of secularism to non-Western societies and the question of minority rights.

India is one of the most culturally, philosophically and religiously diverse countries in the world. The roots, not only of these diversities but also of morally appropriate responses to them, i.e. to pluralism, go very deep. This presentation substantiates this claim by looking at the relevant edicts of Emperor Asoka who reigned in India in the 3rd century BCE. Asoka not only advises people with deeply divergent worldviews to live together face to face but also suggests what the basis for (...) this coexistence could be. He claims that resources exist in all traditions to exercise self-restraints. These self-restraints are of two kinds: self-related and other-related. Everyone should exercise both these self-restraints, particularly in speech. This ‘control of tongue’ is crucial for morally legitimate and principled coexistence. In the article, I try to explicate the meaning of these edicts and flesh out this argument by providing a vivid, quasi-phenomenological account of what public life in Asokan times was like. (shrink)

Walter Benjamin's Other History: Of Stones, Animals, Human Beings, and Angels. By Beatrice Hanssen (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1998), 218 pp. $35.00 cloth.

Written over the last two decades, these essays answers important questions on secularism. Some of the topics covered are the democratic vision of the new republic of India, the evolution and distinctiveness of India's linguistic federalism, India's secular constitution, the Muslim personal law, and the majority-minority syndrome.

Two notions of reconciliation exist. The weak or thin conception is akin to ‘resignation’. It is sought by groups that have waged war against one another but have come to the realization that neither can win. Reconciliation in this sense results from an enforced lowering of expectations. In the stronger sense, reconciliation means a virtual cancellation of enmity or estrangement via a morally grounded forgiveness, achievable only when conflicting groups acknowledge collective responsibility for past injustice, and shed their deep prejudices (...) by a profound and painful transformation in their identities. It is because this process is not possible without a somewhat brutal confrontation with oneself and a painful recognition of one’s own moral degradation that reconciliation is difficult to achieve. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Diacritics 30.4 (2000) 3-13 [Access article in PDF] Benjamin's Arcades Project and the Postcolonial City Rajeev S. Patke [Tables]Walter Benjamin. The Arcades Project. Trans. Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1999. [AP] Post-this, post-that, post-the-other, yet in the endNot past a thing. —Seamus Heaney, "On His Work in the English Tongue" Preamble Among the several Benjamins to be conjured from The Arcades Project is the (...) one who invites a speculative discourse on the idea of the postcolonial city. We can imagine him first conceding, and then qualifying, three propositions about himself: he mitigates the force of the first—that he was Eurocentric—with the counterproposition that the cities he wrote about were formative of a discourse that can be transposed to other cities whose patterns of urban development were shaped by forces analogous to those he studied in the period of their inception. He then concedes that his work on the city remains problematic in several ways related to an uncertain temperament and method, but urges the recognition that his method came to resemble his object of study; the fortuitous correspondence reinforces the self-reflexive relation between modern cities and the discourse they generate. His third concession—that his use of Marxian ideas mixes them with elements of bourgeois thought—is marginalized by the recognition that he always took his Marx with such a difference that to confine him within such a debate would be to take him in the wrong spirit. He then proceeds to reiterate in the specific instance of the postcolonial a more familiar general claim made by many contemporary readers of the metropolitan experience, that the set of approaches he uncovered continue to remain valid wherever the project of modernity is at work. They help us address "[t]he split image of modernity, modernity's promises for social and individual emancipation, as well as modernity's failures" [Paetzold 216a]. Modern Benjamin would begin by reminding us that his "modern" and "modernity" refer primarily to the industrial transformation of society by technology, as part of the Enlightenment project of progress through the application of reason to nature and society. He would [End Page 3] qualify his sense of the project of "modernity" through the image of "[t]he world dominated by its phantasmagorias" [AP 26]. He would then shrug off the cloak of the Eurocentric by turning, for illustration, to the many Asian manifestations of the postcolonial. Here, he would make the twofold claim that the postcolonial experience brings out the disillusionment latent in the myth of progress, just as the postmodern brings out the phantasmal that is incipient in the myth of an evenly distributed access to capital and goods in the era of globalization. He would argue that the cities of contemporary Asia are the sites for a partial and uneven overlap between the postmodern and the postcolonial. This overlap, he would say, invites us to treat the idea of the city in a generic mode, without discounting the fact that the diversity separating the metropolitan centers in Asia makes little sense of an Asian city except as banal literalism. He would note that colonialism did not affect all of Asia, nor did it follow quite the same course from colony to colony, though the term retains some usefulness in accounting for the general factors that link different cities in Asia to what happened after colonialism. He would treat the postcolonial and the postmodern as three-tiered phenomena: each is a historical phase of world history, a predicament affecting collectivities, and an attitude or state of mind. The aptness of the notion of the postcolonial city, he points out, increases in direct proportion to the degree to which a city has acquired a distinctive identity through colonial administration or commerce, and decreases in direct proportion to the degree of discontinuity between the colonial and postcolonial phases of its history. He would add the corollary that any contemporary city in the developing world approximates to the postcolonial condition when its role in the network of power relations negotiates... (shrink)

We study a propositional bimodal logic consisting of two S4 modalities and [a], together with the interaction axiom scheme a ϕ → a ϕ. In the intended semantics, the plain..

The Tableaux Work Bench (TWB) is a meta tableau system designed for logicians with limited programming or automatic reasoning knowledge to experiment with new tableau calculi and new decision procedures. It has a simple interface, a history mechanism for controlling loops or pruning the search space, and modal simplification.

We present a syntactic proof of cut-elimination for weak Grzegorczyk logic Go. The logic has a syntactically similar axiomatisation to Gödel–Löb logic GL (provability logic) and Grzegorczyk’s logic Grz. Semantically, GL can be viewed as the irreflexive counterpart of Go, and Grz can be viewed as the reflexive counterpart of Go. Although proofs of syntactic cut-elimination for GL and Grz have appeared in the literature, this is the first proof of syntactic cut-elimination for Go. The proof is technically interesting, requiring (...) a deeper analysis of the derivation structures than the proofs for GL and Grz. New transformations generalising the transformations for GL and Grz are developed here. (shrink)