There are some who defend a view of vagueness according to which there are intrinsically vague objects or attributes in reality. Here, in contrast, we defend a view of vagueness as a semantic property of names and predicates. All entities are crisp, on this view, but there are, for each vague name, multiple portions of reality that are equally good candidates for being its referent, and, for each vague predicate, multiple classes of objects that are equally good candidates for being (...) its extension. We provide a new formulation of these ideas in terms of a theory of granular partitions. We show that this theory provides a general framework within which we can understand the relation between vague terms and concepts on the one hand and correlated portions of reality on the other. We also sketch how it might be possible to formulate within this framework a theory of vagueness which dispenses with the notion of truth-value gaps and other artifacts of more familiar approaches. (shrink)

Possible-worlds accounts of mental or linguistic content are often criticized for being too coarse-grained. To make room for more fine-grained distinctions among contents, several authors have recently proposed extending the space of possible worlds by "impossible worlds". We argue that this strategy comes with serious costs: we would effectively have to abandon most of the features that make the possible-worlds framework attractive. More generally, we argue that while there are intuitive and theoretical considerations against overly coarse-grained notions of content, the (...) same kinds of considerations also prohibit an overly fine-grained individuation of content. An adequate notion of content, it seems, should have intermediate granularity. However, it is hard to construe a notion of content that meets these demands. Any notion of content, we suggest, must be either implausibly coarse-grained or implausibly fine-grained (or both). (shrink)

We have a variety of different ways of dividing up, classifying, mapping, sorting and listing the objects in reality. The theory of granular partitions presented here seeks to provide a general and unified basis for understanding such phenomena in formal terms that is more realistic than existing alternatives. Our theory has two orthogonal parts: the first is a theory of classification; it provides an account of partitions as cells and subcells; the second is a theory of reference or intentionality; it (...) provides an account of how cells and subcells relate to objects in reality. We define a notion of well-formedness for partitions, and we give an account of what it means for a partition to project onto objects in reality. We continue by classifying partitions along three axes: (a) in terms of the degree of correspondence between partition cells and objects in reality; (b) in terms of the degree to which a partition represents the mereological structure of the domain it is projected onto; and (c) in terms of the degree of completeness with which a partition represents this domain. (shrink)

A recent study suggests that value and quantum states seem to be governed by the same underlying mechanisms. In our recent book titled "Better economics for the Earth: A lesson from quantum and information theories," specifically Chapter 5, we have proposed an informational entropy-based notion of value, drawing on the granular worldview and primary features of quantum mechanics, Shannon’s information theory, and the mindsponge theory. Specifically, the notion suggests that values are created through the interactions of information. But how do (...) information and its interactions lead to values? This research note aims to contribute to the answer to this question. (shrink)

Abstract: We propose a view of vagueness as a semantic property of names and predicates. All entities are crisp, on this semantic view, but there are, for each vague name, multiple portions of reality that are equally good candidates for being its referent, and, for each vague predicate, multiple classes of objects that are equally good candidates for being its extension. We provide a new formulation of these ideas in terms of a theory of granular partitions. We show that this (...) theory provides a general framework within which we can understand the relation between vague terms and concepts and the corresponding crisp portions of reality. We also sketch how it might be possible to formulate within this framework a theory of vagueness which dispenses with the notion of truth-value gaps and other artifacts of more familiar approaches. Central to our approach is the idea that judgments about reality involve in every case (1) a separation of reality into foreground and background of attention and (2) the feature of granularity. On this basis we attempt to show that even vague judgments made in naturally occurring contexts are not marked by truth-value indeterminacy. We distinguish, in addition to crisp granular partitions, also vague partitions, and reference partitions, and we explain the role of the latter in the context of judgments that involve vagueness. We conclude by showing how reference partitions provide an effective means by which judging subjects are able to temper the vagueness of their judgments by means of approximations. (shrink)

In this paper we propose a formal theory of partitions (ways of dividing up or sorting or mapping reality) and we show how the theory can be applied in the geospatial domain. We characterize partitions at two levels: as systems of cells (theory A), and in terms of their projective relation to reality (theory B). We lay down conditions of well-formedness for partitions and we define what it means for partitions to project truly onto reality. We continue by classifying well-formed (...) partitions along three axes: (a) degree of correspondence between partition cells and objects in reality; (b) degree to which a partition represents the mereological structure of the domain it is projected onto; and (c) degree of completeness and exhaustiveness with which a partition represents reality. This classification is used to characterize three types of partitions that play an important role in spatial information science: cadastral partitions, categorical coverages, and the partitions involved in folk categorizations of the geospatial domain. (shrink)

Objective: There are benefits and risks of giving patients more granular control of their personal health information in electronic health record (EHR) systems. When designing EHR systems and policies, informaticists and system developers must balance these benefits and risks. Ethical considerations should be an explicit part of this balancing. Our objective was to develop a structured ethics framework to accomplish this. -/- Methods: We reviewed existing literature on the ethical and policy issues, developed an ethics framework called a “Points to (...) Consider” (P2C) document, and convened a national expert panel to review and critique the P2C. -/- Results: We developed the P2C to aid informaticists designing an advanced query tool for an electronic health record (EHR) system in Indianapolis. The P2C consists of six questions (“Points”) that frame important ethical issues, apply accepted principles of bioethics and Fair Information Practices, comment on how questions might be answered, and address implications for patient care. -/- Discussion: The P2C is intended to clarify whatis at stake when designers try to accommodate potentially competing ethical commitments and logistical realities. The P2C was developed to guide informaticists who were designing a query tool in an existing EHR that would permit patient granular control. While consideration of ethical issues is coming to the forefront of medical informatics design and development practices, more reflection is needed to facilitate optimal collaboration between designers and ethicists. This report contributes to that discussion. (shrink)

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and programs are crucial tools for reducing social inequality within organizations. However, the recent decline in DEI practices and the inconsistencies found in existing research underscore the need for new theoretical approaches. This essay seeks to offer a fresh perspective on the strengths and limitations of DEI initiatives through the lens of granular interactions thinking theory. It posits that while DEI policies and programs generally create conditions conducive to greater value creation and improved adaptability (...) to changing environments and challenges, maintaining direction and operational certainty within an organization with high DEI demands significant energy investment. To sustain DEI and enhance its effectiveness, these policies need to go beyond simply increasing diversity and ensuring equal access to opportunities. They must also focus on empowering a diverse workforce to contribute to the organization’s success actively. Additionally, fostering a workplace culture that enhances members’ adaptive cognitive processing and skills can reduce the energy required to sustain DEI efforts, making these practices more sustainable in the long term. (shrink)

An explicit formal-ontological representation of entities existing at multiple levels of granularity is an urgent requirement for biomedical information processing. We discuss some fundamental principles which can form a basis for such a representation. We also comment on some of the implicit treatments of granularity in currently available ontologies and terminologies (GO, FMA, SNOMED CT).

Implicit contextual factors mean that the boundary between causal and noncausal explanation is not as neat as one might hope: as the phenomenon to be explained is given descriptions with varying degrees of granularity, the nature of the favored explanation alternates between causal and non-causal. While it is not surprising that different descriptions of the same phenomenon should favor different explanations, it is puzzling why re-describing the phenomenon should make any difference for the causal nature of the favored explanation. (...) I argue that this is a problem for the ontic framework of causal and noncausal explanation, and instead propose a pragmatic-modal account of causal and non-causal explanation. This account has the added advantage of dissolving several important disagreements concerning the status of non-causal explanation. (shrink)

Rejection is an essential part of the scholarly publishing process, acting as a filter to distinguish between robust and less credible scientific works. This study examines the advantages and limitations of the rejection mechanism through the lens of Shannon’s information theory and the theory of granular interactions thinking. We argue that while rejection helps reduce entropy and increase the likelihood of disseminating useful knowledge, the process is not devoid of subjectivity. We propose two recommendations to improve the rejection mechanism: providing (...) more informative rejection letters to guide authors and encouraging humility among editors and reviewers to minimize bias against novel ideas. These steps could enhance the efficiency of knowledge production by ensuring that valuable scientific contributions are not overlooked. (shrink)

Through the lens of the informational entropy-based notion of value, I attempt to provide explanations for the aspects of cultural additivity that I could not explain previously: the additivity limit and the drawbacks of cultural additivity.

Published in extended form as "Endurants and Perdurants in Directly Depicting Ontologies", -/- We propose an ontological theory that is powerful enough to describe both complex spatio-temporal processes and the enduring entities that participate in such processes. For this purpose we distinguish between ontologies and metaontology. Ontologies are based on very simple directly depicting languages and fall into two major categories: ontologies of type SPAN and ontologies of type SNAP. These represent two complementary perspectives on reality and result in distinct (...) though compatible systems of categories. In a SNAP (snapshot) ontology we have the enduring entities in a given domain as they exist to be inventoried at some given moment of time. In a SPAN ontology we have perduring entities such as processes and their parts and aggregates. We argue that both kinds of ontology are required, together with the meta-ontology which joins them together. On the level of meta-ontology we are able to impose constraints on ontologies of a sort which can support efficient processing of large amounts of data. (shrink)

Rejection is an essential part of the scholarly publishing process, acting as a filter to distinguish between robust and less credible scientific works. While rejection helps reduce entropy and increase the likelihood of disseminating useful knowledge, the process is not devoid of subjectivity. Providing more informative rejection letters and encouraging humility among editors and reviewers are essential to enhance the efficiency of knowledge production as they help ensure that valuable scientific contributions are not overlooked.

The theory of granular partitions is designed to capture in a formal framework important aspects of the selective character of common-sense views of reality. It comprehends not merely the ways in which we can view reality by conceiving its objects as gathered together not merely into sets, but also into wholes of various kinds, partitioned into parts at various levels of granularity. We here represent granular partitions as triples consisting of a rooted tree structure as first component, a domain (...) satisfying the axioms of Extensional Mereology as second component, and a mapping (called ’projection’) of the first into the second as a third component. We define ordering relations among granular partitions the resulting structures are called partition frames. We then introduce an axiomatic theory which sentences are interpreted in partition frames. (shrink)

Ethics should guide the design of electronic health records (EHR), and recognized principles of bioethics can play an important role. This approach was adopted recently by a team of informaticists designing and testing a system where patients exert granular control over who views their personal health information. While this method of building ethics in from the start of the design process has significant benefits, questions remain about how useful the application of bioethics principles can be in this process, especially when (...) principles conflict. For instance, while the ethical principle of respect for autonomy supports a robust system of granular control, the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence counsel restraint due to the danger of patients being harmed by restrictions on provider access to data. Conflict between principles has long been recognized by ethicists and has even motivated attacks on approaches that state and apply principles. In this paper we show how using ethical principles can help in the design of EHRs by first, explaining how ethical principles can and should be used generally, and then by, discuss how attention to details in specific cases can show that the tension between principles is not as bad as it initially appeared. We conclude by suggesting further ways in which the application of these (and other) principles can add value to the ongoing discussion of patient involvement in their health care. This is a new approach to linking principles to informatics design that we expect will stimulate further interest. (shrink)

The theory of granular partitions (TGP) is a new approach to the understanding of ontologies and other classificatory systems. The paper explores the use of this new theory in the treatment of task-based clinical guidelines as a means for better understanding the relations between different clinical tasks, both within the framework of a single guideline and between related guidelines. We used as our starting point a DAML+OIL-based ontology for the WHO guideline for hypertension management, comparing this with related guidelines and (...) attempting to show that TGP provides a flexible and highly expressive basis for the manipulation of ontologies of a sort which might be useful in providing more adequate Computer Interpretable Guideline Models (CIGMs) in the future. (shrink)

This short paper is to contemplate the results from a 7-year-old paper, published in Palgrave Communications in early 2018, in light of the emergence of the informational entropy-based notion of value, recently introduced in, specifically Chapter 5. This effort is made possible thanks to the clues provided in another seemingly unrelated but useful preprint concerning the notion of Boltzmann entropy.

We propose a new account of vagueness and approximation in terms of the theory of granular partitions. We distinguish different kinds of crisp and non-crisp granular partitions and we describe the relations between them, concentrating especially on spatial examples. We describe the practice whereby subjects use regular grid-like reference partitions as a means for tempering the vagueness of their judgments, and we demonstrate how the theory of reference partitions can yield a natural account of this practice, which is referred to (...) in the literature as ‘approximation’. (shrink)

Consider the following two (hypothetical) generic causal claims: “Living in a neighborhood with many families with children increases purchases of bicycles” and “living in an affluent neighborhood with many families with children increases purchases of bicycles.” These claims not only differ in what they suggest about how bicycle ownership is distributed across different neighborhoods (i.e., “the data”), but also have the potential to communicate something about the speakers’ values: namely, the prominence they accord to affluence in representing and making decisions (...) about the social world. Here, we examine the relationship between the level of granularity with which a cause is described in a generic causal claim (e.g., neighborhood vs. affluent neighborhood) and the value of the information contained in the causal model that generates that claim. We argue that listeners who know any two of the following can make reliable inferences about the third: 1) the level of granularity at which a speaker makes a generic causal claim, 2) the speaker’s values, and 3) the data available to the speaker. We present results of four experiments (N=1,323) in the domain of social categories that provide evidence in keeping with these predictions. (shrink)

If Mont Blanc is a vague object, then its vagueness will depend on the context in which reference is made. In a geological context the mountain might include only rock, perhaps together with a certain amount of air in the crevices and tunnels which have been formed beneath its surface. In a context of soil chemistry we might include also a surrounding thin layer of organic matter. In a skiing context we might include some snow. This essay sketches in informal (...) terms the theory of granular partitions, which is designed to do justice to this context-dependence of vagueness by means of what might be described as a contextualized supervaluationism. Granularity and vagueness, it is argued, are two sides of a single coin: what is vague at one level of granularity may appear crisp at another. The resultant theory can be shown to resolve certain problems in our description of perceptual content, for example when John says that he sees the wall, but that he does not see the molecules by which the wall is constituted. (shrink)

In the TACITUS project for using commonsense knowledge in the understanding of texts about mechanical devices and their failures, we have been developing various commonsense theories that are needed to mediate between the way we talk about the behavior of such devices and causal models of their operation. Of central importance in this effort is the axiomatization of what might be called commonsense metaphysics. This includes a number of areas that figure in virtually every domain of discourse, such as (...) class='Hi'>granularity, scales, time, space, material, physical objects, shape, causality, functionality, and force. Our effort has been to construct core theories of each of these areas, and then to define, or at least characterize, a large number of lexical items in terms provided by the core theories. In this paper we discuss our methodological principles and describe the key ideas in the various domains we are investigating. (shrink)

Outcomes research in healthcare has been a topic much addressed in recent years. Efforts in this direction have been supplemented by work in the areas of guidelines for clinical practice and computer-interpretable workflow and careflow models.In what follows we present the outlines of a framework for understanding the relations between organizations, guidelines, individual patients and patient-related functions. The derived framework provides a means to extract the knowledge contained in the guideline text at different granularities, in ways that can help us (...) to assign tasks within the healthcare organization and to assess clinical performance in realizing the guideline. It does this in a way that preserves the flexibility of the organization in the adoption of the guidelines. (shrink)

Two senses of ‘ontology’ can be distinguished in the current literature. First is the sense favored by information scientists, who view ontologies as software implementations designed to capture in some formal way the consensus conceptualization shared by those working on information systems or databases in a given domain. [Gruber 1993] Second is the sense favored by philosophers, who regard ontologies as theories of different types of entities (objects, processes, relations, functions) [Smith 2003]. Where information systems ontologists seek to maximize reasoning (...) efficiency even at the price of simplifications on the side of representation, philosophical ontologists argue that representational adequacy can bring benefits for the stability and resistance to error of an ontological framework and also for its extendibility in the future. In bioinformatics, however, a third sense of ‘ontology’ has established itself, above all as a result of the successes of the Gene Ontology (hereafter: GO), which is a tool for the representation and processing of information about gene products and their biological functions [Gene Ontology Consortium 2000]. We show how Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) has established itself as an overarching ontology drawing on all three of the strands distinguished above, and describe applications of BFO especially in the treatment of biological granularity. (shrink)

The truthmaker theory rests on the thesis that the link between a true judgment and that in the world to which it corresponds is not a one-to-one but rather a one-to-many relation. An analogous thesis in relation to the link between a singular term and that in the world to which it refers is already widely accepted. This is the thesis to the effect that singular reference is marked by vagueness of a sort that is best understood in supervaluationist terms. (...) In what follows we show that the supervaluationist approach to singular reference, when wedded to the truthmaker idea, yields a framework of surprising power, which offers a uniform set of solutions to a range of problems regarding identity, reference and knowledge, problems which have hitherto been dealt with on an ad hoc basis. (shrink)

In explaining the notion of a fundamental property or relation, metaphysicians will often draw an analogy with languages. The fundamental properties and relations stand to reality as the primitive predicates and relations stand to a language: the smallest set of vocabulary God would need in order to write the “book of the world.” This paper attempts to make good on this metaphor. To that end, a modality is introduced that, put informally, stands to propositions as logical truth stands to sentences. (...) The resulting theory, formulated in higher-order logic, also vindicates the Humean idea that fundamental properties and relations are freely recombinable and a variant of the structural idea that propositions can be decomposed into their fundamental constituents via logical operations. Indeed, it is seen that, although these ideas are seemingly distinct, they are not independent, and fall out of a natural and general theory about the granularity of reality. (shrink)

The truthmaker theory rests on the thesis that the link between a true judgment and that in the world to which it corresponds is not a one-to-one but rather a one-to-many relation. An analogous thesis in relation to the link between a singular term and that in the world to which it refers is already widely accepted. This is the thesis to the effect that singular reference is marked by vagueness of a sort that is best understood in supervaluationist terms. (...) In what follows we show that the supervaluationist approach to singular reference, when wedded to the truthmaker idea, yields a framework of surprising power, which offers a uniform set of solutions to a range of problems regarding identity, reference and knowledge, problems which have hitherto been dealt with on an ad hoc basis. (shrink)

Are we ever morally permitted to do what is morally wrong? It seems intuitive that we are, but evidence for dissociations among judgment of permissibility and wrongness are relatively scarce. Across 4 experiments (N = 1,438), we show that people judge that some behaviors can be morally wrong and permissible. The dissociations arise because these judgments track different morally relevant aspects of everyday moral encounters. Judgments of individual rights predicted permissibility but not wrongness, while character assessment predicted wrongness but not (...) permissibility. These findings suggest a picture in which moral evaluation is granular enough to express reasoning about different types of normative considerations, notably the possibility that people can exercise their rights in morally problematic ways. (shrink)

We propose a formal framework for interpretable machine learning. Combining elements from statistical learning, causal interventionism, and decision theory, we design an idealised explanation game in which players collaborate to find the best explanation for a given algorithmic prediction. Through an iterative procedure of questions and answers, the players establish a three-dimensional Pareto frontier that describes the optimal trade-offs between explanatory accuracy, simplicity, and relevance. Multiple rounds are played at different levels of abstraction, allowing the players to explore overlapping causal (...) patterns of variable granularity and scope. We characterise the conditions under which such a game is almost surely guaranteed to converge on a optimal explanation surface in polynomial time, and highlight obstacles that will tend to prevent the players from advancing beyond certain explanatory thresholds. The game serves a descriptive and a normative function, establishing a conceptual space in which to analyse and compare existing proposals, as well as design new and improved solutions. (shrink)

DNA sequencers, Twitter, MRIs, Facebook, particle accelerators, Google Books, radio telescopes, Tumblr: what do these things have in common? According to the evangelists of “data science,” all of these are instruments for observing reality at unprecedentedly large scales and fine granularities. This perspective ignores the social reality of these very different technological systems, ignoring how they are made, how they work, and what they mean in favor of an exclusive focus on what they generate: Big Data. But no data, big (...) or small, can be interpreted without an understanding of the process that generated them. Statistical data science is applicable to systems that have been designed as scientific instruments, but is likely to lead to confusion when applied to systems that have not. In those cases, a historical inquiry is preferable. (shrink)

Where is consciousness? Neurobiological theories of consciousness look primarily to synaptic firing and “spike codes” as the physical substrate of consciousness, although the specific mechanisms of consciousness remain unknown. Synaptic firing results from electrochemical processes in neuron axons and dendrites. All neurons also produce electromagnetic (EM) fields due to various mechanisms, including the electric potential created by transmembrane ion flows, known as “local field potentials,” but there are also more meso-scale and macro-scale EM fields present in the brain. The functional (...) role of these EM fields has long been a source of debate. We suggest that these fields, in both their local and global forms, may be the primary seat of consciousness, working as a gestalt with synaptic firing and other aspects of neuroanatomy to produce the marvelous complexity of minds. We call this assertion the “electromagnetic field hypothesis.” The neuroanatomy of the brain produces the local and global EM fields but these fields are not identical with the anatomy of the brain. These fields are produced by, but not identical with, the brain, in the same manner that twigs and leaves are produced by a tree’s branches and trunk but are not the same as the branches and trunk. As such, the EM fields represent the more granular, both spatially and temporally, aspects of the brain’s structure and functioning than the neuroanatomy of the brain. The brain’s various EM fields seem to be more sensitive to small changes than the neuroanatomy of the brain. We discuss issues with the spike code approach as well as the various lines of evidence supporting our argument that the brain’s EM fields may be the primary seat of consciousness. This evidence (which occupies most of the paper) suggests that oscillating neural EM fields may make firing in neural circuits oscillate, and these oscillating circuits. may help unify and guide conscious cognition. (shrink)

An increasing amount of twenty-first century metaphysics is couched in explicitly hyperintensional terms. A prerequisite of hyperintensional metaphysics is that reality itself be hyperintensional: at the metaphysical level, propositions, properties, operators, and other elements of the type hierarchy, must be more fine-grained than functions from possible worlds to extensions. In this paper I develop, in the setting of type theory, a general framework for reasoning about the granularity of propositions and properties. The theory takes as primitive the notion of (...) a substitution on a proposition (property, etc.) and, among other things, uses this idea to elucidate a number of theoretically important distinctions. A class of structures are identified which can be used to model a wide range of positions about the granularity of reality; certain of these structures are seen to receive a natural treatment in the category of M-sets. (shrink)

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are a new, rapidly-growing class of organizations governed by smart contracts. Here we describe how researchers can contribute to the emerging science of DAOs and other digitally-constituted organizations. From granular privacy primitives to mechanism designs to model laws, we identify high-impact problems in the DAO ecosystem where existing gaps might be tackled through a new data set or by applying tools and ideas from existing research fields such as political science, computer science, economics, law, and organizational (...) science. Our recommendations encompass exciting research questions as well as promising business opportunities. We call on the wider research community to join the global effort to invent the next generation of organizations. (shrink)

A given causal system can be represented in a variety of ways. How do agents determine which variables to include in their causal representations, and at what level of granularity? Using techniques from Bayesian networks, information theory, and decision theory, we develop a formal theory according to which causal representations reflect a trade-off between compression and informativeness, where the optimal trade-off depends on the decision-theoretic value of information for a given agent in a given context. This theory predicts that, (...) all else being equal, agents prefer causal models that are as compressed as possible. When compression is associated with information loss, however, all else is not equal, and our theory predicts that agents will favor compressed models only when the information they sacrifice is not informative with respect to the agent’s anticipated decisions. We then show, across six studies reported here (N=2,364) and one study reported in the supplemental materials (N=182), that participants’ preferences over causal models are in keeping with the predictions of our theory. Our theory offers a unification of different dimensions of causal evaluation identified within the philosophy of science (proportionality and stability), and contributes to a more general picture of human cognition according to which the capacity to create compressed (causal) representations plays a central role. (shrink)

This paper presents a theoretical study of the binary oppositions underlying the mechanisms of natural computation understood as dynamical processes on natural information morphologies. Of special interest are the oppositions of discrete vs. continuous, structure vs. process, and differentiation vs. integration. The framework used is that of computing nature, where all natural processes at different levels of organisation are computations over informational structures. The interactions at different levels of granularity/organisation in nature, and the character of the phenomena that unfold (...) through those interactions, are modeled from the perspective of an observing agent. This brings us to the movement from binary oppositions to dynamic networks built upon mutually related binary oppositions, where each node has several properties. (shrink)

The Unified Medical Language System and the Gene Ontology are among the most widely used terminology resources in the biomedical domain. However, when we evaluate them in the light of simple principles for wellconstructed ontologies we find a number of characteristic inadequacies. Employing the theory of granular partitions, a new approach to the understanding of ontologies and of the relationships ontologies bear to instances in reality, we provide an application of this theory in relation to an example drawn from the (...) context of the pathophysiology of hypertension. This exercise is designed to demonstrate how, by taking ontological principles into account we can create more realistic biomedical ontologies which will also bring advantages in terms of efficiency and robustness of associated software applications. (shrink)

The Common Anatomy Reference Ontology (CARO) is being developed to facilitate interoperability between existing anatomy ontologies for different species, and will provide a template for building new anatomy ontologies. CARO has a structural axis of classification based on the top-level nodes of the Foundational Model of Anatomy. CARO will complement the developmental process sub-ontology of the GO Biological Process ontology, using it to ensure the coherent treatment of developmental stages, and to provide a common framework for the model organism communities (...) to classify developmental structures. Definitions for the types and relationships are being generated by a consortium of investigators from diverse backgrounds to ensure applicability to all organisms. CARO will support the coordination of cross-species ontologies at all levels of anatomical granularity by cross-referencing types within the cell type ontology (CL) and the Gene Ontology (GO) Cellular Component ontology. A complete cross-species CARO could be utilized in other ontologies for cross-product generation. (shrink)

We begin by describing recent developments in the burgeoning discipline of applied ontology, focusing especially on the ways ontologies are providing a means for the consistent representation of scientific data. We then introduce Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), a top-level ontology that is serving as domain-neutral framework for the development of lower level ontologies in many specialist disciplines, above all in biology and medicine. BFO is a bicategorial ontology, embracing both three-dimensionalist (continuant) and four-dimensionalist (occurrent) perspectives within a single framework. We (...) examine how BFO-conformant domain ontologies can deal with the consistent representation of scientific data deriving from the measurement of processes of different types, and we outline on this basis the first steps of an approach to the classification of such processes within the BFO framework. (shrink)

Most of the existing studies on Bourdieu and the digital regards the social and class distinctions in the use of digital technologies, thus presupposing a certain transparency of technologies themselves. Our proposal is to refer to this attitude as “Bourdieu outside the digital.” Yet in this paper, another perspective called “Bourdieu inside the digital” is developed, which moves the focus on the effects of some emerging technologies on social distinctions and discrimination. The main hypothesis is that algorithms of machine learning (...) are producers and reproducers of habitus. Although their results present a greater granularity with respect to the standard techniques of the past, these algorithms still reduce individuals to categories, general trends, classes, and behaviors. Such a reduction has flattening effects on the individuals’ self-understanding, especially in terms of identity and interaction with the social world. This is the phenomenon described in the article as the “personalization without personality,” whose consequences are both existential and social-political. This idea will be illustrated through qualitative and comparative analysis between the correspondence analysis and the multiple correspondence analysis used by Bourdieu in his works and some of those techniques that are performed today in big data analytics. (shrink)

The essay surveys recent developments in ontology and defends a strategy for improvement of ontologies based on ontological realism. As a thought experiment, we consider central theses of Aristotelian metaphysics, and show how they fall short of what we believe to be the requirements of ontology today. Above all, Aristotle provides us with no strategy for the reconciliation of common-sense realism and scientific realism where these diverge. We focus specifically on shortfalls in Aristotle’s treatment of individual accidents, especially in regard (...) to the category of place. We then show how Aristotle’s metaphysics needs to be supplemented by a theory of holes, of fiat boundaries, of granularity, and of vagueness. (shrink)

Cushman, Young, & Greene (2010) urge the consolidation of moral psychology around a dual-system consensus. On this view, a slow, often-overstretched rational system tends to produce consequentialist intuitions and action-tendencies, while a fast, affective system produces virtuous (or vicious) intuitions and action-tendencies that perform well in their habituated ecological niche but sometimes disastrously outside of it. This perspective suggests a habit-corrected-by-reason picture of moral behavior. Recent research, however, has raised questions about the adequacy of dual-process theories of cognition and behavior, (...) which tend to distinguish categorically between fast, affect-laden, automatic, sometimes-unconscious, nearly-incorrigible mental processes and slow, rational, effortful, conscious, corrigible mental processes. Processes of one alleged type often have properties associated with the contrary type. For instance, rational processes can be emotional, and fast thinking can perform logical operations. In addition, the fast-slow binary transforms a continuous temporal scale into a dichotomous one, losing potentially important information along the way. While these problems are beginning to be addressed in some subfields of psychology, moral psychology has yet to grapple with them. In this theoretical paper, we argue that moral psychology needs a framework that accounts for our knowledge of both temporal and spatial (anatomical) dimensions of the brain basis of moral cognition and virtuous decision-making. We argue that methodologies with very fine-grained temporal granularity, such as electroencephalography (EEG), should be used to complement more frequently used methodologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We outline how this might be accomplished using generosity, gratitude, and integrity as a case study. (shrink)

In this paper, I will defend an alternative account of disposition ascriptions influenced by considerations from possible worlds semantics for modals according to which disposition ascriptions express modals relations characterized by a particular restriction on accessible worlds. My focus will be on the "modal problem" for disposition ascriptions (precisely what kind of modality do these claims express?), and the approach I adopt reflects this starting point. Most analyses – like the Simple Conditional Analysis – have explained disposition ascriptions by suggesting (...) schematic truth-conditional equivalences with other modal claims in English. This only indirectly addresses the modal problem – for instance by first drawing a truth conditional equivalence between disposition ascriptions and counterfactuals and then explaining the modal relation expressed by counterfactuals. I will try to give a ‘direct’ answer to the modal question -- that is, to analyse disposition ascriptions in a general possible worlds framework in which we can compare the analysis to actual and possible analyses for other modals – in particular, counterfactuals. The framework I’ll use is a simple version of Angelika Kratzer’s relational analysis of modals. I'll focus on two problems that nicely connect the dispositional and the modal – (a) the challenge of purportedly ‘extrinsic dispositions,’ and (b) the problem of the "granularity" of possibilities we’re quantifying over (are they situation- or world-sized?). (shrink)

Cunoașterea și informațiile (abordate în ansamblu sau în componentele lor distincte) sunt o preocupare majoră pentru tehnologia informației, sisteme de informații, știința informației și activitatea de informații în general. Procesul obţinerii, prelucrării şi analizei informaţiilor este o preocupare majoră pentru societatea actuală. În acest scop se folosesc procedee şi tehnici specifice pentru culegerea sau generarea de informaţii, prelucrarea acestora prin analiză şi sinteză, generarea de predicţii şi strategii, transmisia şi prezentarea informaţiilor factorilor de decizie, şi stocarea lor. Analiza informațiilor poate (...) fi caracterizată ca o intreprindere epistemologică, care urmărește să dezvolte o înțelegere clară a produselor cunoașterii. Perspectiva lui Polanyi despre cunoaștere servește unor considerații epistemologice fundamentale privind cunoașterea ca produs. Conceptul acesta de cunoaștere personală contribuie la o înțelegere mai profundă a cunoașterii. Perspectiva inversează ierarhia tradițională epistemologică. Cea mai mare provocare ar putea fi aceea de a convinge analiștii, conducerea și clienții lor de avantajele metodelor analitice structurale. O introducere treptată și naturală a acestor metode în fluxul obișnuit de procese și produse de informații ar putea fi mai eficientă decât realinierea la scară largă a gândirii. "Spațiul" activităților de informații s-a extins de la guverne ca actori statali la actori non-statali precum ONG-uri, instituții transnaționale și corporații, firme private și grupuri de interese și presiuni reprezentând comunități, concepte și ideologii diverse. Procesul de luare a deciziilor a devenit dispersat și granular. Actuala "democratizare" a serviciilor de informații are un impact major asupra colectării și analizei informațiilor, și a procesului decizional, determinând serviciile de informații să devină mai transparente, să ia în considerație dezbaterile publice a acțiunilor lor și să fie nevoite, uneori, să le justifice public. Un domeniu de care pot beneficia serviciile de informații este cel al managementului cunoașterii, implicat într-o dezbatere riguroasă asupra conceptelor, teoriilor și abordărilor cunoașterii și utilizării acestora. Noua paradigmă a serviciilor de informații impune schimbări majore la nivel organizațional și de pregătire a profesioniștilor pentru a înțelege și adopta noile concepte și tehnologii. -/- CUPRINS -/- Introducere 1 Cunoaștere - Definirea cunoașterii în filozofie - Comunicarea cunoașterii - Cunoașterea situată - Cunoașterea parțială - Cunoașterea științifică - 1.1 Ontologia - - Prezentare generală - - - Unele întrebări fundamentale - - - Concepte - - - Tipuri - - Istorie - - - Originile - - - - Parmenide și monismul - - - - Pluralismul ontologic - - - - Platon - - Ontologia în știință - - Alte subiecte ontologice - - - Formațiuni ontologice - - - Certitudine ontologică și epistemologică - - - Corpul și mediul, care pun la îndoială semnificația ființei - - - Ontologie și limbă - - - Ontologie și geografia umană - - - Realitate și actualitate - 1.2 Epistemologia - - Context și semnificație - - Cunoașterea - - - Cunoașterea că, cunoașterea cum și cunoașterea directă - - - Credință - - - Adevăr - - - Justificare - - - Problema lui Gettier - - - Externalism și internalism - - - Problema valorii - 1.3 Metodologii - - Prezentare generală - - - Procesul - - - - Formularea unei întrebări - - - - Ipoteza - - - - Predicția - - - - Testarea - - - - Analiza - - - Alte componente - - - - Replicarea - - - - Examinarea externă - - - - Înregistrarea și partajarea datelor - - Investigații științifice - - - Proprietățile cercetării științifice - - - Credințe și prejudecăți - - Elementele metodelor științifice idealizate - - Elemente ale metodei științifice - - - Caracterizări - - - Incertitudine - - - Definire - - - Dezvoltarea ipotezelor - - - Predicții din ipoteze - - - Experimente - - - Evaluare și îmbunătățire - - - Confirmarea - - Modele de cercetare științifică - - - Modelul clasic - - - Modelul ipotetico-deductiv - - - Modelul pragmatic - - Știința sistemelor complexe - 1.4 Hermeneutica - - Etimologie - - Hermeneutica filosofică - - - Hermeneutica modernă - - - - Schleiermacher (1768-1834) - - - - Dilthey (1833-1911) - - - - Heidegger (1889-1976) - - - - Gadamer (1900-2002) și colab. - - - - Noua hermeneutică - - - - Hermeneutica marxistă - - - - Hermeneutica obiectivă - 1.5 Filosofia limbajului - - Subiecte și sub-domenii majore - - - Compoziție și părți - - - Natura sensului - - - Referință - - - Mintea și limba - - - - Înnăscut și învățat - - - - Limba și gândul - - - Interacțiunea socială și limba - - Limbajul și filozofia continentală - - Probleme în filosofia limbajului - - - Imprecizia - - - Problema universalului și a compoziției - - - Natura limbajului - - - Abordări formale versus informale - - - Traducere și interpretare - 1.6 Logica - - Concepte - - Forma logică - 1.7 Filosofia logicii - - Adevăr - - - Purtătorii de adevăr - - - Adevăruri analitice, adevăr logic, valabilitate, consecință logică și implicare - 1.8 Declarații - - Declarația ca o entitate abstractă - 1.9 Dileme - - Utilizarea dilemei în logică - 1.10 Limitările cognitive - - Colin McGinn - - Friedrich Hayek - - John Tyndall - - Noam Chomsky - - Fenomene și obiecte și evenimente care nu se pot simți (numene) - - Noi misterieni - 1.11 Managementul cunoașterii - - Cercetare - - - Dimensiuni - - - Strategii - - - Motivații - 1.12 Ingineria cunoașterii - 1.13 Cunoașterea tacită în activitatea de informații 2 Date - Date, informații, cunoaștere și înțelepciune - În alte domenii - Memoria - - Procese - Înregistrări - 2.1 Referințe - - Etimologie și semnificații - - Semantică - - - Sens - - - Referent absent - - - Semnul lingvistic - - Informatică - - Biblioteci și știința informației - - Psihologie - - Școala - - Lege - - Artă - 2.2 Simboluri - - Etimologie - - Definiții - - Simbolurile și semiotica - - Psihanaliza, retorica și arhetipuri - - Paul Tillich - - Rolul contextului în simbolism - - - Semnificația istorică - - - Context - - Acțiuni simbolice - 2.3 Baze de date - - Baze de date guvernamentale - - - Uniunea Europeană - - Baze de date naționale ADN - 2.4 Metadate - - Definiție - - Identificarea - - - Exemplu - 2.5 Statistici - - Domeniu - - - Statistica matematică - - - Prezentare generală 3 Informații - Abordarea teoriei informației - Ca intrare senzorială - Ca reprezentare și complexitate - Informația ca mesaj - Informația ca determinant al transformărilor - Utilizarea studiului informațiilor - Informații mediate tehnologic - Informații sub forma unor fișiere - Semiotica - 3.1 Teoria informației - - Domeniul de studiu - - Evoluție - - Cantități de informații - - - Entropia unei surse de informații - - - Entropia comună - - - Entropia condițională (echivocă) - - - Informații reciproce (transinformații) - - - Divergența Kullback-Leibler (câștigul de informații) - - - Alte cantități - - Teoria codificării - - - Teoria surselor - - - - Rata - - - Capacitatea canalului - - - - Capacitatea anumitor modele de canale - - Aplicații în alte domenii - - - Utilizări în intelligence și aplicații de secretizare - - - Generarea numerelor pseudoaleatorii - - - Explorarea seismică - - - Semiotica - - - Aplicații diverse - - Unități de informație - - Unități primare - - Unități derivate din biți - - - Octet (byte) - - - Nibble - - - Cuvânt, bloc și pagină - - Exemple de valori - 3.2 Tehnologia informației - - Procesarea datelor - - - Stocarea datelor - - - Regăsirea datelor - - - Transmisia de date - - - Manipularea datelor - - Perspectiva - - - Perspectiva academică - - - Perspectiva etică - 3.3 Confidențialitatea informațiilor - - Tipuri de informații - - - Internet - - - Televiziunea prin cablu - - - Informații medicale - - - Informații financiare - - - Localizarea - - - Informații politice - - - Informații educaționale - - Legalitatea - 3.4 Informații sensibile - - Informații non sensibile - - - Informații publice - - - Informații de rutină în afaceri - - Tipuri de informații sensibile - - - Informații comerciale confidențiale - - - Informații clasificate - - Protecția legală împotriva divulgării neautorizate - - - Informații personale și private - - - Informații de afaceri confidențiale - - - Informații clasificate - - Informații sensibile digitale - 3.5 Informații clasificate - - Clasificări guvernamentale - - Nivele de clasificare - - - Top Secret (TS) - - - Secret - - - Confidențial - - - Resticționat - - - Neclasificat - - Permisul de acces - - Informații compartimentate - - Informații nucleare - - Internațional - - - Clasificările NATO - - - Organizații internaționale - - - Clasificări echivalente în diferite țări - - Clasificarea corporativă - - Protocolul luminii de trafic - 3.6 Tipuri de informații clasificate 4 Activitatea de informații - 4.1 Istoria activității de informații - 4.2 Știința informației - - Fundamente - - - Domeniu de aplicare și abordări - - - Definiții ale științei informației - - - Filozofia informației - - - Ontologie - - Extragerea informațiilor - - Vectori de cercetare și aplicații - - - Accesul la informații - - - Arhitectura informațiilor - - - Managementul informațiilor - - - Extragerea informațiilor - - - Societatea informațională - - - Reprezentarea cunoașterii și raționamentul - 4.3 Ontologia activității de informații - 4.4 Economia informațională - - Valoarea informațiilor - - Informațiile, mecanismul prețurilor și organizațiile - - Asimetria informațională - - - Semnalizare - - - Screening - - Bunuri informaționale - - - Împachetarea - 4.5 Economia informațiilor industriale - 4.6 Managementul informațiilor - - Aspecte teoretice - - - Teorii comportamentale și organizaționale - - - Teoria economică - - Managementul informațiilor strategice - - - Alinierea tehnologiilor și strategiilor de afacere cu managementul informațiilor - - - Un model de portofoliu contemporan pentru informații - - - Competențe pentru gestionarea calității informațiilor - - - Rezumat - - Operaționalizarea managementului informațiilor - - - Gestionarea schimbării necesare - - - Opera timpurie a lui Galbraith - - - Organizații matriceale - - Informații în sursă deschisă - - - Surse deschise pentru informații - - - Definiții pentru OSINT - - - Informații competitive - - - OSINT în afaceri - 4.7 Ciclul de informații - 4.8 Managementul ciclului de informații - - Prezentare generală - - - Definirea intelligence - - - Managementul ciclului de informații - - - Planificarea și prezentarea generală a direcției - - Cerințe - - - Naționale / strategice - - - Militare / operaționale - - Arhitectura intelligence - - - Bugetarea - - - Factori politici - - - Echilibrarea aplicării legii și securitatea națională - - - Public versus privat - - Planificarea colectărilor - - - CCIRM - - Emiterea de ordine și cereri - - - Prioritizare - - Alte subiecte - - - Folosirea politică greșită - - - Intelligence clandestină față de acțiunea sub acoperire - - - - Coordonarea acțiunii HUMINT și a acțiunii sub acoperire - - - - Riscuri și resurse comune - - Eșecurile din ciclul intelligence - - Alte cicluri - - - Bucla Boyd OODA - 4.9 Informațiile în afaceri (Business intelligence) - - Componente - - Istorie - - Depozitarea datelor - - Comparație cu inteligența competitivă - - Comparație cu cercetarea analitică de afaceri - - Aplicații într-o întreprindere - - Prioritizarea proiectelor - - Factori de succes în implementare - - - Suportul afacerii - - - Nevoile afacerii - - - Cantitatea și calitatea datelor disponibile - - Aspect utilizator - - Date semistructurate sau nestructurate - - - Date nestructurate vs. date semistructurate - - - Probleme cu date semistructurate sau nestructurate - - - Utilizarea de metadate - 4.10 Informații competitive - - Dezvoltare istorică - - Tendințe recente - - Domenii similare - - Etica - - Externalizarea - 4.11 Analogii cu alte discipline - - Știința - - Arheologia - - Afaceri - - Medicina 5 Comunitatea - 5.1 Sisteme informaționale - - Prezentare generală - - Tipuri de sisteme informaționale - 5.2 Comunicarea - - Comunicare nonverbală - - Comunicare verbală - - Comunicarea scrisă și dezvoltarea sa istorică - - Comunicare de afaceri - - Comunicare familială - - Comunicarea interpersonală - - Proiectarea comunicării - - Revoluția comunicării informațiilor - - Consultanța - 5.3 Societatea informațională - - Ce este? - - Creșterea informației în societate - - Dezvoltarea modelului societății informaționale - - - Tranziția economică - - Procesarea informațiilor sociale - 5.4 Guvernarea electronică - - Definirea e-guvernării - - Indicele ONU de dezvoltare a e-guvernării - - Exemple de e-guvernare și e-guvernanță - 5.5 Servicii secrete - - Relația dintre serviciile aceleiași țări - 5.6 Epistemologia activității de informații - 5.7 Comunități epistemice - 5.8 Comunități epistemice în UE - - Conceptul comunităților epistemice și limitele sale - - Agenția Europeană de Apărare - - Centrul UE de analiză a informațiilor - - Concluzie 6 Contrainformații - 6.1 Istoria spionajului - - Istoria timpurie - - Europa timpurie modernă - - Secolul al 18-lea - - - Franța - - - Marea Britanie - - - Spionaj industrial - - - Revoluția americană, 1775-1783 - - - Revoluția franceză și războaiele napoleoniene, 1793-1815 - - Secolul al 19-lea - - - Războiul civil american 1861-1865 - - - Informații militare - - - - Austria - - - - Marea Britanie - - - - Franța - - - - Germania - - - - Italia - - - - Rusia - - - Informații navale - - - Contraspionaj - - Secolul 20 - - - Agenții de informații civile - - - Primul Razboi Mondial - - - - Decodarea - - - Revoluția rusă - - - Perioada interbelică - - - - Germania nazistă - - - Al doilea razboi mondial - - - - MI6 în Marea Britanie - - - - MAGIC: SUA sparge codul japonez - - - - OSS în Statele Unite - - - - Contraspionaj - - - Războiul rece - - - Războiul post-rece - - - - Războiul din Irak 2003 - - - - Antiterorism - - - - - Israel - 6.2 Spionajul - - Țintele spionajului - - Metode și terminologie - - - Tehnologii și tehnici - 6.3 Contraspionaj - - Operațiunile de contraspionaj defensive - - - Contra-HUMINT - - - Motivații pentru divulgarea informațiilor și operațiunilor - - Teoria contraspionajului ofensiv - 6.4 Securitatea - - Clasificarea securității - - Concepte de securitate - - Managementul securității în organizații - 6.5 Terorism - - Lupta UE împotriva terorismului - - - Strategia UE - - - - Prevenirea - - - - Protecția - - - - Urmărirea - - - - Răspunsul - 6.6 O teorie a contrainformațiilor - - Definiții concurente - - Serviciile de informații - - - Factorii care determină comportamentul serviciilor de informații - - Contrainformații aplicate - - - Asistență politică - - - Suport operațional - - - Evidențierea documentelor - - Operațiuni de contrainformații - - Contraspionaj - - Domenii de studiu 7 Culegerea de informații - 7.1 Extragerea cunoașterii - - Privire de ansamblu - - Extragerea din surse structurate în RDF - - - Maparea din tabele/vizionări RDB în entități/atribute/valori RDF - - - Mapări complexe ale bazelor de date relaționale RDF - - - XML - - Extracția din surse naturale de limbaj - - - Extracție de informații (EI) tradițională - - - Extracția de informații bazată pe ontologie (EIBO) - - - Învățarea ontologiei - - - Adnotare semantică - - - Instrumente - - Descoperirea de cunoștințe - 7.2 Colectarea de informații umane - - Surse - - Operații de bază HUMINT - - - Pregătirea ofițerilor pentru lucrul în culturi - - - Diferențierea de bază pe tip de subiect - - - Selectarea surselor potențiale - - - Identificare - - - Tipuri de interviuri - - - - Informarea (debriefing) - - - - Interogare - - - Planificarea interviului inițial - - - - Caracteristicile interogatorului (anchetatorilor)â - - - - Sprijinirea nevoilor - - - - Atitudini ale subiectului - - - Planificarea interviurilor suplimentare - - Principii de interogare - - - Raport de construcție - - - Utilizarea înregistratoarelor - - - Lucrul cu interpreți - - Surse recrutate / de încredere - - - Spionaj - - Analiza relațiilor dintre subiecții HUMINT - 7.3 Investigații - - Surse clasice - - - Deducția - - - Inducția - - - Abducția - - Investigații criminale - 7.4 Profilarea infractorilor - 7.5 Informația asimetrică - - Modele de informații asimetrice - - Selecția adversă - - - Semnalizare (Signaling) - - - Investigare (Screening) - - Aplicarea asimetriei de informații în domeniul cercetării - - Surse de asimetrie informațională - - Efectul blogurilor asupra asimetriei informaționale - - Efectul inteligenței artificiale asupra asimetriei informaționale - 7.6 Proiectarea mecanismului - - Intuiția - - Proiectarea - - - Mecanismul - - - Principiul revelației - - - Gradul de implementare - 7.7 Raportul circular - - Exemple specifice - 7.8 Liberul acces la informații 8 Supravegherea - Tipuri - - Calculator - - Telefoane - 8.1 Camere de supraveghere - 8.2 Camere IP - - Standarde - - Avantaje ale camerelor IP - - Dezavantaje potențiale - 8.3 Camere web - - Probleme de intimitate - - Efecte asupra societății moderne - - Utilizări ale camerelor web - - - Monitorizare video pentru îngrijirea copiilor - - - Comerț - - - Apeluri video și videoconferințe - - - Video de securitate - - - Clipuri video și fotografii - - - Dispozitive de control al intrărilor - - Tehnologia camerelor web - 8.4 Supravegherea în IR - - Applicații - - Specificații - - Cum funcționează supravegherea în IR - 8.5 Supravegherea în masă - - Supravegherea în masă în Uniunea Europeană - - - INDECT - - - HIDE - 8.6 Supravegherea aeriană - 8.7 Supravegherea calculatoarelor - - Emanații - - Policeware - 8.8 Interceptarea convorbirilor telefonice - - Aspecte legale - - Supravegherea electronică a telefoanelor - 8.9 Identificarea automată și captura de date (AIDC) - 8.10 Captarea datelor din documente tipărite - - Cele mai cunoscute tipuri de aplicații - - - ABBYY - - - Accusoft - - - AnyDoc Software - - - Cvision Technologies - - - Expervision - - - I.R.I.S. Group - - - LEADTOOLS - - - Nuance Communications - - - PSIGEN Software - 8.11 Ingineria securității - - Calificări - - Atitudini privind securitatea - - Practici de bază - - Subdomenii - 8.12 Securitatea calculatoarelor - - Securitate prin proiectare - 8.13 Biometria - - Sisteme biometrice adaptive - - Direcții noi de dezvoltare - - - Accesul în rețele publice - - Supravegherea biometrică - - Funcționalitatea biometrică 9 Analiza informațiilor - Prezentare generală - Metoda analitică - - Stabilirea obiectivelor pentru o analiză de informații - - - Fii îndrăzneț și cinstit - - - Acord privind conținutul - - - Orientarea spre clienți - - - Orientarea spre colegi - - Organizând ceea ce aveți - Natura analizei - - Tipuri de raționament - - - Inducție: căutarea cauzalității - - - Deducția: aplicarea generalului - - - Intuiția instruită - - - Metoda științifică - - Metode de analiză - - - Analiza oportunităților - - - Analiza cuiului de siguranță - - - Analiza ipotezelor concurente - - - Analogie - Procesul analitic - - Definirea problemei - - Generarea de ipoteze - - Determinarea nevoilor de informații și colectarea de informații - - Evaluarea surselor - - Evaluarea ipotezelor (teste) - - Producția și ambalarea - - Evaluarea colegială - - Feedback de la client și evaluarea producției - Nu uitați niciodată utilizatorul final - 9.1 Conceptualizarea funcțiilor analizei de informații - 9.2 Metodologii în analiza informațiilor - 9.3 Euristica în analiza de informații - - Puterea de expertiză - - Paradoxul de expertiză - - Sarcinile analiștilor de informații - - Pro și contra echipelor - - Tehnologii - - Metodologii analitice - - Euristica - 9.4 Raționamentul inductiv - - Raționamentul inductiv vs. raționamentul deductiv - - Critici - - - Prejudecăți - - Tipuri de raționament inductiv - - - Generalizare - - - Silogismul statistic - - - Inducția simplă - - - Argumentul din analogie - - - Inferența cauzală - - - Predicția - - Inferența bayesiană - - Inferența inductivă - 9.5 Evaluarea informațiilor - - Procesul de evaluare a informațiilor - - Ciclul informațiilor centrice specifice - - Evaluarea informațiilor criminale - - - Utilizarea de Armata SUA - - - Procesul CRIMINT - - Analiza informațiilor criminale - 9.6 Abordarea orientată spre țintă a ciclului de informații - - Analiza orientată pe țintă - - - Procesul de intelligence - - Crearea modelului - - - Modele în intelligence - - - Surse de informații de intelligence - - - Popularea modelului - - Analiza organizațională - - Aplicarea abordării centrate pe țintă în intelligence - - Critici - 9.7 Analiza ipotezelor competitive - - Proces - - Puncte forte - - Puncte slabe - - - Analiza structurată a ipotezelor concurente - - - Alte abordări ale formalismului - 9.8 Analiza indicatorilor - - Istorie - - Elemente de analiză a indicatorilor - - - Tehnici analitice structurate - - - Cerință - - - Categorii - - - Factori - - - Scenarii - - - Indicatori - - Proces - - Beneficii - - Puncte slabe - - Tehnici analitice structurate înrudite - 9.9 Cuvinte de probabilitate estimativă - - Istorie - - - Informații - - - - Eșecuri de politică și de informații legate de CPE - - Reformele metodologiei - - - Cuantificarea fiabilității sursei și a încrederii analitice - - - Analiza stocastică - - - Standardizare - - - - Experiența Mercyhurst cu CPE standardizate - 9.10 Predicții - - Predicții informale pe bază de ipoteze - - Sondaje de opinie - - Statistici - - Supranaturalul (profeții) - - Predicția în știință - - Finanțe 10 Media și rețele sociale - Studiul - Istoria - Nivele de analiză a rețelelor sociale - - Nivel micro - - Nivel mediu - - Nivel macro - Legături teoretice - - Teorii importate - - Teorii specifice - Decalaje structurale - Clustere de cercetare - - Comunicare - - Comunitate - - Rețele complexe - - Rețele criminale - - Difuzarea inovațiilor - - Demografie - - Sociologia economică - - Sănătate - - Ecologie umană - - Limba și lingvistica - - Rețele literare - - Studii organizatorice - - Capitalul social - - Poziția și beneficiile rețelei - - Media socială - Servicii în rețele sociale - - Impactul social - - Caracteristici tipice - - Caracteristici suplimentare - 10.1 Media socială - - Clasificarea mediei sociale - - - Viralitate - - Bloguri - - Comunicarea prin calculator - - Defăimarea - - Jurnalism - - - Mass media - - Facebook - - Twitter - - YouTube - 10.2 Știri - - Caracteristici - - - Noutatea - - - Marfă - - - Tonul - - - Valoarea de noutate a știrii - - Media de știri - - - Ziare - - - Televiziunea - - - Internet - 10.3 Psihologia mulțimilor - 10.4 Manipularea prin media - - Contexte - - - Activism - - - Publicitate - - - Farsa - - - Propaganda - - - Război psihologic - - - Relații publice - - Tehnici - - - Marketingul motoarelor de căutare - - Profesioniști în conformitate - - - Tehnici - 10.5 Psihologia rețelelor sociale - - Neuroplasticitatea - 10.6 Analiza rețelelor sociale 11 Etica - Definirea eticii - 11.1 Relativismul moral - - Variații - - - Descriptiv - - - - Meta-etic - - - - Normativ - 11.2 Utilitarism - - Etimologie - - Fundal istoric - - - Filozofia chineză - - - Filosofia occidentală - 11.3 Dileme etice - - Exemple de dileme etice - - Răspunsuri la argumente - - Dileme morale - - - Exemple - - - Conceptul - - - Probleme - 11.4 Codul de conduită FBI - 11.5 Meta-etica - - Întrebări meta-etice - - Teoriile semantice - - - Centralism și non-centralism - 11.6 Filosofia dreptului - - Jurisprudență analitică - - Jurisprudența normativă - - Abordări filosofice ale problemelor juridice Încheiere Resurse Despre autor - Nicolae Sfetcu - - De același autor - - Contact Editura - MultiMedia Publishing . 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COVID-19 often manifests with different outcomes in different patients, highlighting the complexity of the host-pathogen interactions involved in manifestations of the disease at the molecular and cellular levels. In this paper, we propose a set of postulates and a framework for systematically understanding complex molecular host-pathogen interaction networks. Specifically, we first propose four host-pathogen interaction (HPI) postulates as the basis for understanding molecular and cellular host-pathogen interactions and their relations to disease outcomes. These four postulates cover the evolutionary dispositions involved (...) in HPIs, the dynamic nature of HPI outcomes, roles that HPI components may occupy leading to such outcomes, and HPI checkpoints that are critical for specific disease outcomes. Based on these postulates, an HPI Postulate and Ontology (HPIPO) framework is proposed to apply interoperable ontologies to systematically model and represent various granular details and knowledge within the scope of the HPI postulates, in a way that will support AI-ready data standardization, sharing, integration, and analysis. As a demonstration, the HPI postulates and the HPIPO framework were applied to study COVID-19 with the Coronavirus Infectious Disease Ontology (CIDO), leading to a novel approach to rational design of drug/vaccine cocktails aimed at interrupting processes occurring at critical host-coronavirus interaction checkpoints. Furthermore, the host-coronavirus protein-protein interactions (PPIs) relevant to COVID-19 were predicted and evaluated based on prior knowledge of curated PPIs and domain-domain interactions, and how such studies can be further explored with the HPI postulates and the HPIPO framework is discussed. (shrink)

Successful biomedical data mining and information extraction require a complete picture of biological phenomena such as genes, biological processes, and diseases; as these exist on different levels of granularity. To realize this goal, several freely available heterogeneous databases as well as proprietary structured datasets have to be integrated into a single global customizable scheme. We will present a tool to integrate different biological data sources by mapping them to a proprietary biomedical ontology that has been developed for the purposes (...) of making computers understand medical natural language. (shrink)

With the rapidly growing amounts of information, visualization is becoming increasingly important, as it allows users to easily explore and understand large amounts of information. However the field of information visualiza- tion currently lacks sufficient theoretical foundations. This article addresses foundational questions connecting information visualization with computing and philosophy studies. The idea of multiscale information granula- tion is described based on two fundamental concepts: information (structure) and computation (process). A new information processing paradigm of Granular Computing enables stepwise increase of (...) granulation/aggregation of information on different levels of resolution, which makes possible dynamical viewing of data. Information produced by Google Earth is an illustration of visualization based on clustering (granulation) of information on a succession of layers. Depending on level, specific emergent properties become visible as a result of different ways of aggregation of data/information. As information visualization ultimately aims at amplifying cognition, we discuss the process of simulation and emulation in relation to cognition, and in particular visual cognition. (shrink)

Purpose. This article is devoted to the case study of relevant linguacultural stereotypes of the particular organization’s managerial culture and based on corresponding results the inquiry of the discourses formation features associated with the lexico-semantic meanings dispersion of (Foucault). -/- Methods and Procedure of Research. Top managers of a large Ukrainian enterprise (67 respondents) were asked to arbitrarily describe the following concepts – “manager”, “subordinate”, “managerial style”. Each concept was differentiated according to the principle of the lexico-semantic opposition (“productive – (...) counterproductive”). The obtained set of texts was lemmatized and a frequency analysis of the lemmas was carried out as well. Collocations were also evaluated, in particular, repeated n-grams were identified. In the further analysis were used all detected n-grams and those lemmas, the observed frequencies of which statistically significantly exceeded the expected ones. -/- Results. Discourse formation features are determined by the paradigmatic relations of lexico-semantic units (words) and their semantic linear compatibility. The paradigmatic dispersion of a discourse is represented by the quality of connections between lemmas according to the criterion of the paradigm types to be found. Also informative is the assessment of the lemmas number (granularity of the discourse) and the spectrum diversity of paradigmatic relations in the discourse. These parameters reflect the properties of homogeneity/complexity of discourse meanings dispersion. The syntagmatic dissemination of discourse is manifested by the features of the words semantic linear interrelationship in each n-gram. This parameter reflects the quality of rationalizations (verbal-logical chains) associated with the corresponding discourses. The length of n-grams (the number of words) is also indicative – the higher n, the more differentiated the discourse is and vice versa. Matching the words semantics in n-grams with lemmas allows one to draw a conclusion regarding the internal consistency (integration) of the discourse. -/- Conclusions. Psycholinguistic tools can be effectively used in an organizational phenomena study. In particular, the frequency analysis of lemmas, their lexico-semantic evaluation, as well as the qualitative analysis of n-grams in the problem-targeted texts of respondents allows one to solve applied research issues related to the assessment of current linguacultural trends in an organization and understanding their possible causes. Managerial culture, as a linguacultural phenomenon, is represented by a set of stably reproduced discourses in the process of the organization’s functioning. At the same time, discourses are constituted by the dispersion of meanings (words), which is being realized in two linguistic dimensions – paradigmatic and syntagmatic ones. (shrink)

This dissertation lays the foundation for a new theory of non-relational intentionality. The thesis is divided into an introduction and three main chapters, each of which serves as an essential part of an overarching argument. The argument yields, as its conclusion, a new account of how language and thought can exhibit intentionality intrinsically, so that representation can occur in the absence of some thing that is represented. The overarching argument has two components: first, that intentionality can be profi tably studied (...) through examination of the semantics of intensional transitive verbs (ITVs), and second, that providing intensional transitive verbs with a nonrelational semantics will serve to provide us with (at least the beginnings of) a non-relational theory of intentionality. This approach is a generalization of Anscombe's views on perception. Anscombe held that perceptual verbs such as "see" and "perceive" were ITVs, and that understanding the semantics of their object positions could help us to solve the problems of hallucination and illusion, and provide a theory of perception more generally. I propose to apply this strategy to intentional states and the puzzles of intentionality more generally, and so Anscombe's influence will be felt all through the dissertation. -/- In the first chapter, titled "Semantic Verbs are Intensional Transitives", I argue that semantic verbs such as "refers to", "applies to", and "is true of" have all of the features of intensional transitive verbs, and discuss the consequences of this claim for semantic theory and the philosophy of language. One theoretically enriching consequence of this view is that it allows us to perspicuously express, and partially reconcile two opposing views on the nature and subject-matter of semantics: the Chomskian view, on which semantics is an internalistic enterprise concerning speakers' psychologies, and the Lewisian view, on which semantics is a fully externalistic enterprise issuing in theorems about how the world must look for our natural language sentences to be true. Intensional Transitive Verbs have two readings: a de dicto reading and a de re reading; the de dicto reading of ITVs is plausibly a nonrelational reading, and the intensional features peculiar to this reading make it suitable for expressing a Chomskian, internalist semantic program. On the other hand, the de re reading is fully relational, and make it suitable for expressing the kinds of word-world relations essential to the Lewisian conception of semantics. And since the de dicto and de re readings are plausibly related as two distinct scopal readings of the very same semantic postulates, we can see these two conceptions of semantics as related by two scopal readings of the very same semantic postulates. -/- In chapter two, titled "Hallucination and the New Problem of Empty Names", I argue that the problem of hallucination and the problem of empty names are, at bottom, the same problem. I argue for this by reconstructing the problem of empty names in way that is novel, but implicit in much of the discussion on empty names. I then show how, once recast in this light, the two problems are structurally identical down to an extremely fine level of granularity, and also substantially overlap in terms of their content. If the problems are identical in the way I propose, then we should expect that their spaces of solutions are also identical, and there is signi cant support for this conclusion. However, there are some proposed solutions to the problem of hallucination that have been overlooked as potential solutions to the problem of empty names, and this realization opens new non-relational approaches to the problem of empty names, and to the nature of meaning more generally. -/- In chapter three, titled "Intensionality is Additional Phrasal Unity", I argue for a novel approach to the semantics of intensional contexts. At the heart of my proposal is the Quinean view that intensional contexts should, from the perspective of the semantics, be treated as units, with the material in them contributing to the formation of a single predicate. However, this proposal is subject to a number of objections, including the criticism that taken at face value, this would render intensional contexts, which seem to be fully productive, non-compositional. I begin by discussing the concept of the unity of the phrase, and pointing to various ways that phrases can gain additional unity. I then proposes that the intensionality of intensional transitive verbs is best construed as a form of semantic incorporation; ITVs, on their intensional readings, meet all of the criteria for qualifying as incorporating the nominals in their object positions. I then give a semantics for ITVs that builds on existing views of the semantics of incorporation structures, and gesture at how this can be extended to intensional clausal verbs, including the so-called propositional attitude verbs. (shrink)

There are a number of existing classifications and staging schemes for carcinomas, one of the most frequently used being the TNM classification. Such classifications represent classes of entities which exist at various anatomical levels of granularity. We argue that in order to apply such representations to the Electronic Health Records one needs sound ontologies which take into consideration the diversity of the domains which are involved in clinical bioinformatics. Here we outline a formal theory for addressing these issues in (...) a way that the ontologies can be used to support inferences relating to entities which exist at different anatomical levels of granularity. Our case study is the colon carcinoma, one of the most common carcinomas prevalent within the European population. (shrink)

Ontological principles are needed in order to bridge the gap between medical and biological information in a robust and computable fashion. This is essential in order to draw inferences across the levels of granularity which span medicine and biology, an example of which include the understanding of the roles of tumor markers in the development and progress of carcinoma. Such information integration is also important for the integration of genomics information with the information contained in the electronic patient records (...) in such a way that real time conclusions can be drawn. In this paper we describe a large multi-granular datasource built by using ontological principles and focusing on the case of colon carcinoma. (shrink)