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This article presents several conference paper abstracts about organization and management theory. The conference paper entitled "Multiple Logics in the Decision-Making Process," by Sergio Janczak, is a qualitative empirical study that reveals the multiple logics which managers, in undertaking projects, used to influence other employees. This paper seeks to contribute to the literature decision-making process by exploring further the often ignored area of middle management's processes. In addition, as an exploratory approach this paper aims to reveal the factors that influence such processes. The design of this qualitative study includes the identification of a sample of 59 projects undertook by 39 middle managers in 35 complex multidivisional organizations in Canada. The conference paper entitled "The Ecology of Strategic Positioning: Mutualism, Competition, and Inertia," by Stanislav D. Dobrev, Tai-Young Kim, and Glenn R. Carroll develops an ecological theory of the strategic positioning of all firms in an organizational population across its evolution. Drawing on established ecological theories and notions of strategic positioning from the management literature, we contend that processes of mutualism, competition, and inertia shape the propensity of firms to move in the market space.

In this paper the conditional optimization problem is considered for two functions. One of them is to minimize under the restrictions on another one. The measured table values of both functions are approximated by polynomials of the second degree in two arguments. If there is some a priory information, the tables can be reduced, it will make the approximation more accurate, but will make it more dependent on measuring errors. In the paper the reduced area preference criterion is proposed. One example with coolant parameters is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studied a new method to solve linear differential equations of order two with constant coefficients. The traditional method of solving linear differential equations of order two with constant coefficients claims that y=exp (rx) is the form of the solution where r is constant. The second method is using the integration factor. The first method is not clear in its arguments and the second one is very sophisticated. The idea of this new method is simpler to use and the arguments are clearer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a fundamental function of an "Innovation Expert System, IES". An IES enables automatically generating/customizing all "legal argument chains, LACs" of interest in an emerging technology claimed invention's test under "Substantive Patent Law, SPL", e.g. 35 USC §§ 112/101/102/103, in Europe EPC §§ 52-56, 69. It leverages on the US Supreme Court's recent SPL precedents and hence on the new terms/notions required by its Mayo decision to be used in such an SPL test, namely "inventive concepts, in-Cs" for describing the increments of usefulness of the claimed invention under test, and "nonpreemptiveness" for verifying its well-founded/definedness. Any LAC presents an "arguable subtest, AST" of the SPL test - legally being proven correct mathematically, technically being subject to the posc's confirmation - and vice versa. The fundamental function of an IES explained here is its capability of automatically generating all ASTs, which enables deriving all LACs from them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper has a negative aim and a positive aim, both limited in the present context to a sketch or outline. The negative aim, today less controversial, is to show that Aristotle's theory of final causality has little or nothing to do with the teleology rejected by modern science and that, therefore, far from having been rendered obsolete, it has yet to be fully understood. This aim will be met through the identification and brief discussion of some key points on which Aristotle's theory differs from teleology as still commonly understood. The positive aim is more controversial as it proposes that we take an ontology of life as the proper context for understanding the significance and nature of final causation in Aristotle. The argument for final causation, in other words, is that, without it, we would lose the phenomenon of life and, indeed, of nature altogether, reducing nature to the inanimate and mechanical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assurance cases provide a structured method of explaining why a system has some desired property, e.g., that the system is safe. But there is no agreed approach for explaining what degree of confidence one should have in the conclusions of such a case. In this paper, we use the principle of eliminative induction to provide a justified basis for assessing how much confidence one should have in an assurance case argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safety-related systems are those whose failure could result in loss of life, injury, or damage to property. The use of software and programmable electronic systems in safety-related domains, which include aerospace, commercial aviation, medicine, and nuclear power generation, is increasing. Ensuring that digital systems will operate at least as dependably as the mechanical and analog systems they replace is essential, but achieving this level of dependability in a digital system can be exceptional difficult. Analyzing safety-related failures of digital systems can yield lessons for improving development and assurance practices in order to reduce the risk of future accidents, but the same factors that complicate the safety assurance of these systems also affect failure analysis. To address this problem, this paper introduces a novel approach of failure analysis. First, we provide a method of incorporating safety case to predict the failure of safety-related systems; second, we present how the safety case of a system guides iterative improvements in system safety through failure analysis; third, we provide an engineering example for its application and a method to evaluate the acceptance rate and accuracy rate of safety argument. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is part of my research on classical Chinese poetry and its translations analyzed from the 'argumentative' perspective. Employing the notion of 'argument' in literary studies and a comparative approach, I try to demonstrate how different translations can be perceived as sharing underlying assumptions of poetic argumentation, which explains the consistencies as much as flexibilities in their translation strategies. Through presenting the translations considered as examples of transference of the poetic argument to the target text, I argue that for all the freedom that translators can manipulate in translating poems, the criteria of poetry translation are quintessentially the same as those of translation in general, i.e. that it should be clear and faithful. Adopting the argumentative perspective is therefore 'putting old wine in a new bottle', and at the same time 'putting new wine in an old bottle', but without the slightly derogatory sense in both, because the argumentative perspective should enable one to see things in a new light regarding the nature and approach of poetry translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore how students construe what it means for an informal argument to be the basis of a formal proof and what students pay attention to when assessing whether a proof is based on an informal argument. The data point to some undergraduate mathematics students having underdeveloped conceptions of what it means for a proof to be based on an argument. These underdeveloped conceptions limit what students pay attention to during informal-to-formal comparison tasks and may have adverse effects on students' ability to use their own informal arguments to construct proofs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Programmers extensively use application programming interfaces (APIs) to leverage existing libraries and frameworks. However, correctly and efficiently choosing and using APIs from unfamiliar libraries and frameworks is still a non-trivial task. Programmers often need to ruminate on API documentations (that are often incomplete) or inspect code examples (that are often absent) to learn API usage patterns. Recently, various techniques have been proposed to alleviate this problem by creating API summarizations, mining code examples, or showing common API call sequences. However, few techniques focus on recommending API parameters. In this paper, we propose an automated technique, called Precise, to address this problem. Differing from common code completion systems, Precise mines existing code bases, uses an abstract usage instance representation for each API usage example, and then builds a parameter usage database. Upon a request, Precise queries the database for abstract usage instances in similar contexts and generates parameter candidates by concretizing the instances adaptively. The experimental results show that our technique is more general and applicable than existing code completion systems, specially, 64% of the parameter recommendations are useful and 53% of the recommendations are exactly the same as the actual parameters needed. We have also performed a user study to show our technique is useful in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explains how students can use the columnar data flow diagrams and the inference tree to improve their logical thinking, and therefore contribute to better systems analysis and design outputs. Furthermore, the paper explains that these tools are better utilised if they are integrated within the Instructional Web Design Programme (IWDP). The logical tools were tested empirically in a project-based classroom at an institution of higher education. The research was based on a qualitative, action-research approch.The most important finding were: Logical tools set a basis for creating an effective climate for systems analysis and design; the use of inference trees improved detection and correction of reasoning errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inventional capacity is the number of things a person can think of to say in a given situation. The concept is explained, and related to both traditional rhetorical theory and contemporary message production work. The bulk of the paper consists of eight studies, including five distinct data collections. Cumulated, the investigations show that inventional capacity is a cognitive ability variable. It is not related to likely trait measures, such as argumentativeness or verbal aggressiveness. It is associated with several measures of academic ability, two measures of creativity, and interpersonal construct differentiation. It shows little situational variability. Repertorial contents consist largely of argument-related items, and have roughly the same level of politeness from the beginning of the repertoire to the end. The self-rated usualness of the items is highest for the first-listed items, and declines through the series. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although face to face arguing is a kind of communication that can be very involving emotionally, we have little research on moment-to-moment feelings during arguments. This paper is a first report on a method for observing and rating feelings. Attitude toward the other and several discrete emotions (anger, happiness, sadness, and tenderness) are rated at approximately 30 second intervals for two videotaped interactions. These ratings proved to be reliable, and to generate interesting data regarding three fundamental issues: do arguers mirror one another's emotions? do the rated emotions move in synchrony with one another within each arguer? do emotional displays connect with argument content? With only two arguments providing data, generalizations about emotions during arguing are inappropriate. However, the research method appears to hold promise for full scale investigations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I have tried to analyze the a fortiori argument and the different ways it is used in the field of law and of law making. At its core, the goal of the a fortiori argument is to extend the content of a norm to causes that it was not intended for, by comparing two reasons and asserting that one of these is stronger than the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argument Driven Inquiry (ADI) model is designed to enhance student engagement in scientific argumentation and investigation design. In this report, ADI instructional model is used in salt hydrolysis topic of chemistry learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate argument skill and attitudes of the students toward chemistry. Data was collected to determine student argument skills and attitude toward chemistry using observation and documentation. The attitudes toward chemistry that investigated were honest, responsibility and discipline. The results showed that students with high academic grade have high achievement in argument skill and also in more positive attitudes toward chemistry. The attitudes toward chemistry in the highest category is responsibility with score of 91. This shows that the ADI learning model can improve student argument skill and attitudes toward chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the sets of equivalent resistances formed by combining n number of equal resistors in series and parallel. It is seen that there is no known formula for the order of the sets thus formed. So, we obtain a set of inequalities for the lower and upper bounds for the order of the sets. Combinatorial arguments are used for obtaining the lower and upper bounds of the order of the sets. It is shown that a stricter upper bound can be obtained using the Fibonacci numbers and the Farey sequences. The analytical results are compared with the numerical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the control systems, there is often a problem of transmitting information without delay. At the same time, the system is penalized if there is a delay. The model of such a problem is usually expressed using the difference of two strictly convex (or as sums of strictly convex and strictly concave) functions of a discrete argument. It should be noted that the class of discrete optimization problems with objective functions defined as the difference of two strictly convex (or as the sum of strictly convex and strictly concave) functions of a discrete argument is quite wide. Such problems can include, for example, transport problems with fixed surcharges, with a penalty, problems of fractional nonlinear integer programming, problems of network survivability, etc. The results obtained are applied to fractional programming. Thus, the obtained results allow narrowing the search interval for the global extreme in fractional programming problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Good communication skills for each person are the basis for quality learning and quality life. Throughout the history of humankind, since people started to communicate and to hold opinions and beliefs, they have always attempted not only to share information, but also to make influence on others. An argument is an individual's verbal action in order to convince others. The specificity of arguments depends on the situation in communication and on the goal of communication, i.e., on the purpose of an utterance. An argument belongs to the sender of information and to the audience, i.e., recipients of information, to which it is dedicated. In modern society, to be aware of what to say and how to say is not a luxury, but a necessity. Ignorance of how to dispute is one of the greatest sources of cultural inequality. The ability to argue can be considered as one of the higher-order thinking skills, because an individual must not only be able to express his/her ideas coherently, but also refer to facts and exclude the most important ones. International research shows that pupils' higher-order thinking is insufficient; there are great differences between pupils of different schools and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If scholars accept that all knowledge is socially constructed, and historically situated, we must also understand social research methodologies as historically produced social formations that circumscribe as well as produce culturally specific forms of knowledge. In this paper, I examine some of the ways in which an underlying 19th century philosophy of science constrains the ability of contemporary researchers to examine 21st century cultural complexities. In particular, I discuss how the notion of evidence derived from the physical sciences prevents social sciences from examining a range of phenomena such as routine relations of privilege and contemporary media. Taking up the argument that social sciences need social epistemologies, I explore sociological studies of language as one form of epistemic shift that would enable researchers to apprehend the circulation of power as expressed in routine relations of privilege-- as well as apprehend the porous social relations introduced through media, old and new. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does counterarguing affect narrative persuasion? According to the cognitive perspective, the generation of counterarguments is a key obstacle to persuasive efforts. Following the metacognitive view, however, the experience of difficulty that accompanies increased counterarguing, actually, may benefit persuasion. These two contrasting predictions were experimentally evaluated (N = 587) by manipulating the instructions of thought-listing tasks following exposure to a story that advocated for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS). Results for participants low-in-NfC supported the cognitive prediction, whereby generating many counterarguments (7) led to less favorable attitudes toward PAS, whereas fewer counterarguments (2) engendered more positive attitudes. In contrast, participants high-in-NfC were not only influenced by the thought content, but also by the experience of ease or difficulty that accompanied the generation of counterarguments. Among this group, increased counterarguing (7) resulted in more favorable attitudes toward PAS, while fewer counterarguments (2) were translated into greater opposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the influence of argument strength and order presentation on judgments about public land use. It mentions that understanding how argument presentation can affect judgments on the proposed activities can provide important insights about influences on public lands management. It reveals that belief adjustment model asserts that semantic meaning is not retained during online construction.

The article offers insight to a study conducted for evaluating the interaction of argument position and disclosure of persuasive intent in advertising. It informs that persuasive effects depend on the sequence of warning and persuasive arguments. It also mentions about the distinction between native advertisements and journalistic content.

Though denominations have historically organized the Christian church market, nondenominational churches, a categorically-ambiguous organizational form, have been uniquely successful in the contemporary church market. I account for the success of nondenominational churches by attending to the normative values of the churchgoer audience. I argue that both organizational outcomes and the salience of market categories are dependent on audience members' norms. While the high value placed on salvific certitude drove the initial expansion of denominational churches, I show that shifts toward modernity have led many contemporary churchgoers to value individualistic ends. These new norms have reversed the historically-positive effect of categorical conformity on church outcomes, and instead benefits the category-rejecting nondenominational church form. I demonstrate support for this argument across levels of analysis using multiple nationallyrepresentative datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The algorithm for determination of module and argument of complex reflection coefficient (CRC) of microwave circuits, which is based on digital processing of the measurement signal in the spectral domain, is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study examines how participants of mediation sessions treat fallacies in naturally occurring argumentation discussions. Two types of fallacies that occur in the process of these interactions are distinguished: 'traditional' (e.g., ad fallacies, begging the question, a fallacy of hasty generalization) and 'untraditional' (i.e., wrong moves that does not belong to the traditional list of fallacies but, nevertheless, were treated as such by recipients themselves). The results show that whether an argumentation move is considered to be fallacious or nonfallacious depends on the orientation of participants themselves to this interaction phenomenon and on the context it is used in. Also, arguments that are traditionally recognized as fallacies are not always treated as such by arguers in ordinary conversations, whereas moves that do not fit in this category are viewed as wrong ones. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argument production is, or is expected to be, influenced by a number of factors. Among these are one's expectations about what goes on during interpersonal arguments, one's emotional predispositions about arguing, and the goals of making good and appropriate arguments. This investigation concerns these factors. Argument frames refer to one's expectations about arguing, and personalization of conflict is taken as a reasonable index of feelings about arguing. These self-report batteries are compared to respondents' judgments about the quality, playfulness, and appropriateness of conversational argument moves, presented as vignettes. Half the vignettes presented arguments on public issues, and half on personal topics. Half the versions concluded with a rude argumentative move, and half with a polite one. Respondents rated the concluding moves. Appropriateness, effectiveness, and soundness are so highly intercorrelated that respondents appear to be using the scales synonymously, and so these measures were combined into one, labeled quality. Argument playfulness is distinct, however. The politeness of concluding moves affects their perceived argumentative quality, but has inconsistent effects regarding the arguments' apparent playfulness. Perceived argument quality is poorly predicted by any of the expectations or predispositions except conflict valence. Perception of argument playfulness, in contrast, is predictable by several individual differences measures, including expected argument utility, use of arguing to display dominance, the expectation that arguments can be playful, competitiveness, expectation of civility, and conflict valence. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unimodel (Kruglanski & Thompson, 1999) rejects dual-process models' distinction between qualitatively different types of processing in favor of a single quantitative dimension. A 2 (strong v. weak arguments) X 2 (easy v. difficult to understand arguments) independent groups design study was conducted with 120 Ss to provide the first test of the unimodel using quantitative dimensions. Attitudes, attitude certainty, difficulty of understanding the message, and two aspects of cognitive elaboration were measured. When the arguments were strong, difficulty of understanding the message was related negatively with message acceptance and cognitive elaboration was related positively with message acceptance. The opposite pattern was found when the arguments were weak. One aspect of cognitive elaboration was related positively with attitude certainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project explores the effects of communication apprehension, argumentativeness, verbal aggressiveness, and argument realism on the way an arguer engages in possible arguments. In particular, the study examines arguers' editorial standards. 201 participants completed a survey containing standard mesaures, and also responded to two separate situations which used the Hample and Dallinger (1987) editorial standards instrument format. Each of the situations was designed to respect Johnson's (2002) distinction between personal and public topics. Bivariate correlations showed that communication apprehension is positively associated with concern for effectiveness, truth, and self-image. Verbally aggressive respondents are also concerned with effectiveness, but avoid editing based on truth or relational issues. Argumentative respondents make more principled objections to various arguments, but seem disinclined to worry about person-centered matters. Since these three variables are intercorrelated, multiple regressions show somewhat different patterns. Argument realism, intended as a manipulation check, is a serendipitous discovery. Argument realism has important relationships to endorsement and editorial behaviors. Participants reacted quite differently to public versus personal argument topics, reinforcing Johnson's claim that these must be carefully distinguished in research and theory. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research investigating the role involvement and message strength in persuasion has demonstrated that the effectiveness of any message depends, in part, upon whether the individual is involved with the attitude object and whether the message is strong or weak (Petty & Cacciopo, 1986). Drawing from ELM research, social judgment theory research, and other persuasion literature, Johnson and Eagly (1989) conducted important meta-analyses of the effects of involvement on persuasion. In 1994, Johnson continued this research by integrating the work of Wood and her colleagues, (Wood, Kallgren, & Preisler, 1985; Wood, 1982) regarding the effects of knowledge on persuasion. Taken as a whole, research on knowledge, experience, and involvement has produced some crucial insights into what variables influence the relative strength of an argument or its ability to lead to persuasion. Although consensus has not arisen, research utilizing the functional theory of persuasion has delineated various underlying functions, including the social adjustment, value-expressive, object appraisal or utilitarian or knowledge, the experiential, and the ego defensive functions (Katz, 1960; Smith, Bruner, & White, 1957; Snyder & DeBono, 1985; Herek, 1987; Shavitt, 1989; Maio & Olson, 2000; LaFrance & Boster, 2001; Lapinski & Boster, 2001, Hullett, 2002). More recent research on involvement has incorporated functional research in order to address differing types of involvement and the effects differing levels of involvement (Lavine & Snyder, 2000; Maio & Olson, 2000; Petty & Wegener, 1998; Liberman & Chaiken, 1996; Lavine & Snyder, 1996; Zuwerink & Devine, 1996; Maio & Olson, 1995; Johnson, 1994). Furthermore, argument strength and argument quality have been discussed and delineated in order to clarify whether the effectiveness of an argument in persuading is directly related to the individual assessment of the argument's inherent quality... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

City councils provide multiple views of group communication. Council members have multiple commitments to themselves, their fellow council members, their constituency and other social organizations. Humor provides a way to address these multiple, and often conflicting, needs in a manner that is acceptable within the context of the public meeting. Consider the vote at the July 2000 meeting of the Boulder, Colorado City Council regarding the pet guardianship issue. The Council doggedly analyzed this agenda item many hours into a lengthy meeting. The issue to replace the name owner with guardian was embedded in almost 40 pages of ordinance revisions, yet that single word change had ignited the attention of the public and media—not always favorably either. When the Council debated the practicality of a nomenclature change from pet owner to pet guardian, not surprisingly, humor surfaced in many ways. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we aim to answer the following research question: How did Christian religious publics argue their positions during the polemic over same-sex marriage in Canada? We conceive the polemic over same-sex marriage in Canada as a significant social controversy with a constitutive dimension. As such, it creates opportunities for groups to get involved and forge themselves as well as the society in which the debates are taking place. Studying this constitutive controversy allows us to reflect on the role of religion in the public sphere through a rhetorical investigation of the participation of Christian religious groups. As publics engaged in the debates, they present arguments to defend their positions, whether against or in favour of gay marriages, and sometimes offer alternatives to marriage redefinition. In doing so they deploy ethos in various ways with different effects. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]