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Individuals use the internet to look up information. This has consequences for the measurement of political knowledge in self-administered online surveys. Online surveys may now include answers that were retrieved from the internet instead of a respondent's declarative memory, thereby distorting knowledge measures. This problem has been acknowledged and studied, but existing research focuses on interventions designed to deter online searching and on methods to detect the behavior. I take a different approach and focus on the questions themselves to show that some questions are more vulnerable to bias via internet searching than others. I take advantage of interview mode differences in the 2016 ANES to examine the effect of internet access on different kinds of political knowledge questions. The study concludes with best practices recommendations for researchers wishing to improve their knowledge scales by discussing what type of questions are most likely to form a scale that retains criterion validity in the online environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely believed that feedback improves behavior, but the mechanisms behind this improvement remain unclear. Different theories postulate that feedback has either a direct effect on performance through automatic reinforcement mechanisms or only an indirect effect mediated by a deliberate change in strategy. To adjudicate between these competing accounts, we performed two large experiments on human adults (total N = 518); approximately half the participants received trial-by-trial feedback on a perceptual task, whereas the other half did not receive any feedback. We found that feedback had no effect on either perceptual or metacognitive sensitivity even after 7 days of training. On the other hand, feedback significantly affected participants' response strategies by reducing response bias and improving confidence calibration. These results suggest that the beneficial effects of feedback stem from allowing people to adjust their strategies for performing the task and not from direct reinforcement mechanisms, at least in the domain of perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans exhibit substantial biases in their decision making even in simple two-choice tasks, but the origin of these biases remains unclear. I hypothesized that one source of bias could be individual differences in sensory encoding. Specifically, if one stimulus category gives rise to an internal-evidence distribution with higher variability, then responses should optimally be biased against that stimulus category. Therefore, response bias may reflect a previously unappreciated subject-to-subject difference in the variance of the internal-evidence distributions. I tested this possibility by analyzing data from three different two-choice tasks (n s = 443, 443, and 498). For all three tasks, response bias moved in the direction of the optimal criterion determined by each subject's idiosyncratic internal-evidence variability. These results demonstrate that seemingly random variations in response bias can be driven by individual differences in sensory encoding and are thus partly explained by normative strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a philosophical proposition of elucidating creativity by means of distinguishing the category of intentionality. The intentional dimension of cognitive content encompasses predispositions for constructing sign systems. Such an intellectual modification of sign systems forms the foundation of dynamic creative acts. However, creative processes are not restricted to the sphere of intellectual operations, but also remain under the influence of object categories. For this reason, the results of creative processes must allow for the potential determinants of sensual matter. A transition between the subjective sphere of possibility and the objective sphere of potency indicates the dynamism of the process. A crucial component of the emergence of intentional relations is formulating the criterion of a creative process. It determines the rules of constructing sign systems, the forms of acceptable transformations as well as the possible modes of allowing for the results of this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What distinguishes causation from grounding? One suggestion is that causation, but not grounding, occurs over time. Recently, however, counterexamples to this simple temporal criterion have been offered. In this paper, we situate the temporal criterion within a broader framework that focuses on two aspects: locational overlapping in space and time and the presence of intermediaries in space and time. We consider, and reject, the idea that the difference between grounding and causation is that grounding can occur without intermediaries. We go on to use the fact that grounding and causation both involve intermediaries to develop a better temporal criterion for distinguishing causation from grounding. The criterion is this: when a cause and effect are spatially disjoint, there is always a chain of causal intermediaries between the cause and the effect that are extended in time. By contrast, when the grounds and the grounded are spatially disjoint, there is always a chain of grounding intermediaries, but the chain need not be extended in time, it can be purely spatial. The difference between grounding and causation, then, is that causation requires time for chaining in a way that grounding does not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characteristics have been developed, by which the boundaries of coherence of adjacent road sections are established in accordance with requirements for the traffic safety. The coordination of adjacent sections of the road is carried out taking into account the driver's behavior program, which is presented in the work as a value of the maximum entropy of his perception field. The choice of this criterion is determined by the possibility of a comprehensive assessment of many road environment factors that influence the driver. The boundaries of coordination of the maximum entropy values of adjacent road sections with use of the accident rate are established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with the justification of the developed methodological approaches to the evaluation of the economic rationality criterion in business design, which is applicable to any organization. An important aspect in the methodology under consideration is the formation of sound intersectoral relations. According to the authors, a complete, objective and reliable evaluation of the effectiveness of the establishment of the intersectoral relations occurring in any area of production activity is an option for solution of the problem under consideration. Not one, but a system of indicators ensuring the reliability of the conclusions drawn should be applied to evaluate production efficiency. The system of indicators makes it possible to specify the leading criterion of efficiency, to present a generalized quantitative and qualitative characteristic of the economic processes taking place in the industry. This justifies the choice of the economic rationality criterion, which is objective and universal in nature, can be easily interpreted and makes it possible to adequately assess the status of business design in an organization, not only at the current time, but also for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the challenges in cluster analysis is the evaluation of the obtained clustering results without using auxiliary information. To this end, a common approach is to use internal validity criteria. For mixtures of linear regressions whose parameters are estimated by maximum likelihood, we propose a three-term decomposition of the total sum of squares as a starting point to define some internal validity criteria. In particular, three types of mixtures of regressions are considered: with fixed covariates, with concomitant variables, and with random covariates. A ternary diagram is also suggested for easier joint interpretation of the three terms of the proposed decomposition. Furthermore, local and overall coefficients of determination are respectively defined to judge how well the model fits the data group-by-group but also taken as a whole. Artificial data are considered to find out more about the proposed decomposition, including violations of the model assumptions. Finally, an application to real data illustrates the use and the usefulness of these proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A challenge for the theorising of climate justice is that even when the agents whose actions are supposed to be regulated are cooperative and act in good faith, they may still disagree about how the burdens and benefits of dealing with climate change should be distributed. This article is a contribution to the formulation of a useful role for normative theorising in light of this bounded nature of climate justice. We outline a theory of pure procedural climate justice; its content, function in relation to international climate diplomacy, and justification. The theory is 'pure' in the sense that it does not rely on an independent criterion of what are just outcomes in negotiations of climate responsibilities. Rather, it specifies procedural fairness norms, such as transparency, reciprocity and participation, which make the process of negotiation fair independently of which account of substantive climate justice happens to be correct. Such procedural fairness norms are justified in part by being expressions of an ideal of a reasonable negotiator, an ideal which itself commands respect. They are also justified as means to an effective coordinated response to dangerous climate change in virtue of their capacity to create trust, predictability and accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on Criterion Collection with an assortment of additional items such as audio commentaries, video essays, interviews, television segments, and trailers. Topics include navigating multiple hardships including the sexism and patriarchy of rural community and the harshness of family home; and humongous refinery being constructed where fishing boats, modest homes, little businesses, and a pristine waterfront prevail.

This meta-analytic study examined the validity of Gordon's music aptitude tests as predictors of other musical variables. The four tests analyzed were the Music Aptitude Profile (1965), Primary Measures of Music Audiation (1979), Intermediate Measures of Music Audiation (1982), and Advanced Measures of Music Audiation (1989). Separate analyses were performed for tonal, rhythm, and composite constructs of music aptitude. From 47 music education journal articles that met requirements for inclusion, 215 independent data points representing 6,086 participants were collapsed into an overriding set of five criterion categories: (a) aural perception, (b) achievement, (c) creativity, (d) affective outcomes, and (e) musical engagement. Moderators potentially affecting validity included audiation type, sampling method, grade level, criterion test type, and year of publication. Results revealed estimated true criterion-related validities of.45 (tonal),.46 (rhythm), and.53 (composite). Gordon's music aptitude tests were consistently but not always strongly associated with many desirable musical outcomes. Analysis of correlations by subtest and criterion category produced mixed results, and high levels of between-study heterogeneity could not be explained through meta-regression moderator analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In topic modeling, identifiability of the topics is an essential issue. Many topic modeling approaches have been developed under the premise that each topic has a characteristic anchor word that only appears in that topic. The anchor-word assumption is fragile in practice, because words and terms have multiple uses; yet it is commonly adopted because it enables identifiability guarantees. Remedies in the literature include using three- or higher-order word co-occurence statistics to come up with tensor factorization models, but such statistics need many more samples to obtain reliable estimates, and identifiability still hinges on additional assumptions, such as consecutive words being persistently drawn from the same topic. In this work, we propose a new topic identification criterion using second order statistics of the words. The criterion is theoretically guaranteed to identify the underlying topics even when the anchor-word assumption is grossly violated. An algorithm based on alternating optimization, and an efficient primal-dual algorithm are proposed to handle the resulting identification problem. The former exhibits high performance and is completely parameter-free; the latter affords up to 200 times speedup relative to the former, but requires step-size tuning and a slight sacrifice in accuracy. A variety of real text copora are employed to showcase the effectiveness of the approach, where the proposed anchor-free method demonstrates substantial improvements compared to a number of anchor-word based approaches under various evaluation metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the development and validation of the Minnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool–4 (MnSOST-4) on a dataset consisting of 5,745 sex offenders released from Minnesota prisons between 2003 and 2012. Bootstrap resampling was used to select predictors, and k-fold and split-sample methods were used to internally validate the MnSOST-4. Using sex offense reconviction within 4 years of release from prison as the failure criterion, the data showed that 130 (2.3%) offenders in the overall sample were recidivists. Multiple classification methods and performance metrics were used to develop the MnSOST-4 and evaluate its predictive performance on the test set. The results from the regularized logistic regression algorithm showed that the MnSOST-4 performed well in predicting sexual recidivism in the test set, achieving an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.835. Additional analyses on the test set revealed that the MnSOST-4 outperformed the Minnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool–3 (MnSOST-3), Minnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool–Revised (MnSOST-R), and Static-99 in predicting sexual reoffending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantile regression (QR) allows one to model the effect of covariates across the entire response distribution, rather than only at the mean, but QR methods have been almost exclusively applied to continuous response variables and without considering spatial effects. Of the few studies that have performed QR on count data, none have included random spatial effects, which is an integral facet of the Bayesian spatial QR model for areal counts that we propose. Additionally, we introduce a simplifying alternative to the response variable transformation currently employed in the QR for counts literature. The efficacy of the proposed model is demonstrated via simulation study and on a real data application from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (TDFPS). Our model outperforms a comparable non-spatial model in both instances, as evidenced by the deviance information criterion (DIC) and coverage probabilities. With the TDFPS data, we identify one of four covariates, along with the intercept, as having a nonconstant effect across the response distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the role of librarians in United States as information professionals to ensure the understanding of the value of employing a fact-based criterion for evaluating resources. Topics include disregard for facts in news and by political leaders in the U.S. , the use of information literacy in providing us with diverse perspective to work within academic communities, and the combination of information literacy and archiving.

Many of us think we have agent‐centred options to act suboptimally. Some of these involve favouring our own interests. Others involve sacrificing them. In this paper, I explore three different ways to accommodate agent‐centred options in a criterion of objective permissibility. I argue against satisficing and rational pluralism and in favour of a principle built around sensitivity to personal cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In practice, fractional factorial split-plot (FFSP) designs are widely used when the levels of some factors are very difficult or expensive to be changed or controlled. The factors of an FFSP design are divided into two groups, the whole plot (WP) and subplot factors. Under the circumstances that the experimenter has some prior information about the significance of the WP factors, the paper gives a new optimal criterion for selecting designs, that is, the minimum aberration of type WP (WP-MA). Construction of optimal fractional factorial split-plot designs with respect to the WP-MA criterion is considered. The WP-MA FFSP designs with 8, 16, and 32 runs are tabulated. Highlights • This paper proposes a new optimal criterion for selecting split-plot designs. • Some theoretical results of design construction for small fractions are provided. • The optimal fractional factorial split-plot designs with 8, 16, and 32 runs are tabulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We provide a comparative study for dynamic programming multilevel image thresholding using Otsu criterion. • 2.45x is obtained compared with state-of-the-art-algorithm. • Different data sets from different application are used to assess the performance. Abstract Multi-level thresholding of a gray image is one of the basic operations in computer vision, with applications in image enhancement and segmentation. Various criteria for the selection of threshold level values were proposed. One of these criterion is the Otsu criterion that uses maximization of between-class variance approach. Although applying multi-level thresholding to an image is a straightforward operation, computation of the threshold levels with Otsu criterion is a computationally expensive process. In this paper, we revisit a dynamic programming algorithm that provides exact and efficient solution to the problem and compare it with modern meta-heuristic algorithms. We provide a rigorous proof for the correctness of the algorithm. The algorithm computational cost is linear in the number of threshold levels. We compare the algorithm with state of the art algorithms and verify its superior performance. The experiments show that we could gain speedup up to 2.45 ×. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes to explicate theoretical equivalence by supplementing formal equivalence criteria with preservation conditions concerning interpretation. I argue that both the internal structure of models and choices of morphisms are aspects of formalisms that are relevant when it comes to their interpretation. Hence, a formal criterion suitable for being supplemented with preservation conditions concerning interpretation should take these two aspects into account. The two currently most important criteria—generalized definitional equivalence (Morita equivalence) and categorical equivalence—are not optimal in this respect. I put forward a criterion that takes both aspects into account: the criterion of definable categorical equivalence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates children's information search behaviour to learn about their search characteristics. The study uses a qualitative approach by observing and noting children's searching process. A total of 30 children aged 7-9 years participated in this study. The unobtrusive observation of children's searching process via the Web were recorded using Camtasia software. Probing interviews were used to gather understanding on how the children perceive information trustworthiness. The data was analysed using a thematic coding approach. The findings highlighted two main characteristics of children's search: Credible Searcher and Convenience Searcher. The children in general could gauge information trustworthiness and have confidence with regard to the relevance, reliability and the credibility of resources. The children do not consider source reputation and currency as an important criterion when seeking information. This study contributes to a better understanding of information trustworthiness as reflected in young children's information seeking and processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bringing together probabilistic persuasion theory and semantic network models, past research introduced the number and strength of direct connections in a semantic network as a theory-based criterion of argument quality. In two experiments, the present research provides evidence that this argument quality criterion also increases persuasion in decision-making contexts. Experiment 1 revealed that highly central attributes—embedded in advertising arguments advocating for choice of a focal product—were more persuasive, increased choice confidence, and were perceived as better arguments than attributes low in centrality. Experiment 2 nearly mirrored Experiment 1 by revealing main effects of attribute centrality on respondent choice behavior and perceived argument quality. In addition, an interaction effect of centrality and age on participant choice latencies was observed. In comparison to other age brackets, young adult participants had significantly lower choice latencies when choices were based on highly central attributes as opposed to lowly central attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A perfect combination of fact-based and value-based judgments is what multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) issues pursue. Tolerability constraints, an important part of value-based judgments, are easily observable and have drawn attention in theory. However, their practical applications in the MCDM process are still in their infancy. This paper aims to fill the gap between theory and application. A framework for tolerability constraints in the context of non-independent criteria is proposed and operated for the first time. In this framework, global tolerability constraints on the overall decision-making process and local constraints on a single criterion are considered at the same time. Furthermore, mandatory/ sufficient requirements are regarded as different aspects of tolerability constraints. Two cases are given to illustrate the application of the proposed framework. In short, the proposed framework deepens the understanding of MCDM issues and extends its application, especially with respect to tolerability requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The purchasing process consists of multiple, non-isolated phases that describe the interactions between consumers and products. One of these phases is the evaluation of alternatives, in which the consumer compares the benefits that will be obtained from each product or service depending on a set of criteria. Recently, the rise of online ecosystems has fueled the development of new purchasing-decision prediction models (PDPM) based on the shared opinions, concerns, and expectations of customers. Commonly, these PDPMs are constructed as multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods, where experts ascertain the consumer's purchasing criteria, as well as the importance of them, by means of surveys and their own experience. Although relying on experts may be appropriate for identifying criteria, this approach is not suitable for assessing the importance of said criteria due to the large volume of information available on the Web. Furthermore, the preferences of consumers in online ecosystems evolve constantly. In this regard, we consider that the information about purchase-criteria importance should be derived exclusively from the opinions of consumers. However, the attitude and thought-process leading to purchases contain inherent relationships that consumers are not able to express explicitly; consequently, we explore the possibility to make use of the synergies between criteria along user preferences. This paper proposes a new PDPM that estimates the importance of the criteria and values the alternatives by only considering the opinions expressed by consumers in digital ecosystems, while using an expert-defined set of criteria. The proposed approach extracts the weights of both criteria and alternatives and determines the implicit synergies within them without the need of additional input. Lastly, it uses the Choquet integral for weight and valuation aggregation and determines a purchase ranking. This model has been tested in real examples, obtaining satisfactory results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • This paper applies a recent concept, namely the concept of stratification. • The dynamicity of the decision environment when a decision is made is considered. • The method mimics the brain's decision making process and has the potential for future applications in artificial intelligence. • The method will be useful to researchers who are applying different MCDM methods. Abstract Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods generally require the decision maker to evaluate alternatives with respect to decision criteria and also to assign importance weightings to the criteria. Then, based on the assigned weightings, the best alternative can be selected. However, after a decision is made it often happens that the decision maker becomes doubtful whether the right weightings have been assigned to the criteria given that a variety of eventualities may occur in the near future. The main aim of this paper is to address this concern and improve the application of MCDM methods by addressing possible fluctuations in the criteria weightings. The recently proposed concept of stratification (CST) is used in conjunction with MCDM methods to stratify the decision environment. The method is then applied to a supplier selection problem. The stratified MCDM (SMCDM) approach is in its early stages only and requires further research to reach its maturity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building secondary models that describe the growth rate as a function of multiple environmental conditions is often very labour intensive and costly. As such, the current research aims to assist in decreasing the required experimental effort by studying the efficacy of both design of experiments (DOE) and optimal experimental designs (OED) techniques. This is the first research in predictive microbiology (i) to make a comparison of these techniques based on the (relative) model prediction uncertainty of the obtained models and (ii) to compare OED criteria for the design of experiments with static (instead of dynamic) environmental conditions. A comparison of the DOE techniques demonstrated that the inscribed central composite design and full factorial design were most suitable. Five conventional and two tailor made OED criteria were tested. The commonly used D-criterion performed best out of the conventional designs and almost equally well as the best of the dedicated criteria. Moreover, the modelling results of the D-criterion were less dependent on the experimental variability and differences in the microbial response than the two selected DOE techniques. Finally, it was proven that solving the optimisation of the D-criterion can be made more efficient by considering the sensitivities of the growth rate relative to its value as Jacobian matrix instead of the sensitivities of the cell density measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

M-estimation is a widely used technique for robust statistical inference. In this paper, we study model selection and model averaging for M-estimation to simultaneously improve the coverage probability of confidence intervals of the parameters of interest and reduce the impact of heavy-tailed errors or outliers in the response. Under general conditions, we develop robust versions of the focused information criterion and a frequentist model average estimator for M-estimation, and we examine their theoretical properties. In addition, we carry out extensive simulation studies as well as two real examples to assess the performance of our new procedure, and find that the proposed method produces satisfactory results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces spectral risk measure (SRM) into optimization problem of insurance investment. Spectral risk measure could describe the degree of risk aversion, so the underlying strategy might take the investor's risk attitude into account. We establish an optimization model aiming at maximizing risk-adjusted return of capital (RAROC) involved with spectral risk measure. The theoretical result is derived and empirical study is displayed under different risk measures and different confidence levels comparatively. The result shows that risk attitude has a significant impact on investment strategy. With the increase of risk aversion factor, the investment ratio of risk asset correspondingly reduces. When the aversive level increases to a certain extent, the impact on investment strategies disappears because of the marginal effect of risk aversion. In the case of VaR and CVaR without regard for risk aversion, the investment ratio of risk asset is increasing significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent paper, Wigglesworth claims that syntactic criteria of theoretical equivalence are not appropriate for settling questions of equivalence between logical theories, since such criteria judge classical and intuitionistic logic to be equivalent; he concludes that logicians should use semantic criteria instead. However, this is an artefact of the particular syntactic criterion chosen, which is an implausible criterion of theoretical equivalence (even in the non-logical case). Correspondingly, there is nothing to suggest that a more plausible syntactic criterion should not be used to settle questions of equivalence between different logical theories; such a criterion (which may already be found in the literature) is exhibited and shown to judge classical and intuitionistic logic to be inequivalent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze H8-output regulation of linear heterogeneous multiagent systems. The agents are subject to modeled and unmodeled disturbances and communicate over a switching graph. We derive a sufficient condition that guarantees H8 output regulation for the mentioned setup. This sufficient condition places requirements on both the single-agent systems and the switching graph. The requirement on the single-agent systems is an H8-criterion that should be satisfied by a proper design of the controller. Meanwhile, the switching graph needs to be maximally connected. Moreover, we derive an upper bound for the overall L2-gain of the output synchronization error with respect to the unmodeled disturbances over a fixed communication graph. We illustrate our technical developments by a simulation example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mohr-Coulomb (M-C) criterion is widely used for isotropic brittle materials, although it has some disadvantages which limit its wider application. One important disadvantage of this theory is that it ignores the effect of the intermediate principal stress, although it has an important influence on materials behaviour. Therefore, Mohr-Coulomb theory is actually used only for materials in biaxial state of stress. In this paper, a modified form of Mohr 's criterion has been suggested, in order to overcome this limitation. The modified criterion takes into account the influence of intermediate principal stress in the case of materials under triaxial loading conditions. On the basis of two new hypotheses, a real triaxial state of stress is replaced by a virtual biaxial state of stress. The above mentioned stress states are considered to be equivalent for a material when the failure is imminent in both cases. Both Mohr 's theory and the concept of equivalence of stress states are combined in order to obtain the virtual biaxial state of stress, which is determined using all three principal stresses. The modified Mohr 's theory can be used only for triaxial state of stress. For biaxial and uniaxial state of stress it is reduced to the classical one. The proposed hypotheses have an important advantage because does not require additional material coefficients. The calculated values using the virtual biaxial state of stress and the linear M-C criterion are in good agreement with experimental data for grey cast iron. The article also presents a compact statistical analysis for both stresses and errors, in order to objectively assess the effectiveness of the formulated hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consider (m + 1)-dimensional, m ≥ 1, diffeomorphisms that have a saddle fixed point O with m-dimensional stable manifold Ws(O), one-dimensional unstable manifold Wu(O), and with the saddle value σ different from 1. We assume that Ws(O) and Wu(O) are tangent at the points of some homoclinic orbit and we let the order of tangency be arbitrary. In the case when σ < 1, we prove necessary and sufficient conditions of existence of topological horseshoes near homoclinic tangencies. In the case when σ > 1, we also obtain the criterion of existence of horseshoes under the additional assumption that the homoclinic tangency is simple. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work engagement is described by dedication, vigor, and absorption. The most widely used measure of engagement is the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), intended to measure engagement for any occupational group. This research aims to study psychometric properties of the UWES for its use in the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean Spanish-speaking countries. The Composite Reliability Index (CRI) as well as alphas were calculated, indicating good internal consistency. Confirmatory factor analyses were carried out to test its dimensionality. Both tested models showed extremely good fit to the data, which called for model comparison. The three-factor solution was retained as the one showing the best relative fit. However, the three dimensions of the scale were largely correlated, providing evidence for some overlapping. Regarding criterion-related validity, the three factors were correlated as expected with the three dimensions of burnout, working climate, and working conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we obtain new lower bounds of the maximal solution of the magnetohydrodynamics equations in the homogeneous Sobolev space , for , when solutions blow-up in finite time. This gives us some new insight on the blow-up behavior of the solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a set of MMPI-2-RF (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008/2011) personality disorder (PD) spectra scales. These scales could serve the purpose of assisting with DSM-5 PD diagnosis and help link categorical and dimensional conceptions of personality pathology within the MMPI-2-RF. We developed and provided initial validity results for scales corresponding to the 10 PD constructs listed in the DSM-5 using data from student, community, clinical, and correctional samples. Initial validation efforts indicated good support for criterion validity with an external PD measure as well as with dimensional personality traits included in the DSM-5 alternative model for PDs. Construct validity results using psychosocial history and therapists' ratings in a large clinical sample were generally supportive as well. Overall, these brief scales provide clinicians using MMPI-2-RF data with estimates of DSM-5 PD constructs that can support cross-model connections between categorical and dimensional assessment approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article Jℱ-class operators are introduced and some basic properties of Jℱ-vectors are given. The Jℱ-class operators include the J-class operators and Jmix-class operators introduced by Costakis and Manoussos in 2008. This class also includes the Jwmix-class and Jerg-class operators defined by Zhang [2012]. Furthermore, for the unilateral weighted backward shifts on a Fréchet sequence space, we establish a criterion under which the shift operators belong to the Jℱ-class. From the criterion it is easy to obtain the existing criteria of hypercyclic backward shifts and of the topological mixing backward shifts. The obtained criterion also reveals the characteristic of Jℱ-class shift operators by the recurrence property. Meanwhile, we obtain infinite topological entropy when the shifts have stronger recurrence property, which generalizes the related results by Brian et al. in 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The criterion-related validity of divergent thinking (DT) tests has been questioned because of relatively low correlations between DT test scores and creative performance. A possible inhibiting factor in previous correlations—heterogeneity of the sample—has been ignored. If groups with different DT profiles are involved in this line of research, low correlations would not necessarily be indicative of actual relationships, and criterion-related validity would appear to be lower than it is. Thus, this study identified groups with their own unique DT profiles and examined their creative performance. To this end, elementary children’s (N = 325) responses in 3 DT tasks were analyzed using latent profile analysis. Results suggested 3 groups with unique DT profiles: One group scored moderate on fluency and low on originality; another group scored moderate on fluency and high on originality; the third group scored uniformly low across fluency, originality, and flexibility. Surprisingly, only the low-originality group excelled in creative achievement, but the hypothesis of this investigation was supported by the fact that only the high-originality group significantly excelled in ideation. These results confirm that low correlations between DT indices and creative performance do not necessarily indicate a lack of the criterion-related validity of DT tests. Differences between the creative achievement and the ideation criterion measures are detailed, and idiosyncratic properties in DT profiles and their corresponding creative strengths are discussed as educational implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Alphabetic optimality criteria, such as the D, A, and I criteria, require specifying a model to select optimal designs. They are not model‐free, and the designs obtained by them may not be robust. Recently, many extensions of the D and A criteria have been proposed for selecting robust designs with high estimation efficiency. However, approaches for finding robust designs with high prediction efficiency are rarely studied in the literature. In this paper, we propose a compound criterion and apply the coordinate‐exchange 2‐phase local search algorithm to generate robust designs with high estimation, high prediction, or balanced estimation and prediction efficiency for projective submodels. Examples demonstrate that the designs obtained by our method have better projection efficiency than many existing designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Much recent work in metaontology challenges the so‐called ‘Quinean tradition’ in metaphysics. Especially prominently, Amie Thomasson argues for a highly permissive ontology over ontologies which eliminate many entities. I am concerned with disputing not her ontological claim, but the methodology behind her rejection of eliminativism – I focus on ordinary objects. Thomasson thinks that by endorsing the Quinean criterion of ontological commitment eliminativism goes wrong; a theory eschewing quantification over a kind may nonetheless be committed to its existence. I argue that, contrary to Thomasson's claims, we should retain the Quinean criterion. Her arguments show that many eliminativist positions are flawed, but their flaws lie elsewhere: the Quinean criterion is innocent. Showing why reveals the importance of pragmatism in ontology. In §1 I compare Thomasson's account and the eliminativist views to which it stands in opposition. In §2 I re‐construct Thomasson's reasons for rejecting the Quinean criterion. In §3 I defend the Quinean criterion, showing that the eliminativists’ flaws are not consequences of applying the Quinean criterion, before explaining the criterion's importance when properly understood. I conclude that Thomasson, though right to criticise the methodology of ordinary‐object eliminativists, is wrong to identify the Quinean criterion as the source of their mistake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Traditional epistemological interpretations have portrayed Hegel as offering a coherentist solution to the problem of the criterion in the introduction to The Phenomenology of Spirit. In this paper, I criticize the coherentist interpretation and present an alternative reading that emphasizes the central role of conscious experience in Hegel's argument. In the first part of the paper, I show how the passages commonly used to support the coherentist interpretation ultimately fail to do so and argue that coherence by itself cannot be the lynchpin for an adequate solution to the problem of the criterion. In the second part, I then develop a novel interpretation of Hegel's argument by drawing attention to the fact that Hegel formulates both the problem of the criterion and his solution to it in terms of consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the two-dimensional dissipative surface quasi-geostrophic equation, and establish a logarithmically improved regularity criterion. Consequently, our result extends the regularity criterion result of Dong and Pavlovié (2009). In addition, a logarithmically improved regularity criterion to the three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations is also derived by the same arguments. Therefore, this result extends and improves many previous works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How much of the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) false memory is attributable to decision criterion is so far a controversial issue. Previous studies typically used explicit warnings against accepting the critical lure to investigate this issue. The assumption is that if the false memory results from using a liberally biased criterion, it should be greatly reduced or eliminated by an explicit warning against accepting the critical lure. Results showed that warning was generally ineffective. We asked the question of whether subjects can substantially reduce false recognition without being warned when the test forces them to make a distinction between true and false memories. Using a two-alternative forced choice in which criterion plays a relatively smaller role, we showed that subjects could indeed greatly reduce the rate of false recognition. However, when the forced-choice restriction was removed from the two-item choice test, the rate of false recognition rebounded to that of the hit for studied list words, indicating the role of criterion in false recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the cross-coupled Camassa-Holm system. First, we prove local well-posedness for the cross-coupled Camassa-Holm equations in $$H^s ({\mathbb {R}})$$ with $$s > 3/2$$ . Then, a blow-up criterion is established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores how ambiguity is defined as a situation of inexactness, and is synonymous with the feelings of uncertainty and ambivalence. Topics discussed include uncertainty with regard to a particular event, that one can assign it some subjective probability based on believe; theory of cognitive dissonance, the internal discord felt from holding conflicting beliefs simultaneously; and challenge for humans is to form and maintain a set of beliefs.

The article explores uncertainty and ambiguity in terms of decision-making in Bible. Topics discussed include uncertainty with regard to a particular event, that one can assign it some subjective probability based on believe; theory of cognitive dissonance, the internal discord felt from holding conflicting beliefs simultaneously; and challenge for humans is to form and maintain a set of beliefs.

The article explores uncertainty and ambiguity in terms of decision-making and probability distributions. Topics discussed include uncertainty with regard to a particular event, that one can assign it some subjective probability based on believe; theory of cognitive dissonance, the internal discord felt from holding conflicting beliefs simultaneously; and challenge for humans is to form and maintain a set of beliefs.

This paper introduces an active learning approach to the fitting of machine learning interatomic potentials. Our approach is based on the D-optimality criterion for selecting atomic configurations on which the potential is fitted. It is shown that the proposed active learning approach is highly efficient in training potentials on the fly, ensuring that no extrapolation is attempted and leading to a completely reliable atomistic simulation without any significant decrease in accuracy. We apply our approach to molecular dynamics and structure relaxation, and we argue that it can be applied, in principle, to any other type of atomistic simulation. The software, test cases, and examples of usage are published at http://gitlab.skoltech.ru/shapeev/mlip/ . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prediction accuracy of academic achievement for admission purposes requires adequate sensitivity and specificity of admission tools, yet the available information on the validity and predictive power of admission tools is largely based on studies using correlational and regression statistics. The goal of this study was to explore signal detection theory as a tool to extend the available information; signal detection theory allows for comparisons of selection outcomes on both group and individual levels and the development of tailor-made criteria for specific programmes and admission goals. We investigated who would or would not have been admitted applying specific criteria for each of three common admission tools, how many admitted students would fail and how many applicants who would have been successful would be rejected. Both comparisons at an individual level and the receiver operating characteristic curves at a group level revealed that scores obtained in a programme-specific matching programme and non-cognitive factors appear more valuable than regression statistics suggest when it comes to admitting applicants who will become successful students. Signal detection theory allows not only for admission-goal-specific and programme-specific fine-tuning of the content of admission tools, it also informs about the effects of criteria and thus allows the setting of criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential Evolution (DE) is one of the most successful and powerful evolutionary algorithms for global optimization problem. The most important operator in this algorithm is mutation operator, in which parents are selected randomly to participate in it. Recently, numerous papers are tried to make this operator more intelligent by selection of parents for mutation intelligently. The intelligent selection for mutation vectors is performed by applying design space (also known as decision space) criterion or fitness space criterion; however, in both cases, half of valuable information of the problem space is disregarded. In this article, a Union Differential Evolution (UDE) is proposed which takes advantage of both design and fitness spaces criteria for intelligent selection of mutation vectors. The experimental analysis on UDE are performed on CEC2005 benchmarks and the results stated that UDE significantly improved the performance of DE in comparison with other methods that only use one criterion for intelligent selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For changing opinion, represented by an assignment of probabilities to propositions, the criterion proposed is motivated by the requirement that the assignment should have, and maintain, the possibility of matching in some appropriate sense statistical proportions in a population. This 'tracking' criterion implies limitations on policies for updating in response to a wide range of types of new input. Satisfying the criterion is shown equivalent to the principle that the prior must be a convex combination of the possible posteriors. Furthermore, this is equivalent to the requirement that prior expected values must fall inside the range spanned by possible posterior expected values. The tracking criterion is liberal; it allows for, but does not require, a policy such as Bayesian conditionalization, and can be offered as a general constraint on policies for managing opinion over time. Examples are given of non-Bayesian policies, both ones that satisfy and ones that violate the criterion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY In this study, we propose an application methodology of the Nyquist criterion for biochemical reaction systems with the biological negative feedback loops. The molecular robot or a real biochemical reaction system such as an intracellular signal transduction system utilizes negative feedback regulation to enhance the stability and robustness. However, since such a system tends to be a high dimensional, nonlinear, and complex system with multiple feedback loops, it is troublesome to quantitatively evaluate the stability margin of the whole system in terms of a particular feedback loop. We show that by modifying the system gain the Nyquist criterion can be appreciable for this problem, and as a result the stability margin can be calculated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]