The Domestication of the Wolf: A Decisive Advantage?

2020 ◽  
pp. 149-156
Keyword(s):  
Decisive Advantage

The Decisive Advantage of Decisiveness

CFA Magazine ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-17
Author(s):  
Jason Voss
Keyword(s):  
Decisive Advantage

scholarly journals The prevalence of extra-lethal violence across cultures in warfare

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Aaron Z. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Costly Signaling ◽  
Human Relations ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Direct Benefit ◽  
Lethal Violence ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Decisive Advantage

Extra-Lethal Violence, a form of physical aggression that goes beyond the necessity to kill someone, presents a conundrum: it is inefficient and dangerous to produce, especially during warfare. Extra-Lethal Violence, particularly when it manifests in warfare, does not contribute to the immediate survival of individuals; the time, effort, and lack of awareness of surroundings or other attack suggests that Extra-Lethal Violence could be maladaptive at the individual level or in the short term. Yet this individually risky behavior that seems to have no direct benefit to the aggressor is both common and persistent across time and space. We utilized the electronic Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) to conduct a cross cultural analysis of the prevalence and potential predictors of Extra-Lethal Violence. Our research indicates that Extra-Lethal Violence is present across all populated regions of the world, for the entire timespan of the ethnographic record up to the ethnographic present, across subsistence, marriage, and social complexity levels. Our research suggests that Costly Signaling Theory (CST) is currently the best explanation for this behavior. Extra-Lethal Violence can be characterized as a difficult to fake, clear indicator of martial skill and physical fitness that has a high broadcast efficiency, both within and between groups. Rather than allowing behaviors such as Extra-Lethal Violence to be labeled as 'abhorrent' or 'disgusting,' we must view Extra-Lethal Violence in the same light as the cavalry, the ironclads, or nuclear weapons: societies seeking a decisive advantage over their enemies, utilizing available resources, be they material or behavioral.

scholarly journals What is the Evidence for Dark Matter?

2004 ◽  
Vol 220 ◽  
pp. 27-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Sellwood
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Alternative Hypothesis ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Newtonian Mechanics ◽  
Dark Matter Halos ◽  
Gravitational Fields ◽  
Decisive Advantage ◽  
Satisfactory Theory

Newtonian mechanics indicates that galaxies and galaxy clusters are much more massive than we would have guessed from their luminosities, with the discrepancy being generally attributed to dark matter halos. An alternative hypothesis is that accelerations in very weak gravitational fields are larger than predicted by Newton's laws, and there is no need for dark matter. Even though we do not currently have a satisfactory theory associated with this rival hypothesis, we can ask whether any observational tests could rule it out or prefer it over the dark matter hypothesis. Current evidence suggests that neither hypothesis enjoys a decisive advantage over the other. If dark matter turns out to be the correct interpretation however, then theories of galaxy formation face some quite severe fine-tuning problems.

Residual Life Estimation Under Low-Cycle and Thermo-Mechanical Fatigue Conditions: Proposal of a Dedicated Numerical Code

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristiana Delprete ◽  
Carlo Rosso
Keyword(s):  
Residual Life ◽  
Numerical Code ◽  
Element Analysis ◽  
Damage Models ◽  
Strain Data ◽  
Residual Fatigue ◽  
Constitutive Parameters ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Decisive Advantage ◽  
Experimental Effort

A brief description of the main guidelines of the most common literature damage models is reported; in particular two uniaxial and five multi-axial damage models have been individuated from literature, which can be all used determining five parameters only, with a decisive advantage in terms of experimental effort. A Matlab®-based fatigue code has been purposely developed with the aim to receive in input the stress-strain data obtained by finite element analysis or experimentation and the constitutive parameters of the damage models, providing as output directly the residual fatigue life of the component under investigation. The paper presents the pivotal features of a numerical code, named FAST-Life, purposely developed to make the usage of these literature damage models easy and fast, and summarizes the predictions achieved with respect the estimation of the residual life of a commercial exhaust manifold made by ductile Si-Mo-Cr cast iron.

The First Greek Triremes

1947 ◽  
Vol 41 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 18-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Davison
Keyword(s):  
Explicit Statement ◽  
Greek History ◽  
New Type ◽  
Decisive Advantage

The introduction of the trireme into Greek navies was an event of great political importance, which may fairly be compared to the introduction of the ‘all-big-gun’ battleship into the British Navy in 1907. Heavier, more powerful, and capable of carrying more ⋯πιβ⋯ται, but making greater demands on timber supplies and manpower, the trireme not only rendered obsolete all existing Greek line-of-battle ships but gave a decisive advantage to those States whose resources in materials and men enabled them to create and maintain adequate fleets of the new type of warship.1 It is a mark of the insufficiency of our sources for early Greek history that we nowhere find an explicit statement of the date at which this revolution occurred, or of the identity of the person responsible.

The Inevitability of Assessing Reasons in Debates about Conscientious Objection in Medicine

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERT F. CARD
Keyword(s):  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Conscientious Objection ◽  
The Other ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Decisive Advantage

Abstract:This article first critically reviews the major philosophical positions in the literature on conscientious objection and finds that they possess significant flaws. A substantial number of these problems stem from the fact that these views fail to assess the reasons offered by medical professionals in support of their objections. This observation is used to motivate the reasonability view, one part of which states: A practitioner who lodges a conscientious refusal must publicly state his or her objection as well as the reasoned basis for the objection and have these subjected to critical evaluation before a conscientious exemption can be granted (the reason-giving requirement). It is then argued that when defenders of the other philosophical views attempt to avoid granting an accommodation to spurious objections based on discrimination, empirically mistaken beliefs, or other unjustified biases, they are implicitly committed to the reason-giving requirement. This article concludes that based on these considerations, a reason-giving position such as the reasonability view possesses a decisive advantage in this debate.

scholarly journals Memory Constraints on Cross Situational Word Learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Soh ◽  
Charles Yang
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Local Model ◽  
Complex Task ◽  
Empirical Coverage ◽  
Memory Buffer ◽  
Memory Constraints ◽  
Decisive Advantage

A simple memory component is amended to local (“Pursuit”; Stevens, Gleitman, Trueswell, and Yang (2017)) and globa l(e.g., Yu and Smith (2007); Fazly, Alishahi, and Stevenson (2010)) models of cross-situational word learning. Only a finite (and small) number of words can be concurrently learned; successfully learned words are removed from the memory buffer and stored in the lexicon. The memory buffer improves the empirical coverage for both local and global learn-ing models. However, the complex task of homophone learning (Yurovsky & Yu, 2008) proves a more decisive advantage for the local model (dubbed Memory Bound Pursuit; MBP). Implications and limitations of these results are discussed.

scholarly journals Introducing Biosemiotic Ethics

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Tønnessen ◽  
Jonathan Beever ◽  
Yogi Hale Hendlin
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theory ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Stable Coexistence ◽  
Sign Systems ◽  
Decisive Advantage ◽  
Ethical Responsibilities

In this introduction to the special issue on Biosemiotic Ethics, we introduce major concepts and themes corresponding to the topic. With reference to Ivar Puura’s notion of “semiocide”, we ask: what are the ethical responsibilities that attention to semiotics carries? We argue that if life is fundamentally semiotic, then biosemiotics and moral theory should be explored in conjunction, rather than separately. Biosemiotic ethics becomes relevant whenever one complex of signs impinges on another; particularly whenever human sign usage impinges on the wellbeing or sustainable functioning of human or non-human semiotic agents. Stable coexistence of sign systems is far from inevitable, but it is a meaningful goal that can be pursued. In complex ecosystems, for example, certain types of coexistent relationships have evolved to share space despite competitive needs and expressions. We describe the ways in which authors in this volume articulate various justifications for the view that what is morally relevant is semiosis. Given these perspectives in a growing approach to understanding moral relationships, biosemiotic ethics has the decisive advantage of drawing on contemporary biosemiotics’ empirically-informed biological acuity within a rich semiotic framework.

The US–China Naval Balance in the Asia-Pacific: An Overview

2017 ◽  
Vol 232 ◽  
pp. 904-931
Author(s):  
Lyle Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
Military Campaigns ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Strategic Balance ◽  
Military Balance ◽  
Roll Back ◽  
Decisive Advantage ◽  
Strategic Studies

AbstractA truism in strategic studies holds that warfare is highly complex and unpredictable. What appears to be a stable and predictable military balance can be suddenly overthrown by innovative doctrines or cunning strategies. This paper attempts to fill a perceived gap in strategic studies analysis with respect to US–China naval conflict scenarios. The author is concerned that most Western analyses on the subject tend to be simplistic and unduly optimistic. The approach in this paper follows a “Chinese style” in that it examines the Asia-Pacific strategic balance as a series of interacting military campaigns. The results of the analysis yield that the US retains a strong advantage in certain warfare domains, to be sure. Yet, the assumption that the US military has a decisive advantage in the relevant scenarios becomes dubious in light of the potentially devastating blow against US and allied bases that could be made by PLA conventional missile forces. Moreover, a Chinese advantage in the use of offensive mine warfare, when combined with China's ability to prevent US and allied aerial anti-submarine forces from flying, could combine to roll back, or at least significantly limit, Washington's heretofore decisive undersea advantage.

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