scholarly journals Constructing unnecessary barriers to constructive scientific debate: A response to Buss and von Hippel (2018).

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-10
Author(s):  
Cordelia Fine
Keyword(s):  
2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-179
Author(s):  
Enrico Gonnella ◽  
Lucia Talarico

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the scientific debate that took place in 1973 in the journal Rivista dei Dottori Commercialisti (Italian Journal of Chartered Accountants) between Pietro Onida and Raymond J. Chambers concerning the nature of financial statement information. Our research revealed that Onida was the advocate of a teleological theory of the financial statement, whereas Chambers supported the perfect neutrality of accounting information. Going back to theoretical precedents, the thoughts of the two scholars have different ontological and epistemological assumptions. If, ontologically, Chambers conceives reality as unique and objective, being inspired by the neopositivism of the “received view,” Onida admits the existence of multiple realities by adopting an interpretivist perspective. Epistemologically, the Australian scholar approaches accounting as a pure science by leveraging its deductive moment rather than empirical recognition, whereas the Italian author conceives accounting as an “application science” and adopts a method where the inductive approach prevails.JEL Classifications: M40; M41; M49.


Author(s):  
Martina Montalti ◽  
Marta Calbi ◽  
Valentina Cuccio ◽  
Maria Alessandra Umiltà ◽  
Vittorio Gallese

AbstractIn the last decades, the embodied approach to cognition and language gained momentum in the scientific debate, leading to evidence in different aspects of language processing. However, while the bodily grounding of concrete concepts seems to be relatively not controversial, abstract aspects, like the negation logical operator, are still today one of the main challenges for this research paradigm. In this framework, the present study has a twofold aim: (1) to assess whether mechanisms for motor inhibition underpin the processing of sentential negation, thus, providing evidence for a bodily grounding of this logic operator, (2) to determine whether the Stop-Signal Task, which has been used to investigate motor inhibition, could represent a good tool to explore this issue. Twenty-three participants were recruited in this experiment. Ten hand-action-related sentences, both in affirmative and negative polarity, were presented on a screen. Participants were instructed to respond as quickly and accurately as possible to the direction of the Go Stimulus (an arrow) and to withhold their response when they heard a sound following the arrow. This paradigm allows estimating the Stop Signal Reaction Time (SSRT), a covert reaction time underlying the inhibitory process. Our results show that the SSRT measured after reading negative sentences are longer than after reading affirmative ones, highlighting the recruitment of inhibitory mechanisms while processing negative sentences. Furthermore, our methodological considerations suggest that the Stop-Signal Task is a good paradigm to assess motor inhibition’s role in the processing of sentence negation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Nuthmann ◽  
Immo Schütz ◽  
Wolfgang Einhäuser

AbstractWhether fixation selection in real-world scenes is guided by image salience or by objects has been a matter of scientific debate. To contrast the two views, we compared effects of location-based and object-based visual salience in young and older (65 + years) adults. Generalized linear mixed models were used to assess the unique contribution of salience to fixation selection in scenes. When analysing fixation guidance without recurrence to objects, visual salience predicted whether image patches were fixated or not. This effect was reduced for the elderly, replicating an earlier finding. When using objects as the unit of analysis, we found that highly salient objects were more frequently selected for fixation than objects with low visual salience. Interestingly, this effect was larger for older adults. We also analysed where viewers fixate within objects, once they are selected. A preferred viewing location close to the centre of the object was found for both age groups. The results support the view that objects are important units of saccadic selection. Reconciling the salience view with the object view, we suggest that visual salience contributes to prioritization among objects. Moreover, the data point towards an increasing relevance of object-bound information with increasing age.


2020 ◽  
pp. 000486742097828
Author(s):  
Jeffrey C L Looi ◽  
Stephen Allison ◽  
Tarun Bastiampillai
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Stefano De Falco

AbstractFor several years, the themes concerning agglomeration economies have been approached from different perspectives in the scientific debate, as capable of triggering various positive features. The present research starts precisely where many others arrive, that is, given the value of these externalities, analyzing the spatial distribution of the geographical concentration of economic activities and the related influencing factors. To this end, in this contribution an explanatory investigation is carried out into the spatial dynamics deriving from main productive sectors’ concentration in some Italian regions. The proposed methodological approach is based respectively on the LISA spatial autocorrelation models and on the analysis of non-neighboring clusters to understand if the geographical area of reference and / or the particular production sector are influencing variables. The empirical investigation confirms the presence of a parametric interaction between factors related in some cases on the geographical context and in others on the productive sector.


Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Donato Traversa ◽  
Simone Morelli ◽  
Angela Di Cesare ◽  
Anastasia Diakou

In the past decade cardiopulmonary nematodes affecting felids have become a core research topic in small animal parasitology. In the late 2000s, an increase in studies was followed by unexpected findings in the early 2010s, which have stimulated research teams to start investigating these intriguing parasites. Prolific scientific debate and exchanges have then fostered field and laboratory studies and epi-zootiological surveys. New data have improved basic and applied knowledge, solved dilemmas and posed new questions. This article discusses the past and present background to felid cardiopulmonary nematodes after the last few years of intense scientific research. New data which have demonstrated the key role of Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Troglostrongylus brevior in causing respiratory infections in domestic cats, and on the nil to negligible current importance of other species, i.e., Troglostrongylus subcrenatus, Oslerus rostratus and Angiostrongylus chabaudi, are presented. Biological information and hypothesized alternative routes of infection are analysed and discussed. Novel identification and taxonomical data and issues are reported and commented upon. On the whole, recent biological, ecological and epi-zootiological information on felid meta-strongyloids is critically analysed, with the aim to answer outstanding questions, stimulate future studies, and underline new research perspectives.


Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Nikolai Berdnikov ◽  
Victor Nevstruev ◽  
Pavel Kepezhinskas ◽  
Ivan Astapov ◽  
Natalia Konovalova

While gold partitioning into hydrothermal fluids responsible for the formation of porphyry and epithermal deposits is currently well understood, its behavior during the differentiation of metal-rich silicate melts is still subject of an intense scientific debate. Typically, gold is scavenged into sulfides during crustal fractionation of sulfur-rich mafic to intermediate magmas and development of native forms and alloys of this important precious metal in igneous rocks and associated ores are still poorly documented. We present new data on gold (Cu-Ag-Au, Ni-Cu-Zn-Ag-Au, Ti-Cu-Ag-Au, Ag-Au) alloys from iron oxide deposits in the Lesser Khingan Range (LKR) of the Russian Far East. Gold alloy particles are from 10 to 100 µm in size and irregular to spherical in shape. Gold spherules were formed through silicate-metal liquid immiscibility and then injected into fissures surrounding the ascending melt column, or emplaced through a volcanic eruption. Presence of globular (occasionally with meniscus-like textures) Cu-O micro-inclusions in Cu-Ag-Au spherules confirms their crystallization from a metal melt via extremely fast cooling. Irregularly shaped Cu-Ag-Au particles were formed through hydrothermal alteration of gold-bearing volcanic rocks and ores. Association of primarily liquid Cu-Ag-Au spherules with iron-oxide mineralization in the LKR indicates possible involvement of silicate-metallic immiscibility and explosive volcanism in the formation of the Andean-type iron oxide gold-copper (IOCG) and related copper-gold porphyry deposits in the deeper parts of sub-volcanic epithermal systems. Thus, formation of gold alloys in deep roots of arc volcanoes may serve as a precursor and an exploration guide for high-grade epithermal gold mineralization at shallow structural levels of hydrothermal-volcanic environments in subduction zones.


Author(s):  
Neil Pearce ◽  
Jan Paul Vandenbroucke

AbstractThere has perhaps been no issue as contentious in Covid-19 as face masks. The most contentious scientific debate has been between those who argue that “there is no scientific evidence”, by which they mean that there are no randomized controlled trials (RCTs), versus those who argue that when the evidence is considered together, “the science supports that face coverings save lives”. It used to be a ‘given’ that to decide whether a particular factor, either exogenous or endogenous, can cause a particular disease, and in what order of magnitude, one should consider all reasonably cogent evidence. This approach is being increasingly challenged, both scientifically and politically. The scientific challenge has come from methodologic views that focus on the randomized controlled trial (RCT) as the scientific gold standard, with priority being given, either to evidence from RCTs or to observational studies which closely mimic RCTs. The political challenge has come from various interests calling for the exclusion of epidemiological evidence from consideration by regulatory and advisory committees.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-46
Author(s):  
Michael Bender ◽  
Marcus Müller

AbstractThis article contains a comparative study of heuristic textual practices in various scientific disciplines. By this we mean formulation practices with which new knowledge is generated in institutionally influenced routines and connected to existing knowledge, e. g. ‚highlighting the relevance of a research topic‘, ‚defining a concept‘ or ‚supporting a statement argumentatively‘.The aim is to find out to what extent such textual practices occur in different scientific disciplines, how they are distributed and combined. Furthermore, we study the effects domain-specific contexts have on heuristic textual practices. The data basis of our study is a corpus of 65 dissertations from the 13 different faculties of the TU Darmstadt. In the pilot study we report here, we examined the introductory chapters of the dissertations. Methodologically, it is an annotation study: Based on the current state of research on the subject, we have derived a basic annotation scheme, which we have developed and refined in a collaborative process of guideline creation. Our study affiliates on socio-pragmatic research on text production and formulation routines in the sciences. It is theoretically informed by the philosophy of science research on heuristics, methodically we make a contribution to the scientific debate on collaborative annotation procedures.


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