scholarly journals A Causal Framework for Cross-Cultural Generalizability

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominik Deffner ◽  
Julia M. Rohrer ◽  
Richard McElreath
Keyword(s):  
Real Data ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Causal Modeling ◽  
Behavioral Research ◽  
Modeling Framework ◽  
Threats To Validity ◽  
Formal Framework ◽  
Solid Foundation ◽  
Causal Framework

Behavioral researchers increasingly recognize the need for more diverse samples that capture the breadth of human experience. Current attempts to establish generalizability across populations focus on threats to validity, constraints on generalization and the accumulation of large cross-cultural datasets. But for continued progress, we also require a framework that lets us determine which inferences can be drawn and how to make informative cross-cultural comparisons. We describe a generative causal modeling framework and outline simple graphical criteria to derive analytic strategies and implied generalizations. Using both simulated and real data, we demonstrate how to project and compare estimates across populations. We conclude with a discussion of how a formal framework for generalizability can assist researchers in designing more informative cross-cultural studies and thus provides a more solid foundation for cumulative and generalizable behavioral research.

scholarly journals Achieving Causal Fairness through Generative Adversarial Networks

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Depeng Xu ◽  
Yongkai Wu ◽  
Shuhan Yuan ◽  
Lu Zhang ◽  
Xintao Wu
Keyword(s):  
Causal Model ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Causal Modeling ◽  
Generative Adversarial Networks ◽  
Learning Models ◽  
Modeling Framework ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Causal Graph ◽  
Adversarial Networks ◽  
Real Distribution

Achieving fairness in learning models is currently an imperative task in machine learning. Meanwhile, recent research showed that fairness should be studied from the causal perspective, and proposed a number of fairness criteria based on Pearl's causal modeling framework. In this paper, we investigate the problem of building causal fairness-aware generative adversarial networks (CFGAN), which can learn a close distribution from a given dataset, while also ensuring various causal fairness criteria based on a given causal graph. CFGAN adopts two generators, whose structures are purposefully designed to reflect the structures of causal graph and interventional graph. Therefore, the two generators can respectively simulate the underlying causal model that generates the real data, as well as the causal model after the intervention. On the other hand, two discriminators are used for producing a close-to-real distribution, as well as for achieving various fairness criteria based on causal quantities simulated by generators. Experiments on a real-world dataset show that CFGAN can generate high quality fair data.

Intelligence and Intelligibility

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. E. R. Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Human Intelligence ◽  
Cognitive Capacities ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Intellectual Disciplines

This study investigates the tension between two conflicting intuitions, our twin recognitions: (1) that all humans share the same basic cognitive capacities; and yet (2) their actual manifestations in different individuals and groups differ appreciably. How can we reconcile our sense of what links us all as humans with our recognition of these deep differences? All humans use language and live in social groups, where we have to probe what is distinctive in the experience of humans as opposed to that of other animals and how the former may have evolved from the latter. Moreover, the languages we speak and the societies we form differ profoundly, though the conclusion that we are the prisoners of our own particular experience should and can be resisted. The study calls into question the cross-cultural viability both of many of the analytic tools we commonly use (such as the contrast between the literal and the metaphorical, between myth and rational account, and between nature and culture) and of our usual categories for organizing human experience and classifying intellectual disciplines, mathematics, religion, law, and aesthetics. The result is a robust defence of the possibilities of mutual intelligibility while recognizing both the diversity in the manifestations of human intelligence and the need to revise our assumptions in order to achieve that understanding.

A Model-Invariant Theory of Causation

2021 ◽  
Vol 130 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-96
Author(s):  
J. Dmitri Gallow
Keyword(s):  
Invariant Theory ◽  
Causal Model ◽  
Causal Modeling ◽  
Modeling Framework

This article provides a theory of causation in the causal modeling framework. In contrast to most of its predecessors, this theory is model-invariant in the following sense: if the theory says that C caused (didn’t cause) E in a causal model, M, then it will continue to say that that C caused (didn’t cause) E once one has removed an inessential variable from M. The article suggests that, if this theory is true, then one should understand a cause as something which transmits deviant or noninertial behavior to its effect.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 125-130
Author(s):  
G. E. R. Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Human Universals

The final chapter takes stock of the limited conclusions of this study of the varieties of intelligence and the possibilities for mutual intelligibility. We can, it is argued, appreciate some cross-cultural human universals (language and sociability), yet we must be continually alert to the diversity of human experience and the dangers of imposing Western categories. But the chief lesson to be learned is that when we encounter beliefs and practices that diverge sharply from what we are used to, we should see this as an opportunity, rather than as a threat. The lack of common ground should not be treated as tantamount to denying the possibility of any understanding whatsoever, though such understanding as we can reach will often involve the revision of our own initial assumptions and categories.

The Efficacy of Spiritual Transcendence Scales Among Muslim Students in Malaysia

2019 ◽  
pp. 175-191
Author(s):  
AbdulGafar Olawale Fahm ◽  
Kazeem Kayode Bakare
Keyword(s):  
Human Experience ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Quantitative Approach ◽  
Structural Validity ◽  
Online Data ◽  
Muslim Students ◽  
Spiritual Transcendence ◽  
The Cross

This chapter explores the efficacy of spiritual transcendence scales developed by Ralph L. Piedmont in his ASPIRES Manual. This study employs a quantitative approach to assess the spiritual transcendence scales among students in Malaysia. Over 250 questionnaires were distributed and filled online. Data collected from the questionnaires were analyzed to understand the dimension of spirituality. The findings reveal the scale remains reliable and structurally valid across gender, cultures, and religious contexts. The psychometric qualities of the spiritual transcendence scales were examined among Muslim students in Malaysia. The result demonstrated the structural validity and applicability of the scale within the group. It further provided further support for the cross-cultural applicability of the instrument and for the assumption of spirituality as a universal aspect of human experience.

scholarly journals Spatiotemporal multi-disease transmission dynamic measure for emerging diseases: an application to dengue and zika integrated surveillance in Thailand

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chawarat Rotejanaprasert ◽  
Andrew B. Lawson ◽  
Sopon Iamsirithaworn
Keyword(s):  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Hierarchical Modeling ◽  
Model Fitting ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Emerging Diseases ◽  
Integrated Analysis ◽  
Alternative Measure ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Modeling Framework ◽  
Important Challenge

Abstract Background New emerging diseases are public health concerns in which policy makers have to make decisions in the presence of enormous uncertainty. This is an important challenge in terms of emergency preparation requiring the operation of effective surveillance systems. A key concept to investigate the dynamic of infectious diseases is the basic reproduction number. However it is difficult to be applicable in real situations due to the underlying theoretical assumptions. Methods In this paper we propose a robust and flexible methodology for estimating disease strength varying in space and time using an alternative measure of disease transmission within the hierarchical modeling framework. The proposed measure is also extended to allow for incorporating knowledge from related diseases to enhance performance of surveillance system. Results A simulation was conducted to examine robustness of the proposed methodology and the simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method allows robust estimation of the disease strength across simulation scenarios. A real data example is provided of an integrative application of Dengue and Zika surveillance in Thailand. The real data example also shows that combining both diseases in an integrated analysis essentially decreases variability of model fitting. Conclusions The proposed methodology is robust in several simulated scenarios of spatiotemporal transmission force with computing flexibility and practical benefits. This development has potential for broad applicability as an alternative tool for integrated surveillance of emerging diseases such as Zika.

Spirituality and religiosity as cross-cultural aspects of human experience.

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel S. Dy-Liacco ◽  
Ralph L. Piedmont ◽  
Nichole A. Murray-Swank ◽  
Thomas E. Rodgerson ◽  
Martin F. Sherman
Keyword(s):  
Human Experience ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Aspects

scholarly journals A mechanistic model of linkage analysis in allohexaploids

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huan Li ◽  
Xuli Zhu ◽  
Ke Mao ◽  
Rongling Wu ◽  
Qin Yan
Keyword(s):  
Linkage Analysis ◽  
Mechanistic Model ◽  
Genome Structure ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Biological Research ◽  
Preferential Pairing ◽  
Modeling Framework ◽  
Ploidy Levels ◽  
The Em Algorithm ◽  
And Function

Despite their pivotal role in agriculture and biological research, polyploids, a group of organisms with more than two sets of chromosomes, are very difficult to study. Increasing studies have used high-density genetic linkage maps to investigate the genome structure and function of polyploids and to identify genes underlying polyploid traits. However, although models for linkage analysis have been well established for diploids, with some essential modifications for tetraploids, no models have been available thus far for polyploids at higher ploidy levels. The linkage analysis of polyploids typically requires knowledge about their meiotic mechanisms, depending on the origin of polyplody. Here we describe a computational modeling framework for linkage analysis in allohexaploids by integrating their preferential chromosomal-pairing meiotic feature into a mixture model setting. The framework, implemented with the EM algorithm, allows the simultaneous estimates of preferential pairing factors and the recombination fraction. We investigated statistical properties of the framework through extensive computer simulation and validated its usefulness and utility by analyzing a real data from a full-sib family of allohexaploid persimmon. Our attempt in linkage analysis of allohexaploids by incorporating their meiotic mechanism lays a foundation for allohexaploid genetic mapping and also provides a new horizon to explore allohexaploid parental kinship.

Cultural, Psychological, and Spiritual Dimensions of Palliative Care in Humanitarian Crises

2019 ◽  
pp. 127-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Yuichi Clark ◽  
Denah M. Joseph ◽  
Jessi Humphreys
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Spiritual Care ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
First Aid ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Stress Resilience ◽  
Psychological First Aid ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Grief And Bereavement

This chapter examines the complex psychological, sociocultural, and spiritual dynamics that arise when offering palliative care during humanitarian crises. It asserts the importance of being aware of one’s unconscious beliefs, biases, and assumptions, while advocating for cultural awareness, curiosity, and humility when engaging with those impacted by crises. It encourages readers to consider common dilemmas in cross-cultural caregiving situations. It also reviews factors that can increase psychological morbidities, stress resilience, principles of psychological first aid (PFA), and grief and bereavement, including a description of the types of loss people experience and how they may cope with grief. The chapter ends by discussing spirituality as a vital dimension of human experience, principles of spiritual first aid (SFA), and the essential accompanying that marks spiritual care in disaster situations.

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