Tips for Timely (and Positive) Reviews: The International Journal of Aging & Human Development

For more than 40 years, under the leadership of four editors and two publishers, The International Journal of Aging and Human Development (IJAHD) has featured multidisciplinary scholarship related to aging processes and older adults. With the publication of eight issues a year, with over 800 pages of scientific content, the IJAHD places emphasis upon psychological and social studies of aging and the aged. However, the Journal also publishes research that integrates observations from other disciplines that illuminate the "human" side of gerontology. A more recent focus includes midlife development, as well. About half (47%) of the publications in the IJAHD are from international colleagues. This presentation will discuss tips for both international and US-based scholars for ensuring timely reviews and positive decisions for manuscript submissions, including such areas as key words, suggesting unbiased reviewers, formatting, writing mechanics, clearly-articulated methods, and a sound theoretical basis.

THE REVISED CANADIAN TEST FOR THE EXCLUSION OF UNCONSTITUTIONALLY OBTAINED EVIDENCE

Although South African courts have relied on Canadian law to interpret section 35(5) of the Constitution, they have also been hesitant to do so, since the previous Canadian approach clearly had its shortcomings. The Canadian Supreme Court's decision in R v Grant has now addressed these problems by putting forward an approach that is less rigid and more simplistic to apply. The new test reflects properly the main motivation behind a constitutionally entrenched exclusionary rule and thereby provides a sound theoretical basis for the application of such a rule. Because their new approach has brought the South African and Canadian tests closer together, more stands to be gained from future Canadian decisions in this regard. Perhaps the most important aspect of the Grant decision is that it shows why it is unnecessary to treat the two legs of the South African rule as separate tests. There should in principle be only one test: namely whether the admission of unconstitutionally obtained evidence would be detrimental to the administration of justice.

On the Predictive Power of Chemical Concepts

Many chemical concepts can be well defined in the context of quantum chemical theories. Examples are the electronegativity scale of Mulliken and Jaffé and the hard and soft acids and bases concept of Pearson. The sound theoretical basis allows for a systematic definition of such concepts. However, while they are often used to describe and compare chemical processes in terms of reactivity, their predictive power remains unclear. In this work, we elaborate on the predictive potential of chemical reactivity concepts, which can be crucial for autonomous reaction exploration protocols to guide them by first-principles heuristics that exploit these concepts.

Epilogue: Philosophical Debate and Normative Theory

This short epilogue explores a tension in Cicero between a conception of philosophy as in its very nature a debate, and the idea that the point of doing philosophy is to find and advocate a sound theoretical basis for living our lives. It focuses first on a passage in On laws, where the need for an ethical principle that philosophers might agree sufficient, if accepted, to ‘put res publicae on a firm footing’, is taken to require the silencing of debate and sceptical doubt. On the commonwealth, however, had staged a full-throttled debate on justice. The contrast suggests not a disjunction between philosophy and politics, but between purely theoretical discussion of fundamental ethical and political questions and the requirements of viable guidance on policy and practice in these spheres.

Method for Inferring the Design Value of the Resistance Based on Probabilistic Model

Methods for inferring the design value of the resistance based on test have long been studied extensively, but the existing methods have several limitations on unified guarantee rate ensurance and reliability control. Firstly, the rationales and deficiencies of the present methods in ISO 2394 : 2015 and EN 1990 : 2002 were generalized. Secondly, in view of the disadvantages, a new inferring method combining the probability model of resistance with statistical approach was put forward. The proposed method established a relationship among design resistance, probability characteristics of known factors, and statistical results of unknown factors and possessed a rigorous and sound theoretical basis on both conditions that the coefficient of variation of model uncertainty was unknown and full known. Lastly, a contrast work was carried out between the Eurocode method and the proposed method; the results showed that the latter method had a higher inferring value, which means a better inferring result.

The Comparative Method in Synchronic Linguistics: The Case of Word Order

In this article I discuss the comparative method in formal linguistics when applied to word order phenomena in Italian, English and German. I argue that the comparison has to rest on sound theoretical basis in order to reach interesting conclusions. These languages might prima facie all look Subject- Verb-Object – SVO – languages, with some puzzling issues arising in German. At a closer look however, I will show that English and Italian pattern together as their basic word order – i.e., SVO – goes, as opposed to German, an SOV language. Conversely, English and German pattern together with respect to a property typical, even if not exclusively so, of Germanic languages, i.e. Verb Second.

Aggregation of Epistemic Uncertainty in Forms of Possibility and Certainty Factors

Uncertainty aggregation is an important reasoning for making decisions in the real world, which is full of uncertainty. The paper proposes an information source model for aggregating epistemic uncertainties about truth and discusses uncertainty aggregation in the form of possibility distributions. A new combination rule of possibilities for truth is proposed. Then, this paper proceeds to discussion about a traditional but seemingly forgotten representation of uncertainty (i.e., certainty factors (CFs)) and proposes a new interpretation based on possibility theory. CFs have been criticized because of their lack of sound mathematical interpretation from the viewpoint of probability. Thus, this paper first establishes a theory for a sound interpretation using possibility theory. Then it examines aggregation of CFs based on the interpretation and some combination rules of possibility distributions. The paper proposes several combination rules for CFs having sound theoretical basis, one of which is exactly the same as the oft-criticized combination.

TIPS FOR TIMELY (AND POSITIVE) REVIEWS: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGING & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

For more than 40 years, under the leadership of four editors and two publishers, The International Journal of Aging and Human Development (IJAHD) has featured multidisciplinary scholarship related to aging processes and older adults. With the publication of eight issues a year, with over 800 pages of scientific content, the IJAHD places emphasis upon psychological and social studies of aging and the aged. However, the Journal also publishes research that integrates observations from other disciplines that illuminate the "human" side of gerontology. A more recent focus includes midlife development, as well. About half (47%) of the publications in the IJAHD are from international colleagues. This presentation will discuss tips for both international and US-based scholars for ensuring timely reviews and positive decisions for manuscript submissions, including such areas as key words, suggesting unbiased reviewers, formatting, writing mechanics, clearly-articulated methods, and a sound theoretical basis.

Thermal efficiency extends distance and variety for honeybee foragers: analysis of the energetics of nectar collection and desiccation by Apis mellifera

The desiccation of nectar to produce honey by honeybees ( Apis mellifera L.) is an energy-intensive process, as it involves a quasi-isothermal change in the concentration of sugars from typically 20 to 80% by vaporization (honey ripening). This analysis creates mathematical models for: the collected nectar to honey ratio; energy recovery ratio; honey energy margin; and the break-even distance, which includes the factors of nectar concentration and the distance to the nectar from the nest; energetics of desiccation and a new factor, thermal energy efficiency (TEE) of nectar desiccation. These models show a significant proportion of delivered energy in the nectar must be used in desiccation, and that there is a strong connection between TEE and nest lumped thermal conductance with colony behaviour. They show the connection between TEE and honeybee colony success, or failure, in the rate of return, in terms of distance or quality of foraging. Consequently, TEE is a key parameter in honeybee populations and foraging modelling. For bee keeping, it quantifies the summer benefits of a key hive design parameter, hive thermal conductance and gives a sound theoretical basis for improving honey yields, as seen in expanded polystyrene hives.

Funkenschlag zwischen Wissen und Macht

This study conducts a systematic analysis of the processes involved in, effects of and challenges posed byacademic consulting in German foreign policy, based on 24 guided interviews with experts. For this purpose, what these leading figures from politics, ministerial bureaucracy and consulting say allows the author to reconstruct their involvement in the aforementioned consulting. In the course of this analysis, the study does not focus solely on the situation in the consulting industry that it highlights, but recommends consultants a series of courses of action, which endows the study with great practical relevance. This complements the study's aim by providing a consulting model devised by the author which is in line with the ideas of American pragmatism, to which the author continuously links the study's findings with the aid of the methodology of grounded theory. In this way, he is able to productively combine a sound theoretical basis with practical conclusions, which makes this book incredibly relevant for all those working in consulting.