Taxonomy of questions in TaiwanSouthern Min

Contra the conventional four-way distinction of syntactically-formed questions in Taiwan Southern Min (TSM): (i) yes-no, (ii) A-not-A, (iii) disjunctive, and (iv) wh-questions (e.g., Lau 2010a), we justify a more revealing dichotomy of confirmation-seeking (CS) polar questions and information-seeking (IS) constituent questions, based on a suite of semantic and syntactic tests proposed in extensive literature for Mandarin and adapted further for TSM, where A-not-A belongs to the disjunctive type, which is in turn a subcategory of IS constituent questions. Controversies over the proper status of some sentence-final question particles and kám questions are also deliberated. Dismissing some alleged polar question particles as polar or A-not-A tags, we recognize nih and honnh as interrogative polar particles. We also show that kám has two underlying forms. One is a portmanteau word of the modal kánn and the negator m̄ and thus forms a whether-or-not disjunctive question (Huang 1988a, 1991). However, when kám is short for kámkong ‘don’t tell me’, similar to the Mandarin nandao, it appears in a polar question.

Quasi-Empirical Fictionalism as an Approach to the Philosophy of Geometry

<p>The central claim of this thesis is that geometry is a quasi-empirical science based on the idealisation of the elementary physical operations that we actually perform with pen and paper. This conclusion is arrived at after searching for a theory of geometry that will not only explain the epistemology and ontology of mathematics, but will also fit with the best practices of working mathematicians and, more importantly, explain why geometry gives us knowledge that is relevant to physical reality. We will be considering all the major schools of thought in the philosophy of mathematics. Firstly, from the epistemological side, we will consider apriorism, empiricism and quasi-empiricism, finding a Kitcherian style of quasi-empiricism to be the most attractive. Then, from the ontological side, we will consider Platonism, formalism, Kitcherian ontology, and fictionalism. Our conclusion will be to take a Kitcherian epistemology and a fictionalist ontology. This will give us a kind of quasiempirical-fictionalist approach to mathematics. The key feature of Kitcher's thesis is that he placed importance on the operations rather than the entities of arithmetic. However, because he only dealt with arithmetic, we are left with the task of developing a theory of geometry along Kitcherian lines. I will present a theory of geometry that parallels Kitcher's theory of arithmetic using the drawing of straight lines as the most primitive operation. We will thereby develop a theory of geometry that is founded upon our operations of drawing lines. Because this theory is based on our line drawing operations carried out in physical reality, and is the idealisation of those activities, we will have a connection between mathematical geometry and physical reality that explains the predictive power of geometry in the real world. Where Kitcher uses the Peano postulates to develop his theory of arithmetic, I will use the postulates of projective geometry to form the foundations of operational geometry. The reason for choosing projective geometry is due to the fact that by taking it as the foundation, we may apply Klein's Erlanger programme and build a theory of geometry that encompasses Euclidean, hyperbolic and elliptic geometries. The final question we will consider is the problem of conventionalism. We will discover that investigations into conventionalism give us further reason to accept the Kitcherian quasi-empirical-fictionalist approach as the most appealing philosophy of geometry available.</p>

Quasi-Empirical Fictionalism as an Approach to the Philosophy of Geometry

<p>The central claim of this thesis is that geometry is a quasi-empirical science based on the idealisation of the elementary physical operations that we actually perform with pen and paper. This conclusion is arrived at after searching for a theory of geometry that will not only explain the epistemology and ontology of mathematics, but will also fit with the best practices of working mathematicians and, more importantly, explain why geometry gives us knowledge that is relevant to physical reality. We will be considering all the major schools of thought in the philosophy of mathematics. Firstly, from the epistemological side, we will consider apriorism, empiricism and quasi-empiricism, finding a Kitcherian style of quasi-empiricism to be the most attractive. Then, from the ontological side, we will consider Platonism, formalism, Kitcherian ontology, and fictionalism. Our conclusion will be to take a Kitcherian epistemology and a fictionalist ontology. This will give us a kind of quasiempirical-fictionalist approach to mathematics. The key feature of Kitcher's thesis is that he placed importance on the operations rather than the entities of arithmetic. However, because he only dealt with arithmetic, we are left with the task of developing a theory of geometry along Kitcherian lines. I will present a theory of geometry that parallels Kitcher's theory of arithmetic using the drawing of straight lines as the most primitive operation. We will thereby develop a theory of geometry that is founded upon our operations of drawing lines. Because this theory is based on our line drawing operations carried out in physical reality, and is the idealisation of those activities, we will have a connection between mathematical geometry and physical reality that explains the predictive power of geometry in the real world. Where Kitcher uses the Peano postulates to develop his theory of arithmetic, I will use the postulates of projective geometry to form the foundations of operational geometry. The reason for choosing projective geometry is due to the fact that by taking it as the foundation, we may apply Klein's Erlanger programme and build a theory of geometry that encompasses Euclidean, hyperbolic and elliptic geometries. The final question we will consider is the problem of conventionalism. We will discover that investigations into conventionalism give us further reason to accept the Kitcherian quasi-empirical-fictionalist approach as the most appealing philosophy of geometry available.</p>

Paper 3: Selecting rapid review methods for complex questions related to health policy and system issues

Approaches for rapid reviews that focus on streamlining systematic review methods are not always suitable for exploring complex policy questions, as developing and testing theories to explain these complexities requires configuring diverse qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies. Our objective was therefore to provide a guide to selecting approaches for rapidly (i.e., within days to months) addressing complex questions related to health policy and system issues.We provide a two-stage, transdisciplinary collaborative process to select a rapid review approach to address complex policy questions, which consists of scoping the breadth and depth of the literature and then selecting an optimal approach to synthesis. The first stage (scoping the literature) begins with a discussion with the stakeholders requesting evidence to identify and refine the question for the review, which is then used to conduct preliminary searches and conceptually map the documents identified. In the second stage (selection of an optimal approach), further stakeholder consultation is required to refine and tailor the question and approach to identifying relevant documents to include. The approach to synthesizing the included documents is then guided by the final question, the breadth and depth of the literature, and the time available and can include a static or evolving conceptual framework to code and analyze a range of evidence. For areas already covered extensively by existing systematic reviews, the focus can be on summarizing and integrating the review findings, resynthesizing the primary studies, or updating the search and reanalyzing one or more of the systematic reviews.The choice of approaches for conducting rapid reviews is intertwined with decisions about how to manage projects, the amount of work to be done, and the knowledge already available, and our guide offers support to help make these strategic decisions.

Ancient Egypt and the Near East in World History

Ancient Egypt and the Near East are central to many histories that aim to look at the world in its entirety, mostly because they are the earliest cultures that are well-documented both with textual and material evidence. This article surveys how these studies use that evidence in the various ways the discipline of world or global history is practiced. Those include chronological narratives of human activities from prehistory up to today, investigations that consider the worlds in which the peoples of ancient Egypt and the Near East lived, and comparative studies that seek to explain how certain features of human society and culture came about. The final question it addresses is whether the people of ancient Egypt and the Near East had any interest in a global history themselves.

Between Form and Formalization: Angus Fletcher’s The Topological Imagination

This is a review essay of Angus Fletcher’s posthumous The Topological Imagination: Spheres, Edges, and Islands (2016). Fletcher’s guiding intuition is that topology—a vast, foundational, formally rigorous pillar of modern mathematics—can offer fresh, useful ways of seeing and thinking about our world. These novel modes of perception and cognition are, Fletcher contends, naturally anticipated by literary creation and theories of it—hence the book’s title, The Topological Imagination. Half of my essay is consequently devoted to fleshing out the larger contexts of Fletcher’s investigation: topology’s core concepts, Romantic theories of the imagination, and earlier encounters between topology and literary and philosophical thought, particularly that of Blanchot and Deleuze. The other half of this essay asks whether Fletcher’s accounts of topology and the (Romantic) imagination are accurate and compatible, and what true compatibility might look like. To answer this final question, I turn to recent debates about form and formalization and A. R. Ammons’s book-length poem, Sphere: The Form of a Motion (1974).

An Econometric Investigation of Market Volatility and Efficiency: A Study of Small Cap’s Stock Indices

By utilization the context of econometric models, this chapter investigates three significant research parameters and tries to find out the positive outcome for further studies. The first question, is the volatility of Small Cap foreseeable?. The second question, does the volatility of Small Cap exhibition the same pragmatic regularities stated in the literature about the behavior of further stock prices?, The third and Final question, can Small Cap clear the test of market efficiency?. The results of these research questions will provide the answers of following objectives: First, economic representatives investing in Small Cap Stock markets. Second, the business professors/professionals/educationist is more concerned in Small Cap for their teaching and research. Third, the policy makers who are observing the stock market volatilities because of its significances and impulsive behavior to invest for more incentives among other consequences.

‘Who were you crying for?’: Empathy, fantasy and the framing of the perpetrator in Nina Bunjevac’s Bezimena

Serbian-Canadian cartoonist Nina Bunjevac’s third book, Bezimena (2019), embeds child sexual abuse and murder in an improbable geography where myth and fairy tale work together to create an otherworldly atmosphere, by turns mesmerizing and horrifying. Bunjevac’s previous work (Heartless [2012] and Fatherland [2014]) testifies to her continued commitment to exploring issues that are relevant to the feminist project, such as domestic violence, abortion, sexual assault and discrimination against female immigrant workers. In this article, we are particularly interested in exploring the manner in which Bezimena frames the figure of the perpetrator, as the context of the final question of the book – ‘who were you crying for?’ – repositions the entire ethical premise of the narrative by suggesting that responsibility for perpetration may lie both within and without the body and consciousness of the perpetrator himself. In conversation with scholars who attempt to expand the narrow category of ‘perpetrator’, such as Michael Rothberg or Scott Strauss, we explore how graphic narratives can contribute to a more nuanced understanding of perpetration, particularly in the case of sexual assault, and analyse Bezimena’s innovative approach to the representation of perpetration, as the book’s depiction of perpetrators and accomplices is mixed with elements of fantasy and mythology.

THE ANALYSIS OF THE TEACHER-MADE TEST FOR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL AT STATE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL 1 KUTACANE, ACEH TENGGARA

This study was designed to find out whether or not the English test made by the teacher called a teacher-made test was valid at state senior high school (SMAN) 1 Kutacane. The research design of this study was a qualitative descriptive research. The description is based on the test made by the teacher or the final test question sheet applied by the teacher for the second year students of senior high school 1 Kutacane. To make it easy to analyse, rubric (the points about the syllabus and lesson plan) and interview were applied. In analyzing the data, the technique applied was a documentary analysis technique ( the final question sheet of English test made by the teacher) and was based on the curriculum as a benchmark to find out the validity of test questions made by the English teacher. Based on the results of research, it was foud out that 92% of questions made by teachers was valid and 8% was invalid. These results indicated that the questions made by the English teacher of state senior high school 1 Kutacane were mostly valid and were in accordance with the curriculum. So, the English teacher of senior high school 1 Kutacane had made valid questions and the level of validity made by the teacher demonstrates the ability of teachers to design questions in English.