Three challenges compromise the utility of mathematical models of groundwater and other environmental systems: (1) a dizzying array of model analysis methods and metrics make it difficult to compare evaluations of model adequacy, sensitivity, and uncertainty; (2) the high computational demands of many popular model analysis methods (requiring 1000's, 10,000 s, or more model runs) make them diff...

This article reviews two standard criticisms of creationism/intelligent design (ID): it is unfalsifiable, and it is refuted by the many imperfect adaptations found in nature. Problems with both criticisms are discussed. A conception of testability is described that avoids the defects in Karl Popper’s falsifiability criterion. Although ID comes in multiple forms, which call for different critici...

Given a generic Cremonian space-time, its three spatial dimensions are shown to exhibit an intriguing, “two-plus-one” partition with respect to standard observers. Such observers are found to form three distinct, disjoint groups based on which one out of the three dimensions stands away from the other two. These two subject-related properties have, to our knowledge, no analogue in any of the ex...

This essay provides a selective critical review of the financial accounting literature focusing primarily on accounting valuation including implied costs of equity capital, empirical accounting proxies, and frictions in accounting theory. In the opinion of this author, accounting research in these areas is often too complacent, suffering from a lack of critical reasoning. Complacency distorts r...

The micro research into political behaviour offers a wealth of information about the attitudes of citizens and other persons. The methodology of micro analysis deals with how to access and handle large data sources about these attitudes. In order to meet the standard criteria of scientific research, such as the principle of inter-subjectivity, theories about value orientations must be testable ...

It is shown how two defeasible forms of argument, argument from appearance and abductive reasoning, are central tools of artificial intelligence for the analysis and evaluation of legal evidence. Defeasible argumentation schemes representing these forms of argument are presented, and applied to examples of the kind of reasoning used to draw a conclusion by inference from observational data. A c...

Variability has been one of the major challenges for both theoretical understanding and computer synthesis of speech prosody. In this paper we show that economical representation of variability is the key to effective modeling of prosody. Specifically, we report the development of PENTAtrainer — A trainable yet deterministic prosody synthesizer based on an articulatory-functional view of speech...

A child praying before lunch, 1936 Determining the efficacy of prayer has been attempted in various studies since Francis Galton first addressed it in 1872. Some studies have reported benefit, some have reported harm, and some have found no benefit from the act of praying. Others suggest that the topic is outside the realm of science altogether. According to the Washington Post, "...prayer is t...

1. The Issue Of recent changes in linguistic theory, the shift from derivations to constraints is among the most substantive. Central to this is Optimality Theory (OT; Prince & Smolenksy 1993), which – unlike, e.g., Chomsky & Lasnik’s Filters or Pān. ini’s As.t.ādhyāȳı – claims that structural well-formedness (grammaticality) is enforced by sharply conflicting, mutually incompatible constraints...