As the professional identity of political scientists has changed, so have their constructions of political knowledge. Political scientists initially defined themselves in terms of their ability to aid a modernizing polity. By the 1970’s, though, political knowledge was strongly affected by vocational necessity, i. e., by the need to conduct research in an increasingly competitive publication market. The discipline of political science has grown tremendously since its inception in the university. Political research and political knowledge have expanded apace. Through looking at the discipline’s major attempts to establish a professional identity in the university one can begin to understand ways in which political scientists have constructed political knowledge in response to prevailing social and political phenomena. Through this lens we can assess the current state of the discipline and, based on a historical account of the discipline, perhaps begin to understand which direction the discipline may go in the future, especially in terms of the usefulness of political knowledge in society. / Master of Arts

The first chapter proposes multifractal analysis to measure inhomogeneity of regularity of 1H-NMR spectrum using wavelet-based multifractal tools. The geometric summaries of multifractal spectrum are informative summaries, and as such employed to discriminate 1H-NMR spectra associated with different treatments. The methodology is applied to evaluate the effect of sulfur amino acids. The second part of this thesis provides essential materials for understanding engineering background of a nano-particle fabrication process. The third chapter introduces a constrained random effect model. Since there are certain combinations of process variables resulting to unproductive process outcomes, a logistic model is used to characterize such a process behavior. For the cases with productive outcomes a normal regression serves the second part of the model. Additionally, random-effects are included in both logistics and normal regression models to describe the potential spatial correlation among data. This chapter researches a way to approximate the likelihood function and to find estimates for maximizing the approximated likelihood. The last chapter presents a method to decide the sample size under multi-layer system. The multi-layer is a series of layers, which become smaller and smaller. Our focus is to decide the sample size in each layer. The sample size decision has several objectives, and the most important purpose is the sample size should be enough to give a right direction to the next layer. Specifically, the bottom layer, which is the smallest neighborhood around the optimum, should meet the tolerance requirement. Performing the hypothesis test of whether the next layer includes the optimum gives the required sample size.

This dissertation aims to contrast the differences between Montesquieu¡¦s and Quesnay¡¦s thoughts of China Despotism theory, to analyze the methodology and epistemology used by the two scholars to demonstrate and observe traditional China despotism, and, to expound and examine the description of traditional China despotism in Montesquieu¡¦s and Quesnay¡¦s thoughts. Montesquieu was a rare one among Enlightenment philosophers who profoundly discussed China Despotism in the eighteenth century. In the elaboration of Montesquieu¡¦s China Despotism, there were lots of contradictions in De L'espirt Des Lois. Traditional China government was depreciated by him. From the empirical induce methodology, positivism epistemology and ontology¡¦s point of view, this dissertation tries to deeply analyze and research Montesquieu¡¥s China Despotism. At the time, there were also some Enlightenment Philosophers who have a different view of China Despotism. The representative was a Physiocrat ¡V Francois Quesnay. In his Le Despotisme De La Chine, he marked traditional China government positively. Quesnay, who developed his view based on the same empirical facts about traditional China according to the eighteenth century¡¦s Jesuits, travelers and businessmen and with the same natural science methodology, had totally different views and thoughts about China Despotism from Montesquieu. This dissertation has a detailed study and review on these differences. Questions will be explored in this dissertation are as below. Did the natural science methodology and epistemology of Montesquieu¡¦s and Quesnay¡¦s China Despotism strengthen the judgment of how they valued traditional China government? Were there pre-judgments in their so-called neutral and objective denouncement about the way they researched China Despotism in the empirical induce methodology and epistemology? Were Montesquieu¡¦s and Quesnay¡¦s judgments about China Depotism enhanced by the natural science methodology and epistemology a kind of western centralism? Did they, in the name of neutral and objective empirical induce methodology and epistemology that could not reason non-western value, refuse and devaluate other non-western value? This dissertation has a deeply reflection on these from the ¡§paradigm¡¨ and ¡§incommensurable¡¨ methodological concepts of Thomas S. Kuhn¡¦s. If Montesquieu¡¦s China Despotism was the main point of western culture, was the way Quesnay observed traditional China government presenting a different value in the west culture and there were still some admiring this kind of value? Was this kind of evaluation neglected by recent Chinese intellects? This is a serious problem worthy of reconsideration and reflection. Keywords: Montesquieu, François Quesnay, Physiocracy, Despotism, enlightened despotism, China Despotism, natural science methodology, theory laden, Thomas S. Kuhn, paradigm, incommensurable

Acompanha: Iniciação científica na escola pública: blog como instrumento de educação científica / O presente estudo, que se caracteriza como pesquisa descritiva com abordagem qualitativa, teve como objetivo apresentar um produto educacional, ou seja, um Blog, elaborado pela pesquisadora, para ser utilizado em um projeto de Iniciação Científica desenvolvido no Colégio Estadual Attílio Codato, na cidade de Cambé/PR.O estudo apresenta o passo a passo da construção do Blog pela pesquisador e a utilização deste pelos alunos da instituição de ensino, assim como, as dificuldades, os desafios e os sucessos ocorridos nesse processo. O Blog serviu como ferramenta/instrumento para dar suporte aos estudantes do Ensino Médio para que pudessem desenvolver projetos Iniciação Científica e, a partir destes, produzir textos sobre seus trabalhos, com linguagem científica. Para fundamentar este estudo, foi desenvolvida uma pesquisa bibliográfica sobre: aprendizagem por meio de projetos; conceito de TICs e de Blog; e o uso das TICs como recursos metodológicos para a aprendizagem. Concluiu-se que os resultados foram bastante satisfatórios, pois os alunos, apesar das dificuldades encontradas, principalmente, devido à falta de hábito de leitura e consequente dificuldade de interpretação de grande parte deles, a maioria concluiu seu projeto e o apresentou. Além disso, constatou-se uma conscientização, quase geral, de que leituras e esse tipo de pesquisa são fundamentais para prepará-los para o ensino superior e para a vida. Esse fato está associado, principalmente ao uso do Blog, uma ferramenta tecnológica, área que desperta bastante o interesse dos estudantes. / The present study, which is characterized as a descriptive research with a qualitative approach, aimed to present an educational product, that is, a Blog, prepared by the researcher, to be used in a project of Scientific Initiation developed at the State College Attílio Codato, in the city Of Cambé / PR. The study presents the step by step of the construction of the Blog by the researcher and the use of this by the students of the educational institution, as well as the difficulties, challenges and successes occurred in this process. The Blog served as a tool / instrument to support the students of High School so that they could develop Scientific Initiation projects and, from these, produce texts about their work, with scientific language. To support this study, a bibliographic research was developed on: learning through projects; Concept of ICT and Blog; And the use of ICTs as methodological resources for learning. It was concluded that the results were quite satisfactory, because the students, despite the difficulties found, mainly due to the lack of reading habits and consequent difficulty in interpreting most of them, the majority concluded their project and presented it. In addition, there has been an almost general awareness of what readings and this type of research are essential to prepare them for higher education and for life. This fact is associated, mainly to the use of the Blog, a technological tool, an area that greatly arouses students' interest.

Orientador: José Carlos Pinto de Oliveira / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-18T06:04:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Menna_SergioHugo_D.pdf: 2716382 bytes, checksum: 6142783b3c83d2ad782502cfe287dbb6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: A historiografia contemporânea da metodologia herdou vários 'enigmas' a serem resolvidos sobre as ideias e contribuições de Francis Bacon. Qual é a estrutura do seu método de indução, qual é a natureza de sua 'lógica da descoberta', qual o valor que ele concedeu às hipóteses e conjeturas na investigação científica, qual o papel de Bacon na história da metodologia, qual sua dívida com seus predecessores, qual a influência que exerceu sobre os pensadores que o sucederam etc. Na presente Tese farei uso de estudos históricos e críticos contemporâneos a fim de analisar a obra metodológica de Bacon e determinar a influência das 'artes' heurísticas antigas e medievais no seu método indutivo. Em particular, tentarei mostrar que ainda que Bacon tenha ampliado o 'poder criativo' das 'artes' da invenção, e tenha estendido seu raio de aplicação ao domínio científico, não as formalizou nem substituiu o caráter falível das mesmas. Também, e destacando o importante papel criativo concedido por Bacon e outros autores da Modernidade a 'virtudes' ou 'desiderata' como, por exemplo, a analogia ou a simplicidade, argumentarei contra as principais interpretações rivais existentes sobre a estrutura e dinâmica do método baconiano. Especificamente, me situarei em oposição à interpretação 'geracionista mecânica' -que afirma que o método de Bacon funciona como uma máquina que produz teorias de forma automática- e à interpretação 'hipotetista' -que entende que o método de Bacon funciona só no processo de avaliação de teorias, deixando a tarefa de descoberta ao gênio criativo. Tentarei defender que Bacon esteve particularmente interessado em fornecer heurísticas -isto é, guias ou máximas criativas e avaliativas- para que os homens, trabalhando metodologicamente, e reunidos em comunidades de pesquisa, pudessem construir hipóteses científicas de qualidade. Esta argumentação supõe fazer observações sobre a natureza das regras no século XVII, sobre as relações entre experiência e teoria, e introduzir precisões dentro do domínio das inferências ampliativas, além de esclarecer a posição de Bacon com relação a termos chaves como 'verdade', 'hipótese' e 'conhecimento'. Por último, com esta concepção heurística da indução baconiana, examinarei as interpretações clássicas sobre o papel desempenhado por Bacon na Revolução científica e sua importância na difusão da ideia de progresso. Esta interpretação da herança e da metodologia de Bacon, e de sua recepção e influência em autores posteriores, tal como defenderei, permite compreender e avaliar melhor o significado desse autor para o pensamento científico da Modernidade, e possibilita reavaliar de maneira mais adequada as categorias estabelecidas para a metodologia da descoberta de Bacon por alguns de seus críticos passados e contemporâneos / Abstract: The contemporary historiography of methodology inherited various 'puzzles' to be solved about the ideas and contributions of Francis Bacon, such as: What is the structure of his method of induction?; what is the nature of his 'logic of discovery'?; what value did he attach to hypotheses and conjectures in scientific research?; what is the role of Bacon in the history of methodology?; what are his debts to his predecessors?; what is the influence he had upon the thinkers that followed him? and so on. In this thesis I will make use of contemporary historical and critical studies in order to analyze the methodological work of Bacon and the influence of the ancient and medieval heuristic 'arts' on his inductive method. In particular, I will try to show that although Bacon extended the 'creative power' of the 'arts' of invention, and extended their scope of application to the scientific field, he did not formalize nor replace the fallible nature of them. Also, by highlighting the importance of the creative role given by Bacon and other authors of Modernity to 'virtues' or 'desiderata' as, for example, analogy or simplicity, I will argue against major rival interpretations that exist on the structure and dynamics of the Baconian method. Specifically, I will situate my position in opposition to the 'mechanical-generative' interpretation -which claims that Bacon's method works like a machine that produces theories automatically-, and the 'hypothetist' interpretation -which holds that Bacon's method works only in the process of evaluating theories, leaving the task of discovering to the creative genius. I will try to argue that Bacon was particularly interested in providing heuristics -in other words, creative and evaluative guides or principles- so that men, working methodically, could build high-quality scientific hypotheses. This argumentation presupposes the need to make remarks on the nature of rules in the seventeenth century, on the relationship between experience and theory, and also presupposes the provision of more details within the domain of the ampliative inferences, besides clarifying the position in the light of key terms used by Bacon, such as 'truth', 'hypothesis' and 'knowledge'. Finally, on the basis of this heuristic conception of Baconian induction, I will examine the classic interpretations of the role played by Bacon in the Scientific Revolution and his importance in spreading the idea of progress. This interpretation of Bacon's heritage and methodology, and Bacon, and their reception by, and influence on later writers, I will set out to argue, allows us to understand and evaluate in the best way the significance of this author for the scientific thought of Modernity, and enables us, in the most appropriate way, to reassess the categories established for Bacon's methodology of discovery by some of his critics, both past and contemporary / Doutorado / Epistemologia / Doutor em Filosofia

Orientador: Fátima Regina Rodrigues Évora / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-25T21:06:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Moreira_EdsonAdriano_D.pdf: 961513 bytes, checksum: f0259749256481cc107a396e735849f9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: Essa Tese analisa a controvérsia entre Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz e Isaac Newton acerca do estatuto adequado à gravitação universal newtoniana. Mais precisamente, ela procura esclarecer porque Leibniz critica a teoria newtoniana, acusando-a de postular um princípio milagroso ou uma qualidade oculta escolástica no domínio da filosofia natural, enquanto Newton, por sua vez, tentará defendê-la dessas críticas, afirmando ser a gravidade uma qualidade manifesta da matéria e o princípio que a expressa uma verdadeira lei da natureza. Para tanto, serão analisadas as cartas desses autores onde essas questões são pontualmente discutidas, quais sejam a Correspondência Leibniz-Clarke [1715-1716], a Correspondência Leibniz-Newton [1692-1693], a Carta de Leibniz a Hartsoeker [1711], a Carta de Newton ao editor das "Memoirs of Literature" [1712]; ademais, serão analisadas passagens importantes das três edições dos Princípios Matemáticos de Filosofia Natural [1687, 1713 e 1726], das cinco edições da Óptica [1704, 1706, 1717, 1721 e 1730 (edição póstuma)] e de alguns outros textos talvez menos conhecidos de Newton se comparados a estes dois, mas igualmente fundamentais para um bom entendimento das suas réplicas a Leibniz, a saber, a Carta de Newton a Bentley [1692], a Carta de Newton a Cotes [1713], a resenha que Newton publica anonimamente nas Philosophical Transactions da Royal Society sob o título de "An Account of the Book Entituled Commercium Epistolicum" [1714-1715] e uma "Conclusio" projetada por Newton para fazer parte da primeira edição dos Princípios Matemáticos de Filosofia Natural, a qual ele acabou não incluindo na versão final deste texto de 1687, mas que deu origem às considerações do famoso Escólio Geral, inserido na obra partir da sua segunda edição em 1713. Todo esse trabalho deverá, ainda, levar em conta os métodos e as entidades explicativas admitidos no panorama geral da ciência nos séculos XVI e XVII / Abstract: This Thesis analyzes the controversy between Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Isaac Newton regarding the adequate statute to the Newtonian universal gravitation. More precisely, it tries to elucidate why Leibniz criticizes the Newtonian theory, accusing him of postulating a miraculous principle or a scholastic occult quality in the domain of Natural Philosophy, whereas Newton advocates his theory and protects it from such reviews claiming that gravity is a manifest quality of the matter and that the principle which expresses it is a true law of nature. To conduct this work, letters and texts written by these authors discussing such issues will be analyzed: The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence [1715-1716]; The Leibniz-Newton Correspondence [1692-1693]; The Letter from Leibniz to Hartsoeker [1711]; and The Letter from Newton to the Editor of the "Memoirs of Literature" [1712]. Besides these letters, other important texts will be studied: passages from three editions of the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy [1687, 1713 and 1726]; passages from five editions of the Optics [1704, 1706, 1717, 1721 and 1730 (a posthumous edition)]; and some other Newton¿s texts perhaps not as well-known as the other two, but equally fundamental for a good understanding of the author¿s replies addressed to Leibniz: The Letter from Newton to Bentley [1692], The Letter from Newton to Cotes [1713], the review Newton published anonymously in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society under the title of "An Account of the Book Entituled Commercium Epistolicum" [1714-1715] and a "Conclusio" projected by Newton to be part of the first edition of the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, which he did not include in the final version of this text from 1687, but which was the origin to the considerations presented in the famous General Scholium, appended to his work since its second edition in 1713. It should also be mentioned that this Thesis will take into consideration the methods and the explanatory entities admitted in the general panorama of science of the XVI and XVII centuries / Doutorado / Filosofia / Doutor em Filosofia

The present study shows that prestructuring based on domain knowledge leads to statistically significant generalization-performance improvement in artificial neural networks (NNs) of the multilayer perceptron (MLP) type, specifically in the case of a noisy real-world problem with numerous interacting variables. The prestructuring of MLPs based on knowledge of the structure of a problem domain has previously been shown to improve generalization performance. However, the problem domains for those demonstrations suffered from significant shortcomings: 1) They were purely logical problems, and 2) they contained small numbers of variables in comparison to most data-mining applications today. Two implications of the former were a) the underlying structure of the problem was completely known to the network designer by virtue of having been conceived for the problem at hand, and b) noise was not a significant concern in contrast with real-world conditions. As for the size of the problem, neither computational resources nor mathematical modeling techniques were advanced enough to handle complex relationships among more than a few variables until recently, so such problems were left out of the mainstream of prestructuring investigations. In the present work, domain knowledge is built into the solution through Reconstructability Analysis, a form of information-theoretic modeling, which is used to identify mathematical models that can be transformed into a graphic representation of the problem domain's underlying structure. Employing the latter as a pattern allows the researcher to prestructure the MLP, for instance, by disallowing certain connections in the network. Prestructuring reduces the set of all possible maps (SAPM) that are realizable by the NN. The reduced SAPM--according to the Lendaris-Stanley conjecture, conditional probability, and Occam's razor--enables better generalization performance than with a fully connected MLP that has learned the same I/O mapping to the same extent. In addition to showing statistically significant improvement over the generalization performance of fully connected networks, the prestructured networks in the present study also compared favorably to both the performance of qualified human agents and the generalization rates in classification through Reconstructability Analysis alone, which serves as the alternative algorithm for comparison.

Although interest in Performance Measurement and Management Systems (PMMS) and their application in various organizations has grown substantially, they are mainly developed for larger companies, and practitioners find it challenging to implement these systems in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). SME characteristics such as limited budget, lack of experience and knowledge, and pace of change usually make it difficult for managers to adopt and use traditional PMMS. One of the solutions to the lack of applicability of PMMS in the SME context is provided by integrating traditional PMMS with Business Intelligence (BI) and Business Analytics (BA) tools and technologies. The main goal of this thesis is to design and evaluate a Performance Management System based on Business Intelligence (PMS-BI) artifact that contains frameworks, architectures, tools and guidelines to help SMEs evaluate their current Performance Management System (PMS), select the most suitable PMS-BI system components, and design their own PMS based on BI. This artifact also guides them throughout the year by providing tools to assess their PMS-BI and maintain it. For this thesis, I applied a Design Science Research (DSR) methodology to collect the relevant information needed in the design step, design and develop the artifact, and evaluate it. I used the case study approach in the design's information collection and artifact evaluation phases. The final artifact consists of an executive document that guides the SME managers to design their own PMS-BI and helps them have a perception of its efficiency. In the data collection phase, I systematically reviewed the relevant literature to understand best practices, then interviewed eleven participants from seven SMEs to find out the gaps and requirements regarding PMS in SMEs. These participants are directly responsible for the PMS in their organization. Then by combining this information, I extracted the PMS-BI features. In the creative process of system design, I used these features to develop the artifact. Then, I presented the results to the same participants in the form of an executive summary. Finally, I used a “usability questionnaire” to understand participants' opinions about the artifact and document their feedback. My research fills the gap in the application of DSR in the PMS artifact development. This thesis helps researchers understand the application of DSR in designing and developing PMS artifacts for SMEs. In addition, the final artifact can be used by SMEs to develop and apply their own PMS-BI.

No description available.

Scientific inquiry in K-12 classrooms tends to be procedural, lacking opportunities for students to gain understanding of how scientific knowledge is constructed through reflection, debate, and argument. Limited opportunity to develop scientific argumentation skills prevents students from practicing the scientific thinking needed to understand the nature of scientific knowledge and the role of scientific inquiry. To solve this problem in science education, recent research has focused on how to support student opportunities to learn scientific argumentation in the context of learning science content. The purpose of this investigation was to examine and analyze one science teacher's understanding of scientific argumentation and his teaching strategies for developing students' argumentation skills in the classroom. This investigation also analyzed student discourse in response to those teaching strategies, to see how students demonstrate improved scientific thinking skills while they developed skills in scientific argumentation. One science teacher, Mr. Field, and his students at the middle school level participated in this study for two months. Three interviews employing semi-structured protocols were used to examine Mr. Field's understanding of scientific argumentation. A structured observational protocol enhanced with field notes and audio tape recordings were employed to investigate Mr. Field's teaching strategies that led students to demonstrate scientific thinking skills. Transcriptions of student discourse and two lab reports were also analyzed for the quality of students' scientific thinking skills. Three different tools for argument analysis, Toulmin, Epistemic Operation, and Reasoning Complexity, were used to examine student argumentation in detail. The teacher, Mr. Field, defined scientific inquiry as the combination of developing procedural skills through hands-on activities and reasoning skills through argumentation. Seven different teaching strategies emerged based on sixty hours of classroom observation. Daily Science and the Claim-Evidence Approach were the two main teaching strategies that gave students opportunities to demonstrate the reasoning skills needed to construct scientific knowledge. However, students developed less extended arguments during Daily Science, whose purpose was to provide them with a chance to practice basic skills, such as differentiating independent variables from dependent. On the other hand, students developed more extended arguments during the Claim-Evidence Approach, where the purpose was to provide students with opportunities to develop claims, to find evidence from experiments to support the claims or refute those of others, and to discuss the limitation of the experiments. The less extended argumentation observed during these activities is described as a linear flow, moving from Mr. Field's question to students' answers to Mr. Field's evaluation at the end. The more extended argumentation can be described as a circular flow, moving from Mr. Field's question, to students' answers, to Mr. Field's evaluation with more prompts or questions, to students' responses as justification, to Mr. Field's general explanation based on students' justification, and finally to the teacher's or students' synthesis or applications. The former argumentation is named Fundamental Argumentation and the latter Exploring Argumentation. Fundamental Argumentation occurred more often than the other during this study. Shifting from Fundamental Argumentation to Exploring Argumentation was observed to depend on the teacher's scaffolding, such as using more extended questions and prompts to further the discussion. In addition, the students' abilities to develop scientific argumentation were related to their scientific knowledge, the teacher's engagement in interacting with students, and the opportunities students had to practice scientific argumentation. Limited scientific knowledge is believed to prevent students from demonstrating reasoning skills. Also, "wait time" that students need to retrieve knowledge, described by Mr. Field, is also believed to be one of the barriers to scientific argumentation in some of Mr. Field's classroom interaction. Further investigation of students' abilities to develop scientific argumentation in different contexts, such as group work and whole class discussion, is recommended with the use of the argument analysis tools employed in this study, in order to better understand the nature of learning and teaching scientific argumentation in the classroom. / Graduation date: 2006