The Trivers-Willard hypothesis (TWH) states that parents in good conditions will bias the sex ratio toward sons and parents in poor conditions will bias the sex ratio toward daughters. The present study contributes to literature in several ways: a large, general, country population data set (N= 1 401 851) from modern contemporary society; first study in the Czech Republic; an inclusion of air pollution into the TWH estimation; and a more detailed focus on stillbirths. With the natality microdata from the Czech Statistical Office and data concerning the level of air pollution in the Czech Republic from the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, I analyze if the biological and socio-economics status of mothers and the characteristics of our surroundings (air pollution) affect the sex of children. The results are insignificant or not robust across specifications. I identified three hypotheses which are most likely the reason for the insignificant results: a non-inclusion of the biological and socio-economical status of a father, insufficient diversity or evolutionarily novel environment in the Czech Republic. As a conclusion, the presented evidence suggests that stillbirths are random in the Czech Republic and that the sex ratio is not affected by the socio-economics status of mothers or the characteristics of our surroundings (pollution).

No description available.

Thesis (M.C.A.-Res.)--University of Wollongong, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 34-35.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University, Dept. of Art. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-115).

L'auteur entreprend dans ce mémoire de proposer une interprétation formaliste de la signification et du statut logique de la critique que mène Quine, dans son article Two Dogmas of Empiricism de 1951, à l'encontre de la distinction classique en philosophie entre les énoncés analytiques et synthétiques. Contre l'interprétation standard qui persiste à concevoir cette critique comme un rejet catégorique de la distinction, l'auteur reconstruit la théorie de la signification quinienne afin de relever la distinction renouvelée qu'introduit Quine entre "analytique" et "synthétique" dans son dernier ouvrage, From Stimulus to Science. Par une étude comparative de la conception de Quine et de celles de Churchland et Searle sont spécifiés le sens et le statut que l'on doit assigner à sa notion de "signification". Réinterprétée à la lumière de ces considérations, la critique quinienne se révèle être une remise en question de niveau métaépistémologique de la pratique philosophique de l'empirisme logique. / In this dissertation, the author proposes a formalist interpretation of the meaning and logical status of the critique that Quine put forward against the classical philosophic distinction between analytic and synthetic statements in his 1951 article Two Dogmas of Empiricism. Against the standard interpretation that prevails in the literature, according to which this critique is categorical and without appeal, the author undertakes to rationally reconstruct Quine's theory of meaning in order to reveal the renewed distinction between "analytic" and "synthetic" as it was introduced in his last book, From Stimulus to Science (1995). The meaning and logical status that ought to be assigned to his notion of "meaning" are specified by means of a comparative study between Quine's own conception and that of Churchland and Searle. Reinterpreted in the light of these considerations, the Quinian critique proves to be a metaepistemological reassessment of the logical empiricism's philosophical practice.

Au sein de cette dissertation, j'avance la thèse que la pensée quinienne systématise une épistémologie des sciences et que son système veut avant tout donner une réponse, partant d'un point de vue empirique unique,à ce que Quine estime être la question centrale de l'épistémologie, à savoir "comment construisons-nous notre théorie du monde?". / Doctorat en Philosophie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The purpose of this study was to understand how early adolescents talk about cross-racial and cross-ethnic friendships. Gordon Allport's intergroup contact theory provided the framework for studying the elements needed for inter-racial and inter-ethnic friendship formation. Qualitative data were drawn from four separately recorded peer group conversations. Participants (n=18) were recruited from Parrish Middle School in Salem, Oregon. Patterns that emerged from the data were sorted, categorized and identified according to the tenets of intergroup contact theory or extensions of intergroup contact theory. Analysis also looked at the use of metaphors and storytelling among adolescents. Results showed that while intergroup contact theory tenets of interdependence and common goals can foster cross-ethnic and cross-racial friendships, most students form these friendships through friendship chaining and common interests. Dual racial identity and peer group influence can also be positive factors in cross-racial and cross-ethnic friendship development. Further, storytelling examples by adolescents showed similar techniques to those used by adults. Overall the results from this study support intergroup contact theory as continuing to be a useful conceptual framework for encouraging cross-group relations.

MARTINS, Francisco Gomes. A lógica das entidades intencionais. 2012. 130f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-graduação em Filosofia, Fortaleza (CE), 2012. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2013-11-12T12:03:43Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2012-DIS-FGMARTINS.pdf: 986022 bytes, checksum: dc59d2215a6ff9289414db0edc6b00d1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo(marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2013-11-12T14:25:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2012-DIS-FGMARTINS.pdf: 986022 bytes, checksum: dc59d2215a6ff9289414db0edc6b00d1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-11-12T14:25:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2012-DIS-FGMARTINS.pdf: 986022 bytes, checksum: dc59d2215a6ff9289414db0edc6b00d1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / A feature of the distinction between extensionalism and intensionalism, which has been widely taken as a criterion to separate the two positions, is that within an extensionalist logic, substitution is possible salva veritate (that is, without thereby changing the truth-value of the statement concerned) with respect to identical instances of some basic logical form – and in an intensionalist logic it is not. The different logical forms with respect to which such substitution might take place accounts for some of the variety of different extensionalisms on offer in the current philosophical landscape. So our starting-point is Frege’s puzzle. This question is frequently accepted as one of the foundations of modern semantics. To explain why a true sentence of the form “a = b” can be informative, unlike a sentence of the form “a = a”, Frege introduced an entity standing between an expression and the object denoted (bezeichnet) by the expression. He named this entity Sinn (sense) and explained the informative character of the true “a=b”-shaped sentences by saying that ‘a’ and ‘b’ denote one and the same object but differ in expressing (ausdrücken) distinct senses. The problem, though, is that Frege never defined sense. The conception of senses as procedures that is developed here has much in common with a number of other accounts that represent meanings, also, as structured objects of various kinds, though not necessarily as procedures. In the modern literature, this idea goes back to Rudolph Carnap’s (1947) notion of intensional isomorphism. Church in (1954) constructs an example of expressions that are intensionally isomorphic according to Carnap’s definition (i.e., expressions that share the same structure and whose parts are necessarily equivalent), but which fail to satisfy the principle of substitutability. The problem Church tackled is made possible by Carnap’s principle of tolerance (which itself is plausible). We are free to introduce into a language syntactically simple expressions which denote the same intension in different ways and thus fail to be synonymous. Tichý’s objectualist take on ‘operation-processes’ may be seen in part as linguistic structures transposed into an objectual key; operations, procedures, structures are not fundamentally and inherently syntactic items, but fully-fledged, non-linguistic entities, namely, constructions. / Um grave problema presente quando aplicamos semântica composicional, que atribui simples valores de verdade a frases, é que quando essas seqüências estão presentes em alguns contextos específicos, a substituição de certas expressões com a mesma referência pode cambiar o valor de verdade da frase maior ou então impedir que inferências válidas sejam realizadas. Por exemplo, da afirmação "Pedro acredita que Alexandre o Grande foi aluno de Aristóteles", não se pode inferir corretamente neste contexto de crença que a substituição de "Alexandre o grande" por "o vencedor da batalha de Arbela" seja válida porque eventualmente Pedro pode não saber que "Alexandre o Grande é o vencedor da batalha de Arbela" e por isso a verdade das premissas não garante a verdade da conclusão: "Pedro acredita que o vencedor da batalha de Arbela foi aluno de Aristóteles". A conclusão não se segue pois ela não depende da relação de identidade efetiva entre “Alexandre o Grande” e “O vencedor da Arbela”, e sim depende, de maneira contingente, do conjunto de crenças de Pedro; ou ainda, segundo Frege, depende do sentido que Pedro associa a descrição “Alexandre o Grande”. Em contextos intensionais a verdade da conclusão (após substituição) depende de uma maneira específica da maneira de conceber o nome em questão, por isso a substituição entre nomes cujo referente é o mesmo, mas que diferem em sentido, não funciona em todos os casos. O fato é que Frege nunca estabeleceu critérios de identidade para o sentido (Sinn), apenas reservou-se a declarar simplesmente que o sentido é o "modo de apresentação" da referência. Pretendemos apresentar critérios de identidade para o sentido em geral, e em contextos intensionais, em particular. Os sucessores de Frege, dentre eles o lógico Alonzo Church e o filósofo Rudolf Carnap foram os primeiros a estabelecer que duas expressões têm o mesmo sentido se e somente se são sinonimamente isomorfas e intensionalmente isomorfas, respectivamente. Tais critérios devem ser entendidos à luz dos pressupostos lógicos de Church em sua Lógica do Sentido e da Denotação (LSD) e das idéias de Carnap – muitas delas constituintes do programa filosófico do Positivismo lógico, em seu livro Meaning and Necessity. Mais recentemente, Pavel Tichý estabeleceu de maneira mais exata o que é o sentido e sua identidade através do Procedural isomorphism o qual constitui um dos fundamentos da Lógica Intensional Transparente (TIL).

This thesis seeks to answer the question of how Joseph Smith—History found in The Pearl of Great Price developed into a part of the canon of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When the prophet Joseph Smith first dictated the text to his scribes it seems he had not intended for the work to become scripture, but simply to follow the Lord's divine mandate to keep a record. Additionally he provided the purpose in his document to "disabuse the public mind, and put all inquirers after truth in possession of the facts, as they transpired." The format he proposed for the Manuscript History illustrates how it was originally not purposed for scripture. The compiling of that history took the efforts of many men and women and spanned the length of almost twenty years to complete. Joseph Smith had begun the dictation to his scribe George Robinson in 1838, but it was unfinished. Joseph later began the dictation anew to his scribe James Mulholland, first having the man rewrite what he had told to Robinson and then picking up the dictation from there. While the prophet had started and stopped histories before, this particular dictation began the enduring effort. The Manuscript History was developed from the original 59 pages that were scribed by Mulholland. By the efforts of other scribes, but mostly Willard Richards, the history was completed. The official statement of Brigham Young and Orson Pratt upon its completion said nothing of extracting portions for canon. But Mulholland's work seemed destined for a different purpose than the rest of the Manuscript History. It was printed serially in the Times and Seasons, and a few apostles seemed to catch a vision of what the manuscript could do for potential converts and members of the Church. Orson Pratt was especially a proponent of communicating certain key events as illustrated in his missionary tract "Remarkable Visions." A later apostle, Franklin D. Richards, would see the benefit of using the official history to distribute the history of the restoration of the Church to others. He extracted portions from Mulholland's text that covered certain main events in Joseph's life and printed them in his missionary tract The Pearl of Great Price. This pamphlet would eventually be canonized by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1880. Joseph Smith-History's inclusion in the reclamation of revelation that occurred in 1880 was deserved. This is evidenced by examining the process of canonization and the guiding principles of canonization employed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was canonized at the same time as many other revelations and at a General Conference saturated with many important events. Consequently it is difficult to gauge the reaction to its inclusion in canon, except in how it has been used since its canonization. After its inclusion into scripture the text has become a foundational piece of literature for the Church. The impact the text has had can be seen in the culture, missionary work, and doctrine of the Church. The focus of this thesis is to map the text's journey from birth to canonization.

The late 1800s have been noted as a major transitional period for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When the beleaguered pioneers first arrived in Utah they were isolated from the influence and expectations of the United States. During that time, leaders of the Church became influential in every aspect of life in Utah. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, the period of isolation had come to an end. Nationally, the social norms had changed and religion was expected to stay in the churches and out of politics. Church leaders were faced with serious questions regarding what policies and practices could be altered without betraying doctrines and principles of the gospel. Education was at the forefront of this tension in Utah. Members of the Church tried to hold on to an integrated approach to education that incorporated both the spiritual and the secular. Others, however, adamantly opposed such an approach in public schools. In 1892, the First Presidency announced a new educational institution that would become the administrative head of all Church schools: The University of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Willard Young became the President and James Talmage was placed over the science department. Talmage traveled to Europe to purchase the best scientific equipment. With the scientific apparatus and a new building the leaders of the Church hoped to persuade the youth of the Church to obtain higher education at home rather than traveling east to attend secularized universities. The Church's first private university seemed destined to become a major influence in Utah education. However, after one successful semester, President Woodruff closed the school and donated over sixty thousand dollars to the University of Utah. The following research explores the history of the Church University and the circumstances surrounding its closure. The paper shows how a combination of the financial panic of 1893, the effort to obtain statehood, and a rare opportunity to quietly gain influence at the University of Utah factored into the decision to close the Church's first private university.