Frege's Content-Principle and Relevant Deducibility

Given the harmony principle for logical operators, compositionality ought to ensure that harmony should obtain at the level of whole contents. That is, the role of a content qua premise ought to be balanced exactly by its role as a conclusion. Frege's contextual definition of propositional content happens to exploit this balance, and one appeals to the Cut rule to show that the definition is adequate.We show here that Frege's definition remains adequate even when one relevantizes logic by abandoning an unrestricted Cut rule. The proof exploits the fact that in the relevantized logic, which abandons the unrestricted rule of Cut, any failure of the transitivity of deduction is offset by the epistemic gain involved in learning that a stronger-than-expected result holds.     

A path-analytic strategy to analyze psychoanalytic treatment effects

This paper introduces a path-analytic strategy to analyze psychoanalytic treatment effects. A simple causal model is used to analyze a well-known case study by Charles Brenner. Application of even this simple model to the case study sharpens causal inferences that may be validly made, highlights important aspects of the psychoanalytic process and builds a foundation for further model development.     

Cut Elimination inside a Deep Inference System for Classical Predicate Logic

Deep inference is a natural generalisation of the one-sided sequent calculus where rules are allowed to apply deeply inside formulas, much like rewrite rules in term rewriting. This freedom in applying inference rules allows to express logical systems that are difficult or impossible to express in the cut-free sequent calculus and it also allows for a more fine-grained analysis of derivations than the sequent calculus. However, the same freedom also makes it harder to carry out this analysis, in particular it is harder to design cut elimination procedures. In this paper we see a cut elimination procedure for a deep inference system for classical predicate logic. As a consequence we derive Herbrand's Theorem, which we express as a factorisation of derivations.     

On Reduction Systems Equivalent to The Lambek Calculus with the Empty String

The paper continues a series of results on cut-rule axiomatizability of the Lambek calculus. It provides a complete solution of a problem which was solved partially in one of the author's earlier papers. It is proved that the product-free Lambek Calculus with the empty string (L ₀) is not finitely axiomatizable if the only rule of inference admitted is Lambek's cut rule. The proof makes use of the (infinitely) cut-rule axiomatized calculus C designed by the author exactly for this purpose.     

Decision making and visibility in cats (Felis catus) in a progressive elimination task

When making decisions animals can rely on information stored in memory and/or on information available through perceptual processes. Under some circumstances, perceptual access to a relevant piece of information can be lost as when a prey hides under a cover. If this piece of information is critical, the animal must be able to keep it active in the working memory until the final decision is made. Species endowed with object permanence can to a certain extent overcome such a lack of perceptual access. Numerous studies have investigated object permanence in animals, but no study systematically examined the interaction when making a decision between an information directly available through perception and an information that can no longer be perceived. In the present study, domestic cats (Felis catus) were administered a progressive elimination task in which they had to visit and deplete either two visible and one hidden target (e.g., Experiments 1 and 2) or one visible and two hidden targets (e.g., Experiments 3 and 4). The cats were brought back to the starting point after each visit to any target whether that target had been previously visited or not. The results revealed that the cats searched at the visible target(s) first and at the hidden target(s) last, which was referred to as the visibility rule. The results also revealed that the position of the bowl that was distinct (e.g., the visible bowl when the two other ones were hidden and the opposite) influenced the way this cognitive rule was implemented. More specifically, when the intermediate bowl was distinct the visibility rule was readily implemented but when either the right of the left bowl was distinct the visibility was violated. That is the cats did no longer choose the visible target(s) first. The visibility rule was interpreted in terms of optimization principles, the external distinct target effect was interpreted in terms of divided attention and lateralization.     

Bridging learning theory and dynamic epistemic logic

This paper discusses the possibility of modelling inductive inference (Gold 1967) in dynamic epistemic logic (see e.g. van Ditmarsch et al. 2007). The general purpose is to propose a semantic basis for designing a modal logic for learning in the limit. First, we analyze a variety of epistemological notions involved in identification in the limit and match it with traditional epistemic and doxastic logic approaches. Then, we provide a comparison of learning by erasing (Lange et al. 1996) and iterated epistemic update (Baltag and Moss 2004) as analyzed in dynamic epistemic logic. We show that finite identification can be modelled in dynamic epistemic logic, and that the elimination process of learning by erasing can be seen as iterated belief-revision modelled in dynamic doxastic logic. Finally, we propose viewing hypothesis spaces as temporal frames and discuss possible advantages of that perspective.     

Reinforcing the absence of fixed-ratio performance

Pigeons received food for key pecking according to a fixed-ratio schedule, while, at the same time, food also was available for not pecking for a specified time. With a fixed ratio of 60, responding was not affected by not-pecking times of 80 or 40 seconds, and was eliminated completely at 10 seconds. With ratios of 180, pecking stopped with not-pecking times of 80 seconds or less; with ratios of 300, it stopped at 120 seconds or less. Not-responding schedules produced steady-state performance immediately following contact with the schedule. With return to the fixed-ratio schedule alone, response rate sometimes was elevated temporarily. When response-independent food presentations replaced the not-pecking schedule, response rate often was enhanced, and the ratio pattern was lost. Only the highest densities of food delivery eliminated responding, even with a fixed ratio of 300. In general, the effects corresponded to those of punishment, except that contrast had appeared both during and after punishment, and now appeared only after the response elimination procedure was suspended.     

A型肉毒素注射结合括约肌浅表松解术与传统术式的疗效比较分析

为了探讨临床应用A型肉毒素结合病灶小切口括约肌浅表松解术治疗肛裂的新方法,将Ⅱ期、Ⅲ期肛裂患者80例随机分成试验组和对照组,征求患者和伦理委员会同意后进行研究,对比观察试验组的A型肉毒素内括约肌侧方注射配合病灶小切口括约肌浅表松解术与对照组的传统肛裂切除扩创术加部分内括约肌侧方切断术手术治疗的效果.结果显示,试验组VAS疼痛评分(24h)、排便时间、手术所需时间、创面愈合时间、切口愈合分级及切口愈合后瘢痕面积大小情况均优于对照组.静息向量容积和收缩向量容积两组都有所减低(P＜0.05).因此,A型肉毒素内括约肌侧方注射配合病灶小切口括约肌浅表松解术的疗效治疗方法简单,伤口愈合快,有很好的应用价值.