A Comparison of Heuristic Procedures for Minimum Within-Cluster Sums of Squares Partitioning

Perhaps the most common criterion for partitioning a data set is the minimization of the within-cluster sums of squared deviation from cluster centroids. Although optimal solution procedures for within-cluster sums of squares (WCSS) partitioning are computationally feasible for small data sets, heuristic procedures are required for most practical applications in the behavioral sciences. We compared the performances of nine prominent heuristic procedures for WCSS partitioning across 324 simulated data sets representative of a broad spectrum of test conditions. Performance comparisons focused on both percentage deviation from the “best-found” WCSS values, as well as recovery of true cluster structure. A real-coded genetic algorithm and variable neighborhood search heuristic were the most effective methods; however, a straightforward two-stage heuristic algorithm, HK-means, also yielded exceptional performance. A follow-up experiment using 13 empirical data sets from the clustering literature generally supported the results of the experiment using simulated data. Our findings have important implications for behavioral science researchers, whose theoretical conclusions could be adversely affected by poor algorithmic performances.     

英国新马克思主义的哲学探索

英国新马克思主义者站在时代的前沿,对马克思主义的传统理论命题,经济基础与上层建筑、社会主体、意识形态等问题进行了全新的解读,在此基础上,形成了一种独具特色的马克思主义文化理论阐释模式,并在当今世界上日益彰显出优越的价值。     

耳畸形及缺损修复发展的历史回顾

耳整形是耳鼻喉手术中最具挑战的技术之一。本文从耳廓畸形及缺损修复材料,修复技术两方面综述了耳整形修复的发展。其中快速原形及组织工程技术应用于耳廓畸形及缺损修复是机械学、材料学与生物医学相互交叉互相渗透,共同发展的结果。这两种技术为耳廓修复整形提供了光明的前景,也是目前此领域科学研究的热点。但是新的理论和技术应用于临床还需要经历缓慢的实践与发展过程。     

论俄罗斯主体心理学的理论特征

主体心理学是俄罗斯心理学发展的新方向,其主要理论特征体现在:研究作为主体的人;强调主体积极性;具有鲜明的人文特征;注重对群体主体问题研究;关注社会问题;重视心理学的理论研究。     

科学知识社会学相对主义知识观批判

“The Strong Programme” is put forward as a metaphysical theory of sociology by the Edinburgh School (SSK) to study the social causes of knowledge. Barry Barnes and David Bloor are the proponents of the School. They call their programme “the Relativist View of Knowledge” and argue against rationalism in the philosophy of science. Does their relativist account of knowledge present a serious challenge to rationalism, which has dominated 20th century philosophy of science? I attempt to answer this question by criticizing the main ideas of SSK and defending rationalism theories in modern philosophy of science.     

Recognizing the infant as subject in infant-parent psychotherapy

Drawing on Winnicott's view of infants as subjects entitled to an intervention in their own right, infants as the referred patient have been seen in infant-parent psychotherapy for 20 years at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. This is a radically different view of infant symptomatology than viewing it as only expressing an aspect of the mother's unconscious. The clinical pathway differentiates the therapy from much parent-infant psychotherapy. The author describes the theoretical model of a twofold approach to understanding the infant's experience through interactive dialogue between therapist and infant, and sharing this understanding with the parents, and illustrates it with cases of failure-to-thrive infants. She discusses two criticisms: first, that infant-parent psychotherapy may undermine the parents and, second, that brief parent-infant psychotherapy does not alter parents' insecure attachment status. Videotaped sessions often show rapid improvement; parents generally feel relieved. This approach potentially shapes not only parents' and infants' representations, but also their implicit knowledge of relationships-partly, it is suggested, through activating the mirror neuron system to bring about implicit memory change. Change may therefore be longer lasting than psychoanalytic theory presently conceives. The approach is relevant in an outpatient setting: gains were maintained long term in 90% of out-patient cases.     

The Epistemic Criterion: A Response to Michael Hand

This article is a response to Michael Hand’s critique in this issue of my response to his use of the epistemic criterion as the sole means for identifying whether or not an issue should be identified as controversial. I argue that he has misunderstood my intention in suggesting that I was seeking to replace the epistemic criterion. Rather my purpose was to challenge his over-confidence in the decisiveness of reason and to temper his use of the epistemic criterion by suggesting it needed to embrace ethical concerns.     

Kinematic and ground reaction force accommodation during weighted walking

Weighted walking is a functional activity common in daily life and can influence risks for musculoskeletal loading, injury and falling. Much information exists about weighted walking during military, occupational and recreational tasks, but less is known about strategies used to accommodate to weight carriage typical in daily life. The purposes of the study were to examine the effects of weight carriage on kinematics and peak ground reaction force (GRF) during walking, and explore relationships between these variables. Twenty subjects walked on a treadmill while carrying 0, 44.5 and 89 N weights in front of the body. Peak GRF, sagittal plane joint/segment angular kinematics, stride length and center of mass (COM) vertical displacement were measured. Changes in peak GRF and displacement variables between weight conditions represented accommodation. Effects of weight carriage were tested using analysis of variance. Relationships between peak GRF and kinematic accommodation variables were examined using correlation and regression. Subjects were classified into sub-groups based on peak GRF responses and the correlation analysis was repeated. Weight carriage increased peak GRF by an amount greater than the weight carried, decreased stride length, increased vertical COM displacement, and resulted in a more extended and upright posture, with less hip and trunk displacement during weight acceptance. A GRF increase was associated with decreases in hip extension (|r| = .53, p = .020) and thigh anterior rotation (|r| = .57, p = .009) displacements, and an increase in foot anterior rotation displacement (|r| = .58, p = .008). Sub-group analysis revealed that greater GRF increases were associated with changes at multiple sites, while lesser GRF increases were associated with changes in foot and trunk displacement. Weight carriage affected walking kinematics and revealed different accommodation strategies that could have implications for loading and stability.     

贝叶斯推理的三重加工心智模型

自二十世纪60年代Edwards首次用实验研究人类推理是否遵循贝叶斯规则以来,国内外贝叶斯推理研究取得了长足的发展,但也出现了一些困境:对影响贝叶斯推理的客体因素和主体因素研究未成体系,解释理论莫衷一是。未来的研究应该重新审视客体与主体的关系,系统整合和多角度分析影响贝叶斯推理的因素,尝试以三重加工心智模型解释人类贝叶斯推理行为,并对以往的解释理论进行融合,从而更好地揭示人类不确定性决策的本质。     

Are animals moral?: Zhu Xi and Jeong Yakyong’s views on nonhuman animals

One significant feature of Jeong Yakyong’s丁若鏞 (1762–1836) thought is his deconstruction of Zhu Xi’s 朱熹 (1130–1200) moral universe based on li 理 and qi 氣. For Zhu Xi, the world in its entirety was a moral place, but Jeong Yakyong distinguished nonmoral domains from the moral domain. One question that follows in pursuing a comparison of their philosophies on this topic is what each thinker meant by ‘moral’ and, in particular, whether they meant the same thing. In this paper, I delve deeper into this topic by comparing their respective perspectives on whether nonhuman animals are moral. Interestingly, they held exactly opposite views: Zhu Xi believed that certain actions on the part of nonhuman animals manifest moral values, whereas Jeong Yakyong claimed that none of the actions of nonhuman animals has moral value. In comparing their views, I introduce Mark Rowlands’ distinction between ‘moral subjects’ and ‘moral agents.’