Narrow Results

The extension of logic programming with abduction (ALP) allows a form of hypothetical reasoning. The advantages of abduction lie in the ability to reason with incomplete information and the enhancement of the declarative representation of problems. On the other hand, concurrent logic programming is a framework which explores AND-parallelism and/or OR-parallelism in logic programs in order to efficiently execute them on multi-processor / distributed machines.

The aim of our work is to study a way to model abduction within the framework of concurrent logic programming, thus taking advantage of the latter's potential for parallel and/or distributed execution. In particular, we describe Abductive Pandora, a syntactic sugar on top of the concurrent logic programming language Pandora, which provides the user with an abductive behavior for a concurrent logic program. Abductive Pandora programs are then transformed into Pandora programs which support the concurrent abductive behavior through a simple programming technique while at the same time taking advantage of the underlying Pandora machine infrastructure.

We propose an abductive model based on Constraint Handling Rule Grammars (CHRGs) for detecting and correcting errors in problem domains that can be described in terms of strings of words accepted by a logic grammar. We provide a proof of concept for the specific problem of detecting and repairing natural language errors, in particular, those concerning feature agreement. Our methodology relies on grammar and string transformation in accordance with a user-defined dictionary of possible repairs. This transformation also serves as top-down guidance for our essentially bottom-up parser. With respect to previous approaches to error detection and repair, including those that also use constraints and/or abduction, our methodology is surprisingly simple while far-reaching and efficient.

Abduction is the process of generating the best explanation as to why a fact is observed given what is already known. A real problem in this area is the selective generation of hypotheses that have some reasonable prospect of being valid. In this paper, we propose the notion of skeptical abduction as a model to face this problem. Intuitively, the hypotheses pointed out by skeptical abduction are all the explanations that are consistent with the given knowledge and that are minimal, i.e. not unnecessarily general.

Our contribution is twofold. First, we present a formal characterization of skeptical abduction in a logical framework. On this ground, we address the problem of mechanizing skeptical abduction. A new method to compute minimal and consistent hypotheses in propositional logic is put forward. The extent to which skeptical abduction can be mechanized in first—order logic is also investigated. In particular, two classes of first-order formulas in which skeptical abduction is effective are provided. As an illustration, we finally sketch how our notion of skeptical abduction applies as a theoretical tool to some artificial intelligence problems (e.g. diagnosis, machine learning).

In the last decade, abduction has been a very active research area. This results in a variety of models mechanizing abduction, namely within a probablistic or logical framework. Recently, a few abductive models have been proposed within a neural framework. Unfortunately, these neural-/probablistic-/logical-based models focus on the most simple class, called independent abduction problems. In this paper, we propose a neural-based model to deal with incompatibility abduction problems. To our knowledge, our model is the first one able to efficiently generate best explanations to the complex class of incompatibility abduction problems.

The reproducibilities of various measurements of thumb abduction were compared. Two independent observers measured the thumb abduction in 30 volunteers by the following four methods: distance between the thumb tip and the flexion crease of the index finger proximal interphalangeal joint; distance between the flexion crease of the thumb interphalangeal joint and the proximal palmar crease; angle between the thumb and index metacarpals; and angle between the thumb and index proximal phalanxes. Measurements were repeated in three weeks and their reproducibility was assessed by the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Intra-observer reproducibilities by distances were high with ICCs between 0.74 and 0.89, compared with those by angles with ICCs between 0.28 and 0.71. Inter-observer reproducibilities by distances were also high (ICCs = 0.79 and 0.81) compared with those by angles (ICCs = 0.28 and 0.42). Assessment of thumb abduction based on distance in the first web is recommended in terms of reproducibility.

This paper concerns the internal structure of reasoning that, basically consisting in conjecturing and refuting, is too often identified with only deducing, abducing and refuting, that is, with just the deductive search of consequences, hypotheses and refutations. With such identification, it is forgotten that in addition to consequences and hypotheses, there is a third class of conjectures, speculations or proper guesses. Speculations are inferentially non-comparable, or orthogonal, with the premise, and generate creativity. It is presented a very simple formal view for the structure of Commonsense Reasoning, a mathematical model allowing to show the importance of speculations, and specially to start with its systematic computational search.

Background: Trapezius transfer has shown promise to restore shoulder movements and has stood through the passage of time. We here in describe a modification of trapezius transfer technique and review the current literature available.

Methods: The modified trapezius transfer in which the trapezius muscle is extended with folded tensor fascia lata graft and attached as distally possible to the deltoid insertion was done in twelve patients at tertiary health care centre in India. Post-operative splinting and staged physiotherapy were given.

Results: Results were described in the form of improvement in degree of shoulder abduction and Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) score. Six months post-surgery there were improvement in shoulder abduction and DASH score with mean 116 degrees (10–180 degree) and 38 (23–58) respectively. One patient showed poor results due to poor compliance in post-operative period. There were no major complications observed.

Conclusions: The modified technique of trapezius transfer described here is a feasible option with good biomechanical outcomes. The technique is simple and can be adopted easily by emerging brachial plexus surgeon as a technique for secondary reconstruction of shoulder joint.

Background: Despite the movement of the thumb carpometacarpal joint has been studied, many unclarified points remain regarding the movement of this joint. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the in vivo kinematics of the thumb carpometacarpal joint during flexion and abduction using computed tomography images.

Methods: The subjects were 9 healthy males. Computed tomography images were obtained in 4 equally-divided positions from maximum extension to maximum flexion, and maximum adduction to maximum abduction of the thumb. A three-dimensional model was constructed from these images, and the models of each position were superimposed with reference to the trapezium. The amount of angular change around the bone axes of first metacarpal bone and rotation axes were evaluated.

Results: We found that the first metacarpal bone showed relatively simple behavior during abduction. However, during flexion, it exhibited a particular movement in which the amount of angular change of the metacarpal bone with respect to the trapezium rapidly increased with deep flexion.

Conclusions: These results suggest that the thumb carpometacarpal joint exhibits a special movement during flexion, especially deep flexion.

We propose that examining the imagination through the eyes of an artist — the British Romantic poet/painter/engraver William Blake (1757–1827) — can provide fresh insights into the creative process of entrepreneuring. More specifically, we show how attempts to understand this process have been hobbled by assumptions handed down from the Enlightenment, or “Age of Reason,” the dominant paradigm of Blake’s time. Blake and other Romantic artists challenged these assumptions, expanding the boundaries of rationality to embrace unconscious, particularizing, embodied, and visionary modes of thought. In this essay, we explore the relevance of Blake’s holistic vision for the field of entrepreneurship — a vision that breaks with Enlightenment reasoning to embrace the fundamentally spiritual nature of reality; a vision that rejects institutionalized thinking to achieve social change through creative acts of the individual imagination, which Blake called the “Divine Imagination.” First, we outline Blake’s critique of Enlightenment assumptions about rationality that remain influential in entrepreneurship studies today, and show how Blake attempted to combat these assumptions by empowering the creative imagination to integrate and transform the fragmented human psyche. We then explore the implications of Blake’s vision for scholars who wish to more fully understand the role of the imagination in the process of entrepreneurial creation.

Glaser and Strauss’s grounded theory (GT) was a new theory of conceptual sociology. GT emerged from Glaser’s empirical sociology and Strauss’s pragmatic symbolic interactionism. The result of GT was a practical method to build theory from qualitative data. Unfortunately, the practicality of GT hid its ontology, epistemology, and philosophical foundations. Three waves, or historical periods, of scientific philosophy have attempted to reveal GT’s foundations. These waves, inductivism, positivism, and social constructivism, left GT with no ground and no theory. This chapter pinpoints where GT went off track by examining the foundations of GT. We use Hegel’s philosophy to develop a fourth wave of GT using a foundation of dialectic ontological processes, with precisely what that means being explored in-depth. The intent of this fourth wave of GT is to get it back on track. Fourth-wave GT recognizes the multiplicity of intra-active, self-organizing ontologies necessary to defining ground and theory. Fourth-wave GT embraces Peirce’s, Heidegger’s, Bhaskar’s, and Žižek’s ontologies, resisting the grounding fallacies of logical positivism and social constructivism, contributing to the question of what theory can be, creating both ground and theory by attending deeply to philosophical concerns.

Truth is the telos of research — the ultimate treasure. All depends on it. However, it is often an elusive and difficult objective for the researcher. In a world of increasingly overwhelming levels of accessible information, false presumptions may often appear validated by those skilled at increasing the volume — fake news, special interests, all utilize their unique versions of “truth” toward enhancing their own interests. In the philosophical science of ontology, an unwavering quest for truth, much like that of reality, while ever evolving, serves as the bedrock of all research and theory. To that end, the self-correcting method in storytelling research is fast becoming a preferred methodology for researchers utilizing narratology, as it surpasses the limitations of the structured and semi-structured interrogatory-style dialogic in developing a deeper understanding of the whole story. This allows researchers to travel beyond the confines of the linear, structured investigation, offering admission into the deeper life of the story. Every story has its own continual, ever-expanding life force, comprising all the voices and influences melded from the past, present, and future. Built on the foundational work of Charles Sanders Peirce, through the use of induction, (later enhanced with abductive and deductive processes), the self-correcting method leads to a path of discovery by utilizing a broader, less constrictive, socio-narratology-based method that encourages interpretation through an abductive–inductive–deductive view of the conversational-based relationship. Developing further with the preliminary step of deconstructing the existing narrative, seeking antenarrative, and carefully considering the stories “around” the story being researched (which comprise the aggregated components of the whole), the resulting understanding provided to the researcher often invites entrance into the guarded domain of the study participant, gained only through thoughtful conversational interaction (not interrogation) based on an understanding between the researcher and the participants, as can only be built upon a foundation of mutual respect, honesty, and trust. There are inherent challenges to this methodology, the primary one being the necessity for skillful, nonspecific, indirect exchanges of dialogue required for the mastery of conversational storytelling interviews, while resisting the almost natural interrogatory interviewing tendency of many Western-trained researchers. There are countless stories living and evolving within every story, each with multiplicities interwoven that are inter-dimensionally dynamic with one another. With diligence and intuitive awareness of this, the use of self-correcting storytelling methodology serves researchers well in narratological studies.

Grounded theory, as a qualitative research method, constructs theories grounded in data on previously unexplored phenomena. To this end, it requires the researcher to be able to form concepts and ideas from the data, to withstand uncertainty and a lack of understanding, and to accept the return, at any point, to the initial stage of the research process. Although grounded theory permits the required flexibility to produce and interpret themes that emerge from the data, its three dominant “waves” are techniques of knowing that are separated from “being-in-the world.” This means they discard the existence of the researcher’s ontological status and that of others in time, space, and matter. This state of affairs maintains the “(inter)subjectivity–objectivity” dualism and yields a “disembodied organization research” that develops and turns inductive inferences into general categories. Against this backdrop, this chapter discusses the fallacies of each of the three waves of grounded theory and advances a fourth one that adds theoretical anchoring and, therefore, provides a basis for developing theories.