Showing papers on "Naturalness published in 2007"

The Naturalness versus Wildness Debate: Ambiguity, Inconsistency, and Unattainable Objectivity

Abstract: The naturalness versus wildness debate has gained some prominence in recent years and has seen considerable discussion of issues akin to those that have generated such tension between restorationists and preservationists. This debate is hampered by the terms in which it is framed. The primary meaning of both naturalness and wildness relates to the description of processes or behavior that lack human intervention. This enables human activities and artifacts (such as childbirth, food, and medicine) to be rated according to naturalness. However, when the terms are applied to the description of species and ecosystems, process-oriented definitions are forgotten in favor of historical benchmarks. This can result in serious inconsistencies between those who adhere to the different interpretations, exemplified by the tendency of conservationists to view ‘‘naturalness’’ as being consistent with human intervention in natural processes. The choice of one or the other interpretation is motivated by whether one prioritizes the conservation of biodiversity or minimizing human intervention. There have been claims that naturalness provides an objective measure for assessing biodiversity and calls for value-laden terms to be avoided. Yet, the values are central, and the best that can be hoped for is that the debate be framed using terms that are more indicative of these underlying values. It is suggested here that naturalness versus wildness be recast as ‘‘protecting biodiversity’’ versus ‘‘respect for nature’s autonomy.’’ Not only do these terms avoid the ambiguities of their forebears but they also expose the debate as the result of slight shifts in value priorities rather than fundamentally opposed worldviews.

The value of ‘naturalness’ in organic agriculture

Abstract: Producers, traders and consumers of organic food regularly use the concept of the naturalnatural to characteri ze organic agriculture or organic food. Critics sometimes argue that such use lacks any rational (scientific) basis and only refers to sentiment. We carried out research to (1) better understand the content and the use of the concepts of nature and the natural in organic agriculture, (2) to reconstruct the value basis underlying the use of the concept of the natural in organic agriculture, and (3) to draw implications for agricultural practice and policy. A literature study and the authors’ own experience were used to produce a discussion document with explicit statements about the meaning of natural in the different areas of organic agriculture. These statements were validated by means of qualitative interviews with stakeholders. The concept of nature or the natural appeared to be value-laden. The value basis is a normative reconstruction that cannot just be derived from the use of the word natural by organic stakeholders. For this reconstructed concept the word naturalness is used. Naturalness thus becomes an ethical value for organic agriculture, an inspirational guide for organic stakeholders. The value of naturalness refers to a basic respect for the intrinsic value of nature, i.e., the value nature has, independent of the benefits it may have for humans. This manifests itself in three ways: (1) in the use of natural substances, (2) in respecting the self-regulation of living organisms and ecosystems, and (3) in respecting the characteristic (species-specific) nature of living organisms. If organic stakeholders limit themselves to using natural substances it is called the no-chemicals approach. If they also respect the self-organization of living organisms the authors call it the agro-ecological approach. If also the normative element of naturalness is included, it is called the integrity approach.

An Exploration of the Value of Naturalness and Wild Nature

Abstract: The source of the value of naturalness is of considerable relevance for the conservation movement, to philosophers, and to society generally. However, naturalness is a complex quality and resists straightforward definition. Here, two interpretations of what is “natural” are explored. One of these assesses the naturalness of species and ecosystems with reference to a benchmark date, such as the advent of industrialization. The value of naturalness in this case largely reflects prioritization of the value of biodiversity. However, the foundation of our understanding of naturalness is that it describes processes that are free of human intervention. Conflict between the two interpretations of naturalness is apparent in the claim that naturalness can be enhanced by human intervention, in the form of ecological restoration. Although naturalness in its purest form precludes human intervention, some human activities are also apparently more natural than others. This continuum of naturalness relates to the autonomy of the individual from abstract instrumentalism, which describes a particular form of influence ubiquitous in contemporary society. The value of naturalness reflects both dissatisfaction with these threats to personal autonomy, and respect for wild nature as the embodiment of a larger-than-human realm.

Visual Experience of 3D-TV with pixelated Ambilight

Abstract: Nowadays, imaging systems can be equipped with immersive enhancements like 3D and Ambilight. In this experiment, a demonstrator with state of the art 3D technology and pixelated LED based Ambilight was built. The goal of the experiment was to investigate the concepts naturalness, viewing experience, and presence in relation to image quality, depth, and Ambilight. Results show that the concept viewing experience is a nice example of a concept taking into account the quality level of the video as well as enhancements like 3D and Ambilight. The viewing experience is significantly higher for a set-up with 3D and Ambilight compared to a set-up without 3D and without Ambilight. The concept presence takes into account the quality level of the video but to a lesser extend than naturalness and viewing experience. On the other hand, enhancements of depth and Ambilight have a larger effect on presence ratings than on naturalness or viewing experience. Depth and dynamic Ambilight give more sensory information to the viewer which results in a higher sensation of presence.

Lectures on the ElectroWeak Interactions

Abstract: 1. The Fermi theory of neutron decay.- 2. The Lagrangian of the Standard Model, including neutrino masses.- 3. The main predictions of the Standard Model.- 4. Precision tests.- 5. Flavour Physics.- 6. CP violation.- 7. Basics of neutrino physics.- 8. Neutrino oscillations.- 9. The naturalness problem of the Fermi scale.- 10. The main drawback of the Standard Model.- 11. Appendices.

Social Desirability Influences on Judgements of Biotechnology Across the Dimensions of Risk, Ethicality and Naturalness

Abstract: This study examined the relationship between social desirability and dimensional judgments of risk, naturalness and ethicality for biotechnological and matched natural health technologies. We examine if those who are motivated to respond in a socially‐desirable way will be more likely to rate genetically‐modified (GM) technologies as more risky (less natural or ethical) than those who are not motivated to respond in a socially‐desirable way. One‐hundred and forty‐eight participants rated eight technologies along three dimensions (risk, naturalness and ethicality) and completed a measure of social desirability. The results showed that ethicality was unrelated to social desirability. The dimension of naturalness was related to social desirability regardless of the type of technology. The results further showed that for GM technologies those motivated to respond in a socially desirable way rated these as more risky. Theoretical and methodological implications are drawn from the study.

Synthesizing Handwritten Characters Using Naturalness Learning

Abstract: In this paper we show how to synthesize handwritten characters using a proposed system for naturalness learning. We begin by explaining what we mean by naturalness and then show that in many characters, certain properties of font character strokes does not have a linear relation with this naturalness. This observation inspires the idea of using nonlinear techniques to model the naturalness in order to generate handwriting of a unique, personalized, form. Several techniques for achieving this were tested. Surprisingly, RNN with a recurrent output layer performed the best at generating characters very similar to a person's handwriting.

Listening to Gender: A Response to Judith Halberstam

Abstract: THE AURAL DIMENSIONS OF GENDER AND sexuality--voice and music--have haunted the margins of theory but have seldom factored as centrally as the visual. "Scopophilia"--the privileging of sight--has become a mainstay in theory, tied to physical morphology, namely, the presence or absence of the penis. This primary visual division of bodies into the "haves" and the "have-nots," around which gender roles have been formed, has relegated the aural component of gender as something akin to a secondary sex characteristic. Judith Butler has made some tantalizing references to sound and music. In Bodies That Matter she writes that "the process of signification is always material; signs work by appearing (visibly, aurally)." (1) "Aurally" seems thrown in here as a gesture toward spoken language, but what she has most in mind ("signification is always material; signs work by appearing") is clearly visual display. Then there is Butler's clever invocation of Aretha Franklin and her recording of "Natural Woman" in the famous essay "Imitation and Gender Insubordination": Well, consider the way in which heterosexuality naturalizes itself through setting up certain illusions of continuity between sex, gender, and desire. When Aretha Franklin sings, "you make me feel like a natural woman," she seems at first to suggest that some natural potential of her biological sex is actualized by her participation in the cultural position of "woman" as object of heterosexual recognition.... Although Aretha appears to be all too glad to have her naturalness confirmed, she also seems fully and paradoxically mindful that that confirmation is never guaranteed, that the effect of naturalness is only achieved as a consequence of that moment of heterosexual recognition. After all, Aretha sings, you make me feel like a natural woman, suggesting that this is a kind of metaphorical substitution, an act of imposture, a kind of sublime and momentary participation in an ontological illusion produced by the mundane operation of heterosexual drag. (2) Here the pop song inadvertently articulates Butler's theory; it is theory au naturel, so to speak, a song that stumbles upon what Butler believes is a "truth" about the "untruth" of gender. Butler does not ask us to hear any meaning in the register or timbre of Aretha's voice or to think about the performance of the words or the interaction of Franklin with the female back-up vocalists. We are only meant to listen through Franklin's voice (as if transparent) to the message that Butler elaborates; that message is essentially to retrain ourselves to recognize a "natural woman" as a type of drag queen. By contrast to Judith Butler, Judith Halberstam is one queer theorist working outside musicology who has taken music and voice seriously. In her book Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives she discusses how queer subcultural music can sometimes function as an archive, bridging generations and blurring the typical polarity between academic and lay historians. Halberstam notes that this engagement of the lesbian feminist past by present-day "riot dykes" can occur in a variety of ways: through lyrical references that name-check key writers or theorists, through programming at concerts that juxtaposes older and newer acts, and through cover songs that pay tribute to rather than parody a classic number from the women's music back catalog. (3) Halberstam argues that music can create "queer genealogies" as well as alternative temporalities. One such queer temporality halts the march of time to heteronormative adulthood and family, lingering instead in adolescence, a time of social rebellion and experimentation. Another queer temporality accesses and reinvests in the past, forcing the present moment into a complex relationship "between the 'now' of performance and the 'then' of historical time." (4) For this Halberstam has drawn on the concept of "temporal drag" advanced by Elizabeth Freeman, whose work offers a sly critique of the absence of history in Butler's theory. …

Neutrino mass implications for muon decay parameters

Abstract: We use the scale of neutrino mass and naturalness considerations to obtain model-independent expectations for the magnitude of possible contributions to muon decay Michel parameters from new physics above the electroweak symmetry-breaking scale. Focusing on Dirac neutrinos, we obtain a complete basis of dimension four and dimension six effective operators that are invariant under the gauge symmetry of the standard model and that contribute to both muon decay and neutrino mass. We show that—in the absence of fine tuning—the most stringent neutrino-mass naturalness bounds on chirality-changing vector operators relevant to muon decay arise from one-loop operator mixing. The bounds we obtain on their contributions to the Michel parameters are 2 orders of magnitude stronger than bounds previously obtained in the literature. In addition, we analyze the implications of one-loop matching considerations and find that the expectations for the size of various scalar and tensor contributions to the Michel parameters are considerably smaller than derived from previous estimates of two-loop operator mixing. We also show, however, that there exist gauge-invariant operators that generate scalar and tensor contributions to muon decay but whose flavor structure allows them to evade neutrino-mass naturalness bounds. We discuss the implications of our analysis for the interpretation of muon-decay experiments.

Natural Syntax: English Dependent Clauses

Abstract: Natural Syntax is a developing deductive theory. The naturalness judgements are couched in naturalness scales, which follow from the basic parameters (or "axioms") listed at the beginning of the paper. The predictions of the theory are calculated in the deductions, whose chief components are a pair of naturalness scales and the rules governing the alignment of corresponding naturalness values. Parallel and chiastic alignments are distinguished, in complementary distribution. Chiastic alignment is mandatory in deductions limited to unnatural environments. This paper wishes to acquaint the reader with the current version of Natural Syntax. By way of exemplification the paper covers selected topics within English dependent clauses. Natural Syntax is a (developing) deductive linguistic theory that determines the presuppositions on the basis of which a (morpho)syntactic state of affairs can be made predictable, and thus synchronically explained. The two basic kinds of presuppositions are naturalness scales and rules of alignment among corresponding values of any two scales. Every (morpho)syntactic state of affairs is represented by two comparable variants. Natural Syntax contains no generative component. I begin by listing the criteria with which Natural Syntax substantiates naturalness scales: a) The parameter of favourable for the speaker and of favourable for the hearer. What is favourable for the speaker is more natural, the speaker being the centre of communication. Expressed in a scale: >nat (favourable for the speaker, favourable for the hearer). This view of naturalness is commonplace in linguistics (Havers 1931: 171), under the names of tendency to economize (utilized first of all by the speaker) and tendency to be accurate (mainly in the hearer's interest). b) The principle of least effort (Havers 1931: 171). What conforms better to this principle is more natural for the speaker. What is cognitively simple (for the speaker) is easy to produce, easy to retrieve from memory, etc. c) Prototypicality. What is nearer to the prototype is more natural for the hearer. The speaker favours non-prototypicality. d) Degree of integration into the construction. What is better integrated into its construction is more natural for the speaker. e) Frequency. What is more frequent tokenwise is more natural for the speaker. What is cognitively simpler for the speaker is used more. (However, the reverse does not obtain: what is natural for the speaker is not necessarily more frequent.) f) Small vs. large class. The use of (a unit pertaining to) a small class is more natural for the speaker than the use of (a unit pertaining to) a large class. During speech small classes are easier for the speaker to choose from than are large classes. g) Specialized vs. non-specialized use. The specialized use of a category is more natural for the speaker than its non-specialized use. Suppose that a language has reflexive personal pronouns. The latter are specialized for expressing reflexivity (whereas other personal pronouns are not specialized for expressing reflexivity, although they do express it under certain conditions) and their use for expressing reflexivity is very natural for the speaker: >nat (+, -) / reflexive personal pronoun expressing reflexivity. h) Given a construction, the movement of a unit to the left is more natural for the speaker than the movement of a unit to the right. (Movement to the left is more natural than non-movement; movement to the right is less natural than non-movement.) i) Acceptable vs. non-acceptable use. What is acceptable is more natural for the speaker than what is not acceptable. The very reason for the acceptability of a syntactic unit is its greater naturalness for the speaker with respect to any corresponding non-acceptable unit. j) What is more widespread in the languages of the world is more natural for the speaker (the typological criterion). …

RNN with a Recurrent Output Layer for Learning of Naturalness

Abstract: The behavior of recurrent neural networks with a recurrent output layer (ROL) is described mathematically and it is shown that using ROL is not only advantageous, but is in fact crucial to obtaining satisfactory performance for the proposed naturalness learning. Conventional belief holds that employing ROL often substantially decreases the performance of a network or renders the network unstable, and ROL is consequently rarely used. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that there are cases where it is necessary to use ROL. The concrete example shown models naturalness in handwritten letters.

An effective model of stressing in an Arabic Text To Speech System

Abstract: The improvement of the naturalness a TTS synthesis system implies the development of a prosodic model which is able to reproduce, from a text, the acoustic phenomena implied in the production of the natural word. This requires formalism which interpret the prosody of a written text and a phonetic model which allows the quantification of prosody so that it is exploitable by the synthesis system. The object of this article consists in treating the intonation under the aspect of the lexical stressing with the level of the words, the simple sentences and the texts. A model is proposed and a first evaluation in the ARAVOICE system is presented.

Natural syntax : English interrogative main clauses

Abstract: Natural Syntax is a developing deductive theory, a branch of Naturalness Theory. The naturalnessjudgements are couched in naturalness scales, whichfollow from the basic parameters (or «axioms») listed at the beginning of the paper. The predictions of the theory are calculated in deductions, whose chief components are apair of naturalness scales and the rules governing the alignment of corresponding naturalness values. Parallel and chiastic alignments are distinguished, in complementary distribution. Chiastic alignment is mandatory in deductions limited to unnatural environments. The paper deals with English interrogative main clauses. Within these, only the interrogatives containing wh-words exclusively insitu constitute an extremely unnatural environment and require chiastic alignment. Otherwiseparallel alignment is used. Earlier publications on Natural Syntax: Kavcic 2005a,b, Oresnik 1999, 2000a,b, 200la-f 2002, 2003a-c, 2002/03, 2004. This list cites only works written in English.

Fine Tuning in Supersymmetric Models

Abstract: The solution of a fine tuning problem is one of the principal motivations of Supersymmetry. However experimental constraints indicate that many Supersymmetric models are also fine tuned (although to a much lesser extent). We review the traditional measure of this fine tuning used in the literature and propose an alternative. We apply this to the MSSM and show the implications.

Naturalness Consumption and Biodiversity in an Ecoregion of Central Italy

Abstract: Landscape naturalness and landscape biodiversity are closely connected with ecosystem sustainability. In this study, “naturalness consumption” and “induced biodiversity” created by human interference were evaluated in an ecoregion of Central Italy that represents a meaningful local example of land-use pattern in a Mediterranean environment. A core set of selected indicators and indexes applied to the database produced by GIS was used first to evaluate the landscape naturalness for each phyto-climatic unit and then to calculate the naturalness consumption. Moreover, the landscape biodiversity of each phyto-climate was evaluated, considering the ecomosaic space organization and taking into account the presence of some important ecological structures like ecotones and hedges. In the naturalness analysis, the highest naturalness consumption occurred in phyto-climates with a higher presence of cultivated areas. In the biodiversity analysis, the phyto-climates with a lower naturalness and a higher presence of agricultural land showed higher values of landscape biodiversity in comparison with the other phyto-climatic units. The results suggest that biodiversity in agro-ecosystems can compensate for naturalness consumption in terms of landscape sustainability. Indeed, natural landscapes carry out a conservative role, while more bio-diverse landscapes offer a balance between human requirements and native ecosystem conditions in a frame of co-evolutionary development.

Measurement of Naturalness (MONAT)

Abstract: This project aims to understand how basic sensory information generated by the interaction between human sensory transducers and the physical material or artefact under examination is processed within the relevant neural networks and how this contributes to the cognitive processes associated with the perception of naturalness.

Rating the naturalness of ontology taxonomies

Abstract: The quality of ontologies (QoO) is increasingly becoming a research issue on the Semantic Web. Ontology users may have difficulties locating the proper concepts in large ontologies, due to low quality. To quantify these problems, we use the notion of naturalness. In this paper we evaluate several existing important ontologies (WordNet, UMLS, etc.) to get numeric measures of naturalness. We concentrate on the question to what degree concept pairs connected by IS-A relationships are natural and therefore comprehensible to users.

Relation Between Lepton Flavor Violating Processes

Abstract: We demonstrate the existence of model-independent one-to-one correspondence relations between different lepton flavor violating processes (LFV). Applying the criterion of naturalness, based on the idea of "custodial symmetry", we show that all the LFV processes, independently of specific mechanisms behind them, but with the same external leptons, have a priori comparable amplitudes modulo their kinematics and involved hadronic form factors.

The natural: Its meanings and functions in the history of linguistic thought

Abstract: Attempts at distinguishing one part of language from another on the basisof naturalness, or certain other criteria that recapitulate the dichotomy of something that is grounded versus something that is not, can be regarded as normative, and ultimately tautological. A historical continuity exists linking such attempts across the centuries, despite changes in terminology and shifts in the balance of the sometimes contradictory conceptions of what in language is natural. This paper examines the history of eleven conceptual features traditionally associated with linguistic naturalness: mimesis, orality, physicality, rationality, simplicity, unplannedness, rusticity, musicality, purity, systematicity and efficiency. The aim is to uncover some of the underlying methodological and ideological assumptions of modern linguistics by examining how these concepts have been deployed. This offers a way forward beyond the limits which the implicit tautology has imposed upon our explanatory and analytic imaginations.

Naturalness and a line of fixed points in a 4d O(N) scalar field model in the large-N limit

Abstract: We try to use scale-invariance and the large-N limit to construct a non-trivial 4d O(N) scalar field model with good UV behavior and naturally light scalar excitations. The physical principle is to fix the interactions (not assumed polynomial) at each order in 1/N by requiring the effective action for arbitrary background fields to be scale-invariant, after including quantum effects. We find a line of non-trivial fixed-points in the large N limit, parameterized by a dimensionless coupling. Since part of the interaction potential is canceled by quantum effects, it is not of direct physical interest. Nevertheless, it grows logarithmically slower than a quartic potential for large fields and N . The finite and scale-free effective action for arbitrary backgrounds is obtained in an expansion around constant backgrounds. A relevant mass deformation is considered. The line of fixed points makes it natural to set the mass to zero. Doing so leads to scaling symmetry. The model has phases where O(N) invariance is either unbroken or spontaneously broken by the scalar vev. Masses of the lightest excitations above the unbroken vacuum are found. Slowly varying quantum fluctuations are incorporated at order 1/N . We find the 1/N correction to the potential, beta function of mass and anomalous dimensions of fields that ensure cancelation of divergences and maintenance of a line of fixed points for constant backgrounds. PACS: 11.10.Gh, 11.10.Hi, 11.15.Pg, 11.30.Qc, 14.80.Cp, 05.10.Cc.