The Unity of a Tractarian Fact

It is not immediately clear from Wittgenstein’s Tractatus how to connect his idea there of an object with the logical ontologies of Frege and Russell. Toward clarification on this matter, this paper compares Russell’s and Wittgenstein’s versions of the thesis of an atomic fact that it is a complex composition. The claim arrived at is that whilst Russell (at times at least) has one particular of the elements of a fact – the relation – responsible for the unity of the whole, for Wittgenstein the unity of a fact is the product of copulative powers inherent in all its elements. All kinds of constituents of Tractarian facts – all kinds (forms) of object – are, to use Fregean terminology, unsaturated.Articl

Identifying deep-sea target areas for a pilot Atlantic seabed mapping project using GIS techniques

The shape of the seafloor, which primarily reflects the geological processes which have occurred there, influences both ocean circulation and seafloor habitats. A prerequisite for sustainable ocean governance, including the designation of marine protected areas to conserve threatened ecosystems or habitats, is, therefore, the availability of good bathymetric maps. Despite decades of ocean mapping, we still lack this detailed bathymetric information over large parts of the Atlantic seafloor. In an effort to change this situation, the US, Canadian and EU governments, under the “Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation,” established an Atlantic Seabed Mapping International Working Group (ASMIWG) to develop plans to map the entire Atlantic. A first step in this effort is to define 400 x 400 km target areas for a pilot mapping project. Here we present the selection algorithm used to define these pilot areas based on carefully chosen and publicly available parameters of the marine environment that are of interest to various stakeholders. The methodology involved a GIS-based overlay technique that included the parameters of the marine environment as individual layers and combined them in order to obtain information about the suitability of a location as a target area. The results reveal the suitability of areas throughout the North Atlantic and highlight three potential pilot mapping sites

Burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene in low- and middle-income settings: a retrospective analysis of data from 145 countries

objective To estimate the burden of diarrhoeal diseases from exposure to inadequate water, sanitation and hand hygiene in low- and middle-income settings and provide an overview of the impact on other diseases. methods For estimating the impact of water, sanitation and hygiene on diarrhoea, we selected exposure levels with both sufficient global exposure data and a matching exposure-risk relationship. Global exposure data were estimated for the year 2012, and risk estimates were taken from the most recent systematic analyses. We estimated attributable deaths and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) by country, age and sex for inadequate water, sanitation and hand hygiene separately, and as a cluster of risk factors. Uncertainty estimates were computed on the basis of uncertainty surrounding exposure estimates and relative risks. results In 2012, 502 000 diarrhoea deaths were estimated to be caused by inadequate drinking water and 280 000 deaths by inadequate sanitation. The most likely estimate of disease burden from inadequate hand hygiene amounts to 297 000 deaths. In total, 842 000 diarrhoea deaths are estimated to be caused by this cluster of risk factors, which amounts to 1.5% of the total disease burden and 58% of diarrhoeal diseases. In children under 5 years old, 361 000 deaths could be prevented, representing 5.5% of deaths in that age group. conclusions This estimate confirms the importance of improving water and sanitation in low- and middle-income settings for the prevention of diarrhoeal disease burden. It also underscores the need for better data on exposure and risk reductions that can be achieved with provision of reliable piped water, community sewage with treatment and hand hygiene

The Determination of Form by Syntactic Employment: a Model and a Difficulty

This paper develops a model for understanding the Tractarian doctrine that a sign insyntactic use determines a form. This doctrine is found to be in tension withWittgenstein's agnosticism with regard to forms of reality

Wittgenstein in Exile by James Klagge

Output Type: Book Revie

Electoral bias at the 2015 general election: reducing Labour’s electoral advantage

Electoral bias results in an asymmetrical seat distribution between parties with similar vote shares. Over recent British general elections Labour held an advantage because it efficiently converted votes into seats. Following the 2015 election result this advantage has reduced considerably, principally because Labour’s vote distribution saw it accumulate more ineffective votes, particularly where electoral support was not converted into seats. By contrast, the vote distribution of the Conservative party is now superior to that of Labour because it acquired fewer wasted votes although Labour retains a modest advantage overall because it benefits from inequalities in electorate size and differences in voter turnout. Features of the 2015 election, however, raise general methodological challenges for decomposing electoral bias. The analysis, therefore, considers the effect of substituting the Liberal Democrats as the third party with the United Kingdom Independence Party. It also examines the outcome in Scotland separately from that in England and Wales. Following this analysis it becomes clear that the method for decomposing electoral bias requires clearer guidelines for its application in specific settings