Search results for "causa."
showing 10 items of 647 documents
Study Design in Causal Models
2014
The causal assumptions, the study design and the data are the elements required for scientific inference in empirical research. The research is adequately communicated only if all of these elements and their relations are described precisely. Causal models with design describe the study design and the missing-data mechanism together with the causal structure and allow the direct application of causal calculus in the estimation of the causal effects. The flow of the study is visualized by ordering the nodes of the causal diagram in two dimensions by their causal order and the time of the observation. Conclusions on whether a causal or observational relationship can be estimated from the coll…
Multiscale Granger causality
2017
In the study of complex physical and biological systems represented by multivariate stochastic processes, an issue of great relevance is the description of the system dynamics spanning multiple temporal scales. While methods to assess the dynamic complexity of individual processes at different time scales are well-established, multiscale analysis of directed interactions has never been formalized theoretically, and empirical evaluations are complicated by practical issues such as filtering and downsampling. Here we extend the very popular measure of Granger causality (GC), a prominent tool for assessing directed lagged interactions between joint processes, to quantify information transfer a…
Identifying Causal Effects with the R Package causaleffect
2017
Do-calculus is concerned with estimating the interventional distribution of an action from the observed joint probability distribution of the variables in a given causal structure. All identifiable causal effects can be derived using the rules of do-calculus, but the rules themselves do not give any direct indication whether the effect in question is identifiable or not. Shpitser and Pearl constructed an algorithm for identifying joint interventional distributions in causal models, which contain unobserved variables and induce directed acyclic graphs. This algorithm can be seen as a repeated application of the rules of do-calculus and known properties of probabilities, and it ultimately eit…
Systematic handling of missing data in complex study designs : experiences from the Health 2000 and 2011 Surveys
2016
We present a systematic approach to the practical and comprehensive handling of missing data motivated by our experiences of analyzing longitudinal survey data. We consider the Health 2000 and 2011 Surveys (BRIF8901) where increased non-response and non-participation from 2000 to 2011 was a major issue. The model assumptions involved in the complex sampling design, repeated measurements design, non-participation mechanisms and associations are presented graphically using methodology previously defined as a causal model with design, i.e. a functional causal model extended with the study design. This tool forces the statistician to make the study design and the missing-data mechanism explicit…
Self-Causation and Unity in Stoicism
2021
Abstract According to the Stoics, ordinary unified bodies—animals, plants, and inanimate natural bodies—each have a single cause of unity and being: pneuma. Pneuma itself has no distinct cause of unity; on the contrary, it acts as a cause of unity and being for itself. In this paper, I show how pneuma is supposed to be able to unify itself and other bodies in virtue of its characteristic tensile motion (τονικὴ κίνησις). Thus, we will see how the Stoics could have hoped to account for corporeal unity by positing another body (pneuma) apparently itself in need of unification.
From Zeno to Chrysippus
2015
This chapter is about the origin and development of early Stoic epistemology. I discuss how Zeno of Citium, the founder of the Stoa, was influenced by his predecessors and interpreted by his successors. I argue that Stoicism rely on two basic assumptions for which Socrates is the main predecessor, namely that human beings are at home in the world and that it is only by using our rational abilities to detect salient truths and organize them into skills that we can successfully orient ourselves in this world. This Socratic-Stoic position relies on a naturalistic theory of concept acquisition, for which Aristotle is the main predecessor, or so I argue. I then look at how Zeno’s original episte…
Conclusion: University Ambiguities and Analytic Eclecticism
2018
This volume has examined six cases of university engagement in peripheral regions. While these regions have often been overlooked in the mainstream literature on university-region dynamics because they do not readily offer up success stories, they do facilitate an exploration into the challenges and difficulties that arise at the intersection of the university and region. Beginning with a theory rooted in institutionalist literature that depicts the university as a set of five ambiguities rather than as a coherent whole, the chapters have sought to apply the ambiguities of intention, causality, history, structure, and meaning to their regional context. In this conclusion, we pull together a…
Intervals of quasi-decompositionality and mechanistic explanations
2019
Abstract: It is commonly assumed that the concept of mechanism is a keytool for the scientific understanding of observable phenomena. However, there is no single definition of mechanism in the current philosophy of science. In fact, philosophers have developed several characterizations of what seemed to be a clear intuitive concept for scientists. In this paper, I will analyze these philosophical conceptions of mechanism, highlighting their problematic aspects and proposing a new mechanistic approach based on the idea that the pertinent levels of organization for a mechanistic explanation can be identified with intervals of quasi-decompositionality. I argue that this approach allows us to c…
FROM PRODUCER TO CONSUMER – RELATIONS BETWEEN PRICES OF SELECTED PRODUCTS ON THE AGRI-FOOD MARKET
2019
The food supply chain is characterized by a large diversity of entities comprising it, combining actions taken by individual links, starting with the producer on the consumer. The primary goal of the smooth functioning of the food supply chain is to ensure satisfaction of buyers, while profiting by companies participating in the flow of products. The primary aim of the efficient functioning of the food supply chain is to ensure satisfaction of buyers, while profiting by companies participating in the flow of products. Changes occurring in agricultural production, often cyclical, are transferred to individual links in the supply chain. This phenomenon is visible in changes in the level of pr…
Credibility as a Key to Sustainable Advertising Success
2014
This paper addresses the operational part of sustainable marketing, especially advertising with sustainability. This form of advertising has to consider particularly the aspect of credibility since the social-ecological value of a product is often not evident for the consumer. Therefore, credibility represents an essential competitive advantage for companies who offer sustainable products. The purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants which are decisive for the credibility attribution of sustainable advertisement in order to achieve an improved comprehension of the latent construct and a more credible design of this type of advertisement. In addition, the actual influence of cre…