In this paper I defend the rejection of fatalism about the past by showing that there are possible circumstances in which it would be rational to attempt to bring about by our decisions and actions a necessary and sufficient condition, other things being equal, for something which we see as favorable to have occurred in the past. The examples I put forward are analogous to our attempts to bring about the occurrence of future events, and demonstrate the symmetry between the past and the future in this respect., V tomto příspěvku hájím odmítnutí fatalismu o minulosti tím, že dokazuji, že existují možné okolnosti, za kterých by bylo rozumné pokusit se o naše rozhodnutí a činy učinit nezbytnou a dostatečnou podmínkou, jiné věci jsou rovnocenné, za něco, co jsme v minulosti bylo příznivé. Příklady, které jsem předložil, jsou analogické s našimi pokusy o nastolení budoucích událostí a v tomto ohledu ukazují symetrii mezi minulostí a budoucností., and Gal Yehezkel
Salinization is an increasing enviromental problem in ecosystems. The assessment of total dissolved solids (TDS), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP), alkalinity and the concentrations of main ions makes possible to identify salinization and alkalization degree. The saltaffected soils occur in the south part and south-east part of Žitný ostrov, where the dry and mild summer climate, evaporation soil water regime and mineralized groundwater create conditions for development of the saline and alkaline soils. Five localities with highly-mineralized groundwater were monitored to evaluate salinity and alkality in the period 1989-2006. At the bottom horizons in localities 1 - 5 evaporative residues (salt content) reached value 0.1 - 0.2 %. In 2006 dry evaporative residues (salt content) was higher than 0.2 %, EC was higher than 250 mS m-1 at the bottom horizons in localities 1, 2, 4. The mentioned data allow us to state that salinization and alkalization of soils is developing, it starts from the bottom of soil horizons through middle part of the soil profile up to the top horizons. This phenomenon was observed in all investigated soils in different stages of development. and Salinizácia v ekosystémoch je stále významnejší enviromentálny problém. Stanovenie celkového množstva rozpustených látok (TDS), elektrickej vodivosti (EC), sodíkového adsorpčného pomeru (SAR) a obsahu výmenného sodíka (ESP) umožňuje identifikáciu kritického potenciálu salinizácie a degradácie pôdy. Záujmové územie bolo vymedzené vo východnej časti Žitného ostrova, kde suché a horúce klimatické podmienky spolu s vysokomineralizovanými podzemnými vodami sú príčinou translokácie solí do pôdneho profilu. Bolo monitorovaných 5 lokalít v období 1989 - 2006. Namerané údaje poukazujú na vzrastajúci obsah solí, ktorý v r. 2006 dosiahol 0,1 - 0,2 % v celom pôdnom profile vo všetkých monitorovaných lokalitách, hodnoty EC 200 - 400 mS m-1 v spodných horizontoch vytvárajú podmienky pre rozvoj zasolených pôd.
Although playing an important role in shaping the environment, the mechanisms responsible for runoff initiation and yield in arid and semiarid regions are not yet fully explored. With infiltration-excess overland flow, known also as Hortonian overland flow (HOF) taking place in these areas, the uppermost surface 'skin' plays a cardinal role in runoff initiation and yield. Over large areas, this skin is composed of biocrusts, a variety of autotrophs (principally cyanobacteria, green algae, lichens, mosses) accompanied by heterotrophs (such as fungi, bacteria, archaea), which may largely dictate the infiltration capability of the surface. With most biocrust organisms being capable of excreting extracellular polymeric substances (EPS or exopolymers), and growing evidence pointing to the capability of certain EPS to partially seal the surface, EPS may play a cardinal role in hindering infiltration and triggering HOF. Yet, despite this logic thread, great controversy still exists regarding the main mechanisms responsible for runoff generation (runoff initiation and yield). Elucidation of the possible role played by EPS in runoff generation is the focus of the current review.
Lukowski has argued that, if it is the case that there are actual non-monotonic inferences, they are very hard to find. In this paper, a representative kind of inference that is often considered to be non-monotonic is addressed. Likewise, certain arguments provided by Lukowski to demonstrate that that type of inference is not really non-monotonic are reviewed too. Finally, I propose an explanation of why, despite the fact that the arguments given by him seem to be convincing, it is usually thought that those inferences are not monotonic. In this way, I also try to account for the role that disjunction has in this issue and argue in favor of the idea that we can continue to suppose that the human mind does not ignore the essential requirements of classical logic. and Lukowski argumentoval, že pokud je tomu tak, že existují skutečné nemontotonické závěry, je velmi těžké je najít. V tomto příspěvku je řešen typický závěr, který je často považován za nemontonický. Stejně tak některé argumenty, které poskytl Lukowski k prokázání toho, že tento typ závěru není skutečně nemonotonický, jsou také přezkoumány. Nakonec navrhuji vysvětlení toho, proč navzdory skutečnosti, že jeho argumenty se zdají být přesvědčivé, je obvykle myšleno, že tyto závěry nejsou monotonické. Tímto způsobem se také snažím vysvětlit úlohu, kterou má disjunkce v této otázce, a argumentovat ve prospěch myšlenky, že můžeme i nadále předpokládat, že lidská mysl ignoruje základní požadavky klasické logiky.
An understanding of preferential flow in the vadose zone is crucial for the prediction of the fate of pollutants.
Infiltration basins, developed to mitigate the adverse effects of impervious surfaces in urban areas, are established above
strongly heterogeneous and highly permeable deposits and thus are prone to preferential flow and enhanced pollutant
transport. This study numerically investigates the establishment of preferential flow in an infiltration basin in the Lyon
suburbs (France) established over a highly heterogeneous glaciofluvial deposit covering much of the Lyon region. An investigation
of the soil transect (13.5 m long and 2.5 m deep) provided full characterization of lithology and hydraulic
properties of present lithofacies. Numerical modeling with the HYDRUS-2D model of water flow in the transect was
used to identify the effects of individual lithofacies that constitute the deposit. Multiple scenarios that considered different
levels of heterogeneity were evaluated. Preferential flow was studied for several values of infiltration rates applied
after a long dry period. The numerical study shows that the high contrast in hydraulic properties of different lithofacies
triggers the establishment of preferential flow (capillary barriers and funneled flow). Preferential flow develops mainly
for low water fluxes imposed at the surface. The role of individual lithofacies in triggering preferential flow depends on
their shapes (layering versus inclusions) and their sizes. While lenses and inclusions produce preferential flow pathways,
the presence of the surface layer has no effect on the development of preferential flow and it only affects the effective
hydraulic conductivity of the heterogeneous transect.
In this paper, I argue that the notion of ''best explanation'', as it appears in the Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE), can be defined in terms of explanatory power (EP) (i.e. the best explanation among a set of possible explanations is the one having the highest EP), if we employ a probabilistic measure of EP, which takes into account both the likelihoods and the prior probabilities of the compared explanatory hypotheses. Although the association between the EP of a hypothesis and its likelihood is largely uncontroversial, most of those working on EP do not see an association between EP and the prior probability of an explanatory hypothesis. I provide three examples (two toy examples and one from real scientific practice), in order to show that the role of priors in decisions about the best explanatory hypothesis deserves a serious consideration. I also show that such an explication of ''best explanation'' allows us to compare IBE and Bayesian confirmation theory (BCT) in terms of the probabilities they assign to two competing hypotheses, and thus to elicit the conditions under which both IBE and BCT lead to the same conclusion and are in this sense compatible., V tomto příspěvku tvrdím, že pojem ,,nejlepší vysvětlení'', jak je uveden v Úmluvě k nejlepšímu vysvětlení (IBE), lze definovat z hlediska vysvětlující síly (EP) (tj. Nejlepší vysvětlení mezi množstvím možných vysvětlení je ta, která má nejvyšší EP), pokud použijeme pravděpodobnostní měřítko EP, které bere v úvahu jak pravděpodobnosti, tak i předchozí pravděpodobnosti porovnávaných vysvětlujících hypotéz. Ačkoli asociace mezi EP hypotézy a její pravděpodobností je do značné míry nekontroverzní, většina z těch, kteří pracují na EP, nevidí asociaci mezi EP a předchozí pravděpodobností vysvětlující hypotézy. Uvádím tři příklady (dvě příklady hraček a jednu ze skutečné vědecké praxe), aby bylo zřejmé, že role předchůdců v rozhodování o nejlepší vysvětlující hypotéze si zaslouží seriózní zvážení. Rovněž dokazuji, že takové vysvětlení ,,nejlepšího vysvětlení'' nám umožňuje porovnat IBE a Bayesovskou potvrzovací teorii (BCT) z hlediska pravděpodobností, které přiřazují dvěma konkurenčním hypotézám, a tak vyvolat podmínky, za kterých IBE i BCT vedou k stejný závěr a jsou v tomto smyslu slučitelné., and Anton Donchev
Subtropical regions have clay-rich, weathered soils, and long dry periods followed by intense rainfall that produces large fluctuations in soil water content (SWC) and hydrological behavior. This complicates predictions of spatiotemporal dynamics, as datasets are typically collected at too coarse resolution and observations often represent a duration that is too short to capture temporal stability. The aim of the present study was to gain further insights into the role of temporal sampling scale on the observed temporal stability features of SWC order to aid the design of optimal SWC sampling strategies. This focused on both sampling frequency and total monitoring duration, as previous analyses have not considered both of these sampling aspects simultaneously. We collected relatively high resolution data of SWC (fortnightly over 3.5 years) for various soil depths and under contrasting crops (peanuts and citrus) at the red soil region of southeast China. The dataset was split into a three-year training period and a six-month evaluation period. Altogether 13 sampling frequencies (intervals ranging from 15 to 240 days) and eight monitoring duration periods (between three and 36 months) were derived from the training period to identify temporal stability features and the most time stable location (MTSL). The prediction accuracies of these MTSLs were tested using the independent evaluation data. Results showed that vegetation type did affect the spatio-temporal patterns of SWC, whereby the citrus site exhibited a stronger temporal variation and weaker temporal stability than the peanut site. However, the effects of both sampling frequency and observation duration were more pronounced, irrespective of the role of vegetation type or soil depth. With increasing sampling interval or decreasing monitoring duration, temporal stability of SWC was generally overestimated; by less than 10% when sampling interval increased from every 15 to 240 days and by up to 40% with duration decreasing from 36 to 3 months. Our results suggest that sampling strategies and trade-offs between sampling interval and duration should focus on capturing the main variability in hydro-climatological conditions. For subtropical conditions, we found that sampling once every 45 days over 24 months to be the minimum sampling strategy to ensure errors in SWC temporal stability of less than 10%.
Direct interpolation of daily runoff observations to ungauged sites is an alternative to hydrological model regionalisation. Such estimation is particularly important in small headwater basins characterized by sparse hydrological and climate observations, but often large spatial variability. The main objective of this study is to evaluate predictive accuracy of top-kriging interpolation driven by different number of stations (i.e. station densities) in an input dataset. The idea is to interpolate daily runoff for different station densities in Austria and to evaluate the minimum number of stations needed for accurate runoff predictions. Top-kriging efficiency is tested for ten different random samples in ten different stations densities. The predictive accuracy is evaluated by ordinary cross-validation and full-sample crossvalidations. The methodology is tested by using 555 gauges with daily observations in the period 1987-1997. The results of the cross-validation indicate that, in Austria, top-kriging interpolation is superior to hydrological model regionalisation if station density exceeds approximately 2 stations per 1000 km2 (175 stations in Austria). The average median of Nash-Sutcliffe cross-validation efficiency is larger than 0.7 for densities above 2.4 stations/1000 km2 . For such densities, the variability of runoff efficiency is very small over ten random samples. Lower runoff efficiency is found for low station densities (less than 1 station/1000 km2 ) and in some smaller headwater basins.
The role of stony soils in runoff response of mountain catchments is rarely studied. We have compared simulated response of stony soils with measured catchment runoff for events caused by rains of small and high intensities in the mountain catchment of the Jalovecký Creek, Slovakia. The soil water response was simulated for three sites with stoniness 10–65% using the Hydrus-2D single porosity model. Soil hydraulic parameters employed in the modelling, i. e. the saturated hydraulic conductivity and parameters of the soil water retention curves, were obtained by two approaches, namely by the Representative Elementary Volume approach (REVa) and by the inverse modelling with Hydrus-1D model (IMa). The soil water outflow hydrographs simulated by Hydrus-2D were compared to catchment runoff hydrographs by analysing their skewness and peak times. Measured catchment runoff hydrographs were similar to simulated soil water outflow hydrographs for about a half of rainfall events. Interestingly, most of them were caused by rainfalls with small intensity (below 2.5 mm/10 min). The REV approach to derive soil hydraulic parameters for soil water outflow modelling provided more realistic shapes of soil water outflow hydrographs and peak times than the IMa approach.
In this paper, I use Wittgenstein’s private language argument for reflecting on some folk-linguistic misconceptions. In Section 1, I show that elements of the private language semantics inform common ways of looking at some situations referred to as ''misunderstandings''. I suggest that it would be appropriate to conceive of the alleged misunderstandings as practical attitudes of mistreatment. This suggestion is explored in Section 2, which is devoted to a commonly assumed prominent example of the problem: the so-called inter-gender misunderstanding. It is believed that men and women use language in systematically different ways, as a result of which they do not understand each other properly, because they miss what their interlocutors ''mean''. The conceptual apparatus of mentalist semantics presumed here is abused in order to advocate morally reprehensible actions against women. In Section 3, I suggest that the Wittgensteinian accounts of language and mind offer arguments for denying private conceptions of understanding on the grounds of both philosophy of language and ethics., V tomto příspěvku používám argument Wittgensteinova soukromého jazyka, který reflektuje některé lidově-lingvistické mylné představy. V části 1 ukazuji, že prvky sémantiky soukromého jazyka informují o běžných způsobech, jak se podívat na některé situace označované jako ''nedorozumění''. Navrhuji, aby bylo možné považovat údajné nedorozumění za praktické postoje ohledně špatného zacházení. Tento návrh je zkoumán v části 2, která se věnuje běžně předpokládanému příkladnému problému: tzv. Nedorozumění mezi pohlavími. Předpokládá se, že muži a ženy používají jazyk systematicky různými způsoby, v důsledku čehož se správně nerozpoznávají, protože jim chybí to, co jejich partneři ''znamenají''. Konceptuální aparát mentalizované sémantiky, který se zde předpokládá, je zneužíván, aby obhajoval morálně odsouzené činy proti ženám. V sekci 3 navrhuji, aby Wittgensteinovské popisy jazyka a mysli nabízely argumenty pro popření soukromých koncepcí porozumění na základě filozofie jazyka a etiky., and Ondřej Beran