O problema da predição racional, lançado por Wesley Salmon, é sem dúvida o calcanhar de Aquiles do método crítico preconizado por Popper. Neste artigo, avalio a resposta que tanto Popper quanto o popperiano Alan Musgrave deram a este problema. Ambas as respostas são inadequadas e, assim, a conclusão de Salmon é reforçada: sem apelar à indução, não há como fazer da predição prática uma ação racional. Além disso, o método crítico precisa ser vindicado se se pretende que a sua aplicação seja adequada para a preferência de hipóteses. Argumento que a natureza desta vindicação é tal que ela também pode ser aplicada à indução. Assim, ser um popperiano é uma boa razão para ser também um indutivista.

In this paper we advocate the thesis that qualia are tropes (or qualitons), and not (universal) properties. The main advantage of the thesis is that we can accept both the Wittgensteinian and Sellarsian assault on the given and the claim that only subjective and private states can do justice to the qualitative character of experience. We hint that if we take qualia to be tropes, we dissolve the problem of inverted qualia. We develop an account of sensory concept acquisition that takes the presence of qualia as an enabling condition for learning. We argue that qualia taken to be qualitons are part of our mechanism of sensory concept acquisition.

The spatial distribution of demographic variables is essential in Population and Environment studies, but the data of secondary sources – e.g. the Demographic Census – are not always provided on territorial units suitable to population distribution and landscape characteristics. In this work, we aggregate the micro-data from the Population Count 2007, of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), in regular grids based on household coordinates. Unlike the use of mathematical models for the spatial distribution of data, this methodology is based on the real distribution of households over the territory and enables the aggregation of population data in more adequate areas for population and environment studies, without facing problems with statistical confidentiality breach. The results are closer to the ones found in the field, besides being comparable with old and new surveys conducted by IBGE.

In this paper, novel solutions for strings with three angular momenta in AdS5 × S 5 geometry are presented; the divergent energy limit and the corresponding conserved charges, as well as dispersion relation are also determined. Interpretations of these configurations as either a giant magnon (GM) or a spiky string (SS) are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to extend the concept of a generalized Lie 3-algebra, known to the divisional algebra of the octonions

We consider pulsating strings in Lunin-Maldacena backgrounds, specifically in deformed Minkowski spacetime and deformed AdS5 × S 5. We find the relation between the energy and the oscillation number of the pulsating string when the deformation is small. Since the oscillation number is an adiabatic invariant it can be used to explore the regime of highly excited string states. We then quantize the string and look for such a sector. For the deformed Minkowski background we find a precise match with the classical results if the oscillation number is quantized as an even number. For the deformed AdS5 × S 5 we find a contribution which depends on the deformation parameter.