Without shared understanding, hardly any group learning takes place. Though much has been written about the essence of shared understanding, less is known about how to assess the process of reaching shared understanding. Therefore, the study focuses on ways of assessing shared understanding. A conceptual framework is described that makes a distinction between the process of reaching shared unde...

In the effort to develop critical cyberphysical systems, existing computing formalisms are extended to include continuous behaviour. This may happen in a way that neglects elements necessary for correct continuous properties and correct physical properties. A simple language is taken to illustrate this. Issues and risks latent in this kind of approach are identified and discussed under the umbr...

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abstract theories of behavior consumer deal with human behaviors as a being with will and purpose, so they are based on specific assumptions about the human nature and fundamentals of decision making. these assumptions often have ideological roots in different value systems consequently they are different in various these systems. the aim of this paper is to investigate these assumptions in the...

We propose a comprehensive Bayesian approach for graphical model determination in observational studies that can accommodate binary, ordinal or continuous variables simultaneously. Our new models are called copula Gaussian graphical models (CGGMs) and embed graphical model selection inside a semiparametric Gaussian copula. The domain of applicability of our methods is very broad and encompasses...

Instrumental variables (IVs) are used to control for confounding and measurement error in observational studies. They allow for the possibility of making causal inferences with observational data. Like propensity scores, IVs can adjust for both observed and unobserved confounding effects. Other methods of adjusting for confounding effects, which include stratification, matching and multiple reg...

Models are used extensively in research, in the social sciences [e.g. economics] as well as in the physical, chemical and biological sciences. As a preliminary definition one could think of a model as an attempt to describe a certain process or system through the use of a simplified representation, preferably a quantitative mathematical expression, that focuses on a relatively few key variables...