Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Imitating the knowledge management of communities of practice

Advances in technology have led to the development of knowledge management systems with the intention of improving organizational performance. Nevertheless, implementation of this kind of mechanisms is not an easy task due to the necessity of taking into account social aspects (such as reputation) that improve the exchange of information between groups of people. Considering, the advantages of working with groups with similar interests we have modelled communities of agents which represent communities of people interested in similar topics. In order to implement this model we propose a multi-agent architecture in charge of evaluating the relevance of the knowledge in a knowledge base and the degree of reputation that a person has as the contributor of information. We pay particular attention to showing how the use of the agents works by using a prototype system to search for knowledge related to a particular domain of a community of practice. Several communities of agents integrated into an organization have the capacity to follow the interaction process of employees when carrying out their daily activities.
An Instance based Dynamic Generalization Model for Coreference Resolution

The traditional coreference resolution methods use immutable models to handle all kinds of instances, once the model created, all the parameters and weight are fixed, and thus acquire good results in common examples, but neglect long tail instances. To deal with this problem, we present an instance based dynamic generalization algorithm (IDGen). IDGen constructs an exclusive model level by level automatically for every single instance withthegenerationpointscreatedfromthefeatures. Ineverygeneralizationlevel, wechoosethebestgeneralization point according to some criterions. The experiment shows that our IDGen algorithm is superior to the traditional methods.
Alleviating cold-user start problem with users ’ social network data in recommendation systems

The Internet and the Web 2.0 have radically changed the way of purchasing items, provoking the fall of geographic selling barriers all over the world. So large is the amount of data and items we can find in the Web that it turned out to be almost unmanageable. Due to this situation many algorithms have emerged trying to filter items for e-commerce users based in their tastes. In order to do this, these systems need information about the tastes of the users as input. This limitation is reduced as the users interaction with these systems increases. The main problem arises when new users enter a recommendation platform for the first time. The so called cold-start problem causes unsatisfactory random recommendations, which goes against these systems’ purpose. Cold-start includes users entering new systems, items, and even new systems. This situation challenges for new ways of obtaining user data. Social networks can be seen as huge information databases sources, and social network analysis would help us to do it using different techniques. In this paper, we present a solution which uses social network user data to generate first recommendations, alleviating the cold-user limitation. Besides, we have demonstrate that it is possible to reduce the colduser problem applying our solution in a recommendation system environment.
The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, Ethnography, and the Human Niche

Seeing bodies and evolutionary histories as quantifiable features that can be measured separately from the human cultural experience is an erroneous approach. Seeing cultural perceptions and the human experience as disentangled from biological form and function and evolutionary history is equally misguided. An integrative anthropology moves past dichotomous perspectives and seeks to entangle the “inside” and “outside,” methodologically and theoretically, to move beyond isolationist trends in understanding the human. In this paper I illustrate the underlying rationale for some anthropological lack of engagement with neo-Darwinian approaches and review contemporary evolutionary theory discussing how, in combination with a dynamic approach to human culture, it can facilitate integration in anthropology. Finally, I offer an overview of the human niche concept and propose a heuristic framework as a set of shared assumptions about human systems to help frame a sincerely anthropological and emphatically evolutionary approach to the human experience.
Framing Non-Formal Education through CSR 2.0

Schools and universities are not the only providers of knowledge any longer. Other types of organizations have become aware that a solid public-serving reason should lie beyond the firm-serving motive. “Doing well by doing good” has been the syntagm that prevails nowadays in the organizational discourse focused on corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns. This chapter has a twofold aim: to highlight two paradigmatic shifts (CSR 1.0 → CSR 2.0 & formal education → non-formal education), and to provide an analysis of the Web 2.0 practices and items and of the verbal and visual framing devices used in a CSR 2.0 campaign on non-formal financial education. Social media have provided the applications to put into practice the concept of edutainment specific to non-formal education since educators get a multifold identity, being, at the same time, generators and receivers of knowledge.
Reflections on mirror therapy in stroke: Mechanisms and effectiveness for improving hand function

textabstractStroke is currently the second cause of death in the western world; one year following stroke, half of all patients have died. From the surviving half, a large part remains disabled and 55% to 75% of them have a paretic arm. This makes stroke the main cause of acquired adult disability. Deficits after a stroke consist, amongst other things, of motor problems, sensory problems and spasticity, and can range from complete paralysis of the upper-extremity towards relatively minor coordination deficits. Such impairments affect an individual’s ability to complete everyday activities (disability) and affect participation in everyday life situations. As there is no cure for stroke, rehabilitation is the primary means of increasing upper limb functioning.
A population-based study of juvenile disc degeneration and its association with overweight and obesity, low back pain, and diminished functional status.

BACKGROUND Little is known regarding juvenile disc degeneration in individuals with normal spinal alignment. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence, determinants, and clinical relevance associated with juvenile disc degeneration of the lumbar spine in individuals without spinal deformities. METHODS A cross-sectional assessment of disc degeneration in juveniles was performed as part of a population-based study of 1989 Southern Chinese volunteers. Adolescents and young adults from thirteen to twenty years of age were defined as "juveniles. " Juvenile subjects with no spinal deformity (n = 83) were stratified into two groups, those with and those without juvenile disc degeneration. Sagittal T2-weighted magnetic resonance images (MRI) were evaluated for the presence and extent of disc degeneration as well as other spinal findings. Demographics were assessed and clinical profiles were collected with use of standardized questionnaires. RESULTS Juvenile disc degeneration was present in 35% (twenty-nine) of the juveniles without spinal deformity. Disc bulging or extrusion (p < 0.001), high-intensity zones on MRI (p = 0.040), and greater weight (p < 0.001) and height (p = 0.002) were significantly more prevalent in subjects with juvenile disc degeneration. Adjusted multivariate logistic regression modeling demonstrated that Asian-modified body-mass index (BMI) values in the overweight or obese range had a significant association with juvenile disc degeneration (odds ratio = 14.19; 95% confidence interval = 1.44 to 140.40; p = 0.023). Overweight and obese individuals had greater severity of disc degeneration than underweight and normal-weight individuals (p = 0.036). Furthermore, individuals with juvenile disc degeneration had an increased prevalence of low back pain and/or sciatica (p = 0.002), greater low back pain intensity (p < 0.001), diminished social functioning (p = 0.049), and greater physical disability (p < 0.05) than individuals without disc degeneration. The p value of <0.05 for physical disability represents both the physical function (p = 0.006) and the physical component (p = 0.032) of the SF-36. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that the presence of juvenile disc degeneration was strongly associated with overweight and obesity, low back pain, increased low back pain intensity, and diminished physical and social functioning. Furthermore, an elevated BMI was significantly associated with increased severity of disc degeneration. This study has public health implications regarding overweight and obesity and the development of lumbar disc disease.
Neurochemical Modulators of Sleep and Anesthetic States

The regulation of consciousness is a fundamental question that has a long and storied association with philosophy. Today, consciousness studies command a central position in contemporary neuroscience1-3. The complexities of consciousness studies and the pressing demands of clinical care have led most anesthesiologists to focus on research problems with pragmatic outcomes. Yet the ability to accurately assess and manipulate states of consciousness with anesthetic drugs is the ultimate concern for every surgical patient and anesthesia provider. This volume recognizes consciousness studies as a legitimate and accessible concern for anesthesiology. This chapter considers the relationship between molecules known to regulate the loss of consciousness during anesthesia and molecules that regulate the loss of consciousness during physiological sleep. Sleep neurobiology has been shown to provide unique insights into the study of consciousness4-6. The proposal7,8 that neuronal networks that evolved to generate states of sleep and wakefulness also contribute to the generation of anesthetic states has been supported by many laboratories9-19. There is evidence that the loss of consciousness during sleep is caused, in part, by the loss of functional connectivity and information processing20. Functional connectivity is critically dependent on neurochemical transmission. Therefore, this chapter focuses on intravenous and volatile anesthetics that have been shown to alter endogenous neurotransmitters known to regulate states of consciousness. Reviews on sleep from an anesthesiology perspective are available elsewhere8,21-24. The present overview is derived from a September 2007 PubMed title search of peer-reviewed papers linking 10 commonly used anesthetics with 11 endogenous molecules known to regulate states of consciousness. The list of intravenous anesthetics includes propofol, pentobarbital, ketamine, etomidate, and midazolam. The list of volatile anesthetics includes isoflurane, sevoflurane, nitrous oxide, xenon, and desflurane. The 11 endogenous molecules known to regulate sleep/wake states25 include acetylcholine (ACh), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), glutamate, adenosine, dopamine, histamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, hypocretin/orexin, glycine, and galanin. This 10 by 11 matrix was searched from 1950 to 2007 and identified 660 references. A search of the last 10 years (1997 to 2007) revealed a total of 192 references (Tables 1 and ​and22). Table 1 Intravenous Anesthetic Agents and Sleep-Related Neurotransmitters Table 2 Volatile Anesthetic Agents and Sleep-Related Neurotransmitters
Biological Simplexity and Linguistic Cognition

Abstract I use biological simplexity to argue that, since the natural world repeats tricks such as emotion, inhibition, or anticipation, language can emerge from coordinated embodiment. In exemplifying the claim, I show how, in both face-to-face dialogue and text messaging, felt experience is yoked to verbal patterning. Language activity is multi-scalar, individual, and collective: people mesh vocal, manual, and gestural techniques with embodied coordination. People gain cognitive skills that link historically derived patterns with how, as vertebrates, they mesh perception with action (in perçaction). This view applies to evolution, know-how, and individual-collective agency: as people draw on the logic shown in the Taiji Yin-Yang emblem, they use language to change the bio-ecology (plant-animal-human-cultural formations) as cultural products transform terrestrial life. It is concluded that recognition of the simplex nature of language can help linguists and semioticians play a major part in reducing the degradation of the living world.
Metabolic and safety issues for multiple sclerosis pharmacotherapy – opportunities for personalised medicine

Introduction: A number of disease-modifying therapies have become available to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) in recent years. As the effects of these medications are unpredictable and they are generally used for a number of years, the selection of the most appropriate disease-modifying agent must be based on the long-term efficacy and toxicity profile, thus strategies to personalise treatment to optimise responses may be potentially very useful. Areas covered: This review provides an overview of the efficacy and toxicity of disease-modifying agents used in MS and specifically discusses any metabolic side effects and advances in personalising the use of each of these agents. Medline and EMBASE were searched for any articles regarding the efficacy, toxicity and personalised use of the medicines discussed in this review. Expert opinion: Disease-modifying agents used to treat MS differ substantially in their efficacy and toxicity profile, but metabolic side effects appear to be limited to alemtuzumab, teriflunomide and IFN-β. Although personalised treatment strategies to assist in selection of the most appropriate disease-modifying agent for MS are limited, there is substantial potential to use genetic sub-studies of the many recent trials investigating disease-modifying agents to develop personalised treatment strategies.
Multicloud Deployment of Computing Clusters for Loosely Coupled MTC Applications

Cloud computing is gaining acceptance in many IT organizations, as an elastic, flexible, and variable-cost way to deploy their service platforms using outsourced resources. Unlike traditional utilities where a single provider scheme is a common practice, the ubiquitous access to cloud resources easily enables the simultaneous use of different clouds. In this paper, we explore this scenario to deploy a computing cluster on the top of a multicloud infrastructure, for solving loosely coupled Many-Task Computing (MTC) applications. In this way, the cluster nodes can be provisioned with resources from different clouds to improve the cost effectiveness of the deployment, or to implement high-availability strategies. We prove the viability of this kind of solutions by evaluating the scalability, performance, and cost of different configurations of a Sun Grid Engine cluster, deployed on a multicloud infrastructure spanning a local data center and three different cloud sites: Amazon EC2 Europe, Amazon EC2 US, and ElasticHosts. Although the testbed deployed in this work is limited to a reduced number of computing resources (due to hardware and budget limitations), we have complemented our analysis with a simulated infrastructure model, which includes a larger number of resources, and runs larger problem sizes. Data obtained by simulation show that performance and cost results can be extrapolated to large-scale problems and cluster infrastructures.
FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES OF JAPANESE LETTERS (kana and kanji) IN MEMORY STUDIES

Japanese orthography is of two types, kana and kanji. Kana is phonogram, and kanji is considered as idiogram. The present experiments were conduc-ted with the purpose of examining differences of functions in regard to verbal materials in Japanese orthography. Verbal materials in experiments were of several single letters (kana and kanji), each corresponding to one-syllable sound; kana corresponding to the used kanji was of one syllable(pho- nem)without a porticular meaning, and kanji was of one syllable and one meaning. The results of experiments were as follows. of pronounceable and A of of present semantic and each of
Acute versus Chronic Pain Experience in Alzheimer’s Disease

The low use of analgesics in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), compared to nondemented elderly persons, is generally explained by (1) a lower prevalence of painful conditions in the former group and (2) undertreatment of pain due to a decrease in communicative abilities in AD. However, considering the neuropathology in limbic areas in this disorder, a decline in pain affect may also explain this phenomenon. In the present study, a newly developed questionnaire was applied to 20 elderly persons without dementia, 20 patients in an early stage and 20 patients in a midstage of AD. The questionnaire includes 10 pairs of painful situations, each pair consisting of an acute and a chronic affective painful situation. It was hypothesized that, compared to controls, AD patients during the course of the disease would report to suffer increasingly more from an acute than from a chronic, affective painful situation. The results support our hypothesis. Limitations of the present study are discussed.
Resampling approach for anomaly detection in multispectral images

We propose a novel approach for identifying the "most unusual" samples in a data set, based on a resampling of data attributes. The resampling produces a "background class" and then binary classification is used to distinguish the original training set from the background. Those in the training set that are most like the background (i.e., most unlike the rest of the training set) are considered anomalous. Although by their nature, anomalies do not permit a positive definition (if I knew what they were, I wouldn't call them anomalies), one can make "negative definitions" (I can say what does not qualify as an interesting anomaly). By choosing different resampling schemes, one can identify different kinds of anomalies. For multispectral images, anomalous pixels correspond to locations on the ground with unusual spectral signatures or, depending on how feature sets are constructed, unusual spatial textures.
Minor Tweaks, Major Payoffs: The Problems and Promise of Situationism in Moral Philosophy

© 2010 Hagop Sarkissian T hroughout the 1980s, pharmaceutical companies bestowed lavish gifts on health care practitioners, including free travel, equipment, and accommodation. The size and frequency of these gifts raised concerns that the medical profession’s integrity was being compromised. As a result, voluntary guidelines were introduced in 1991 limiting their value to $100 or less. It was thought that smaller gifts such as pens, pads, calendars, and samples of drugs would pose no threat. This line of thinking was false. Several studies now confirm that even minor gifts of this sort can lead to major changes in physicians’ practices, including rising volumes of prescriptions, erratic prescribing patterns, preferences for new drugs with unproven benefits, and increased prescription spending overall.1 Despite the substantial evidence demonstrating these effects, physicians regularly deny that small gifts alter their practices, and if not for the work of social scientists, many outside the profession would probably agree. After all, how could these intelligent, highly trained, and rational individuals be swayed by so little? Such sensible thoughts would have been radically misguided. Minor trinkets yield major payoffs for pharmaceutical companies. In this paper, I argue that something similar holds true in the realm of interpersonal morality. Our interactions with others can also be shaped by small details of our situations, and the effects can be just as considerable. Indeed, our sensitivity to immediate situational triggers has not escaped the notice of recent moral philosophers, who have explored the issue in the form of situationist social psychology, or situationism — the thesis that we routinely underestimate the extent to which minor situational variables influence morally significant behavior.2 Situationism has been seen as a threat to prevailing lay and philosophical theories of character, personhood, and agency, leading many
Choreographing Empathy: Kinesthesia in Performance

On the cover of both of these two books are photographs of women in loose white pants—arms extended, wrists twisted, each wearing concentrated facial expressions; both seen from front and back as if doubling in a mirror. Perhaps suggested by the reaching gesture, the bodies seem to implore the viewer. It is as if movement is held out and yet in abeyance, incomplete within the image, thus awaiting further fulfillment and explanation. As with the images, both books grapple with the conundrum of how movement communicates to a viewer, and how feelings might be evoked, whether kinesthetically or choreographically. Similar but different—one more historical, the other more fragmented—they also address the timely question of empathy in creative practice.
The effect of prolonged pneumoperitoneum on renal function in an animal model.

BACKGROUND Prolonged, increased intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) during laparoscopic surgery has been associated with oliguria and anuria. STUDY DESIGN The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of various levels of IAP on renal function. Ten groups of three adult female farm pigs were given a general anesthetic, followed by establishment of an IAP of 0, 5, 10, 15, or 20 mm Hg with CO2, 20 mm Hg with argon gas, abdominal wall lift device, renal vein occlusion (RVO), 15 mm Hg with CO2 plus dopamine administration at 2 microgram/kg/minute, or 20 mm Hg retroperitoneal CO2 insufflation. The following studies were recorded: baseline central venous pressure (CVP), pulmonary wedge pressure (PWP), cardiac output (CO), renal vein flow (RVF), renal artery pressure (RAP), selective urine output (UO), urinary osmolarity, and creatinine clearance; the parameters were repeated every 30 minutes for the four hours of the IAP study and two hours after release of the IAP. RESULTS The results were analyzed within two main IAP groups: less than 15 mm Hg and greater than or equal to 15 mm Hg. There was no clinically significant variation in the CVP, PWP, and RAP. The CO decreased slightly and this was more significant in the greater than or equal to 15 mm Hg group. The RVF and UO decreased concomitantly and significantly in the greater than or equal to 15 mm Hg group. Even after two hours of desufflation, the RVF did not return to baseline, although the UO improved. Creatinine clearance decreased significantly in the greater than or equal to 15 mm Hg group. The RVO group exhibited similar changes in the study parameters as those seen in the greater than or equal to 15 mm Hg group, although the RVF did not improve on release of the renal vein in the RVO group. Changes were the same with an argon or CO2 IAP of 20 mm Hg. The abdominal wall lift device had an associated decrease in RVF at 15 KG force but no alteration in UO. Retroperitoneal insufflation resulted in the same decrease in RVF and UO as seen with the same IAP. Dopamine did not afford a protective effect on UO during an IAP of 15 mm Hg. CONCLUSIONS The decreased UO during prolonged IAP greater than or equal to 15 mm Hg in the animal model is associated with a corresponding decrease in RVF, but does not appear to be associated with any permanent renal derangement nor any transient histologic changes.