A Characteristic Function Approach to Inconsistency Measures for Knowledge Bases.

Knowledge is an important component in many intelligent systems.
Since items of knowledge in a knowledge base can be conflicting, especially if
there are multiple sources contributing to the knowledge in this base, significant
research efforts have been made on developing inconsistency measures for
knowledge bases and on developing merging approaches. Most of these efforts
start with flat knowledge bases. However, in many real-world applications, items
of knowledge are not perceived with equal importance, rather, weights (which
can be used to indicate the importance or priority) are associated with items of
knowledge. Therefore, measuring the inconsistency of a knowledge base with
weighted formulae as well as their merging is an important but difficult task. In
this paper, we derive a numerical characteristic function from each knowledge
base with weighted formulae, based on the Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence.
Using these functions, we are able to measure the inconsistency of the knowledge
base in a convenient and rational way, and are able to merge multiple knowledge
bases with weighted formulae, even if knowledge in these bases may be
inconsistent. Furthermore, by examining whether multiple knowledge bases are
dependent or independent, they can be combined in different ways using their
characteristic functions, which cannot be handled (or at least have never been
considered) in classic knowledge based merging approaches in the literature.

4-Amino-1,8-naphthalimide-based Tröger's bases as high affinity DNA targeting fluorescent supramolecular scaffolds

The synthesis and photophysical and biological investigation of fluorescent 1,8-naphthalimide conjugated Troger's bases 1-3 are described. These structures bind strongly to DNA in competitive media at pH 7.4, with concomitant modulation in their fluorescence emission. These structures also undergo rapid cellular uptake, being localized within the nucleus within a few hours, and are cytotoxic against HL60 and (chronic myeloid leukemia) K562 cell lines.

Neural adaptations associated with interlimb transfer in a ballistic wrist flexion task.

Cross education is the process whereby training of one limb gives rise to increases in the subsequent performance of its opposite counterpart. The execution of many unilateral tasks is associated with increased excitability of corticospinal projections from primary motor cortex (M1) to the opposite limb. It has been proposed that these effects are causally related. Our aim was to establish whether changes in corticospinal excitability arising from prior training of the opposite limb determine levels of interlimb transfer.

We used three vision conditions shown previously to modulate the excitability of corticospinal projections to the inactive (right) limb during wrist flexion movements performed by the training (left) limb. These were: mirrored visual feedback of the training limb; no visual feedback of either limb; and visual feedback of the inactive limb. Training comprised 300 discrete, ballistic wrist flexion movements executed as rapidly as possible. Performance of the right limb on the same task was assessed prior to, at the mid point of, and following left limb training.

There was no evidence that variations in the excitability of corticospinal projections (assessed by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)) to the inactive limb were associated with, or predictive of, the extent of interlimb transfer that was expressed. There were however associations between alterations in muscle activation dynamics observed for the untrained limb, and the degree of positive transfer that arose from training of the opposite limb.

The results suggest that the acute adaptations that mediate the bilateral performance gains realised through unilateral practice of this ballistic wrist flexion task are mediated by neural elements other than those within M1 that are recruited at rest by single-pulse TMS.