Performing knowledge requirements analysis for public organisations in a Virtual Learning Environment: a social network analysis approach

This paper describes an application of Social Network Analysis methods for identification of knowledge demands in public organisations. Affiliation networks established in a postgraduate programme were analysed. The course was executed in a distance education mode and its students worked on public agencies. Relations established among course participants were mediated through a virtual learning environment using Moodle. Data available in Moodle may be extracted using knowledge discovery in databases techniques. Potential degrees of closeness existing among different organisations and among researched subjects were assessed. This suggests how organisations could cooperate for knowledge management and also how to identify their common interests. The study points out that closeness among organisations and research topics may be assessed through affiliation networks. This opens up opportunities for applying knowledge management between organisations and creating communities of practice. Concepts of knowledge management and social network analysis provide the theoretical and methodological basis.

Big data architecture for pervasive healthcare: a literature review

Pervasive healthcare aims to deliver deinstitutionalised healthcare services to patients anytime and anywhere. Pervasive healthcare involves remote data collection through mobile devices and sensor network which the data is usually in large volume, varied formats and high frequency. The nature of big data such as volume, variety, velocity and veracity, together with its analytical capabilities com-plements the delivery of pervasive healthcare. However, there is limited research in intertwining these two domains. Most research focus mainly on the technical context of big data application in the healthcare sector. Little attention has been paid to a strategic role of big data which impacts the quality of healthcare services provision at the organisational level. Therefore, this paper delivers a conceptual view of big data architecture for pervasive healthcare via an intensive literature review to address the aforementioned research problems. This paper provides three major contributions: 1) identifies the research themes of big data and pervasive healthcare, 2) establishes the relationship between research themes, which later composes the big data architecture for pervasive healthcare, and 3) sheds a light on future research, such as semiosis and sense-making, and enables practitioners to implement big data in the pervasive healthcare through the proposed architecture.

Validation of a priori CME arrival predictions made using real-time heliospheric imager observations

Between December 2010 and March 2013, volunteers for the Solar Stormwatch (SSW) Citizen Science project have identified and analyzed coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the near real-time Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory Heliospheric Imager observations, in order to make “Fearless Forecasts” of CME arrival times and speeds at Earth. Of the 60 predictions of Earth-directed CMEs, 20 resulted in an identifiable Interplanetary CME (ICME) at Earth within 1.5–6 days, with an average error in predicted transit time of 22 h, and average transit time of 82.3 h. The average error in predicting arrival speed is 151 km s−1, with an average arrival speed of 425km s−1. In the same time period, there were 44 CMEs for which there are no corresponding SSW predictions, and there were 600 days on which there was neither a CME predicted nor observed. A number of metrics show that the SSW predictions do have useful forecast skill; however, there is still much room for improvement. We investigate potential improvements by using SSW inputs in three models of ICME propagation: two of constant acceleration and one of aerodynamic drag. We find that taking account of interplanetary acceleration can improve the average errors of transit time to 19 h and arrival speed to 77 km s−1.

Saplings or caterpillars? Trying to understand children's wellbeing

Is childhood valuable? And is childhood as, less, or more, valuable than adulthood? In this essay I first delineate several different questions that we might be asking when we think about the ‘value of childhood’, and I explore some difficulties of doing so. I then focus on the question of whether childhood is good for the person who experiences it. I argue for two key claims. First, if childhood wellbeing is measured by the same standards as adulthood, then children are worse off than adults. Second, if childhood and adulthood wellbeing are measured by different standards, then we cannot compare them, and children are neither better off nor worse off than adults. This has some counter-intuitive implications, such as we do not harm persons by depriving them of a childhood, nor by keeping them as children for elongated periods.

Chinese overseas doctoral student narratives of intercultural adaptation

This study aims to explore how Chinese overseas doctoral students adjust to a different academic, social and cultural environment, using Giddens’ theoretical framework of self-identity (1991). The findings indicate the participants proactively used various coping strategies in meeting challenges, and adapting to new social environments. Continuity and stability of self-identity were achieved either culturally or academically through self-reflexivity, autonomy, creativity, authenticity, and reliance on an ontological identity. The result is to challenge the grand narrative of essentialised “problematic Chinese learners”.

Moral uncertainty and permissibility: evaluating option sets

In this essay, we explore an issue of moral uncertainty: what we are permitted to do when we are unsure about which moral principles are correct. We develop a novel approach to this issue that incorporates important insights from previous work on moral uncertainty, while avoiding some of the difficulties that beset existing alternative approaches. Our approach is based on evaluating and choosing between option sets rather than particular conduct options. We show how our approach is particularly well-suited to address this issue of moral uncertainty with respect to agents that have credence in moral theories that are not fully consequentialist.

TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR IS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH INTESTINAL ISCHEMIA/REPERFUSION-INDUCED LUNG INFLAMMATION

Intestinal ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury may cause acute systemic and lung inflammation. Here, we revisited the role of TNF-alpha in an intestinal I/R model in mice, showing that this cytokine is not required for the local and remote inflammatory response upon intestinal I/R injury using neutralizing TNF-alpha antibodies and TNF ligand-deficient mice. We demonstrate increased neutrophil recruitment in the lung as assessed by myeloperoxidase activity and augmented IL-6, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, and KC levels, whereas TNF-alpha levels in serum were not increased and only minimally elevated in intestine and lung upon intestinal I/R injury. Importantly, TNF-alpha antibody neutralization neither diminished neutrophil recruitment nor any of the cytokines and chemokines evaluated. In addition, the inflammatory response was not abrogated in TNF and TNF receptors 1 and 2-deficient mice. However, in view of the damage on the intestinal barrier upon intestinal I/R with systemic bacterial translocation, we asked whether Toll-like receptor (TLR) activation is driving the inflammatory response. In fact, the inflammatory lung response is dramatically reduced in TLR2/4-deficient mice, confirming an important role of TLR receptor signaling causing the inflammatory lung response. In conclusion, endogenous TNF-alpha is not or minimally elevated and plays no role as a mediator for the inflammatory response upon ischemic tissue injury. By contrast, TLR2/4 signaling induces an orchestrated cytokine/chemokine response leading to local and remote pulmonary inflammation, and therefore disruption of TLR signaling may represent an alternative therapeutic target.

Trajetos cênicos do grupo parafolclórico da UFRN:que dança é essa?

This paper aims at studying UFRN Parafolclórico Group, whose aesthetic formation is subjected to our analysis, specially at its two last performances, that is, Flor do Lírio (Lily Flower), 2004, and Debaixo do Barro do Chão (Under the Mud of the Ground), 2008. Three targets are envisaged here: to analyze the aesthetic ideas backing Parafolclórico Group exhibitions; to evaluate how their many folk elements interact with different artist languages in order to compose a certain choreography; and finally, to identify the aesthetic conformation placed behind the two different choreographs of the last performances, their trends and innermost features that differentiate them. In accordance with the Analysis of Contents (BARDIN, 2006), interviews have been made with the choreographers and the staff of the spectacles, resulting in elucidating answers to the understanding of their thematic axis. On the first chapter we called attention to motivating subjects as recollection, personal experiences, bibliography research, research in loco regarded as propelling forces of the creative works. Herein, folk culture is depicted as a dynamic process opening a frank dialogue with contemporary events and reinforcing their continuity. On the second chapter, we approached the aesthetic conformation and the scenic elements (costumes, light, scenario, make-up), integrating the studied spectacles and disseminating folk songs in various ways. As what concerns the subjects discourse, we have obtained support in authors like Robatto (1994); Lobo; Navas (2008); Burke (1989); Canclini (2006); Dufrenne (2005); Medeiros (2005); Pavis (2005); Silva (2005), among others. Those authors have provided us with an indispensable theoretic support which, added to the interviews, convinced us that the Parafolclórico Group s aesthetic conception tends to identify itself with the artist languages and other techniques of that Group. It also made sure that the Group s course aims at an aesthetic conception which is not limited to popular culture manifestations, like dance, but admits to play with other media in order to communicate its art. In view of this situation, we arrived to two conclusions: first: the group s interchanges emphasize the dynamic character of popular culture which, by establishing contacts with different realities, receives influences capable of extending its own continuity; second: the contemporary state of arts also improves multiple interchanges opening way, so, for many accomplishments in their field. Therefore, UFRN Parafolclórico Group inserts itself in the contemporary scenery by performing new evaluations of the popular dances as long as it puts them in contact with different technical, aesthetic, artist and culture combinations

Caracterização anatômica e fitoquímica de folhas e rizomas de Hedychium coronarium J. König (Zingiberaceae)

Devido a grande potencialidade na utilização de Hedychium coronarium, na medicina popular e também como biorremediadora no tratamento de efluentes, objetivou-se uma diagnose dos órgãos, folha e rizoma, para elucidar resultados estruturais e fitoquímicos. A folha é anfiestomática, com predominância de estômatos na face abaxial. em ambas as superfícies foliares há projeções de cera epicuticular sobre as paredes anticlinais das células epidérmicas. O mesofilo dorsiventral apresenta hipoderme multisseriada (3 camadas) em ambos os lados. O parênquima clorofiliano é diferenciado em paliçádico (1-2 camadas) e lacunoso (4-5 camadas) com muitos espaços intercelulares e ocorrência de idioblastos cristalíferos. Na nervura central, o aerênquima ocorre em único arco na região abaxial. Os feixes vasculares distribuem-se aleatoriamente e são de diferentes tamanhos, pequenos, médios e grandes, envolvidos por fibras. Os feixes menores localizam-se no lado abaxial da nervura. A triagem fitoquímica das folhas mostrou a presença de saponinas e ausência de taninos, antraquinonas, alcalóides e flavonóides. Por meio de Cromatografia em Camada Delgada foram identificadas as presenças de cariofileno e mirceno no óleo essencial bruto obtido a partir das folhas de H. coronarium.

Desenvolvimento in vitro de copo-de-leite: efeito das concentrações de sacarose e de ácido giberélico

Calla lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica) is appreciated as cut flower and for the composition of gardens. However, many pathogens affect this species. By the traditional method of propagation, some units of new seedlings can only be produced annually. Tissue culture allows fast large-scale clonal propagation and provides healthy uniform plants. During the in vitro process, type and concentration of growth regulator could affect the growth of seedlings. Thus, the aim of this work was to determine sucrose and GA(3) concentrations to increase the efficiency of the in vitro multiplication of calla lily. After 60 days, the length of the above ground part and the roots, the number of sprouts, roots and leaves, above ground part and root fresh weight of seedlings were evaluated. The experimental design was entirely randomized with four replications. It was necessary the addition of 60.5 g L-1 sucrose associated to 5 mg L-1 GA(3) to obtain hight sprouts number. For higher length of the above ground part the addition of 45.3 g L-1 sucrose and 10 mg L-1 GA(3) was enough. Better results in the root length and number of roots were observed only in the sucrose presence, in concentrations in the range of 51.13 - 56.5 g L-1.

Birds of a eucalyptus woodlot in interior São Paulo.

Some 255 birds were recorded between 1982-2001 in and near a 2314-ha Horto of old eucalyptus plantations with native understory and a lake, near Rio Claro, in central São Paulo, Brazil. This is close to the 263 recorded in and around a ten-times smaller nearby 230-ha woodlot of semideciduous forest. Different species were 44, for a total of 307 in both areas. One hundred and fifty nonvagrant forest and border species were recorded in 1982-86, a number close to the 152 in the small native woodlot. With dry years and logging of plots in 1985-93, 21 of the 150 species were lost, 42 species decreased in numbers, 49 were stable, 19 increased (15 being border species), and 5 entered (one of dry forest and 4 of borders), so 129 species remained in 1996-2001 compared to 133 in the native woodlot. Open-area birds were 33, versus 50 in better-checked grassy swales in sugar cane near the natural woodlot, for a total of 53. Several species, like some border ones, did not enter the open but isolated and mowed interior lake area, or took years to do so. Water and marsh birds were 46 versus 40 in smaller creeks and ponds near the natural woodlot (total, 55) but many were migrants or infrequent visitors using distant areas, and perhaps should be counted as 0.1-0.9 local species rather than 1 species. Use of this more accurate method would reduce waterbird totals by 14 species in the Horto and by 11 around the native woodlot. I also recommend longer censusing at the edges in large woodlots or many edge species will be recorded only in small fragments of habitat. Several species increased and others decreased with occasional cat-tail and water-lily cleanups at the lake. A forested corridor between the Horto and natural woodlot is recommended, with old eucalyptus left to provide flowers for hummingbirds.

Clinical and molecular phenotype of Aicardi-Goutières syndrome

Aicardi-Goutières syndrome (AGS) is a genetic encephalopathy whose clinical features mimic those of acquired in utero viral infection. AGS exhibits locus heterogeneity, with mutations identified in genes encoding the 3′→5′ exonuclease TREX1 and the three subunits of the RNASEH2 endonuclease complex. To define the molecular spectrum of AGS, we performed mutation screening in patients, from 127 pedigrees, with a clinical diagnosis of the disease. Biallelic mutations in TREX1, RNASEH2A, RNASEH2B, and RNASEH2C were observed in 31, 3, 47, and 18 families, respectively. In five families, we identified an RNASEH2A or RNASEH2B mutation on one allele only. In one child, the disease occurred because of a de novo heterozygous TREX1 mutation. In 22 families, no mutations were found. Null mutations were common in TREX1, although a specific missense mutation was observed frequently in patients from northern Europe. Almost all mutations in RNASEH2A, RNASEH2B, and RNASEH2C were missense. We identified an RNASEH2C founder mutation in 13 Pakistani families. We also collected clinical data from 123 mutation-positive patients. Two clinical presentations could be delineated: an early-onset neonatal form, highly reminiscent of congenital infection seen particularly with TREX1 mutations, and a later-onset presentation, sometimes occurring after several months of normal development and occasionally associated with remarkably preserved neurological function, most frequently due to RNASEH2B mutations. Mortality was correlated with genotype; 34.3% of patients with TREX1, RNASEH2A, and RNASEH2C mutations versus 8.0% RNASEH2B mutation-positive patients were known to have died (P = .001). Our analysis defines the phenotypic spectrum of AGS and suggests a coherent mutation-screening strategy in this heterogeneous disorder. Additionally, our data indicate that at least one further AGS-causing gene remains to be identified. © 2007 by The American Society of Human Genetics. All rights reserved.

Social disparity and oral health

There is a clear reported association between social disparity and oral health, for example, between dental caries and malnutrition in children. This fact is detected in several studies, and also found amongst the Brazilian population. However, several efforts have been made to improve the quality of life of the population and to achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goals. Oral health is a branch to be improved among these goals. The Brazilian experience has been drawing the attention of authorities, insofar as there have been direct improvements in oral health through state oral health programs, and also indirect results by improving the quality of life of the population. Included within the Brazilian oral health programs are the Family Health Program and Smiling Brazil Program. The former is a global healthcare program which involves primary oral healthcare, while the latter is a specialized oral care program. Among the social programs that would indirectly improve oral health are Family Stipend and the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal (ELS-IINN). In conclusion, although oral health problems are related to socioeconomic factors, the implementation of primary oral health programs and programs to improve the population's quality of life may directly or indirectly improve the oral health scenario. This fact is being observed in Brazil, where the oral health policies have changed, and social programs have been implemented.