Evolutionary model trees for handling continuous classes in machine learning

Model trees are a particular case of decision trees employed to solve regression problems. They have the advantage of presenting an interpretable output, helping the end-user to get more confidence in the prediction and providing the basis for the end-user to have new insight about the data, confirming or rejecting hypotheses previously formed. Moreover, model trees present an acceptable level of predictive performance in comparison to most techniques used for solving regression problems. Since generating the optimal model tree is an NP-Complete problem, traditional model tree induction algorithms make use of a greedy top-down divide-and-conquer strategy, which may not converge to the global optimal solution. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm based on the use of the evolutionary algorithms paradigm as an alternate heuristic to generate model trees in order to improve the convergence to globally near-optimal solutions. We call our new approach evolutionary model tree induction (E-Motion). We test its predictive performance using public UCI data sets, and we compare the results to traditional greedy regression/model trees induction algorithms, as well as to other evolutionary approaches. Results show that our method presents a good trade-off between predictive performance and model comprehensibility, which may be crucial in many machine learning applications. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Integrating a sense of coherence into the neonatal environment

Background: Family centred care (FCC) is currently a valued philosophy within neonatal care; an approach that places the parents at the heart of all decision-making and engagement in the care of their infant. However, to date, there is a lack of clarity regarding the definition of FCC and limited evidence of FCCs effectiveness in relation to parental, infant or staff outcomes. Discussion: In this paper we present a new perspective to neonatal care based on Aaron Antonovksy's Sense of Coherence (SOC) theory of well-being and positive health. Whilst the SOC was originally conceptualised as a psychological-based construct, the SOCs three underpinning concepts of comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness provide a theoretical lens through which to consider and reflect upon meaningful care provision in this particular care environment. By drawing on available FCC research, we consider how the SOC concepts considered from both a parental and professional perspective need to be addressed. The debate offered in this paper is not presented to reduce the importance or significance of FCC within neonatal care, but, rather, how consideration of the SOC offers the basis through which meaningful and effective FCC may be delivered. Practice based implications contextualised within the SOC constructs are also detailed. Summary: Consideration of the SOC constructs from both a parental and professional perspective need to be addressed in FCC provision. Service delivery and care practices need to be comprehensible, meaningful and manageable in order to achieve and promote positive well-being and health for all concerned.

Aprendizagem de línguas e léxico: a negociação de significado em práticas telecolaborativas

This paper is a qualitative ethnographic study that aims to present reflections on negotiation events in teletandem interactions, a synchronous telecollaborative context of language learning, within the scope of the interaction strategies adopted by participants to achieve comprehensibility. The project Teletandem Brasil: foreign languages for all (Telles, 2006) matches up native or proficient speakers of a foreign language with Brazilian undergraduate students to learn each other's language, by communicating synchronically with application softwares like Skype, Oovoo or MSN. on this paper, based on the interpretive perspective of Hermeneutics, we analyze excerpts of teletandem interactions of partnerships established between students of a Brazilian university and American universities. The excerpts presented here have been taken from different moments of the research studies conducted at the teletandem laboratories of UNESP Assis and Sao Jose do Rio Preto and are part of the database of the works of Santos (2008) and Garcia (2010). In this article, in the data analysis, we highlight the focus on form and on lexicon as characteristics of the interactions and analyze how the negotiations happen in this learning context mediated by technology. Among results we may highlight the prevailing of external feedback as a trigger to negotiation moves, the occurrence of adjustment processes between participants to get adapted to each other's interaction behavior, as well as the evolution of this behavior as interactants get familiarized with the computer-mediated communication context, under the shape of changes in the participants choices regarding negotiation of meaning along their interaction experience.

Identificação dos pictogramas de prevenção na manipulação das drogas utilizadas em laboratórios do Câmpus da UNESP de Jaboticabal

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Características da interação no contexto de aprendizagem in-tandem

Pós-graduação em Estudos Linguísticos - IBILCE

Estratégia de otimização para a melhoria da interpretabilidade de redes bayesianas: aplicações em sistemas elétricos de potência

A investigação de métodos, técnicas e ferramentas que possam apoiar os processos decisórios em sistemas elétricos de potência, em seus vários setores, é um tema que tem despertado grande interesse. Esse suporte à decisão pode ser efetivado mediante o emprego de vários tipos de técnicas, com destaque para aquelas baseadas em inteligência computacional, face à grande aderência das mesmas a domínios com incerteza. Nesta tese, são utilizadas as redes Bayesianas para a extração de modelos de conhecimento a partir dos dados oriundos de sistemas elétricos de potência. Além disso, em virtude das demandas destes sistemas e de algumas limitações impostas às inferências em redes bayesianas, é desenvolvido um método original, utilizando algoritmos genéticos, capaz de estender o poder de compreensibilidade dos padrões descobertos por essas redes, por meio de um conjunto de procedimentos de inferência em redes bayesianas para a descoberta de cenários que propiciem a obtenção de um valor meta, considerando a incorporação do conhecimento a priori do especialista, a identificação das variáveis mais influentes para obtenção desses cenários e a busca de cenários ótimos que estabeleçam valores, definidos e ponderados pelo usuário/especialista, para mais de uma variável meta.

Elaboração e validação de um instrumento de avaliação da disfagia orofaríngea na paralisia cerebral

Pós-graduação em Fonoaudiologia - FFC

Automatic design of decision-tree induction algorithms tailored to flexible-receptor docking data

Background: This paper addresses the prediction of the free energy of binding of a drug candidate with enzyme InhA associated with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This problem is found within rational drug design, where interactions between drug candidates and target proteins are verified through molecular docking simulations. In this application, it is important not only to correctly predict the free energy of binding, but also to provide a comprehensible model that could be validated by a domain specialist. Decision-tree induction algorithms have been successfully used in drug-design related applications, specially considering that decision trees are simple to understand, interpret, and validate. There are several decision-tree induction algorithms available for general-use, but each one has a bias that makes it more suitable for a particular data distribution. In this article, we propose and investigate the automatic design of decision-tree induction algorithms tailored to particular drug-enzyme binding data sets. We investigate the performance of our new method for evaluating binding conformations of different drug candidates to InhA, and we analyze our findings with respect to decision tree accuracy, comprehensibility, and biological relevance. Results: The empirical analysis indicates that our method is capable of automatically generating decision-tree induction algorithms that significantly outperform the traditional C4.5 algorithm with respect to both accuracy and comprehensibility. In addition, we provide the biological interpretation of the rules generated by our approach, reinforcing the importance of comprehensible predictive models in this particular bioinformatics application. Conclusions: We conclude that automatically designing a decision-tree algorithm tailored to molecular docking data is a promising alternative for the prediction of the free energy from the binding of a drug candidate with a flexible-receptor.

Spagnolo Tecnico Semplificato

L’obiettivo della presente dissertazione è quello di creare un nuovo linguaggio controllato, denominato Español Técnico Simplificado (ETS). Basato sulla specifica tecnica del Simplified Technical English (STE), ufficialmente conosciuta come ASD-STE100, lo spagnolo controllato ETS si presenta come un documento metalinguistico in grado di fornire ad un redattore o traduttore tecnico alcune regole specifiche per produrre un documento tecnico. La strategia di implementazione conduce allo studio preliminare di alcuni linguaggi controllati simili all’inglese STE, quali il Français Rationalisé e il Simplified Technical Spanish. Attraverso un approccio caratteristico della linguistica dei corpora, la soluzione proposta fornisce il nuovo linguaggio controllato mediante l’estrazione di informazioni specifiche da un corpus ad-hoc di lingua spagnola appositamente creato ed interrogato. I risultati evidenziano un metodo linguistico (controllato) utile a produrre documentazione tecnica priva di ogni eventuale ambiguità. Il sistema ETS, infatti, si fonda sul concetto della intelligibilità in quanto condizione necessaria da soddisfare nell’ambito della produzione di un testo controllato. E, attraverso la sua macrostruttura, il documento ETS fornisce gli strumenti necessari per rendere il testo controllato univoco. Infatti, tale struttura bipartita suddivide in maniera logica i dettami: una prima parte riguarda e contiene regole sintattiche e stilistiche; una seconda parte riguarda e contiene un dizionario di un numero limitato di lemmi opportunamente selezionati. Il tutto a favore del principio della biunivocità dei segni, in questo caso, della lingua spagnola. Il progetto, nel suo insieme, apre le porte ad un linguaggio nuovo in alternativa a quelli presenti, totalmente creato in accademia, che vale come prototipo a cui far seguire altri progetti di ricerca.

Measuring attitudes, behaviours, and influences in inner city victims of interpersonal violence (VIVs) - a Swiss emergency room pilot study

Background Switzerland is confronted with the problem of interpersonal violence. Violence is in the increase and the potential for aggression seems to be rising. Observations by hospitals discern an appalling increase of the severity of the injuries. The aim of this study is to collect accurate information about the social environment, the motivation and possible reasons for violence. We also intend to investigate whether sociocultural, or ethnic differences among male victims exist. Materials and methods For the first time in Switzerland, this survey employed a validated questionnaire from the division of violence prevention, Atlanta, Georgia. The first part of the questionnaire addressed social and demographic factors which could influence the risk of violence: age, gender, duration of stay in Switzerland, nationality and educational level. Beside these social structural factors, the questionnaire included questions on experience of violent offences in the past, information about the most recent violent offence and intra and interpersonal facts. The questionnaire itself consists of 27 questions, translated into German and French. In a pilot study, the questionnaire was checked with adolescents for feasibility and comprehensibility. Results 69 male VIVs were interviewed at two hospitals in the Canton of Bern. Most of the adolescents emphasised that weapons were not used during their confrontations. It is astonishing that all of the young men considered themselves to be victims. Most of the brawls were incited after an exchange of verbal abuse and provocations with unfamiliar individuals. The rivals could neither be classified with the help of ethnic categories nor identifiable groups of the youth scenes. The incidents took place in scenes, where violence was more likely to happen. Interestingly and contrary to a general perception the offenders are well integrated into sport and leisure clubs. A further surprising result of our research is that the attitude towards religion differs between young men with experience of violence and non-violent men. Discussion Youth violence is a health issue, which concerns us globally. The human and economic toll of violence on victims and offenders, their families, and on society in general is high. The economic costs associated with violence-related illness and disability is estimated to be millions of Swiss francs each year. Physicians and psychologists are compelled to identify the factors, which cause young people to be violent, to find out which interventions prove to be successful, and to design effective prevention programs. The identification of effective programs depends on the availability of reliable and valid measures to assess changes in violence-related attitudes. In our efforts to create healthier communities, we need to investigate; document and do research on the causes and circumstances of youth violence.

Family satisfaction in the intensive care unit: cross-cultural adaptation of a questionnaire

PURPOSE: Family needs and expectations are often unmet in the intensive care unit (ICU), leading to dissatisfaction. This study assesses cross-cultural adaptability of an instrument evaluating family satisfaction in the ICU. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A Canadian instrument on family satisfaction was adapted for German language and central European culture and then validated for feasibility, validity, internal consistency, reliability, and sensitivity. RESULTS: Content validity of a preliminary translated version was assessed by staff, patients, and next of kin. After adaptation, content and comprehensibility were considered good. The adapted translation was then distributed to 160 family members. The return rate was 71.8%, and 94.4% of questions in returned forms were clearly answered. In comparison with a Visual Analogue Scale, construct validity was good for overall satisfaction with care (Spearman rho = 0.60) and overall satisfaction with decision making (rho = 0.65). Cronbach alpha was .95 for satisfaction with care and .87 for decision-making. Only minor differences on repeated measurements were found for interrater and intrarater reliability. There was no floor or ceiling effect. CONCLUSIONS: A cross-cultural adaptation of a questionnaire on family satisfaction in the ICU can be feasible, valid, internally consistent, reliable, and sensitive.

Cognition or Affect? - Exploring Information Processing on Facebook

Recognizing the increasing amount of information shared on Social Networking Sites (SNS), in this study we aim to explore the information processing strategies of users on Facebook. Specifically, we aim to investigate the impact of various factors on user attitudes towards the posts on their Newsfeed. To collect the data, we program a Facebook application that allows users to evaluate posts in real time. Applying Structural Equation Modeling to a sample of 857 observations we find that it is mostly the affective attitude that shapes user behavior on the network. This attitude, in turn, is mainly determined by the communication intensity between users, overriding comprehensibility of the post and almost neglecting post length and user posting frequency.

How Comprehensible, Interesting and Relevant is Current Research in Traditional Chinese Medicine for Practitioners?

Purpose: In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as in other fields of complementary medicine, research does not necessarily follow the sequence from in vitro studies via phase I to phase IV clinical trials, but all steps are being investigated simultaneously. Here, we aimed to investigate which kinds of studies were interesting and relevant for practitioners. Methods: Thirty abstracts from articles on TCM published between April and June 2012 were randomly chosen, including 5 abstracts each of in vitro studies, animal studies, case reports or series, studies with healthy volunteers, trials with patients, or reviews and meta-analyses. Six TCM practitioners (2 female, 5 non-medical, average age 46 years, average practical TCM experience 9 years) rated 10 abstracts each on a 5 point Likert scale (1=very poor to 5=very good) regarding comprehensibility, interest, relevance to practice, information for patients, and promoting reputation of TCM. Average ratings for each group of abstracts were calculated. Results: Comprehensibility of the abstracts was generally rated as good. Case reports/series, studies in healthy volunteers and trials with patients were rated interesting by the practitioners (average rating = 3.7, 3.8 and 3.7, respectively). Relevance to practice was mediocre for all types (2.5 to 3.5). In vitro studies and reviews/meta-analyses were not rated useful as information for patients (2.0). Reviews/Meta-analyses were considered negative for the reputation of TCM (2.2). Conclusions: Practitioners of TCM find abstracts of study results generally comprehensible and interesting. Case reports/series were rated in a similar way as trials with patients. Although TCM is commonly taught by means of case reports, practitioners seemed to value clinical trials. Abstracts of reviews/meta-analyses were rated rather uninformative, which was possibly due to several inconclusive results and the lack of detailed information in these abstracts.

"Sounds Funny? – Humor Effects of Phonological and Prosodic Figures of Speech"

Whereas semantic, logical, and narrative features of verbal humor are well-researched, phonological and prosodic dimensions of verbal funniness are hardly explored. In a 2 × 2 design we varied rhyme and meter in humorous couplets. Rhyme and meter enhanced funniness ratings and supported faster processing. Rhyming couplets also elicited more intense and more positive affective responses, increased subjective comprehensibility and more accurate memory. The humor effect is attributed to special rhyme and meter features distinctive of humoristic poetry in several languages. Verses that employ these formal features make an artful use of typical poetic vices of amateurish poems written for birthday parties or other occasions. Their metrical patterning sounds “mechanical” rather than genuinely “poetic”; they also disregard rules for “good” rhymes. The processing of such verses is discussed in terms of a metacognitive integration of their poetically deviant features into an overall effect of processing ease. The study highlights the importance of nonsemantic rhetorical features in language processing.

Digital Personal Assistant for Cognitive Cities: A Paper Prototype

This chapter presents an evaluation and initial testing of a meta-application (meta-app) for enhanced communication and improved interaction (e.g., appointment scheduling) between stakeholders (e.g., citizens) in cognitive cities. The underlying theoretical models as well as the paper prototype are presented to ensure the comprehensibility of the user interface. This paper prototype of the meta-app was evaluated through interviews with various experts in different fields (e.g., a strategic consultant, a small and medium-sized enterprises cofounder in the field of online marketing, an IT project leader, and an innovation manager). The results and implications of the evaluation show that the idea behind this meta-app has the potential to improve the living standards of citizens and to lead to a next step in the realization and maturity of the meta-app. The meta-app helps citizens more effectively manage their time and organize their personal schedules and thus allows them to have more leisure time and take full advantage of it to ensure a good work-life balance to enable them to be the most efficient and productive during their working time.