Concepts about risk management in libraries : Notes for characterization

El presente trabajo revisa la bibliografía sobre gestión del riesgo (GRi) que ha aparecido en los últimos tiempos, intentando anclar sus nociones, recomendaciones, pautas y estándares al ámbito de las bibliotecas y centros de documentación e información. Se analiza su utilidad, realizando un balance sobre la bibliografía consultada, proveniente tanto de Argentina como de distintos países. Se concluye sobre la necesidad de aplicar los procesos y los estándares inherentes a la GRi a los de las unidades de información para evitar los peligros o las amenazas en distintos ámbitos tales como el financiero, comunicacional, tecnológico, humano, ambiental, entre otros

Ontology forecasting in scientific literature:semantic concepts prediction based on innovation-adoption priors

The ontology engineering research community has focused for many years on supporting the creation, development and evolution of ontologies. Ontology forecasting, which aims at predicting semantic changes in an ontology, represents instead a new challenge. In this paper, we want to give a contribution to this novel endeavour by focusing on the task of forecasting semantic concepts in the research domain. Indeed, ontologies representing scientific disciplines contain only research topics that are already popular enough to be selected by human experts or automatic algorithms. They are thus unfit to support tasks which require the ability of describing and exploring the forefront of research, such as trend detection and horizon scanning. We address this issue by introducing the Semantic Innovation Forecast (SIF) model, which predicts new concepts of an ontology at time t + 1, using only data available at time t. Our approach relies on lexical innovation and adoption information extracted from historical data. We evaluated the SIF model on a very large dataset consisting of over one million scientific papers belonging to the Computer Science domain: the outcomes show that the proposed approach offers a competitive boost in mean average precision-at-ten compared to the baselines when forecasting over 5 years.

Using a discussion about scientific controversy to teach central concepts in experimental design

Students may need explicit training in informal statistical reasoning in order to design experiments or use formal statistical tests effectively. By using scientific scandals and media misinterpretation, we can explore the need for good experimental design in an informal way. This article describes the use of a paper that reviews the measles mumps rubella vaccine and autism controversy in the UK to illustrate a number of threshold concepts underlying good study design and interpretation of scientific evidence. These include the necessity of sufficient sample size, representative and random sampling, appropriate controls and inferring causation.

Emerging Concepts in Ontogenic Analysis

Subject ontogeny is the life of the subject in an indexing language (e.g., classification scheme like the DDC). Examining how a subject is treated over time tells us about the anatomy of an indexing language. For example, gypsies as a subject has been handled differently in different editions of the DDC.

Introduction du réseau de concepts comme stratégie d’apprentissage en soins infirmiers première session.

L’insertion dans un programme collégial, particulièrement celui des soins infirmiers, nécessite à l’individu d’utiliser efficacement, minimalement une stratégie d’apprentissage. Une proportion importante de la population étudiante présente des difficultés à trouver et à utiliser une telle stratégie favorisant cet apprentissage particulier. Pour résoudre ce défi, il est propice d’en expérimenter une et de questionner sa pertinence : L’utilisation du réseau de concepts comme stratégie semble-t-elle favoriser l’apprentissage, selon la perception des étudiantes et étudiants participants en soins infirmiers première session du Cégep Beauce-Appalaches? Le cadre de référence définit deux concepts importants de l’essai : « stratégie d’apprentissage » et « réseau de concepts. » Ce dernier est approfondi par rapport a) aux différentes appellations utilisées; b) aux utilités de celui-ci dans l’apprentissage et; c) au processus menant à la schématisation du réseau de concepts. Cela conduit aux objectifs spécifiques qui sont l’expérimentation, en milieu scolaire, du réseau de concepts comme stratégie d’apprentissage auprès d'étudiantes et étudiants inscrits au programme d’études soins infirmiers en première session du Cégep Beauce-Appalaches et la prise de connaissance de leurs perceptions par rapport à cette utilisation. Cette recherche-expérimentation appartient au pôle recherche. La méthodologie retenue est qualitative-interprétative et se réalise à l’aide d’un groupe-classe de 25 individus participants, d’une enseignante volontaire et du chercheur dans son rôle d’enseignant. L’expérimentation, en tenant compte de considérations éthiques et du processus menant à la schématisation du réseau de concepts, ainsi que l’utilisation d’outils de collecte des données élaborés et prétestés répondent aux objectifs spécifiques. Ces instruments de collectes des données sont des fiches évaluatives, un groupe de discussion et un journal de bord. Ils permettent l’identification des effets perçus de cette stratégie d’apprentissage, par les personnes participantes, lors de l’expérimentation. L’analyse des résultats s’effectue à partir de la codification des commentaires reçus dans les fiches évaluatives et à partir de rapports synthèses pour la section des énoncés utilisant l’échelle de Likert, ainsi que pour le journal de bord et pour le groupe de discussion. La présentation et l’interprétation des résultats obtenus permettent de dire qu’à de nombreuses reprises, les perceptions des participantes et participants, par rapport à l’utilisation du réseau de concepts, semblent favoriser l’apprentissage particulier requis dans le programme d’études soins infirmiers. La triangulation des résultats confirme que cette stratégie d’apprentissage semble favoriser a) la compréhension des relations entre les concepts principaux; b) la structuration des contenus pédagogiques pour l’étude; c) l’identification des concepts principaux; d) la compréhension de l’ensemble du contenu pédagogique concerné et; e) l’élaboration d’un résumé pédagogique. D’autre part, il est pertinent de mentionner que ces résultats correspondent aux écrits scientifiques constituant le cadre de référence de cet essai.

La construction ferroviaire au Portugal : concepts, modèles et intervenants

La construction des chemins de fer portugais a eu, jusqu’en 1891, pour l’objectif principal de combler le retard économique du pays. Par suite de l’échec des entrepreneurs anglais, notamment Morton Petto, ce furent les hommes d’affaires et les capitaux qui jouèrent le rôle majeur, grâce notamment l’intervention des Pereire, puis celle de CIC, principal soutien des initiatives de l’entrepreneur espagnol D. José de Salamanca, enfin la Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas et la Banque Ottomane. L’influence Saint-simonienne s’exerçait sur les ingénieurs formés à l’École Polytechnique de Lisbonne et bénéficiait la généralisation du modèle français de la concession. À partir des années 1890, ce système entra en crise, favorisant une influence allemand grandissante, tant en terme d’investissement qu’à travers la formation des ingénieurs, notamment ceux de l’Institut Supérieur Technique de Lisbonne, Le reflux des investissements étrangères, à partir de la crise de 1892, poussa l’État dans la voie de la nationalisation en 1899, dans qu’ensuite ne suisse survenir une relance de la construction ferroviaires. Après la Seconde Guerre mondial, les chemins de fer furent confiés à un unique exploitant national, la Compagnie des chemins de fer Portugais.

Guava waste to sustain guava(Psidium guajava) agroecosystem: nutrient "Balance" concepts.

2016

Analyzing urban green adaptation opportunities: concepts, approaches, & strategies for existing neighborhoods

Over the last decades, the growing evidence of human-caused climate change has raised awareness of the consequences of exceeding global temperature by 2˚C. This awareness has led to a contemporary approach to the conceptualization and management of green adaptation policies in spatial planning. This thesis aims to develop a comprehensive methodology for assessing the adaptability of existing neighborhoods to green strategies. The reliability of the proposed method is examined in the cities of Bologna and Imola and proved to be applicable in other geoghraphical locations. This thesis integrates three key themes of conceptual and implementation principles for urban green adaptation. This thesis initially defines methods for narrowing uncertainties in urban planning energy forecasting modeling by exploring the roles of integrated energy planning. The second is by exploring green retrofitting strategies in building, this thesis examines the effects of various energy-saving factors in roofing scenarios including a green roof, rooftop greenhouse, and insolated roof. Lastly, this thesis analyzes green strategies in urban spaces to enhance thermal comfort through facing urban heat exposure related to urban heat island effects. The roles of integrated energy policies and green strategic thinking are discussed to highlight various aspects of green adaptation on the neighborhood scale. This thesis develops approaches by which cities can face the challenges of current green urban planning and connect the conceptual and practical aspects of green spatial planning. Another point that this thesis highlight is that due to the interdependency of individuals and places, it is difficult to assure whether all the adaptation policies on a large scale are enhancing the resiliency of the neighborhood or they are simply shuffling the vulnerability through the individuals and places. Besides, it asserts that neglecting to reflect on these reallocations of the effects generates serious complications, and will result in long-term dysfunctional consequences.

Towards eco-friendly batteries: concepts for lithium and sodium ion batteries

Several possibilities are arising aiming the development of “greener”, more sustainable energy storage systems. One point is the completely water-based processing of battery electrodes, thus being able to renounce the use of toxic solvents in the preparation process. Despite its advantage of lower cost and eco-friendlyness, there is the need of similar mechanical and electrochemichal behavior for boosting this preparation mode. Another point – accompanying the water-based processing - is the replacement of solvent-based polymer binders by water-based ones. These binders can be based on fluorinated, crude-oil based polymers on the one side, but also on naturally abundant and economic friendly biopolymers. The most common anode materials, graphite and lithium titanate (LTO), have been subjected a water-based preparation route with different binder systems. LTO is a promising anode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs), as it shows excellent safety characteristics, does not form a significant SEI and its volume change upon intercalation of lithium ions is negligible. Unfortunately, this material suffers from a rather low electric conductivity - that is why an intensive study on improved current collector surfaces for LTO electrodes was performed. In order to go one step ahead towards sustainable energy storage, anode and cathode active materials for a sodium ion battery were synthesized. Anode active material resulted in a successful product which was then subjected to further electrochemical tests. In this PhD work the development of “greener” energy storage possibilities is tested under several aspects. The ecological impact of raw materials and required battery components is examined in detail.

Variety, flexibility, and use of abstract concepts. A multiple grounded perspective.

The nature of concepts is a matter of intense debate in cognitive sciences. While traditional views claim that conceptual knowledge is represented in a unitary symbolic system, recent Embodied and Grounded Cognition theories (EGC) submit the idea that conceptual system is couched in our body and influenced by the environment (Barsalou, 2008). One of the major challenges for EGC is constituted by abstract concepts (ACs), like fantasy. Recently, some EGC proposals addressed this criticism, arguing that the ACs comprise multifaced exemplars that rely on different grounding sources beyond sensorimotor one, including interoception, emotions, language, and sociality (Borghi et al., 2018). However, little is known about how ACs representation varies as a function of life experiences and their use in communication. The theoretical arguments and empirical studies comprised in this dissertation aim to provide evidence on multiple grounding of ACs taking into account their varieties and flexibility. Study I analyzed multiple ratings on a large sample of ACs and identified four distinct subclusters. Study II validated this classification with an interference paradigm involving motor/manual, interoceptive, and linguistic systems during a difficulty rating task. Results confirm that different grounding sources are activated depending on ACs kind. Study III-IV investigate the variability of institutional concepts, showing that the higher the law expertise level, the stronger the concrete/emotional determinants in their representation. Study V introduced a novel interactive task in which abstract and concrete sentences serve as cues to simulate conversation. Analysis of language production revealed that the uncertainty and interactive exchanges increase with abstractness, leading to generating more questions/requests for clarifications with abstract than concrete sentences. Overall, results confirm that ACs are multidimensional, heterogeneous, and flexible constructs and that social and linguistic interactions are crucial to shaping their meanings. Investigating ACs in real-time dialogues may be a promising direction for future research.

Concepts and methods for efficient decentralized learning in federated settings

Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have revolutionized a wide range of applications beyond traditional machine learning and artificial intelligence fields, e.g., computer vision, healthcare, natural language processing and others. At the same time, edge devices have become central in our society, generating an unprecedented amount of data which could be used to train data-hungry models such as DNNs. However, the potentially sensitive or confidential nature of gathered data poses privacy concerns when storing and processing them in centralized locations. To this purpose, decentralized learning decouples model training from the need of directly accessing raw data, by alternating on-device training and periodic communications. The ability of distilling knowledge from decentralized data, however, comes at the cost of facing more challenging learning settings, such as coping with heterogeneous hardware and network connectivity, statistical diversity of data, and ensuring verifiable privacy guarantees. This Thesis proposes an extensive overview of decentralized learning literature, including a novel taxonomy and a detailed description of the most relevant system-level contributions in the related literature for privacy, communication efficiency, data and system heterogeneity, and poisoning defense. Next, this Thesis presents the design of an original solution to tackle communication efficiency and system heterogeneity, and empirically evaluates it on federated settings. For communication efficiency, an original method, specifically designed for Convolutional Neural Networks, is also described and evaluated against the state-of-the-art. Furthermore, this Thesis provides an in-depth review of recently proposed methods to tackle the performance degradation introduced by data heterogeneity, followed by empirical evaluations on challenging data distributions, highlighting strengths and possible weaknesses of the considered solutions. Finally, this Thesis presents a novel perspective on the usage of Knowledge Distillation as a mean for optimizing decentralized learning systems in settings characterized by data heterogeneity or system heterogeneity. Our vision on relevant future research directions close the manuscript.

Two stroke cycle, novel combustion concepts and electrification for a new generation of internal combustion engines

The pursuit of decarbonization and increased efficiency in internal combustion engines (ICE) is crucial for reducing pollution in the mobility sector. While electrification is a long-term goal, ICE still has a role to play if coupled with innovative technologies. This research project explores various solutions to enhance ICE efficiency and reduce emissions, including Low Temperature Combustion (LTC), Dual fuel combustion with diesel and natural gas, and hydrogen integration. LTC methods like Dual fuel and Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) show promise in lowering emissions such as NOx, soot, and CO2. Dual fuel Diesel-Natural Gas with hydrogen addition demonstrates improved efficiency, especially at low loads. RCCI Diesel-Gasoline engines offer increased Brake Thermal Efficiency (BTE) compared to standard diesel engines while reducing specific NOx emissions. The study compares 2-Stroke and 4-Stroke engine layouts, optimizing scavenging systems for both aircraft and vehicle applications. CFD analysis enhances specific power output while addressing injection challenges to prevent exhaust short circuits. Additionally, piston bowl shape optimization in Diesel engines running on Dual fuel (Diesel-Biogas) aims to reduce NOx emissions and enhance thermal efficiency. Unconventional 2-Stroke architectures, such as reverse loop scavenged with valves for high-performance cars, opposed piston engines for electricity generation, and small loop scavenged engines for scooters, are also explored. These innovations, alongside ultra-lean hydrogen combustion, offer diverse pathways toward achieving climate neutrality in the transport sector.

The Consequences Of Refractory Epilepsy And Its Treatment.

Seizures in some 30% to 40% of patients with epilepsy fail to respond to antiepileptic drugs or other treatments. While much has been made of the risks of new drug therapies, not enough attention has been given to the risks of uncontrolled and progressive epilepsy. This critical review summarizes known risks associated with refractory epilepsy, provides practical clinical recommendations, and indicates areas for future research. Eight international epilepsy experts from Europe, the United States, and South America met on May 4, 2013, to present, review, and discuss relevant concepts, data, and literature on the consequences of refractory epilepsy. While patients with refractory epilepsy represent the minority of the population with epilepsy, they require the overwhelming majority of time, effort, and focus from treating physicians. They also represent the greatest economic and psychosocial burdens. Diagnostic procedures and medical/surgical treatments are not without risks. Overlooked, however, is that these risks are usually smaller than the risks of long-term, uncontrolled seizures. Refractory epilepsy may be progressive, carrying risks of structural damage to the brain and nervous system, comorbidities (osteoporosis, fractures), and increased mortality (from suicide, accidents, sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, pneumonia, vascular disease), as well as psychological (depression, anxiety), educational, social (stigma, driving), and vocational consequences. Adding to this burden is neuropsychiatric impairment caused by underlying epileptogenic processes (essential comorbidities), which appears to be independent of the effects of ongoing seizures themselves. Tolerating persistent seizures or chronic medicinal adverse effects has risks and consequences that often outweigh risks of seemingly more aggressive treatments. Future research should focus not only on controlling seizures but also on preventing these consequences.

[the Perception Of Behavior Related To Mindfulness And The Brazilian Version Of The Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory].

Mindfulness is a practice and a form of consciousness which has been the basis for innovative interventions in care and health promotion. This study presents mindfulness, describes and discusses the process of cultural adaptation of The Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI) to Brazilian Portuguese. From the original version of this pioneering instrument for assessing mindfulness two translations and two back-translations were made. These were evaluated by a committee of 14 experts (Buddhists, linguists, health professionals), who helped to create two versions for the first pre-test, based on which suggestions were made by a sample of 41 people of the population through interviews. Considering the difficulties in understanding the concepts that are unfamiliar to the Brazilian culture, a new version was prepared with additional explanations, which underwent a further evaluation of the experts and a second pre-test with 72 people. This process aimed at addressing the limitations and challenges of evaluating mindfulness in a country of western culture through a self-report instrument based on Buddhist psychology. With appropriate levels of clarity and equivalence with the original instrument, the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory adapted for Brazil is presented.

Metacommunity Versus Biogeography: A Case Study Of Two Groups Of Neotropical Vegetation-dwelling Arthropods.

Biogeography and metacommunity ecology provide two different perspectives on species diversity. Both are spatial in nature but their spatial scales do not necessarily match. With recent boom of metacommunity studies, we see an increasing need for clear discrimination of spatial scales relevant for both perspectives. This discrimination is a necessary prerequisite for improved understanding of ecological phenomena across scales. Here we provide a case study to illustrate some spatial scale-dependent concepts in recent metacommunity studies and identify potential pitfalls. We presented here the diversity patterns of Neotropical lepidopterans and spiders viewed both from metacommunity and biogeographical perspectives. Specifically, we investigated how the relative importance of niche- and dispersal-based processes for community assembly change at two spatial scales: metacommunity scale, i.e. within a locality, and biogeographical scale, i.e. among localities widely scattered along a macroclimatic gradient. As expected, niche-based processes dominated the community assembly at metacommunity scale, while dispersal-based processes played a major role at biogeographical scale for both taxonomical groups. However, we also observed small but significant spatial effects at metacommunity scale and environmental effects at biogeographical scale. We also observed differences in diversity patterns between the two taxonomical groups corresponding to differences in their dispersal modes. Our results thus support the idea of continuity of processes interactively shaping diversity patterns across scales and emphasize the necessity of integration of metacommunity and biogeographical perspectives.