Greater Proximity Research Articles

Hybrid Intelligent Tutoring System With Didactic Transposition Of The Subjects Guided By Expert Knowlegdment And Self Organizing Maps Neural Network

The development of Intelligent Tutoring Systems has been studied for decades and requires multi and interdisciplinary knowledge. In this context, this article presents a hybrid intelligent tutoring system in which the teaching strategies are based on neural networks, Self-Organizing Maps (SOM), and knowledge of a specialist teacher. This model has a reactive and adaptive characteristic that provides a personalized and individual instruction for the student, by promoting the necessary guidance on the transfer of didactic contents. This paper presents the development process of the proposed hybrid model, including the system with specialist guidance that ultimately provides the data used in the training stage of the neural networks. The results show the behavior of the system when using specialist guidance and when using the hybrid decision model. The results indicate that the application of the hybrid intelligent tutoring systems model is feasible because it includes both the teacher's knowledge and the student's behavior for establishing teaching strategies, which allows for a greater proximity of the tutor's and the student's actions. The performance of the proposed model was satisfactory compared to other systems proposed in the literature that use connectionism for establishing the teaching strategy.

Regions and their relations: sustaining authoritative professional knowledge

The development and iteration of a body of professional knowledge appropriate to the demands of practice is a central concern of studies of professional education and work. This article concentrates on Bernstein’s notion of the ‘region’ of professional knowledge, identifying regions as complex socio-epistemic entities into which forms of knowledge are appropriated and transformed to meet the requirements of practice. In order to better understand the constitution of professional knowledge, there is a need to conceptualise how knowledge is recontextualised between regions, disciplinary ‘singulars’, and professional practice. Two variables, proximity and dominance, are introduced to illustrate how relations between regions, singulars and practice may vary, with implications for what is recontextualised into regions. In some professions, there are pressures for greater proximity between regions as a consequence of changes in work practices, while in others there is the potential for the dominance of recontextualisation processes by market and bureaucratic logics. It is suggested that actors within regions need to find ways to maintain authority over professional knowledge while avoiding the risks of control by bodies ill-equipped to maintain knowledge validity. The analysis provides a lens through which to view developments in the knowledge bases of professional, or professionalising, occupations, and concomitant changes in professional education.

Intervenciones politicas de primer orden: el caso de la política chilena de la transparencia

Este estudio evalúa e interpreta las dificultades que ha encontrado la política chilena de transparencia en los municipios con el apoyo de la teoría de los sistemas sociales. Argumenta que, en el contexto latinoamericano actual, las políticas públicas deben dar respuesta a una sociedad crecientemente compleja y diversificada, con una aproximación de persuasión, dialogo y facilitación. Explica que la política de transparencia, en cuanto intervención de primer orden, ha sido una política de comando y control, y que en su reformulación debiese considerar lo que entienden por transparencia los ciudadanos y los funcionarios municipales.

Democracy and secularism: remarks on an ongoing dispute

This paper focus on the disputed issue concerning the proper role of religion in politics, confronting the contributions of three major contemporary political thinkers about democracy and secularism. I present, first, Charles Taylor’s characterization of secularist regimes as attempts to secure the basic principles of the modern moral order. Next, I argue that John Rawls’s growing interest in the relation between religion and democracy led him to an even more inclusive view of public reason. Thirdly, I show that Jurgen Habermas preserves a distinction between faith and knowledge that proves essential to grasping the debate over the place of religion in the public sphere. All three thinkers are concerned with the appropriate forum for the basic political language of the secular state. In a nutshell, my interpretation highlights a much greater proximity between Habermas and Rawls on political justification, on the one hand, and between the former and Taylor regarding the normative basis for the secular state, on the other hand, than their various interventions seem to indicate.

Yellow-tailed woolly monkey (Lagothrix flavicauda) proximal spacing and forest strata use in La Esperanza, Peru.

Inter-individual spacing of primates and their use of forest strata depend on temporal and spatial changes in the environment and on predator avoidance, group demography, and social conditions. Greater proximity also increases the chances of agonistic and affinitive contact between individuals. I collected behavioral data for three groups of yellow-tailed woolly monkeys (Lagothrix flavicauda) by instantaneous sampling of focal animals for 15 months in La Esperanza, northeastern Peru. By use of combined data for all groups I examined the effects of season, activity, and age/sex class on nearest-neighbor distances and forest strata use. Small differences were observed for nearest-neighbor distances, forest strata use by different age/sex classes, and activity. Adult males had the lowest contact index scores. Contact index scores were low for juvenile females, for which nearest-neighbor distances were largest. Very little aggressive behavior was observed. Focal animals preferred upper levels of the forest with little difference in height for different activities. Lagothrix flavicauda have very cohesive groups with little seasonal or activity-dependent difference between nearest-neighbor distances or proximity. These results suggest that this species has less variable social organization and greater group cohesion than other Atelini. However, more studies are needed on other populations of L. flavicauda to better determine the species' social organization. Studies are also required to determine the extent to which dispersal times and kinship affect proximity, nearest-neighbor distances, and aggression.

Testimony and translation: tracing the past in Brother Number One

This article explores how a range of modalities of testimony can emerge from the narrative and aesthetic qualities of documentary and is shaped by the production process. Drawing on my experience of making Brother Number One (2011), this article challenges the generalized understanding that testimony is primarily transmitted through ‘talking heads’. The documentary follows Kiwi Rob Hamill to Cambodia where he attends the war crimes tribunal, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which is currently underway in Phnom Penh trying former Khmer Rouge leaders for their genocidal policies of the mid- to late-1970s. Rob is a ‘civil party’ at the tribunal, where he describes the suffering his family underwent after his oldest brother, sailor Kerry Hamill was tortured and murdered by the regime, one of the few Westerners killed. I distinguish a range of modalities of testimony within the film: ‘formal’, ‘informal’, ‘interactive’, ‘spontaneous’, and ‘emotion as testimony’. Rob Hamill not only testifies himself through multiple modalities but also, through his presence, elicits testimony from the Cambodian survivors he meets. Moreover, when Rob interacts with survivors on-screen, the empathetic flow between the two parties engages Western viewers, bringing them into greater proximity to the Cambodian subjects from whom they otherwise would feel more distant.

Entrepreneurship by women in the rural environment: tourism as a spur to development

The important role of women in rural development has been brought repeatedly to notice in the literature, but the role of women entrepreneurs in rural development is a more novel issue. Rural tourism has provided a fundamental opportunity for women to join the job market and earn recognition of their economic independence and professional status, but little evidence exists of the real impact of rural tourism businesses run by women. The objective of this research therefore is to evaluate the economic situation of women rural tourism entrepreneurs, determining what variables affect the probability that a woman owner or manager will earn her basic or fundamental income from running tourist accommodation (a country cottage). The results confirm that running rural tourist accommodation normally brings in supplementary income, although the rural environment seems to be witnessing the rise of a new profile in female entrepreneurs, where there is less dependence on the traditional family structure and greater proximity to both personal and economic independence. Keywords: Women, entrepreneurship, rural tourism, rural development, profile of women entrepreneurs, logit model.

Dissociation and Repression: A Clinical Study

In response to a trend by relational and intersubjective analysts of replacing the centrality of repression with dissociation in the clinical model of psychoanalysis, I discuss the importance of both dissociation and repression in articulating the emotions, pathos, joy, and work—in other words, the “heart and soul”—of the patient and analyst in the analytic situation. The concept of the whole person is elaborated as a clinical concept that is necessary to enter the realm of what actually takes place within an analysis, creating greater proximity between the objective and subjective realms.

ANÁLISE QUALITATIVA DAS PUBLICAÇÕES NACIONAIS E INTERNACIONAIS EM ETNOGRAFIAS EM ADMINISTRAÇÃO E ESTUDOS ORGANIZACIONAIS

<p>A proposta deste artigo é investigar a evolução intelectual da etnografia nas áreas de administração e estudos organizacionais no período de 1995 a 2011, por meio da análise bibliométrica de citação e cocitação em publicações internacionais e, a partir de 2000, em publicações nacionais. Em relação às publicações nacionais, à medida que não é possível empregar a mesma técnica de citação e cocitação, optou-se por uma análise mais contextual do estágio em que se encontra a etnografia no Brasil. A metodologia empregada na condução desta pesquisa foi uma análise documental do estágio da etnografia em publicações internacionais e nacionais. Observou-se que, em estudos internacionais, os trabalhos etnográficos de Geertz (1973), Van Maanen (1988) e Clifford e Marcus (1986) tiveram contribuições importantes e, portanto, influenciaram sobremaneira as pesquisas posteriores. Essas pesquisas mostraram que esses autores tiveram maior proximidade e formaram o principal grupo em relação ao tema central. Também não foram observadas grandes alterações em relação ao cluster central, no período analisado, em periódicos internacionais. No âmbito nacional, pode-se afirmar que os estudos etnográficos ainda apresentam baixa popularidade entre os acadêmicos da área de administração, possivelmente, devido ao próprio método de pesquisa que requer longos períodos de tempo desde a coleta de dados, análise e até a publicação final.<br />Palavras-chaves: </p>

Do Chimpanzee Nests Serve an Anti‐Predatory Function?

Sleep is a vulnerable state for animals as it compromises the ability to detect predators. The evolution of shelter construction in the great apes may have been a solution to the trade-off between restorative sleep and predation-risk, which allowed a large bodied ape to sleep recumbent in a safe, comfortable spot. In this article we review the evidence of predator pressure on great apes and specifically investigate the potential influence of predation-risk on chimpanzee nesting behavior by comparing nests between chimpanzees living in a habitat of several potential predators (Issa, Ugalla, Tanzania) and a habitat relatively devoid of predators (Fongoli, Senegal). Chimpanzees in Issa did not nest more frequently in forest vegetation than chimpanzees in Fongoli although forest vegetation is expected to provide greater opportunity for escape from terrestrial predators. Nor do chimpanzees in Issa nest in larger groups or aggregate together more than Fongoli chimpanzees, as would be expected if larger groups provide protection from or greater detection of predators. Nests in Issa also did not appear to provide greater opportunities for escape than nests in Fongoli. Chimpanzees in Issa nested more frequently within the same tree as other community members, which may indicate that these chimpanzees nest in greater proximity than chimpanzees in Fongoli. Finally, Issa chimpanzees built their nests proportionately higher and more peripherally within trees. The selection of high and peripheral nesting locations within trees may make Issa chimpanzees inaccessible to potential predators. Many factors influence nest site selection in chimpanzees, of which danger from terrestrial predators is likely to be one.

Analysis of Chinese Olive Cultivars Difference by the Structural Characteristics of Oligosaccharides

Chinese olive (Canarium album (Lour.) Raeusch) is a subtropical fruit, which has been used in traditional Chinese medicine since ancient age. In the present work, the structural characteristics of oligosaccharides from C. album fruit (OCAF) fleshes were investigated. By gas chromatography analysis, both OCAF and free sugar fractions comprised fructose, glucose, and galactose, and the molar percentages varied between cultivars. Moreover, galactose was found to be the dominant monosaccharide in OCAF, while glucose was the dominant one in free sugar fraction. The glycosidic linkages of OCAF were →6)-Gal-(1→, →6)-Glu-(1→, →4)-Fru-(2→, and →1)-Gal. Hierarchical cluster dendrogram indicated that oligosaccharides of “XZ” and “HP” cultivars had a greater proximity than the others, while the oligosaccharides of “TS” cultivar had the most significant difference to the other cultivars. The growth-stimulating effect of OCAF on Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus was observed to vary in a dose-dependent manner.

Co‐movement of house price cycles – a factor analysis

PurposeBecause of globalisation and monetary integration the macroeconomic conditions for industrial countries have become more and more equal. This paper aims to discover whether the synchronisation of business cycles also affected the co‐movement of house prices in OECD countries for the period 1990 to 2010.Design/methodology/approachUsing a factor analysis the degree of co‐movement of house price cycles is measured. Additionally, by splitting the sample whether housing markets have become more integrated since the 1990s can be assessed.FindingsThe results show that the integration of housing markets has accelerated in the last decade. Both a strong global factor and a regional factor can be identified. However, some countries, such as Germany, The Netherlands and Japan, seem to have become uncoupled from the global trend. Furthermore, the co‐movement of markets generally increases with greater proximity. Although globalisation seems to foster the integration of housing markets, monetary integration has only a minor effect. For investors, hence, there is still scope for risk reduction in international housing markets.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to adress the co‐movement of house price cycles for a large set of countries. Furthermore, it proposes a new way to illustrate the results by referring to methods well‐known from cluster analysis.

Fundraising In Difficult Economic Times: Best Practices

Christian institutions of higher education, as with other American nonprofits, are under considerable financial stress. The purpose of this research, which included both a survey of development officers and conversations with a sample of CCCU presidents, vice presidents of development, or provosts, was to identify best practices in fundraising. Several factors were hypothesized as impacting institutional effectiveness in fundraising: First, we hypothesized that organizations that operated on transformational approaches to fundraising have fared significantly better during the recession than those which operate on a more transactional basis. Secondly, we hypothesized that the greater proximity of the donor base of an organization would positively impact fundraising. Thirdly, we hypothesized that regional economic stress patterns would impact fundraising effectiveness with greater economic stress leading to decreases in fundraising effectiveness. Our research suggests that macroeconomic conditions, the number of development staff, and the size of development budget do not predict performance. Performance is related to a transformational approach to development work built on a compelling vision that is communicated clearly. The core challenge for Christian higher education is the development of visions and programs that speak to the realities of the 21st century, and the development of the broad-based leadership to take us there.

Optimizing Receiver Performance Using Interference Limits

More and more systems need to be squeezed together in frequency, space and time in order to satisfy the growth in demand for radio services. However, greater proximity increases the risk of service breakdowns due to harmful interference, caused both by poor interference tolerance in receivers and by inappropriate signals radiated by transmitters. In order to maximize the social value of radio operation, a system view that facilitates trade-off between receiver and transmitter performance is required. However, radio operation has traditionally been regulated using limits on transmitters, with few if any explicit constraints on receivers. This paper proposes bringing receivers into the regulatory picture by using interference limits, a specification of the interfering signal levels that receivers need to be able to tolerate before being able to claim harmful interference.The paper explains how receiver interference limits would be defined in terms of both radio engineering and regulatory process, and suggests parameter values for a number of typical allocations such as television reception and cellular service in the adjacent band. It also discusses those cases where interference limits may not be sufficient to ensure adequate receiver performance, and proposes a series of progressively more prescriptive device performance requirements, culminating in receiver standards. It argues that interference limits are both necessary and sufficient for exclusive licensees, except when the allocation is next to a quiet band; and that self-certification requirements, and sometimes mandatory performance standards, need to be added for unlicensed devices and decoupled receivers.Interference limits provide benefits to both radio system operators and regulators by providing greater clarity about the entitlements that are, and are not, entailed in assignments. They reduce business risk, and allow regulators to delegate both system design and entitlement adjustment decisions to operators. These attributes will be particularly useful in bands with many, diverse and frequently emerging new services and devices.

Protocol for interprofessional cooperation regarding medical telemonitoring of diabetes patients on insulin therapy

Summary The number of doctors in metropolitan France is set to fall by around 20% by 2020, which will necessarily entail longer waiting times to see a specialist. Telemedicine ensures greater proximity between doctors and patients when the latter leave hospital. For this reason, we have created a cooperation protocol for bringing together a multidisciplinary team around an electronic personalised education programme (ePEP) for patient-monitoring using an electronic blood glucose diary. Given changes in the health system, the goal of cooperation under the terms of article 51 of the Hospital, patients, health, territories (HPST) law is to ensure access for patients to high-quality health care throughout the entire national territories. Skills regarding medical activities have been transferred to paramedical actors in numerous countries, in many cases beginning several years ago. The present diabetes treatment protocol involves patient monitoring using telemedicine (submitted on 2 December 2011). The protocol covers remote treatment of patients on insulin therapy by a multidisciplinary team. To this end, we have trained nurses specialised in the management of such patients, who carry an electronic blood glucose diary. These nurses perform medical acts outside their own area of expertise and normally undertaken by doctors; these are known as specially authorised acts. We have taken into consideration the requirements of both the specially authorised acts and of the telemedicine decree. We decided to insert an electronic version of the acts in the ePEP programme. This software, designed for training purposes, serves as a link between the various members of the multidisciplinary team. Doctors and health auxiliaries have access to patient files at all times. The cooperation protocol is currently undergoing evaluation in the ePEP trial, a multicentre feasibility study that will help define how healthcare is to be reorganised using the personalised education programme by: defining the role of nurses; assessing the benefits perceived by both caregivers and patients; evaluating the impact of ePEP on disease course after 6 months and in the longer term with regard to HbA1c levels, hypoglycaemic episodes, etc. Reorganisation of diabetes care is now well underway. Our management methods are being redesigned and formalised within a protocol in order to improve efficacy without incurring any corresponding increase in costs. We are convinced of the positive role to be played by telemedicine and the involvement of a multidisciplinary team in improving the management of diabetic patients on insulin therapy thanks to more up-to-date organisation of healthcare. We must now discuss the redistribution of costs with the healthcare authorities in order to ensure that such reorganisation is viable!

Molecular Genetic Perspectives on the Origin of the Lyngngam Tribe of Meghalaya, India

Meghalaya, one of the Northeast Indian states, is inhabited by two major tribal clusters, Khasi and Garo. The disputed origin of the Lyngngam tribe of Meghalaya is a result of their geographic distribution, which is sandwiched between that of the above two major tribal clusters. Our earlier analysis of ethnohistoric, linguistic and demographic data suggested the neighbouring Khasi and Garo as the putative parental population(s) of Lyngngam. In this paper, we have investigated the Lyngngam, Garo and all the 7 subtribes of Khasi of Meghalaya using molecular genetic markers-autosomal, Y-chromosome and mtDNA-to explore the possible origin of the Lyngngam tribe. We obtained admixture estimates for Lyngngam versus the putative parental populations. While autosomal STRs and mtDNA results clearly suggest Khasi origin of the Lyngngam, Y-STR distances show greater proximity of Lyngngam to the Garo. Further, the comparative analysis of the Y-Chromosome and mtDNA haplogroup data on relevant Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman populations from South and Southeast Asia, published by us earlier, clearly exclude the possibility of Lyngngam origin from outside Meghalaya. The molecular genetic evidence in conjunction with the linguistic, demographic and ethno-historic information clearly suggests Khasi origin of the Lyngngam tribe.

Life and miracles of bank: Stories and metaphors in-between narrated worlds and acts of narrating

This paper discusses the use of metaphors and stories by organizational and management researchers and provides examples from research on the internationalization of a bank. I will show the limits of the coupling of metaphors and stories, by highlighting the tension present in research between structure and closure of stabilized forms of determinacy produced and the always open and contingent life story in which both organizational members and researchers find themselves. A return to language is proposed where narrative research could embrace greater proximity with the life world and its inherent in-betweenness, that is to say, an intermediate space where exchanges between narrated words and acts of narration never cease to be renewed. This move will entail a shift of attention to the openness of temporalities, characters and projections.

Economia e finanza nel governo dell’impresa

The object of this study is to understand how essential the relationship between finance and economics is when administering a company. We wish to focus for a moment on the distinction which must be made between administering and managing a company, and quote various points from the related literature on this.The importance of finance, then, becomes clear, when considering the administration of corporate organisations, this importance can be seen from various points of view, which, however, lead us on to look at various different matters. There then follows the presentation of a financial approach to the decision-taking process by means of which business markets and finance markets can link up, with an eye to creating a greater proximity in matters relating to the behaviour of companies on the market, dealing with real goods, and the attitude of investors and / or their intermediaries on the financial markets.

Glucocorticoid response to changes in enclosure size and human proximity in the Persian onager (Equus hemionus onager)

This study investigated glucocorticoid (GC) responses to season and changes in enclosure size and human proximity in the Persian onager (Equus hemionus onager). Enzyme immunoassays were validated to measure GC metabolites in urine and feces (fGCM). Fecal samples were collected from 10 female onagers while in a large pasture, after transport to smaller yards (in greater proximity to people), and 2 months thereafter. Urine samples were collected for 1 year while females were in smaller yards to examine seasonal GC activity. Approximately, 2-fold increases (P < 0.05) were observed in fGCM levels after transport from pasture to yards with increased human exposure, followed by a rapid decline (within ∼17 days) to baseline (pasture) values. However, responses varied among onagers during the 30 days after translocation, with one female failing to acclimate. Mean fGCM concentrations in smaller yards 2 months after transport were comparable to those in pasture. Seasonal GC concentrations were lowest (P < 0.05) during winter, indicating modest seasonal variability. Results demonstrate an acute increase in GC secretion in Persian onagers that moved from large to small enclosures coincident with increased human activities. Most animals acclimated within 3 weeks, suggesting that this rare equid has retained mechanisms to acclimate to marked alterations in an ex situ environment.

Navegação na artroplastia total do joelho: existe vantagem?

OBJETIVO: Avaliar se a cirurgia auxiliada por navegação oferece vantagens sobre a técnica convencional, foi desenvolvido um estudo randômico, prospectivo e comparativo analisando o posicionamento do implante, alinhamento do membro, tempo de cirurgia, perda sanguínea e reabilitação funcional. MÉTODOS: Foram estudados 39 pacientes submetidos a 42 Artroplastias Totais de Joelho. No grupo 1 (n=21) a cirurgia foi navegada e no grupo 2 (n=21) convencional. Os pacientes foram avaliados com radiografia panorâmica de membros inferiores, tomografia computadorizada e pelo Knee Society Score (KSS) no pré-operatório e com três meses de pós-operatório. O tempo de cirurgia e a perda sanguínea pós-operatória também foram avaliados. RESULTADOS: O tempo de cirurgia foi maior no grupo 1. Não houve diferença significativa quanto à perda sanguínea e ao KSS. Houve maior proximidade dos três graus de rotação externa e dos cinco graus de inclinação coronal nos pacientes do grupo 2. O eixo mecânico aproximou-se mais de zero grau no grupo 1. CONCLUSÕES: A navegação promove um posicionamento individualizado dos componentes da prótese oferecendo vantagens no realinhamento do membro. O tempo cirúrgico tende a ser maior na técnica navegada, porém, não foi estatisticamente significante. Não há diferenças na perda sanguínea e na melhora do KSS. Nivel de Evidência I, estudo terapeutico.