Knowledge Refinement Research Articles

Testing and refining middle-range theory in evaluations of public-health interventions: evidence from recent systematic reviews and trials

Evaluations of public-health interventions might potentially be used to test and refine middle-range theory (ie, theory about the mechanisms, which generate outcomes that is analytically generalisable enough to span a...

Comparing Two Different Methods of Communication by Assessing the Refinement in Knowledge Among Adolescent Girls on Menstrual Hygiene– A Comparative Interventional Study

Comparing Two Different Methods of Communication by Assessing the Refinement in Knowledge Among Adolescent Girls on Menstrual Hygiene– A Comparative Interventional Study

Atherosclerosis and inflammation: no longer just theory, but a real perspective.

Coronary atherosclerotic disease is still one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Despite the changes of lifestyle and therapeutic treatments, there is an individual residual risk as worthy of further study. Investigating the residual risk means knowing its pathophysiological mechanisms, developing imaging techniques and biomarkers capable of identifying patients who can benefit from new available treatments. It is known that in all phases of the atherosclerotic process a pivotal role is played by inflammation, which, through innate and adaptive immunity, determines many direct and indirect effects which affect the patient's prognosis. The most immediate and least expensive way to stratify the patient's inflammatory risk is a dosage of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP). The hs-CRP reduction and cardiovascular events observed with the use of lipid-lowering drugs (statins), in treatments aimed at modulating the inflammatory system in the treatment of rheumatological pathologies, has paved the way for studies with drugs in the rheumatological therapeutic arena in the cardiovascular setting. The results, in addition to confirming an improvement in the main cardiovascular hard endpoints, allowed a refinement of knowledge by identifying increasingly precise targets and reducing potential side effects. Ongoing and future studies are creating solid scientific evidence in which the optimal control of inflammation will be an essential therapeutic target.

Designing formative assessments of early childhood computational thinking

With growing interest in supporting the development of computational thinking (CT) in early childhood, there is also need for new assessments that serve multiple purposes and uses. In particular, there is a need to understand the design of formative assessments that can be used during classroom instruction to provide feedback to teachers and children in real-time. In this paper, we report on an empirical study and advance a new unit of observational analysis for formative assessment that we call an indicator of a knowledge refinement opportunity or as a shorthand, KRO indicators. We put forth a new framework for conceptualizing the design of formative assessments that builds on the Evidence Centered Design framework but centers identification and analysis of indicators of knowledge refinement opportunities. We illustrate a number of key indicators through empirical examples drawn from video recordings of Kindergarten classroom lessons.

Multiple Instance Detection Networks With Adaptive Instance Refinement

Weakly supervised object detection (WSOD) aims to train object detectors by using only image-level annotations. Many recent works on WSOD adopt multiple instance detection networks (MIDN), which usually generate a certain number of proposals and regard proposal classification as a latent model learning within image classification. However, these methods tend to detect salient object, salient object parts and clustered objects due to lack of instance-level annotations during training. Thus a core issue is how to guarantee that the network learn as many objects with precise bounding boxes as possible. In this paper, we address this issue by exploiting the potential of proposal scores during training. We propose an adaptive instance refinement (AIR) framework with three novel designs, which can be integrated with MIDN into a single network. Specifically, adaptive instance mining attempts to discover all positive instances according to the score distribution of proposals and their spatial similarity. Adaptive score modulation dynamically adjusts proposal scores to make the network focus more on instances with different difficulties in different training iterations. Adaptive knowledge refinement distills important information from all previous stages by the weighted average of proposal scores. The experimental results on the PASCAL VOC 2007 and 2012 benchmarks and the MS COCO benchmark demonstrate that AIR significantly improves the performance of the original MIDN and achieves the state-of-the-art results.

The Lymphatic System of the Dog: Translating and Transitioning to an Open Textbook

This contribution is situated at the University of Saskatchewan, where Open Education Resources have been supported since 2014. During the pandemic we began the work of translating The Lymphatic System of the Dog, by Dr. Hermann Baum, into English. Originally published in 1918, Dr. Baum’s book has been transitioned into Pressbooks, with the addition of ancillary resources. Balancing the legacy of Dr. Baum’s research with our own innovations in assessment and design engages new generations of learners and practitioners. The benefits for faculty and students in designing and publishing openly must also be acknowledged. Locally designed and produced open education resources created with and by our university community is of significance to the academy. The adoption of open textbooks in university classes establishes a discourse and refinement of knowledge ensuring quality resources are designed and shared.

The Beginnings of Ethnoarchaeology in Post-War Poland

The article presents the pioneering research conducted in Poland in the field of ethnoarchaeology just before and immediately after the Second World War. The use of this method was pioneered by W. Hołubowicz. The article shows how ethnoarchaeology spread to other research centres in later years. A novelty in the research was the search for solutions in ethnographic materials. It made it possible to study production techniques and ways of using products. Currently, it is used in studies about architecture, workshops, and various classes of monuments. Research on monuments allows us to determine the traces of production and use of items. The described method contributed significantly to the refinement of knowledge about the everyday life of ancient people.

Improving Temporal Event Scheduling through STEP Perpetual Learning

Currently, most machine learning applications follow a one-off learning process: given a static dataset and a learning algorithm, generate a model for a task. These applications can neither adapt to a dynamic and changing environment, nor accomplish incremental task performance improvement continuously. STEP perpetual learning, by continuous knowledge refinement through sequential learning episodes, emphasizes the accomplishment of incremental task performance improvement. In this paper, we describe how a personalized temporal event scheduling system SmartCalendar, can benefit from STEP perpetual learning. We adopt the interval temporal logic to represent events’ temporal relationships and determine if events are temporally inconsistent. To provide strategies that approach user preferences for handling temporal inconsistencies, we propose SmartCalendar to recognize, resolve and learn from temporal inconsistencies based on STEP perpetual learning. SmartCalendar has several cornerstones: similarity measures for temporal inconsistency; a sparse decomposition method to utilize historical data; and a loss function based on cross-entropy to optimize performance. The experimental results on the collected dataset show that SmartCalendar incrementally improves its scheduling performance and substantially outperforms comparison methods.

The Lymphatic System of the Dog: Translating and Transitioning to an Open Textbook

This contribution is situated at the University of Saskatchewan, where Open Education Resources have been supported since 2014. During the pandemic we began the work of translating The Lymphatic System of the Dog, by Dr. Hermann Baum, into English. Originally published in 1918, Dr. Baum’s book has been transitioned into Pressbooks, with the addition of ancillary resources. Balancing the legacy of Dr. Baum’s research with our own innovations in assessment and design engages new generations of learners and practitioners. The benefits for faculty and students in designing and publishing openly must also be acknowledged. Locally designed and produced open education resources created with and by our university community is of significance to the academy. The adoption of open textbooks in university classes establishes a discourse and refinement of knowledge ensuring quality resources are designed and shared.

Debat Pemikiran dan Pergulatan Filsafat Moderen

The configuration of the development of modern philanthropy has a long and tumultuous history, emerging as a symbol of the thesis and antithesis, resistance and struggle, rebellion and counter-aggression and rejection of what is past and traditional. In modern times a philosophy emerged from various schools emerged. Basically the overall pattern of modern philosophy takes on the color of Greek philosophical Sufism. The development of human thought in the Middle Ages gave rise to thoughts oriented to the advancement of technology (modern philosophy), this was marked by the emergence of the Renaissance. In this century, science experienced rapid progress which led to the industrial revolution in England with the results of fame by modern philosophers. The Renaissance is a time of rebirth of classical Greek and Roman civilization. The concept of history at this time refers to periods of indivualism, the rise of antique culture, discoveries of the world and humans, as a period opposed to the medieval period. This era is also a refinement of art, expertise, and knowledge that is manifested in a versatile genius. Figures from this school are Nicholas Copernicus, Francis Bacon, Tycho Brahe. Johannes Keppler, Gallileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, and Joseph Black. Rationalism is the flow that has the view that knowledge is obtained by rational processes, namely through reasoning, knowledge can be achieved naturally can be used by humans, namely reason (ratio) and experience (empiri) also legitimately and correctly. The philosophers of this genre are Rene Decartes, Barunch Spinoza, and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. In addition to the two schools above, there is a school of empiricism which has an opinion contrary to Rationalism. They were of the view that knowledge was obtained from empirical experience, the leaders of this sect were Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.

Small Farm Resource Centers as Informal Extension Hubs in Underserved Areas: Case Studies from Southeast Asia

A Small Farm Resource Center (SFRC) is an informal in-situ extension model used for testing promising agricultural and rural livelihoods options on a physical central site, with some measure of extension methodology. There is a need to evaluate SFRCs as research-extension models operating outside of formal government extension and advisory services. Seven SFRCs located in Southeast Asia were studied to classify extension methodologies adopted by those centers, evaluate extension efficacy, and to provide recommendations for amplifying their services. On average in 2013, SFRCs were 21.1 years old, covered 24.2 ha, cost 242,000 USD to establish and had a yearly operating cost of 28,500 USD. The work of the seven SFRCs could be classified into five predominant extension methodologies: on-site and off-site demonstrations, on-site and off-site trainings, and off-site extension outreach. Most of the SFRCs utilized combinations of these and tailored their methods to the particular context. Besides agricultural production, SFRCs also offered socio-cultural and socio-economic assistance, owing to a cycle of extension knowledge refinement. SFRCS were re-engaged in 2021 and all 7 were still operational, and the majority provided the same number or more services (57%) as in 2013, utilized the same amount of space (71%), and were perceived to have the same or more efficacy (71%) even in the face of decreasing or stagnating funding (71%) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, SFRCs continue to be used successfully throughout Southeast Asia and provide cost-effective and needs-based extension and advisory services to underserved populations outside of formal extension services.

Keckermann, System, and the Rise of the Subject

This paper is an investigation into the introduction of the term ‘system’ and its conceptual background in the writings of Bartholomew Keckermann. This includes a brief summary of the literature and evidence identifying Keckermann as the first to make significant usage of the term in logic, philosophy, and theology. Then, after a survey of his life, work and milieu, this paper will look closer at three of Keckermann’s own ‘systems’; Systema logicae (1600), Praecognitorum Logicorum (1606), and Systema SS. Theologiae (1602). Finally, I will touch on the influence Keckermann’s innovation had on subsequent ideas of method in modern philosophy, especially how his innovative use of this term gives the logician the directing role as a technical expert in mining the truth of theology, philosophy, and other sciences. This, of course, flies in the face of the medieval view of the Church and its elders controlling that role, characterizing the discovery and refinement of knowledge as being a process of electing and using worthy passive subjects as conduits of divine knowledge. Thus Keckermann’s systems can be considered an important step away from this, towards the early modern epistemology requiring an active thinking subject, best characterized in Descartes’ Meditations.

Hybrid Knowledge Extraction Framework Using Modified Adaptive Genetic Algorithm and BPNN

Fault diagnosis based on the expert system (ES) is still a research topic of manufacturing in the Industry 4.0 because of the stronger interpretability. As the core component of the ES, fault diagnosis accuracy is positively correlated to the precise of the knowledge base. But it is difficult for users to understand the knowledge obtained from the original dataset utilizing the existing knowledge extraction method. Therefore, it is of great significance to extract easy-to-understand and exact rules from the NN framework. This paper proposes a hybrid extraction framework to perform the rule extraction for overcoming this drawback. First, an improved adaptive genetic algorithm (GA) using a logistic function, namely LAGA, is proposed to solve the traditional GA’s insufficient prediction performance issue. Compared with the other three mainstream adaptive GAs, the experiment results of optimizing six selected test functions by these GA variants show that the LAGA algorithm’s convergence accuracy and speed have been greatly improved, especially for high latitude functions. On this basis, a rule extraction method based on symbol rule and NN, namely the LAGA-BP framework, is discussed in this manuscript to classify the real-valued attributes. This framework obtains hidden knowledge (knowledge refinement process) by NN and further transforms the acquired hidden knowledge into more easy-to-understand rule knowledge (rule extraction process). The execution of the LAGA-BP framework could be separated into two phases. The first phase is to optimize a back propagation NN (BPNN) using the LAGA and refine prediction classification knowledge over the optimized BPNN. In the second phase, an attribute reduction algorithm using multi-layered NN (SD algorithm) based on two different superposed networks is used on this framework to reduce data-set attributes and then uses the K-means clustering algorithm to extract the if-then rule from the simplified attributes. the Wisconsin breast cancer data-set is used as a case study to reveal the correctness and robustness of the proposed LAGA-BP method. Consulting relevant medical personnel and referencing relevant data shows that the rules extracted using this method help verify the diagnosis results, thus verifying the proposed framework’s feasibility and practicality.

Validation and refinement of the Stakeholder-driven Community Diffusion Survey for childhood obesity prevention

BackgroundWhole-of-community interventions hold promise in addressing childhood obesity. The COMPACT Stakeholder-driven Community Diffusion theory posits that stakeholders’ knowledge of childhood obesity prevention efforts and engagement with the issue contribute to successful intervention implementation. Building on completed formative research and pilot testing, we describe the validation and refinement of knowledge and engagement measures.MethodsWe assessed content validity using a modified Delphi process with science (n=18) and practice-based (n=16) experts. Next, we refined the survey based on input from science- and practice-based experts, cognitive response testing, and item analysis of extant survey data. Field testing of the refined survey involved community stakeholders in Greenville County, South Carolina (n=50), East Boston, Massachusetts (n=30), and Tucson, Arizona (n=84) between 2019 and 2020. Construct validity was assessed with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Two-week test-retest reliability was assessed among a subsample of 14 paired respondents in South Carolina.ResultsExperts rated existing knowledge domains (intervention factors, roles, sustainability, problem, resources) and engagement domains (dialogue/mutual learning, flexibility, influence/power, leadership/stewardship, trust) highly for their importance in addressing childhood obesity. Expert input resulted in 11 new knowledge items and 7 new engagement items that mapped onto existing domains. Correspondingly, two domain names were modified: implementation/sustainability and trust/trustworthiness. We also eliminated 8 extant items (4 knowledge and 4 engagement) and adapted item language for comprehension and consistency. Further modifications based on CFA results and item analyses resulted in 23 knowledge items across four domains (roles and resources merged) and 23 engagement items across five domains. Modified knowledge and engagement scales had adequate fit and strong item factor loadings (most >0.7 and all >0.5). Knowledge (α=0.86–0.87) and engagement (α=0.75–0.90) subscales had high internal scale consistency. Knowledge intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for test-retest agreement of subscale scores ranged from 0.50 for intervention factors to 0.86 for roles/resources. For engagement subscale scores, ICCs ranged from 0.70 for trust/trustworthiness to 0.96 for leadership/stewardship.ConclusionsFindings from this multi-method survey development process increase our confidence of the knowledge and engagement measures’ content validity, construct validity, and reliability.

Peer reviewers.

Peer reviewers.

Endogenous Deficiency of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Induces the Downregulation of Tryptophan Hydroxylase-2 Expression in Raphe Nuclei of Rapid Ejaculator Rats

BackgroundPremature ejaculation (PE) is one of the most common ejaculatory disorders. Recent studies have suggested a close relationship between the serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine [5-HT]) system and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), raising the question of whether BDNF plays a role in ejaculation regulation. To our knowledge, no previous studies have explored BDNF level of the central nervous system in ejaculatory disorders. At the same time, the interaction of central BDNF and 5-HT systems has not been undertaken in ejaculation regulation field. AimThe aim of this study was to investigate the interaction between BDNF and 5-HT levels in raphe nuclei which contains the serotonergic neurons in a rat animal model with different ejaculatory behavior. MethodsEighteen male rats were selected and classified as “sluggish,” “normal,” and “rapid” ejaculators on the basis of ejaculation frequency during copulatory behavioral testing. BDNF and 5-HT levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Real-Time Quantitative PCR and Western blot analyses were used to measure the mRNA level of Tryptophan Hydroxylase-2 (TPH2) gene and the expression of TPH2 protein (the rate-limiting enzyme in central 5-HT synthesis) in raphe nuclei, respectively. OutcomesMale rat sexual behavior, the levels of BDNF and 5-HT in raphe nuclei of rats with different ejaculatory behavior, the mRNA level of gene encoding TPH2 and the expression of TPH2 protein in raphe nuclei. ResultsThe primary finding of our study was that BDNF concentration was significantly decreased in raphe nuclei of rapid ejaculators. There was a strong positive correlation between the levels of BDNF and 5-HT (r = 0.944, P < .001). Further results showed that decreased TPH2 gene expression accompanied by TPH2 protein was shown in rapid ejaculators with lower BDNF level. Clinical ImplicationsWith refinement of current knowledge, BDNF may eventually serve as a promising biomarker in patients with PE. Strengths & LimitationsThere are no previous studies examining the interaction of the brain BDNF and 5-HT in ejaculation regulation field. The main limitation is the limited sample size. ConclusionBDNF may act via increasing the synthesis of central 5-HT in the process of ejaculation regulation. Our results suggest lack of endogenous BDNF induces the downregulation of TPH2 gene expression and the decrease of 5-HT synthesis in raphe nuclei of rapid ejaculator rats. Huang Y, Peng D, Geng H, et al. Endogenous Deficiency of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Induces the Downregulation of Tryptophan Hydroxylase-2 Expression in Raphe Nuclei of Rapid Ejaculator Rats. J Sex Med 2021;18:1491–1499.

Semantic Series as a Discourse Analysis Tool (Discourse about Generations)

The question of methods of discourse semantics modeling, understood as a content-thematic community of texts, is considered. The novelty of the research is seen in the expansion of the methodological tools in the study of discourse as an array of texts, in the refinement of supra-individual knowledge about an important social phenomenon. The relevance of the study is due to the interest of the humanities in the theory of generations, which has not yet received a linguistic response. Attention is paid to the ideas and techniques that make it possible to derive text-discursive meanings on the basis of isotopy and related concepts, in particular the concept of a semantic series. The construction of semantic series as a proven technique for analyzing literary texts is extrapolated to the study of discourse formed by a collective speech subject, which is the author’s version of the presentation of speech systemicity. The semantic series identified in the aggregate of fragments of different types of texts containing the lexeme generation are analyzed. Attention is paid to the series that objectify such semantic blocks as self-presentation of subjects of speech by belonging to a generation, categorization of generations, generational values. The author compares the meanings, actualized by the semantic series, with the provisions of the interdisciplinary theory of generations, developed by N. Howe and W. Strauss, proves a partial intersection of theoretical provisions and everyday ideas.

The Local Wisdom Management Mohom for Stable Inherit and Lifelong Learning

This article aims to: (1) study the context of the local wisdom Mohom for self-reliance of Ban Thung Hong community, Phrae; and (2) to study the local wisdom management of Mohom for sustainable inheritance and lifelong learning, by implementing qualitative research methodology. Data collection was conducted by an in-depth interview on the community leader, the community philosopher, and Hom laborers, participatory and non-participatory observation, and collection of related secondary data. The results of the content analysis revealed that 1) The context of the local wisdom Mohom is related to participatory Hom management for self-reliance of the community in Phrae, via accumulation, transfer, and inheritance of knowledge from generation to generation. This is called &amp;ldquo;Hom Culture&amp;rdquo; which consists of self-reliance in three factors: (1) Hom Culture: community economy for self-reliance; (2) Hom Culture: social and cultural system for self-reliance; and (3) Hom Culture: natural resource and environmental management for self-reliance. Hom is therefore a culture that connects the community, and is significant for the community in Phrae to conserve the identity and value of the local wisdom, a foundation for self-reliance of the local community; and 2) Study on the local wisdom management of Mohom for sustainable inheritance and lifelong learning revealed that there are seven knowledge management processes in Ban Thung Hong community: 1) knowledge identification; 2) knowledge creation and acquisition; 3) knowledge organization; 4) knowledge codification and refinement; 5) knowledge access; 6) knowledge sharing; and 7) learning. Additionally, there also exists Hom cultural management in the community through the Mohom Dyeing Learning Center, in which community members design the communication process of Hom culture for participatory self-reliance in the community, and response to demands of the community via &amp;ldquo;Lifelong Learning&amp;rdquo; applied in the context of the community regarding learning among the members, or between members and teenagers, which eventually lead to the development of learning places, travel destinations, and local database as the learning sources of the community. Additionally, this allows those interested in the community, particularly the local young population, to study the community, which encourages &amp;ldquo;Strong Citizens of Phrae&amp;rdquo; via knowledge management, authority distribution, and educational opportunity creation, with the purposes to encourage equality and bonds in the community, alongside an appreciation of resources in one&amp;rsquo;s own community. One of the important expectations of the community is to preserve the lifestyle pattern of Hom culture, despite the social changes from external sources which influence the role of the community.

Menopausal Hormone Therapy and the Role of Estrogen.

Menopause is a universal experience for midlife women. The physiological decline in endogenous estrogen can be associated with vasomotor symptoms or hot flashes, sleep disruption, and mood disorders. Long-term concerns arise with sequelae of estrogen loss such as genitourinary syndrome of menopause and osteoporosis. Although the pendulum has swung widely since the 1942 approval of conjugated equine estrogens, estrogen therapy, now available in an ever-expanding menu of preparations, routes of administration, and dosing, remains the most effective means to collectively address these, and potentially, additional concerns. Refinement of knowledge of risks and benefits facilitates patient selection and counseling.

Inductive learning of answer set programs for autonomous surgical task planning

The quality of robot-assisted surgery can be improved and the use of hospital resources can be optimized by enhancing autonomy and reliability in the robot’s operation. Logic programming is a good choice for task planning in robot-assisted surgery because it supports reliable reasoning with domain knowledge and increases transparency in the decision making. However, prior knowledge of the task and the domain is typically incomplete, and it often needs to be refined from executions of the surgical task(s) under consideration to avoid sub-optimal performance. In this paper, we investigate the applicability of inductive logic programming for learning previously unknown axioms governing domain dynamics. We do so under answer set semantics for a benchmark surgical training task, the ring transfer. We extend our previous work on learning the immediate preconditions of actions and constraints, to also learn axioms encoding arbitrary temporal delays between atoms that are effects of actions under the event calculus formalism. We propose a systematic approach for learning the specifications of a generic robotic task under the answer set semantics, allowing easy knowledge refinement with iterative learning. In the context of 1000 simulated scenarios, we demonstrate the significant improvement in performance obtained with the learned axioms compared with the hand-written ones; specifically, the learned axioms address some critical issues related to the plan computation time, which is promising for reliable real-time performance during surgery.