Truthful Data Research Articles

A review on the quantification of soil water balance components as a basis for agricultural water management with a focus on weighing lysimeters and soil water sensors / Ein Überblick über die Ermittlung von Wasserhaushaltsgrößen als Basis für die landeskulturelle Wasserwirtschaft mit Fokus auf Lysimeter und Bodenwassersensoren

Summary Knowing the components of a soil water balance—for example, evapotranspiration, soil water content, and precipitation—is the basis for agricultural water management. Weighing lysimeters and soil water sensors are commonly used to quantify these components. Data can be used to validate common models to estimate evapotranspiration based on meteorological data, for instance. As every measurement device has its own characteristics, it is helpful to assess and improve the performance of a system to obtain best possible data. Recent developments in the processing of lysimeter data allow determining both evapotranspiration and precipitation directly from lysimeter data. Resulting datasets are characterized by a proper accuracy, completeness, and a high temporal resolution. Soil water sensors usually measure a physical property that is related to soil water content or matric potential via a specific calibration function. Hence, measurement accuracy depends not only on this calibration but also on basic physical principles and material properties. Knowing the performance of a device is, therefore, essential for the selection of an adequate sensor arrangement and truthful data interpretation. Advanced soil water monitoring sites combine different sensor types that are integrated into a wireless network to enable real-time data availability and provide a basis for large-scale monitoring.

Incentive Compatible Privacy-Preserving Distributed Classification

In this paper, we propose game-theoretic mechanisms to encourage truthful data sharing for distributed data mining. One proposed mechanism uses the classic Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) mechanism, and the other relies on the Shapley value. Neither relies on the ability to verify the data of the parties participating in the distributed data mining protocol. Instead, we incentivize truth telling based solely on the data mining result. This is especially useful for situations where privacy concerns prevent verification of the data. Under reasonable assumptions, we prove that these mechanisms are incentive compatible for distributed data mining. In addition, through extensive experimentation, we show that they are applicable in practice.

An experimental comparison of real and artificial deception using a deception generation model

To develop a data mining approach for a deception application, data collection costs can be prohibitive because both deceptive data and truthful data are necessary to be collected. To reduce data collection costs, artificially generated deception data can be used, but the impact of using artificially generated deception data is not well understood. To study the relationship between artificial and real deception, this paper presents an experimental comparison using a novel deception generation model. The deception and truth data were collected from financial aid applications, a document centric area with limited resources for verification. The data collection provided a unique data set containing truth, natural deception, and boosted deception. To simulate deception, the Application Deception Model was developed to generate artificial deception in different deception scenarios. To study differences between artificial and real deception, an experiment was performed using deception level and data generation method as factors and directed distance and outlier score as outcome variables. Our results provided evidence of a reasonable similarity between artificial and real deception, suggesting the possibility of using artificially generated deception to reduce the costs associated with obtaining training data.

Information in Reality: Logic and Metaphysics

The recent history of information theory and science shows a trend in emphasis from quantitative measures to qualitative characterizations. In parallel, aspects of information are being developed, for example by Pedro Marijuan, Wolfgang Hofkirchner and others that are extending the notion of qualitative, non-computational information in the biological and cognitive domain to include meaning and function. However, there is as yet no consensus on whether a single acceptable definition or theory of the concept of information is possible, leading to many attempts to view it as a complex, a notion with varied meanings or a group of different entities. In my opinion, the difficulties in developing a Unified Theory of Information (UTI) that would include its qualitative and quantita-tive aspects and their relation to meaning are a consequence of implicit or explicit reliance on the principles of standard, truth-functional bivalent or multivalent logics. In reality, information processes, like those of time, change and human con-sciousness, are contradictory: they are regular and irregular; consistent and inconsistent; continuous and discontinuous. Since the indicated logics cannot accept real contradictions, they have been incapable of describing the multiple but interre-lated characteristics of information. The framework for the discussion of information in this paper will be the new extension of logic to real complex processes that I have made, Logic in Reality (LIR), which is grounded in the dualities and self-dualities of quantum physics and cos-mology. LIR provides, among other things, new interpretations of the most fundamental metaphysical questions present in discussions of information at physical, biological and cognitive levels of reality including, especially, those of time, continuity vs. discontinuity, and change, both physical and epistemological. I show that LIR can constitute a novel and general ap-proach to the non-binary properties of information, including meaning and value. These properties subsume the notion of semantic information as well-formed, meaningful and truthful data as proposed most recently by Luciano Floridi. LIR sup-ports the concept of ‘biotic’ information of Stuart Kauffmann, Robert Logan and their colleagues and that of meaningful information developed by Christophe Menant. Logic in Reality does not pretend to the level of rigor of an experimental or mathematical theory. It is proposed as a meth-odology to assist in achieving a minimum scientific legitimacy for a qualitative theory of information. My hope is that by seeing information, meaning and knowledge as dynamic processes, evolving according to logical rules in my extended sense of logic, some of the on-going issues on the nature and function of information may be clarified.

Information in Reality: Logic and Metaphysics

The recent history of information theory and science shows a trend in emphasis from quantitative measures to qualitative characterizations. In parallel, aspects of information are being developed, for example by Pedro Marijuan, Wolfgang Hofkirchner and others that are extending the notion of qualitative, non-computational information in the biological and cognitive domain to include meaning and function. However, there is as yet no consensus on whether a single acceptable definition or theory of the concept of information is possible, leading to many attempts to view it as a complex, a notion with varied meanings or a group of different entities. In my opinion, the difficulties in developing a Unified Theory of Information (UTI) that would include its qualitative and quantita-tive aspects and their relation to meaning are a consequence of implicit or explicit reliance on the principles of standard, truth-functional bivalent or multivalent logics. In reality, information processes, like those of time, change and human con-sciousness, are contradictory: they are regular and irregular; consistent and inconsistent; continuous and discontinuous. Since the indicated logics cannot accept real contradictions, they have been incapable of describing the multiple but interre-lated characteristics of information. The framework for the discussion of information in this paper will be the new extension of logic to real complex processes that I have made, Logic in Reality (LIR), which is grounded in the dualities and self-dualities of quantum physics and cos-mology. LIR provides, among other things, new interpretations of the most fundamental metaphysical questions present in discussions of information at physical, biological and cognitive levels of reality including, especially, those of time, continuity vs. discontinuity, and change, both physical and epistemological. I show that LIR can constitute a novel and general ap-proach to the non-binary properties of information, including meaning and value. These properties subsume the notion of semantic information as well-formed, meaningful and truthful data as proposed most recently by Luciano Floridi. LIR sup-ports the concept of ‘biotic’ information of Stuart Kauffmann, Robert Logan and their colleagues and that of meaningful information developed by Christophe Menant. Logic in Reality does not pretend to the level of rigor of an experimental or mathematical theory. It is proposed as a meth-odology to assist in achieving a minimum scientific legitimacy for a qualitative theory of information. My hope is that by seeing information, meaning and knowledge as dynamic processes, evolving according to logical rules in my extended sense of logic, some of the on-going issues on the nature and function of information may be clarified.

Editorial commentary: How to predict fatherhood for men with non-obstructive azoospermia opting for TESE-ICSI?

The treatment of male factor infertility, due to non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA), by testicular sperm extraction (TESE)–ICSI is a major breakthrough in assisted reproduction. However, although the first patient series on this approach were published more than 15 years ago (Tournaye et al., 1995), to date, it still remains difficult to provide candidate patients with truthful data about their chances to eventually father their genetically own child. In this issue, Boitrelle et al. (2011) published a study trying to determine predictive parameters to improve patient counselling. Retrieval rates after testicular surgery reported in the literature differ considerably. While in unselected NOA patients, the surgical approach seems to have a limited effect as long as multiple biopsies are taken whenever needed, the extended processing of the wet preparations of the testicular tissue may have a greater impact on sperm recovery. Unfortunately, large well-designed controlled trials to support both assertions are lacking. But sperm retrieval rates are also subject to the (pre)selection of patients and can be biased either by re-allocating successful patients in case series, either by including patients showing almost normal spermatogenesis, e.g. mild-to-moderate hypospermatogenesis, or by inclusion of patients with no testicular histology available. As a result of the above, retrieval rates reported in the literature for NOA men may vary from about 30% to even more than 80%. Larger case studies in well-defined NOA populations report sperm recovery rates after a first TESE attempt around 50%. However, given the invasive character of TESE, NOA patients want to have a better prediction of their chances to retrieve testicular sperm than tossing a coin. Because testicular volume and serum FSH are routinely assessed in azoospermic men, these parameters are often used in studies on prediction either as a stand-alone parameter or in combination with other parameters. Unfortunately, their predictive power remains limited and is subject to the heterogeneity of the population of NOA patients studied. Idem dito for the predictive parameters published in the study by Boitrelle et al. (2011). The positive likelihood ratios for the stand-alone parameters are below 2 and hence not of a great diagnostic value in predicting testicular sperm recovery. With a positive likelihood ratio of 3, a predictive score combining testicular volume, FSH and inhibin-B looks more promising in their setting. But again, is this a robust predictive model applicable to every population of NOA men? All NOA men with all parameters included in the score available were selected in our Brussels database. Although we refrained from assessing inhibin-B routinely, after concluding that this parameter had a poor predictive value (Vernaeve et al., 2002), the score could be calculated in a population of 110 NOA men that had their first TESE attempt and showed neither normal spermatogenesis nor hypospermatogenesis on their testicular histologies. Compared with the study by Boitrelle et al. (2011), our sperm retrieval rates were, respectively, 50.0% compared with 77.4% in men with a score below 18.5 (n 1⁄4 38) and 57.1% compared with 39.7% in men with a score between 18.5 and 3700 (n 1⁄4 72). Our ‘test’ population did not include men with a score higher than 3700. This ‘test’ emphasizes that any blind application of a prediction model on a population of patients, other than the one it originated from, remains difficult due to patient heterogeneity. Whether out-of-routine assessmentsmay improve the prediction of a successful testicular recovery also remains to be proven. Doppler ultrasoundor even invasive assessments such as ‘testicularmapping’ by puncture provide low sensitivities. Since many NOA men do not accept donor insemination as an alternative for their fatherhood and because current predictive tests cannot exclude that any sperm will eventually be retrieved, to date, reliable counselling towards sperm retrieval remains problematic for all TESE candidates suffering from NOA. Counselling becomes even more difficult when an NOA patient would like to know what his chances are to have a child, which in the end is the true outcome of interest to candidate TESE–ICSI patients. At present, only fragmentary data exist either reporting on retrieval rates after TESE or reporting on the outcome of ICSI once testicular spermatozoa were obtained in different subsets of patients. Boitrelle et al. (2011) show that in their setting, the take-home baby rate in patients with a score over 3700 was low (7.7%) compared with lower-score patients (48.8%), a finding that still may suffer from bias because only a subset of patients was included in the subsequent ICSI analysis (89 out of 149 men in which testicular sperm were retrieved, i.e. 59%, eventually proceeded to ICSI). Again, the score can probably not be applied blindly in other TESE–ICSI programmes

The Research and Development of Prediction and Simulation System for Safety Production

In order to macro-forecast the conditions of the occupational safety all over China, this paper selects some appropriate indicators of social and economic development and statistical indicators of the occupational safety. Besides, the internal relations between the occupational safety and the social and economic development are analyzed through the data in the past 20 years, and a prediction model is obtained by using gray theory and multiple weighted mean methods. Then the occupational safety of China over the next five years is forecasted. Compared with the truthful data, it is concluded that this model has a high precision. Based on the model, the prediction and simulation system of the occupational safety is developed.

A Critical Analysis of Floridi’s Theory of Semantic Information

In various publications over the past years, Floridi has developed a theory of semantic information as well-formed, meaningful, and truthful data. This theory is more or less orthogonal to the standard entropy-based notions of information known from physics, information theory, and computer science that all define the amount of information in a certain system as a scalar value without any direct semantic implication. In this context the question rises what the exact relation between these various conceptions of information is and whether there is a real need to enrich these mathematically more or less rigid definitions with a less formal notion of semantic information. I investigate various philosophical aspects of the more formal definitions of information in the light of Floridi’s theory. The position I defend is that the formal treatment of the notion of information as a general theory of entropy is one of the fundamental achievements of modern science that in itself is a rich source for new philosophical reflection. This makes information theory a competitor of classical epistemology rather than a servant. In this light Floridi’s philosophy of information is more a reprise of classical epistemology that only pays lip service to information theory but fails to address the important central questions of philosophy of information. Specifically, I will defend the view that notions that are associated with truth, knowledge, and meaning all can adequately be reconstructed in the context of modern information theory and that consequently there is no need to introduce a concept of semantic information.

CDNA Cloning and Sequences Analysis of RPS15 from the Giant Panda

The cDNA of RPS15 was cloned successfully for the first time from the Giant Panda using RT-PCR technology, which was also sequenced and analyzed preliminarily. The cDNA fragment is 442bp in size, containing an open reading frame (ORF) of 438bp encoding 145 amino acids. Alignment analysis indicates that the nucleotide sequence and the deduced amino acid sequence show a high homology to those of human and other mammalian species reported. Topology prediction shows there are two cAMP and cGMP-dependent kinase phosphorylation sites, one Ribosomal Protein S19 signature site, four N- myristoylation sites and five Casein kinase C phosphorylation sites in the RPS15 protein. Further analysis indicates that the expression sequence of RPS15 and the protein encoded are highly homologous to those of human and other mammals reported. The study is of significance to provide truthful and scientific data for studying the Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) at molecular level, especially for cloning and further researching the complete sequence of RPS15.

Experiencia de la Universidad del Bío-Bío en el desarrollo de un sistema de gestión integrado en información universitaria.

Los desafíos planteados al país con motivo del Bicentenario (apoyar la transición de su economía a una basada en el conocimiento, incrementando la equidad, calidad y efectividad del sistema de educación superior y la necesidad de alcanzar estos resultados a través de un mejoramiento del desempeño, transparencia y rendición de cuentas públicas) exigen a las instituciones disponer de información oportuna, confiable y veraz para el desarrollo de su gestión interna y la proyección de su oferta y resultados al medio externo. Este artículo muestra un análisis del contexto actual en materia de demandas de sistemas de información de gestión, y da a conocer cómo la Universidad del Bío-Bío resolvió esta problemática generando su Sistema Integrado de Información Universitaria.

A Bayesian truth serum for subjective data.

Subjective judgments, an essential information source for science and policy, are problematic because there are no public criteria for assessing judgmental truthfulness. I present a scoring method for eliciting truthful subjective data in situations where objective truth is unknowable. The method assigns high scores not to the most common answers but to the answers that are more common than collectively predicted, with predictions drawn from the same population. This simple adjustment in the scoring criterion removes all bias in favor of consensus: Truthful answers maximize expected score even for respondents who believe that their answer represents a minority view.

Why Do Women Cadres Lose Elections?

In recent years, in the elections held at the county and xiang (township) levels at times when the transition is being made from the end of one term to the beginning of another, a phenomenon has emerged in some districts in our province in which a relatively large number of women cadres have been defeated in the elections and there is a declining trend in the proportion of women cadres in positions of leadership to the total number of leadership cadres in the counties and xiang. Thus, in order to find out why women cadres have lost in these elections, to get to the bottom of the matter of the obstacles that stand in the way of women cadres' growth to maturity, and to provide scientific and relatively detailed and truthful data for the work of cultivating and promoting women cadres, we conducted an investigative survey of twenty women cadres who had suffered electoral defeats in the twelve counties and city suburbs within our province. This survey was conducted from September to November of last year.

Measurement theory.

The usefulness and truthfulness of assessments, whether performed in the clinic on one patient or in the research laboratory on many subjects, depends on valid measurements. Measurement theory is the thought process and interrelated body of knowledge that form the basis of valid measurements. Translation of measurement theory to behaviors helps to ensure the integrity and relevancy of tests and the data that result from them. In the final analysis, useful and truthful data depend for their existence on scalable and detectable events being translated into pertinent, valid, and reliable measurements. The rules by which numbers are assigned to events form the basis of measurements theory.