A modified Kacanov iteration scheme with application to quasilinear diffusion models

The classical Kacanov scheme for the solution of nonlinear variational problems can be interpreted as a fixed point iteration method that updates a given approximation by solving a linear problem in each step. Based on this observation, we introduce a modified Kacanov method, which allows for (adaptive) damping, and, thereby, to derive a new convergence analysis under more general assumptions and for a wider range of applications. For instance, in the specific context of quasilinear diffusion models, our new approach does no longer require a standard monotonicity condition on the nonlinear diffusion coefficient to hold. Moreover, we propose two different adaptive strategies for the practical selection of the damping parameters involved.

Convolutional Neural Networks Used to Date Photographs

Nowadays, the information provided by digital photographs is very complete and very relevant in different professional fields, such as scientific or forensic photography. Taking this into account, it is possible to determine the date when they were taken, as well as the type of device that they were taken with, and thus be able to locate the photograph in a specific context. This is not the case with analog photographs, which lack any information regarding the date they were taken. Extracting this information is a complicated task, so classifying each photograph according to the date it was taken is a laborious task for a human expert. Artificial intelligence techniques make it possible to determine the characteristics and classify the images automatically. Within the field of artificial intelligence, convolutional neural networks are one of the most widely used methods today. This article describes the application of convolutional neural networks to automatically classify photographs according to the year they were taken. To do this, only the photograph is used, without any additional information. The proposed method divides each photograph into several segments that are presented to the network so that it can estimate a year for each segment. Once all the segments of a photograph have been processed, a general year for the photograph is calculated from the values generated by the network for each of its segments. In this study, images taken between 1960 and 1999 were analyzed and classified using different architectures of a convolutional neural network. The computational results obtained indicate that 44% of the images were classified with an error of less than 5 years, 20.25% with a marginal error between 5 and 10 years, and 35.75% with a higher marginal error of more than 10 years. Due to the complexity of the problem, the results obtained are considered good since 64.25% of the photographs were classified with an error of less than 10 years. Another important result of the study carried out is that it was found that the color is a very important characteristic when classifying photographs by date. The results obtained show that the approach given in this study is an important starting point for this type of task and that it allows placing a photograph in a specific temporal context, thus facilitating the work of experts dedicated to scientific and forensic photography.

A modified decision tree approach to improve the prediction and mutation discovery for drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Background Drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis is complicating the effective treatment and control of tuberculosis disease (TB). With the adoption of whole genome sequencing as a diagnostic tool, machine learning approaches are being employed to predict M. tuberculosis resistance and identify underlying genetic mutations. However, machine learning approaches can overfit and fail to identify causal mutations if they are applied out of the box and not adapted to the disease-specific context. We introduce a machine learning approach that is customized to the TB setting, which extracts a library of genomic variants re-occurring across individual studies to improve genotypic profiling. Results We developed a customized decision tree approach, called Treesist-TB, that performs TB drug resistance prediction by extracting and evaluating genomic variants across multiple studies. The application of Treesist-TB to rifampicin (RIF), isoniazid (INH) and ethambutol (EMB) drugs, for which resistance mutations are known, demonstrated a level of predictive accuracy similar to the widely used TB-Profiler tool (Treesist-TB vs. TB-Profiler tool: RIF 97.5% vs. 97.6%; INH 96.8% vs. 96.5%; EMB 96.8% vs. 95.8%). Application of Treesist-TB to less understood second-line drugs of interest, ethionamide (ETH), cycloserine (CYS) and para-aminosalisylic acid (PAS), led to the identification of new variants (52, 6 and 11, respectively), with a high number absent from the TB-Profiler library (45, 4, and 6, respectively). Thereby, Treesist-TB had improved predictive sensitivity (Treesist-TB vs. TB-Profiler tool: PAS 64.3% vs. 38.8%; CYS 45.3% vs. 30.7%; ETH 72.1% vs. 71.1%). Conclusion Our work reinforces the utility of machine learning for drug resistance prediction, while highlighting the need to customize approaches to the disease-specific context. Through applying a modified decision learning approach (Treesist-TB) across a range of anti-TB drugs, we identified plausible resistance-encoding genomic variants with high predictive ability, whilst potentially overcoming the overfitting challenges that can affect standard machine learning applications.

Antecedents and Consequences of Patient Satisfaction in the Context of Private Hospitalization Services

This study aims to investigate the impacts of perceived quality and perceived value on patient satisfaction as well as the influence of patient satisfaction on hospital’s brand image, patient loyalty and word-of-mouth intention in the context of private hospitalization services. With regards to the conceptualization of perceived quality, this study also attempts to uncover the underlying dimensions of hospitalization quality in the specific context of private hospital. This study surveyed 254 patients who were admitted for at least three days at private hospital in Malaysia, revealing that patient satisfaction with hospitalization services could be explained directly or indirectly by five hospitalization quality domains namely outcome quality, rights and privacy, medical quality, service quality, and servicescape. The findings of this study also show that patient satisfaction has significant impacts on all the three consequences variables – brand image, patient loyalty and WoM intention. The two major contributions of this study include the conceptualization of hospitalization quality domains and the newly developed measurement of perceived value in the context of profit-oriented healthcare institutions.

Understanding Employee Ownership in the Context of French Family Firms

Family firms, in which a family controls a majority stake in the organisation, are often considered characteristically different from non-family firms. However, our understanding of employee ownership in the specific context of family firms suffers from the concerns raised by owners of several family firms about such ownership. The decision to open the capital to its employees goes beyond the question of the ownership of family business. Nevertheless, it impacts the governance of the company and raises several concerns including the transmission of information, transparency, increased formalism, and taxation. This study aims to analyze how family firms benefit from an employee ownership plan and how governance practices impact the mechanism of employee ownership plans. This study examines the financial communication of French family firms in terms of mployee ownership activities.

eHR Cloud Transformation

The article covers process models for HR IT projects and in particular for HR transformation projects. Based on the authors' experience, an applied process model for HR transformation projects in a cloud-based environment is derived. The article identifies findings applicable to the fields of organisation, business, and IT as well as decisions and critical success factors in the specific context of cloud-based HR solutions.

Placing Portuguese Right-Wing Populism Into Context

This chapter examines the discourse of the Portuguese right-wing populist André Ventura and compares it with his close counterparts, Santiago Abascal, Marine Le Pen, and Matteo Salvini. The empirical analysis is focused on the 2021 presidential campaign and looks at Twitter and YouTube as parts of an integrated political communication strategy that are used as tools of exposure and message dissemination. The results show how André Ventura appropriates the features of right-wing populism but adapts those to the Portuguese specific context as a strategy to gain both wider media visibility and popular support.

Vitalism and vital normativeness: Hahnemann and Canguilhem

The present paper reviews Vitalism as the basis for S. Hahnemann’s initial formulation of Homeopathy through the lens of the notions of Vitalism and vital normativeness formulated in the 20th century by French physician and historian of science Georges Canguilhem. Hahnemann described disease as a disarrangement of the organism as a whole, carrying the mark of the individual affected. Similarly, Canguilhem stated that symptoms only have meaning within their specific context and express a global disturb. Hahnemann gave health a positive definition as the state of equilibrium of the vital force – the latter understood as an essential quality of matter composing living beings and corresponding to a conception of Vitalism that holds totality as self-organized. Canguilhem would define Vitalism as the simple acknowledgement of the originality of life regarding lifeless matter, and described life as a dynamic polarity. In this context, illness is seen as a way to compel the organism to seek a new equilibrium to maintain homeostasis, health and healing are both integral parts of the self-organization of living beings and dichotomy of the process health/disease is a mere linguistic artifact. Keywords: Vitalism; Medical rationalities; Homeopathy; Vital normativeness; Georges Canguilhem.  Vitalismo e normatividade vital: Hahnemann and Canguilhem Resumo Este trabalho revé o Vitalismo como base da inicial formulação da Homeopatia por Hahnemann através das noções de Vitalismo e normatividade vital formulada no século XX pelo médico e historiador da ciéncia francés George Canquilhem. Hahneman descreve a doença como um desequilíbrio no organismo como um todo, carregando a marca da afecção individual. Similarmente, Canguilhem afirma que os sintomas somente tém siginificado dentro de seu específico contexto e expressa um distúrbio global. Hahnemann dá àsaúde uma definição positiva como o estado de equilíbrio da força vital - mais tarde compreendida como uma qualidade essencial da matéria que compõe os seres vivos e que corresponde a uma concepção de Vitalismo que entende a totalidade como auto-organização. Canguilhem definiu o Vitalismo como o simples reconhecimento da originalidade da vida e a descreve como uma polaridade dinâmica. Neste contexto, doença é vista como um modo de compelir o organismo a conquistar um novo equilíbrio para sustentar a sua homeostase; saúde e cura são ambos parte integrante da auto-organização dos seres vivos e a dicotomia do processo saúde/doença é mero artefato de linguagem. Palavras-chave: Vitalismo; racionalidades médicas; Homeopatia; Vital normativeness; Georges Canguilhem.  Vitalismo y normatividad vital: Hahnemann and Canguilhem Resumen Este trabajo aborda el Vitalismo como la base para la formulación inicial de la Homeopatía por Hahnemann a través de las nociones de Vitalismo y normatividad vital formuladas en el siglo XX por el mpedico e historiador de la ciencia francés Georges Canguilhem. Hahnemann describió la enfermedad como una alteración del organismo como un todo, conllevando la marca del individuo afectado. De modo semejante, Canguilhem afirmó que los síntomas sólo tienen sentido dentro de su contexto específico y expresan un transtorno global. Hahnemann formuló una definición positiva de salud como el estado de equilibrio de la fuerza viral - ésta entendida como una cualidad esencial de la materia que compone los seres vivos, correspondiente com una concepción del Vitalismo que concibe la totalidad como suto-organizada. Canguilhem definiría el Vitalismo como el mero reconocimiento de la originalidad de la vida respecto de la materia inanimada, y describió la vida como una polaridad dinámica. En este contexto, la enfermedad es considerada una manera de forzar el organismo en la búsqueda de un nuevo equilibrio para mantener la homeostasis, así, salud y curación son partes integrales de la auto-organización de los deres vivos, mientras que la dicotomía del proceso salud/enfermedad es un mero artificio lingüístico. Palabras-clave: Vitalismo; racionalidades médicas; Homeopatía; Vital normativeness; Georges Canguilhem.  Correspondence author: Denise Scofano, [email protected] How to cite this article: Scofano D, Luz MT. Vitalism and vital normativeness: Hahnemann and Canguilhem. Int J High Dilution Res [online]. 2008 [cited YYYY Mmm DD]; 7(24): 140-146. Available from: http://journal.giri-society.org/index.php/ijhdr/article/view/296/363. ÂÂÂ

Power, Resistance, and Place in Appalachia

This essay is an analysis of the power and resistance dynamics at work in West Virginia. Because identity constructs are often place-based, place and the meaning of place in Appalachia inform identity construction and are a powerful tool to harness for resistance. With extensive outmigration pulling Appalachians from home and local communities, the facets of identity tied to place become even more complex. Loss impacts the salience of the “idea” of home for many Appalachians. Identity that is place-based can offer a framework for building a deeper understanding of a region. At the same time, to comprehend resistance, it must have a specific context and location. Places are made up of many different identities that make creating solidarity extremely difficult. Resistance must be place-based but in order for movements to be effective, it must not rely solely on place. Appalachia has a strong history of resistance and resilience. The role of power in resistance provides context to explore West Virginia’s rich history of protest.

Entrepreneurship imperatives in higher education institutions: The case of Australian Universities

Earlier research has not explicitly emphasised the dynamic integration of entrepreneurship imperatives and transformation in developing the entrepreneurial university. The purpose of this research is to examine the linkage between the strategic intents articulated by universities and their corresponding level of entrepreneurship transformation. This article develops a theoretical framework to examine transformational imperatives, applying a data analytical approach to assess strategic documents using automated content analysis and complex algorithms. Australian universities were chosen for the research given the specific context of the higher education sector and the availability of strategic documents on the institutions’ websites. In the research context, the findings show that, while there are some variances with specific institutions, Australian universities in general, and several groups of universities in particular, expressed different levels of determination, ranging from moderate to moderately strong, to transform themselves into being entrepreneurial. Universities’ management can benefit from the theoretical framework developed in this research to craft strategies to further adopt entrepreneurship imperatives. Implications are also provided to inform universities, industry and government with regard to enhancing the dynamics of entrepreneurship ecosystems.