Making sense of traditional Chinese medicine: a cognitive semantic approach

Cognitive linguists posit that language as a system of meaning is closely related to cognition and to the associated perceptual and physiological structures of the body. From the cognitive semantic viewpoint, cognitive processes underpin and motivate linguistic phenomena such as categorisation, polysemy, metaphor, metonymy and image schemas. The pedagogical implication of the cognitive semantic perspective is that understanding these cognitive motivations facilitates language learning. This dissertation uses an applied cognitive semantic approach to `make sense' of a traditional knowledge system, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). TCM views human physiology as a holistic and dynamic system that exemplifies the same principles as the cosmos-environment. TCM models result in a categorisation of physiological phenomena based on a complex system of experiential and cosmological correspondences. I suggest that the holistic epistemology of cognitive linguistics is well suited to an understanding of these holistic models. From a pedagogical viewpoint, I argue that an analysis of the cognitive motivations which underpin TCM categorisations and the polysemy of some key TCM terms can help the student make sense of TCM as a meaningful system of thought and practice. Both the theoretical and applied approaches explored in this dissertation should have relevance to other traditional knowledge systems, particularly traditional medical systems.Linguistics and Modern LanguagesM.A. (Linguistics

Predictions as a window into learning: Anticipatory fixation offsets carry more information about environmental statistics than reactive stimulus-responses

published February 19, 2019A core question underlying neurobiological and computational models of behavior is how individuals learn environmental statistics and use them to make predictions. Most investigations of this issue have relied on reactive paradigms, in which inferences about predictive processes are derived by modeling responses to stimuli that vary in likelihood. Here we deployed a novel anticipatory oculomotor metric to determine how input statistics impact anticipatory behavior that is decoupled from target-driven-response. We implemented transition constraints between target locations, so that the probability of a target being presented on the same side as the previous trial was 70% in one condition (pret70) and 30% in the other (pret30). Rather than focus on responses to targets, we studied subtle endogenous anticipatory fixation offsets (AFOs) measured while participants fixated the screen center, awaiting a target. These AFOs were small (<0.4° from center on average), but strongly tracked global-level statistics. Speaking to learning dynamics, trial-by-trial fluctuations in AFO were well-described by a learning model, which identified a lower learning rate in pret70 than pret30, corroborating prior suggestions that pret70 is subjectively treated as more regular. Most importantly, direct comparisons with saccade latencies revealed that AFOs: (a) reflected similar temporal integration windows, (b) carried more information about the statistical context than did saccade latencies, and (c) accounted for most of the information that saccade latencies also contained about inputs statistics. Our work demonstrates how strictly predictive processes reflect learning dynamics, and presents a new direction for studying learning and prediction.We thank Leonardo Chelazzi for his comments. UH's work was conducted in part while serving at and with support of the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. The study was partially funded by a European Research Council grant to UH (ERC-STG 263318)

Predictions as a window into learning:Anticipatory fixation offsets carry more information about environmental statistics than reactive stimulus-responses

published February 19, 2019A core question underlying neurobiological and computational models of behavior is how individuals learn environmental statistics and use them to make predictions. Most investigations of this issue have relied on reactive paradigms, in which inferences about predictive processes are derived by modeling responses to stimuli that vary in likelihood. Here we deployed a novel anticipatory oculomotor metric to determine how input statistics impact anticipatory behavior that is decoupled from target-driven-response. We implemented transition constraints between target locations, so that the probability of a target being presented on the same side as the previous trial was 70% in one condition (pret70) and 30% in the other (pret30). Rather than focus on responses to targets, we studied subtle endogenous anticipatory fixation offsets (AFOs) measured while participants fixated the screen center, awaiting a target. These AFOs were small (<0.4° from center on average), but strongly tracked global-level statistics. Speaking to learning dynamics, trial-by-trial fluctuations in AFO were well-described by a learning model, which identified a lower learning rate in pret70 than pret30, corroborating prior suggestions that pret70 is subjectively treated as more regular. Most importantly, direct comparisons with saccade latencies revealed that AFOs: (a) reflected similar temporal integration windows, (b) carried more information about the statistical context than did saccade latencies, and (c) accounted for most of the information that saccade latencies also contained about inputs statistics. Our work demonstrates how strictly predictive processes reflect learning dynamics, and presents a new direction for studying learning and prediction.We thank Leonardo Chelazzi for his comments. UH's work was conducted in part while serving at and with support of the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. The study was partially funded by a European Research Council grant to UH (ERC-STG 263318)

Payments and quality of care in private for-profit and public hospitals in Greece

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Empirical evidence on how ownership type affects the quality and cost of medical care is growing, and debate on these topics is ongoing. Despite the fact that the private sector is a major provider of hospital services in Greece, little comparative information on private versus public sector hospitals is available. The aim of the present study was to describe and compare the operation and performance of private for-profit (PFP) and public hospitals in Greece, focusing on differences in nurse staffing rates, average lengths of stay (ALoS), and Social Health Insurance (SHI) payments for hospital care per patient discharged.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Five different datasets were prepared and analyzed, two of which were derived from information provided by the National Statistical Service (NSS) of Greece and the other three from data held by the three largest SHI schemes in the country. All data referred to the 3-year period from 2001 to 2003.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>PFP hospitals in Greece are smaller than public hospitals, with lower patient occupancy, and have lower staffing rates of all types of nurses and highly qualified nurses compared with public hospitals. Calculation of ALoS using NSS data yielded mixed results, whereas calculations of ALoS and SHI payments using SHI data gave results clearly favoring the public hospital sector in terms of cost-efficiency; in all years examined, over all specialties and all SHI schemes included in our study, unweighted ALoS and SHI payments for hospital care per discharge were higher for PFP facilities.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In a mixed healthcare system, such as that in Greece, significant performance differences were observed between PFP and public hospitals. Close monitoring of healthcare provision by hospital ownership type will be essential to permit evidence-based decisions on the future of the public/private mix in terms of healthcare provision.</p

Dall'Orientalismo all'Occidentalismo

Questo articolo presenta le caratteristiche teoriche fondamentali dell’Occidentalismo, descritto come nuovo progetto di ricerca, alternativo e opposto all’Orientalismo. L’Orientalismo viene descritto come opzione di ricerca prodotta dalle culture delle periferie, basata su una critica informata della cultura dei centri, con il chiaro fine di promuovere le capacità creative endogene delle culture delle periferie, liberate dalla tradizionale sudditanza nei confronti delle culture dei centri. Inoltre, l’Occidentalismo viene presentato e descritto come elemento organizzatore di una nuova forme di coscienza nell’organizzazione culturale a livello planetario e come nuovo modello critico per pensare il concetto stesso di storia universale.This paper presents the theoretical basic features of Occidentalism described as a new scientific research project, pursuing an alternative and opposite investigation in comparison to Orientalism. Occidentalism is produced by cultures of the periphery, and its starting point is an informed critique of the images of the West produced in the center, in order to promote the development in the periphery of an endogenous ability to create culture on its own, once liberated from the traditional subjection to the culture of the center. Furthermore, the paper presents and describes Occidentalism as a new possibility in creating a new world consciousness and as a new critical model to think of the very idea of world history

Eichmann a Gerusalemme. Il processo, le polemiche, il perpetratore, la banalità del male

La banalità del male. Eichmann a Gerusalemme risale al viaggio compiuto da Hannah Arendt a Gerusalemme per conto del The New Yorker per raccontare il processo contro Otto Adolf Eichmann. Tra le ragioni che l'avevano spinta a occuparsi del processo Eichmann, Hannah Arendt ne ha indicate in particolar modo tre: voleva rendersi conto in prima persona di chi fosse davvero Eichmann “in carne ed ossa”; voleva studiare da un punto di vista giuridico la possibilità di un nuovo tipo di crimine e di criminale; e infine era da tempo che si occupava del problema del male. Prendendo spunto da queste ragioni addotte dalla stessa Arendt, in questo articolo si cercherà di analizzare le implicazioni giuridiche del processo; il problema della "questione ebraica" e le polemiche che ne seguirono; l'idea stessa di "banalità del male" e le sue ripercussioni sulla riflessione della Arendt. Sebbene la Arendt avesse già sostenuto l’inadeguatezza della tradizione filosofica a cogliere il fenomeno del male nella sua analisi del male radicale in Le origini del totalitarismo, è stato solo dopo il libro su Eichmann e la "banalità del male" che ella giunse a riprendere questo tema con un rinnovato slancio etico. Quel che la Arendt aveva individuato in Eichmann non fu la stupidità; per dirla con le sue stesse parole, costui palesava qualcosa di completamente negativo: l’assenza di pensiero. L’ordinarietà di Eichmann si manifestava in un'incapacità di pensare in maniera indipendente. Eichmann divenne così il protagonista di un’esperienza solo in apparenza ordinaria: l’assenza di pensiero critico.The book Eichmann in Jerusalem - a Report on the Banality of Evil was the result of Hannah Arendt's coverage of the trial of Otto Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem for the The New Yorker. Arendt identified three motives that led her to concern herself with the Eichmann trial: she wanted to know who Eichmann really was “in the flesh”; she wanted to assess the possibility of a new kind of crime and criminal in their juridical aspects; she was concerned about the nature of evil. Starting from these Arendtian motivations, this article analyzes the juridical implications of the Eichmann trial; the controversy over the Jewish question; the concept of the "banality of evil" and its importance in Arendt´s thinking. Although Arendt asserted the failure of traditional thought to grasp the phenomenon of evil in her analysis of radical evil in The Origins of Totalitarianism, only after the Eichmann book and the "banality of evil" did she cultivate this interest in a new move toward ethics. What Arendt detected in Eichmann was not stupidity; in her words, he displayed something entirely negative: thoughtlessness. Eichmann’s ordinariness manifested itself in an incapacity for independent thought. Eichmann became the protagonist of an apparently unexceptional experience: the absence of the critical thought

Neural and wavelet network models for financial distress classification

This work analyzes the use of linear discriminant models, multi-layer perceptron neural networks and wavelet networks for corporate financial distress prediction. Although simple and easy to interpret, linear models require statistical assumptions that may be unrealistic. Neural networks are able to discriminate patterns that are not linearly separable, but the large number of parameters involved in a neural model often causes generalization problems. Wavelet networks are classification models that implement nonlinear discriminant surfaces as the superposition of dilated and translated versions of a single "mother wavelet" function. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed to select dilation and translation parameters that yield a wavelet network classifier with good parsimony characteristics. The models are compared in a case study involving failed and continuing British firms in the period 1997-2000. Problems associated with over-parameterized neural networks are illustrated and the Optimal Brain Damage pruning technique is employed to obtain a parsimonious neural model. The results, supported by a re-sampling study, show that both neural and wavelet networks may be a valid alternative to classical linear discriminant models