Emotional agents at the square lattice

We introduce and investigate by numerical simulations a number of models of emotional agents at the square lattice. Our models describe the most general features of emotions such as the spontaneous emotional arousal, emotional relaxation, and transfers of emotions between different agents. Group emotions in the considered models are periodically fluctuating between two opposite valency levels and as result the mean value of such group emotions is zero. The oscillations amplitude depends strongly on probability ps of the individual spontaneous arousal. For small values of relaxation times tau we observed a stochastic resonance, i.e. the signal to noise ratio SNR is maximal for a non-zero ps parameter. The amplitude increases with the probability p of local affective interactions while the mean oscillations period increases with the relaxation time tau and is only weakly dependent on other system parameters. Presence of emotional antenna can enhance positive or negative emotions and for the optimal transition probability the antenna can change agents emotions at longer distances. The stochastic resonance was also observed for the influence of emotions on task execution efficiency.Comment: 28 pages, 19 figures, 3 table

Coevolution of Information Processing and Topology in Hierarchical Adaptive Random Boolean Networks

Random Boolean networks (RBNs) are frequently employed for modelling complex systems driven by information processing, e.g. for gene regulatory networks (GRNs). Here we propose a hierarchical adaptive RBN (HARBN) as a system consisting of distinct adaptive RBNs - subnetworks - connected by a set of permanent interlinks. Information measures and internal subnetworks topology of HARBN coevolve and reach steady-states that are specific for a given network structure. We investigate mean node information, mean edge information as well as a mean node degree as functions of model parameters and demonstrate HARBN's ability to describe complex hierarchical systems.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Syn Boży widzialnym znakiem miłosierdzia Boga Ojca

The present article talks about the mystery of mercy as revealed in the inspiring pages of the New Testament. The author has relied only on the selected texts in which the various dimensions of God’s merciful love are discussed. The books of the New Testament emphasize mercy as an attribute of God the Creator and Savior perfectly revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ. To Him, mankind owes salvation and sanctification, which was fulfilled by His death and resurrection. Christ, who fully revealed God as a merciful Father, did so through words and works, thus fulfilling theannouncements of the Old Covenant.Niniejszy artykuł prezentuje tajemnicę miłosierdzia, która została objawiona w natchnionych tekstach Nowego Testamentu. Autorka oparła się na wybranych fragmentach, które zawierają treści na temat różnych aspektów miłosierdzia. Księgi NowegoTestamentu podkreślają miłosierdzie jako przymiot Boga Stwórcy i Zbawiciela, który został doskonale objawiony w Jego Synu Jezusie Chrystusie. Jezusowi ludzkość zawdzięcza zbawienie i uświęcenie, które wypełniło się przez Jego śmierć i zmartwychwstanie. Chrystus,który w pełni objawił Boga jako miłosiernego Ojca, dokonał tego poprzez słowa i dzieła, wypełniając tym samym zapowiedzi Starego Przymierza

Segmentation of bones in magnetic resonance images of the wrist

PURPOSE:   Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a disease characterized by progressive and irreversible destruction of bones and joints. According to current recommendations, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used to asses three main signs of RA based on manual evaluation of MR images: synovitis, bone edema and bone erosions. The key feature of a future computer-assisted diagnostic system for evaluation RA lesions is accurate segmentation of 15 wrist bones. In the present paper, we focus on developing a wrist bones segmentation framework. METHOD:    The segmentation procedure consisted of three stages: segmentation of the distal parts of ulna and radius, segmentation of the proximal parts of metacarpal bones and segmentation of carpal bones. At every stage, markers of bones were determined first, using an atlas-based approach. Then, given markers of bones and a marker of background, a watershed from markers algorithm was applied to find the final segmentation. RESULTS:   The MR data for 37 cases were analyzed. The automated segmentation results were compared with gold-standard manual segmentations using a few well-established metrics: area under ROC curve AUC, mean similarity MS and mean absolute distance MAD. The mean (standard deviation) values of AUC, MS and MAD were 0.97 (0.04), 0.93 (0.09) and 1.23 (0.28), respectively. CONCLUSION:   The results of the present study demonstrate that automated segmentation of wrist bones is feasible. The proposed algorithm can be the first stage for the detection of early lesions like bone edema or synovitis

Automatic breast-line and pectoral muscle segmentation

Pre-processing of mammograms is a crucial step in computer-aided analysis systems. The aim of segmentation is to extract a breast region by estimation of a breast skin-line and a pectoral muscle as well as removing radiographic artifacts and the background of the mammogram. Knowledge of the breast contour also allows further analysis of breast abnormalities such as bilateral asymmetry. In this paper we propose a fully automatic algorithm for segmentation of a breast region, based on two types of global image thresholding: the multi-level Otsu and minimizing the measure of fuzziness as well as the gradient estimation and linear regression. The results of our experiments showed that our method can be used to find a breast line and a pectoral muscle accuratel

Automatic breast-line and pectoral muscle segmentation

Pre-processing of mammograms is a crucial step in computer-aided analysis systems. The aim of segmentation is to extract a breast region by estimation of a breast skin-line and a pectoral muscle as well as removing radiographic artifacts and the background of the mammogram. Knowledge of the breast contour also allows further analysis of breast abnormalities such as bilateral asymmetry. In this paper we propose a fully automatic algorithm for segmentation of a breast region, based on two types of global image thresholding: the multi-level Otsu and minimizing the measure of fuzziness as well as the gradient estimation and linear regression. The results of our experiments showed that our method can be used to find a breast line and a pectoral muscle accuratel

Student opinions of the efficacy of select methods of external recruitment with special focus on online methods

PURPOSE: This research aimed to assess the efficacy of select methods of external recruitment, with a special focus on online methods, as viewed through the opinions of students.DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Studies were conducted in April 2019 using the diagnostic poll method and a questionnaire as the tool of the survey research technique. The verification of the posed hypotheses was conducted with a statistical analysis using the IBM SPSS Statistics 25 suite. The suite served to analyse basic descriptive statistics, Student’s t-test for independent samples and a chi-squared test of independence.FINDINGS: The results revealed that job-seekers predominantly conduct their searching on the Internet. As the respondents indicate, this is also the most effective method.PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The effectiveness of selected methods of external recruitment determined in the research may facilitate their proper selection. This, in turn, would allow to select an appropriate group of potential job candidates. At the same time, the dynamics of changes in the labor market requires constant monitoring of the usefulness of recruitment methods.ORIGINALITY/VALUE: Acquaintance with modern methods of recruiting employees is necessary to obtain candidates meeting the employer’s expectations. From this point of view, it becomes extremely important to assess the effectiveness of selected methods of external recruitment.peer-reviewe