Knowledge Construction Based on Buddhist Theory of Knowledge

Philosophers of science could be categorized into two major groups based on thestandpoint regarding how scientific knowledge is gained. One group claims thatscientific knowledge (hypotheses, theories and laws) is discovered by outstandingscientists. This view has a long history and it is still being supported by many scientists.The other group claims that scientific knowledge is constructed by gifted andcreative scientists. This view has gained momentum fairly recently compared to theother view.The view that scientific knowledge is discovered assumes that there exists aworld independent of human beings. Scientists discover the secrets or laws governingnature. The history of this view goes back to the fifteenth (15th) Century B.C. withemergence of renaissance in Europe.According to the other view, creative people construct hypotheses, theories orlaws in science in order to understand phenomena or to solve problems faced byscientists. The resurgence of this views occurred in the 1960‟s through the works of theAmerican philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn.The purpose of the study is, (i) to present the recent developments in science andphilosophy which supports the second view and (ii) to present some knowledgeconstructions based on Buddhist epistemology.For example two Chilean Neurobiologists, Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varelahave constructed a theory of cognition based on Buddhist epistemology. It is named as“Santiago Theory of Cognition”.This study was carried out mainly through literature survey and a comparativeand a critical study of recent developments in science and philosophy.Alternative knowledge systems could be constructed based on differentepistemologies and cultures.Key words: Buddhist epistemology, Realism, Relativism, Discovery, Construction,Cognition

Natural language processing to extract symptoms of severe mental illness from clinical text: the Clinical Record Interactive Search Comprehensive Data Extraction (CRIS-CODE) project.

OBJECTIVES: We sought to use natural language processing to develop a suite of language models to capture key symptoms of severe mental illness (SMI) from clinical text, to facilitate the secondary use of mental healthcare data in research. DESIGN: Development and validation of information extraction applications for ascertaining symptoms of SMI in routine mental health records using the Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) data resource; description of their distribution in a corpus of discharge summaries. SETTING: Electronic records from a large mental healthcare provider serving a geographic catchment of 1.2 million residents in four boroughs of south London, UK. PARTICIPANTS: The distribution of derived symptoms was described in 23 128 discharge summaries from 7962 patients who had received an SMI diagnosis, and 13 496 discharge summaries from 7575 patients who had received a non-SMI diagnosis. OUTCOME MEASURES: Fifty SMI symptoms were identified by a team of psychiatrists for extraction based on salience and linguistic consistency in records, broadly categorised under positive, negative, disorganisation, manic and catatonic subgroups. Text models for each symptom were generated using the TextHunter tool and the CRIS database. RESULTS: We extracted data for 46 symptoms with a median F1 score of 0.88. Four symptom models performed poorly and were excluded. From the corpus of discharge summaries, it was possible to extract symptomatology in 87% of patients with SMI and 60% of patients with non-SMI diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: This work demonstrates the possibility of automatically extracting a broad range of SMI symptoms from English text discharge summaries for patients with an SMI diagnosis. Descriptive data also indicated that most symptoms cut across diagnoses, rather than being restricted to particular groups

Phenotypic and genotypic distribution of ESBL, AmpC β-lactamase and carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae in community-acquired and hospital-acquired urinary tract infections in Sri Lanka

Objectives: Although Sri Lanka belongs to a region with a high prevalence of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL), AmpC β-lactamase and carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae, data regarding antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is limited. We studied the prevalence and diversity of β-lactamases produced by Enterobacteriaceae urinary pathogens from two hospitals in the Western Province of Sri Lanka. Methods: ESBL, AmpC β-lactamase and carbapenemase production was detected by phenotypic testing followed by genotyping. Results: The species responsible for urinary tract infections (UTI) were Escherichia coli (69%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (16%) and Enterobacter sp (6%). The prevalence of ESBL (50%), AmpC β-lactamase (19%) and carbapenemase (11%) phenotypes was high, and greater in hospital-acquired (HA-UTI) (75%) than in community-acquired UTI (CA-UTI) (42%). Identification of CA-UTI caused by carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (5%) is alarming. Only one ESBL gene, blaCTX- M-15, was detected. AmpC β-lactamase genes found in E. coli and K. pneumoniae were blaCMY-2, blaCMY-42 and blaDHA-1, while Enterobacter sp. carried blaACT-1. Carbapenemase genes were blaNDM-1, blaNDM-4, blaOXA-181 and blaOXA-232, while blaKPC, blaIMP and blaVIM were absent. Co-occurrence of multiple bla genes, with some isolates harbouring six different bla genes, was common. Carbapenem-resistant isolates without carbapenemase genes displayed mutations in the outer membrane porin genes, ompF of E. coli and ompK36 of K. pneumoniae. Factors associated with UTI with β-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae were age ≥50 years, previous hospitalization, presence of an indwelling urinary catheter, history of diabetes mellitus or other chronic illness and recurrent urinary tract infections. Conclusion: This study adds to the currently scarce data on AMR in Sri Lanka

Recognition of skin malignancy by general practitioners: observational study using data from a population-based randomised controlled trial

Skin malignancy is an important cause of mortality in the United Kingdom and is rising in incidence every year. Most skin cancer presents in primary care, and an important determinant of outcome is initial recognition and management of the lesion. Here we present an observational study of interobserver agreement using data from a population-based randomised controlled trial of minor surgery. Trial participants comprised patients presenting in primary care and needing minor surgery in whom recruiting doctors felt to be able to offer treatment themselves or to be able to refer to a colleague in primary care. They are thus relatively unselected. The skin procedures undertaken in the randomised controlled trial generated 491 lesions with a traceable histology report: 36 lesions (7%) from 33 individuals were malignant or pre-malignant. Chance-corrected agreement (κ) between general practitioner (GP) diagnosis of malignancy and histology was 0.45 (0.36–0.54) for lesions and 0.41 (0.32–0.51) for individuals affected with malignancy. Sensitivity of GPs for the detection of malignant lesions was 66.7% (95% confidence interval (CI), 50.3–79.8) for lesions and 63.6% (95% CI, 46.7–77.8) for individuals affected with malignancy. The safety of patients is of paramount importance and it is unsafe to leave the diagnosis and treatment of potential skin malignancy in the hands of doctors who have limited training and experience. However, the capacity to undertake all of the minor surgical demand works demanded in hospitals does not exist. If the capacity to undertake it is present in primary care, then the increased costs associated with enhanced training for general medical practitioners (GPs) must be borne

NONO enhances mRNA processing of super-enhancer-associated GATA2 and HAND2 genes in neuroblastoma

High-risk neuroblastoma patients have poor survival rates and require better therapeutic options. High expression of a multifunctional DNA and RNA-binding protein, NONO, in neuroblastoma is associated with poor patient outcome; however, there is little understanding of the mechanism of NONO-dependent oncogenic gene regulatory activity in neuroblastoma. Here, we used cell imaging, biochemical and genome-wide molecular analysis to reveal complex NONO-dependent regulation of gene expression. NONO forms RNA- and DNA-tethered condensates throughout the nucleus and undergoes phase separation in vitro, modulated by nucleic acid binding. CLIP analyses show that NONO mainly binds to the 5′ end of pre-mRNAs and modulates pre-mRNA processing, dependent on its RNA-binding activity. NONO regulates super-enhancer-associated genes, including HAND2 and GATA2. Abrogating NONO RNA binding, or phase separation activity, results in decreased expression of HAND2 and GATA2. Thus, future development of agents that target RNA-binding activity of NONO may have therapeutic potential in this cancer context

Costing of a Blended Course at the Open University of Sri Lanka: An Empirical Study

In a viable Open and Distance Learning system, providing immediate access to learning resources and fostering effective teacher-learner interactions are essential components while balancing the cost of the course without compromising quality. Owing to the advancement of ICT across the globe, the Open University of Sri Lanka has initiated integrating online components into the existing print-based courses and offering them as blended courses. The gauging costs for these blended courses are also vital to determine the various costs components. Hence, an empirical study was conducted to estimate total costs and cost per student of a blended course. In this empirical study, costing was carried out, based on five major costs categories; course materials design and development, course materials production, course delivery, student evaluation, overhead and infrastructure. Th

A Study of Time-Dependent CP-Violating Asymmetries and Flavor Oscillations in Neutral B Decays at the Upsilon(4S)

We present a measurement of time-dependent CP-violating asymmetries in neutral B meson decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The data sample consists of 29.7 ${\rm fb}^{-1}$ recorded at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance and 3.9 ${\rm fb}^{-1}$ off-resonance. One of the neutral B mesons, which are produced in pairs at the $\Upsilon(4S)$, is fully reconstructed in the CP decay modes $J/\psi K^0_S$, $\psi(2S) K^0_S$, $\chi_{c1} K^0_S$, $J/\psi K^{*0}$ ($K^{*0}\to K^0_S\pi^0$) and $J/\psi K^0_L$, or in flavor-eigenstate modes involving $D^{(*)}\pi/\rho/a_1$ and $J/\psi K^{*0}$ ($K^{*0}\to K^+\pi^-$). The flavor of the other neutral B meson is tagged at the time of its decay, mainly with the charge of identified leptons and kaons. The proper time elapsed between the decays is determined by measuring the distance between the decay vertices. A maximum-likelihood fit to this flavor eigenstate sample finds $\Delta m_d = 0.516\pm 0.016 {\rm (stat)} \pm 0.010 {\rm (syst)} {\rm ps}^{-1}$. The value of the asymmetry amplitude $\sin2\beta$ is determined from a simultaneous maximum-likelihood fit to the time-difference distribution of the flavor-eigenstate sample and about 642 tagged $B^0$ decays in the CP-eigenstate modes. We find $\sin2\beta=0.59\pm 0.14 {\rm (stat)} \pm 0.05 {\rm (syst)}$, demonstrating that CP violation exists in the neutral B meson system. (abridged)Comment: 58 pages, 35 figures, submitted to Physical Review

Measurement of the Branching Fraction for B- --> D0 K*-

We present a measurement of the branching fraction for the decay B- --> D0 K*- using a sample of approximately 86 million BBbar pairs collected by the BaBar detector from e+e- collisions near the Y(4S) resonance. The D0 is detected through its decays to K- pi+, K- pi+ pi0 and K- pi+ pi- pi+, and the K*- through its decay to K0S pi-. We measure the branching fraction to be B.F.(B- --> D0 K*-)= (6.3 +/- 0.7(stat.) +/- 0.5(syst.)) x 10^{-4}.Comment: 7 pages, 1 postscript figure, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid Communications

Study of e+e- --> pi+ pi- pi0 process using initial state radiation with BABAR

The process e+e- --> pi+ pi- pi0 gamma has been studied at a center-of-mass energy near the Y(4S) resonance using a 89.3 fb-1 data sample collected with the BaBar detector at the PEP-II collider. From the measured 3pi mass spectrum we have obtained the products of branching fractions for the omega and phi mesons, B(omega --> e+e-)B(omega --> 3pi)=(6.70 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.27)10-5 and B(phi --> e+e-)B(phi --> 3pi)=(4.30 +/- 0.08 +/- 0.21)10-5, and evaluated the e+e- --> pi+ pi- pi0 cross section for the e+e- center-of-mass energy range 1.05 to 3.00 GeV. About 900 e+e- --> J/psi gamma --> pi+ pi- pi0 gamma events have been selected and the branching fraction B(J/psi --> pi+ pi- pi0)=(2.18 +/- 0.19)% has been measured.Comment: 21 pages, 37 postscript figues, submitted to Phys. Rev.