The Minangkabau Healers And Healing Methods: A Structural Analysis

In this thesis the researcher wants to illustrate the healing methods of the Minangkabau in West Sumatra. It looks at one village of the interior and describes the different healing methods of the Minangkabau in that village. The aim is to illustrate the different ways of treatment and to analyze it in a structural way by following the ideas of Claude Levi-Strauss and Josselin de Jong. For many anthropologists, structuralism and its methodology are outdated, but this thesis intends to show that a structural approach is still fruitful and could contribute to analyze traditional healing methods. Furthermore, this thesis will illustrate that there are different types of healers with their own ways of treatment within one village society and its network. The research objectives are to explore the Minangkabau healers and their healing methods. The different types of healers, healing methods and plants should be categorized. This thesis will also examine whether Frederick Errington’s hypothesis that the Minangkabau are sign-oriented is correct in the field of healing. The Minangkabau society is both part of Southeast Asia and part of the Islamic world and therefore this research shows in how far these healing methods are embedded within a greater context. The research discovers that there are three types of healers who still play an important role in the health of the local population. There are three elements of healing methods that play a certain role. Unique patterns of the Minangkabau healing methods are described by the researcher and give an impression why traditional healing methods are still relevant

Faster deterministic gossiping in directed ad-hoc radio networks

Abstract. We study the gossiping problem in directed ad-hoc radio networks. Our main result is a deterministic algorithm that solves this problem in an n-node network in time O(n 4/3 log 4 n). The algorithm allows the labels (identifiers) of the nodes to be polynomially large in n, and is based on a novel way of using selective families. The previous best general (i.e., dependent only on n) deterministic upper bounds were O(n 5/3 log 3 n) for networks with polynomially large node labels [1], and O(n 3/2 log 2 n) for networks with linearly large node label

On realizing shapes in the theory of RNA neutral networks

It is known (Reidys et al., 1997b. Bull. Math. Biol. 59(2), 339-397) that for any two secondary structures S,S′ there exists an RNA sequence compatible with both, and that this result does not extend to more than two secondary structures. Indeed, a simple formula for the number of RNA sequences compatible with secondary structures S,S′ plays a role in the algorithms of Flamm et al. (2001. RNA 7, 254-265) and of Abfalter et al. (2003. Proceedings of the German Conference on Bioinformatics, http://www.tbi.univie.ac.at/papers/ Abstracts/03-018.pdf) to design an RNA switch. Here we show that a natural extension of this problem is NP-complete. Unless P=NP, there is no polynomial time algorithm, which when given secondary structures S1,...,Sk, for k≥4, determines the least number of positions, such that after removal of all base pairs incident to these positions there exists an RNA nucleotide sequence compatible with the given secondary structures. We also consider a restricted version of this problem with a "fixed maximum" number of possible stars and show that it has a simp

Hypersexuality in neurocognitive disorders in elderly people - a comprehensive review of the literature and case study

Background: Hypersexuality is defined as an increase in libido. It is often confounded with sexual disinhibition and inappropriate sexual behavior directed against oneself or against others. It is described in 2.9 to 8% of patients living at home and in 3.8 to 7% of patients in institutions. The pathophysiology of hypersexuality is complex. Several brain areas are involved. The psychological factors are also important. We found it useful to present a clinical case of a patient who presented with symptoms of hypersexuality and to discuss the diagnosis and the management. Methods: Data collection was based on the case of a patient hospitalized in the Department of Psychosomatic medicine in CHU Mont-Godinne - Yvoir - Belgium in February 2013. For the literature review, we used the database PubMed with the following keywords: hypersexuality, dementia. A total of 40 articles were selected for this study. Results: The patient had symptoms of hypersexuality, and hyperorality in the context of delirium induced by benzodiazepine withdrawal. A blood test and brain imaging were normal. She was put under risperidone 2 mg with complete resolution of symptoms within a few days. Conclusion: The diagnosis of Kluver-Bucy syndrome in the context of a minor neurocognitive disorder was retained. Management is mainly non-pharmacological using behavioral techniques. The education of the patient, his partner and caregivers are essential. Pharmacotherapy is sometimes necessary. It is reserved as a last resort because of the serious side effects of the drugs used

New Results on Optimizing Rooted Triplets Consistency

Abstract. A set of phylogenetic trees with overlapping leaf sets is consistent if it can be merged without conflicts into a supertree. In this paper, we study the polynomial-time approximability of two related optimization problems called the maximum rooted triplets consistency problem (MaxRTC) and the minimum rooted triplets inconsistency problem (MinRTI) in which the input is a set R of rooted triplets, and where the objectives are to find a largest cardinality subset of R which is consistent and a smallest cardinality subset of R whose removal from R results in a consistent set, respectively. We first show that a simple modification to Wu’s Best-Pair-Merge-First heuristic [25] results in a bottom-up-based 3-approximation for MaxRTC. We then demonstrate how any approximation algorithm for MinRTI could be used to approximate MaxRTC, and thus obtain the first polynomial-time approximation algorithm for MaxRTC with approximation ratio smaller than 3. Next, we prove that for a set of rooted triplets generated under a uniform random model, the maximum fraction of triplets which can be consistent with any tree is approximately one third, and then provide a deterministic construction of a triplet set having a similar property which is subsequently used to prove that both MaxRTC and MinRTI are NP-hard even if restricted to minimally dense instances. Finally, we prove that MinRTI cannot be approximated within a ratio of Ω(log n) in polynomial time, unless P = NP.

Time Efficient Gossiping in Known Radio Networks

We study here the gossiping problem (all-to-all communication) in known radio networks, i.e., when all nodes are aware of the network topology. We start our presentation with..

Efficient k-Shot Broadcasting in Radio Networks

The paper concerns time-efficient k-shot broadcasting in undirected radio networks. In a k-shot broadcasting algorithm, each node in the network is allowed to transmit at most k times. Both known and unknown topology models are considered. For the known topology model, the problem has been studied before by G¸asieniec et al. [14], who established an upper bound of D + O(kn 1/(k−2) log 2 n) and a lower bound of D + Ω((n − D) 1/2k) on the length of k-shot broadcasting schedules for n-node graphs of diameter D. We improve both the upper and the lower bound, providing a randomized algorithm for constructing a k-shot broadcasting schedule of length D + O(kn 1/2k log 2+1/k n) on undirected graphs, and a lower bound of D + Ω(k · (n − D) 1/2k), which almost closes the gap between these bounds. For the unknown topology model, we provide the first k-shot broadcasting algorithm. Assuming that each node knows only the network size n (or a linear upper bound on it), our randomized k-shot broadcasting algorithm completes broadcasting in O((D +min{D · k, log n}) · n 1/(k−1) log n) rounds with high probability. Moreover, we present an Θ(log n)-shot broadcasting algorithm that completes broadcasting in at most O(D log n +log 2 n) rounds with high probability. This algorithm matches the broadcasting time of the algorithm of Bar-Yehuda et al. [3], which assumes no limitation on the maximum number of transmissions per node

On Many-to-Many Communication in Packet Radio Networks

Radio networks model wireless data communication when bandwidth is limited to one wave frequency. The key restriction of such networks is mutual interference of packets arriving simultaneously to a node. The many-to-many (m2m) communication primitive involves p participant nodes of a distance at most d between any pair of them, from among n nodes in the network, and the task is to have all participants get to know all input messages. We consider three cases of the m2m communication problem. In the ad-hoc case, each participant knows only its name and the values of n, p and d. In the partially centralized case, each participant knows the topology of the network and the values of p and d, but does not know the names of other participants. In the centralized case each participant knows the topology of the network and the names of all the participants. For the centralized m2m problem, we give deterministic protocols, for both undirected and directed networks, working in O(d + p) time, which is provably optimal. For the partially centralized m2m problem, we give a randomized protocol for undirected networks working in O((d + p + log2 n)log p) time with high probability (whp), and we show that any deterministic protocol requires Ω(plogn/p n + d) time. For the ad-hoc m2m problem, we develop a randomized protocol for undirected networks that works in O((d + log p)log2 n + plog p) time whp. We show two lower bounds for the ad-hoc m2m problem. One states that any m2m deterministic protocol requires Ω(nlogn/d+1 n) time when n − p = Ω(n) and d> 1; Ω(n) time when n − p = o(n); and Ω(plogn/p n) time when d = 1. The other lower bound states that any m2m randomized protocol requires Ω(p + d log(n/d + 1)+log2 n) expected time