A Case Based Reasoning View of School Dropout Screening

The cause for student dropout is often termed as the antecedent of failure, since it stands for a key event, which leads to dropout. Indeed, school dropout is well thought out as one of the major worries of our times. It is a multi-layered and complex phenomenon, with many triggers, namely academic striving and failure, poor attendance, retention, disengagement from school or even socio-economic motives. School dropout represents economic and social losses to the individual, family and community. However, it may be prevented if the educational actors hold pro-active strategies (e.g., taking into account similar past experiences). Indeed, this work will start with the development of a decision support system to assess school dropout, centered on a formal framework based on Logic Programming for Knowledge Representation, complemented with a Case-Based Reasoning approach to problem solving, which caters for the handling of incomplete, unknown, or even contradictory information, i.e., it improves the analysis enactment of the retrieving cases process

Cell walls of the dimorphic fungal pathogens Sporothrix schenckii and Sporothrix brasiliensis exhibit bilaminate structures and sloughing of extensive and intact layers

This work was supported by the Fundação Carlos Chagas de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), grants E-26/202.974/2015 and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), grants 229755/2013-5, Brazil. LMLB is a senior research fellow of CNPq and Faperj. NG acknowledged support from the Wellcome Trust (Trust (097377, 101873, 200208) and MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (MR/N006364/1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Evolutionary Analysis of Mitogenomes from Parasitic and Free-Living Flatworms

Copyright: © 2015 Solà et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

Search for Second-Generation Scalar Leptoquarks in ppˉ\bm{p \bar{p}} Collisions at s\sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV

Results on a search for pair production of second generation scalar leptoquark in $p \bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=1.96 TeV are reported. The data analyzed were collected by the CDF detector during the 2002-2003 Tevatron Run II and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 198 pb$^{-1}$. Leptoquarks (LQ) are sought through their decay into (charged) leptons and quarks, with final state signatures represented by two muons and jets and one muon, large transverse missing energy and jets. We observe no evidence for $LQ$ production and derive 95% C.L. upper limits on the $LQ$ production cross sections as well as lower limits on their mass as a function of $\beta$, where $\beta$ is the branching fraction for $LQ \to \mu q$.Comment: 9 pages (3 author list) 5 figure

Observation of associated near-side and away-side long-range correlations in √sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two-particle correlations in relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and pseudorapidity (Δη) are measured in √sNN=5.02  TeV p+Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using approximately 1  μb-1 of data as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the transverse energy (ΣETPb) summed over 3.1<η<4.9 in the direction of the Pb beam. The correlation function, constructed from charged particles, exhibits a long-range (2<|Δη|<5) “near-side” (Δϕ∼0) correlation that grows rapidly with increasing ΣETPb. A long-range “away-side” (Δϕ∼π) correlation, obtained by subtracting the expected contributions from recoiling dijets and other sources estimated using events with small ΣETPb, is found to match the near-side correlation in magnitude, shape (in Δη and Δϕ) and ΣETPb dependence. The resultant Δϕ correlation is approximately symmetric about π/2, and is consistent with a dominant cos⁡2Δϕ modulation for all ΣETPb ranges and particle pT

ADHD symptomatology in eating disorders : a secondary psychopathological measure of severity?

Background: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has commonly been described in psychiatric disorders. Although several studies have found positive associations between abnormal eating patterns during childhood and ADHD, there is a lack of studies on ADHD and Eating Disorders (ED). The aims of this exploratory study were 1) to assess the ADHD symptoms level in ED and to ascertain whether there are differences among ED subtypes; 2) to analyze whether the presence of ADHD symptoms is associated with more severe eating disorder symptoms and greater general psychopathology; and 3) to assess whether the ADHD symptoms level is associated with specific temperament and character traits. Methods: 191 female ED patients were included. Assessment was carried out with the EDI-2, ASRS-v1.1, the SCL-90-R and the TCI-R. Results: The ADHD symptoms level was similar in bulimia, eating disorder not otherwise specified and binge eating subtypes, and lower in anorexic patients. Obsessiveness and Hostility were significantly positively associated with ADHD symptoms. A path model showed that ADHD was associated with high Novelty Seeking and low Self-Directedness, whereas ED severity was influenced by ADHD severity and low Self-Directedness. Conclusions: Bingeing/purging ED subtypes have a high ADHD symptoms level, also related with more severe eating, general and personality psychopathology

Коррекция двигательных и поведенческих функций в лечении и реабилитации больных шизотипическим расстройством

На основании особенностей невербального поведения больных шизотипическим расстройством разработаны поведенческие методы, применение которых в их комплексной терапии позволяет добиться более полной редукции психопатологической симптоматики.Behavioral methods were worked out basing of the peculiarities of non−verbal behavior of the patients with schizotypical disorders. The use of the methods in complex therapy allows to achieve more complete reduction in psychopathological signs

Meanings given to algebraic symbolism in problem posing

Some errors in the learning of algebra suggest students have difficulties giving meaning to algebraic symbolism. In this paper, we use problem posing in order to analyze the students’ capacity to assign meaning to algebraic symbolism and the difficulties that students encounter in this process depending on the characteristics of the algebraic statements given. We designed a written questionnaire composed of eight closed algebraic statements expressed symbolically, which was administered to 55 students who had finished their compulsory education and that had some previous experience in problem posing. In our analysis of the data, we examine both syntactic and semantic structures of the problem posed. We note that in most cases students posed problems with syntactic structures different to those given. They did not include computations within variables, and changed the kinds of relationships connecting variables. Students easily posed problems for statements with additive structures. Other differences in the type of problems posed depend on the characteristics of the given statements

Assessing early memories of threat and subordination: Confirmatory factor analyisis of the early life experiences scale for adolescents.

The Early Life Experiences Scale (ELES) is a self-report questionnaire that assesses personal feelings of perceived threat and submissiveness in interactions within family. This paper presents the adaptation and validation of the ELES in Portuguese language for adolescents. The sample was composed of 771 adolescents from community schools with ages between 13 and 18 years old. Along with ELES, participants also answered the Early Memories of Warmth and Safeness Scale and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for Children and Adolescents. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to test the factor structure of the ELES and results confirm a three-factor structure, composed by Threat, Submissiveness and Unvalued dimensions. These emotional memories focused on perceived threat, submissiveness and unvalued seem to have a distinct nature. The scale also showed adequate internal consistency, good test-retest reliability and convergent validity with measures of positive emotional memories, positive and negative affect. There were sex differences for threat subscale and age differences for submissiveness subscale. Overall, these findings suggest that the ELES in its Portuguese version for adolescents may be a useful tool for research, educational and clinical contexts with school-aged adolescents