Revisiting Numerical Pattern Mining with Formal Concept Analysis

In this paper, we investigate the problem of mining numerical data in the framework of Formal Concept Analysis. The usual way is to use a scaling procedure --transforming numerical attributes into binary ones-- leading either to a loss of information or of efficiency, in particular w.r.t. the volume of extracted patterns. By contrast, we propose to directly work on numerical data in a more precise and efficient way, and we prove it. For that, the notions of closed patterns, generators and equivalent classes are revisited in the numerical context. Moreover, two original algorithms are proposed and used in an evaluation involving real-world data, showing the predominance of the present approach

Mining Biclusters of Similar Values with Triadic Concept Analysis

Biclustering numerical data became a popular data-mining task in the beginning of 2000's, especially for analysing gene expression data. A bicluster reflects a strong association between a subset of objects and a subset of attributes in a numerical object/attribute data-table. So called biclusters of similar values can be thought as maximal sub-tables with close values. Only few methods address a complete, correct and non redundant enumeration of such patterns, which is a well-known intractable problem, while no formal framework exists. In this paper, we introduce important links between biclustering and formal concept analysis. More specifically, we originally show that Triadic Concept Analysis (TCA), provides a nice mathematical framework for biclustering. Interestingly, existing algorithms of TCA, that usually apply on binary data, can be used (directly or with slight modifications) after a preprocessing step for extracting maximal biclusters of similar values.Comment: Concept Lattices and their Applications (CLA) (2011

What is robotics made of? The interdisciplinary politics of robotics research

Under framings of grand challenges, robotics has been proposed as a solution to a wide range of societal issues such as road safety, ageing society, economic productivity and climate change. However, what exactly is robotics research? From its inception, robotics has been an inherently interdisciplinary field, bringing together diverse domains such as engineering, cognitive science, computer science and, more recently, knowledge from social sciences and humanities. Previous research on interdisciplinarity shows that this mode of knowledge production is often driven by societal concerns and political choices. The politics of who gets to make these choices and on what terms is the focus of empirical research in this paper. Using a novel mixed-method approach combining bibliometrics, desk-based analysis and fieldwork, this article builds a narrative of interdisciplinarity at the UK’s largest public robotics lab, the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. This paper argues for the recognition of the plural ways of knowing interdisciplinarity. From citation analysis, through tracing of the emerging fields and disciplines, to, finally, the investigation of researchers’ experiences; each method contributes a distinct and complementary outlook on “what robotics is made of”. While bibliometrics allows visualising prominent disciplines and keywords, document analysis reveals influential and missing stakeholders. Meanwhile, fieldwork explores the logics underpinning robotics and identifies the capabilities necessary to perform the research. In doing so, the paper synthesises plural ways of locating politics in interdisciplinary research and provides recommendations for enabling “structural preparedness for interdisciplinarity”

Stochastic Interactions of Two Brownian Hard Spheres in the Presence of Depletants

A quantitative analysis is presented for the stochastic interactions of a pair of Brownian hard spheres in non-adsorbing polymer solutions. The hard spheres are hypothetically trapped by optical tweezers and allowed for random motion near the trapped positions. The investigation focuses on the long-time correlated Brownian motion. The mobility tensor altered by the polymer depletion effect is computed by the boundary integral method, and the corresponding random displacement is determined by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. From our computations it follows that the presence of depletion layers around the hard spheres has a significant effect on the hydrodynamic interactions and particle dynamics as compared to pure solvent and pure polymer solution (no depletion) cases. The probability distribution functions of random walks of the two interacting hard spheres that are trapped clearly shifts due to the polymer depletion effect. The results show that the reduction of the viscosity in the depletion layers around the spheres and the entropic force due to the overlapping of depletion zones have a significant influence on the correlated Brownian interactions.Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures, 1 appendix, 40 formulas inside the text, 5 formulas in appendi

Reconstituting human past dynamics over a landscape : pleading for the co-integration of both micro village-level modelling and macro-level ecological socio-modelling

International audienceThis communication tends to elaborate a plea for the necessity of a specific modelling methodology which does not sacrifice two modelling principles: explanation Micro and correlation Macro. Actually, three goals are assigned to modelling strategies: describe, understand and predict. One tendency in historical and spatial modelling is to develop models at a micro level in order to describe and by that way, understand the connection between local ecological contexts, acquired through local ecological data, and local social practices, acquired through archaeology. However, such a method faces difficulties for expanding its validity: It is validated by its adequacy with local data but the prediction step is unreachable and quite nothing can be said for places out where. On the other hand, building models at a far larger scale, for instance at the continent and even the world level, enhances the connection between ecology and its temporal variability. Such connections are based on well-improved theories but lower the " small causes, big effects " emergence corresponding to agent-based approaches and the related inherent variability of socio-ecological dynamics that one can notice at a lower scale: for instance, the emergence of social innovations can be simulated only as an input parameter. We then propose a plea for combining both elements for building large-scale modelling tools, which aims are to describe and provide predictions on long-term past evolutions, that include the test of explaining socio-anthropological hypotheses, i.e. the emergence and the spread of local social innovations

Biochemical and Kinetic Studies on Alkaline Phosphatase and other Biochemical Features in Sera of Patients with type 2 Diabetes

Background :Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) was a widely used marker for skeletal and hepatobiliary disorders, but its activity was also increased in atherosclerosis and peripheral vascular disease. Several study has showed that ALP activity was increased in the sera of diabetic patients. The current study was conducted to evaluate ALP activity in type 2 diabetic patients and optimum conditions for enzyme activity in their sera.Methods: This study was carried out at in AL-Yarmok hospital(diabetic center) between February /2009 and April /2009. Fifty two patients with type 2 diabetes have been enrolled. Besides BMI, WHR, serum fasting blood glucose, ALP, HbA1C,uric acid and lipid profile levels have been performed .The relationship between ALP and other biochemical factors have been studied.Results: From a total 52 cases, FBG, HbA1C and ALP were significantly elevated P value < 0.01 while Uric acid, Cholesterol, TG, HDL, LDL,VLDL and LDL/HDL were significantly different P value < 0.05 in diabetic patients when compared with that found in control group . ALP was significantly associated with LDL (P < 0.05) and significantly negative correlation with HbA1C (

Synthesis, Characterization, Theoretical Treatment and Antitubercular activity Evaluation of (E)-N’- (2,5-dimethoxylbenzylidene)nicotinohydrazide and some of its Transition Metal Complexes against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, H37Rv

(E)-N’-(2,5-dimethoxylbenzylidene)nicotinohydrazide) (HL) was synthesized by condensing nicotinic acid hydrazide and 2,5-dimethoxylbenzaldehyde with ONO coordination pattern. The structure of the hydrazone was elucidated by using CHN analyzer, ESI mass spectrometry, IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and 2D NMR (COSY and HSQC). The hydrazone was used to synthesized five metal complexes [Mo(V), VO(II), Mn(II) Ni(II) and Cu(II)] which were characterized by several physicochemical methods, namely elemental analysis, electronic spectra, infrared, EPR, molar conductivity and magnetic susceptibility measurements. An octahedral geometry was suggested for Mo(V), Ni(II) and Cu(II) complexes while tetrahedral was proposed for Mn(II) complex. VO(II) complex conformed with tetrahedral pyramidal. Structural geometries of these compounds were also suggested in gas phase by using Hyper Chem-8 program for the molecular mechanics and semi-empirical calculations. The energy (E) and eV for homo and lumo state for the prepared compounds were calculated by using PM3 method. In vitro antimycobacterial activity study of the compounds was evaluated against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, H37Rv, by using micro-diluted method. Some of the metal complexes displayed higher activity than the ligand (HL) and isoniazid (INH).Also some of the complexes showed moderate activity when compared to isoniazid. Generally, the results obtained revealed that the compounds exhibited promising antitubercular activity. However, the metal complexes were found to be more toxic than isoniazid drug