Pseudoscience Charges and the Demarcation Problem

UIDB/04666/2020 UIDP/04666/2020 UI/BD/151195/2021Philosophers of science have long tried to identify some demarcation line capable of distinguishing science from pseudoscience. Nonetheless, no ultimate set of requirements has so far been achieved, leaving demarcation uncertain and fluctuating, if not merely rhetorical. The habit of using the word ‘science’ to address a specific kind of knowledge is a modern practice, with ‘science’ having gradually taken over terms like ‘natural philosophy’ and ‘natural history.’ Thereby, the term ‘pseudoscience’ is also a recent one, with its meaning running alongside scientific endeavors of the nineteenth century. The article contributes to the debate aiming to pragmatically describe the function of pseudoscience in epistemology.publishersversionpublishe

Why do I lose time playing? Game features reported by players as being more satisfying

This dissertation had the objetive to relate elements from cognitive psychology with game design. For this purpose, it was discussed some features that constitutes a game, game design in order to create a good playing experience for players, presented persuasion strategies and thus how rewards given to players may keep them interested in the game and influence their behavior. To conclude, a list has been created with elements that were discussed and identified as being relevant in creating a good game experience. Besides, data collected from an online form done with players, with a total of 182 answers, was analysed for the sake of testing some hypotheses and concluding that challenge difficulty, player choices and playing with friends are important features.Este trabalho teve como objetivo tentar encontrar elementos da psicologia cognitiva e os associar com design de jogos. Para isso foi demonstrado o que são jogos, seu game design para criação de uma boa experiência de jogo aos jogadores, demonstração de elementos de persuasão e então como as recompensas fornecidas aos jogadores podem mantê-los interessados no jogo e influenciar seu comportamento. Por fim, foi criada uma tabela com elementos que foram discutidos e identificados como importantes para possibilitar uma boa experiência de jogo. Além disso, dados coletados de um questionário online, realizado com jogadores e obtidas 182 respostas, foram analisados afim de testar algumas hipóteses e concluímos que dificuldade do desafio, escolhas e jogar com amigos são fatores importantes

Mathematics in health care with applications

The Author aims to show how mathematics can be useful in supporting key activities in a hospital, including: noninvasive measurement of a patient’s status (see chapter 1), evaluation of quality of services (see chapter 2), business and clinical administration (see chapter 3), and diagnosis and prognosis (see chapter 4). Such applications suggest the development of innovative projects to improve health care processes, services and systems. In this way, mathematics can be a very important tool for technological and societal development

A review on history of ideas in medicine

UIDB/04666/2020 UIDP/04666/2020The article presents a synthesis of the main stages in the construction of the conceptual entity targeted as hysteria. Several academic papers report historical accounts of hysteria as a long-lasting – although disappeared – disease dating back to Hippocratic evidence. However, both philological research and the history of medicine, together with recent gender studies criticism, suggest that we shall reconsider the very origin of this category, thus questioning the features of its reality conditions across time. An account is given of this revisionism. Hysteria is here presented as a Renaissance product, virtually dismissed by neurologists in the early 1900 but definitively waned only in 1987 and 1993 by WHO resolution, after having moved from neurology to psychiatry. Its history represents a challenging subject in the theme of objective knowledge in science, drawing our attention to the burden of the political choices taken by an epistemic community within knowledge production, legitimation and validation aiming for a scientific understanding of the world. An account is given of the multi-layered construction and shifts of hysteria as a disease within the medical models of understanding, and of its progressive deconstruction over time.publishersversionpublishe

A Desinstitucionalização como Transvaloração. Apontamentos para uma terapêutica ao niilismo

Diante das dificuldades de construção de alternativas de cuidado em Saúde Mental que esbarram em lógicas características do paradigma biologicista, ainda tão arraigado às ciências humanas, faz-se necessária uma discussão acerca dos processos subjetivos que possam estar concorrendo para a manutenção de práticas tão institucionalizadas quanto criticadas na atualidade. O presente artigo debruça-se sobre esse impasse, propondo, como um possível passo no sentido de superá-lo, a análise da relação existente entre os conceitos de subjetividade, niilismo e instituição. Como ferramentas teóricas, utiliza a desconstrução da metafísica ocidental e as contribuições de Foucault e Deleuze relativas à constituição da singularidade para aproximar a compreensão do processo de desinstitucionalização ao projeto nietzscheano de transvaloração dos valores constituintes de nossa cultura.Establishing alternative mental health care has been facing several difficulties. We need to examine the subjective processes that may be supporting archaic and criticized practices in this area. The aim of this article is to analyze the relationship between the concepts of subjectivity, nihilism and institutionality in order to overcome the impasse in which deinstitutionalization finds itself. Taking Foucault and Deleuze as theoretical tools to understand the constitution of singularity, this paper focuses on the deinstitutionalization process in order to bring it closer to the Nietzschean project of transvaluation of values

A derivative-free approach for a simulation-based optimization problem in healthcare

Hospitals have been challenged in recent years to deliver high quality care with limited resources. Given the pressure to contain costs,developing procedures for optimal resource allocation becomes more and more critical in this context. Indeed, under/overutilization of emergency room and ward resources can either compromise a hospital's ability to provide the best possible care, or result in precious funding going toward underutilized resources. Simulation--based optimization tools then help facilitating the planning and management of hospital services, by maximizing/minimizing some specific indices (e.g. net profit) subject to given clinical and economical constraints. In this work, we develop a simulation--based optimization approach for the resource planning of a specific hospital ward. At each step, we first consider a suitably chosen resource setting and evaluate both efficiency and satisfaction of the restrictions by means of a discrete--event simulation model. Then, taking into account the information obtained by the simulation process, we use a derivative--free optimization algorithm to modify the given setting. We report results for a real--world problem coming from the obstetrics ward of an Italian hospital showing both the effectiveness and the efficiency of the proposed approach

Theory and Experiments on Supersonic Air-to-Air Ejectors.

A comparison of experiment with theory is made for air ejectors having cylindrical mixing sections and operating under conditions of supersonic primary flow and either mixed or supersonic regimes of mixing. The effect on ejector performance of such parameters as mixer length and cross section, terminating diffuser, primary Mach number, and primary nozzle position is presented in terms of mass flow and pressure ratio

Bayesian Semiparametric Hidden Markov Tensor Partition Models for Longitudinal Data with Local Variable Selection

We present a flexible Bayesian semiparametric mixed model for longitudinal data analysis in the presence of potentially high-dimensional categorical covariates. Building on a novel hidden Markov tensor decomposition technique, our proposed method allows the fixed effects components to vary between dependent random partitions of the covariate space at different time points. The mechanism not only allows different sets of covariates to be included in the model at different time points but also allows the selected predictors' influences to vary flexibly over time. Smooth time-varying additive random effects are used to capture subject specific heterogeneity. We establish posterior convergence guarantees for both function estimation and variable selection. We design a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm for posterior computation. We evaluate the method's empirical performances through synthetic experiments and demonstrate its practical utility through real world applications

Fermento láctico para mejorar panes sin gluten : selección del medio de cultivo para producir biomasa

Los productos libres de gluten no se encuentran ampliamente disponibles, son costosos, menos palatables y nutricionalmente más pobres que el pan de trigo tradicional. El reemplazo de gluten en productos panificados es un desafío ya que el mismo proporciona las propiedades viscoelásticas a la masa y su ausencia genera panes con baja calidad tecnológica. Algunas especies de bacterias ácido lácticas (BAL) presentes en la fermentación de la masa para elaborar pan otorgan influencias positivas en la calidad del producto: textura, aroma, propiedades nutricionales y vida útil del pan. Una cepa heterofermentante de BAL, Weissella cibaria 20, demostró como fermento aptitud para el mejoramiento sensorial y estructural de pan sin gluten en investigaciones previas. En este trabajo se buscó propagar esa cepa en un medio económico y libre de TACC, comparando la productividad del medio formulado con la del medio de cultivo comercial de elección para el crecimiento de BAL en laboratorio. Para ello se probaron distintas alternativas: medio en base a suero de quesería, medio en base a permeado de suero de quesería (PSQ), medio Sour Dough Bacteria e hidrolizados obtenidos a partir de harinas de sorgo y de trigo sarraceno. Los resultados obtenidos indican que el medio PSQ (subproducto lácteo) suplementado con glucosa mostró una elevada producción de biomasa en corto tiempo; presentando dos ventajas: la utilización de un efluente altamente contaminante y la posibilidad de contar con un medio de cultivo eficiente, de bajo costo y libre de gluten para propagar la biomasa de W. cibaria 20 a mayor escala.Fil: Paulon, Florencia. Universidad Nacional del Litoral