Introducing a Pictographic Language for Envisioning a Rich Variety of Enactive Systems with Different Degrees of Complexity

Notwithstanding the considerable amount of progress that has been made in recent years, the parallel fields of cognitive science and cognitive systems lack a unifying methodology for describing, understanding, simulating and implementing advanced cognitive behaviours. Growing interest in ’enactivism’ - as pioneered by the Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela - may lead to new perspectives in these areas, but a common framework for expressing many of the key concepts is still missing. This paper attempts to lay a tentative foundation in that direction by extending Maturana and Varela’s pictographic depictions of autopoietic unities to create a rich visual language for envisioning a wide range of enactive systems - natural or artificial - with different degrees of complexity. It is shown how such a diagrammatic taxonomy can help in the comprehension of important relationships between a variety of complex concepts from a pan-theoretic perspective. In conclusion, it is claimed that visual language is not only valuable for teaching and learning, but also offers important insights into the design and implementation of future advanced robotic systems

Peer role-play and standardised patients in communication training: a comparative study on the student perspective on acceptability, realism, and perceived effect

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To assess the student perspective on acceptability, realism, and perceived effect of communication training with peer role play (RP) and standardised patients (SP).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>69 prefinal year students from a large German medical faculty were randomly assigned to one of two groups receiving communication training with RP (N = 34) or SP (N = 35) in the course of their paediatric rotation. In both groups, training addressed major medical and communication problems encountered in the exploration and counselling of parents of sick children. Acceptability and realism of the training as well as perceived effects and applicability for future parent-physician encounters were assessed using six-point Likert scales.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both forms of training were highly accepted (RP 5.32 ± .41, SP 5.51 ± .44, n.s.; 6 = very good, 1 = very poor) and perceived to be highly realistic (RP 5.60 ± .38, SP 5.53 ± .36, n.s.; 6 = highly realistic, 1 = unrealistic). Regarding perceived effects, participation was seen to be significantly more worthwhile in the SP group (RP 5.17 ± .37, SP 5.50 ± .43; p < .003; 6 = totally agree, 1 = don't agree at all). Both training methods were perceived as useful for training communication skills (RP 5.01 ± .68, SP 5.34 ± .47; 6 = totally agree; 1 = don't agree at all) and were considered to be moderately applicable for future parent-physician encounters (RP 4.29 ± 1.08, SP 5.00 ± .89; 6 = well prepared, 1 = unprepared), with usefulness and applicability both being rated higher in the SP group (p < .032 and p < .009).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>RP and SP represent comparably valuable tools for the training of specific communication skills from the student perspective. Both provide highly realistic training scenarios and warrant inclusion in medical curricula. Given the expense of SP, deciding which method to employ should be carefully weighed up. From the perspective of the students in our study, SP were seen as a more useful and more applicable tool than RP. We discuss the potential of RP to foster a greater empathic appreciation of the patient perspective.</p

Aspects of quality of primary care provided by physicians certified in phytotherapy in Switzerland

BACKGROUND: Data on the use of phytotherapy in primary care are scarce and difficult to compare (e.g. different health-care systems, study designs). OBJECTive: Are there differences in Switzerland regarding demographic data, practice structure, process of care and outcome/ treatment satisfaction between primary care physicians certified in phytotherapy (CAM) and physicians performing conventional primary care (COM) and their patients? MATERIAL AND METHODS: Subgroup analysis of the data of phytotherapy of an observational study (2 cross-sectional surveys with 3 questionnaires) which was performed as part of a nationwide evaluation program on complementary medicine (PEK). A descriptive analysis was used to compare data. RESULTS: In survey A, 20 CAM and 191 COM physicians participated, of which 14 and 84, respectively, continued for survey B and recruited at least 276 CAM and 1,395 COM patients. Findings show that CAM physicians had less technical equipment (e.g. x-rays) than COM physicians, their consultation time was 25% longer, and they used more non-drug therapies. Whereas in the SF-36 no differences could be identified between the groups, the EUROPEP showed significant differences in favour of CAM patients. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary data of the comparison between CAM and COM physicians indicate few differences in demographic and practice structure data. Yet, due to differences in the process of care CAM patients showed better treatment satisfaction than COM patients. This is probably due to their doctors' communicative qualities and patient-oriented skills. To which degree this might be triggered due to phyto-pharmacosemiotic aspects needs to be investigated in a future study

Predicting oil palm leaf nutrient contents in kalimantan, indonesia by measuring reflectance with a spectroradiometer

Leaf nutrients are needed for oil palm growth and production, and the nutrient contents of oil palm leaves can be determined by the chemical analyses of the number 9 and 17 leaves for young and adult palms, respectively. However, the accurate selection of the proper leaf for sampling is problematic. Remote sensing techniques based on the reflectance values of leaves may easily monitor leaf nutrients in oil palm plantations. We studied leaf nutrient contents using spectral reflectance data to determine suitable wavelengths for predicting the contents of the most important leaf nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, boron, copper, and zinc. The samples were taken from one oil palm plantation in Pundu, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The proposed vegetative indices, several common vegetative indices, and a stepwise regression that continued with a principal component regression were used to build models for predicting leaf nutrient contents. The proposed vegetative indices performed better than the common vegetative indices. For each of the leaf nutrients, models that included all of the significant variables from the stepwise regression and continued with principal component regression from the ultraviolet A and green to far red wavelength groups had better performance levels than models that included individually selected variables selected from each wavelength group. For total leaf nutrient content predictions, variables from the green wavelength group were always selected and contributed more to the models than any other group. Thus, our proposed vegetative indices and multivariate model may be used to predict leaf nutrient contents in oil palm plantations

Real-World Emission Factors for Antimony and Other Brake Wear Related Trace Elements: Size-Segregated Values for Light and Heavy Duty Vehicles

Hourly trace element measurements were performed in an urban street canyon and next to an interurban freeway in Switzerland during more than one month each, deploying a rotating drum impactor (RDI) and subsequent sample analysis by synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (SR-XRF). Antimony and other brake wear associated elements were detected in three particle size ranges (2.5-10, 1-2.5, and 0.1-1 microm). The hourly measurements revealed that the effect of resuspended road dust has to be taken into account for the calculation of vehicle emission factors. Individual values for light and heavy duty vehicles were obtained for stop-and-go traffic in the urban street canyon. Mass based brake wear emissions were predominantly found in the coarse particle fraction. For antimony, determined emission factors were 11 +/- 7 and 86 +/- 42 microg km(-1) vehicle(-1) for light and heavy duty vehicles, respectively. Antimony emissions along the interurban freeway with free-flowing traffic were significantly lower. Relative patterns for brake wear related elements were very similar for both considered locations. Beside vehicle type specific brake wear emissions, road dust resuspension was found to be a dominant contributor of antimony in the street canyon