Affordance Theory for Improving the Rapid Generation, Composability, and Reusability of Synthetic Agents and Objects

This paper describes an effort to revise the PMFserv agent architecture in order to implement J.J. Gibson\u27s Affordance Theory. The theoretical justification for this revision is outlined along with the engineering constraints that inspired it. We describe the resulting architectural changes and the impact of those changes on the flexibility, ease of rapid scenario creation, and ability to reuse previous investments in knowledge engineering offered by our architecture. The level of effort required to build a new scenario within PMFserv both with and without the revisions suggested by Affordance Theory is compared. We conclude that Affordance Theory is an elegant solution to the problem of providing both rapid scenario development and the simulation of individual differences in perception, culture, and emotionality within the same agent architecture

3D-Cell-Annotator : an open-source active surface tool for single-cell segmentation in 3D microscopy images

aSummary: Segmentation of single cells in microscopy images is one of the major challenges in computational biology. It is the first step of most bioimage analysis tasks, and essential to create training sets for more advanced deep learning approaches. Here, we propose 3D-Cell-Annotator to solve this task using 3D active surfaces together with shape descriptors as prior information in a semi-automated fashion. The software uses the convenient 3D interface of the widely used Medical Imaging Interaction Toolkit (MITK). Results on 3D biological structures (e.g. spheroids, organoids and embryos) show that the precision of the segmentation reaches the level of a human expert.Peer reviewe

Athena\u27s Prism - A Diplomatic Strategy Role Playing Simulation for Generating Ideas and Exploring Alternatives

Intelligence analysts must clear at least three hurdles to get good product out the door: cognitive biases, social biases and self-imposed organizational impediments. Others (e.g., Gilovich, et al., Heuer, and Kahneman and Tversky), explain the cognitive processes that can help or trip us. A less well mapped set of dangers arises in the social dynamics of communicating tasking, working with other analysts, editing and customer interaction. Finally, the mere fact of a unit\u27s published record creates analytic inertia - an argument at rest tends to stay at rest and one in motion (i.e., ambiguous or uncertain) tends to stay in motion. (A variation of this includes groupthink.

Evidence for diagnosis of early chronic pancreatitis after three episodes of acute pancreatitis : a cross-sectional multicentre international study with experimental animal model

Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is an end-stage disease with no specific therapy; therefore, an early diagnosis is of crucial importance. In this study, data from 1315 and 318 patients were analysed from acute pancreatitis (AP) and CP registries, respectively. The population from the AP registry was divided into AP (n=983), recurrent AP (RAP, n=270) and CP (n=62) groups. The prevalence of CP in combination with AP, RAP2, RAP3, RAP4 and RAP5+was 0%, 1%, 16%, 50% and 47%, respectively, suggesting that three or more episodes of AP is a strong risk factor for CP. Laboratory, imaging and clinical biomarkers highlighted that patients with RAP3+do not show a significant difference between RAPs and CP. Data from CP registries showed 98% of patients had at least one AP and the average number of episodes was four. We mimicked the human RAPs in a mouse model and found that three or more episodes of AP cause early chronic-like morphological changes in the pancreas. We concluded that three or more attacks of AP with no morphological changes to the pancreas could be considered as early CP (ECP).The new diagnostic criteria for ECP allow the majority of CP patients to be diagnosed earlier. They can be used in hospitals with no additional costs in healthcare.Peer reviewe