Logic Programming for Finding Models in the Logics of Knowledge and its Applications: A Case Study

The logics of knowledge are modal logics that have been shown to be effective in representing and reasoning about knowledge in multi-agent domains. Relatively few computational frameworks for dealing with computation of models and useful transformations in logics of knowledge (e.g., to support multi-agent planning with knowledge actions and degrees of visibility) have been proposed. This paper explores the use of logic programming (LP) to encode interesting forms of logics of knowledge and compute Kripke models. The LP modeling is expanded with useful operators on Kripke structures, to support multi-agent planning in the presence of both world-altering and knowledge actions. This results in the first ever implementation of a planner for this type of complex multi-agent domains.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, International Conference on Logic Programming 201

Practice and Lived Experience of Menstrual Exiles (Chhaupadi) among Adolescent Girls in Far Western Nepal. December 2018

Background: Menstrual exile, also known as Chhaupadi, is a tradition of “untouchability” in far-western Nepal. Forbidden from touching other people and objects, women and girls are required to live away from the community, typically in a livestock shed, during menstruation. We assessed the lived experiences of Chhaupadi among Nepalese adolescent girls in the far-western Achham district of Nepal, observed the safety and sanitation of their living spaces during Chhaupadi, and assessed the perceptions of local adult stakeholders towards the practice of Chhaupadi. Methods: We collected data from 107 adolescent girls using a self-administered survey in two local schools in Achham. We also conducted a focus group discussion with seven girls, held key informant interviews, and observed the girls’ living spaces during Chhaupadi, using a checklist. Descriptive statistics of the quantitative survey and thematic analyses of qualitative interviews are presented. Results: The majority of the girls (n = 77, 72%) practiced exile, or Chhaupadi, during their menstruation, including 3 (4%) exiled to traditional Chhau sheds, 63 (82%) to livestock sheds, and 11 (14%) to courtyards outside their home. The remaining girls (n = 30, 28%) stayed inside the house, yet practiced some form of menstrual taboos. Of the 77 observed living spaces where the girls stayed during exile, only 30% (n = 23) had a toilet facility. Most exiled girls (97.4%) were restricted from eating dairy products. Participants reported having various psychological problems, including lonliness and difficulty sleeping while practicing Chhaupadi. Three of the girls were physically abused; nine were bitten by a snake. Notably high proportions of the living spaces lacked ventilation/windows (n = 20, 26%), electricity (n = 29, 38%), toilets (n = 54, 70%) and a warm blanket and mattress for sleeping (n = 29, 38%). Our qualitative findings supported our quantitative results. Conclusions: Chhaupadi has been condemned by human rights organizations. While the government has banned the practice, implementation on the ban is proceeding slowly, especially in far-western Nepal. Thus, as a temporary measure, public health professionals must work towards promoting the health and safety of Nepalese women and girls still practicing Chhaupadi

Improved impact performance of marine sandwich panels using through-thickness reinforcement: Experimental results

This paper presents results from a test developed to simulate the water impact (slamming) loading of sandwich boat structures. A weighted elastomer ball is dropped from increasing heights onto rigidly supported panels until damage is detected. Results from this test indicate that honeycomb core sandwich panels, the most widely used material for racing yacht hulls, start to damage due to core crushing at impact energies around 550 J. Sandwich panels of the same areal weight and with the same carbon/epoxy facings but using a novel foam core reinforced in the thickness direction with pultruded carbon fibre pins, do not show signs of damage until above 1200 J impact energy. This suggests that these will offer significantly improved resistance to wave impact. Quasi-static test results cannot be used to predict impact resistance here as the crush strength of the pinned foam is more sensitive to loading rate than that of the honeycomb core

Assessing the effects of anti-homosexuality legislation in Uganda on HIV prevention, treatment, and care services

Uganda’s response to the HIV epidemic has been lauded for its robustness and achievements. However, a key component of HIV prevention programming has been missing, for men who have sex with men (MSM). The main reason cited has been criminalization of male homosexual behavior. In 2009, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill (AHB) was introduced in the parliament to enhance existing anti-homosexuality law. A multi-disciplinary team made a Health Impact Assessment of the proposed AHB. The bill as tabled would severely increase punishments, increased closeting. Social capital of MSM would be eroded by clauses mandating reporting byfriends, relatives, and acquaintances. Health-care professionals would have to inform on homosexuals. Mandatory HIV testing would be a blow to programming. Probable disclosure of HIV status in a public space (court) would also be a deterrent. Heftier punishments for those testing positive increases stigma and hobbles subsequent care. The AHB argues for exclusion, and more discrimination targeting persons living with HIV and sexual minorities. It will exacerbate the negative public healthconsequences of the existing legislation. The government of Uganda should review guidance documents published by authoritative bodies including the World Bank, World Health Organization to develop and bring to scale Human rightsaffirming HIV prevention, treatment, and care responses

Weak and strong disjunction in possibilistic asp

Abstract. Possibilistic answer set programming (PASP) unites answer set programming (ASP) and possibilistic logic (PL) by associating certainty values with rules. The resulting framework allows to combine both non-monotonic reasoning and reasoning under uncertainty in a single framework. While PASP has been well-studied for possibilistic definite and possibilistic normal programs, we argue that the current semantics of possibilistic disjunctive programs are not entirely satisfactory. The problem is twofold. First, the treatment of negation-as-failure in existing approaches follows an all-or-nothing scheme that is hard to match with the graded notion of proof underlying PASP. Second, we advocate that the notion of disjunction can be interpreted in several ways. In particular, in addition to the view of ordinary ASP where disjunctions are used to induce a non-deterministic choice, the possibilistic setting naturally leads to a more epistemic view of disjunction. In this paper, we propose a semantics for possibilistic disjunctive programs, discussing both views on disjunction. Extending our earlier work, we interpret such programs as sets of constraints on possibility distributions, whose least specific solutions correspond to answer sets.

READING AUTOBIOGRAPHIES AND (RE)IMAGINING THE NATION

Contemporary discourses on the nation, nationality and nationalism aretheoretically discursive and aporetic. Ideological constructions of the nation from positions of liberalism, Marxism and cultural constructivism further complicate our understanding of the nation and what constitutes its nationness. To Homi Bhabha ‘a particular ambivalence [that] hunts the idea of the nation, the language of those who write of it and the lives of those who live it’. Following Bhabha and others, the present paper attempts to open up another window on the discourse of the Indian nation reading through the autobiographies of Mohandas Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Verrier Elwin. While Gandhi and Nehru have the advantage ofbeing insiders to Indian culture and its history, Elwin remains as a figure on the margin. Gandhi and Nehru, the two most important figures at the helm of India’s struggle for independence view the Indian nation from their own perspectives while Elwin’s autobiography as an outsider-insider’s account offers a critique of the dominant cultural construct of the nation advocated by Gandhi and Nehru in espousing the cause of the tribes of India, a marginal constituency, thereby unpacking a counter discourse on the Indian nation that the country’s diverse communities and their aspirations need to be accommodated in the evolving national discourse. Reading through the biographies of Gandhi, Nehru and Elwin, the present paper, taking a non-ideological position, argues that together these three textsprovide an inclusive view of the Indian nation that could engender the discourse on ‘diversity’ in strengthening democracy and multiculturalism.LENDO AUTOBIOGRAFIAS E (RE)IMAGINANDO A NAÇÃOOs discursos contemporâneos sobre nação, nacionalidade e nacionalismo são teoricamente discursivos e aporéticos. As construções ideológicas da nação a partir de posições liberalistas, marxistas e construtivistas dificultam nossa compreensão de nação e o que constitui a sua nationness. Para Homi Bhabha, há “uma ambivalência particular [que] ferea idéia de nação, a língua daqueles que escrevem sobre ela e as vidas daqueles que vivem nela”. Seguindo Bhabha e outros críticos, o presente ensaio objetiva abrir uma outra possibilidade para se pensar a leitura do discurso indiano através das autobiografias de Mohandas Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru e Verrier Elwin. Enquanto Gandhi e Nehru contam coma vantagem de estarem imersos na cultura local e na sua história, Elwin permanece à margem. Ghandi e Nehru, as duas figuras mais importantes nos limites da luta da Índia pela independência do país, têm em vista a nação sob suas próprias perspectivas, enquanto que a autobiografia de Elwin, escrita da perspectiva de um observador externo, oferece uma críticada construção da cultura dominante defendida por Gandhi e Nehru em resposta à causa das tribos indianas, uma circunscrição marginal, assim elaborando um discurso sobre a nação no sentido de que as diversas comunidades do país e suas aspirações precisam ser acomodadasno discurso nacional envolvente. Lendo através das biografias de Gandhi, Nehru e Elvwin, este trabalho, tomando uma posição não ideológica, discute que juntos estes três textos fornecem uma perspectiva inclusiva da nação indiana que pode engendrar o discurso sobre a “diversidade” fortalecendo a democracia e o multiculturalismo

Osseointegration of a Cementless Total Knee Arthroplasty in a Murine Model of Glucocorticoid Induced Osteoporosis

Glucocorticoid-Induced Osteoporosis (GIOP) is the second largest cause of osteoporosis worldwide. Glucocorticoid-Induced osteoporosis is rapidly, driven principally by deficient osteoblast activity (i.e., decreased bone formation) rather than increased osteoclastic activity. Glucocorticoid-type steroids (GC) are used long-term typically for inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and other autoimmune disorders. Inflammatory arthritis often leads to joint replacement at relatively young ages. However, patients who are on GC treatment appear to have poorer outcomes for total joint arthroplasty compared to healthy patients. This is thought to be due to the anti-anabolic effects of GCs and impaired bone healing and osseous integration. The precise reasons for this are not well understood, nor are the potential strategies for intervention to improve these outcomes clear. Experimental animal models are critical to understanding this problem and informing as to how treatments might be used to improve osseointegration in the face of GC treatment. In the current studies, we used an established cementless murine knee arthroplasty model to better understand how GCs impact bone regeneration, osseointegration and biomechanical strength. The mouse model used in this study consists of a laser sintered titanium beaded tibial component (2mm long, 1mm diameter) from which biomechanical pullout strength and bone ingrowth can be readily measured. The goal of the current study was to assess GCs and implant osseointegration and biomechanical strength after treatment. Skeletally mature female C57BL/6 (4-month-old, n=28) were assigned to either GC or placebo treatment groups. Mice received a 60-day slow-release prednisolone pellet (2.1mg/kg/day) or placebo (vehicle) pellet, placed subcutaneously. Four weeks later, each mouse received a custom-designed cementless tibial implant surgically placed in the right knee and mice were allowed 4 weeks to heal. Implanted tibiae were collected and used for either mechanical pullout testing (n=11) to assess strength of osseointegration or histology (n=3) to directly assess bone ingrowth. In addition, contralateral tibiae and femora were collected for microcomputed tomography (mCT) to measure normal bone architecture and bone mineral density (BMD). Results: Placebo treated mice had a better overall osseointegration score than the GC treated mice. However, pull-out testing showed no difference between the placebo and GC groups. The reason for this unexpected finding remains unclear, but we speculate that GC-treated mice bone may have poor bone quality compared to normal tissue. Indeed, GCs are known to adversely affect osteocytes as well as osteoblasts. In addition, inbred mouse strains differ widely in their responses to GCs, with B6 mice being on the low response end of the spectrum. Thus, future studies might adapt the tibial implant-osseointegration system for anatomy of more GC-responsive mice