The Challenge of Individuality in Cultural- Historical Activity Theory: “Collectividual” Dialectics from a Transformative Activist Stance

In addressing the persistent challenge of fully integrating individual dimensions and humansubjectivity within the cultural-historical activity theory, this paper suggests several steps to reviseits core onto-epistemology in an expansive approach termed the transformative activist stance.This approach outlines the subtle dialectics of individual and collective planes of human praxiswhereby each individual is shaped by collective history and collaborative practices while at thesame time shaping and real-izing them through contributing to their collective, dynamicmateriality in moving beyond the status quo. In capitalizing on people always transcending whatexists in ‘the here and now,’ in a non-adaptive fashion, based in a commitment and vision to howthe world “ought to be,” the individual subjectivity is reclaimed as itself a fully social, embodied,material-discursive process. Individual subjectivity and agency gain status through contributing tochanges in “collectividual” practices as the primary onto-epistemology of a unitary realm that isindividual and social/collective at the same time

StyloMetrix: An Open-Source Multilingual Tool for Representing Stylometric Vectors

This work aims to provide an overview on the open-source multilanguage tool called StyloMetrix. It offers stylometric text representations that cover various aspects of grammar, syntax and lexicon. StyloMetrix covers four languages: Polish as the primary language, English, Ukrainian and Russian. The normalized output of each feature can become a fruitful course for machine learning models and a valuable addition to the embeddings layer for any deep learning algorithm. We strive to provide a concise, but exhaustive overview on the application of the StyloMetrix vectors as well as explain the sets of the developed linguistic features. The experiments have shown promising results in supervised content classification with simple algorithms as Random Forest Classifier, Voting Classifier, Logistic Regression and others. The deep learning assessments have unveiled the usefulness of the StyloMetrix vectors at enhancing an embedding layer extracted from Transformer architectures. The StyloMetrix has proven itself to be a formidable source for the machine learning and deep learning algorithms to execute different classification tasks.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, pre-print for the conferenc

Genetic Testing to Inform Epilepsy Treatment Management From an International Study of Clinical Practice

IMPORTANCE: It is currently unknown how often and in which ways a genetic diagnosis given to a patient with epilepsy is associated with clinical management and outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate how genetic diagnoses in patients with epilepsy are associated with clinical management and outcomes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study of patients referred for multigene panel testing between March 18, 2016, and August 3, 2020, with outcomes reported between May and November 2020. The study setting included a commercial genetic testing laboratory and multicenter clinical practices. Patients with epilepsy, regardless of sociodemographic features, who received a pathogenic/likely pathogenic (P/LP) variant were included in the study. Case report forms were completed by all health care professionals. EXPOSURES: Genetic test results. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Clinical management changes after a genetic diagnosis (ie, 1 P/LP variant in autosomal dominant and X-linked diseases; 2 P/LP variants in autosomal recessive diseases) and subsequent patient outcomes as reported by health care professionals on case report forms. RESULTS: Among 418 patients, median (IQR) age at the time of testing was 4 (1-10) years, with an age range of 0 to 52 years, and 53.8% (n = 225) were female individuals. The mean (SD) time from a genetic test order to case report form completion was 595 (368) days (range, 27-1673 days). A genetic diagnosis was associated with changes in clinical management for 208 patients (49.8%) and usually (81.7% of the time) within 3 months of receiving the result. The most common clinical management changes were the addition of a new medication (78 [21.7%]), the initiation of medication (51 [14.2%]), the referral of a patient to a specialist (48 [13.4%]), vigilance for subclinical or extraneurological disease features (46 [12.8%]), and the cessation of a medication (42 [11.7%]). Among 167 patients with follow-up clinical information available (mean [SD] time, 584 [365] days), 125 (74.9%) reported positive outcomes, 108 (64.7%) reported reduction or elimination of seizures, 37 (22.2%) had decreases in the severity of other clinical signs, and 11 (6.6%) had reduced medication adverse effects. A few patients reported worsening of outcomes, including a decline in their condition (20 [12.0%]), increased seizure frequency (6 [3.6%]), and adverse medication effects (3 [1.8%]). No clinical management changes were reported for 178 patients (42.6%). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Results of this cross-sectional study suggest that genetic testing of individuals with epilepsy may be materially associated with clinical decision-making and improved patient outcomes

The Challenge of Individuality in Cultural- Historical Activity Theory: “Collectividual” Dialectics from a Transformative Activist Stance

In addressing the persistent challenge of fully integrating individual dimensions and humansubjectivity within the cultural-historical activity theory, this paper suggests several steps to reviseits core onto-epistemology in an expansive approach termed the transformative activist stance.This approach outlines the subtle dialectics of individual and collective planes of human praxiswhereby each individual is shaped by collective history and collaborative practices while at thesame time shaping and real-izing them through contributing to their collective, dynamicmateriality in moving beyond the status quo. In capitalizing on people always transcending whatexists in ‘the here and now,’ in a non-adaptive fashion, based in a commitment and vision to howthe world “ought to be,” the individual subjectivity is reclaimed as itself a fully social, embodied,material-discursive process. Individual subjectivity and agency gain status through contributing tochanges in “collectividual” practices as the primary onto-epistemology of a unitary realm that isindividual and social/collective at the same time

Vygotsky’s theory of method and philosophy of practice: implications for trans/formative methodology = Teoria do método e filosofia da prática de Vygotsky: implicações para metodologia trans/formativa = Teoría del método y la filosofía de la práctica de Vygotsky: implicaciones para metodología trans/formativa

O projeto de Vygotsky precisa ser compreendido como um tipo ainda sem nome de uma abordagem que, ao continuar o espírito revolucionário do marxismo, mudou-se para além da velha divisão entre teoria e prática e, ao invés disso, consubstancia sua unidade em uma mistura peculiar com distintos aportes filosóficos, teóricos e éticos e suportes ideológicos. O objetivo de criar uma nova psicologia para uma sociedade que necessitava de princípios orientados para justiça social e igualdade transformou esta abordagem em um projeto crítico-prático de transformação social e de mudança. O principal argumento em que este trabalho avança é que o cerne do método de Vygotsky é a transformação onto-epistemológica, juntamente com a ética sócio-política de igualdade e justiça, que desafiam a ideologia de adaptação e controle. Eu discuto este conjunto de questões à luz de uma postura ativista de transformação que ilumina sobre os compromissos dos pesquisadores e orientações de valo