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From Cognition to Consciousness:\ud a discussion about learning, reality representation and decision making.
No full textThe scientific understanding of cognition and consciousness is currently hampered by the lack of rigorous and universally accepted definitions that permit comparative studies. This paper proposes new functional and un- ambiguous definitions for cognition and consciousness in order to provide clearly defined boundaries within which general theories of cognition and consciousness may be developed. The proposed definitions are built upon the construction and manipulation of reality representation, decision making and learning and are scoped in terms of an underlying logical structure. It is argued that the presentation of reality also necessitates the concept of ab- sence and the capacity to perform transitive inference. Explicit predictions relating to these new definitions, along with possible ways to test them, are also described and discussed
Critical Factors for New Product Developments in SMEs' Virtual Team
No full textSmall and medium enterprises (SMEs) are considered as an engine for economic growth all over the world and especially for developing countries. During the past decade, new product development (NPD) has increasingly been recognized as a critical factor in ensuring the continued survival of SMEs. On the other hand, the rapid rate of market and technological changes has accelerated in the past decade, so this turbulent environment requires new methods and techniques to bring successful new products to the marketplace. Virtual team can be a solution to answer the requested demand. However, literature have shown no significant differences between traditional NPD and virtual NPD in general, whereas NPD in SME’s virtual team has not been systematically investigated in developing countries. This paper aims to bridge this gap by first reviewing the NPD and its relationship with virtuality and then identifies the critical factors of NPD in virtual teams. The statistical method was utilized to perform the required analysis of data from the survey. The results were achieved through factor analysis at the perspective of NPD in some Malaysian and Iranian manufacturing firms (N = 191). The 20 new product development factors were grouped into five higher level constructs. It gives valuable insight and guidelines, which hopefully will help managers of firms in developing countries to consider the main factors in NPD
Input Scheme for Hindi Using Phonetic Mapping
No full textWritten Communication on Computers requires knowledge of writing text for the desired language using Computer. Mostly people do not use any other language besides English. This creates a barrier. To resolve this issue we have developed a scheme to input text in Hindi using phonetic mapping scheme. Using this scheme we generate intermediate code strings and match them with pronunciations of input text. Our system show significant success over other input systems available
Evolutionary Advantages of Inter-Subjectivity and Self-Consciousness through Improvements of Action Programs
No full textEvolutionary advantages of consciousness and intersubjectivity are part of current philosophical debates on the nature of consciousness.\ud
Both are linked and intersubjectivity is sometimes considered as a form of consciousness [1]. Regarding the evolution of consciousness, studies tend to focus on phenomenal consciousness [2].\ud
We would like here to bring the focus on self-consciousness and continue the build up of a corresponding evolutionary scenario. We also propose to introduce a possible evolutionary link between self-consciousness and phenomenal\ud
consciousness.\ud
Our starting point is the evolutionary scenario based on the evolution of intersubjectivity that goes thru the identification with conspecifics at pre-human primate time frame [3, 4, 5]. The scenario considers that such identification with conspecifics brought the non self-conscious auto-representation carried by our prehuman\ud
primate ancestors to merge with the representations of conspecifics. The latter transferred to the auto-representation the characteristics of an entity existing in\ud
the environment, and by this way introduced some first elements of self-consciousness for our pre-human ancestors. In addition, an anxiety increase coming from the identification with suffering or endangered conspecifics produced an evolutionary engine based on anxiety limitation. We want here to complement this evolutionary approach by introducing the improvement of action programs as a contributor to the evolutionary advantages of intersubjectivity and self-consciousness.\ud
We look at the possibility for a subject to improve the action programs that conspecifics implement. The performance of identification with conspecifics allows the subject to consider that errors made by conspecifics are\ud
potentially her own errors, and consequently allows the subject to correct the errors of conspecifics for her own benefit. We describe the process of non successful action\ud
identification from the perspective of an observer and present the synergetic action program improvements with their contribution to the evolution of intersubjectivity and\ud
self-consciousness. We add this contribution to the existing evolutionary scenario on self-consciousness and introduce a possible evolutionary link between self-consciousness and phenomenal consciousness. We use for that the relation existing between phenomenal consciousness and pre-reflexive self-consciousness [6] and propose to link the latter to the proposed evolutionary nature of self-consciousness.\ud
We finish by summarizing the points addressed and by introducing some possible continuations.\u
Uniqueness, Self belonging and Intercourse in Nature
No full textThis manuscript has ensued from my past studies in biochemistry (PhD, CUNY 1986) and my current endeavors in graduate study in philosophy and anthropology. The current research project began during my period as a graduate student in biochemistry with a professor of classical genetics comment that DNA was unique in the physical world. The paradox presented to relate this notion to existing natural law lead me to evolve and communicate a view that the world itself is a special case of a general case that has no relevant physical existence. I also hope to have presented a description of a situation that connects history, human behavior, the process and symbolisms of science, cause and effect to a holism of form, philosophy, mathematics, shape, and motio
Rationale for design of Body Image unit
No full textThis rationale outlines the theoretical and pedagogic underpinings of my design
A study of factors delaying hospital arrival and predictors of mortality in patients presenting to emergency department with Stroke: A developing state scenario
No full textBackground: Thrombolytic therapy for acute ischemic stroke has recently become available in India but its success depends on initiating the treatment in the narrow therapeutic time window. There is commonly a delay of several hours before patients with acute stroke seek medical attention. Materials and Methods: A prospective study was conducted to assess the factors influencing this delay in admission of acute stroke cases. 134cases (101 males, 33 females) of acute stroke that arrived within 72 hours at our hospital casualty were recruited. A standardized structured questionnaire was given to patients or their attendants. Results: The median time to casualty arrival was 9 hours with 13.4% cases arriving within 3 hours and 36.5 % cases within 6 hours. Distances from hospital, referral, belief in myths and alternate medicine and low threat perception of symptoms of stroke were independent factors associated with delay in arrival. Living in city, day time onset, urgency shown by attendant, availability of transport and presence of family history were associated with early arrival. There was no correlation with patients' or attendants' sex, educational status, history of previous stroke or transient ischemic attack, subtype or severity of stroke, time of stroke and availability of transport. 134 patients (65.7% were from rural population, 55.22%-smokers, 46.76%-alcoholics) with mean (SD) age of 53.83+/-18.02years [significantly lower in females (mean difference=9.73years p=0.002)], were admitted and diagnosed to have stroke. 87.3% had first episode of stroke and 12.7 had more than one episode of stroke. ICF rate was 26.1%. ICF rate has no relation with age (p=0.516), sex (p=0.460), number of episodes (0.795), underlying hypertension (p=0.905). Odds of diabetics dying were 12 times higher than non-diabetics. Inpatient mortality was also significantly higher in smokers compared with non-smokers (p=0.004), in patients with right-sided compared with left-sided hemiplegic (p=0.029) and who couldn’t afford computed tomography (CT) scan (p=0.007). Kaplan Meier curve in Image-1 shows the survival following admission to emergency ward. Conclusion: Adequate measures need to be taken to improve the public awareness of stroke and the role of local doctors. Our study has shown that active smokers, involvement of the right side and non performance of CT were independent predictors of mortality which have not been shown earlier. Also, we found that diabetes mellitus is independent predictor of mortality in stroke, which has been seen in earlier studies too
Kienbock Disease
No full textA case of a 27 years old female with history of pain in left wrists is presented. Investigations revealed necrosis of left lunate (Kienbock disease)
Epidermoid Cyst of Spleen
No full textSplenic cysts are very rare lesions, most of them being parasitic systs. Nonparasitic cysts are uncommon. We report a case of young female who presented with mass and pain abdomen. Ultrasound examination revealed splenic syst. The diagnosis of epidermoid cyst was made based on characteristic lining on histopathological examinatio
Study of vibration and its effect on health of the motorcycle rider
No full textThe motorcycle riders are subjected to extreme vibrations due to the vibrations of its engine, improper structural design of the motorcycle and the bad road conditions. The literature review reveals that the vibrations are most hazardous to the health if it exceeds the limit. The experiments were conducted to measure the magnitude of the vibrations acting on the rider during motorcycle riding under various road conditions. Experimental values of accelerations and frequencies which are beyond permissible limits according to the literature confirm that vibration certainly affects health of the motorcycle rider