1,804 research outputs found
Il corpo come luogo liminare: prospettive in Occidente e in Oriente a confronto
No full textSince the formulation of the “paradigm of embodiment” by Thomas J.
Csordas, the body has grown increasingly important in anthropological
research and far from being considered the object of culture it has turned into
the subject of culture itself, into the “existential ground of culture”. The body
has the capability of being imbued with knowledge, to act in the world and, at
the same time, to be shaped by those forces that act in the world. Not only is
the body a liminal space between disciplines, it is also the means – in limine
– through which human experience occurs in the world and the world enters
man. In this contribution, the author will take into account some aspects of
contemporary Western culture compared with the Naxi people living in Southwest
China. The methodological approach adopted will provide the body as
the main analytic tool for deciphering the processes relevant to the construction
of societies, cultures, and the world. The notion of “embodied knowledge”
will offer the opportunity for rethinking modernity and observing how,
beyond the forms by which it models and weaves its social, political and economic
interdependencies, modernity knows original declinations and retains
areas of resistance to the homologation of identities and cultural colonization
Reason to Explain: Interactive Contrastive Explanations (REASONX)
No full textMany high-performing machine learning models are not interpretable. As they are increasingly used in decision scenarios that can critically affect individuals, it is necessary to develop tools to better understand their outputs. Popular explanation methods include contrastive explanations. However, they suffer several shortcomings, among others an insufficient incorporation of background knowledge, and a lack of interactivity. While (dialogue-like) interactivity is important to better communicate an explanation, background knowledge has the potential to significantly improve their quality, e.g., by adapting the explanation to the needs of the end-user. To close this gap, we present reasonx, an explanation tool based on Constraint Logic Programming (CLP). reasonx provides interactive contrastive explanations that can be augmented by background knowledge, and allows to operate under a setting of under-specified information, leading to increased flexibility in the provided explanations. reasonx computes factual and contrastive decision rules, as well as closest contrastive examples. It provides explanations for decision trees, which can be the ML models under analysis, or global/local surrogate models of any ML model. While the core part of reasonx is built on CLP, we also provide a program layer that allows to compute the explanations via Python, making the tool accessible to a wider audience. We illustrate the capability of reasonx on a synthetic data set, and on a well-developed example in the credit domain. In both cases, we can show how reasonx can be flexibly used and tailored to the needs of the user
Declarative Reasoning on Explanations Using Constraint Logic Programming
No full textExplaining opaque Machine Learning (ML) models is an increasingly relevant problem. Current explanation in AI (XAI) methods suffer several shortcomings, among others an insufficient incorporation of background knowledge, and a lack of abstraction and interactivity with the user. We propose reasonx, an explanation method based on Constraint Logic Programming (CLP). reasonx can provide declarative, interactive explanations for decision trees, which can be the ML models under analysis or global/local surrogate models of any black-box model. Users can express background or common sense knowledge using linear constraints and MILP optimization over features of factual and contrastive instances, and interact with the answer constraints at different levels of abstraction through constraint projection. We present here the architecture of reasonx, which consists of a Python layer, closer to the user, and a CLP layer. reasonx’s core execution engine is a Prolog meta-program with declarative semantics in terms of logic theories
Time in a Multi-Theory Logical Framework
No full textWe present a knowledge representation framework where a collection of logic programs can be combined together by means of meta-level program composition operations. Each object-level program is composed by a collection of extended clauses, equipped with a time interval representing the time period in which they hold. The interaction between program composition operations and time yields a powerful knowledge representation language in which many applications can be naturally developed. The language is given a meta-level semantics which provides also an executable specification. Two applications in the field of business regulations are show
Oral administration of chestnut tannins to reduce the duration of neonatal calf diarrhea
No full textBackground: Neonatal calf diarrhea is generally caused by infectious agents and is a very common disease
in bovine practice, leading to substantial economic losses. Tannins are known for their astringent and anti- inflammatory properties in the gastro-enteric tract. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the oral administration of chestnut tannins (Castanea sativa Mill.) in order to reduce the duration of calf neonatal diarrhea. Twenty-four Italian Friesian calves affected by neonatal diarrhea were included. The duration of the diarrheic episode (DDE) was recorded and the animals were divided into a control group (C), which received Effydral® in
2 l of warm water, and a tannin-treated group (T), which received Effydral® in 2 l of warm water plus 10 g of extract of chestnut tannins powder. A Mann-Whitney test was performed to verify differences for the DDE values between the two groups.
Results: The DDE was significantly higher in group C than in group T (p = 0.02), resulting in 10.1 ± 3.2 and 6.6 ± 3. 8 days, respectively.
Conclusions: Phytotherapic treatments for various diseases have become more common both in human and in veterinary medicine, in order to reduce the presence of antibiotic molecules in the food chain and in the environment. Administration of tannins in calves with diarrhea seemed to shorten the DDE in T by almost 4 days compared to C, suggesting an effective astringent action of chestnut tannins in the calf, as already reported in humans. The use of chestnut tannins in calves could represent an effective, low-impact treatment for neonatal diarrhea
Linseed supplementation in the diet of fattening pigs: Effect on the fatty acid profile of different pork cuts
No full textLinseed supplementation improves the fatty acid (FA) profile of meat, primarily by increasing α-linolenic acid (ALA). Pork is one of the most consumed meats, though the high level of saturated FA, therefore, a change of the FA profile is needed to improve the health properties. The aim of this work was to study the influence of extruded linseed supplementation on the FA profile in 5 different pork cuts, increasing their nutraceutical properties. Sixty pigs were divided into two groups, which were fed two different diets: control (C) and experimental (L, 8% supplementation with extruded flaxseed). Five cuts were sampled: backfat (Bf), bacon (B), Boston shoulder (Bs), ham lean part (Hl) and ham fatty part (Hf). The L diet reduced fat content in Hf (−6%) and B (−11%), while the other cuts did not show differences. Moreover, L group showed a higher level of n-3 PUFA (approx. 9-fold), with a significant reduction in the n-6/n-3 from 20 to 2.5. In cuts rich in fat (Bf, B and Hf) of L group, the level of n-3 PUFA was higher than the thresholds set by EU to obtain the claim “Source of omega-3 fatty acids”. In contrast, the lean cuts (Hl and Bs) did not exceed the threshold of n-3 PUFA required to obtain the claim, as consequence of the low level of fat. The results demonstrated that a diet with 8% extruded linseed enhanced the nutraceutical quality of pork meat
Radio-guided surgery in recurrent renal hyperparathyroidism: Report of a case
No full textBACKGROUND: It has been demonstrated that radio-guided surgery offers several advantages in treating primary hyperparathyroidism. Even if it is considered less helpful in renal hyperparathyroidism, it could be of tremendous advantage in the treatment of persistent or recurrent secondary hyperparathyroidism. METHODS: We report a case of recurrent secondary hyperparathyroidism treated by the use of radio-guided surgery. The preoperative assessment consisting of ultrasonography, magnetic resonance imaging, and 99mTc-sestamibi scintigraphy identified a parathyroid in the upper mediastinum. The patient underwent a radio-guided neck re-exploration that allowed a rapid localization and excision of the ectopic gland, which was located in the anterosuperior mediastinum, in front of the trachea, between the innominant and the left common carotid artery. RESULTS: The operative time was 45 minutes. The patient was discharged on the first postoperative day. A decrease in serum calcium and parathyroid hormone was observed subsequently. A follow-up of 6 months did not show any recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: The case reported indicates that radio-guided surgery can help surgeons detect parathyroid tissue in selected cases of renal hyperparathyroidism
Tecnologie innovative per la valutazione del benessere di ovini e caprini
No full textL'uso della sensoristica in zootecnica, spesso chiamato Precision Livestock Farming (PLF), è un fenomeno iniziato negli anni ’90 con lo sviluppo dei primi robot di mungitura. Questo approccio innovativo consente di monitorare in tempo reale gli animali, fornendo informazioni utili a migliorare il loro benessere e la produttività economica degli allevamenti, senza un grosso impatto sul paesaggio. Esistono diverse tipologie di sensori in commercio (es. accelerometri, telecamere, microfoni), la maggior parte dei quali sono stati sviluppati per raccogliere una grande quantità di informazioni che permettono di valutare la salute, il benessere, la produzione e la riproduzione in sistemi intensivi o semi-intensivi. Alcuni di questi sensori vengono posizionati direttamente sugli animali mediante l’utilizzo di marche auricolari, collari, fasce, pedometri, boli o impianti interni e raccolgono prevalentemente informazioni dirette sugli animali stessi (animal based). Altri sensori, invece, sono situati all’interno dell’ambiente in cui vive l’animale e possono raccogliere informazioni di tipo animal based (es. telecamere per il monitoraggio del comportamento, bilance automatiche) o resource based (es. sensori ambientali). Recentemente la sensoristica è stata adattata e implementata anche per gli allevamenti ovini e caprini di tipo estensivo e semi-estensivo. Per questi sistemi di allevamento i sensori più usati monitorano parametri quali il comportamento, la frequenza cardiaca, l’assunzione di alimento, l’attività motoria e la posizione spaziale dell’animale. Alcuni studi effettuati negli ovini al pascolo hanno dimostrato che è possibile valutare con accuratezza la presenza di comportamenti quali l’alimentazione e la ruminazione con l’utilizzo di accelerometri, sensori inseriti nei collari o nelle marche auricolari. Questa tecnologia potrebbe essere utilizzata per sviluppare dispositivi più complessi utili per il monitoraggio automatico dell'assunzione di cibo negli allevamenti estensivi, che potrebbe aiutare a monitorare la salute e il benessere degli animali e migliorare le strategie di gestione. La tecnologia GPS, utile per valutare la localizzazione dei piccoli ruminanti, è stata implementata per ottenere una maggior precisione spaziale ed è stata resa più accessibile agli allevatori grazie a soluzioni a basso costo per il monitoraggio dell’intero gregge. La valutazione dei comportamenti sociali e la localizzazione degli animali permettono per esempio di predire il momento del parto, consentendo così all’allevatore un monitoraggio costante e la possibilità di intervento in caso di problematiche. I sensori in grado di registrare la frequenza cardiaca o l’ECG delle pecore, localizzati su fasce o collari, possono essere utilizzati al pascolo per valutare diverse condizioni di stress, quali ad esempio quello da caldo nella stagione estiva, o quello causato dalla presenza di predatori. Studi recenti hanno dimostrato che lo stress da caldo può influenzare la variabilità cardiaca riducendo il benessere delle pecore al pascolo. I sensori per registrare la frequenza cardiaca o l’ECG sono ad oggi utilizzati solo in ambito di ricerca poiché, per diventare commerciali, necessitano di un trasferimento reale e costante dei dati e di algoritmi che possano trasformare ed elaborare contemporaneamente i dati ottenuti. Nonostante i risultati promettenti, negli allevamenti estensivi di ovini e caprini la maggior parte delle tecnologie non ha ancora raggiunto un livello di applicabilità simile a quello introdotto nei sistemi intensivi, forse a causa delle maggiori difficoltà di applicazione in questi contesti, oltre che a dinamiche culturali, aspetti di stabilità finanziaria e sfiducia nelle nuove tecnologie, che non sempre incoraggiano una più ampia adozione di innovazioni in questi sistemi di allevamento
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