There are many studies conducted on recommendation systems, most of which are focused on recommending items to users and vice versa. Nowadays, social networks are complicated due to carrying vast arrays of data about individuals and organizations. In today’s competitive environment, companies face two significant problems: supplying resources and attracting new customers. Even the concept of supply-chain management in a virtual environment is changed. In this article, we propose a new and innovative combination approach to recommend organizational people in social (...) networks based on organizational communication and SCM. The proposed approach uses a hybrid strategy that combines basic collaborative filtering and demographic recommendation systems, using data mining, artificial neural networks, and fuzzy techniques. The results of experiments and evaluations based on a real dataset collected from the LinkedIn social network showed that the hybrid recommendation system has higher accuracy and speed than other essential methods, even substantially has eliminated the fundamental problems with such systems, such as cold start, scalability, diversity, and serendipity. (shrink)

In this paper, we study bounded versions of some model-theoretic notions and results. We apply these results to the context of models of bounded arithmetic theories as well as some related complexity questions. As an example, we show that if the theory \(\rm S_2 ^1(PV)\) has bounded model companion then \(\rm NP=coNP\). We also study bounded versions of some other related notions such as Stone topology.

Making proper decisions in today’s complex world is a challenging task for decision makers. A promising approach that can support decision makers to have a better understanding of complex systems is agent-based modeling. ABM has been developing during the last few decades as a methodology with many different applications and has enabled a better description of the dynamics of complex systems. However, the prescriptive facet of these applications is rarely portrayed. Adding a prescriptive decision-making aspect to ABM can support the (...) decision makers in making better or, in some cases, optimized decisions for the complex problems as well as explaining the investigated phenomena. In this paper, first, the literature of DM with ABM is inquired and classified based on the methods of integration. Performing a scientometric analysis on the relevant literature lets us conclude that the number of publications attempting to integrate DM and ABM has not grown during the last two decades, while analysis of the current methodologies for integrating DM and ABM indicates that they have serious drawbacks. In this regard, a novel nature-inspired model articulation called optimal agent framework has been proposed to ameliorate the disadvantages and enhance the realization of proper decisions in ABM at a relatively low computational cost. The framework is examined with the Bass diffusion model. The results of the simulation for the customized model developed by OAF have verified the feasibility of the framework. Moreover, sensitivity analyses on different agent populations, network structures, and marketing strategies have depicted the great potential of OAF to find the optimal strategies in various stochastic and unconventional conditions which have not been addressed prior to the implementation of the framework. (shrink)

Publication date: 26 January 2017 Source: Author: Abolfazl Mohammadi, Javad Momeni Angela Carter in her famous short story, The Bloody Chamber, depicts a protagonist whose identity seems to be a predetermined sign in a signifying loop from which she can make no escape. In the first part of our paper, we attempt to show how The protagonist’s ensuing psychological tension is aggravated by the conflict which she feels between her ideal ego and her ego-ideal and which leads her to (...) unrelenting introspection and interior dialogue with her existential states. Such interior dialogue provides the protagonist with an existential ground on which she empties all her life events of their presence by signifying them through Derridean Differance. Therefore, her interior dialogue results in non-identity in her subjectivization both in the realm of signs and of events. Then, we focus on the protaganist’s paradoxical urges spontaneously outflowed from within which, by resisting symbolization, provide her with the possibility of becoming what she thinks she has never been and allow for her moments of self-determination. Finally, we illustrate how such psychological odyssey takes shape in the Gothic setting which arouses, in Lacanian terminology, pre-symbolic tendencies and which involves the coincidence of Gothic horror with the horrors of social reality. (shrink)

One of the most important problems in philosophy especially after Mulla Sadra is Philosophical explanation of corporeal resurrection. Aqa Ali Modarres as a post Sadraian philosopher has a new theory which is based on some philosophical principles among them we can mention these: Soul by departure from body leaves some features in body components which are in harmony with its existence. These features create a substantial motion in body components and put them in an existential evolution. Finally a new body (...) which is made up through this existential evolution connects to the soul again in hereafter. The substantial motion of body is in a way that every body solely matches its own soul which had in its previous life. So, on the basis of Modarres' theory it will be possible to have a new perspective on life after death which is more compatible with Quran and Sunna and is away from the difficulties of Dashtaki's theory. (shrink)

Research shows that exploring language corpora through data-driven learning plays a significant role in language learning. Nevertheless, it is not clear if using concordancing as an application of DDL affects the learners’ second language motivation. To address this gap, the current study adopted a triangulation design, validating quantitative data model, and a quasi-experimental design. Ninety English-major university students with an intermediate level of English language proficiency, divided into control and experimental groups, took part in the study. Drawing on a second (...) language motivational self-system questionnaire, the findings of the study did not result in any statistically significant differences between the students in their second language motivational self-system. Altogether, the students found learning English through a DDL approach with concordancing less motivating than receiving explicit instruction. The study has implications for language teaching and learning. (shrink)

While organizational deviance has become a popular research topic in the past two decades, deviant behavior remains a contested concept, with several research studies being done to better define the term. As a result, researchers have introduced various definitions and constructs which seem to overlap one another. Such proliferation might backfire and could lead to more confusion. Looking at deviance from an ontological aspect, therefore, will help to decrease such confusion among researchers. Another advantage to ontologically viewing deviance is that (...) it provides a better understanding of the concept. To prevent deviance occurring within an organization, the first step is learning more about it. This study therefore aims to discover how researchers can use ontological view to provide a better understanding of deviance, thus creating a deviance-free climate within an organization. This study looks at the role of storytelling in sharing norms within an organization to provide such a deviance-free climate. (shrink)

The central focus of this essay is Isaiah Berlin’s arguments about the concepts of negative freedom and positive freedom, developed in his philosophical work Two Concepts of Liberty. By adopting a philosophical standpoint, this essay explores the application of Berlin’s notions of freedom at the organizational level, within the workplace, and in the management field. This essay presents three philosophical arguments that provide some clarifications about the potential challenges associated with autonomy in organizations. These arguments incorporate Berlin’s ideas of freedom (...) with philosophical insights from Heidegger, Sartre, Frankfurt, and Confucius to highlight the missing elements of autonomy in management literature and its implementation in organizations, explaining the challenges of autonomy and the reasons for some unexpected results. Recommendations for future studies and managerial implications are discussed. (shrink)

Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii is recognized to be among the most difficult antimicrobial-resistant gram negative bacilli to control and treat. One of the major challenges that the pathogenic bacteria face in their host is the scarcity of freely available iron. To survive under such conditions, bacteria express new proteins on their outer membrane and also secrete iron chelators called siderophores. Antibodies directed against these proteins associated with iron uptake exert a bacteriostatic or bactericidal effect against A. baumanii in vitro, by blocking (...) siderophore mediated iron uptake pathways. Attempts should be made to discover peptides that could mimic protein epitopes and possess the same immunogenicity as the whole protein. Subsequently, theoretical methods for epitope prediction have been developed leading to synthesis of such peptides that are important for development of immunodiagnostic tests and vaccines. The present study was designed to in silico resolving the major obstacles in the control or in prevention of the diseases caused by A. baumannii. We exploited bioinformatic tools to better understand and characterize the Baumannii acinetobactin utilization structure of A. baumannii and select appropriate regions as effective B cell epitopes. In conclusion, amino acids 26–191 of cork domain and 321–635 of part of the barrel domain including L4–L9, were selected as vaccine candidates. These two regions contain functional exposed amino acids with higher score of B cell epitopes properties. Majority of amino acids are hydrophilic, flexible, accessible, and favorable for B cells from secondary structure point of view. (shrink)

This paper develops an empirically grounded, processual view of corporate social performance (CSP) by analyzing how internal organizational processes affect a firm’s social performance. Based on two case studies, we argue that changes in a firm’s social performance are triggered by continuously reoccurring instances of poor fit between the firm’s routines and its institutional environment. We propose that reactive change processes, initiated by stakeholder critique threatening the organization’s legitimacy, will result in isomorphic type of social performance changes. In comparison, proactive (...) change processes, initiated by slack resources, are more likely to result in nonisomorphic type of social performance changes. Furthermore, we propose that top-down driven processes will result in structural social performance changes in the direction of internationally influential stakeholders’ demands, while bottom-up driven processes will result in output social performance changes in the direction of locally influential stakeholders’ demands. (shrink)

Background and objectivesThe study of brain functional connectivity alterations in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder has been the subject of considerable investigation, but the biological mechanisms underlying these changes remain poorly understood. Here, we aim to investigate the brain alterations in patients with ADHD and Typical Development children and accurately classify ADHD children from TD controls using the graph-theoretical measures obtained from resting-state fMRI.Materials and methodsWe investigated the performances of rs-fMRI data for classifying drug-naive children with ADHD from TD controls. Fifty (...) six drug-naive ADHD children and 56 age matched TD controls were included in this study. The graph measures extracted from rs-fMRI functional connectivity were used as features. Extracted network-based features were fed to the RFE feature selection algorithm to select the most discriminating subset of features. We trained and tested Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, and Gradient Boosting using Peking center data from ADHD-200 database to classify ADHD and TD children using discriminative features. In addition to the machine learning approach, the statistical analysis was conducted on graph measures to discover the differences in the brain network of patients with ADHD.ResultsAn accuracy of 78.2% was achieved for classifying drug-naive children with ADHD from TD controls employing the optimal features and the GB classifier. We also performed a hub node analysis and found that the number of hubs in TD controls and ADHD children were 8 and 5, respectively, indicating that children with ADHD have disturbance of critical communication regions in their brain network. The findings of this study provide insight into the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying ADHD.ConclusionPattern recognition and graph measures of the brain networks, based on the rs-fMRI data, can efficiently assist in the classification of ADHD children from TD controls. (shrink)

The availability in universal grammar of two separate copulas of predication & identity is supported by an analysis of pseudoclefts in Welsh. A single-copula analysis of the ambiguity between predicational & specificational interpretations of pseudoclefts in English cannot be extended to Welsh, where specificational interpretation (1) is permitted by only one of three copular paradigms, all of which may have a predicational interpretation, & (2) is possible with both of the D-structures used in the single-copula analysis to distinguish between the (...) two interpretations in English. It is argued that the differences between English & Welsh with respect to the interpretation of copular constructions can only be explained by positing a dual-copula analysis for Welsh & a single-copula one for English; the data confirm the existence of a type-shifting functor in English that is realized lexically as a copula in Welsh. 47 References. J. Hitchcock. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic has struck the world and caused serious disruption in education. Lockdown and social distancing measures have prompted a paradigm shift in delivering education, resulting in o...

Infertility is a prevalent worldwide health issue and is defined by the World Health Organization as a global health problem. Considering the importance of the psychological dimensions of infertility, various measurement tools have been used to measure the variables involved in infertility, of which the most widely used are the following: the Symptom Checklist 90, the Brief Symptom Inventory, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. Therefore, given the problems of infertile people in terms of psychological (...) dimensions, the aim of this meta-analysis was to assess the psychological assessment score in infertility. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol, we applied an online database with no time restriction. Data were gathered using a random-effect model to estimate the standard mean difference for the evaluation of the strength of association analyses. Our data demonstrated a significant higher SCL90 score, and a non-significant higher DASS score. It is essential to seek for strategies to help infertile patients overcome their infertility-related psychological problems. (shrink)

Background and ObjectivesFocal cortical dysplasia is a type of malformations of cortical development and one of the leading causes of drug-resistant epilepsy. Postoperative results improve the diagnosis of lesions on structural MRIs. Advances in quantitative algorithms have increased the identification of FCD lesions. However, due to significant differences in size, shape, and location of the lesion in different patients and a big deal of time for the objective diagnosis of lesion as well as the dependence of individual interpretation, sensitive approaches (...) are required to address the challenge of lesion diagnosis. In this research, a FCD computer-aided diagnostic system to improve existing methods is presented.MethodsMagnetic resonance imaging data were collected from 58 participants. Morphological and intensity-based features were calculated for each cortical surface and inserted into an artificial neural network. Statistical examinations evaluated classifier efficiency.ResultsNeural network evaluation metrics—sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy—were 96.7, 100, and 98.6%, respectively. Furthermore, the accuracy of the classifier for the detection of the lobe and hemisphere of the brain, where the FCD lesion is located, was 84.2 and 77.3%, respectively.ConclusionAnalyzing surface-based features by automated machine learning can give a quantitative and objective diagnosis of FCD lesions in presurgical assessment and improve postsurgical outcomes. (shrink)

Order picking, which is collecting a set of products from different locations in a warehouse, has repeatedly been described as one of the most laborious and time-consuming internal logistic processes. Each order is issued to pick some products located at given locations in the warehouse. In this paper, we consider an order picking problem, in which a number of orders with different delivery due dates are going to be retrieved by a limited number of order pickers in multiperiods such that (...) the total tardiness is minimized. The aim is to determine a retrieval plan in terms of order batching and order picker multitrip routing as decision variables. Besides, products are arrived and replenished at the predetermined locations at different periods. Therefore, products sitting in those locations should be delivered soon to provide empty rooms for replenishment. A mixed integer linear programming formulation is proposed for this new problem. The model is optimally solved for small-size problems. For larger instances, grouping metaheuristic algorithms are proposed based on particle swarm optimization and the league championship algorithm that use group-based operators to generate reasonable batches of orders. Improvement heuristics are designed as well. The performance of the MILP formulation and metaheuristic algorithms is analyzed for different problem instances whose designs are based on real data gathered from an auto parts warehouse. Results indicate that our algorithms can stably solve large instances of the problem in a reasonable time. (shrink)

Understanding the beliefs held by the learners about learning a language, and the way they utilize their thoughts about knowledge and learning seem essential for planning a constructive language program. Following this line of research, this paper aims at testing a hypothetical model of the relationship between epistemic beliefs and subscales of language-learning strategies through the mediating role of learners' self-efficacy. To this end, a sample of 300 Iranian high school students, taking regular courses, completed three survey questionnaires. At this (...) stage, correlational analysis and structural equation modeling were employed to probe the interconnections, analyze the model, and outline the conceptual framework. The results revealed that the LSE framework can adequately account for the learners' LLSs. In particular, the results indicated that efforts, persistence, and imitation positively and significantly influenced LLSs. However, EBs with the mediating role of LSE were known to be a significant factor in demoting the LLSs. Notably, knowledge and learning agents were the negative predictors of LLSs. This paper suggests that LSE has higher explanatory power than EBs in predicting LLSs. The findings of this study suggest that teachers and material developers should pay serious attention to the learners' self-efficacy as they were known to influence LLSs. (shrink)

Background:Forgiveness has the potential to resolve painful feelings arising from nurse–patient conflicts. It would be useful to evaluate direct and indirect important factors which are related to forgiveness in order to design interventions that try to facilitate forgiveness.Aim/objective:The purpose of this study was to evaluate the intermediating role of empathy in the cultural competence–forgiveness association among nurses using structural equation modeling.Research design:The research applied a cross-sectional correlational design.Participants and research context:The study included 380 nurses eight hospitals in southern Iran.Ethical considerations:The (...) Ethics and Research Committee of Birjand University of Medical Sciences approved the study protocol. The voluntary nature of participation was explained consent was obtained from participants, and anonymity was guaranteed.Findings:Most of the participants were married and female and fell in the 20- to 30-year-old category. Most of them (89.5%) had a working experience of 1–10 years. The proposed model showed that nurses’ empathy intermediated the association between nurses’ cultural competence and forgiveness which has fitted the data acceptably (root mean square error approximation = 0.070; comparative fit index = 0.993; goodness-of-fit index = 0.983; and χ2/df = 2.85).Conclusion:Empathy skills and cultural competence training were essential for interventions aimed at increasing the tendency to forgive patients. In such interventions, planners should aim at increasing nurses’ cultural competence in order to enhance their empathy toward patients, which can, in turn, lead to a greater wish to forgive patients. (shrink)

Izhajajoč iz dveh slavnih Kantovih tekstov skuša pričujoči spis pokazati na notranjo zvezo med avtonomijo uma in subjektivno svobodo na eni strani ter nujnim pokoravanjem arbitrarni avtoriteti na drugi. V Kantovem načrtu za organizacijo Univerze se ta povezanost kaže kot delitev na zgornje in spodnje fakultete, pri čemer se morajo prve podrejati samovoljnim ukazom zunanje oblasti, druga pa naj se ravna le po načelih uma. Obe plati spadata skupaj v skladu s Kantovim paradoksnim stališčem, da samo omejitev osvobaja, medtem ko (...) bi neposredno sovpadanje obojega privedlo do nevarnosti totalitarizma. Toda ta bistvena zveza med umom in ne-umno arbitrarnostjo naposled meri drugam: subjekt, ki si v svoji radikalni avtonomiji in samoopredelitvi postavlja svoj lastni notranji Zakon, je prav v svojem jedru soočen z radikalno heteronomijo. Moralni Zakon, kategorični imperativ, subjekta šele zares oropa njegove iluzorne avtonomije, konec koncev je še manj umno utemeljen kot njegov objektivni protipol. Od subjekta zahteva nemogoče, ne da se ga zadovoljiti, a prav skozi to nemožnost, skozi to bistveno nezadovoljnost vznikne subjekt razsvetljenstva. Zadnji del skuša pokazati, kako Fou-caultova reaktualizacija kantovske pozicije zatre njene radikalne konsekvence. Foucault zvaja Kantovega subjekta na pred-kantovsko etično držo in tako zgreši tisto zastavitev subjektivnosti, ki je položena v temelje psihoanalize. (shrink)

Članek obravnava Leibnizev načrt filozofskega jezika, t. i. »univerzalno karakteristiko«. Najprej izpostavimo dejstvo, da Leibnizev načrt temelji na določenem semiotičnem vidiku matematike, ki v kontekstu novoveške ideje matematizacije vseh znanosti predstavlja novost. Kakorkoli ima Leibnizev drzen načrt resne pomanjkljivosti, ki so nedvomno botrovale temu, da ni nikoli zares začel z njeno izvedbo, pa Leibniz črpa optimizem iz strogo platonistične zasnove svoje epistemologije, v kateri je karakteristika utemeljena. Karakteristika je v sami teoretski zasnovi mogoča le pod pogojem, da se zaveže klasičnemu (...) realizmu in se odpove tisti metodi filozofije zavesti, ki sta jo ustoličila Descartes in Locke. Iz tega, kaj karakteristika obljublja, in iz njene zavezanosti platonizmu pa je videti, da se karakteristika kot jezik narave v ključnih potezah zgleduje po neki tradiciji mišljenja jezika, ki ima svoj začetek v Platonovem Kratilu in ima v Leibnizevem času še vedno svoje zagovornike. (shrink)