Accelerating Causal Inference and Feature Selection Methods through G-Test Computation Reuse

This article presents a novel and remarkably efficient method of computing the statistical G-test made possible by exploiting a connection with the fundamental elements of information theory: by writing the G statistic as a sum of joint entropy terms, its computation is decomposed into easily reusable partial results with no change in the resulting value. This method greatly improves the efficiency of applications that perform a series of G-tests on permutations of the same features, such as feature selection and causal inference applications because this decomposition allows for an intensive reuse of these partial results. The efficiency of this method is demonstrated by implementing it as part of an experiment involving IPC–MB, an efficient Markov blanket discovery algorithm, applicable both as a feature selection algorithm and as a causal inference method. The results show outstanding efficiency gains for IPC–MB when the G-test is computed with the proposed method, compared to the unoptimized G-test, but also when compared to IPC–MB++, a variant of IPC–MB which is enhanced with an AD–tree, both static and dynamic. Even if this proposed method of computing the G-test is presented here in the context of IPC–MB, it is in fact bound neither to IPC–MB in particular, nor to feature selection or causal inference applications in general, because this method targets the information-theoretic concept that underlies the G-test, namely conditional mutual information. This aspect grants it wide applicability in data sciences.

Y-en-Roux reconstruction in abdominal surgery: historical retrospective of operative method’s evolution. Part II

This historical review is more focused on the analysis of highly relevant, unique method proposed by A. Wölfl er, E. Doyen and C. Roux more than 140 years ago. We also try to present main facts and the chronology of Y-reconstruction of the digestive tube concept’s development. Hereby we present historical retrospective of theoretic concept creation, experimental confi rmation and initial clinical experience of Y-shaped reconstruction of the digestive tube on Roux-en-Y-loop, stages of concept evolution and development from the end of the 19th century and continuing into current times. Scientifi c research of surgical gastroenterology, oncology, pancreatology and hepatobiliary surgery founders, expand application of Roux-en-Y-reconstruction from distal resection of the stomach and gastroenterostomy to gastrectomy, repeated operations on the upper part of the digestive tube, the formation of biliary-enteric and pancreatic anastomosis, and the use in the routine practice of bariatric surgery.

Extremal Results on Vertex and Link Residual Closeness

Robustness of the network topology is a key aspect in the design of computer networks. Vertex (Link, respectively) residual closeness is a new graph-theoretic concept defined as a measure of network robustness due to the failure of individual vertices (links, respectively). In this paper, we identify the trees and unicyclic graphs with the first a few smallest vertex residual closeness, and determine the graphs that minimize or maximize the vertex (link, respectively) residual closeness over some classes of graphs.

Y-en-Roux reconstruction in abdominal surgery: historical retrospective of operative method’s evolution. Part I

Target of this historical review is focused on analysis of highly relevant, unique method proposed by A. Wölfler, E. Doyen and C. Roux more than 140 years ago, also we try to present main facts and chronology of development of concept Y-reconstruction of digestive tube. Hereby we present historical retrospective of theoretic concept creation, experimental verification and initial clinical experience of Y-shaped reconstruction of digestive tube on Roux-en-Y-loop, stages of concept evolution and development till the end of XIX age till our days. The founders’ scientific research onducted in surgical gastroenterology, oncology, pancreatology and hepatobiliary surgery, has expanded application of Roux-en-Y-reconstruction from distal resection of the stomach and gastroenterostomy to gastrectomy, repeated operations on the upper part of the digestive tube, the formation of biliary-digestive and pancreatic anastomoses, as well as the use in the routine practice of bariatric surgery.

Aesthetic Courage and Phronesis

This paper analyzes aesthetic courage, a virtue directed towards aesthetic objects when subjects are asked to confront content that is psychologically or socially risky. I examine aesthetic courage to explore how it plays a role in a virtue theoretic account of the good life. I contend that the virtue theoretic concept of phronesis, or practical wisdom, plays a strong role in guiding the virtuous agent to make decisions about the course of action that promotes her good life. The concept of phronesis in service of the good life acts as the foundation for my concept of aesthetic courage. I analyze several examples of aesthetic courage, including the controversy surrounding the contemplative garden at Stanford University in honor of Chanel Miller and other survivors of sexual assault.

Transculturality as a Modern Theoretic Concept in an Interdisciplinary Academic Space

The purpose of the article is to analyze the trends in the use of the concept of transculturality existing in the global scientific discourse and to identify the main directions of development of this concept. Methodology. An evolutionary analysis of the formation of the three main approaches in the analysis of transculturality provides a practical test of the intermediate results in specific historical examples. System analysis will show the regularity and necessity of studying the evolution of transcultural systems, taking into account their dynamics from the perspective of the future. Results. Drawing on a comparative approach, the author identifies three main areas of development of the concept of transculturality in contemporary scientific discourse. The first one continues the tradition of classical German philosophy of culture. The second area of transculturality studies is related to the ideological disputes of neoliberals and postcolonialists. The third area of research is purely practical, helping to solve the problems of transcultural communications in the field of business. Originality. For the first time, three different approaches to the study of transcultural phenomena are identified and analyzed, and their methodological and ideological differences are proposed. Practical meaning. The information contained in this work can be used to further research and development of methodological material for new courses of lectures and seminars on cultural philosophy and methodology for studying contemporary transcultural processes.

A Model for Defining the Concept and Practice of Translation, from the Perspective of Greimassian Semiotics

In this study, a new model of translation as a general theoretic concept and as a social practice is outlined, drawing form Greimassian semiotics. As a theoretic concept, translation is defined by the Semiotic Square of Translation as the emergence of the general category self coming into being in relation to the category non-self, through the semio-logic operations that correlate the immanent concepts, equivalence and difference. As a social practice, translation arises from the contractual interaction between two actants, the Initiator and the Translator, which operate through acts of manipulation, performance and sanction. This theoretical framework is applied to the study of a parallel corpus.

Network robustness and residual closeness

A central issue in the analysis of complex networks is the assessment of their robustness and vulnerability. A variety of measures have been proposed in the literature to quantify the robustness of networks and a number of graph-theoretic parameters have been used to derive formulas for calculating network reliability. In this paper, we study the vulnerability of interconnection networks to the failure of individual nodes, using a graph-theoretic concept of residual closeness as a measure of network robustness which provides a much fuller characterization of the network.

Cache Transition Systems for Graph Parsing

Motivated by the task of semantic parsing, we describe a transition system that generalizes standard transition-based dependency parsing techniques to generate a graph rather than a tree. Our system includes a cache with fixed size m, and we characterize the relationship between the parameter m and the class of graphs that can be produced through the graph-theoretic concept of tree decomposition. We find empirically that small cache sizes cover a high percentage of sentences in existing semantic corpora.

Robustness of Regular Caterpillars

Robustness of the network topology is a key aspect in the design of computer networks. Vertex residual closeness is a new graph-theoretic concept defined as a measure of network robustness. In this model, edges are perfectly reliable and the vertices fail independently of each other. In this paper, vertex residual closeness of paths and regular caterpillars are calculated by giving an insight of how to evaluate the vertex residual closeness of path-like graphs.