The article describes the possibilities of using and modifying existing machine learning technologies in the field of natural language processing for the purpose of designing a system for automatically generating control and test tasks (CTT). The reason for such studies was the limitations in generating theminimumrequired amount ofCTtomaintain student engagement in game-based learning formats, such as quizzes, and others. These limitations are associated with the lack of time resources among training professionals for manual generation of tests. The article discusses (...) the applied research of the Large Language Model (LLM) and Generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) technologies for the development of a system for automatic generation of tests for the purpose of its implementation in the BoxBattle gamified learning platform. The result of such applied research can be a system for automatic generation of tests, which will reduce the time for developing tests. As a result, this will allow teachers to free up time to implement a personalized approach to teaching and develop students’soft skills. (shrink)

The article describes the possibilities of using and modifying existing machine learning technologies in the field of natural language processing for the purpose of designing a system for automatically generating control and test tasks (CTT). The reason for such studies was the limitations in generating theminimumrequired amount ofCTtomaintain student engagement in game-based learning formats, such as quizzes, and others. These limitations are associated with the lack of time resources among training professionals for manual generation of tests. The article discusses (...) the applied research of the Large Language Model (LLM) and Generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) technologies for the development of a system for automatic generation of tests for the purpose of its implementation in the BoxBattle gamified learning platform. The result of such applied research can be a system for automatic generation of tests, which will reduce the time for developing tests. As a result, this will allow teachers to free up time to implement a personalized approach to teaching and develop students’soft skills. (shrink)

The article describes the possibilities of using and modifying existing machine learning technologies in the field of natural language processing for the purpose of designing a system for automatically generating control and test tasks (CTT). The reason for such studies was the limitations in generating theminimumrequired amount ofCTtomaintain student engagement in game-based learning formats, such as quizzes, and others. These limitations are associated with the lack of time resources among training professionals for manual generation of tests. The article discusses (...) the applied research of the Large Language Model (LLM) and Generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) technologies for the development of a system for automatic generation of tests for the purpose of its implementation in the BoxBattle gamified learning platform. The result of such applied research can be a system for automatic generation of tests, which will reduce the time for developing tests. As a result, this will allow teachers to free up time to implement a personalized approach to teaching and develop students’soft skills. (shrink)

Large amount of data are exchanged and the internet is turning into twenty-first century Silk Road for data. Machine learning (ML) is the new area for the applications. The artificial intelligence (AI) is the field providing machines with intelligence. In the last decades, more developments have been made in the field of ML and deep learning. The technology and other advanced algorithms are implemented into more computational constrained devices. The online English test system based on ML breaks the shackles (...) of the traditional paper English test and improves the efficiency of the English test. At the same time, it also maintains the fairness of English test and improves the marking speed. In order to realize an online English test system based on ML and facilitate the assessment of students’ college English courses, this paper mainly adopts relevant research and design on the main functional modules, key technologies, and functional realization of the online English test. The brand-new powerful teaching software and the online examination system can help schools to conduct more systematic and scientific management. The conclusion shows that as brand-new and powerful teaching software, the online examination system can help schools to conduct more systematic and scientific management. (shrink)

A test procedure optimization method was proposed in this paper to improve the test efficiency of the industrial robot servo system to be tested on the IRSS integrated testing platform. First, an ordered sequence was used to define the IRSS test project when tested on the IITP. The ordered sequence consisted of execution subelements, which were a combination of control variable parameters of the IITP. Second, the optimization relationships among the IRSS test projects were dug out according to (...) the IRSS test project sequences. Finally, by using the traveling salesmen problem, an optimization model was established based on the optimization relationships of the IRSS test projects, and the optimal test order of the IRSS test projects to be tested on the IITP was obtained by solving the model. A case analysis showed that the proposed method optimized the test procedure on the IITP effectively, and the test time when implementing the test on the IITP according to the optimized order was nearly 50% shorter than before optimization. The optimization effect was thus found to be significant. (shrink)

An increasing number of genetic tests are available as an early spin-off from human genetic research. Beyond their application in the context of medical diagnosis there are other possible domains of use: e.g. in the testing of individuals asking for life or health insurance. It is claimed that individuals with an increased genetic risk might have to pay higher premiums or, worse, might be unable to obtain insurance coverage at all. The main question discussed in this paper will be (...) whether there is a right to health and/or life insurance coverage without prior genetic testing. The legal regulations of the use of genetic tests in the insurance system are various. While some countries in principle permit the use of (some) genetic tests for the calculation of actuarial risks, others banned genetic tests for non-medical uses; still other countries have not made any explicit provisions up to now. In the face of the attempted harmonisation of legal systems, as well as an increasing commercialisation of the international market for genetic tests, which neglects national borders, providing criteria for a moral evaluation of this issue appears to be a timely and urgent task. The view defended in this paper is that a right to health insurance without genetic testing is legitimised, insofar as health insurance belongs to the provision of elementary requirements, and insofar as the latter is everybody's moral right. On the other hand, it is implausible to postulate a right to life insurance without genetic testing – as long as life insurance is understood to be a part of one's provision of supplementary requirements. (shrink)

This paper argues against the moral Turing test as a framework for evaluating the moral performance of autonomous systems. Though the term has been carefully introduced, considered, and cautioned about in previous discussions :251–261, 2000; Allen and Wallach 2009), it has lingered on as a touchstone for developing computational approaches to moral reasoning :98–109, 2015). While these efforts have not led to the detailed development of an MTT, they nonetheless retain the idea to discuss what kinds of action and reasoning (...) should be demanded of autonomous systems. We explore the flawed basis of an MTT in imitation, even one based on scenarios of morally accountable actions. MTT-based evaluations are vulnerable to deception, inadequate reasoning, and inferior moral performance vis a vis a system’s capabilities. We propose verification—which demands the design of transparent, accountable processes of reasoning that reliably prefigure the performance of autonomous systems—serves as a superior framework for both designer and system alike. As autonomous social robots in particular take on an increasing range of critical roles within society, we conclude that verification offers an essential, albeit challenging, moral measure of their design and performance. (shrink)

From the perspective of the system of systems development, system-level functional testing is required for designing subsystems. This study utilizes modeling and simulation techniques to analyze the operational behaviors of the subsystems and confirm data communication between them. The targeted system in the study is a naval combat system, which is a typical type of defense cyber-physical system. Three types of models were designed for the simulation testing of the NCS: a combat-management model (...) for simulating the overall computational activities, physical models to confirm the intrasubsystem behaviors, and data integration models to test the intersubsystem communications. These models are realized with the Model-View-ViewModel design pattern, which strongly facilitates graphical user interfaces being decoupled from model logic and data. We consider underwater combat scenarios as an application. Six significant physical subsystems within the NCS are simulated and tested: a ship-steering system, an inertial navigation system, a global navigation satellite system, a periscope, sonar systems, and a plotting board. We expect that the proposed work will play a principal role when analyzing the behaviors and communications of defense CPSs and providing an environment for functional testing as a digital twin. (shrink)

Test anxiety is a widespread and primarily detrimental emotion in learning and achievement settings. This research aimed to explore the autonomic nervous system response patterns of test-anxious individuals in response to evaluative stress. By presenting a standard interview task, an evaluative scenario was effectively induced. Heart rate variability, a biomarker that can accurately reflect the ANS activity, was used to reflect the physiological responses of 48 high test-anxious subjects and 49 low test-anxious subjects. Results indicate that: both groups show (...) a significantly increased emotional arousal in the evaluative scenario; high test-anxious individuals show a significantly decreased emotional pleasantness in the evaluative scenario, whereas low test-anxious individuals show no significant changes; both groups show a significantly increased low-frequency HRV; high test-anxious individuals show a significantly decreased high-frequency HRV and root mean square of successive heartbeat interval differences, whereas low test-anxious individuals remain stable. These findings suggest that high test-anxious individuals display an increased sympathetic nervous system activity and a decreased parasympathetic nervous system activity in response to evaluative stress, while low-anxious individuals display an increased SNS activity and a stable PNS activity in response to evaluative stress. (shrink)

This article reviews recent work aimed at developing a new framework, based on signal detection theory, for understanding the relationship between explicit (e.g., recognition) and implicit (e.g., priming) memory. Within this framework, different assumptions about sources of memorial evidence can be framed. Application to experimental results provides robust evidence for a single-system model in preference to multiple-systems models. This evidence comes from several sources including studies of the effects of amnesia and ageing on explicit and implicit memory. The framework (...) allows a range of concepts in current memory research, such as familiarity, recollection, fluency, and source memory, to be linked to implicit memory. More generally, this work emphasizes the value of modern computational modelling techniques in the study of learning and memory. (shrink)

This monograph introduces the functional characteristics and conceptual significance of a simulation software system called CyberRat (Ray, 1996a, 2003a, 2012a, 2012b). CyberRat expands upon prior illustrations (Ray & Delprato, 1989; Ray, 1992) of how such computer-based simulations can serve to formatively enhance, and eventually validate, the descriptive research methodology upon which their development relies. To illustrate this process I also review highlights of previous publications (cf. Ray & Brown, 1975, 1976; Ray & Delprato, 1989), detailing the unique research methodology (...) used to collect data that guided CyberRat’s development. This methodology integrates interbehavioral psychology (Kantor, 1959) and general systems analysis (von Bertalanffy, 1968), and thus is referred to as interbehavioral systems analysis (IBSA). CyberRat’s validation of IBSA methods involves a process analogous to Turing’s (1950) famous test for simulation authenticity, in that it relies upon “phenomenological equivalence” criteria for observers to compare experiences of real vs. simulated events. And because IBSA stresses three convergent strategies for research, including structural analysis, functional analysis, and operations analysis, my organizing theme addresses how closely CyberRat comes to passing a trilogy of hypothetical Turing tests—one for each of these three analytic strategies. (shrink)

For years, the number of opaque algorithmic decision-making systems (ADM systems) with a large impact on society has been increasing: e.g., systems that compute decisions about future recidivism of criminals, credit worthiness, or the many small decision computing systems within social networks that create rankings, provide recommendations, or filter content. Concerns that such a system makes biased decisions can be difficult to investigate: be it by people affected, NGOs, stakeholders, governmental testing and auditing authorities, or other external parties. (...) Scientific testing and auditing literature rarely focuses on the specific needs for such investigations and suffers from ambiguous terminologies. With this paper, we aim to support this investigation process by collecting, explaining, and categorizing methods of testing for bias, which are applicable to black-box systems, given that inputs and respective outputs can be observed. For this purpose, we provide a taxonomy that can be used to select suitable test methods adapted to the respective situation. This taxonomy takes multiple aspects into account, for example the effort to implement a given test method, its technical requirement (such as the need of ground truth) and social constraints of the investigation, e.g., the protection of business secrets. Furthermore, we analyze which test method can be used in the context of which black box audit concept. It turns out that various factors, such as the type of black box audit or the lack of an oracle, may limit the selection of applicable tests. With the help of this paper, people or organizations who want to test an ADM system for bias can identify which test methods and auditing concepts are applicable and what implications they entail. (shrink)

According to the so-called Quantum Darwinist approach, the emergence of “classical islands” from a quantum background is assumed to obey a principle of maximal information. We illustrate this idea by considering the coupling of two oscillators. As our approach suggests that the classical limit could have emerged throughout a long and progressive Evolution mechanism, it is likely that primitive living organisms behave in a “more quantum”, “less classical” way than more evolved ones. This brings us to seriously consider the possibility (...) to measure departures from classicality exhibited by biological systems. We describe an experimental proposal the aimed at revealing the presence of entanglement in the biophotonic radiation emitted by biological sources. (shrink)

This paper shows that the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt test of locality of correlations which was originally designed to be used with binary observables can actually be used for any couples of quantum-like bounded continuous observables, and then for any experimental situation describable within the mathematical framework of quantum theory.

The dance metaphor for the communication between two organisms may be an appealing image because it appears to capture the intricate synchronization of their interaction; however, it is neither parsimonious nor easily tested. Instead, a multichannel information-processing model, even one that can process only serial events, provides all of the flexibility required to account for the complex temporal coordinated action observed.

As genetic testing for the presence of potentially health-affecting mutations becomes available for more genetic conditions, many people will soon be faced with the decision of whether or not to have a genetic test. Making an informed decision requires an understanding and evaluation of the arguments for and against having the test. As a case in point, this paper considers argumentation involving the decision of whether to have a BRCA gene test, one of the first commercially available genetic tests. (...) First, argumentation in a five-page patient brochure from a for-profit company that provides BRCA gene testing, is analyzed. Next, for comparison, argumentation on BRCA testing in materials for healthcare consumers written by a not-for-profit health plan and a government organization, is analyzed. In view of the challenges identified by considering these examples, this article discusses how argumentation-oriented computer systems may be able to help the healthcare consumer to make informed decisions about genetic testing. (shrink)

Data production in experimental sciences depends on localised experimental systems, but the epistemic properties of data transcend the contingencies of the processes that produce them. Philosophers often believe that experimental systems instantiate but do not produce the epistemic properties of data. In this paper, we argue that experimental systems' local functioning entails intrinsic capacities to produce the epistemic properties of data. We develop this idea by applying Derrida's model of arche-writing to study a case of theory-oriented experimental practice. Derrida's model (...) relativises or dissolves the conceptual distinction between the moment of data production and a subsequent moment of data dissemination. It thus has consequences for understanding both data production (despite being intrinsically local, data production a priori generates transferrable and modellable information) and data dissemination (when modelling information, researchers needs to refer this information to the context of its production). We study a case of data production in a non-exploratory experimental system designed to test a pre-existing hypothesis in visual neuroscience. A case of theory-oriented experimental practice should allow us to identify the autonomous functioning of experimental systems in data production more clearly, insofar as it allows us to study the limits of pre-existing theory in the activities of these systems. We suggest that pre-existing concepts, hypotheses and theories condition the relevance but not the production of experimental data. (shrink)

In this paper, I stress the utility of employing test-driven development (TDD) for conceiving logical systems. TDD, originally invented in the context of Extreme Programming, is a methodology widely used by software engineers to conceive and develop programs. Its main principle is to design the tests of the expected properties of the system before the development phase. I argue that this methodology is especially convenient in conceiving applied logics. Indeed, this technique is efficient with most decidable logics having a (...) software implementation. Having a clear list of the desired inferences right from the beginning makes it possible to refine the properties of the system step by step until its completion. I distinguish and detail seven advantages of the usage of TDD for the conception of a logical theory. Most importantly, this methodology increases the predictability of the inferential power of the theory. A second important benefit is that the time required for the conception of the logic goes down dramatically. This methodology will change both ideas and practices. Logic is no longer considered to be a formal science, but rather to be an empirical one. Research in the field is geared toward specific and concrete goals. Programs are considered tools used to verify the conformity of formal theories. To sum up, I defend the view that, in some situations, this way of designing a formal system brings significant benefits, and that the construction of new logics can be conducted similarly to the development of open source software. (shrink)

In this paper, I stress the utility of employing test-driven development (TDD) for conceiving logical systems. TDD, originally invented in the context of Extreme Programming, is a methodology widely used by software engineers to conceive and develop programs. Its main principle is to design the tests of the expected properties of the system before the development phase. I argue that this methodology is especially convenient in conceiving applied logics. Indeed, this technique is efficient with most decidable logics having a (...) software implementation. Having a clear list of the desired inferences right from the beginning makes it possible to refine the properties of the system step by step until its completion. I distinguish and detail seven advantages of the usage of TDD for the conception of a logical theory. Most importantly, this methodology increases the predictability of the inferential power of the theory. A second important benefit is that the time required for the conception of the logic goes down dramatically. This methodology will change both ideas and practices. Logic is no longer considered to be a formal science, but rather to be an empirical one. Research in the field is geared toward specific and concrete goals. Programs are considered tools used to verify the conformity of formal theories. To sum up, I defend the view that, in some situations, this way of designing a formal system brings significant benefits, and that the construction of new logics can be conducted similarly to the development of open source software. (shrink)

Contemporary regulation of food safety incorporates principles of quality management and systemic performance objectives that used to characterize private standards. Conversely, private standards are covering ground that used to be the realm of regulation. The nature of the two is becoming increasingly indistinguishable. The case study of the Ugandan fish export industry highlights how management methods borrowed from private standards can be applied to public regulation to achieve seemingly conflicting objectives. In the late 1990s, the EU imposed repeated bans on (...) fish imported from Uganda on the basis of food safety concerns. However, the EU did not provide scientific proof that the fish were actually “unsafe.” Rather, the poor performance of Uganda’s regulatory and monitoring system was used as justification. Only by fixing “the system” and performing the ritual of laboratory testing for all consignments for export to the EU did the Ugandan industry regain its status as a “safe” source of fish. Yet, gaps and inconsistencies abound in the current Ugandan fish safety management system. Some operations are by necessity carried out as “rituals of verification.” Given the importance of microbiological tests and laboratories in the compliance system, “alchemic rituals” provide an appropriate metaphor. These rituals are part and parcel of a model that reassures the EU fish-eating public that all is under control in Uganda from boat to point of export. As a consequence, actual non-compliance from boat to landing site allows the fishery to survive as an artisanal operation. (shrink)

According to the so-called Quantum Darwinist approach, the emergence of "classical islands" from a quantum background is assumed to obey a (selection) principle of maximal information. We illustrate this idea by considering the coupling of two oscillators (modes). As our approach suggests that the classical limit could have emerged throughout a long and progressive Evolution mechanism, it is likely that primitive living organisms behave in a "more quantum", "less classical" way than more evolved ones. This brings us to seriously consider (...) the possibility to measure departures from classicality exhibited by biological systems. We describe an experimental proposal the aimed at revealing the presence of entanglement in the biophotonic radiation emitted by biological sources. (shrink)

This article explores testing as research site in the sociology of technology. A fully generalizable analysis is offered of testing in terms of a notion of projection. Prospective, current, and retrospective testing are identified The article is illustrated with examples of testing a clinical budgeting system in the United Kingdom National Health Service and the testing of the O-rings on the space shuttle Challenger. Lastly, the theme of "testing the user" is developed Some (...) comments are offered on the pervasiveness of testing in society at large. (shrink)

Healthcare providers have been central actors in containing the COVID-19 pandemic. Although potentially very beneficial, the implementation of large-scale rapid serological tests raises ethical dilemmas and affects HCPs’ capacity to work in optimal conditions. In this regard, we call for attention to address specific and urgent ethical issues distinctively affecting HCPs following the availability and possible mandatory use of rapid serological tests for COVID-19.

Which systems/organisms are conscious? New tests for consciousness (‘C-tests’) are urgently needed. There is persisting uncertainty about when consciousness arises in human development, when it is lost due to neurological disorders and brain injury, and how it is distributed in nonhuman species. This need is amplified by recent and rapid developments in artificial intelligence (AI), neural organoids, and xenobot technology. Although a number of C-tests have been proposed in recent years, most are of limited use, and currently we have no (...) C-tests for many of the populations for which they are most critical. Here, we identify challenges facing any attempt to develop C-tests, propose a multidimensional classification of such tests, and identify strategies that might be used to validate them. (shrink)

Scientific ideas neither arise nor develop in a vacuum. They are always nutured against a background of prior, partially conflicting ideas. Systemic hypothesistesting is the problem of testing scientific hypotheses relative to various systems of background knowledge. This paper shows how the problem of systemic hypothesis-testing (Sys HT) can be systematically expressed as a constrained maximimization problem. It is also shown how the error of the third kind (E III) is fundamental to the theory of Sys HT.The error (...) of the third kind is defined as the probability of having solved the ‘wrong’ problem when one should have solved the ‘right’ problem. This paper shows howE III can be given both a systematic as well as a systemic treatment. Sys HT gives rise to a whole host of new decision problems, puzzles, and paradoxes. (shrink)

Memory Detection Tests (MDTs) are a general class of psychophysiological tests that can be used to determine whether someone remembers a particular fact or datum. The P300 MDT is a type of MDT that relies on a presumed correlation between the presence of a detectable neural signal (the P300 “brainwave”) in a test subject, and the recognition of those facts in the subject’s mind. As such, the P300 MDT belongs to a class of brain-based forensic technologies which have proved popular (...) and controversial in recent years. With such tests increasingly being proffered for use in the courtroom — to either support or call into question testimony — it would behoove the legal system to have some systematic framework for ensuring that they are used responsibly. In this paper, I defend one such framework for ensuring that this is the case: the legitimacy enhancing test. According to this test, it is appropriate to make use of technologies such as the P300 MDT whenever doing so would (probably) enhance the legitimacy of the trial. I argue that this test addresses tensions between scientific and legal norms of evidence, and exhibits a number of additional virtues including unification, simplicity and flexibility. Although the test is defended by considering the example of the P300 MDT, its significance is much broader than that. If it has the virtues I claim for it, it should provide a general framework for the responsible use of technologies, and the responsible innovation of social epistemic systems. (shrink)

This study is an attempt to construct a quantitative link for international regimes with global leadership. The country's willingness to lead in solving global issues as the first mover in the formation of an international regime is measured and characterized by analyzing their ratification behavior in multilateral conventions deposited to the United Nations which shape of the global community. For this purpose, a set of quantitative indicators, the Index of Global Leadership Willingness and the Global Support Index, was defined and (...) calculated for each country based on its actual ratification year data for 120 multilateral conventions covering global issues such as peace and security, environment, commerce, communication, intellectual property protection, human rights, and labor. By proposing a framework of global leadership analysis, the study seeks to provide an empirical testing of the transformation of global governance towards cooperation without hegemony paradigm. The paper analyses changes in the leadership willingness indices of selected country groups, such as the G3, G7/8, and G20, over the century and finds that the will to drive the international agenda of these groups of leaders is in decline. Moreover, our study provides evidence to argue that our current world is actually without consistent global leadership across domains of the world affairs. Although several countries still show visible leadership in specific policy domains, such as environment and intellectual property, neither the G7/8 nor the G20 was playing a comparable role to those performed by the G3 a hundred years ago. (shrink)

The paper is concerned with the psychological relevance of a logical model for deductive reasoning. We propose a new way to analyze logical reasoning in a deductive version of the Mastermind game implemented within a popular Dutch online educational learning system (Math Garden). Our main goal is to derive predictions about the difficulty of Deductive Mastermind tasks. By means of a logical analysis we derive the number of steps needed for solving these tasks (a proxy for working memory load). (...) Our model is based on the analytic tableaux method, known from proof theory. We associate the difficulty of Deductive Mastermind game-items with the size of the corresponding logical trees obtained by the tableaux method. We derive empirical hypotheses from this model. A large group of students (over 37 thousand children, 5–12 years of age) played the Deductive Mastermind game, which gave empirical difficulty ratings of all 321 game-items. The results show that our logical approach predicts these item ratings well, which supports the psychological relevance of our model. (shrink)

Despite the impressive amount of financial resources invested in carrying out large-scale brain simulations, it is controversial what the payoffs are of pursuing this project. The present paper argues that in some cases, from designing, building, and running a large-scale neural simulation, scientists acquire useful knowledge about the computational performance of the simulating system, rather than about the neurobiological system represented in the simulation. What this means, why it is not a trivial lesson, and how it advances the (...) literature on the epistemology of computer simulation are the three preoccupations addressed by the paper. (shrink)

Experimental tests of various trace formulas, which in general relate the density of states for a given quantum mechanical system to the properties of the periodic orbits of its classical counterpart, for spectra of superconducting microwave billiards of varying chaoticity are reviewed by way of examples. For a two-dimensional Bunimovich stadium billiard the application of Gutzwiller's trace formula is shown to yield correctly locations and strengths of the peaks in the Fourier transformed quantum spectrum in terms of the shortest (...) unstable classical periodic orbits. Furthermore, in two-dimensional billiards of the Limaçon family the transition from regular to chaotic dynamics is studied in terms of a recently derived general trace formula by Ullmo, Grinberg and Tomsovic. Finally, some salient features of wave dynamical chaos in a fully chaotic three-dimensional Sinai microwave billiard are discussed. Here the reconstruction of the spectrum is not as straightforward as in the two-dimensional cases and a modified trace formula as suggested by Balian and Duplantier will have eventually to be applied. (shrink)

Further tests of Amit's model are indicated. One strategy is to use the apparent coding sparseness of the model to make predictions about coding sparseness in Miyashita's network. A second approach is to use memory overload to induce false positive responses in modules and biological systems. In closing, the importance of temporal coding and timing requirements in developing biologically plausible attractor networks is mentioned.

A longstanding philosophical premise perceives simplicity as a desirable attribute of scientific theories. One of several raised justifications for this notion is that simple theories are more likely to indicate the true makeup of natural systems. Qualitatively parsimonious hypotheses and theories keep to a minimum the number of different postulated entities within a system. Formulation of such ontologically simple working hypotheses proved to be useful in the experimental probing of narrowly defined bio systems. It is less certain, however, whether (...) qualitatively parsimonious theories are effective indicators of the true nature of complex biological systems. This paper assesses the success of ontologically simple theories in envisaging the makeup of three complex systems in bacteriology, immunology, and molecular biology. Evidence shows that parsimonious theories completely misconstrued the actual ontologically complex constitutions of the three examined systems. Since evolution and selective pressures typically produce ontologically intricate rather than simple bio systems, qualitatively parsimonious theories are mostly inapt indicators of the true nature of complex biological systems. (shrink)

The pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV2 novel coronavirus is creating a global crisis. There is a global ambience of uncertainty and anxiety. In addition, nations have imposed strict and restrictive public health measures including lockdowns. In this heightened time of vulnerability, public cooperation to preventive measures depends on trust and confidence in the health system. Trust is the optimistic acceptance of the vulnerability in the belief that the health system has best intentions. On the other hand, confidence is (...) assessed based on previous experiences with the health system. Trust and confidence in the health system motivate people to accept the public health interventions and cooperate with them. Building trust and confidence therefore becomes an ethical imperative. This article analyses the COVID-19 pandemic in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the state’s response to this pandemic. Further, it applies the Trust-Confidence-Cooperation framework of risk management to analyse the influence of public trust and confidence on the Tamil Nadu health system in the context of the preventive strategies adopted by the state. Finally, the article proposes a six-pronged strategy to build trust and confidence in health system functions to improve cooperation to pandemic containment measures. (shrink)

We have developed a first generation tool for the unbiased identification and characterization of human pluripotent stem cells, termed PluriTest. This assay utilizes all the information contained on a microarray and abandons the conventional stem cell marker concept. Stem cells are defined by the ability to replenish themselves and to differentiate into more mature cell types. As differentiation potential is a property that cannot be directly proven in the stem cell state, biologists have to rely on correlative measurements in stem (...) cells associated with differentiation potential. Unfortunately, most, if not all, of those markers are only valid within narrow limits of specific experimental systems. Microarray technologies and recently next‐generation sequencing have revolutionized how cellular phenotypes can be characterized on a systems‐wide level. Here we discuss the challenges PluriTest and similar global assays need to address to fulfill their enormous potential for industrial, diagnostic and therapeutic applications. (shrink)