Search

The IDS Project was formed in 2003 to improve resource sharing among the State University of New York colleges. Over the years it grew from the original 12 to over 120 libraries. While the focus has always been on community, there has also been a strong developmental desire and innovative push from its members. IDS Project has developed many systems and tools over the years and continues to support resource sharing among all libraries and not just its members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a qualitative research with in-depth interviews with Tunisian travellers and netnography on travel related blogs, we aim to investigate how connected technologies modified imaginaries in the travel experience through the (non)sharing behaviour. Findings demonstrate a related expressed paradoxical behaviour swinging between 'self-promotion' and 'evil eye': the former being the desire to be socially visible and included, and the latter is the fear of being jinxed by others. Accordingly, we identify five different travellers' profiles. We conclude that paradoxical social imaginaries of both worldviews can coexist within the travel experience, leading to an incredible complexity and a continuous oscillation between both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many consumers are caregivers and, as part of caregiving, frequently make food choices for their dependents. This research examines how food choices made for children influence the healthiness of parents' subsequent self-choices. Whereas prior work focuses on choices for the self (others) as based on self-needs (other-needs), the authors theorize when and why self-choices involve consideration of other-needs. Five studies, including a nursery school field study, test the effect of choosing healthy food for a child on the healthiness of parents' self-choices, focusing on the role of anticipating potentially sharing self-choices with one's child. Potential sharing increased parents' likelihood of making an unhealthy subsequent self-choice if they first made a healthy choice for their child. This effect was driven by parents' present-focused parenting concerns about whether one's child would eat and enjoy healthy options chosen for them. This effect was mitigated when parents instead had future-focused parenting concerns. Additionally, this effect was mitigated after making an initial choice for the child that was (1) unhealthy or (2) healthy but relatively liked by the child. This research contributes to understanding how choices for others shape choices for the self and offers important marketing and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owners value heritage goods, items that connect them to a shared past, whether through their alma mater or their family history. This research considers the impact of heritage on owners who wish to sell such goods. In five studies, the authors demonstrate that sellers have a lower willingness to accept when selling heritage goods to buyers with a shared heritage connection relative to buyers without this connection (i.e., a heritage discount). This heritage discount cannot be explained by ingroup favoritism, sentimental value, or appropriateness of buyer usage and persists even when sellers perceive that the buyer has a higher willingness to pay. The authors provide process evidence that the effect of the buyer's identity on the seller's willingness to accept is driven by concerns about heritage loss. The findings contribute to literatures on sharing, sentimental goods, psychological ownership, and the endowment effect and have marketing implications for consumer goods (e.g., collectibles) that derive product value by connecting consumers to meaningful history and traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opportunities for the shared consumption of publicly available products that once might have been considered personal-use only, such as hand sanitizers and shampoos, are proliferating in the consumer environment. This work explores shared product consumption in these underresearched, but now ubiquitous, contexts. The authors suggest and find, over a series of five studies and across a variety of product domains, that sharing a product with strangers (i.e., sharing-out) engenders a lower sense of identification with the product, which leads to lower perceived product efficacy. They further show that the dampening effect of sharing-out on efficacy perceptions is limited to consumers high in self–brand connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under servitization (one paradigm of non-ownership-transfer) business model such as sharing, a manufacturer is responsible not only for product design but also for maintenance. This paper deals with joint decision of product quality and maintenance under servitization. A model minimising total cost is formulated to obtain the optimal product quality, maintenance effort and maintenance times. We find that the total cost first decreases then increases with product quality, maintenance effort and maintenance times. Moderate quality and maintenance effort level are the best for the manufacturer, because too high or too low quality and effort cause too high total cost. However, preventive maintenance should be implemented as many times as possible until the failure cost is reduced to zero as long as each maintenance can save cost. Moreover, in the optimal joint decision, the product quality, maintenance effort and maintenance times are negatively correlated in pairs. In addition, we explore the impact of unit failure cost, product lifecycle, production cost, maintenance cost, and failure intensity on the manufacturer's optimal decisions. In extensions, we further take penalty cost, exponential failure distribution, discount rate, and customer usage into account. This paper provides insight for the manufacturer to jointly consider product design and maintenance under servitization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nuclear Notebook is researched and written by the staff of the Federation of American Scientists' Nuclear Information Project: director Hans M. Kristensen, senior research fellow Matt Korda, research associate Eliana Johns, and Scoville fellow Mackenzie Knight. The Nuclear Notebook column has been published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists since 1987. This issue's column examines the current state of global nuclear sharing arrangements, which include non- nuclear countries that possess nuclear-capable delivery systems for employment of a nuclear-armed state's nuclear weapons. To see all previous Nuclear Notebook columns, go to https:// thebulletin.org/nuclear-notebook/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractAs smart home technologies become pervasive, more knowledge is needed on their impact on everyday living. New urban cohousing has been studied avidly but there is less research on technologies in this context. This article investigates the lived experience of smart home technologies in cohousing with focus on how technologies shape the use of shared spaces and social relations. Based on interviews with residents and managers of a Finnish cohousing block, the results highlight the diversity of residents and practices in cohousing, and smart home technologies as a mundane necessity. The study shows how public cohousing is subtly infiltrated by technologies, making it similar to commercial coliving. We demonstrate how technologies provide an interface to shared resources, and how disciplinary technologies impede sharing, assert control on residents, and undermine their agency, contradicting the values of cohousing. A key implication is that smart home technologies should be more intentionally designed to align with the values and practices of cohousing communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we consider the use of visual images to assess perceptions of plants. Using data drawn from a Swedish study we review our choices regarding the type of image used, and the responses they provoked. Furthermore, we consider these choices in the light of other studies, propose a tentative model of levels of seeing, and call for further research. In sharing our methodological challenges with the research community, we wish to contribute to current discussions in plant awareness studies. More specifically, to the development of a visual prompt item that is not explicitly connected to knowledge. Thus, the main contribution of this article is to visual research methods in relation to plant awareness studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a construction that yields infinite families of non-isomorphic semidirect products N \rtimes F_m sharing a specified profinite completion. Within each family, m \ge 2 is constant and N is a fixed group. For m=2 we can take N to be free of rank \ge 10, free abelian of rank \ge 12, or a surface group of genus \ge 5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Beijing University of Technology is the property of Journal of Beijing University of Technology, Editorial Department and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

FGFR2 fusion is one of the classes of emerging therapeutic targets of precision oncology and is observed in many solid tumor types. Our understanding of oncogenic mechanisms and therapy effects of molecular targets tends to reflect those occurring in overrepresented tumor types, posing a challenge in therapy planning of the same targets occurring in unusual tumor types. We present a case of a primary high-grade serous tubo-ovarian carcinoma with a novel FGFR2::IQCG fusion, an exceedingly rare combination of tumor type and fusion class, with an unusually short-lived response to futibatinib. We review the potential pathogenic mechanism of this fusion and address challenges in predicting targeted therapy efficacy using various assay types and trial designs in heterogeneous tumor types sharing a structural variant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scotus’ theory of identity and distinction is a unique and central aspect of his thought, as he applies it throughout his metaphysics. On Scotus’ account of identity, the indiscernibility of identicals fails – i.e. A and B can be identical but not share all the same properties. As Ockham objected, Scotus is now in the difficult position of needing to provide alternative necessary and sufficient conditions for being identical, rather than simply invoking indiscernibility. The secondary literature has argued that the lack of actual or potential separation is both necessary and sufficient for identity. I argue that is incorrect and provide alternative necessary and sufficient conditions for identity and real distinction, along with an analysis of Scotus’ theory of identity and distinction more broadly. Scotus thinks instead that the lack of actual, potential, and proportional separation are necessary and sufficient conditions for identity. The deeper root of this view is that identity corresponds to a certain degree of unity, and is accompanied by a sharing of esse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seldom quantum secret sharing protocols with both the flexible (t, n) threshold and semi-quantum properties have been proposed. Recently, a novel idea of (t, n) threshold semiquantum secret sharing was proposed, which has both the (t, n) threshold and semi-quantum properties. Its idea can simplify the quantum secret sharing process such that many classical users with simple ability of quantum operations can realize the communication goal by cooperating with one quantum party. Furthermore, the protocol is very flexible since any t collaborators of the n classical users can reconstruct the full secret by Shamir’s threshold technology. Unfortunately, their protocol is vulnerable to the NOT-gate attack. This paper shows that an attacker can break the (t, n) threshold protocol by performing two rounds of NOT-gate attack. Then, an improved (t, n) threshold semiquantum secret sharing protocol is proposed. In the improvement scheme, each receiver can perform the eavesdropping check by measuring the Z-basis sample states. The improved protocol not only has semi-quantum properties but also can repair the security hole of the old version and has enhanced security against various quantum attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractUsing a new latent measure of cultural affinity in military alliances (1816–2011), this study shows that states are less likely to be targets of militarized disputes or wars if they are members of defensive alliances with more culturally similar states. The theory posits that alliances between culturally similar states are designed with rules and norms that reflect the community’s shared interests, which helps the members handle intra-alliance conflicts, and strengthens the overall credibility of the agreements, deterring attacks on outside members. Empirical analyses of politically relevant dyads with alliance ties shows that cultural affinity provides deterrence benefits in alliances between democracies (e.g., NATO) or between autocracies (e.g., Arab League, Gulf Cooperation Council) and that the deterrence results are strongest for potential targets that are non-democratic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper presents an enhanced power sharing scheme (EPSS) for parallelly connected distributed generators (DGs) in an islanded microgrid (MG) using a constant switching frequency‐model predictive control (CSF‐MPC). Unlike conventional droop control, wherein only accurate real power sharing among DGs is possible, the EPSS enables accurate sharing of reactive and harmonic powers even under mismatched line impedances. Additionally, the voltage unbalance and distortion at the point of common coupling (PCC) are mitigated. The EPSS is implemented using a reference voltage that consists of (1) the fundamental droop control; (2) the virtual impedance control; (3) the unbalance compensation control; and (4) the harmonic compensation control. The performance of the EPSS is tested on a MG consisting of two DGs of both similar and dissimilar capacities under a step changes in loads. The EPSS is implemented using CSF‐MPC, which offers superior performance compared with conventional proportional plus integral and proportional resonant controllers. The simulation and hardware‐in‐loop results confirm the effectiveness of the EPSS in addressing power sharing issues and mitigating both distortion and unbalance of PCC voltage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different personal information types are shared at different rates during a social‐discounting task. However, it is unclear whether differences in social‐discounting rates between different personal information types are related to differences in valuing personal information. To assess the value of personal information more directly, 160 university student participants completed four hypothetical purchase tasks (HPT) for protecting identification, health, security, and financial personal information at 17 ascending price points and a social‐discounting task for one of those four different personal information types. The results for social discounting partially replicated those of a previous study where discounting rates for health information were higher than those for financial information. The results for the HPT largely mirrored those for the social‐discounting task. The demand for protecting financial information was significantly higher relative to the that for the other three types of personal information for most demand indices such as the highest price participants were willing to pay for the protection of personal information (break point) and the price where consumption for personal information protection became elastic (Pmax). However, there were no significant relations between social‐discounting rate and HPT demand indices. These results show that value may play a role in the observed differences in social‐discounting rate for personal information, but additional factors likely contribute to these differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the potential of heterogeneous hybrid Free Space Optical (FSO) and Radio Frequency (RF) cognitive networks, which feature both cooperative and economic systems. The cooperative system is defined as a heterogeneous network where the hybrid FSO/RF node possesses dedicated RF resources and shares these resources to create additional transmission opportunities. In contrast, the low-cost economic system consists of a heterogeneous network where only an RF node has RF resources, and the hybrid node shares these resources. We provide a comprehensive analysis for each system, employing stay-and-switch (SAS) and simultaneous multipacket transmission (SMT) methods to ensure a thorough understanding of its performance. As a performance measure, we investigate the stability region of the proposed cognitive and economic systems and devise a reference system without cognitive capability for comparison. Numerical evaluations indicate that the cooperative system using SMT typically outperforms the reference system, increasing stability throughput by up to 52%. However, this advantage diminishes when SAS is used or in rainy conditions. The economic model shows performance levels comparable to the reference model, particularly when incoming traffic is low and when SAS is implemented in clear or hazy environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge sharing is an integral component of contemporary society. Knowledge sharing has been embraced in university libraries for optimal services delivery. This paper advocated for knowledge sharing practice in line with the theory of collaboration among librarians for effective library services delivery in university libraries. The paper examined the concept of knowledge sharing, and their benefits, and types of knowledge shared with knowledge sharing practices in university libraries. The paper also explained the challenges associated with knowledge sharing in university libraries which include lack of knowledge flow, lack of institutional policy to guide knowledge sharing practices, poor team work, amongst others. The theory of collaboration was related to the knowledge sharing practices. The study concluded that librarians are aware of knowledge sharing even though it is yet to been fully adopted in libraries as a means of generating and creating new ideas. Nevertheless, the driving force behind knowledge sharing anchored on effective library services is the human factor known as librarian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The review addresses the central concept of the uncontrolled manifold (UCM) hypothesis, which has become a major framework for analysis of performance-stabilizing motor synergies. The major goals are to summarize the status quo in the field and to ask new questions stimulating new studies. We focus on a few main questions: What is the UCM? What are the likely neural origins of the UCM? How is the UCM reflected in movement patterns? Are properties of the UCM similar in all directions? We contrast experience-based features of movements seen very soon after the movement initiation versus those based on on-line sensory feedback signals. Furthermore, we address a number of poorly explored issues such as the differences in characteristic times of processes within the UCM and orthogonal to the UCM space, the interplay between movement stability and optimality, the origin of preferred sharing patterns of performance variables across abundant sets of elements and of their intertrial variability, problems with the UCM-based analysis in different spaces, and likely neurophysiological mechanisms contributing to the UCM formation. In particular, we focus on the UCM in spaces of hypothetical neural control variables, which we associate with the reciprocal and coactivation commands to the effectors. Analysis of performance-stabilizing synergies within the UCM framework in abundant spaces of kinetic, kinematic and electromyographic variables at the selected level of analysis may be practically useful. However, mapping findings in such studies onto neural control mechanisms has been challenging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the phenomena of group polarization and echo chambers within the context of online discussions among immigrants in Japan, also known as gaijins, specifically within the #GaijinTwitter community. By analyzing the key topics discussed by divergent groups of Twitter users and examining their interactions through qualitative and quantitative approaches, we provide evidence of group polarization. Additionally, we investigate how blocking and sharing screenshots of tweets instead of reacting to them in the standard ways contribute to the formation and perpetuation of online echo chambers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosocial behaviour is a hallmark of social and emotional competence during childhood. Thus, promoting the development of children's prosocial behaviour can have important downstream benefits for individuals and society. Previous studies indicated that there is a positive effect of negative moral emotions on prosocial behaviour, but the influence of positive moral emotions on prosocial behaviour remains largely unknown. This study adopted three experiments to investigate the influence of positive moral emotions on three aspects of prosocial behaviour in 3–5‐year‐old children. After inducing positive moral emotions in children, they were observed either in helping (Experiment 1, N = 151, 75 boys), sharing (Experiment 2, N = 141, 69 boys) or comforting (Experiment 3, N = 132, 66 boys) scenarios. Results showed that: (1) children's helping, sharing and comforting behaviours in the moral emotions (experimental) group were significantly higher than those in the control group, suggesting that positive moral emotions could positively influence the examined prosocial behaviours; (2) there were age differences in children's helping, sharing and comforting, but the effect of positive moral emotions on the examined prosocial behaviours did not differ by age and gender. These findings point to the need for fostering positive moral emotions in early cultivation of children's prosocial behaviour during pre‐schooler education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the body of literature on automated vehicles (AV) regarding simulation, user acceptance, and accompanying research on pilot projects has increased substantially. However, studies investigating the relationship between user characteristics and preference of shared or pooled-use AV, such as automated taxis or automated shuttles, mainly investigate socioeconomic or mobility characteristics of potential users. Further, there are no studies on user-type sensitivity toward instruments fostering the uptake of shared and pooled-use AV. The aim of our study is to contribute to fill this gap, to provide important knowledge for decision-makers to develop transport policies designed to foster future sharing of AV. To this end, we re-analyze data from a choice experiment with 709 participants together with individual user characteristics, collected within the Swiss Household Energy Demand Survey. Specifically, we analyze the role of socioeconomic and mobility characteristics, attitudes and values regarding sensitivity toward policy-relevant push and pull instruments to foster shared and pooled-use AV mode choice. We show that different types of user characteristics have an impact on AV mode preference and on the sensitivity toward the categories and types of instruments tested. Furthermore, we show that it is worthwhile to differentiate between short-term mobility decisions on single trips and long-term mobility decisions, concerning purchase decisions for AV or subscriptions to AV-related mobility services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article's goal is to understand innovation factors (e.g., job autonomy and knowledge sharing) through the lens of a neo-Aristotelian theory based on evolutionary science in order to show that this paradigm of analysis provides a richer understanding of this organizational phenomenon, and consequently better support for the deliberation on what measures to implement when the objective is to make the organization prone to innovate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For conservation to be based on evidence, the outcomes of conservation actions need to be shared. The European Union (EU) is a major funder of conservation action in Europe through the well‐studied LIFE program. Less well‐known, but also funding substantial conservation action, is the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Through a systematic review of conservation projects funded by LIFE and ERDF, we identify substantial expenditure on biodiversity conservation (€1300 M and €760 M between 2014 and 2024 respectively). We explore the extent to which LIFE and ERDF contribute to building an evidence base about the effectiveness of conservation actions. There were differences between LIFE and ERDF in the extent to which documentation about the project was publicly available (89% and 26% respectively), and large differences in whether any form of project evaluation was available (63% and 5% respectively). A possible explanation for these results is differing funder requirements regarding the monitoring and reporting of project implementation and outcomes. We explore funder requirements across a sample of other conservation funders and suggest how changes could incentivize higher quality sharing of project outcomes. This would expand the evidence base needed to improve the effectiveness of conservation actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After having described communicational and relational characteristics of dreaming and sharing dreams, in Part II, I provide deeper exploration of a clinical example in group-analytic group therapy, describing group work with a dream. The uniqueness of the group-analytic approach to the dream's contents and its communicative aspect will be stressed. Requests for containment preoccupy relations and participants and should be elaborated during the discourse of 'dreamtelling'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Implementation of national haemovigilance programmes has significantly improved donor and recipient safety. Recently, India completed a decade of successful implementation of its national haemovigilance programmes. The national programme is still enrolling more blood centres. This study aimed to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of Haemovigilance Programme of India (HvPI), thereby providing valuable insights for future initiatives. Materials and Methods: The National Coordinating Centre (NCC) conducted a multi‐centre, cross‐sectional questionnaire‐based survey among the reporting blood centres (January to April 2022). The survey consisted of three sections with a total of 27 questions focusing on the demographics of the participant blood centre as well as the impact on the recipient and donor haemovigilance. The survey was sent to 733 blood centres regularly reporting to the donor and recipient HvPI through Donor and Hemovigil Software. Results: Total 296 responses were received (response rate of 40.4%) with maximum participation of private non‐teaching hospital‐based blood centres (33.8%). After their involvement in recipient HvPI, 85.7% of the respondents reported changes in their blood centre's work procedures, with the maximum improvement seen in the documentation of transfusion reactions (92.7%). Out of the 278 respondents who participated in donor HvPI, 89.9% (250) found that their blood centre's policies or work process changed as a result of their involvement in the programme. Conclusion: In conclusion, our haemovigilance programme facilitates national collaboration for learning and sharing experiences, leading to improved policies and practices in reducing adverse reactions for both recipients and donors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing accurate correspondences between aerial and ground images is facing immense challenges because of the drastic viewpoint, illumination, and scale variations resulting from significant differences in viewing angles, shoot timing, and imaging mechanisms. To cope with these issues, we propose an effective aerial-to-ground feature matching method, named Viewpoint-invariant Deformable Feature Transformation (VDFT), which aims to comprehensively enhance the discrimination of local features by utilizing deformable convolutional network (DCN) and seed attention mechanism. Specifically, the proposed VDFT is constructed consisting of three pivotal modules: (1) a learnable deformable feature network is established by using DCN and Depthwise Separable Convolution (DSC) to obtain dynamic receptive fields, addressing local geometric deformations caused by viewpoint variation; (2) an improved joint detection and description strategy is presented through concurrently sharing the multi-level deformable feature representation to enhance the localization accuracy and representation capabilities of feature points; and (3) a seed attention matching module is built by introducing self- and cross- seed attention mechanisms to improve the performance and efficiency for aerial-to-ground feature matching. Finally, we conduct thorough experiments to verify the matching performance of our VDFT on five challenging aerial-to-ground datasets. Extensive experimental evaluations prove that our VDFT is more resistant to perspective distortion and drastic variations in viewpoint, illumination, and scale. It exhibits satisfactory matching performance and outperforms the current state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods in terms of robustness and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media allow individuals to feel 'whisked away' from their surroundings and absorbed into another world. Constructs such as immersion, presence, transportation, and flow have been used to delineate and describe this experience, but few efforts have been made to understand their conceptual overlap or shared and distinct underlying processes. Two studies were conducted to create a model of the immersive experience applicable across media technologies and contexts. First, a scoping review shows these constructs are deeply intertwined and often seen as precursors, subcomponents, or outcomes of one another. Second, re-examining the literature from a complex systems perspective, we identify three key processes: interactivity, boundary alteration, and motivation, as especially promising for developing an integrative ontology of the immersive experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Iranian Journal of Educational Research is the property of University of Hormozgan and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Medical blockchain data-sharing is a technique that employs blockchain technology to facilitate the sharing of electronic medical data. The blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger that ensures data-sharing security, transparency, and traceability through cryptographic technology and consensus algorithms. Consequently, medical blockchain data-sharing methods have garnered significant attention and research efforts. Nevertheless, current methods have different storage and transmission measures for original data in the medical blockchain, resulting in large differences in performance and privacy. Therefore, we divide the medical blockchain data-sharing method into on-chain sharing and off-chain sharing according to the original data storage location. Among them, off-chain sharing can be subdivided into on-cloud sharing and local sharing according to whether the data is moved. Subsequently, we provide a detailed analysis of basic processes and research content for each method. Finally, we summarize the challenges posed by the current methods and discuss future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we prove some normality criteria concerning transitivity of normality from one family of meromorphic functions to another by involving partial sharing of holomorphic functions with certain differential polynomials. Furthermore, Montel's three omitted value theorem is deduced from one of the results of this paper. Wherever possible, examples are provided to demonstrate sharpness of results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing potential of infrastructure disruptions calls for high-quality infrastructure models to be used in resilience analysis and decision making. Unfortunately, many utilities and communities do not have access to accurate and detailed models due to a lack of data and resources. Furthermore, security restrictions on sharing infrastructure models present roadblocks to research, analysis, and decision making. Recent advances in the development of synthetic water distribution models provide a potential solution to this problem. There is an opportunity to improve these methods by leveraging incomplete pipe datasets to aid synthetic network generation. To address this gap, we developed a methodology for synthetic network generation that incorporates partial pipe data using a modification of the minimum cost flow algorithm for network generation and pipe sizing. This methodology demonstrates how partial pipe data can be leveraged to improve site-specific synthetic network generation. For the study area of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, a synthetic model generated using 50% of real pipe data matches the pressure of the validation system with an average error of 23.5 m of head, which improves upon the average error of 31.6 m of head produced by a synthetic model generated using no data of the real pipes. Additionally, synthetic networks are shown to replicate the pressure response under a disruption scenario of the validation network, suggesting potential use in resilience analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Inferences and the Right to Privacy" defends the 'Inference Principle,' which states that if an agent obtains information legitimately, they can make any inference based on that information without violating anyone's right to privacy. The principle is significant in addressing the moral permissibility of using data analytics to infer personal information. The article discusses how data analytics can infer personal information about individuals and the implications of the Inference Principle on privacy rights. It also addresses objections to the principle, such as the Intentionality Objection and the Other-Regarding Inference Objection. [Extracted from the article]

Research using masked priming and parafoveal preview techniques has shown that visual letter similarity has an impact on word processing during the initial stages in Latin-derived scripts. However, these effects appear to be absent in Arabic. One reason for this discrepancy could be attributed to the distinctive features of the Arabic script, which includes numerous letters sharing a basic form while varying in the location or number of diacritics. To shed light on this issue, the present study employed Arabic letters rather than words in two masked priming experiments: an alphabetic decision task and a letter-matching task. Both experiments showed that visually similar letters were more effective as primes than visually dissimilar letters. These findings suggest that the processes of letter identification in Arabic and Latin scripts may be roughly alike, implying that differences in visual letter similarity across scripts may arise at later stages of processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ephemeral content has become a vital marketing resource for companies, but its effects have rarely been addressed in academic literature. Through the theory of uses and gratifications (U&G), we explore ephemeral content, the impact of Snapchat use, and their impact on millennials' purchase motivation. Through an electronic survey of 454 millennial-generation participants, analysed through SMART-PLS, theoretical contributions are presented in identifying modality-based gratifications and interactivity-based gratifications as two additional sources of gratification that generate the modality of Snapchat's ephemeral content. The study theoretically reflects how much interaction and identification with the medium generates a positive involvement in the audience's needs, thus explaining its reasons for use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the Pawns programming language, currently under development, which uses several novel features to combine the functional and imperative programming paradigms. It supports pure functional programming (including algebraic data types, higher-order programming and parametric polymorphism), where the representation of values need not be considered. It also supports lower-level C-like imperative programming with pointers and the destructive update of all fields of the structs used to represent the algebraic data types. All destructive update of variables is made obvious in Pawns code, via annotations on statements and in type signatures. Type signatures must also declare sharing between any arguments and result that may be updated. For example, if two arguments of a function are trees that share a subtree and the subtree is updated within the function, both variables must be annotated at that point in the code, and the sharing and update of both arguments must be declared in the type signature of the function. The compiler performs extensive sharing analysis to check that the declarations and annotations are correct. This analysis allows destructive update to be encapsulated: a function with no update annotations in its type signature is guaranteed to behave as a pure function, even though the value returned may have been constructed using destructive update within the function. Additionally, the sharing analysis helps support a constrained form of global variables that also allows destructive update to be encapsulated and safe update of variables with polymorphic types to be performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Where is the Proof? On Testimony in Court and beyond" from the Jerusalem Review of Legal Studies discusses the importance of testimonial evidence in legal proceedings and beyond. The author, Arnon Keren, explores questions related to the prevalence of testimonial evidence in trials, the role of trust in treating testimony as evidence, and the impact of taking an oath on the evidential value of testimony. Keren highlights the differences between legal and non-legal contexts in the treatment of testimonial evidence, emphasizing the need for caution when drawing general conclusions from legal practices to other contexts. The article provides insights into the complexities of relying on testimony as evidence and the implications of these practices in various settings. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores intelligence in the English-speaking West Indies by examining institutions, capabilities, and objectives. It highlights how the British Overseas Territories and independent nations separately and collectively gather and utilize intelligence. The article argues the territories and countries' sizes and resources as well as their geographic locations significantly shape intelligence networks that collect, share, and use vital security information. In doing so, this article provides the first academic analysis of the region's intelligence as a whole in understanding how intelligence is viewed, utilized, and shared within territories and countries that are not usually examined in the intelligence studies literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a novel secret image sharing scheme with ciphertext‐based share authentication (SISS‐CSA) for sharing grayscale and color secret images in the malicious model. In SISS‐CSA, the dealer and each participant, individually acting as a combiner, can identify each invalid share received from the malicious participant(s) before using it to reconstruct the secret image. This capability, which most comparable schemes lack, prevents reconstructing an incorrect secret image. In SISS‐CSA, the asymptotic time complexities of operations executed by the dealer in the shares generation phase and executed by each combiner in the secret image reconstruction phase are O(H×W×L×n)$$ O\left(H\times W\times L\times n\right) $$ and O(H×W×L×k)$$ O\left(H\times W\times L\times k\right) $$, respectively. Here, H×W×L$$ H\times W\times L $$ is the number of grayscale values in the secret image, n$$ n $$ is the number of generated shares, and k$$ k $$ is the threshold number of shares required for reconstructing the secret image. These asymptotic time complexities and the size of additional information each combiner stores for identifying invalid share(s) are comparatively lesser than those in the state‐of‐the‐art schemes. Furthermore, we obtain a maximum of 48.71%$$ 48.71\% $$ reduction in the size of additional information each combiner stores for share authentication using the ciphertext‐based share authentication compared to using the standard SHA‐256. To the best of our knowledge, none of the related share authentication approaches achieves this much reduction. We prove the properties of SISS‐CSA using theoretical analysis. We also provide experimental results validating the implications of theoretical analysis corresponding to asymptotic time complexities and the random nature of shares. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by real-world engineering systems, this paper presents an in-depth exploration of a novel reliability model for a complex multi-state series system (MSSS) that incorporates a performance sharing mechanism. Specifically, the MSSS is composed of m distinct subsystems featuring a k-out-of-n: G structure. The ith subsystem consists of ni elements, such that a minimum of ki functioning elements is required for normal operation. Transmission devices (TDs) are present between adjacent subsystems to share surplus performance. Both element performance and subsystem demand are treated as random variables, and the performance of all elements in each subsystem is cumulated to meet its individual random demand. Subsystem failure can result from either an inability to meet performance demands or an insufficient number of functioning elements. The surplus performance of a subsystem can only be transferred to its adjacent subsystem via the TD. The entire MSSS will fail if at least one subsystem does not work properly by using performance sharing mechanism. To analyze the reliability indexes of the MSSS, a new algorithm based on the generalized universal generating function (GUGF) has been developed. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed model and method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing secret sharing schemes used to protect sensitive multimedia data in distributed forms often compromise either security or computational overhead. To address this issue, a counting-based secret sharing scheme has been introduced that reduces the complexity of the algorithm with less computational overhead and also provides perfect security. However, existing counting-based secret sharing schemes have not been developed for multimedia data such as images and videos. This paper introduces a framework for a counting-based secret image sharing scheme. The proposed scheme is a perfect (n, n) type, where the first n denotes the number of shares distributed, and the second n signifies the number of shares required to reconstruct the secret image, thus providing perfect security. Here, 'counting' refers to counting the number of bits' occurrences. The proposed approach is divided into two processes: share generation and secret reconstruction. In the share generation process, lightweight horizontal bit counting combined with bitwise additive modulo operations are used to generate the n randomized shares from one secret image and n - 1 arbitrary images. The arbitrary images increase the randomness in the shares, which enhances security. In the secret reconstruction process, all n shares are required to recover the secret, demonstrating the scheme's perfect secrecy. The secret reconstruction process utilizes lightweight horizontal bit counting. Both the share generation and secret reconstruction processes employ lightweight horizontal bit counting and bitwise additive modulo operations to reduce the overall computational overhead. The approach has been tested on both grayscale and colored images, each with a resolution of 512 × 512 pixels, demonstrating its adaptability to various types of multimedia images. Its effectiveness has been validated through rigorous statistical analysis, including tests for correlation, RMSE, PSNR, SSIM, NPCR, and UACI, all of which indicate superior performance compared to existing schemes. Histogram analysis of the shares further confirms their high randomization and the secure non-disclosure of secret information. The comparison of parameters with existing work shows that our approach outperforms them. However, the primary limitation of this scheme is that it is designed to secure only a single secret and does not support multiple secrets. Moreover, the absence of fault tolerance highlights the scheme's emphasis on perfect secrecy, ensuring that fewer than n shares cannot reconstruct the secret. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shared decision‐making is ethically imperative, and is a key component in cost‐effective, efficient and equitable cancer care. We review the recent advances in resources, training, tool development, and health policy, supporting the implementation of shared decision‐making, and how the Philippines is primed for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Cuba, scarcity is an ever‐present reality due to more than six decades of socialist regime and consequent economic embargo. One of the coping strategies for people facing such adversity has been to develop great abilities to repair and reuse objects and materials. In a certain way, Cubans are like Lévi‐Straussian bricoleurs, or, better said, they are engineers who had to adjust their project because the universe of tools at their disposition was closed, leading them to make do with the less they are provided with. Indeed, they create objects by repairing and reusing parts and materials, and by doing so, they refer to specific concepts like inventing, innovating, adapting, and recycling. Many of the practices, apart from being a way of earning a living, directly depend on the recovery of discarded elements and are therefore part of a complex economy that involves waste, which, once recovered, becomes a resource again. This article focuses on how social actors regulate and negotiate access to remunerative knowledges related to waste, what I call wastecrafts. Drawing on anthropological literature about gift giving and sharing, I reflect on how the transmission of practices related to waste takes place in Havana. My argument is that practices of reciprocity, sharing, and, in some cases, stealing the art coexist and are all to understand within the emic ideas of inventar, luchar, and sobrevivir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK's approach to combating money laundering extends beyond traditional enforcement authorities, encompassing diverse regulated entities mandated to monitor and share intelligence on suspected laundering activities. This study examines the UK's Anti-Money Laundering (AML) nodal institutional architecture, focusing on the significance of information-sharing mechanisms and structures among law enforcement, public institutions, and private entities. Different types of information – ranging from raw data to strategic, tactical, and operational intelligence, as well as evidence – dictate the appropriate structures and mechanisms for their sharing. This study introduces a nuanced framework for analysing these structures, assessing the spectrum from highly structured to organic approaches in state intervention, alongside varying levels of formality, incorporating mandatory or voluntary elements. The analysis identifies four main factors shaping the dynamics of information sharing in the UK's AML efforts: strategic resource allocation involving technology and human resources, the establishment of formal rules and standardised interpretations, cultural shifts towards trust and reciprocity, and state coordination and leadership. The findings reveal the central role of the state not only in setting legal frameworks but also in steering coordination, managing resources, and fostering reciprocal relationships among public and private nodes to enhance information sharing, reflecting a ´state-anchored´ approach to AML governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this writing, I will attempt to outline some reflections that arise from reading works by Thomas Ogden found in the text ‘The Primitive Edge of Experience’ from 1989. In particular, among the numerous points of reflection, I will try to focus on two aspects: rethinking the conclusion of analysis between separation and separateness, revisiting some aspects of Quinodoz’s (1991) and a brief re-examination of the dimension of temporality in the concluding process, trying to combine theoretical insights with clinical material from the fifth year to the ninth year of an analysis, conducted four times a week, with a woman. Although these are excerpts from sessions far from the conclusion of the analytic process, it seemed to me that I could find, in some passages, significant psychic movements that refer to some fantasies about the conclusion of the analysis, which can finally enter the field of thoughts shared between analyst and patient, despite the emergence of experiences characteristic of the contiguous-autistic position, in which part of the patient’s mind seems to remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extremal problem of two types of high order spectra for graphs are considered, which are called r -adjacency spectrum and t -clique spectrum, respectively. In this paper, we obtain the maximum r -adjacency spectral radius of a K r + 1 minor-free graph of order n in the case 1 ≤ r ≤ 3 , which implies the Hadwiger's conjecture is true for 1 ≤ r ≤ 3. Moreover, an upper bound of the 3-clique spectral radius of a B k -free and K 2 , l -free graph G of order n is given, where B k is the graph consisting of k triangles sharing an edge. As a corollary of this result, we obtain an upper bound of the number of the triangles for G which improves a result of Alon and Shikhelman (2016). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]