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Many OECD countries have addressed the issue of increased longevity by mainly increasing the retirement age. However, this kind of reforms may lead to substantial transfers from those with shorter lifespans to those that will live longer than the average, as they do not necessarily take into account the socio-economic differences in mortality. The contribution of our paper is therefore twofold. Firstly, we illustrate how both a Defined Benefit and a Notional Defined Contribution pay-as-you-go scheme can put the lower social economic classes at a disadvantage, when compared to the actuarially fair pensions. In contrast to that, higher classes experience a gain. This is due to the fact that mortality rates per socio-economic class are not considered by either scheme. Consequently, we propose a model that determines the parameters for each scheme and class which would render the pensions fairer even when no socio-economic mortality differences are considered.

Interpretability, transparency, and auditability of machine learning (ML)-driven investment has become a key issue for investment managers as many look to enhance or replace traditional factor-based investing. The authors show that symbolic artificial intelligence (SAI) provides a solution to this conundrum, with superior return characteristics compared to traditional factor-based stock selection, while producing interpretable outcomes. Their SAI approach is a form of satisficing that systematically learns investment decision rules (symbols) for stock selection, using an a priori algorithm, avoiding the need for error-prone approaches for secondary explanations (known as XAI). The authors compare the empirical performance of an SAI approach with a traditional factor-based stock selection approach, in an emerging market equities universe. They show that SAI generates superior return characteristics and would provide a viable and interpretable alternative to factor-based stock selection. Their approach has significant implications for investment managers, providing an ML alternative to factor investing but with interpretable outcomes that could satisfy internal and external stakeholders. Key Findings ▪ Symbolic artificial intelligence (SAI) for stock selection, a form of satisficing, provides an alternative to factor investing and overcomes the interpretability issues of many machine learning (ML) approaches. ▪ An SAI that could be applied at scale is shown to produce superior return characteristics to traditional factor-based stock selection. ▪ SAI’s superior stock selection is examined using notional visualizations of its decision boundaries.

Purpose This paper aims to understand in-depth the concepts applied to the domains of organizational learning (OL) and learning organization, based on the notional perspectives of Professor Deborah Blackman and traces the evolutionary path of her academic journey and contributions in this regard. Design/methodology/approach A conversation with the distinguished academician, Professor Deborah Blackman. Findings How OL has pivoted around “shared mental models” that will enable in collective evidence-based decision-making across the organizational hierarchy. Originality/value The interactive session with Professor Deborah Blackman captured her ideas and critique pertaining to the theme of OL and the crucial aspect of “shared mental models” which promote “learning” in an organization. Delving deeper, it is seen that this trajectory offers the space and orientation to researchers and professionals to verify.

Nowadays Information Technologies (IT) are taking more and more stable position in the process of work organization in various companies, and particularly among medical organizations. Present-day scientific society has already begun to research the topic of IT integration particularities into the Health organizations. Current article is focused on this issue. Our team has planned and provided a systematic review to understand which barriers can appear in different medical centers during implementation of the innovative IT into working process. The review has been fulfilled according to the designed protocol based on the actual recommendations of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement. In the course of the workflow we have explored 2050 articles complied with the requirements. As a result, 23 key publications have been chosen and analyzed in detail. After considering the list of issues and barriers associated with the IT Implementation into hospitals and medical centers have been highlighted and described. We have classified them to notional clusters depending on the reasons of their appearance as well. In addition our team has defined the list of practical recommendations following which the result of the IT integration will be improved, but the risk of a negative outcome in the future can be eliminated.

The open pit mine production scheduling problem determines a sequence of three-dimensional, notional block extraction that maximises net present value (NPV) of future cash flows and satisfies techn...

Pillar 1B (individual accounts) of the Chinese basic pension fund (BPF) have suffered from substantial underfunding due to a series of challenges such as rising longevity, conservative investment policies, and the fragmentation of the pension system. Using an asset-liability model (ALM) we investigate the effects of the pre-2015 and post-2015 limits on asset allocations, as well as no limits. We also investigate the likely effect on investment performance of transferring the pillar 1B funds to the Council of National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and raising the retirement age to 65. We find that an ALM is superior to an assets-only analysis, removing the limits on investment in domestic assets (but not foreign assets) would be beneficial, as would transferring the assets to the NSSF, and raising the retirement age. Finally, the official notional rate on individual accounts should be set at a realistic level.

PurposeIn this essay, the authors will describe several facets of their experience as women faculty of color in the academy during the pandemic, in order to explore how institutions might think of equity and diversity initiatives during the pandemic time.Design/methodology/approachThis essay discusses structural, leadership and individual considerations in supporting faculty from diverse backgrounds during the pandemic and beyond, by considering the typical strategies used by faculty of color to maintain active organizational memberships and how the pandemic has shifted those strategies.FindingsUltimately, this essay grapples with diversity as an institutional priority during the unique and shifting circumstances of remote work and teaching and research during the pandemic.Originality/valueThis essay provides insight into how institutions who want to maintain diversity progress during and postpandemic must be more thoughtful about the hiring structures, decision-making spaces and overarching missions.

Science outfitting is often given insufficient treatment in the development of early conceptual studies for lunar surface habitats. In some cases, only control masses and volumes are used as placeholders. In others, one science discipline may be given detailed treatment while others are largely ignored. It is not unheard of for science outfitting to be entirely forgotten in initial concept layouts. This is exacerbated by the reality that spacecraft design studies are often initiated long before science objectives have been established for any given human spaceflight destination. When those objectives later emerge, they can be difficult to accommodate if sizing studies did not allocate sufficient resources for them. A notional science outfitting can be created for virtually any human exploration habitat, however, utilizing data created by the International Space Station and Constellation programs. Biology, human research, physics, and geology science laboratories and a general-purpose work area for a lunar surface habitat will be derived using equipment identified by the Constellation-era Optimizing Science and Exploration Working Group (OSEWG) or flown on the International Space Station. Early science outfitting definition and inclusion in surface habitat sizing is critical for developing an exploration architecture that meets science needs. The mass, volume, power, and use cases associated with these notional laboratories impacts all of the habitat subsystems, habitat dimensions, hatch dimensions, logistics operations, launch vehicles and landers.

The article presents results of empiric sociological research which had the aim to identify the cognitive aspects of a person’s loneliness. Analysis of the messages from one Internet forum made it possible to define the notional borders of loneliness understanding by those who have this feeling. On the basis of received material the author made a classification of the messages according to following aspects – number of responses, context of reasoning, borders of social distance, level of involvement into the discourse of responses’ authors. As a result, it was found that loneliness, long absence of understanding and relation with soulmates, is interpreted as a social deviation. On the contrary, short-term physical loneliness in spatial context is interpreted as normal routine of a reflecting person.

This article pertains to the development of alternative ship cost modeling methodologies. Most ship cost modeling has been traditionally weight-based. This approach drives the U.S. Navy to select smaller ships that, consequently, require custom-designed shipboard components. This research project is intended to help determine if there is a more accurate way to empirically predict, forecast, and model ship cost. Current and forecasted U.S. Department of Defense budgets require identifying, modeling, and estimating the costs of shipbuilding. Information and data were obtained via publicly available sources and were collected, collated, and used in an integrated risk-based cost and schedule modeling methodology. The objective of this study is to develop a comprehensive cost modeling strategy and approach, and as such, notional data were used. Specifically, we used the Arleigh Burke Class Guided Missile Destroyer DDG 51 Flight I, Flight II, Flight IIA, and Flight III as a basis for the cost and schedule assumptions, but the modeling approach is extensible to any and all other ships within the U.S. Navy. The results will be used to develop recommendations and develop a cost modeling tool on how to implement ship cost forecasts. This example will provide a roadmap for other new ship cost modeling by the U.S. Navy, thereby improving effectiveness and increasing cost savings.

This paper acts as a collection of various trading strategies and useful pieces of market information that might help to implement such strategies. This list is meant to be comprehensive (though by no means exhaustive) and hence we only provide pointers and give further sources to explore each strategy further. To set the stage for this exploration, we consider the factors that determine good and bad trades, the notions of market efficiency, the real prospect amidst the seemingly high expectations of homogeneous expectations from human beings and the catch-22 connotations that arise while comprehending the true meaning of rational investing. We can broadly classify trading ideas and client market color material into Delta-One and Derivative strategies since this acts as a natural categorization that depends on the expertise of the various trading desks that will implement these strategies. For each strategy, we will have a core idea and we will present different flavors of this central theme to demonstrate that we can easily cater to the varying risk appetites, regional preferences, asset management styles, investment philosophies, liability constraints, investment horizons, notional trading size, trading frequency and other preferences of different market participants., The concepts in this present paper have circulated previously under the title, "Trading Strategies and Market Color: The Benefits of Friendship with Quantitative Analysts and Financial Engineers". This present article is the first part of the two parts into which the original manuscript has been split into. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1603.06047

This paper uses a calibrated dynamic life-cycle model to quantify the long-run distributional impact of two opposite Social Security reforms: modifying the parameters of a defined benefit (DB) plan (such as in France with Ayrault’s reform) or switching to a notional defined contribution (NDC) plan (such as in Italy). Both reforms yield an inequal distribution of welfare losses. Low-skilled workers are the main losers of the reforms. This is so for different reasons in each reform. In the case of Ayrault’s reform, low-skilled individuals delay retirement by 2 years, up to age 62. In switching to a NDC scheme, low-skilled workers’pensions fall substantially. In NDC schemes, inequalities along the working-life are directly translated into inequalities in pension levels. The switch from a DB plan to the Italian reform yields substantial welfare losses, pensions drastically fall, and individuals save more. Since low-skilled workers do not save as much as middle or high-skilled workers, the switch to NDC schemes leads to a more unequal society in terms of asset distribution.

A full account of the pragmatics of personal correspondence requires speech act annotation, and as manual annotation of large datasets can be extremely difficult, this study proposes to use an automated speech act tagger developed by the first author. It was originally designed for use with business emails; however, the latest iteration of the tagger can be applied to other datasets – such as personal correspondence – providing a useful resource for the corpus linguistics community. In this study, the speech act tagger is tested on a collection of letters written by Irish migrants at the end of the nineteenth century. After discussing issues to do with the digitisation, transcription and annotation of historical migrant correspondence, the article will report on the results of this trial study, demonstrating how the tagger can perform with some success even on corpora with very different characteristics. Although the dataset used for this trial study is small, the findings show the potential for carrying out this type of analysis across larger digital archives allowing for different datasets to be compared, taking into consideration sociobiographic variables such as the author’s sex, class and role within the notional familial hierarchy.

This article is concerned with the shaping of agricultural knowledge among farmers, in the context of the rapid changes Polish agriculture has been subject to since the time of the country's EU accession. The theoretical underpinnings of this work have been described in terms of the significant notional categories, i.e. knowledge, knowledge-cultures and sources of knowledge. The research made use of the joint interviews method. Interviews were run with representatives of different generations in 10 farming families in central Poland. The main research objective was to determine sources of farming knowledge among farmers. The use of joint interviews allowed for the identification of sources of knowledge of different kinds. These reflect a division into farmers' closer and more distant surroundings, i.e. to the family and neighbours on the one hand, and to institutions and media on the other. Knowledge acquisition among farmers is in fact found to be a complex process, reflecting socialisation in a multi-generation environment of family and neighbours, on the one hand, and the impact of the institutional and legal system, on the other. In a general sense, this corresponds to the well-known division of sources of knowledge into the tacit and the explicit, with the acquisition of tacit (i.e. informal) knowledge not meeting with any more major obstacles thanks to proximity in a sense that may be cultural (i.e. the agriculture itself), family-related (and in fact multi-generation) and spatial (physical proximity in a given locality). Microsocial conditioning thus plays a major role in the shaping of this source of knowledge. However, the most important factor distinguishing contemporary cultures as regards knowledge on farming is the capacity to adapt to conditions set by the institutions supporting the latter's development. Formal knowledge flowing into farming families from their institutional surroundings requires growing adaptability and preparation if a succession of innovations are to be taken on board. The multi-source nature of knowledge and the achievement of some kind of balance in this respect actually poses a major challenge for the future functioning of family farms as cultural microsystems.

Sources of plastics pollution, transport and deposition in Hong Kong are all subject to uncertainty and this characteristic must be mapped if stakeholders are to be made aware of their need for greater involvement in ongoing marine spatial planning and management. We employ geostatistical interpolation as the mapping approach, to enable a wider scale assessment of the spatial distribution of three quantities of interest, denoted by plastics waste, ports shipping intensity and a notional measure we refer to as ecological insecurity to be determined. We generate map layer representations for each of these variables to concentrate the focus of a stakeholder onto their regions of most concern and employ associated uncertainty maps to highlight prioritized regions identified to be above a designated level of certainty. We refer to the resulting map as a Prioritized Area Map (PAM). The PAM approach to characterize marine plastics waste links otherwise disparate stakeholders to ecosystem-based-management, thereby balancing ecological, socio-economic and governance principles across temporal and spatial scales. The PAM approach serves as a generic scoping tool to help assess any marine spatial planning problem.

The purpose of this study is to identify the most relevant renewable energy technologies for buildings and to assess the effectiveness of their implementation in the long term for Kuwait. Methods of analogies and comparisons were used to determine the features of energy efficiency based on the technologies under study. The study proposes the methodological approach to assessing the effectiveness of the introduction of renewable energy technologies, determining the direction of increasing the energy efficiency of buildings and the investment efficiency of introducing these technologies. Renewable energy efficiency analysis for buildings in Kuwait confirms that solar energy systems have been the most widely available for widespread use of solar energy over the past three years. An increasing level of energy efficiency with a decrease in the notional cost of increasing energy savings is characteristic of solar collectors with booster reflectors. The proposed model for assessing the level of energy saving provides an opportunity for economic justification of introducing renewable energy technology in buildings.

In future aircraft electric power systems (EPSs), the dc distribution is regarded as a promising substitution for conventional ac distribution because of the reduced weight. However, the assessment of weight reduction is usually obtained under the system static performance requirements. Dynamical requirements, including small-signal stability, normal load transient, and abnormal transient have not been fully considered. Therefore, this paper aims at bridging this gap by providing a design example under comprehensive system requirements to study the impacts of dynamical requirements on dc and ac, separately. It is seen that if only static requirements are considered, dc EPS is lighter than ac mainly due to the lighter feeders. But if dynamical requirements are factored in, the notional dc EPS will need additional energy storage systems (ESS) and protection devices because it lacks energy storage capability and has faster fault current dynamics intrinsically, comparing with the notional ac EPS.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the ideologies, intent, and reasoning which prompt the millennials to take or shun the vaccine. The study incubates Rural, Urban and Religious sentiments that affect the preferences of inoculation, modify our decision-making process toward mass immunizations, and contribute to vaccine waste in many areas. We hope to convey the fear of not getting the vaccine as well as the elements that encourage folks to immunize themselves for the greater good in this study. Rural approach to vaccine hesitancy is fuelled by rumors, myths—whilst driven by limited access to the outside world. Urban vaccine hesitancy is driven by the abundance of information—giving rise to conspiracy theorists. Religious reluctance to vaccination is driven by notional norms opposing cure by modern treatment.

Artificial intelligence (AI) / Machine Learning (ML) applications are widely available for different domains such as commercial, industrial, and intelligence applications. In particular, the use of AI applications for the security environment requires standards to manage expectations for users to understand how the results were derived. A reliance on “black boxes” to generate predictions and inform decisions could lead to errors of analysis. This paper explores the development of potential standards designed for each stage of the development of an AI/ML system to help enable trust, transparency, and explainability. Specifically, the paper utilizes the standards outlined in Intelligence Community Directive 203 (Analytic Standards) to hold machine outputs to the same rigorous accountability standards as performed by humans. Building on the ICD203, the Multi-Source AI Scorecard Table (MAST) was developed to support the community towards test and evaluation of AI/ML techniques. The paper provides discussion towards using MAST to rate a semantic processing tool for processing noisy, unstructured, and complex microtext in the form of streaming chat for video call outs. The scoring is notional, but provides a discussion on how MAST could be used as a standard to compare AI/ML methods that complements datasheets and model cards.

Recently, a number of structured funds have emerged as public-private partnerships with the intent of promoting investment in renewable energy in emerging markets. These funds seek to attract institutional investors by tranching the asset pool and issuing senior notes with a high credit quality. Financing of renewable energy (RE) projects is achieved via two channels: small RE projects are financed indirectly through local banks that draw loans from the fund’s assets, whereas large RE projects are directly financed from the fund. In a bottom-up Gaussian copula framework, we examine the diversification properties and RE exposure of the senior tranche. To this end, we introduce the LH++ model, which combines a homogeneous infinitely granular loan portfolio with a finite number of large loans. Using expected tranche percentage notional (which takes a similar role as the default probability of a loan), tranche prices and tranche sensitivities in RE loans, we analyse the risk profile of the senior tranche. We show how the mix of indirect and direct RE investments in the asset pool affects the sensitivity of the senior tranche to RE investments and how to balance a desired sensitivity with a target credit quality and target tranche size.

This paper provides results of a systematic analysis of problems of conceptual rationale of national security in contemporary Russia. At the same time, the author highlights issues, which are directly related to the national identity crisis. This study based on using methods of systematic induction, content analysis of documents, and comparative notional characterization of the current state identity of modern Russia in the context of the crisis. The author specifically emphasizes the importance of defining the meaning of notions such as the “national dream” and “national interests” of Russia on the basis of analysis of various documents and relevant scientific literature. The conclusion drawn based on a comparative analysis of various documents related to Russia’s national security is the core finding of this study. On the whole, conceptual understanding of the essence of national interests of Russia as a state is of a great importance for decision-makers in the Russian Federation. This issue is directly related to defining prospects of overcoming the national identity crisis in Russia. Furthermore, the issue of overcoming this crisis and the correct notional definition of national interests of the Russian Federation are directly related to efficient resolution of the issues of national security of our country.

The success of alternative payment systems has led to discussion of various proposals to replace money with a new technology-based system, though many lack a clear idea of what exactly is the “money” they seek to replace. We begin by presenting the explanation of money’s role in the economy embraced by most mainstream economists and policy analysts, based on the idea that money evolved out of the process of market exchange. An alternative explanation that looks on money as a part of the organization of production and distribution based on network clearing systems across balance sheets expressed in a common unit of account is then presented, distinguishing between a purely notional unit of account and means of settlement or discharge of debt. The final section addresses the possibility of a fundamentally different modern extension of this alternative approach that is not inspired by digital technology, distributed ledger accounting, or application operating on a mobile/cell phone system, but rather the actually existing system available from an internet telephone service provider that currently offers subsidiary domestic and international payment services whose operating procedures come close to replicating the alternative explanation of money mentioned above, with the potential to provide all the services of the existing payments system at lower costs and greater stability.

The article describes models, called notional models, which are based on primary mental abstractions: identification, generalization, and association. The process of abstraction does not depend on any subject domain, but is determined only by the abilities of the cognizing human. A notional model consists of a notional structure and contents of notions. The notional structure describes each notion as a set of other notions united by one of the mental abstractions. The content of notions is described using various enumerating and resolving procedures. Refusal to describe associations as links between concepts makes the notional model semantically invariant, improves the transparency of notional models, and allows you to create intelligent information systems with a linear or logarithmic estimate of query execution time. These effects are because associations between notions are notions. Another difference between the conceptual and the notional models is the description of notions in several aspects simultaneously.

This chapter discusses the methodologies for measurement/estimation of various water productivity functions at the plant, plot/field, system, and basin levels, which is a synthesis of published works of various scholars. While doing so, it explains the difference between “notional water saving” and “real water saving” in irrigation, using the terms “consumed fraction” and “nonconsumed fraction.” It also provides a detailed discussion on the indicators for measuring the performance of crops and agriculture with regard to changes/improvement in water productivity at various scales. It also provides a review of select studies that deal with measurement/assessment of water productivity in agriculture at various scales, with subsections on the less researched topics of spatial variation in crop water productivity, and the impact of mulching and climate change on crop yield and crop water productivity.

This chapter explores how international schools successfully establish a global orientation for their communities. It draws on ethnographic data to examine the strategies that were employed by the International School of Germany (ISG) to feature ‘the global’ as a community aspiration and educational symbol that met its market demands. It argues that ‘the global’ works as an imaginary—an orientation, or framework—that situates the institution and its community within a notional ‘global’ context. However, it requires defining and contextualisation on an organisational level in order to create more concrete meanings that are relevant to its particular community and their circumstances. This chapter shows how the ‘global’ is market-driven, and comes to life in very particular ways which benefits the international school and its community of both host national and expatriate families.

The objective of the paper is to analyse changes in food commodity prices and estimate the potential effects of food price change on nutrition security in Nepal in the context of COVID-19 contagion control measures. It presents a comparative intra-country observational study design looking at events before and during the pandemic (after implementation of contagion control measures). The study design includes three districts, enabling comparison between diverse agro-ecological zones and geographical contexts. The methodology consists of primary data collection, modelling and quantitative analysis. The analysis is based on actual school meal food baskets which represent culturally and nutritionally optimised food baskets, developed by the local community and notional typical household food baskets. End May/early June 2020 is the ‘Post-COVID-19’ reference point, the same time period in 2019 i.e. June 2019 is the ‘Pre-COVID-19’ reference point. The study finds a substantial increase in food commodity prices across food groups and districts with marked inter-district variation. For school meal basket, all micronutrients show large average declines ranging from 9⋅5 % for zinc to 11 % for vitamin-A. For household food baskets on average, vitamin-A reduced 37 % followed by iron at 19 %, reduction in zinc is low due to the high zinc content in whole grain cereals. COVID-19 control measures are likely to have contributed to substantial price inflation over the reference period with potentially damaging effects on nutrition security in Nepal with serious implications for vulnerable populations.

The World Health Organization recommends that "palliative care should be integrated as a routine element of all Undergraduate Medical Education." However, the provision of training for medical undergraduates is variable; only 18% of 51 European countries have mandatory training in palliative medicine. EDUPALL is an ERASMUS+ funded international collaborative project to develop and pilot an undergraduate program for training in palliative medicine. The objective of this study was to critically review and revise current European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Recommendations for the Development of Undergraduate Curricula in Palliative Medicine and translating these into an updated curriculum document. Clinicians, academics, and researchers from Romania, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Spain, and the United Kingdom reviewed the EAPC recommendations using a variant of consensus methodology, Nominal Group Technique. From the updated document, four working-groups translated each recommendation into a specific learning objective, and developed associated learning outcomes, stratified by domain: attitude, cognition, and skills. The outcomes and objectives were organized into discrete teaching units and transferred into a curriculum template, identifying notional hours, teaching, and assessment strategies. To ensure quality control, the draft template was circulated to experts from 17 European countries, together with a brief survey instrument, for peer review purposes. All 17 reviewers returned overwhelmingly positive comments. There was large agreement that: the teaching units were logically organized; learning outcomes covered core training needs; learning objectives provided guidance for teaching sessions; learning modalities were appropriately aligned; and assessment strategies were fit for purpose. An updated and standardized curriculum was developed, which provides a platform for the sequential development of the next phases of the EDUPALL project.

Satori is a proposed design framework that optimizes the intelligence carrying capacity of messages within and between systems. Closer inspection yields a Meta Object Facility (MOF), similar to CORDA, but for decentralized intelligence systems. The design goal of this framework is to reduce costs and operating risks while optimizing business intelligence in the financial services and the integral role these play in adjacent sectors. At maturity, the notional MOF architecture can discern domain expert intents without extrinsic rules or intrinsic attribute dependencies. With the appropriate expert and sovereign jurisdictional attribution in place, such a MOF should enable decentralized intelligence systems to function as oracles of jurisprudential intent that can scale with the potentially asymptotic tokenization of new securities and asset classes for physical and digital systems. TOPICS:Currency, portfolio construction, wealth management

This study aimed to explore the Pakistani secondary teachers' perceptions towards teaching English in large classes and to find out how they coped with the challenges which come with teaching such classes. The data was collected through semi structured interviews, with eight secondary school teachers currently working in the public sector schools of Lahore, Pakistan. The data was analyzed inductively through repeated engagement with the interview transcripts. Research results indicated that teaching large classes had many issues and problems, such as lack of space, facilities and resources; inability to pay attention to every student; high noise levels; time constraints; problems with assessment of a large number of students; and limited opportunities of interaction between teacher-student and student-student. The discussion highlighted the teaching and learning strategies employed by teachers in their classrooms in the Pakistani context, which include the use of pair and group work, notional time, peer correction and self-editing to improve assessment.

The term "the machine" is commonly used to refer to the complicated physical hardware running similarly complex software that ultimately executes programs. The idea that programmers write programs for a notional machine - an abstract model of an execution environment - not the machine itself, has risen to the point of gaining acceptance as a useful device in computing education. This has seeded a growing discussion about how explicitly utilizing notional machines in teaching can help students construct more accurate mental models, which is essential for learning programming. Much of the existing literature necessarily involves specific languages, visualization, and/or facilitating tools, and is not very accessible to many practitioners. Less focus has been put on how teachers can make explicit use of notional machines in their teaching. In this paper we describe notional machines and their use in a manner that is more accessible to a general educator audience in order to facilitate more effective computing education at all levels. We advocate explicitly delineating between visualization tools and the notional machines they depict, isolating and clarifying the notional machine so that it is conspicuous, apparent and useful. We present examples of how this approach can facilitate a more consistent method of teaching computing, and be used in more effective pedagogical practice for teaching computing.

While developed nations are accustomed to the challenge of intermittent renewable sources on a stable grid, for the developing world, the problem is different: the grid itself is unreliable. Those affected turn to diesel backup generators. Once this investment has been made, resistance hardens against investments in more sustainable alternatives. However, the high cost of diesel makes a case for diesel+solar hybrids - already commonplace for off-grid applications - in these grid-tied systems as well. Displacing diesel fuel for just a few hundred hours each year can raise the project rate of return by several percent. The benefit of grid-tied diesel+solar is illustrated using a notional commercial/industrial PV project in India.

In a defense landscape driven by increasing automation, larger operation scale, higher op-tempo, and tighter integrations across multiple domains, how do emerging advances in computing technology empower future defense concepts and operations? The paper overviews the notion of a multi-domain operations (MDO) effect loop as an organizing principle for military operations and information-driven decision processes. It then highlights recent advances in artificial intelligence, information theory, distributed sensing, and network optimization that significantly enhance the capabilities of different loop components, as illustrated by notional defense scenarios.

The reality of global warming must have been settled by now while the incidence of same has in very recent times adopted unprecedented dimensions. The global community continues to look for ways to combat the impact of climate change and technology is looked upon to deliver the innovations that would ensure a better tomorrow today. Rapid advancement of Information Technology (IT), is now transforming the way we create and interact with the built environment with the notion of Intelligent Buildings (IBs) underscoring its main features. However, these IBs utilize systems that require energy, and fossil fuels are currently the world’s primary energy sources; they can also irreparably harm the environment, exacerbating climate change. What then is the true essence of IBs? This paper, through review of existing literature, attempts to explore some issues associated with the conceptualization of IBs, highlighting how they are similar with other notional options that deliver the same benefits but without the needed IT systems or the energy required in running them. It also discusses the need to focus on less energy demanding and management approaches at design or occupancy of buildings as a way to reduce the demand and thus consumption of fossil fuels across the world.

This article presents a sensitivity analysis investigating the impact of using high-resolution site conditions databases in portfolio earthquake loss estimation. This article also estimates the effects of variability in the site condition databases on probabilistic earthquake loss ratios and their geographical pattern with respect to structural characteristics of different building types. To perform the earthquake loss estimation here, the OpenQuake software developed by Global Earthquake Model is implemented in Clemson University’s supercomputer. The probabilistic event-based risk analysis is employed considering several notional portfolios of different building types in the San Francisco area as the inventory exposure. This analysis produces the stochastic event sets worth for 10,000 years including almost 8000 synthetically simulated earthquakes. Then, the ground motion prediction equations are used to calculate the ground motion per event and incorporate the effect of five site conditions, on amplifying or de-amplifying the ground motions on notional building exposure locations. Notional buildings are used to account for various building characteristics in conformance with the building taxonomy represented in HAZUS software. The HAZUS damage functions are applied to model the vulnerability of various structural types of buildings. Finally, the 50-year average mean loss and probabilistic loss for multiple values for probability of exceedance (2, 10, 20, and 40%) in 50 years are calculated, and the impact of different site condition databases on portfolio loss ratios is investigated for different structural types and heights of buildings. The results show the aggregated and geographical variation of loss and loss ratio throughout the region for various site conditions. Comparing the aggregated loss and loss ratio, while considering different databases, represents normalized differences that are limited to 6% for all building taxonomy with various heights and for all PoEs. However, site-specific loss ratio errors are significantly greater and in some cases are more than 20%.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine if the hedging strategy of the firm adds value to the firm, and if so, is the source of the benefit consistent with the hedging theory? Design/methodology/approach The paper used data from 129 top non-financial Indian companies spanning a period of 2008-2015 and analyzed using the ordinary least squares regression technique. Findings The study finds that firms engaged in hedging compared to non-hedgers have less volatility in the firm’s value. The use of hedging during the financial crisis is found to be value enhancing for the hedgers. The results also found that some firms do not disclose the notional value of derivatives clearly, which highlights the need of clear regulation for derivative declaration in the annual reports. Research limitations/implications Research implications of this study are to gain an insight into the hedging effectiveness in the highly volatile Indian market as compared to developed countries. High volatility in the exchange rate of Indian rupee further makes it one of the most relevant markets to study the effect of hedging on the firm’s value. Practical implications Mostly hedging is done purely for risk management, and if managers try to time the market by selective hedging, it can bring a negative impact for the firm. Findings show that managers should manage their hedging strategy based on changing the economic environment and not purely on the firms’ financial value. Originality/value To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first study to extract the dollar value of derivative usage of sample firms and analyze its effectiveness in enhancing firm value in the presence of other financial parameters. This will be an advancement of previous studies, which used hedging as a dummy variable only. Most studies on this topic are carried out in developed countries; there is a limited research on developing markets such as India, and past studies have been more generic one like determinants of hedging and overall derivative scenario.

We present a self-organizing approach to sentence processing that sheds new light on notional plurality effects in agreement attraction, using pseudopartitive subject noun phrases (e.g., a bottle of pills). We first show that notional plurality ratings (numerosity judgments for subject noun phrases) predict verb agreement choices in pseudopartitives, in line with the "Marking" component of the Marking and Morphing theory of agreement processing. However, no account to date has derived notional plurality values from independently needed principles of language processing. We argue on the basis of new experimental evidence and a dynamical systems model that the theoretical black box of notional plurality can be unpacked into objectively measurable semantic features. With these semantic features driving structure formation (and hence agreement choice), our model reproduces the human verb production patterns as a byproduct of normal processing. Finally, we discuss how the self-organizing approach might be extended to other agreement attraction phenomena.

In The Woodlanders (1887), Hardy uses the texture of Hintock woodlands as more than description: it is a terrain of personal association and local history, a text to be negotiated in order to comprehend the narrative trajectory. However, upon closer analysis of these arboreal environs, it is evident that these woodscapes are simultaneously self-contained and multi-layered in space and time. This essay proposes that through this complex topographical construction, Hardy invites the reader to read this text within a physical and notional stratigraphical framework. This framework shares similarities with William Gilpin's picturesque viewpoint and the geological work of Gideon Mantell: two modes of vision that changed the observation of landscape in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This comparative discussion at once reviews the perception of the arboreal prospect in nineteenth-century literary and visual cultures, and also questions the impact of these modes of thought on the woodscapes of The Woodlanders.

In 2011, ABC Television’s Four Corners broadcast “A Bloody Business”. The program’s confronting subject was the live cattle trade to Indonesia, and in particular, disturbing slaughtering practices. Notable was repeated use of the phrases “Australian cattle”, “Australian livestock” and “Australian animals”. The inference was that these were “our” cattle, some of which suffered shockingly cruel deaths. The implicit nationalism informing the program’s emotional provocation begs the question in what sense were the cattle, an introduced cloven-hooved domesticated animal, Australian? This raises related questions: if cattle are “ours”, why not other exotic flora and fauna, and what of settlers and more recent immigrants too? After briefly discussing this program, the paper considers a range of different engagements with Australian landscapes. Of principal interest are affinities to landscape based on social organisation. Pivotal to this are notions of lifescapes and emotional geographies. These notions ...

The article is dedicated to the contrastive study of the linguocultural concept CHARM / ЧАРІВНІСТЬ in the English and Ukrainian languages. The work considers notional features of the given concepts on the basis of componential analysis of the lexemes-nominations. In modern linguistics “concept” is defined as a mental unity which consists of heterogeneous units. The complex structure of any concept includes different features, such as motivational, notional, associative and evaluative. Notional features are foregrounded in the dictionary definitions of the lexemes-nominations as a system of semantic components (semes) and in the synonymic nominations. The lexemes charm and чарівність are direct nominations of the corresponding concepts in the English and Ukrainian languages. The study of their etymology, dictionary definitions and lexical valency is the most informative way of revealing the structure of the analyzed concepts.

There are important synergies between the trust of blockchain and that of trusts law. This article critically examines the intersection between law and blockchain technology through an exploration of the notional impacts upon orthodox practices and principles of trusts law made by blockchain and other “disruptive” technologies, including smart property and the Internet of Things.

Fuel cells are considered the most promising path to increased endurance of electric-powered small unmanned aircraft. Recent progress in fuel cell technology and hydrogen storage has resulted in several demonstrator platforms with formidable endurance. However, further research and development is needed to transition to widespread use. To help guide this changeover this paper presents a comprehensive overview of recent research activities, and highlights research challenges and opportunities. Firstly, benefits of fuel cells for unmanned vehicle propulsion are covered, and some challenges are identified. An overview of some notional demonstrator vehicles is given next to provide a panoramic view of progress made and the current state-of-the-art. Following this, research in fuel storage technology and hybridisation efforts are separately surveyed and discussed. Finally, some recommended future research areas are identified before conclusions are drawn.

Billions of dollars lost to natural disasters such as hurricanes are associated with infrastructure damage and power interruptions. Most utilities have radially operated systems and the existing supporting infrastructure may not provide possibilities to restore power from other substations that are not within the disaster areas. This would lower reliability during hazards especially for customers that are downstream of affected parts of the system. A potential strategy to remedy such situations entails extending feeders from different substations in the vicinity and connecting them with affected feeder lines from other substations. This paper presents a framework to study the effectiveness of constructing additional lines with switching devices to connect feeders from different substations to improve system performance. The framework incorporates a hurricane hazard model, a topologically based system performance measure, and cost analysis. A notional power distribution system of parts of Florida i...

Memes have become one of the most important mediafenomen of our time due to the clarity of their visual language, the notional accessibility and the convenience of retransmission in the field of network communities. Analysis of semantics of modern art-memes makes possible to identify the most important sociocultural discourses for the mass audience, as well as to determine the field of resonance of the newest cultural trends and images of classical art.

Armed conflict in Afghanistan has continued for close to 40 years and has devastated its health infrastructure. The lack of a cancer care infrastructure has meant that many Afghans seek cancer care in neighbouring countries, like Pakistan. There remains a significant lack of empirical data on the new therapeutic geographies of cancer in contemporary conflicts. This retrospective single centre study explores the therapeutic and clinical geographies of Afghan cancer patients who were treated at the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (SKMCH&RC) in Lahore, Pakistan over a 22-year-period (1995 to 2017) covering major periods of conflict and relative peace. Data was available for 3,489 Afghan patients who received treatment at SKMCH&RC. The mean age at presentation was 42.7 years, and 60% were men. 30.2% came from Kabul and Nangarhar districts of Afghanistan, which have relatively short travel times to Pakistan, but patients from all parts of Afghanistan migrated to SKMCH&RC for treatment. Overall, 34.1% were diagnosed with upper gastrointestinal malignancies and 55.7% presented with late stage III/IV cancer. A wide range of treatments were provided, with 25.4% of patients receiving a combination of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. 52.7% of all patients were lost to follow-up. Outcomes were more favourable for children with cancer, 42% of whom had a complete response to therapy. Complex migration patterns, mixed political economies (refugees, forced and unforced migrants) and models of care that must be adapted to the realities of the patients rather than notional international standards all reflect the new therapeutic geographies that long-term conflict creates. This requires significant new domestic and international (e.g., United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) policy and practises for providing cancer care in today's contemporary conflict ecosystems that frequently cross national borders.

The chapter explores the core elements of qualitative field work and how new technologies have influenced the implementation of these methods. Seminal texts are referenced to guide the reader to build their expertise. The dominant discourse of positivist science in health care research has diminished the valuable place of qualitative data to that of illustration, a quote or notional reference. This runs counter to patient and public involvement in research and giving voice to the vulnerable or under represented. This chapter will explore new ways to build field research methods and offer practical advice on how to implement them. Examples of creative collaborations intended to capture funders attention, have been cited to demonstrate how multiple perspectives on the ‘problem’ that is being researched can be addressed.

In theory, well designed electricity markets should deliver an efficient mix of technologies at least-cost. But energy market theories and energy market modelling are based upon equilibrium analysis and in practice electricity markets can be off-equilibrium for extended periods. Near-term spot and forward contract prices can and do fall well below, or substantially exceed, relevant entry cost benchmarks and associated long run equilibrium prices. However, given sufficient time higher prices, on average or during certain periods, create incentives for new entrant plant which in turn has the effect of capping longer-dated average spot price expectations at the estimated cost of the relevant new entrant technologies. In this article, we trace generalised new entrant benchmarks and their relationship to spot price outcomes in Australia’s National Electricity Market over the 20-year period to 2018; from coal, to gas and more recently to variable renewables plus firming, notionally provided by—or shadow priced at—the carrying cost of an Open Cycle Gas Turbine. This latest entry benchmark relies implicitly, but critically, on the gains from exchange in organised spot markets, using existing spare capacity. As aging coal plant exit, gains from exchange may gradually diminish with ‘notional firming’ increasingly and necessarily being met by physical firming. At this point, the benchmark must once again move to a new technology set…

Analysis of Russian military capabilities reveals stark limitations in Russia's ability to safely and effectively deploy and sustain ground forces around the world. Notional deployment scenarios highlight a lack of readily deployable forces and transportation assets and limited freedom of movement. Collectively, these challenges suggest a modern Russian force that is far less deployable than the Soviet military it replaced.

Recently, a number of structured funds have emerged as public-private partnerships with the intent of promoting investment in renewable energy in emerging markets. These funds seek to attract institutional investors by tranching the asset pool and issuing senior notes with a high credit quality. Financing of renewable energy (RE) projects is achieved via two channels: small RE projects are financed indirectly through local banks that draw loans from the fund’s assets, whereas large RE projects are directly financed from the fund. In a bottom-up Gaussian copula framework, we examine the diversification properties and RE exposure of the senior tranche. To this end, we introduce the LH++ model, which combines a homogeneous infinitely granular loan portfolio with a finite number of large loans. Using expected tranche percentage notional (which takes a similar role as the default probability of a loan), tranche prices and tranche sensitivities in RE loans, we analyse the risk profile of the senior tranche. We show how the mix of indirect and direct RE investments in the asset pool affects the sensitivity of the senior tranche to RE investments and how to balance a desired sensitivity with a target credit quality and target tranche size.