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Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) is an increasingly available and popular method of visual field augmentation. The basic premise of FGS entails injection of fluorescent indocyanine green (ICG) and subsequent detection with a near-infrared (NIR) camera. For pediatric surgical oncologists, FGS remains experimental but is a promising modality for identifying tumor margins, locating metastases, performing sentinel lymph node biopsies, protecting peritumoral structures of interest, and facilitating reconstruction. Familiarity with basic ICG pharmacokinetics and NIR detection optics is critical for surgeons wishing to judiciously use FGS, as its success is firmly grounded in a thorough understanding of its capabilities and limitations. In this practical guide, we outline several well-described and innovative FGS applications by disease type, including their methods of administration, modes of detection, and typical ICG dosing paradigms. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: V.

This chapter argues that there is no one universal approach to competition law and that the design and enforcement of competition law needs to take into account the political, economic, and social circumstances of the country. Given the overwhelming obstacles to attaining economic growth and development, economic policies in a developing country must be tailored to maximize the prospect of growth and development. This means that competition law enforcement should aim to promote growth and meet development needs, even if this may lead to conflict with other objectives of competition law such as the protection of consumer welfare and the pursuit of economic efficiency. Moreover, the various classifications of developing countries suggest that there is significant diversity among them. Indeed, there are likely to be significant differences in terms of market conditions among developing countries. Thus, it is unlikely that there is a single approach to competition law enforcement suitable for all of them.

Learning Assistance by Demonstration (LAD) is concerned with using demonstrations of a human agent to teach a robot how to assist another human. The concept has previously been used with smart wheelchairs to provide customised assistance to individuals with driving difficulties. A basic premise of this technique is that the learned assistive policy should be able to generalise to environments different than the ones used for training; but this has not been tested before. In this work we evaluate the assistive power and the generalisation capability of LAD using our custom teleoperation and learning system for smart wheelchairs, while seeking to improve it by experimenting with different combinations of dimensionality reduction techniques and machine learning models. Using Autoencoders to reduce the dimension of laserscan data and a Gaussian Process as the learning model, we achieved a 23% improvement in prediction performance against the combination used by the latest work on the field. Using this model to assist a driver exposed to a simulated disability, we observed a 9.8% reduction in track completion times when compared to driving without assistance.

In its historical dimension, the concept of Africanization, has served a descriptive or interpretative role aimed at explaining how African societies have been affected by their contact with non-African societies and vice-versa. In its normative dimension, the concept of Africanization is used to address the destruction of African cultures and values through the processes of slave trade, colonialism and neo-colonialism. In this chapter, author explains how these two dimensions of the concept of Africanization have appeared in academic and policy discussions. He provides a few examples of these uses in an attempt to illustrate that even though the goals pursued within these two contexts are different, their usefulness and relevance depends largely on being able to rely on one another. The basic premise underlining normative uses of the concept of Africanization states that European systems of knowledge and European institutions cannot adequately guide the exploration of African realities and cannot serve the needs of African peoples.

The population genetics investigation of STR loci in specific populations is the basic premise for forensic practice, and the AmpFlSTRTM IdentifilerTM Plus kit is still widely used in most forensic DNA laboratories. To obtain more reliable and accurate population genetic data of 15 autosomal STRs in the Shandong Han population and explore the genetic relationship with 25 neighbouring Chinese populations. A total of 5356 unrelated Chinese Han individuals from Shandong Province were genotyped using the IdentifilerTM Plus Kit. Allele frequencies and corresponding forensic statistical parameters were calculated. Population comparisons were further explored through the neighbour-joining tree and multidimensional scaling analysis. A total of 217 alleles were calculated, the allele frequencies spanned from 0.0001 to 0.5340. The combined discrimination power (CDP) and the combined probability of paternity (CPE) of 15 STR loci were 0.99999999999999998755 and 0.999994524, respectively. Population comparisons demonstrated that Shandong Han have genetic homogeneity with most Sino-Tibetan populations. Our study updates the Shandong Han population database with a large sample size. These 15 STR loci in the Shandong Han population are more polymorphic and discriminatory than shown in previous data, which could be more applicable to personal identification and paternity testing, as well other population genetics studies.

A premissa básica na qual se fundamenta o estudo feito da obra de João Ubaldo Ribeiro consiste em se reafirmar que o ser mulher bem como o ser homem são constructos apreendidos socialmente. A despeito das inúmeras disjunções temporais e espaciais, depreende-se do texto de Viva o Povo Brasileiro uma série de características marcadoras do aprendizado das feminilidades e masculinidades, que não apenas retratam a mulher e o homem no decorrer da construção da nação brasileira até a contemporaneidade no Brasil como no mundo, pelo menos ocidental. Desde os primórdios da cultura brasileira, a menina tem aprendido que ser mulher é saber cuidar de crianças, cozinhar, lavar, passar, cuidar da casa e do marido; ser mulher é adotar a postura do servir, do submeter-se, do obedecer ao pai, irmão, companheiro, etc.; é também ser dependente, passiva, dócil, carinhosa, gentil, paciente, emotiva, agradável e mais uma série interminável de ‘atributos’ tidos como femininos. O menino, por outro lado, aprende que ser homem é ter sob seu comando as experiências dos outros, especialmente das mulheres, é poder tomar decisões por todo um grupamento social como a família, é ser ativo, viril, corajoso, intransigente, forte, etc. Entretanto, associados à permanência de estereótipos distintos que atravessam a história da humanidade, com um ‘olhar de gênero’ vislumbra-se também em Viva o Povo Brasileiro a existência de rupturas em alguns papéis de gênero femininos e masculinos historicamente construídos, sem que, contudo, tenham sido traduzidas ao longo do tempo em mudanças significativas nas relações de poder entre homens e mulheres.

We conduct an experiment with a representative sample from the US to study households’ demand for macroeconomic information. Respondents who learn of a higher personal exposure to unemployment risk during recessions increase their demand for an expert forecast about the likelihood of a recession. Our findings are consistent with the basic premise of theories of rational inattention that demand for information depends on its expected benefit. Moreover, the fact that perceived risk exposure responds to information highlights frictions in households’ knowledge about the personal relevance of particular pieces of information. Our findings inform the modeling of information frictions in macroeconomics.

Childers is best known for The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service (1903), an early spy novel which became hugely popular in Britain during the years leading up to the beginning of World War One. Its basic premise, that a German invasion of the British Isles was imminent, made it highly topical, placing it at the centre of a national debate about Britain’s international position and its imperial decline.

In this study I shall seek to demonstrate the basic premise of these chapters regarding the prevalence and impact of webs of violence. In this case, I show that a web of violence can exist in a primarily egalitarian culture such as the Western Dani in West Papua, Indonesia, as a social response to individuals who fail to participate in those activities that contribute to the common good of the members of that society. Punishment or control over such individuals is graded in severity according to the nature of the offense while at the same time seeking to control the adverse aspects of war and violence in their desire to pursue a state of relative peace.

This chapter discusses the need for the next generation of travel demand models. Tracing the origins of the IATBR from its first conference, many advances in travel demand modeling have occurred, notably the widespread adoption of random utility-based modeling methods, increasing implementation of activity-based (or, more typically, tour-based) models, and acceptance of microsimulation (in many quarters at least) as a practical computational approach for dealing with disaggregate, heterogeneous trip-makers. We are now in an era where the transportation field is being disrupted in ways that have not been experienced during the past 100 years. Not only are these disruptions fundamentally changing our transportation systems, but they are also posing new and very difficult challenges to even the best of our current travel demand models. Indeed, the basic premise of this chapter is that our current models are inadequate to analyze this “brave new world” of new technologies and services. The policy needed to be able to model and evaluate these disruptions, however, is great. Thus, it is urgently required to develop and test new travel demand models that are capable of credibly dealing with this emerging new world and to help guide policies that will ensure that these coming changes will, in fact, result in more equitable and sustainable urban regions, rather than the reverse. Section 2 of this chapter briefly discusses a few of these key disruptions and some of the challenges that they pose to the current travel demand modeling state of practice/art. To frame the discussion of travel demand modeling R&D needs to address these challenges, Section 3 defines the “four pillars” of modeling. Based on these four pillars, four “provocations” concerning modeling challenges and needs are introduced that are then discussed in detail in Sections 4–7, respectively. Section 8, concludes the chapter by summarizing the preceding discussions in terms of recommendations concerning key steps that need to be taken toward development of a next generation of advanced travel demand models. Taking these steps will, indeed, require bold actions that, if successful, will take us into new policy analysis and modeling territories.

This paper reviews Faff (2018) with particular emphasis on the Qualitative Pitch proposed by Lodhia (2017). In the spirit of constructive engagement envisioned by Faff (2018), the purpose of this paper is to revisit the Qualitative Pitch and to clarify any misconceptions or misunderstandings. This paper is nota critique but rather a reflective piece on the potential offered by the Qualitative Pitch as a viable tool for pitching qualitative research ideas. The basic premise of this paper is that the Qualitative Pitch, drawing upon Faff’s (2015) pitching template, provides qualitative researchers with specific tools and a consistent framework for articulating qualitative research. It is therefore proposed that the Qualitative Pitch should be the used as the initial template for designing qualitative research projects rather than being transitioned to once a threshold barrier is reached Refereed/Peer-reviewed

In this study, we propose optional randomized response technique (RRT) models in binary response situation. Gupta, Gupta, and Singh (2002) introduced the basic premise of optional RRT model, that a...

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar comparativamente as narrativas Umbra, de Plinio Cabral e O Cacador de Androides, de Philip K. Dick, a luz da teoria ecofeminista. Com este proposito, sera analisada a presenca da natureza nas obras e a forma como ela e descrita enfatizando, sobretudo, um item comum as duas narrativas, que e a destruicao do meio-ambiente. De acordo com Greta Gaard (1993, p. 1), “ ecofeminism's basic premise is that the ideology which authorizes oppressions such as those based on race, class, gender, sexuality, physical abilities, and species is the same ideology which sanctions the oppression of nature” (1993, p. 1) . A semelhanca entre a mulher e a natureza deve-se tanto ao fato de ambas serem geradoras de vida, como tambem pela exploracao que ambas sao submetidas ao longo da historia. As distopias de Plinio Cabral e Dick sao construidas com base na acao subversiva e desregrada do homem em relacao a natureza, ao passo que a sociedade descrita nas obras sofre com as consequencias de seus atos. As narrativas em questao causam desconforto e estimulam a reflexao. A analise sera feita de modo a buscar pontos de convergencia e divergencia entre as obras. O foco da analise e buscar a reflexao sobre a ecologia feita pelos autores, a fim de enriquecer os estudos sobre o ecofeminismo na literatura. Palavras-chave : Ecofeminismo. Umbra. O cacador Androides. ABSTRACT The present work aims to comparatively analyze the narratives Umbra by Plinio Cabral and O Cacador de Androides by Philip K. Dick in the light of the ecofeminist theory. With this purpose, we will analyze the presence of nature in the works and how it is described, emphasizing, above all, an item common to both narratives, which is the destruction of the environment. According to Greta Gaard (1993, p. 1) "ecofeminism's basic premise is that the ideology which authorizes oppressions such as those based on race, class, gender, sexuality, physical abilities, and species is the same ideology which sanctions the oppression of nature". The similarity between woman and nature is due both to the fact that both are generative of life, but also because of the exploitation both of them have undergone throughout history. The dystopias of Plinio Cabral and Dick are constructed on the basis of the subversive and unruly action of man in relation to nature, whereas the society described in the works suffers with the consequences of his acts. The narratives in question cause discomfort and stimulate reflection. The analysis will be done in order to seek points of convergence and divergence between the works. The focus of the analysis is to seek the reflection on the ecology made by the authors, in order to enrich the studies on ecofeminism in the literature. Keywords : Ecofeminism. Umbra. O Cacador de Androides.

The indiccatory forecasting of coastal zone changes is extremely important in view of proper management of this zone. Intense pressure on the development of coastal areas makes the importance of forecasting changes increased. The study presents prognostic variants (forecasts) for various development trends of the micro-tidal, wave dominated sea coast (Polish part of the Southern Baltic Sea) in the next 15 years. The main idea was to compare changes and to analyse them using various geoprocessing and statistical techniques based on the spatial analyses of different cartographical materials and extrapolation of historical trends. The basic premise for achieving this objective was to implement the problem-solving principle that makes the fewest possible assumptions. The performed works aimed at mapping the course of the shoreline at various time periods revealed significant changes in its location. All the presented forecasts (“shoreline extrapolation models” and “averaged shoreline changes model”) are characterized by certain volatility and specific features. In authors' opinion the “averaged shoreline changes model” is the most suitable for bulk visualization of shoreline changes. It averages short-term variables that can affect transparency of the image. It also allows avoiding the accumulation of errors that can have an imprint on shoreline variations. The largest forecasted shoreline changes may exceed 100 m. However, this value is highly controversial. The forecast based on the course of the dune base shows more stable situation and the expected changes have a marginal extent. The biggest differences between the two prognostic lines generated basing on the rate from periods 2010–2016 and 2001–2016 can reach up to 40 m. The “averaged shoreline changes model” (which in authors' opinion is the most suitable for bulk visualization) indicates the shoreline changes will affect the beach-wide part of the coast (up to almost 70 m). The biggest dislocation of shoreline will occur in the area of the most intense erosion (vicinity of 144–145 km and 155.5 km) and can affect the dune base.

High-density single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) array is a basic premise for its application in nanoelectronic devices in the future. Generally, it is considered that the improvement in catalyst efficiency is a possible route to increase the density. Here, we designed a multiple-catalysts reactivation method to increase the catalyst efficiency. By multiple H2 treatment, we could successfully improve the density of the SWNT arrays by an average of 65%. Moreover, a new model to describe the multiple-catalysts reactivation process was established to deeply understand the mechanism of catalyst poisoning, and two possible types of catalyst poisoning: physical poisoning (PP) and structural poisoning (SP) were proposed. Only poisoned catalysts with PP type could be reactivated to produce new carbon nanotubes. By comparing different metal catalysts, we found that the ratio of PP to SP catalysts was highly related to the growth model, including vapor–solid (VS) and vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) model. Specifically, c...

Caring as Unending Expression of Nursing (CUEN) emerged to describe clinical nursing practice as basis to knowledge development of the discipline. This is grounded in the theory of Nursing as Caring. Concepts, theories and statements are derived-synthesized and critically analyzed using Explanatory multivariate regression tree (MRT) as an approach to develop the new theory. Based from analyses, CUEN Theory sees the person as dignified being, who lives and grows in caring environment from moment-to-moment. The person is whole and complete as he embodies the caring attitude by virtueof his humanness. The basic premise of CUEN is that all human beings are caring in nature; and that anybody showing and doing expressions of unending care is considered a nurse because to be human is to be called to live one's innate caring nature. The caring according to this theory is intentional expression of nursing care to the nursed, who is recognized as person, living, growing in caring environment. CUEN assumed that Personhood is a process of living grounded in caring and Personhood is enhanced through nurturing relationships by caring for others. The practice of CUEN becomes evident when the nurse acknowledges herself as tool for caring; communicates properly in a manner so that it transpired in the nursing situation; offers option so patient makes choices without coercion or force; and conjointly advanced to materialize the identified options. The complete execution of the recognized intervention will come to play thus creating nursing situation. It is recommended that CUEN be applied to practice for validation in the light of the different philosophical bases.

Ecocentrism refers to valuing nature for its own sake. This ecophilosophical orientation requires that all social practices incorporate ecological sensitivities and heightened awareness of the intrinsic value of non-human entities. This article explores what ecocentrism means for criminal justice and how the core principles of an ecocentric worldview translate into concrete application. Trends within criminal justice that are broadly supportive or reflective of ecocentrism are summarized. The article also considers the limitations of ecocentrism, particularly in the context of criminal law and in regards to the prosecution of human subjects for environmental offences. A basic premise of the article is that for those interested in eco-justice and green criminology, it is vitally important to describe what an eco-just future might look like, and this includes recognition of and support for already existing ecocentric initiatives evident in some policies and practices across criminal justice institutions.

The first year and half of Trump’s presidency has demonstrated a visible departure from the Obama’s policy in West Asia. While the basic premise of the two administrations of protecting American national interest remains, their methods are significantly different. Obama wanted to move away while Trump has retrenched the USA in regional affairs. While Trump is being accused of taking rash decisions and pushing the region into further chaos, Obama’s hands-off policy did not prevent the regional turmoil either. The common chord between Obama’s legacy and Trump’s policies in West Asia is that the USA is losing ground to emerging global powers, such as Russia and China despite remaining the predominant security guarantor.

Purpose Education is a natural process of improvement. Education’s specific features and challenges include a large number of students, with different psychophysical characteristics, simultaneously taking part in a lesson. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that can help to meet the challenges of classroom teaching. Design/methodology/approach The principle of “equal opportunities in education” is adopted as the basic premise to improve education. The general sustainability model developed by the author is used as a reference model to analyze the sustainability of the education process. Findings The following elements of the process of sustainable development in education are defined: the improvement micro-projects, as the basic form of using and developing students’ knowledge, and the principles of sustainable development in the classroom as conditions necessary for the effectiveness of micro-projects, in the teaching process carried out in the classroom. They point to the key role of the teacher as the leader in the improvement process. Originality/value The principles of sustainable development define the conditions necessary to ensure the development of the reserve of the students’ knowledge capacity and the possibilities of using it in the classroom teaching process. The micro-project system enables personalization of the teaching process through the use of the capacity reserve contributed by students.

Every day unexpected incidents happen in the laboratory and each such incident provides experience that supports the learning process. The basic premise of the Chemical Safety Library (CSL) project, undertaken by the Pistoia Alliance, is that these learnings should be shared with the wider community so that everyone who works in a lab has an opportunity to learn from those unexpected reaction outcomes. In this paper, we will discuss the importance of community sharing to promote safety, the conceptualization and implementation of the CSL project, the results since the launch of the CSL service, next steps, and some thoughts on how this data collection could be leveraged in the future.

The travel-time averaged shear-wave velocity to a depth of 30m (Vs30) below the Earth’s surface is widely used to classify sites in many building codes. Vs30 is also used to estimate site classification in recent ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs), and the distribution of Vs30 has been mapped in a region or country. An alternative method has recently been proposed for evaluating global seismic site conditions or Vs30, from the SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) DEMs (digital elevation models). The basic premise of the method is that the topographic slope can be used as a reliable proxy for Vs30 in the absence of geologically and geotechnically based site-condition maps through correlations between Vs30 measurements and topographic gradient. Here, we use different resolutions (3 arcsec, 30 arcsec) DEM data to get Vs30 data separately, analyze and compare the difference of Vs30 data and site conditions obtained from different resolution DEM data. Shandong Province in eastern China and Sichuan Province in Western China are studied respectively. It is found that the higher resolution data is better at defining spatial topographic features than the 30c data, but less improvement in its correlation with Vs30.

Advanced genomic tests in pregnancy, such as chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA), provide higher detection rates yet often produce probabilistic and uncertain information. This study aimed to understand how the most knowledgeable patients, i.e., pregnant genetic counselors, act in their own pregnancies, thereby gaining insight into the impact of patients' knowledge on the diagnostic process. Seventeen interviews were conducted with Israeli genetic counselors, either pregnant or up to 2 years post-pregnancy. A third of the participants chose not to have CMA while two thirds underwent it despite no detected abnormalities. Although knowledge was the main motivation, counselors varied in the desired degree of information. Two thirds of those opting for CMA wished to have all findings identified whereas roughly one third asked for a targeted platform seeking to avoid uncertain results. Counselors were not quick to adopt new tests such as whole-exome sequencing. Being knowledgeable was described as promoting a sense of control yet also being a source of stress and moral dilemmas. While the basic premise of informed consent is crucial, it does not always make things easier for educated patients. Consequently, raising levels of patient knowledge is only a limited step forward in the search for best practice.

In his new book, Luck Egalitarianism, Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen responds to challenges raised by social egalitarians against luck egalitarianism. Social egalitarianism is the view according to which a just society is one where people relate to each other as equals, while the basic premise of luck egalitarianism is that it is unfair if people are worse-off than others through no fault or choice of their own. Lippert-Rasmussen argues that the most important objections to luck egalitarianism made by social egalitarians can either be largely accommodated by luck egalitarians or lack the argumentative force that its proponents believe them to have. While Lippert-Rasmussen does offer a version of luck egalitarianism that seems to avoid some of the main lines of criticism, he mischaracterizes parts of both the form and the content of the disagreement, and thus ultimately misses the mark. In this paper, we provide a substantive, a methodological and a political defense of social egalitarianism by elaborating on this mischaracterization. More work must be done, we argue, if social egalitarianism is to be dismissed and its concerns genuinely incorporated in the luck egalitarian framework. Until this is done, the supposed theoretical superiority of luck egalitarianism remains contested.

Many theoretical methods for multiaxial fatigue life prediction are present in literature, most of them based on their effectiveness on knowledge of the entire stress time history. This represents the great applicative limit. The incapacity to study real situations, not only deterministic one, let the authors to develop a simple and rigorous criterion, which helps the designer who works in this area. The criterion is presented focusing the attention on the basic premise, highlighting its applicability, its practicality and its computational power. To do that, the Authors take into account the deterministic or random character of the individual constraint components and their degree of correlation. In order to verify the method, simulations of multiaxial loads conditions, developed in the time domain, will be carried out with various correlation levels between the stress components on which the method will be applied.

Office-based psychotherapy practice is a challenging and vexing task for psychiatrists. Psychotherapy has not yet found a firm footing as an accepted form of therapy by many patients. Psychiatrists offering psychotherapy as a treatment face many challenges that may be social, psychological, and ethical. The present review paper posits an overview of the various challenges that besiege office-based psychotherapy in private psychiatric practice. Issues right from the initiation and basic premise of describing psychotherapy and issues concerning its mechanism of action and efficacy along with individualization of therapy are discussed. The challenges of online psychotherapy and dealing with clients that refuse medical help along with the perils of eclectic psychotherapy are highlighted. Handling adolescents which poses many challenges is also discussed along with an emphasis on the sound termination of psychotherapy. The paper aims to sensitize the readers to the various challenges that office-based psychotherapy poses while providing an overview on the subject. Each of the challenges in this paper is subtopics in themselves and may warrant separate review papers in their own right.

Rapid development of nanotechnology provides promising strategies in biomedicine, especially in tumor therapy. In particular, the cellular uptake of nanosystems is not only a basic premise to realize various biomedical applications, but also a fatal factor for determining the final therapeutic effect. Thus, a systematic and comprehensive summary is necessary to overview the recent research progress on the improvement of nanosystem cellular uptake for cancer treatment. According to the process of nanosystems entering the body, they can be classified into three categories. The first segment is to enhance the accumulation and permeation of nanosystems to tumor cells through extracellular microenvironment stimulation. The second segment is to improve cellular internalization from extracellular to intracellular via active targeting. The third segment is to enhance the intracellular retention of therapeutics by subcellular localization. The major factors in the delivery can be utilized to develop multifunctional nanosystems for strengthening the tumor therapy. Ultimately, the key challenges and prospective in the emerging research frontier are thoroughly outlined. This review is expected to provide inspiring ideas, promising strategies and potential pathways for developing advanced anticancer nanosystems in clinical practice.

Over the last century, the doctor–patient relationship has gradually evolved from a paternalistic to a more patient-centred approach, with a marked change in the last 20 years. This cultural shift is reflected in health research, where patients and the public have become increasingly engaged and empowered. The UK pioneered these changes, with patient and public involvement becoming, in 2006, a founding principle of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR aims ‘to conduct leading edge research focussing on the needs of patients and the public’, with research being undertaken with or by members of the public, rather than on or to them.1 A basic premise is that involving lay people and bringing in different perspectives and experiences can improve research quality, while also empowering patients to influence change on issues they consider important. There are many different frameworks but one of the most useful is described by NIHR INVOLVE, the English national advisory group on public involvement, shown in table 1.2 View this table: Table 1 Types of patient involvement Some other frameworks consider ‘coproduction’ as the highest level, which means collaboration of researchers and patients throughout the research process—design, implementation and dissemination. A systematic review of patient and public involvement in Europe found more examples of …

The credibility evaluation method for a single simulation model is relatively mature at present. While there is still a great need to provide an effective credibility evaluation method for complex simulation systems, which is the basic premise to assist the design, test, evaluation and optimization of a complex research object based on constructing its simulation system. In this paper a credibility evaluation method for complex simulation systems based on the interaction analysis of their internal data is proposed. A directed weighted interaction network describing the interaction among models in a complex simulation system can be constructed. Further, based on the credibility of each simulation model and the network structure, we can quantitatively analyze their impacts on the overall credibility of the system. In order to verify the effectiveness of the method, we constructed a validation system based on the network structure of a multi-agent cooperative simulation system with known credibility. The evaluation result comparison showed that our method can provide a feasible way for the relatively accurate credibility analysis of complex simulation systems. Finally, our verified method was applied to evaluate the credibility of the complex hardware-in-the-loop simulation system composed with over 100 components, which provided a quantitative way instead of traditional qualitative evaluation by experts.

The formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963 remains a source of much debate among historians. The official announcement by the Prime Minister of Malaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman, on 27 May 1961, urging a closer association of Malaya, Singapore and the three British-controlled Borneo territories is viewed by some studies as the trigger that led to the formation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963. While this study recognizes that Tunku’s proposal of May 1961 was a catalyst to the formal negotiations, it shows through a closer scrutiny of Colonial Office documents that the idea of a super-federation or “grand design” had been gradually planted in the minds of the elites in Malaya, Singapore and the Borneo territories, particularly from the early 1950s and that these confidential discussions were crucial to the acceptance of the basic premise of such a grand federation. It argues further that Tunku’s suggestion of a broader federation to Lord Perth in June 1960 merely speeded up the formal discussions for the federation that was already being seriously considered at the time by Colonial Office and British officials in the Borneo territories and Singapore. Thus the new federation was not merely a result of ‘local developments’ in Southeast Asia, but was also a by-product of a concerted effort in the Colonial Office to create a broader entity in Southeast Asia. La formation de la Fédération de Malaisie en 1963 reste un sujet d’âpres débats parmi les historiens. D’après certaines études, c’est l’annonce officielle par le Premier ministre de Malaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman, le 27 Mai 1961, au cours de laquelle il exhorte à une association plus étroite entre Malaya, Singapore et les trois territoires de Bornéo sous contrôle britannique, qui est perçue comme le déclic conduisant à la formation de la Malaisie le 16 septembre 1963. Si la présente étude reconnaît que la proposition de Tunku de mai 1961 a été un catalyseur pour des négociations formelles, elle montre, grâce à l’examen minutieux des documents du Colonial Office, que l’idée d’une super-fédération ou de « grand design » a été inculquée graduellement dans les esprits des élites de Malaya, Singapore et des territoires de Bornéo, en particulier à partir du début des années 1950, et que ces discussions confidentielles ont été cruciales pour l’acceptation du fondement d’une telle grande fédération. Elle avance également que la suggestion d’une fédération élargie faite par Tunku à Lord Perth en juin 1960 n’a fait qu’accélérer les discussions formelles relatives à la fédération, qui était déjà sérieusement envisagée à l’époque par le Colonial Office et les officiels britanniques des territoires de Bornéo et de Singapore. Ainsi, la nouvelle fédération n’a pas résulté uniquement d’ ‘évolutions locales’ en Asie du Sud-Est, mais a dérivé d’une action concertée du Colonial Office pour créer une entité plus large en Asie du Sud-Est.

This article puts the control, regulation and management of migration into the historical context of Germany’s nascent statehood in the 19th century. Underlying the discussion is the basic premise ...

Ethical leadership exerts a powerful influence on employees, and most studies share a basic premise that leaders display the same level of ethical leadership to all subordinates. However, we challenge this assumption and suggest that subordinates’ characteristics and supervisors’ characteristics may jointly influence supervisor ethical leadership behavior. Drawing upon research on person–supervisor fit and moral identity, we explore the questions of whether and how supervisor–subordinate (in)congruence in moral identity affects the emergence of supervisor ethical leadership behavior. Using multi-level and multi-source data, the results of cross-level polynomial regressions revealed that the less aligned a supervisor’s moral identity was with a subordinate’s, the more negative sentiments the supervisor held toward the subordinate, which, in turn, influenced the supervisor’s ethical leadership behavior. We also argue that not all types of congruence are alike. Our results confirmed that supervisor negative sentiments toward subordinates were higher in low–low congruence dyads than in high–high congruence dyads. Results also confirmed that by reducing supervisor negative sentiments toward subordinates, supervisor–subordinate congruence in moral identity had an indirect positive effect on supervisor ethical leadership behavior. Overall, this research highlights the importance of taking both subordinates’ and supervisors’ traits into consideration in understanding the emergence of ethical leadership.

Democratically set ownership rights are the basic premise for a fully functioning liberal market economy. The restitution processes in the Czech Republic should have played an important role in rectifying the abuse of ownership rights during the period of the centrally-planned economy. Unfortunately, the asymmetries of the church restitutions, as the last process which should have been part of the rectification, i.e. the restoration of democratic ownership rights in the Czech Republic, became the catalyst for new injustices and grievances in relation to ordinary entitled persons to whom other restitution laws also applied. In light of the above, this article contains an analysis of the restitutions of agricultural and forest assets and an analysis of church restitutions. The results of these analyses are compared in order to confirm the hypothesis that church restitutions were given preference over ordinary entitled persons. The conclusion to the article shows this to be fully in accordance with basic economic theories.

The basic premise of William James' theory of emotions – that bodily changes lead to emotional feelings – ignited debate about the relative importance of bodily processes and cognitive appraisals in determining emotions. Similarly, theories of risk perception have been expanding to include emotional and physiological processes along with cognitive processes. Taking a closer look at The Principles of Psychology, this article examines how James' propositions support and extend current research on risk perception and decision making. Specifically, James (1) described emotional feelings and their related cognitions in ways similar to current dual processing models; (2) defended the proposition that emotions and their expressions serve useful and adaptive functions; (3) suggested that anticipating an emotion can trigger that emotion due to associations learned from past experiences; and (4) highlighted individual differences in emotional experiences that map on well with individual differences in risk-related decision making.

The term cosmeceutical is derived from a combination of ‘cosmetic' and ‘pharmaceutical', and indicates that active ingredients are present in a specific cosmetic product. These cosmeceuticals or cosmetic products have ingredients with medical or drug-like benefits. They are formulated to increase positive physiological effects at the cellular level in addition to enhancing the skin's appearance. Cosmeceutical applications using algae are rapidly growing because of increasing demands from customers. The basic premise is that novel bioactive substances from natural sources are safer and equally or more efficacious than artificial substances. These compounds should have highly effective and stable properties for therapeutic use with low potential toxicity. Recently, marine organisms have been demonstrated as rich sources of structurally diverse, biologically active compounds with extensive cosmeceutical potential. Numerous compounds have been isolated from marine organisms, and these compounds have ...

The basic premise of India’s new urban agenda rests on widespread application Information Technology (IT) tools to improve the quality of data infrastructure, services delivery and citizen interfac...

Vincent M. Russo is that an experiment must be repeatable, but does not mean the outcome has to be the same. This actually has two definitions. It must be repeatable within the experimental framewo...

The basic premise of Laura D’Olimpio’s Media and Moral Education: A Philosophy of Critical Engagement is that what she calls critical perspectivism should be taught, especially to young people, so ...

The basic premise of Internet of Things (IoT) is to have intelligent devices that can communicate and cooperate directly without human involvement and to deliver a new class of applications such as Bio stamps, Wearable things, Smart City, Smart Toll Plaza etc. For the purpose, the key focus of IoT is on four key components, namely, enabling technologies, standard protocols, technological barriers and application areas. Some IoT architectures like SOA, ROA, NEBULA FIA, NDN, CASAGRAS and AKARI have been proposed by different researchers and are discussed in this article. The paper not only narrow down the promising research domains like identification technology, energy optimization, hardware and software solutions with their major research issues, but also discusses the technological tradeoffs of applications.

In our article we discuss the design of the onboard anti-collision system. The basic premise of creating an anti-collision system is that all flying objects (FO) work in the aviation communications network and each of the flying objects transmits their location information. An important condition for the operation of the proposed anti-collision system is a synchronous communication network. We expect that communication messages to be broadcast by every user at a specified time. All network participants are informed when another network participant is broadcasting. The principle of relative navigation is based on this. We have designed an anti-collision system using this principle.

Congenital and developmental abnormalities of the cervical spine present a difficult and special situation for the healthcare provider charged with evaluating and caring for athletes. There are few guidelines in place to provide concise and evidence-based criteria for clearing an athlete to participate in sporting activities; hence expert opinion is often the only source of guidance. Applying what is known about these conditions with the basic premise of stability without stenosis can provide a framework for the treating physician. This chapter discusses common developmental and congenital abnormalities of the cervical spine and focuses on findings which are important for the athletic healthcare provider.

In this volume’s culminating chapter, Christopher Lubienski contemplates the future of research use in light of the book’s content and his own scholarship, which has immersed him in the investigation of research use in educational policymaking. This chapter offers a cautious and critical take regarding intermediaries’ roles/functions in fostering research-to-practice connections. It includes summary discussion of some of the lessons gleaned on research use, but then also highlights some continued and sometimes intractable problems facing education systems. Some of these challenges, he argues, can be addressed via practices and research lines highlighted in the volume, but he also argues some are more structural in nature and therefore call into question strategies celebrating the potential of research evidence to guide practice and policy. This chapter also examines assumptions underlying the basic premise of seeking to enhance research-practice connections, and concludes with some admonitions regarding research’s role in the contemporary, fact-averse climate.

In this paper, we propose a restrained random-walk similarity method for detecting the community structures of graphs. The basic premise of our method is that the starting vertices of finite-length random walks are judged to be in the same community if the walkers pass similar sets of vertices. This idea is based on our consideration that a random walker tends to move in the community including the walker's starting vertex for some time after starting the walk. Therefore, the sets of vertices passed by random walkers starting from vertices in the same community must be similar. The idea is reinforced with two conditions. First, we exclude abnormal random walks. Random walks that depart from each vertex are executed many times, and vertices that are rarely passed by the walkers are excluded from the set of vertices that the walkers may pass. Second, we forcibly restrain random walks to an appropriate length. In our method, a random walk is terminated when the walker repeatedly visits vertices that they have already passed. Experiments on real-world networks demonstrate that our method outperforms previous techniques in terms of accuracy.

En este artículo se examina la influencia de las interacciones sociales en las percepciones sobre la tecnología empleada en la floricultura y sobre las posibilidades de adopción de tecnologías alternativas para tal fin en Zinacantán, Chiapas. Se parte de la premisa de que la tecnología es una construcción social, razón por la que se hace énfasis en conocer el papel constructivo de las interacciones sociales entre los principales actores involucrados en la floricultura. La metodología utilizada para realizar este estudio fue cualitativa: entrevistas y grupos de discusión con productores. Se efectuó un análisis de red social, encontrándose cómo se configura una percepción favorable hacia el uso de pesticidas industriales con el fin de obtener cosechas de flores aceptables para el mercado. No obstante, hombres y mujeres de las nuevas generaciones que se han erigido como agentes locales de cambio, están especializándose para encontrar distintas opciones tecnológicas que solucionen los problemas de la floricultura. Entre las acciones que se sugieren en este artículo está fortalecer la articulación de actores con intereses convergentes que promuevan diálogos y espacios de encuentro para hacer viable una floricultura sustentable.

The established view on massive IoT access is that the IoT devices are activated randomly and independently. This is a basic premise also in the recent information-theoretic treatment of massive access by Polyanskiy. In a number of practical scenarios, the information from IoT devices in a given geographical area is inherently correlated due to a commonly observed physical phenomenon. We introduce a model for massive access that accounts for correlation both in device activation and in the message content. To this end, we introduce common alarm messages for all devices. A physical phenomenon can trigger an alarm causing a subset of devices to transmit the same message at the same time. We develop a new error probability model that includes false positive errors, resulting from decoding a non-transmitted codeword. The results show that the correlation allows for high reliability at the expense of spectral efficiency. This reflects the intuitive trade-off: an access from a massive number can be ultra-reliable only if the information across the devices is correlated., Comment: Extended version of conference submission

The glenohumeral joint is a highly mobile, complex articulation that relies not only on the bony support between the humeral head and glenoid but also on appropriate balance and tension of the surrounding soft-tissue structures. Recreating the normal anatomic relationships is a basic premise in joint arthroplasty, which can be challenging in shoulder arthroplasty, as the normal glenohumeral anatomy has considerable variation from patient to patient. Also, as the anatomy of the glenohumeral joint becomes distorted with advanced shoulder pathology, it becomes a challenge to return the shoulder to its premorbid anatomic state. Failure to restore normal anatomic parameters after shoulder arthroplasty has been shown to have deleterious effects on postoperative function and implant survival. As the recognition of this has grown, shoulder prostheses have evolved to allow for considerable more variation in an attempt to recreate patient-specific anatomy. However, understanding the progression of shoulder pathology to better predict the patient's premorbid anatomy remains limited. A thorough understanding of the premorbid and pathologic anatomy of the glenohumeral joint will aid in preoperative planning and intraoperative execution and lead to a more predictable reconstruction of the shoulder, which is critical for a successful outcome after shoulder arthroplasty.

Unambiguous evidence for the effectiveness of muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus L.) control in well-established populations in mainland Europe is lacking. Yet, this evidence is important given ongoing public challenges to the need for muskrat control and the expressed political aim of the European Union to eradicate invasive alien species, including the muskrat. In this study, indices of muskrat abundance based on livetrapping were compared among (i) sites at which muskrat control had been suspended for 3 years (suspended trapping), (ii) sites with ongoing control by kill trapping (ongoing trapping) and (iii) a site at which control efforts had ceased more than 8 years previously (no trapping). In the no trapping site, the muskrat abundance index was variable but consistently high, while in the ongoing trapping sites, the muskrat abundance index was consistently low. In the suspended trapping sites, the index of muskrat abundance increased from a level near that of the ongoing trapping sites to that of the no trapping sites. The findings are corroborated by population estimates based on data from robust design mark-recapture models and data from kill trapping. The results are interpreted as compelling proof for an effect of control on muskrat numbers, a basic premise of the control programme.

This chapter addresses the securitization of guns and the efforts that are made to regulate their transfer, possession, and use in Latin America. It is argued that gun policies are part and consequence of a securitization strategy carried out by the small arms movement since the second half of the 1990s. From this premise, this chapter analyzes how states control gun-related activities at the international level as well as gun possession and use at the national and local levels. In order to find an equilibrium between the legitimate legal use of guns and the prevention of social harms, most Latin American countries draw from the basic premise that citizens should not be allowed to own guns unless there is a good reason to allow it. From there, gun regulations and programs vary widely, and their main differences and characteristics are discussed in-depth in the chapter next to what is known about the impact and efficacy of such policies and programs.

The basic premise of Theatre of the Oppressed is the evident expression of its dialectical core: an examination that identifies society as being crossed by relations of oppression. Of course, the shift from oppressive relations, in a collective and historical sense, to relations of interaction between the oppressed and the oppressors is a focus of tension in Augusto Boal’s dramatic plays, particularly in Forum Theatre. For the dialectical method, knowledge is totalizing because it explores the movement of contradictions and because it seeks the specific mediations that constitute the fabric of each totality. The dialectical view apprehends the transforming reality, thinking essentially about its contradictions. The dialectical way of thinking inquires about reality not in search of an essence, but rather as a relationship between forces in motion. In reality, a dialectical dramaturgy would seek to maximize the unity existing between the particular and the universal, insofar as the former exists throughout the latter.

Flow as propounded by Csikszentmihalyi is an extraordinary phenomenon helping people maintaining all-encompassing performance ability often triggers curiosity of whether that particular phenomenon can be replicated time and again amongst all the humans. Well, the answer can be both a YES and a NO. In order to explore the phenomenon, we will explore the principles or laws of the universe and its functioning as propounded by Gurdjieff and draw assertions from the exploration to design applicable understanding in the nature of flow. The understanding of Gurdjieff was based on his search for the truth and the mysteries present within the mystic schools in the East. Much of the spiritual work is based on this basic premise that life propagates itself and the understanding of this phenomenon is self-evident to be propounded in the basic dogmatic revelations of the individual agenda. The fundamental truth about the expectation and reality dilemma about the performance scenario based on the interaction point of view with human and its capacities along with the environmental stimuli often brings around certain understanding about the capacities and performance ability in a certain environmental setup. This particular transcending phenomena and immersion and evolving in the process of working and making extraordinary revolutions in all the spheres of life has been a constant curious case to be solved and debated with the help of yoga, Zen, science, religion, mysticism, and occult culminating from various forms of old age and new age philosophical dimensions engulfed into the spiritual underpinnings. Transcending above one's own physical boundaries to take into to the cosmic vibrations and inculcate the energy field within one's own boundaries helping them to perform and replicate things in finest creativity levels often motivates to explore these phenomena into further details.

Epidemic gossip has proven a reliable and efficient technique for sharing information in a distributed network. Much of this reliability and efficiency derives from processes collaborating, sharing the work of distributing information. As a result of this collaboration, processes may receive information that was not originally intended for them. For example, some process may act as an intermediary, aggregating and forwarding messages from some set of sources to some set of destinations. But what if rumors are confidential? In that case, only processes that were originally intended to receive the rumor should be allowed to learn the rumor. This blatantly contradicts the basic premise of epidemic gossip, which assumes that processes can collaborate. In fact, if only processes in a rumor’s “destination set” participate in gossiping that rumor, we show that high message complexity is unavoidable. A natural approach is to rely on cryptography, for example, assuming that each process has a well-known public-key that can be used to encrypt the rumor. In a dynamic system, with changing sets of destinations, such a process seems potentially expensive. In this paper, we propose a scheme in which each rumor is broken into multiple fragments using a very simple coding scheme any given fragment provides no information about the rumor, while together, the fragments can be reassembled into the original rumor. The processes collaborate in disseminating the rumor fragments in such a way that no process outside of a rumor’s destination set ever receives all the fragments of a rumor, while every process in the destination set eventually learns all the fragments. Notably, our solution operates in an environment where rumors are dynamically and continuously injected into the system and processes are subject to crashes and restarts. In addition, the presented scheme can tolerate a moderate amount of collusions among curious processes without a substantial increase in cost curious processes are non-malicious processes that are not in a rumor’s destination set, and still want to learn the rumor (that is, collect all fragments of the rumor).