Reliable Information Flow Research Articles

The "Working Group Land of Fires" Platform for emergency management, data sharing and dissemination.

Over the last decades, the Campania Region in Italy has faced an environmental crisis due to the widespread illegal dumping and burning of waste. This has led to the area being notoriously known as the Land of Fires (Terra dei Fuochi - TdF), sparking serious concerns about public health and threatening the region's agricultural sector, one of its economic mainstays. In such a context, a timely, accurate, and reliable flow of information, aimed both at the population and at stakeholders, is crucial for establishing a proper dialogue between institutions and people, driving the empowerment of citizens. To address this crisis, the Italian Government introduced Law 6 of 2014, establishing a multidisciplinary Working Group tasked with identifying and mapping the sites affected by spills and illegal disposal in the territory. The TdF-WG defined a scientific methodology for classifying these sites in terms of prohibition on the cultivation of specific crops, consequently allowing the adoption of appropriate clean up and restoration measures for the impacted sites. This paper describes the data collection process and the IT platform commissioned by the Government to the IZS-TE and used by the TdF-WG to exchange data, knowledge, and technology, thereby fostering efficient and effective crisis management.

A Literature Survey on Demographics and Topic Impacts on the co-spread of Healthcare prediction based on Twitter(X) Data

Big data is being used much more frequently to monitor trends in business, economics, society, and health as a result of more individuals utilizing Twitter and other social media. Businesses utilize sophisticated statistical techniques to forecast and monitor events such as disease outbreaks and trends in mental health by combining a wide range of data sets from social media. This kind of data utilization has benefits, but there are drawbacks as well, such as the rapidity with which false information can proliferate on Twitter. The approach that is being suggested emphasizes the necessity of improving fact-checking procedures, especially in the healthcare industry where false information can have detrimental effects. This underscores the growing importance of reliable data, information, and knowledge flows in shaping economies while acknowledging the imperative to address challenges associated with the information revolution.

Mapping clinical interactions in an Australian tertiary hospital emergency department for patients presenting with risk of suicide or self-harm: Network modeling from observational data.

Reliable assessment of suicide and self-harm risk in emergency medicine is critical for effective intervention and treatment of patients affected by mental health disorders. Teams of clinicians face the challenge of rapidly integrating medical history, wide-ranging psychosocial factors, and real-time patient observations to inform diagnosis, treatment, and referral decisions. Patient outcomes therefore depend on the reliable flow of information through networks of clinical staff and information systems. This study aimed to develop a quantitative data-driven research framework for the analysis of information flow in emergency healthcare settings to evaluate clinical practice and operational models for emergency psychiatric care. We deployed 2 observers in a tertiary hospital emergency department during 2018 for a total of 118.5 h to record clinical interactions along patient trajectories for presentations with risk of self-harm or suicide (n = 272 interactions for n = 43 patient trajectories). The study population was reflective of a naturalistic sample of patients presenting to a tertiary emergency department in a metropolitan Australian city. Using the observational data, we constructed a clinical interaction network to model the flow of clinical information at a systems level. Community detection via modularity maximization revealed communities in the network closely aligned with the underlying clinical team structure. The Psychiatric Liaison Nurse (PLN) was identified as the most important agent in the network as quantified by node degree, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality. Betweenness centrality of the PLN was significantly higher than expected by chance (>95th percentile compared with randomly shuffled networks) and removing the PLN from the network reduced both the global efficiency of the model and the closeness centrality of all doctors. This indicated a potential vulnerability in the system that could negatively impact patient care if the function of the PLN was compromised. We developed an algorithmic strategy to mitigate this risk by targeted strengthening of links between clinical teams using greedy cumulative addition of network edges in the model. Finally, we identified specific interactions along patient trajectories which were most likely to precipitate a psychiatric referral using a machine learning model trained on features from dynamically constructed clinical interaction networks. The main limitation of this study is the use of nonclinical information only (i.e., modeling is based on timing of interactions and agents involved, but not the content or quantity of information transferred during interactions). This study demonstrates a data-driven research framework, new to the best of our knowledge, to assess and reinforce important information pathways that guide clinical decision processes and provide complementary insights for improving clinical practice and operational models in emergency medicine for patients at risk of suicide or self-harm. Our findings suggest that PLNs can play a crucial role in clinical communication, but overreliance on PLNs may pose risks to reliable information flow. Operational models that utilize PLNs may be made more robust to these risks by improving interdisciplinary communication between doctors. Our research framework could also be applied more broadly to investigate service delivery in different healthcare settings or for other medical specialties, patient groups, or demographics.

Recovery kinetics of short-term depression of GABAergic and glutamatergic synapses at layer 2/3 pyramidal cells in the mouse barrel cortex.

Short-term synaptic plasticity (STP) is a widespread mechanism underlying activity-dependent modifications of cortical networks. To investigate how STP influences excitatory and inhibitory synapses in layer 2/3 of mouse barrel cortex, we combined whole-cell patch-clamp recordings from visually identified pyramidal neurons (PyrN) and parvalbumin-positive interneurons (PV-IN) of cortical layer 2/3 in acute slices with electrical stimulation of afferent fibers in layer 4 and optogenetic activation of PV-IN. These experiments revealed that electrical burst stimulation (10 pulses at 10 Hz) of layer 4 afferents to layer 2/3 neurons induced comparable short-term depression (STD) of glutamatergic postsynaptic currents (PSCs) in PyrN and in PV-IN, while disynaptic GABAergic PSCs in PyrN showed a stronger depression. Burst-induced depression of glutamatergic PSCs decayed within <4 s, while the decay of GABAergic PSCs required >11 s. Optogenetically-induced GABAergic PSCs in PyrN also demonstrated STD after burst stimulation, with a decay of >11 s. Excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) in PyrN were unaffected after electrical burst stimulation, while a selective optogenetic STD of GABAergic synapses caused a transient increase of electrically evoked EPSPs in PyrN. In summary, these results demonstrate substantial short-term plasticity at all synapses investigated and suggest that the prominent STD observed in GABAergic synapses can moderate the functional efficacy of glutamatergic STD after repetitive synaptic stimulations. This mechanism may contribute to a reliable information flow toward the integrative layer 2/3 for complex time-varying sensory stimuli.

An Interdisciplinary Survey on Information Flows in Supply Chains

Supply chains form the backbone of modern economies and therefore require reliable information flows. In practice, however, supply chains face severe technical challenges, especially regarding security and privacy. In this work, we consolidate studies from supply chain management, information systems, and computer science from 2010–2021 in an interdisciplinary meta-survey to make this topic holistically accessible to interdisciplinary research. In particular, we identify a significant potential for computer scientists to remedy technical challenges and improve the robustness of information flows. We subsequently present a concise information flow-focused taxonomy for supply chains before discussing future research directions to provide possible entry points.

Large Language Models and Logical Reasoning

In deep learning, large language models are typically trained on data from a corpus as representative of current knowledge. However, natural language is not an ideal form for the reliable communication of concepts. Instead, formal logical statements are preferable since they are subject to verifiability, reliability, and applicability. Another reason for this preference is that natural language is not designed for an efficient and reliable flow of information and knowledge, but is instead designed as an evolutionary adaptation as formed from a prior set of natural constraints. As a formally structured language, logical statements are also more interpretable. They may be informally constructed in the form of a natural language statement, but a formalized logical statement is expected to follow a stricter set of rules, such as with the use of symbols for representing the logic-based operators that connect multiple simple statements and form verifiable propositions.

Problems of Distance, Communications, and Authority: How Charles V and Philip II Ruled the Global Spanish Empire

This essay explains how the Spanish (or Castilian) crown during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries managed its worldwide empire. It emphasizes the contribution of, and the tension between, the crown’s two main strategies: political decentralization – or delegation – and imperial centralization. To begin, it contextualizes the issue by exploring the situation at the time and explains how the problems of distance and communication were closely linked. Secondly, drawing on the comments of both contemporary observers and modern historians, this paper examines the approaches used by the Spanish kings in ensuring the optimum reliability of their intelligence networks within Europe and with America. Thirdly, the issue of decentralization is approached. The essay (1) outlines the context for Spanish imperial delegation and how Charles V and Philip II differed in this regard and (2) gives several representative examples of the use of delegation in Europe and abroad. Using the American colonies as a case study, it (3) explores the centralized, peninsula-based forms of administrative delegation (i.e. councils and juntas) and (4) addresses the decentralized, colonial types of delegated government; specifically, viceroys and audiencias. Lastly, the paper explores the imperial strategy of centralization by which the kings of Spain unified their global empire. It argues that, ultimately, these monarchs used a combination of various means to ensure that they received a steady flow of reliable information. They also utilized centralized authority and decentralized administration to ensure that their provinces worldwide were governed efficiently.

Productization and product structure enabling BIM implementation in construction

PurposeThis study aims to facilitate consistency of information in building information modelling (BIM) and address the current BIM gaps through the perspectives of the productization concept and product structure (PS).Design/methodology/approachThe study follows a conceptual research approach in conjunction with a single case study. First, the previous studies on BIM implementation, productization and PS are reviewed. Further, a case study is used to analyse the current state of productization in the construction sector and develop a functional PS for construction.FindingsA Part-Phase-Elements Matrix is proposed as a construction-specific PS to facilitate consistency in information and to enhance BIM. The proposed matrix provides new avenues to facilitate consistent information exchange through the interconnection between conceptual PS and standard building objects library, and encourage collaborative communication between stakeholders.Originality/valueThis study explores the core of the productization concept and PS as means to facilitate consistency of information and thus address the current gaps in BIM. This as building projects progressively move towards systematic modular and prefabricated construction where the flow of reliable information about product and construction offerings becomes increasingly important.

Implementation of Advance Care Planning in a Regional Network

Implementation of Advance Care Planning in a Regional Network Abstract. Since 2017, the ACP concept, known in Germany as Health Care Planning for the Final Phase of Life (GVP) has offered residents of inpatient facilities for elderly care and integration assistance a special consultation service by trained consultants on medical and nursing care options and their care in the final phase of life. In order for the counselling and documentation of wishes and preferences to be followed by good implementation of the individual GVP, a reliable flow of information and coordinated action processes between the players involved in the facilities as well as the external service providers, such as physicians and prehospital emergency medical service staff, are essential. Cross-sectoral coordination processes and regional networking of the players involved can contribute to the development of concrete procedures and uniform processes for implementing GVP in a region. In order to identify the necessary steps for the implementation of GVP and to be able to describe quality criteria for the implementation of GVP in regional networks, four regions in North Rhine-Westphalia were selected and supported as models within the framework of a state project. Initial experiences in the state project point to some overarching factors that contribute significantly to good implementation of GMPs in regional networks.

Racial Injustice and Information Flow

I submit that the critical epistemology of race and standpoint literature has not explicitly focused on the properties of information about racial or gender injustice in a way similar to how epistemologists have focused on propositions and information when they describe propositional justification. I present an account of information flow in which I describe information in the racial-injustice-information domain in a way similar to how epistemologists describe propositional justification. To this end, I argue (C1) that if subjects in racially unjust societies tend to violate norms that promote a community’s reliable information flow because racial prejudice is widely held in racially unjust societies, then racial injustice can make information flow less reliably in a community. And I argue (C2) that if racial prejudice can make information flow less reliably in a community, then information that nondominant subjects are more likely to have will less reliably flow to community members who lack it.

Reducing vulnerabilities of space activities: A call for coordinated leadership at the global level

Orbital congestion, contestation and competition are on the rise, and space activities are expected to align with treaties, arrangements, and guidelines elaborated at a time when the space ecosystem was simpler - and it is becoming more complex. To cope efficiently with this changing situation, at a time when space systems have become an indispensable enabler for an ever-increasing range of socio-economic activities, new rules of the road are necessary. Indeed, these should ensure the sustained stability and security of the space environment, providing norms and standards beyond transparency and confidence building measures, laying the ground for the founding elements of a space traffic coordination (management?). Hence, for us to be dependent on a reliable space-enabled information flow will require a significant decrease of their vulnerability; protection as well as “fail safe” are becoming the chief concerns. This paper will first review the current legal and regulatory provisions under which space activities take place, pointing out some limitations of the international dialogue, which is quite complex, anarchic, and with no clear global leadership, complicated by the dual use (civil and military) of space. Moreover, enforcement appears to be ineffective. It will then consider new public, as well as private, initiatives that are underway, evaluating the robustness of their foundations. Possible avenues are proposed in support of the most recent prominent initiatives, including the possibility for an international agreement on standards and behaviours, or an international civil space organisation inspired by the International Civil Aviation Organisation - ICAO. Emphasis will be placed on the urgency of bringing together these initiatives and processes under a common umbrella, or at least to achieve the convergence of a set of rules noting that international hard law provisions are far reaching. A step-by-step approach is suggested, addressing immediate, mid-term, and long-term actions to provide a stable space environment favourable to LEO large constellations, in-orbit refuelling/repairing, active debris removal, human commercial space-flight, cis-lunar/interplanetary traffic, space resources exploitation, and security/defence operations.

Determinants influencing farmers’ use of macadamia nut information sources in central Kenya

Macadamia (Macadamia tetraphylla & M. integrifolia) is considered to be "a golden crop" due to its high demand in local and international markets. It is a popular crop with the capacity to alleviate poverty, promote health, enhance food security, and contribute to Kenya’s economic growth. The crop is mainly grown by smallholder farmers in Kenya, and it accounts for 13% of the total global nut production. However, these farmers lack adequate technical knowledge on macadamia management practices that lead to low production. This study therefore assessed factors influencing farmers’ use of available macadamia nut information sources. We employed a multistage sampling technique and collected data from smallholder farmers located in Murang’a, Embu and Nyeri counties. All data was analyzed in STATA statistical package. We found that a unit rise in the number of macadamia trees increased the likelihood of farmers employing mass media as information sources by 5.3%. Further, the type of road networks, market distance and yield produced influenced farmers’ usage of information sources. Based on our findings, farmers are likely to utilize information sources that advise them on suitable macadamia varieties, management of macadamia orchards, and appropriate markets. Therefore, the government should strengthen and monitor information sources, including mass media channels and farmer organizations. This is to ensure timely flow of reliable and relevant macadamia nut information to farmers. • Macadamia nut accounts for 1% of global nut trees with Kenya producing 13% of the total global nut production. • Its production is influenced by lack of adequate techniques on management practices. • Results showed that the type of road networks, number of macadamia trees, yield produced and market distance significantly influenced farmers’ use of information sources.

Injury patterns among road traffic accidents: a hospital-based study in Ecuador

Traffic accidents are serious public health problems, account for profound economic costs to individuals, families, and societies. The social impacts range from physiological to economic causes, which could be a serious negative effect, especially in undeveloped countries. To further elucidate this problem, the prevalence of injuries caused by traffic accidents in a Santa Ana Health Centre, Portoviejo, Ecuador, was studied. This registry-based retrospective study analyzed data on Santa Ana, from Enero 2016 to Diciembre 2019, and the medical records of patients who had been admitted were extracted and analyzed. Passengers cars, motorcycles, and bicycles involved in collisions were included, and the information collected was relating to sex, age, and type of injuries. In total, 75%±6.34 patients victims of road traffic injuries were males, and their mean age was 20 and 49 years. There was a cooperative agreement between total injury occurrence (%) and type of vehicle. Bus and car accidents had lower relation (R2 = 0.44, 078) (p = 0.063, 0.005) with total occurrence. The highest relation was found in motorbikes (R2 = 0.98 p = 2e-05), since it's the primary or most popular means of transportation in the city. The best of our knowledge is the first study to reporting data on road traffic injuries in the Province of Manabí, the third-largest province in extension in Ecuador. Additional studies with larger populations are thus necessary to construct a robust data system in undeveloped countries that can facilitate the flow of reliable information about road traffic injuries.

General perceptions and information sources of people in Turkey in the process of Covid-19 outbreak

This study is an attempt to define and explain the main information sources people applied to access more information during the Covid-19 pandemic process. Based on the findings of the field study, the study also aims to reveal the general perception of Turkish people towards the outbreak. According to the findings of the survey, conducted on 6021 people over 18 years old in 26 provinces in Turkey, people living in these provinces rely on information provided by the official authorities mostly and their perception towards the outbreak changed significantly both by the perceived proximity of the Covid-19 threat and flow of reliable information.

From nursing home to community-oriented center for health and long-term care : Continuity of care as reflected in an expanded range of services

Opening nursing homes for and in the community not only promotes the inclusion of the residents. Likewise, older people living close to the homes could benefit if the nursing homes offer support for them as well. This article focuses on the extent to which "nursing homes" succeed in contributing to the continuity of care for older people in the community by developing into "centers". Episodic interviews with users/relatives and expert interviews were conducted as part of the evaluation of the project "Long-term care institutions-further thinking!". Asecondary analysis of interviews was conducted by means of structuring content analysis; the views of users and experts were triangulated on ametalevel. Users and relatives refer to three types of continuity of care in the facilities-management, relational and informational. In this respect, sustainable relationships with professionals in the facilities are just as important to them as "custom fitted" care offers even in the case of intensified need for support. Some family caregivers desire amore reliable flow of information between them and the professionals. It is also important for the experts interviewed that the facilities cover the entire spectrum of continuity of care; however, they underestimate the need of relatives in particular to be involved in care as informal carers. Nursing homes can contribute to strengthening continuity of care in the community by expanding their range of services. They should take the diversity of different user groups into account.

Optimal Singular Value Decomposition Based Big Data Compression Approach in Smart Grids

The smart grid is a fully automatic delivery grid for electricity power with a two-way reliable flow of electricity and information among different equipment on the grid. Smart meters and sensors monitoring the system provide a huge amount of data in various part of smart grid. To logically manage this trouble, a new lossy data compression approach for big data compression is proposed. The optimal singular value decomposition (SVD) is applied to a matrix that achieves the optimal number of singular values to the sending process, and the other ones will be neglected. This goal is done due to the quality of retrieved data and the compression ratio. In the presented scheme, to implement the optimization framework, various intelligent optimization methods are used to determine the number of optimal values in the elimination stage. The efficiency and capabilities of the proposed method are examined using a wide range of data types, from electricity market data to image processing benchmarks. The comparisons show that the compression level obtained by the proposed method can dominate the points given by the existing SVD rank reduction methods. Also, as the other finding of this article, the performance of the rank reduction methods depends on the application and data types. It means that a rank reduction method can reveal a good performance in one application and performs unacceptably for another purpose. So, the optimized rank reduction can pave the way toward a robust and reliable performance.

The role of the media in the professional education of future social workers

The article describes the role of the media in the professional education of future social workers. The influence of mass media in the professional education of a future social worker is represented - it is an opportunity for an individual to choose the information he wants to receive, and not what is imposed on him from outside, although this is due to certain technical and political difficulties; the use of reliable information flows for vocational education by taking into account the influence of various public organizations, cultural and educational activities. The influence of mass media in the professional training of future social workers has been developed, which includes internal and external factors influencing its components, inflows and outflows. Features of professional education of the future employee are characterized. The role of mass media in the activity of the future social worker is singled out. The role of mass media in the professional education of the future social worker is emphasized.

Application of Google Earth Engine Cloud Computing Platform, Sentinel Imagery, and Neural Networks for Crop Mapping in Canada

The ability of the Canadian agriculture sector to make better decisions and manage its operations more competitively in the long term is only as good as the information available to inform decision-making. At all levels of Government, a reliable flow of information between scientists, practitioners, policy-makers, and commodity groups is critical for developing and supporting agricultural policies and programs. Given the vastness and complexity of Canada’s agricultural regions, space-based remote sensing is one of the most reliable approaches to get detailed information describing the evolving state of the country’s environment. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)—the Canadian federal department responsible for agriculture—produces the Annual Space-Based Crop Inventory (ACI) maps for Canada. These maps are valuable operational space-based remote sensing products which cover the agricultural land use and non-agricultural land cover found within Canada’s agricultural extent. Developing and implementing novel methods for improving these products are an ongoing priority of AAFC. Consequently, it is beneficial to implement advanced machine learning and big data processing methods along with open-access satellite imagery to effectively produce accurate ACI maps. In this study, for the first time, the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud computing platform was used along with an Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) algorithm and Sentinel-1, -2 images to produce an object-based ACI map for 2018. Furthermore, different limitations of the proposed method were discussed, and several suggestions were provided for future studies. The Overall Accuracy (OA) and Kappa Coefficient (KC) of the final 2018 ACI map using the proposed GEE cloud method were 77% and 0.74, respectively. Moreover, the average Producer Accuracy (PA) and User Accuracy (UA) for the 17 cropland classes were 79% and 77%, respectively. Although these levels of accuracies were slightly lower than those of the AAFC’s ACI map, this study demonstrated that the proposed cloud computing method should be investigated further because it was more efficient in terms of cost, time, computation, and automation.

'BİLDİRİŞİM' AÇISINDAN İŞLETMELERDE 'YİNE-YAPILANIM' OLGUSU

In proceeding towards a certain target, a system must maintain an already established equilibrium. But, disruptive factors always tend to upset this balance. Therefore, the system must constantly monitor its status, and must implement necessary adjustments. This can only be achieved by communication within the format of feedback information. In any organization, whether commercial or otherwise, such communication involves a steady and reliable flow of information. But, persons might tend to withold, event to distort information from others when they feel that their advantageous position might be jeopardized. Therefore, the main problem in re-structuration of an organization is not so much the insuffıciency of existing communication paraphernalia, as the interpersonal distribution of information. This latter can only be achieved by healthily ensuring maximum amount of available information, not only along the horizontal axis among departments but also along the vertical axis between the general manager and the rank-and-file elements.

A New Construction of High Performance LDPC Matrices for Mobile Networks.

Secure and reliable information flow is one of the main challenges in social IoT and mobile networks. Information flow and data integrity is still an open research problem. In this paper, we develop new methods of constructing systematic and regular Low-Density Parity-Check Matrices (LDPCM), inspired by the structure of the Sarrus method and geometric designs. Furthermore, these codes have cyclic structure and therefore, are less complex in computation and also require less memory in hardware implementation. Besides, an optimal method of post-processing for deleting girths four is presented. Numerical results show that the codes constructed by these methods perform well over the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel when decoded with the sum-product LDPC iterative algorithms. The proposed methods can be very efficient in terms of reducing memory consumption and improving the convergence speed of the decoder particularly in IoT and mobile networks.