General Rule Research Articles

Представления сотрудников полиции о взаимодействии с суицидентами

Currently, the problem of suicide prevention is not losing its relevance. In many countries of the world, there remains a need to take measures to prevent suicide, provide access to quality psychological help and create a supportive environment for people. The purpose of this article is to analyze the perception of police officers about interaction with suicides and offer practical recommendations for organizing effective communication between police officers and suicides. The subject of the study is the perception of police officers about the peculiarities of behavior when interacting with suicides. The study involved 41 respondents aged 19 to 37 years. It should also be noted that police officers have an idea of the basic rules of behavior with citizens prone to suicide. It was revealed that police officers have a general idea of the behavioral characteristics of individuals showing signs of suicidal behavior, and the awareness of officers of the general rules of behavior with suicides is noted. At the same time, it is necessary to constantly expand knowledge, improve the skills of interaction of police officers with potential suicides.

Fate of stringy noninvertible symmetries

Noninvertible symmetries in quantum field theory (QFT) generalize the familiar product rule of groups to a more general fusion rule. In many cases, gauged versions of these symmetries can be regarded as dual descriptions of invertible gauge symmetries. One may ask: are there any other types of noninvertible gauge symmetries? In theories with gravity we find a new form of noninvertible gauge symmetry that emerges in the limit of fundamental, tensionless strings. These stringy noninvertible gauge symmetries appear in standard examples such as non-Abelian orbifolds. Moving away from the tensionless limit always breaks these symmetries. We also find that both the conventional form of noninvertible gauge symmetries and these stringy generalizations are realized in AdS/CFT. Although generically broken, approximate noninvertible symmetries have implications for swampland constraints: in certain cases they can be used to prove the existence of towers of states related to the distance conjecture, and can sometimes explain the existence of slightly subextremal states which fill in the gaps in the sublattice weak gravity conjecture. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Increased microbial complexity and stability in rhizosphere soil: A key factor for plant resilience during mining disturbance

The network-based complexity and stability of the microbial community are critical for host fitness under disturbance, but there are still gaps in our understanding of whether there are general rules governing this relationship. Despite evidence that the rhizosphere microbiome plays an important role in host fitness, it is unclear whether rhizosphere microbial complexity and stability influence host plant fitness under scenarios of environmental disturbance. Here, we investigated the effects of mining disturbance on the complexity and stability of the rhizosphere microbiome and its potential role in plant fitness. Our findings demonstrated that, compared with mildly disturbed mining sites, severely disturbed mining sites exhibited significantly increased complexity and stability indices of the rhizosphere microbial community. Furthermore, we identified a positive feedback relationship between microbial complexity and stability and the functional potential of the microbial community, which ultimately benefits plant fitness. Our study provides empirical evidence that mining disturbance increases microbial complexity and stability, thereby increasing the resilience of host plants to environmental disturbance. Understanding microbially mediated tolerance to mining disturbance may improve our ability to predict and manage plant adaptability in changing environments.

Origin of the distinct site occupations of H atom in hcp Ti and Zr/Hf

The location of the H atoms in Ti, Zr, and Hf is crucial to the formation of the hydrides in these metals as it influences the crystal lattice transformation and the hydrogen diffusion involved in the hydride formation process. Although Ti, Zr, and Hf are all of hexagonal close-packed structure with similar lattice parameters, the solute H atom occupies the octahedral interstice in Ti but the tetragonal interstice in Zr and Hf, of which the origin is still mysterious. In the present work, the origin of the distinct site occupation behavior of H atom in Ti and Zr/Hf is investigated through first principles calculations. The calculated solution energies confirm that H prefers the octahedral interstice in Ti but the tetrahedral interstice in Zr and Hf. We ascribe the distinct site occupations of H in Ti and Zr/Hf to the varying Coulomb repulsion between the H (as a screened proton in the metals) and the matrix atoms against the interstitial size. The competition between the H-induced electron accumulation effect and the matrix atom debonding effect might matter as well. We propose that, as a general rule, a H atom prefers the site with a trade-off between a large space and a high electron density in metals.

Value-based optimization model for cultural route design: Ancient Water Supply Heritage of Istanbul (Türkiye)

Cultural tourism has become an increasingly growing human activity in today's world. Therefore, various cultural/natural heritage areas or buildings face large tourist crowds, causing physical, social, or cultural deterioration. Cultural routes, which provide a systematic approach and planned tourists move, can reduce the negative effects of overtourism. This study aims to develop an optimization model as a supportive tool for the cultural route design process. The proposed optimization model aims to maximize cultural experience while satisfying constraints on heritage values, building types, historical eras, and general routing rules. Moreover, this model, creating optimized cultural routes, is expected to contribute to regulating economic income and tourist density. As a case study, the ancient water supply systems of Istanbul, inherited from the Roman and the Ottoman empires and currently overlooked, are investigated. Heritage values, mentioned in the extensive literature, are reviewed and the values/attributes for this study are appointed according to the characteristics of the case heritage assets, and their environment. The values of the case structures are evaluated with value analysis after field study. An optimum cultural route for Istanbul's historical water supply heritage, according to the objective and the constraints of the model, is obtained by solving the model with the case data. The resulting route can make this overlooked heritage of Istanbul recognized and spread the tourist density in the city center. The model is flexible, allowing for easy modification of the objective function, constraints, and values when designing routes across various heritage sites. This model can be used not only in the design of new cultural routes but also in optimizing existing routes.

Intra-Group Financing: Analysis of the Coexistence of the Arm’s Length Principle with the General Anti-Abuse Rules

The deduction of interest expenses for corporate tax purposes has attracted the attention of tax policymakers and multinational enterprises owing to concerns about base erosion and profit shifting. Prior to the transposition by Member States of the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive that established a minimum standard, national rules to limit the tax deduction of interest expenses and anti-abuse rules to tackle perceived aggressive tax planning lacked uniformity and consistency at EU level. This resulted in legal disputes, especially in cross-border intra-group financing cases when transfer pricing based on the arm’s length principle is also applied. The Court of Justice of the European Union has set general guidelines and an interpretative framework. However, the opinion of the Advocate General in the X BV case (C-585/22), suggesting a departure from the Lexel case (C-484/19), raises significant concerns. In the authors’ opinion, this approach could lead to an overreaching application of the GAAR even to arrangements subject to the arm’s length principle that, based on economic rationality and substance, is intended to treat in the same way cross-border intra-group and third-party structures and transactions.

Policy Forum: Editors' Introduction—Recent Amendments to the General Anti-Avoidance Rule

Policy Forum: Editors' Introduction—Recent Amendments to the General Anti-Avoidance Rule

Policy Forum: Rethinking GAAR—Back to Basics

Recent changes to Canada's general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) on their face broaden the scope of GAAR, making it applicable to more tax-minimization schemes. However, developments in Australia, home of the modern GAAR, and case law in Canada suggest that the impact of the changes may be limited. In particular, the extension of GAAR to arrangements where tax minimization is not necessarily the primary objective of the transaction but merely one of the main purposes may prove to be unworkable. The purpose of a transaction is ultimately a subjective factor, whatever objective indicators are considered, and the only person able to assert the true purpose of an arrangement is the taxpayer. Equally obvious is the reality that tax minimization is the goal of only some steps in a commercial arrangement, and if the taxpayer can replace the investigation of the impugned transactions with the broader commercial arrangement—sell an asset, borrow money, and so forth—the main purpose will almost always be a legitimate commercial goal. More significantly, an examination of Australian and Canadian case law reveals that the courts consistently make a distinction between arrangements that are implicitly endorsed by the legislature and those that clearly fall outside possibilities contemplated by Parliament, allowing GAAR to apply only in the latter cases. For example, if the legislature and tax authorities allow taxpayers to treat finance leases as operating leases, the courts will not permit tax authorities to use GAAR to stop an egregious exploitation of the legal myth. If the legislature provides imputation credits for dividends and taxpayers structure financing to enjoy the benefit, the courts will not step in to restrict access where the legislature has not imposed statutory limits. Conversely, if the legislature has set out clear and unambiguous rules on when losses can be transferred, courts will allow tax authorities to use GAAR to strike down arrangements seeking to bypass those rules. Experience shows the courts are quite willing to allow the use of GAAR as a shield where taxpayers devise schemes that abuse concessions in the law through contrived arrangements that seek to extend the concessions to arrangements far from those for which the concessions were intended. The courts will not, however, allow the government to use GAAR as a sword to extend tax liability to arrangements that are clearly excluded through gaps or errors in the law. The message from the courts is unambiguous: if a mistake was made in the law or a treaty, it should be fixed by way of amendment, not GAAR. In short, the apparent overhaul of the Canadian GAAR may prove to be little more than a tempest in a teacup with little and perhaps no impact on dispute outcomes.

SmartLLMSentry: A Comprehensive LLM Based Smart Contract Vulnerability Detection Framework

Smart contracts are essential for managing digital assets in blockchain networks, highlighting the need for effective security measures. This paper introduces SmartLLMSentry, a novel framework that leverages large language models (LLMs), specifically ChatGPT with in-context training, to advance smart contract vulnerability detection. Traditional rule-based frameworks have limitations in integrating new detection rules efficiently. In contrast, SmartLLMSentry utilizes LLMs to streamline this process. We created a specialized dataset of five randomly selected vulnerabilities for model training and evaluation. Our results show an exact match accuracy of 91.1% with sufficient data, although GPT-4 demonstrated reduced performance compared to GPT-3 in rule generation. This study illustrates that SmartLLMSentry significantly enhances the speed and accuracy of vulnerability detection through LLM-driven rule integration, offering a new approach to improving Blockchain security and addressing previously underexplored vulnerabilities in smart contracts.

The sweet path of Hansel and Gretel: pollination system of Masdevallia hortensis (Orchidaceae: Pleurothallidinae) in a cloud montane forest of the Cordillera Occidental, in Colombia

Pollination by deception is assumed as the general rule among pleurothallid orchids. However, considering the exceptional diversity of this group (44 genera and over 5100 species) and the relatively limited number of available studies (pollination ecology has been assessed in only 17 genera), generalized trends about their pollination systems might disregard a wide variety of specific life-history traits and inconspicuous honest signals/rewards for pollinators. The few known associations of pleurothallid orchids with a large assortment of fly taxa further support the assumption of generalized pollination by deception. We investigated the natural pollination system of Masdevallia hortensis, a strictly endemic species of cloud forests in the Western Andes of Colombia. This species exhibited a sophisticated and unique pollination mechanism, producing sugary secretions in the lateral sepals along purple dotted patches, fed upon by different visiting species of fruit flies (Drosophilidae). The sucrose concentration in these secretions varied throughout the day and significantly decreased after pollinaria removal. Visiting fruit flies appeared to be guided towards a chamber between the mobile lip and the column, by dotted lines in the lateral sepals. During visitations, individuals of the most abundant species in our observations (Drosophila sp. 1) were singly entrapped in the chamber until eventually freeing themselves with the pollinaria attached to their bodies. We also demonstrated that M. hortensis is strictly self-incompatible, which makes fly pollination an essential process for the maintenance of natural populations of the species. The flowers of M. hortensis offer rewards for visiting insects, an aspect that should be thoroughly evaluated before making generalizations. In this way, we urge integrative ecological studies to understand the reproductive evolutionary patterns in this group of orchids.

Transfer Pricing End-of-Year Adjustments in France

Though there are no specific provisions on year-end adjustments in French law and regulations, the application of the general transfer rules and a rather well-established practice are reasons to allow, and even recommend, to perform such adjustments where TNMM methods are applied. This article indicates how to properly perform and document such adjustments.

Institution of insolvency (bankruptcy) of individual entrepreneurs: concept, evolution, legal nature and prospects development

Modern economic relations objectively need legal regulation of the procedure of termination of activities of those participants of turnover, who were unable to continue it due to deterioration of their property status. Due to the prevalence of participation of individual entrepreneurs in economic activity, they may also be among the insolvent subjects. These circumstances cause the need to study the specifics of insolvency (bankruptcy) of individual entrepreneurs, including in the context of forming the practice of application of the relevant legislation. Based on the analysis of the specifics of the legal status of an individual entrepreneur as a participant of property turnover, the purpose of legal regulation of insolvency (bankruptcy) of entrepreneurs, the conclusion is made about the possibility of singling out an independent institute of insolvency (bankruptcy) of entrepreneurs, institute of insolvency (bankruptcy) of an individual entrepreneur, it some principles are defined. When identifying the branch affiliation and place of this institute in the Russian legal system, it is defined as an arbitration-procedural legal institute. The peculiarities of the legal status of an individual entrepreneur also determine the necessity of fixing somewhat different approaches to the regulation of insolvency of these subjects compared to those that should be applied to ordinary citizens. The author concludes that it is necessary to fix as a general rule the obligation of the entrepreneur to repay the outstanding debt after the end of bankruptcy proceedings, as well as to establish the possibility to be released from this obligation only in a declaratory procedure.

The Gauche‐Effect in 1,2‐Bis(arylsulfonate)ethanes

AbstractWith an aim of obtaining a fundamental understanding of C−C bond conformation theory, the molecular structure of an ethane with electron‐withdrawing groups, 1,2‐bis(4‐methoxybenzene‐sulfonate)ethane, was elucidated. According to the general conformation rule for alkanes, which states that molecules adopt a stabilized structure to avoid steric repulsion, ethanes typically adopt anti‐conformation. However, the title compound exhibited gauche‐conformation, as revealed by a single crystal diffraction study. Theoretical studies also support this behavior. Natural Bond Orbital (NBO) analysis suggests that the orbital interaction between the σ*CO orbital, attributable to the sulfonate groups, and the adjacent σCH orbital stabilizes the gauche‐conformation. The authors conclude that the sulfonate group acts as a gauche‐effect synthon, which is widely applicable in organic chemistry.

Screening of BindingDB database ligands against EGFR, HER2, Estrogen, Progesterone and NF-[formula omitted]B receptors based on machine learning and molecular docking

Breast cancer, the second most prevalent cancer among women worldwide, necessitates the exploration of novel therapeutic approaches. To target the four subgroups of breast cancer “hormone receptor-positive and HER2-negative, hormone receptor-positive and HER2-positive, hormone receptor-negative and HER2-positive, and hormone receptor-negative and HER2-negative” it is crucial to inhibit specific targets such as EGFR, HER2, ER, NF-κB, and PR.In this study, we evaluated various methods for binary and multiclass classification. Among them, the GA-SVM-SVM:GA-SVM-SVM model was selected with an accuracy of 0.74, an F1-score of 0.73, and an AUC of 0.92 for virtual screening of ligands from the BindingDB database. This model successfully identified 4454, 803, 438, and 378 ligands with over 90% precision in both active/inactive and target prediction for the classes of EGFR+HER2, ER, NF-κB, and PR, respectively, from the BindingDB database. Based on to the selected ligands, we created a dendrogram that categorizes different ligands based on their targets. This dendrogram aims to facilitate the exploration of chemical space for various therapeutic targets.Ligands that surpassed a 90% threshold in the product of activity probability and correct target selection probability were chosen for further investigation using molecular docking. The binding energy range for these ligands against their respective targets was calculated to be between −15 and −5 kcal/mol. Finally, based on general and common rules in medicinal chemistry, we selected 2, 3, 3, and 8 new ligands with high priority for further studies in the EGFR+HER2, ER, NF-κB, and PR classes, respectively.

Belief-Rule-Based System with Self-organizing and Multi-temporal Modeling for Sensor-based Human Activity Recognition.

Smart environment is an efficient and cost- effective way to afford intelligent supports for the elderly people. Human activity recognition (HAR) is a crucial aspect of the research field of smart environments, and it has attracted widespread attention lately. The goal of this study is to develop an effective sensor-based HAR model based on the belief-rule-based system (BRBS), which is one of representative rule-based expert systems. Specially, a new belief rule base (BRB) modeling approach is proposed by taking into account the self- organizing rule generation method and the multi-temporal rule representation scheme, in order to address the problem of combination explosion that existed in the traditional BRB modelling procedure and the time correlation found in continuous sensor data in chronological order. The new BRB modeling approach is so called self-organizing and multi-temporal BRB (SOMT-BRB) modeling procedure. A case study is further deducted to validate the effectiveness of the SOMT-BRB modeling procedure. By comparing with some conventional BRBSs and classical activity recognition models, the results show a significant improvement of the BRBS in terms of the number of belief rules, modelling efficiency, and activity recognition accuracy.

Band Diagram Insights into the Kinetic and Thermodynamic Engineering of Tandem Photocatalytic Cells.

In this work, we theoretically investigate the impact of kinetic and thermodynamic properties on the performance of photocatalytic cells operating in an unassisted tandem configuration, including electron affinity and ionization energies, recombination rates, and reaction rates. To this end, we present general rules and metrics for identifying and isolating the origin of an observed shift in the onset potential at either the photoanode or the photocathode of these devices. The correlation between kinetic and thermodynamic shifts in the onset potential is demonstrated through the use of band diagrams and key comparable features within readily accessible characterization tools: current-voltage plots are taken both under illumination and in the dark and further coupled with Mott-Schottky plots. To illustrate this conceptual framework, a model system comprised of a p-type doped BiVO4 photocathode and an n-type doped BiVO4 photoanode is employed. By varying each of the aforementioned kinetic and thermodynamic parameters in isolation, the manner in which these various mechanisms shift the onset potential is demonstrated. This work intends to showcase how kinetic and thermodynamic effects are distinctly manifested in these commonly used characterization tools and further proposes thermodynamic band-edge engineering as a potentially useful and largely unexplored avenue for possibly improving tandem cell performance, in addition to the conventional approach of optimizing kinetics.

In-situ Reconstruction of Catalyst in Electrocatalysis.

Reconstruction of catalysts is now well recognized as a common phenomenon in electrocatalysis. As the reconstructed structure may promote or hamper the electrochemical performance, how to achieve the designed active surface for highly enhanced catalytic activity through the reconstruction needs to be carefully investigated. In this review, the genesis and electrochemical effects of reconstruction in various electrochemical catalytic processes, such as hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR), and nitrate reduction reaction (NO3RR) are first described. Then, the strategies for optimizing the reconstruction, such as valence states control, active phase retention, phase evolution engineering, and surface poisoning prevention are comprehensively discussed. Finally, the general rules of reconstruction optimization are summarized and give perspectives for future study. It is believed that the review shall provide deep insights into electrocatalytic mechanisms and guide the design of pre-catalysts with highly improved activity.

Property Valuation in Latvia and Brazil: A Multifaceted Approach Integrating Algorithm, Geographic Information System, Fuzzy Logic, and Civil Engineering Insights

This study aimed to predict residential apartment prices in Latvia and Brazil using algorithms from machine learning, fuzzy logic, and civil engineering principles, with a focus on overcoming multicollinearity challenges. To explore the market dynamics, we conducted four initial experiments in the central regions of Riga and Jelgava (Latvia), as well as São Paulo and Niterói (Brazil). Data were collected from real estate advertisements, supplemented by civil engineering inspections, and analyzed following international valuation standards. The research integrated human decision-making behavior with machine learning and the Apriori algorithm. Our methodology followed five key stages: data collection, data preparation for association rule mining, the generation of association rules, fuzzy logic analysis, and the interpretation of model accuracy. The proposed method achieved a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) that ranged from 5% to 7%, indicating strong alignment with market trends. These findings offer valuable insights for decision making in urban development, particularly in optimizing renovation priorities and promoting sustainable growth.

The Regulations of Sales by Model in Jordanian Law and Islamic Jurisprudence

The study aimed to elucidate the legal and regulatory treatment when sold goods do not conform to the model accepted by the buyer, utilizing a descriptive-analytical and comparative approach. It was divided into two sections. The first section expounded on model-based sales in Islamic jurisprudence, identifying various types in view of different models and the Islamic jurisprudential stance on such sales. The second section addressed model-based sales in Jordanian civil law under Articles 468 and 469. Key findings revealed the Jordanian legislator’s recognition of the model-based sale contract and formulation of regulations in the Civil Law. However, it did not cover all related provisions, leaving other matters subject to general rules. The study recommends the necessity for the Jordanian legislator to expand provisions for model-based sales in the Civil Law and include detailed regulations.

Consequences of terrestrial top predator control by Patagonian sheep farmers for coastal marine food webs

Most seabird species avoid predation by locating their breeding colonies in predator-free islands, inaccessible cliffs, capes, or on the mainland in Antarctica, the only continent without terrestrial predators. Departing from this general rule, a significant number of large Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) colonies exist nowadays in South American Atlantic mainland shores spanning a wide latitudinal range. Based on published radiocarbon dating of colonies, along with historical and archaeological records, we postulate that the current distribution of these colonies may be a response to predator eradication by sheep farmers. This would have made breeding habitats near marine food resources accessible and may have also reduced competition with neighboring colonies. We employed stable isotope analysis to estimate the penguin contribution to the diet of four pumas responsible for killing thousands of penguins in a breeding colony located within a coastal national park. Furthermore, we used a bioenergetic model to quantify the consumption of forage fish under different population distribution and abundance scenarios. We briefly discuss the implications of our results in the context of conservation policies aimed at establishing ecosystem baselines along the Patagonian shores.